'  

Home

Card Price Guide

MTG Fan Articles
Single Card Strategy 
Deck Tips & Strategies 
Tourney Reports 
Peasant Magic 
Featured Articles

Featured Writers
The Dragon's Den
Rumblings From The Ass
The Heretic's Sermon
Through The Portal

Deck Garage
Aaron's School

Community
Message Board 
Chat
Magic League

Contact Us

Pojo's Book Reviews

Links

 


Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Judge's Corner

Q: I'm a little unsure of the exact mechanics of Dawn of the Dead. My upkeep I return a creature from my graveyard to play. It gains haste. Now here's where the question comes in. Say I use it to return at Spike Feeder to play. I pull all the counters off, and the Feeder dies. My end of turn comes up; do I still remove the Feeder from the game? My logic is that I would because Dawn of the Dead doesn't actually say the creature still has to be in play.

Then again, I'm not all that great with graveyard related mechanics.

-Eric Williamson

A: Actually, no, you would not. Dawn of the Dead will look where it put the creature to try to find it (in this case, the in play zone). Since it doesn't find it there, it won't be able to remove it from the game (217.1c).

----

Q: Hi, my question is about the rules of becoming a judge. A friend of my and is about to become a level three judge. I am aware that two other kids besides me want to become judges. I am curious can more than one person go under a level three judge to become a judge? 

-brian

A: A level 3 judge can test/mentor as many judges as he wishes to become judges. In fact, this is one of the important duties you get when you become a level 3 judge … to make new judges.

----

Q: I just had a question on how madness works. If I were to play a card like Rights of Spring discarding an Obsessive Search and paying the Madness, what order would they resolve in? The judge at the shop I play at is a Level 2 and he said that the Obsessive Search would resolve before I searched for the land but I thought that you had to completely resolve one effect before jumping the another and the discarding is part of the Rights of Springs resolving so I've already started resolving that effect before I paid the Madness Right? Or am I just not making sense? How does it work exactly? Thanx for your time.

-Carlos De Jesus

A: You are exactly correct. You discard the cards for Rites of Spring during resolution. When you discard for the Rites of Spring, you say you are playing Obsessive Search using Madness, and remove it from the game instead of putting it in your graveyard. The triggered ability of madness uses the stack, and since nothing can be played during the resolution of a spell (with the exception of mana abilities, if an effect asks for a payment of mana), Obsessive Search waits until you are done resolving Rites of Spring before it goes on the stack.

-------

Q: Tainted Isle

land torment
Tap: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool.
Tap: Add blue or black to your mana pool.
Play this ability only if you control a swamp.

From what I understand, the first ability tells you to add a colorless mana to your mana pool; therefore I should be able to add any one of the five colors of magic to my mana pool.

A: No. "Colorless" = "without color". When you play the first ability, you add 1 colorless mana to your pool.

--------

Q: But the second ability says to add a blue or black mana to your mana pool, play this ability only if you control a swamp.

So what I'm understanding, (and after reading your articles on pojo), that the second ability adds the mana to your spell that your casting, (assuming that your playing a spell at the time) And that the first ability puts the mana into your mana pool, and wouldn't pay for a spells cost (assuming again that you aren't playing any spells). If I'm wrong Please tell me.

A: You can use either ability at any time to cast spells, or if you are not playing a spell, to add the appropriate mana to your mana pool without restriction on how you can use it.

-----

Q: Birds of Paradise and cards like it.

From what I understand of this is that cards like Utopia Tree and the Birds of Paradise add colored mana to your mana pool. What I would like to now is: what is colored land, and how to play it.

-Dustin

A: There is no such thing as colored land (in its' base form). Land is colorless by definition.

Utopia Tree and Birds of Paradise let you add one mana of any color to your mana pool. This means you choose one of the five colors of magic (red, green, blue, black, or white), and add one mana of that color to your mana pool.

-----

Q: If a creature has protection (say from green), does this mean 'cannot be the target of green spells & abilities' or 'cannot be affected by green spells & abilities'.

A: The former. Untargeted abilities will still affect a creature with protection from green (assuming the effect is not doing damage to the creature).

----

Q: For example, Vodalian Zombie attacks and Fog is used, would the Zombie deal damage or not?

A: Not.

-----

Q: What are the rules for building limited/constructed decks, I only play casual games with only the 4-of-each-card-max rule for deck construction.

Burf

A: The 4 of each card rule is a start for constructed. Each constructed format has limitations on what cards can be used (for example, what sets can be used, and in some formats, limiting you to one or no copies of a specific card).

In limited, the 4 of a card rule doesn't apply. If you get more than 4 of a card, you can play all the copies you get.

-----

Q: Phyrexian Infiltrator:

I pay the 4 mana ability cost and trade him for one of my weak creatures, like ravenous rats, for example.

In response, I Tap another 4 mana and trade the Infiltrator for a nice creature my opponent controls. So, Under Stack rules, I get the big opponent guy, and the Infiltrator returns in exchange of the rats. My opponent gains control of the rats, and I gain his creature and take my Infiltrator again.

It's OK?

-Jefferson, Piçarras, SC, Brazil

A: You can do that, yes. However, if your opponent has the appropriate mana, after you take his big creature, he can activate the Infiltrator's ability, and get his big creature back, causing the rat exchange to not happen.

-------

Q: Please verify whether the following points are correct or not:

1. A triggered ability which triggers during the untap step will wait until the beginning of the next step or phase that has a stack (usually the upkeep) to go on the stack.

A: Correct … a restatement of rule 302.2.

2. Triggered abilities that trigger during the untap step and triggered abilities that trigger at the beginning of the upkeep step both go on the stack at the beginning of the upkeep step (assuming that the upkeep step has not been skipped).

A: Correct … rule 303.1.

---------

3. Although Undiscovered Paradise's triggered ability triggers during the untap step, it waits until the beginning of the upkeep step to go on the stack (because the untap step has no stack), and therefore can be tapped for mana before it returns to your hand (assuming that the upkeep step is the step or phase following the untap step).

- Sallybarnes1

A: Incorrect. Undiscovered Paradise's return to hand clause is not a triggered ability, it just happens. You can tell an ability is a triggered ability by the words "When…," "Whenever…," or "At…."

---------

Q: On the Portal card, Overwhelming Forces, that reads, "Destroy all your opponent's creatures...", does that mean all of a single opponent's creatures or all creatures that are my opponents'? I can't tell because if it was all that I don't control, it would usually say something like, "Destroy all opponents' creatures...", but if it were one player's it would usually say something like, "Destroy all of target opponent's creatures...".

This is very puzzling to me. I really want to know because of a tournament to win a booster box at my local comic store, to see if I want it in my deck. 

-SP1KE89

A: First of all, make sure that Portal is allowed. Portal cards are not allowed in any sanctioned tournament format currently (unless they have also been printed in a set legal for the specific tournament, and since Overwhelming Forces has not been printed outside of Portal, it wouldn't be).

Second, if Portal is allowed in your tournament (meaning it is not sanctioned and the store owner lets you play with Portal cards), I am going to give you the wording that Steven D'Angelo has for the card. Since it is not legal for sanctioned tournaments, there is no official wording for it, but this is as close as you will come … 

When played under non-Portal rules, the text should be read as "Destroy all creatures controlled by target opponent. You draw a card for each creature destroyed this way."

-Bill Guerin 
PojoMagicJudge@hotmail.com 
DCI Level 2 Judge

 

 

Pojo.com

Copyright 2001 Pojo.com

   

Magic the Gathering is a Registered Trademark of Wizards of the Coast.
This site is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast and is not an Official Site.