702.75a Reinforce is an activated ability that functions only while the card with reinforce is in a player's hand. "Reinforce N -- [cost]" means "[Cost], Discard this card: Put N +1/+1 counters on target creature."
702.75b Although the reinforce ability can be activated only if the card is in a player's hand, it continues to exist while the object is on the battlefield and in all other zones. Therefore objects with reinforce will be affected by effects that depend on objects having one or more activated abilities.
Specific Questions
Q: What does reinforce do? A: Reinforce is an ability that allows you to pay some cost and discard a card with reinforce in your hand in order to put some number of +1/+1 counters on a target creature.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
702.76a Conspire is a keyword that represents two abilities. The first is a static ability that functions while the spell with conspire is on the stack. The second is a triggered ability that functions while the spell with conspire is on the stack. "Conspire" means "As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may tap two untapped creatures you control that each share a color with it" and "When you cast this spell, if its conspire cost was paid, copy it. If the spell has any targets, you may choose new targets for the copy." Paying a spell's conspire cost follows the rules for paying additional costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2e-g.
702.76b If a spell has multiple instances of conspire, each is paid separately and triggers based on its own payment, not any other instance of conspire.
Specific Questions
Q: What does conspire do? A: Conspire is an optional additional cost you can choose to pay when you cast the card it's on. To pay this cost, you must tap two creatures that each share a color with the spell. Once you have finished casting the spell, if you paid the Conspire cost, you get an extra copy of the spell and can choose new targets for that copy if you wish.
Q: Can I pay the conspire cost more than once? A: No. Conspire only allows you to pay its cost once to get one extra copy; it doesn't allow you to pay more or get more copies.
If you somehow manage to get a spell that has multiple instances of conspire, you would be able to pay for each instance separately and get multiple copies that way, but you still wouldn't be able to get more than one copy per instance of conspire.
Q: Do the creatures I tap for conspire have to be the same color? A: No. Each creature must share at least one color with the spell you're conspiring, but the creatures don't have to be the same color or even share any colors at all with each other.
If you were conspiring an AEthertow , for example, you could tap a mono-white creature and a mono-blue creature for the Conspire cost.
Q: Conspire makes a copy, so that copy will have conspire itself--so can I conspire the copy? A: No. Conspire uses an additional cost you pay as you cast the spell, and the copies created by conspire are never actually "cast". As such, you will not be able to conspire the copies.
Q: Can I stop the conspire copy by countering the original spell, or vice-versa? A: No. The original spell and its copy are two completely different entities; countering one won't affect the other in any way.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
702.77a Persist is a triggered ability. "Persist" means "When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it."
Specific Questions
Q: What does persist do? A: Persist is an ability that allows your permanents (usually creatures) to come back to life after dying if they meet certain conditions. When a permanent with persist is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, you return it to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.
Q: When persist returns the card to the battlefield, what is it? (IE, do the things that were affecting it when it left the battlefield still affect it? If it was a copy of something, is it still a copy? and so on.) A: No. When an object changes zones, it effectively becomes an entirely new object; it isn't the same thing as whatever it used to be. So if you had Giant Growth ed your persist creature before it died, it would no longer have that bonus when it returned. If your creature had counters on it, it will no longer have those counters. If it had been turned into a copy of something, it will no longer be a copy of that thing. If it had gained an ability, say thanks to Cauldron of Souls , it will no longer have that ability.
Basically, your card enters the battlefield as a "fresh" copy of whatever card it is.
Q: My creature has returned to the battlefield thanks to persist. Does it have summoning sickness? A: Yes. Summoning sickness will always apply if you haven't controlled a creature continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn, no matter how the creature came onto the battlefield.
Q: Does my creature trigger things that look for things going to the graveyard? A: Yes. Your creature hits the graveyard, so it will trigger such abilities. What happens after that is usually irrelevant as far as those triggers are concerned.
Q: Can my opponent respond to persist, say by exiling my creature so it can't come back? A: Yes. Persist is a normal triggered ability, and can be responded to just like any other triggered ability.
Q: Multiple creatures with persist have all died at the same time. (Say, thanks to Wrath of God .) What happens? A: Each creature's persist ability will trigger at the same time. First, the player whose turn it is (the active player) will put all of his creatures' persist triggers onto the stack in whatever order he chooses; then, in turn order, each other player does the same. Then, all of those triggers resolve, returning one creature at a time, with chances for players to respond and things to happen in between each resolution, until all the triggers have been dealt with.
