r/mtgrules

I made a post last night in the regular mtg subreddit, and I got a lot of explanations that missed part of what I was asking. I’m hoping posting something here might get me the clarification.
During a game I was playing last night, Player A had “Consuming Aberrations” on their battlefield with P/T of 39/39, and Player B placed “Eye of Nidhogg” on it, making it a 4/2 black dragon.
My pod determined that, due to EoN not taking away abilities, that the two values of P/T then add together, like they would if there were counters on the original card.
The layers, timing, “it says it on the card” comments have been made, but it hasn’t been made clear how a card that doesn’t take away abilities, is taking away an ability. I was the only one in my group that thought it would be a 4/2, but nothing I show my group is getting them to see why. This is their biggest setback.
We read the rules on the wizards website and that has also been their argument because they have still interpreted that wrong and I can’t sway them.

Per my understanding of the precise rules and sequence for casting a spell, this would be legal, but I would like to double check and be certain (and if not legal, learn why.)

Relevant cards for the scenario:

• 2 Forests on battlefield
• [[Chromatic Sphere]] on battlefield (not Chromatic Star -- Sphere is the one where the draw is part of the mana ability, which is essential here)
• [[Simian Spirit Guide]] known to be the top card of my library
• A spell in hand that I wish to cast that costs 1RR (doesn't matter what -- let's say [[Anax, Hardened in the Forge]] for the sake of example)

Assume that I specifically want to avoid activating mana abilities on an empty stack because of some effect controlled by an opponent that would put an undesired trigger on the stack -- I want Anax to be cast before the triggers fire.

The sequence:

• Declare that I am casting Anax and put it on the stack
• Determine cost:
  • The spell's base mana cost is 1RR
  • There are no alternative or additional costs that apply
  • There are no cost modifiers that apply
  • The final cost is 1RR
• Activate mana abilities:
  • Tap both Forests for GG
    • Mana pool: GG
  • Pay G to crack the Chromatic Sphere, adding R and drawing the Simian Spirit Guide
    • Mana pool: RG
  • Exile the Simian Spirit Guide that was just drawn to add R
    • Mana pool: RRG
• Pay the cost of 1RR using RRG

Is that a legal sequence? If not, why not?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVCIxz2El2s/

Pretty straightforward question that I haven't found a clear answer on.

Ephemerate lets you blink a creature. If Balemurk is cast for it's impending cost it says that it isn't a creature while it has time counters on it.

My assumption was that this prevents it from being blinked with ephemerate.

However, does ephemerate care about Balemurk's status on the field or the literal type line on the card itself?

Basically, can I cast balemurk with impending then blink it to reenter immediately as a creature?

Thank you for any clarification.

Okay so I’m pretty familiar and understanding when it comes to priority with spells but how similar are activated abilities, for example my opponent has an ability that can pull something from his graveyard. Can I respond and remove the card allowing him to do so? If so does he still loose the mana or expenses he used to activate that ability (like if I used a counterspell when they attempt to cast something?) and will he get the thing from his graveyard still?

I'm currently building a [[Hei Bai, Forest Guardian deck]], and I've got a question about end of turn timings.

Say I use [[Abuelo, Ancestral Echo]]'s ability during my turn to exile Hei Bai, and I also have a [[Teleportation Circle]] in play, what happens?

Does Hei Bai enter the battle field twice, or just once?

As far as I know, if there's multiple triggers at once, the player gets to decide in what order they resolve, right? So could I have Hei Bai enter at the start of my end step first, when it was exiled by Abuelo, and than do Teleportation Circle's trigger, to exile and return it again? Which would make sense to me.

Or is there something very specific, where Teleportation Circle doesn't see Hei Bai at the start of my end step, cause it's still exiled? Which...would also make sense to me lol.

If I have something like [[Defiler of Instinct]] out so I can pay life, and something like [[Furnace of Rath]] or [[Solphim, Mayhem Dominus]] out that doubles damage to players, then do I pay 2 life and lose 2 life, or pay 2 life and lose 4 life because it was doubled?

Edit: Ignore Solphim, he doesn't do what I thought he did. Furnace of Rath is still a good example though.

Was just looking at the rules for [[chains of mesiphostales]] and it notes that "if a spell or ability would cause a player to draw multiple cards, this is treated as a number of individual "draw one card" actions. Apply the effect of Chains of Mephistopheles to each one." Is this true of any other effect that triggers on drawing a card, like [[orcish bowmasters]]?

What reason or rules prevents wizards to make it possible to also move the commander in the commandzone? I know its not a change of zones for the xommander but why not make an exception for phasing even tho its not a zone change. Should it really be possible to completely remove a commader from the game permenantly?

This came up Saturday.

I cast a creature, pass priority.

Player A casts an instant that forces players to sac a creature.

Player B, C pass.

Stack goes, instant first, then my creature.

I do not have to sac the incoming creature, since it wasnt on the board at the time of the cast. Correct?

Now if player A waited for the creature to resolve, there is another round of priority that he then could have played that same instant to force me (and others) to sac a creature.

Did I get that right?

Let's say my opponent has a Quirion Dryad in play and I want to try to kill it with Lava Dart. So, in response to my opponent casting a non-green spell, I cast Lava Dart. But oh no! They have another non-green spell to cast in response to that. Can I then flashback Lava Dart, even though the original cast hasn't finished resolving?

