Here is another "this makes me hate being a judge" thread about the interactive (smh) and intuitive (lul) card Blood Moon. In the upcoming situations there is a blood moon in play and some non-basic lands. Also as a general question as a whole, do time stamps or "order of appearance" matter at all and if they do, what situations might they matter?
2. There is a spreading seas on a non-basic land, what does it tap for?
3. In response to a moon being cast I activate a mutavault. Is it still a creature for the turn with all creature types? In the same vein, if a creeping tar pit was animated, would it still be unblockable?
5. Can a creature with "non-basic landwalk" be blocked?
6. Is dryad arbor still a creature in any fashion at all?
7. Can a dryad arbor tap for mana the turn I play it?
8. If a card or effect requires me to sacrifice basic mountains to do something, can I sacrifice my non-basics?
9. Can I use evolving wilds to search my deck for a non-basic land? Essentially are non-basics that are not on the battlefield also considered basic mountains?
Here is another "this makes me hate being a judge" thread about the interactive (smh) and intuitive (lul) card Blood Moon. In the upcoming situations there is a blood moon in play and some non-basic lands. Also as a general question as a whole, do time stamps or "order of appearance" matter at all and if they do, what situations might they matter?
Red. Blood Moon always 'wins' because there is what's called a dependency here: applying Blood Moon first makes it so Urborg can't apply anymore (because it loses its ability), so we always apply the Moon first in this case regardless of timestamp.
2. There is a spreading seas on a non-basic land, what does it tap for?
Here, timestamp matters, it's an Island if Spreading Seas became attached to the land after Blood Moon entered, and vice-versa.
3. In response to a moon being cast I activate a mutavault. Is it still a creature for the turn with all creature types? In the same vein, if a creeping tar pit was animated, would it still be unblockable?
Yes in both cases. All that giving a land a basic land type makes it lose is its printed abilities and its other land subtypes. Its other card types (here, creature) are left untouched, as are any abilities that are not directly printed but instead granted, by its own animation ability resolving for example. Mutavault and Creeping Tar Pit don't really give themselves abilities anyway (the former gives itself creature subtypes, which are also unaffected, the latter changes the rules about blocking for itself) but something like Inkmoth Nexus would keep flying and infect.
5. Can a creature with "non-basic landwalk" be blocked?
No, the lands are still nonbasic. Blood Moon doesn't give them the supertype Basic, it just gives them the basic land *type* mountain. Nothing in the game can make a nonbasic land basic, except making it a copy of a basic land.
6. Is dryad arbor still a creature in any fashion at all?
Yep. It's a 1/1 Mountain Dryad that's green (the color indicator isn't affected either) and which taps for red instead of green.
7. Can a dryad arbor tap for mana the turn I play it?
Nope, since it's still a creature.
8. If a card or effect requires me to sacrifice basic mountains to do something, can I sacrifice my non-basics?
If it really specifies *basic* mountains, no. You're kind of repeating the same questions, just with different implications of the single answer.
9. Can I use evolving wilds to search my deck for a non-basic land? Essentially are non-basics that are not on the battlefield also considered basic mountains?
No. Besides the fact that Blood Moon doesn't make anything basic, it only affects lands on the battlefield, same as Glorious Anthem doesn't affect creature cards elsewhere than the battlefield. It says 'nonbasic lands', so it means 'nonbasic land permanents'. See this rule:
109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn't include the word "card," "spell," "source," or "scheme," it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.
I'm a former judge (lapsed), who keeps up to date on rules and policy. Keep in mind that judges' answers aren't necessarily more valid than those of people who aren't judges; what matters is we can quote the rules to back up our answers. When in doubt, ask for such quotes.
Here is another "this makes me hate being a judge" thread about the interactive (smh) and intuitive (lul) card Blood Moon. In the upcoming situations there is a blood moon in play and some non-basic lands. Also as a general question as a whole, do time stamps or "order of appearance" matter at all and if they do, what situations might they matter?
All nonbasics, inclusing Urborg, will only be Mountains and only be able to tap for red mana. This is due to dependency between Blood Moon and Urborg, since the former removes the later's ability's existence.
2. There is a spreading seas on a non-basic land, what does it tap for?
This depends on the timestamps of Seas and Moon. The later wins. There is no dependency here unlike in the previous case.
3. In response to a moon being cast I activate a mutavault. Is it still a creature for the turn with all creature types? In the same vein, if a creeping tar pit was animated, would it still be unblockable?
Yes. Blood Moon only overwrites land subtypes (if the land has any to begin with). Other card types are not affected. The Tar Pit being unblockable is just something that is true about the permanent, it's not an ability granted to it. Even if it was, granting abilities is applied in later layer, and the Tar Pit's animation effect comes from a resolving ability, not a continous effect generated by the land, so that ability would not be removed by Blood Moon.
Yes. Blood Moon only overwrites land subtypes (if the land has any to begin with). Other card types are not affected.
5. Can a creature with "non-basic landwalk" be blocked?
No, those lands now have a basic land type, but they are still not basic.
6. Is dryad arbor still a creature in any fashion at all?
Yes. Blood Moon only overwrites land subtypes (if the land has any to begin with). Other card types are not affected.
7. Can a dryad arbor tap for mana the turn I play it?
No. As a creature it suffers from summoning sickness. Blood Moon does not make it a noncreature.
