Rulings on Specific Cards

Table of Contents

• Abu Ja Far
• Aladdin
• Aladdin's Lamp
• Ali Baba
• Ali from Cairo
• Ancestral Recall
• Animate Artifact
• Animate Dead
• Armageddon
• Aspect of Wolf
• Balance
• Basalt Monolith
• Bazaar of Bagdad
• Berserk
• Birds of Paradise
• Black Lotus
• Blaze of Glory
• Bottle of Suleiman
• Braingeyser
• Camouflage
• Castle
• Celestial Prism
• Channel
• Chaos Orb
• Chaoslace
• Circle of Protection: Red
• City in a Bottle
• City of Brass
• Clockwork Beast
• Clone
• Cockatrice
• Consecrate Land
• Conservator
• Control Magic
• Conversion
• Copy Artifact
• Creature Bond
• Cyclone
• Cyclopean Tomb
• Darkpact
• Death Ward
• Deathlace
• Demonic Hordes
• Demonic Tutor
• Desert
• Diamond Valley
• Disenchant
• Disintegrate
• Disrupting Sceptre
• Drain Life
• Drop of Honey
• Dwarven Warriors
• Earthbind
• Ebony Horse
• Elvish Archers
• Erg Raiders
• Eye for an Eye
• False Orders
• Farmstead
• Fireball
• Flying Carpet
• Fog
• Force of Nature
• Forcefield
• Fork
• Fungasaur
• Gaea's Liege
• Gauntlet of Might
• Ghazban Ogre
• Goblin Balloon Brigade
• Goblin King
• Guardian Beast
• Helm of Chatzuk
• Hypnotic Spectre
• Icy Manipulator
• Ifh-Biff Efreet
• Illusionary Mask
• Instill Energy
• Island Sanctuary
• Island of Wak-Wak
• Jade Statue
• Jandor's Ring
• Jayemdae Tome
• Jewelled Bird
• Jihad
• Juggernaut
• Jump
• Karma
• Khabal Ghoul
• Kormus Bell
• Kudzu
• Library of Alexandria
• Library of Leng
• Lich
• Lifelace
• Lifetap
• Living Artifact
• Living Lands
• Lord of Atlantis
• Lord of the Pit
• Magical Hack
• Mana Flare
• Mana Short
• Manabarbs
• Meekstone
• Metamorphosis
• Naf's Asp
• Nettling Imp
• Nevinyrral's Disk
• Old Man of the Sea
• Orcish Artillery
• Orcish Oriflamme
• Oubliette
• Paralyze
• Personal Incarnation
• Pestilence
• Phantasmal Forces
• Phantasmal Terrain
• Plague Rats
• Power Sink
• Power Surge
• Prodigal Sorcerer
• Purelace
• Pyramids
• Raging River
• Raise Dead
• Red Elemental Blast
• Regrowth
• Resurrection
• Ring of Ma'ruf
• Rock Hydra
• Rod of Ruin
• Royal Assassin
• Rukh Egg
• Sandals of Abdallah
• Sandstorm
• Scavenging Ghouls
• Sedge Troll
• Serendib Djinn
• Serra Angel
• Shahrazad
• Shatter
• Simulacrum
• Singing Tree
• Siren's Call
• Sleight of Mind
• Smoke
• Sorcerous Queen
• Soul Net
• Steal Artifact
• Swords to Plowshares
• The Hive
• Thicket Basilisk
• Thoughtlace
• Time Vault
• Tranquility
• Tropical Island
• Twiddle
• Unstable Mutation
• Unsummon
• Vesuvan Doppelganger
• Veteran Bodyguard
• Volcanic Eruption
• White Ward
• Wild Growth
• Winter Orb
• Word of Command
• Wrath of God
• Ydwen Efreet
• Zombie Master

Abu Ja Far

• Protection from White will not keep a creature from being destroyed by Abu's power because the power is not considered to be targeted.

Aladdin

• He can hold onto more than one artifact at a time. He need not drop one in order to pick up another. Note that you must pay and tap the card for each use, however. [Snark]
• If your opponent takes control of Aladdin, he does not take the artifacts you already stole, but he is free to use Aladdin's power to take them later. [bethmo]
• Any artifact can be taken. This includes artifact creatures which are represented by tokens (e.g. Wasps, Djinn from Bottle of Sulieman).

Aladdin's Lamp

• Yes, the casting cost is 10. They used two circles because 10 did not fit into just one. This is not a typo. [Snark]
• This can be used any time you draw from the library, including Sindbad, Ancestral Recall and so on. It affects only one of the cards drawn this way, though. [bethmo]

Ali Baba

Ali from Cairo

• This card does indeed make you immune to damage that would take you below 1 life point (which is almost immunity to death). You can still be affected by things which reduce your life without doing damage. [Snark]
• Even works when he is tapped. [Snark]
• It does not prevent direct loss of life from spells like Lich, Channel, etc. [bethmo]

Ancestral Recall

• When used on a person when it is not their turn, they may keep all the cards until the end of their next turn when they must discard as normal down to 7 cards (Library of Leng excepted).

