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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Judge's Corner
A
Divine Chorus
Q: My friend had an
Angelic Chorus and a Divine Sacrament in play and had
threshold. He then brings a (white) 5/5 creature into
play. Does he get 5 life or does he get 7?
A: 7.
---
Q: When does the +2/+2 come into effect on the card?
-Michael D.
A: The creature comes into play with the +2/+2. So it
will be a 7/7 when it enters play.
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Q: I've been a little confused about tournament
protocol, and figured you might be able to help. I win
the roll and my opponent draws and looks at his hand
before I do. He gets excited and exclaims, "This hand is
lights out for you!" Am I within my rights to require
the opponent to reshuffle? How EXACTLY does this work?
A: To your question, no. After decks have been presented
and passed back, you can draw your hand at any time.
Even if you are the person who won the roll, and you
look at your hand before saying anything, it is assumed
that you are playing first.
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Q: Do dual lands satisfy the requirements for Coalition
Victory? I think that they do since the card talks about
"a land of each basic type" not "a basic land of each
type". My logic is that "each basic type" of land
includes Forest, Island, Plains, Mountain, and Swamp and
duals count as each. What's your take?
-tchurrle
A: Duals count for both types for Coalition Victory. To
figure out if the win condition has been met, ask these
questions: Do I control a white creature? A blue
creature? A black creature (and so on)? Do I control a
plains? An island? A swamp (and so on)? If the answer is
"yes" to all the questions, you win. (Invasion FAQ)
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Q: If I discard 2 cards to use the Anurid Brushhopper's
ability to remove him from the game, AND I have a
Wirewood Savage in play, do I get to draw a card when
the Brushhopper comes back into play? The Brushhopper is
a beast, and the Savage's ability states you may draw a
card whenever a "beast comes into play". Is returning
the Brushhopper to play, the same thing as "comes into
play"?
-Stuart S.
A: The Brushhopper is coming into play, so you will draw
a card.
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Q: My friend and I were playing a game. The board
presented a problem however. My friend wanted to mana
burn as an instant. However, I said that tapping mana is
slower than an instant and wanted to cast shock as an
instant targeting myself. I am not sure as to the
relative speeds of light and tapping mana.
A: The answer is 42.
But seriously, mana burn only occurs at the end of a
phase. So if you had a Shock to kill yourself and your
friend could only mana burn, then you would lose (or
however you want to say it) every time.
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Q: Ascending Aven has the ability to be cast as a
morphed creature and can unmorph for {2}{U}. But how can
it resolve if I have to play it face-down? Does tapping
the mana for it then cause me to mana burn?
-Devon E.
A: Morph allows you to cast a creature with morph face
down by paying {3} instead of its mana cost. You won't
mana burn … the only thing that changes is what you pay
to put it on the stack ({3}) and how you put it on the
stack (face down).
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Q: I was looking through the rulings for Recurring
Nightmare and found this:
"Because of the way the timing rules work, you can cast
Recurring Nightmare and then use it before your opponent
can use an instant like Disenchant on it, but only if
you do so when the stack is empty just after it enters
play. [D'Angelo 1999/06/01]"
It seems to me that Recurring Nightmare would then be
indestructible, since I would only cast it when I'm
ready to use it. Since my opponent can't disenchant it,
the only thing that could stop it is a counter. Is this
right?
-Fernando
A: You are correct.
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Q: I've recently noticed the potential brokenness of the
card entitled "Entrails Feaster." Can this card target a
creature in an opponent's graveyards as well? I.e. he
has a Wonder in his graveyard. Can I take it out of his
graveyards to increase my creature's power and toughness
by 1?
A: Entrails Feaster
{B}
Creature -- Zombie Cat
1/1
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove a
creature card in a graveyard from the game. If you do,
put a +1/+1 counter on Entrails Feaster. If you don't,
tap Entrails Feaster.
Since it says "a graveyard," not "your graveyard," yes,
you can remove a creature from your opponent's
graveyard.
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Q: If so, can I do this in fighting phases?
-Michael T.
A: I don't know what you mean by that. The only time you
could do this is during your upkeep, since that's when
Entrails Feaster's ability is played.
