MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge - Tuesday Bluesday Edition

How's it going gA? Long time no see.

I have a few different questions for you:
>How does sending your commander to the command zone work in terms of the stack? What happens if I agonizing demise their commander?

>Is there anything you can do to bounce Skullbriar, or can you always send it to the command zone to keep its counters?

>How do replacement effects work in general?

>>49737179
Yeah, work's been kicking my ass, and I let my Captcha pass expire.

>Command zone
The only things that go on the stack are activated abilities, triggered abilities, and spells. Sending your Commander to the Command zone instead of whatever zone it was headed for is a replacement effect and does not use the stack. It just replaces "go to ZONE" with "Go to Command zone". So for Demise, it would destroy the creature, which would go to the command zone instead of to the graveyard, and then they'd take damage equal to its power as it last existed on the battlefield.

>Skullbriar
You used to be able to bounce it, but now that you can Command Zone any time it would go to another zone, they can always just shunt it back into the command zone instead of their hand or library, to keep the counters.

>Replacement effects
Basically they just replace one event with another. For example, Furnace of Rath says "If a source would deal damage to a creature or player, it deals double that damage to that creature or player instead.". So, say you cast Lightning Bolt with a Furnace out. As that Bolt goes to resolve, Furnace replaces the number 3 with the number 6, effectively.

>>49737255
These Captchas are becoming arcane bullshit, but thankfully they've helped my visual acuity a lot. I bet we'd be awesome at Where's Waldo.

Thanks for the explanation, for some reason I could never wrap my head around how replacement effects work. I've been trying to brew something to perma-exile someone's commander, and outside of those cards where it's like "Choose a card name, players can't cast cards with the chosen name" there really isn't anything. I thought Exclusion Ritual in multiplayer Brago would be pretty spicy, but they can always shove their commander back in the zone to completely avoid the effect, so it's kind of useless.

>>49737348
Yeah, the RC has decided that a player should basically always have access to their commander, so the only really "surefire" way to get rid of one for good is to use something like Mindslaver to take over their turn, and then since you're making choices for them, NOT put the card into the Command Zone.

Even before the changes, the most long-term way to shut out a Commander was with Meddling Mage effects, or by tucking into the library.

>>49737385
Wait, Mindslaver works that way? Neat. For some reason, I thought the other player was always able to send their commander back to the zone, even if you control their turn.

Can a player send their commander back to the command zone when they change sides on the battlefield, or does the battlefield count as a single zone? I assume they can't, since I've Memnarch'd many a commander, but I'm not sure why.

>>49737430
The battlefield is one zone. So is Exile, technically- you and your opponent don't have separate Exile zones like you do hand, graveyard, and library.

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First spell of the turn is Maelstrom Wanderer and I have pic in play. Do I cascade three times or two times?

>>49737471
Three. As you see on Wanderer himself, multiple instances of Cascade are not redundant, and Nexus doesn't specify that it won't grant an extra instance of Cascade to things that already have it. So, you Cascade 3 times.

>>49737518
So what if I cast bloodbraid elf or another card that has only Cascade? Would it get two instances of cascade?

>>49737536
Yes. It tacks one more instance of Cascade onto the card. For most cards that means we go from 0 to 1, but for cards that already have Cascade (Wanderer's double nonsense notwithstanding), that means we go from 1 to 2. What's more, if you have multiple Nexus on the board, they accumulate; if you had two of them (maybe via Copy Enchantment?) and cast a Bloodbraid Elf, it would have 3 instances of Cascade.

>>49737385
Can't you get rid of enemy commander permanently by making them an equipment, equipping that equipment to a creature token then phasing that token?

>>49737136
So, I was at FNM.

I had declared attackers, Goblin Dark-Dwellers. My opponent had 2 shambling vents he could activate, so I left up a burn spell so I could kill one when he did.

He went to activate them, and I waited for him to commit to them being activated. He said "i activate them and declare as blockers". Now, I said, "before blockers I galvanic bombardment" or whatever spell it was to shoot a vent.

He claims that blockers were already declared, when in my opinion, I was casting my spell off of his activation, regardless of how quickly he said something

Who was right?

