Devotion is checked continuously (not as a state-based action), so it's possible for a god to become a non-creature in the middle of a resolving spell!
Category: Resolving spells and abilities
Devotion and Counterspells
By far the biggest chunk of questions I’ve gotten from my players and my threads the past week are all about the last mechanic we’re covering this week (sorry, Scry): Devotion. Devotion is more or less a reworking of Chroma, an ability word from back in Lorwyn block. Put simply, “Devotion to COLOR” is measured […]
Bestow and Savage Summoning
Surprise! I liked this little trick so much I decided to skip Scry’s day this week (since it’s a returning mechanic) and cover another fun Bestow interaction. is a rare from M14. It allows you to cast the next creature spell of the turn as though it had Flash, make it uncounterable, and also make […]
Heroic Triggers Resolve Before the Spell
We’re continuing with the Theros mechanic theme this week, and today we’re covering Heroic (or at least one aspect of it!). The Heroic mechanic is a lot like Batallion, Landfall, Threshold, Morbid, etc. All of these things aren’t actually keywords like Flying and Trample; they have no actual inherent rules meaning. In fact, if you […]
Bestow and Illegal Targets
Now that Theros cards are in the hands of many a Magic player thanks to the prerelease, there’s plenty of questions to be had! One of the most common questions that came up over the prerelease weekend was “What happens if the target of my Bestow spell becomes illegal?” For example, I flash in trying […]
Primeval Bounty and Disciple of Bolas
There's a neat trick if you control only Primeval Bounty... you can cast Disciple of Bolas, and get a 3/3 in time to sacrifice it and draw 3 cards/gain 3 life!
Trostani and Scavenging Ooze for value
Today’s tip submitted by reader Nicholas Brown loves to gain you life. Sometimes its good to get a nice big creature popping into play to get you a good life swing. If you find yourself mid-game with some creatures already in the graveyard, you can utilize the stack to your benefit to get the maximum […]
Wild Ricochet + Rakdos’s Return
I’m glad to see making a return to Standard; it’s such a fun card, and can lead to hilarious reactions when timed right (A friend of mine once used against a , spinning two lands back to the opponent’s deck and gaining 14 life). Sadly, it also can lead to some confusion! First off, Ricochet […]
Scourge of Valkas’s trigger counts the dragons you control as it resolves.
We explain how Scourge of Valkas's trigger is like many others that check the game state for information, which happens during resolution rather than at the time it triggers.