Interesting Interactions

Preamble

This appendix describes important card interactions that may not be obvious to a newcomer. All card references are kept for historical purposes but might not be popular or even relevant in today's competitive lists. The descriptions try to be short and avoid gameplay aids to remain easy to parse and maintain. You'll likely read this page only once to familiarize yourself with common interactions in the Legacy format.

Sections are titled after the card names, alphabetically. Until a better filtering is implemented, use your browser's search feature or the table of contents to jump to sections.

Your Interactions

Most of your own interactions will be intuitive and self-explanatory (i.e. reading the card explains the card), but this is Legacy, and the card pool only ever grows, with ever more text on new printings, so there are nuances to be aware of.

Act on Impulse • Three Wishes

There have been many printings of this effect, so we mention those 2 only for historical purposes.

Exiling cards doesn't count as drawing, so you cannot lose (or win) by casting those when 2 cards remain in your library. The exiled cards can be cast, but their activated abilities cannot be used as if they were in your hand. For example, Cycling and Warp don't work with cards in exile.

Cavern of Souls

For Thassa's Oracle, this can name Merfolk or Wizard. This will let you cast an Oracle through opposing countermagic, but also through Chalice of the Void.

Conjurer's Bauble

Only target a card if you actually need it restocked. Providing a target gives your opponent something to interact with: if the target gets exiled from the graveyard in response, the ability fizzles and you won't draw a card.

Chromatic Sphere

Chromatic Sphere's activated ability is no longer a mana ability as of August 7th, 2026. See 605.1a.

Back when we still used Laboratory Maniac, we would sometimes be able to play around removal by drawing off the sphere without ever passing back priority due to the draw effect coming off a mana ability. This is no longer possible and activating the sphere now works like any other activated ability: you pass priority before resolving it.

Daze

If you have a land drop available, you can use Daze to generate additional mana of a specific color by playing an otherwise dead card and targeting it with Daze. This costs 2 cards but could represent the third you needed to cast Doomsday or the second to cast Thassa's Oracle.

Doomsday

Doomsday rounds up the life loss, so casting it at 1 life will result in defeat. This also means that if you're on an odd life total, it's more advantageous life-wise to crack your fetchland before resolving Doomsday.

Lake of the Dead

The Lake does not actually enter the battlefield until after a swamp is sacrificed. Therefore, it is not possible to do any tricks like activating it in response to its own replacement effect. You really do need 2 swamps in play for the burst of mana.

Lion's Eye Diamond

As in any Storm deck, the Diamond can be cracked in response to draw effects and cantrips such as Brainstorm or Ponder. Holding priority while casting these cantrips will allow you to crack the Lion's Eye Diamond and discard your hand but still have the mana as you draw into the next card of your library. In paper you are required to announce that you are holding priority in a timely manner. On MTGO, you also need to maintain priority, and how to do so is documented here: https://www.mtgo.com/getting-started/getting-started-tips-tricks.

Predict

This is usually meant for piles but can target the opponent as well, for instance after a Surveil, against a Counterbalance, or if you suspect a Miracle setup from the opponent. Do note however, that being blue, it can be countered by Veil of Summer and you won't draw any card as a result.

Shelldock Isle

Hideaway has received a rule change and no longer lets us order the unselected cards at the bottom of the library as of April 29th, 2022. See 702.75a.

The Isle has historically been played to provide an alternative win condition, more difficult to interact with. It would usually involve Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and works by casting the hidden spell as part of the resolution of the activated ability, at instant speed.

Thassa's Oracle

The trigger checks the devotion on resolution, so if you have cards left in your library and your opponent has removal for the Oracle, you will have 2 fewer devotion to and won't win the game as a result. Watch out for effects that restock cards into your library such as Endurance and Terminus.

Veil of Summer

It prevents mill effects from cards like Thought Scour, Hedron Crab, or Witherbloom Command. Conversely, it will not stop Mindbreak Trap, Stifle, or even Surgical Extraction from being effective. It will also draw you a card most of the time, so be careful to keep this in mind if you have 0 cards left in your deck. Sometimes referred to as the one-mana Cryptic Command because it usually draws a card and counters something, Veil also lets you play cards through a Chalice of the Void.

