Ask a Magic Judge

Open again and here to help you all!

[magicjudge]

The End

Hey all, it's time for me to be honest with myself: I'm not coming back to tumblr. I started this blog back at the end of 2012, and answered a whole lot of questions. I'm proud of the work I did here, but attempts to revive the blog have never stuck and I'd rather just close the book on this chapter of my online life rather than letting it linger. I'm still around, though. I'm jaqalyte on twitter and discord, and I'm always happy to chat or answer questions. I still love doing that, just not all the time on a site where I do nothing else. So see you all soon some other place, and keep being curious. - Charlotte

[magicjudge]

If I have Elenda on the Battlefield and get hit with a board wipe, then in response cast something like Supernatural Stamina. How does that resolve? Will Elenda get the counters from things dieing to the board wipe since she returns to the Battlefield? How many tokens will she make? Is it equal to her power when the board wipe went off or her new power after coming back from the graveyard?

Unfortunately for you, Elenda is a new object after changing zones and so all the triggers from creatures dying were created by an Elenda that no longer exists and thus won't end up putting any counters on the new Elenda.

As for how many tokens you make, it's based on Elenda's power when she died, but that will include the +2/+0 buff from Supernatural Stamina.

[magicjudge]

If I control Rod of Absorption and I cast Diluvian Primordial, what happens when I cast an instant or sorcery spell? This happened during a game, and I ruled that there's no event of a spell moving from stack to graveyard for Rod of Absorption to modify, but that felt like a really weird way to rule it and I'm having doubts.

Diluvian Primordial's ability causes the spell to be exiled if it would go to a graveyard, such as when it finishes resolving. Rod of Absorption's ability does the same thing for that specific case. Since both cards have the same goal, then there's no conflict here and the spell will be exiled under Rod of Absorption like normal.

[magicjudge]

I have Garruk's Uprising, Gratuitous Violence, and Atarka, World Render on board. We are both at 40 health and no other triggers or abilities are being used. I attack my opponent with the Atarka, World Render 6/4 and a 5/4 dragon spirt token, they block the 5/4 dragon spirt token with 4 1/1 slivers. Can you explain how damage would go about with the Garruk's Uprising, Gratuitous Violence, and Atarka, World Render on board?

Damage is assigned before it's doubled, including for trample, so this doesn't work the way you want it to. 1st damage step: 1->2 damage to each sliver and the player from the 5/4 6->12 damage from Atarka 2nd damage step: 5->10 damage from 5/4 6->12 damage from Atarka.

[magicjudge]

If I use Snapcaster Mage to flashback Approach of the Second Sun, where would it go when it resolves?

It'll be exiled.

Part of what Flashback does is create a replacement effect that sends the card to exile any time it would try to move to a zone other than exile. So that means that Approach of the Second Sun will just exile itself and gain you seven life when you flash it back.

[magicjudge]

If I have oscar rubbish reclaimer and dream halls in play, can I cast a card from discard by discarding a card that shares a color with it instead of paying its mana cost?

Yes, this works and is actually really neat tech.

Dream Halls doesn't care where the spell is being cast from, so you can use its alternate cost to cast cards you discarded via Oskar's ability. This lets you make a nice chain of spells as long as you have the right cards in hand.

Please note that Oskar's ability will resolve before the spell you discarded the card for, so if you do chain this way, you'll end up with a bunch of spells on the stack at once, leaving you vulnerable to cards like Whirlwind Denial.

Also, Oskar's trigger instructs you to cast the card right away, so timing restrictions don't matter as you're not casting the spell normally.

[magicjudge]

Good morning/afternoon/evening judge!

If I have access to mutate creatures (let's say Vulpikeet) from an opponent (with Draugr Necromancer for example); can I cast Vulpikeet for it's mutate ability targeting a creature I own?

If I do: if my opponent who owns the Vulpikeet leaves the game, what happens to the "mutant" it was part of?

Thanks in advance!

No you can't. A spell cast for its mutate cost can only ever target a permanent with the same owner as that card.

[markrosewater]

Hey Mark, did you know Sheldon Menery personally? Do you have any anecdotes or memories that you can share with us?

I’ve known Sheldon for twenty-five years. During that time, he’s worn many hats, accomplishing an amazing number of things for one man.

The story I’ll share is when he came to work at Wizards. It was on his bucket list, so he arranged to come work for us for three months. This was a bit before the pandemic. (He worked on the Strixhaven Commander decks to give some sense of time.)

One of my goals when I learned Sheldon was coming to Wizards was to take some time talking with him about the design ramifications of certain Commander decisions. We have to design cards for Commander, so I wanted to help him see how choices the RC makes impact how we design cards.

Sheldon always took our talks very seriously, and was eager to learn as much as he could. Those one-on-one talks were probably the most concentrated time I ever had with him, and I remember them fondly.

Over the years, he and I would argue a lot, but they were always constructive arguments where each of us was working hard to understand the other’s point of view and trying to move towards a constructive outcome.

It’s so great seeing all the outpouring of emotion today. Sheldon touched many lives, and forever changed the game of Magic for the better. He deserves all the kind words being shared.

