#arithallan

[akhonography]

*SPOILERS* After reading today's mtg story, I have to ask is turning rivers to blood not just an Old Testament thing?

It isn’t - well, not entirely, anyway. In The Destruction of Mankind, Ra sends Hathor down to earth to kill humankind, which has conspired against him. Hathor becomes the bloodthirsty Sakhmet and not even Ra changing his mind about the massacre can stop her. The gods decide to trick her by dyeing beer red with ochre (or in some versions, with the blood of the humans already slaughtered), and filling the river with it. Sakhmet, thinking it blood, drinks all the beer and falls in a beer coma. They bring her back to the realm of the gods, where she becomes Hathor once again.

[magicjudge]

Am I allowed to ask my opponent how many cards he has in his library?

Yes, and they can either answer you honestly or let you count for yourself.

[markrosewater]

You often say that *designer/developer* is a big fan of *cardtype/effect.* Are there any mechanics you personally despise?

Bands with other was a horrible, horrible mechanic.

[magicjudge]

Can you explain the Banishing Light effect and Command Zone interaction?

When Banishing Light’s triggered ability tries to exile a player’s commander, that player can either send it to exile as normal or move it to the command zone. When Banishing Light leaves the battlefield, its ability will return the card to the battlefield as long as it’s still in the first zone that it moved to. If the commander was sent to the command zone instead of to exile, Banishing Light can track it to the command zone in that case and return it to the battlefield if it hasn’t left the command zone since Banishing Light’s ETB trigger resolved.

[markrosewater]

What is the extent that Red can care about the exile zone & things in it?

We let Red occasionally exile with its direct damage, but we try to avoid any color (outside of special environments like Battle for Zendikar) care about things being exiled.

[markrosewater]

Hey Maro, I love that new Magus cards are getting printed in the Commander products! But, I'm curious why there's only one & not a cycle?

Not everything has to be a cycle even if the first thing that did it was a cycle.

[gemstonechronologist]

arithallan reblogged your photo and added: “Avacyn’s broken spear pendant concept render.”

Any way I could get this to mill?

What do you mean by mill?

[magicjudge]

My opponent taps a Deceiver Exarch enchanted with Splinter Twin to put a token on the battlefield. I respond by Unsummoning his Exarch. Does the token still enter as a copy of the, now nonexistent, Exarch & does it have the Twin ability?

Yes, the token still enters the battlefield as a copy of Exarch as it last existed on the battlefield, but it won’t have the Splinter Twin ability since that’s not a copiable characteristic of the card. Abilities granted to permanents by other cards are almost never copied when you make a copy of that permanent.