T.10 - Replacement and Prevention Effects


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T.10.1- Replacement and prevention effects are similar to continuous effects. They watch for a type of event and replace it with a different one, modify it in some way, or prevent it from happening. [CompRules 1999/04/23]

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T.10.2- Replacement effects can be identified by the word "instead". [CompRules 1999/04/23]

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T.10.3- Prevention effects can be identified by the word "prevent". [CompRules 1999/04/23]

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T.10.4- Replacement and prevention effects wait around for the next event which they apply to, then do their thing. When they are applied, they get "used up". For this reason, people commonly say that they act like a "shield" (using the science fiction idea of an energy shield that protects a spaceship). [CompRules 1999/04/23] Note that static abilities which provide replacement or prevention do not get "used up" like this; they are in a sense continually re-creating the shield. [DeLaney 2000/01/22]

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T.10.5- Replacement and prevention effects can say they apply to more than one event, such as "prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn". They are not "used up" until the appropriate number of events are replaced or prevented. [CompRules 1999/04/23]

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T.10.6- Replacement and prevention effects generated by a spell, activated ability, or triggered ability often have a duration, such as "this turn". When this duration expires, the effect ends even if it is not "used up". [D'Angelo 1999/05/01]

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T.10.7- If an event is prevented or replaced, then the event never happens. For example, if damage is prevented, the damage is never dealt. And if a destroy effect is replaced by regeneration, the creature was not destroyed. [CompRules 1999/04/23]

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T.10.8- Each replacement effect gets only one opportunity to apply to each event. For example, a player controls two copies of a permanent with the ability "instead of dealing their normal damage, creatures you control deal double that damage." A creature that normally deals 1 damage will deal 4 damage, not just 2, and not an infinite amount. [CompRules 1999/04/23] For another example, if a creature has both Pariah and Treacherous Link on it, then there is no loop. The damage always ends up where it would have been if neither had been there. [D'Angelo 2000/01/02]

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T.10.9- Regeneration is a replacement effect. Regenerate means "The next time this turn the permanent would be destroyed, instead remove all damage from it, tap it, and (if it is in combat) remove it from combat." [CompRules 1999/11/01]

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T.10.10- If two or more replacement or prevention effects attempt to modify the same event in contradictory ways, the player who is being affected, or who controls the affected permanent, or who owns the affected card that is not in play chooses the order to apply them. [CompRules 1999/04/23] + [D'Angelo 1999/05/01] For example, if one effect says "If a card would be put into a graveyard, instead remove it from the game" and another effect says "If this card would be put into a graveyard, instead shuffle it into its owner's library", then the controller of the card that was going to the graveyard would decide which to apply first.

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T.10.11- Two or more replacement effects can interact without contradicting each other. For example, if one effect says "For each 1 life you would gain, instead draw a card" and another says "Instead of drawing a card, return target card from your graveyard to your hand", both effects would combine regardless of the order they came into play. Instead of gaining 1 life, the player puts a card from their graveyard into their hand. [CompRules 1999/04/23]

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T.10.12- Many prevention effects require you to choose a "source". A source is any permanent, any spell on the stack, or any card or token referred to by a spell or ability on the stack. [CompRules 1999/11/01]

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T.10.13- Some spells and abilities have replacement abilities that modify themselves. Any self-replacement is applied before any external replacements. This modifies rule T.10.11 slightly. [Rules Team 2001/05/01]

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T.10.Ruling.1- Replacement and prevention effects must exist before the appropriate event occurs. They cannot go back in time to change something that has already happened. [CompRules 1999/04/23]

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T.10.Ruling.2- If an effect is modified by a replacement effect so that the effect gives contradictory instructions, such as "put this card in the graveyard and in your hand", then all contradictory parts of the effect are ignored. [WotC Rules Team 1997/10/06]

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T.10.Ruling.3- Replacement effects can be applied to any costs paid when announcing a spell or ability. [D'Angelo 1999/05/01]

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T.10.Ruling.4- If you play a spell or ability that generates a replacement effect that looks for something, it looks for exactly that something. For example, if you use a Circle of Protection: Green to prevent green damage from a specific attacking Craw Wurm and someone responds by using Thoughtlace to change that Craw Wurm blue, then the damage will be from a blue Craw Wurm so it will not be prevented. [Bethmo 1999/03/22]

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T.10.Ruling.5- Replacement effects do not check whether or not the new action can be completed. They make the replacement any time they apply. For example, a card that replaces "lose 1 life" with "remove 1 card from your library" will make the replacement even if you have no cards in your library. [CompRules 1999/11/01]

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T.10.Ruling.6- If a replacement alters something in a card's effects that happens before an "If you do", then the "If you do" now refers to the altered activity. For example, if a card says "Whenever X, you may draw a card. If you do, do Y" and another card says "If you would draw a card, do Z instead", then the end result is that you do Y if you do Z. [Rules Team 2001/08/01] If the original action was not optional and the replacement puts in a non-action or prevents the action in the first place, then you cannot do the action and so the "If you do" does not happen at all. [D'Angelo 2001/08/15]

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Note- Look under specific card entries for details on how specific replacement abilities work.

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Note- Also see Damage Redirection, Rule G.12.

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