more annoying questions

[CCClark]

Here's a few I would just like some clarification on that came up in the last month or so and a few some peoples asked about.

1.   Situation: 2 karmic guides in graveyard, 1 altar of dementia in play
question: Is it possible to animate dead a karmic guide and start the altar combo before the pro black of the KG kicks in?
(I have been playing since revised and I still hurt thinking about the interupt bubble much less remembering all the animate dead rulings changes)

2.  Did anyone ever figure out what the deal was when 2 opelescences and a humility is in play?  I have been going by timestamp order but this one has always annoyed me.

3.  Someone tried to Stifle a Phyrexian Dreadnaught's sacrifice cost.   I explained that it's a cost and could not be stifled and then I got an arguement about Eater of Days which I know can be stifled.   I tried to explain that cards with the " : " are pretty much a ability and without the colon it's usually a cost.  
Think that's a pretty decent rule of thumb?  I couldn't think of a reason of why not.    Then again there are the weird ones like Waylay.  Grrrrrr  Anyone have a good way to tell what is and is not stifleable?  I am starting to hate that card.  

4.  Situation:  Shaharzad on a panoptic mirror.    This results in a endless  irritating loop oviously.   In sanctioned tournys, who wins when time runs out or is it a draw?  I remember something about life totals in sanctioned but It's been a while since I was at one so I wasn't sure how to answer this one.

5.  Infinite loops.   Player A makes infinite life loop.  Player B has an infinite damage loop.   If I remember right player B can make player A choose a number to make his life total and then player B can make his damage total equal to or above to win the game.   Correct?

Edit: NM found this one.
421.2 - If the loop contains one or more optional actions and one player controls them all, that player chooses a number. The loop is treated as repeating that many times or until the other player intervenes, whichever comes first. [CompRules 2003/07/01]

6.  Player A casts some random spell and it resolves.  Ok cool.   Now Player A tries to cast Duress and Player B shows them their hand.   Before anything else happens Player B realizes there's been a Arcane Lab on the table cast a few turns ago and neither noticed till now.    Player A has seen player B's hand.  They call Judge.  Judge says put the duress back in hand.   This seem right?   It did too me but it sure caused a storm over it.

7.  Has "Bury" been reworded (ex. Wrath of God) on all cards into destroy, they can't be regenerated?  I assume so, but it's nice to hear a second opinion.  Pillage being the card in question.

8.  Quoted from an old Jebus post  

Any time you shuffle, you present your deck to your opponent for additional shuffling and cutting after you have sufficiently randomized your deck.

Is there a way to refuse the opponent from shuffling due to his hideous shuffling methods which destroy cards and protectors?

9.  Had someone play that new card that eliminates the upkeep (im lazy and forgot the name of it) and then played a creature with Echo.   I assumed the echo creature lived since you have no "next upkeep" to be able to pay it anymore.  Though if you regain your upkeep you would have to pay it then.  Correct?

Ok, that's enough weird stuff for one post.  Thanks as always.

[Jebus]

1.  Altar combo?

Karmic Guide
{W}{W}
Creature -- Spirit
2/2
Flying, protection from black; echo (At the beginning of your next upkeep after this permanent comes under your control, sacrifice it unless you pay its mana cost.)
When Karmic Guide comes into play, if you played it from your hand, return target creature card from your graveyard to play.

I'm not sure what you are proposing, but I can guess.

You can sacrifice the Karmic Guide to the Altar before the Animate Dead that falls off destroys it, but note that Karmic Guide won't return any creatures if you reanimte it.

2.  All global enchantments end up as 1/1 creatures with no abilities.

3.  It isn't really a cost, but it isn't a triggered ability either.  Eater of Days has a triggered ability.  Dreadnought now has a replacement effect.

Phyrexian Dreadnought

Artifact Creature
12/12
Trample
If Phyrexian Dreadnought would come into play, sacrifice any number of creatures with total power 12 or greater instead. If you do, put Phyrexian Dreadnought into play. If you don't, put it into its owner's graveyard.

4.  Not really an endless loop, but annoying nonetheless.  If in swiss rounds, the person with the most game wins will win the match.  If that is tied, the match is a draw.  In elimination rounds, if both players are tied, the current game is decided on life totals.

5.  Your edit should suffice, providing they can't keep starting the loop again.  If that were the case, the non-active player can normally come out with the upper hand.

6.  You reset the game state to before Duress was played.  Duress goes back to the hand.  Both players get procedural error warnings.

7.  In nearly all cases, Bury now has been changed to "Destroy, cannot be regenerated."  However, a few are now "sacrifice".  Always check the Oracle text to be sure.

8.  Consult with the head judge to get his opinion on the matter.  You really can't refuse to let them shuffle, but the judge may decide to intervene and even shuffle for you.

9.  You don't have to pay the Echo.  If the Hub leaves play, Echo won't trigger if you've already controlled it through the turn Echo would have triggered.

[Jacob Orlove]

8. Quoted from an old Jebus post

Any time you shuffle, you present your deck to your opponent for additional shuffling and cutting after you have sufficiently randomized your deck.  

Is there a way to refuse the opponent from shuffling due to his hideous shuffling methods which destroy cards and protectors?

The floor rules actually say that you can request that a judge shuffle your deck in lieu of having your opponent do it. You still have to shuffle and have the option of cutting afterwards, though.

[CCClark]

Well, the Altar Karmic guide combo thing was just mentioned to me and I didn't really think about it since I was thinking more about the animate dead on a pro-black creature.   Now that you mention it, I bet that guy was trying to sac 2 guides to bounce them back and forth out of the graveyard.  Heh, either way you answered the question I had.  I was wondering if there was a window to sac it before it died when the animate fell off.   Guess so.

As for the Stifle and the Dreadnaught, I guess I should have worded that better.  I was really wanting to know if there is a good rule of thumb to tell when stifle can be used on a card or not.   Triggered abilities and activated abilities can be stifled but it's sometimes tricky to decide if a card has a triggered ability or is classified under something else.

Nice to know about the Echo, guess I was wrong on that one.  First time I had seen it come up.  

Thanks for the clarifications btw  

[Jebus]

As for the Stifle and the Dreadnaught, I guess I should have worded that better.  I was really wanting to know if there is a good rule of thumb to tell when stifle can be used on a card or not.   Triggered abilities and activated abilities can be stifled but it's sometimes tricky to decide if a card has a triggered ability or is classified under something else.

Activated abilities are always written as COST:EFFECT.

Triggered abilities start with "When", "Whenever", or "At".

Remember to always check the Oracle text of a card, as some old cards may have had triggers changed to other effects (Like Dreadnaught or Lotus Vale) or may have improper wording on their triggers.  Many old cards have triggers written on the card that start with "If" and also most cards that say "During your upkeep/draw" have been changed to "At the beginning".