MTG Salvation

See the response I received via Twitter from Eli Shiffrin, the Magic Rules Manager at the time of this writing.

Under C.R. 614.12, what is relevant are "the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account" certain effects, when "determin[ing] which replacement effects apply and how they apply". Thus, "replacement effects", within the meaning of the cited text, include replacement effects of the kind found in Lotus Vale, Scorched Ruins, and even Containment Priest. This would have been clearer if the first sentence of C.R. 614.12 said "modify whether or how a permanent enters the battlefield", and with conforming modifications elsewhere in the comprehensive rules.

EDIT (Mar. 17): Correctness edit in view of comment 3.
EDIT (Jan. 17, 2020): Correctness edit.

Quote from MadMageQc »

He is the one casting the Censor targeting Approach of the Second Sun.

Your opponent has the extra mana in his mana pool and can pay for Censor, nothing much you can do here. There's no infraction.

Which player is "he": Errua or the opponent? Comment 1 is vague on which player is attempting to cast Censor.

EDIT (Oct. 17): Struck out.

1. Since the ability can't target Dragons, targeting another Glorybringer (while it's a Dragon) is not allowed (C.R. 114.1d, 603.3d, 601.2c), so that action is reversed (C.R. 720.1) and your opponent must choose a non-Dragon creature you control as the target if possible.

2. Assuming for the sake of discussion that seven of the lands (not: mana) are Islands and one of them is a Plains:

If your opponent casts Approach of the Second Sun, your opponent will have U in the end. This is not enough to cast Censor; moreover, untapping an Island and tapping it again for mana will still result in U in the end. (Note that in a sanctioned tournament, here, tapping the eight lands for mana, casting Approach of the Second Sun, and untapping an Island has the same effect as tapping six Islands and one Plains and casting Approach of the Second Sun, so that this is merely a case of out-of-order sequencing under M.T.R. 4.3.) Therefore, attempting to cast Censor will be an illegal action (C.R. 601.2, 601.2h), so that action must be reversed (C.R. 720.1).

Both cases involve illegal actions; in sanctioned tournaments—

• at Regular rules enforcement level, "usually the least disruptive option [to handle illegal actions] is to leave the game as is after fixing anything that is currently illegal" (such fixing, for example, includes putting Censor back where it formerly was for the second example) (J.A.R., "Common Issues").
• at Competitive or Professional rules enforcement level, a judge may assess a Game Rule Violation against your opponent (I.P.G. 2.5). The first case involves only an illegal choice so the player involved must now make a legal choice (I.P.G. 2.5, "Additional Remedy").

EDIT: See comment 5; I misunderstood which player is attempting to cast Censor.
EDIT: Clarification after comment 11 was posted.
EDIT (Oct. 17): Edited.

Quote from FuzzyDan »

But if you use the clone ability, does the token still get haste?

If you're referring to God-Pharaoh's Gift, then the effect granting the token haste is in a higher layer than the copy effect from Clone (layer 6, rather than layer 1 [C.R. 613.1f, 613.1a]), so the token will still have haste until end of turn despite that copy effect (C.R. 706.9a doesn't apply here because the effect granting haste has a different duration from the copy effect on the token due to God-Pharaoh's Gift, indicating that the two effects are separate).

As part of casting Wakening Sun's Avatar, you put it on the stack (C.R. 601.2a). While Wakening Sun's Avatar is on the stack, it's a creature spell, not a creature (C.R. 111.1; see also C.R. 109.2, 109.2a), so it can be countered like other spells. Moreover, spells that can target only a "creature", like Sheltering Light or Verdant Rebirth, can't target spells, not even creature spells (a "creature" refers only to a creature permanent on the battlefield [C.R. 109.2]; compare with Remove Soul, which says "creature spell" [C.R. 109.2b]) (C.R. 114.1a, 109.2).

EDIT (May 9, 2019): Corrected rule citation.

Solemnity keeps counters, including ice counters, from being put on Dark Depths as it enters the battlefield, since it's a land (C.R. 121.6), so Dark Depths's last ability will trigger immediately upon entering the battlefield (C.R. 603.8). Note, however, that—

• nothing on Dark Depths allows that permanent to transform, which is a term with a special meaning in Magic (review C.R. 701.27), and
• although that ability will trigger, it needs to go on the stack first; only after all players pass in a row while that ability is on the top of the stack can it resolve (C.R. 603.3, 116.4; C.R. 605.4a, an exception, doesn't apply to that ability because of C.R. 605.1b).

EDIT (Sep. 25, 2018): One rule was renumbered with Dominaria.

In general, as you attack, you need to have EEEEEE for each Lightning Runners you attack with to add an additional combat phase.

If two or more Lightning Runners you control attack, each of its triggered abilities triggers separately. (Note that they're not activated abilities since they don't contain a colon [C.R. 602.1], but triggered abilities, since they start with "whenever" [C.R. 603.1].) If each ability resolves, you will get EE each time, and an additional combat phase is added if you then pay EEEEEEEE. Thus, two combat phases are added to the turn this way only if you had EEEEEE just before each such ability resolves (meaning you must have had EEEEEEEEEEEE, that is, twelve energy counters [C.R. 107.14], when you attacked with both Lightning Runners, assuming nothing else cares about the amount of E you have).

