MTG Magic The Gathering Ask A Judge -「 T H U R S D A Y '

>>50709209
Slow mornings this week!

If I cast dead weight on a sub 3 toughness creature, can my opponent save it by casting fragmentize?

>>50711590
They cannot. By the time they have priority to cast Fragmentize, SBAs have already killed their creature for having 0 or less toughness.

>>50711590
He can't for two reasons:
1. Fragmentize is a sorcery,
2. Even if they could cast fragmentize as an instant,the creature would still die from having zero or less toughness before your opponent could do anything.

Technical details:
Everytime before a player could do something, the game checks so called state based action, that's techspeak for the game asking
"Should a player lose the game? Should a creature die?"
and then handling on it.

So how it happens is
You play dead weight (and your opponent does nothing, as they dont have a counterspell or the like)
The creature has now 0 or lower power.
The creature is "cleaned up" by the game (by state based actions)
Now your opponent could cast an instant, but the creature is already gone.

>>50711706
Any interesting calls lately?

>>50711772
Nah, I actually haven't had many chances to judge in the past few months.

>>50711809
I'm playing a deck with young pyromancer, but I only own two 1/1 red elemental tokens. I'm using goblin tokens (which have the same CI, power and toughness) to sub in as additional elementals when I start going crazy with YP.

I have a bunch of tokens in play and my opponent casts extinction naming "goblin" because he sees the dozen goblin tokens.

What would you do here?

>>50711938
Well, I'd start by investigating. See if I thought you were using the Goblins on purpose to confuse your opponent. I'd find out why the opponent didn't question why you were making Goblins with YP. I'd find out why you didn't communicate to your opponent that these tokens weren't actually Goblins, or why you chose to play them face-up like that instead of face-down (with the 'rules tips' side showing) to alleviate potential confusion.

I'd most likely end up issuing a GRV to you for misrepresenting your tokens, and rewind through the Extinction because that's an action your opponent made based on false information.

>>50711772
So even a card like giant growth wouldn't save it temporarily?

>>50712072
It would, but you'd have to respond to Dead Weight as a spell. You can't "respond" to the Dead Weight resolving, because by the time you have priority your creature is dead.

You can say "In response to Dead Weight, Giant Growth the creature", in which case it'd go up to 4 or 5 toughness (assuming it was X/1 or X/2) for the turn, giving you time to blow up the aura before that boost wears off in the cleanup step.

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171KB, 843x564px

Say I copy my opponent's Crop Rotation or Demonic Tutor. Are those copies under my control? In what order does each spell resolve?

>>50712879
Okay let's say your opponent casts Demonic Tutor. In response you cast Reverberate, which says copy target spell. Spells resolve in first-in-last-out order, so the Reverberate takes effect first and puts a copy of Demonic Tutor on the stack under your control. Then your Demonic Tutor, as the last thing to be put on the stack as it's known, resolves and lets you dig for any card. Then your opponent's Demonic Tutor finally resolves.

And of course any of these steps can be responded to.

>>50712879
The copies are created on the stack under your control, yes. Your copy is created above the original, so yours will resolve before theris do.

>>50709209
When a card mentions targets, all targets must be chosen at the time of casting, correct? I can't use Saheeli's Artistry to copy a creature as an artifact creature, and then copy that artifact creature, correct?

This isn't related, but it doesn't deserve its own thread and and this is the most relevant one: I consistently place at draft, and have no interest in formats other than limited. My options for prizes are Conspiracy, Kaladesh, and the three Innistrad sets. Which provide the best returns?

>>50714724
Correct. Selecting targets for your spell is one of the earliest steps of casting it, and must be done long before it starts to resolve. You can't cast Saheeli's Artistry with only a creature as a target and then 're-target' the token it makes.

Monetarily, I'd bet Kaladesh, since you can play the Invention Lottery, and also the cards you crack will have immediate demand (to some extent) because of their lifespan in Standard.

>>50714795
Thanks.