Kogarashi Level 0 Judge

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If the card specifies creatures that you control, or your opponent controls, then you may only target creatures that fit those requirements. If it doesn't specify, then you can target any creature that doesn't have something preventing you from targeting it (hexproof, shroud, protection), regardless of who controls it.

For example:

Eerie Interlude says "exile any number of target creatures you control." This means you can't exile your opponent's creatures, or even your own teammate's creatures in a Two-Headed Giant game.

Vengeful Dreams says (in its Oracle text) "exile X target attacking creatures." This means you can only exile creatures that are attacking.

Curse of the Swine doesn't specify the condition of the creatures you can target with it, so as long as the creature is targetable, you can target it, regardless of who controls it.

In the case of cards like Curse of the Swine that give you tokens in exchange, then per the card's text, for each creature that was exiled, its controller (at the time it was exiled) creates a 2/2 green Boar token. So if you exile one of your cards and one of your opponent's, you would each get a token.

It's also important to note that Ashiok, Nightmare Muse's ultimate only allows you to cast face-up exiled cards your opponents own, not your own. So you can't cast your own imprinted cards unless your opponents own them.

As others have mentioned, Phalanx Leader triggers off of a spell you cast targeting it. This means the object targeting it must be a spell on the stack. It can't be an ability.

Bond Beetle has an ability that triggers when it enters the battlefield, and it's this ability that targets a creature. Since it's an ability and not a spell, it won't trigger Phalanx Leader.

Something that would trigger Phalanx Leader would be an instant like Colossal Heroics, a sorcery like Desperate Stand, or an Aura like Flickering Ward (since Auras always target while they're on the stack).

One way to tell if something is a spell targeting a creature or not for the purposes of the Heroic ability is to look at the wording. Triggered abilities always start with (or contain, in the case of delayed triggered abilities) "When," "Whenever," or "At" (like the Heroic ability on Phalanx Leader and the ETB on Bond Beetle). Triggered abilities will not trigger Heroic. This is also why Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's first ability doesn't work, because it is an ability that triggers on casting; it's not part of a spell resolution.

However, if Player Two realizes they're going to die (due to damage being simultaneous), and they have the mana open, they could pre-emptively take out Player One by sacrificing the Wall of Limbs to its own ability.

You didn't say, but I'm assuming in your hypothetical that Player One has enough unblocked damage to kill Player Two.

manbearpig9001, Mortarpod did mention it in the first line; I just missed it, and thus misunderstood the question.

Relevant rule for why Corpsejack Menace's ability would not apply:

• 604.7. Unlike spells and other kinds of abilities, static abilities can’t use an object’s last known information for purposes of determining how their effects are applied.

Corpsejack's ability is a static ability (replacement effect), and thus in order to work, it must be on the battlefield. Devouring it means it's no longer on the battlefield for its ability to function at the appropriate time.

Ah, I see you mean devouring Corpsejack Menace itself. Missed that the first time.

You would not get the doubling effect if you sacrifice Corpsejack Menace to Mycoloth's Devour ability. This is because by the time you would be placing the counters on Mycoloth, Corpsejack Menace is no longer on the battlefield for its replacement effect to apply.

The act of entering the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it still qualifies for counters being placed, which implicates the doubling effect of Corpsejack Menace and similar cards like Doubling Season and Primal Vigor.

From the Gatherer rulings for Corpsejack Menace:

• If a creature you control would enter the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it, it enters with twice that many instead. (2017-11-17)

SquirrelPenguin, not quite all the colors in the text box. Reminder text doesn't count, which is why Crypt Ghast can be run in a mono-black deck.

Hence why the rule I quoted doesn't say "text box," it says "rules text" and "characteristic-defining abilities" for that portion of the card.

I assume you're attacking with Saskia the Unyielding. It's worth noting that Saskia's ability will trigger whenever any creature you control deals combat damage to any player. But for the sake of this example, we'll say Saskia's controller just attacks with Saskia herself.