8. If a card or effect requires me to sacrifice basic mountains to do something, can I sacrifice my non-basics?
No, those lands now have a basic land type, but they are still not basic.
9. Can I use evolving wilds to search my deck for a non-basic land? Essentially are non-basics that are not on the battlefield also considered basic mountains?
No. EW specifically instructs to search for a basic land, so a land with the supertype basic. Nonbasic lands, by definition, don't have that. Blood Moon does not give anything the basic supertype, and it doesn't affect cards that are not on the battlefield.
Just a note about #9, if a bloodmoon is on the battlefield you wouldn't even be able to crack evolving wilds to search for a basic land card. Evolving wilds is also a non-basic land and the only ability it would have is to tap for red mana.
Thanks a ton, you all are 4,936 times more awesome than blood moon. Trust me, I did the math. Sorry for the pseudo-repeating questions, but I wanted as many examples for the weirdness of the card to make sure I was clear on them. And don't worry, I don't have any humility follow up questions =P
EDIT: If you can think of any other bizarre and novel situations that can come up with blood moon, I would really appreciate it if you could either post them here or send me a PM with them. My local meta has recently been flooding with them so I'd like to get the "hard lesson" before I end up facing the test in a game.
1. There is an urborg, tomb of yawgmoth in play. What do the non-basics tap for?
2. There is a spreading seas on a non-basic land, what does it tap for?
3. In response to a moon being cast I activate a mutavault. Is it still a creature for the turn with all creature types? In the same vein, if a creeping tar pit was animated, would it still be unblockable?
4. Is darksteel citadel still an artifact?
5. Can a creature with "non-basic landwalk" be blocked?
6. Is dryad arbor still a creature in any fashion at all?
7. Can a dryad arbor tap for mana the turn I play it?
8. If a card or effect requires me to sacrifice basic mountains to do something, can I sacrifice my non-basics?
9. Can I use evolving wilds to search my deck for a non-basic land? Essentially are non-basics that are not on the battlefield also considered basic mountains?
10. How does blood moon interact with back to basics?
Here, timestamp matters, it's an Island if Spreading Seas became attached to the land after Blood Moon entered, and vice-versa.
Yes in both cases. All that giving a land a basic land type makes it lose is its printed abilities and its other land subtypes. Its other card types (here, creature) are left untouched, as are any abilities that are not directly printed but instead granted, by its own animation ability resolving for example. Mutavault and Creeping Tar Pit don't really give themselves abilities anyway (the former gives itself creature subtypes, which are also unaffected, the latter changes the rules about blocking for itself) but something like Inkmoth Nexus would keep flying and infect.
Yep, as I said, other card types are unaffected.
No, the lands are still nonbasic. Blood Moon doesn't give them the supertype Basic, it just gives them the basic land *type* mountain. Nothing in the game can make a nonbasic land basic, except making it a copy of a basic land.
Yep. It's a 1/1 Mountain Dryad that's green (the color indicator isn't affected either) and which taps for red instead of green.
Nope, since it's still a creature.
If it really specifies *basic* mountains, no. You're kind of repeating the same questions, just with different implications of the single answer.
No. Besides the fact that Blood Moon doesn't make anything basic, it only affects lands on the battlefield, same as Glorious Anthem doesn't affect creature cards elsewhere than the battlefield. It says 'nonbasic lands', so it means 'nonbasic land permanents'. See this rule:
Again with the same question (no big deal, don't worry ). No, Blood Moon doesn't make anything basic, so the lands still won't untap.
All nonbasics, inclusing Urborg, will only be Mountains and only be able to tap for red mana. This is due to dependency between Blood Moon and Urborg, since the former removes the later's ability's existence.
This depends on the timestamps of Seas and Moon. The later wins. There is no dependency here unlike in the previous case.
Yes. Blood Moon only overwrites land subtypes (if the land has any to begin with). Other card types are not affected. The Tar Pit being unblockable is just something that is true about the permanent, it's not an ability granted to it. Even if it was, granting abilities is applied in later layer, and the Tar Pit's animation effect comes from a resolving ability, not a continous effect generated by the land, so that ability would not be removed by Blood Moon.
Yes. Blood Moon only overwrites land subtypes (if the land has any to begin with). Other card types are not affected.
No, those lands now have a basic land type, but they are still not basic.
Yes. Blood Moon only overwrites land subtypes (if the land has any to begin with). Other card types are not affected.
No. As a creature it suffers from summoning sickness. Blood Moon does not make it a noncreature.
No, those lands now have a basic land type, but they are still not basic.
No. EW specifically instructs to search for a basic land, so a land with the supertype basic. Nonbasic lands, by definition, don't have that. Blood Moon does not give anything the basic supertype, and it doesn't affect cards that are not on the battlefield.
Not at all. Those lands still don't untap because they still don't have the basic supertype, so are still nonbasic.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
EDIT: If you can think of any other bizarre and novel situations that can come up with blood moon, I would really appreciate it if you could either post them here or send me a PM with them. My local meta has recently been flooding with them so I'd like to get the "hard lesson" before I end up facing the test in a game.
Activate Mutavault.
In response, Disenchant the O-Ring holding the Blood Moon.
When the Mutavault activation resolves, what does the resulting land look like?
Mutavault
Land Creature - Mountain <all creature types>
t: Add R to your mana pool.
2/2
Same thing if you activate Mutavault in response to the casting of Blood Moon