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Turn a Face Down Card Face Down Again

With the return of Morph in Khans of Tarkir, this seems like an first-class time to go back and review some of the more common and uncommon situations you might run in to with face-downward creatures!

Confront-downward Cards in Full general

morph token wotc
"Morph" is a reminder.
This card has no name.

Morph is an power that lets yous pay 3 to cast the card face-down. While the card is face up-down, it is a 2/ii creature with no name, color, creature blazon, abilities, mana price, etc. The converted mana cost of a face-down creature is 0 since it has no mana cost. Morph is only an selection if yous're casting the spell. If you're putting it on the battlefield, you cannot put it onto the battleground face-down. Morph is an alternate cost, so you cannot combine it with other alternate costs. For instance, yous could not cast a confront-down creature for gratis if you control an Omniscience. But cost increases or reducers can still utilize to the spell, since you're still casting it. You tin wait at whatsoever face-down spell or fauna you lot control at any time.

Each card with Morph has the ability to be turned face-up past paying a price (mostly by paying mana, just some cards take a Morph cost of "Discard a card" or "Reveal a white card from your hand"). To turn a animate being face up-up, you reveal the face up-down side (revealing the Morph price), and so pay the Morph cost and turn it face up-upward. This is a special action (like playing a land): it does not use the stack and cannot exist responded to. This means your opponent cannot try to Stupor your face-downward creature in response to it existence turned face-upwardly: by the time they go priority, it has been turned face-upwardly. You tin plow a face up-down creature face-up any fourth dimension you have priority.

Even though turning a confront-down creature face-upwards does not apply the stack, whatever triggered abilities that trigger when it's turned face up-up do employ the stack. This includes abilities like Rattleclaw Mystic'due south triggered ability. It is not a mana power (since information technology is non triggering off of another mana ability), so information technology will employ the stack.

When a face-downwards creature is turned face-upwardly, information technology's still the same permanent. If you started your turn with the creature under your command and yous plow it face-up, it tin can attack that turn: information technology doesn't regain "summoning sickness" subsequently it'south turned face-up. Whatever counters on the animate being will remain on information technology once information technology's turned face-up, and any auras and equipment volition remain fastened as well.

Turning a face-down creature face up-upwards does non remove information technology from gainsay. If you attack with a face-down creature, turn it face up-upward, and information technology has defender, it will go along attacking. Having defender simply prevents it from being declared as an attacker. Giving an already-attacking creature defender won't remove it from gainsay. Players no longer become priority between combat damage beingness assigned and gainsay damage being dealt. It is no longer possible to put damage on the stack and and then turn your Wall of Deceit face up-up and effectively accept a 2/5 creature: you either need to turn it face-upward before combat damage is assigned and dealt, or get out it face up-down.

Turning a face-down creature confront-up doesn't change any spells or abilities targeting it, though the spells or abilities may go illegal on resolution.  If you attack with a confront-down creature and it's targeted by a Devouring Light, it'due south nevertheless the same attacking creature even if yous turn it face-up and volition still exist exiled. Withal, if it's targeted past something like Doom Blade and, when information technology'south turned face-upward, it'southward a black creature, Doom Blade would be countered on resolution since its only target is at present illegal.

Turning a confront-downward creature face-up is a i-way street: unless the card has some mode to turn itself face-downwards over again (similar Wall of Deceit or Vesuvan Shapeshifter), you lot can't turn it confront-down once y'all've turned it confront-up. Y'all could render it to your mitt and then recast it confront-down, but you can't just turn it face-down while it'southward on the battlefield unless some spell or power allows you.

If a face-downward creature would go to whatever other zone except from the stack to the battlefield, it is revealed to all players. This is to confirm that the face-downwardly animal did indeed have Morph and you didn't try to sneak an extra Forest onto the battlefield as a face-down brute. In addition, at the end of each game, we reveal each face-downwardly creature for the same reason.

You also need to maintain the guild the face-downwardly creatures entered the battlefield. Yous cannot move them effectually and play "iii card monte" to hide the social club your face-downwards creatures entered the battlefield or to confuse which creature is which if information technology was face-up and was turned face-down.