Assuming Saskia actually deals her damage to the defending player, the replacement effect on Gisela, Blade of Goldnight implicates. Saskia will deal double damage instead, for a total of 6 damage to the defending player. Because a creature you control (Saskia) dealt damage to a player, Saskia's ability triggers. When it resolves, the same creature that dealt damage to trigger the ability in the first place will then deal "that much" damage to the chosen player. In this case, "that much" damage should be 6, because that's how much was done to the defending player, but Gisela's replacement effect implicates again (it's a new instance of a source dealing damage to an opponent), and doubles it, for 12.

As I mentioned, it doesn't have to be Saskia attacking. You could attack with a 1/1 Goblin token and the same abilities would work (as long as the goblin is damaging a player somehow). Also you could attack the chosen player and Saskia's ability would still trigger and cause extra damage to be dealt.

It's important to realize that Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is also a land (that's why you don't "cast" it), which means it benefits from its own ability and can tap for black mana.

All gaining a basic land type like "Swamp" does is give it that ability to tap for that basic type's mana, and count as that type of land if something is counting "number of ___ you control" (like Mutilate, which counts your Swamps, including any lands that aren't normally Swamps but are now thanks to Urborg) or effects like Landwalk (Urborg means all your opponents now have Swamps, so if you've got things with Swampwalk, such as via Filth, they're unblockable as long as Urborg is on the battlefield).

Please use double square brackets to link cards in your question. It makes it easier for everyone to understand the question, especially with so many cards referenced. Like so:

[[Darien, King of Kjeldor]], [[Aetherflux Reservoir]], [[Worship]], [[Serra the Benevolent]], [[Anointer Priest]]

You can't get the combo to start the way you want. Per the rules, you can't pay more life than you have. Since you have 36 life, you can't activate Aetherflux Reservoir's ability to damage yourself.

• 119.4. If a cost or effect allows a player to pay an amount of life greater than 0, the player may do so only if their life total is greater than or equal to the amount of the payment. If a player pays life, the payment is subtracted from their life total; in other words, the player loses that much life. (Players can always pay 0 life.)

If you have 50 life, you could activate the ability, but state-based actions would remove you from the game for having 0 life before any of your effects could resolve.

However, if we assume you have 51 life, then the combo should work as you want it to. Aetherflux Reservoir deals damage, which implicates Worship as long as you have a creature (Darien). You would pay 50 life to activate the Reservoir's ability, leaving you at 1 life.

When the Reservoir's ability resolves, it deals damage to you that would reduce your life total to less than 1, so Worship replaces that with your life total going to 1 instead. It doesn't prevent the damage, so Darien's ability triggers.

When Darien's ability resolves, you create 50 tokens. Since they enter the battlefield, Anointer Priest triggers 50 times, and when each resolves, you gain life, bringing you back up to 51.

All this relies on your opponents not interfering. While they can't damage you to make you lose due to Worship, 1 life is still a precarious position with all those triggers that need to resolve before you're in a safe position again, and all it takes is an instant-speed spell that causes you to lose life, rather than take damage (like Geth's Verdict or Misery Charm).

You do not need to target additional creatures.

The ability of Battlefield Thaumaturge is a cost reducer that affects only the generic portion of the mana cost of a spell.

When casting Open Into Wonder, as part of the order of casting the spell, you will choose your targets (four creatures), and then determine the total cost of the spell. In this case, it starts at for four targets, then gets a discount of due to the two Thaumaturges. Since it only affects the generic portion, and a cost can't be reduced to less than , this leaves you with a spell cost of . The additional discounts are effectively "wasted" (though honestly casting a 6-mana spell for 2 mana is good).

The discounts do not require you to choose additional targets for the spell, any more than a Mana Flare affecting your mana production wouldn't require you to choose more just to spend the mana.

No, you will not be able to pay the cost of the creature, because it no longer has manifest affecting it. The manifest effect ends when you turn it face-up the first time. Since Ixidron merely flips it face-down, only morph, megamorph, or another effect that turns cards face-up can flip it face-up again.

