Can Equinox counter board wipes such as Wrath of God.
Asked by Pheardemons 7 years ago
Scenario: I am playing Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper. Let's say I have five untapped animated lands, one of which Equinox is enchanted on.
On Gatherer I have a question about one of the rulings.
10/4/2004 - Equinox will not counter a spell which would indirectly cause destruction of one of your lands.
Do board wipes such as Wrath of God directly kill the lands (being that they are now animated) or is this something that would be indirect.
Also, if anyone can answer, what is "direct destroy?" Being targeted?
Indirectly destroying a land would be, for example, to cast a Lightning Bolt onto one of your animated 3/3 lands, causing it to have damage equal to or higher than it's toughness marked on it and therefore being destroyed by state-based actions - however, not by the Bolt itself.
Direct destruction are effects that use the term "destroy", such as Wrath of God does. Equinox only cares about these types of effects.
As for your main question, there's a certain Gatherer ruling that's very helpful here:
When the activated ability resolves, determine whether the targeted spell would destroy a land if it resolved right then. If it would, then counter that spell. Otherwise, it is not countered, even if the spell could, under other circumstances, destroy a land.
If you have a Land that's also a creature when the ability resolves, Wrath of God would destroy a creature, therefore is countered by the ability of Equinox. If your opponent, in response to you activating the ability, decides to kill your only land creature with a Bolt, Wrath of God will not be countered, as you now only control nonland creatures.
Neotrup says... Accepted answer #1
9/20/2013 When the activated ability resolves, determine whether the targeted spell would destroy a land if it resolved right then. If it would, then counter that spell. Otherwise, it is not countered, even if the spell could, under other circumstances, destroy a land.
So as long as Wrath of God would destroy one of your lands right then and there (as you're commander choice suggests it would), Equinox will counter Wrath of God. Indirect destruction seems to be referring to if the spell's resolution would trigger an event that would result in the destruction of your land (such as casting Acidic Slime), or if instead of Wrath of God it were Chain Reaction, as damage causes the game rules to destroy the land as a state based action rather than the result of the spell.
March 23, 2017 3:22 a.m.