Magic the Gathering: Ask a Judge

[Utilitarian]

For a slivers "ability" to activate do there have to be multiple on the board or would LRR's spoiled "bonescythe sliver" come into play as a 2/2 double striker if it was the only creature on the board?

As I understand it, its ability makes all creatures of the Sliver type that you control have double strike. As Bonescythe Sliver is a Sliver creature you control, it will have double strike unless it is somehow no longer a sliver

[SilPho]

Utilitarian is correct: It does enter as a 2/2 double striker.

If they wanted it to require two slivers they would have worded it along the lines of "Other sliver creatures..." or "As long as you control 2 or more Slivers...". Most Slivers will apply their abilities to themselves as well. It makes gameplay easier when all of your slivers have the same abilities.

[Torian]

Hello, I have a possibly naive question that I hope is not obvious.

I am trying to pin down exactly how Experiment Krajs' abilities work as a commander. For example:

1. If I place a counter on Omnath, Locus of Mana with Kraj on board does Omnath get double pumps or does Kraj gain Omathss ability and pump himself? I ask because Omnaths' ability is specifically directed at Omnath.

2. When exactly does Krajs' ability activate? If I have an Qumulox down with a counter does Kraj cost 1C less for each artifact? And how does that affect his cost as a commander?

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[korvys]

Let's drop these in here to make this easier:

Omnath, Locus of Mana
Legendary Creature — Elemental 1/1, 2G (3)
Green mana doesn't empty from your mana pool as steps and phases end.

Omnath, Locus of Mana gets +1/+1 for each green mana in your mana pool.

Experiment Kraj
Legendary Creature — Ooze Mutant 4/6, 2UUGG (6)
Experiment Kraj has all activated abilities of each other creature with a +1/+1 counter on it.

{T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.

Putting a counter on Omnath or Qumulox won't really do anything. Experimental Kraj only gains Activated Abilities from other creatures, and neither of those has an Activated Ability.

Activated Abilities are in the form "[cost]:[effect]".
Things like

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Tap: Deal 1 damage to target creature or player

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Discard a card: Wild Mongrel gets +1/+1 and becomes the color of your choice until end of turn.

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1W, Do the Hokey Pokey (Stand up, wiggle your butt, raise your hands above your head, and shake them wildly as you rotate 360 degrees): Prevent all damage to Knight of the Hokey Pokey from any one source.

Qumulox and Omnath have what are called Static Abilities.

[Utilitarian]

If I have a pair of Gruul Ragebeasts on the board, and I lay down a Ruric Thar, does my Ruric Thar fight one creature or two?

[korvys]

Each of the Gruul Ragebeasts triggers, and you choose a target for each trigger. You can choose the same creature for each trigger. Then Ruric Thar fights one, then the other. I hope he's man enough.

[phlip]

Two, or the same one twice. Both Ragebeasts trigger, and they'll resolve separately. If they target two different creatures, then Ruric Thar will fight both (unless Ruric Thar dies in the first fight, in which case the second will do nothing); if they both target the same creature, then Ruric Thar will fight it twice (unless either dies in the first fight).

[Rootbreaker]

When you're fusing the spell, you're casting one spell with a combined converted mana cost, but two mana costs. The mana costs are the relevant part when you cast the spell. The mana costs of Catch and Release are 1UR and 4RW, so I think you reduce both costs by 1 with the medallion. This is the opposite of my intuition, but seems to be what the rules and FAQ are saying.

I've discovered that this is wrong. While the fused spell does have two mana costs, you only apply the medallion after adding up the mana costs and any additional costs. It will only apply to a fused spell once.

[Utilitarian]

When I cast a non-creature spell with Ruric-Thar on the board, does his damage ability always go on the top of the stack infront of the spell I just cast?

[Kapol]

Yes, since it activates in response to you casting the spell.

[AzureAngel17]

When I cast a non-creature spell with Ruric-Thar on the board, does his damage ability always go on the top of the stack infront of the spell I just cast?

It does indeed, which is quite good for me as it caused an opponent in my first Ravnica block draft to kill himself casting what would have been a lethal Toil & Trouble.

[Utilitarian]

Man it's too bad Innistrad block is rotating out... If you somehow manage to give Ruric Thar lifelink his damage would cancel itself out. Sadly the only way I can see to do that without taking a full hit from casting an enchantment is pairing with a Nearheath Pilgrim. Hopefully M14 or the next set will have some kind of lifelink equipment. Muwhaha.

[korvys]

Vizkopa Guildmage would do it for a turn at a time, though the colours are way off.

[ElFuzzy]

I've got a question regarding plainswalkers, can you use their abilities the turn you play then? I assume yes since it's not a tap ability

Ex. Play Memory Adept->activate 0->Mind Sculpt->Thought Scour->Swing with Mirko Vosk unopposed->MWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHahahaha!!

[Kapol]

Yes, you can use an ability as soon as you play the Planeswalker.

While this might be a bit advanced, I feel it's worth mentioning. If you resolve a planeswalker, you keep priority when it enters the battlefield. Which means that you can play the planeswalker and activate one of it's ability before an opponent has the chance to do something at instant-speed to try to kill it.

[ElFuzzy]

Ah good 2 know, even if it doesn't last the turn at least you can get one thing off.

[korvys]

Just for completeness sake:

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CR606.3. A player may activate a loyalty ability of a permanent he or she controls any time he or she has priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of his or her turn, but only if no player has previously activated a loyalty ability of that permanent that turn.

