MTG Rules

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Playing Magic the Gathering is simply fun.  As this game has thousands of cards which interact rather differently with eachother, there may come a time when a particular game might not be fun as there may be some rules questions.  As we're casual magic players here at MTG Realm, we might not get to fairly complicated rulings but we do occassionally need to seek guidance or look up particular ruling on a card.

When it comes to that, there are some very handy resouces out there.  Check out these sites here if you ever get stuck :

•  Yawgatog’s Hyperlinked Comp Rules
•  Comp Rules by Example
•  Official Comprehensive Rules Website
•  24/7 Rules Chat with Judges
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While we are on rules, there has been some very recent developments on a new Avacyn Restored card - 'Cavern of Souls' which the mothership had provided an article on.

Without getting too deeply into this, Cavern of Souls does two things - one is simply provide a colourless mana to spend on a spell.  The second ability provides one mana of any color to your mana pool to feed into a delcared creature spell.  As Cavern of Souls enters the battlefield, you choose a creature type, and when you use the second ability to cast a creature of that type, that spell can't be countered.  The Gatherer ruling also provides this - The spell can't be countered if the mana produced by Cavern of Souls is spent to cover any cost of the spell, even an additional cost such as a kicker cost. This is true even if you use the mana to pay an additional cost while casting a spell "without paying its mana cost."

We suggest you read the article carefully if you are playing with Cavern of Souls and remember, it is never a bad thing while playing Magic the Gathering to clearly indicate to your opponent what you are doing or if you ask your opponent for clarification as to what he or she may be doing.
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Also of note is the Magic Judges blog which provides absolutely great content and resources.  Some of the articles posted may provide situations which may be rather clearly understood to you but we can say that every once in a while they hit us with a surprising rules situation which we come away better informed.  Here is an example of a recent article on the Judge blog . . .

You can’t play a land after you reveal a Miracle card but before you cast it.
Posted on May 9, 2012 by bimmerbot
There seem to be a lot of questions about the new miracle mechanic lately. To repeat, here is how it works: When you draw the first card in a turn, if it has miracle, you may reveal it. When you do, its ability triggers. Upon the resolution of the miracle triggered ability, you may cast the spell right away for its miracle cost, ignoring all timing restrictions for that spell. However, something you can’t ignore is the timing restriction on playing a land.

You can only play a land when 1) it’s your turn 2) it’s the main phase and the stack is empty and 3) you haven’t used your land drop for this turn. This means that you can’t play a land in order to help you pay for a card’s miracle cost. Most of the time, you will be revealing a card with miracle during your draw step, not your main phase. In addition, you can’t play a land while the miracle ability is on the stack, and you can only play a card for its miracle cost immediately as the triggered ability resolves; if you keep it revealed until your main phase, then play a land, it’s too late and you can only cast that card for its normal mana cost.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Jen Wong, Level 1 judge from Irvine, CA
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