has 2 abilities (similar to his friend ): one that triggers when he enters the battlefield, and another that triggers when he leaves the battlefield. These abilities are known as linked abilities, because the second ability refers to the permanent exiled by the first. There’s a trick to exile a creature permanently using Fiend Hunter. […]
Category: Resolving spells and abilities
Targets are checked for legality twice: upon casting and upon resolution.
When you cast a spell that requires a target, you have to be able to choose a legal target or you can’t cast it at all. However, that spell must still have a legal target when it resolves, or it will be countered by game rules. For example, one of the more interesting plays I […]
How you handle two Knowledge Pools.
If both players control a (“KP1” for active player and “KP2” for non-active player), you must keep track of which cards have been exiled by which Knowledge Pool, since the exiled cards are linked to that specific KP. For example, if I cast a spell from my hand on my turn, KP1 and KP2 will […]
Snapcaster Mage doesn’t give a spell flashback until after its triggered ability resolves.
When your opponent casts a to give something flashback, you get a window of opportunity to do something before that spell can be flashed back. The targeted spell doesn’t immediately have flashback as soon as the Snapcaster hits the field. Once the Snapcaster resolves, its triggered ability goes on the stack and the controller chooses […]
What happens if both players control a Huntmaster of the Fells and no spells were cast last turn.
A lot of people have been playing Red/Green aggro decks after their strong showing recently, especially with the power behind . So you’re likely to into a situation where both players have a Huntmaster that’s trying to transform during the same upkeep. How do you handle this? For this, we have a simple rule called […]
Phantasmal Image will be sacrificed even if you counter the spell that targeted it.
The illusion creatures printed in Magic 2012— being the most notable—have a common characteristic. They share a triggered ability that reads: “When [this creature] becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.” Once one of these creatures is targeted, its sacrifice ability will trigger and that ability will go on the stack before […]
Tragic Slip checks for Morbid when it resolves, not when you cast it.
normally gives target creature -1/-1, but it gives that creature -13/-13 instead if a creature died this turn. This means that this can send just about any creature to the graveyard if a creature already died this turn. Note that Tragic Slip only checks whether a creature died this turn when it resolves, and not […]
Frightful Delusion causes a card to be discarded even if 1 is paid.
has two distinct effects when it resolves. When it is cast, it must target a spell. When Frightful Delusion resolves, the controller of the targeted spell can pay one mana. If he or she does not, then that spell is countered. Then the controller of that spell will discard a card. This happens even if […]
Mirror-mad Phantasm refers to itself and cards with its name.
When a card refers to itself by name, it really means ‘this object.’ For example, ‘s ability gives +2/+2 to itself. There are some situations where this distinction matters. For example, if were to copy this Darkthicket Wolf, the ability on Sakashima would effectively read ‘2G: ~This~ gets +2/+2 until the the end of turn.’ […]