Common Questions

If you’ve played Magic at all, you know that it can be an intricate game. Just learning all of the parts of a turn can take some time. After a while, you know that creatures and lands can only be played during your turn during one of your main phases, while instants can be cast at pretty much any time. Most people that play Magic know how those things work. When you move beyond that, though, quite a few people are not really sure on how many of the rules work. Every week over on /r/MagicTCG there is a question thread, and each week many of the same questions are asked. I’m going to take some time to address some of the more common questions, particularly ones that involve situations you’re likely to see in a typical game.

Q. I’m playing my green deck, and I have an Elvish Mystic in it. Am I able to use it to find a forest the turn I play it?

A. There are two points about this to address. First, any activated ability on a creature that has the tap symbol can only be activated if you’ve controlled that creature since the beginning of that turns upkeep or if your creature has haste. With the Elvish Mystic you would need to wait until the turn after you play it. Second, it sounds like you are confusing your mana pool with your lands. Think of each land as a machine. Whenever you tap it, it adds one coin to a bowl, your mana pool. Those coins can be spent to cast spells until the end of the current phase, when the bowl gets dumped out. Elvish Mystic allows you to tap it to add one “green” coin to the bowl, just like your lands. An example of a card that does what you’re thinking of would be Rampant Growth.

Q. My friend is always using his Elvish Mystic to get out big dudes really fast. Can I kill his guy with a Lightning Strike when he uses it to keep him from getting his mana?

A. Unfortunately, you can’t do it as you described. I’m going to ask you to think about a Voyaging Satyr untapping a land, which is a similar effect. When he activates the ability, it goes on the stack. You are given a chance to respond with an Instant or an ability of your own, but at this point the effect is completely separate from the thing that created it. Think of it like someone throwing a grenade at you. Even if you shoot them right afterward, the grenade is still on its way. The reason I asked you to think of a Voyaging Satyr is that Elvish Mystic has what is called a mana ability. This is a little different than most abilities you’re used to, since it doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to. In either case though, if you want to stop your opponent from playing his big dude you’ll need to be a little creative. Your best option is probably to use the Lightning Strike during his upkeep. Unless he wants to cast an Instant or creature with flash, he’ll be unable to use any mana from the creature to pay for it, since his mana pool empties before his main phase.

Q. I attacked my friend with my Nessian Asp, because I forgot that he had an untapped Elvish Mystic. He blocked my creature, but I used a Shock to kill the elf. Do I deal any damage to him?

A. Not unless you have some way to give your Nessian Asp trample. Only a creature with trample can deal damage to a player if it’s blocked. If it did have trample, it would deal damage as if it hadn’t been blocked at all. It would assign lethal damage to all zero creatures blocking it, then assign the rest to the player.

Q. My friend blocked my Polis Crusher with his Soldier of the Pantheon. How much damage do I deal? I say that since the soldier has protection from multicolor I can’t deal any damage to it so I deal all of it to my friend, but my friend says that since no amount of damage can kill the soldier he doesn’t take any damage.

A. You guys are both wrong. When a creature with trample is blocked, it needs to assign damage to the creatures blocking it. This damage assignment ignores any other effects like indestructible or protection. All that matters is that it would be able to kill the creature without those effects. So if you have a Nessian Courser out and your opponent casts a Drown in Sorrow, they’ll need to assign 1 damage to your courser if it blocks one of their tramplers. In the case you gave, the Polis Crusher would assign 1 damage to the Soldier of the Pantheon and 3 damage to the defending player. It’s also worth mentioning that the damage from the Polis Crusher is not actually dealt to the Soldier. This is important if something had given the Polis Crusher lifelink, like an Azorius Charm. You would only gain 3 life off the attack.

Obviously, these are only examples of the sort of question that you might have. If you think of any other questions, feel free to swing by the shop or ask us on our Facebook page! If you’re in the middle of a match and need an answer right away, the fastest option is to head to chat.magicjudges.org to ask your question.