Planeswalker Tricks and Sideboarding Notes

About Riccardo Tessitori

Riccardo Tessitori

Riccardo Tessitori is a level 5 judge from Italy; he judged more than fifty Professional events, headjudged 10 Grand Prix and has just started headjudging Pro Tours, such as:

• Pro Tour Kyoto 2009
• Pro Tour Austin 2009
• GP Paris 2008 (the biggest event of all time, with 1839 players)

Good evening everybody.

When this article is posted, I will be in Paris, trying to break the world record for a Grand Prix. Last year, in Paris, there were 1839 people playing a Shards of Alara sealed deck. Now it’s Zendikar time, and it looks like Zendikar is very successful! We expect to break the 1839 record… and we also expect to break 2000!!!

Versions:
Conflux (Foil)

Questions of the Week

As announced in the comments of the last article, I would like to try an experiment: In each article you will find a mistake! It will be a rules mistake, I will never add a mistake in the “changes” section. Will you be the one to discover it and correct it? Be concentrated when you read :).

Question

I cast a Volcanic Fallout; can I choose to deal 2+2=4 damage to my opponent’s planeswalker?

Answer

No. Volcanic Fallout deals 2 damage to each creature and each player. When it resolves, I can choose that the two damage which would be dealt to my opponent will be dealt to his planeswalker instead.If my opponent controls two planeswalkers, I can only choose to deal 2 damage to one of them; I can’t divide the damage.

Question

I have 2 life points and I control a planeswalker; can I cast Volcanic Fallout and make my planeswalker save me?

Answer

No. The rule that allows redirecting the damage to a planeswalker applies when a spell/ability I control would deal damage to my opponent, and it applies only to non combat damage; therefore, I’m not allowed to redirect the damage from me to my planeswalker.

Versions:
Future Sight (Foil)

Question

My opponent controls a Chalice of the Void with 3 counters on it. I cast a Slaughter Pact; will it get countered?

Answer

No. The pacts from Future Sight have a kind of “delayed cost”, because we can play them for free and “pay them” in our following draw step, but it doesn’t mean that it’s a real cost; the cost of a spell is always the one in the upper-right corner. In the case of the Pacts, the cost is 0.

Correction

You have to pay the pacts in your upkeep and not in your drawstep.

Question

My opponent plays a Faerie deck and is about to beat me with the tokens created by his Bitterblossom; I cast a Runed Halo; what should I name to be protected?

Answer

Bad luck, Runed Halo doesn’t work; you must name an existing card, and there is no card that has the same name as the tokens created by Bitterblossom (or by 99% of the other token-generators); some of the few tokens that have the same name as an existing card are Assembly-Worker and Shapeshifter.

Question

I cast and resolve Haunting Echoes on my opponent; can I cast the Archive Trap for free?

Answer

The Zendikar Traps have an alternative cost that can be paid if a specific condition is met; the Archive Trap looks for an opponent who searched his library; in this case, you are the person who searched the library, not your opponent, therefore the condition isn’t met and you aren’t allowed to cast the Archive Trap for zero.

Rules Changes

M10 brought many changes to the Magic rules; almost at the same time, there were changes in the Tournament Rules. In each of my articles, I will cover with simple words and with real-life examples what has changed.

The First Blocker

What do you mean with “the first blocker”?

Yesterday: An attacking creature could divide damage among all the blocking creatures.

Today: In case of multiple blockers, the attacking player must determine the order of the blocking creatures before assigning combat damage. What is the main change? If there is a single blocking creature, there is no change. If there is a creature with first strike, there is no change. If an attacking creature is blocked by two or more creatures, the attacking player (as it was happening before) decides how to assign the damage, but the decision must be made immediately after the blocks are declared, before the players have the opportunity to cast instants and activate abilities; the attacking player must assign lethal damage to the first creature before being allowed to assign any damage to the second. Yes, in case of multiple blockers, the defending player has a remarkable advantage in a few cases (for example, I attack with a 4/4 and my opponent blocks with two 2/2s and has a single spell to pump for 3; yesterday, I would have killed the not-pumped creature; today, my opponent would know where to cast his spells to save both creatures); in my opinion, this is a very big change, but the number of times that this change applies is extremely limited.

Sideboarding Notes

Sideboard notes are allowed. This looks like a very big change.

Yesterday: Outside notes were strictly prohibited and the penalty was extremely harsh.

Today: Between games, while sideboarding, the players are allowed to use all kind of notes from home.

What is the reason behind this change? I will start with a situation that I sadly witnessed; it was Worlds 2007 in New York and I was the head judge of the Standard part (that was the first part); during the first round, a player who was also a member of a national team had to sideboard for the first time, he grabs his bag and pulls out a paper with the instructions on how to sideboard; it was very clear that he didn’t know that it was forbidden (he really opened the paper on the table) as it was very clear that he was supposed to receive the corresponding penalty for the infraction, that was a DQ; it was a very painful disqualification, because in front of me I had a person who just didn’t know that his action was forbidden (in one of the next articles, I will talk more about not knowing about an infraction).

