Tournament Report - Regionals Atlanta, GA (Part 2)

The saga continues

Round 4:

9. A player plays Firespout with two black and a green mana. His opponent responds and plays Delay to remove it from the game and suspend it with 3 counters. When the last suspend counter is removed what happens?

Firespout 2(R/G)
Sorcery
Firespout deals 3 damage to each creature without flying if R was spent to play Firespout and 3 damage to each creature with flying if G was spent to play it. (Do both if RG was spent.)

Delay 1U
Instant
Counter target spell. If the spell is countered this way, remove it from the game with three time counters on it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard. If it doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend. (At the beginning of its owner's upkeep, remove a counter from that card. When the last is removed, the player plays it without paying its mana cost. If it's a creature, it has haste.)

Answer:
0 damage is done as the spell resolves. The original spell that was paid for with green mana was removed from the stack. When it returns from suspend its treated as a new spell that is being played without paying is normal cost. Therefore no colour of mana is used and Last Known Information from the original play does not apply.

10. Late in the round I’m called over to a table that another judge is having problems with. Player A has just played Sulfurous Blast and thinks about it for maybe 5 seconds and says to player B, “Any responses?” and starts to pick up his Fulminator mage. Player B yells judge and the tangled argument about what stage of the game they are at has been raging for 5 minutes when I arrive. The crucial problem here is, at what point have they reached in the turn? Is the Sulfurous Blast resolving? Is player A trying to imply that he still has priority with S.B. still on the stack and is about to sack the fulminator to its non-basic land ability? Is he trying to suggest that he is trying to sack the fulminator after his opponent has passed priority (illegal of course)? Or was he just going to remove the fulminator and put it in the graveyard in response to S.B. resolving? What on earth to do?

Answer:
Firstly, it’s time to split up the players and interview each in turn about their version of events. Luckily, both stories match and they agree that player A had just said, “Any responses” when they called a judge. So I ask player A what he meant by this question. I ask him who he thinks has priority and why he started touching his fulminator. Remember, the P.G. section 51 on shortcuts says in part, “Whenever a player adds an object to the stack, they are assumed to be passing priority unless they explicitly announce that they intend to retain it……..” It sounds like to me that play A gave no indication that he was retaining priority. He agrees that he gave no indication and admits that “any responses” was giving priority to his opponent. I then learn that player A was assuming that Sulfurous Blast was resolving and he was about to put the Fulminator Mage into his graveyard. If he had said that he was going to sack the Mage to destroy a land we would have had a problem, since both players passing on an empty stack would automatically resolve the S.B. and player A would not have priority in time to use the Fulminator Mage sac ability.
The game continues, without having coached player A indirectly about his missed opportunity to destroy a land with the dying fulminator mage!

Round 5:
11. Player A has a Tatterkite in play and attacks. His opponent responds by targeting it with Puncture Bolt and I’m called to the table by Player A. Was this even legal?

Tatterkite 3
Artifact Creature - Scarecrow 2/1
Flying
Tatterkite can't have counters placed on it.

Puncture Bolt 1R
Instant
Puncture Bolt deals 1 damage to target creature. Put a -1/-1 counter on that creature.

Answer:
Tatterkite is a creature and therefore a legal target. When Puncture Bolt resolves it takes one damage and the instruction to place a -1/-1 counter on it is simply ignored.

Above: Kevin Binswanger, Casey Hogan and Chad Daniel

Round 6:
While performing a deck check, we find that the back of one of the sleeves of a deck has a distinct thumbnail mark along the left side. The card in question is Slaughter Pact. It’s the only card in the deck with a marking, but it’s also the only copy of slaughter pack in the player’s deck. What is the penalty?

Answer:
It’s obviously marked cards, but pattern or no pattern? The penalty for a pattern is a game loss while no pattern is merely a warning at competitive level. You would be right in questioning whether a single card can really constitute a pattern, but here’s my problem. Being the only slaughter pact card in the players deck, I could look at the back of the players entire 60 card deck, spread out onto the table face down and immediately point to the one slaughter pack without any problems. I interview the player and am convinced that the marking is accidental. I feel in this case that the potential for abuse is too high and the HJ agrees. The player receives a Marked cards – pattern penalty and a game loss. Incidentally, when the player is informed he seems rather offended. I remind him that the penalty assumes the infraction is unintentional and he smiles again.

12. Player A controls a Crovax, Ascendant Hero. Player B controls 2 Scion of Oona, a Vendilion Clique and three 1/1 faerie tokens. Player A plays a second Crovax, Ascendent Hero. What happens when it resolves?

Crovax, Ascendant Hero 4WWLegendary Creature - Human 4/4
Other white creatures get +1/+1.
Nonwhite creatures get -1/-1.
Pay 2 life: Return Crovax, Ascendant Hero to its owner's hand.

Scion of Oona 2U
Creature - Faerie Soldier 1/1
Flash
Flying
Other Faerie creatures you control get +1/+1.
Other Faeries you control have shroud. (A permanent with shroud can't be the target of spells or abilities.)

Vendilion Clique 1UU
Legendary Creature - Faerie Wizard
3/1
Flash
Flying
When Vendilion Clique comes into play, look at target player's hand. You may choose a nonland card from it. If you do, that player reveals the chosen card, puts it on the bottom of his or her library, then draws a card.

Answer:
Looking at the C.R. –
420.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 408, “Timing of Spells and Abilities”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based effects. All applicable effects resolve as a single event, then the check is repeated. Once no more state-based effects have been generated, triggered abilities go on the stack, and then the appropriate player gets priority. This check is also made during the cleanup step (see rule 314); if any of the listed conditions apply, the active player receives priority.

When S.B.E. are checked, the game sees two legendary creatures with the same name AND 2 Scion of Oona with 0 toughness. So the game puts the 2 Crovax and 2 Oona into the graveyard and performs another S.B.E. check. It now sees three 1/1 faerie tokens and a 3/1 Clique. Happy with this, the game continues and the active player gets priority.

Round 7:
Oh my, finally time for my food break, but first I need to hand out match slips for the round and hang back until the deck check team are finished.

Round 8:
13. Player plays Cryptic Command choosing to return target permanent (a Thistledown Liege) and tap all creatures opponent controls. In response his opponent plays Momentary Blink on the Thistledown Liege. What happens next?

Cryptic Command 1UUU
Instant
Choose two - Counter target spell; or return target permanent to its owner's hand; or tap all creatures your opponents control; or draw a card.

Thistledown Liege 1(W/U) (W/U) (W/U)
Creature - Kithkin Knight 1/3
Flash
Other white creatures you control get +1/+1.
Other blue creatures you control get +1/+1.

Momentary Blink 1W
Instant
Remove target creature you control from the game, then return it to play under its owner's control. Flashback 3U (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.)

Answer:
When the Blink resolves the Thistledown Liege leaves and comes back into play as a new permanent. The Command’s one and only target is illegal and the entire spell is countered on resolution. No tapped creatures for the command player.

Round 9:
After 8 rounds we still have over 100 players fighting it out! We switch things up a bit and do some mid round deck checks, but everything turns out fine.

Top 8:

Daniel Holt ready with all the prize.

The Top 8 get ready for action.

Daniel hands out an enormous amount of prizes and the top 8 battle out a single knock out round and the winners accept prize and a shiny Nationals invitation! Congratulations to all who took part and I hope you had as much fun as I did. Thanks again to the Unity crew for letting me come down and help out.

James Elliott

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