Magic the Gathering: Ask a Judge

[SilPho]

can you please explain how to use flameblast dragons ability. was playing on MTGO and drew him. when attacking it prompted to place abilities on stack. i clicked on the card and selected target. at next step it said pay mana to cast so i tapped 2 mountains and 2 swamps and clicked ok but then it showed X=0 and the damage was not dealt out.
what did i do wrong

I've never actually played MTGO so I don't know how the interface works, though I imagine there is a box that asks you how much you want X to be, which technically should be before targets are chosen. You obviously know what the card does so if you're having troubles I suggest asking elsewhere. Sorry I'm not much help.

(Question 1)
[Lots of text]

What you've said is correct except for the size of the humans, they are only 4/4s. (And dackwards, you forgot the first round of +1/+1 from the Commander, the Vampire and Commander are 6/6s) The +1/+1 from Goldnight Commander only applies to creatures you control at the time the ability resolves.

So the Geist Trappers surivive and the Vampire is "only" a 6/6 blocker.

(question 2)
[Regarding 3 Seraph Sanctuarys.

As dackwards said, changing the artifact into an Angel creature doesn't trigger enter-the-battlefield abilities.

Question 3
Champion of Lambholt is on the battlefield as say a 1/1
If I play Thatcher Revolt does that make her a 4/4 and she stays that way or does she loose it when they leave.

Champion of Lambholt doesn't say anything about losing counters when creatures die, those counters stick around regardless of your creatures dying. She's just that good. You and dackwards are both correct here.

[dackwards d]

For some reason I thought it was over 2 turns, my bad.

[Geoff_B]

So I got my AVR box and I'm happily going through it, and I come across cards that have abilities like "exile target creature you control and return it to the battlefield under your control". Most of them are at instant speed so obviously it's a way to get your cards out of trouble when blocking or targeted by removal.

Then I came across Conjurer's Closet and I wondered "What's the point of exiling/returning in the end step"? Then it hit me. For no extra cost or limit, you can make a creature with triggered enter the battlefield abilities, such as spamming tokens when it enters the battlefield, retrigger it's abilities. So each turn you can keep spamming more tokens. That about right? Is it only one creature per turn?

[Avistew]

It also destroys enchantments that are on the creature, which can be pretty handy.

[Geoff_B]

I'd take that in trade for more angelic hordes descending

[Lord Hosk]

Could also be used to double soul bind, for example.

Lightning Mauler on the battlefield alone, and Hanweir Lancer also alone.

Play your Raging Poltergeist out and soulbind to the mauler, attack for an unexpected 6 then switch him to the lancer to eat guys.

[BlitzRunner27]

So here's a pretty simple question, but it came up in an AVR Sealed Limited game I was playing today. Can a player use one of those "exile this creature and return it to the field under your control" abilities to dodge an Instant? Also, if I use said ability on a tapped monster, does it enter the field tapped or untapped? If untapped, does it have summoning sickness?

[phlip]

Yes, it leaves the battlefield and returns as a new creature, so the spell you're dodging isn't targeting it any more. It enters the battlefield untapped, and with summoning sickness, as though it was a new creature. It also enters sunny-side up (in the case of double-faced cards), and loses any counters, auras, or soulbound pairings it had before (though it can make new soulbound pairings when it reenters the battlefield).

[BlitzRunner27]

Excelent, thanks for the response. Cleared up a lot of misinformation.

[quoz-master]

If you cast cancel or counterspell, and choose the cancel/counterspell that you cast as the target, what happens? It seems like it should create a paradox, in that cancel counters the spell that cancels it, causing it to resolve, causing it to cancel itself, which cancels the canceling spell, which causes it to resolve etc. This should cause a black hole that envelops all of time in space. Is there a rule about this?

[Robert Merlow]

The counterspell you cast has to target another spell on the stack. It cannot target itself.

[SilPho]

You also cannot use cards like Redirect to make an existing spell target itself, it just can't be done.

[Geoff_B]

I suspect the answer is no but is Conjurer's Closet's ability a two-part ability? And does each resolve separately?

For example, and again the answer is probably no, but if say I had Avacyn out on the field along with Conjurer's Closet and Day of Judgement, could I cast Day of Judgement, respond by using the Closet to exile Avacyn, then bring her back when the dust settles?

Can you respond to your own spells? I think DotP lets you do it.

