"Prevent all damage that would be dealt by Deserts " and text changing abilitys
Asked by UniqueUserID 8 years ago
I've always wondered how the protection offered by Desert Nomads works against Desert. In which of these ways does it work?
1) Does it simply give protection from any damage by any land with the sub type desert? What if somehow this Desert becomes animated as a creature? Does he take no damage from it?
2) Or does it protect you from cards named "Desert"? So if Blood Moon was on the field turning the Desert into a mountain, then this was being animated, would Desert Nomads be unharmed? (Or the ol' Camel if he was attacking in a band)
Thanks for reading
Raging_Squiggle says... Accepted answer #2
1) the land will still have the subtype "desert" when animated. And Desert Nomads will still be unblockable due to Desertwalk, and will be immune to damage dealt by Desert's tap ability.
2) if Blood Moon is on the battlefield, all non-basic lands lose their subtypes and gain the mountain subtype. In addition, any abilities those lands may have had are now gone due to them being mountains. Here is a ruling from gatherer regarding blood moon:
6/7/2013
Nonbasic lands will lose any other land types and abilities they had. They will become Mountains and gain the ability "T: Add R to your mana pool."
Therefore, Desert Nomads will be able to be blocked due to its Desertwalk being useless(because land walk checks the land type, not the name of the land), but your Desert will no longer have its tap ability to deal damage to the creature.
Hope this helps!
October 22, 2015 12:10 p.m.
1/ Protection is easily remembered with DEBT. A permanent with protection from X cannot be:
Damaged by X, Enchanted by X, Blocked by X and Targeted by X
Yes, any land with the subtype Desert is a Desert.
2/ No, because the land is no longer desert, it is a Mountain.
3/ In order of the multiple questions here:
Yes, in this hypothetical scenario, they would have protection from swamps.
These cards do not change the names of permanents.
They would not have swampwalk, as it is a completely different ability, unrelated to portection. They would not take damage from swamps.
October 22, 2015 12:12 p.m.
Since I cannot edit, the final bulletpoint should say:
Yes, they would have swampwalk. All instatnces of the word in the text are replaced. They would not take damage from swamps.
October 22, 2015 12:17 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #5
As to your second query, if such a card existed whereas you could change the wording of text from one non-basic land type to another non-basic land type, the name of the card would remain Desert Nomads. If you read the example cards you provided, it says "change the text..." The name is not part of the text of a card. The text is normally under the picture, where abilities, flavor, and/or wordings are located.
Now, it's Desertwalk would change to whatever you decided, perhaps Locus, or Gate. it would gain locuswalk or gatewalk (respectively). It's second ability would be also changed to "prevent damage dealt by gates/locus/whatever".
!Note: although the text of Desert Nomads states its name in its own text, that instance is considered it saying [this card] and not really saying the name, so that instance of "desert" remains unchanged.
October 22, 2015 12:21 p.m.
UniqueUserID says... #6
Wait... so does Desert Nomads have PROTECTION from Desert's? I thought it was just damage. Is it just bad oracle wording?
So Barbed Field and Chamber of Manipulation and the like could not even target him AND he cannot be blocked or damaged by animated desserts?
October 22, 2015 12:28 p.m.
Desert Nomads does NOT have protection from Deserts, it only prevents damage from them. But it would not be able to be blocked by an animated Desert because the Nomads have Desertwalk.
October 22, 2015 12:31 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #8
Barbed Field and Chamber of Manipulation can target Desert Nomads, because he doesn't have protection from Desert. He merely is immune to damage dealt by it. So, if you used Barbed Field's ability, it would resolve but nothing would happen because it was prevented damage dealt by Desert through the enchantment. You could gain control of Desert Nomads all you want, cause no protection.
UniqueUserID says... #1
Just occurred to me I never mentioned the text changing question!
3) If a card was released like Crystal Spray and Magical Hack BUT could target non-basic lands, if I named Island would Desert Nomads become Swamp Nomads? Would his name change? And he would have swampwalk and take no damage from any swamp (either animated or enchanted)?
October 22, 2015 12:01 p.m.