MTG Salvation

Quote from Gashnaw »

Okay so long as it does not say "Return the exiled card" it would come back?

If an effect exiles a permanent, it can track where that card is if the permanent was exiled to a public zone and the rest of the effect, a related one-shot effect, or a delayed triggered ability created by the effect, could move that card back to the previous zone or move it to a third zone (C.R. 400.7, 610.3, 400.7h). However, if a commander was exiled this way and its owner then moves that commander to the command zone (as a state-based action), the commander won't move to the previous zone or third zone, as the case may be, since the commander has left exile (C.R. 903.9a, 400.7).

On the other hand, Oblivion Ring uses linked abilities and the second ability refers to "the exiled card", which means only the card still in exile (C.R. 607.2a). Notably, if Oblivion Ring exiles a commander this way and its owner then moves that commander to the command zone, Oblivion Ring won't return that commander to the battlefield, since the commander has left exile (C.R. 903.9a, 400.7).

EDIT: Edited after comment 6 was posted, and again to make a clarification.
EDIT (Dec. 13): Make another clarification.
EDIT (Oct. 28, 2017; Feb. 1, 2018): Correctness edit.
EDIT (May 26, 2018): Minor edit.
EDIT (Dec. 18, 2018; Jan. 13, 2019): Correctness edit.
EDIT (Jun. 8, 2019): Edited.
EDIT (Jul. 19, 2019): Add rule citation.
EDIT (Jul. 2, 2020): Edited to conform to rule update with Core Set 2021.
EDIT (Jul. 5, 2020; Jul. 7, 2020): Further edited.

Oblivion Ring contains a pair of linked abilities (C.R. 607.1): one of them exiles a nonland permanent, and the other refers to "the exiled card", which, however, only refers to the card if it's in the exile zone (C.R. 607.2a), so Oblivion Ring's last ability won't work if your commander (not: general) is not in exile, but in the command zone (see also C.R. 903.9).

Compare this with Essence Flux or Astral Slide's ability, which exile a permanent and later get to return that card to the battlefield without caring which zone the permanent was placed in when it was exiled, as long as the permanent was moved to a public zone, such as exile (C.R. 400.7h, 400.2), and that card didn't leave that zone (C.R. 400.7). However, if a commander was exiled this way and its owner then moves that commander to the command zone, the commander won't return to the battlefield this way, since it has left exile (C.R. 903.9a, 400.7h).

EDIT (Jun. 14, Oct. 30): Correctness edit.
EDIT (Feb. 23, 2018): Added rule citation.
EDIT (Jul. 19, 2018): Correctness edit.
EDIT (Jul. 2, 2020): Edited to conform to rule update with Core Set 2021.

If you have no cards in your library when Thrasios's ability resolves, then you do as much as possible (C.R. 101.3). You can't scry, since your library is empty, and you can't reveal a card, so it can't be a land card, so you draw a card. Since your library is empty when you would draw a card, you will lose the game as a state-based action after the ability resolves (C.R. 704.5a, 116.3b, 116.5) (unless, for example, Laboratory Maniac, which you mentioned, replaces drawing a card in this scenario with winning the game [C.R. 614.11]). (Note that you always have a library, even if no cards are in it [under C.R. 400.1, the library is a zone where objects can be], and that it's not optional that you must draw a card if the card revealed this way isn't a land.)

EDIT (Mar. 19): Clarification.

You can't transform Ludevic's Test Subject and back using just its activated ability. An activated ability of a permanent won't transform that permanent if that permanent already transformed since the ability was put onto the stack (this has been the case since Shadows over Innistrad) (C.R. 701.26f). Therefore, if you activate the ability of Ludevic's Test Subject multiple times as in your scenario, you will keep putting hatchling counters on that permanent as each ability resolves, but only the first ability that resolves this way that would transform Ludevic's Test Subject can actually do so.

In any case, the activated ability has no target (C.R. 114.1c) (the name "Ludevic's Test Subject" doesn't indicate a target [C.R. 114.10a]) and will put a hatchling counter on Ludevic's Test Subject even after it has transformed: a permanent that has transformed remains the same object (C.R. 711.12), so that "Ludevic's Test Subject" still refers to the transformed Ludevic's Abomination despite the name change (C.R. 201.4).

EDIT (Nov. 30): Clarification.
EDIT (Feb. 21, 2018): Correctness edit.
EDIT (May 3, 2018): One rule was renumbered with Dominaria.