Animate Artifact

• Artifact is now an Artifact-Creature and abides by creature rules while still being an artifact as well.
• Cannot be cast on artifact-creatures.
• The card says that it destroys zero-cost artifacts. This was meant to restate the obvious--a zero toughness creature dies, but the card text did not account for things like Castle which give +2 toughness when untapped. So, the artifact is not destroyed just because its casting cost was zero, it is destroyed when its toughness reaches zero. [Snark]
• Animated artifact cannot attack until it begins a turn in play as a creature. [bethmo]

Animate Dead

• Animating a dead Clone gets all the Clone's abilities but it mimics at -1 power. [Snark]
• Animating the Clockwork Beast revives it totally unwound and at -1 power. In general, animated creatures do not get any tokens. [Snark]
• You can Animate a creature which was discarded from a hand and therefore was never in play.
• Animated creature cannot attack until it begins a turn in play. [bethmo]

Armageddon

• Consecrated Land can avoid this spell.

Aspect of Wolf

Balance

• White-Warded creatures cannot avoid this spell's effects. Destruction by means of Balance is not considered ``damage'' which can be prevented by Protection from White. [Snark]
• Consecrated Lands can be protected, but the unconsecrated lands must be removed first. [Snark]
• Animated lands are considered both as lands and as creatures. Just remove whatever you have to in order to achieve ``balance''. And yes, this does mean that they get double-counted :-(
• The word ``discarded'' should be read as ``destroyed'' [WotC Rules Team]

Basalt Monolith

Bazaar of Bagdad

Berserk

• Note the creature only dies if it attacks, not if it defends.
• The doubling effect of Berserk is constant. If the creature's base power is changed at any time, recalculate the power of the creature by backing up and applying all effects that turn over again in the same order they were originally used. For example: If a 3/3 Plague Rat has Giant Growth then Berserk cast on it, it is a 12/6 creature. If one of the other two Plague Rats in play is destroyed, it becomes a 2/2 Plague rat with the spells reapplied to get a 10/5 creature. [WotC Rules Team]

Birds of Paradise

Black Lotus

• Treat ``discarded'' as ``destroyed'' on the card. [WotC Rules Team]
• An Animated Lotus cannot benefit from Regeneration because cards which destroy themselves cannot have that destruction prevented (much like a sacrifice). [WotC Rules Team]

Blaze of Glory

Bottle of Suleiman

• The Djinn is an artifact creature with casting cost of zero. [Snark]
• It cannot be used to attack in the turn in which it is ``created'' by paying the artifact's cost. It must be in play at the beginning of your turn in order to be used. Note that you can pay the costs during an opponent's turn in order to use it when your turn comes around.
• The Djinn is a not a ``card'', it is a token. It cannot be affected by Desert Twister or count as life for a Lich. Spells which specifically target or use ``cards'' such as City in a Bottle do not affect it. It cannot be xxxxlaced. [Snark]
• The word ``discarded'' should read ``destroyed''. [WotC Rules Team]

Braingeyser

• When used on a person when it is not their turn, they may keep all the cards until the end of their next turn when they must discard as normal down to 7 cards (Library of Leng excepted).

Camouflage

Castle

• Note that attackers lose the benefits, so even though the Serra Angel does not tap when attacking it does not get the benefits during the attack but if it does not die in the attack, it gets back the benefit afterwards (since it will no longer be ``attacking''). [bethmo]
• Tapping a creature removes the +2 toughness from the creature and may kill it if it has already taken damage.

Celestial Prism

Channel

• Text changed between alpha and beta printings.
• This is not damage, it is loss of life.
• The amount of life converted into mana is not a decision as part of the casting of Channel. [WotC Rules Team]

Chaos Orb

• You can arrange your cards any time before the Orb is put into play, but not after. [Snark]
• ``Cards it touches'' refers to cards it touches once it stops moving. [Snark]
• If the Orb is xxxxlaced, Protection from Color will protect a creature from being affected by the Orb. [Snark]
• You cannot interfere in any physical way with the playing of this card. [FAQ]
• It must flip 360 degrees (that's what ``flip entirely'' means). [FAQ]
• The word ``discarded'' should be read as ``destroyed''. Also, a card which destroys itself cannot have that destruction prevented. [WotC Rules Team]

Chaoslace

Circle of Protection: Red

City in a Bottle

• Removes all Arabian Nights cards from play and prevents any player from casting any more of them until the City is removed. This can result in collecting a lot of cards in your hand. [Snark]
• The term ``discarded'' from play now means ``destroyed''. [WotC Rules Team] If regenerated, they are immediately destroyed again, so it is not worth doing. Death events are generated.
• If tapped by some means, this card does not function in any way. The rulebook says that continuous artifacts do not function when tapped. This card does not override any rules. Once untapped, all Arabian Nights cards are removed from play and no further spells can be cast. [Snark]
• Oubliette does not save a creature from being discarded. In one moment, the creature is freed, and the next it is discarded. This is faster than an interrupt. [Snark]
• Arabian Nights tokens or counters are not removed. [bethmo]

City of Brass

• Damage is done if the card is tapped by Twiddle or Icy Manipulator because the text on the card specifically detects the card becoming tapped. [Snark]

Clockwork Beast

• Animate Dead on the Clockwork Beast revives it totally unwound and at -1 power. [Snark]
• Resurrection on the Clockwork Beast revives it totally unwound at 0/4. [Chris Page]

