As the title infers, I am a newb to this game. I have a couple questions that are probably very simple rules, but I can't seem to find any clarification:
(1) If a card has a skill trigger "when Fiend Hunter enters the battlefield... ", does that effect trigger before or after summoning sickness has worn off?
(2) With regards to a card like this: Geist of Saint Traft, will the Angel token be resummoned with each attack or does it only proc one time? Basically, can I place a 4/4 Angel token each turn if I declare him as an attacker each turn? Based on the way the trigger reads, I say yes. However, my wife has her doubts.
1) The trigger will go off when it says it does. When Fiend Hunter enters the battlefield. Summoning sickness only prevents abilities using and in the cost and attacking.
2) You will get a new Angel each time you attack with the Geist
W may only be paid with white mana. U may only be paid with blue mana. B may only be paid with black mana. R may only be paid with red mana. G may only be paid with green mana. C may only be paid with colorless mana. 1 may be paid with white, blue, black, red, green, or clolorless mana.
1) A triggered ability goes off when its trigger condition is met, and is put on the stack the next time a player would receive priority (the right to do stuff). For an enters-the-battlefield trigger, that is after the permanent (the Fiend Hunter in this case) is put on the battlefield. Summoning sickness doesn't factor in at all for triggered abilities, since it only prevents creatures from attacking and using activated abilities with the tap or untap symbols in the cost.
Triggered abilities always use the words "when","whenever", or "at". Activated ablities always use the template [cost]:[effect]. Everything before the colon is the cost. If that includes the tap or untap symbol, the ability cannot be used right away, if the object the ability is on is a creature on the battlefield.
2) Triggered abilities go off when their trigger condition is met. There is no inherent limit on how often that can happen (though like with enters-the-battlefield triggers, meeting the condition multiple times can be tough to impossible to achieve). The Angel token from Geist of Saint Traft will be created ever time the Geist is declared as attacker, so possibly every turn (or even more often, if you can get multiple combat phases during a turn and get the Geist able to attack again = untapped).
Thank you both very much for your clarity and brevity!
Lastly, and this may seem vague, can someone please explain the "counters" / "charge counters" concept to me? We can use Trade Caravan or any Planeswalker card as an example. How do I actually apply these counters?
Thank you both very much for your clarity and brevity!
Lastly, and this may seem vague, can someone please explain the "counters" / "charge counters" concept to me? We can use Trade Caravan or any Planeswalker card as an example. How do I actually apply these counters?
Counters are game objects that you place on permanents, cards and sometimes players. They are tracking devices. They can be physically represented by any small object that's reasonably practical : coins, glass beads, small pieces of paper... The most commonly used method is dice, where the number you place the die on is the number of that type of counter.
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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.
A "counter" is just a marker, it can be represented by any small object. Most players use dice or glass beads. A counter, except for those that change power/toughness, only has a type and no rules baggage. A card that uses counters will say what type of counter it uses and what it can be used for. Counters of the same type are indistinguishable from one another and are interchangable. Counters of different types cannot be interchanged. Not all counters have a use, some are simply reminders for the players that something has occured, like with Sensei Golden-Tail's training counters.
For example, a currency counter has the type "currency". Trade Caravan tells you how to get those counters, and how you can make use of them. If you have a way to move currency counters from one Trade Caravan to another, that other Caravan can use them just fine. Movinf currency counters to a planeswalker, however, has little value, since planeswalkers use loyalty counters and cannot make use of any other types.
Power/toughness changing counters change a creature's power and toughness by the stated values. When calculating a creature's stats, those vaules are added to/substracted from its base power/toughness.
A counter can be on any object, even if that object cannot make use of it. Most commonly, that happens with temporarily animated lands that receive +1/+1 counters. Those counters stay on when the land creature reverts to just being a land, and will apply again when the land becomes a creature again.
A counter is removed from an object when it changes zones or when an effect, cost, or rule removes it. so if a creature with counters on dies, the same card in the graveyard has no counters.
+1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters annihilate each other one for one as a state based action. These are the only kinds of counters for which that happens!
I'd like to piggyback off of these questions so I don't create a hundred new threads: Creating new threads is actually what we prefer that you do for new questions. Last question for this one, please!
-MadMage
I just ran into my first Emblem card "Jace" (sorry, can't get the card-tag to work with this one). It says it exists in the Command Zone, so I take it that this card can only be played in the Commander Game format?
I'd like to piggyback off of these questions so I don't create a hundred new threads:
I just ran into my first Emblem card "Jace" (sorry, can't get the card-tag to work with this one). It says it exists in the Command Zone, so I take it that this card can only be played in the Commander Game format?
