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Why does my car smell like pumpkin spice?
Greetings and welcome to another issue of Cranial Insertion! Today is Labor Day in the US, which means that summer is coming to an end, and it's time to get ready for fall. The stores are already selling Halloween candy, and of course pumpkin spice is present in everything regardless of whether it's edible or not. With the impending arrival of fall and the fall set, we figured this would be a good opportunity for another quiz to see what you've learned.
As always, if you have rules questions for us, please email them to moko@cranialinsertion.com or tweet short questions to @CranialTweet. One of hour authors will respond to you, and your question might appear in a future article to entertain and educate readers like you.
And now, without further ado, let's begin our quiz!
Q: I control no creatures, and I play Enchanted Carriage. Can I crew it with the Mice and attack my opponent with it right away?
A: The choices are...
A: Yes, you can crew it and attack with it right away.
B: No, because you don't have enough creatures to crew it.
C: No, because the Mice have summoning sickness.
D: No, because Enchanted Carriage has summoning sickness.
E: Yes, but only until midnight.
The answer is
D.
Enchanted Carriage comes with two Mouse tokens whose total power is 2, which is enough to crew the Carriage. The Mice do have summoning sickness, but that doesn't stop you from tapping them to crew the Carriage; summoning sickness only stops a creature from attacking and from using its activated ability that has a tap (or untap) symbol in its cost, and crewing a vehicle is neither of those. However, when it's crewed, Enchanted Carriage is a creature that you haven't controlled continuously since you started this turn, so the summoning sickness rule stops you from attacking with it.
Q: My opponent controls a Prodigal Pyromancer and uses its ability to deal 1 damage to me. Which of these cards can help me avoid this damage?
Once an ability has been activated, it exists on the stack independent of its source, so killing the source or removing its abilities after the fact doesn't do anything to stop the ability. Fog almost works, but it only prevents combat damage, which the damage from Prodigal Pyromancer isn't. Disallow counters the ability, which means it removes the ability from the stack so that it doesn't resolve.
A creature that has double strike deals some of its combat damage in the same step as creatures with first strike, but double strike is an entirely separate ability. Since Arashin Foremost doesn't have first strike, none of its damage gets prevented by Tresserhorn Skyknight's ability, so it deals a total of 4 damage in two easy installments of 2 damage each.
A: No, you can only cast the Valki face.
B: Yes, and it gains the activated abilities of Tibalt's face.
C: Yes, and it gains the activated ability of Valki's face.
D: Yes, and it gains the activated abilities of both faces.
E: Yes, and it gains the ability to make my brain hurt.
The answer is
C.
The Lich's ability gives you permission to cast the card, which means that you may cast either side. However, the Lich gains the activated abilities of the card as it existed in the graveyard. In the graveyard, only the characteristics of the front face are visible to the game, so the Lich only gains the activated ability of Valki's front face.
Strionic Resonator targets a triggered ability you control, and triggered abilities generally use the words "when," "whenever," or "at." In the case of keyword abilities like cascade, the when/whenever/at may be hidden inside the rules definition of the keyword, but you'll often find it in the reminder text for the keyword.
Dawn's Reflection's ability can't be targeted with Strionic Resonator because it's a triggered mana ability, which doesn't use the stack. Waste Not's second ability looks like a mana ability, but it's just a regular triggered ability because it's not triggered by another mana ability.
Kalain's second ability is a static ability that generates a replacement effect, so Strionic Resonator can't do anything with it.
Q: I control The Book of Exalted Deeds and two Angel tokens, and I use the Book to put an enlightened counter on one of them. I then use Fate Transfer to move the counter to the other Angel. Which of them has the "You can't lose the game etc" ability?
A: The choices are...
A: The first one
B: The second one
C: Both of them
D: Neither of them
E: The one named Erika
The answer is
A.
The ability is given to the first Angel by a continuous effect with unlimited duration that's created by the resolution of the Book's ability. The counter serves as a memory aid, but it doesn't give the Angel the ability, so even after the counter is moved, the first Angel continues to have the ability.
A: You create a Food, a Clue, and two Treasures.
B: You create two Foods, two Clues, and two Treasures.
C: You create an arbitrary number of Foods, Clues, and Treasures.
D: The game enters an infinite loop and the game is a draw.
E: The universe implodes.
The answer is
A.
Xorn and Academy Manufactor have abilities that create replacement effects. As Treats to Share resolves, the game checks which replacement effects are applicable to the event that's about to happen. The event is "create a Food", which Xorn's ability isn't interested in, but Academy Manufactor's ability steps in and modifies it to "create a Food, a Clue, and a Treasure." Now Xorn's ability can be applied to this event, and it modifies the event to "create a Food, a Clue, and two Treasures." Each replacement effect only gets one chance to modify an event, and both effects have now been applied to this event, so no more replacement effects are applicable, and the modified event happens.
To infinity and beyond!
Q: I control an Infinity Elemental that's been given trample, and my opponent controls an Infinity Elemental that's been given lifelink. If I attack with my Elemental and my opponent blocks it with their Elemental, how much life do they gain?
A: The choices are...
A: 0
B: 5
C: Infinity minus 5
D: Infinity
E: I'll need infinite time to work this out.
The answer is
A or B, or whatever else your playgroup decides.
Let's do our best to come up with the answer that makes the most sense, or at least makes the least nonsense. Your Elemental assigns 5 damage to your opponent's Elemental, and the rest of its power — so "infinity minus 5" — to your opponent. Meanwhile, your opponent's Elemental assigns all of its infinite power to your Elemental. When the damage is dealt, your opponent loses "infinity minus 5" life while gaining infinite life at the same time. One could argue that the life loss is 5 less than the life gain, so overall your opponent gains 5 life. One could also argue that infinity minus 5 is still infinity, so the amount of life lost is the same as the amount of life gained, so overall your opponent gains no life. Infinity is weird like that.
A: Yes.
B: No.
E: Answers C and D took the day off for Labor Day.
The answer is
A.
Leyline of the Void creates a replacement effect that changes where the cards go as a result of being milled, but it doesn't change the fact that the cards are being milled. Since the cards still go to a public zone, the game can see the characteristics of the cards being milled, and if at least one creature card gets milled into the exile zone, you draw a card.
To determine whether Tayam's ability applies to the thing that's entering the battlefield, the game has to determine what the thing would look like if it were on the battlefield. Grist is only a creature while it's off the battlefield, so Tayam's ability doesn't apply to it. Gideon Blackblade is a creature as long as it's your turn, so Tayam's ability applies to it. Klothys is a little weird in ways we explained in depth a month ago. In a nutshell, the game considers your current devotion without Klothys to decide whether the replacement effect applies to it. If your devotion is already seven or more, Tayam's ability applies to it. If your devotion is less than seven, the ability doesn't apply to it.
And that's it for today's quiz. If you got all ten answers right, let us know. Moko has a new recipe for a pumpkin brain pie that he wants to make with you.
Until next time, stay safe!
-Carsten
About the Author: Carsten Haese is a former Level 2 judge based in Toledo, OH. He is retired from active judging, but he still writes for Cranial Insertion and helps organize an annual charity Magic tournament that benefits the National MS Society.
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