Clash is a keyword ability that appears on cards from Lorwyn and Morningtide. Clash provides an added effect to these spells and abilities if the revealed top card of your library has a converted mana cost that is higher than the revealed top card of your opponents’ library. After these cards are revealed, each player […]
How to choose a random object
Several cards in Magic instruct you to choose a random card or permanent in play. Recent examples of cards with abilities like this would be and . It is important that when resolving these spells and abilities that the end result is actually random. Most often players will use a die and assign potential objects […]
When cards refer to themselves.
When a card refers to itself it literally means that specific object only. For example, ‘s ability will only trigger if that specific Caustic Hound goes from the battlefield to the graveyard. If you have two in the battlefield and one goes to the graveyard, the ability of the one in play will not trigger. […]
At Regular REL events, judges can play AND judge.
For several years, judges were not allowed to play in any events that they were also currently working. And this is still true for any event that uses the competitive REL (Grand Prix Trials, Pro Tour Qualifiers, day one of a Grand Prix) or a professional REL (day two of a Grand Prix, Pro Tours, […]
Combat damage does not use the stack
When Magic 2010 was released a few fundamental changes to the way Magic had been played were made. One of those changes was that combat damage no longer used the stack. Prior to this change, creatures in combat would assign damage, this damage would go on the stack as one item on the stack (assuming […]
You can’t forget to untap.
You cannot forget to untap your permanents on the battlefield at the start of each of your turns. If you move on to the upkeep step, or even draw step, you need to go back and untap all the necessary permanents. If you are playing quickly and draw before untapping everything you control, thats generally […]
Lifelink is not cumulative.
When initially introduced Lifelink was a triggered ability. If a permanent had multiple instances of lifelink, then each of these separate abilities would trigger independently ultimately causing the controller of of these abilities to gain more life than the damage dealt. However when the Magic 2010 base set was released how Lifelink works was changed. […]
How Phasing works.
Phasing is an older keyword that has gone through a few changes over the years in order to keep the ability from being too powerful or just so it would work within the rules. At this point the specifics of how it works is somewhat different from when it was originally introduced, but as a […]
Changing targets of a spell does not change its controller.
There are many effects that allow players to ‘edit’ what a spell targets. There are also may spells and abilities that cause objects to change controllers. These are two very different kinds of effects and something that allows you to change the target of a spell or ability does not change who controls the spell […]