MTG Salvation

Yes, Urza’s Incubator would do just that. When you cast a spell with an X in its mana cost, you declare the value for X before paying mana. So if you play, for instance, Apocalypse Hydra, you can declare X to be 2, and with the Incubator on the field and Hydra as the chosen creature type, you would only have to pay RG.

EDIT: It would seem mana symbol tags have changed since I last frequented these forums. Could someone educate me in how to post mana symbols? Thank you.

Quote from Comp Rules »

616.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object’s controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply, following the steps listed below. If two or more players have to make these choices at the same time, choices are made in APNAP order (see rule 101.4).


616.1b If any of the replacement and/or prevention effects would modify under whose control an object would enter the battlefield, one of them must be chosen. If not, proceed to rule 616.1c.

616.1d Any of the applicable replacement and/or prevention effects may be chosen.

616.1e Once the chosen effect has been applied, this process is repeated (taking into account only replacement or prevention effects that would now be applicable) until there are no more left to apply.

You have to choose to first apply the effect that makes it enter the battlefield under his control, which is irrelevant as then the exiling effect would still apply, exiling both creatures entering the battlefield from the graveyard.

He specified that he’d let the token die. It’s true that either the token or the original could be chosen, but in the OP’s scenario, the token would die due to state based actions before he would have the opportunity to tap it and draw 3.

Hunted Troll and it’s ilk received errata with the rules change. They now state “target opponent creates”, drastically changing the way the cards function. I find the rules change and errata completely unnecessary, as they result in the exact same game state, but the owner of the tokens is the opponent.

No. State based actions will kill it before you can activate abilities, killing the token.

I would mention that it’s utterly impossible to stop a player from tapping their land for mana. Even Split Second can’t stop mana abilities. Blowing up a player’s land in response to it activating any ability wouldn’t stop that ability from going on the stack, and you can tap a land for mana even when you don’t have priority. Mana abilities are weird like that.

As for the last part of your post, there are many reasons a player would play this. Madness cards ease the discarding, there are numerous creatures that have effects that trigger when they die, and you can play some life gain in your deck to counteract the life loss.

Further, the reason Goyf doesn’t die to a Bolt in that situation is because state based actions would be checked after the Bolt resolves, at which point it’s in the graveyard, giving Goyf 4 toughness and 3 damage marked.

Was this interaction at a tournament, or online? Or perhaps a private casual game? If it was online, it’s an error that should be brought to Wizard’s attention.

Why wouldn’t the Auras still enter the battlefield tapped and then go to the graveyard as a state-based action after the spell finishes resolving?

You wouldn't have to hold priority to achieve essentially the same result. You can look at the top card whenever you want, and assuming your opponent passes priority, you can cast your other Opt before the first resolves. So either way, you can cast both Opts before either resolves.

I would clarify that not every spell exiled goes on the stack, only whichever ones you’d like to cast. So assuming you have Eye of the Storm with a Bolt under it then you cast Baral’s Expertise the stack would be:

EotS trigger
Expertise

If you let the trigger resolve, it exiles the Expertise and gives you copies of it and Bolt that you can cast. You do have to decide which ones to cast before you can then cast Brainstorm on top of those copies, which would trigger EotS again. However if you cast Brainstorm before the EotS trigger resolves, the stack would be:

EotS trigger
Brainstorm
EotS trigger
Expertise

The timing is pretty important in this case, as Brainstorming before you allow the trigger to resolve would only net you 1 expertise.

EDIT: As far as your original question’s stack though it would be:

EotS trigger
Expertise

The trigger resolves and exiles expertise, allowing you to then cast the copy of the expertise and the bolt, which would look like:

Expertise
Bolt

Expertise resolves and you cast Brainstorm off the expertise:

EotS trigger
Brainstorm
Bolt

Trigger resolves, exiles Brainstorm and gives you copies of it, Expertise, and Bolt:

Expertise
Brainstorm
Bolt
Bolt

Side note: anything that trigger each time you cast an instant or sorcery would trigger on the original card being cast and the copy being cast. A card like Wee Dragonauts would get really big really fast in this scenario.

Unless the rules have changed since the Melira, Sylvok Outcast and persist debacle, Solemnity doesn’t change counters entering with a creature due to the effect on that creature. The creature doesn’t “see” Solemnity’s ability as it’s entering, and so enters with the counters as normal. If the effect giving it counters were due to another permanent’s effect, however, then Solemnity would prevent those counters from being placed on that creature.

EDIT: My mistake, the rules have changed. The Ixalan rules change makes it so that Arixmethes would enter with no counters.

Unfortunately, since it enters with counters, the counters aren’t being “put on” it. It will still enter tapped with 5 slumber counters on it.

3. When copies of something enter the battlefield, they enter the same way that thing would when it first enters the battlefield. You can read rule 706.2 to learn more about copiable values, but in a nutshell, copies only copy the text on the card, not any counters or temporary modifiers like “+2/+2 until end of turn”. For a Planeswalker, that includes its starting loyalty, which for Jace is 3.