Date: Thu, 3 Oct 1996 22:36:25 -0700 From: Beth Moursund Subject: [O] Magic Rulings 10/3/96 General Rulings The following rulings are meant to clarify the rulebook, and how the game in general works: 1) Discards that are part of an effect's resolution are considered forced, even if you are allowed to do something instead of discarding the card. For example, when Balduvian Hordes comes into play, the discard is considered forced, even though you could choose to bury the Hordes instead. Note that discards that allow you to prevent effects, such as Mind Bomb's, are considered optional. 2) At the beginning of each phase, the active player handles all of his beginning-of-phase effects, and then the opponent handles all of hers. The same process occurs at the end of each phase, at the beginning or end of combat, and at the beginning of the turn. The player simply plays all such effects in whichever order he or she wishes, regardless of when the effect was generated. For example, the effect triggered during blocking by Thicket Basilisk is processed during the same step as Kjeldoran Home Guard's ability. If a player does something that generates a new effect that applies to him or her at that time, that effect can (and typically must) be dealt with. For example, if a player is processing "at end of turn" effects and generates a new such effect, then the player has to deal with that effect. Yes, this is a reversal of the recent ruling to flatly ignore "at end of turn" effects once such effects start resolving; however, "until end of turn" effects are still ignored once Cleanup begins. As an example of this ruling, if three Death Sparks are on top of one another in the graveyard with a summon card just above them, then you can bring all of them back at the end of a given upkeep, since retrieving each of them makes retrieving the next one legal. What this means for Ivory Gargoyle vs. Vibrating Sphere: If your Gargoyle dies and then returns to play, and is killed by a continuous effect such as Vibrating Sphere, then the game goes into a loop. The player loses a draw phase, returns the Gargoyle, loses a draw phase, returns the Gargoyle, and so on. To resolve this particular loop, the Gargoyle is left in the graveyard, and that player loses the rest of his or her draw phases for that game. Yes, this is different from how these cards interacted under the old rules. 3) When someone uses a mana source, the spell or effect is played, cast, and resolved all at once. Effects that trigger on these events do not go off until after the mana source itself has resolved. This means, for example, that Nether Void, Bazaar of Wonders, etc. cannot counter mana sources. (Yes, this contradicts "Murk Dwellers" #13.) 4) Damage prevention and redirection effects that apply to "all" damage from a given source, or to a given creature or player, target all of the packets of damage being dealt by that source, or to that creature or player. Thus, you can only use such effects if something is actually being damaged. Note that this means that if a source is damaging you more than once at the same time (such as using Blood of the Martyr after an Earthquake), effects such as Circles only need to be used once in order to prevent all of the damage, which is a reversal. 5) Mana sources can be used at will during Untap and during Cleanup; the specific rule about using mana sources at any time overrides the general rule disallowing fast effects during those phases. Reversals 1) Once Nafs Asp damages a player, the chain of damaging that player once each draw phase continues until the mana is paid, even if the Asp leaves play before a given draw phase. 2) Copy cards copy the color definition of their target unless the text indicates otherwise. For example, Copy Artifact will typically become colorless when it comes into play. 3) Eye for an Eye is a nontargeted effect; therefore, it cannot be Deflected. It is played during the damage-prevention step resulting from the appropriate source assigning damage to you. 4) If a creature is animated via Dreams of the Dead and then put into a Safe Haven, it will be returned to play if/when the Safe Haven's ability is used. This is because each player has only one "out of the game" zone, so the Dreams's effect doesn't cause Safe Haven to lose track of the creature. Errata The following rulings involve card and rulebook errata, or at least reading cards slightly differently: 1) Every permanent that explicitly destroys itself should be read as burying itself: for example, Dragon Whelp is buried at end of turn if it is pumped up too much. However, Nevinyrral's Disk simply destroys itself along with everything else, and Prodigal Sorcerer's effect simply deals damage, so does not bury him if he pokes himself. 