Confront-downwardly Creatures and Bile Blight

Permit's say you have a bunch of face-down brute and your opponent decides to Bile Blight one of them. Did you lot just lose your confront-down army? Nope, you didn't. A face-down creature has no name, and cannot share a name with another beast with no name. While the face-down creature that was targeted by the Bane will die, your other face-downwards creatures volition not be affected.

Face-downwardly Creatures and Plough to Frog

Let'southward say that your opponent casts Turn to Frog on your face-downward fauna? Well, more often than not what yous'd expect: your face-downward beast becomes a one/i blue Frog with no abilities. But what happens if you try to turn it face-up? Well, this is where things become a little weird. Remember, as stated above, if y'all want to turn it face-up, you lot need to reveal the Morph cost and so pay that cost. Only since it's affected by Plough to Frog (and has no abilities), when you turn the face-down fauna confront-up, there is no Morph cost to exist paid, so you're unable to pay the Morph price and cannot turn it face-up.

Let's change the situation a petty bit. Let'southward say you lot take i of the Future Sight morphs that wouldn't be a brute when it'southward face-up, like Lumithread Field, plus a Humility. What happens if you want to turn information technology face up-up now? Well, when you lot reveal what the Morph cost would be, yous meet the Field is not a animate being, so Humility doesn't utilise to information technology, so it has a Morph cost that tin can be paid and you can turn the Field face up-upward.

Zoetic Cave

The Cave is kind of a weird card especially, since information technology's a land while face up-upwardly. We're going to take a look at two situations.

You have a Courser of Kruphix on the battleground, and a Zoetic Cavern on height of your library. What are your options? Well, you tin play the Cavern like normal as your country drop for the turn, merely you cannot bandage it face-down. When you cast a spell, the beginning affair yous practice is put it on the stack and see if you're allowed to cast information technology. To cast the Zoetic Cavern from the pinnacle of the library, start you turn the Cavern face-downward and put it on the stack, and the game checks to see if you lot're allowed to cast it. The Courser simply lets y'all play lands from the superlative of your library, it won't let you cast spells. Since zippo else is letting you cast a creature menu from the top of your library, you won't be able to bandage the Cavern confront-down with the Courser on the battlefield.

Oddly enough, if you accept a Garruk's Horde on the battlefield, you tin play the Cave face up-down from the top of your library (yous put the Cavern on the stack face-downwardly, the game sees you're casting a animal spell, and the Horde allows that).

Secondly, let's say you have a confront-downward Zoetic Cave and everyone's favorite carte Claret Moon on the battlefield and you want to turn it face-up. What happens at present? Just similar before, when you reveal it to bear witness the Morph price, the game sees it'due south a nonbasic land, so Blood Moon applies to it, makes information technology a Mountain, and removes all other abilities. Since information technology no longer has a Morph price, you tin can't pay it, so you won't exist able to turn the Cave face-upwards with the Claret Moon on the battlefield.

Face-downwards Creatures and Clone

Let'southward say that you want to Clone a face-downwards fauna. What do you get? You lot're going to go a face-upward 2/2 with no name, creature blazon, abilities, color, etc. The of import thing to note here is that it is confront-up: yous cannot endeavor to plough information technology confront-upwards, since information technology is already face-upwardly, then you'll merely be stuck with a boring 2/ii.

Face-down Creatures and Split up Second

You have a face-down creature creature on the battlefield, and your opponent casts Sudden Shock targeting it. Can You turn it confront-up in response? Yes. Turning a face up-downwards animal face up-up is a special action. It is not an activated power or casting a spell, so it can be washed even if there's a spell with dissever second on the stack. Fifty-fifty ameliorate, since split second doesn't stop triggered abilities from going on the stack, if your face up-down animate being has a triggered ability (like Willbender or Voidmage Amateur), you could alter the target of their Sudden Shock or even counter it.

