Judge’s Corner #3
Welcome back to the Judge’s Corner, where our extremely high-level Good Gamery judges answer your questions about the MTG rules.
Q: Can I use Cephalid Snitch to make Iridescent Angel lose protection from black?
A: “Protection from all colors” is just shorthand for having protection from each color individually. So you can make the Angel lose protection from black without affecting its protection from white, and so forth.
Q: How does Reflector Mage interact with morph creatures?
A: As a 2/3, it can block them and kill them in combat without dying itself.
Q: Can you explain exactly what happens next when a Goblin Test Pilot is activated?
A: When a Goblin Test Pilot is activated, the player who activated it then chooses whether they want to pass or retain priority.
Q: My opponent claims that she can cast Cabal Ritual with less than seven cards in her graveyard and still get the five mana, because “it’s a mana source, and nothing can stop mana sources.” Is that really how it works?
A: “Mana source” is no longer used as a card type, so that argument doesn’t hold. However, remember that ‘threshold’ is an ability word with no actual rules meaning, so the Ritual effectively reads “Add BBB to your mana pool. Instead, add BBBBB to your mana pool.”
Q: Can you explain what it means for a player to “have Book Burning”?
A: The meaning of private property, while indeed a very interesting question addressed by such prominent thinkers as Locke, Rousseau, and Marx, is beyond the scope of this Magic: the Gathering rules column.
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