2) If you choose to search your library for land due to Natural Balance, the maximum number of land cards you can retrieve is limited to what's necessary to bring your total to five. You are not required to retrieve that much land. 3) Barreling Attack should be read as "for each creature blocking it." Thus the effect is not permanent; additionally, it only counts up creatures blocking the target during resolution. 4) Celestial Dawn changes all colored mana symbols in all appropriate cards to {W}, not just mana symbols in costs. 5) Dazzling Beauty targets an attacking creature. 6) Ignore the first line break on Mangara's Tome; burying the cards is a function of its "comes into play" effect, rather than an independent ability of the Tome. This means that Titania's Song will not stop the cards from being buried if you lose control of the Tome. Also ignore the line break on Hall of Gemstones; the Hall has a single ability, which is played during upkeep and lasts until end of turn. 7) On page 49, "Declare Attackers" should begin with "The active player can declare zero or more attackers . . ." For example, you can still declare a null attack. 8) Permanents that phase out retain all permanent effects that apply to them, not just permanent changes. For example, the effect of Ritual of the Machine will not end if the stolen creature phases out. 9) Spells and abilities that used to be played as interrupts, but are now only played as mana sources or as instants, are considered to have errata to make them that type. For example, Reset is now considered card type Instant, so Sirocco will not find it. Interrupts that have two modes of operation, such as Blue Elemental Blast, are still considered to be card type Interrupt. No, we are not making exceptions based on intent; for example, Ley Druid's ability is an instant, not a mana source. 10) Lands themselves are not mana sources. (The glossary entry for "Mana Source" should read "Typically, a land ability that produces mana . . . .") 11) Erg Raiders's effect of damaging you is triggered at end of turn, and thus only goes off if Erg Raiders is still in play at that time. 12) Ignore the word 'next' on Necropotence. If an effect such as Library of Leng causes you to skip your discard phase, you simply put the cards into your hand when you finally do get a discard phase. Specific Card Rulings 1) When Mind Warp is cast on a player, that player chooses the order that the cards are discarded into the graveyard. This is because the effect works in two stages: 1) the caster chooses some cards; and 2) the target discards some cards. 2) Zur's Weirding's effect is not targeted, and does not require choosing a card in the player's hand, so may be used even if the card that was drawn is no longer in the player's hand (e.g., if it was drawn and then returned during Brainstorm). 3) If you have multiple copies of Oath of Lim-Dul in play, you may sacrifice one to another's effect. That is, "You cannot sacrifice Oath of Lim-Dul in this way" should be read as ". . . to itself." 4) Icy Prison, with its errata, says "During your upkeep, bury Icy Prison. Any player may pay {3} to prevent this." This explicitly breaks the rules about burial being unpreventable--a card can always break the rules. 5) If you play Final Fortune, and use the extra turn to untap a Time Vault, you do not lose as a result of Final Fortune. 6) If Spatial Binding targets a local enchantment, and the enchantment's target phases out, the Bound enchantment remains in play. It is then buried because its target has phased out. 7) You cannot use Purgatory's upkeep ability if there are no cards stored on it, since you are not able to choose a card that is stored under it. 8) Soul Echo: If your opponent chooses to have damage redirected to a Soul Echo rather than subtracted from your life, this launches an effect that is controlled by that opponent, not by you. This redirection occurs at the end of damage prevention, once you have had the chance to prevent the damage. If the Soul Echo leaves play before your next upkeep, the effect still prevents the damage, and uselessly tries to remove counters from Soul Echo. If you have more than one Soul Echo in play at the beginning of your upkeep, your opponent can choose to have each of them take damage for you. This launches one effect for each such Soul Echo. At the end of each damage-prevention step, your opponent chooses the order in which the effects go off, and so can have a different Soul Echo lose counters at the end of each damage-prevention step. However, all damage from that step must be "redirected" to the same Soul Echo, and can't be split between several. Tom Wylie | What is the difference between apathy and ignorance? aahz@wizards.com | I don't know, and I don't care.