Clone

• Cloning a creature with Animate Dead on it gets you a dead creature. The Clone dies. [Snark]
• Animating a dead Clone gets all the Clone's abilities but it mimics at -1 power. [Snark]
• The Clone of an artifact creature can be Shattered or Disenchanted.
• Animated artifacts cannot be cloned. They are creatures only due to the enchantment. [Snark]
• Living lands cannot be cloned. They are creatures only due to the enchantment.
• Can be used to copy a base Doppelganger. You get a Doppelganger which is always blue, and the Clone is mimicking the same creature the Doppelganger was until the next upkeep. [bethmo]
• If copying a creature which had been modified with Sleight of Mind or Magical Hack, the modification holds even for the Clone. [Chris Page]
• The ``normal characteristics'' text means that you treat the Clone as having the exact same text on it as the original card had. This includes name, casting cost, power/toughness, etc. It does not gain any enhancements the original creature may have had temporarily through Instants like Giant Growth or through Enchantments. [bethmo]
• The Clone does not get any of the tokens the creature it copies has. Thus, a Clone of a Scavenging Ghoul does not get tokens, and a Clone of a 6 headed Rock Hydra is a zero headed Rock Hydra (which will most likely die immediately). [bethmo]
• The Clone is the same color as the creature it copies. It is no longer blue (even if the card looks blue) unless the creature it copied was blue too. [bethmo]
• A Clone of an Arabian Nights creature is not an Arabian Nights card. [WotC Rules Team]
• A Clone of a creature represented by a token is a card which if destroyed goes to the graveyard and if unsummoned goes to your hand. In other words the Clone acts as a card and not a token. [WotC Rules Team]
• A Clone cannot be summoned unless there is some other creature to Clone. [Card Text]
• The decision of what to Clone is part of the casting decisions. [bethmo]

Cockatrice

• In all ways, the Cockatrice is like the Basilisk. See rulings there.

Consecrate Land

• Prevents direct use of enchantments on the land. Indirect effect by enchantments such as Conversion, Living Lands, Kormus Bell, and Manaflare are not prevented and the land can still be targeted by Gaea's Liege, Cyclopean Tomb, etc. [Snark+bethmo]
• A living Consecrated Land cannot be destroyed. It is effectively an unkillable 1/1 creature. [Snark] It just soaks up damage and will not die even if damage is greater than toughness. It is also immune to the Basilisk ability, Disintegrate, and anything else which would kill it. [bethmo]

Conservator

Control Magic

Conversion

• Once in play, Mountains produce white mana and this white mana is acceptable for paying the upkeep cost.
• A Mountain is not protected by a Consecrate Land enchantment. [Snark]
• The word ``discarded'' should be read as ``destroyed''. [WotC Rules Team]

Copy Artifact

Creature Bond

• You do not lose life if Swords to Plowshares is used on the creature. Swords to Plowshares causes the card to leave the game, not to be destroyed. [Snark]
• Creatures ``discarded from play'' to the graveyard still cause damage because ``discarded'' means the same as ``destroyed''. This means that City in a Bottle and other effects which cause discarding do trigger this spell. [WotC Rules Team]

Cyclone

Cyclopean Tomb

• The lands so changed are not considered ``Enchanted'' and so Consecrate Land will not protect them. [Snark]
• No casting cost was listed in the alpha printing. This was corrected in the beta printing to show a cost of 4 colorless mana.
• Can be used to change any land (not just basic lands) into a swamp. [bethmo]
• Can only be used once a turn because it is a Mono Artifact and must be tapped as part of the use cost. [bethmo]

Darkpact

• If you use some spell or effect (like Natural Selection) which allows you to peek at cards in the library, you can still use Darkpact.

Death Ward

Deathlace

Demonic Hordes

Demonic Tutor

Desert

• No, this is not a basic land type. [Snark]
• Multiple deserts can be used to damage the same attacker. [bethmo] (this can be so brutal that some house rules suggest max 1 dmg per creature due to desert damage)
• Can be used any time during the attack phase before damage dealing, but does not actually do the damage until the normal damage dealing step. You have to choose where the damage goes when tapping the desert. Damage is simultaneous to normal combat damage. [Snark]
• Can be used on any player's attacking creatures. This includes your own and creatures in an attack you are not involved in (multiplayer games). [bethmo]
• Can not do damage if Fog is played since Fog prevents creatures from damaging each other and Desert damage is done after creature damage. [WotC Rules Team]
• Can still target a creature in a Banding group. Banding only distributes creature damage.

Diamond Valley

• The sacrifice destroys the creature and all effects triggered by that destruction work (i.e. Soul Net, Rukh Egg). [bethmo]
• A sacrifice cannot be prevented by either player. [Page 27]
• Cannot sacrifice during damage dealing or damage prevention portions of the attack phase. [bethmo]

Disenchant

Disintegrate

• If creature is not killed by the Disintegrate but is later in the turn given enough damage to kill it, it may not regenerate. This is because the Disintegrate prevents regeneration this turn. [Snark]
• Can be used to do zero points of damage and call into play the ``cannot regenerate'' part if the creature is killed at any time this turn. [Snark]
• The ``it may not regenerate'' ability is applied to the target creature even if the damage is redirected to another target. The ability is not a nature of the damage. [bethmo]
• Disintegrate prevents regeneration of the target. (official rule) Some people have misread the card because the English is a bit messed up. It says that if the creature is killed this turn it cannot regenerate. Well, regeneration prevents the creature from being killed. You should replace ``is killed'' with ``receives enough damage to be killed''.
• As always ``a target'' means any creature or player.