Opponent Interactions

This section is not meant to be exhaustive as there are a lot of Magic: the Gathering cards in the format. Instead we will try to cover a wide range of different interactions so that you extrapolate on your own and recognize different effects under the same examples listed.

Aluren • Show and Tell

You can use the opponent's Show and Tell to your advantage with a bit of planning ahead. For instance by cycling into an oracle if you have a way to draw into the pile with Show and Tell on the stack. Aluren is similar in that its symmetry will allow you to cast the Oracle on top of your opponent's win.

Ashiok, Dream Render • Aven Mindcensor • Opposition Agent

If there is an Aven Mindcensor in play, a resolved Doomsday will be able to search only the top 4 cards of the library and the entire graveyard. The replacement effect still doesn't allow you to select fewer than 5 cards for your pile, unless of course you have no graveyard and are left with only 4 cards to choose from.

Opposition Agent works differently in that your opponent will control you while you search and while doing so they will have access to both your library and graveyard. The selected 5 cards end up in the agent's exile, while the rest is exiled normally. Unless Oracle is in your hand, this will most likely result in your defeat.

Consign to Memory • Stifle

While only the latter can stop Conjurer's Bauble activations, cyclers, and fetchlands, those 2 cards can prevent Tendrils of Agony and Empty the Warrens Storm triggers and more importantly, Thassa's Oracle triggers.

There is a common misconception about Misdirection and other similar effects being able to redirect a Consign to Memory onto its own Replicate trigger. However, while you can technically change the target of the original spell to target the Replicate trigger, the trigger will still be above the original spell and will therefore resolve first. This means any copy of the spell will also resolve before the original ever attempts to counter anything.

Day's Undoing • Echo of Eons

If playing against a known Echo deck, try to make sure you have at least 8 cards spread across your hand, library and graveyard to avoid losing to an untimely draw-7. You should already have a minimum of 6 from the Doomsday in your graveyard and your 5-cards pile so having an extra 2 cards in hand or some uncracked fetchlands, Lotus Petal in play and/or Edge of Autumn in hand can easily help achieve this.

Disruptor Flute • Pithing Needle

Those effects cannot stop Lion's Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, or... Doomsday.

Newer players often try naming Doomsday due to the strange and deprecated wording on the Weatherlight printing since it uses a colon like activated abilities do.

However they will prevent cyclers and fetchlands, especially troublesome if unprepared after you've committed to your pile.

Disruptor Flute typically names Doomsday but its Flash flexibility can be devastating when it names something your pile relies on (e.g. Thassa's Oracle, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries).

Flickerwisp

An active Aether Vial on 3 representing Flickerwisp threatens both removal and a Stone Rain. Accounting for both during your sequencing will be key.

Grindstone • Predict • Surgical Extraction • Thought Scour

These cards have the ability to disturb the ordering or contents of your library at instant speed.

Phyrexian Revoker

It stops Lion's Eye Diamond and Lotus Petal, in addition to the cyclers. It cannot prevent fetchland or Shelldock Isle activations.

Portent

It can reorder your library at sorcery speed. Mostly relevant when passing the turn.

Runehorn Hellkite

Very difficult to interact with as this requires specific tools like Stifle, not typically found in lists. Contrary to cards like Ruin Grinder, Raphael's Technique, or Sail into the West, it is not a may, and the instant speed makes it impossible to sequence around.

Skyclave Apparition • Solitude

These are listed together to represent 0-mana removal. White-based fair matchups can appear inoffensive at first, with seemingly little interaction, but remember that besides mana denial, they also have access to a lot of instant-speed removal, sometimes free of mana cost. Be careful when considering a pile with cards remaining in your library.

Teferi, Time Raveler

You cannot cast anything using Shelldock Isle with Teferi in play. However, you can use the Isle to play a land.

You also cannot cast spells using a Miracle trigger nor can you cast a spell off a Bargain'd Beseech the Mirror.

Terminus • Wheel of Sun and Moon

These cards can put cards back into your pile. The former will make all your usual ways of digging into or thinning the pile useless (i.e. fetchlands, cantrips and cyclers won't reduce the size of your pile anymore). While the latter, cast with the Oracle trigger still on the stack, will reduce your devotion to by 2 in addition to increasing the size of your library by one.