>>49737601

How fast someone says something is not relevant. You can't skip the ability for the other guy to respond to something by powering through it.

>>49737620
So, my spell resolves before blockers are declared?

>>49737629
yes, you have the opportunity before blockers are declared to kill the lands.

it's like a player saying
>fireball x20 you die
in a single breath without allowing you to respond with a counterspell

>>49737591
Technically yes, but rendering them into a non-creature equipment is... troublesome.

>>49737601
You are right. When he said "Activate these and block", what he's REALLY doing is proposing a shortcut of "Activate this one, you pass priority back to let it resolve, activate this one, you pass priority back to let it resolve, move to Declare Blocks, block with these two". PROPOSE being the key word. You can interrupt that shortcut at any point, so just communicating "Before blockers, nuke that one".

Magic is not a game of reflexes. If it was, you could just say "UNTAPUPKEEPDRAWATTACKWITHTHISENDTURN" and if he tries to block, say "Too late, my turn is over".

>>49737629
Yes. You don't move into a new step or phase until the stack is empty and all players pass priority in succession without adding to it. You get, bare minimum, one chance to cast spells after he's done activating his things, before moving to Declare Blocks. He cannot deny you the chance to destroy his manlands after activation, but before blockers, by just saying "NUH UH I SAID BLOCK".

>>49737812
>"NUH UH I SAID BLOCK".

was basically what he tried to do, because it ended the game.

>>49738174
Well next time he says that, tell him this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEZgJyTzqPg

Fairgrounds warden ability does not use the stack as he leaves the battlefield, right? So what happens to the battlefield if i cast Acrobatic Maneuver on it? Can i save it from removal spells and exile the same creature as before?

>>49738558
Correct. Warden only has a single ETB trigger, which exiles a creature for a stated duration. As soon as that duration ends, the creature immediately comes back; nothing about this uses the stack, so it can't be responded to.

If you blink it with Maneuver, the creature will immediately come back as soon as Warden leaves the field, and by the time you're selecting a target for the 'new' ETB trigger, that creature is on the field again and able to be targeted.

I know that +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters cancel eachother out one-for-one, but are there any other strange interactions between other counters that aren't printed anymore?
For example, will a +1/+0 and a +0/+1 counter become a +1/+1 counter?

>>49738588
Nope- the only counter-interaction is between those, specifically, because they started printing more "cares about +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters" things like Persist and Undying and whatnot, and it was wonky for the counters to be 'invisible' because they canceled each other out MATHWISE, but still be there for effects like that. So, they wrote in the SBA that +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters on the same permanent consume each other like matter and antimatter, until there's only one kind left (or none, if it had the same number of both kinds).

Cin I destroy a flip Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
with a krosan grip or will it get countered?

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Explain this ruling to me in intuitive terms. One of my friends is bringing this to our playgroup next week, and I KNOW some people will fight him on this, so I wanna be ready to defend my boy.

>The number of spells you’ve cast is counted only as Aetherflux Reservoir’s triggered ability resolves. For example, if you cast a spell, then respond to the triggered ability with a second spell, you’ll gain 4 life total.

The exact scenario would be flashing in 0 cost equipment with Sigarda's Aid while the Reservoir trigger is on the stack.

>>49738869
not OP or a judge but just know the rules well. it would be countered because it's not an activated ability it is a triggered ability.

>>49738869
You can, but only if it's not the first spell you're casting that turn. Split Second stops your opponent from activating non-mana abilities or casting spells, but it doesn't stop triggers, which is what Erayo's Essence has.

>>49738890
"How many spells you have cast this turn" is not a value that's locked in when the trigger goes on the stack. It checks that value as the trigger resolves, so if you chain a bunch of spells in response to the triggers, you gain way more life.

Normally it's gonna be cast 1 spell, gain 1 life. Later in the turn, cast a second spell, gain 2 life. Maybe cast a third, gain 3 life. Net gain, 6 life: 1 + 2 + 3. However, if you cast a spell and hold priority to cast another in response to the trigger, then do it again, each of the Reservoir triggers is going to gain you 3 life, because as they resolve that's the number of spells you've cast this turn. So it scales a lot faster.

tl;dr the number of spells isn't locked in when the trigger fires, it's checked as the trigger RESOLVES. So you can grow that number between "Trigger triggers" and "Trigger resolves" for more life.

