Friday, August 29, 2008

Random Rules Questions

Occasionally I have random questions about the rules. I could post my questions to a forum but I have you, my faithful legion of readers, to answer my questions. And by the way, I hate optional abilities that begin with “you may”, because it requires additional programming.

1. Reya Dawnbringer – has a triggered ability that says, “At the beginning of your upkeep you may return target creature card from your graveyard to play.” Since this ability is optional, when do you decide if you want to or not? Do you decide at the beginning of your upkeep whether or not to use Reya’s ability?

2. Angel's Feather says “Whenever a player plays a white spell, you may gain 1 life.” When do you decide if you want to use this ability or not? Do you have only one window of opportunity to use this ability once a spell is on the stack?

3. Ok this isn’t strictly a rules question, but what is Heart of Light (10th Edition) good for? Heart of Light is a creature enchantment that says, “Prevent all damage that would be dealt to and dealt by enchanted creature.” You can target one of your creatures to make him an all-star blocker and I guess you can target one your opponent’s creatures that you couldn’t handle. Is this card a variation of Pacifism? This card just confuses me.

4. What happens when Orcish Artillery’s ability goes on the stack and then your opponent steals Orcish Artillery. Do you or your opponent receive 3 damage? (In case you don’t know, Orcish Artillery’s ability says, “tap: Deal 2 damage to target creature or player and 3 damage to you.”)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

1)in terms of GUI, the way I see it is, at the beginning of the upkeep (what "beginning of the upkeep" means in your program is another problem), you can click on the card, which will trigger the ability.

2)click on the "angel's feather" card will give you one life if a white spell is in the stack and you haven't already used that spell for angel's feather

3) don't know

4) That's a good question. But because the card says "you" rather than "the card's controller", I'd say that when the ability resolves, it adds damages to you, not your opponent, even if the card is stolen.

Gando the Wandering Fool said...

Ok lets see if I can find my level 1 judge's hat...it might have gotten a bit small for my head though...its been quite a few years.

1) when an event says "at the beginning of..." it means thats when you choose to trigger it or not if it is optional.

2) A spell is played...then it goes on the stack. So your choice of whether to trigger the feather goes right after the play declaration.

3) It is a varient of gaseous form and is mostly supposed to be a personal fog for some fatty. It can be problematic though if you put on something that is a good blocker (flies, has reach).

4)you take 3 damage because though the ability belongs to the artillery you control it when you activate it. So you continue to control it until it resolves.

Gando the Wandering Fool said...

"4) That's a good question. But because the card says "you" rather than "the card's controller", I'd say that when the ability resolves, it adds damages to you, not your opponent, even if the card is stolen."

Not quite...if your opponent steals the artillery and uses it next turn to deal 2 you...he/she takes 3 damage not you. "You" in card text refers to the card's controller.

Anonymous said...

I was unclear. I meant that when the ability goes on the stack, it targets "you" which is the controller of the card at the time the ability is activated, but not the controller of the card when the ability resolves.
Of course, if someone stoles the card THEN activates it, "you" means that new controller I guess.

Anonymous said...

1.410.5. Some triggered abilities’ effects are optional (they contain “may,” as in “At the beginning of your upkeep, you may draw a card”). These abilities go on the stack when they trigger, regardless of whether their controller intends to exercise the ability’s option or not. The choice is made when the ability resolve.
3. It also combos[sort of] with Pariah and pariah's shield. Also, can be an answer to stuffy doll. Yeah, not the best card.
4. "You" means controller of ability.

Anonymous said...

1 and 2) For triggered abilities, the ability always triggers when the event happens, and always goes on the stack. Since the ability is a "may" ability, you decide whether to do it at the time it resolves. Basically, the only things you decide when playing the ability are costs, targets, and distribution of whatever (damage, counters, etc). Everything is decided at resolution. For example, Puppeteer (a 10E card) says "U, T: You may tap or untap target creature." You might be tempted to implement this as 2 abilities, one to tap and one to untap, but this is incorrect (at first that's how i did it). The only thing you select when playing the ability is the target - when the ability resolves, you decide whether to tap or untap.

4. Abilities on the stack have controllers as well (it is whoever played the ability, or controlled the source if it is a triggered ability). So in this case, you played the ability, so you are the controller of the ability (even if your opponent steals the source of the ability, you still control the ability when it resolves). Likewise, when you play a permanent spell, the permanent comes into play under the control of the person who played it (for example, if a card said "You may play creature cards from your opponent's graveyard")

Remember, triggered abilities always trigger and go on the stack (unless there are no valid targets if they require a target).

Forge said...

Thanks for your answers.