Disrupting Sceptre

Drain Life

Drop of Honey

Dwarven Warriors

• Can be tapped at any time to make a creature unblockable. For example, if you had Orcish Oriflamme in play, you could tap the Dwarves to make a 2/2 creature unblockable before you declare an attack. Once the attack is declared, the creature is 3/2 because the the Oriflamme. [bethmo] Or, you could tap the Dwarves to make themselves unblockable, then use Instill Energy or Twiddle to untap them and commit them to an attack.
• Can be used after a creature is blocked but has no effect. Once a creature is blocked, it cannot be unblocked by anything other than False Orders. [bethmo]

Earthbind

Ebony Horse

• The attacking creature is untapped and removed from the attack. [Chris Page]
• The creature is considered to have attacked for purposes of ``attack or die'' effects like Siren's Call. [bethmo]

Elvish Archers

Erg Raiders

Eye for an Eye

• Does white damage.
• Cannot be used on effects that cause loss of life. This includes Shahrazad, Channel, and the death of a Personal Incarnation. It can only be used on damage. [bethmo]

False Orders

Farmstead

Fireball

Flying Carpet

Fog

• Prevents damage during the combat but not other special effects such as the Basilisk's kill of any creature that blocks it.
• Stops a Desert from doing damage. [WotC Rules Team]

Force of Nature

Forcefield

Fork

Fungasaur

Gaea's Liege

• Consider this card to be defending at all times when it is not attacking. [Snark]
• The ``change to forest'' effect cannot be prevented by Consecrate Land or Tranquility because it is not an enchantment. [Snark]
• This can change any land (not just basic lands) into a Forest. [bethmo]

Gauntlet of Might

• Mountains do not produce two mana when Conversion is in play because all the Mountains are now Plains instead. [Snark]
• Multilands which have Mountain as one of their types produce an extra red mana when tapped for either color. [bethmo]
• If a Mountain is tapped using Twiddle or Icy Manipulator while the Gauntlet is in play, the owner of the Mountain gets one red mana added to her pool. The Gauntlet says that if the land gets tapped, an additional red mana gets generated.

Ghazban Ogre

• If life points are tied, the one in control of the Ogre keeps control. In multiplayer games, if the tie does not include the current controller, a random method is used to pick the next controller. [Snark]

Goblin Balloon Brigade

Goblin King

Guardian Beast

• Does not prevent any artifact from destroying itself. In the future, such artifacts will say ``sacrifice self''. [WotC Rules Team] These include the Black Lotus and Sulieman's Bottle.
• This cannot protect Nevinyrral's Disk because the disk destroys itself. [Chris Page] (REVERSAL of earlier ruling)
• Because ``discarded'' means ``destroyed'' for most uses, the Beast can protect against a Disenchant. [WotC Rules Team] (This is a rule reversal)
• Does not prevent you from giving back artifacts that were stolen by Aladdin or Steal Artifact when Aladdin or Steal Artifact are removed. [bethmo]

Helm of Chatzuk

Hypnotic Spectre

Icy Manipulator

• Opponent gets a chance to use the card being Manipulated during the same instant if he/she so wishes. The ``no effect'' text can be easily misread. It means that your tapping has no effect, not that your opponent cannot respond by using the card to some effect (if that would be a legal action).
• The text was changed between the alpha and beta printings.
• Can only be used once a turn because it is a Mono Artifact and must be tapped as part of the use cost. [bethmo]

Ifh-Biff Efreet

• You can pay the Efreet more than once a turn, indeed more than once in a given instant. [Snark] Each payment counts as a separate source of damage (because the notation is not ``G:Effect'' it is ``spend G for effect''). [bethmo]
• The Efreet does indeed damage itself. [Chris Page]

Illusionary Mask

• Since your opponent cannot see what your creatures are, that person may end up casting spells which cannot normally be cast on your creature (for example: Terror on a Black creature). In this case, the spell just fizzles out with no effect. In other words, it is a legal use of the spell, but it may fail to do anything. [bethmo]
• If the creature is controlled by Control Magic or other means by another player, it remains face down but the new controller may look at the card.
• This card does not affect in any way the original spell casting cost (amounts or colors). It just allows you to spend X additional mana of any color to disguise what the real cost was. [Card Text]
• If the Mask is destroyed, the creatures still remain face-down until one of the conditions of turning it over are met. [bethmo]

Instill Energy

Island Sanctuary

Island of Wak-Wak

• This is not considered an Island and cannot be used as a target or an enabler for spells which require Islands. [Snark]
• Effect lasts until the end of the turn (even if Wak-Wak is destroyed). [Snark]
• Changes creature's current power to zero but does not prevent raising it after Wak-Wak has been used on it. [Snark]

Jade Statue

• It can only be a creature during attack phases (or defense during someone else's attack phase) and therefore can only have instants and interrupts cast upon it. Enchantments that cannot be used at that time, and so no Enchant Creature spells are usable on the Statue.
• Paying mana to use it for defense does not tap it.
• It can be paid and used for attack the turn in which it is created.
• The statue is destroyed at the end of the turn if it attacks when Berserked. [Snark]
• If Animate Artifact is used on it, you get a 4/4 artifact creature which becomes a 3/6 artifact creature during an attack phase if 2 mana are spent. While animated, it can have enchantments placed on it. These enchantments stay if the Animate Artifact is removed and will lay dormant until the 2 mana are spent to make it a creature again. [bethmo]
• It it neither a mono nor a poly artifact. It if effectively a poly artifact that can only be used once per player's turn (during the attack phase) and which may become tapped (if you declare it in an attack). [bethmo]

Jandor's Ring

• When used with Howling Mine, Ancestral Recall, etc. you must draw one card at a time and decide with each card if you want to use the Ring. You do not draw all the cards then decide to use the Ring on one of them. [Snark]