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Q: I have a specific question on sacrificing. I have
both Nova Cleric and Starlit Sanctum in play. If I use
Nova Cleric's ability "{2}{W}, Tap, Sacrifice Nova
Cleric: Destroy all enchantments", can I still use
Starlit Sanctum to either gain life or deal damage to
target player on account of that Nova Cleric being
sacrificed?
-Michael J.
A: No. Since you have to sacrifice the Nova Cleric to
pay the cost of its ability, it can't be sacrificed for
anything else as well.
---
Q: I have a Rotlung Reanimator in play. I then use
artificial evolution on it, changing all instances of
cleric into zombie. I also have a Nantuko Husk in play.
Can I then sacrifice a zombie to bring another zombie
into play and then sacrifice the new zombie to bring
another zombie into play and then sacrifice it again? Am
I allowed to repeat this process as many times as I
like?
-Mike C.
A: Yes.
---
Q: I was reading over Necropotence the other day, and
thought of a combination with 2 other cards, but I'm not
sure if it works right. Here's my combination: First
turn, play a Swamp, Dark Ritual, Necropotence and Lotus
Petal. Pay 19 life and draw 19 cards. During your end
step, before you discard, as an instant, sack Lotus
Petal and add Red to your mana pool and cast Firestorm.
Discard those 19 cards plus 1 in your hand to kill your
opponent for 20 LIFE!
My friend gave me this combo idea. Now my question. Is
this legal? And will it work?
-Kevin N.
A: That won't work. If you want to cast a 20 point
Firestorm, you have to have 20 different targets. There
are probably only 2 available targets at this point in
the game (you and your opponent), so the most you could
Firestorm for would be 2.
---
Q: I was in a 1.5 today (10-2-02), and I witnessed a
couple of illegal plays. A friend of mine was playing
with Argothian Enchantresses against a man who was
playing blue-green. He knew that the Enchantresses have
been errata-ed, but his opponent played it the way it
was written, and this resulted in lots of countermagic
and few drawn cards for my friend. The ruling made when
an argument ensued was in his opponent's favor.
I would like you simply to post the errata of Argothian
Enchantress, Urza's Saga rare for me.
-Will
A: Argothian Enchantress
{1}{G}
Creature -- Enchantress
0/1
Argothian Enchantress can't be the target of spells or
abilities.
Whenever you play an enchantment spell, draw a card.
---
Q: My friend and I were playing a game and we got into a
situation that we both think we were right, he have 2
Nether Sprit in his graveyard and says that he will
bring back both of them in the same time, but I say when
beginning for your upkeep happens the first Nether Sprit
will check if there is another creature in his
graveyard, since your 2nd Nether Sprit also consider as
a creature then ability won't check out, then your first
Nether will stay in his graveyard. Similarly for the 2nd
one. Am I right or wrong?
A: You are correct.
---
Q: If my friend uses Animate Dead on a Laquatus's
Champion, so I say I'll let the Animate Dead resolve,
and you'll get your creature, and he gets his creature,
then in response to the Champion's come into play
ability, I Disenchant the Animate Dead. What happens?
A: The Disenchant resolves, killing the Animate Dead,
and then the Champion goes to the graveyard. The
Champion's leaves play ability triggers, and resolves
before the comes into play ability. The Champion knows
who it targeted in the first ability when the leaves
play ability resolves, so first that person gains 6
life, then, when the comes into play ability resolves,
that person loses 6 life. So he or she is at the same
life total he or she was before the Champion came into
play.
---
Q: There can only be one stack resolution in the
beginning of upkeep right?
A: No. If you are asking about beginning of upkeep
triggers, those only happen once. But the stack from
beginning of upkeep triggers is just like any other
stack - the abilities resolve one at a time, and the
stack can be added to at any point.
---
Q: I was invited to judge one of the local booster draft
tournaments and one of the players keeps walking around
when the 20 minute deck constructed time is up, and he
also have another pile of cards that on his table which
is not part of the tournament. Well...I wasn't paying
attention until the store owner pointed it out to me and
asked me to check his deck. (I'm not a DCI judge yet but
this is what I did just see if it's right.)
1. I gave him a Major GP penalty for the not completing
the deck in time
A: You probably mean a Procedural Error penalty. For
this, I would go with a PE-Minor, especially at low REL,
which your tournament would have been.
---
2. Another Major GP penalty for another pile cards on
his table, which I considered as cheating.
