text:
MTG Myr Welder Exile question
On the card Myr Welder it says two things.

Imprint -- {T} : Exile target artifact card from a graveyard.
Myr Welder has all activated abilities of all cards exiled with it.

My question is about how it can have abilities if it's been exiled? IIRC being exiled means it it cast out of the play past the graveyard, never to return.
Does it possibly mean it has the abilities of the cards it's exiled (tapping each time), while it remains in play, i.e. instead of "exiled with it" it should read "exiled by it"?

Those two abilities are called Linked Abilities, which means the second one is referring to cards exiled by the first one. Specifically, rule 607.2a says

If an object has an activated or triggered ability printed on it that instructs a player to exile one or more cards and an ability printed on it that refers either to “the exiled cards” or to cards “exiled with [this object],” these abilities are linked. The second ability refers only to cards in the exile zone that were put there as a result of an instruction to exile them in the first ability.

So, the second ability does in fact mean

Myr Welder has all activated abilities of all cards that it has exiled.

There's nothing wrong with the wording, though. The fourth definition of the word "with" on dictionary.com is

by the use of; using

In other words, they are saying that it has all of the activated abilities of cards "exiled [using] Myr Welder".

So my last statement is correct. "With the use of" the welder. I was reading it as "exiled along with" the welder. Thanks for the clarification.

e.g. "destroyed with/by a hammer"


text:
Can a player with 0 life use Soul Conduit to make their opponent lose instead?
If you get a player down to 0 life can he still use Soul Conduit's ability and swap life totals with another player killing that player instead?

No, unless the player has a "Cannot lose" effect in play, like Platinum Angel.
When a player goes to 0 life, before priority is regained (and the player able to activate Soul Conduit), state-based actions are checked and the player loses the game.
Even if the ability were on the stack, it doesn't resolve before state-based actions, again. (e.g. 1 life, activate Conduit, use Underworld Connections)

No, you cannot do that.
When you go down to zero life, you lose the game immediately, before you have a chance to do anything.
The exception is if you have a card that prevents you from losing the game for having 0 or less life, such as Platinum Angel or Phyrexian Unlife. If you have one of those, then you will be able to act while you have 0 life, and you will have the opportunity to set another player's life total to 0.

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text:
Kindle the carnage, repercussion and safe passage
Let's say I have Repercussion on the table and I cast Kindle the Carnage. Can an opponent prevent the damage done by repercussion after Kindle the Carnage has resolved? A mate and I are in a debate about this as in my opinion Repercussion goes off instantly and in his opinion Safe Passage or any other damage preventing card has priority.

Repercussion's ability is a triggered abillity, so it goes on the stack just like spells and activated abilities. And just like with those, it can be responded to before it resolves, so the opponent will be able to prevent the damage with Safe Passage.
To be specific, the events occur as follows:

You cast Kindle the Carnage.
Both you and your opponent have a chance to respond to Kindle the Carnage. Either of you could play instants or activate abilities.
Kindle the Carnage resolves and deals damage to every creature (probably). Repercussion's ability triggers once for each creature that was dealt damage. Those abilities go on the stack in any order you choose.
Both you and your opponent have another chance to respond to the triggered abilities on the stack.
One of the triggered abilities resolves, and deals damage to the controller of the corresponding creature.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the stack is empty.

If the opponent casts Safe Passage in step 4, as you describe, they will take no further damage from Repercussion. If, instead, they cast Safe Passage during step 2, then their creatures will take no damage when Kindle the Carnage resolves, and they will take no damage from Repercussion.
So, if as you describe, the oppponent casts Safe Passage in step 4, it plays out like this (assuming nobody else responds with other spells):

You cast Kindle the Carnage.
Kindle the Carnage is the top item on the stack, so it resolves and deals damage to every creature (probably). Repercussion's ability triggers once for each creature that was dealt damage. Those abilities go on the stack in any order you choose.
Your opponent responds by casting Safe Passage.
Safe Passage is now the top item on the stack, so it resolves. Further damage to your opponent and their creatures this turn is prevented.
One of the triggered abilities is on top of the stack, so it resolves. If it would deal damage to your opponent, instead that damage is prevented because of Safe Passage's effect.
Step 5 repeats until the stack is empty.

But wouldn't that be "faster" than safe passage?

I edited the answer with more details. Can you explain what you mean by "faster"? Do you know how the stack works?

Wouldn't safe passage join the stack after my repercussion?

That's how the stack works. The last thing on the stack is the first thing that resolves.

Well that doesn't make sense; how can you respond to something that hasn't happened yet? (I know what you mean, it just sounds odd to me)

You shouldn't assign too much weight to the English definitions of common words for Magic concepts. If you think about it, Safe Passage would be pretty useless if you could only use it after you take the damage. And counterspells just wouldn't work if the spell they were trying to counter resolved first.

Yeah, you're right :) I thought you could counter something only after declaring and before resolving. I also thought repercussion would resolve instantly after kindle

@g3mini - In MTG, "respond" has a very specific meaning: "To cast an instant spell or activate an ability while another spell or ability is already on the stack. See rule 116.7."

I know, but it just feels weird that Repercussion could be countered as it makes it sound like it goes off instantly, if not at the same time

@g3mini I think you may have misunderstood something I said. You can only counter something after it is "declared" (cast/activated/triggered). This is exactly the same as what's going on with Repercussion: something (spell/activated ability/triggered ability) goes on the stack, then players get a chance to respond (counterspell/Safe Passage), then the "response" thing resolves first, because it is on top of the stack.

@g3mini If I understand right, you're mixing up triggered ablities and replacement effects. Triggered abilities (of the form "when/whenever/at...") use the stack and thus can be responded to. Replacement effects (most commonly containing "instead", like "if you would...instead") don't use the stack, they simply replace the original event as it happens.

I'm mixing up MTG English with normal English hehehehe

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text:
Can you Swerve Bioshift?
Since Bioshift targets a creature, THEN another one for the recipient of the counters, can I use Swerve to change the target? If so, which target can it be, the first or the second, or any?

I always found the wording on Swerve to be ambiguous if you don't read the rulings behind it. "With a single target" sounds like it's taking about what it is that you replace the original target with, not a condition on the spell that you must target. So it could be read as "Change the target of [target spell] with a single target" instead of "Change the target of [target spell with a single target]",

@Gendolkari It is indeed ambiguous. "With a single target" is a dangling modifier that could modify "target" or "target spell".

@Gendolkari I've complained about the same thing. It would simple enough to change "with a single target" to "that has a single target".

While I can understand the confusion, I don't think the wording is actually ambiguous, since "with" is not used with "change" in that context. I.e. if "with a single target" referred to "target", then it should have been "to a single target" or "Exchange the target (...) with a single target".

@tengfred right. If it was intended in the way Gendolkari and Rainbolt have suggested, it would probably have been worded as "Replace the target of target spell with a single target of your choice."

@tengfred, I do agree; if you read it carefully, you can realize that "Change the song with a different song" is invalid English. But it requires some extra processing to realize that. Hao Ye's wording would be quicker and easier to understand.

Just to expand on what Matt said, Bioshift has two targets, both of which must be declared at the time of casting. Even if a spell specifies that one effect happens after the other, like Biomantic Mastery, the targets must still be declared together and Swerve won't be able to target the spell.
This also applies to spells that have two separate effects that target, such as a Cryptic Command cast for its first and second modes. Cast like this it cannot be Swerve'd, but if it were cast for the first and third modes then it only has one target, and you can use Swerve.

You can only Swerve a spell with a single target. Bioshift has two targets (as it mentions "target creature" twice), so it cannot be Swerved.


text:
How are you supposed to fight a discard deck?
I get this is kind of a noob question, so bear with me. My friend plays a legacy discard deck, and he'll usually dark ritual or something to make me discard 3-5 cards in the first 3 turns, and by turn 5-6 my hand is empty. (More specifically he's running Griselbrand reanimator, so his hand is rarely empty.)
While this might not work against cheap aggro (I regularly win with RDW), I don't see how any other deck can really handle this. When he has a full hand and I'm limited to 1 new card per turn, which I have to either cast or lose thanks to specters, how am I supposed to ever catch up?
Yet at the same time I know discard isn't like auto-tournie-win, so I'm just not sure how people deal with it.

To give some info about my specific situation and the key cards I use, I am playing:

Legacy RDW with key cards being Stonewright / Lightning Mauler / Rakdos Cackler / Hellrider / Ash Zealot / Pyreheart Wolf / Ball Lightning / Trumpet Blast / Lightning Bolt / Pillar of Flame.

Legacy combo elves (Elfdrazi) with Priest of Titania / Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary / Ezuri, Renegade Leader / Llanowar Elves / Emrakul, the Aeons Torn / Seeker of Skybreak / Elvish Piper / Fierce Empath / Concordant Crossroads / a bunch of tutors / Vitalize.

My friend is primarily using Griselbrand Reanimator, using Griselbrand / Buried Alive / Animate Dead / Zombify / Dark Ritual / Cabal Ritual / Dark Petition / a bunch of tutors / Crypt Ghast and the death knell being Mind Twist (discard my whole hand) and Infest (kills all creatures in both my decks). On paper he wins using Sorin's Vengeance, Debt to the Deathless, Consume Spirit, and Exsanguinate, but Mind Twist is really what does it.

I'm not sure this is a duplicate: losing your whole hand is rather different from just having Thoughtseize ruin your early tempo.

Yes, exactly...that's my argument as well. I don't seem to have enough rep here to vote to reopen, but whatever.

Though TBH Hackworth's answer there is better than my answer here, by a mile.

Sure, I can do that.

