Becomes a Color

Risser <peterrisser.TakeThisOut@gmail.com> sent:

Distorting Lens {2} Artifact
{T}: Target permanent becomes the color of your choice until end of
turn.

Shadowmage Infiltrator {1}{U}{B} Creature - Human Wizard 1/3
/ Fear
/ Whenever Shadowmage Infiltrator deals combat damage to a player, you
may draw a card.

> So, we have a Distorting Lens and it is activated, a Shadowmage
> Infiltrator is targeted and green is chosen.

OK, the Distorting Lens ability resolves, and the Shadowmage Infiltrator
is now green until end of turn instead of whatever color it was before.

> Can a creature with fear now skate by the Infiltrator? That is, does
> "become" mean "remove all existing colors and make it only green"?
> (versus, "becomes green in addition to its other colors.")

That's correct. If a change is intended to mean that it retains the
previous values as well, then it uses the wording "in addition."

> ***

Humility {2}{W}{W} Enchantment
All creatures lose all abilities and are 1/1.

> On a completely different subject, does Humility affect Comes Into
> Play abilities?

It removes "comes into play" abilities. For completeness, here are the
relevant entries from official Gatherer rulings:

* 01/02/2007 Removes all creature abilities. This includes mana
abilities. Animated lands will also lose the ability to tap for
mana.

* 01/02/2007 The interaction between Humility and Opalescence has
changed due to the new layering rules. The type-changing effect still
applies at layer 4, like it previously did, but the rest happens in
the applicable layers. The rest of it will apply even if the
permanent loses its ability before it's finished applying. So if
Opalescence, Humility, and Worship are in play and Opalescence came
into play before Humility, the following is true: Layer 4: Humility
and Worship each become creatures that are still enchantments.
(Opalescence). Layer 5: Humility and Worship each lose their
abilities. (Humility) Layer 6: Humility becomes 4/4 and Worship
becomes 4/4. (Opalescence). Humility becomes 1/1 and Worship becomes
1/1 (Humility). But if Humility came into play before Opalescence,
the following is true: Layer 4: Humility and Worship each become
creatures that are still enchantments (Opalescence). Layer 5:
Humility and Worship each lose their abilities (Humility). Layer 6:
Humility becomes 1/1 and Worship b

* 01/02/2006 With a Humility and two Opalescences in play, if
Humility has the latest timestamp, then all creatures are 1/1 with no
abilities. If the timestamp order is Opalescence, Humility,
Opalescence, the second Opalescence is 1/1, and the Humility and
first Opalescence are 4/4. If Humility has the earliest timestamp,
then everything is 4/4.

* 01/11/2005 You apply power/toughness changing effects in a series
of sublayers in the following order: (a) effects from
characteristic-setting abilities; (b) all other effects not
specifically applied in c, d, or e; (c) changes from counters; (d)
effects from static abilities that modify power and/or toughness but
don't set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value; and
(e) effects that switch a creature's power and toughness, so you'll
always apply this card at b.

--
-- Zoe Stephenson, NetRep rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules
Group FAQ: http://www.daeghnao.com/magic/faq/ --
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David DeLaney <dbd RemoveThis @gatekeeper.vic.com> wrote:
> Triggered ones, yes; they get removed just before the time to check what
> triggered off stuff coming into play. Continuous abilities, generally yes,
> but you have to look at layers, timestamp, and dependency to see what gets
> affected (anything in layer 6 gets affected, timestamp/dependency in layer
> 5, and stuff from layer 4 or below has already been applied). And "comes into
> play with / as this comes into play", no. [I honestly forget what the answer
> is for "comes into play tapped", but think it ended up being 'no'.]

Hi. Poking me head in for the first time in years. Last time I followed
the game, 6E was new and questions typically involved the stack.

What's this "layer" stuff?
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On Fri, 9 Nov 2007 16:05:11 +0000 (UTC), Brian Trosko <btrosko.TakeThisOut@panix.com> wrote:
>David DeLaney <dbd.TakeThisOut@gatekeeper.vic.com> wrote:
>> Triggered ones, yes; they get removed just before the time to check what
>> triggered off stuff coming into play. Continuous abilities, generally yes,
>> but you have to look at layers, timestamp, and dependency to see what gets
>> affected (anything in layer 6 gets affected, timestamp/dependency in layer
>> 5, and stuff from layer 4 or below has already been applied). And "comes into
>> play with / as this comes into play", no. [I honestly forget what the answer
>> is for "comes into play tapped", but think it ended up being 'no'.]
>
>Hi. Poking me head in for the first time in years. Last time I followed
>the game, 6E was new and questions typically involved the stack.
>
>What's this "layer" stuff?

