If I control a Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor with 8 loyalty counters, then activate its -8 ability, its number of loyalty counters would go down to 0 and thus it would go to my graveyard as a state-based action prior to the resolution of the ability, correct?
Correct.
If so and nothing interferes, the resolution of its ability would then exile its own card (since it's in the graveyard as the ability resolves), and then the emblem it gave me would allow me to cast it once again... am I understanding that correctly?
Yes. The emblem works even after Tibalt has left the battlefield, and sees that Tibalt has exiled itself, allowing you to recast Tibalt.
MM exiles instant/sorcery from your GY, 1) Copy them, 2) You may cast those copies. Does this trigger magecraft twice since copy/cast are separated cases here?
Magecraft triggers whenever you cast an instant/sorcery, and whenever you copy an instant/sorcery spell. That last word here matters a lot. It doesn't trigger when you copy an instant/sorcery card that is in a zone other than the stack.
Copying the exiled instant/sorcery cards doesn't trigger Magecraft, because these exiled cards are not spells on the stack.
Casting the copies causes Magecraft to trigger, because they are being cast as spells.
If I have Inniaz, the Gale Force as my commander, and attack with Dorothea, Vengeful Victim, which I then gift to my opponent - do they get to keep Dorothea in play, or will they have to sac her?
You controlled Dorothea at the moment she attacked, so you control her triggered ability (and, more importantly, you control the delayed trigger set up when the first trigger resolves). Dorothea changing controller doesn't change the abilities' controller.
When the delayed trigger resolves, you can't sacrifice Dorothea, so she stays on the battlefield, under that player control.
edit: also, if I have cast something like Control Magic on a creature - would I be able to gift either the creature or the enchantment aura to someone, but still maintain control of the creature?
No.
If you donate Control Magic, that player gains control of the enchanted creature as well.
And if you donate the creature itself, this control-changing effect overrides Control Magic's effect. You still control Control Magic, but that player now controls the creature.
You must assign at least lethal damage to the first creature in the order, before being able to assign any damage to the second, and so on.
510.1c. A blocked creature assigns its combat damage to the creatures blocking it. If no creatures are currently blocking it (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it assigns no combat damage. If exactly one creature is blocking it, it assigns all its combat damage to that creature. If two or more creatures are blocking it, it assigns its combat damage to those creatures according to the damage assignment order announced for it. This may allow the blocked creature to divide its combat damage. However, it can't assign combat damage to a creature that's blocking it unless, when combat damage assignments are complete, each creature that precedes that blocking creature in its order is assigned lethal damage. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures that's being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that's actually dealt. An amount of damage that's greater than a creature's lethal damage may be assigned to it.
So, you can't assign any damage to the 2/2, unless you've assigned at least 4 damage to the 4/4.
While enchanted with Minimus Containment, your Pacifism stops being an Enchantment - Aura. Due to not being an Aura, it can't enchant anything, so it becomes unattached from the original creature.
Then, when Minimus is removed, Pacifism goes back to being an Aura. There's no rule that says a permanent already on the battlefield that becomes an Aura gets attached to a new object, so it stays unattached. And an Aura on the battlefield that's not enchanting something goes to the graveyard.
704.5m. If an Aura is attached to an illegal object or player, or is not attached to an object or player, that Aura is put into its owner's graveyard.
Lets say I have Child of Alara, Ashaya, Soul of the Wild and Animar, Soul of Elements all on the board.
If Child was to die would I also loose the other two creatures or does Ashayas ability making itself and Animar both forest lands in addition to their other types keep them from being killed by Alaras destroy all nonland permanents.
They are lands, therefore they aren't nonlands, therefore they aren't destroyed by Child of Alara's ability.
Then to complicate things more lets also say I also have Sol Ring, March of the Machines and Mycosynth Lattice
SO the Sol Ring, Marche of the Machines and Mycosynth Lattice are all now artifact creatures do they become lands even though its March of the Machines making them creatures, and then by the same note do they live or die to Child of Alara dying?
They are creatures, therefore Ashaya also makes them lands. Ashaya doesn't care why they are creatures, just that they are.
And because they are lands, they aren't nonlands and aren't destroyed by Child.
Players draw their initial hand before the first turn begins.
103. Starting the Game
103.1. At the start of a game, the players determine which one of them will choose who takes the first turn. (...)
103.2. After the starting player has been determined, each player shuffles their deck so that the cards are in a random order. Each player may then shuffle or cut their opponents' decks. The players' decks become their libraries. (...)
103.4. Each player draws a number of cards equal to their starting hand size, which is normally seven. (Some effects can modify a player's starting hand size.) A player who is dissatisfied with their initial hand may take a mulligan. (...)
103.7. The starting player takes their first turn.
Also, the original werewolf mechanic cares about all players: the human-werewolf side transforms if no player at all cast any spell during a turn, and the just-werewolf side transforms if any player casts two or more spells in any turn.
The new mechanic cares only about how many spells the active player casts. Spells cast by other players during your turn don't count either way.
And, as already said, being night or day is a "trait" of the game itself. The old mechanic is tracked by each card individually.
