Let’s talk about some Magic the Gathering rules that I see people get wrong all the time. From what decks you can run Urborg and Yaviamay in, to how ward interacts with uncounterable spells and rulings on the legend rule, these are rules I’ve seen people get incorrect or ask about a lot. Did you know all of these rulings?
~~~~~~~VIDEO RECON~~~~~~~~
Date Written: 8-29-26
Date Created: 8-29-26
Date Uploaded: 8-29-26
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
➤ NOTE: As always, nothing on this channel is financial advice.
➤ Find MTGRecon On Other Platforms –
Help Support MTGRecon and Future Projects:
➤ Shop TCGPlayer – (Affiliate Link)
➤ Become A Channel Member –
#mtg #mtgrules #magicthegathering #mtgcards #mtgcommunity #edh #mtgedh #commander #mtgcommander
source
I was always under the impression that wish effects pulled cards back from exile as long as they are exiled face up
I didn’t know about the wish rule! Made a whole speed slinger deck around learn spells so I could always have cards. 😂
So, whats some uncounterable removal spells?
This is a great video to quickly explain common misconceptions! Great job!
Would be nice if you flashed some CR numbers for some of these rules because… I'm a bit skeptical of the information here
So i cant offspring legendary creatures with zinnia?
The Legend Rule does still count as dying, so you get death triggers but not sacrifice triggers. And because it's a state-based action, you cannot respond to it by sacrificing the to-be-deleted copy at instant speed. You do get to choose which goes away, so you can pick the one without negative counters and the like.
I mean, if I'm not mistaken, in non sanctioned, kitchen table MTG they basically let you pick from your entire collection (or whatever you have on you at the time). In public WotC sanctioned play it only is what is in your sideboard. Since EDH doesn't have a sideboard you're essentially, searching nothing assuming it doesn't have a may trigger. I'd say it's similar to searching your deck when there are no cards left in the deck, basically a fail to find result. Presumably if there are cards that care about searching outside of game (like Ob Nix Unshackled but instead of library it's sideboard) they still, in theory, trigger, however I highly doubt there's a card like that
Even though its not a sacrifice, I believe it is still a death trigger though so thats probably where the confusion comes from
I will infact search outside of my library in commander cause its fun and otherwise lessons have no place in the format
Notably wishes can grab things out of exile
a nice rule zero conversation to have is: out the game, and the ante zone errated to exile zone, cool?
The land types don't mean anything to commander. Land cards with basic land types could be played in off-type decks if those types didn't staple mana pips to the card text.
I "wish" get my stuff from exile or, you know, the cards that got removed from the game.
I can’t stand the rule banning you from using card abilities that let you put “outside cards” into your hand
I'll be real, a 15 card wishboard being Rule 0'd in is a staple of my pods. I just love the idea of a magical toolbox that could have anything from an artifact gun to a statue that says everyone else pays 2 extra mana for anything, it's cool 💜
Learn not working in commander is tragic
Wish does work in Commander, you just have to have a companion
Didn't think to use name stickers like that
Aren’t x cost spells treated as x=0
So about the legend rule thing. I always thought of it as you place them into the grave. As a Yu-Gi-Oh player this is pretty easy to understand.
Good points 👉 👈 👇 👏 👍 👌 👉
Sure. You dont get Sacrificed based triggers, but you do still get death/leave the battlefield triggers with the legend rule.
If you dont believe me, play Ratadrabik of Urborg on arena. Hole point of the deck is to have your legends die in multiple ways to make non-legendary copies and amass a huge army of a single legend. Legend soup if you will, and well the LOTR ring tempts you mechanic is an easy way to get state based death triggers using the legend rule.
For example: you have Ratadrabik, Mondrak and any legend on the battlefield. When you have your legend die, you will make 2 non legendary copies of it. If you recur them to your hand or the battlefield with idk Samwise the Stouthearted for example. You can have 1 legendary copy of your legend, and the 2 non legendary token exist simultaneously. I use samwise specifically because he says when he enters the battlefield the ring tempts you. They can begin an infinite loop of making infinite legend tokens. Your legendary real copy of Samwise and your Ring Tempted Non legendary samwise becomes legendary because of the way the ring mechanic works. State based actions now have 2 of the same legend on the battlefield. Choose to keep the token that is tempted and you will get the death trigger from ratadrabik of your original samwise dying to state based actions. Samwise also when he enters returns a card that left the battlefield this turn to your hand, which is why you don't keep the original samwise.
TLDR: It isnt sacrificing sure, but it still dies and has leaves the battlefield/death triggers.
Objection!
Actually, you can use Wish for one really stupid purpose: Taking a revealed Companion to hand. Companions are additional cards which are not part of your deck. They technically create a side board in commander.
Why you would wish for a Companion instead of paying the 3 colorless, I do not know. But Wish does work this way.
I fought this argument when someone said I couldn't run Urborg in my "Toph, the First Metalbender" list.
Man, wtf are stickers
Of note if you're playing Commander with Sideboards, you can use the Wish cards to search the sideboard for a card.
That said, I haven't run into too many instances where events allowed sideboards for a Commander deck.
Whaaaat? That makes wish effects so trash. That means you can only wish cards that are in rotation which is boring as hell, because at that point just run the card.
bro i suspect you have got a lot of bots in the comment section ☠️ idk people's comments read like ai written
the ggygo of magic
Wait does that that mean Psychotic rifts overload cost is not its new mana value
ive used urborg in a mono white deck, i animated everyones swamps into 1/1's. can you guess the commander
I actually just had to look up the mana value rule since I made a spellslinger deck with some cards that payoff off mana value, super interesting stuff
I always forget wish effects and stuff like learn just don't work in commander
*the legend rule will trigger death triggers though
The lands and colour identity rule gets me each time. I assumed that the cards having coloured outlining on the voxes counted as a colour indicator
Wont wish work with things that became exiled?
Wish can be use to take exile cards
So does the copy of a legendary creature die? It doesn't count as a sacrifice but it does still count as death correct?
My pod have it where searching outside the game is for exile in commander
Having chimil out also negates anything with ward btw for anyone wondering
Another one similar to ward: a card like remand can’t counter a “can’t be countered” spell because it still counters the spell before checking which zone it goes in, yet reprieve while being almost identical can pseudo-counter a “can’t be countered” spell because it never actually counters
The ward/can't be countered rule got my friend in a local once(amalia/rending volley, for the curious). we're both pro players so this doesn't happen often lol
I have a green white deck that hates in black that runs urborg and a grixis enrage deck that runs yavi and urborg to let me tap my sorrows path for mana 🙂
You might have just said it for engagement, but just to be sure, people should know that the X in a cards mana value is always 0, no matter how much you pay.
So a spell that costs X and 3 red has a mana value of 3
I was under the impression that you could run any colour card in your deck, even if you don’t have a way to generate the mana for it; ie playing counterspell in a mono green, cos why not, and it would just be a useless unplayable card. Does magic actually have any rules around that?
The ward vs uncounterable is my favorite one. The ammount of people who have gone "Do you pay the X" to me with every random ass red spell I play because half cant be countered makes me full of joy.
In addition to the legend rule I've seen people say [Jon Irenicus, Shattered One]'s can't be sacrificed rule mean you can't legend rule away an affected card
i like running urborg and yavimaya in blue, with text changing effects making sure everyone has islands