Jayemdae Tome

Jewelled Bird

Jihad

Juggernaut

• Invisibility can make the Juggernaut unblockable. The ``can only be blocked by walls'' of Invisibility does not override the text on the Juggernaut which says it cannot be blocked by walls. [bethmo]

Jump

Karma

Khabal Ghoul

Kormus Bell

• Lands are now Creature-Lands and while being creatures in all senses are also lands. [Snark]
• Wrath of God will destroy them without possibility of regeneration.
• Nevinyrral's Disk and Armageddon will destroy them.
• With Balance, consider them both as lands and as creatures. Just remove whatever you have to in order to achieve ``balance''. And yes, this does mean that they get double-counted :-(
• New lands of this type played out cannot be tapped until they are in play at the beginning of your turn (as per the creature rules).
• Affected by Smoke and Winter Orb.
• This does mean lands owned by any and all players.
• Consecrate Land does not protect the land from being affected by the Bell. [bethmo]
• A living Consecrated Land cannot be destroyed. It is effectively an unkillable 1/1 creature. [Snark] It just soaks up damage and will not die even if damage is greater than toughness. It is also immune to the Basilisk ability, Disintegrate, and anything else which would kill it. [bethmo]
• An animated land cannot attack until it begins a turn in play as a creature. [bethmo]

Kudzu

• If the land with Kudzu on it is destroyed by spell (rather than tapping) Kudzu is discarded. [Snark]
• Treat ``discarded'' as ``destroyed'' and also note that a card which destroys itself cannot have that destruction prevented. [WotC Rules Team]
• Replace the word ``may'' with ``must'' on the card. Kudzu must be moved to another land when it is activated. [Snark]
• Yes, you can move it to any other player's land whenever you get to move it. [Card text]

Library of Alexandria

• You can tap this card before you draw for a turn, and still draw as normal. [Snark]
• If you have multiple Libraries of Alexandria, you can tap them all at the same time and use them all since they are fast effects that occur simultaneously. [bethmo]

Library of Leng

Lich

• This can only be played on yourself, not on opponents.
• You cannot discard a creature which has lethal damage on it if you take damage at the same time. [bethmo]
• If you have multiple Lich cards in play, you must discard 1 card for each life lost for each Lich. Similarly, you draw 1 card for each life gained for each Lich.
• The phrase ``You lose if this enchantment is destroyed'' is an absolute statement. Casting a Healing Salve or using a ``lucky charm'' after the destruction will not save you. [WotC Rules Team]
• Cards destroyed by losing life generate death events and in all ways are similar to normal destroy actions. [bethmo]

Lifelace

Lifetap

• This card gives one life for each and every Forest tapped. [bethmo] Some house rules have only one life given for each occurrence of a group of Forests being tapped.
• Since it detects a Forest becoming tapped, it even works if the Forest is tapped with Twiddle or Icy Manipulator.

Living Artifact

Living Lands

• Living Lands is identical in effect to the Kormus Bell, so see its entry for rulings.

Lord of Atlantis

• Does not grant the abilities to itself. [Snark]
• These powers begin once the Lord is in play and immediately cease if it leaves play.
• Does grant the abilities to all Merfolk owned by any player. [Snark]

Lord of the Pit

• You cannot sacrifice the Lord of the Pit to itself.
• COP:Black can be used to avoid damage from not paying the upkeep. [Snark]
• A sacrifice of a creature cannot be prevented by either player. [Page 27]
• If you have a creature, you must sacrifice it. The ``or take 7 damage'' option can only be taken if no creature can be sacrificed. [bethmo]

Magical Hack

• Alters all occurrences of a land word on the given card. These words must occur in the text box on the card. Any card without such a word is not a valid target for this spell. [Snark]
• Change lasts until the card so-changed is taken out of play. In a multiplayer game, this means it persists even after the player who cast the Magical Hack leaves the game. The card forgets the change if it goes to the graveyard or is Unsummoned. [Chris Page]

Mana Flare

Mana Short

Manabarbs

Meekstone

Metamorphosis

Naf's Asp

Nettling Imp

• It can nettle a tapped creature. [Snark]
• Cannot nettle a creature with Protection from Black. [bethmo]
• Cannot nettle any Wall, even an Animated one. [bethmo]
• Creature nettled is not destroyed if it simply cannot attack. For example Sea Serpent cannot attack if opponent has no Islands.

Nevinyrral's Disk

• Creatures can be regenerated although the enchantments on them will still be destroyed by the Disk. [bethmo]

Old Man of the Sea

Orcish Artillery

Orcish Oriflamme

Oubliette

• The creature inside will survive anything which destroys the artifact and it is immune to being killed. The creature is considered ``out of the game''. [Snark]
• The creature in the Oubliette may be selected (and returned to play) by the Ma'ruf's Ring artifact since the card was ``out of play''. [Snark]
• If City in a Bottle is used, the Oubliette does not protect the creature inside (if it is an Arabian Nights card) from being affected. The Oubliette is removed from play and then the creature is freed and removed from play immediately. Continuous effect artifacts are considered to be faster than an interrupts. [bethmo]
• If Oubliette is used on token creatures, they are permanently lost. This is because the cards which create tokens all say that the token is lost if it is ever ``removed from play''. This does not mean a ``death'' event however. [bethmo]
• If something happens which removes the creature from the Oubliette, the Oubliette still hangs around. It is not discarded. [bethmo]
• While out of play, time does not pass for the creature. It does not untap, it is not affected by any effects during upkeep, and it cannot be targeted by any spell.

