Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 11:53:47 +0000 From: Paul Barclay Subject: [O] NetRep Reply 506 ======================================================================= NetRep Reply number 506 to the Magic: the Gathering List ======================================================================= This reply covers the digests: MTG-L Digest - 20 Dec 1999 to 21 Dec 1999 (#1999-5) MTG-L Digest - 21 Dec 1999 to 22 Dec 1999 (#1999-6) MTG-L Digest - 22 Dec 1999 to 23 Dec 1999 (#1999-7) MTG-L Digest - 23 Dec 1999 to 24 Dec 1999 (#1999-8) MTG-L Digest - 24 Dec 1999 to 25 Dec 1999 (#1999-9) MTG-L Digest - 25 Dec 1999 to 27 Dec 1999 (#1999-10) Older replies may be found at: http://www.second-hand.demon.co.uk ftp://ftp.magic.asuka.net http://yavapai.ccgnews.com http://www.en.magic.asuka.net http://www.thedojo.com/backpage-rulesregulations.shtml SHORT ANSWERS: ======================================================================= ** The official Magic: the Gathering Reprint policy can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/Reprint_Policy.asp White borders are only used for basic sets (Classic and Starter), and compilation sets (Anthologies). Black borders are used for expansion sets (Mercadian Masques, Urza's Destiny). Silver borders are used for non-tournament legal cards (Unglued). ** Voltaic Key _is_ legal in Standard tournaments. ** A Savannah can be retrieved from the library by any card which looks for a Plains (Tithe) or a Forest (Land Grant). It cannot, however, be retrieved by something which looks for a basic land, or a basic forest/plains, as it is not a basic land. LONG ANSWERS: ======================================================================= [Mario Cravinhos, asking about Show and Tell] >Yesterday I was playing against a show and tell deck, and one thing makes me >mad. He cast show and tell, I played my cateran overlord and he played >confiscate on my cateran. Is that legal? No. It's not legal. When you come to resolve Show and Tell, both players pick a card (Without showing it to the other player), then both players reveal the card they have chosen at the same time. I'm going to have to check with Beth to find out just how the decisions are made as the permanents come into play. For now, if any decisions are required (such as the permanent to enchant with Confiscate), those decisions are made before the permanents come into play, and the active player makes her choices first. It's not possible to Confiscate the permanent that's coming into play, as it's not yet in play. ----- [Julius Rodil, asking about the beginning of the turn] > this is my question i was playing a game and my opponents cast a wurm w/c >is 6/4 and i have masticore in play and 4 remaining mana isaid to my >opponent that i will hit his wurm with 2 damage during the begginning of my >turn before i untap then hit it again with two damage during my mainphase >is this legal or did i cheat pls help will be highly appreciated. This isn't legal - you can't do anything during your turn before you untap. You can't kill the Craw Wurm like this. ----- [Jeremy, asking about Fatal Blow] >The card text on Fatal Blow says, "Destroy target creature that was dealt >damage this turn. It can't be regenerated." When it says "dealt damage," does >that refer strictly to damage dealt by a creature's power during combat? No. It means any damage dealt by any source. If it wanted to specify combat damage, it would use the phrase "combat damage". ----- [Steven Tice, asking about Propaganda] >How does one determine whether an effect is cumulative or not? Does having >two Propagandas in play force one's opponent to pay 4 to enable a creature to >attack? Does Dream Tides work similarly? It's kind of hard to explain this one - it hinges more on what you expect "cumulative" to mean than on any part of the rules. A good set of rules to follow is these: 1) Any activated ability is not in any way cumulative. You can't ever play more than one at once. 2) Triggered abilities are also not cumulative. However, if you have two identical triggered abilities in play, and their condition happens, then both of them will trigger (separately). For example, if you have two Sylvan Libraries in play, they will both work, but you have to resolve them separately (draw 2, put 2 back, draw 2, put 2 back) 3) All other abilities are cumulative, although this may or may not have any noticeable effect. For example, Flying and Trample are cumulative, but this doesn't actually do anything, as there's no benefit to having more than one of these abilities. Abilities such as that of Propaganda and Gloom are also cumulative, but in this case more than one does have a significant effect, as you have to satisfy all of them to be able to attack or play the white spell. Dream Tides now has errata - it's now an activated ability. The "untapping" style abilities are now triggered or activated abilities. ----- [Matt Sach, asking about untapping creatures] >"Untap" costs I'm