Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 00:58:46 -0800 From: Beth Moursund Subject: [O] Magic Rulings 2/6/96 GENERAL RULINGS The following rulings are meant to clarify the rulebook, and how the game in general works: 1) As soon as you play a spell, it is considered to be "in limbo." It is not in your hand, your graveyard, etc. If the spell asks you to choose a card in your hand, you may not choose that spell. 2) If a creature cannot be targeted by spells or effects, this does not stop an enchantment that is already in play from being moved onto it (e.g., by Enchantment Alteration). This is because the existing enchantment is a permanent, not a spell or effect. 3) If an enchantment is moved onto something that turns out to be invalid, the enchantment falls off after reaching its destination. Example: A Chaoslaced Holy Armor is moved from a Scryb Sprite to a Black Knight. Because the Holy Armor is being "replayed," it loses the -lace effect and is white again: the Knight has protection from white, so the Holy Armor is put into the graveyard. 4) Effects that trigger for each 1 life lost trigger when you pay life. For example, if you pay 4 life to get rid of AEther Storm while you have Oath of Lim-Dul in play, you have to sacrifice four permanents. 5) If an effect lasts until you lose control of its source, the effect ends if the source leaves play. If an effect lasts as long as its source remains tapped, the effect ends if the source leaves play. REVERSALS The following rulings reverse past rulings from the rules team and/or the netreps: 1) When a Clone comes into play, it replaces its card type with the type of its target. This means that if it copies an artifact creature, its type is "Artifact Creature" and not "Summon Clone," so it could not be targeted by Dance of Many. CARD ERRATA The following rulings involve card errata, or at least reading cards slightly differently: 1) The cap to Soul Burn's life gain is based on the toughness, or life total, of its target. The cap is checked when Soul Burn resolves. (This is included as errata since the last sentence of Soul Burn is ambiguous at best.) 2) The fact that Drudge Spell removes all Skeleton tokens if it leaves play is an aspect of the enchantment, not of the fast effect. So when it leaves play, it removes all Skeleton tokens, regardless of how they got there. However, it will not remove Skeleton tokens that it has "produced," but that haven't appeared yet. 3) Call to Arms should only count up cards in play. 4) Feldon's Cane should be read as follows: "{0}: Sacrifice Feldon's Cane, but remove it from the game instead of putting it into the graveyard. Shuffle your graveyard into your library." SPECIFIC CARD RULINGS 1) Time Elemental deals its 5 damage when it is declared as an attacker or blocker (but is not destroyed until end of combat). 2) Moving Takklemaggot during upkeep is not considered a "spell or effect," so it may be moved onto creatures such as Autumn Willow. 3) The existence of Freyalise's Winds is not required for its counters to take effect. The "do not untap" ability and the "remove all wind counters" ability are part of the counters, not part of the Winds. Put another way, if Freyalise's Winds leaves play, permanents with wind counters still won't untap during their next untap phase. 4) Freyalise's Winds will not remove counters from Cyclone. This is because the Winds do not seek out all wind counters and remove them; the wind counters are removing themselves. 5) The card set aside by Elkin Bottle is removed from the game at the beginning of your next upkeep. 6) The coin flip for Mana Crypt is an upkeep effect, not an upkeep cost, so you can use the Crypt's ability before playing the upkeep effect, and thus avoid the coin flip. Tom Wylie | What is the difference between apathy and ignorance? aahz@wizards.com | I don't know, and I don't care.