Face up-downward Creatures and Restoration Angel

Let's say y'all take a random face-downwards creature and cast Restoration Angel. With the Angel's triggered ability, you lot target your face-down creature. What happens? Since the face-down creature left the battlefield, it'south turned confront-upward. When it returns to the battlefield, information technology'southward a new permanent that has no retentivity of its previous life, and goose egg is telling you lot to plough it face-down, so it will return face-upwards. This tin can exist a cheap manner to plow it face-up. A combo in Modern involves using the Restoration Angel to turn an Akroma, Angel of Fury face-upwardly faster than normal.

However, you will not get any "When this card is turned face-up" triggers. It's non on the battlefield when it'south turned face-upward, so you will not get any of those triggers. You can't use the Angel to get a Brine Elemental trigger for a discount, for instance.

Confront-down Creatures and Ixidron

Ixidron is one of the few ways that you can turn a creature without Morph confront-down. If a face-down creature doesn't have a Morph toll when it's revealed, then it tin't be turned face-up, so near creature will exist stuck face-downwards until they leave the battlefield.

An additional note: the double-faced cards from Innistrad block have no face-downwards side, so Ixidron volition practise nothing to them: they'll remain on whichever side is currently beingness revealed.

Face-down Creatures and Mirrorweave

If you lot thought things were weird before, only wait until you run into what happens with Mirrorweave! For this set of examples, we'll assume that you control a face-down Exalted Affections and a Trained Armodon.

If you cast Mirrorweave on the confront-down beast, the result volition be like to what happened if you Cloned a face-downward creature – the Armodon will be a face-up 2/2 with no proper noun, creature type, mana price, etc.

Just if you bandage Mirrorweave targeting the Armodon, things get a fiddling weird. The game applies re-create furnishings like Mirrorweave in layer 1, just it doesn't utilize the face-down condition until after that. So initially, it would appear that Mirrorweave has no effect on the face-down creature – the confront-down brute is still a 2/2 with no name, creature types, mana cost, etc. Only if you endeavor to plough the face up-down fauna face up-upward, the game sees that it's a copy of the Armodon. Since it's a copy of the Armodon when the face up-down side is revealed, it doesn't accept a Morph cost, so you cannot try to plough it confront-up.

Just allow'due south say that instead of targeting the Armodon, you target a confront-up fauna with Morph, like Ruthless Ripper. If you reveal the face-down beast at present, y'all see that it does take a Morph cost, and so you can choose to turn your face-down fauna confront-up by revealing a black card from your hand. When the effect of Mirrorweave wears off at the finish of plough, it will turn into its normal face-upwards self (in this case, the Exalted Angel).

Illusionary Mask

I occasionally get questions about Illusionary Mask and what exactly it does. For most players out there, you can skip this section, but if you really want to know what the Mask does, go along on reading.

We're going to break this carte du jour upwards into two parts: what happens when y'all actuate the ability, and what happens when it's on the battlefield. When you activate the Mask's ability, you lot pay X. Information technology's very of import that you lot notation what color of mana yous used to activate the Mask'due south ability (a slip of newspaper works well here). When the activated ability resolves, you lot choose a brute card in your hand that could have been cast using some or all of the mana you paid to activate the Masks' ability. For example, if you paid WGG to activate the ability, you could choose a Savannah Lions or a Kalonian Tusker, simply not a White Knight). Activating X every bit more than the mana cost of the creature lets you hide what the animate being may be. Once you lot've called your animal, you cast it as a face up-downwards spell (then it will be a 2/2 with no name, brute blazon, abilities, etc).

What happens once that carte is on the battlefield? If information technology'due south face-down and would assign or deal damage, exist dealt damage, or would become tapped, instead it's turned face up-up and assigns or deals impairment, is dealt the impairment, or becomes tapped (whichever would have happened before). Just similar turning a face-down animal face-up for its Morph cost, this does not apply the stack and cannot be responded to. This is also a time that an opponent can verify that you did indeed have the proper amount of mana to bandage it face-downwards with the Mask.