I think the core rules concept I need to understand to answer this question is what happens to an instant (or any nonpermenant spell) once it's cast. Does it immediately go to the graveyard (and therefore become available to flashback) or is it "somewhere else" until it finishing resolving?

Thanks!

Let’s say I have a 3/3 with 2 +1 counters. It gets blighted and now has a -1/-1 counter on it, do the counters fuse together and proliferation would only work on the greater of the counters? Or are they both active effects and you can choose which is proliferated?

Lets say you control both of the mentioned creatures, and draw an instant or sorcery spell. The spell will be in your hand when it is copied, and Kefnet states that the copy is cast. Would that copy be counted as being cast from your hand for Quandrix's ability?

[[Kirol, Attentive First Year]]

1. Am I able to select a different target if I copy the ETB trigger of an [[Oblivion Ring]]?

2. If I cast [[Defenders of Humanity]] with x=5, does copying the triggered ability also copy it's x value?

3. Adding lore counters to a saga ISN'T a triggered ability and therefore can't be copied?

4. Cards with intervening if clauses like the 2nd effect of [[Ral and the Implicit Maze]] are still one ability trigger, so if I were to copy it, I will have to discard two cards to get the impulse draw?

5. [[Static Prison]]'s ETB effect is both exiling something and getting energy, so copying it will exile two things and get double energy?

6. In the same vein, is [[Starfall Invocation]]'s return a creature effect a trigger or just part of the spells resolution?

Hi guys,

Kinda wondering how [[Fanatical Devotion]] and how Regenerate actually work. I did some research on this but I got some contradictory responses, so I'd like to clear the air here.

I'd like to know if I can simply use the ability of Fanatical Devotion as a sac outlet in my [[Terra, Herald of Hope]] commander deck.

Here are the questions I was asking myself:

1. Can I apply regenerate to a creature that is not about to be destroyed?

2. Can I apply regenerate to a creature that is not about to be destroyed, multiple times?

3. Can Fanatical Devotion target the same creature I'm saccing for the cost? I get that the ability would then fizzle since there's no target left, but the only goal here is to sac the creature.

I do understand that the transformation effect of Regenerate won't apply to a sacced creature. The goal is simply to put creatures that are on the battlefield in the graveyard so I can bring them back with Terra again.

Thanks in advance

Hey team! I have a question when it comes to the three mentioned cards in my title. My question is basically just this.
When does Angelic’s Grace finish and me move to discarding?
I’m sure this doesn’t work the way I think it does since you can go below 0 but just not lose. Then Grace resolves on your end turn but you don’t discard until you pass end turn.

Not sure if that makes sense as I’m not the best at this game but just in it for the fun.

The other night, I was playing a commander game with my bounce/flicker deck and played a [[Blood Clock]] . Later in the game, I played my [[Sol Ring]] and tapped it to cast some other spell. After I finish my untap step, can I tap my Sol Ring to add 2 colorless to my mana pool, then bounce it with Blood Clock, and finally use one of those colorless mana to replay my ring? I thought of this while waiting for my turn but didn't want to interrupt the table to figure this out.

Okay I think this is a slightly wild one but it is probably pretty straightforward to people who know copy rules a bit better than I do.

So let's say I have a [[Volrath, the Shapestealer]], a [[Joo Dee, One of Many]] with a counter on it, a [[Spark Double]] with a counter on it copying whatever creature, and a Planeswalker of any kind.

Step 1, I make Volrath a copy of Joo Dee, I now have a 7/5 with the Joo Dee ability and the Volrath ability.

Step 2, I activate Volrath's Joo Dee ability and put it on the stack.

Step 3, I activate Volrath's ability to become a copy of the Spark Double.

Step 4, I allow the Joo Dee ability on the stack to resolve, creating a copy of Spark Double (except 7/5 with Volrath's activated ability for the time being). The Spark Double enters, and I choose to copy the Planeswalker.

Does this result in, effectively, a perfectly normal Spark Double with no additional text or abilities given from Volrath? I am unsure, but I assume the Spark Double doesn't keep Volrath's activated ability because it's become a copy of the Planeswalker and the Spark Double ability doesn't have the rider of keeping Volrath's activated ability or Power/Toughness?

Alice and Bob are in turn 5 of their final turns after time was called. They're 1-1, so this game's outcome will decide their match.

Alice has two cards in hand – a land and a spell with mana value >= 1. This turn, a massive amount of spells have been cast (e.g. one billion), and now Bob casts [[Ignite Memories]] with all copies targeting Alice.

As a judge, how do you resolve this game state? Bob's win is, statistically, all but guaranteed, but it's not deterministic since each copy of Ignite Memories only has a 50% chance to reduce Alice's life. What factors (such as Alice's life total, her hand composition, amount of overtime, etc.) would influence your decision? Would the ruling be different if players hadn't gone to turns yet?

So Geths Grimoire is on the field, on clean up step when I discard down to maximum hand size, does my opponent draw each card I discarded or does the clean-up step happen at the same time in one occurrence? do they draw for each card discarded or draw one? If so, do cards like Brallin Skyshark rider count each card discarded?