Note that these are being released March 31st -- no April Fools... April 1998 Magic(R) Rulings & Errata A Summary of Recent, Significant Rulings compiled by Beth Moursund General Rules The following are meant to clarify the rulebook and how the game in general works. 1.There is no such thing as "infinity" in Magic. Most so-called "infinite combinations" are completely under the control of a player. For example, the Earthcraft - Wild Growth - Sacred Mesa loop allows a player to generate as many Wild Pegasus tokens as he or she wants, but each one requires a separate action. For all such cases, the player must demonstrate the cycle, then state how many times he or she wishes to perform the action. This may be any positive integer. If the opponent does nothing to interfere, those actions occur the stated number of times. This rule does not apply to loops containing elements not under player control (such as coin flipping or deck shuffling) that the player wants to repeat until some certain condition occurs, rather than a specific number of times. The Rules team has not yet reached any consensus on handling these situations; for now, it will be up to the head judge at a given tournament. 2.In a few cases, conditions in the game generate a loop not under control of the players. For example, if an Ivory Gargoyle is destroyed when ?ther Flash is in play, then at the end of the turn it starts an endless cycle of returning to play, taking lethal damage, and being destroyed again. In these cases, after demonstrating the cycle, each player states a number as in (1) above. As always, the active player chooses first. The cycle repeats as many times as the largest number chosen, and then stops. This also resolves certain "impossible" positions, which previously required specific rulings. In the Ivory Gargoyle - ?ther Flash case, the Gargoyle will end up in the graveyard no matter how many times the cycle is repeated. Similarly, if one player has Sacred Ground in play and the other has Land Equilibrium, when the first player puts an excess land into play, it triggers a cycle of sacrificing a land and then returning it to play. Ultimately the land will remain in play. 3.Some effects (Humility's in particular, along with those of the "copy cards"--see below) remove abilities but not effects. To determine whether an enchantment or continuous effect grants an ability (which can be removed), look at the specific wording on the source card. If it says that the permanent "gains" something, the source is granting the permanent an ability; if the permanent "loses" something, it is removing an ability. If those key words aren't present, then the card simply produces an effect applying to the permanent--removing the permanent's abilities will not change that fact. For example, Humility will counteract Flight (which grants the flying ability), but not Pacifism (a continuous effect). Note that this reverses a ruling made at Pro Tour - Los Angeles. 4.Destruction caused by a general rule of Magic rather than by a spell or ability is not controlled by any player. In particular, lands destroyed by the "legendary burial" rule or by lethal damage (including reducing their toughness to 0) will not trigger Sacred Ground's ability. 5.Until now, whenever a card asked you to choose a color, land type, card name, or creature type, you had to choose one that actually exists in the set of existing Magic cards. We are relaxing the "creature type" part of this rule. It is now legal to choose any creature type, whether or not it exists in Magic. However, you can only use nouns, and they cannot have another meaning in Magic. For example, you could use Volrath's Laboratory to create Platypus tokens. However, you could not name a token "opponent" or "land." Note that choosing a name that is slanderous, obscene, or otherwise offensive is poor sportsmanship and may result in ejection from a tournament. 6.There are two distinct types of abilities that trigger when a card comes into play. The first type, worded "When comes into play," triggers only on its own card coming into play. After that, the ability is inactive. The second type, worded "Whenever comes into play," creates a continuous effect that lasts as long as its card is in play and watches for anything matching the description. Cards with this second type of ability cannot trigger when they come into play, or when anything enters play simultaneously with them, since they're not yet in play to "see" the event. For example, if two Mogg Bombers enter play simultaneously (say via Living Death), neither one of them will trigger. Errata 1.Cannibalize should read "Choose a player and two target creatures controlled by that player. Remove one of those creatures from the game and put two +1/+1 counters on the other." The original wording was unclear about what should happen if the two creatures were controlled by different players when the spell resolved. With this wording, the spell still affects the creature controlled by the chosen player, but not the other creature. 2.Fungus Elemental should read "When Fungus Elemental comes into play, it gains ', Sacrifice a forest: Put a +2/+2 counter on Fungus Elemental' until end of turn." This change removes an odd interaction with phasing. Copy Cards The rulings about permanents that copy cards or tokens have grown quite convoluted. In order to simplify these, the Rules team has repealed all of the existing body of special-case rulings for these cards and replaced them with the following rulings and errata. 