>>49738869
>>49738950
This kind of interaction is why Miracles players like to leave a 3 floating on top in postboard games against decks with access to green mana. They can't Top in response to Grip, but if the top card is a 3 then Counterbalance will still tag it.

How does Chromatic Lantern interact with Blood Moon? Since Moon doesn't state that it removes abilities, do land keep abilities granted by nonland sources?

>>49741028
Lantern is always going to 'beat' moon. You're right that Moon doesn't say it removes abilities, because it doesn't need to; the rules on setting a land's type to a basic type are a bit weird. When something like Moon says "You are a Mountain", it basically wipes out everything naturally on that card and replaces it with "T: Add R to your mana pool". However, abilities added by other sources happen in Layer 6, two layers after Moon works. By then, you can safely tack new abilities onto your lands, and Moon won't override them. So all your nonbasics will be Mountains with "T: Add R to your mana pool" and "T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool".

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Is Last Rites self discard a Cost or a effect?
I am doing Library of Leng shenanigans and it lets me replace discard effects into "discarding" to top my of library.

>>49744299
if it was a cost the card would state "As an additional cost to pay X, do Y"

See Bone Shards vs. Last Rites

It's irrelevant in regards to your second question though because Library allows you to put any card discarded due to an effect on top of your library (I assume this means it doesn't work on cards you discard during your discard step then, gA?)

>>49744345
>It's irrelevant in regards to your second question though because Library allows you to put any card discarded due to an effect on top of your library
There was no second question? I just stated the basic effect as the reason I need to know if it works.

>(I assume this means it doesn't work on cards you discard during your discard step then, gA?)
Library gives max handsize so the card itself walks around the issue.

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>>49744435
>forgotmyimage.jpg

>>49744453
And I chose the wrong image if library greaaat.
"skip your discard phase" is now "You have no maximum hand size"

>>49744299
>>49744453
>>49744479
It's an effect.
Yes, the Library will let you put any of the discarded cards on the top of your library if you want to. It's a may effect.

>>49744345
>I assume this means it doesn't work on cards you discard during your discard step then, gA?
Actions dictated by the game rules don't count as an effect. Or a spell, either. See Gilded Drake, which has an ability that is expressly immune to being countered by the game rules.

>>49744435
>Library gives max handsize so the card itself walks around the issue.
Yes, but some other effect with a more recent timestamp might set your hand size to not-infinite.

>>49737385
I find that Ixidron works wonders if they don't have a sac outlet.

Does anyone ever ask you for rulings on contraptions?
Example: If I have 2 steam flogger bosses and a rigger I control would assemble a contraption, how many contraptions does that rigger assemble?

>>49745646
4

>>49741101
sup gA. I control Eldrazi Displacer, Panharmonicon, and a spell queller that ate a spell already. My opponent casts a fragmentize and I respond by flickering queller. Is there a way I can stack the triggers so both spells get queller'd?

Also if so, does my opponent get to cast both when queller leaves play?

>>49738582
if I dubious challenge and my opponent takes a void winnower or whatever and i use fairgrounds warden to lock up the big guy, what happens when warden dies? who gets the released creature?

>>49745139
>they pay the price
>flip their commander face up, ixidude gets weaker for it
what have you gained now?

>>49746679
What price?
I don't know any commanders that see any amount of play that have Morph.

>>49746703
701.32b Any time you have priority, you may turn a manifested permanent you control face up.
This is a special action that doesn’t use the stack. To do this, show all players
that the card representing that permanent is a creature card and what that card’s mana cost is,
pay that cost, then turn the permanent face up. The effect defining its characteristics while it was
face down ends, and it regains its normal characteristics. (If the card representing that
permanent isn’t a creature card or it doesn’t have a mana cost, it can’t be turned face up this
way.)

help me

how does trample work with multiple blockers

apparently i am retarded and cant google correctly

>>49747036
702.19b: The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures that's being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that's actually dealt. The attacking creature's controller need not assign lethal damage to all those blocking creatures but in that case can't assign any damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking.