not too sure about now. I know they were >cumulative before (a Dance of the Dead'd Colossus of Sardia >would cost 10B to untap), but I can't find anything about it >in the new rules (rules042399.pdf being the latest in the WotC >website). Look at the Oracle texts for the cards, and use the guidelines above. ----- [Steven Tice, talking about Unglued] >Ah, Ashnod's Coupon...I was amazed, in these politically correct Magic days, >to see a card that features a stylized diagram of the female reproductive >system...:-) You should have seen some of the cards that _didn't_ make it. :-) ----- [Mat Brown, asking about copy cards] >Until they're finished, your model if the official one. When we were discussing >this before, I favored Jeff Jordan's model, but that was largely because I >understood it. I never completely understood yours. A Clone of an animated land >is an unanimated land. A Clone of an animated artifact is an unanimated >artifact. This led me to guess that it copied the physical card, what was on >the >cardboard. (For this purpose, Tokens must be considered to be printed on >ethereal cardboard.) But a Clone of a Clone didn't need a second target, it is >whatever the copied Clone is. This led me to guess that it copied what the >permanent came into play as. A Clone came into play as what it was copying, and >artifacts and land come into play unanimated. Then we got to Cloning a >Doppelganger. A Clone of a Doppelganger is a Doppelganger copying what the >Doppelganger is currently copying, not what it came into play copying, so that >invalidated that guess. I never came up with a model that explained all of >those >in a consistent way. Basically, the assumption was that copy cards will copy the most basic state of whatever they copy. For most cards, this will be an exact copy of the physical card. For copy cards, this clearly doesn't work, so we decided that the most sensible solution would be to have the new Clone copy whatever the Clone/Doppelganger is currently copying. This is, strictly speaking, arbitrary, but we feel that we can justify it sufficiently. Note that all this is just a stop-gap measure until we get the official Copy Card rules. In case people are wondering, we did think about having a Clone copy the current state of a card, but decided that this would become too confusing and difficult to keep track of. ----- [David Sachs, talking about Magic Interactive Encyclopedia problems] >According to the MTG encyclopedia, with the latest patch installed, the >following cards are banned from standard: {list snipped - it's irrelevant} >Does anyone have any idea as to, where this list came from? It's called a "bug". MIE has quite a few. ----- [Mat Brown, asking about Trample and Protection] >I ended up debating the interactions of Trample and Protection with another >player. I tried to explain that if you block a 5/3 green trampler with a 2/2 >with protection from green, that the defending player can only be assigned a >maximum of 3 points of damage. He maintained that no damage could be assigned >to >the protection creature, and that the defending player must be assigned all 5 >points of damage. I tried showing him the Trample and Protection rules in the >Comprehensive Rules, but since they don't explicitly address the interaction >between those two abilities, he didn't see it from just reading the two >abilities. Finally, he agreed that a quote from Paul Barclay would convince >him. >So Paul, in your next NetRep Reply, would you write a short treatise about the >interaction of Trample and Protection? Thanks. Sure. It's simple, really. Trample doesn't care about any other abilities of a creature at all. The only thing it cares about is the creature's Toughness. You must put damage equal to the creature's Toughness on to the creature before you can assign any Trample damage to the creature's controller. Examples: 1) A Voice of Duty (2/2 Prot:Green) blocks a War Mammoth (3/3 Trample). The Mammoth can assign either 3 damage to the Voice, or 2 to the Voice and 1 to the Voice's controller. The Voice will live, as its Protection will reduce the damage to 0. 2) A Voice of Duty (2/2 Prot:Green) blocks a War Mammoth (3/3 Trample). The Voice is then Death Sparked (1 damage is dealt to it). The Mammoth can assign 1,2 or 3 damage to the Voice (and 2,1 or 0 to the controller). The Voice will live, as its Protection will reduce the damage to 0. 3) A Two-Headed Dragon blocks a Hill Giant (3/3) and a War Mammoth (3/3 Trample). A legal choice for assigning damage would be to assign all 3 of the Giant's damage to the Dragon, and 1 of the Mammoth's damage to the Dragon, and the remaining 2 damage from the Mammoth to the Dragon's controller. Paul. - ------------------------------------------------------------------- - - Paul Barclay -- paul@second-hand.demon.co.uk -- Mobile: 0958-980180 - - DCI Level III judge -- http://www.second-hand.demon.co.uk/index.htm - - Official MTG-L Network Representative for Wizards of the Coast, Inc -