Published on 08/06/2007
Conspiracy to Commit Delay
or, Guilty on All Reckless Charges
By Eli Shiffrin, Tom Fowler, and Ted Dickinson
This Article from: Ted Dickinson
Cranial Translation
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Note: This article is over two years old. Information in this article may be out of date due to subsequent Oracle and/or rules changes. Proceed with caution.
It's been quite the week for us here at CI. I was unfortunately unable to attend Nationals, however Tom and Eli were both there and I'm sure we'll be hearing of their experiences in the coming weeks.
Our devoted readers have also heard the call for more questions to the cranial.insertion@gmail.com mailbag; we received so many this week that there wasn't even room to fit them all in! This week we're mostly sticking to the Comprehensive Rules questions, with a quick foray into the Universal Tournament Rules. We received some great "procedural" questions that will be featured in upcoming articles.
Q: My Island, decked out with sweet Living Terrain threads, is hit with a Lightning Axe. My opponent then Naturalizes the Living Terrain and Animate Lands the Island. Is my now-3/3 Island buried in its (definitely not sweet) 5-damage funeral suit, or has it shed the damage in the split second it was not a creature?
A: Damage sticks on permanents until the cleanup step, even if that permanent stops being a creature. This is covered by rule 212.1b:
Spoiler:
So your Island will indeed be sent to the graveyard in its funeral suit. Getting the Island into the coffin is the tricky part: not only is it huge, but with an electrified suit, many Goblins would have to be sacrificed to get that job done.
Q: Since Conspiracy does not say ''in addition to their other creature types'' that means that it gets rid of their old types? Does that work for legendary creatures?
A: Yes, and kind of. When an effect changes a permanent's type or subtype, it "overwrites" whatever the permanent might have already had unless the effect specifies otherwise. (See Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth for an example of adding a subtype to a card without removing its old ones.)
Interestingly, this is covered by the exact same rule as the previous question: 212.1b.
As for the second part of the question, yes it will work on Legendary Creatures. However, since "Legendary" is no longer a subtype, but rather a supertype, Conspiracy can't cause a Legendary Creature -- Human Wizard to become, say, a non-Legendary Sliver.
Q: I have the following cards in play: 1 Conspiracy (naming Zombie); 4 Undead Warchiefs; 1 The Hive. Would my Undead Warchief lower the cost to make the token from the hive?
A: Unfortunately those zombies aren't too smart when it comes to operating Wasp generators. Effects that say certain spells cost less to play only matter when you're actually playing a spell; they don't reduce the cost of an activated ability that would happen to put the right kind of object into play when it resolves.
In other words, the Warchief's effect is only good if you're playing a creature spell that has the Zombie subtype at the time you determine the total cost of the spell.
Q: If I give Jaya Ballard, Task Mage lifelink, such as equipping Loxodon Warhammer, then activate its "deal 6 damage to each creature and each player" ability, will I get buckets of life?
A: Only if a "bucket" is a unit of measure equal to "six life for each creature or player." Lifelink doesn't care how the creature deals damage:
Quote:
| 502.68a Lifelink is a triggered ability. "Lifelink" means "Whenever this permanent deals damage, you gain that much life." |
So you'll get a lifelink trigger for each player or creature it damages.
Q: I was told when I was first learning to play that I can't put things on my deck to remind myself of triggers. Just recently I was told that WotC had changed the rules in response to the "if you don't, you lose the game" Pacts. What are the current rules?
A: This is indeed a rules change that came in with the Pacts (such as Pact of Negation). Previously you could not place any object on top of your deck as a "reminder" of anything ... but that was before forgetting to resolve an upkeep trigger would result in you losing the game. So to give players a break, the DCI changed Rule 37 in the Universal Tournament Rules:
Spoiler:
In short, you can use a token on top of your deck as long as it meets the following criteria:
1)It's not a card.
2)It's not big enough to hide the size or top card of your deck. (So bananas are right out.)
3)It's not something being used elsewhere in the game to stand for something else. A coin is fine if nobody's using coins for tokens, but if you're using glass beads for your Sliver tokens, you shouldn't use a glass bead for your Pact reminder.
Q: If I Delay a spell, then someone Commandeers my Delay, do they get the delayed spell as well? If they Commandeer the spell Delay is delaying, do they get the spell?
A: First question: assuming they don't change the target of Delay when they Commandeer it, there's really not much reason to play Commandeer. This is because Suspend instructs "you" to remove time counters and play the spell:
Spoiler:
"You" refers to an object's controller when it's in play or on the stack, and refers to the object's owner when it's in any other zone (such as removed-from-game).
So regardless of who controls the Delay, it's the spell's owner (the player who started the game with that spell in his/her deck) that will play the spell when the last time counter is removed.
As for your second question, the answer is no different. The spell will still get removed from the game by Delay and be associated with its owner, not its new controller.
Q: If I Momentary Blink my Phage the Untouchable, would I lose because I'm not playing the new Phage from hand?
A: Not only are you not playing it from hand, you're not playing it at all. You will have a quite pesky "lose the game" triggered ability to contend with shortly after your Momentary Blink resolves.
Q: Can I Chord of Calling out a morph creature for
? The converted mana cost of a face-down creature card is 0 after all... .A: While the converted mana cost of a face-down creature is indeed 0, the problem is that you only get to pay 0 as an alternate cost to play the creature when you're actually playing the creature face-down. Effects that put creatures directly into play don't give you an opportunity to pay any of that creature's costs, including alternate costs. So you'll still have to pay the "printed" converted mana cost of the creature you're looking for with Chord.
Q: I have a Porphyry Nodes in play. It's my upkeep and the triggered ability goes on the stack. There's only one creature in play. What happens if my opponent Momentary Blinks the creature after the trigger goes on the stack? Will Porphyry Nodes be destroyed for lack of creatures in play? Will the creature be destroyed or will it survive because it is a different object?
A: First off, the Nodes will be gone. That triggered ability of the Nodes is what's called a "state trigger." It will trigger at any time the game state meets the described condition, even during the middle of resolving another spell or ability. When this happens the trigger waits until the next time a player would gain priority (in other words, right after the Blink finishes resolving) to go on the stack. So the Nodes will indeed be sacrificed (not just destroyed) after the Blink resolves.
However, that won't be enough to save the creature in play. The Nodes don't "lock in" which creature will be destroyed when the ability triggers; this isn't done until the ability is resolving. The fact that the creature is a new object won't save it; nor will the fact that the Nodes are no longer in play, as that triggered ability can still resolve even if the Nodes are gone.
More on state triggers:
Spoiler:
Q: Last week you mentioned that a Willbender can change the target of a Sudden Shock to that player's Troll Ascetic. I understand that the Willbender itself doesn't target the Troll (or does it?), but when the Sudden Shock resolves, won't it have to check if the target is still legal?
A: Yes, it will. However, Willbender only targets the Sudden Shock, not the new target for the Shock, so there's no illegal target there. And since Troll Ascetic can still be targeted by spells or abilities controlled by its controller, and that player also controls the Sudden Shock, the target is still legal.
That's all for this week. Be sure to keep those questions coming!
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