Quote from Artscrafter »

I believe this is incorrect. When casting Disrupting Shoal, you choose a value of X and whether you will pay alternative costs, then at some point later pay the cost. The game needs you to exile a blue card that has a converted mana cost equal to a specific chosen number. This should invoke the rule regarding the game making a yes or no decision based on the card's characteristics, defined in rule 708.6a.

708.6a
Anything that performs a positive comparison (such as asking if a card is red) or a relative comparison (such as asking if a card’s converted mana cost is 3 or less) involving
one or more split cards in any zone other than the stack or involving one or more fused split spells gets only one answer. This answer is “yes” if either side of each split card in the comparison would return a “yes” answer if compared individually.

Since Beck is blue and has converted mana cost 2, it should be usable as the alternate cost when casting Disrupting Shoal for X=2.

You are correct. In this case, the alternative cost is comparing X with the converted mana cost of the card.
EDIT (May 4): See edited comment 2.

For purposes of Disrupting Shoal, a split card in your hand has a mana value equal to the sum of the mana values of its two halves, because "[t]he mana cost of a split card is the combined mana costs of its two halves" while it's in your hand (C.R. 709.4, 709.4b, 202.3). For example, Beck & Call has mana value 8 while it's in your hand. You can exile a split card with Disrupting Shoal only if that card has mana value X. Whether the card has fuse or not doesn't matter. Nevertheless, Disrupting Shoal can still target a spell even if X doesn't match that spell's mana value, because Disrupting Shoal requires only a "spell" as a target (C.R. 115.1a, 601.2c); it's just that it will do nothing if X doesn't match the targeted spell's mana value when it resolves.

EDIT: Edited after comment 5 was posted because I was mistaken.
EDIT (May 4): The rules for split cards were completely overhauled in Amonkhet.
EDIT (Aug. 10, 2022): Edited, including to conform to updated rules in the meantime, including the terminology change to "mana value".

Note that nothing in the rules says that noncreature permanents can't have +1/+1 counters (or any counters that modify power and toughness) on them merely because they're noncreature permanents (C.R. 122, especially C.R. 122.1 and 122.1a).

Quote from larrybee »

Having said that, nothing else changes with the Vehicle sub-type, other than turning into and out of being a creature.

Becoming a creature is neither unique nor inherent to the Vehicle subtype. Rather, Vehicles have their own power and toughness printed on them (C.R. 301.7a) (which doesn't change the fact that they have power and toughness only if they're creatures, however [C.R. 208.3]), and becoming a creature is an effect of the crew ability they usually have (C.R. 702.122a).

EDIT (May 16): Edited post to conform to "put" rather than "place" convention introduced in Amonkhet.
EDIT (Mar. 1, 2019): Edited first sentence.
EDIT (Mar. 23, 2022): Some rules were renumbered in the meantime.

No, an effect results in a search only if it uses the word "search" (review C.R. 701.18). (Compare this with other keyword actions such as "sacrifice" and "destroy", both of which move permanents to the graveyard [C.R. 701.16, 701.7], as well as the word "draw", as in "draw a card" [C.R. 120.5].) The keyword action "scry" doesn't involve searching a library or drawing cards (C.R. 701.17a).

EDIT (Jun. 22, 2019): Some rules were renumbered with Dominaria.

Yes. Thriving Grubs's first ability is affected by Panharmonicon because it triggers "when" it enters the battlefield (C.R. 603.6a), so the ability triggers more than once. For each such ability that resolves, you get EE, and since you get one or more E two separate times rather than once, Fabrication Module's first ability will trigger twice in this scenario (assuming you control one Panharmonicon).

Unwinding Clock's effect makes you untap all artifacts you control during other players' untap steps in addition to your own; the effect doesn't keep them from untapping during your untap step.

EDIT (Nov. 28, 2018): Correctness edit.

The Magic game generally doesn't use dice except as a substitute for flipping a coin (C.R. 705.3), in the Planechase variant (C.R. 901.3), and traditionally, as a mutually agreed method for deciding which player chooses whether to take the first turn (C.R. 103.2).

EDIT (Jan. 18): Deleted second sentence.
EDIT (Jul. 19): Struck out comment in view of rule changes with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

Even if Rule of Law is on the battlefield, you still copy each Enduring Ideal during each of your upkeeps due to their epic ability (C.R. 702.49a). Rule of Law only keeps players from casting spells in certain cases, and copying a spell is not the same as casting it (C.R. 706.10).

