Magic Rulings and Errata A Summary of Recent, Significant Rulings compiled by Tom Wylie General Rules The following are meant to clarify the rulebook, and how the game in general works. 1) Effects that prohibit spells and abilities of a certain type from being played, or that modify the cost of playing them, apply only to spells and abilities of that type, which is not quite the same as those played *as* that type. For example, Ward of Lights is always of type "enchantment," whether or not you're playing it as an instant, so Abeyance can't prohibit you from playing it. Gloom, however, will modify the cost to play Ward of Lights even if you're playing it as an instant. Although certain spells and abilities can be played as two different types, such as Ward of Lights, abilities are always the type you're playing them as. For example, Soul Net's ability is of type "triggered" (not instant), and Amulet of Unmaking's ability is of type "sorcery" (not an instant played as a sorcery). 2) Nothing can prohibit mana sources from being played; for example, Abeyance can't prohibit you from playing activated abilities played as mana sources. 3) If an effect gives contradictory instructions, ignore all the instructions that contradict each other. For example, if an effect says to move a card to two different places, that card goes nowhere. Virtually all scenarios in which this rule applies result from using replacement abilities, not from the way an effect is written (though some effects, like Ghazban Ogre's, can inherently be contradictory). This rule doesn't override the previous ruling about failing to pay a combined upkeep cost (such as Vaporous Djinn with Pendrell Mists in play), because the consequences of not paying the combined cost are applied in a sequence, not all at once. 4) You can't sacrifice something you don't control. If the cost of a spell or ability requires sacrificing something you don't control (such as Betrothed of Fire if you don't control the creature), then you can't pay that cost, and thus can't play that spell or ability. If an effect instructs you to sacrifice something you don't control, you simply ignore that instruction. Remember that you never choose what to sacrifice until it's actually time to sacrifice something; for example, if a spell reads "Target player sacrifices a creature," the creature to be sacrificed isn't chosen until resolution, and the player can choose only a creature he or she controls. 5) The "rules-triggered" effects (effects triggered by general game rules rather than by cards) that bury duplicate legends and enchant worlds always know which of them came into play first (or that they came into play at the same time, if such was the case). This is true even if duplicate legends came into play during a single event. 6) The following count as characteristics: name, color, casting cost, card type, type of permanent, type of spell or ability, creature type, expansion symbol, abilities, flavor text, power, and toughness. A good rule of thumb is that any type of information found on a card is a characteristic, and any other type of information isn't. For example, power and toughness can be found on a card, so power and toughness are always characteristics, even for permanents that don't actually have power and toughness printed on them (such as animated artifacts or lands). This means that a card's location, whether that card is tapped, its controller, and so on are not characteristics. Tokens have the same set of characteristics, even though effects that put tokens into play often leave many characteristics undefined. Abilities gained by any means count as part of the permanent's characteristics, whether or not the effect explicitly adds text to the card, as Zombie Master's does. If you have Goblin King in play, for example, each goblin gains the characteristic of mountainwalk as well as having its power and toughness characteristics modified. 7) In the past, the rules have referred to locking in the characteristics of a particular permanent at particular points, such as locking in the characteristics of a source when an ability is played. These rules have always been technically incorrect, especially when contrasted with the rulings on copy cards. All references to locking a permanent's characteristics should actually be read as locking in its characteristics, its controller, and what it enchants (if it's a local enchantment). 8) Regeneration is a replacement ability that replaces a destruction with the regeneration effect. When you play a spell or ability that regenerates something, you choose which destruction is replaced; the rest of the effect that's destroying the creature still resolves normally. Usually the target would only be destroyed once by a given effect, so the choice is obvious. But if a single effect would destroy a creature twice, you must regenerate it twice in order to actually keep it in play. 9) The following types of spells and abilities exist: mana source, instant, interrupt, sorcery, artifact, artifact creature, summon, enchantment, triggered ability, replacement ability, damage prevention, phase ability, phase cost, and untap cost. Some spells and abilities break the rules about when they're played, but that doesn't change their type; for example, Choking Vines is of type "instant," even though it breaks the rules by being played only when blockers are declared. Errata And Rules Eliminations 1) Previously, effects that set a creature's power and toughness to specific numbers were applied before any other effect. For example, it used to be that a creature targeted first by Giant Growth and then by Sorceress Queen was first made 0/2 by the Queen's effect, then got +3/+3 from the Giant Growth's effect, making it a total of 3/5. This rule has been scrapped; effects like Sorceress Queen's are now applied in the usual order with other abilities. So in the above example, the creature is now affected by Giant Growth first, then by the Sorceress Queen, making it 0/2 at the end of the batch. 2) Previously, counters that modified power and toughness (+1/+1 counters, for instance) were always considered distinct from each other, although counters with names (storage counters, for instance) have always been interchangeable. This distinction has been eliminated; by default, all identical counters are now interchangeable with each other, whether they're identical because they have the same name or because they have the same power and toughness modifier. For example, all +1/+1 counters are interchangeable by default, but +1/+1 and +0/+1 counters aren't. Note that most abilities of older cards break this rule by specifically referring to "these counters" (meaning the ones the permanent put on itself) or otherwise making it clear that only certain counters are used by that ability, but various rulings are affected by this change. 3) Most copy cards, such as Clone and Vesuvan Doppelganger, duplicate "all characteristics" of their target. As stated in item 6 under General Rules above, copy cards now copy the expansion symbol of their target (if the target has an expansion symbol). This means that City in a Bottle now destroys clones of Arabian Nights(R) cards, for example. Specific Card Rulings 1) Abeyance can't affect cards that are out of play, because it restricts what permanents can do rather than changing the rules about what players can do. For example, it won't stop you from playing Ashen Ghoul's ability while it's in your graveyard. 2) Burying Gemstone Mine when the last counter is removed is a triggered effect, not part of the effect that adds mana to your pool. Therefore there is a delay between using the ability and burying the Gemstone Mine; this delay enables you to sacrifice the Gemstone Mine to Squandered Resource's ability, for example.