I was confused about the meaning of "targeted discard" in the title of the other question. I thought it meant "discard spells that target a player", but it really means "discard spells that let you choose a card". Sorry about that. I think the information you've added distinguishes your question from the other.

http://meta.boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/1388/can-we-implement-an-easier-way-to-tag-magic-cards-in-posts

Against decks that rely on 3-8 precision cards to disrupt you but mostly consist of another strategy, I recommend these resources:

B&CG: How can I play around targeted discard? — general advice
Reid Duke: Thoughtseize You — to understand what your opponent is
doing

Against decks that are practically wall-to-wall discard, here are some techniques that may help:
Get "under" them
Play out your hand faster than they can rip it apart. This is what your red aggro deck is doing.
Rely on strong topdecks
One of the biggest weaknesses of discard decks: most discard cards are sorcery speed. Even once you're "hellbent," you'll usually be able to draw your card and play it on your turn. So you'll still be making land drops and you'll be able to cast most of the permanents and removal spells in your deck.
The worst thing about playing a dedicated discard deck is that half the cards in your deck just do nothing once your opponent is topdecking. So, focus your resources on taking out the cards of their that still have value — finishers, combo pieces, and engines of advantage.
Play out of your graveyard
With some exceptions, discard typically puts stuff in your graveyard. Flashback spells, reanimation effects, self-reanimators (like Gravecrawler).
Incidental Hosers
Some staple creatures are also, incidentally, discard hosers — for example, Wilt-Leaf Liege, Loxodon Smiter, and Obstinate Baloth.
Precision tools
This is a quality sideboard card:

You can drop it on turn zero, for free. It blocks all of Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy, Inquisition of Kozilek, Duress, and Hymn to Tourach. It's also a strong card against burn decks, many combo decks (e.g. Tendrils).

Leyline of Sanctity is pretty great but it requires either A.) luckily getting it in opening hand, or B.) buying 4 of them for quite a lot of money to improve odds and/or C.) splashing white to actually cast it.

Order Witchbane Orb. That's fucking awesome.

@Aerovistae The thing is you need a solution ASAP, while you still have a hand. I used Witchbane Orb a lot back when it was in Standard with Bonfire of the Damned and Rakdos' Return, but it's not great against these kinds of 1-drop discard cards. (Though, TBH, if your opponent's main victory condition is reanimator stuff, I'd be siding in 4x Leyline of the Void instead.)

I just don't want to spend the $70-$100 for 4x Leylines, even then I only have a % chance to have it in my hand and would otherwise be unable to use it.

If you have four lands in play and still have cards in hand, then your opponent's super-fast discard plan failed and you don't need to cast any protection. If your opponent kills your hand before you can cast a CMC 4 spell, then your protection will never hit the battlefield. So the Orb is useless in either case. A Leyline that you can never cast is slightly less useless thanks to the chance of an opening hand blowout.

@Aerovistae If money is a concern, that's really something you need to mention in the question. Leyline of Sanctity is an established sideboard card in competitive Magic (example1, example2), because it deals with both targeted discard and burn. Chalice of the Void fills a similar role, but is slower, more flexible, and can trip you up by countering your own spells.

I suppose that is true.

@Rainbolt- which is why it's priced upwards of 70$

@DrunkCynic Where do you take the $70 figure from? A simple google search places the price at $10-12 per copy, so even a playset would cost less than $50.

@Hackworth - Previous comment, made by Aerovistae, Dec 6 at 2049.

Magic is an expansive hobby especially when playing legacy

Cards that manipulate the top of your deck and instant speed draw can be valuable of you are relying on strong top decks.  Castle Vantress and Castle Locthwain are excellent ways to pull ahead in your topdecks.

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text:
What's the probability to start a game of Vintage Dredge with Bazaar of Baghdad in your opening hand?
I want to pick up Vintage Dredge in the card game Magic - The Gathering and I want to know the probability of starting with Bazaar of Baghdad in your opening hand.
We can assume that this is a 60-card deck with 4 Bazaar of Baghdad and 4 Serum Powder, and that we will mulligan aggressively for the Bazaar. Then we will perform the following procedure: we start by drawing 7 cards. After each draw, if the hand contains a Bazaar of Baghdad we are done. Otherwise, if the hand contains a Serum Powder, we use Serum Powder's ability to exile the hand and draw the same number of cards. Otherwise, we mulligan normally, drawing 1 fewer card. If we get to 1 cards without drawing a Bazaar we have failed. What is the probability of finding a Bazaar this way?

Possible duplicate of How do you calculate the likelihood of drawing certain cards in your opening hand?

This is not a duplicate. It is broader than the linked question because it allows for Serum Powder and mulligans.

@murgatroid99 I disagree. This question could have been answered using that question's answer, with different variations of hypergeometric distribution calculations. If anything, the linked question is more broad because it provides the process for getting to the answer.

That's not the issue here. The linked question specifically asks about the probability of seeing a specific card in an opening hand of 7 cards. And you can't actually use a just the methods described in that answer to answer this question because of how Serum Powder impacts the deck size and the way that impacts the probability distribution of different sequences.

What are the rules?  Can you trade a Serum card for a Bazaar card, so getting either one is a success?  What are the mulligan rules?  If we have the rules we can calculate the probability.

OK, I'm just going to edit the information from the answer into the question, so that we have a concrete scenario that we can calculate the probability of

@murgatroid99 The procedure you describe differs from the one the asker used in his own answer. It sounds like the asker actually wants the odds of having it on the first turn (possibly including a draw step). It's not obvious to me that the above algorithm is optimal in all cases. In particular, if you draw multiple Serum Powders in one hand, I'm not sure that exiling all of them is better than going down a card.

How is what I described different from what the answer described? And I never said it was optimal, just the one we are testing.

The first answer accounts for drawing on the first turn, which is not part of the above algorithm. It makes sense to account for this, because in practice drawing the card on your first turn is a success even if you didn't get it in your opener.

First, that's only true if you're on the draw, and second, that's not what the title of the question says, so I assumed it was simply an additional note in the answer.

Indeed. The correct answer has two parts, because it depends on whether you are on the play or the draw.

I approached this question numerically and drew one billion (1,000,000,000) sample hands.
My assumptions: The deck contains 60 cards, 4 of which are Bazaar of Baghdad and 4 are Serum Powder. No further assumptions regarding the deck building are required.
Then I draw the opening seven cards. If it contains at least 1 Bazaar, the hand is considered a hit. If I draw a Serum Powder, the hand is removed from the game and I draw the exact same number again. If I miss on both, Bazaar and Powder, than I take a mulligan (e.q. reshuffling the deck and drawing one card less).
This continues until I reach the point where I reshuffle a one-card-hand, since it was considered a miss and start the game with a zero-card-hand. In this situation I consider the somewhat new mulligan scry rule, which let's you scry one after mulligan. So even if I start with zero cards in hand, there is a chance that a Bazaar is in the top 2 cards of my library and (thanks to the scry) can be found within one draw step. That probability is also included in my end results.
My findings:

Probability of starting with a 7 card hand: 54.2 %
Probability of starting with a 6 card hand: 22.12 %
Probability of starting with a 5 card hand: 9.91 %
Probability of starting with a 4 card hand: 4.79 %
Probability of starting with a 3 card hand: 2.43 %
Probability of starting with a 2 card hand: 1.23 %
Probability of starting with a 1 card hand: 0.52 %
Probability of starting with a 0 card hand: 4.8 % (this means no Bazaar of Baghdad was found)
Probability of starting with a 0 card hand and Bazar on top (including scry 1): 0.9 %
Probability of complete failure: 3.9 %
Probability to hit: 95.2015011 %
Probability to hit with scry: 96.1029072 %

For the curious people, here is a plot how those probabilities converged:

You cannot mulligan to zero.

@NeilMeyer You can, it's just normally better to have any 1 card rather than none. Rule 103.4 defines the mulligan process and includes: This process is then repeated until no player takes a mulligan. (Note that if a player’s hand size reaches zero cards, that player must keep that hand.)

Have you tried repeating this experiment with "Mull to 0 before accepting the scry" replaced by "Mull to 1 before accepting the scry"? Intuitively speaking, if your hand is 1 card and it's not Bazaar then the chances of Bazaar being in the top 2 cards of a 59 card deck should be marginally better than the odds of Bazaar being in the top 2 cards of a 60 card deck.

@KamilDrakari That's a valid argument. I will do it

@Samthere while it is possible, it is inadvisable. As you are relying on the vancouver scry at that point, you are more likely to get what you want on the 59 cards in deck, than you are with all 60 by taking the one card hand.

I made a small edit already, but you should really move all of the parameters of the scenario that you're testing into the question (i.e. stop on Bazaar, use Serum Powder if available, mulligan otherwise), because they are part of the description of what information you are asking for.

I wonder -- suppose that you draw seven, and all four Serum Powders are in hand (and no Bazaar). Is it better to exile all four Serum Powders and draw another seven or to shuffle them in and draw six?

@Andrew Agreed, the situation would be highly unusual for one to specifically want to start the game with an empty hand rather than the one card already in hand; my point was that the rules do allow for it (which Neil had said they don't).

Could you post the source code of the simulation? I couldn't reproduce these numbers.

@rtime Late add but...would you redo this answer with the new mulligan rules being included?

In this answer, I consider the question that I believe the asker is most interested in: given optimal mulligan decisions, what is the probability of drawing at least one Bazaar in time to play one on your first turn? This answer accounts for all reasonable mulligan decisions, including scrying, and for the chance of drawing one in your first draw step on the play. This is in accord with the asker's own answer, but not necessarily with the explicit algorithm that was later added to the question.
(This answer does not address questions like whether you should exile important cards other than Bazaar using Serum Powder. It also assumes that the opponent does not interfere with your first draw.)
When you draw a hand, there are four parameters to consider:

The number of cards in your library (excluding those exiled by Serum Powder).
The number of Serum Powders left in your library.
The number of cards you're drawing.
Whether you're on the draw (and have a chance of drawing on your first turn).

