Can You Spot the Rules Violation? | MTG Rules Quiz 

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Teferi does NOT take any damage because it's not there. Tefereri's Protection will phase out Teferi and thus it will not be around to take damage from Questing Beast. I was so confused when they said Teferi dies.

Its always nice to see weird and confusing interactions.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

My brain hurts now haha! Great video

it is very interesting, but my only issue is that because there are very few moving parts in the examples, it is easy to get the answer just by guessing, even if you do not know for sure. i think it would be better if next time more parts that look sketchy or weird but are totally legal could be added to make the questions harder and more interesting.

JUDGE! The Teferi is phased out, and thus isn't a target for the Questing Beast trigger, and is alive. Anyway, Great concept! would love to see more in-depth scenarios. Less just specific weird interactions between 2 cards, but like, make a ton of triggers happen, and ask them how it resolves.

They managed to kill a Teferi that wasn't even in play. Impressive.

Fun video, but I don't like framing it as, "Should you call a judge?" You should never be afraid to call a judge if you're not sure how something works. DCI really emphasizes this, because a lot of players think they're being a pain, they're not sure if it's them or their opponent who's right, etc. That's what we're here for, just call us.

The Teferi lives since it Phases Out.

This was a great concept, but I really hope that there aren’t mistakes like Teferi dying. As we all know Teferi can’t die under Teferi’s protection.

The "at the beginning of the next end step" line on Marchesa doesn't actually matter though. That's not even the main reason that fool's demise would win in that interaction (assuming you don't put it back in the command zone). Triggered abilities go on the stack in APNAP order, meaning the abilities owned by the active player go on the stack first, but RESOLVE last. If you chose to keep Marchesa in the graveyard, Fool's Demise would return her first and then her ability would fail to find herself in the zone that it expects to, thus failing to return her. The part about the end step has little to no relevance in this situation.

This is a solid video idea, I'd watch more. It's great to have really practical ones like the Tarmagoyf and Bolt example because it happens in tournament play. Ialso noticed that Teferi doesn't take any damage, but that was quite the interaction soup! Haha

9:57 Hol up... Teferi is phased out though, so even if the damage went through there isn't a Teferi to be dealt damage, so Teferi survives.

This looks like a fun series, would absolutely love more!

It kind of reminds me of the "how do you win the game?' puzzles from either Inquest, Duelist, or both, from back in the day. Show board states for you & your opponent, any mana, and any known cards (your hand, both graveyards, your opponent's hand if you have something that reveals it, etc.) and from there figure out what the puzzle was wanting (whether win or get something specific to happen, like pumping a creature up to a certain size, etc.).

I love weird rules interaction and would love seeing more of these videos, this and AI card battles are my favourite on the channel

The confusion over Rain of Gore comes from misunderstanding how Lifelink works: Lifelink ISN'T "Whenever this creature deals damage, gain that much life." Instead, lifelink says "Damage this creature deals *causes* you to gain that much life." The damage *itself* is causing you to gain life - Lifelink grants that effect *to the damage* that the creature with lifelink deals. It doesn't cause you to gain life directly. That's why Rain of Gore doesn't affect it - it isn't the ability causing you to gain life, it's the damage! And damage isn't a spell or ability.

Okay, so I think I have a nice little problem, similar to the Tarmogoyf one: Player A has two Dryad Militants in play. Player B casts Fatal Push targeting one of them, holds priority and casts a Shock on top of that, targeting the other Dryad Militant. The stack resolves. Player A puts his creatures into the graveyard. Player B puts both cards into exile since they resolved while at least one Dryad Militant was on the field. The rules "violation" here isn't as easy to catch, because it doesn't help Player B, but the Fatal Push gets put into the graveyard, not exile, because at the time that the card changes zones, the second Dryad Militant is also dead so the replacement effect is gone. If you want to make this one a bit easier to guess, put a Tarmogoyf on the board for Player A next to the Dryad Militants, because that makes it so Player B would actually profit from putting the Fatal Push into the wrong zone.

"Fairbanger" is an interesting way of reading that name

Isn't teferi phased out?

JUDGE! Teferi phases out, so Questing Beast can't deal damage to it.

If the marchesa did return immediately to its own ability on Carl's turn the fools demise would still work. Triggers resolve in AP/NAP order so the fools demise is on top of the stack.

