Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 15:33:03 -0800 From: Beth Moursund Subject: [O] February Rulings and Errata, part a February 1998 Magic Rulings & Errata A Summary of Recent, Significant Rulings compiled by Beth Moursund and Tom Wylie GENERAL RULES The following are meant to clarify the rulebook, and how the game in general works. 1) Page 35 of the _Fifth Edition(TM)_ rulebook states that all continuous abilities are applied in the order they came into play. This isn't completely correct. As a general guideline, if an effect depends on some characteristic, you must first evaluate anything that might change that characteristic, unless doing so forms a loop. When effects of any kind conflict or when dependencies form a loop, the order in which continuous abilities were played decides the order in which their effect(s) are applied. For example, Kormus Bell turns all swamps into creatures, even lands that become swamps after it's played. Crusade gives +1/+1 to all white creatures, even those that become white or creatures after Crusade is played. Similarly, Humility turns all creatures into 1/1 creatures with no special abilities, even those that become creatures after Humility is played. (Other power- and toughness-altering abilities played after Humility still apply as usual.) Examples of conflicting effects from continuous abilities include a creature enchanted with Control Magic by two different players, or Gravity Sphere's effect on a creature enchanted with Flight. In these cases, just as in cases where a loop is formed, the effects resolve in order, from first played to last played. This guideline should suffice for all the situations you can reasonably expect to encounter in day-to-day play. The rules team is working on a precise definition of the rules about continuous abilities to cover the trickier cases. 2) To determine a creature's current power and toughness: a) Start with its base power and toughness. This is usually printed in the bottom right corner of the card, but can also be set by the effect that created the creature (see errata 1 below). b) Apply plusses and minuses from all counters. c) Apply all other effects. For example, a Grizzly Bear with a +1/+1 counter that's been targeted with Blood Lust is 7/1, not 7/2. Note that effects that set a creature's power and toughness to specific values are applied after counters' plusses and minuses; the counters aren't applied again after other power- and toughness-modifying effects resolve. For example, Unstable Mutation can't destroy a creature while Humility is in play, because Humility always sets the creature's toughness to 1 after the Unstable Mutation's counters are applied. 3) To determine a spell or ability's total cost: a) If it's a spell, start with its casting cost. If it's an activated ability, start with its base activation cost. b) Apply all cost increases. These include extra costs called for in the spell or ability's text box (such as buyback costs) as well as increases imposed by other effects (by Gloom or Kaervek's Torch, for example). c) Apply all cost reductions. These include effects of cards such as Helm of Awakening, the Medallions, and Power Artifact. Note: This reverses some old rulings that prevented effects from reducing certain costs. For example, playing Counterspell on Kaervek's Torch while Sapphire Medallion is in play costs a total of {1}{U}{U}. Abilities that enable you to play a spell or ability without paying its casting cost or activation cost do not eliminate additional costs--those must still be played. For example, playing a White Knight with both Aluren and Gloom in play costs {3}. (Remember, though, that abilities enabling you to put a permanent into play instead of playing it bypass all costs required to play it.) 4) There is no longer a "between turns" step (see errata 4 below). 5) Abilities that trigger when a source assigns damage will re-trigger if that damage is redirected, even if the source itself wasn't responsible for the redirection. For example, if Kookus is blocked by a 2/2 Zhalfirin Crusader, Justice (_Oracle(TM)_ version) will deal 3 damage after the initial damage assignment. If the Crusader's ability isn't used, 1 damage will "trample over," causing Justice to deal 1 additional damage. If instead the Zhalfirin Crusader uses its ability and redirects all 3 damage, Justice will deal 3 more damage. 6) When an ability is played, it creates a "pseudo-spell." The pseudo-spell's characteristics, which are the same as the characteristics of its source, are set when the ability is played, as are its controller and, if its source is an enchantment, what it's enchanting. This doesn't stop the source's characteristics from being checked again later--it just provides a basis for what the effect will do. The pseudo-spell is completely independent of its source and is unaffected by later changes to it. A permanent's "leaves-play" triggered abilities create pseudo-spells whose characteristics are based on the permanent just before it left play. A permanent's comes-into-play triggered abilities create pseudo-spells with characteristics based on the card or token-creating ability and the associated permanent type. If a card refers to itself by name, its "identity" is also recorded; in other words, the pseudo-spell remembers which physical card it came from. For example, Kjeldoran Outpost's comes-into-play ability creates a "sacrifice a plains or sacrifice the card that created this effect" pseudo-spell, so effects like Blood Moon's that change the Outpost's name won't exempt it from the effect of its comes-into-play ability. Pseudo-spells resolve the same way as spells. The first time during their resolution that they need to know anything about a permanent, they check the permanent's current characteristics. Triggered abilities check the current game state to decide which targets are legal; those targets are then re-checked at resolution, just as with a spell. The main consequence of this change is that when a permanent targets itself with an ability, it resolves in exactly the same way as when it targets another permanent. 