• 701.33a To manifest a card, turn it face down. It becomes a 2/2 face-down creature card with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost. Put that card onto the battlefield face down. That permanent is a manifested permanent as long as it remains face down. The effect defining its characteristics works while the card is face down and ends when it’s turned face up.

No. General Tazri has a five-color identity.

• 903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that card’s mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204).

While her color may be white, her identity is WUBRG because of the five mana symbols in her rules text.

Yes, you can mill your deck this way.

To explain the rulings, the first is simply explaining that only the controller of Mirror-Mad Phantasm (or whatever creature has gained its ability in some fashion) may activate its ability. You can't activate the ability of a Phantasm an opponent controls just to get rid of it or mill part of their library. (However, since it's shuffled into its owner's library, you could steal someone else's Phantasm and then activate its ability to mill part of their library.)

The third ruling, on the other hand, is explaining that if something is able to gain Phantasm's ability (such as Necrotic Ooze gaining the ability or Lazav, the Multifarious copying the Phantasm), it doesn't change which card the ability is looking for when you start revealing cards in your library. It says "card named Mirror-Mad Phantasm," not just "until you reveal Mirror-Mad Phantasm." The latter is interpreted in game rules as "until you reveal [this card]," which would mean revealing Necrotic Ooze or Lazav in the case of copied abilities. It's also not feasible to track through a hidden zone. So the ability looks for a card with the same name, and that name doesn't change just because the ability ended up on a differently-named creature.

There's no contradiction. You can only activate the ability if you control the creature it's on, and when you reveal cards in your library, you're looking specifically for any card named "Mirror-Mad Phantasm" regardless of which creature had the ability when you activated it.

The second ruling is relevant to your question. Once the ability starts resolving, Lazav, the Multifarious would be shuffled into your library. It stops being a copy of Phantasm at this point, but even if it didn't, Lazav retains its own name while copying a creature, so unless you somehow have a duplicate Mirror-Mad Phantasm in your library, you'll end up revealing your whole library without revealing Phantasm, and then your whole library gets dumped in your graveyard.

• If no card named Mirror-Mad Phantasm is revealed (possibly because it was a card copying Mirror-Mad Phantasm or it was a token), all cards from that library will be put into their owner’s graveyard. (2011-09-22)

Ah, Rhadamanthus, I missed that when looking. Thank you.

As a note, an easy way to tell what type of card an effect like this is looking for is this:

If a card just says "for each ____" (for each Land, for each Creature, for each Elf, for each Forest, etc.), then you'll look along the type line for the relevant word, usually among permanents on the battlefield.

If a card wants you to check card names, then it would say "for each card named ___" (for each card named Forest, etc.).

However, proliferate still helps by increasing the number of verse counters before the next time you cast an instant or sorcery.

Other than that, as Raging_Squiggle said, it triggers off of the casting of an instant/sorcery, and thus would go on the stack before the aforementioned spell and resolve first, so if the instant/sorcery had proliferate, it would proliferate the verse counters after Aria of Flame had already triggered and resolved.

You count lands that specifically have the Forest type on the type line. This would not only include the Forest basic lands, but also Snow-Covered Forest, dual lands like Bayou, Ravnica duals like Breeding Pool, Zendikar duals like Canopy Vista, etc.

If you search the Gatherer or Scryfall for anything with "Forest" on the type line, you'll find everything that qualifies for Blanchwood Armor. Here's a link to the search on Scryfall:

All cards with "Forest" on the type line (Scryfall search)

You'll notice that Sunpetal Grove and Oran-Rief, the Vastwood don't have "Forest" on the type line. They don't count.

Also, one card on that search is a Land Creature (Dryad Arbor), but it still has the Forest subtype and thus still counts.

Yet Another Aether Vortex doesn't specify that the card enters the battlefield, just that it is on the battlefield, so I would say no, Boomstacker doesn't enter the battlefield and thus gets no dice. It just is on the battlefield already.

It's like how Masterful Ninja's first ability doesn't actually trigger any ETB abilities (per its rulings), it's just on the battlefield and in your hand simultaneously until end of turn.