Note also that the triggered ability of Lightning Runners triggers whenever Lightning Runners attacks, even if that happens during an additional combat phase.

Devastation Tide affects all nonland permanents, including nonland creatures and nonland Auras attached to them (see also C.R. 110.1, 110.4). All such permanents are returned to their owners' hands (not destroyed).

Devastation Tide can affect a nonland permanent even if it has protection from blue, since Devastation Tide neither deals damage to anything (C.R. 702.16e) nor targets anything ("all nonland permanents" doesn't identify any targets; a sorcery spell targets something only if it identifies it with the word "target" [C.R. 115.1a], or uses a keyword that does so [C.R. 115.1e; see also C.R. 115.10a; under C.R. 701.35a, the support keyword action also uses "target [something]"]) (C.R. 702.16b) (C.R. 702.16c-d, 702.16f don't apply to Devastation Tide here).

EDIT (Nov. 30, 2018): Edited to conform to rule changes with Dominaria.
EDIT (Sep. 22, 2020): Some rules were renumbered in the meantime.

In effect, the creature can't be blocked. It can't be blocked except by two or more creatures due to menace (C.R. 702.110b), but it can't be blocked by more than one creature (that is, two or more creatures) due to Vorrac Battlehorns; the two restrictions combine so that the creature effectively can't be blocked (C.R. 509.1b; see also C.R. 101.1, 101.2).

Utvara Hellkite's triggered ability triggers only whenever "a Dragon you control attacks" (C.R. 603.2), not whenever—

• a creature blocks,
• a creature you don't control attacks,
• a non-Dragon creature you control attacks, or
• a creature enters the battlefield attacking under your control (C.R. 508.3),

but if more than one Dragon you control attacks at the same time, that ability triggers once for each such Dragon (C.R. 603.2c).

The cases of Demon of Death's Gate and Preferred Selection involve costs because of C.R. 117.9 and C.R. 117.12, respectively. However, the form "You may A, then B", by itself, doesn't.

This can be resolved by treating effects of the form "You may A, B, then C" or "You may A, then B" no differently from the form "You may A, B, and C" or "You may A and B": that is, there is no more difference between "and" and "then" in the grouping of optional actions than in their behavior in separating sequential actions (outside of costs) (see also C.R. 608.2c).

However, as for your last paragraph (assuming Shadow of Doubt isn't involved), note that for both cards, a player "isn't required to find" a basic land card to put onto the battlefield while searching (C.R. 701.18b). If the comprehensive rules, however, don't clearly regulate whether an effect of the form "You may A, B, then C" (or "You may A, B, and C"), where a player chooses not to find one or more cards in a search (whether or not some or all of them could be put onto the battlefield), is nevertheless impossible, then that is a gap in those rules. And an effect of the form "You may search ..., then ..." still allows a player to search even if they don't find one or more cards in the search or the additional actions with the cards found are illegal or impossible (C.R. 701.18g).

EDIT (Dec. 9): Clarification.
EDIT (May 9): Edited to conform to rule changes in Dominaria.

The "you may" refers to the entirety of actions that follow those two words in Infectious Bloodlust's last ability, including the shuffle. The situation would have been clearer, though, with wording like "You may search .... If you do, shuffle ..." (compare Infectious Bloodlust with Trinket Mage; see also C.R. 117.12). See also this thread.

Any effect that adds an activated ability with just T in its cost to a permanent that already has one (as in the scenario in comment 1) doesn't add any effects to the existing ability. For example, in this scenario, Gruul Turf's last ability doesn't become "T: Add RG. Add one mana of any color.", but rather, Gruul Turf now has two separate activated abilities whose costs are each T (see also C.R. 112.2c). And paying the cost of one activated ability doesn't pay the cost for any other, even if it has the same text or the same cost (C.R. 117.10).

EDIT (Apr. 27, 2018): Edited to conform to Oracle text changes with Dominaria.

When a target of a spell or ability becomes illegal (for example, when the targeted creature for Dragon Tempest's second ability gains protection from red [C.R. 702.16b]), that doesn't let the target change to another legal target. You can change the targets of a spell or ability (in the case of Dragon Tempest, to a player or another legal target [C.R. 115.4]) only if an effect allows or requires you to do so (for example, by using the words "Change the target..." or "You may choose new targets...") (C.R. 115.1; see also C.R. 115.7). See also this thread.

Note that Dragon Tempest's second ability can cause damage to only one creature, one player, or one planeswalker (C.R. 115.4), not to a creature and its controller (compare that ability with Chandra's Outrage).

EDIT (Nov. 18): Correction.
EDIT (Apr. 29): Edited to conform to changes with Dominaria.
EDIT (May 30, 2018): Reinstate edit note.
EDIT (Jan. 19, 2019): Add rule citation.
EDIT (Jun. 1, 2020): Some rules were renumbered with Core Set 2020.