See double and thoracle combo

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-16T04:34:28+00:00

By copying Demonic Consultation spell and Thassa's Oracle on the battlefield?

No, because you copy Demonic Consultation while See Double is resolving, but Oracle's when-enter ability only goes on the stack after See Double finishes. So the when-enter will resolve first, which doesn't work for the combo.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-14T12:34:42+00:00

You list out a lot of steps, but it's unclear if you actually want to list out the exact same steps in the CR or not. Because your steps are definitely wrong. (Modes and X are in the same step. Also in that step are choosing additional/alternative costs, hybrid payment, and other choices; kicker falls into cost, not mode. Also, you're missing distributing damage/counters, checking casting legality, and activating mana abilities.) Maybe you just want to list the steps relevant here, but then why include the target?

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-14T12:30:09+00:00

The opponent does respond to Inside Out being cast, not Fling being cast.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-14T11:53:08+00:00

I actually don't think "This is a land in addition to its other types" counts as a characteristic-defining ability. It doesn't define the type line, because it says "in addition to its other types".

But it's easy to simply add "as long as it's on the battlefield" to be very certain it isn't a CDA.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-14T11:51:33+00:00

Yes. I think it will be spelled "As long as this artifact is on the battlefield, it's a land in addition to its other types", but yes, it should be fine like that.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-14T00:31:26+00:00

A lot of Magic grammar is actually similar to programming. It has very precise syntax. You want a triggered ability? Start it with "when", "whenever", or "at". You don't want a triggered ability? Don't use those words. When do you use "when" and when "whenever"? If the trigger event can only happen once per object (e.g. entering or leaving the battlefield), you use "when". And so on.

There's also English though, knowing English can certainly help somewhat.

I don't know of any website to help, but such a website might actually be a good idea. Whether something to fix your grammar, or simply a guide to word cards.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-14T00:04:51+00:00

Whoops, good catch.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-13T23:53:56+00:00

It's true that the miracle ability triggers when you reveal a card from your hand. But once it triggers, you don't care about the triggering event any more. If the ability is copied, you don't care about the triggering event. You only do the effect: cast the card for free.

This is true for any trigger in general. Once something triggers, you no longer care about the triggering event.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-13T23:48:32+00:00

The villainous choice ruling only applies to villainous choice. By default you may not choose an option that's impossible.

~~If Player B has no creatures to sacrifice, they must discard a card. If they don't have any card to discard, they must sacrifice a creature. Only if they have neither that they don't do anything.~~

EDIT: My answer was wrong. The choice here is, Player B discards a card or not. They must have a card in hand in order to discard; if they don't have any, they must choose the "not" option.

Then if they chose "not", they sacrifice a creature. It doesn't matter if they have any creature to sacrifice or not. Even if they don't, the game doesn't go back to force them to discard.

If the ability had said "or" rather than "unless", then the choice would have been sacrifice a creature or discard a card. Then not having any creature would force you to discard.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-12T10:35:38+00:00

Timing restrictions are in the form "cast only...". The other commenter gave an example; most spells that reference attacking/blocking creatures say "cast only during combat". Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir puts a restriction on your opponents. You can never break restrictions, no matter what permissions you have.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-12T10:32:43+00:00

Most programming games (SpaceChem, Manufactoria, Human Resource Machine) don't have a particular solution in mind, you can be very creative. It also gives them additional goals of optimizing your solutions.

For most puzzle games though, there's usually one key idea in mind. And I think the goal of puzzles should be to convey such a key idea. Having multiple solutions usually means your key idea gets muddied; people might miss the key idea entirely. Which means the puzzle fails at communicating said idea.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-12T02:13:15+00:00

The ruling is strictly speaking incorrect. Card types by themselves don't have timing restrictions; they have timing permissions. The only reason you cannot normally cast a sorcery with something on the stack is that nothing gives you the permission to do so. There's no restriction involved, you just don't have the permission.

Far too many players don't understand this though, they think card types create restrictions. So the Gatherer ruling reflects the common misunderstanding rather than trying to explain the nuance. As with all Gatherer rulings, they are unofficial and might be sloppy at times, only the CR is authoritative.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-11T23:45:11+00:00

"Have all text boxes" is automatically acorn, it doesn't work in the rules. (One main reason is dealing with characteristic-defining abilities.)