Q: My persist creature has some +1/+1 counters on it, and is given enough -1/-1 counters to kill it. (Either by bringing its toughness to 0 or by making the damage already on it lethal.) I know that +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters annihilate each other, so does my persist creature come back? A: No. Your creature dies at the same time the counters would be removed, so the game will see that it did indeed have -1/-1 counters on it just before it died, and persist won't return it.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
702.78a Wither is a static ability. Damage dealt to a creature by a source with wither isn't marked on that creature. Rather, it causes that many -1/-1 counters to be put on that creature. See rule 119.3.
702.78b If a permanent leaves the battlefield before an effect causes it to deal damage, its last known information is used to determine whether it had wither.
702.78c The wither rules function no matter what zone an object with wither deals damage from.
702.78d Multiple instances of wither on the same object are redundant.
Specific Questions
Q: What does wither do? A: Wither is an ability that changes how things deal damage to creatures. Normally if something deals damage to a creature, that damage sits around and stays on the creature until the end of the turn. But damage that's dealt to a creature by something that has wither works differently; it causes that many -1/-1 counters to be put on that creature instead. These counters are regular counters in all ways, and stick around permanently; they don't get removed automatically like normal damage.
Q: So wither replaces dealing damage with putting on counters? A: No. Wither just causes damage to work differently than normal; it doesn't replace anything. Damage is still being dealt, you just do it by putting counters on the creatures instead of the way you normally do it.
Think about it this way: normally, damage dealt to a player causes that player to lose that much life, right? The damage isn't being replaced by the life-loss--causing the player to that much lose life is what the damage does. In a similar way, dealing damage to a creature with something that has wither is defined as putting that many -1/-1 counters on that creature--that's just what the damage does.
So this means that "wither damage" can be prevented or affected in just the same way that normal damage can, and things that trigger on damage being dealt, like Repercussion 's ability, still work if the thing dealing the damage has wither.
Q: Does wither target? A: No. Anything that targets will use the actual word "target", either in the rules text of the card itself or, if a keyword is involved, in the rules of the game. (And in those cases, the reminder text for the keyword will include the word "target".)
Thus, since wither does not use the word "target" at all, it doesn't target. (Note that the spell that has wither or the ability from the permanent with wither that is actually trying to deal the damage might be targeted, like Puncture Blast , but there's nothing inherent to wither itself that would make anything target that wasn't already doing so.)
Q: Does damage from something with wither work differently on players or planeswalkers? A: No. "Wither damage" works just the same as normal damage on players and planeswalkers; it only works differently on creatures.
Q: How does wither interact with Regeneration? Can my opponent regenerate from -1/-1 counters? A: Wither generally kills regenerators dead; regenerating won't save them and won't remove the counters accumulated thanks to wither. Wither causes -1/-1 counters to be put on the creature, and if the creature accumulates enough of them, its toughness will be 0 or less, which regeneration can't save the creature from.
Q: If the source with wither is removed before the damage is dealt, does that stop wither from working? A: No; the only way to stop wither from working would be to somehow make the source lose wither before the damage is dealt. (Say, with Ovinize .) Or somehow stop the damage entirely, but that goes without saying.
This is different than a triggered ability; wither works because the rules of the game look to see if things have wither when they're determining how damage will affect a given creature. Triggered abilities work because they're around to say they work; wither works because the game goes looking for it to see what happens. Wither doesn't need to actually be around to see the damage being dealt because the game goes looking for it, and if whatever's dealing the damage had wither when it left the battlefield, the game will see that and make the damage work accordingly.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
702.79a Retrace appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents a static ability that functions while the card with retrace is in a player's graveyard. "Retrace" means "You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card as an additional cost to cast it." Casting a spell using its retrace ability follows the rules for paying additional costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2e-g.
Specific Questions
Q: What does retrace do? A: Retrace is an ability that allows you to cast spells from your graveyard instead of your hand if you discard a land in addition to paying the spell's normal costs.
Q: Isn't retrace just like Flashback? A: Not quite. Both retrace and flashback allow you to cast spells from your graveyard, but it's important to remember that while Flashback exiles the spell afterwards, retrace does no such thing.
So while you'll only ever be able to flashback a given spell once, as long as you have the lands to fuel it you can retrace the same spell over and over and over and over...
Q: When can I cast a card using retrace? A: Any time you could normally cast it. Retrace doesn't change the times you can cast the card, just where you're casting it from.
Q: What's the mana cost and/or converted mana cost of a spell that's been cast using retrace? A: The same as it always is. The mana cost (and therefore the converted mana cost) of a card is determined by what's sitting in the top-right corner of the card, not by what you actually spend to cast the card.
Q: Do cards that alter the amount a spell costs to cast also alter the amount you pay when retracing a spell? A: Yes; effects that cause you to pay more or less for a spell affect the total cost of the spell and, if they don't say otherwise, affect spells no matter where you're casting them from.
