Izzet week continues with a look into Expansion // Explosion!
Ionize vs “Can’t Be Countered”
Hello and welcome back to the one, the only, Rules Tips Blog! It's been a hot-and-spicy minute since we've had any Rules Tips for you folks, but we're back on track and hitting the ground running with Izzet Week- all your Rules Tips this week will involve cards from the bombastic and eccentric chemisters from the Izzet League (specifically, new cards from Guilds of Ravnica). To start with, we'll be talking about Ionize.
Abilities, Effects, Prevention and Replacement Effects, Resolving spells and abilities, Source, Static Abilities
Soul-Scar Mage Doesn’t Stack
The Lorwyn block was one of my favorites, and Wither was one of the neater abilities to come out of that mega-block; damage from a source with Wither is dealt as -1/-1 counters, rather than marking damage onto a creature. It was like damage that never wore off! We have a sort of throwback to […]
Abilities, Characteristics, Continuous Effects, Effects, Resolving spells and abilities, Triggered Abilities
Recruiter of the Guard and CDAs
That’s right, kids, today we’re dipping our toes into Legacy (or Commander, I guess)! is a nifty little sort-of-color-shift of that was released in Conspiracy 2: Electric Boogaloo (Also known as Take The Crown). Both of them work along the same lines- they’re 3 mana 1/1s that fetch small creatures from your library. Imperial Recruiter […]
Abilities, Effects, Prevention and Replacement Effects, Resolving spells and abilities, Static Abilities
Fumigate and Kalitas
Yesterday, we talked a bit about Kalitas (and it was somewhat complicated!), and we’re still talking about that Zombie-making Vampire everyone loves, but it’ll be a bit simpler. blasts the board like many other Wraths, and gains you some life for everything it destroys- but what, specifically, does that mean? It has to actually destroy […]
Tournament Tuesday: Kalitas and Anointed Procession
EDIT: With the release of Ixalan, the rules regarding this interaction have changed. As of that set’s release, effects like Anointed Procession will also apply if a replacement effect (such as Kalitas’ effect) is creating tokens, no matter why. Even if Kalitas’ ability is replacing a state-based action rather than the effect of a spell or […]
Heart-Piercer Manticore and Reflexive Triggers
Welcome back to the Rules Tip Blog! Today is going to be a bit of a Tournament Tip as well as a Rules Tip- we’ll be going over an entirely new kind of trigger, introduced in Amonkhet. has a neat trigger- when it enters the battlefield, you can sacrifice another creature to have the Manticore deal […]
Archfiend of Ifrit And Cycling
And welcome back! Amonkhet gave us back an old favorite ability in Cycling, letting you discard cards you don’t currently need to dig for cards you do. On top of that, there’s cards that synergize well with it, like letting you cycle for free if you have a hand of 7 cards, or letting you […]
Congrats, Josh!
Apologies for the radio silence, readers! Things have been a bit hectic in Realspace, including a wonderful celebration! Our Project Leader, Josh Stansfield, is now a father! All of us at the Rules Blog would like to say congratulations to Josh, and wish health and happiness to his newly-grown family. For our readers, we’ll be […]