It’s about time to undergo a review of the Rule of Law articles so far, by the official (i.e. my) reckoning:
Rule of Law 1 – Back From the Dead
Rule of Law 2 – Learning to Spell
Rule of Law 3 – Are you in a Band?
Rule of Law 4 – Don’t Forget Protection
Rule of Law 5 – End Step Sidestep, or Waylay, Five Years Later
Rule of Law 6 – A Brief Look at Champions of Kamigawa
Rule of Law 7a – Reviewing the Basics of Triggered Abilities
Rule of Law 7b – Reading Complex Triggered Abilities
Rule of Law 7c – In Clarification of Triggered Abilities
Rule of Law 8 – O, Saviors of Kamigawa
Rule of Law 9 – Reading the “Friendly” Card, or “As”, the Word, Turns
Don’t worry if you can’t find Rule of Law 7c – In Clarification of Triggered Abilities, it’s the first two paragraphs of the one listed as Rule of Law 8 – O, Saviors of Kamigawa. As far as I’m concerned, those are two separate articles (and if I ever put up an archive somewhere else, they will be separate there). I’ll leave it to the fertile minds of the audience to figure out why.
Today, though, I would like to offer advice on how to read a card. I will focus more on rules text, and on certain words that have specialized meanings in Magic, as that is where confusion is rampant. Most of this is obvious, but everyone can benefit from a few reminders.
The entire three (or two, depending on the version of Rule of Law you have) part series on triggered abilities covered the three (not two, no matter which version you have) words that mark a triggered ability, “At”, “when” and “whenever”. I also took care of the “intervening if” clause there. Colons mark activated abilities, and are important in that everything before the colon is the cost, and everything after the colon is the effect (i.e., what you get for the cost you pay). You can’t play the ability if you can’t pay the cost, and paying the cost is part of the announcement, just as it is for spells. With this in mind, Rule of Law 2 – Learning to Spell is a reasonable tool for understanding how to play an activated ability.
“As” is used in two specific cases. The first is “As ~this~ comes into play, <foo>.” This is different than “When this comes into play, <foo>.” The second one is a standard triggered ability. The first one is not triggered at all, but instead sets up additional information that the game will need when the permanent comes online.
Ashes of the Fallen
As Ashes of the Fallen comes into play, choose a creature type.
Each creature card in your graveyard has the chosen creature type in addition to its other types.
This card sets up a static ability, which will affect the game as soon as it comes into play. If this had said “When Ashes of the Fallen comes into play, choose a creature type”, there would be a brief moment after it had come into play but the creature type choice was waiting to resolve. It would have a triggered ability that set up a static ability when it resolved, and that’s too silly to consider. So instead, we are asked to make a choice “as” it comes into play.
Some things come into play “with” something, usually +1/+1 counters. The thing it comes into play with applies any time the permanent comes into play, except phasing.
The second use of “as” is as part of an ability of the form “<fum> may <foo> as though <bar>.” The poster card for this form is Giant Spider: “Giant Spider may block as though it had flying.” This deserves further attention and analysis.
In this template, <fum> is the object that gets the benefit of the ability in question. In this case, it’s Giant Spider. Then <foo> is the specific game action where this ability applies, such as declaring blockers in this case. And then <bar> is what you can count the situation as when you are in <foo>. For Giant Spider, <bar> is counting the creature as having flying. So, during the declare blocker action, you may treat the Giant Spider as a flying creature. The game will then interpret the legality of the block based on that choice.
This does not let you treat the Giant Spider as a flying creature for any other purpose. Notice that I said any other purpose, not any other card or ability. If Dense Canopy is in play, “Creatures with flying can’t block creatures without flying” and you have High Ground, “Each creature you control may block an additional creature”, then Giant Spider would not be able to block a creature with flying and a creature without flying. In order to block the flying creature, it would have to use the ability, but then Dense Canopy would prevent it from blocking the nonflying creature. This works because both Dense Canopy and Giant Spider are modifying the same action. Arashi, the Sky Asunder will not hit Giant Spiders using their ability.
This may seem straightforward, but let’s take another “as though” ability and ask some questions.
Crucible of Worlds
You may play land cards from your graveyard as though they were in your hand.
1. Define <fum>, <foo> and <bar> for Crucible of Worlds.
Answer: <fum>: You (i.e. the artifact’s controller)
<foo>: Playing land cards
<bar>: Treat cards in the graveyard as being in the hand.
2. If a card asks you to discard a card, can you discard land cards from your graveyard? Explain your answer.
Answer: No. Crucible of Worlds only allows you to change the rules for playing land cards, not for any other purpose.
3. Does using Crucible of Worlds count as your one land drop per turn?
Answer: Yes. All it does is change which land cards are eligible to be played.
So when you’re faced with a strange card at your next game session, what do you do? The first thing you should do is RTFC, or Read the “Friendly” Card. If you can’t RTFC due to language problems (you speak English, the card is in Japanese, for example) or because the card is old (pre-Comprehensive rules), find a place where the current Oracle text is available and look it up there. Then, you should interpret the abilities using the guidelines below.
Check to see if the ability is activated. It will be activated if there is a colon. If the card is old, check for the “Do X” to “Do Y” formula as well. This was used in the very old days to mark additional activation costs besides mana. Everything in the “Do X” section should be moved to the left side of the colon.
If it’s not activated, check to see if it is triggered. Again, the key words are “at”, “when” or “whenever”. Also check for the “intervening if”.
If neither of these apply, it’s probably a static ability. Check for “as” in one of its two forms, “as X comes into play” or “as though” and act accordingly. If it comes into play “with” something, it’s part of putting the card into play. I’ll deal with things that copy other objects later – that’s a separate topic that is big enough for its own article.
If none of these apply, chances are it’s a static ability. If there is a duration listed, that’s how long it lasts, otherwise it goes until the permanent leaves play. There may be delayed abilities that take effect later (such as any of the Epic spells), so watch out for them.
Until next time, remember to RTFC.