Welcome back! Now this article was motivated by the latest Regionals here in Atlanta where we had Sheldon Menery (Level 5 DCI judge and the guy who until last month edited "Ask the Judge" here on Star City) running it as well as authorizing new DCI judges. After I dropped out of the tourney I went up to him. We talked for a bit and it was our talk that inspired this article.

Before Sheldon would give you the go ahead to move on in the authorization process you had to answer a short series of questions and the one that caught me off guard was the one asking me what state-based effects are. I mean, how do you explain them? Initially I confused them and continuous effects, but even when we were talking about the same thing, how can you describe what they are aside from simply listing them off? Well after this article you should all be able to describe state-based effects as well as have a better understanding of what they are.

This article, while heavily entrenched in the rules of Magic, is honestly a lot of regurgitation from the Comprehensive Rules. But the Comprehensive Rules are a lot like white meat turkey on Thanksgiving, dry and hard to swallow. So this article makes me the gravy to the comprehensive rule's white meat.

Sometimes the simplest things are hardest to grasp because of that fact, they're simple! We over-complicate them or over-analyze them and it becomes a jumble in our mind. State-based effects are simple. They truly are. They take a single page in the comprehensive rules, and they cover all 11 of the effects in that space. Simple! Easy!

Here's how I see state-based effects - I'm a computer programmer by nature so I think of them as the most basic elements of the Magic programming language, you can't do anything without them. And everything you do is driven by them.

I realize this may be a bad analogy for the non-programmer so how about thinking about them as the organs of a body? You need them to survive, they do their job and keep the game's body running. Or maybe think of them as the buttons on a game controller. You need them to make the video game do anything or to do anything in the game. Thankfully, you can't button mash the state-based effects.

Understanding the fundamental nature of these effects is key. If you don't know them then you don't understand Magic.

So first, let's look at what the Comprehensive Rules have to say on them. Any page references to the rules text in this article will be referring to the pdf format of the rules that Wizards offers on their website.

State-based Effects begin on page 46. The first rules section, 420.1 clarifies that people often confuse triggered abilities with state-based effects and that anything which looks for a specific game state is a triggered ability.

No player has ownership or control of any state-based effects. Think of them like the rules of the universe. They exist and no one owns them, however they can be modified or negated (420.2, page 46), but even this modification and negation does not give ownership or control.

When do we check state-based effects? We check them whenever a player would get priority. My last article covered priority and timing, so I won't be going over priority too in depth, but I'll point you to the aforementioned article. But since I know we're all lazy, here is a gentle breeze of a glossing over:

To quickly and broadly cover priority I'll first point you to 408.1c where it says that "the active player gets priority at the beginning of most phases and steps." Easy enough. However there are some things which occur before that, such as it points to "game actions" as well as "abilities that trigger at the beginning of that phase or step." Now in what phases and steps does this occur?

Well 408.1c continues on to say that no player has priority during the untap step and players usually don't get priority during the cleanup step. It then points us to 314.3 which tells us that if there exist any state-based effects to be dealt with, such that they are waiting to go onto the stack, then the active player does get priority. What this means is that if something is going to happen, then we as players get to respond - if nothing is going to happen from the state-based effects then we don't get priority during cleanup.

So there is the gloss over, if you want more meat go read the priority article, otherwise it's back to state-based effects.

Here are the 11 state-based effects as laid out in 420.5 on page 46. I'm not quoting the comprehensive rules, so if you want the exact wording you can check them from the comprehensive rules, just remember your own gravy to help with the digestion.

a) A player with a life total of 0 or less loses the game. - This is of course the end all be all state-based effect. It is the most common win, though not the only one by any means.

b) A creature with toughness of 0 or less is put into the graveyard, and can't be regenerated. - Alright, no questions from me on this one.

c) A creature with lethal damage but toughness greater than 0 is destroyed. Lethal damage is defined as damage being equal to or greater than that creature's toughness. And this can be stopped by regeneration. - Right, a Lightning Bolt to a Birds of Paradise kills it. Gotcha.