Ok. We had a very interessting situation in commander. Player 1 attacks with Etali, Primal Storm, than casts my Brash Taunter. Player 2 on his turn casts Bishop of Binding to exile the Taunter. Now Player 3 casts The Meathook Massacre X=6. Etali and the Bishop both die, but what about the Brash Taunter? Who gets it and does it even survive?

Just pick a few cards from the Judgebreaker commander deck and make questions from there. There's morph, Illusionary Mask, layers upon layers of layers questions, targeting redirection, non targeted redirection, layers, making a blue permanent with no types at all, and more.

I feel like the explanation for Rain of Gore isn't clear in this video (or is incorrect). Rain of Gore DOES NOT apply to life gain from lifelink. So the initial board state was correct, the attack with Child of Night will do 2 damage to opponent and controller will gain 2 life. Combat damage is not a spell or ability.

I’ve only known about this channel for a few weeks, but it’s quickly become one of my favorite Magic channels, and it may even pass MTGGoldfish as my #1, mainly for the real wholesome vibes but also because you guys are always trying new things. I don’t think there’s another Magic channel on here that has this much variety in content. Lots of respect for trying to innovate and create new types of content. Keeps the MTG content hive from getting stale. This was fun to play along with, I have a pretty damn solid grasp on the rules and got most of these right, but I got the Child of Night one wrong. It makes sense in retrospect, because the combat damage is the trigger event that causes you to gain life with lifelink, not the ability itself. But I didn’t know that the ability wasn’t gaining you life. Honestly, it still doesn’t make perfect sense, since technically, from a general logic perspective, the ability _is_ causing you to gain life- without it, you wouldn’t gain that life. But Magic rules don’t always follow logic; the reminder text says specifically *“Damage* dealt by this creature *causes* you to gain that much life.” So the damage is the cause. Not the ability. Weird stuff.

Calling your opponent a "TarmoBoy" is misgendering and worst rules violation. Permament DCI ban.

Everyone in the comments talking about teferi like they didnt do that on purpose to get comments! 😂

You DON'T lose Teferi because he's phased out. Fynn can't target him.

Judge! Anika casted Fateful Absence despite having no lands and no floating mana!

A nice format. I would like it to return. It's nice mental training. The more complicated the better however. These were a bit to easy for my taste :D A cool idea would be to mix in some weird (but correct) rule interactions too

This was good! I think this could be improved if you had weird interactions that were actually legal. One of my favorites you could use is enchantments only target on the stack, (when you cast them) so if you blink an enchantment you can actually get around effects like hexproof or shroud.

This was fun! Bit of a mix-up with Teferi phasing out rather than preventing damage, but I'd love to see more of these, especially with commander shenanigans like goad, stealing permanents, cascade, mindslaver, etc.

You don't lose Teferi in the Questing Beast example because it's phased out and can't be targeted by QB's effect, no?

(9:31, 9:59) Actually, Teferi is phased out because of Teferi's Protection, so he does not exist on the battlefield at the time, and therefore cannot actually take damage.

love these weird rulings vids as well as the staple or stinker videos, keep em coming thanks!

Why does teferi take damage? He is phased out no?

Am I crazy or did she call him Fynn Fair Banger?

how does teferi take damage when it's phased out?

This is a cool idea for a segment, and I agree that adding more moving parts to make it harder to figure out where the violation could be would be a good idea

Can I sac the clue? No, you don't have the 10 mysterious floating mana

My I've had to make tons of judge call over lifelink and rain of gore.

These crafted riddles are great! I think it would be a lot of fun to see the Cardmarket crew try out Judge's Tower. The chaos and unpredictability could be super educational.

Back in unglued a creature was printed with "Denimwalk" (can not be blocked if opponent is wearing denim). Someone asked Mark Rosewater "What spell speed is taking off my pants?" Back when there was: spell speed 1 - creatures/sorceries/etc. spell speed 2 - instants spell speed 3 - interrupts spell speed 4 - mana source (like dark ritual) Mark replied something along of the lines of "it's spell speed 5, you can do it at any time even if you don't have priority, as long as you're wearing underwear", meaning taking of your pants is canonically a game action. Meaning if you mindslave someone you can make them take off their pants.

