Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 15:48:20 -0800 From: dcijudge@WIZARDS.COM Subject: Urza's Legacy FAQ Urza's Legacy Rules Questions & Answers Compiled by Dan Gray Got questions about those brand-spanking new Urza's Legacy cards? Look no further. Here's a crib sheet compiled for judges at the prerelease tournaments. If the cards aren't familiar to you yet, check out The Duelist's complete player's guide, then flip back here if you have any questions. Angel's Trumpet Will this count Walls and creatures with summoning sickness? Yes. Even if a creature cannot attack for some reason, if it is untapped at the end of the turn, the Trumpet will tap it and deal 1 damage to its controller. Angelic Curator, Yavimaya Scion How does protection from artifacts work? As defined by the Fifth Edition rules, protection from artifacts means the creature cannot be targeted by artifact spells, abilities, or enchantments, cannot be blocked by artifact creatures, and damage dealt to it by artifacts is reduced to 0. Anthroplasm Won't playing its ability kill it? No. Since the old counters are removed and the new ones added all during the same event in the resolution, Anthroplasm is never a 0/0 creature long enough to destroy itself. Aura Flux Can I use the ability of an enchantment before paying or not paying the upkeep? No. Aura Flux actually grants the upkeep cost to the enchantments themselves. Under Fifth Edition rules, you cannot play activated abilities of a permanent with an upkeep cost until you pay the cost. Bouncing Beebles When do I determine whether the Beebles can be blocked? When blockers are declared. The ability is continuous and works much like landwalk does. If the defending player controls an artifact when he or she goes to declare blockers, the Beebles cannot be blocked. Brink of Madness, Defense of the Heart, Impending Disaster, Planar Collapse, Second Chance When do these count to see if they go off? When the phase ability resolves, they will count or check, as appropriate, and if the condition is met, the sacrifice and effect occurs. Note that these are phase abilities, so you have to play them during each of your upkeeps. They simply won't do anything unless the condition is met. Damping Engine What types of things does this prevent me from playing? As long as the condition is true, it prevents you from playing lands during your phase and prevents you from announcing the appropriate types of spells. It will not prevent permanents that come into play due to the effect of another spell (such as Crop Rotation) or due to an ability (such as Quicksilver Amulet) from coming into play. Defender of Chaos, Defender of Law, Simian Grunts Can a card that prevents a player from playing instants, such as Abeyance, prevent these from being played? No. Even though they can be played at a time instants can be played, they are still summon spells, and thus only effects that prevent summon or creature spells will prevent these from being played. Defense Grid Is the extra mana part of the casting cost? No. While you pay the mana when you play the spell, it's not actually part of the spell's casting cost for purposes of things like Spell Blast. [second question] Can I use Helm of Awakening or a Medallion to reduce this extra cost? Yes, because those abilities reduce total play cost, not just casting cost. Devout Harpist Can the Harpist's ability be used to destroy a Fertile Ground on an animated Treetop Village? No. A "creature enchantment" means only cards that have "Enchant Creature" listed as their card type. The ability cannot destroy other types of local enchantments that happen to be on creatures, nor can it destroy a card that says "Enchant Permanent" such as Confiscate. Erase Can this be used to permanently get rid of an enchantment like Brilliant Halo? Yes. Erase removes the enchantment from the game. Because an endless enchantment such as Brilliant Halo never passes through the graveyard, it will not trigger and does not go back to its owner's hand. Faerie Conclave, Forbidding Watchtower, Ghitu Encampment, Spawning Pool, Treetop Village Can I play the ability while the land is tapped? Can I play it again while the land is a creature? Yes to both. If it's already a creature, this will reset the creature's base characteristics. It cannot be used to avoid Humility or the like. [second question] Do the lands have summoning sickness when animated? Only if they are animated during the turn you play them. Frantic Search, Snap When do I choose which lands to untap? You always make all decisions for a spell on announcement, except those involving "hidden" information. So, you choose the lands you want to untap when you announce the spell, and they untap on resolution. Gang of Elk Does this get the bonus just once or once for each blocker? Once for each blocker. Goblin Welder How exactly does this