When you draw a hand, if you hit a Bazaar, you're done. Otherwise, you have up to three choices:

Keep the hand and hope to draw Bazaar on your first turn. If your current hand size is less than seven, you get to look at two cards; otherwise, you only see one.
Mulligan and try again with a smaller hand size (unless you're already at zero).
Exile your hand and try again with the same hand size (only if you've drawn at least one Serum Powder).

Rather than work this out analytically, I wrote a Python script to brute-force it (with a little memoization):
#!/usr/bin/python3

from functools import lru_cache
from scipy.stats import hypergeom

INITIAL_LIBRARY_SIZE = 60
INITIAL_HAND_SIZE = 7
COPIES_OF_BAZAAR = 4
COPIES_OF_SERUM = 4

@lru_cache(None)
def prob(library_size, serums_in_library, hand_size, on_the_draw=False):

    # Probability of drawing at least one Bazaar
    prob_bazaar = 1 - hypergeom.pmf(0, library_size, COPIES_OF_BAZAAR, hand_size)

    if hand_size > 0:
        # Probability of success on a mulligan
        prob_if_mulligan = prob(library_size, serums_in_library, hand_size-1, on_the_draw)
    else:
        prob_if_mulligan = 0

    if on_the_draw:
        # Probability of drawing Bazaar on the first draw step given that we haven't drawn a Bazaar yet.
        # Accounts for seeing an extra card as a result of the Vancouver mulligan.
        prob_if_keep = 1 - hypergeom.pmf(0, library_size-hand_size, COPIES_OF_BAZAAR, 2 if hand_size < INITIAL_HAND_SIZE else 1)
    else:
        prob_if_keep = 0

    # Split into cases depending on the number of Serum Powders drawn.
    prob_if_no_bazaar = sum(
        # Probability of drawing exactly `serums_drawn` copies of Serum Powder.
        hypergeom.pmf(serums_drawn, library_size-COPIES_OF_BAZAAR, serums_in_library, hand_size)

        # Choose the strategy with the best chance of success
        * max(
            # Mulligan, recycling drawn cards.
            prob_if_mulligan,

            # Use Serum Powder. Exile all cards in hand, which may include more than one Serum Powder.
            # If we draw no Serum Powders, ignore this strategy.
            prob(library_size-hand_size, serums_in_library-serums_drawn, hand_size, on_the_draw) if serums_drawn else 0,

            # Keep the hand and hope to draw on the first turn.
            prob_if_keep
        )

        # For each possible number of Serum Powders drawn
        for serums_drawn in range(0, 1 + min(serums_in_library, hand_size))
    )

    return prob_bazaar + (1 - prob_bazaar) * prob_if_no_bazaar

print(
    prob(INITIAL_LIBRARY_SIZE, COPIES_OF_SERUM, INITIAL_HAND_SIZE, False),
    prob(INITIAL_LIBRARY_SIZE, COPIES_OF_SERUM, INITIAL_HAND_SIZE, True),
)

The results I got were:

94.17% if you're on the play.
95.03% if you're on the draw.

These numbers are significantly lower than t.rathjen's. I double-checked the first figure by running a few million simulations, and it seems correct. I suspect that t.rathjen's simulations may have a small bug. If I've made a mistake in the script, I hope that someone will point it out. I haven't tried it out yet with high-precision arithmetic.
I played around with the script to see if you should ever do a regular mulligan if you draw Serum Powder, and the answer seems to be no. Even if you draw all of your Serum Powders at once, it's better to exile all of them for a single free mulligan than keep going with a smaller hand size but Serum Powders in the deck. That is, the algorithm described in the question does seem to be optimal: you should always use Serum Powder when possible and always mulligan down to one card (but not zero) or until you find a Bazaar.

You seem to be computing a different thing than what the question and the other answer describe. The other answer specifies a particular procedure, but you seem to be accounting for the fact that sometimes exiling multiple serum visions is not the best move, and sometimes doing something else. I think that's what that max call is doing. Overall, the intention behind some parts of the code is not clear, particularly the uses of the hypergeom API and the big calculation in the return statement, so it's hard to tell whether those are correct.

More generally, I think this answer would benefit from a textual description of the algorithm and probability calculations that you are doing in this program.

I've commented the code. This procedure may differ from the other answer's procedure if that procedure is suboptimal. The hypergeom.pmf method computes the probability mass function of a hypergeometric distribution at the given value with the given parameters. SciPy API documentation is available here: https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/tutorial/stats.html. I would be happy to provide more detailed explanation of specific parts of the algorithm.

Thank you for adding the comments. It looks correct to me, so I don't know why you would be getting different numbers.

Realize this comment is late to the party, but the assumption in this answer, is that the play is optimal.  How far does the OP's mulligan procedure differ from this one?  How far from optimal is his simple procedure, vs. this potentially very difficult to memorize procedure?

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text:
How do you stop this combination?
Consider the following combination of cards in the Standard Format of Magic the Gathering, encompassing Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, Dragons of Tarkir, Magic Origins, Battle for Zendikar, and Oath of the Gatewatch.
In Play: Zada, Hedron Grinder and Seeker of the Way
Player casts: Arcbond and Valorous Stance, each targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder. Order is irrelevant.
Player Casts: Wild Slash targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder.
Result: Zada creates a copy of Arbond, Valorous Stance, and Wild Slash for each creature the Player Controls. Since Prowess has been triggered for Seeker of the Way thrice, Ferocious is satisfied for Wild Slash: Damage can't be prevented this turn. Each Creatures is Indestructible.
A cascading, near uninterruptable chain of Arcbond reflected creature damage will deal infinite damage to each player and creature on the battlefield. Seeker of the Way's lifelink will keep the Player alive until everything else is dead.
What can stop this combination from ending the game in a draw?

Am I correct assuming that you are choosing the first mode for Valorous Stance? And what makes you think this would end in a tie, when one player is gaining life and each other player is only losing life?

Correct, the indestructible option. If the damage can be redirected off the opponent, the loop is uninterruptable but no one dies. Additionally, Tainted Remedy could be a thing somewhere.

This question is unclear. You ask for ways to stop a combo, but then you eliminate the two most obvious answers (removal and counter spells) for no other reason than they are "easy". What's wrong with the easy answers?

@Rainbolt The  scope of possible answers was narrowed to push the question further towards the edge case. The desire was to highlight possible responses to the combination of effects, if it can get past counter magic, and if it can get under creature destruction effects.

I agree with Rainbolt that preemptively eliminating some answers doesn't improve the question any, though I don't think it makes the question unclear. Instead, you could just upvote answers that provide more interesting solutions.

@murgatroid99 The intention was to drive towards the interesting answer, avoiding 'dies to doom blade.'

My point is that that's unnecessary. History shows that someone will post a more interesting answer, and upvotes will float those to the top.

This is essentialy a puzzle to solve, not an actual problem someone encountered. Also not the first question of this type. Maybe we should have a wikitag for those?

@tsuma534 Admittedly, it was a bad puzzle. Question was meant as a trial balloon to recreate the magic puzzles originally found in the Duelist, written by MaRo.

Puzzling Stack Exchange is probably a better place for your puzzles. They already have a tag for Magic: the Gathering puzzles, and the questions I have seen have been fairly well received. I realize that there can be overlap between sites, but I don't see a reason to create a new tag for puzzle questions when we already have a site dedicated to them. I think that Board and Card Games would just end up with all of the lower quality puzzles.

I have edited the question to remove the part that was making it more of a puzzle.

Assuming that everything described in the scenario resolves, and nobody does anything to stop it, the player with the combo wins. Once the copy of Wild Slash resolves, the triggers play out as follows:

Arcbond targeting Seeker of the Way triggers. Seeker of the Way deals 2 damage to you, your opponent, and Zada. Since Seeker of the Way has lifelink, you also gain 6 life
If either player has 0 life, they lose the game.
Arcbond targeting Zada triggers. Zada deals 2 damage to you, your opponent, and Seeker of the Way.
If either player has 0 life, they lose the game.
Goto step 1.

Throughout this sequence, the original copy of Wild Slash is sitting at the bottom of the stack, waiting to resolve. So, even if it was possible to counter a triggered ability in Standard, that would be insufficient to stop the combo unless the opponent could do so twice.
If the opponent controls Tainted Remedy, then the last part of step 1 would instead say "you also lose 6 life", so in most cases, this would cause you to lose instead of win.
This sequence can be stopped at any time by removing one of the creatures, either by exiling it (e.g. with Complete Disregard), or by returning it to its owner's hand (e.g. with Force Away), or even by flickering it (e.g. with Eldrazi Displacer).
Stepping back further, as you mention, the combo can be broken by countering either the original or the copy of the Arcbond or the Valorous Stance, or by destroying one of the creatures in response to Valorous Stance.

Yeah; Return to hand was thing I missed in my caveats, but a fair out. Eldrazi Displacer is also well represented.

@DrunkCynic You can also force them to sacrifice one of the creatures, with crackling doom or a similar card.


text:
Rally The Ancestors and 3 Lilianas
I cast Rally The Ancestors and bring back 3 Liliana, Heretical Healer and 2 Jace Vryn's Prodigy and 1 Clever Impersonator from the graveyard. How many zombie tokens can I get? Am I allowed to make the Jace die first? There's no other nonland permanents on the battlefield, do I have a target for Clever Impersonator?

By the way, you can link directly to cards just by writing [mtg:Card Name] in your post.

Is there a specific reason you're using Jace for this example?

