Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 18:54:39 -0800 From: Beth Moursund Subject: [O] Official Rulings 3/14/97 part a Note that these don't become official until this Friday, 3/14/97, but Tom said to go ahead and send them out now. ================================================================ Stuff That Confuses People Spells, Abilities, and Effects For a long time, the term "effect" has been used to mean both something you do, and something that happens. For example, Creature Bond would be described as having a triggered effect with the effect of dealing damage. This has caused confusion, especially when someone read a ruling referring to "effect" in one of its meanings and extrapolated that to the other meaning. Therefore, we are cleaning up the terminology. Henceforth, "spell" and "ability" will refer to anything you do, and "effect" to anything that happens. For example, Lightning Bolt is a spell whose effect deals damage, and Creature Bond has an ability whose effect deals damage. It is unimportant that you have no choice about playing Creature Bond's ability; it's something you actively do, so it's an ability. Coping with City of Solitude City of Solitude was intended to shut down only activated abilities, but was designed and templated before the "ability" vs. "effect" paradigm shift. It now has errata to match the original intent: "Each player may play spells and abilities requiring activation costs only during his or her turn." Coping with Ogre Enforcer The primary thing to keep in mind with Ogre Enforcer is that it accumulates lethal damage just like any other creature. The only way it breaks the rules is that it won't be destroyed by lethal damage, unless enough of the damage came from the same source. This means that any other effect that depends on Ogre Enforcer receiving lethal damage is handled normally; for example, if Ogre Enforcer is hit by Disintegrate and suffers a total of 4 damage over the turn, it is removed from the game even if it didn't take lethal damage from a single source. If an Ogre Enforcer is reduced to 0 toughness, then it is considered to have lethal damage at any given time, even though this won't destroy it. Note that while a source can assign 0 damage to a creature or player, there is no such thing as dealing 0 damage or a packet containing 0 damage. Thus, a 0-point Earthquake won't kill an Ogre Enforcer that has a toughness of less than 1. Trample damage interacts with Ogre Enforcer just as with any other creature. That is, any trample damage in excess of lethal damage will be redirected to the defending player at the end of damage prevention. This will occasionally mean the redirection of trample damage that would ordinarily destroy the Enforcer, regardless of the attacking player's wishes. For example, suppose an Ogre Enforcer (4/4) blocks a Teremko Griffin (2/2, banding, flying) banded with a Crash of Rhinos (8/4, trample). Assuming nothing else happens, 2 normal damage and 8 trample damage will be dealt to the Enforcer. At the end of damage prevention, 6 of the trample damage is redirected to the defending player. After damage prevention, the Ogre Enforcer has taken 4 damage, comprising 2 damage each from two different sources, so it is not destroyed. Coping with Relentless Assault Several questions have come up now that it is possible to declare more than one attack during a turn. The following principles should cover most or all of these questions: Attacking once with a creature removes any obligations that it has to attack. For example, if Primordial Ooze attacks, this satisfies its "attacks each turn if able" requirement, so if you play Relentless Assault, it will not be required to attack again. Of course, other effects can override this; for example, two Norritts can force a creature to make two separate attacks. If attacking with a creature requires paying a cost, then paying that cost once is sufficient to allow it to attack for the rest of the turn. Even though the wording for attack costs has changed over time, they all work this way. The same principle applies to a cost paid in order for a creature to block, or for that creature to be assigned to block a particular other creature. Spells and abilities that can only be played prior to the attack can be played at any time when the active player could declare an attack later in the turn. Thus, playing Relentless Assault makes all such spells and abilities legal again. Abilities that trigger when a creature attacks, blocks, or is blocked will trigger during each appropriate combat of a turn. For example, if Marton Stromgald attacks twice during a turn, it gives its bonus to the other attackers each time. And a creature with rampage would gain its bonus each time more than one creature was assigned to block it. Forking your opponent's Relentless Assault doesn't allow you to attack during his or her turn. As usual, effects that allow you to take an action an additional time are useless if you can't take that action in the first place. General Rulings The following rulings are meant to clarify the rulebook, and how the game in general works: 1) When you play a spell, that card is not considered to be in your hand for purposes of paying costs, choosing targets, and so on. However, it does not actually enter "limbo" until after it has been played. For example, suppose you have Maro in play, and only Infernal Harvest in your hand. If you play Infernal Harvest, it will return the swamps to your hand at the same time it leaves your hand; there is no point at which your hand size is 0, so Maro is not destroyed. 2) Upkeep abilities are played by their controller, not necessarily the active player. This means that Unstable Mutation's ability is played by the enchantment's controller, for example. It used to be that such abilities would be played by the active player, as a result of the rule that the active player had complete control over phase abilities, but this rule has been removed. 