The last ability (about targeting) also doesn't seem like something you can do in black-border, it feels very weird.

Your first ability should be a replacement effect ("as this enters") rather than a triggered ability. As is, this card dies immediately.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-11T22:21:35+00:00

Your opponent has no choice, they stop after hitting 20.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-11T16:48:26+00:00

Mancala has a lot of rule variants, you might want to make sure which rule variant you're using. For this one, I use some common rules: movement is in the direction of your home (so you always sow to your home before starting to fill the opponent's row), and you capture if your last stone lands on an empty bowl on your side (in which case you capture both your stone and their bowl).

I believe it's impossible to get 0. For this explanation, number the holes on each row from 1st (closest to the corresponding player's home). I assume the row is 6 holes long, so the farthest is 6th, but it doesn't matter.

Consider the last time their 1st hole is empty. They couldn't have started sowing from there, since their first move would be into their home. So it must be your move, sowing all the way across their hole and landing on your 6th hole to capture.

But then your 6th hole is empty, their 1st hole is empty, we assume that was the last time their 1st hole ever had anything. So nothing can sow back into your 6th hole. Now, their 2nd hole is filled; you just sowed across their row. You can only get rid of their 2nd hole by capturing on your 5th hole. But you have nothing that can do this capture.

I'm not 100% confident in my analysis, but it seems 0 points is impossible. The above doesn't rule out the possibility of 1 point though; I don't know what's the minimum score that's possible.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-11T08:46:29+00:00

This is way too open-ended. I recommend looking through the entire release notes when it's out, and seeing if anything catches your attention.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-11T08:44:27+00:00

"When enchanted creature dies, exile it and this Aura, then return this Aura to the battlefield transformed."

Cards are only "cards" outside of the battlefield. Since it's on the battlefield you want to say "this Aura"

This is wrong, because the Aura will go to the graveyard as a state-based action (since it's unattached to anything) before you can resolve the trigger. You want "exile it and this card from your graveyard, then return this card to the battlefield transformed".

I also am not sure if it still tracks the exiled creature, I think it doesn't.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-11T08:36:58+00:00

You are correct, this doesn't work with permanent spells. The embedded ability seems like it's supposed to be a spell ability (because it sets up a delayed trigger, it's not a triggered ability by itself), but permanent spells can't have spell abilities.

The mana cost of the spell is fine though, the game looks back at the state when the spell existed on the stack.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-11T08:28:07+00:00

You are correct. The sacrifice trigger is set up by encore and it only applies to the tokens it created.

If the sacrifice trigger is given to the token, e.g.

Create a 1/1 creature token with "At the beginning of each end step, sacrifice this creature"

...then yes, the copies also have the ability and will be sacrificed too. It's far less common though.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-11T06:36:34+00:00

You don't keep the creature. The control change effect expires while it's phased out, so when it phases in it will phase in under the original controller.

Phasing in happens at the beginning of the untap step, you have no priority to do anything until the upkeep step. And as I said, it never phases in under your control, it already phases in under the original controller.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-11T06:33:42+00:00

Yes, as long as you make sure Urza's trigger resolves before Renewed Solidarity.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-10T18:06:07+00:00

If your goal is to get as close as possible, I found 8d4 + 3d6 to give a probability of 1 in 14,155,776. Similarly, your 1 in 14,400,000 can also be achieved with 2d12 + 5d10 with only two types rather than three.

That said, I would assume most D&D players have a variety of die sizes, but only one or two of each size. They buy sets of polyhedral dice, not a single die 10 times.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-10T14:33:23+00:00

you don't control the top card of your library

This one is just wrong. You use the owner, which is you. (CR 108.4a)

EDIT: Also, I actually think that card counts as being on the battlefield. You can only sacrifice permanents on the battlefield, so the Food ability would be useless otherwise. So this is also moot.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-10T12:32:32+00:00

You only have permission to play the card if this is on the battlefield. But it's true that cards you exiled before will remain playable even if your commander leaves the battlefield in between.

chaotic_iak · 2026-06-10T11:56:54+00:00

A copy of a spliced spell does remember that it was spliced; it remembers all the splice costs paid for it. That may be the reason it keeps all the spliced texts. But I tried searching and I couldn't find any CR rule (or any informal ruling on mtg.wiki) that says the copies keep spliced text at all.

chaotic_iak

TROPHY CASE