So just like the Return to Ravnica guildgates, the Gatecrash guildgates have a secret message as well - each card has four letters of its flavour text raised slightly. In colour order, the letters are:
If the Angel dies during the fight, then both her abilities still need to go on the stack. As the controller of the two abilities, you get to put them on the stack as you choose. You can stack them one of two ways:
If you stack them so that the "Leaves the battlefield" ability resolves first, then it will resolve, return nothing, and then the "Enters the battlefield" ability resolves next, and if you choose to exile the targeted creatures, then they will be gone forever.
If you stack them so that the "Enters the battlefield" ability resolves first, then you can choose to exile the targeted creatures. Then her "Leaves the battlefield" trigger will resolve, returning those cards to their owners' hands.
Yep. From the Judging at Regular (JAR) REL Document:
A player has forgotten to take an required game action since the start of their last turn If the action was optional, assume they chose not to – and no further fix is required. Otherwise, resolve the action now. If several instances of an action have been forgotten, resolve any that have been missed this turn. Any older instances are ignored.
Stalling requires playing slowly and doing so with the intent to run out the clock.
Obviously the player intends to run out the clock, so the question is, "Is mulliganing for the sake of running out the clock considered playing slowly?"
I believe yes. However, there's nothing officially agreeing/disagreeing with that, as far as I know.
If your investigation shows that he didn't purposely change his sideboard after submitting his decklist because he saw an abundance of [X] (i.e. if you decide he wasn't Cheating), then change the decklist to match the deck.
From the MIPG for how to fix a Deck/Decklist Problem:
Remove any cards from the deck that are illegal for the format or violate the maximum number allowed, fix any failures to de-sideboard, restore any missing cards if they (or identical replacements) can be located, then alter the decklist to reflect the remaining deck. If the remaining deck has too few cards, add basic lands of the player’s choice to reach the minimum number. If the deck and decklist both violate a maximum cards restriction (usually too many cards in a sideboard or more than four of a card), remove cards starting from the bottom of the appropriate section of the list.
When you say Top 8 Split, do you mean all remaining competitors in the Top 8 choose to split the total prize, or do you mean two of the (more than two) remaining competitors choose to split their winnings?
If the former, it's pretty easy. You ask "does everyone want to split the Top X prizes?" If everyone says yes, then you're good to go, either to keep playing for the title or to go home. Usually, a judge can help with this.
If the latter, it's a bit more tricky. Here's how I see it:
There are two facts that each player might know about in a conversation like this:
a) how the prizes will be distributed between them, and
b) what the match result will be (in terms of conceding or drawing)
If both players know both facts before the match is over, then we have a problem.
So let's go through a few common scenarios:
1. Aardvark and Nutella choose to prize split without discussing prizes. After that, Artichoke chooses to concede. No problem, because Nutella doesn't know about the concession until the match has ended.
2. Aardvark and Nutella choose to prize split without discussing prizes. After that, Aardvark asks Nutella to concede (or draw). Problem, because both players would know both facts if Nutella said yes.
3. Aardvark and Nutella choose to draw, or one chooses to concede to the other. After that, anything they discuss is no problem because, the match result has been decided.
Nope. Once the Body Double copies a Squire, it gains all the copiable characteristic of a Square. That means, when something else goes to copy the Body Double Squire, that something else will also become a Squire.
A blocked creature deals no combat damage to the defending player/planeswalker unless it has trample.
A creature becomes a blocked creature once something blocks it, and it stays blocked until the end of combat, regardless of what happens blockers.
Putting those two together, you get the following:
Double strike + lifelink: If the blocker dies during first strike damage, then normal damage won't be dealt because there's no blocker and the attacker doesn't have trample.
Double strike + trample: The attacker will deal full damage to the defending player during normal damage because there is no blocker there to soak up any of it.
Double strike + trample + lifelink: Double plus happiness
If it were until end of turn, it would say until end of turn, like Giant Growth for example.
Counters stick around forever.
Orzhov - wealth, security, for
Dimir - mastermind, spies, lies, deception
Gruul - leave, the, shackles, behind
Boros - merciful, hearts, cries
Simic - and, comprehend, perfection
Together, they make "will destroy each other". (Ravnica's secret message was "The guilds of Ravnica")
If you Mutilate a Treetop Village and it doesn't die, re-activing the Treetop Village won't "reset" it to a 3/3.
If you stack them so that the "Leaves the battlefield" ability resolves first, then it will resolve, return nothing, and then the "Enters the battlefield" ability resolves next, and if you choose to exile the targeted creatures, then they will be gone forever.
If you stack them so that the "Enters the battlefield" ability resolves first, then you can choose to exile the targeted creatures. Then her "Leaves the battlefield" trigger will resolve, returning those cards to their owners' hands.
A player has forgotten to take an required game action since the start of their last turn
If the action was optional, assume they chose not to – and no further fix is required. Otherwise, resolve the action now. If several instances of an action have been forgotten, resolve any that have been missed this turn. Any older instances are ignored.
The JAR covers everything you really need to know about normal store-level events... check it out! http://www.wizards.com/wpn/Document.aspx?x=Magic_The_Gathering_Judging_at_Regular_REL
Obviously the player intends to run out the clock, so the question is, "Is mulliganing for the sake of running out the clock considered playing slowly?"
I believe yes. However, there's nothing officially agreeing/disagreeing with that, as far as I know.
From the MIPG for how to fix a Deck/Decklist Problem:
Remove any cards from the deck that are illegal for the format or violate the maximum number allowed, fix any failures to de-sideboard, restore any missing cards if they (or identical replacements) can be located, then alter the decklist to reflect the remaining deck. If the remaining deck has too few cards, add basic lands of the player’s choice to reach the minimum number. If the deck and decklist both violate a maximum cards restriction (usually too many cards in a sideboard or more than four of a card), remove cards starting from the bottom of the appropriate section of the list.
That being said, in the first scenario, you can assign 3 damage to the first Artist and no damage to the other two.
If the former, it's pretty easy. You ask "does everyone want to split the Top X prizes?" If everyone says yes, then you're good to go, either to keep playing for the title or to go home. Usually, a judge can help with this.
If the latter, it's a bit more tricky. Here's how I see it:
There are two facts that each player might know about in a conversation like this:
a) how the prizes will be distributed between them, and
b) what the match result will be (in terms of conceding or drawing)
If both players know both facts before the match is over, then we have a problem.
So let's go through a few common scenarios:
1. Aardvark and Nutella choose to prize split without discussing prizes. After that, Artichoke chooses to concede. No problem, because Nutella doesn't know about the concession until the match has ended.
2. Aardvark and Nutella choose to prize split without discussing prizes. After that, Aardvark asks Nutella to concede (or draw). Problem, because both players would know both facts if Nutella said yes.
3. Aardvark and Nutella choose to draw, or one chooses to concede to the other. After that, anything they discuss is no problem because, the match result has been decided.
Hopefully that helps.
Platinum Angel is returned to the battlefield, and then you lose 7 life. You are at -3 and safe.
A creature becomes a blocked creature once something blocks it, and it stays blocked until the end of combat, regardless of what happens blockers.
Putting those two together, you get the following:
Double strike + lifelink: If the blocker dies during first strike damage, then normal damage won't be dealt because there's no blocker and the attacker doesn't have trample.
Double strike + trample: The attacker will deal full damage to the defending player during normal damage because there is no blocker there to soak up any of it.
Double strike + trample + lifelink: Double plus happiness