What synergies or combos could we get (that would be worth the trouble and the spot) with Academy Ruins? Also, what kind of tricks could we pull with looting cards and Library of Leng?
This also assumes that the Cryptolith Rite had already resolved and was on the battlefield, and you weren't playing grasp in response. This isn't clear from your post.
You can't activate Aggravated Assault in the combat phase because you can't normally cast sorcery cards during that time. You can only cast sorcery spells during one of your main phases, when the stack is empty.
Leyline does not let you activate abilities with timing restrictions outside of those restrictions. Leyline reads "You may cast nonland cards as though they had flash". Activating abilities and casting spells are two entirely different actions.
The triggering condition is that Wasteland Strangler enters the battlefield. The effect is that first you may "process" an exiled card. Then, if you chose to do that, you get an additional effect (target creature gets -3/-3). The cards get processed during the resolution of the ability, because it is part of the effect of the ability.
EDIT: This is true for this card specifically, but depending on the card, it may be different. Cryptic Cruiser, Oracle of Dust, and Void Attendant for example each have an activated ability that requires the exiled card to be "processed" as a part of the cost.
Flash on a land is fairly useless, since the Comp Rules strictly prevent you from playing a land any time other than your own turn.
Quote from Comprehensive rules »
305.3. A player can’t play a land, for any reason, if it isn’t his or her turn. Ignore any part of an effect that instructs a player to do so.
MtG 101: Card (non-flavour/reminder) text trumps rules. That's how Flash works at all.
You are right, except for this:
101.2. When a rule or effect allows or directs something to happen, and another effect states that it can’t happen, the “can’t” effect takes precedence.
Also, there are already interactions that would theoretically allow you to play a land on an opponent's turn, and they have similarly been ruled to not work, because of 101.2.See ToddB's Post here
There's an alphabetical list of names, most likely designers on the left during the video. Looks like a development team, but no names i recognize from WotC.
One of those names is Pendelton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time
Yes, it does. Gratuitous Violence has a replacement effect that replaces a damage event with double that amount of damage. Since your creature is still dealing damage, the other gratuitous violence can still apply to the damage event, and double that amount of damage as well.
No, when a creature transforms, it doesn't change zones at all. It is the same object as before, so any equipment or auras, and any counters on it stay attached. Since the creature never left the battlefield, and is the exact same object, just with different characteristics, any spell or ability targeting the creature will still be targeting it after it transforms. Lastly, Double Faced cards can't be turned face down, and both sides are considered to be face up. Transforming a creature will not trigger Deathmist Raptor.
dearmarkrosewater asked: Assuming there will be a return to Innistrad set, can we get a card that costs thirteen mana?
Maybe. : )
This is a pretty innocent question with a quite common answer.
I know it is a long shot, but for some reason this screams to me as "Emrakul in SOI and costing 13 confirmed"
That seems like a big jump in logic, considering that the number thirteen was a minor theme in the original Innistrad. Granted, none of those had a CMC of 13, nor has any other magic card yet printed, but nothing about that number should "scream" Emrakul, especially when her signature number, as we've seen so far, is 15.
No. Unearth has you exile the creature as a replacement effect if it would otherwise leave the battlefield, so the original event of it dying never actually happens.
When you cast the Path on the Zada while it is under your control, that triggers its ability, which would subsequently go on the stack and wait to resolve. You could donate Zada with its ability on the stack, but nothing about doing that changes the definition of "you" in that ability waiting to resolve. "You" would still refer to you, because the control of the ability didn't change, because abilities are independant of their sources.
The sequence would go like this: You cast Dark Deals and it begins to resolve. You both discard your hands then draw the same number of cards minus one. This triggers Sphinx's Tutelage that many times, but those triggers wait to go on the stack until the next time a player would get priority (which is right after the Dark Deals is finished resolving). The triggers go on the stack and resolve one at a time. You resolve the first; the opponent reveals the top two and dumps them into the graveyard, then repeats the process if they share a color, then you resolve the next trigger, and so on until they are all finished.
In other words, put simply, you both draw, then discard, then the opponent mills the appropriate amount.
My favorite card lately at least, is Crypt Incursion. Instant speed, gets rid of all those threats that my opponent stored in their graveyard, and I get a decent amount of life off of it too. If I'm playing Black, I'm playing Crypt Incursion
Leyline does not let you activate abilities with timing restrictions outside of those restrictions. Leyline reads "You may cast nonland cards as though they had flash". Activating abilities and casting spells are two entirely different actions.
EDIT: This is true for this card specifically, but depending on the card, it may be different. Cryptic Cruiser, Oracle of Dust, and Void Attendant for example each have an activated ability that requires the exiled card to be "processed" as a part of the cost.
You are right, except for this:
Also, there are already interactions that would theoretically allow you to play a land on an opponent's turn, and they have similarly been ruled to not work, because of 101.2.See ToddB's Post here
One of those names is Pendelton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time
That seems like a big jump in logic, considering that the number thirteen was a minor theme in the original Innistrad. Granted, none of those had a CMC of 13, nor has any other magic card yet printed, but nothing about that number should "scream" Emrakul, especially when her signature number, as we've seen so far, is 15.
In other words, put simply, you both draw, then discard, then the opponent mills the appropriate amount.