This was cool :)

It's amazing to see all this new formats, love to see this channel growing and growing!

7:13 „Fynn the Fair-banger“ xDDD

On the last one, I'm wondering if marchesa would switch control back to the owner after the marchesa player ends their turn. Since marchesa says at the end of the turn it returns to their battlefield

I'm sorry but the way you worded the Rain of Gore answer was extremely weird. You're saying you WOULD gain the life right? Because Lifelink doesn't gain the life, the creature does? The way it was worded made me think "yes you would have to call a judge because you should lose life"

You two have such great chemistry together. Great video!

Commanders actually go to the graveyard now, then you can move them to the command zone. They changed this rule like two years ago so that commanders with death triggers work better. So in this case, the blue enchantment would return to the controller's hand.

i got FAR too excited about the Questing Beast/Teferi's Protection one! I play a golgari infect deck in commander and one of the key pieces in my deck is Questing Beast specifically because of this interaction with Teferi's Protection. I have gleefully explained the interaction to quite a few people who were very upset to find out that i was correct.

A rule that really tripped me up when I started playing, is that loss of life does not mean the same thing as damage

Even if marchesa did return when it dies and not at end of turn, it would be APNAP So Triggers go on the stack in Active Player Non-Active Player order. Therefore, your opponent’s triggers are going to resolve first if you both have abilities that trigger at the same time and it’s your turn. So Marchesa also wouldnt come back first right?

Teferi was protected. Lol

I just like when a channel like this pops up from Europe instead of the normal Canada or USA. The language diversity in Europe is so large that it has to be english content to push through the algorithm. It's a nice thing to hear other accents and show off the diversity in MtG scene.

I really have to take instance with the Marchesa discussion. So if we think of the triggers on the stack, his card effects triggers first, did she die, yes, so at the beginning of the next end step she will return to the battlefield (notice it does not say returns from the graveyard, just returns, so it can be from anywhere that she is). Then Fool's Demise triggers, did the enchanted creature get put into a graveyard, yes, so will return to play under her side immediately. But when the beginning of the end turn occurs, Marchesa's trigger still applies, at some point in the turn a creature with a +1/+1 counter died, so she returns to HIS side at the end of the turn. So in theory she could have Marchesa as a 3/3 for the combat phase of his turn if she played the fateful absence during his precombat main phase, but at the end of the turn he would have her back regardless of where she is, either on her side of the battlefield or in the graveyard from blocking an attack during his combat phase. Where is my failure in logic?

13:00 - JUDGE! Triggers don't have to do with having priority. It has to do with who is the active player. APNAP (active player, non-active player) order. No one has priority when triggers go onto the stack. You must both pass priority for things to happen and in this case, it is the resolution of Fateful Absence and then two triggered abilities triggering. (603.3b) | Being the active player here is actually a BAD thing in this case. It means your triggers go ONTO the stack first. 603.3bSo they resolve last (first in, last out). Meaning, even if that "end of phase" clause wasn't there, you still wouldn't get your commander back. This of course would be reversed if Fateful absence was cast on the casters turn.

"Reading the card explains the card." Not always, apparently. Like the format, maybe try to emphasize medium confusing situations instead of completely crazy ones. 😊

13:25 small detail though in that if there was a replacement effect on dying then that would apply to Marchesa instead of the fool's demise but since both are triggers, even if it wasn't a delayed one, you would have to go by active player, non active player, which would mean that fool's demise's trigger would resolve first to put Marchesa onto Anika's board. Would have been the opposite if Marchesa had been destroyed during Anika's turn.

My favourite rules question is this one: I control Torbran, Thane of Red Fell and Soul Scar Mage. You control a Durkwood Boars. I cast Lightning Bolt on your Durkwood Boards and say, "Your Durkwood Boars dies." What will the judge say about this?

In regards to Carl's explanation of the Marchesa and fool's demise triggers. 603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority. So even if Marchesa's ability was immediate, instead of at the end of turn, Carl would not get Marchesa back because he was the active player. The Fool's demise would have been at the top of the stack and thus resolved first.

