Magic the Gathering: Ask a Judge

[tamaness]

this is correct. If an effect (say Rogue's Passage) said "target creature can't be blocked this turn," then Turn to Frog doesn't change that. But Triton Shorestalker has an ability that makes it unable to be blocked, and Turn to Frog removes that ability.

[phlip]

i was thinking that new rules made "can't be blocked" a unremoveable ability.

The new rules for "can't be blocked" (as of M14) actually had no functional change... but instead they explicitly had no change, to compare with Indestructible, which was changed.

The (relatively) short version is that "can't be blocked", in and of itself, is not an ability... it's just a fact about a thing. But "Triton Shorestalker can't be blocked" is an ability... that causes that fact about the thing. If you Turn to Frog a Triton Shorestalker, it will lose the static ability that causes it to not be blockable... so, by default, it will be blockable.

The difference comes with something that grants unblockability... like, for instance, if you had some regular vanilla creature, and put Aqueous Form on it... and then that creature got turned to frog, it would still be unblockable... because Turn to Frog removes any abilities on the creature, but it's an ability on Aqueous Form that just says "Enchanted creature can't be blocked", and that ability's not going anywhere.

To compare with how Indestructible changed in M14, if you have a creature enchanted with, say, Indestructibility, and then turn it to frog, then it would become desctructible... because Indestructibility gives Indestructible, as an ability, to the creature... and then Turn to Frog takes it away again. (Before M14, Indestructibility read that the enchanted creature "is indestructible", instead of "gains indestructible").

The difference is in the new wording... the new wording for Indestructibility says "enchanted creature gains indestructible" where Aqueous Form doesn't use the word "gains"... just says "enchanted creature can't be blocked" (or, as it probably would have been pre-M14, "enchanted creature is unblockable").

The shorter version: if something "gains" something, it can lose it... but if something "is" something, then that's much harder to take away.

[Kapol]

As another note, if the 'gains' ability is used on the creature later (in this case if you cast Indestructibility after Turn to Frog resolves), it will have that ability. But it will not keep that ability if it was already on the creature.

[rampkelpish]

Question about counter spells:

Say I cast Cancel. If I so desire, could I have Cancel target and thus counter itself? If so, does anything unusual happen because of it?
This isn't a very urgent matter, it's just been vexing me for quite some time.

[steric hindrance]

No, because when you're casting the spell, it's not a spell on the stack and so can't be targeted.

[AdmiralMemo]

Question: Can Cycling be countered? Specifically by these cards?

Bind, Azorious Guildmage, Rimewind Cryomancer, Squelch, Stifle, Trickbind, Voidmage Husher, Voidslime

[JackSlack]

Cycling's an activated ability, so I can't imagine stifle wouldn't.

[korvys]

Yes. Cycling is an activated ability, and can be countered. They will draw no card, and will be sad.

They will still get any effect that triggered as a result of the cycling though, such as the 1 damage from Solar Blast, unless you counter that as well.

[tamaness]

hooray for layers and timestamps!

I'm okay with the "base power and toughness" template now. It actually makes it easier to explain layers.

[ElFuzzy]

JUDGE!!!!

So I have a Perplexing Chimera. Then use it to take my opponents spell. Then cast Soul Ransom on the chimera to take it back. Then use it to take my opponents spell. Then use ANOTHER Soul Ransom to take it back. FINALLY, I take a third spell from my opponent. What happens when a Soul Ransom is activated?

[phlip]

You control the Soul Ransoms, so your opponent (who in this case already controls the Chimera) can activate it. If they do, they'll discard two cards, you'll draw two cards, and that Soul Ransom will be sacrificed. The Perplexing Chimera won't change controllers, though, as the latest (timestamp-wise) control-changing effect is the third "exchange for a spell" effect... and since that has no duration, all the control-changing effects that happened before it are essentially irrelevant.

That said... note that the situation is unlikely to actually happen as described... your opponent would probably exchange the Chimera for your Soul Ransom when you tried to cast it, and use it to steal the Chimera right back again.

[ElFuzzy]

You say that.... but this actually happened. A board wipe landed before we had to deal with this.

[ElFuzzy]

If Drana has her ability on the stack and you kill her, does it counter the ability? I wanna say no.

[AdmiralMemo]

Not a judge: I don't think it would get countered and the other thing would still get its -0/-X

[Phosphatide]

Drana's activated ability has only one target, being the creature that gets -0/-X. In order to counter the ability besides Stifling it, you need to get rid of said targeted creature so the ability would have an invalid target (flickering, bouncing, killing, whatever). Or hexproofing it, I guess. You guys know the drill.

Killing Drana instead (assuming she wasn't the target of her own ability) and doing nothing else means the target stays valid, allowing the ability to resolve. The only difference is it will try to give Drana +X/+0 and instead do nothing, since Drana is simply not on the battlefield.

[Utilitarian]

If I gain control of a counterspell with Perplexing Chimera, am I able to select the counterspell I just gained control of as the new target for that counterspell? I understand that one cannot normally counter a spell with itself, as it is not on the stack while you are casting it, but at the time i change the target of that spell with the chimera, the counterspell will be on the stack, so I am unsure.

[phlip]

No, spells are explicitly not allowed to target themselves, by any means. So, in the normal case where the only things on the stack are your spell, their counterspell, and the Perplexing Chimera trigger, your spell is the only legal target for the counterspell and you won't be able to change it elsewhere.

It's different with something like Misdirection, where you can change a counterspell to be targeting the Misdirection instead... and then the counterspell fizzles for no legal targets (since the Misdirection has resolved and left the stack by the time the counterspell resolves). But you can't do that here, since it's an ability, not a spell. I guess you could use this trick to counter a Stifle, but not a normal counterspell.

[Phosphatide]

Just to make sure, would you be able to do the same trick with Stifle? When the Perplexing Chimera ability resolves, control exchange happens if chosen to do so and then new targets can be chosen. Is that still part of the spell resolution, allowing you to change the target of Stifle to the Chimera trigger on the stack?

[phlip]

Yeah, it's all part of the resolution of Perplexing Chimera's ability, so it's still on the stack when you're choosing the new targets.

[ForOhFor Error]

A few questions, just to prepare for the return of morph:

What is the CMC of a morphed creature? (I assume 0)
If I copy a morphed creature, can I unmorph it? (I assume no)
If a creature that has an ability to morph itself, if I copy it, could I use that ability? (I'm thinking no, because I think there's a similar rule with double-faced cards)

[tamaness]

Face-down cards are

Creature -
2/2

If it doesn't have a morph cost on the card, the Morph ability can't be activated.

Face-down cards have no CMC.

A copy of a face-down card is a colorless 2/2 with no creature types and no abilities. It'll also have no morph ability or cost.

[ElFuzzy]

Is Coward a subtype? How does this interact with Changlings?

[tamaness]

Coward is a creature subtype, but isn't printed on any creatures as far as I know. Changelings (creatures with the Changeling ability) are cowards and they're warriors. They're also squid wizards. Boldwyr Intimidator makes changelings unable to block each-other.

[ElFuzzy]

I believe the accepted colloquialism is, Squizzards.

[korvys]

Import thing:

Any time a morph creature moves zones from play (including returning to hand) and at the end of the game, you must reveal it to all players.

If you do not, and you are playing at comp REL, you will get a game loss.