No mention of needing to control it since the start of the turn (unlike tap abilities on creatures)

Also:

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CR601.2h Once the steps described in 601.2a–g are completed, the spell becomes cast... If the spell's controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.

[AdmiralMemo]

Alright, 2 questions I believe I know the answer to, but want to verify.

1. Unless otherwise specified (like in Dryad Arbor) lands are not colored permanents, correct? Therefore, a Swamp is not a black permanent, and an Izzet Guildgate is not a red and blue permanent, correct?

2. If a creature that has an Aura on it gains protection from the color of that Aura, the Aura falls off and goes into the graveyard as a state-based action, correct?

I ask both of these because I have just encountered the Empty-Shrine Kannushi, which has "protection from the colors of permanents you control."
Therefore, for the land question, I'm assuming that if you have a Swamp in play, he doesn't get protection from black.
Also, for the Aura question, if you have no green permanents in play, you can cast something like Forced Adaptation on him, and it will momentarily stick, until SBAs are checked. (This being due to the fact that Forced Adaptation is a spell and not a permanent while it's on the stack.) Therefore, if you've got something on-board that cares about enchantments, permanents, or green permanents, that number will go up momentarily (which could cause other things to change, based on other SBAs). So, while you would normally not want to enchant him with anything, since it'll go in the graveyard right afterwards, it might just work in some weird combo or unique board state. For example, say you have some reason you need to kill your own guy. If you have at least 1 creature in the graveyard already and no black permanents in play, I'm assuming you can cast Death's Approach on him, which will kill him from having 0 toughness at the same time he gains the protection from black.

This is assuming I have everything correct. If not, it all falls apart.

[tamaness]

Alright, 2 questions I believe I know the answer to, but want to verify.

1. Unless otherwise specified (like in Dryad Arbor) lands are not colored permanents, correct? Therefore, a Swamp is not a black permanent, and an Izzet Guildgate is not a red and blue permanent, correct?

Lands are colorless, unless otherwise specified.

2. If a creature that has an Aura on it gains protection from the color of that Aura, the Aura falls off and goes into the graveyard as a state-based action, correct?

I'm not certain at all.

[AdmiralMemo]

2. If a creature that has an Aura on it gains protection from the color of that Aura, the Aura falls off and goes into the graveyard as a state-based action, correct?

I'm not certain at all.

I did find this in the rules, to back me up:

If an Aura is enchanting an illegal object or player, the object it was attached to no longer exists, or the player it was attached to has left the game, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)

That first part, about an "illegal object" is what I'm thinking about. Then, I found this:

A permanent or player with protection can’t be enchanted by Auras that have the stated quality. Such Auras attached to the permanent or player with protection will be put into their owners’ graveyards as a state-based action. (See rule 704, “State-Based Actions.”)

So I'm pretty sure that my evaluation 2 is right, now. I'm still trying to verify how it works with Empty-Shrine Kannushi, though. From what I can see, he'd be a valid target while the spell resolves, and then, once the spell becomes a permanent, he'd be invalid, and it would drop off. So, the key point would be that the spell would still resolve, and not fizzle.

[korvys]

Yes, while Aura spells target, he wouldn't gain pro-whatever until well after the spell started resolving, so it wouldn't fizzle (be countered).

Then SBAs are checked, and it falls off. At which point he loses pro-whatever again, the fickle bastard.

[phlip]

Everything Memo said there is accurate, re enchantments and protection and such.

[AdmiralMemo]

I'm thinking about a card interaction that, due to certain replacement effects, would end up attempting to shuffle a token into your library. Now, I know, in the end, you'll never end up with a token in your library due to state-based effects making a token disappear when it enters any zone other than the battlefield. In a real-world game, I know you'd just remove it and shuffle your library normally. However, I'm wondering if, on the absolute technical rules level of the game, you actually do shuffle the token into your library, and then it disappears, due to state-based effects. If that's the case, that seems amusing to me, as it would effectively cause something to wink out of existence from the middle of your library.

Basically, what I'm asking is, "When are state-based effects checked with regard to shuffling your library?"

[phlip]

You don't even need crazy combinations of replacement effects for that, you can just activate Void Stalker targeting a token (or, for better value, activate a token copy of Void Stalker... hello Progenitor Mimic...).

However, the rules clarify that "shuffling your library" means to shuffle all the cards in the Library zone...

400.11. Some effects instruct a player to do something to a zone (such as "Shuffle your hand into your library"). That action is performed on all cards in that zone. The zone itself is not affected.

So the token is "in your library", but you don't need to actually shuffle it in, even playing 100% super by-the-rules technical. Its exact position in your library doesn't matter since it's not a card, nothing can reference it in your library, and it disappears as an SBA anyway. Like, even if something said "put a creature on top of your library then draw a card", and it was a token, you wouldn't draw that token, since it's not the top card of your library, since it's not a card.

[AdmiralMemo]

Gotcha.
I was just imagining in my head the amusing idea of shuffling your library, and then after you put it back down, something in the middle just going *poof* and everything dropping down one.

What got me thinking about it was an anecdote from (I believe) one of the guys at Wizards who mentioned that they figured out some crazy combination of cards and rules (which they also mentioned no longer works under current rules), where they were able to end up putting a token on the stack, which I thought was highly amusing, as well.