You can activate Lazav's ability multiple times in the same turn, even in the same phase. However, when Lazav becomes a copy of a creature, he stops being a copy of the previous one.
So if you copy Shivan Dragon, then copy a Serra Angel, then Lazav is just a Serra Angel (that is named Lazav, is legendary, and has that copy ability) and doesn't have any of Shivan Dragon's abilities.
What you can do is to copy Shivan, then activate its +1/+0 ability multiple times. Then you copy Serra. The +n/+0 effect still applies to Lazav.
Yeah, if the God was the creature put on the bottom of the library, then Reality Scramble will consider the types the God had when it last existed on the battlefield, so if the God was at that moment not a creature, Reality Scramble will only look for enchantments.
Purphoros, God of the Forge's "isn't a creature" ability works only while Purphoros is on the battlefield. In every other zone, Purphoros is always a creature card or creature spell.
As Reality Scramble checks the type while Purphoros is on the library (just revealed), it sees Purphoros is a creature card and puts it on the battlefield.
I was playing a game on Arena and came into a situation where something happened that I was not expecting. I want to see if this is an Arena mistake, or if I'm mistaken how the rules work for first strike. I had a Danitha Capashen, Paragon that was enchanted with an Oakenform. This made it a 5/5 with first strike. It was blocked by a Vampire Sovereign and a Gravedigger that was being buffed by a Death Baron. It was my understanding that if I assigned damage to the Vampire Sovereign first, I would: kill the Vampire Sovereign with first strike damage before it even gets the chance to damage Danitha, deal 1 first strike damage to the Gravedigger, and then the Gravedigger would deal 3 regular damage to my Danitha. The end result; however, was that both my Danitha and their Sovereign died. Do I just not understand exactly how first strike damage works, or was this a problem with Arena?
Death Baron gives Deathtouch to the Gravedigger, in addition to the +1/+1. So even one damage from Gravedigger is enough to kill Danitha.
You should have put Gravedigger to receive damage first, that way Danitha could have survived that combat.
Deep Freeze says the enchanted creature loses its abilities. Deep Freeze is only enchanting something while Deep Freeze is on the battlefield, attached to a creature.
When you cast Deep Freeze, it becomes a spell on the stack, and you choose Thorn Lieutenant as its target. At this point Lieutenant still has its ability, as it is not enchanted yet, and so this ability triggers and resolves as normal.
The exile ability triggers when you cast Ulamog, not when it enters the battlefield.
You cast Clever Impersonator as Clever Impersonator. It only becomes Ulamog as it resolves and enters. C.I. didn't had the ability when it was cast, so it can't possibly trigger.
But once it is on the battlefield, it has all of Ulamog's ability, including the attack trigger.
Well, you appear to not have understood Torgaar's ability.
Torgaar does not say the player loses half their life. Torgaar says the player's life total becomes half. There's no subtraction. The life total just becomes a new number.
And clearly, the only value that can be rounded down is the half, because it is the only one that can be a fraction.
107.1. The only numbers the Magic game uses are integers.
107.1a. You can't choose a fractional number, deal fractional damage, gain fractional life, and so on. If a spell or ability could generate a fractional number, the spell or ability will tell you whether to round up or down.
But, more importantly than any of that, Torgaar says starting life total, not "current" life total. A player's starting life total is how much life that player started the game with. In most formats, that number is 20, so Torgaar makes that player's life total become 10.
It doesn't matter if that player is currently at 21, 40, 13, or 2, Torgaar's ability makes that player life total become 10 in all cases, as the player started the game with 20 life and half of 20 is 10.
Countering a spell means preventing it from resolving. It does not mean un-casting it, it isn't rewinding the game and undoing the action of casting that spell.
Thraxos was cast, therefore Unsealing's ability triggers from this event, even if you then counter Thraxos, this ability is already on the stack and will resolve regardless.
Cylian Sunsinger's rulings: 2/1/2009 When the ability resolves, it gives the +3/+3 bonus to the source of the ability and each other creature that shares a name with that source, even if that source isn’t actually named Cylian Sunsinger. This could happen if Skill Borrower gains this ability, or if Cylian Sunsinger’s name is changed (due to Mirrorweave, perhaps) before the ability resolves.
Quicksilver Elemental rulings: 12/1/2004 The granted abilities effectively use “this permanent,” rather than “[that card’s name],” so you treat the abilities as if they were printed on Quicksilver Elemental. For example, you treat an ability that says “Sacrifice a creature: Nantuko Husk gets +2/+2 until end of turn” as “Sacrifice a creature: Quicksilver Elemental gets +2/+2 until end of turn.”
That means Quicksilver's stolen ability effectively reads "Quicksilver Elemental and each other creature with the same name as it get +3/+3 until end of turn".
So each Cylian gets +3/+3, and each Quicksilver gets +3/+3.
Chromanticore is only an Aura if you cast it by its Bestow cost.
While on the graveyard, Chromanticore is always an enchantment creature card, so Estrid's ability will only "see" it as a non-Aura enchantment card and return it this way.
if I use the skill of Liquimetal Coating, and I target a basic land like Mountain, and play Splinter, and exile to the basic land Mountain, can I have it eliminate its others basic mountain lands?
Yes, you can.
You exile the Mountain on the battlefield, that is currently an artifact, then you can search their library for every card named Mountain and exile them too.
Evil Twin stops being a copy of Shorecaster Elemental as soon as it leaves the battlefield, but the ability can still "see" it in exile and return it to the battlefield face down.