Short Answer
You can only get 1 Zombie token. One Jace and 2 Lilianas die simultaneously. And the Clever Impersonator can't copy anything, so it dies immediately.
The Details
I'll go through those in reverse order: First, Clever Impersonator has a ruling that says

If Clever Impersonator enters the battlefield at the same time as another permanent, it can’t become a copy of that permanent. You may only choose a nonland permanent that’s already on the battlefield.

So, 3 Lilianas, 2 Jaces, and 1 0/0 Clever Impersonator enter the battlefield. Then state-based actions are checked. The specific relevant rules are

704.5f If a creature has toughness 0 or less, it’s put into its owner’s graveyard. Regeneration can’t replace this event.

704.5k If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”

So, when you apply those, the result is that the Clever Impersonator dies from the first rule, and 2 of the Lilianas and 1 of the Jaces die. Then, the living Liliana's ability triggers 4 times (twice for the other Lilianas, once for the Jace, and once for the Clever Impersonator), and each of the others' trigger 3 times.
Then, you have a total of 10 copies of that ability on the stack. However, we can ignore the ones from the dead Liliana. That's because she is no longer on the battlefield, so you can't choose to exile her, which means that you don't get a zombie. So we are left with the 4 abilities from the one that survived.
First, one of the abilities resolves. You exile her and return her to the battlefield, and you get one Zombie token. Then the next one resolves. But the Liliana, Heretical Healer creature is no longer on the battlefield, so you can't exile her. So none of the rest of the abilities give you a Zombie. Liliana has a ruling that backs this up:

If multiple nontoken creatures you control die, then Liliana, Heretical Healer’s ability will trigger that many times. However, since Liliana can be exiled and returned to the battlefield only once, only the first ability to resolve will create a Zombie token. The other abilities will resolve but won’t do anything.

Liliana's Ability
To see exactly why Liliana's ability works the way it does, we can break it down into parts. First, it is a Triggered Ability, with trigger condition

Whenever another nontoken creature you control dies

and effect

exile Liliana, Heretical Healer, then return her to the battlefield transformed under her owner's control. If you do, put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.

Now, the effect part can be further split up. Rule 117.12 says

Some spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities read, “[Do something]. If [a player] [does or doesn’t], [effect].” or “[A player] may [do something]. If [that player] [does or doesn’t], [effect].” The action [do something] is a cost, paid when the spell or ability resolves. The “If [a player] [does or doesn’t]” clause checks whether the player chose to pay an optional cost or started to pay a mandatory cost, regardless of what events actually occurred.

This means that the ability's effect can be split into the cost:

exile Liliana, Heretical Healer, then return her to the battlefield transformed under her owner's control

and the (sub) effect:

put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.

This is important because rule 117.3 says

A player can’t pay a cost unless he or she has the necessary resources to pay it fully. [...]

Now, you might ask "What about the Lilianas in the graveyard? Why can't I exile them to get more Zombies?" The answer to that depends on a few different rules. Rule 112.6 says

Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield. The exceptions are as follows

(None of the exceptions apply). And the rules regarding zone-change triggers say

603.6c Leaves-the-battlefield abilities trigger when a permanent moves from the battlefield to another zone, or when a phased-in permanent leaves the game because its owner leaves the game. These are written as, but aren’t limited to, “When [this object] leaves the battlefield, . . .” or “Whenever [something] is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, . . . .” An ability that attempts to do something to the card that left the battlefield checks for it only in the first zone that it went to. An ability that triggers when a card is put into a certain zone “from anywhere” is never treated as a leaves-the-battlefield ability, even if an object is put into that zone from the battlefield.

603.6d Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions. Continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities must be treated specially. Leaves-the-battlefield abilities, abilities that trigger when a card leaves a graveyard, abilities that trigger when a permanent phases out, abilities that trigger when an object that all players can see is put into a hand or library, abilities that trigger specifically when an object becomes unattached, abilities that trigger when a player loses control of an object, and abilities that trigger when a player planeswalks away from a plane will trigger based on their existence, and the appearance of objects, prior to the event rather than afterward. The game has to “look back in time” to determine if these abilities trigger.

From these rules, we can see that Liliana's ability only functions while she is on the battlefield, and it triggered based on her existence before she died.
Then, rule 201.4 says

Text that refers to the object it’s on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that name, regardless of any name changes caused by game effects.

The use of the word "object" here is important, because rule 400.7 says

An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule

This means that the "Liliana, Heretical Healer" in the ability's text refers to the Liliana that was on the battlefield while the ability is on the stack, and that reference does not transfer to the object she becomes when she moves to the graveyard.
Therefore, you can only choose to exile Liliana to get a Zombie if she is still on the battlefield, as a creature, when the ability resolves.


text:
Border Token Placement in Battle for Rokugan
The rulebook says that when placing tokens you can only place one token on a border with an ajacent province. Is this limit of one token per player or one token total?
For example, I place a token on a border attacking an opponents province, can they also place a token on the same border attacking my province? Or does the fact I've already placed a token prevent this?

Aww I miss the good ol' L5R... regarding your question I guess that you can have as much tokens as you can as long as each fits the "on a border with an adjacent province" condition

The rules say:

Only one combat token can be placed on each border.

No qualification or exception is made to this statement, so I see no reason to not interpret it as only one total. Furthermore, none of the battle examples show more than one token on each border.

My group interprets battle token placement as follows: the owner of a province can only place 1 combat token on a border when attacking, but adjacent provinces can attack you back. If you interpret the rule as @user30903 suggests, attacking becomes a defensive move, as you can limit other people from attacking you by attacking them. This seems like an incorrect interpretation of the rules, since, if you want to make a defensive move, then defend. If you want to attack, then attack, but one single token (regardless of its value) shouldn't be used to attack and prevent an attack at the same time.
I have found that BFR is pretty clear about its rules, if it's not expressly forbidden, you can't make up a rule to prevent it.

The rules state "Only one combat token can be placed on each border. Combat tokens are always placed facedown. (The exception to both of
these rules is the blessing token, which is explained later.)" which offers no alternative rules for placing while defending. Therefore unless playing with houserules I believe the accepted answer to be correct


text:
Magic the Gathering: Hero's Blade vs Lightning Bolt
My opponent has Hero's Blade on the battlefield. He plays Yisan, the Wanderer Bard and attempts to attach Hero's Blade to it. In response, I cast Lightning Bolt and attempt to deal Yisan 3 damage and kill it before Hero's Blade is able to attach. My question is, am I able to do this? Can I cast Lightning Bolt so that its effect will resolve AFTER Yisan enters the battlefield but BEFORE Hero's Blade is able to be attached?

Yes, you can. Hero's Blade's ability triggers "Whenever a legendary creature enters the battlefield under your control," which means that the order of events goes like this:

Your opponent casts Yisan
Yisan finishes resolving and enters the battlefield. This causes the Hero's Blade's ability to go on the stack. At this point, Yisan is on the battlefield
You respond to the triggered ability with your Lightning Bolt.
The Lightning Bolt resolves, and kills Yisan.
The triggered ability resolves, and does nothing.

As a side note, the Equip ability can only be activated "whenever you could cast a sorcery," so your opponent would not be able to Equip the Hero's Blade in response to your Lightning Bolt.


text:
Can I counter Rite of Replication by destroying the copied creature?
Let's say my friend casts Rite of Replication on one of his creatures. Right after that, I play an instant--Flesh to Dust--and destroy his creature. Would that counter the sorcery?
If not, would I have to cast the instant right when he casts Rite of Replication?
Or say something like "before you cast that spell I'm destroying your creature..."

Note that you can't respond with "before you cast that spell..."  Normally, by the time you know what your opponent is casting, it is already cast, or at least too late to do something before he cast it.  But you can do something after he casts it, and before it resolves.

Yes, the Rite of Replication would fail if you destroy the creature it's targeting. It plays out like this:

Your opponent casts Rite of Replication targeting their creature.

You cast Flesh to Dust in response to Rite of Replication.

Your Flesh to Dust resolves, and their creature dies.

Your opponent's Rite of Replication tries to resolve, but since the creature it targeted is no longer on the battlefield, it doesn't resolve because of rule 608.2b, which says

If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that's no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal [...] If all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn’t resolve. It’s removed from the stack and, if it’s a spell, put into its owner’s graveyard.


text:
Kolaghan, The Storm's Fury dragon attacking ability
Does Kolaghan, The Storm's Fury's ability trigger for every dragon attacking or any dragons attacking? For reference it says "Whenever a dragon you control attacks, creatures you control gain +1/+0 until end of turn". If I attack with two dragons, do my creatures get +2/+0?

Kolaghan's ability triggers for each Dragon attacking, so if you attack with two Dragons, your creatures get +2/+0 until end of turn.
Rule 603.2c says

An ability triggers only once each time its trigger event occurs. However, it can trigger repeatedly if one event contains multiple occurrences.

Attacking with two Dragons is two instances of "attack with a Dragon," so after they are both declared as attackers, the ability triggers once for each.
There is no ruling on Kolaghan specifying this, but Beastmaster Ascension has the same wording, and a ruling that says

If you attack with multiple creatures, Beastmaster Ascension's first ability triggers multiple times.

This contrasts with abilities like the one on Lightmine Field, which triggers when "one or more creatures attack." Lightmine Field's ability would only trigger once when two Dragons attack, because that is a single instance of "one or more creatures" attacking.

The wording can also be contrasted with the "one or more" phrasing such as on Lightmine Field.

Good point. I've added a mention of that.

That was my interpretation as well, contrasted against the usage of "any X" I'd seen elsewhere. Fortunately it didn't alter the final outcome.

I added an example of a ruling on an ability with that wording.