1.When something copies a card or token, it reads all the base characteristics of the card or token, ignoring any changes made by other spells or abilities. Those characteristics become base characteristics of the copying permanent. In most cases, this means it will inherit exactly what's printed on the copied card (or governing text on the card that generated a copied token). However, if one permanent copies another that is already copying something else, it will copy the copied characteristics. Similarly, if a permanent copies something that sets its base characteristics when entering play, such as Primal Clay, it will copy the existing characteristics rather than allow you to choose new ones. 2.If a permanent has an ability with a usage restriction (for example "Use this ability only once per turn" or "You cannot spend more than in this way each turn") and it becomes a copy of something else with the same ability, the restriction carries over to the new copy of the ability. That is, you can't get around the restriction by duplicating the ability. 3.If a permanent copies a legend already in play, it is treated as the newer of the two and sacrificed, even if it has been in play longer than the copied legend. Copy Card Errata Clone Clone comes into play as a copy of target creature card or creature token. Copy Artifact Copy Artifact comes into play as a copy of target artifact card or artifact token, but also counts as a global enchantment. Dance of Many During your upkeep, pay or bury Dance of Many. When you play Dance of Many, choose target summon card. When Dance of Many comes into play, put a token creature into play and treat it as a copy of that summon card. If either Dance of Many or the token creature leaves play, bury the other. Echo Chamber 4,: An opponent chooses target creature card or creature token he or she controls. Put a token creature into play and treat it as a copy of that card or token. The token creature is unaffected by summoning sickness this turn. At end of turn, remove the token creature from the game. Play this ability as a sorcery. Fork Fork resolves as a copy of target instant or sorcery spell, except that it does not copy that spell's color. When you play Fork, choose all targets required by the copy. (You cannot change other choices made by the original caster.) Unstable Shapeshifter Whenever any creature card or creature token comes into play, Unstable Shapeshifter becomes a copy of that card or token and gains this ability. Vesuvan Doppelganger Vesuvan Doppelganger comes into play as a copy of target creature card or creature token, except that it does not copy that creature's color, and gains "0: Vesuvan Doppelganger loses all abilities and becomes a copy of target creature card or creature token, except that it does not copy that creature's color and gains this ability. Use this ability only during your upkeep and only once per turn." Volrath's Shapeshifter As long as the top card of your graveyard is a creature card, Volrath's Shapeshifter is a copy of that card with this ability and the ability "2: Choose and discard a card" added to it. Any undefined characteristics are not copied. 2: Choose and discard a card. Examples Here are a few notable effects of these changes. These are not new rules--just the results of applying the new rules to existing cards. We mention them here because repealing the old special-case rules changed them. 1.When a Doppelganger or Shapeshifter changes form, it does not trigger abilities that depend on cards leaving play. Likewise, counters and effects granted by abilities of the previous form are not removed from it. (The new form still does not trigger "comes into play" abilities--these rulings do not change this.) 2.Whenever a card refers to itself by name, it means "this card" even if its name changes. This rule applies to Doppelgangers and Shapeshifters too. For example, if a Shapeshifter copies a Thalakos Dreamsower and uses the copied card's ability, then changes to another form, the targeted creature will still remain tapped as long as the Shapeshifter card remains tapped. 3.Copy cards do not retain any of their own characteristics except those specified in the card text. If one copies an artifact creature, for example, it is no longer a legal target for spells or abilities that target summon cards. 4.Vesuvan Doppelganger does not "remember" which creature it copied--it can recopy the same creature next turn. 5.If a Doppelganger is copying a creature with an upkeep cost, it cannot shift forms before paying the upkeep. If it copies a creature with cumulative upkeep, and later shifts to a different creature with cumulative upkeep, the old cumulative upkeep counters apply to the new form's upkeep cost. For example, a Doppelganger copies a Firestorm Hellkite (cumulative upkeep UR) and remains in that form through three upkeep payments, gaining three cumulative upkeep counters. If it then shifts to copy a Soldevi Simulacrum (cumulative upkeep 1), its next upkeep payment will be 4. 6.If a Vesuvan Doppelganger, Unstable Shapeshifter, or Volrath's Shapeshifter copies another of those three, its next shift will completely eliminate one set of abilities. For example, say Volrath's Shapeshifter is in play and copying the top card of the graveyard, an Unstable Shapeshifter. Now I summon Grizzly Bears. This triggers the Unstable Shapeshifter's ability: lose all abilities, copy the Grizzly Bears, and gain the Unstable Shapeshifter's ability. The result is a card with the artwork of Volrath's Shapeshifter but the function of an Unstable Shapeshifter, as long as the card remains in play. 7.Effects of Sleight of Mind, Magical Hack, etc., are not copied. 8.If Volrath's Shapeshifter is in play and Minion of the Wastes is the top card of the graveyard, the Shapeshifter will become a 0/1 Minion of the Wastes, since the copied card has undefined power and toughness while it is not in play. Beth "BethMo" Moursund Magic Rules Manager, Wizards of the Coast