Tournament report - Regionals in Atlanta, GA (Part 1)

Regionals Atlanta, GA – June 7th 2008.

Judge team for the day included Casey Hogan (HJ), Daniel Holt (T.O.), Chad Daniel, Brian Little, Kevin Binswanger and myself.
Always looking for new challenges, I drove down to Atlanta, GA on Friday afternoon to work with Jeff William’s Unity Entertainment crew. The drive from Southern Illinois takes about 6 hours and passes through some beautiful countryside around the Tennessee-Georgia border area.

I arrive around 7 pm on Friday evening, buy some doughnuts and hot tea (very important) and find a motel 8. I settle down for the night (with the doughnuts) to read through the P.G. for revision, as well as FAQ for Lorwyn, Morningtide and Shadowmoor.

Registration 9.00 – 10.00 a.m.
I’m not expected at the hall until 9.00 am, but I decide to show up shortly after 8 anyway and see how things are progressing. I meet Chad Daniel first of all, a very good L 2 from the area whom I’ve had the pleasure to work with in Nashville (Tennessee) and on the pro tour in San Diego last year. It turns out that we’re going to be a little understaffed for the day and therefore get straight to work. We sort out pairings boards in 4 positions in the hall, set up table numbers for a possible max. of 380 players and set up registration into two lines: one for cash and one for credit cards. I stand for the hour at the end of the lines to direct people to the right place while Chad and Brian hand out registration slips and lookup DCI numbers for players on the computer.

Round 1:
We start with 315 players and set to work on counting decklists while Brian patrols the floor for judge calls. 52 minutes and 315 decklists later, we have 6 illegal decklists and get ready to hand out penalties at the start of round 2.

Round 2:
Rulings –
1.Player A has a copy of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play along with Magus of the moon. His opponent, player B puts his own copy of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth into play. What happens?

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Legendary Land
Each land is a Swamp in addition to its other land types.

Magus of the Moon 2R
Human Wizard 2/2
Nonbasic lands are Mountains.

Answer
The magus has a type changing effect in layer 4 of the interaction of continuous effects, turning the Urborg’s into mountains. Mountains tap for red mana and have no other intrinsic abilities so the Urborg’s do not add swamp to each land’s type (We apply the type changing effect of the Magus first because the type changing effect of Urborg is dependent on the Magus). However this is all academic since much more importantly, C.R. 212.1d tells us that changing a subtype (such as mountain) does not effect a supertype. Therefore the two Urborg’s in play are still legendary and will both be put into the graveyard when a state based effects check is applied.

2.Player A plays Murderous Redcap. When the creature comes back later with persist, player B targets it with Nameless Inversion in response to its triggered ability going on the stack. Does it deal any damage?

Murderous Redcap 2(R/B)(R/B)
Creature - Goblin Assassin 2/2
When Murderous Redcap comes into play, it deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player.
Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

Nameless Inversion 1B
Tribal Instant - Shapeshifter
Changeling (This card is every creature type at all times.)
Target creature gets +3/-3 and loses all creature types until end of turn.

Answer:
An ability on the stack is independent of its source, even if the source ceases to exist in play. When the ability resolves and wants to know the creatures power and finds that it’s no longer there, it uses last known information and finds that the creature was a 4/-2 when the state based effects check was carried out. The resolving Redcap ability deals 4 damage.

3.Player A controls a Troll Ascetic. His opponent plays Rether and wants to return a Pariah back into play enchanting his opponent’s Troll Ascetic, but can he?

Retether 3W
Sorcery
Return each Aura card from your graveyard to play. Only creatures can be enchanted this way. (Aura cards that can't enchant a creature in play remain in your graveyard.)

Troll Ascetic 1GG
Creature - Troll Shaman 3/2
Troll Ascetic can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.
1G: Regenerate Troll Ascetic. (The next time this creature would be destroyed this turn, it isn't. Instead tap it, remove all damage from it, and remove it from combat.)

Pariah 2W
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature (Target a creature as you play this. This card comes into play attached to that creature.)
All damage that would be dealt to you is dealt to enchanted creature instead.

Answer:
Remember, you’re not playing the Pariah (which would require a target), the Pariah will be simply put onto the Troll Ascetic as part of Retether’s resolution. Once done, the Pariah is just enchanting Troll Ascetic and not targeting it, so it will not fall off.