Paralyze

• Note that enchantment is permanent. It does not leave once it is paid. This is a common mistake.
• As a new rule, Paralyze costs should be paid during Upkeep not Untap. [Snark]
• It is not mandatory that you pay the mana cost. It is optional, but must be paid in order to untap.
• Paying the upkeep cost does not allow the creature to untap if it is prevented by some other effect. (like Meekstone)
• If two paralyzes are on a creature, 8 mana must be spent to untap it. [Snark]

Personal Incarnation

• Loss of life is not the same as damage and therefore cannot be prevented with a Circle of Protection nor reversed with Reverse Damage. [Snark]
• You do not lose life if Swords to Plowshares is used on it. [Snark]
• If the Incarnation has Creature Bond on it, when it dies, the controller of the Incarnation decides whether to lose the Creature Bond damage before or after the Incarnation's loss of life. [bethmo]

Pestilence

• It is legal to power it up with X for an X mana single damage or for X sequential attacks of 1 damage because it says ``B:Effect''. [bethmo]
• Each usage is considered a new ``damage effect''. As above, a usage may be 1 or more points of damage. [bethmo]
• It goes away at the end of the turn if no creatures are in play, even if a new creature (such as a Rukh) comes into existence at the end of turn also. [Snark]
• The word ``discarded'' should be read as ``destroyed''. [WotC Rules Team]

Phantasmal Forces

Phantasmal Terrain

Plague Rats

• ``Rats in play'' means rats in play by any and all players.

Power Sink

Power Surge

Prodigal Sorcerer

Purelace

Pyramids

• When used on a land animated by Living Lands (or similar effect), this effectively prevents the land from being killed. [bethmo]

Raging River

• Two Raging Rivers result in one extra long river. No more splits. [Snark]

Raise Dead

• You must show the card you bring out of the graveyard to your opponent. [bethmo] (also see General Rulings)
• You can Raise Dead a creature which was discarded from your hand and was therefore never in play.

Red Elemental Blast

Regrowth

Resurrection

• Resurrected creatures cannot be tapped to attack or to use a special effect on the turn in which they come into play. In many ways it is like the creature has been summoned but with zero applied to any X cost and with all possible earned ``counters'' set to zero.
• The Serra Angel cannot attack on the turn in which it is Resurrected because there is a rule that a creature cannot attack until it begins a turn in play on your side. [Rulebook]
• You can Resurrect a creature which was discarded from your hand and was therefore never in play.

Ring of Ma'ruf

• Cannot acquire the Ante cards. They are considered still ``in the game'' as are cards in the library and the graveyard. [bethmo]
• Can acquire a creature which was removed from the game by the Oubliette, Disintegrate or Swords to Plowshares.
• While in a subgame started by Shahrazad, you cannot take cards from the parent game. This ``subgame'' is still part of the larger ``game''.
• You do not need to show the card you acquire to your opponent. [bethmo]

Rock Hydra

• When it dies it ``forgets'' how many heads it had, so Resurrection, Animate Dead and other cards which pull out of the graveyard result in a 0/0 creature. [Snark] This creature will only live if its toughness is increased by something like Castle.
• The Rock Hydra loses tokens instead of taking damage until it runs out of tokens. Then damage is applied normally. Another way to think of this is that by losing tokens, damage is absorbed. By spending R to prevent a token from being lost, the damage is also prevented. Do not lose tokens and accumulate damage. [WotC Rules Team]
• Since the Hydra loses heads due to damage before accumulating damage points, instants like Giant Growth are not totally useful with a Rock Hydra. A Hydra with 4 heads and a Giant Growth is 7/7, but after taking 4 damage (without paying the mana to keep the heads) it will lose all of its heads and die once the Giant Growth wears off. [bethmo]
• Regeneration does not make much sense with the Hydra. It loses a head each time it dies until it reaches 0/0. Regenerating the creature results in a creature with exactly as many +1/+1 tokens as it had when it died. If it died due to taking damage, it will have no tokens, hence it will be 0/0 and will only live if its toughness is increased by something like Castle. If, however, it dies by say Blue Elemental Blast, it could indeed regenerate and keep its tokens. [Chris Page]
• The R's were changed to icons between the alpha and beta printings.

Rod of Ruin

Royal Assassin

Rukh Egg

• The ``going to the graveyard'' text means only when it leaves play as a creature. It does NOT include being discarded from your hand. One may be able to read this card wrong. This is one of the few ``play it right'' and not ``play it as it reads'' corrections. [Garfield]
• You get the benefit of the Egg if it leaves play due to any reason which causes it to go to the graveyard. This includes being ``destroyed'' or ``discarded''.
• Swords to Plowshares and Disintegrate remove the Egg from the game and so no Rukh hatches.
• If the Egg is discarded by City in a Bottle, you get a Rukh. [Snark]
• The Rukh that hatches is a red creature with casting cost of zero. [Snark]
• The Rukh is not a ``card'', it is a token. It cannot be affected by Desert Twister, City in a Bottle, or other spells which target ``cards''. Equally, a Lich cannot gain life from it. It cannot be xxxxlaced. [Snark]
• The Rukh cannot be used to attack until it begins one of your turns in play.
• Animate Dead brings back a -1/3 Egg which will hatch into a fully functional Rukh (the Animate Dead goes to the graveyard with the Egg). [bethmo]
• If a Clone or a Doppelganger of a Rukh is destroyed, it hatches into a fully functional Rukh. [bethmo]
• A Clone or Doppelganger of a Rukh is still a card and goes to the graveyard when it is destroyed, and goes to a person's hand when it is Unsummoned. The text about the Rukh leaving the game permanently if it goes out of play applies only to token creatures. [bethmo]
• If the Egg is destroyed while under the control of another player, the controller of the card gets the Rukh. This applies to Animate Dead as well. (This is a reversal of a previous ruling!) [Snark]

