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This F.A.Q. is designed to address some of the most common questions that can arise when playing with Wastelands cards.

 

To start with, the set’s mechanics and themes lend themselves to paying a little bit more attention to card characteristics and names.  Be prepared to take any necessary notes in a timely fashion with pen and paper.  You may need to write down card names, abilities, casting costs, or the contents of an opponent’s hand or deck. This information can be helpful to have during a match but remember that you are still not permitted to bring in outside notes between matches and you have a responsibility to take your notes in accordance with the constraints on slow play in the penalty guidelines.

 

For this set, it will also be helpful to remember the rulings made on properly identifying a card.  If the exact name of a card cannot be provided, information about the card must be precise and exact enough to leave no other options.  For example: a spell asks you to name a card and you cannot remember the name of the card that you wish to name (Ragespitter).  The following answer is not enough: “that multicolored snake.” You need to essentially define the card if you cannot remember the actual name, so naming its power/toughness, the three colors it is and its abilities would be enough.  Naming a card isn’t a guessing game that can elicit an answer through the elimination of possibilities.  If you can’t remember the exact name of the card, you have the responsibility to demonstrate you have actual and decisive knowledge of the card you are trying to name.  If there’s a card you think you may want to name later, write that name down to avoid confusion.

 

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Relic  This is a characteristic-setting ability written Relic – Text.  It alters the rules text of the object it’s on, based on a condition.  The text can create any kind of ability.  Relic – Text means “as long as [this permanent] is untapped, [this permanent] has [text].  Relic is an ability that applies only to permanents in play, since only permanents can be tapped or untapped.  If the permanent is tapped, treat it as if it did not have the Relic text.

 

A continuous effect generated a static ability under Relic ceases to apply as soon as the permanent becomes tapped.  A triggered or activated ability exists separately from the permanent that created it as soon as the ability is played.  This means that for a triggered or activated ability under Relic, once that ability is played, tapping the permanent that created the ability has no effect on the ability.

 

Some cards have abilities that are Relic abilities and others that are not.  For example, Enlightened Stonerune’s abilities read:

 

Relic — At the end of your turn, each player draws a card. ( Enlightened Stonerune has this ability only if it's untapped.)

Whenever Enlightened Stonerune attacks, each player returns a permanent he or she controls to its owner's hand.

 

The first ability is a Relic ability but Enlighened Stonerune has the second one regardless of whether it is tapped or not.

 

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Certain cards have triggered abilities that trigger when a player plays a certain kind of spell.  The ability triggers once the spell of that type is played.  And after the ability is put on the stack once the steps for playing a spell are complete, the trigger is played.  If the ability asks you to do something, such as pay mana, remember that you must pay the costs before the spell that triggered the ability resolves because the triggered ability is on the stack on top of the spell that triggered it. 

 

Radiant Frostdew’s ability reads:

Whenever a player plays an instant or sorcery spell, you may pay 1W. If you do, return Radiant Frostdew from your graveyard to your hand.

 

When a player plays an instant or sorcery spell, the ability triggers and then is put on the stack after the spell.  The active player then gets priority.  Once he or she passes and the ability is resolving, Radiant Frostdew’s controller chooses to pay 1W or not to.  (And an ability that moves an object from one zone to another can only be played if the object is in that zone.  So Radiant Frostdew’s ability only triggers if it is in the graveyard.)

 

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A card named Stellar Echo has the following abilities:

Flying

Stellar Echo can't be the target of spells or abilities.

1UU, T: Put a copy of this creature into play. That copy has all but one ability printed on this creature.

 

The third ability creates an exact copy of the abilities on the permanent that created that effect, leaving one of the abilities on the source of the effect off.  So the controller of the Stellar Echo (if it has the “1UU, T: Put a copy of this creature into play. That copy has all but one ability printed on this creature.” ability) puts into play a creature with exactly one less ability than the card that created it.  Stellar Echo begins with three abilities on the original card.

 

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There is a difference between revealing a card and looking at a card, and effects that trigger off of revealing will not trigger off of looking at a card.  A card that is revealed is made public information by the revealing effect for the duration of the effect.  A card that “[a player] [may] look at” only allows one player to have access to the information on that card.  The two are not the same, even if a player each player has access to the card information. (For example, if a card let you look at another player’s hand in a duel, that player’s hand is not revealed even though all players have access to the information on the cards in his or her hand.)