Rest in Peace, Sheldon. You made a huge impact on the game, the community, and the world.

[markrosewater]

Do you happen to have any anecdotes about Sheldon Menery you could share?

I first met Sheldon when he and I were both judges on the Pro Tour. My memory of our first meeting is he was assigned to help me in the Feature Match area. He walks up and says, “I’m Sheldon. Tell me what you want me to do.”

I last saw Sheldon at Magic Con Philadelphia. R&D (Aaron Forsythe, Dave Humpherys, Mike Turian) was doing a signing and Sheldon came to do a signing at the table next to us. I remember watching how much joy he got from interacting with the public.

In between those two events, which were over twenty-five years apart, I interacted many, many times with Sheldon. He was a person of great passion, who cared a great deal about how what he did impacted those around him. Magic lost a giant ally today, and he will be greatly missed.

[magicjudge]

RIP Sheldon Menery

Where to start? Sheldon was my friend, my mentor, someone I tried to emulate. He saw the best in me and invited me in to help guide the format. He was an amazing person in every part of his life. A man of strong opinions and stronger friendships. I'll miss him greatly. I'll have more to say later, but for now I just need some time.

[magicjudge]

If a Field-Tested Frying Pan enters the battlefield while I control Peregrin Took, how many food tokens would I create in total?

In total, you'll create three food tokens and one halfling token.

Peregrin's replacement effect applies to each time the verb "create" is used with respect to tokens. Field-Tested Frying Pan creates a food and then creates a halfling, so that's two sets of token creation for Took to modify. A funny possible interaction here is that if the extra food token from the the creation of the halfling token entered the battlefield as a creature somehow, you'd be able to attach the Frying Pan to it rather than to the halfling since the "atttach Field-Tested Frying Pan to it" instruction included all tokens created by that instance of "create" if it's modified to create multiple creature tokens.

[magicjudge]

Does Smeagol, Helpful Guide's first ability trigger at all if a creature has not died by the beginning of my end step? Would I be able to sacrifice a creature to Braids, Arisen Nightmare's ability in order to satisfy Smeagol's first ability?

No, it doesn't.

Sméagol's first ability is templated with what's called an "intervening if clause". For an ability with an intervening if clause to trigger, the condition in that if clause has to have already been met. It's a secondary trigger requirement that's only checked when the first part of the trigger says so.

So if none of your creatures died this turn, then Sméagol won't trigger at all at the beginning of your end step and so Braids won't be able to help you out.

[magicjudge]

So the Red Terror gets a +1/+1 counter every time a red source deals damage. Does it trigger multiple times if a red damage source hits multiple targets? Like dual shot, for example. Would that give me 1 or 2 +1/+1 counters

The Red Terror will trigger once for each time the verb "deals" is used in conjunction with damage being dealt. This means that a card like Dual Shot or Blasphemous Act only deals damage once, despite damaging multiple things. Similarly, combat damage is only a single trigger even if trample is involved. To get multiple triggers from the Red Terror, you'll need a multi-choice modal spell, such as Fiery Confluence, which has separate instances of damage being dealt. You'll get one trigger from each instance of each mode you chose that dealt damage.

Unfortunately, most spells and abilities are templated with only a single "deals" in the text and exceptions are few and far between.

[magicjudge]

If I manifest Nexus of Fate with say, with a Scroll of Fate, and the manifested creature dies, will Nexus of Fate's replacement trigger activate and put it back in library or does it simply hit the graveyard as a 2/2 and then stay in graveyard?

It will just end up staying in the graveyard.

For a replacement effect to be able to modify an event, it has to exist before that event occurs. Since a face down Nexus of Fate has no abilities when it dies, so it doesn't have the shuffle ability before it actually enters the graveyard. By the time it's face up in your graveyard, it's too late to apply the replacement effect and so it just stays there.

[magicjudge]

If Brawn is in my graveyard and I control only Snow-Covered Forests will my creatures still have trample?

Yes. Brawn looks for the Forest subtype among lands you control, not for a land exactly named "Forest".

[magicjudge]

In response to your Emporer Crocodile response. I had thought state based things like it's ability don't get checked in the middle of a resolution? Like how being wheeled wouldn't kill your Psychosis Crawler right?

Or am I missing a difference between those two interactions?

You're thinking of state-based actions which are only checked before a player gets priority. State triggers are a totally different thing.

A state trigger is always looking for its thing to happen, but a state-based action only checks at certain times.

[magicjudge]

I cast a Clown Car, while I control Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate. Assuming I crew the vehicle before the ETB trigger resolves, will Omarthis get a counter for each counter Clown Car gets or just one if Clown Car gets one?

My gut says just one counter, however Cascade and Laelia has told me that one effect can generate multiple instances so I'm unsure with the exact wording.

Just one.

Clown Car's triggered ability is a single instance of token creation and a single instance of adding +1/+1 counters to the vehicle.

In general, effects that do something "for each" of something are just a single instance of that action happening that scales. (The only exception is with weird cards like Tempt with Discovery that have to work differently because of their templating.)