EDIT (Dec. 26): Added rule citation.
EDIT (Nov. 22, 2017): Clarification.
EDIT (Mar. 3, 2018): Correctness edit.
EDIT (Dec. 24, 2018): Added rule citation.

Ashen Rider's ability triggers as soon as Ashen Rider enters the battlefield, where Ashen Rider becomes a permanent by definition (C.R. 110.1). Because it's an ability from a permanent, not from a spell, it can target Emrakul as normal.

Emrakul's protection ability works only if Emrakul is on the battlefield and—

• would be a target of a colored spell (such as Murder) (C.R. 702.16b, 113.6),
• would be a target of an ability from a colored spell source (C.R. 702.16b, 113.6), or
• would be dealt damage by a colored spell (such as Lightning Bolt) (C.R. 702.16e, 113.6).

(By definition, spells exist only on the stack, not on the battlefield [C.R. 112.1], so they can't block or be attached to Emrakul [C.R. 506.3, 701.3b]; therefore, that part of the protection ability doesn't apply [review C.R. 702.16c-d, 702.16f].)

Note also that with limited exceptions, no permanent spell can target anything (C.R. 115.1a-b), and that in general, creatures don't "attack" other creatures (C.R. 506.3), but rather they can "block" attacking creatures (C.R. 509.1).

EDIT (Feb. 26, 2018; Jan. 2, 2019): Correctness edit.
EDIT (Mar. 12, 2019; Mar. 13, 2019): Expanded post.
EDIT (Mar. 9, 2020): Edited, including because some rules were renumbered with Core Set 2020.
EDIT (Jul. 29, 2020): Edited in view of rule changes with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.

The tokens created with Tempt with Reflections will be copies of the targeted creature; they will have that creature's "copiable values" (C.R. 706.2). If that creature is a copy of another permanent, the tokens will be copies of that permanent as well.

In the case of a Clone that isn't a copy of anything (which will generally happen only if something is raising Clone's toughness), each token will enter the battlefield as a copy of Clone, and in turn, its controller can have that token enter as a copy of another creature (C.R. 706.5). If a Clone is a copy of something else, the tokens will be copies of that permanent (and not another creature of their controller's choice) (under C.R. 706.2, a permanent's copiable values are "modified by other copy effects", including effects already on the permanent).

Phyrexian Metamorph becomes an artifact in addition to its other types when it becomes a copy of something; this is part of the copiable values since it happens as part of becoming a copy of the artifact or creature (C.R. 706.9c), so the tokens will also be artifacts if Phyrexian Metamorph is a copy of something.

Evil Twin and Progenitor Mimic, when they become a copy of a permanent, gain an ability that becomes part of the information the tokens gain when they become a copy of Evil Twin's or Progenitor Mimic's current form (C.R. 706.9a). Other than that, the same applies to Evil Twin and Progenitor Mimic as it does to Clone.

Cryptoplasm has a triggered ability that makes it become a copy of another creature, except it has that ability, so that the ability becomes part of the information the tokens gain when they become a copy of Cryptoplasm's current form (C.R. 706.9a). (Generally, however, Cryptoplasm will then still have only one instance of that ability because, in general, copy effects overwrite a permanent's previous copiable values [C.R. 706.3].) Both before and after Cryptoplasm becomes a copy of a creature, the tokens created with Tempt with Reflections will also have that ability.

EDIT (Jan. 7, Apr. 28): Editorial.
EDIT (Mar. 10, 2019): See comment 7.
EDIT (Jul. 9, 2019): Edited due to changes in Cryptoplasm's Oracle text with Core Set 2020.
EDIT (Oct. 15, 2019): Edited.

In sanctioned tournaments, the responsibility of players for "calling attention to any rules or policy infraction they notice in their matches" (M.T.R. 1.10) remains even if players think the infraction is unintentional or will likely not be noticeable or ruled intentional by a judge. In tournaments at Competitive or Professional rules enforcement level, some infractions are punished more severely if a player commits them repeatedly, such as Game Rule Violations (I.P.G. 2.6), and Unsporting Conduct--Minor (I.P.G. 4.1), and penalties players receive, even Warnings, are recorded and tracked (I.P.G. 1.1).