Tl;dr: you only have to assign a minimum lethal damage to all blockers. All remaining damage can be pushed through.

>>49747074
thank you

>>49747103
this is fun with deathtouch, because 'lethal damage' is 1 damage. say you've got a 4/4 deathtouch and they have two 2/2 blockers
you assign 1 damage to each of those and 2 damage hits the opponent
neat

>>49747007
Manifest is a specific ablity printed only in Fate reforged at the moment. A card that is just turned face-down dose not follow the same rules as a manifested card.

>>49747404
>A card that is just turned face-down dose not follow the same rules as a manifest
i thought that manifest and morph were treated exactly the same way once on the battlefield

>>49747036
>>49747103
You may have seen outdated information about trample and multiple blockers while you were searching. Way back, around 6th edition, it was changed to how it is now.

Before then you only needed to kill ne of the blocking creatures f you wanted to trample over with the rest.

>>49747655
Not at all. The game keeps track of how something got turned face-down. If that was because of manifest, you can flip it by paying its cost. If it WASN'T because of manifest, you can only flip it via Break Open or by paying its morph cost. If you don't have Break Open and it doesn't have a morph cost, it's staying face down until it leaves the battlefield.

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Semi-new player here:
I think I know the answer to this one but just to be sure: can a card like skullcrack prevent healing after the fact? for example if a player plays a card like gnaw to the bone and I play skullcrack afterward they do not gain life correct?
also
If I bolt a player down to 0 life is the game itself resolved immediately or can they play a card like children or sigil to effectively come back from the dead? Thanks.

>>49749512
1. Skullcrack does not invalidate life gained before it. You can cast Skullcrack in response to Gnaw to prevent the lifegain but once Gnaw resolves, casting Skullcrack won't reverse it.

2. Yes, if the bolt resolves. Same as above. They can use Children's or Sigil's ability in response to your bolt to gain life but once bolt resolves and they are at zero life, the game ends.

>>49749576
thanks a bunch

>>49749586
Oh and just to clarify on the 2nd question. If the lifeloss on the turn is only from your one bolt, then sacrificing Children or Sigil in response to the bolt won't do anything since they haven't lost any life yet.

>>49749576
>>49749586
If the bolt resolves putting you at 0 you die. You can't activate children after going to 0 since the game ends. If you had loss life from another source this turn you could activate children in response to bolt keeping yourself above 0 after bolt resolves.

I kinda wanna ask a question to Rashmi+Momir shenanigans, but it's all pretty straight forward if you know how the stack works.

I'm not sure how cards with {X} in their mana cost work though. Is the X an actual number while on the stack for the sake of Rashmi or not? Kinda have a yes in the back of my head.

Also, say I played a card with cmc4 and reveal a morph. Can I cast him as morph?

>>49737136
How do you use the new rulings on pile "shuffling" cards in practice?

Example:
Player A counts the cards by piling, shuffles normally, presents. He takes he opening hand and chooses to mulligan. Then he begins pile "shuffling" again before the actual shuffles, despite there being no real reason to count the cards again.

Would you consider this something he can do, something you "you probably shouldn't do that and get on with proper shuffling" or something you potentially slap with Tournament Error - Slow Play at comp or prof REL?

>>49749885
>Is the X an actual number while on the stack
yes it is

>Also, say I played a card with cmc4 and reveal a morph. Can I cast him as morph?
no you can't

What happens if I give undying or persist to a "morphed" creature?

>>49750151
it will return to the field face up

>>49749950

It's Slow Play now, that's the whole point of the rule change. You only get to do it once.

If I have some creatures I've already morphed and I morph weaver of lies to flip them face down can I get all of the newly morphed creatures, shuffle them and put them back on the field so people can't know what they're targeting?

>>49750241
no you can't

>>49750228
The rules say you can only do it once each time you shuffle. That's the entire point of his question.

>>49737136
>Skirk fire marshal in play
>4 other goblins in play
>tap for effect
>"untap all nonland permanents you control" in response
can i do it again before the first damage takes place ?

