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Invasion™ Frequently Asked Questions FAQ HIGHLIGHTSAll these questions and answers also appear in the CARD-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS section. They're repeated here because they're difficult or because they change card wordings. Addle ----- Q: What happens if my opponent plays Addle, but I play Deflection or Misdirection and send it back at him or her? A: As printed, this situation would require trusting your opponent to tell the truth about what's in his or her hand (or calling a judge if you're playing in a tournament). This mandates a correction to Addle: "Choose a color. Target player reveals his or her hand, then you choose a card of that color from it. That player discards that card." Aether Rift ----- Q: When does my opponent decide whether or not to pay 5 life? A: After you discard a card at random from your hand during the ability's resolution. That means your opponent will get to see the card before he or she decides to pay the life to keep it from being put into play. Q: When I discard a creature card, does it actually make it into my graveyard before my opponent gets to decide whether to pay life or not? A: Yes. That means, for example, that abilities that trigger when a card is put into a graveyard will trigger, even if the creature card is put into play immediately after being discarded. Ancient Spring, Geothermal Crevice, Irrigation Ditch, Sulfur Vent, Tinder Farm ----- Q: If Overabundance or Mana Flare is in play, and I play the ability that gives me two different colors of mana, which color does the enchantment add? A: The mana ability's controller chooses. In this case, since you control the land, you get to decide. Atalya, Samite Master ----- Q: Which mode does the "spend only white mana" restriction apply to? A: It applies to both modes. Aura Shards ----- Q: Does this ability trigger when I gain control of one of my opponent's creatures? A: No. The creature is already in play, so the ability doesn't trigger. Barrin's Spite ----- Q: Who chooses which creature is sacrificed and which is returned to its owner's hand? A: The creatures' controller. Q: When is that choice made? A: During the playing of the spell. Q: What happens if one of the creatures becomes an illegal target before Barrin's Spite resolves? A: The spell will resolve anyway, and the remaining creature will either be sacrificed or returned to its owner's hand, depending on what its controller chose when Barrin's Spite was played. Q: What happens if one of the target creatures changes controllers before Barrin's Spite resolves? What if both do? A: The first sentence of Barrin's Spite should read, "Choose a player and two target creatures that player controls." With this wording, if one creature changes control before Barrin's Spite resolves, only the other one will be affected. If both creatures change controllers, all the spell's targets will be illegal and it will be countered. Blind Seer ----- Q: If I change the color of a spell that will become a permanent, what happens? A: After the spell resolves, the resulting permanent will be the new color of the spell until the end of the turn. Then it will revert to the spell's original color. Blurred Mongoose ----- Q: Can Blurred Mongoose be targeted by spells and abilities while it's on the stack? A: Yes. The "untargetable" ability applies only while the creature is in play. Q: What does "can't be countered" mean? Can the Blurred Mongoose spell be targeted by spells that would counter it? A: Yes. "Can't be countered" just means that if an effect would counter the spell, it fails to do so. The countering spell still resolves normally, but the Mongoose spell isn't countered. Cauldron Dance ----- Q: Can I play this if I don't have any creature cards in my hand? A: Yes. In that case, the creature card in your graveyard will come into play, gain haste, and return to your hand at end of turn. Q: Can I play it if there are no creature cards in my graveyard? A: No, because you must target a creature card in your graveyard. Without a target, you can't play the spell. Q: What if the creature card I target is removed from my graveyard before Cauldron Dance resolves? A: Then the spell will be countered, because its only target has become illegal. That means a creature card in your hand won't be put into play either. Coalition Victory ----- Q: How does this work with multicolored creatures? What about lands with more than one type? For example, let's say I control a Sliver Queen (which is all five colors), a Tundra (which is both a plains and an island), a Taiga (both a mountain and a forest), and a swamp when my Coalition Victory resolves. Do I win? A: Yes you do. To figure out if the win condition has been met, ask these questions: Do I control a white creature? a blue creature? a black creature (and so on)? Do I control a plains? an island? a swamp (and so on)? If the answer is "yes" to all the questions, you win. Divine Presence ----- Q: Does this effect keep track of how much damage each source has dealt over the course of the game? In other words, does it mean that no source can ever deal