7) If a continuous ability imposes a phase cost or phase ability on a particular permanent type, and a permanent stops being and then returns to being the affected type, that permanent doesn't gain a new, unpaid phase cost or ability. For example, say you control Pendrell Mists and Frenetic Efreet during your upkeep. You pay the upkeep cost the Mists imposes on the Efreet. If you then play the Efreet's ability and phase it out, then cast Time and Tide to phase it back in, you don't need to pay the Pendrell Mists' imposed cost a second time. Moving a permanent out of play and back into play using Tawnos's Coffin, or deanimating and reanimating an artifact follow the same rule. However, removing a creature from the game with Safe Haven or Cold Storage and then bringing it back requires another payment of upkeep costs, because those cards' effects treat the creature as newly played. Contrast this with the following situation: say a Leeching Licid is on one of your creatures, and you play the mandatory upkeep ability the Licid imposes (you take 1 damage). Then the Licid's controller changes it back to a creature and then back to a creature enchantment again. The Licid's mandatory upkeep ability must be paid again--it's considered a new ability. The same goes for using Crown of the Ages to move Wanderlust to a new creature, for example. In both of these cases, the enchantment is considered newly played on the creature. 8) When you play a spell or ability that has more than one mode, you choose the mode first, then make any other choices required for that mode. You do not make any other choices required for the spell or ability's other modes. For example, if you cast Ebony Charm and choose the mode that removes a creature from a graveyard, you can't also target a Skulking Ghost in play. The one exception to this is Fatal Lore. Because a spell or ability's controller always makes his or her choices for that spell or ability before any other player, you announce Fatal Lore's targets before your opponent decides whether to have the spell bury those targets or let you draw cards. Therefore, a Skulking Ghost targeted by Fatal Lore will bury itself, even if your opponent chooses the "you draw three cards" mode after you've announced your targets for the other mode. ERRATA 1) The word "base" should appear before power and toughness on all spells and abilities that can turn a permanent into a creature. This means that (a) counters affect the creature, because they apply to the base value, and (b) reactivating the ability after a power- or toughness-altering effect no longer overwrites that effect. For example, if an Assembly Worker blocks a creature with flanking, thereby getting -1/-1 until end of turn, playing the ability that makes the Mishra's Factory a 2/2 Assembly Worker won't reset its power and toughness. 2) Interdict's second sentence should read, "Activated abilities of that permanent cannot be played again this turn." This means a permanent affected by Interdict can still use nonactivated abilities such as flanking or protection's damage reduction aspect. Note that "activated ability" means "ability with an activation cost." 3) On the following cards, "target opponent" should read "an opponent": Cuombajj Witches Cursed Scroll Desperate Gambit Echo Chamber Fatal Lore Forgotten Lore Goblin Bomb Intuition Library of Lat-Nam Nova Pentacle Null Chamber Phyrexian Grimoire Phyrexian Portal Preacher Soul Echo Thran Tome These spells and abilities previously targeted an opponent solely for the purpose of having that opponent make one or more choices for another part of the spell or ability. These errata mean they no longer target the opponent for making those choices. If you have more than one opponent, you must still choose one of them when playing the spell or ability, just as before. But because this choice is not targeted, effects that prevent spells or abilities from targeting a player will not interfere with it. These errata also remove the problem some cards (such as Cursed Scroll) had with the rule prohibiting a spell or ability from targeting something more than once. 4) Time Vault's first activated ability should read "Skip your next turn: Untap Time Vault and put a time counter on it. Play this ability only if Time Vault is tapped and only once each turn." This change brings Time Vault in line with Chronatog and Meditate. SPECIFIC CARD RULINGS 1) If you play an enchantment-moving ability (such as that of Crown of the Ages) on a Licid while it's an enchantment, the Licid remains an enchantment--it doesn't change back to a creature and fall off. This is because the Licid's enchantment status is a temporary effect, not a permanent change. Moving enchantments resets only permanent changes, not temporary ones. 2) If you sacrifice a basic land that counts as more than one land type to pay for Excavator's ability, you must choose one of its types. The target creature gains landwalk of the type you chose. This brings Excavator in line with the rulings concerning Magical Hack and Reality Twist, as well as Mana Flare and Balduvian Trading Post. 3) In the preliminary version of the _Oracle_ judge's reference, the last paragraph of the Eureka entry is wrong. Triggered abilities are not played after each card comes into play, because Eureka's text doesn't contain the word "then." (Instances of "then" separate an effect into discrete events--see August 1997 Rulings and Errata). All triggered abilities are deferred until Eureka is done resolving. 4) When Minion of the Wastes is about to come into play by any means other than being cast, you must choose an amount of life (just as you would choose a form for Primal Clay or a target for Clone) and pay it right before the Minion comes into play. These choices and payments are played as replacement abilities; they immediately precede the event that puts the Minion into play. You may be wondering why Minion of the Wastes is more like Primal Clay than like, say, Krakilin. Both the Minion and Primal Clay read, "When you play [this card], [do something]." If these cards were to make it into play somehow without the "when-you-play" choice being made, then some of the resulting permanents' characteristics would be undefined. Thus the when-you-play effect must be resolved just before such cards come into play in order to give the permanents the necessary characteristics. These types of cards differ from Krakilin, whose characteristics all have defined values. 5) The value of X in Endless Scream's text box is set when the spell is cast and does not revert to zero when the enchantment is in play, even though the {X} mana in its casting cost becomes zero. Moving Endless Scream onto another creature doesn't change the value of X. (As worded, Endless Scream technically doesn't work, but any wording that makes it work correctly is cumbersome and confusing to the average player. The rules team therefore decided to just issue a ruling that makes it to work the way it's meant to.) 6) REVERSAL: Global effects that change one land type to another overwrite all of a card's current land types. For example, Conversion turns Badlands into a plains, not a Badlands that counts as both a swamp and a plains. This ruling eliminates an exception made for the _Revised Edition(TM)_ dual lands; it brings them in line with the normal rule stating that changing a land to a basic type replaces the entire text and name of the land. - Beth "BethMo" Moursund Magic Rules Manager, Wizards of the Coast