Also, if you somehow wind up with two copies of Kolaghan in play on your side (say, via Mirror Gallery) then each one's ability will trigger for each attacking dragon, and so (assuming no other dragons are attacking) your creatures will get +4/+0 until EOT.


text:
In Monster My Neighbor, how is the Rumor card resolved?
In Monster My Neighbor the Rumor card states:

Each player draws 1 card from the hand of the player to their right.

How is this card resolved?
I assumed that the player playing the card would draw a card from the player to their right, and then each player, clockwise, would follow, but the rules doesn't clarify this.

If someone with sufficient rights could create and put a monster-my-neighbor tag for this, instead of reference, that would be swell. :)

Based on this thread on BGG this card is resolved simultaneoously. I'd say you can resolve it in turn order if you want to, just set aside newly drawn cards.


text:
If I sacrifice a Sultai Emissary to a Gurmag Drowner's Exploit ability, which triggered ability resolves first?
I need to know what happens first if I exploit a Sultai Emissary with a Gurmag Drowner. Do I look at the top 4 cards in my library and choose a card to add to my hand first or do I manifest the top card of my library first?

You can automatically link to cards in your post using the syntax [tag:Some Card]. Another user already did that for you here, but I thought I'd mention it since you're new. Welcome to B&CG!

possible duplicate of What order do triggered abilities happen in if multiple things trigger at the same time?

I disagree that that is a duplicate, because I think it was not obvious that both abilities trigger at the same time.

You choose what order they happen in, because you control both abilities, and they both trigger from the same event. Rule 603.3b says

If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.

Specifically, here's how it plays out:

Gurmag Drowner enters the battlefield, and its Exploit ability triggers.
The Exploit ability resolves, and you choose to sacrifice Sultai Emissary.
Now, since the last time you checked you chose to sacrifice Sultai Emissary, so Gurmag Drowner's second ability triggers because you exploited a creature, and Sultai Emissary's ability triggers because it died. You choose in what order they go on the stack.
First, you resolve whichever ability you chose to put on top of the stack. Then you resolve the other one.


text:
When I cast an encoded cipher spell, can I encode the copy on another creature?
When my creature successfully attacks with an encoded cipher card attached, does the copy also have cipher? Wouldn't I be able to encode the copy of the original spell onto a new creature, having 2 creatures encoded, 1 from the original cipher and 1 from the encoded copy?

The first rule for Cipher says

Cipher appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents two abilities. The first is a spell ability that functions while the spell with cipher is on the stack. The second is a static ability that functions while the card with cipher is in the exile zone. "Cipher" means "If this spell is represented by a card, you may exile this card encoded on a creature you control" and "For as long as this card is encoded on that creature, that creature has 'Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may copy the encoded card and you may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.'"

When you first cast the spell with Cipher from your hand, it is a card, so you can encode it on a creature. When that creature deals combat damage to a player, you can cast a copy of the encoded spell. That copy is not represented by a card, so you can not encode it on a creature.

This is subtly mentioned in the reminder text as well: "Then you may exile this spell card encoded..." and "...cast a copy of the encoded card..." If it's a copy, it's not a card, so you can't do that.

Incidentally, even if you could encode the copies it would not do anything, because when you exiled them they would cease to exist and therefore would be unavailable to be copied when the new encode triggers occurred.  The wording limiting encode to the original card is merely to remove confusion and misunderstandings.

UNDERCITY PLAGUE
Sorcery
Taget player loses 1 life, discards a card, then sacrafices a permanent.
Cipher  (Then you may exile this spell CARD encoded on a creature you control.  Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a COPY of the encoded CARD without paying its mana cost.)
This wording infers that the controller is copying a CARD not a SPELL so.....
YES, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO ENCODE IT TO AS MANY CREATURES AS YOU WANT BECAUSE YOU'RE COPYING A CARD NOT A SPELL

When you make a copy of a card, you don't get a card. A "card" has to be represented by a physical Magic card.

This is wrong. You may be casting a copy of that card, but the copy itself is not a card, it is at that point a spell on the stack. Without anything to exile it can not be exiled encoded on the card.


text:
When does Skullcage have its effect activated?
I am new to Magic, so forgive me if this is common knowledge.
Does the opponent's draw step happen before or after the Skullcage condition is checked?

If you're new, I would suggest reading the Basic Rulebook. It covers a lot of the basics of playing Magic, though I can't find anything in it that covers this specific question.

@murgatroid99 Will do once I get the chance

Skullcage triggers during your opponent's upkeep step, which is before their draw step. The order of steps in a Magic turn is

Untap
Upkeep
Draw
Precombat Main
Combat
Postcombat Main
End


text:
Would Panharmonicon give my Myojins extra divinity counters?
If I control a Panharmonicon and I play a Myojin of Seeing Winds (or any of the Myojins for that matter), would the Myojin enter the battlefield with two divinity counters instead of just one?

Panharmonicon will not double the divinity counters on any of the Myojins because the ability that adds a divinity counter is not a triggered ability. Myojin of the Seeing Winds' ability says

Myojin of Seeing Winds enters the battlefield with a divinity counter on it if you cast it from your hand.

This is a static ability that creates a replacement effect of the type described in rule 614.1d that modifies how the creature enters the battlefield.

No, you will not get an extra counter.

603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger condition or event], [effect]. [Instructions (if any).]”

If an ability does not start with "when" or "whenever" or "at", then it is not a triggered ability.
Note that certain abilities, like Saga abilities, have the word "when" in the rules text; not written on the card.

The difference between the card Myojin of the Seeing Winds and cards like Noxious Gearhulk is the wording on the card.
Easier way to explain it is,  look at Dark Depths, the wording on it is:

Dark Depths enters the battlefield with ten ice counters on it.

And it triggers "When it has no counters". If the first part was a triggered ability and triggered when it entered the battlefield, then Dark Depths would enter the battlefield with no counters on it, the trigger would go on the stack (and panharmonicon would make it trigger an additional time if it was a creature or artifact (let's pretend it applies to lands for the sake of the explanation), panharmonicon would make it get an additional 10 ice counters on it which would also go on the stack, the game would then check that it in fact has no counters, so the transformation ability of it would go on the stack, making it so that dark depths would be simply a 0 mana 20/20 indestructible.
The wording on Myojin, which is the same as the one in dark depths is not a "When it enters", meaning, it doesn't check if it can resolve on entering, the wording is "it enters with(...)", meaning the card already comes into play with it and doesn't gain it when it enters.


text:
What happens if Krosan Verge does not have a land of the specific type to pull?
If I crack a Krosan Verge to search for a basic plains and a basic forest, and there is not a basic forest in the deck, what happens?

This doesn't directly address your question, but I want to point out that Krosan Verge doesn't specify that the lands are "basic".

You can get just a plains from your library without also finding a forest.
If a card instructs you to search for something specific (in this case, "a Forest card" and "a Plains card"), you can "fail to find" and simply take nothing out of your library. If you are searching for two or more cards, as in this situation, you can find one but not the other, so in the specific case you describe, you can get just a plains from your library and put it onto the battlefield.
This is covered by rule 701.18b:

If a player is searching a hidden zone for cards with a stated quality, such as a card with a certain card type or color, that player isn’t required to find some or all of those cards even if they’re present in that zone.


text:
Can white tokens be used to pay for white mana in a convoke cost?
Can white tokens be used to pay for white mana in a convoke cost?
I know that tokens with summoning sickness can tap for convoke, but I was wondering if these tokens are considered "white". For example, if I want to cast Ephemeral Shields and I have two untapped white soldier tokens, can I tap both tokens to cover the colorless and the white in the mana cost?

What do you mean by "pay for its island mana cost?" Nothing in your question involves blue cards (or tokens), and Islands produce mana, they aren't a type of mana.

I removed the unclear sentence about islands. I assumed that it was probably just a typo and you meant plains, in which case the remainder of the question already covers it. If it wasn't a typo and you need specific help with something involving islands, just ask a new question.

Yes, you can use white tokens to pay for white mana costs with Convoke. The rule for Convoke says

Convoke is a static ability that functions while the spell with convoke is on the stack. "Convoke" means "For each colored mana in this spell’s total cost, you may tap an untapped creature of that color you control rather than pay that mana. For each generic mana in this spell’s total cost, you may tap an untapped creature you control rather than pay that mana." The convoke ability isn’t an additional or alternative cost and applies only after the total cost of the spell with convoke is determined.

And a relevant rule regarding tokens says

110.5b The spell or ability that creates a token may define the values of any number of characteristics for the token. This becomes the token's "text." The characteristic values defined this way are functionally equivalent to the characteristic values that are printed on a card; for example, they define the token's copiable values. A token doesn't have any characteristics not defined by the spell or ability that created it.

So, when a spell or ability creates a White Soldier creature token, it is functionally equivalent to a creature card that is White and a Soldier. This functional equivalence extends to paying for white convoke costs.

Yes, a creature token on the battlefield is a creature.

"Creature" means "creature permanent".

109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn’t include the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.

"Permanent" means "card or token on the battlefield".

110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. [...]

So "creature" refers to both creature cards on the battlefield and creature tokens on the battlefield.


text:
If a judge disallows "Direct" spells, can they still be played?
I'm a bit confused on what to do, here.  My judge specifically disallows "Direct" spells, and his Judgement type is "Eject".  I thought that his disallowing "Direct" spells would just prevent us from using them, but if that's the case, he'll never Eject someone for cheating with those spells because they couldn't be cast in the first place, right?
Per the rulebook, page 6: "Special Effect: Any special effect of the judge.  Some have specific limitations for spells or unique judgements."
OK, that's fine. If we go to page 13 to the section on Judgement, it says "Eject: A more severe punishment, this fighter is ejected from the round.  The fighter's card is turned over, is removed from the round, and has no impact on the result for that round."
So are the players allowed to play "Direct" type spells on fighters, in order to get them forcefully ejected?  Or does the judge's disallowing of those spells mean that they can't be played at all?

