…and knowing is half the battlefield
! This little tree-girl seems like lots of fun in Limited and Constructed both, but the most common question I’ve seen regarding her is how she works with removal. When does the spell go to the graveyard? Does she exile it or not? A spell does not go to the graveyard until it has fully […]
I cast while you control . What happens? After a creature spell resolves, a player receives priority. But it’s not as simple as that. Before priority can be received, first the game has to check for state-based actions (SBAs) – things like creatures with lethal damage dying, or +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters canceling each other […]
Yep: New Cards Week. If you haven’t guessed it by now, you don’t visit often enough! My fun card is . You can do a lot of fun things with it. You can chump block with a creature and blink it to keep it from taking or dealing damage; you can blink your attacker out […]
Undying is a triggered ability that says “When this creature dies, if it didn’t have any +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter.” Most players know that +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters will cancel each other out if they’re on the same creature. This is a State-Based Action (“SBA”). […]
Damage from spells, abilities or combat damage that is not lethal will remain marked on a creature until the cleanup step at the end of each turn. Creatures can be dealt damage and remain on the battlefield until it is dealt additional damage, or until its toughness is reduced such that the damage marked on […]
First seen in Mirrodin, is an invitational card based on a designed submitted by Jens Thorén. It was recently reprinted in the Magic 2012 Core Set. It has two different triggered abilities: one that triggers when it enters the battlefield, and one that triggers when it dies. In most cases, it will enter the battlefield […]
Winning a game by removing all of the cards in your opponent’s library is a strategy that appears in every format and can be effective at times. Winning via this method or causing cards to go from a library to a graveyard is called milling. This name comes from one of the first cards to […]
Whenever a player receives priority to cast spells, play abilities or perform a special action the game will check to see if one of the 20 conditions for a states-based actions has been met. (Yes there are 20 now, a few of them only apply in specific multiplayer formats) If not, then the appropriate player […]
IMPORTANT UPDATE: This article has been updated as of the prerelease of Magic 2014 on July 13; Please refer to the revisions below. When one or more planeswalkers with the same subtype is in play, both will go to the graveyard when state-based actions are applied. How this works is different than the ‘legend rule’ […]