A: Stop right here. If you think he was cheating, then
the only penalty to apply is cheating, which is a DQ
without prize at any REL. Make sure to also write a
summary of why the DQ without prize was given (if the
tournament was sanctioned) to dci@wizards.com for
further investigation. (There was another address that
it was supposed to go to, but there's been so much
reorganization in the DCI lately. If you send it there,
it'll get to the right person.)
---
3. Surfing around, looking at other people's decks also
consider as cheating - another Major GP penalty.
A: Here, you are incorrect. Scouting is allowed, and
there is no penalty.
---
Q: Since he has 2 Major GP penalties that will cost the
game going unfairly so within these reason I gave him a
DQ without price. Can you tell me if I did anything
wrong?
-bahamut o.
A: I've written my interpretations above. If he was
cheating, DQ without prize. If you just think he was
being sloppy, you should just put it all in one penalty,
probably a Procedural Error - Severe, which would be a
game loss.
---
Tournament Report - FNM - Orange, CA - 11/1/2002
Well, it's time for the new Type 2. I was going to
borrow some cards for my deck, but Scott ended up not
going to the show on Friday, so I had to fall back to my
U/G build. I'll give you the deck list I played, but I
don't want to see anyone copying this card for card. If
you want a deck to copy card for card, see the end of
the article, when I discuss the changes I would make,
or, better yet, go find another deck list. Or even
better still, go look at the Sideboard, and copy a deck
that did well at States. There are a lot of U/G builds
out there, and I suck at deck building.
Having said that, here's the list I played:
U/G madness, V8.0
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Wonder
4 Aether Burst
4 Careful Study
4 Circular Logic
2 Counterspell
2 Read the Runes
3 Roar of the Wurm
2 Centaur Garden
4 City of Brass
7 Forest
10 Island
Sideboard:
2 Counterspell
2 Krosan Reclamation
4 Naturalize
4 Phantom Centaur
3 Sylvan Safekeeper
Again, do not copy the above list card for card. It's
just the piece of crap I put together for the
tournament.
A little joke in my naming of the deck … AOL is up to
version 8 now, and this deck is a lot like AOL. It's
great if you don't know what you are doing, because the
deck is "So easy to use, no wonder it's #1." It's also
very good, because you can put some crap in it, and it
will still perform well. One more way it is like AOL is
for veteran players. Veteran players, these days, can
play many more better decks than this. The similarity to
AOL is that if you know anything about the internet,
you're better off using another ISP, with all the crap
they put in AOL these days.
Anyway, to the tournament night. There were a lot of new
players there, and the tournament reached its capacity
well before the 6pm start time. If we had room, and time
for another round, we probably would have had about
15-20 more than the limit of 31 in the tourney.
I play a couple of games against one of the new players,
and help her with her deck. She built a deck with all 5
colors, and I rebuilt it for her with other cards she
had, only going mono-white. It wasn't a strong
mono-white build, but it was the best with what she had
and with her style of play.
At the sight of the new players, one of the regulars
(Ryan) comes up to me, and makes the comment about there
being a lot of new players. I make a comment related to
how easy our round 1 should be then.
And then the pairings are read out…
Round 1 - Theo T. - B/W Crypt Rats/Spirit Link
Game 1 - He wins the roll, 14-7, and chooses to play. He
gets stuck on 2 plains, with all black cards in his
hand. I go turn 2 Dog, turn 3 pitch Wonder and Arrogant
Wurm to Dog, madness the Wurm, and swing (16), turn 4
pitch and madness another Arrogant Wurm (9), turn 5
swing for the kill.
I open my sideboard, and say, "****, that's what I
forgot. Compost!"
Sideboard: In: 4 Phantom Centaur, 3 Sylvan Safekeeper.
Out: 4 Aether Burst (I hadn't seen anything from the
deck, and his deck would almost make me pay for boarding
these out), 2 Read the Runes, 1 Roar of the Wurm.
Game 2 - He plays first. I have to mulligan a no land
hand, and keep a 6 card hand of Island, Dog, 3 Walla,
and Safekeeper. I miss the land drop turn 2, while he
misses it turns 3 and 5. Turn 3 I play the Dog, he plays
Overeager Apprentice. Turn 4 I madness out the 3 Wallas
(he Spiritualizes as a Fog), and cast the Safekeeper and
a Looter I drew. Then he plays Crypt Rats.