Based off a cursory glance through the rules:
If a spell type is disallowed by a judge, it may not be used for its normal effect.
Using your example, given that Direct spells are disallowed, you would not be able to play Direct Spells while that Judge is active. So you wouldn't be able to get a fighter ejected by playing direct-type spells on them. Similarly, if you have a judge that disallows support spells, you can't Dimension Door them away as Dimension Door is a support spell and thus disallowed.
If a card is played that is disallowed by the current judge (excluding "Foul Play!" in round 3) or was played incorrectly, it is discarded and its effect ignored (see page 16, under Disallowed Use of Cards).
All spells played on a fighter contribute to their mana count.
Looking at page 13 shows an example where the only spells cast were Enchant spells (immediately before judgement, all face-down cards played on fighters are turned face-up). The judge is Lawty, mana limit 10 and intervention of Dispel. The Orc only has a Might enchantment applied, which places his mana at 4, well below the limit. The skeleton, though, has both Might and Giant Growth, which gives him 14 mana - over the limit. So the skeleton would be dispelled due to Lawty's intervention. If Lawty's intervention type were Eject instead, the skeleton would've been ejected.


text:
Granting 1 point to opponent after saying GO
In Cribbage play, people tell me that the rule for granting an opponent one point when you say "Go" has been done away with in tournament play. Is this true?

Everyone who marked this as a duplicate needs to learn to read! The (apparent) duplicate is about "what is Go?", whereas this question asks "has Go been removed from tournament play?" They are completely different questions!


text:
Will I die if I lose enough life to kill me from an effect that also heals me?
What happens if I dip below 1 life from an effect that will also heal me after the damage is dealt?
For example:

If I bolt myself while I'm at 3 or less with a Soulfire Grand Master on the board?

Will I die while at 3 or less if I -2 Ajani Vengeant, targeting myself?

Will I die if a creature with my Armadillo Cloak on it damages me?

Will I die if I target myself with enough damage to 'kill' me with a Corrupt?

and so on and so forth.
You get the idea.
I'm pretty sure there's a relatively simple answer that I just don't know about.

TL;DR: You survive if the damage and the life gain happen during the resolution of a single spell or ability. If the damage happens in one ability, and the life gain happens in a later one, you lose in between.
In all of your situations except for the third (the one with Armadillo Cloak), you will survive. This is because in all of those cases, in every way that matters, the damage and life gain happens at the same time. In the Armadillo Cloak situation, you take the damage, then Armadillo Cloak triggers, then you die before you get the life.
First, a subtle point that is relevant here is that having 0 life does not immediately cause you to lose. The way it works is that there is something called State-based actions, which are checked whenever any player has priority (basically, whenever a player has an opportunity to cast spells or activate abilities). This happens all the time, but the important point for this question is that it does not happen in the middle of resolving a spell or ability. One of those State-based actions is to check each player's life total; if they are at 0 life, they lose.
I'll go through each case in more detail:
Soulfire Grand Master
Soulfire Grand Master's relevant ability says

Instant and sorcery spells you control have lifelink.

and the rules for lifelink say

Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that source’s controller, or its owner if it has no controller, to gain that much life (in addition to any other results that damage causes).

So, when your Lightning Bolt (with lifelink) resolves, it deals you 3 damage (which causes you to lose 3 life) and it also causes you to gain 3 life. When the spell resolves and state-based actions are checked, you are still at 3 life, so you survive.
Ajani Vengeant
The relevant ability here says

Ajani Vengeant deals 3 damage to target creature or player and you gain 3 life.

This is the same situation as before. When the ability resolves, it deals you 3 damage (which causes you to lose 3 life), and also causes you to gain 3 life. Again, by the time it resolves and state-based actions are checked, you have 3 life, so you survive.
Armadillo Cloak
This is the interesting situation because it is different from the others. Its relevant ability is

Whenever enchanted creature deals damage, you gain that much life.

This is different because it is a triggered ability. Rule 603, in part, says

603.1 Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as "[Trigger condition], [effect]," and begin with the word "when," "whenever," or "at." They can also be expressed as "[When/Whenever/At] [trigger event], [effect]."
603.2 Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability's trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn't do anything at this point.
603.3 Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that's not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 116, "Timing and Priority." The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it's countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

The condition on Armadillo Cloak's ability is that the creature deals damage. The effect is that you gain that much life. So, when you get attacked by an opponent's creature enchanted with your Armadillo Cloak, it plays out like this:

The creature deals combat damage to you. Armadillo Cloak's ability triggers (from the second rule).
State-based actions are checked. You die because you have 0 life.
If you were still alive, Armadillo Cloak's ability would be put on the stack.
If you were still alive, Armadillo Cloak's ability would resolve, and you would gain the life.

As you can see, you are dead well before Armadillo Cloak would be able to help you. (Note: the ordering between 2 and 3 is specified in rule 704.3)
Corrupt
Corrupt's text says

Corrupt deals damage equal to the number of Swamps you control to target creature or player. You gain life equal to the damage dealt this way.

You would survive this for the same reason you survive the first two: both the damage and the life gain happen before state-based actions are checked.


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MTG Commander Clarification on Triggered Abilities
I’m playing a 4 person game, and I’m in position #1.   I cast: “Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse” with the activated ability that states:  “whenever you draw your second card each turn, create a 2/2 green Cat creature token.
I do nothing else and pass my turn.
Player #2, 3, or 4 plays “Burning Inquiry” during their main phase which states: “each player draws 3 cards, then discards 3 cards at random”.
Does my Jolrael “cat token” effect trigger if “Burning Inquiry” resolves?
Or must the second drawn card occur before my End Step?

Yes, you get to create a Cat token.
Note that the ability is a triggered ability, not an activated ability. This is an important distinction.

Handling Triggered Abilities

603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger condition or event], [effect]. [Instructions (if any).]”

603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority.

So with a triggered ability; any time the condition is met; the ability will trigger. It doesn't matter how long ago you cast Jolrael, or how many times it has triggered before. It only matters that Jolrael is on the battlefield under your control at the time that you are drawing your second card on a turn.
The trigger condition refers to "each turn", which means that it can be on any turn, not only on your own turn. If players 2, 3, and 4 each cast a Burning Inquiry on their turn; then you would end up creating 3 Cat tokens, one on each of their turns.

First Gendo is right, this isn't an activated ability but a triggered one (I do think this was more a mistake in the wording you used, rather than a lack of understanding on the abilities, particularly since you had the right word in the question, so I won't address this part any more.
I think you may be thinking about this wrong, It sounds like you're thinking it only applies to your turn, or that it might be working on some idea of per round, if this was how Jolrael worked, her ability would be written "whenever you draw your second card on each of your turns, create a 2/2 green Cat creature token."
Before you played Jolrael on your turn, you had drawn your first card. If you had drawn another card on your turn, for any reason, Jolrael would have seen that second card drawn and give you a cat token, but you ended your turn without drawing a card, so your cards drawn this turn is back to 0 when your opponent's turn starts. Your opponent cast a spell that makes you draw 3 cards. Cards in magic are drawn one at a time (Rule 121.2), so you will draw the first one, your first that turn then the spell continues and you draw your second card for the current turn. The game sees this happen, but does nothing about it yet, this is covered in the Comprehensive Rules for triggered abilities (emphasis mine):

603.2 Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability’s trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn’t do anything at this point.

603.3 Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.” The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it’s countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

So with these rules in mind, the game recognizes Jolrael's condition was met, but Burning Inquiry isn't finished resolving. Everyone draws their third card then randomly discards three from their hand. This discard doesn't change the fact that 3 cards were drawn. At this point your opponent, the Active Player, will get priority since it is his turn, but this is the time the game puts Jolrael's ability on the stack per rule 603.3 and give you a cat token when it resolves.
Players are more likely to draw cards on their own turn, particularly when drawing more than one, since single draws on your own turn become the second card after your draw for turn, but all that Jolrael cares about is that you drew card number two for the current turn.


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Adventure mechanic
I've got some questions regarding Adventure mechanic. I understand the basic rules of this mechanic, but I've got a few more detailed questions.

If some effects allow you to find a sorcery or instant in your library, hand or graveyard, can you find adventure card?
When some effect lets you cast instant or sorcery from your graveyard, can you cast adventure?
If after using adventure I play creature from exile, and this creature is returned to my hand, can I use adventure mechanic again?

Question 2 is a duplicate: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/48801/can-i-cast-adventures-from-my-graveyard

Question 3 is a duplicate: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/49916/return-a-creature-with-an-adventure-to-hand-can-i-cast-the-instant-sorcery-agai

The answer to question 1 is at the bottom of this answer: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/a/50747/7948

Also for question 1 see https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/49471/do-adventure-cards-count-towards-number-of-instant-and-sorcery-cards-in-your-gr for a related problem that would have a similar conclusion.

Please check out the suggestions for answers that where listed and if they don't provide answers update the question so only one is being asked and ask additional ones in a new question,

Please check my edit and verify that I properly understood your question. You may also want to add more information for why some of the linked questions don't answer your question. You'll probably want to update the title as well.

"But I found information that such effects work in this case and you can use them on Adventure cards." Please share your finding so we have something concrete to discuss.

This question is like a game of telephone. After two clarification edits, it says things the original question never said. @Hackworth you are asking about a statement that does not come from the original question author, so you are unlikely to get a useful answer. I believe this question has changed too substantially, so I rolled it back to its original content.

The link to this "found information" is in the first comment below my questions.