d) An Aura that enchants an illegal or nonexistent target is put into its owner's graveyard.. - An aura that has no permanent is like Wile E. Coyote when he runs off the cliff and hangs in mid air. He stays there as long as he doesn't realize he isn't standing on terra firma. But as soon as he realizes it, he takes the dive. An aura that has no permanent is the same way, and the state-based effect makes it realize when it isn't enchanting a legal target.

e) The legend rule. Two permanents of the same name that are both legendary collide and they are destroyed. This cannot be thwarted by regeneration. - Marty Mcfly had to avoid being seen by himself when he was traveling through time for fear of rupturing the time space continuum, it's sort of like that, but not. This rule used to be that any legend permanent to come into play after a legend of that name was in play was buried, but has since been changed such that they collide and are both destroyed.

f) Tokens anywhere but in play cease to exist. - This is the crux of why they trigger graveyard effects and such. They hit the graveyard and as soon as priority passes they cease to be.

h) A player with 10 or more poison counters loses the game. - This is an antiquated state-based effect since most of the poisonous creatures ceased to exist around 4^th Edition. But it is important because the cards still exist and you may have to eventually play against them. Preparation is the Magic player's greatest asset.

i) Two permanents with the super type 'World' collide but unlike legendary permanents, the newest one remains and the oldest one is put into the owner's graveyard. - It's a timestamp judgment, the newest one wins. Worlds are an old mechanic that has been seen in Legends, Alliances, Mirage, Visions and Chronicles I believe. The original text on the card type was "Enchant World" and it has since been changed to be "World Enchantment." These also stopped being used as a game mechanic after they were last printed in Visions.

j) A copy of a spell or card ceases to exist if it is anywhere but in-play. - Just like tokens, they hit their non-in-play zone and they then cease to exist the next time state-based effects get checked.

k) If equipment equips an illegal or nonexistent permanent then it stops equipping that permanent but remains in play. - This is the newest state-based effect to be added to the rules.

So there you have them 11 state-based effects. Those are the building blocks for Magic and on them the game is able to move.

Let's look at the actual "event" of state-based effects. State-based effects don't happen one at a time, what it does is it collects all applicable events and then they occur simultaneously. To use a metaphor similar to one I used before, imagine the state-based effects as being collected on a sheet of paper and then everything which was written on the sheet takes place simultaneously. If that still is hazy I have a simple example for you.

Here's an example:

You're at 2 life, and you have a 2 Silent-Chant Zubera in play. I declare that I am attacking you with 3 Akki Drillmasters. If you block two of the Akki Drillmaster's each with one of your Zubera, thus letting one of the Drillmaster's through. Damage is dealt thus bringing you to 0 life and dealing lethal damage to each of the Zubera. Now, you'd love your Zubera to make you gain 8 life, but since all the state-based effects occur simultaneously - sorry, you lose.

Now what if instead of my having 3 Akki Drillmasters, I had 1 Akki Drillmaster and 2 Akki Coalfingers. You're still at 2 life and have your two Silent-Chant Zuberae (One is a zubera, more are zuberae... in theory), in play. I declare that I am attacking with all 3 of my Akki dudes. You can then declare blockers. What do you block? Well you block the 2 Coalfingers with your Zuberae.

Now, when first strike damage is applied you kill the Zuberae and thus gain 8 life (4 from each of them.) You're then at 10 life, then the 2 damage from the Akki Drillmaster is applied bringing you down to 8.

There you have two very basic examples to highlight the simultaneousness of state-based effects. It is important to understand that creatures dealt lethal damage, or destroyed simultaneously (from Wrath of God for example), are all killed simultaneously - you can, however, define the order in which they enter the graveyard or are removed from the game, depending on the case.

So why does knowing these make you a better competitive Magic player? Now be honest, who here knew that the legend rule was a State-based effect? Or how about the World Enchantments? If you don't know that they're state-based effects, how can you know just how the collisions of two legendary permanents interact with the Magic game play? Knowing these effects and how they interact is what makes you a better player.

I hope you all can now see just how important State-based effects are. They're the lifeblood of Magic. There is no game without them, so it is necessary that players know what exactly state-based effects are. In the interest of total disclosure I will admit I did not know them all when I began writing this article, but now I have them memorized.

Next time on From the Top: Getting Intimate with Abilities.