#MTGrules

[magicjudge]

I know the official rulings aren't out yet, but does Reprieve from Tales of Middleearth counter the spell it returns?

No.

Reprieve does exactly what it says it does: It puts the targeted spell back into its owner's hand from the stack. That's all.

If it countered the spell, it would have the same template as Remand, which it doesn't. The fundamental difference between the two is that Reprieve can affect uncounterable spells and won't trigger things like Baral that care about spells being countered.

Disclaimer: This answer is correct under the rules at time of posting, but concerns a card from an upcoming set. The rules may change when that set releases and invalidate this answer. (I severely doubt it in this case, however.)

[thecommandertable]

So You've Got A Magic Rules Question

When I google "magic rules question" the first result I get is a page from Wizards of the Coast Customer Service.

It gives some links to "learn to play" resources, a rephrasing of "Reading the Card Explains the Card" (lol), a link to Gatherer (ew), the Comprehensive Rules Document (296 pages long), and then at the bottom says:

Which is kind of funny. "Yes, we're the company that makes this card game. No, we won't tell you how it works." Could Wizards of the Coast employ people to answer players' rules questions? Yes, yes they could. Will they? No, because there are already lots of people doing it online for free, and they're pretty damn good at it. But It would be a little gauche for WoTC to redirect people to these community-run services from their own Customer Service website, so instead they do that at the end of the "Judging at Regular" document, provided on the Wizards Play Network website.

Shade at WoTC aside—these are actually helpful. I'm going to talk about these first two and a couple of other options.

AskAJudge - chat.magicjudges.org

This old-school internet chat room is an incredible resource. It was down for a while, but it's back now, and (usually) full of real Magic judges. Hop on in, give it a few seconds to make sure another question isn't currently being asked, then ask your question. You should get a response within a couple of minutes at most.

#mtg_rules_chat in the Magic: The Gathering Official Discord Server

In order to see the #mtg_rules_chat channel in this server, you'll first need to go to the #roles channel and respond with a thumbs up to the "Planeswalker Roles" post. You'll see rules answers being asked and answered here too. This channel is a little more public-facing than the AskAJudge chatroom, so there's a small chance you could get a response from a well-meaning but misinformed user—I recommend backreading the channel a little to get a sense of who the common question-answerers are. Don't worry: if an incorrect answer is given, there should be enough informed folks in the channel to correct it.

r/mtgrules and r/askajudge

I know Reddit isn't everyone's cup of tea, but hey, it works (mostly). And it's a lot easier to come back to and reference if you need to; maybe you've got a weird rules interaction in a Commander deck that people question you about on the regular—having a link to the relevant Reddit thread is a lot easier than trying to use Discord's search function to find that time you asked about that interaction a few months back.

Me!

My asks here on Tumblr are open! Unless I'm traveling, I should be able to get back to you within 24 hours. My rules knowledge isn't as deep as some of the judges who hang out in the AskAJudge chat or the #mtg_rules_chat discord channel; sometimes it will take me longer to find the correct answer. But if you're interested in not just how a particular rules interaction works but also why, this is a good place to ask, as I can go into greater detail with my responses.

Some advice for asking rules questions, regardless of where you do the asking:

Be polite. People are volunteering their time and expertise, and a quick "thank you" is appropriate, whether or not you receive the answer that you might have been hoping for.

Try to make your question as specific as possible, and use uniquely-identifiable card names. The question "How do mana doublers work with Boseiju?" will need some things clarified before a proper answer can be given: which Boseiju are we talking about—Boseiju, Who Shelters All or Boseiju, Who Endures? And as far as "mana doublers" go, are we talking about something like Heartbeat of Spring or something like Mana Reflection? These things can make a big difference!

Keep your questions grounded in the realm of possibility. That is, don't make up convoluted hypothetical situations that have next to no chance of coming up in a game of Magic just for the sake of stumping a judge. I'm not going to spend my time answering questions about Panglacial Wurm or Shelkin Brownie unless you're actually playing with or against them.

[ruleslawyermtg]

Introductions

Hi! My name is Skye and I'm a Magic: the Gathering rules afficianado and Judge from Colorado.

Since @magicjudge stopped posting, I've wished for another blog like hers. I'm just a dork who loves teaching people more about her favorite game, but I hope this blog will help to answer some of Magic's complicated rules questions.

Feel free to drop your rules questions, magic asks, fun stories, or whatever else!

Hope to see ya around!

[chumblywumbly]

This post from 2016 came up on reddit recently: https://reddit.com/r/mtg/s/wmx3UYn7n1

In 2018 the game rules (608.2b is the relevant one here) were altered to avoid the word “counter” and instead say “If all its targets, for every instance of the word "target," are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn't resolve.” This is functionally the same as “counter” but is less confusing with spells that say can’t be countered. (Instants, sorceries and abilities that couldn’t be countered at the time said “by spells and abilities”, which still allowed for the game rules to counter it. It’s now not necessary to say that, so they got errata’d)

If you blink out a creature when it's the target of a spell, does the spell disappear or does it keep targeting said creature?

Neither.

The blinked creature returns to the battlefield as a new object. This means that it’s not the same creature that the spell was targeting and the spell won’t be able to affect it if/when it resolves.

When the spell goes to resolve, the creature it was targeting is no longer on the battlefield and thus not a legal target. If that was the spell’s only target (or all of the spell’s other targets are also illegal now), then the spell will be countered instead of resolving. If the spell had other targets and at least one of those targets is still legal, then the spell will resolve and do as much as it can to the remaining legal targets.

For example, if your opponent casts Searing Blaze targeting both you and a creature you control, and then you blink that creature with your Eldrazi Displacer, the blinked creature won’t be a legal target for Searing Blaze but since Searing Blaze also targets you and you’re still a legal target for it, it will still resolve and deal damage to you.

[magicjudge]

How quickly do you respond to requests? Like for a game in progress? Does phasing in count as entering the battlefield, and does it give summoning sickness to creatures?

There’s only one person running this blog, so I’m obviously not able to immediately answer questions at all hours. This blog isn’t intended for answering questions that require absolutely immediate answers. I will usually get to your question within 48 hours as long as I’m not out of town or busy with other judge stuff, i.e. judging events.

If you ever need an immediate answer to a rules question, you can always go to IRC to the #mtgrules channel on EFNET. If you don’t know what IRC is, just use this link for easy access: http://chat.magicjudges.org/mtgrules/

And finally for your question, phasing in doesn’t count as either entering or leaving the battlefield and it doesn’t make creatures summoning sick.

[strain-of-thought]

Oh hey! I've done this wrong. Good to know.

If my opponent plays the archetype of courage and then I play the archetype of courage do neither of us get first strike? Do we both get first strike? or does the first player only get first strike?

One of Magic’s golden rules is that “Can’t Beats Can.” This means that an effect that says that something can’t happen beats an effect that says that that thing can happen.

In this situation, it means that the second ability of your opponent’s Archetype of Courage overrides the first ability of your Archetype of Courage and vice versa and none of the creatures either of you control can have or gain first strike.