Ruling on the Whip

Brian

and I

Met for Lunch at Veggie Grill in Irvine for some Magic: The Gathering & some trash talking

We also talked work & started gearing up for NaNoWriMo

Brian has a lot of cards in his bag

I am still running a very simple Rakdos deck

Brian has been crushing me lately with a UW Deck--it Mills, it has Planeswalkers, & it has some white creature spamming

We did have a tricky rules situation come up again. Brian was milling me and I had like 10 creatures in my graveyard so I attempted to use the Whip of Erbos

to pull a Gray Merchant of Asphodel out of my Graveyard

doing four to Brain. 

He attempted to respond to the Whip with Cancel

but I argued the Whip was using an Ability not a Spell. Brian agreed & took four--but I have no idea if this is the correct rulling.

We then we had a discussion about if there was any way to prevent the Whip from returning the Gary and causing damage. So, this weeks question, is mostly about "is there a difference between 'enter the battlefield' effects when a creature is cast as opposed to manipulated by some other Ability"?

Time to Feed Attack

So I guess the question here boils down to is "Fight" the same as the "Attack" Step. 

During our Theros Game Day Draft, Briannah played Time to Feed and had her Polukranos, World Eater

Fight Andrew's Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

Andrew Responded with Divine Verdict.

Does this work? Is the Polukranos destroyed?

I ruled that it was not. Attack only happens in the Combat phase--we were in Main Phase. This was a Fight not "Attacking or Blocking"

This ruling was made with the understanding that Briannah was going to swing with The  P-U during Combat after she had killed Gary so it really did not matter all that much--Andrew could Divvy it up then. 

However, in reflection, I thought this may be more relevant because if Divine Verdict 'interrupts' the Time To Feed [the "Target Creature You Control" dies, in this example], then Gray Merchant would not die & Briannah would not gain three life, I think...

As Always, any advice would be fantastic.

Who Goes First

At Theros Game Day we had an issue regarding who plays first.

The players shuffled & cut and agreed to high roll. Evan, won the high roll decided to go first, then looked at his hand and mulliganed. Andrew decided to keep.

Evan reshuffled, cut, and drew six cards. 

When Evan looked at his hand the second time he wanted to go second. 

Andrew did not think that this was fair--Evan had already decided to go first.

My understanding is that you have to choose who is going first before you draw your cards, is that true?

Once that decision is made, can it be changed?

I ruled that Evan could go second, but mostly because I did not really understand why it mattered & wanted to keep things moving--I do not think that this would have been the Official Tournament ruling.

Evan the Canadian, Slivers win Again, GW Two Headed Giant SMACK DOWN

Another great morning of Magic for Jack and the South Lake crew. 

Tuesday's is late start day & we live across the street from the Junior High so the kids come over for a little Tuesday Morning with Magic. 

And Lisa cooks muffins--this week it was pumpkin!

we are in training for the Theros Game day, so Alexander made everyone these great labels for their deck boxes.

Andrew forgot his deck box, so he wore his on his head.

Alexander started his first match against Evan who was running my Sliver deck. Even standing at the table did not help him--Evan won easily.

Jack started off against Matt--it was a great match which Matt actually won.

After that we went into the Two Headed Giant match which is really what the boys come over to play--they love the head to head team action. Also, Matt & Evan were both undefeated, so having them on opposing teams set up a great match.

The stage was set for a huge match.

All possible tokens were found.

The match started off fairly slowly.

But Jack was quickly able to build up a 25/25 trample, life link creature.

Alexander & Matt resigned at 15-90; but not because they were loosing--but because the boys needed to get back to school.

This week we only had one rules question.

Matt cast Riot Control to stop Jack from doing 22.

The issue came when we tried to count the number of Creatures. 

Jack had Bestowed three Creature Aura's onto his Creature. 

Does this count as four creatures or is it one creature with three auras?

we ruled that it was four creatures, mostly because the game was over and we wanted everyone to have fun, but I thin that the correct answer is that they are bestowed as Aura's and are not Creature's and the correct ruling was that it was one creature.

Removing a Planeswalker

Jack and I were playing Magic at the Pokemon X&Y release event. 

Jack cast Ajani, Caller of the Pride

I had reacted at Instant speed with two Spark Jolts

and a Magma Jet

assigning all damage to the Player Ajani.

Jacked rightfully questioned this play. 

We ruled that this was not legal since Ajani is not a creature & not a player.

Is this the correct ruling?

Is there a general guide to Planeswalker removal?

Sunday Morning Theros

Brian came over Sunday with his new deck to play some Theros.

 

 

I am still running my great Minotaur Rakdos deck, which matched up nicely with his UW Control deck.

 

 

Our first match was the longest game I have ever played--it went like 30 rounds. Neither of us could find a win condition. He removed all my creatures. When I needed to, I was able to get to his planeswalkers [he had THREE in his deck].

 

 

 

He was able to mill me out in the end.

 

 

 

Brian then went 1-2 against Jack's latest creation which is a very very good deck.

 

We completed our game two in a much more traditional way with me winning after about 8 rounds of fun magic.

 

 

I am very much enjoying my Rakdos deck. I know it needs a lot of work, but even when it looses it still creates some fun moments.

 

We had a lot of rules questions this morning. I am still not sure where the best most official place to go for ruling on this stuff--any suggestions would be awesome. I recently learned from the Magic the Amateuring cast that I am a level zero judge which does give me a lot more confidence on this stuff.

 

In any event, here are the questions we had:

 

 

1. Do Guild Gates have summoning sickness?
   
   
   We ruled that the do not.
2. What happens if you Time Ebb at token--does the token go on the top of your deck or back into your token pile?
   
   
   In this case, Brian cast Time Ebb on my 2/2 Zombie token.
   
   
   
   It was late in the game, we had tons of mana, and it was the only creature on the board.
   
   We ruled it was simply discarded.
   
3. Is a Planeswalker a creature?
   
   
   
   we ruled she was not a creature.
4. When does a Planeswalker pump?
   Whenever she wants to? Ba-Dum-DUM!
   
   We ruled during main & main phase [again]. 
5. Does essence scatter work on a God? Jack cast Nylea, God of the Hunt
   
   
   Brian responded with an Essence Scatter counter,
   
   
   since Jack's devotion to green was less than 5, Nylea was not a creature; however, the card has Creature as a type.
   
   We ruled Essence Scatter did not work. 
6. When does an Enchantment Creature become a Creature?  Brian case Sea God's Revenge
   
   
   on my Kragma Warcaller
   
   
   with Nighthowler equipped as an aura.
   
   
   Does the Nighthowler drop as a creature which can be targeted for removal and thus be counted as part of Sea God's Revenge?
   
   We ruled that the Nighthowler was not a legal target when the sorcery was cast & thus was not removed.

Please leave a comment correct & clarifying any of these rules questions.

 

 

 

 

Stacking Bonus Rule Question

Does "Each attacking creature you control gets +1/+0 " stack? My example is from this Tuesday, Andrew had the Gruul War Chant out

 

 

and swung with three creatures.

 

The next round Andrew attacked with the same three creatures. The question is did the +1/+0 from the previous round fall off or are the creatures +2/+0 this round when they attack.

 

We ruled that the +1/+0 fell off after combat completed and that they were +1/+0.