[SilPho]

Can you act between the effects of Conjurer's Closet?
Short Answer: No.
Long Answer: The whole effect happens during the resolution of the ability, nobody gets any chance to act while the creature is in exile.

Can you respond to your own spells?
Short Answer: Yes.
Long Answer: After casting a spell the player who had priority gets it back. This means that you can respond to your own spells regardless of whose turn it is. (But you do have to explicitly say something like "I am retaining priority" otherwise it is just assumed that you pass it after casting something).

[Ninety-Three]

I have zero cards in hand, and on my opponent's turn, activate Desolate Lighthouse's draw ability. If I draw a miracle card, can I cast it? If I can, and the card is Reforge the Soul, will I draw seven, then discard one of them to the lighthouse?

[Geoff_B]

Sorry, me again, I know we've probably had this conversation before, but with Avacyn's special ability it's worth repeating.

Would Avacyn die to Day of Judgment?

[Jenelmo]

No

[Geoff_B]

Thanks. I may have been getting it mixed up with Protection.

[SilPho]

I have zero cards in hand, and on my opponent's turn, activate Desolate Lighthouse's draw ability. If I draw a miracle card, can I cast it? If I can, and the card is Reforge the Soul, will I draw seven, then discard one of them to the lighthouse?

You cannot cast your Miracles, or do anything for that matter. The draw and discard all happens as a single action, nobody gets a chance to act in between.

Would Avacyn die to Day of Judgment?

Jenelmo is correct. Indestructibility essentially means "Cannot be destroyed", which is exactly what Day of Judgement tries to do. This is, as you thought, different to Protection.

[vxicepickxv]

I was going to ask about Snapcaster Mage targeting something that already had flashback, but the FAQ says that you can use either cost.

It also doesn't matter how you flashback your increasing series of cards. I put two and 10 together, and ended up with a 17/17 champion of the parish.

[dackwards d]

Treacherous Pit-Dweller's rules text says that when it enters the battlefield from a graveyard, target opponent gains control of it. Is that target opponent of the person who's graveyard it left or opponent of the person who previously controlled it? For example my Pit-Dweller dies and comes back under the control of my opponent. If I then remove the +1/+1 counter on it so it can trigger undying again, will I get it back or will it return under the opponent's control again?

If the only opponent is hexproof when the demon returns to the battlefield, will the activated ability fizzle and the demon remain under my control?

Also I've heard some people say that when it enters play from undying it enters play as yours before switching owners, and that this will trigger Flayer of the Hatebound or other 'on entering the battlefield' effects. More specifically I've heard people say that in this instant when it is still yours you should use things like Fling/Artillerize to not only stop it from changing hands but actually kick in a little extra damage. Is that really how it works? If so I might have to start using mine...

[SilPho]

Short Answer: The Treacherous Pit-Dweller always comes back to life under your control before switching to a targeted opponent. So the switch can be responded to.
Long Answer: The exert below, from the Comprehensive rules, points out that the owner of the card gets it back first, that's just what Undying does. The Pit-Dweller has a triggered ability that triggers when it arrives on the battlefield, while waiting for that to resolve it is possible to respond to it. Also, because the ability uses the word 'target' a Hexproof opponent cannot gain control of it. So in a 1 on 1 game you can keep your undead Demon.

702.91a Undying is a triggered ability. “Undying” means “When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control with a +1/+1 counter on it.”

(Quick reminder: Cards always go to their owner's graveyard. Not their controller's.)

[vxicepickxv]

This is a pretty tricky question.

How does Torpor Orb work with Dryad Arbor?
Does it stop Landfall because Dryad Arbor is a creature?

[Dominic Appleguard]

I'm obviously not a judge, but I think you have it right. Dryad Arbor is a forest, so it would trigger Landfall, but it's also a creature, so it's affected by Torpor Orb's ability.

I guess the Orb makes for some handy sideboard tech against all those Land Creature Landfall decks you see popping up these days.

[SilPho]

Short Answer: Torpor Orb turns off most "Landfall" effects.
Long Answer: Landfall itself is not technically an ability, (It's an "ability word"), so it's difficult to speak about it in general terms. However, any creature entering the battlefield will obviously not set off any Landfall triggers, including Dryad Arbor. What the orb cannot do is prevent something like Groundswell's Landfall effect, because it's not a triggered ability.

So, if Dryad Arbor is the only land to enter the battlefield this turn, even though it didn't trigger your Steppe Lynx, your Groundswell will still give +4/+4.