The Marchesa ability won’t work for 2 reasons. 1) it only returns the card at the end step, while fool’ demise returns immediately. 2) simultaneous triggers from multiple players are placed on the stack in APNAP order, or Active Player/Non-Active Player order. So because the active player is Marchesa’s controller, Marchesa’s trigger is put on the stack first, then the Fool’s Demise is put on the stack after. But the stack is a First in/Last out system, the first thing on the stack happens last, meaning the Fool’s Demise resolves and returns Marchesa to play before Marchesa’s ability will resolve and create a delayed trigger at the end step

I don't get the last interaction. I would think that indeed Demise triggers, giving the Marcheesa to Anika. But at the end step, The Marcheesa trigger resolves, giving it back to Carl. The Marcheesa text doesn't specify that the creature must still be in the Graveyard for it to resolves, so I thought it would happen even if it is on another zone, even exil, library or hand. Am I wrong?

For rulings, you could do something where multiple answers might be right. Maralen of the Mornsong, Ob Nix Unshackled, and Mindlock Orb all on the field and ask how much life does a player lose on draw phase. Or a fun one with Culmination of Studies exiling X red cards and Torbran on field, ask how much damage you take.

I have one that happened to me a few days ago in a tournament, and the judge (who is a real mtg judge) actually had to search for the answer. My opponent had Serra Redeemer on the battlefield and 1 creature in his graveyard, He then wanted to play Urborg Lhurgoyf with both kickers. His question was whether he can get the counters on Urborg before milling, which might make his power too high for it. Answer: He can. Both abilities are triggered and he can choose which one will resolve first.

Would Teferi really be killed? I'm beginning to think that the trigger on Teferi's Protection "All permanents you control phase out" resolves before the damage being dealt (Anika casts the instant at the end of the declare attack phase or of the blockers phase). So when Questing Beast deals damage to Anika (not changing her life total) the only planeswalker it could deal damage is phased out. I suppose...

Here's a problem to check how well the person has understood state-based actions! Player A controls a Platinum Angel and a 1/1 Servo token. Player B controls a Thundermaw Hellkite. Player A is at 0 life, player B is at 1. Player A swings with both creatures. Player B sees a chance to pull a draw from the jaws of defeat and blocks the Platinum Angel. The game ends in a draw. Player B actually loses this scenario. This is because when state-based actions are checked, the Platinum Angel will have lethal damage marked on it, so it should die. Player A has zero life, so they should lose the game. Player B also has 0 life so they should lose the game. But because state-based actions all happen at the same time, player A will not lose the game, because they still have a Platinum Angel on the field. Player B does not have a Platinum Angel, so player B loses the game to having 0 life. Platinum Angel dies at the same time, but player A lives until the next state-based action check, therefore player B loses before player A and player A wins because all of their opponents have lost the game.

With Marchesa and Fool's Demise, even if they both triggered at the same time (ie, if Marchesa's ability wasn't triggered), since it's Carl's turn, wouldn't Marchea's ability go on the stack first, then Anika's, then hers would resolve first, so he'd lose Marchesa anyway?

Totally agree with other comments that Teferi is phased out when damage resolves (assuming you cast Teferi's Protection before damage) and cannot be interacted with. BUT ALSO - wouldn't the Fool's Demise fizzle as a state based effect once you trigger the replacement effect of your commander? Or does the commander still hit the graveyard in order to trigger the effect?

Even if Fool's Demise would Trigger on the next Endstep like Marchesa, you'd get Marchesa and Demise due to resolving inactive player's triggers first. The command zone is still viable.

Give us some that are actually hard, like Sylvan Library - Brainstorm. These were simple interactions (honestly, the Marchesa one would have been much harder if it was an APNAP scenario).

I like the idea of videos like these and you should definitely do more of them. But there were some issues with this one: 1) You go the ruling on Teferi wrong, because he is still phased out and therefore cannot be targeted by Questing Beast. 2) The examples were too bare-bones. It's too easy to guess what's up since basically only 1 interaction is up for debate. Try adding more red herring-cards and red-herring interactions in there to throw people off.

Questions on the last example: 1. Y don't you simply get your commander back at the beginning of the end step? The text doesn't specify that it has to return form the graveyard so it being on your opponents side of the board should not matter. What am I missing? 2. If you do the circumvention via the command zone does that increase the commanders cost? Or does that only happen if you summon from the command zone?

Wouldn't protection from everything imply Questing Beast and Fynn can't deal any damage to the defending player in the first place? The damage never happens, so there's no damage to prevent, which gets around Questing Beast's effect?