This is the footing for how Illusionary Mask lets you cheat in a Phyrexian Dreadnought for ane mana and not accept to cede any creatures.

Manifest

"Manifest" is a reminder. This card has no name.
"Manifest" is a reminder.
This card has no proper noun.

When Fate Reforged was released, nosotros got a new twist on face down creatures: manifest. It allows you to put a card (ordinarily from the library, but occasionally from another zone) face downwards on the battlefield. Once information technology'southward confront down on the battlefield, it's only like any other face down creature: it's a ii/2 animate being with no name, animal types, colors, etc. Manifest cards practice work a little differently than morph cards (every bit explained below), and since it's possible to take both morph and manifest cards in play, I would recommend using the morph and manifest tokens cards to be clear which carte du jour is a morph and which i was manifested.

So how do yous turn i of these manifested cards face up up? Well, if the manifested card is a brute, yous can turn information technology face up by paying its mana cost. Merely like morph, you can do this any time you accept priority, and it does non use the stack and cannot be responded to. If the brute happens to have an 10 in its mana price, so X volition exist equal to 0. If the manifested card is a brute with morph, you tin can turn information technology face up up by paying its mana price or by paying its morph toll. And merely like morph, turning a face up down fauna face up doesn't cause any "enter the battlefield" abilities to trigger, and so turning something like Siege Rhino face up won't cause its power to trigger. The creature will also go on any counters that were on it, and any auras or equipment will remain attached (bold there's goose egg preventing them from existence attached, like protection).

Merely what if you lot managed to manifest a noncreature card? The ability to turn it face up by paying its mana price is only an choice if information technology's a animal menu, and so you lot tin't normally turn a noncreature face up upwards. If you use something like Ixidor, Reality Sculptor to turn information technology face up upwardly, and information technology'southward an enchantment, artifact, country, or planeswalker, information technology volition be turned face up. Note that this isn't a expert idea with planeswalkers or auras. Planeswalkers won't take any loyalty counters on it once it's face up, and the aura won't be attached to annihilation, significant that the aura or planeswalker will go to the graveyard due to state-based actions. If it'due south an instant or sorcery, then you'll reveal that it's an instant or sorcery and information technology will remain face up downwards. Even if yous managed to apply some re-create issue like Mirrorweave with the manifested instant or sorcery, you still can't turn it face up, since we await at what the actual card is (non the upshot from Mirrorweave) to decide if we tin can turn information technology face up.

A similar affair happens if you apply Cloudshift on it. If information technology'southward a permanent card, then information technology will return to the battlefield face up. If it's an instant or sorcery, it will be exiled, but volition not render and volition remain in exile, since instants and sorceries can't enter the battlefield.

At the finish of the game (or if the manifested card would leave the battleground), we turn information technology face up so all players tin see what the carte du jour is. This rule applies to all face down permanents and spells, non just cards with morph, so you'll all the same have to reveal the manifested card.

A pop question has been how manifest interacts with a double faced card, like Delver of Secrets. The answer is that the double faced card will enter the battleground face down like any other manifested menu. As long as it'southward face down, it cannot transform. If the front face up of the carte is a creature, you tin can turn information technology face up by paying its mana cost. If you do that, then it volition be turned face with its front side up. For instance, if your Delver of Secrets is manifested, it'll exist a 2/2 creature with no proper name, fauna type, etc. You tin can pay U to turn it confront, and it will be a Delver of Secrets (not an Insectile Aberration), and information technology will deport like normal from there. Notation that a double-faced permanent on the battlefield still can't be turned face down (so the Delver is all the same safety from Ixidron).

Conclusion

I promise you've enjoyed another article from me, and I promise you've learned a matter or 2 well-nigh face up-down creatures. If y'all accept any questions or comments, feel free to send me an email.

Written by Nathan Long

Written past Nathan Long

Nathan Long
DCI Level 2 Judge
natedogg316@gmail.com

ferraraprosevorce.blogspot.com

Source: https://blogs.magicjudges.org/articles/2014/09/16/morph-rules-problems-face-down-in-a-face-up-world/

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