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.
Category: Resolving spells and abilities
All About Eye of the Storm
And here we are, Friday! As I teased yesterday, we’re going to be talking about Commander’s favorite blue enchantment, . This is a reader question, asking for some help in some situation, but I figured let’s start with an overview of what exactly does. When a player casts an instant or sorcery card, the […]
With Melek, you will reveal every card you draw, even if drawing multiple cards at a time.
Question: When is drawing 3 cards not drawing 3 cards? The truth is that certain things, although simple and intuitive in the real world, end up not translating so well into Magic-ese, and drawing cards turns out to be one of these things. Since the game can’t handle multiple card draws simultaneously, it ends up […]
Redirect and Rakdos’s Return (it doesn’t work except in multiplayer)
Ouch! Nobody wants to be at the wrong end of a LARGE Rakdos’s Return, so try not to let it resolve targeting you! Jason and Eddie are playing in a two player game. Jason casts targeting Eddie, and laughs. Eddie casts , declaring that Rakdos’s Return will be targeting Jason instead. After Eddie gets down […]
Tournament Tuesday: Dark Confidant at Competitive REL
As expected, Modern Masters has created quite a stir, and we’re looking at GP Las Vegas in just a couple of weeks, where Modern Masters sealed will be the format. On top of that, there’s plenty of people drafting their MM boxes right now, and a lot of people looking to get into the format […]
Understanding Possibility Storm
Oh, the possibilities! is already a favorite of mine because of the sheer hilarity and chaos it can cause. It’s also seeing play in several EDH decks for that same reason, and even made an appearance at the most recent Pro Tour due to its ability to blank in some matchups. So with the possibility […]
Showstopper only affects creatures you control as it resolves.
It’s the end of another week here at the Rules Tips Blog, and we’re going out with a bang! It’s the hope that no heads will explode from adding this extra bit of knowledge about how works. This card is one of only a few in the entire game that cause creatures to actually gain […]
Duskmantle Seer is extra painful when revealing Fuse cards.
Split cards are great; it’s like getting two cards in one! You get two names, two (or three) colors, and two sets of rules text… and when you use the Fuse ability, you can even get both at the same time! Of course, one of the downsides of Fuse is that since your spell has […]
Breaking//Entering doesn’t target any creature cards.
More split cards! is an interesting take on the good old reanimation spell. One thing that sticks out about Entering is that it doesn’t target. This makes it a little different from other spells like . For one, you don’t choose what you want to get back until it resolves, so your opponent can only […]