Q: I retrace a spell, and it's countered. Where does the spell go? A: If the spell that countered it doesn't say otherwise, your retrace spell just goes back to your graveyard...where you can once again retrace it if you like.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
702.80a Devour is a static ability. "Devour N" means "As this object enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This permanent enters the battlefield with N +1/+1 counters on it for each creature sacrificed this way."
702.80b Some objects have abilities that refer to the number of creatures the permanent devoured. "It devoured" means "sacrificed as a result of its devour ability as it entered the battlefield."
Specific Questions
Q: What does devour do? A: Devour is an ability that allows you to sacrifice your other creatures as the creature with Devour is coming onto the battlefield in order to make your creature with Devour stronger.
Q: What does the number mean? A: The number after devour is how many +1/+1 counters you put on the creature with devour for each creature you devour.
If, for example, the creature has Devour 1, then it would get one +1/+1 counter for each creature it sacrificed. If it had Devour 2, it would get two +1/+1 counters for each creature you sacrificed. And so on and so forth.
Q: When do I decide what to devour? Can my opponent respond to my choice? A: You decide what to devour as the creature with devour is entering the battlefield. This means that by the time you decide what to devour, it's too late for your opponent to do anything--by the time they can respond, you've already sacrificed the creatures and the creature with devour is on the battlefield with counters on it.
So if you cast something with devour and your opponent wants to respond, hoping to stop the devouring, they have to do it before you actually make your decision--they have to guess what it is you want to devour in advance, before you actually commit to anything.
Q: Does it matter how the creature with devour is coming onto the battlefield? A: No. You can devour things no matter how your creature with devour is coming onto the battlefield.
Q: If my creature with devour is entering the battlefield at the same time as some other creatures, can I sacrifice those other creatures to it? A: No. You devour things as the creature with devour is being put onto the battlefield, and you can only sacrifice things that are already on the battlefield. The things that are being put onto the battlefield at the same time as the creature with devour are not yet on the battlefield, so they cannot be sacrificed.
Q: If two creatures with devour are entering the battlefield at the same time, can I sacrifice one creature to both of them? A: No, you can only sacrifice it to one of them. If you sacrifice it to one, it will no longer be around to sacrifice to the other one.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
702.81a Exalted is a triggered ability. "Exalted" means "Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn."
702.81b A creature "attacks alone" if it's the only creature declared as an attacker in a given combat phase. See rule 506.5.
Specific Questions
Q: What does exalted do? A: A permanent with exalted gives a bonus of +1/+1 until end of turn to any creature you control that attacks alone. (Meaning it's the only one declared as an attacker.) Note that this happens even if the thing with exalted isn't the one that's attacking. So, effectively, whenever a creature attacks alone, it's going to get +1/+1 for each permanent with exalted you control.
Q: Is exalted cumulative? A: Yes. Each permanent's exalted ability triggers separately and gives the attacking creature its own bonus, and those bonuses add up.
Q: If I attack with more than one creature, then remove all but one from combat somehow, will my lone attacker get the exalted bonus? A: No. For exalted to trigger, the creature has to be the only one declared as an attacker. If you attacked with multiple creatures, then it didn't attack alone.
Q: Does exalted target? A: No. Anything that targets will use the actual word "target", either in the rules text of the card itself or, if a keyword is involved, in the rules of the game. (And in those cases, the reminder text for the keyword will include the word "target".)
Thus, since exalted does not use the word "target" at all, it doesn't target.
Q: If I attack with one creature, then somehow put more creatures onto the battlefield attacking, does my creature lose the exalted bonus? A: No. Your one creature attacked alone, so it will get the exalted bonuses. The fact that some creatures later appeared that happened to be attacking doesn't matter.
Q: How does exalted work in Two-Headed Giant games? A: In Two-Headed Giant, a creature attacks alone if it's the only one declared as an attacker by your entire team. If you control that creature, your exalted abilities will trigger, but your teammate's won't.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
702.82a Unearth is an activated ability that functions while the card with unearth is in a graveyard. "Unearth [cost]" means "[Cost]: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery."
Specific Questions
Q: What does unearth do? A: Unearth is an ability that allows you to return your creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield for one last hurrah. The creature is returned to the battlefield and gains haste, but it's exiled at the end of the turn or if it would go anywhere else.
Q: When can I unearth a creature? A: You can only activate unearth abilities during your main phase when the stack is empty and you have priority. (So, basically, when you could normally cast creature cards.)
Q: When I unearth something, is it a spell or an ability? A: An ability. Unearth is an activated ability that returns the creature directly from your graveyard to the battlefield. There are no spells involved.