Take a deep breath, and look at section 418.5 . Remember Back When, when we
had "the copy layer, the Sleight/Hack layer and other text editing, the
type-change layer, then everything else"? This got slightly more complex, and
better-defined, _and_ the definition of dependency got changed so it only
applies between effects in the -same- (sub)layer. Let me see if I can reel
them off without looking:
"Layer 0" is what's actually printed on the card, or what the token is
created with.
Layer 1 is copy effects.
Layer 2 is control-change effects.
Layer 3 is text-editing effects.
Layer 4 is type-changing effects - permanent type or subtype.
Layer 5 is "everything else".
And Layer 6 is stuff that fiddles with power or toughness, and is divided into
sublayers.
In each layer, characteristic-setting effects (which are not quite what one
intuitively thinks they are) are applied before other stuff, and counters...
<checks> okay, never mind on counters, they're a separate sublayer of 6 (since
either they're just a named keep-track-of-how-many thing, or they affect power
and toughness).

It's quite complex, but it has to be to cover everything. Most of the time the
main difficulty is just figuring out which layer(s) your effect(s) apply in.

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from dbd.TakeThisOut@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
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Brian Trosko <btrosko.TakeThisOut@panix.com> sent:
> David DeLaney <dbd.TakeThisOut@gatekeeper.vic.com> wrote:
> > Triggered ones, yes; they get removed just before the time to check what
> > triggered off stuff coming into play. Continuous abilities, generally yes,
> > but you have to look at layers, timestamp, and dependency to see what gets
> > affected (anything in layer 6 gets affected, timestamp/dependency in layer
> > 5, and stuff from layer 4 or below has already been applied). And "comes into
> > play with / as this comes into play", no. [I honestly forget what the answer
> > is for "comes into play tapped", but think it ended up being 'no'.]

> Hi. Poking me head in for the first time in years. Last time I followed
> the game, 6E was new and questions typically involved the stack.

> What's this "layer" stuff?

Continuous effects sometimes depend on one another and it's not always
obvious which order to evaluate their effects. Should I apply
Celestial Dawn first, which makes my creatures white, or should I apply
Crusade first, which gives the white creatures +1/+1? What about
counters, power-and-toughness setting effects, type-changing effects?
There are a lot of different effects that stick around affecting the
game (some of them end at the end of the turn though), and we want them
to work as intuitively as possible. That's what the layers are for.
They define exactly how to handle interacting continous effects. The
relevant rule defining the layers is 418.5a:

418.5a The values of an object's characteristics are determined by
starting with the actual object, then applying continuous effects in
a series of layers in the following order:
(1) copy effects (see rule 503, "Copying Objects");
(2) control-changing effects;
(3) text-changing effects;
(4) type-changing effects (which includes effects that change an
object's card type, subtype, and/or supertype);
(5) all other continuous effects, except those that change power
and/or toughness; and
(6) power- and/or toughness-changing effects.

Inside each layer from 1 through 5, apply effects from
characteristic-defining abilities first, then all other effects in
timestamp order. Inside layer 6, apply effects in a series of
sublayers in the following order:
(6a) effects from characteristic-defining abilities;
(6b) all other effects not specifically applied in 6c, 6d, or 6e;
(6c) changes from counters;
(6d) effects from static abilities that modify power and/or toughness
but don't set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value; and
(6e) effects that switch a creature's power and toughness.

Within each sublayer, apply effects in timestamp order. Note that
dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a
layer or sublayer. See also the rules for timestamp order and
dependency (rules 418.5b-418.5g).

Example: Crusade is an enchantment that reads "White creatures get
+1/+1." Crusade and a 2/2 black creature are in play. If an effect
then turns the creature white (layer 5), it gets +1/+1 from Crusade
(layer 6d), becoming 3/3. If the creature's color is later changed to
red (layer 5), Crusade's effect stops applying to it, and it will
return to being a 2/2.

Example: Gray Ogre, a 2/2 creature, is in play. An effect puts a
+1/+1 counter on it (layer 6c), making it 3/3. An effect that says
"Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn" is applied to it
(layer 6b), making it 7/7. An enchantment that says "Creatures you
control get +0/+2" enters play (layer 6d), making it a 7/9. An effect
that says "Target creature becomes 0/1 until end of turn" is applied
to it (layer 6b), making it a 1/4 (0/1, plus +1/+1 from the counter,
plus +0/+2 from the enchantment).

If you've been away from the game for a while and are just picking
it up again, you may find the summary of rules changes in the FAQ
useful. It lists the major changes that have happened - just start
reading where you left off. I'll be updating some time nearer to
the end of the year to explain planeswalkers.

--
-- Zoe Stephenson, NetRep rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules
Group FAQ: http://www.daeghnao.com/magic/faq/ --
--
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Zoe Stephenson <usenet.DeleteThis@daeghnao.com> wrote:

> If you've been away from the game for a while and are just picking
> it up again, you may find the summary of rules changes in the FAQ
> useful. It lists the major changes that have happened - just start
> reading where you left off. I'll be updating some time nearer to
> the end of the year to explain planeswalkers.

I read Part 2 of the FAQ, but didn't see the layering bits in there.
Thanks.
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