more than 3 damage total to a particular creature or player? A: No. The effect applies each time a source deals damage. If a source would deal less than 4 damage, the effect ignores it. If it would deal 4 or more, the effect applies and resets the damage to 3. The next time that source would deal damage, it's treated just like the first time. Dream Thrush ----- Q: If I control a land that's also a creature, then play Dream Thrush's ability on it, will it still be both a land and a creature? A: Yes. The printed wording of Dream Thrush's ability isn't clear on this. It should read, "T: Target land's type becomes a basic land type of your choice until end of turn." The fixed wording clarifies that the ability only affects the target's land type, not its permanent type. Elfhame Sanctuary ----- Q: What happens if I have two of these in play? A: You can get up to two basic land cards each upkeep. If you use both Sanctuaries' abilities, you'll only have to skip that turn's draw step, not future ones. If you only use one Sanctuary's ability, you'll still have to skip that turn's draw step. Fertile Ground ----- Q: What if I tap a land for mana but it doesn't produce any? A: Fertile Ground's ability will trigger anyway. Global Ruin ----- Q: How does this spell work with the _Revised Edition_ dual lands? A: Let's say the only lands you control are two Tundras and a Scrubland. You can choose one Tundra for your plains, one for your island, and the Scrubland for your swamp, thereby keeping them all in play. Goblin Spy ----- Q: How do I play with the top card of my library revealed? A: Just flip over the top card and leave it that way. Every time the revealed card leaves your library (if you draw it, if it's milled, and so on), flip over the next card. If you have to shuffle your library, first turn the top card face-down, then shuffle, then flip over the new top card. Q: What happens if an effect makes me draw 4 cards, for instance? A: You must reveal each one before you draw it. Q: What about an effect like Sage Owl's that lets me look at a number of cards on top of my library? A: When you look at cards in your library, they're not actually leaving that library. So the revealed one stays revealed and the others stay hidden. Kangee, Aerie Keeper ----- Q: Can I choose 0 for X? If so, will that trigger Saproling Infestation's ability? A: Yes, you can choose 0 for X, but Saproling Infestation's ability will trigger only if you pay the other 2 mana. Also, the fact that you can choose 0 for X doesn't mean you have to pay the kicker cost. You can still choose not to pay X at all. Liberate ----- Q: Let's say I play this on a creature that has an "at end of turn" triggered ability. When the creature returns to play, will its ability trigger? A: No. All "at end of turn" abilities trigger at the same time. By the time Liberate's delayed "at end of turn" triggered ability has resolved and returned the creature to play, it's too late for other "at end of turn" abilities to trigger. Loafing Giant ----- Q: If Loafing Giant blocks more than one creature (using Entangler, for example), does its ability trigger once for each creature it blocks? A: No, it triggers once for the whole blocking event. Mages' Contest ----- Q: Can I bid 0? A: No. "A high bid of 1" means that you must bid 1 life, and that becomes the high bid for your opponent to top. Q: Can my opponent play Deflection on Mages' Contest and make Mages' Contest target itself? A: No. Spells can't target themselves. But your opponent could play Deflection on Mages' Contest and make it target Deflection. When Mages' Contest tries to resolve, Deflection will no longer be on the stack, so the Contest will be countered. Q: What happens if I target a spell I control with Mages' Contest? A: You'll have a bidding war with yourself (with a 1-life starting bid), and you'll surely win. The target spell will be countered. Overabundance ----- Q: What happens if the land produces no mana? Does Overabundance give me one anyway? For example, what if I tap Gaea's Cradle while no creatures are in play? A: You get nothing. Gaea's Cradle would produce no mana (which has no type or color), so Overabundance wouldn't add any mana to your mana pool. Q: So if the land produces no mana, I don't take damage? A: That's right. Q: Does the extra mana come from the land? A: No, it comes from the enchantment. Q: Is its ability a mana ability? A: Yes. Q: Doesn't that mean it never goes on the stack -- that there's no chance to respond with instants or activated abilities before the damage is dealt? A: That's right. If you want to prevent the damage dealt by Overabundance, you must have a prevention shield in place before the ability triggers. Q: What if I tap a forest enchanted with Fertile Ground for mana? A: You get G from the forest, one mana of any color from Fertile Ground, G from Overabundance, and you're dealt one point of damage. Because the Fertile Ground mana comes from the enchantment, not the land, Overabundance has no additional effect. Phantasmal Terrain ----- Q: If a land I control is also a creature, and I play Phantasmal Terrain on it, will it still be a creature? A: Yes. Phantasmal