Q: Do cards that alter the amount a spell costs to cast also reduce the amount you pay for unearth? A: No. When you unearth something, you're activating an ability, not casting a spell, so the bonus doesn't apply. Something that alters the amount it costs to activate activated abilities, on the other hand, will affect the cost of unearthing your creatures.
Q: What happens if I unearth a creature, and something tries to move the card somewhere? (eg, It was Boomerang ed, it was Excommunicate d, I sacrificed it...whatever) A: If the effect that's trying to move the card is trying to move it to anywhere except the exile zone, the card gets exiled instead. It can't go to your hand or your library or your graveyard--it will be exiled.
Note that this doesn't stop things like Momentary Blink or Turn to Mist that are trying to exile the creature in the first place--these cards will work just fine, and will return the creature, because they're trying to exile it anyway. The fact that they later return it is completely irrelevant as far as unearth is concerned. And once they're returned, they're back for good.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
702.83a Cascade is a triggered ability that functions only while the spell with cascade is on the stack. "Cascade" means "When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card whose converted mana cost is less than this spell's converted mana cost. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then put all cards exiled this way that weren't cast on the bottom of your library in a random order."
702.83b If a spell has multiple instances of cascade, each triggers separately.
Specific Questions
Q: What does cascade do? A: Cascade is an ability that allows you to cast a cheaper spell from your library for free when you cast the spell it's on.
When you cast a spell with Cascade, you exile cards one by one from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that has a lower converted mana cost than the cascade spell. You may then choose to cast that card without paying its normal mana cost. Then all the exiled cards are put on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Q: If the spell I cast for free also has cascade, will I cascade for that card too? A: Yes. Cascade triggers when you cast the spell it's on, and you're casting the spell. (You're not paying its mana cost, but you're still casting it).
Q: Which resolves first, the original spell, or the one I cascaded into from my library? A: The cascade ability triggers at the time you cast the original spell, and is thus put on top of that spell on the stack. Therefore, the cascade trigger resolves before the original spell, and the spell it allows you to cast is put on top of the stack, again above the original spell. Since the stack resolves from top to bottom, this means that the spell you cascaded into will always resolve before the original spell.
Q: Do I have to pay any additional costs of the spell I cascade into? A: Yes. Cascade allows you to ignore the card's mana cost, but that's only the stuff in the top right-hand corner of the card. Any other costs will have to be paid as normal.
In the case of optional additional costs, such as Buyback or Kicker, you can choose not to pay the additional cost--you just won't get the extra effects they provide.
Q: Can the spell I cascade into be countered? A: Yes. It's being cast just like any other spell, and can be countered just the same as any other spell.
Q: What happens if the original spell with cascade is countered? Do I still cascade? A: Yes. Cascade is a triggered ability that's triggers as you cast the spell, and once it triggers it's independent from the original spell. By the time your opponents have the chance to counter the original spell, cascade has already triggered. Countering the original spell won't stop the cascade ability.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
702.12b A creature with intimidate can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it. (See rule 509, "Declare Blockers Step.")
702.12c Multiple instances of intimidate on the same creature are redundant.
Q: Wait, isn't that just like fear? A: Almost, yes. Wizards liked the way fear worked, but didn't like that the color it was associated with (black) was set in stone as part of the ability, which meant that if they wanted to print creatures with that kind of ability in another color, they couldn't use the keyword itself. (Like Skirk Shaman and Amrou Seekers .) They didn't much like the name, either, which made it sound like the creature itself was fearful, which was odd.
So, rather than change how fear itself works so that they could use it as they wanted (which would have functionally altered a ton of cards) they decided to instead simply stop using fear at all, and replace it with a similar ability with similar flavor that did work the way they needed it to. Hence, intimidate.
Q: Does a creature have to be the exact same colors as the attacker in order to block? A: No. It just has to share at least one color with the attacker. So if the attacker is red and black, the blocking creature can be either red or black. Or both. Or red and green, or black and white, or any other combination just as long as one of the colors is either red or black.
Q: Can I use a color-altering spell like Prismatic Lace to make my creatures able to block? A: Yes. Changing your creature so that it is one of the colors of the creature with intimidate and changing the creature with intimidate so it is the same color as your own creature will both work. You just have to do it before you need to declare blockers, in the Declare Attackers step at the latest.
Q: If I block a creature with intimidate with an appropriately colored or artifact creature, and then my opponent alt ers my blocker to no longer be the right color or an artifact creature, what happens? A: Absolutely nothing. Changing creatures after they've already been declared as blockers won't do anything, even if they would no longer be able to block if you were to declare blockers now.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
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