Let's say it's my turn, I cast a Village Ironsmith and pass.
During the opponent's turn, neither them nor I cast any spells. I have a Shock in hand, but I don't cast it because I want the werewolf to transform.
Now, it's my turn again. During the upkeep the Ironsmith transforms into Ironfang. Then, during my main phase I cast Breakneck Rider. He doesn't enter as Neck Breaker. And I still won't cast Shock, because then it would be a second spell and my Ironfang would return to Ironsmith!
Now let's use the new cards.
During my turn, I cast a Kessig Naturalist. It is the first card to care about night/day this game, so it becomes day. I then pass.
During the opponent's turn, they don't cast any spells. I cast a Play with Fire on them safely.
Now, it's my turn again, and it becomes night. Naturalist immediately transforms into its nightbound side. I then cast a Harvesttide Infiltrator, and it does enter the battlefield on its nightbound side!
"Can only" is another way to say "can't do, unless". And "can't" beat "can". So you can't cast Surprise Deployment at all during your main phase, not even out of a Cascade effect.
It doesn't fizzle, you are just unable to cast it. It stays with the other cards you exiled until you reach it, and ends up going to the bottom of the library with them.
Galea gives an enters-the-battlefield triggered ability to the Equipment itself. Both this and the equipment's own Living Weapon keyword trigger when the equipment enters the battlefield, and you control both abilities, so you decide the order they are put on the stack.
Notice Galea's ability targets: the target has to be chosen when the ability is put on the stack, meaning you can't choose the Germ as the target because it doesn't exist yet at this point; and it's not a "may" ability or a "up to one target" wording, so you must choose a valid target if any exists (such as Galea herself), and Batterskull will get attached to it if possible.
So, your options are either to have Living Weapon resolve first (result: Germ is created first, and Batterskull is attached to it; then Galea's ability resolves and Batterskull gets moved to the targeted creature, and the Germ dies for being 0/0); or have Galea's effect resolve first (result: Batterskull gets attached to the target first; then the Germ token is created, and Batterskull gets moved to it, letting it survive). It's up to you.
A spell fizzles if all of its targets are illegal by the time it tries to resolve. It doesn't matter that the spell was modal or not; only what it targets.
Don't think of the modes as separated; they are still parts of a single spell. If only one selected mode targets and the other(s) don't, removing that target fizzles the whole spell; if two or more selected modes target, the spell only fizzles if all targets get removed. If there's at least one selected target still legal, the spell still resolves and does what it can without affecting invalid targets.
(That's why more recent multi-mode spells like Prismari Command or Sublime Epiphany target in all modes, including wordings like "target player draws" rather than "[you] draw".)
Is this because the only use of the word target was the bounce spell and as such the whole spell fizzles without a legal target?
Yes.
Crypting Command's first two modes target, the other two don't. If you select a targeted mode and a non-targeted one, like bounce+draw, removing the bounce target means the whole Command fizzles, so you don't get to draw.
Does this mean if I cast cryptic with counter and draw and my opponent casts remand on their own spell same thing happens?
Yes.
If you had selected the counterspell mode + the bounce mode, removing only one of the targets (by Remanding the spell) would still leave the other valid, so Command would still resolve affecting only that valid target.
I'm asking as I had a casualties of war cast on 4 of my permanents and I thought if I kill my creature the rest of the spell would fizzle as the 1st mode fizzled but it didn't and killed all my other permanents. I'm now thinking as the spell had multiple uses of target as long as 1 still happened the spell carried on and finished and only fizzles if there are 0 targets on spell as it resolves.
That's the reason, yes. Casualties of War still had legal targets to affect.
The M19 planeswalkers are Ajani, Tezzeret, Liliana, Sarkhan and Vivien. Of those, Tezzeret and Liliana are aligned with Bolas, while Sarkhan and Vivien have reasons to oppose him, so my guess is Ajani is recruiting them.
Yes, it is still your commander.
903.3c. If a player's commander is a component of a merged permanent, the resulting merged permanent is that player's commander.
(The above rule doesn't care that the commander is on top or not)
Correct.
Yes. The emblem works even after Tibalt has left the battlefield, and sees that Tibalt has exiled itself, allowing you to recast Tibalt.
Magecraft triggers whenever you cast an instant/sorcery, and whenever you copy an instant/sorcery spell. That last word here matters a lot. It doesn't trigger when you copy an instant/sorcery card that is in a zone other than the stack.
Copying the exiled instant/sorcery cards doesn't trigger Magecraft, because these exiled cards are not spells on the stack.
Casting the copies causes Magecraft to trigger, because they are being cast as spells.
You controlled Dorothea at the moment she attacked, so you control her triggered ability (and, more importantly, you control the delayed trigger set up when the first trigger resolves). Dorothea changing controller doesn't change the abilities' controller.
When the delayed trigger resolves, you can't sacrifice Dorothea, so she stays on the battlefield, under that player control.
No.
If you donate Control Magic, that player gains control of the enchanted creature as well.
And if you donate the creature itself, this control-changing effect overrides Control Magic's effect. You still control Control Magic, but that player now controls the creature.
You lose control either way.