Terrain has been reworded so it doesn't "reset" a permanent's type. Its second ability now reads, "Enchanted land's type is the chosen type." The fixed wording clarifies that the ability only affects land types, not permanent types. Phyrexian Battleflies ----- Q: If the Battleflies' controller changes, can the new controller play the ability twice, even if its previous controller already played it twice that turn? A: No. The ability can be played only twice a turn, regardless of who controls the creature or plays the ability. Phyrexian Infiltrator ----- Q: What happens if I respond to playing its ability by playing it again? A: Weird things happen. For example, let's say you control the Infiltrator and a Grizzly Bears. Your opponent controls an Avatar of Woe. With enough mana, you can steal the Avatar and keep the Infiltrator. How? First you play the Infiltrator's ability targeting the Bears. (Ifthis ability resolved while you controlled both creatures, it wouldn't do anything.) In response, you play the ability again, targeting Avatar of Woe. Now the abilities on the stack start to resolve. First, you get the Avatar of Woe and your opponent gets the Infiltrator. Then you exchange control of the Infiltrator and the Bears. (They're controlled by two different players now, so it works.) When the dust clears, you control the Infiltrator and the Avatar, and your opponent controls the Bears. Pretty sneaky. Note that this dastardly plan can be foiled if your opponent can play the Infiltrator's activated ability while he or she controls it. Psychic Battle ----- Q: The wording makes it seems like I can change all or none of the targets, but not just some of them. Is that right? A: No, you can change only some of them if you want. "You may change the target or targets" means "for each target, you can change it or not." Q: Let's say I play a creature spell and you play Counterspell on it while Psychic Battle is in play. (No other spells are on the stack.) When Psychic Battle's effect occurs, I reveal the most expensive card. Can I change Counterspell's target to itself? A: No. A spell can't target itself. Because your creature spell is the only legal target, you won't be able to change Counterspell's target at all. Q: Let's say my opponent plays Arc Lightning while Psychic Battle is in play, and I reveal the most expensive card. Can I change the number of targets for Arc Lightning? Can I redistribute how much damage is going to be dealt to each target? Can I change the targets so that something ends up being targeted twice? A: No, no, and no. Psychic Battle (and other target-changing spells and abilities) let you change only the targets. You can't change any other decisions made for the spell, and all your changes must be legal. However, let's say that I play Arc Lightning, and I decide to have it deal 2 damage to your Grizzly Bears (2/2) and 1 damage to your Prodigal Sorcerer (1/1). If you win the Psychic Battle contest, you could change the Bears target to the Sorcerer and the Sorcerer target to the Bears. The result would be that the Bears survive. Pulse of Llanowar ----- Q: What does "tapped for mana" mean? What if I tap a basic land for mana but it doesn't produce any? A: Pulse of Llanowar just makes basic lands you control produce mana of any one color instead of what they'd normally produce. If a basic land would produce no mana, Pulse of Llanowar doesn't change that. If it would produce three mana, Pulse of Llanowar makes it produce three mana of any one color instead. Q: Does this card let you choose the color of mana produced by Wild Growth or Overabundance? A: No. That mana comes from the enchantments, not the lands. However, when both Overabundance and Pulse of Llanowar are in play, if you tap a forest and choose to get R, the mana Overabundance adds to your mana pool is red as well. Savage Offensive ----- Q: If I play this, then play a creature, does the new creature have first strike until end of turn? A: No, because it came into play after Savage Offensive resolved. Only creatures you control when it resolves are affected. Scarred Puma ----- Q: Can the Puma attack if it's black or green? A: No. The Puma can't attack unless a black or green creature other than the Puma attacks as well. Shoreline Raider ----- Q: Protection from Kavu? What the heck is that? A: It works just like protection from a color. A creature with protection from Kavu can't be blocked by Kavu, all damage dealt to it by Kavu is prevented, and it can't be the target of abilities from a Kavu source. Skizzik ----- Q: What happens at end of turn if I play Liberate on Skizzik? A: Once Liberate resolves and puts Skizzik back into play, it's too late for Skizzik's "at end of turn" triggered ability to trigger. But at the end of the next turn, Skizzik's ability will trigger and it will be sacrificed. (You can't pay the kicker cost when Liberate puts it into play because kicker costs can be paid only when you play the card from your hand.) Spinal Embrace ----- Q: The card says, "If you do." Does that mean I can choose not to sacrifice the creature at end of turn? A: No. You must sacrifice the creature. The "if you