![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Magic Rulings FAQs (Wrath's unofficial version)
- Mana is not land. Land is not mana. Land is a permanent which the activated mana ability "T: Add <x> to your mana pool" where <x> is White, Blue, Green, Red, or Black mana depending on whether the land in question is a Plains, Island, Forest, Mountain or Swamp.
- Cascade triggers as soon as a spell is put on the stack. Countering the spell with cascade does NOTHING! (Unless you do fun stuff like Double Negative).
- Targeting is an essential part of casting a spell or activating ability. Every time the spell/ability explicitly states the word "target", followed by some qualities of the target (e.g. Doom Blade - Destroy target nonblack creature), one that meets the requirements must be specified. If something happens to the target before the spell targeting it resolves that makes it an invalid target for the spell, it 'fizzles', or more technically, it is countered upon resolution. Note that if you see someone referring to a spell 'fizzling', this is what they mean (if they're using MtG slang correctly, hehe)
- Abilities. None of these are spells, all abilities are abilities, and nothing else.
- Activated abilities will always be formatted like so, "Cost : Effect" (note the colon). The cost may not always be purely mana or the tap/untap symbol. For example, an activated ability could say "Sacrifice a creature: Destroy target creature.".
- Triggered abilities happen when something changes in the game state. They are always denoted by the word "When", "whenever" or "at" appearing at the start of the ability. The syntax for triggered abilities is "Condition, effect". So, "Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life" is a triggered ability.
- Static abilities appear as statements that are simply true. They appear on permanents, so the way to get rid of the effects of a static ability is to get rid of its source. Examples of static abilities: "You have no maximum hand size" (Spellbook), "You can't lose the game and your opponents can't win the game" (Platinum Angel).
- Triggered abilities happen when something changes in the game state. They are always denoted by the word "When", "whenever" or "at" appearing at the start of the ability. The syntax for triggered abilities is "Condition, effect". So, "Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life" is a triggered ability.
- Static abilities appear as statements that are simply true. They appear on permanents, so the way to get rid of the effects of a static ability is to get rid of its source. Examples of static abilities: "You have no maximum hand size" (Spellbook), "You can't lose the game and your opponents can't win the game" (Platinum Angel).
- X in a mana cost can cause some confusion. The official rule is, X = 0 in all zones except for the stack, where it is equal to how much mana you specify (note that if you don't specify it explicitly, the default shortcut is that all mana available will be put into it). Hence, if you somehow give Banefire the Cascade ability and then cast Banefire for X = 6, its converted mana cost (only while it is on the stack) is 7, so you can cascade into something with 6 CMC or less.
cheerful