work? Put the chosen artifact in play into its owner's graveyard, and put the chosen card from the graveyard into play under the same player's control. [second question] Does the artifact in play count as either "leaving play" or "going to the graveyard from play"? Yes. It will trigger things such as Fecundity, for example. Hope and Glory, Peace and Quiet, Rack and Ruin, Sick and Tired Can these be used against only one target? No. There have to be two legal targets to play any of the "double target" spells. The two targets do not need to be controlled by the same player, however. Intervene What exactly can this counter? It can counter any spell that uses the word "target" in its text and that targets any creature, even a creature you do not control. It can even counter spells that have more than one target, provided one of the targets is a creature. Lone Wolf Can I divide the Wolf's damage up between the blockers and the defending player? No. When you get to damage dealing, you must choose to damage either the creatures or the player, but not both. (If you choose creatures, you're still free to divide the damage among the different blockers as usual, of course.) Memory Jar Where do the set-aside cards go? Can I still play them? They go into the removed-from-game zone. You cannot use or play any of them until you return the cards to your hand at end of turn. No Mercy Does preventing the damage prevent the creature from being destroyed? Yes. No Mercy triggers off of successfully dealt damage. If all the damage is prevented, none of it is ever successfully dealt, so the creature will not be destroyed. Parch When do I decide whether I'm doing 2 or 4 damage with this? On announcement. The spell is modal, and so you have to choose the mode when you play it. [second question] Can I have Parch do 2 damage to a blue creature? Yes. Rank and File How exactly does the -1/-1 ability work? When it comes into play, Rank and File will give -1/-1 until end of turn to all the green creatures currently in play. It's a "one-shot" type effect, so if another green creature enters play during the same turn, it will not suffer the penalty. Rebuild Does this return all artifact cards everywhere to their owners' hands? No. Rebuild returns only the artifacts in play. It will not return artifact cards in the graveyard, removed from the game, phased out, or otherwise not in play. Ring of Gix, Thran Weaponry, Ticking Gnomes, Urza's Blueprints Can I use the artifact's ability during my upkeep before I pay the echo cost? No. Echo is an upkeep cost, and therefore you cannot play any activated abilities of the artifact during your upkeep until you deal with it. Slow Motion Can I use an ability of the enchanted creature before paying the upkeep? In this case, yes. The upkeep cost imposed by Slow Motion is an ability of the enchantment and not of the creature. Normally, you cannot play abilities of a creature with an upkeep cost until you pay that cost, but in this case, the creature has no upkeep cost. Sustainer of the Realm Does this get +0/+2 for each creature it blocks? No. Even if a card such as High Ground allows Sustainer to block more than one creature, it still only gets a total of +0/+2 for each combat in which it blocks. Tethered Skirge Will countering the spell prevent me from losing the life? No. As soon as the Skirge is declared as a target, you'll lose 1 life. Even if you later counter the spell, you don't get the life back. Thran Lens Since all the damage is now colorless, can I prevent it with Circle of Protection: Artifacts or Rune of Protection: Lands? No. The permanents are simply doing colorless damage. Circle of Protection: Artifacts and Rune of Protection: Lands won't help you unless the permanent is an artifact or land already. Treacherous Link When is the damage redirected? Can I prevent it before it gets redirected to me? This is automatic damage redirection, and works the same way Pariah does-the damage is redirected during one of the later steps of damage prevention. You have an opportunity to use Healing Salve or the like to prevent the damage before it gets redirected to you. Viashino Bey What happens if I cannot attack with a creature? Nothing. The Bey makes only creatures that are able to attack do so. Anything that cannot attack for any reason is unaffected. Viashino Heretic If I regenerate the artifact, does the Heretic still deal damage? Yes. Walking Sponge Does this remove all the listed abilities or just one of them? It removes only the ability you choose when you play the ability. *** *** *** *** DCI Judge Certification Coordinator, Organized Play, Wizards of the Coast When alone in the fields, with no one to see them, they would hop, skip and jump, touching the ground as lightly as possibly and crying 'We are bubbles of earth! Bubbles of earth! Bubbles of earth!' ------------------------------