>>49737136
What judge level are you, and what's it like to know the judge program is filled with people sucking each other's cocks to give and receive 'recognitions' in the form of judge foils?

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Can I use this ability the turn I play it and can it sacrifice itself.

>>49751183
yes

how does madness work?

i discard the madness card to exile, then choose whether or not to cast it before sending it to the yard, right? this ability ignores normal timing rules for casting spells? like i can cast a creature or sorcery using the madness trigger at any time (during any phase) an effect would cause me to discard, not just an effect causing me to discard on my main phase?

Sorry for the absence! Work picked up like crazy and by the time I got home I didn't have time to get back to the thread!

>>49744299
It's an effect. If something within the rules text of a card is meant to be an additional cost to cast it, it will explicitly say "As an additional cost to cast". Library will work with Last Rites because it is an effect making you discard, not a cost.

>>49744345
Library gives you no max hand size, quite probably BECAUSE it wouldn't let you discard 'for the turn' to the top (that's not an effect, it's a rule)

>>49745646
Four. Replacement effect, which means they're multiplicative, just like Doubling Season.

>>49745885
There is not. Panharmonicon's effect gives you two ETB triggers for Queller, but they're both going on the stack at the same time. The first Quelled Spell is still in exile until the LTB trigger resolves, so it's not on the stack (and thus is not a possible target) at the time you're selecting your targets. In this scenario, you'd have to aim both triggers at Fragmentize, one would eat it, the other would fizzle, then your opponent would get to cast whatever was Quelled in the first place.

>>49746601
It'll come back under your control, because you are the owner, and nothing is telling it to enter under someone else's control.

>>49747007
You can only turn a MANIFESTED card face-up by paying the CMC if it's a creature. For it to be Manifested, you have to have been given the specific instruction to Manifest it onto the battlefield from some other zone. Just turning it face-down does not make it a Manifested card, which means you can't flip it face up unless you have some other way (like Morph, or Skirk Alarmist)

>>49747036
You have to assign lethal damage to ALL blockers before you can trample over.

>>49747655
Half-right. The game doesn't distinguish between a Manifested or Morphed card, because on the battlefield technically they're just 2/2s with no name/abilities/types/mana cost. But the rules on how to turn them face up ARE different.

>>49747655
Continuing on this:

To turn a Morph creature face-up, you first show all players what the card's Morph cost would be if it were face-up, pay that cost, and then turn it face-up. To turn a Manifested permanent face-up, you show all players that it is a creature card, pay its mana cost, and then turn it face up.

You can turn a Morph creature face-up no matter WHY it was face-down (for example, if it gets hit with Ixidron, or is Manifested). You can only use the "Pay my cost to turn me face up" for things that were specifically manifested though, not with just any face-down thing. If you could just pay any Morph creature's mana cost to turn it face up, a lot of them get really fucking stupid.

>>49749512
Once Skullcrack resolves, no players can gain life for the remainder of the turn. It will not go back in time to "undo" lifegain that was perfectly legal earlier in the turn.

Once a player is at 0 or less life, as soon as SBAs are checked they lose and are removed from the game. They do not get a chance to activate abilities.

>>49749885
When you're casting a spell with X (and you're not doing it for free like via Cascade), X is whatever value you set. Everywhere else, X is 0. So if you flip over something with an X, it'll be 0 for the purposes of "is it lower than what I paid" with Rashmi, and also if you cast it with her, X must be 0. If you CAST an X spell (let's say... Biomantic Mastery, with X=5), then that'll factor into the CMC for Rashmi. So in that case, if the top card had a CMC less than 7 you could cast it.

You cannot Morph with Rashmi, because Morph is an alternate cost. You are already paying the alternate cost of "for free", and you cannot pay two alternate costs.

>>49749950
Personally I'm of the opinion that you should only get one pile count per GAME, but the IPG says otherwise. That said, if someone is pile counting with every shuffle for mulligans, I will ask them to not do that, or risk getting Slow Play for wasting time.

