11

My son likes to play Conundrum Sphinx because of the "mini game" its ability triggers. When naming the card on top of your library, how specific do you have to be?

Steve Mangiameli
  • 243
  • 2
  • 10

2 Answers2

12

You have to be able to uniquely identify the card, you don't necessarily have to get the name correct.

The reason for this is while the Comprehensive Rules say you have to actually name the card (CR 201.3), the Tournament Rules state that you can get the Oracle text of the card (which includes the name) as long as you can uniquely identify it (MTR 3.6). In order to not waste time calling a judge to get the Oracle text of a card every time you need to name a card you just need to uniquely identify a card in order to 'name' it.

For example in a standard tournament if I wanted to name Jace, the Living Guildpact I couldn't just say "Jace" since Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is also in Standard, and that doesn't uniquely identify which one you are talking about. However you could say "The Jace that doesn't transform" or "The Jace that costs 4" since both of those statements uniquily identifies what card you are talking about in Standard. Note that in Modern you would need to find a different way to describe the card since both of those statements also describe Jace, Architect of Thought

Note that for transforming or flip cards for the Conundrum Sphinx, or something like Memoricide it doesn't matter what name you pick (or uniquely identify), but it does matter for cards like Pithing Needle. For those you have to identify the appropriate side, so if you wanted to name Jace, Telepath Unbound for Pithing Needle you could say "The transformed version of Jace" or something similar.

diego
  • 20,138
  • 2
  • 54
  • 95
  • Ahhhh, tournament rules, that's what I should have looked for. Although addendum, your example of "The jace that isn't a creature" doesn't work, because of this: "If the player wants to name the back face of a double-faced card, the player may do so." There are technically 3 valid Jace namings in standard. – Waterseas Jul 31 '15 at 17:10
  • 1
    Also note that the same card printed in a different language is considered to have the same name, for the purposes of "name a card" abilities. So if you have English, Portuguese, and Korean printings of Island in your deck, naming "Island" will successfully match any of those Islands (as would naming "Ilha" or "섬", though doing this could be poorly received in some cases). – Dan Henderson Jul 31 '15 at 17:20
  • @Waterseas if you have a description that evaluates to exactly two names, and those two names are the front and back faces of the same card, have you still "uniquely identified the card" in this context? (Note that I have not checked whether such a description/card exists.) – Dan Henderson Jul 31 '15 at 17:25
  • @DanHenderson Yes, from 201.3 "If the player wants to name the back face of a double-faced card, the player may do so." – diego Jul 31 '15 at 17:26
  • 3
    @DanHenderson Technically no. You need to specify one side or the other. If your unique identifier could apply to both sides, you need to be more specific. It's relevant because of cards like Pithing Needle and Phyrexian Revoker. – Waterseas Jul 31 '15 at 17:31
  • @DanHenderson So if your 'unique identifier' is "The Jace printed in Magic Origins", then no, that's not specific enough. – Waterseas Jul 31 '15 at 17:32
  • @Waterseas Really? You've still named a specific card. Are you saying that you can say "the front side of the double-faced Jace" but not "the double-faced Jace"? – Cascabel Jul 31 '15 at 17:35
  • But, at least for Conundrum Sphinx, I could say either "the front face of the Jace printed in Magic Origins" or "the back face of the Jace printed in Magic Origins", and either of those would successfully match that card. Right? – Dan Henderson Jul 31 '15 at 17:35
  • @Jefromi Yep! Again, tis relevant because of cards like Pithing Needle and Phyrexian Revoker – Waterseas Jul 31 '15 at 17:36
  • @DanHenderson Yes, either would work for the Conundrum Sphinx. – Waterseas Jul 31 '15 at 17:36
  • @Waterseas Ah, okay. It's not relevant for searching a library or the OP's situation, but I guess you have to be consistent about it. – Cascabel Jul 31 '15 at 17:37
  • @Jefromi Yep, and if your opponent is persistant enough when you're casting Memoricide, you'll have to think of the 'front side' identifier or 'back side' to say. – Waterseas Jul 31 '15 at 17:38
  • 1
    If you have a reviewable decklist to show you only have one flavor of Jace in your deck, is just saying "Jace" specific enough, even if you can't remember its name? – corsiKa Jul 31 '15 at 18:16
  • @corsiKa Nope. Decklist is irrelevant for this purpose. – Waterseas Jul 31 '15 at 18:33
  • What about "That blue card with the picture of an elf-man with a glowing hand"? – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jul 31 '15 at 21:43
  • @BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft: Obviously invalid. There are no elves in blue! – jwodder Jul 31 '15 at 21:50
  • Simic Guildmage? – murgatroid99 Aug 01 '15 at 00:28
  • @Waterseas Following on corsiKa's example, would "The only Jace on this decklist" pointing at the decklist that contains the single Jace then satisfy the "unique identifier" rule? (assuming also that it's not the double-faced Jace) – Dan Henderson Aug 29 '15 at 20:15
  • @DanHenderson No. It has to be identifiable to your opponent, aka, without seeing the decklist. – Waterseas Aug 31 '15 at 13:47
  • 1
    Ah, I didn't realize your opponent couldn't review your decklist (not having been in any tournaments besides Prerelease and FNM). – Dan Henderson Aug 31 '15 at 18:03
5

You have to give the actual name, or a description specific enough that it could only apply to a single card. Even in professional Magic, a player has the right to ask a judge for the name and text of a card if they can uniquely describe it.

Of course, in casual play it would make more sense to only require the description to be unique among cards in the active decks.

Dan Henderson
  • 187
  • 6
murgatroid99
  • 81,939
  • 10
  • 218
  • 317