Published on 05/19/2025
The Final Fantasy Countdown
By Carsten Haese, Nathan Long, and Justin Hovdenes
This Article from: Carsten Haese
Cranial Translation
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Diamond armor. Full set!
As always, if you have questions for us, you can email them to moko@cranialinsertion.com or tweet short questions to @CranialTweet. One of our authors will send you an answer, and your question might appear in a future article, possible alongside an obscure pop-culture reference.
Let's dig into today's selection of rules questions!
Q: If I Saw in Half a Marchesa, Resolute Monarch, do I get two Marchesa tokens or two Invasion of Fiora tokens?
A: You'll get two Marchesa tokens, and then you have to get rid of one due to the legend rule. Saw in Half looks at what the destroyed creature looked like when it was last seen on the battlefield, not at what the resulting card in the graveyard looks like.
Q: If I have The Aetherspark attached to a creature and my opponent takes control of the creature with Act of Treason, can they then activate one of The Aetherspark's ability, such as its +1 ability?
A: No. Each permanent has its own controller, and changing who controls a creature does not necessarily or automatically change who controls Auras and/or Equipment that are attached to it. Your opponent controls the creature, but you still control The Aetherspark.
Q: I'm building a Commander deck around Aveline de Grandpré. Would Jet Medallion reduce the cost to cast Aveline?
A: No. While Aveline's color identity is green and black on account of the black mana symbol in her rules text, as a spell she's only green because the only colored mana symbols in her mana cost are green.
Q: I attack with Delina, Wild Mage and target Mr. House, President and CEO. Let's say I roll a 10. Does the "Whenever you roll a 4 or higher" ability of the token copy of Mr. House trigger?
A: No. Delina's ability instructs you to roll a d20 and then you create a token. At the moment the die roll happened, only the original Mr. House existed, so only its ability triggers.
Q: I'm playing a Commander game with three other playes. When Protector of the Wastes enters, can I target two artifacts controlled by the same player?
A: No, the ability states in the targeting restriction that the targets have to be controlled by different players, so if you choose two targets that are controlled by the same player, that's an illegal choice of targets.
Q: My opponent is playing an affinity deck and I cast Shatterstorm. Because my card just says "bury all artifacts", my oppponent claims that he can regenerate his artifacts. Is that true?
A: No, that's not true. Regardless of what text is printed on the physical card, a card is treated as though its Oracle text were printed on it, and Shatterstorm's Oracle text is "Destroy all artifacts. They can't be regenerated."
Q: I've heard that for the win condition of Call the Spirit Dragons it's not enough to put counters onto five Dragons across multiple turns, and that I have to put counters on five Dragons in a single upkeep to meet the win condition. Is that true, and if so, why is that? It doesn't seem to say so on the card.
A: Yes, what you've heard is true. The phrase that is responsible for this is "this way." That phrase doesn't just mean "with this ability", it means "as a result of this particular resolution of this ability."
First we mine...
A: Sadly, no. Necrodominance doesn't just stop you from drawing for the turn, it makes you skip your entire draw step, so Howling Mine's ability never gets the chance to trigger during your turn.
Q: Is the damage from Arabella, Abandoned Doll's ability commander damage?
A: No. "Commander damage" refers to the state-based action that causes a player who's been dealt 21 or more total combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game to lose the game. The important bit is that this only counts combat damage, and combat damage is only the damage that attacking and blocking creatures deal as a result of combat in the combat damage step. While Arabella deals damage in the combat phase, specifically during the declare attackers step, damage that's dealt as a result of a resolving spell or ability is never combat damage.
Q: When a Flesh Duplicate that's a copy of Sinister Concierge dies, does it go to the graveyard or does it get exiled with three time counters on it?
A: It does both, actually, assuming that that's what you want to happen. It first goes to the graveyard, and since it died looking like a Sinister Concierge, this triggers its "when this creature dies" ability. When that ability resolves, you may exile Flesh Concierge from the graveyard with three time counters on it, and if you want to, you can exile a target creature with three time counters on it, too.
Q: If I sacrifice an artifact with mana value 3 or less with Goblin Engineer, can I bring it back with the same activation?
A: No. When you activate an ability, you first choose its targets and then you pay the activation cost. At the time you choose the target, the artifact you're planning to sacrifice to pay the cost hasn't been sacrificed yet, so it's not in the graveyard to be targeted.
Q: In a Commander game, player B gained control of player A's Sol Ring with Agent of Treachery. What happens when player B loses the game? Some people I've asked say that player A gets the Sol Ring back, and others say Sol Ring gets exiled. Who's right?
A: Player A gets the Sol Ring back. When player B leaves the game, any effects that gave them control of any objects end. This ends Agent of Treachery's effect, and Sol Ring goes to whoever controls it in the absence of that effect, which is its original controller, player A. An object gets exiled when a player leaves the game if the player didn't own it but somehow came to control it without a control-changing effect, for example by putting it onto the battlefield with Bribery, but that's not what happened here.
Q: If I control Leyline of Abundance and use Yurlok of Scorch Thrash's ability to give everybody mana, who gets extra green mana? Nobody, everybody, or just me?
A: Just you. Yurlok's ability is a mana ability and it includes the tap symbol in its cost, so you've tapped a creature for mana, which triggers the Leyline's ability. The ability only instructs you to add an additional
, so your opponents don't get that extra mana....then we craft.
A: It'll be big/big, specifically its power and toughness will be equal to twice the number of Swamps you control, and it'll change as that number changes. Both Korlash's and Nightmare's characteristic-defining abilities continue to function in exile, and the resulting powers get added together by Wretched Bonemass's ability.
Q: Breaker of Creation has hexproof from each color. If I discard it for Indominus Rex, Alpha's ability, does the Dinosaur get one "hexproof from each color" counter or five separate "hexproof from (insert color here)" counters?
A: It'll get five separate counters. Per rule 702.11g, "hexproof from each color" is shorthand for five distinct "hexproof from (color)" variants of the hexproof ability.
Q: I control Rhox Faithmender and cast Fumigate. Do I gain 2 life for each creature destroyed by Fumigate?
A: No. Fumigate destroys all creatures first, and then you gain 1 life for each creature destroyed this way. At the time you gain the life, Rhox Faithmender is no longer on the battlefield, so its replacement effect is not around to double the amount of life you gain.
Q: I control Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant and gain life to get to 30 life, but my opponent deals damage to me in response to the ability. Does Rune-Tail still flip into Rune-Tail's Essence?
A: Yes. Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant's ability is a so-called "state trigger" that triggers as soon as your life total is 30 or greater, and the next time a player would get priority, the ability goes on the stack. By the time your opponent can respond, the ability is on the stack, and reducing your life total below 30 won't un-trigger the ability. When the ability resolves, it doesn't care whether your life total is still 30 or more, since it doesn't have an intervening-if clause that would recheck the condition, so Rune-Tail flips even if your life total is less than 30 now.
Q: Can I still cast the imprinted card on Isochron Scepter if my opponent controls Soulless Jailer?
A: I'm afraid not. Isochron Scepter's ability copies the card in exile and allows you to cast the copy, from exile, which is exactly the kind of thing that Soulless Jailer forbids. Note that Soulless Jailer stops players from casting spells from graveyards or exile. If it said "cards" the answer would be different because a copy of a card is not a card, but because it says "spells", you can't even cast a copy of a card from exile.
And that's all the time we have for today's episode. Thanks for reading, and please come back next week for more Magic rules Q&A.
- Carsten Haese
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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