>>49750228
>>49750999
Technically there wasn't any guideline on it before, so players could already pile count as much as they wanted until we decided they hit Slow Play. Depending on who you ask, the new interpretation either means that we can't Slow Play them for doing a Pile Count every single time, or it was intended to mean "You can do this -once- per shuffle, maximum, and you need to do it in a timely manner" to stop people who were doing it 2 or more times.

I honestly fully expect this to get removed or clarified soon, because while I disagree with that interpretation, I can totally understand how easily someone can read it as "you get one pile count per shuffle, all the time, period, and the Judges can't stop you".

>>49750241
Nope. You can't play Three Card Monte with your morphs. In the case of playing multiple Morphs, your opponent must have access to the information of which was played in what order, for example. If you turn a Morph face-up, then back face-down, you can't shuffle it around so they lose track of it. They get to know which one it is.

>>49751061
Sure. It's a regular old activated ability, which means it uses the stack and can be responded to just fine.

>>49751140
L2.

>>49751183
Yes and yes.

>>49751316
So, Madness sets up a replacement effect that says "If you would discard this, discard it, but put it into exile instead of your graveyard". It still counts as 'discarded' for things like Megrim, it just ends up in exile instead of the graveyard. Once it gets there, it fires the trigger portion of madness, which basically says "Hey, you can pay this cost to cast this spell from exile. If you don't, put that card in the graveyard as this trigger resolves". Since you're casting a spell at a time you normally can't (during the resolution of a triggered ability), and are granted permission to DO so by said ability, you can get around the normal timing rules to cast non-Instant, non-Flash spells outside your own main phase.

>>49751486
Can you refresh my memory on how Manifest works with non permanents? I vaguely remember an old thread where you clarified this and it didn't seem to be as bad a deal as I thought.

>>49751542
>If you could just pay any Morph creature's mana cost to turn it face up, a lot of them get really fucking stupid.
examples pls

>>49751604
It doesn't. You show everyone what it would be if it were face-up, and the answer is "not a creature card", so you can't go through with the remaining steps to turn it face-up. If you try to skirt that with something like Ixidor, what happens depends on what it is. A land/planeswalker/artifact/enchantment? Those get turned face-up just fine, and are now their normal face-up self. An instant or Sorcery? Those can't exist on the battlefield, so you show everyone what the front face of the card is, then put it right back face-down as a 2/2 nameless, colorless, typeless, costless, ability-less creature.

>>49751614
Any of them that have an actual mana cost lower/easier than their Morph cost. Looks like there's not as many as I thought, on second glance- most of them have a slightly lower Morph cost to make up for the fact you have to sink 3 mana to get them on the field face-down. But a few WOULD get better, were that an option.

>>49751654
zoe's cavern seems to be big though
hooded hydra i guess because it's GG?

>>49751689
Well, Cavern wouldn't work at all because it's not a creature while it's face-up, so it doesn't work with NORMAL manifest, let alone this hypothetical version. And even if it did, it doesn't have a mana cost of 0, it has a mana cost of "does not exist". You can't pay a null cost.

>>49751709
>it has a mana cost of "does not exist"
oh fuck tell me more about lands

>build standard deck
>mina & denn, gitgud frog, ghirapur orrery
>still trash

Hey gA, how do Infinite Reflections and morphed creatures interact? Can I flip them face up? Came up in a commander game last night, but someone decided to wrath before it mattered.

>>49752298
As in, you have Infinite Reflection on something, and then play Morph dudes? It's a bit wonky. Basically, Reflection would override whatever's on their front face with whatever Reflection is enchanting. They still come down as 2/2s with no name, abilities, type, etc, but when you try to Morph them, you'll reveal the front face to be... a copy of whatever Reflection is on. So unless the thing it's copying has a Morph cost, you won't be able to turn them face-up via Morph.

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>>49752337
Wow, that is not what I expected.

Does it change if I have morphs down and then cast Infinite Reflection?

Dare I ask what happens if I put it on a face down creature?

>>49752337
>>49752417
Also, what if I have IR on a dude and then manifest a sorcery. Can I flip it up as a copy of that creature?

I'm confused on Meld and the Magic webpage covering mechanics is a little unclear.

