Smokestack's current rules text (oracle) is:
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a soot counter on Smokestack.
At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player sacrifices a permanent for each soot counter on Smokestack.
Can I put the "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a soot counter on Smokestack" on the stack, then immediately after, while the first ability has not resolved, put the "At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player sacrifices a permanent for each soot counter on Smokestack" so that I don't have to sacrifice anything during this upkeep, but I still get the counter? That's how we've been playing, and we've been wondering if it's accurate.
Yes, you can do that.
Also, if the Smokestack has four soot counters on it, and I sacrifice the Smokestack to itself, I STILL have to sacrifice three more permanants, correct? (We've also been playing like this.)
That's right.
Goblin Welder: A REALLY basic question, I'm sorry about this:
During my upkeep step, at the beginning of my upkeep, can I use Goblin Welder to weld out a Smokestack with three soot counters on it for a sootless Smokestack in my graveyard, so I don't have to sacrifice a bunch of permanents?
No, because you don't gain priority until after "at beginning of upkeep" triggers are placed on the stack and once it's on the stack, it will resolve normally, using last known information (3 counters). Usual procedure is to weld it out at the end of their turn.
Also, I could just weld out the Smokestack during my untap step, after untapping Goblin Welder, right?
No, because players don't gain priority during the Untap step - you simply untap and move straight to the Upkeep step.
Uba Mask:
Uba Mask's oracle is this:
If a player would draw a card, that player removes that card from the game face up instead.
Each player may play cards he or she removed from the game with Uba Mask this turn.
I think I know how the Uba Mask/Goblin Welder trick works after reading a good bit on this website.
How it works is after they reveal the card that they drew, you can use Goblin Welder to weld out the Uba Mask for another artifact, and then they can't ever play that card, but I have a question:
If they reveal a darkblast or lava dart (which are instants), can they target my welder before I weld out the Uba Mask? We've been playing that the player drawing the instant can use the instant, but if they can't, that'd be nice to know.
Also, if I weld out Uba Mask 1 FOR Uba Mask 2 in my graveyard, they don't get the card, right?
At the beginning of the Draw step, the player whose turn it is draws a card automatically. This action doesn't use the stack, and it can't be responded to, but replacement effects are still applied e.g. Uba Mask. Then players gain priority, and may play instants and abilities e.g. the Welder's ability, or cast any instants that were drawn, or removed from the game by Uba Mask, as the case may be. If they drew the card (or set it aside), then they have priority first, and can play it before you get a chance to weld the Uba Masks. However, even if they passed priority, and then you put Goblin Welder's ability on the stack, they could still play any instants in response as in the Smokestack example above. Once the Uba Masks are exchanged, any cards removed from the game up to that point can no longer be played.
Also, I can't use Mishra's Workshop mana for artifact's activated abilites, right? Someone told me that you could, and I told him that the card and oracle just says playing artifacts.
You're right on this one. Note that you can still use it to pay additional costs e.g. Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance.
This is a silly question, but can I imprint Duplicant onto itself? The oracle says:
Imprint — When Duplicant comes into play, you may remove target nontoken creature from the game. (The removed card is imprinted on this artifact.)
As long as a creature card is imprinted on Duplicant, Duplicant has the power, toughness, and creature types of the last creature card imprinted on it. It's still a Shapeshifter.
You can remove it from the game, but it won't be imprinted on itself, because it won't be in play any more.
If I _can_ remove Duplicant from the game by using its own ability on itself, and I drew it this turn with an Uba Mask in play, could I play it again and do the same thing?
No, because the game knows that Duplicant was removed by Imprint, and not by Uba Mask (also, the game treats it as a different card once it changes zones).
For instance, let's say I have about 100 mana because I have a crucible of worlds, fastbond, wasteland, and tolarian academy out in addition to my 20 artifacts.
I have an Uba Mask and a Pandemonium [Whenever a creature comes into play, that creature’s controller may have it deal damage equal to its power to target creature or player of his or her choice.] in play. I untap, do nothing during my upkeep, and RevealFromGame a Duplicant because of the Uba Mask. I then play Duplicant, RFG it with it's own ability, do that 16 times and win.
Is this sound?
Sadly not, for the reasons noted above.
Also, isn't this the sweetest kill ever? Heh.
Also, what happens if I have a pandemonium in play and I Duplicant a Darksteel Colossus? Do I do 2 damage to a target or 11?
Do I get to pick in which order the abilities stack, and so can I change it to 11? For instance: I can stack the Pandemonium's come into play ability first, then the duplicant's imprint ability, so that the duplicant's imprint ability happens first, and the Pandemonium's ability THEN looks at Duplicant's power?
Pandemonium's ruling things:
Oct 4, 2004 - The triggered ability does not check the creature's power until the ability resolves. If the creature is not in play when the ability resolves, it does damage equal to the power of the creature right before it left play. This means that if a creature comes into play which can destroy itself as a "comes into play" ability, the order of resolution of the triggered abilities does not matter.
Does this mean it'll do 11 damage if I stack it like I said above?
Yes, as long as the imprint successfully resolves.
Thanks for answering all these questions. I bet I have more, but I just can't remember all of them right now. Thanks!
No problems - I'm sure TMD will be up to the challenge!
