Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Judge's Corner

There are two parts to today's article … first, an email question (keep them coming to PojoMagicJudge@hotmail.com), and second, an article on madness that I highly recommend reading.

First, the email question …

Q: Hey, what's up. I was scanning my Odyssey binder the other day and I noticed potential for a crazy combo that involves playing a Cabal Ritual when you have a Mirari and a Nantuko Shrine in play. It seemed that with some sort of timing trick involving the stack (the stack rules make my brain hurt) you could make infinite squirrel tokens and just lay the beats. My question is:

With a Mirari and a Nantuko Shrine in play under my control, can I play a Cabal Ritual, copy it, let the first resolve, and proceed to do the same with the rest of the copies?

Thanks a lot, I figured this would be a really good question to ask since I have been playing Magic for years and still do not know the answer.

Todd C.

(For the uninformed, Cabal Shrine is a card from Torment that reads as follows:

Cabal Ritual
C, Instant , 1B
Add BBB to your mana pool.
Threshold - Instead add BBBBB to your mana pool.)

A: Unfortunately, you only receive squirrels equal to the number of Cabal Rituals in all graveyards. Here is how the stack would look (I will assume both players wish to play no other spells or abilities throughout):

1. Play Cabal Ritual. This triggers both Mirari and Nantuko Shrine. You control them both, so you can put them on the stack in either order you like. I will put Mirari on the stack first, then Nantuko Shrine for the purposes of this example, but you could put them the other way too.

2. Nantuko Shrine resolves, and you put squirrels equal to the total number of Cabal Rituals in all graveyards into play. (Note that the Cabal Ritual you cast isn't in a graveyard yet, so it won't give you a squirrel.)

3. Mirari resolves. You may pay 3 mana to copy the Cabal Ritual. (Again, note that Cabal Ritual hasn't resolved yet, so you can't use that mana to pay for Mirari.) I will assume you pay the 3 mana here, so you put a copy of Cabal Ritual on the stack. Unfortunately, this doesn't trigger either Mirari or Nantuko Shrine again, as Mirari and Nantuko Shrine both trigger off of a spell being played, and you are playing an ability to put a copy of Cabal Ritual on the stack.

4. Mirari's copy of Cabal Shrine resolves, and you receive either BBB or BBBBB, depending on whether you have threshold. (Again, note Cabal Ritual isn't in the graveyard, so it doesn't count toward threshold.)

5. The original Cabal Shrine resolves, and you receive BBB or BBBBB again for a total of BBBBBB or BBBBBBBBBB, depending on whether you have threshold. (Once more, don't count the Cabal Shrine toward threshold, as it doesn't go to the graveyard until it finishes resolving.)

Hope this helps!!

Now, the article … the author of the article, Paul Barclay, has the job of TCG Rules Creation & Writing - basically, he helps design the rules for the game, and interpret and sticky situations that may already exist between cards. His article on madness can be found at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/7. Whether you are going to the pre-release tomorrow or not, it is a good read, as it will help you once Torment becomes legal in tournaments (Immediately for Sealed deck/Draft, March 1 for Constructed).

Again, send in your questions to me at PojoMagicJudge@hotmail.com. See you next time.

Bill Guerin
PojoMagicJudge@hotmail.com
DCI Level 2 Judge