Sandals of Abdallah

Sandstorm

Scavenging Ghouls

Sedge Troll

Serendib Djinn

• If the destruction of the Land being sacrificed is prevented by any means, the Djinn has still been paid. It is the attempt to destroy that makes the Djinn happy. So, use those Pyramids and Consecrate Lands! [Snark]
• The Djinn only damages you if an Island is successfully destroyed. [bethmo]
• If you have more than one Djinn, you may feed them one at a time. This may allow you to feed the same Consecrated Land to all the Djinns. [bethmo]
• If it is not possible to destroy a land, the Djinn need not be fed.

Serra Angel

Shahrazad

Shatter

Simulacrum

• All damage retains its color when you assign it to a creature. [Snark]
• You cannot Simulacrum damage to a creature with Protection from Black because this is a black spell and cannot target such a creature. [WotC Rules Team]
• You can Simulacrum damage due to an unblocked or trampling creature to another creature involved in the attack, even if that creature has already taken fatal damage, because creatures are not removed until after damage prevention is allowed. [WotC Rules Team] (Note that this only works during the damage prevention step... once combat is over the creature is removed.)
• You cannot Simulacrum Loss of Life to a creature, just damage.

Singing Tree

• Can only be used during an attack phase.
• Effects last until the end of the current attack phase. [Snark]
• Lowers the current power to zero but does not prevent the power from being increased after the Tree is used. [Snark]

Siren's Call

• Kills creatures even if they were tapped before card was played. [Snark]
• Creatures can regenerate if they die due to not attacking.
• Only creatures in play when the spell is cast are affected. This means that the Jade Statue and any creatures which come into play after this spell is cast are not affected. [bethmo]

Sleight of Mind

• Alters all occurrences of the color word on the given card. These words must occur in the text box on the card. Any card without such a word is not a valid target for this spell. [Snark]
• Change lasts until the card so-changed is taken out of play. In a multiplayer game, this means it persists even after the player who cast the Sleight of Mind leaves the game. The card forgets the change if it goes to the graveyard or is Unsummoned. [Chris Page]
• This spell can be used to change the ``flavor text'' (the italicized text) on the card. This has no game effect but uses up the spell. [bethmo]
• If the name of the Black Vise is changed in the text of the card, this does not affect the operation of the Vise at all. Just because the card now says ``Blue Vise does ...'' does not prevent it from working.

Smoke

• Lands animated by Living Lands or Kormus Bell are affected by this spell.

Sorcerous Queen

• It changes the text on the card to read 0/2, any counters or enchantments which improve (or weaken) the creature's combat values remain in effect. [WotC Rules Team] Note that this may actually make the Rock Hydra stronger or kill a creature with two or more -1/-1 tokens on it.

Soul Net

Steal Artifact

Swords to Plowshares

The Hive

• The wasps created by The Hive are not ``cards'', they are tokens. They cannot be destroyed with Desert Twister or count as life for a Lich. They cannot be xxxxlaced. [Snark]
• They are artifact creatures with a casting cost of zero. [Snark]
• Can only be used once a turn because it is a Mono Artifact and must be tapped as part of the use cost. [bethmo]

Thicket Basilisk

• If a group (or banded group) is used to block a Basilisk (or a group banded with a Basilisk), all of the non-wall defenders are killed via the Basilisk's power. [Garfield]
• Creatures can regenerate from the Basilisk's power.
• If the Basilisk is killed before damage dealing but after blocking or being assigned blockers, the blockers still die. [bethmo]
• Fog does not prevent the Basilisk's power from working (see Fog).
• Protection from Green does not prevent the Basilisk's power because it is not a targeted effect. [Chris Page]
• An attacking Animated Wall which is blocked by a Basilisk dies since only blocking walls are protected from the Basilisk's power. [bethmo]

Thoughtlace

Time Vault

• Can use Twiddle to untap without skipping a turn. [Snark] Instill Energy works similarly once the Vault is Animated with Animate Artifact. [bethmo]
• The card says to ``skip a turn to untap it''. You must skip a turn. On your following turn, it untaps during your untap phase.
• If you have multiple Time Vaults, you must skip a turn for each one you wish to untap, not one turn to untap them all. [bethmo] See the general rulings section also.

Tranquility

Tropical Island

Twiddle

• Can be used to untap the Time Vault without skipping a turn [Snark]
• Tapping a continuous artifact deactivates it. [rulebook]
• Tapping a poly artifact makes it unusable.
• Opponent gets a chance to use the card being Twiddled during the same instant if he/she so wishes. The ``no effect'' text can be easily misread. It means that your tapping has no effect, not that your opponent cannot respond by using the card to some effect (if that would be a legal action). Note that any enchantments on the card will still generate effect when the card is tapped.
• The ``no effect is generated by the target card'' text was added to the beta printing.

