MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge -「 W E D N E S D A Y W E E K 」

Say I began combat, chose my attackers, then the opponent chose his blockers and locked them. Now let's say we both have combat tricks we want to cast, but of course, we don't want to be the first to cast, because that would be answered by the other's CT.

I think I made that confuse, but my point is, does one player holds priority when blockers have been declared?

>>50467238
Yes. The Active Player is the first one to receive priority in every step and phase, and after any object on the stack resolves. You have priority here.

If you cast your spell, your opponent will respond. If you DON'T cast your spell, your opponent will get priority; if they use it to cast their trick, you can respond with your own. If they don't use their trick, we move directly to the damage step because both players passed priority on an empty stack.

>>50467238
So a mexican standoff?

>>50467271
Oh I see. Thanks.

is wolfkin bond capable of targeting the token it spawns?

>>50467918
It is not. The token isn't made until the triggered ability resolves, and that doesn't happen until Bond itself has resolved (assuming you cast it). You need a target as soon as you cast your Aura, and your token is a long way from existing yet.

>>50468000
I see, thanks.

P.S. nice trips.

>>50466262
I have a flameshadow conjuring and and a phyrexian altar in play. When one of my creatures enters the battlefield, may I respond to the flameshadow conjuring ETB trigger by sacrificing my creature for a red mana, then use that red mana during the resolution of flameshadow conjuring to get a copy of my since-dead creature?

>>50468261
Yes. The Flameshadow trigger will normally look directly at the object that triggered it for the copiable characteristics to hand to the token, but if that object is no longer where it ought to be (like in this example) it does the same thing as other abilities in this situation: Shrugs, asks the game for the characteristics of that object as it last existed on the battlefield (this is called Last Known Information) and uses that.

In the example with Pack Rats posted here http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/carrie-on-state-based-actions/

How is the order of each rat dying decided? Makes quite a difference if you start checking from the rat paired with the 1/1 as opposed to the one against the 3/3

>>50468593
>How is the order decided
By the rules of the game. It's not "Check the SBAs for this creature, okay it's done, move on". We check -all- state-based actions all at once. If any apply, we... well, apply them. And if we DID apply them, we check again to see if that changed anything.

So, in the example with the Rats: The game sees that you have a 3/3 with 1 damage on it, a 3/3 with 2 damage on it, and a 3/3 with 3 damage on it. The game also sees that your opponent's 1/1, 2/2, and 3/3 all have 3 damage marked on them. So, simultaneously, your 3-damage Rat and all three of their creatures are destroyed, because they have been dealt lethal damage.

Now, an SBA was done, so we check SBAs again to see if that changed anything. The game sees a 2/2 with 2 damage marked on it, and then destroys it. SBAs get checked again, see a 1/1 with 1 damage on it, and destroy it.

You don't 'start checking' one thing at a time. You check the entire list of SBAs, all at once, to see if any of them apply, and then let them do their thing if they do. And repeat this until none of them apply.

>>50468715
Oh thanks, that's way more simple than what it looked like.

>>50468770
Yeah. SBAs are basically the game's janitors. Immediately before any player would get priority, EVERY time a player would get priority, SBAs are checked first. They check for a bunch of things (if anything has lethal damage, if anything has 0 or less toughness, if a token is in a zone other than the battlefield, if a copy of a spell is anywhere but the stack, if a player has 0 or less life, 10 or more poison, etc) and then 'fix' those things. If they do have to 'fix' anything, they do another quick check to see if that changed something (like a Pyroclasm killing a 2/2 lord, and shrinking the rest of the board from 3/3s back down to 2/2s, so now they're dead), and fix that thing if needed. Repeat until everything comes up clean, then move on with the game.

>>50466262

I don't know if you're still on, but I have a number of questions:

Can I play To Fealty Sworn on 2 separate Hobbits at the mustering of the same unique faction at a Free-Hold (not Bag end, of course)?

Can I play Look More Closely Later when a sage is not at the site containing information to be untapped?

Can I play Gollum's fate with the agent My Precious At Mt Doom? (as opposed to the manifestation of the Ally Gollum)

Does Await the Advent of Allies only cancel the character's intrinsic MP, or does it also cancel out any MP from allies or items they've got?

In addition to the above, does it allow for the splitting of the party at a non-haven site?

