Clash with Split cards

[Wagner]

Let's say I clash with my opponent and we both reveal split cards, in this example.






What happens?

[Apollyon]

Both players win. You win a clash if your card has a higher CMC than any other card. Fire // Ice's 2 > Dead's 1, and Gone's 3 > Fire//Ice's 2, so both players win.

[Apollyon]

It gets back two answers. 2 and 2 vs 3 and 1.

For Fire//Ice > Dead//Gone, is 2 > 3 or 2 > 1 or 2 > 3 or 2 > 1? Similar logic applies in reverse.

It's a strange interaction that's new (previous split card questions were resolved with either "add them" or "see if one of the two matches").

[Apollyon]

Flipping for Counterbalance, Fire//Ice gives you a value of 2 and 2. You compare the CMC of the played spell vs 2 and compare vs 2 again.

In that case, you get the same result as comparing against just 2, but Counterbalance is a corner case in which "choose one" works the same as the actual rules for split cards. In other cases, such as this one, the method of "choose one" will lead to an incorrect answer.

[TopSecret]

This was on the Wizards site today at this address: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/askwizards/1107

"The second exception is split cards. A split card on the stack has the mana cost (and name, color(s), etc.) of only whichever side you played—so Boom would cause Veiled Sentry to become a 3/3, while Bust would make it a 6/6. However, and this is where things get weird, a split card anywhere else has the mana cost of both sides. That doesn't mean they're added together—it means that any time you look at a split card's mana cost or converted mana cost, you get both answers. (The same is true for all other qualities of a split card that isn't on the stack.) Rough // Tumble‘s converted mana cost is 2 and 6. That means that if you (for instance) mill it away with Lammastide Weave, you'll gain 2 and 6 life, for a total of 8. But if a player plays Void and chooses 2, a Rough // Tumble in your hand will be discarded, because its converted mana cost is 2.

This is especially bizarre when clashing. If you play Oaken Brawler and reveal Kithkin Greatheart (converted mana cost 2) while I reveal Dead // Gone (converted mana cost 1 and 3), we both win the clash—we each revealed a card that had a higher converted mana cost. That means that your Oaken Brawler does get the +1/+1 counter, but I also draw a card off Sylvan Echoes. Everyone's a winner!"