When a double-faced card (“DFC”) isn’t on the battlefield, it only has the characteristics of its front (sun) side. This means that barring odd circumstances (i.e., ‘s triggered ability), a DFC always enters the battlefield sunny-side up. This rule creates an interesting interaction when you transform a DFC and then flicker it with something like […]
Category: Resolving spells and abilities
You can “flicker” a creature to save it from a removal spell.
I’m excited for . Partially because it was a house at the prerelease, and partially because is one of my favorite cards. But why are both of these things true? Among other things, it’s the fact that they can be used to dodge removal very easily. Let’s use for our example. Ronny casts , and […]
Killing Wave is shut down by Sigarda, Host of Herons (but not by Angel of Jubilation).
and have abilities that at first glance look similar. However, they are actually quite different! When your opponent’s resolves, it gives each player a choice to make for each creature that player controls: Pay X life, or don’t pay anything. If you don’t pay any life, Killing Wave says “sacrifice the creature.” If you control […]
You can’t do anything with your Vexing Devil between the opponent’s choice to take 4 damage and the sacrifice.
When enters the battlefield, its ability triggers and gives the opponent the choice of either allowing it to stay on the battlefield, or taking 4 damage so its controller sacrifices it. If you allow the opponent to make a decision on whether or not they take 4 damage, you cannot cast “in response” to that […]
Desolate Lighthouse can’t work Miracles if you have no cards in your hand.
One of the most-asked questions with Miracle is whether you can cast it in the middle of a resolving spell or ability. You can’t do that because the ability that triggers when you reveal the card can’t go on the stack until a player would receive priority, which doesn’t happen until all parts of the […]
A Miracle card must be cast in the same step you draw the card (even if it’s a sorcery).
When you draw your first card for the turn (usually in your draw step), you can reveal it as you draw it if it has the Miracle ability. When you do that, the ability triggers and goes on the stack as soon as you’re done with the action that let you draw the card. So […]
How Fiend Hunter can exile something forever.
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. […]
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 […]