I think they confused Phased out with protection. If Taferi's Protection gave all permanents protection from everything then they would be correct cause protection wouldn't have stopped it, but since everything was phased out Taferi wouldn't have been on the battlefield to be effected.

Is the Tarmagoyf thing because creatures marked with damage on them don't die until state based actions are checked, and its toughness is larger by then? The spell doesn't go into the graveyard until it's completely done resolving, but the damage marked on Tarmagoyf, lethal for a moment, is not lethal when SBA is checked because *then* the bolt is in grave?

I love this new series. Also you and Anika work so well together, more content with the both of you please 😊

If I have Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second, and Academy Manufactor in play, and I use something to create 1 treasure token, can I replace it with 3 cats?

a real head scratcher of a question:(in the commander format) I have a Hofri ghost forge on the field and I gain control of someone else's commander (say with shackles of treachery) and I have it die (say I sacrifice it to goblin bombardment), Do I create a token that's a copy of their commander?

I like the puzzle-y type nature of the video, I think it would be better if you had a full board to kind of have red herrings as to what the rule could be. I think having the person have to use the rules interaction and use it to "Win" like those puzzles in the old MTG focused magazines would be better.

Yes, call the judge, even if you think you might be wrong. It's not a contest of rules lawyers, let the judge tell you how it works. There is no penalty for calling a judge and being wrong.

Love this! Great format and great fun

We have a small club and we have some really oldshool players who know most rules but sometimes...there's just some confusing stuff.

Fun concept! I'd like you to throw a few false positives in the next one (where the interaction is complicated but totally legit) so it's not as obvious for most of them, but just frame it in a way where calling for a judge is still totally fine to do (cause it is) so as to not disincentivise new players from doing so.

It was a fun video! one little correction here: carl said when it's the active player's turn it "happens first", but what really goes on is that it goes onto the *stack* first. since the stack resolves in reverse order of triggers going on the stack, even if marchesa's ability happened immediately, danika (spelling?) would have received the marchesa instead of carl, since both items go onto the stack first and then the opponent's triggers resolve first.

I don't know about that Carl guy sometimes, but he's certainly braver than me. This game would give me such anxiety.

Love seeing the trend of Magic content creators intentionally making rules mistakes to get the incredibly eager rule lawyers to leave hundreds of comments for engagement. You guys really think that on a video about rule infractions that they would let a mistake past editing? Much less one of the most famous Commander cards

i see a lot of comments about Teferi's ruling but none about how commanders actually hit the graveyard briefly before going back to the command zone. i think they got that last one wrong, unless someone can explain to me why it would go to the cz before the enchantment would notice

I was so confused about Teferi dying but I made the mistake of accepting it as some part of "phasing" that I didn't understand before coming to the comments to be educated. Please mention this mistake in the next episode!!!

So I used two Elves and five Ogres as well as a demon to beat my opponent. It was a fierce battle, he murdered the elves, then he fatally pushed the ogres. But the demon was too much. And after he got the good beating we played Magic.

Teferi dying was a mistake. This was really cool, though! I like it. A challenge for you would be to make layers make sense. ;) haha

Y'all should do a video about all of the weird opalescence interactions, like with humility. its the most complicated rabbit hole iv'e ever gone down

In the last scenario, you guys state that putting the commander into the command zone will prevent the dies trigger but that is not true anymore. They changed that rule so if it would die but you place in command zone, the dies trigger still happens. Surprised no one else called this one out haha.

Teferi would not die, because he is phased out. That is not Prevention, so Questing Beasts Ability does not apply.

I knew number 2 before it even was asked because I was able to trick my opponent into casting an incinerate on my 2/3 tarmogoyf that only had sorcery and creature in the graveyard back in the day haha

Even if the last one wasnt commander and both triggers resolved at the same time (marchesa dying) the priority player puts the trigger on the stack, and then the other players in turn order put theirs, stack resolves top down meaning the opponent will get marchesa before the priority player can get it

In rain of gore example Karl messed up and called out violation when there was not any. How would that situation continued and what was actual violation you had prepared for that situation in case Karl wouldn't have messed up

I like the video's about rules violations and then they perform a rules violation via killing teferi because he would have been phased out. You win some ya lose some.