No. The command zone is just a zone in the game, like the library, battlefield, hand etc. The reason emblems go there is so there is no way to interact with them. When you've gotten an emblem it will stick around.
For example: Jace, Unraveler of Secrets can get an emblem. But he is still legal in standard, modern, SoI block, legacy, vintage and commander. To check the legality of a card just look it up on gatherer and they will have a list of where it is legal.
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I'd like to piggyback off of these questions so I don't create a hundred new threads:
I just ran into my first Emblem card "Jace" (sorry, can't get the card-tag to work with this one). It says it exists in the Command Zone, so I take it that this card can only be played in the Commander Game format?
No, an emblem is an object created by a planeswalker's ability. That emblem card you got would be used to represent the emblem from Jace, Telepath Unbound (the back face of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy) or Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, see their third abilities. You can play these planeswalkers in any format and they can always create their emblem. The command zone exists in every format, it's just that it's not used for much outside of Commander. As for currently existing cards, nothing can directly affect an emblem, as it's a special object in the command zone and not a permanent on the battlefield. It stays in place indefinitely.
Emblem cards that you get in packs are, like token cards, only nice optional accessories, you can represent the emblem with something else, like a paper note.
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.
Thanks a ton, also, sorry for posting another question here. I'll make sure to add new ones each time. I hope I'm not wasting anyone's time with these simple questions. You guys are all very knowledgeable and have helped immensely so far!
-Jason
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(1) If a card has a skill trigger "when Fiend Hunter enters the battlefield... ", does that effect trigger before or after summoning sickness has worn off?
(2) With regards to a card like this: Geist of Saint Traft, will the Angel token be resummoned with each attack or does it only proc one time? Basically, can I place a 4/4 Angel token each turn if I declare him as an attacker each turn? Based on the way the trigger reads, I say yes. However, my wife has her doubts.
Thanks in advance for helping a newcomer.
-Jason
2) You will get a new Angel each time you attack with the Geist
Triggered abilities always use the words "when","whenever", or "at". Activated ablities always use the template [cost]:[effect]. Everything before the colon is the cost. If that includes the tap or untap symbol, the ability cannot be used right away, if the object the ability is on is a creature on the battlefield.
2) Triggered abilities go off when their trigger condition is met. There is no inherent limit on how often that can happen (though like with enters-the-battlefield triggers, meeting the condition multiple times can be tough to impossible to achieve). The Angel token from Geist of Saint Traft will be created ever time the Geist is declared as attacker, so possibly every turn (or even more often, if you can get multiple combat phases during a turn and get the Geist able to attack again = untapped).
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)
Lastly, and this may seem vague, can someone please explain the "counters" / "charge counters" concept to me? We can use Trade Caravan or any Planeswalker card as an example. How do I actually apply these counters?
For example, a currency counter has the type "currency". Trade Caravan tells you how to get those counters, and how you can make use of them. If you have a way to move currency counters from one Trade Caravan to another, that other Caravan can use them just fine. Movinf currency counters to a planeswalker, however, has little value, since planeswalkers use loyalty counters and cannot make use of any other types.
Power/toughness changing counters change a creature's power and toughness by the stated values. When calculating a creature's stats, those vaules are added to/substracted from its base power/toughness.
A counter can be on any object, even if that object cannot make use of it. Most commonly, that happens with temporarily animated lands that receive +1/+1 counters. Those counters stay on when the land creature reverts to just being a land, and will apply again when the land becomes a creature again.
A counter is removed from an object when it changes zones or when an effect, cost, or rule removes it. so if a creature with counters on dies, the same card in the graveyard has no counters.
+1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters annihilate each other one for one as a state based action. These are the only kinds of counters for which that happens!
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)
Creating new threads is actually what we prefer that you do for new questions. Last question for this one, please!
-MadMage
I just ran into my first Emblem card "Jace" (sorry, can't get the card-tag to work with this one). It says it exists in the Command Zone, so I take it that this card can only be played in the Commander Game format?
No. The command zone is just a zone in the game, like the library, battlefield, hand etc. The reason emblems go there is so there is no way to interact with them. When you've gotten an emblem it will stick around.
For example: Jace, Unraveler of Secrets can get an emblem. But he is still legal in standard, modern, SoI block, legacy, vintage and commander. To check the legality of a card just look it up on gatherer and they will have a list of where it is legal.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Printings.aspx?multiverseid=409812
Did I write something useful? Leave a like.
Any new cool Daretti cards printed in the latest set? Tell me about it!
Rules Advisor
Emblem cards that you get in packs are, like token cards, only nice optional accessories, you can represent the emblem with something else, like a paper note.
-Jason