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Leyline of Combustion w/ two Pandemonium triggers
If player A controls two (2) Pandemonium and player B controls Leyline of Combustion, how would this resolve. Player A has a creature enter the battlefield and has it deal damage to player B twice using each Pandemonium trigger. Does player B have Leyline of Combustion deal 0, 2 or 4 damage to player A?
The main concern is does the creature target the player.

The Leyline deals 2 damage twice, for a total of 4 damage.
The current oracle text of Pandemonium's ability is:

Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, that creature's controller may have it deal damage equal to its power to any target of their choice.

This ability has a target, so it can trigger Leyline of Combustion's ability.
The exact sequence of events looks like this:

The creature enters the battlefield under player A's control. Each Pandemonium's ability triggers.
Player A puts one of the Pandemonium triggered abilities on the stack and chooses player B as the target. Player A controls the ability and player B is the target, so player B's Leyline's ability triggers.
Player A puts the other Pandemonium triggered ability on the stack and makes the same choices. Player B's Leyline's ability triggers again.
Player B puts each of the Leyline triggered abilities on the stack.
Each of the Leyline triggered abilities resolves dealing 2 damage to player A, for a total of 4 damage.
Each of the Pandemonium triggered abilities resolves, making the creature deal damage equal to its power to player B.

Thank you for the clarification and quick response.

As Murgatroid99's answer says, Leyline of combustion will trigger twice, doing 2 instances of 2 Damage.
The reason wording is the way it is on Leyline of Combustion is because of cards like Arc Lightning or Fireball spells which target more than one thing all at once - though you are targeting more than one thing that would trigger Leyline of Combustion in these cases, the targeting happens all at once, so the Leyline is only triggered one time. In the case of the Pandemonium here, the two Pandemoniums are separate, each going onto the stack and targeting separately, and each triggering the Leyline.
If Leyline of Combustion had said whenever you or a permanent you control becomes the target, it would count each target, not each instance of targeting, and Arc Lightning would trigger it up to 3 times.

What is the relevance of this answer to the question? The question doesn't ask why the card is worded that way, and it doesn't ask about spells or abilities with multiple targets?

@murgatroid99 SE is a knowledge base, not just a direct question and answer, the goal is to get the asker, and anyone else who reads, to know how a thing works, but also why it works that way - the one or more wording on leyline is core to the reason this question was asked, and understanding that wording matters - which is there because of single multi target spells and abilities.


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Inalla, Archmage Ritualist and Mistbind Clique interaction?
If I play a Mistbind Clique, I have to sacrifice it unless I exile another Faerie I control (and the Faerie will then return when Mistbind Clique leaves the battlefield).
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist has "Whenever another nontoken Wizard enters the battlefield under your control, if Inalla, Archmage Ritualist is in the command zone or on the battlefield, you may pay 1. If you do, create a token that's a copy of that Wizard. The token gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step."  Mistbind Clique is a Faerie Wizard.
If I have sufficient mana available, and Inalla is in the Command Zone, would the timing of triggers work so I can make a token copy of the Mistbind Clique and have the token champion the original each time the original Mistbind Clique enters the battlefield?

Yes, you can do this.
Both Mistbind and Inalla have triggered abilities that trigger at the same time. So the next time a player would get priority, you can put them both on the stack in the order of your choosing. Importantly, neither triggered ability targets, so you are not making any decisions about them when you put them on the stack.
So you put Mistbind on the stack first, and then Inalla. Inalla resolves first, so you create a token copy of Mistbind. This causes another triggered ability to trigger and go on the stack. Mistbind token's triggered ability resolves, so you choose a Faerie to champion, choosing the original Mistbind. Then, the original Mistbind's ability finally resolves, and you choose to not sacrifice anything, which would cause the Mistbind to be sacrificed, but nothing happens because it's already gone.

603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority.

603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, the abilities are placed on the stack in a two-part process. First, each player, in APNAP order, puts each triggered ability they control with a trigger condition that isn’t another ability triggering on the stack in any order they choose.


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Kaya's ghostform and hanged executioner
So on MTG Arena today, I enchanted my Hanged Executioner with Kaya's Ghostform.  Hanged Executioner reads in part:  "{3}{W}, Exile Hanged Executioner: Exile target creature."
I activated this ability to exile both HE and one of my opponent's creatures, expecting both to go into exile and then Kaya's Ghostform to return HE to the battlefield.  However, HE remained in exile.  Never saw the poor guy again.  Am I misunderstanding something, or was this an arena mess up?

I have seen a number of posts on r/MagicArena in the last couple of days that Kaya's Ghostform is bugged on exile

Yes, Kaya's Ghostform should return Hanged Executioner to the battlefield.
Kaya's Ghostform's ability says

When enchanted permanent dies or is put into exile, return that card to the battlefield under your control.

Exiling Hanged Executioner to pay the cost to activate its ability puts it into exile, which triggers Kaya's Ghostform's ability and should put the Hanged Executioner back on the battlefield.
If Arena did not do that, that is an error on Arena's part. I suggest that you make the developers aware of this bug by following the instructions on this page.

Thank you! I submitted the error.  Apparently a lot of people have had issues with Ghostform not triggering.  Wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking something.


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How Does Syr Konrad Interact With Living Death?
I have two scenarios in which Syr Konrad, the Grim will be involved from two different perspectives, and I'm curious to see how Living Death will interact here.
Scenario 1: Syr Konrad is in play with a full board of creatures for each player. I cast living death. I'm fairly certain he sees all the other creatures die with him, but does he also see the creatures being removed from the graveyard as per Living Death's temporary "exile" effect for the creatures that are about to be brought into play from the graveyard?
Scenario 2: Same as above, except Syr Konrad is already in the graveyard. What does he see, if anything, once living death is cast in a board state full of creatures? My assumption tells me he doesn't trigger at all in this scenario but I am not 100% certain.

Scenario 1: Syr does indeed see all. Living Death does three things in order, one after the other. First it exiles all creatures from graveyards. At this stage, Syr is on the battlefield, so he sees this happen, and triggers from the creatures leaving your graveyard. Next, all creatures are sacrificed. Syr does indeed see all creatures that die at the same time he does, and he triggers. This is explicitly mentioned on his Gatherer page:

If one or more creatures die at the same time as Syr Konrad, its first ability triggers for each of those creatures.

Finally, creatures are brought back from exile to the battlefield, but 1) Syr is in the graveyard, and 2) he doesn't care about that in the first place.
Once Living Death is finished, all the triggers are put on the stack (once for each creature exiled from your graveyard, and once for each creature sacrificed, apart from Syr himself), and your opponents are probably quite unhappy with all the life they are about to lose.
Scenario 2: Syr's ability only works while he is on the battlefield. And all creatures that go into or out of graveyards do so well before Syr enters the battlefield. So he won't trigger.

Sir, I believe you have made a friend of mine very happy with that first scenario. I've been trying to figure that part out for a bit and couldn't come to any solid conclusion on my own.

It might be worth addressing the fact that Syr Konrad cares about everyone's creatures dying, but only about creature cards leaving your graveyard.

@murgatroid99 Right you are. Small detail I didn't catch myself.


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Is 27 lands good in a Commander deck?
My deck is a ramp deck. It has a lot of creatures under 3 Mana. It is a mono green deck with elves and hydras.

27 lands is VERY light for commander, only slightly over 1/4 of the deck.

It is, but it could be manageable if the deck has low curve and plenty of mana creatures or artifacts. Wouldn't go lower, though.


text:
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade vs Kalia of the Vast and friends
If Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is on the field, and Kaalia of the Vast attacks me, when Kalia's effect puts a creature onto the battlefield from the hand, is it countered by Lavinia's second effect? What happen in case of Mayael the Anima and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim?

Lavinia affects Golos's activated ability, but not Kaalia's ability or Mayael's.
Both Kaalia and Mayael put creatures onto the battlefield directly. They do not have you cast anything, so Lavinia's ability is never relevant.
Golos's activated ability, on the other hand, allows you to play cards without paying their mana costs. Rule 701.13b defines what exactly that means:

To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.

So, if you exile any nonland cards, you can cast them without paying their mana costs. This exactly what Lavinia is looking for, so her last ability will counter any spells cast this way.
Of course, if you exile lands with Golos, you can still play them as lands. In this case you are not casting anything so Lavinia's ability doesn't do anything.

Note that when casting spells without paying their mana costs, players can still pay any additional costs that may apply, and if they pay mana to do so Lavinia's ability will not counter the spell because some mana was spent on it.

I think you should clarify that it affects Golos' second ability. Golos' ETB trigger is not affected.

OK, I added a mention of that but I think it's pretty clear that Golos's first ability is not relevant here.

@murgatroid99 never assume always be explicit, when dealing with new players that distinction may not be made.

It's important to make some assumptions, so that an answer can focus on the core issue of the question. I could spend all day going into detail about targeting, hexproof, the stack, and activating and resolving abilities, but I think I can safely assume that the reader understands most of that, and I think that including it would ultimately detract from the answer.

Also maybe worth explicitly noting that you can still play land cards via Golos's activated ability.

And of course, with Protection having made a return, things are influenced by that as well.


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Does activating Priest of the Forgotten Gods ability trigger Korvold's last ability twice?
If I use Priest of Forgotten Gods' ability to sacrifice two creatures, does it proc Korvold, Fae-Cursed King's ability twice? My doubt stems from the fact that the sacrifice of the creatures occurs simultaneously.
I think it should proc twice since I believe to have seen Mayhem Devil's ability proccing twice under similar circumstances, but I'd appreciate some explicit reference to relevant rules if possible.

If it wouldn't be triggered, the wording would read "if/whenever one or more [things happen]".

Specifically, Korvold's ability would read "When(ever?) you sacrifice one or more permanents", triggering once for the sacrificing, instead of once per permanent.

