Cockatrice Confusion
Online Magic forum
Posted on Oct. 22, 2014, 6:30 p.m. by Matsi883
I was playing in a game of Cockatrice against an opponent, and we ran into a scenario in Game 2 of the match that I wanted to share and see TappedOut's opinion.
So, he controlled a Scavenging Ooze and I was playing with 72 Percent and had two Bloodghast s in my graveyard. Now, my draw for my turn was a verdant catacomb, and I played it and put the two Bloodghast on the stack to say "trigger on the stack" and he said "response," and activated ScOoze. I then sacrificed my fetchland to get a land and return two Bloodghast s to the battlefield.
Now, the point of this is not the ruling. I know that the triggers go on the stack and the Bloodghast s return to the battlefield. I looked on Gatherer to determine if the ScOoze gets the counters and the life, and I saw the answer was no.
I then tell my opponent this, and he says that he activated ScOoze on my draw step. Now, the problem with this is that I forget to move the turn thing after the draw step, so it looked to be in the draw step.
We got into a huge argument and I got kicked, but I have a question, and it is: who was at fault? I know that I could have moved the thing to say that I was in my main phase, but as I told my opponent, playing a land is a pretty obvious indicator that I am entering my first main phase. And, what can I learn from this (besides moving the thing to say 1st Main)?
If anybody has any questions about this, ask me, but I hope I've made everything clear enough.
CrazyLittleGuy says... #3
Well, the issue is that you can't respond to playing a land. Playing the land itself doesn't move you from your draw step to your main phase, and while it indicates that you are currently in your main phase, there was no indication of when you moved from draw step to main phase. There's a chance that was his plan all along; to, during draw, eat some things, however you never gave any indication that you were going to be moving into main phase. That's just a problem with Cockatrice. I can see how he was upset.
However, if he indeed did indicate that the activation of Scooze was a response to the triggered ability, he was acknowledging that you had met the circumstances necessary to play the land and thus were in your main phase. So, if the dailog did actually go "trigger on the stack," "response," then he was in the wrong. Whether he used the wrong term or actually misplayed, it was his responsibility to indicate that he had activated that during your draw step, by saying "wait" or "back up" or something to that effect. If he does, then you also can't argue, since you made the mistake of not indicating when you moved to main phase. Then, you have to accept that you basically gave away information for him to decide on his play.
In the future, while it may be slower, it's just easier to click through the steps and phases of your turn to prevent this kind of thing from happening. While he might have been wrong in my opinion this time, you should indicate when you pass priority in some way or another; especially in a circumstance like this, where he clearly has an action he would most likely be planning to do on your turn.
Either way, who was right or wrong doesn't actually matter. It won't do anything to validate your or his actions in this scenario.
October 22, 2014 6:57 p.m.
@CrazyLittleGuy: He responded to the Bloodghast triggers.
Also, the problem isn't that I don't do it. It's that sometimes I forget, and then we have scenarios like this.
October 22, 2014 7:21 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #5
If he literally said "response" or something of that nature, then you're in the right. Clearly he didn't want to do it in draw step. When I want to do something in a phase my opponent skips past, I make sure they know and undo their draw, shuffle, etc. whatever is needed to restore the game state when I want to take an action. Your opponent should have said "draw step" when you played the land if that was his intention.
In the future, it's probably just better to use phases more carefully. I should do that more myself.
October 22, 2014 9:01 p.m.
Yeah, see, this is why I wish I could afford playing standard on MTGO. Unfortunately playing on a free program results in some discrepancies.
Nigeltastic says... #2
And here we see the primary reason I don't play on Cockatrice. There is no enforcement, no conflict resolution, and only relying on the honor and trustworthyness of another random internet denizen (aka statistically 0 of each). Clearly playing a land moved you out of draw step, he even said he was responding to your triggers. If he meant something about your draw step, he should have been more clear.
October 22, 2014 6:36 p.m.