3) Certain rules act much like triggered abilities, in that they say "if A happens, B happens." These include burying a duplicate legend, burying enchantments on a permanent that leaves play or otherwise becomes an invalid target, and destroying a creature that has lethal damage. These are treated much like triggered abilities of cards, except that they happen immediately after the triggering event. As always, all of the active player's results are handled before any of the opponents'. For example, suppose two copies of a legend phase in, and one is enchanted with False Demise. The rule that buries the legends takes effect during the resolution of the phasing effect, but the False Demise ability is not played until afterwards. Thus, there is no ordering issue between the duplicate-legend rule and False Demise's ability. As another example, if Wrath of God takes effect, all creatures are buried. Once those creatures have been put into their owners' graveyards, enchantments on them are put into their owner's graveyards; this would happen before abilities such as that of Soul Net, which triggered on the burial of the creatures, would be played. Note that if one of the creatures buried was a Femeref Enchantress, its controller wouldn't get to draw cards for the buried enchantments, as the Enchantress was not in play when they were buried. (continued in next message) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 18:54:51 -0800 From: Beth Moursund Subject: [O] Official Rulings 3/14/97 part b (continued from previous message) Reversals and Other Changes 1) If Manabarbs deals damage to you more than once during a damage- prevention step, all of that damage becomes part of that damage prevention step. Therefore, one use of a Circle of Protection: Red will prevent all of that damage. This reversal is an overlooked consequence of changing the rules regarding damage prevention, and extends to other triggered effects that deal damage and trigger during damage prevention, such as Psychic Venom. 2) Specialized abilities that modify life-gaining effects can be used while Forsaken Wastes is in play, though life gaining itself is prohibited. Since Forsaken Wastes is a continuous effect, it does not apply until after specialized abilities have been played. For example, if you play Healing Salve while you have both Lich and Forsaken Wastes in play, Lich will convert the life gaining to card draws before Forsaken Wastes has a chance to forbid you to gain life. Abilities that trigger when life is gained are still ignored. 3) When you sacrifice a Safe Haven to return creatures to play, all of those creatures come into play at the same time, rather than one at a time. This means, for example, that a Clone returning to play cannot copy any of the other creatures returning to play. 4) There have been several complicated rulings about when Fork's copy of a spell, or a spell played via Word of Command, resolve. These rulings stated that the spell began a batch of effects, and that players could build this batch up normally. These rulings have been collectively repealed. When Fork copies a spell, the copy takes effect immediately, during the resolution of Fork. While you can respond to Fork itself, you cannot respond to the copy. When Word of Command resolves, the card you choose is played during the resolution of Word of Command. Remember that you can choose any card the player could legally play if he or she were starting a batch of effects at that moment. 5) Previously it was ruled that abilities that cause a land to produce additional mana, such as Wild Growth or Mana Flare, triggered when the mana-producing ability was played, and modified the effect. This ruling was issued mainly to deal with issues such as Hydroblasting Mana Flare after a land was tapped for mana, but before the mana was produced. Such interactions are no longer possible, and in fact the old ruling contradicts the new nature of mana sources. Therefore, the old ruling has been repealed, and abilities such as Mana Flare work exactly like other triggered abilities, triggering when the mana-producing ability is played. Note that this class of abilities never modifies the abilities of the lands. For example, Wild Growth does not allow an opposing Fellwar Stone to be tapped for oG. 6) Damage that is being dealt to a creature or player may be redirected to that creature or player. As with other instances of redirection, this will prevent the original damage and create a new packet of damage. This means, for example, that redirecting trample damage to the creature blocking the trampler will stop damage to the blocking creature's controller: the redirected damage is no longer combat damage and does not trample. Errata The following rulings involve card and rulebook errata, or at least reading cards slightly differently: 1) As written, Wiitigo dies due to lethal damage before it gets its six counters. It should come into play with those counters, as Zombie Mob does. 2) Brood of Cockroaches has two errors. It should say "lose 1 life" and "to owner's hand." 3) City of Solitude should only prohibit abilities requiring an activation cost (and spells of all kinds) from being played out-of-turn. 4) Vision Charm should say "are the basic land type of your choice." 5) Honorable Passage does not target the creature it protects. 6) Ignore the last sentence of Impulse; you do not shuffle your library afterwards. 7) Sands of Time taps or untaps each other artifact, creature, and land; it does not tap or untap itself. 8) During Tombstone Stairwell's effect, each player puts the appropriate number of Tombspawn tokens into play under his or her control. The tokens are not all put into play under the control of Stairwell's controller. 9) The term "bury" now refers to putting any card or token, not just a permanent, into its owner's graveyard. For example, Three Wishes uses "bury" correctly. 10) Time and Tide should refer to creature cards which are phased out, not creatures which are phased out. Specific Card Rulings 1) Blanket of Night does not cause lands to become nonbasic. Basic lands will still be basic lands, even though they count as two land types. 2) Blanket of Night turns all lands into swamps in addition to their normal land types. Effects that change a land's normal type, such as Phantasmal Terrain, do not override Blanket of Night; the land will still count as a swamp in addition to its new land type. 3) When Necromancy becomes a creature enchantment, this also turns it into a local enchantment instead of a global one. Also, the creature it puts into play is its only legal target; for example, Enchantment Alteration can't move it to another creature. 4) Sworn Defender's ability changes its base power and toughness, not necessarily their current values. 5) Discordant Spirit won't count damage that was dealt but retroactively prevented through an effect such as that of Reverse Damage. 6) When Takklemaggot becomes a global enchantment, it goes into its controller's territory, just like all permanents that aren't local enchantments. 7) Flash's effect is not covered by the ruling that treats abilities as phase costs when they are written: "When this creature comes into play, do A or do B." This means that, barring other restrictions such as summoning sickness, if the creature has abilities that are played as mana sources, these may be used to pay for the cost of keeping the creature in play. 8) Stampeding Wildebeests's upkeep ability does not target the green creature. 9) During each upkeep, Tombstone Stairwell's ability is played once, by the Stairwell's controller, and has each player put the appropriate number of tokens into play. ================================================================