4.A player has a gemstone mine in play with one counter on it and a suspended Greater Gargadon with three counters on it. He asks if he can tap the gemstone for mana and then sac it to the Greater Gargardon?

Gemstone Mine
Land
Gemstone Mine comes into play with three mining counters on it.
TAP, Remove a mining counter from Gemstone Mine: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. If there are no mining counters on Gemstone Mine, sacrifice it.

Greater Gargadon 9R
Creature - Beast 9/7
Suspend 10- R
Sacrifice an artifact, creature, or land: Remove a time counter from Greater Gargadon. Play this ability only if Greater Gargadon is suspended.

Answer:
No. The Gemstone mine ability is a mana ability that doesn’t use the stack – It happens immediately. And the sacrifice of the mine happens during the resolution, therefore the mine is gone before you would receive priority and get a chance to do anything.

5.A player has a Kitchen Fink in play with a -1/-1 counter on it and is targerted by sudden spoiling. What happens?

Kitchen Finks 1 (W/G)(W/G)
Creature - Ouphe 3/2
When Kitchen Finks comes into play, you gain 2 life.
Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

Sudden Spoiling 1BB
Split second (As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't play spells or activated abilities that aren't mana abilities.)
Creatures target player controls become 0/2 and lose all abilities until end of turn.

Answer:
The interaction of continuous effects means that sudden spoiling 0/2 effect is applied in layer 6B. Then in 6C the -1/-1 counter is applied and the Kitchen Fink ends up as a -1/1 with no abilities (and therefore Persist wouldn’t trigger even if it lost the -1/-1 counter during the turn).

Round 3:
Rulings -

6. Player A has a Mistbind Clique that has just come into play with its Champion ability on the stack. Player B plays Terror on the Clique in response. What happens?

Mistbind Clique 3U
Creature - Faerie Wizard 4/4
Flash
Flying
Champion a Faerie (When this comes into play, sacrifice it unless you remove another Faerie you control from the game. When this leaves play, that card returns to play.)
When a Faerie is championed with Mistbind Clique, tap all lands target player controls.

Terror 1B
Instant
Destroy target nonartifact, nonblack creature. It can't be regenerated.

Answer:
The Terror resolves first and the Clique is destroyed and the leaves play ability triggers and goes on top of the stack. When both players pass priority, the leaves play ability resolves first and does nothing, then the champion ability resolves, but the Clique is no longer in play, so the ability to tap all target players lands does not trigger! Of course the player can still remove a fairy to champion, but he won’t get it back. If he doesn’t sacrifice a fairy then nothing bad happens since the Clique is already gone from the play zone.

7. A player has Teferi’s moat in play. His opponent considers attacking him with an Oversoul of Dusk. Can he attack?

Oversoul of Dusk (W/G) (W/G) (W/G) (W/G) (W/G)
Creature - Spirit Avatar 5/5
Protection from blue, from black, and from red

Teferi's Moat 3WU
Enchantment
As Teferi's Moat comes into play, choose a color.
Creatures of the chosen color without flying can't attack you.

Answer:
Protection is best remembered as DEBT -
Damage cannot be dished out
Enchantments and Equipment cannot be attached to the creature.
Blocking said creature is not allowed.
Targeted spells and abilities cannot target that creature.
The Teferi’s moat is doing none of these things to the Oversoul of Dusk and is therefore not excused from Teferi’s moat ability and can’t attack.

8. A player activates a Mutavault during his opponent’s turn and blocks with it. During the second main phase the active player plays a Sower of Temptation and takes control of the Mutavault. What happens at the end of turn?

Mutavault
Land
TAP : Add 1 to your mana pool.
1: Mutavault becomes a 2/2 creature with all creature types until end of turn. It's still a land.

Sower of Temptation 2UU
Creature - Faerie Wizard 2/2
Flying
When Sower of Temptation comes into play, gain control of target creature as long as Sower of Temptation remains in play.

Answer:
Sower of temptations CIP ability only cares that the target is a creature on triggering and when the ability resolves. Afterwards, the player will still retain control at the end of turn, when it stops being a creature, as long as Sower of temptation remains in play (Note: EVEN if Sower of temptation is somehow turned upside down into a vanilla 2/2 creature).

This story is too big for the forums to handle.......tune in for part 2........!

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