510.1c. A blocked creature assigns its combat damage to the creatures blocking it. If no creatures are currently blocking it (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it assigns no combat damage. If exactly one creature is blocking it, it assigns all its combat damage to that creature. If two or more creatures are blocking it, it assigns its combat damage to those creatures according to the damage assignment order announced for it. This may allow the blocked creature to divide its combat damage. However, it can't assign combat damage to a creature that's blocking it unless, when combat damage assignments are complete, each creature that precedes that blocking creature in its order is assigned lethal damage. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures that's being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that's actually dealt. An amount of damage that's greater than a creature's lethal damage may be assigned to it.
So, you can't assign any damage to the 2/2, unless you've assigned at least 4 damage to the 4/4.
No. Conceding is not something that uses the stack, there's no response to it.
104.3a. A player can concede the game at any time. A player who concedes leaves the game immediately. That player loses the game.
And yes, Gratuitous Violence will double any the damage a creature you control would deal, even if it's because of an ability.
While enchanted with Minimus Containment, your Pacifism stops being an Enchantment - Aura. Due to not being an Aura, it can't enchant anything, so it becomes unattached from the original creature.
Then, when Minimus is removed, Pacifism goes back to being an Aura. There's no rule that says a permanent already on the battlefield that becomes an Aura gets attached to a new object, so it stays unattached. And an Aura on the battlefield that's not enchanting something goes to the graveyard.
704.5m. If an Aura is attached to an illegal object or player, or is not attached to an object or player, that Aura is put into its owner's graveyard.
They are lands, therefore they aren't nonlands, therefore they aren't destroyed by Child of Alara's ability.
They are creatures, therefore Ashaya also makes them lands. Ashaya doesn't care why they are creatures, just that they are.
And because they are lands, they aren't nonlands and aren't destroyed by Child.
103. Starting the Game
103.1. At the start of a game, the players determine which one of them will choose who takes the first turn. (...)
103.2. After the starting player has been determined, each player shuffles their deck so that the cards are in a random order. Each player may then shuffle or cut their opponents' decks. The players' decks become their libraries. (...)
103.4. Each player draws a number of cards equal to their starting hand size, which is normally seven. (Some effects can modify a player's starting hand size.) A player who is dissatisfied with their initial hand may take a mulligan. (...)
103.7. The starting player takes their first turn.
The new mechanic cares only about how many spells the active player casts. Spells cast by other players during your turn don't count either way.
And, as already said, being night or day is a "trait" of the game itself. The old mechanic is tracked by each card individually.
Let's say it's my turn, I cast a Village Ironsmith and pass.
During the opponent's turn, neither them nor I cast any spells. I have a Shock in hand, but I don't cast it because I want the werewolf to transform.
Now, it's my turn again. During the upkeep the Ironsmith transforms into Ironfang. Then, during my main phase I cast Breakneck Rider. He doesn't enter as Neck Breaker. And I still won't cast Shock, because then it would be a second spell and my Ironfang would return to Ironsmith!
Now let's use the new cards.
During my turn, I cast a Kessig Naturalist. It is the first card to care about night/day this game, so it becomes day. I then pass.
During the opponent's turn, they don't cast any spells. I cast a Play with Fire on them safely.
Now, it's my turn again, and it becomes night. Naturalist immediately transforms into its nightbound side. I then cast a Harvesttide Infiltrator, and it does enter the battlefield on its nightbound side!
It doesn't fizzle, you are just unable to cast it. It stays with the other cards you exiled until you reach it, and ends up going to the bottom of the library with them.
Notice Galea's ability targets: the target has to be chosen when the ability is put on the stack, meaning you can't choose the Germ as the target because it doesn't exist yet at this point; and it's not a "may" ability or a "up to one target" wording, so you must choose a valid target if any exists (such as Galea herself), and Batterskull will get attached to it if possible.
So, your options are either to have Living Weapon resolve first (result: Germ is created first, and Batterskull is attached to it; then Galea's ability resolves and Batterskull gets moved to the targeted creature, and the Germ dies for being 0/0); or have Galea's effect resolve first (result: Batterskull gets attached to the target first; then the Germ token is created, and Batterskull gets moved to it, letting it survive). It's up to you.
Don't think of the modes as separated; they are still parts of a single spell. If only one selected mode targets and the other(s) don't, removing that target fizzles the whole spell; if two or more selected modes target, the spell only fizzles if all targets get removed. If there's at least one selected target still legal, the spell still resolves and does what it can without affecting invalid targets.
(That's why more recent multi-mode spells like Prismari Command or Sublime Epiphany target in all modes, including wordings like "target player draws" rather than "[you] draw".)
Yes.
Crypting Command's first two modes target, the other two don't. If you select a targeted mode and a non-targeted one, like bounce+draw, removing the bounce target means the whole Command fizzles, so you don't get to draw.
Yes.
If you had selected the counterspell mode + the bounce mode, removing only one of the targets (by Remanding the spell) would still leave the other valid, so Command would still resolve affecting only that valid target.
That's the reason, yes. Casualties of War still had legal targets to affect.
Modes don't fizzle, the whole spell does or not.