If I meld Bruna and Gisela into Brisela the copies of Bruna and Gisela exile face up, but if Brisela is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, are the copies sent to the graveyard as well or do they remain exiled.

I'm working on EDH jank and I want to know how easily I could recur Brisela, but if both parts stay exiled... yeah

>>49752417
>Does it change if I have morphs down first
Nope. Reflection won't do anything to the 'face-down' self, because that's a status. The copy effect just changes the front face. If you have face-down Morph dudes, and then toss an Infinite Reflection on a Frost Titan, you'll have a hot mess of face-down Frost Titans. Since those don't have Morph, you won't have a cost to pay in order to turn them face-up.

>Put it on a face-down creature
You take the currently visible copiable characteristics, and that's what your new stuff will be. Your new stuff will be face-up, but it'll be face-up 2/2s with no name, no type, no color, no mana cost, and no abilities.

>>49752451
No, because to turn a Manifest face-up you show that the front face is a creature CARD. Whether or not it would be a creature if it were turned face-up right now is irrelevant; if it isn't a creature CARD without something else fucking with it, you can't turn it face-up via Manifest.

>>49752625
If you meld Bruna and Gisela, the cards BECOME Brisela. There's no 'copies' involved- those two cards are now on the battlefield in the form of Brisela. They're not in exile anymore. If you kill Brisela, her component cards go to the graveyard as Bruna and Gisela.

>>49752651
>If you meld Bruna and Gisela, the cards BECOME Brisela. There's no 'copies' involved- those two cards are now on the battlefield in the form of Brisela. They're not in exile anymore. If you kill Brisela, her component cards go to the graveyard as Bruna and Gisela.

Ohhhhh.... ok that is strange but it makes sense, thanks for the help!

>>49753012
I mean, Brisela is literally the back-side of Bruna and Gisela. It'd be hard for those cards to PHYSICALLY be in one zone, but 'rules-wise' be in another.

>>49751486
since I control both ETBs and the LTB, can't I stack them however I want so the LTB goes off before the ETBs?

>>49754307
You can stack them however you want. But the spell doesn't come back until the LTB trigger -resolves-, and the ETB triggers need a target the moment they go on the stack. At the time you're putting your triggers on the stack and picking those targets, the spell is still in exile.

How does preventing damage interact with planeswalker redirection? That is to say, if someone bolts me but I healing salve in response, could they redirect to a planeswalker for 3 damage?

As far as I can see, they're both replacement effects. But the most relevant rule I can find is

614.7a If a source would deal 0 damage, it does not deal damage at all. Replacement effects that would increase the damage dealt by that source, or would have that source deal that damage to a different object or player, have no event to replace, so they have no effect. #

So I'm pretty sure that the planewalker could never take damage, if I'm reading it right. That being said, the lightning bolt is still trying to do 3 damage because the LB itself is unaffected, but the player (not the planeswalker) has the effect of the healing salve shield already.

Does the game calculate the actual damage the player would recieve, before redirecting it to the planeswalker?
Would it also matter who's the active player in this case?

>>49754949
You've got a replacement and a prevention effect wanting to apply to the same event: damage being dealt to a player. The affected player (the one getting domed) chooses in what order to apply those effects. So, if you Salve in response, you have two options: You can apply Salve first, leaving 0 damage to be redirected to your planeswalker (if they choose to redirect it), or you could apply the redirect first and then they choose whether YOU take 0 (by having the damage still go to you, Salve's prevention can apply), or having your planeswalker take 3 (since it's not the targeted creature or player from Salve).

Basically, in your scenario you're the one who decides what happens. AP/NAP doesn't matter- it's 100% "The affected player chooses the order". In other cases, it's "The controller/owner of the affected object" sometimes, but AP/NAP never matters for replacement and prevention.

>>49755020
Alright, neat. Thanks for the clarification.

I have Tesya and Bastion Protector equipped with Lightning Greaves on my side of the field. One of my opponents suicides Child of Alara.

Does Teysa die, or just Bastion Protector?

>>49755803
Just Protector. Child does one big 'destroy' event, at which time your Teysa is indestructible.