#replacement effects

[magicjudge]

How do stun counters interact with Shadowmoor/Eventide untap abilities? I'd assume they prevent them, but I'm not sure.

A stun counter on a permanent creates a replacement effect that makes the counter be removed rather than untapping the permanent the next time it would untap. This is actually amazingly good with abilities with the untap symbol, as that part of paying the cost of the ability gets modified to removing the counter, meaning the card will still be tapped and can be activated again. So for example, if Knacksaw Clique had been hit with Impede Momentum and was tapped with three stun counters on it, you could activate its ability up to four times on the same turn!

[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]

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]

Hello, if I have Doubling Season and Elesh Norn, Mother of machines in play and I cast Vraska, Betrayal's Sting. With how many loyalty counter's does she ETB ?

Both Compleated and Doubling Season's ability are replacement effects and not triggers, so Elesh Norn doesn't affect them at all.

As for the interaction between Compleated and Doubling Season, you get to choose to apply the counter reduction from Compleated before or after the counter doubling from Doubling Season.

(While Compleated might look like a self-replacement effect, which would have to be applied first, it's actually because it modifies how the planeswalker enters the battlefield, not how the spell resolves.)

This means that Vraska will enter with either 6*2=12 if you didn't pay life or your choice of (6*2)-2=10 or (6-2)*2=8 counters depending on if you payed life for her phyrexian mana.

[magicjudge]

Hello! My friend is building a mono burn deck and debating between Torbran and Solphim. My question is, if both creatures are out, and he casts something like lightning bolt - is it that solphim doubles the damage and torbran adds 2? So it would be (3x2) +2 = 8 or would Solphim double Torbrans extra damage as well making it (3x2) + (2x2) = 10 ?

The short answer is that it's up to your opponent.

When multiple replacement effects want to modify the same event (in this case damage being dealt by a red sou

When multiple replacement effects try to modify the same event, e.g. damage from your Lightning Bolt to your opponent or their creature/planeswalker, and none of those effects take precedence, then the affected player gets to choose which one to apply first.

In this case, the affected player is the opponent being dealt damage, or the opponent who controls the permanent that's being dealt damage. So they get their choice of adding then doubling or vice versa. This means that they'll likely opt to double first since that results in less damage to them or their creature/planeswalker.

When I answered a similar question recently, there were several comments wondering why the effects' controller didn't get to choose. So why does it work this way? A couple of reasons. First, there could be a situation where different players control the effects and disagree on the order in which they should be applied, in which case letting the controller of the effects choose just doesn't work. Additionally, this is how multiple replacement effects are handled for everything in the game and carving out an exception for one case involving less than 50 cards just isn't necessary.

TL;DR: Assume your opponent will choose to double then add.

[magicjudge]

Hey, I asked about fetching Gond Gate and another tapped gate a while back. When Gond Gate is already in play, what happens with other ramp effects that instruct to put the gate into play tapped? Does Gond Gate circumvent them being tapped, or does it only help when I play a tapped gate as a land drop?

Gond Gate is a bit wild to me, since I'm used to the rule of thumb that "a prohibition is stronger than a permission / can't beats can". 😅

Whenever multiple replacement effects want to modify the same event, e.g. the status of a Gate as it enters the battlefield, then its control (usually) chooses which of those effects to apply first, then chooses from any replacement effects that still apply and so on.

In the case of Gond Gate and something like Circuitous Route resolving, then there are three replacement effects that want to apply to how the gate enters the battlefield. To have it enter untapped, that has to be the last replacement effect to apply to the event since all three can always apply in any order.

Replacement effects are their own thing, and aren't at all related to the "can't beats can" rule of thumb.

[magicjudge]

Generally, do replacement effects override the "type" of original ability that it replaces?

Specifically, with Unpredictable Cyclone and Teferi's Ageless Insight on the battlefield, if I cycle a card can I replace draw with draw two and then skip cyclone because now it's not "a cycling ability" but an Ageless Insight ability?

More specifically, with Pir, Imaginative Rascal and Doubling Season on the battlefield and any plansewalker, if I uptick the walker and Pir's ability adds an additional counter does Doubling Season then double those? Now because it's a cost that has been affected by an ability.

Thank you.

The short answer is no, they don't.

No matter what the result after you cycle a card, you've still activated a cycling ability and modifying the result doesn't change the cause.

So, when you activate a standard cycling ability with these two enchantments in play, you'll choose which replacement effect to apply first to the draw:

If you apply Unpredictable Cyclone's effect first, then there's no longer a draw happening and Teferi's Ageless Insight can no longer be applied to the effect.

If you apply Insight's effect first, then "draw a card" becomes "draw two cards" and Cyclone's ability now replaces both of those draws with its shenanigans.

[magicjudge]

I control Nomads en-Kor and Needletooth Raptor, and my opponent casts a spell that deals 2 damage to all creatures. I activate Nomads en-Kor two times, each one to redirect the next 1 damage it would take to Needletooth Raptor. Will Needletooth Raptor's Enrage ability trigger one, two, or three times?

Just once.

Nomads en-Kor sets up a replacement effect that causes the damage to be dealt to something else when it would normally be dealt to the Nomads. This means that the spell ends up dealing 4 damage to Needletooth Raptor and no damage to Nomads en-Kor. It's still only one damage event and thus Needletooth Raptor only triggers once.