Can I use an Elven-Cloak to cancel a strike keyed to a wilderness region but not to the wilderness region icon, such as any of the Nazgul keyed to Ithilien?

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>>50466262
Beginning of combat, Odric's effect happens. Odric leaves the battlefield before the end of turn, does his effects go away before the end of turn?

>>50472149
The effect doesn't care what happens to Odric once it triggers, just like the +3/+3 from Giant Growth doesn't care about what happens to the Giant Growth card once it resolves. It will stick around until EOT and vanish.

This is because Odric's ability is a triggered ability: It says "When a thing happens, I make another thing happen." without regard for what happens to its source afterwards.
A static ability, however, such as Humility, Moat, or Crusade, is constantly saying "This is true, this is happening". As soon as the source leaves, the effect vanishes.

Hi gA, long time lurker, first time poster; always appreciate your threads. I normally play online mtgo just because it's more convenient for my schedule, but there's a GP coming up that I plan to go to, so I've been trying to make it to my LGS's Modern night in order to get used to remembering and resolving my own triggers. A situation came up last time that I wanted to get some clarification on since the store didn't have a certified judge to ask. The situation was that my opponent had 3 untapped lands and during his upkeep Search for Tomorrow came off suspend, I had a Leonin Arbiter in play and an Aether Vial in play on 2 counters with another arbiter in hand. Basically I just want to know when exactly does the Leonin Arbiter tax get paid, before or during resolution of a search ability? I know it's a special action that doesn't use the stack but I'm not sure exactly when you have to pay the 2 mana to search; on mtgo I know that you have to click the arbiter before your trigger for searching (like a fetchland activation) or else you don't get to, but I'm not sure if that's technically correct as per the rules or just the way the client handles it. Since I didn't know the correct answer and there wasn't a judge I just chose to vial in my second arbiter with the spell on the stack and my opponent chose not to pay 4 mana, but I wanted to make sure there wasn't a way for me to have him pay 2 and still not search. Another weird interaction on mtgo with the arbiter is if they pay the tax and you flicker the arbiter before the search ability resolves they have to pay again since as far as the game is concerned it is a new arbiter on the field. Again, I'm not sure if that's just a quirk of how the online client handles Leonin Arbiter or actually how the spell works. Thanks in advance.

>>50472468
If you both pass priority and let the Search for Tomorrow resolve without Arbiter's ability being payed your opponent will not be able to search his library

The arbiter's ability is static and must be payed at any time to ignore it until end of turn. Keep in mind "at any time" means when you have priority, so as stated above you can't do it in the middle of resolving a spell.

You can indeed wait for your opponent to pay the first arbiter's cost, then Vial in the second one so his Search doesn't work and you can indeed flicker the Arbiter after he pays the cost to force him to pay the cost again.

Check out the smartphone app "MTG Familiar" it lets you search up cards and click a Card Rulings button to see common rulings issues. Be aware you probably are not allowed to use the app in and sanctioned event above casual rules but in that situation a judge will almost certainly be available.

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>>50466262

How does demonic pact's "lose the game ability work?"

Lets say I have a card that states I "cannot lose the game" (eg. Platinium Angel)

I play the pact, and on my next upkeep, I choose the Lose the game option. Is that a permanent states based clause, or a one time triggered event?

If I have my angel around until my next turn, do I lose the game then? Or am I safe from it, and can choose the other options?

>>50472096
"Sure, why not?" to all questions.

>>50472149
Nope. The trigger doesn't say the things have those abilities "Until end of turn, as long as you control Odric". The duration is just 'until end of turn'.

>>50473667
Can't beats can. If you select that option and can't lose the game, the ability shrugs because it's tried to do what it's supposed to, and moves on. It was a one-shot effect, it doesn't just keep trying to happen over and over. Also, 'states based clause' doesn't mean anything in Magic.

Once you've chosen a mode for Pact, you can't choose it again. If that was the last mode to choose, it just hangs around your board doing nothing.

>>50472096
What game are you referring to? It's clearly not Magic.

>>50472468
Happy to help!

So, the tax for arbiter has to be paid BEFORE the spell/ability that's gonna search resolves. If they don't pay before the ability starts resolving, they're fucked.

If they do pay beforehand, they have to have priority to do so (because special action). They have to pass priority to you in order for their ability to resolve AFTER they pay the tax, though, so you can let them pay 2, and then Vial in your other Arbiter to make them sad.