Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 23:15:10 -0700 From: Beth Moursund Subject: [O] July Rulings *** Official Rulings for July 1997 *** GENERAL RULINGS 1) The characteristics of an ability's source are "locked in" when that ability is played. After that, the source's characteristics are never checked again. For example, if you animate Triangle of War and then play its ability on itself (which requires sacrificing it), its characteristics are locked in when the ability is played, because the Triangle itself is the source of the ability. The fact that it's also a target doesn't mean that its characteristics are checked again when the effect resolves. 2) If an effect deals damage but gives players a way of preventing the damage (such as Mind Bomb, Soul Barrier, Torrent of Lava, and so on), then that option is played during damage prevention--not during the effect's resolution. 3) Although mana sources are said to be played, successfully cast, and resolved "all at once," this just means that players can't do anything between these three steps. The three steps are still distinct, however. If you sacrifice Havenwood Battleground for GG, for instance, the land is no longer in play when the effect resolves. 4) When one card copies another, it duplicates all permanent changes to the copied card. It was originally ruled that all interrupt changes would be copied, but this has been generalized to cover all permanent changes. 5) Transmutation, Dwarven Thaumaturgist, and so on switch all modifications to a creature's power and toughness, as well as the modification itself. This can be thought of as "hacking" the word "power" to "toughness," and vice versa. For example, Blood Lust would become "Target creature gets -4/+4 until end of turn. If this reduces that creature's power to less than 1, the creature's power is 1." Remember that effects like Transmutation's are best handled by first calculating the creature's total power and toughness, and then "switching" them. REVERSALS 1) Spells and abilities that prevent or redirect damage do not target that damage implicitly. They only target what is specified on the card (creature, player, and so on), if anything. Such spells and abilities can still only be played if the appropriate type of damage is being dealt, even if the spell or ability would prevent zero damage. For example, you can't play a spell or ability that prevents damage to you unless damage is actually being dealt to you. If the spell or ability affects a certain amount of damage, you choose one or more packets of the appropriate type of damage, and divide that amount of prevention or redirection among those packets. You can distribute more prevention or redirection to a packet than is needed. Spells or abilities that affect all damage of a type simply wait until they resolve, seek out all damage of that type being dealt at that time, and affect that damage. Spells and abilities that retroactively prevent or redirect damage can only be played if appropriate damage was dealt within the time frame that the spell or ability accounts for. For example, Reverse Damage can only be played if damage is being dealt to you and/or had been dealt to you earlier in the turn. 2) Effects can resolve in more than one step. These steps are always separated by "then." They are never separated by periods, as was previously ruled. For example, Balance resolves in three steps, and Psychic Transfer resolves in one step. 3) Abilities that trigger during an event, such as playing a spell, resolving part of an effect, or declaring attackers, are played immediately after the event is complete. They are never delayed just because one event occurred within another. For example, if Choking Vines is played while blockers are declared, abilities of cards such as Bazaar of Wonders and Skulking Ghost are played just after Choking Vines is played, rather than waiting until after blockers have been declared. Mana sources are still an exception. 4) Phase abilities, phase costs, and untap costs are played by the active player--it doesn't matter who controls the source of the ability or cost. For example, the active player controls the abilities of Howling Mine, Unstable Mutation, and that player decides when to pay Apathy's untap cost, regardless of who controls the those abilities or costs. 5) Creatures put into play by Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, and Necromancy are no longer "dead creatures" in any sense. This means, for example, that they are perfectly legal targets for copy cards such as Clone. 6) Recently it was ruled that if a spell or ability can be played only before combat, then it can be played only if the active player can declare an attack later in the turn. This effectively reverses an old ruling about Festival and Siren's Call combining to kill your opponent's creatures. This combination now works only if you play the spells in the correct order. ERRATA 1) Doomsday enables you to look at your library when deciding which five cards to keep. Specifically, it should be read as ""Pay half your life, rounded up: Put your graveyard on top of your library. Search your library for five cards, then put them on top of your library in any order, then remove the rest of your library from the game." 2) The second line of Fire Whip should read as follows: "Enchanted creature gains 'Tap: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player.'" 3) Wave of Terror's effect compares the last paid cumulative upkeep against each creature's total casting cost, not its casting cost. CARD RULINGS 1) You can choose to pay a Ravenous Vampire's upkeep cost by sacrificing the Vampire itself and putting a +1/+1 counter on it. This +1/+1 counter will affect abilities that trigger on the Vampire being put into a graveyard, such as Death Watch or Creature Bond. 2) Apathy imposes an untap cost on the enchanted creature. This combines with other untap costs and can be paid more than once during an upkeep phase. 3) Heart of Bogardan's ability does not trigger when the cumulative upkeep is not paid. Instead, the ability is a consequence of not paying the upkeep cost, so it takes effect at the same time that Heart of Bogardan is buried as a result of not paying its upkeep. 4) The second ability of Betrothed of Fire cannot be played if you do not control the enchanted creature. The enchantment does not override the rule stating that you can sacrifice only permanents you control.