Talking about the reasons, we all know that cards can be altered (think about modified illustrations, or even the awesome full-illustrated cards); since a modified illustration can potentially be used as an external note on how to sideboard, the rule of “no sideboarding notes” looks hard to enforce, doesn’t it? OK, a rule that is not enforceable is not a good rule. Finally, let’s look at it from another point of view; Magic is a social game, where we have advantages if we have a team; a team can help us by playtesting our decks; a team can help us by scouting (it means telling us what our next opponent is playing); in a similar way, a team can help us by giving instructions on how to sideboard.

Tournament Situations

In this section I will bring you tales from Pro Tours, Grand Prix and also from local tournaments in my village. There will be both, good plays and bad plays, but we are only going to talk about rules-related plays; I will let my Blackborder colleagues tell you about the suspense behind a Cruel Ultimatum or a Lightning Helix topdeck.

To Draw or not to Draw?

To draw or not to draw, this is the problem today. I’m not going to talk about a specific situation that happened at a specific tournament; I’m going to talk about a general situation and what are we allowed to do or not; my goal is to help everybody to avoid infractions.

It’s the last round of Swiss at a PTQ, I’m 6-1, I have good tiebreakers and I could draw to make Top8; my opponent has bad tiebreakers and must win. It’s a bad matchup for me and I really would like to draw; looking at the standings and at the pairings for this round, my only chance to convince him to draw is to hope that at table X the winner is Y. What are we allowed to do?

• We are allowed to ask our friends who won that match.
• We are allowed to pause the game and *quickly* discuss if we can draw.
• We are allowed to ask a friend to copy the standings, bring them to us, pause the game and *very quickly* take another look at it and discuss if we can draw.

What aren’t we allowed to do?

• We aren’t allowed to wait before starting, to see if the players at the other table start playing.
• We aren’t allowed to stand up, go to the other table and have a long philosophical discussion about how the world would be better if they drew or not; offering incentives is always out of the question.
• We aren’t allowed to roll a die to determine if we should play or draw the match; as usual, the die is ok to determine who goes first and to keep track of life but nothing more.

Quiz Time

It’s now your turn to answer my questions! All users who send me the correct answer via the contact tab in my profile will win 250 Blackborder points!
You will win 500 Blackborder points for the fastest correct answer and 750 Blackborder points for the "best" correct answer (as chosen by me).

Versions:
7th Edition (Foil)
8th Edition (Foil)
9th Edition (Foil)
Urza's Saga

Solution from Last Week

My opponent controls a Platinum Angel, a 2/2 and a Worship. I control a 2/2 Kavu Predator. We are both at 3 life points.

I play Fiery Justice, dealing 2 damage to kill the 2/2 and 3 damage to him. Then, I attack with the Kavu Predator and my opponent doesn’t block. Then I play Beacon of Immortality on me (to survive the next attack, hoping to find a bounce spell for the Platimun Angel), but my opponent plays Swerve and chooses that the Beacon will target him. At the end of my turn, my Wound Reflection triggers.

Now, I couldn't keep track of the life totals; would you help me to find out my opponent’s life points?

Solution

When Fiery Justice resolves, my opponent is actually dealt 3 damage before gaining 5 life. The three damage would make his life points go from 3 to 0 life points, but Worship creates a replacement effect that makes him go to 1 instead. Then, he gains 5 and goes to 6; my 2/2 Kavu Predator becomes a 7/7. The Kavu attacks and would reduce my opponent life points from 6 to -1, but his Platinum Angel would have kept him alive… but wait, there is still Worship in play! Oh, no, I forgot to destroy Worship!

Now, even if I find a way to bounce the Angel, I still need to deal more damage. Finally, the Beacon will double his life points from 1 to 2. Without the Worship, he would have gone to -1; now, I wonder what would have been the effect of the Beacon… oh, wait; there is still the Wound Reflection! My opponent went from 3 to 1 with the Fiery Justice (so he lost 2); then he went from 6 to 1 with the Kavu Predator (so he lost another 5, for a total of 7); when Wound Reflection’s triggered ability resolves, my opponent loses 7 life points and goes to -5.

Back to the quiz, I think that a difficult part is the Fiery Justice, because it deals damage (and therefore causes a loss of life) and makes my opponent gain life, but not at the same time; the Worship replacement effect applies in the middle of the resolution of Fiery Justice; then, Worship applies again during combat and modifies the amount of life that the defending player loses. Now, I want to remind you that it’s important to correctly understand and explain what happens, in addition to giving the correct final number (that is -5).

Winners

• The first who answered correctly is starwarer.
• The person who explained it the best is Jenesis again; if he does it three times in a row, I will ask him to assist me in creating other quizzes so that we can throw him out of the contest :).
• The person who made me laugh while I was reading is losveratos: “Don’t you just hate playing against Worship and Platinum Angel?”

Wow, now that I checked all the 31 answers, I realize that only starwarer and Jenesis gave the correct answer, it was indeed an hard one! Most of the mistakes were caused by Worship: - the ability is not triggered; it’s a static ability that creates a replacement effect; “triggered” would mean “go on the stack and allow the players to respond” - the damage is still dealt; Worship changes the amount of life lost (Wound Reflection checks for the life lost, not the damage dealt).

See you in two weeks for the next quiz and… see you in Rome, for the 2009 World Championships!!

Ask the Judge

You can already submit all your questions for the next installment of Ask the Judge:

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That's everything for today, thanks for reading and I see you next time.

Riccardo