=\.
He pitches a card, sacs the Apprentice, and blows the
world up. Fortunately, I have a Centaur as the only card
in my hand, and draw the 4th land the next turn to cast
it. He casts an Infected Vermin, and Spirit Links it. He
also drops a Castle sometime in here.
OK, so who's been playing a little too much multi-player
these days?
I fortunately have a Centaur Garden, and am able to
outrace his life gain. During his last turn, I think,
"Cast something, darn it." I have 6 cards in my grave,
and need threshold for the Garden. He does, and I Logic
it. I mistakenly cast a Safekeeper on the last turn,
giving him an extra point of life for the Spirit Link,
but the Garden lets the Centaur finish it.
Games: 2-0, Matches: 1-0
I tell many people about the deed the Rats did.
Before the game, Sean (Cashman) is sitting next to me,
and tells me he's playing a deck Wizards built for him.
I remark that we may be playing the same deck. He asks
what I'm playing, and I show him the Centaur Garden on
the bottom of the deck. He tells me that we are not, and
he's playing a version of my deck tomorrow. He comments
on the presence of 6 pain lands (4 City and 2 Garden),
and thinks that is too much pain. I comment that I don't
think 5 points of pain matters to this deck. It will
either win before it matters, or I would lose anyway.
Sean ends up playing against a mono-red deck, which is
the worst possible matchup for his deck - a Wizard deck.
The only thing I see is Sean's opponent cycling Slice
and Dice, and getting like 4 for 0 off of it.
Jeff (Dollarhide) comes up to me, and shows me the deck
he's playing. Sean built it, and it is a beast deck,
with 3 or 4 Patriarch's Bidding in it. I just shuffle
by, and Sean comments on how I am the first person not
to think it is a strange card in there. I comment on how
it is November, and a lot of new ideas, both very good
and bad, come out and are tried, and so who am I to say
whether it is good or bad.
Anyway, the second round pairings are read out, and I
find my free ride is at its end.
Round 2 - Justin Z. - B/G
Justin is a very good player, and I comment on how I
think that this is the toughest match this round.
Game 1 - I win the roll, 6-5, and play first. We each
drop an early Mongrel, and I attack. He blocks, and we
end up pitching cards, one at a time, to fight the
battle. I end up pitching 3, including a Roar, and he
pitches 2 before giving up. He comments on how much
better my pitches are than his. I very quickly take
control at that point, as I have his life going
20-16-8-0.
Sideboard: In: 4 Phantom Centaur. Out: 2 Read the Runes,
2 Merfolk Looter.
Game 2 - He goes first. I have to mulligan my second no
land hand of the night, and my 6 card hand wasn't much
better, as I was unable to do any damage to him.
Sideboard: In: 3 Sylvan Safekeeper, 1 Merfolk Looter.
Out: 4 Phantom Centaur.
Game 3: I go first. We each take a mulligan, mine being
my third no land hand. I drop Walla first turn, and
Merfolk Looter second turn. He makes a crucial error of
letting me get one use out of the Looter by Smothering
it on my turn, and I Loot away a Wonder. He casts Living
Wish on turns 3 and 4, getting Silklash Spider and
Silvos, Rogue Elemental. He tries to cast the Spider on
turn 5, and it's an auto-counter, as I have Circular
Logic. Turn 6 he casts Silvos.
Here is the dilemma. Let's see how you do. You have
Counterspell and City of Brass in hand, and 2 Islands
untapped and available to cast the Counterspell. You
have Basking Rootwalla and Sylvan Safekeeper in play and
Wonder in the grave (so your creatures fly). He has 3
cards in hand after casting the Silvos. He has 4 Forest
and 2 Swamp in play, and nothing else. You are at 16, he
is at 7. Do you counter the Silvos?
What I did and my reasoning follows the gratuitous blank
space.
I don't counter the Silvos. He has to do something else
to beat me, since I can pump the Walla each turn and
attack for 8 over 2 turns. So unless he can play 2 cards
next turn, both of which change the situation (and not
Smother, due to the Safekeeper), I still win by letting
the Silvos come out.
Turns out he taps 4 mana (including both Swamps) next
turn to try to cast a Ravenous Baloth. He doesn't have
anything else, so I win.
