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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Judge's Corner
10.17.02 New
Rulebook
A reader comments on my
answer…
>My opponent attacks with a Thieving Magpie and a Wind
Drake. I have no blockers. I activate my Samite Healer
and target myself before combat damage is resolved.
C: Thanks for answering my question!
I had been looking at the comprehensive rule in exactly
the same section that you had quoted. The version of the
rules that I had is dated September 24, 2001. It looks
like they added the "If damage would be dealt... by two
or more sources" sentence since then!
-J.C.
A: Well, you are not in the minority in not having a
current rulebook. I just downloaded a new rulebook just
before I started to answer that column's questions. The
rulebook is dated October 7, 2002, and you can download
it at http://www.wizards.com/dci/oracle/MagicCompRules_100702.txt.
(For reference, I believe you were one rulebook behind
before that one came out, as the rulebooks were dated
9/24/01, 2/20/02, and 10/7/02.)
---
Q: With the card Words of Wind, could I tap my Merfolk
Looter, pay 1 for the Words, return a Basking Rootwalla,
then discard it and put it back into play with madness,
while forcing my opponent to return a permanent?
-Pyro2048
A: Sounds good. The replacement will bounce a permanent
back to your and your opponents hand, then you can
discard the Rootwalla and play it for madness.
---
Q: My friend has a creature that has the creature
enchantment "Serra's Embrace" on it. (The creature is
Mageta the Lion) He enters his combat step and moves to
the declare attackers phase. During the declare
attackers phase after Mageta has been declared as an
attacker but before blockers are declared, he uses
Mageta's ability. Can he do this and still attack?
-Gatebilldaniel
A: Again, sounds good. Since Mageta's ability does not
destroy Mageta, he will still be attacking.
---
Q: I have a question about sacrificing. I read in an
old-school rulebook (ice-age I think) that you can't
interrupt a sacrifice; it said if you sacked an
enchantment your opponent couldn't Disenchant it as a
fast effect. I think I have an idea of how this works.
If the sacrifice is mentioned before the colon on the
card, indicating that it is part of the cost it happen
immediately, like you tap mana for a spell but your
opponent counterspells but the mana is still tapped. It
would really be great if you could clear this up for me.
Thank you.
-Dusty
A: Sacrifice itself doesn't have a speed. Sacrificing a
permanent can either be done as a cost to play a spell
or ability, or as an effect generated by the resolution
of a spell or ability. If the sacrifice is a cost
(generally denoted by either "Sacrifice XXX:" [this form
can also have a mana payment in addition to the
sacrifice] for abilities of permanents, or "As an
additional cost to play YYY, sacrifice XXX" for spells),
you perform the sacrifice as part of announcing the
spell or ability. If the spell or ability is countered,
you don't get your sacrificed permanent back.
If it is an effect generated by the resolution of a
spell or ability, you sacrifice the permanent when the
spell or ability resolves.
---
Q: If you accidentally shuffle your sideboard into to
your deck, do you lose? I didn't understand why I got a
warning at my last tournament for this.
A: I'm assuming this was either at the start of the
game, and you presented the deck to your opponent, or
during the game. If it is before the first game or
between games and you haven't presented your deck yet,
then there should be no penalty.
Either way, it is disruptive to the game state, but easy
to correct. Even if you are in the middle of a game, you
were shuffling due to a legal effect, so you can just
shuffle again anyway after correcting the error.
The reason you are getting a penalty is that you messed
up the game, and are having to do something to correct
it. The warning lets both the people at the tournament
and the people at the DCI keep track of your errors, so
if you decide to "accidentally" shuffle in your
sideboard at 10 tournaments, or multiple times in the
same event, further action can be taken.
---
Q: Let's say that my opponent and I have a whole swarm
of creatures, and he attacks with his fatty he has out
(Elf Avatar.) So, I begin to choose blockers. I chose
two, but I need to chose a last one, so I tell him,
"Hang on I need to chose another blocker... One of
these, so hang on," I said that as I pointed to a couple
of my choices. Then, he declares that since I chose my
blockers, he will cast a spell preventing the damage...
But I hadn't finished declaring blockers... So I blocked
with four more creatures. I told him that he needed to
wait and asked if I had declared all my AND ASKED ME
about it, but he just chose to concede the game instead.
My question is, was I right, or had I been wrong when I
said.
-Moomoo2
A: Well, generally, if he tried to play the spell, I
would back up the game, and remind him that blockers
hadn't been declared yet, since you had told him you
weren't done yet. I might also issue him a caution, so
that other judges at the tournament could be informed of
the situation.
---
Q: When you morph a creature, is it considered to be
just summoned? If so, does it still deal its damage to
the opponent?
i.e. if I play a Haunted Cadaver facedown, and then
morph it before it deals damage, can I activate its
ability?
-Duckking59
A: When you morph a creature, it is the same card as it
was face down. So it can attack the turn you morph it
(unless you played it face down that same turn), any
enchantments on the creature stay on it, and any spells
targeting the creature still target it when it is turned
face up.
So yes, you can activate its ability.
---
Q: What is it called whenever a spell loses its target
and goes into graveyard?
A: We say that spell was countered (due to lack of a
legal target).
---
Q: I played a Hystrodon face down in morph mode and my
opponent cast a Smother on it, so in response to the
Smother I said I'd pay the morph cost to turn my
Hystrodon face up. Since the morph does not goes on the
stack, that not mean the Smother will lose it's target
since the Hystrodon now is a 5 mana casting cost
creature or it means it will die?
A: It doesn't lose its target. The Smother still targets
the Hystrodon, even after it is morphed. However,
Smother can only target creatures with converted mana
cost 3 or less, and since the card that was targeted now
has a converted mana cost of 5, Smother will be
countered on resolution, since its target is now
illegal.
---
Q: What if someone stacks his or her deck (like 2 spells
1 land)? What can a judge do?
A: A judge should issue a warning, as the deck is not
randomized.
---
Q: And what can an opponent do to the deck that has been
stacked?
-bahamut o.
A: At REL 3+, absolutely nothing. Just call the judge
over for the penalty. If the table judge doesn't give a
penalty, appeal to the head judge.
AT REL 1 or 2, my answer is officially the same - do
nothing.
However, as a player, as an unofficial answer at REL 1
and 2, if I know the judge won't do anything to the
player who didn't randomize the deck (except for
shuffling it), I'll "Un-Weave" it. If the deck is in a
perfect distribution of 2 spells, 1 land, repeating, I
will perform a 3 pile shuffle. This unrandomizes the
deck and sticks all 20 lands right together, forcing a
mulligan and real shuffle. Similar procedures can be
performed for most mana weaves.
I say that very unofficially because, if you do that and
your opponent calls a judge over and points out you did
that, you would also receive a penalty for insufficient
randomization. I only do that with judges I know won't
give the penalty to the opponent, because they won't
bother to penalize me either. They'll just tell the guy
to take his medicine and mulligan.
(And if he does give you the penalty, you can argue
further, "How did he know the deck wasn't randomized? If
the deck was randomized when he gave it to me, then the
pile shuffling would only keep it randomized. Therefore,
he must have handed me a stacked deck.")
Again, do not take this action, except at lower level
tournaments, and only when you know the judge won't
penalize your opponent for not shuffling properly.
---
Q: Just out of curiosity, how long have you been a
judge?
-Will
A: I have been a judge since approximately Summer 1996.
I don't know the exact date, as there were some issues
that held up a decision on my certification. I know that
it was right around Origins 1996, however.
See you Monday.
Bill Guerin
PojoMagicJudge@hotmail.com
DCI Level 2 Judge
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