I'm Mike, from The Mana Pool.

I first learned to play around the release of Ice Age (1995-ish) and was strongly involved with playing casually and at local events until early 2020, when I had to back off for obvious reasons. I got back into playing a little bit in 2022 with a few prereleases and casual meet-ups here and there and I still enjoy keeping up with Magic news and new sets.

As a general rule, my deckbuilding is influenced far more than it should be by what I think would be "interesting/fun/funny" instead of what's probably the better choice of cards. The friend who first taught me how to play had a very strong philosophy of "Not every card is good, but pretty much any card can be made good" and the casual groups I spent the most time playing with over the years were always keen on figuring out how to make effective game plans from odd ideas. It was all immensely fun and it's still a big influence on my approach to the game.

I also tend to design and build strictly from my existing collection. If there's a good card for a deck that I don't have in a list, there's a good chance I don't own any, but please suggest it anyway so that maybe I'll remember to go out and find it.

I was a DCI-certified Rules Advisor under older versions of the Magic Judge program and I still keep up with new mechanics and rules changes. I'm the "rules guy" of my casual play group and I like to hang out in the Rules Q&A area here on Tapped Out. If you notice a mistake in one of my responses, don't be shy about pointing it out because above all else, I want whatever question I'm responding to to be answered correctly!

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The window is closed. Because Idris' ability triggers when it enters the battlefield, by the time the trigger resolves it's too late for any ETBs it gains from the Imprint to also trigger from that event. But hey, if you exile Meteor Golem you have a 10/10, which is pretty cool.

March 13, 2024 2:52 p.m.

Sojiro888: An answer to your question has been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question.

March 13, 2024 9:20 a.m.

Yes, the ability will trigger whenever an opponent draws a card for any reason. It would need to be written in a more specific way if it was only meant to trigger for specific situations.

March 13, 2024 9:17 a.m.

Said on Nekusar...

#4

Skovkaj255: No, that won't work. The Monarch only triggers for combat damage, which is specifically the power-based damage dealt by an attacking (or blocking) creature during combat. Damage from abilities doesn't count.

FYI: If you have a question, it's much more effective to start a new question topic versus responding to a very old one. The way this site works, making a response to an old question topic doesn't move it to the top of the list, meaning the only people who will really see it are the ones who have previously replied to the topic and haven't turned off notifications for new replies.

March 13, 2024 9:10 a.m.

Some more detail behind the answer: When an effect mentions a permanent type or subtype ("creature", "land", "elf", "equipment" etc.) without specifically saying something like "card in [a zone]" then it only means permanents of that type on the battlefield. In order for Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth to affect land cards in other zones, it would have to be written in a similar way to what Conspiracy says for creatures.

March 11, 2024 9:15 a.m.

This took some time to be confident in the answer and I went back and forth a few times. The way I read the rules about it, this won't work. This comes from the detailed rule for paying life as a cost and the detailed rule for how multiple simultaneous actions are performed during the resolution of a spell or ability:

118.3b Paying life is done by subtracting the indicated amount of life from a player’s life total. (Players can always pay 0 life.)

608.2f Some spells and abilities include actions taken on multiple players and/or objects. In most cases, each such action is processed simultaneously. If the action can’t be processed simultaneously, it’s instead processed considering each affected player or object individually. APNAP order is used to make the primary determination of the order of those actions. Secondarily, if the action is to be taken on both a player and an object they control or on multiple objects controlled by the same player, the player who controls the resolving spell or ability chooses the relative order of those actions.

Because the actions all get executed at the same time, the player will lose the life from Killing Wave all in one go, meaning Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin will only trigger if an opponent pays just 1 life total this way.

This might be the least confident I've been in an answer to a rules question in a long time but no one else seems to want to touch it and it's the best I was able to come up with.

March 8, 2024 2:43 p.m.

Said on What happens if …...

#7

I just remembered to check for the Release Notes. They came out last week: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/magic-the-gathering-fallout-release-notes

The last note given for V.A.T.S. confirms my initial thoughts:

  • In the rare case where the legal targets no longer all have equal toughness (probably because of a triggered ability or special action) when V.A.T.S. tries to resolve, it won't resolve. None of the chosen creatures will be destroyed.
March 7, 2024 9:31 a.m.

Said on Is there any …...

#8

If you're doing it as part of a lock-down strategy for your opponents, Bazaar of Wonders and Eye of Singularity don't make things Legendary, specifically, but they troll from a similar angle. Note that since they're both World enchantments they can't be on the battlefield at the same time (the "World Rule" is a weird cousin to the "Legend Rule").

March 5, 2024 9:38 a.m.

Some more details behind sergiodelrio's answer: If an effect from a resolving spell or activated/triggered ability (Shadowspear, Bonds of Mortality, etc.) changes the characteristics of objects, the set of objects it affects is "locked in" at the time it resolves. If new objects appear later on, they aren't affected. On the other hand, an effect from a static ability (Archetype of Endurance, etc.) continuously updates the set of objects it affects as new things show up.

Another note: If an effect from a resolving spell or activated/triggered ability changes the rules of the game (e.g. "creatures can't block this turn") then the set of objects it affects is not locked in on resolution and it will still apply to new objects that show up later in its duration.

March 4, 2024 8:58 a.m. Edited.

To be clear about how this works: Just casting All Will Be One by itself won't start the combo. When you cast it, Firebrand Archer triggers, then when the Archer's trigger resolves, Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin will trigger, but when Ob Nixilis' trigger resolves AWBO is still a spell on the stack. It's not on the battlefield yet and can't trigger yet from your opponent losing life. You need to cast another noncreature spell once AWBO has actually resolved and is on the battlefield in order to get things rolling.

March 1, 2024 10:30 a.m.

No, it's not a triggered ability. Rather, it's a replacement effect generated by a static ability. Effects that specifically interact with triggered abilities can't do anything with it.

Triggered abilities are always written to start with one of the words "when", "whenever" or "at". Activated abilities are always written in the form "[cost] : [effect]". Anything else is some kind of static ability. Replacement effects can be identified by the use of "as", "with", "instead" or "prevent", as well as a few other less common constructions.

February 29, 2024 5:36 p.m.

It's the second one. Krenko's ability and Three Dog's ability are both triggered abilities that trigger from the same event and will try to go onto the stack at the same time. Since you control them both, you get to choose the order.

To be clear: you aren't "activating" Three Dog's ability because it's not an activated ability (written in the form "[cost] : [effect]"), but a triggered ability (written to start with "when/whenever/at"). The and sacrifice of the aura isn't an activation cost, but rather an optional cost you can pay during the resolution of the trigger in order to get the rest of the effect.

February 28, 2024 9:09 a.m.

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5-Color

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Finished Decks 106
Prototype Decks 7
Drafts 2
Playing since Ice Age
Points 1249
Avg. deck rating 10.59
T/O Rank 12
Helper Rank 37
Cards suggested / good suggestions 57 / 46
Venues Lucky's Card Shop, The Toy Factory
Cards Added/Fixed 9
Joined 13 years