Games: 4-1, Matches: 2-0
Round 3 - Robert W. - MBC (Mono Black Control)
I am surprised and pleased to see Robert up here, as it
means he has also won 2 matches. I also like the match,
as I can only recall losing 1 match to him.
Game 1 - I win the roll, 10-6, and play first. Turns out
he has a rogue build of MBC, as he casts turn 1 Blood,
and turn 2 Wretched Anurid. (That is the only creature I
see all match from him, so that's what makes me think it
is more MBC than something else.)
I pitch Arrogant Wurm to Mongrel, and madness it. He
takes control for a bit, but just runs out of steam, as
I eventually cast enough creatures to kill him.
Sideboard: In: 4 Phantom Centaur. Out: 2 Read the Runes,
1 Careful Study, 1 Merfolk Looter.
Game 2 - He plays first, but takes a mulligan before we
start. Not even an Anurid comes out to play, as his life
goes 20-18-15-13-8-2-0, all by attacking. Sorry, but I
don't have any more information on this game.
Games: 6-1, Matches: 3-0
Round 4 - Ryan Ott - Suicide black
He likes his chance in the match. I don't doubt that it
will be a tough match for me.
Game 1 - I win the roll, 19-15, and play after we each
take a mulligan. I had land, it just wasn't aggressive
enough, since I knew what he was playing.
Both games were real knockout battles. He takes a few
points from an Anurid, and also has a Shade out. I,
however, get the Dog/Wonder draw, and am able to beat
him in the air. I end up killing him with a Roar token.
Sideboard: In: 4 Phantom Centaur. Out: 2 Read the Runes,
2 Merfolk Looter.
Game 2 - He makes a mistake by waiting one turn to cast
Braids. If he had cast it on turn 4, it would have been
tough for me. But he waited until turn 5, and that gave
me too many options, as I eventually drop a Phantom
Centaur, and win the race again.
Games: 8-1, Matches: 4-0
To be fair to Ryan, he had 2 really horrible draws, and
this deck just punishes sub-optimal draws.
So, who is the other 4-0, you ask? Well, it turns out
that in addition to the 4-0, Joshua Durick is at 3-0-1.
So me and the other 4-0 talk it over, and we decide to
draw, and if one of us is knocked to third, the winner
of the games we play for fun will get the foil.
Yeah, yeah, this is all fine and good, you say, but who
is the other 4-0?
Round 5 - Darcee - "Hi, my name is Tim, and I'm a
goblin."
Intentional Draw.
Games: 8-1, Matches: 4-0-1
Yes, that Darcee. Her deck is really good, and before
and during round 4, we were saying how she was going to
win that round. I think she had a good chance to take
our match too, but she offered the draw, and who am I to
decline it?
We played 3 games pre-sideboard, and I swept them all
(!). Then we sideboard for 3 more games. I make a
mistake of being to active with a Safekeeper game 4, and
she takes control. Game 5, she is able to kill off 2
Dogs and an Arrogant Wurm, after casting Firecat Blitz
for 3, with 2 Goblin Sharpshooters out. I even had 4
cards in hand for the Dogs, too.
Game 6 I am able to squeak out a win. She casts a
Sparksmith turn 2, but I untap, pitch Wonder to the Dog,
and Aether Burst the Sparksmith. I then have the Logic
for when she tries to recast it.
The tournament finishes, and I'm in first, and Joshua
bumped Darcee down to 3rd (by 2.667%). So we split our
packs, and go home.
Now, the changes. Read the Runes is crap. Deep Analysis
is so much better for this deck. I also would like to
put back the Aquamoebas, and have 3-4 Compost in the
sideboard. So let's see what a revised deck list would
look like …
U/G madness, V8.1
2 Aquamoeba
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Merfolk Looter
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Wonder
4 Aether Burst
4 Careful Study
4 Circular Logic
2 Counterspell
2 Deep Analysis
3 Roar of the Wurm
1 Centaur Garden
4 City of Brass
7 Forest
10 Island
Sideboard:
4 Compost
2 Krosan Reclamation
4 Naturalize
3 Phantom Centaur
2 Sylvan Safekeeper
Now, we'll see how that goes another time.
See you Thursday.
Bill Guerin
PojoMagicJudge@hotmail.com
DCI Level 2 Judge
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