do" means if you're unable to sacrifice the creature because you don't control it at end of turn, you don't get to gain life. Q: What happens if I play this on a creature that's attacking me? A: When a creature changes control, it's removed from combat. But if you play it before blockers are declared, you can block with it. Remember that if you play it on an attacker after combat damage goes on the stack, however, the combat damage will still be dealt. Q: What if I play it on a blocking creature? A: The blocker will be removed from combat, but the creature it was blocking will still be considered blocked. (If the attacker has trample, it won't be able to assign any damage to a blocker, so all its damage will be assigned to the defending player.) Spirit of Resistance ----- Q: How does this work with multicolored cards? A: The enchantment only looks to see if each *Magic* color is represented among the permanents you control. That means if you controlled nothing but a Sliver Queen (it's all five colors), the enchantment's effect would work. All damage dealt to you would be prevented. Sunscape Master ----- Q: If I play its first ability, then play a creature later in the turn, does the new creature get the +2/+2 bonus? A: No. When the ability resolves, it gives the bonus only to creatures you control at that time. Thicket Elemental ----- Q: Let's say I pay the kicker and I choose to reveal cards from my library until I reveal a creature card. What happens if I don't find one (if there are none in my library, for instance)? A: Not much. You just get to the end of your library, then shuffle it. The "if you do" part of the effect is tied to revealing cards from your library, not to putting a creature into play. Thunderscape Master ----- Q: If I play its second ability, then play a creature later in the turn, does the new creature get the +2/+2 bonus? A: No. When the ability resolves, it gives the bonus only to creatures you control at that time. Tsabo's Web ----- Q: What does "activated ability that doesn't produce mana" mean? For example, does that count a Gaea's Cradle while no creatures are in play? A: No. It means "activated nonmana ability," but that was just too gross for us to put on a card. It means an ability that couldn't ever normally produce mana. Tsabo Tavoc ----- Q: Protection from Legends? What does that mean? A: It means the same thing other kinds of protection do: Tsabo can't be the target of spells or abilities from a Legend source, can't be blocked by Legends, and all damage dealt to Tsabo by Legend sources is prevented. Q: Does protection from Legends include legendary lands, legendary artifacts, and so on? A: No. It only protects against creatures with the Legend creature type. Q: Tsabo's other ability lets me destroy Legends. Can I destroy legendary lands, legendary artifacts, and so on? A: No, only creatures with the Legend type. Remember, though, that if a legendary permanent becomes a creature, it automatically has the Legend type. Urza's Rage ----- Q: What does "can't be countered by spells or abilities" mean? A: That means it can still be countered by the rules. For example, if its target becomes illegal before it tries to resolve, the rules will counter the spell. Q: Is Urza's Rage an illegal target for a countering spell, or does a countering spell that targets it simply have no effect? A: Countering spells can target Urza's Rage, and they'll resolve normally, but they'll fail to counter Urza's Rage. Other effects of the countering spell will happen normally, though. For example, you could target Urza's Rage with Dismiss. It wouldn't counter Urza's Rage, but you'd still get to draw a card. Q: If I pay the kicker, the damage is unpreventable. But can it be affected by other things, such as replacement effects like Pariah's? A: Yes. Verdeloth the Ancient ----- Q: Can I choose to pay a kicker cost of 0? If so, would this trigger the ability of Saproling Infestation? A: Yes and yes. Note that even though you can choose 0 for X, that doesn't mean you have to pay the kicker cost. You can still choose not to pay X at all. Void ----- Q: Can I choose 0? A: Sure. That would affect artifacts and creatures in play and nonland cards in hand with mana cost 0. Creature tokens would be destroyed, but your opponent wouldn't have to discard any land cards or destroy any lands unless they had been animated. Yawgmoth's Agenda ----- Q: What happens if the card in my graveyard I'm trying to play gets removed from there in response (with Rapid Decay, for instance)? A: It doesn't work that way. The first thing you do when you play a spell is put it on the stack. So a player can't target that card with Rapid Decay in response because the card isn't a legal target -- it's already on the stack, so it's no longer in your graveyard. Q: Yawgmoth's Agenda says I can play cards in my graveyard as though they were in my hand. If something makes me discard my hand, do I have to remove my entire graveyard from the game? A: No. Those cards aren't actually in your hand. You can just play them asthough they were. (C)2000 Wizards. All trademarks property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. |