Yes, activating Priest of the Forgotten Gods' ability and sacrificing two creatures simultaneously triggers Korvold's last ability twice.
Rule 603.2c says this:

603.2c An ability triggers only once each time its trigger event occurs. However, it can trigger repeatedly if one event contains multiple occurrences.
Example: A permanent has an ability whose trigger condition reads, “Whenever a land is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, . . . .” If someone casts a spell that destroys all lands, the ability will trigger once for each land put into the graveyard during the spell’s resolution.

In this case, the single event of activating Priest of the Forgotten Gods contains two occurrences of sacrificing a creature, so Korvold's ability that triggers "Whenever you sacrifice a permanent" triggers twice.

There are cases that are more complicated, however. For instance, if something triggers on scrying, then three instances of scry 1 will trigger it three times, but one instance of scry 3 will trigger it only once.

In general, the numeric parameter of a keyword ability or action does not mean "do something N times".

Is it worth mentioning "Whenever one or more..." triggers, or are they too self evident?


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Can I play lands from the graveyard more than once in a turn with Crucible of Worlds?
So I have Crucible of Worlds out and I summon then sacrifice an Evolving Wilds from my graveyard. Can I then replay Evolving Wilds from my graveyard that turn or will it have counted as playing my one land for the turn?

If you look at the Gatherer page for the Crucible, it tells you that

Crucible of Worlds doesn’t change the times when you can play those land cards. You can still play only one land per turn, and only during your main phase when you have priority and the stack is empty.

(Emphasis mine.) So the lands played from the graveyard do not get a separate land-playing quota.

No, you cannot play the Evolving Wilds for a second time in that turn.
The ability on Crucible of Worlds says

You may play land cards from your graveyard.

Playing land card this way is the same exact action as playing land card from your hand normally. So the same restrictions apply and you can only take that action once per turn. Once you play the Evolving Wilds from the graveyard, you can't play the same card from the graveyard again that turn, and you can't play another land from your hand that turn.

Thank you for that I appreciate it. Made my game take longer thinking about it lol

If you played Evolving Wilds on that same turn; that counts as your land play for the turn, and Crucible of Worlds doesn't allow you to play an extra land.
However, the land you get from activating Evolving Wilds does not count as playing a land; Evolving Wilds has you "put a land onto the battlefield". That is not the same as "play a land".

You are still restricted by the one land per turn rule, it doesn't matter where that land is played from (note put into play is different, such as effects like Rampant Growth)
This can be modified by cards that allow more land plays, Fastbond, Zuran Orb and Crucible were a combo at one time to allow infinite replaying of lands that had effects when you played or sacrificed them (a combo that would probably have added Field of the Dead to it)
Short answer, you still only get one land play a turn, from hand or from graveyard, unless you have something that changes that like Fastbond, Explore or Rites of Flourishing. All Crucible does is change where 305.1 lets you play land from.

305.1 A player who has priority may play a land card from their hand during a main phase of their turn when the stack is empty. Playing a land is a special action; it doesn’t use the stack (see rule 116). Rather, the player simply puts the land onto the battlefield. Since the land doesn’t go on the stack, it is never a spell, and players can’t respond to it with instants or activated abilities.


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Can Oko's Elk ability stop nonbasics from being affected by Magus of the Moon?
I have a Magus of the Moon, opponent turns it into an Elk that loses all abilities with Oko, Thief of Crowns. Are nonbasic lands still affected by the magus?

This question seems pretty straightforward - Magus of the Moon loses all abilities, so it no longer has the ability that affects nonbasic lands.  Perhaps you could explain a bit more of your thought process to help us see if there is more to explain?

As my answer shows, that's not actually how it works. And the fact that it's non-obvious even to more experienced players makes it a perfectly reasonable question, in my opinion.

I feel like other than perhaps rare exceptions; questions that require 613.1 to answer properly are the only rules questions in MTG that I can't answer without consulting the rules.

No, turning Magus of the Moon into an Elk will not stop it from affecting nonbasic lands.
Both of these effects in question are continuous effects, so their interaction is described by the Interaction of Continuous Effects rules section, commonly called the "layer system". The first part of that section is the most relevant here:

613.1. The values of an object’s characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object. For a card, that means the values of the characteristics printed on that card. For a token or a copy of a spell or card, that means the values of the characteristics defined by the effect that created it. Then all applicable continuous effects are applied in a series of layers in the following order:

613.1a Layer 1: Copy effects are applied. See rule 706, “Copying Objects.”
  613.1b Layer 2: Control-changing effects are applied.
613.1c Layer 3: Text-changing effects are applied. See rule 612, “Text-Changing Effects.”
613.1d Layer 4: Type-changing effects are applied. These include effects that change an object’s card type, subtype, and/or supertype.
613.1e Layer 5: Color-changing effects are applied.
613.1f Layer 6: Ability-adding effects, ability-removing effects, and effects that say an object can’t have an ability are applied.
613.1g Layer 7: Power- and/or toughness-changing effects are applied.

Magus of the Moon's effect applies at layer 4: it changes the type of nonbasic lands to Mountain. Oko's effect applies at layers 4, 5, 6, and 7: it turns the permanent into an Elk Creature, makes it green, removes its abilities, and makes it a 3/3. So, as 613.1 says, the continuous effects are applied in that order.
First, Magus of the Moon turns nonbasic lands into Mountains and Oko's effect turns the Magus into an Elk. Second, Oko's effect turns the Magus green. Third, Oko's effect removes the Magus's ability. And fourth, Oko's effect turns the Magus into a 3/3.

You may be wondering, then, how Magus of the Moon also ends up removing abilities from nonbasic lands, if its effect only applies in layer 4. The answer is rule 305.7:

If an effect sets a land’s subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type. It loses all abilities generated from its rules text, its old land types, and any copy effects affecting that land, and it gains the appropriate mana ability for each new basic land type. Note that this doesn’t remove any abilities that were granted to the land by other effects. Setting a land’s subtype doesn’t add or remove any card types (such as creature) or supertypes (such as basic, legendary, and snow) the land may have. If a land gains one or more land types in addition to its own, it keeps its land types and rules text, and it gains the new land types and mana abilities.

I'm confused. Wouldn't, the next time SBA's are check, the game not see a rule turning nonbasics into mountains, which would cause nonbasics to return to being whatever they were before? Magus of the Moon's ability doesn't still apply when he leaves the battlefield, so why would it still apply when the relevant text is not on the battlefield?

State-based actions are a totally separate thing from the rules quoted here. Continuous effects are applied continuously and in a set order; they don't get re-evaluated based on the result of their evaluation.

But when the rules text for Magus of the Moon goes away, the lands must return to normal. For instance, if he's destroyed, the lands do not remain mountains because the ability altering them is gone. Why do they still remain changed when the ability is gone but Magus of the Moon is still on the battlefield (IE, elk with no abilities)?

Because that is how continuous effects interact. This is what rules section 613 describes. Continuous effects are applied to the game state in the order specified by the layer system. In this situation, in the partially computed game state that the Magus's effect is applied to, the Magus still has the ability because that effect is applied on layer 4, before the layer 6 effect that removes the ability.

So if Magus of the Moon dies the lands go back to normal but if he is turned into an elk with no abilities the lands are still mountains?

Yes. That is what the answer says. I don't know what else you're expecting here.

@Jokus since I had the same confusion about this interaction, I want to add rule 611.3b which states The effect applies at all times that the permanent generating it is on the battlefield or the object generating it is in the appropriate zone. This means that, since Oko ability doesn't remove the object (Magus), the effect is not removed and applied as stated in this answer.

@Narmer In general it would not be correct to draw that conclusion from that rule. In many cases removing a permanent's abilities do stop those abilities from having any effect. The situation in the question is simply one of the exceptions for the reasons described in this answer.

@murgatroid99 Yes, I was indeed referring to this specific situation. The fact that both I and Jokus had doubts on your answer is exactly because in general removing abilities stops their effect


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Does the Changeling ability count for Happily Ever After?
In Magic: The Gathering, there is a card that allows you to win automatically if you meet 3 specific conditions, one of which this question is about. On the card Happily Ever After, it states that if there are six or more card types among permanents you control and/or cards in your graveyard (and the other conditions), then you win the game, but I am unsure if specific creature types count. The MTG Gatherer states that supertypes (such as legendary) do not count but I do not know if creature types count.

Please do not edit the answer into the question. The answers still exist on the page, and you can upvote them and/or accept one to show that they helped you.

Ok. Sorry for not giving credit.

Giving credit isn't the main point I was making. This is a question and answer site, and we keep the questions and answers separate and distinct. The question section of the post should contain just the question, and the answer section should contain just the answer. Since the answers are sorted based on upvotes and whether they are accepted, the most helpful ones are clearly visible to future viewers, so it's not beneficial to replicate that information in the question.

Sorry for not doing that. I'm new to the site, but that shouldn't be an excuse, and I will not do what I had done again. Thank you for helping, correcting my mistake (or just discrediting), and telling me! I will not do that again.

@murgatroid99 Do you mean "edit the answer into the question"?

No, creature types do not count as card types here.
One of the Gatherer rulings for Happily Ever After says

The card types that could appear among your permanents and cards in your graveyard are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, and sorcery. Certain older sets contain tribal cards as well. Supertypes, such as legendary and basic, aren’t card types.

No, that won't work. Creature types are subtypes and not card types.

205.2a The card types are artifact, conspiracy, creature, enchantment, instant, land, phenomenon, plane, planeswalker, scheme, sorcery, tribal, and vanguard. See section 3, “Card Types.”
205.3a A card can have one or more subtypes printed on its type line.
205.3m Creatures and tribals share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called creature types.

In regular games, you'll only see artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery, and finally tribal (which is never encountered alone, but always in combination with another card type).