Entering face down means Evil Twin enters as a colorless 2/2 with no abilities, so it can't copy anything, and will probably be stuck face down on the field.
"Until end of turn" is not the same as "at the beginning of the next end step".
Effects with a duration of "until end of turn" or "this turn" end in the Cleanup Step, which comes after the End Step. And you normally do not receive priority in the Cleanup Step (and even when you do, another Cleanup Step is performed, so any new effects still end there).
So, if you active Detection Tower in your opponent's end step, the effect stil ends when that turn ends and doesn't extend to the following turn.
No, he wouldn't. Warcaller's +1/+1 effect is continuous and works immediately as soon as Warcaller is on the field.
You check Pelt Collector's trigger condition right after Warcaller enters the battlefield, and Collector is already a 2/2 when you compare it to the 2/2 Warcaller, so the condition isn't true and the ability doesn't trigger.
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.
So if you copy Shivan Dragon, then copy a Serra Angel, then Lazav is just a Serra Angel (that is named Lazav, is legendary, and has that copy ability) and doesn't have any of Shivan Dragon's abilities.
What you can do is to copy Shivan, then activate its +1/+0 ability multiple times. Then you copy Serra. The +n/+0 effect still applies to Lazav.
Yeah, if the God was the creature put on the bottom of the library, then Reality Scramble will consider the types the God had when it last existed on the battlefield, so if the God was at that moment not a creature, Reality Scramble will only look for enchantments.
As Reality Scramble checks the type while Purphoros is on the library (just revealed), it sees Purphoros is a creature card and puts it on the battlefield.
The same is true for the other Theros block Gods.
Death Baron gives Deathtouch to the Gravedigger, in addition to the +1/+1. So even one damage from Gravedigger is enough to kill Danitha.
You should have put Gravedigger to receive damage first, that way Danitha could have survived that combat.
When you cast Deep Freeze, it becomes a spell on the stack, and you choose Thorn Lieutenant as its target. At this point Lieutenant still has its ability, as it is not enchanted yet, and so this ability triggers and resolves as normal.
You cast Clever Impersonator as Clever Impersonator. It only becomes Ulamog as it resolves and enters. C.I. didn't had the ability when it was cast, so it can't possibly trigger.
But once it is on the battlefield, it has all of Ulamog's ability, including the attack trigger.
Torgaar does not say the player loses half their life. Torgaar says the player's life total becomes half. There's no subtraction. The life total just becomes a new number.
And clearly, the only value that can be rounded down is the half, because it is the only one that can be a fraction.
107.1. The only numbers the Magic game uses are integers.
107.1a. You can't choose a fractional number, deal fractional damage, gain fractional life, and so on. If a spell or ability could generate a fractional number, the spell or ability will tell you whether to round up or down.
But, more importantly than any of that, Torgaar says starting life total, not "current" life total. A player's starting life total is how much life that player started the game with. In most formats, that number is 20, so Torgaar makes that player's life total become 10.
It doesn't matter if that player is currently at 21, 40, 13, or 2, Torgaar's ability makes that player life total become 10 in all cases, as the player started the game with 20 life and half of 20 is 10.
Countering a spell means preventing it from resolving. It does not mean un-casting it, it isn't rewinding the game and undoing the action of casting that spell.
Thraxos was cast, therefore Unsealing's ability triggers from this event, even if you then counter Thraxos, this ability is already on the stack and will resolve regardless.
2/1/2009 When the ability resolves, it gives the +3/+3 bonus to the source of the ability and each other creature that shares a name with that source, even if that source isn’t actually named Cylian Sunsinger. This could happen if Skill Borrower gains this ability, or if Cylian Sunsinger’s name is changed (due to Mirrorweave, perhaps) before the ability resolves.
Quicksilver Elemental rulings:
12/1/2004 The granted abilities effectively use “this permanent,” rather than “[that card’s name],” so you treat the abilities as if they were printed on Quicksilver Elemental. For example, you treat an ability that says “Sacrifice a creature: Nantuko Husk gets +2/+2 until end of turn” as “Sacrifice a creature: Quicksilver Elemental gets +2/+2 until end of turn.”
That means Quicksilver's stolen ability effectively reads "Quicksilver Elemental and each other creature with the same name as it get +3/+3 until end of turn".
So each Cylian gets +3/+3, and each Quicksilver gets +3/+3.
Chromanticore is only an Aura if you cast it by its Bestow cost.
While on the graveyard, Chromanticore is always an enchantment creature card, so Estrid's ability will only "see" it as a non-Aura enchantment card and return it this way.
Yes, you can.
You exile the Mountain on the battlefield, that is currently an artifact, then you can search their library for every card named Mountain and exile them too.
205.3m. Creatures and tribals share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called creature types. The creature types are
"Colorless" is not a creature type. "Artifact" is not a creature type either.
Entering face down means Evil Twin enters as a colorless 2/2 with no abilities, so it can't copy anything, and will probably be stuck face down on the field.
Effects with a duration of "until end of turn" or "this turn" end in the Cleanup Step, which comes after the End Step. And you normally do not receive priority in the Cleanup Step (and even when you do, another Cleanup Step is performed, so any new effects still end there).
So, if you active Detection Tower in your opponent's end step, the effect stil ends when that turn ends and doesn't extend to the following turn.
No, he wouldn't. Warcaller's +1/+1 effect is continuous and works immediately as soon as Warcaller is on the field.
You check Pelt Collector's trigger condition right after Warcaller enters the battlefield, and Collector is already a 2/2 when you compare it to the 2/2 Warcaller, so the condition isn't true and the ability doesn't trigger.