Unstable Mutation

Unsummon

• This can be used all the way up to the damage dealing phase of an attack, but cannot be used after that if the creature was killed. [Snark]
• Unsummoning an Animate Dead creature pulls it into the owner's hand. [Snark]
• If this causes an opponent to go over 7 cards when it is not their turn they need not discard until the end of their turn.
• An Unsummoned creature forgets its entire previous life.
• Unsummoning a token creature just removes it from the game.
• The text was changed between the alpha and beta printings.
• The word ``discarded'' should be read as ``destroyed''. [WotC Rules Team]

Vesuvan Doppelganger

• Can only switch creatures once per upkeep phase. [WotC Rules Team]
• Copying a creature with Animate Dead on it gets you a dead creature. The Doppelganger dies.
• Animating a dead Doppelganger gets all the Doppelganger's abilities but it mimics at -1 power.
• Animated artifacts cannot be copied. They are creatures only due to the enchantment.
• Living lands cannot be copied. They are creatures only due to the enchantment.
• The Doppelganger of an artifact creature can be Shattered or Disenchanted.
• The ``normal characteristics'' text means that you treat the Doppelganger as having the exact same text on it as the original card had. This includes name, casting cost, power/toughness, etc. It does not gain any enhancements the original creature may have had temporarily through Instants like Giant Growth or through Enchantments. [bethmo]
• The Doppelganger does not get any of the tokens the creature it copies has. Thus, a copy of a Scavenging Ghoul does not get tokens, and a copy of a 6 headed Rock Hydra is a zero headed Rock Hydra (which will most likely die immediately). [bethmo]
• Whenever it changes creatures, it ``resets'' and loses any tokens or other gains it made as the creature it was originally copying.
• If copying a creature which had been modified with Sleight of Mind or Magical Hack, the modification holds even for the Doppelganger. [Chris Page]
• Cannot play the Doppelganger if there are no creatures in play. [Card Text]
• A Doppelganger of a Clone is just a copy of the creature the Clone copied.
• A Doppelganger of an Arabian Nights creature is not an Arabian Nights card. [WotC Rules Team]
• A Doppelganger of a creature represented by a token is a card which if destroyed goes to the graveyard and if unsummoned goes to your hand. In other words, it follows the rules of cards and not of token creatures. [WotC Rules Team]
• When the Doppelganger switches creatures, the creature it used to be is considered to have left play. This means that if it was a Gaea's Liege that converted lands, revert to their old form, and that if it was Aladdin that stolen artifacts return to the owner as normal. [bethmo]
• When switching creatures, it loses any tokens acquired as the previous creature.
• The decision of what to copy is part of the casting decisions. [bethmo]

Veteran Bodyguard

• If a creature is blocked but Trample damage is still done to a player, this damage cannot be redirected to the Bodyguard because the Bodyguard only takes damage from unblocked creatures. [bethmo]
• If a creature which does Trample damage is not blocked, the damage is taken by the Bodyguard and the damage loses its Trample nature. [Snark]
• Cannot be used against spell or other non-creature attack damage. Note that the Prodigal Sorcerer and other creatures have non-attack ways to deliver damage.
• Redirected damage retains its color. [Snark]
• If two (or more) Veteran Bodyguards are in play (for the same player), each of the bodyguards takes all of the unblocked damage. [Snark]

Volcanic Eruption

White Ward

• In the 1st printing rules (alpha and beta parts) the rules say that damage done by a protected creature cannot be prevented by spells/effects of a color protected against by the Ward. Hence, White-Warded creatures cannot be blocked by a Circle of Protection or Guardian Angel or Healing Salve from doing damage. Snark has said that this is an error and will be corrected in the next edition. The part about damage not being preventable will be removed and so in general most people do not play with this curious capability of the White Ward.

Wild Growth

• Land provides 1 green mana no matter how it is tapped. This includes tapping for mana, tapping to attack (with a Living Land), or Twiddle. [bethmo]

Winter Orb

• Lands animated by Living Lands or Kormus Bell are affected by this spell.

Word of Command

• The caster of Word of Command controls all aspects of the spell he/she has the opponent cast, including the amount of mana and target of the spell. Note that if the spell just enables something, you cannot power it in addition to casting it. For example, you cannot cast Pestilence then tap additional mana to power the card, or summon a Nether Shadow and declare an attack with it. Spells with an X casting cost have X decided by the player. As a big REVERSAL to a previous ruling, with Channel, the amount of many converted is not a decision in the casting of the spell. [WotC rules team]
• Since casting this spell is an action, you opponent gets a chance to cast interrupts and instants in response to your spell. Once the current instant it resolved, then you can look at your opponent's hand.
• You must order your opponent to cast a spell if it is possible to do so.
• The spell is considered as being cast by your opponent and not by you. [Snark]
• You opponent cannot counter the Word of Command once he lets you look at his hand, but he can attempt to counter the spell you force him to cast. [WotC rules team]
• Only land and mana pool are available to the caster. Other sources of mana are not allowed.

Wrath of God

• White-Warded creatures cannot avoid this spell's effects. Destruction by means of Wrath of God is not considered ``damage'' which can be prevented by Protection from White. [Snark]

Ydwen Efreet

• If the coinflip prevents the Efreet from blocking, you cannot put up a different blocker instead. The coinflip occurs after you assign defenders (much like False Orders). [Snark]

Zombie Master

• Does not grant the abilities to itself. [Snark]
• These powers begin once the Master is in play and immediately cease if it leaves play.
• Does grant ability to all Zombies owned by every player. [Snark]