You absolutely do not need to learn the old rules and rulings to play Original Type II, but you might want to or just be curious. While this doesn’t cover the entirety of the D’Angelo rulings summary’s differences with current rules (as of November 2016), those summaries where bloated with self-evident and completely unnecessary explications and those ignored would almost never be of use. This assumes you’re accustomed with modern rules, not that you’re a level-3 judge. That means that whatever question you may have that isn’t answered here probably would have been answered in a functionally equivalent way back then as the current rules would. While it’s no absolute substitute for the entire rules, this should be enough for casual games. If you encounter problems that you feel should be included there, comment.

1) The stack : when all players are done adding spells and activities on the stack, the stack will resolve like it does today with one notable exception : you can’t add anything to it !

EXAMPLE : Joe play against Jane. Jane plays a Swords to Plowshares on his Serendib Efreet. In response he activates his Jayemdae Tome. Then they resolve the stack, first he draws his card : it’s an Unsummon ! He casts it on his Efreet to save it ? NO. With the old rules he can’t use it before the StP resolves, because the stack is resolving. Too bad, should have activated the tome earlier maybe ?

2 ) Interrupts. That’s a type of cards we don’t have anymore. When someone casts a spell, then, right then immediately is when one can use an interrupt to counter it, Fork it or change its color, its text etc. Some interrupts, like a Blue Elemental Blast targeting a red permanent may be played outside of the “interrupt a spell” window, though. Interrupts don’t go on the stack. Once I decline to interrupt a spell or ability there won’t be any other time for me to interrupt it.

EXAMPLE 1 : Joe plays against Jane. Jane plays a Swords to Plowshares on his Serendib Efreet. In response he activates his Jayemdae Tome. Then they resolve the stack, he draws his card first : it’s a Spell Blast ! He casts it on the StP ? NO, too late. Definitely should consider activating the tome earlier.

EXAMPLE 2 : Joe this time doesn’t activate his Tome, he has a Power Sink in hand and the mana to Counter Jane’s StP with it so he does. She answers by tapping two plains and disenchanting Joe’s Tome ? No, she can tap the plains, as tapping lands is done at interrupt speed (otherwise you couldn’t play interrupt unless you’d already have the mana in your mana pool beforehand), but the Power Sink is an interrupt and won’t wait to resolve until players are done adding spells and effects to the stack, they resolve before that. By the time Jane can play non-interrupts spells or abilities, the Power Sink will have resolved, emptying Jane’s mana pool. Jane therefore cannot disenchant the Tome using her lands in that case. And just like that, Power Sink makes sense again ! 🙂

3) Interrupts, round 2, Fork Edition. The active player’s interrupt will resolve first, even if they’re played before the opponent’s interrupts.

EXAMPLE : Joe interrupts his Fireball by Forking it. Jane interrupts the Fireball too, by countering it, doing a two-for-one ? NO, the Fork resolves first, then the counterspell. Fork was stronger that way. But it could only target instants or sorceries, therefore it couldn’t be used to counter a Counterspell by copying it as counters are interrupts. Fork was weaker that way.

4) Damage resolution. Damage coming from a stack resolution actually gets dealt with after the stack resolves.

EXAMPLE : Jane plays a Giant Growth on her Kird Ape. Joe responds by casting a Lightning Bolt on the ape, two-for-one for Joe ? NO. By the time the damage will be dealt with inside the damage resolution step, the Giant Growth will have resolved, giving the ape enough thoughness to survive the Bolt’s damage. Giant Growth was a better card that way.

5) Upkeep management. During your upkeep you simply decide when to activate upkeep effects and upkeep costs.

EXAMPLE 1 : Jane plays a Black Vise. Joe has a Disenchant in hand but hasn’t got the mana to cast it during her turn. During his upkeep, he taps two plais and disenchants the Vise and since he hasn’t activated it, he doesn’t take damage from it.

EXAMPLE 2 : Jane plays Energy Flux. Joe has a Disenchant in hand but hasn’t got the mana to cast it during her turn. During his upkeep, he taps two plais and disenchants the Energy Flux. He hasn’t got to pay the upkeep cost for any of his artifacts since there’s no Energy Flux to give them an upkeep costs.

6) Upkeep costs. You can’t use a card until its upkeep costs has been paid. (note that untap costs like from cards such as Paralyze aren’t Upkeep Costs, even if they specify that they must be paid during upkeep, or else).

EXAMPLE : Jane plays Energy Flux. Joe has a Disenchant in hand but hasn’t got the mana to cast it during her turn. During his upkeep, he taps one plain and one Fellwar Stone and disenchants the Energy Flux. He hasn’t got to pay the upkeep cost for any of his artifacts since there’s no Energy Flux to give them an upkeep costs ? Wrong, he has to go back as the action was impossible. He couldn’t use the Fellwar Stone to get mana until the Upkeep Cost for it had been dealt with. He would need another non-artifact source of mana it would seem.

7) Mana Burn. At the end of any phases, and at the beginning or end of combat, any remaining mana in a player’s mana pool deals one point of damage to them, although they do it in a single shot of combined colorless damage. The phases are Untap, Upkeep, Draw, Main, Discard, Inform Opponent and Heal Creatures.

8) Tapped Blocking Creatures don’t assign combat damage.

EXAMPLE : Joe blocks Jane’s Grizzly Bears with his Prodigal Sorcerer, he then taps his “Tim” to deal one point of damage to add to his one point of power and trade ? NO, if he taps it before combat damage gets dealt with, he won’t deal any combat damage because he would be a tapped blocker then.

9) Triggers. They don’t exist yet. What would look to you like a triggered effect is actually a continuous effect. And those don’t go on the stack. They just resolve -immediately.

10) Dying. Players don’t die because of lack of life points immediately but either at the end of a phase or at the beginning or end of an attack.

10) Banding. Banding doesn’t exist. Nobody plays banding. Ever. That’s an universal law of nature.

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