 

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There is a card called Covenant of Pain, with the type line as follows:

Enchantment Creature – Plinth Wall

Plinth is an enchantment subtype and is not a creature subtype.  Wall is a Creature subtype and is not an enchantment subtype.  Covenant of Pain has all of the inherent characteristics of a creature and all the inherent characteristics of an enchantment, and can be targeted by spells or abilities that can only target enchantments or only target creatures.  If an effect would apply to either type of card, it applies to Covenant of Pain.

 

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The Tombstone Icon, in the upper left-hand corner of the card, before the card name, has no effect on the game rules.  It exists only as a reminder that this card has an ability that is played from the graveyard.  The ability that is played from the graveyard is always explained in the rules text.

 

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A card named Crested Sunmage has an ability that reads:

Whenever a triggered or activated ability or a spell reveals the top card of your library, you may pay R. If you do, Crested Sunmage deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

 

Each time the top card of your library is revealed, Crested Sunmage’s ability triggers.  This will not trigger off of static effects, but it will trigger off of an activated ability or triggered ability even if it is already revealed by a static ability.  It can trigger multiple times from the same spell or ability if the top card of your library is revealed multiple times.

 

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A card called Bonecaster has an ability that reads:

T, Reveal the top card of your library: Add mana equal to the mana cost of the revealed card to your mana pool. (Mana cost includes color. If a mana symbol has multiple colors, choose one.)

 

The comprehensive rules state that you must be able to pay for a spell or ability before playing it.  Since the top card of your library is often unknown, you will have to add mana to your mana pool with bonecaster’s ability before announcing the spell or ability you intended to use the mana for.

 

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Serpentine Autarch has a border that is different from other hybrid-mana cards.  Instead of vertical columns of color, the colors of the card are represented by horizontal layers.  This has no rules effect and only serves as a reminder that the card can be played with only one mana of color (the base or bottom color) and that if the card is played with more than one color (the top or optional color) an extra effect is generated.  The card’s rules text always states what that extra effect is.  A card with this type of frame and casting cost (a combination of hybrid and regular mana) is all of the colors in its cost (in every zone), even if not all colors of mana were used to cast it. 

 

Some cards exist that do not have hybrid mana in their costs or the horizontal color layers but have an extra effect based on paying an optional color of mana.  These cards are only the color of the mana in their costs. 

 

For example, a card called Gathering Storm costs 3GG and has an ability that reads:

If you paid UU to play Gathering Storm, it comes into play with flying.

 

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Imprint  This is a triggered or activated ability that removes a card from the game and imprints it on the source of the imprint ability.  Some cards may remove themselves from the game and imprint themselves on other cards.  Cards that function in this way are considered imprinted on the cards they specified even though the card on which it is imprinted does not have the imprint ability.    

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Certain cards ask you to reveal the top card of your library to determine an variable for an effect and specify that if a land card is revealed in this way, return [this object] to its owner’s hand.  This indicates a replacement effect that replaces all the effects of the object with a return to the object’s owner’s hand. 

 

For example, a card called Duneskitter reads:

Duneskitter              1G

Creature – Lizard    Common

Imprint - As Duneskitter comes into play, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a non-land card, remove that card from the game. If it's a land card, return Duneskitter to your hand instead.

Duneskitter's toughness is equal to the converted casting cost of the imprinted card.

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The replacement effect of returning Duneskitter to your hand replaces Duneskitter coming into play.  So if a land card is revealed, Duneskitter never comes into play.  This type of replacement effect also applies to Pitch of Night and Call to Reason, where the replacement effect replaces all of the effects of the card, removing the spell from the stack or from coming into play and returning it to its owner’s hand.

 

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A card called Shadow Constrictor has an ability which reads:

T, Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature and a -1/-1 counter on Shadow Constrictor. (If a creature has any +1/+1 counters on it, remove that many +1/+1 counters instead.) 

 

This reminder text is a new ruling on the interaction of +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters.  If an effect would put a -1/-1 counter on a creature and it already has +1/+1 counters on it, it instead removes a counter.  This replacement is done on a one-for-one basis, and applies in either direction.  So,  If an effect would put a +1/+1 counter on a creature and it already has -1/-1 counters on it, it instead removes a counter for each counter it would have put on and then, if there are any excess counters of the type the effect would add, it adds those remaining counters.

 

 

 

 

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