In Chess, there's a relatively obscure move that a pawn can make called"capturing en passant." In certain situations, a pawn can capture an opponent's piece by moving diagonally behind it, thus capturing it"en passant."* Many casual players aren't even aware of this move, and it normally warrants little more than a footnote in most rulebooks. Magic also happens to have these little"en passant" moves, and Type 1 is full of them.

Since Sheldon will not always be there to answer your questions, the purpose of this article is to give you a basic primer for the rules tricks in Type 1. For the rules lawyers out there, I've included the section numbers for the Comprehensive Rules, since I don't plan on quoting them verbatim. The article is arranged by deck category from easy to complex situation, so if you know the rules tricks for Psychatog decks, you can skip down to the Dragon section at the bottom. I'm not going to show decklists, but if you need to know what is in a deck, you can visit the StarCityGames.com archive here.

Tog (Psychatog, Gro-a-Tog, Hulk, Hulk Smash)
While this section covers Psychatog decks, it's useful for any decks that might be running combat tricks. I've used Tog for simplicity, since the game tends to end with a lethal Berserked Psychatog. The trick has to do with knowing how to arrange the stack properly and when to pass priority. Here's an example:

BBanner is playing Tog. He has a Psychatog and Mox Emerald on the board, twenty cards in his graveyard, and a Berserk in his hand. He's playing against Stanley who has an untapped Tundra in play. BBanner is pretty sharp for a meathead, and he thinks Stanley might have Swords to Plowshares in his hand.

BBanner announces his attack, and since there aren't any blockers, we'll fast forward to the Declare Blockers step. This is the last chance to use any spells or abilities that will increase damage (the Combat Damage step would be too late, as damage will be on the stack by the time you could do anything, Comp Rules 310.4a).

BBanner announces that he's going to activate the Psychatog graveyard eating ability ten times, and then casts Berserk. The active player always gets priority first when responding, so he doesn't have to wait to see if Stanley wants to do something. BBanner passes priority after casting Berserk. Stanley, laughs at his meatheaded friend, and also passes priority, saving his Plowshares for a rainy day. The stack resolves last in, first out, so:

1) Psychatog goes crazy from the Berserk, doubles its power from one to two, and gets trample.

2) The pump abilities resolve giving Psychatog +10/+10.

So, when the combat damage goes on the stack, Stanley will take twelve damage, not quite lethal. BBanner: ANGRY! Clearly BBanner stacked that one wrong.

Let's try this again, same setup as before, starting in the Declare Blockers Step:

BBanner casts Berserk and since he fears the Plowshares, he passes priority. Stanley also passes. Oops.

1) Berserk resolves and Psychatog gets pumped up from one to two and gets trample.

BBanner was trying to bait out the Plowshares, thinking he could pump the Psychatog if Stanley passed. Sadly, BBanner was wrong. BBanner correctly put the Berserk on the stack first, but when he passed priority, he basically gave up any chance of pumping the Psychatog before the combat damage went on the stack (unless Stanley foolishly did something, Comp Rules 408.1c). BBanner starting to turn green, eyes getting a little shifty.

Last Tog example, same setup, starting in the Declare Blockers Step:

1) BBanner plays Berserk, then responds to the Berserk by activating the Psychatog ten times.

Yay for BBanner! He finally stacked it right and didn't screw up by passing priority. But, of course, Stanley realizes that if the stack resolves it will be lethal damage, so he finally plays his Swords to Plowshares. At this point, BBanner rips Stanley's comic geek head off.

Keeper (The Deck)
As much as Keeper likes to have answer for every Type 1 trick, it really doesn't create many rules nightmares on its own. That doesn't imply that Keeper is easy to play. You might not have the rule manglers in your deck, but you do have to know to respond to them in your opponent's deck.

Stifle
Stifle sometimes appears in the Keeper sideboard or maindeck. The common Type 1 activated and triggered abilities** are covered throughout the rest of this article, so just remember that these can be stifled.

Decree of Justice/Cycling
Mechanics that are popular in other formats don't always filter up to Type One, so we tend not to be as familiar with some of these rules quirks. Madness and Storm are fairly common mechanics, but cycling is another story. Decree of Justice is really the only cycling card that gets major play in Type One, so if Keeper is absent in your area, you might not be aware of the cycling rules.

Cycling is an activated ability, so if Decree is cycled, you can't counter it with something that says"counter target spell." It's an ability, not a spell!

When you pay 2W to cycle Decree, you put it in the graveyard. At this time, both the activated and triggered abilities go on the stack, with the triggered ability going on last (and thus resolving first). If the triggered ability isn't countered, the player then pays X and makes that many soldier tokens. The X is paid on resolution of the triggered ability, not before. Once the triggered ability resolves or is countered, you then get to draw your card from the cycle.

Mask (Ninja Mask, Venguer Masque, Spoils Mask, Survival Mask)
When Wizards issued errata on Illusionary Mask, they managed to make two obscure cards into a Type 1 powerhouse for a time (and also increase the price of a playset to about $500). While Mask decks aren't played very often anymore, any creature with an annoying comes into play ability can be abused with Illusionary Mask, so it's worthwhile to at least know what the story is.

Phyrexian Dreadnought/Illusionary Mask
Currently, the primary win condition for Mask decks is to play a Phyrexian Dreadnought through the Illusionary Mask and then beatdown with the 12/12 trampler for the win. Both Illusionary Mask and Phyrexian Dreadnought have been chopped to pieces from errata, so here's the current wording of the cards***:

Illusionary Mask
2
Artifact
X: Put a creature card with converted mana cost X or less from your hand into play face down as a 0/1 creature. Put X mask counters on that creature. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery. You may turn the creature face up any time you could play an instant by removing all mask counters from it.

Phyrexian Dreadnought
1
Artifact Creature
Trample.
If ~this~ would come into play, sacrifice any number of creatures with total power 12 or greater instead. If you do, put ~this~ into play. If you don't, put it into its owner's graveyard.
12/12

They look innocuous enough, so what's the problem? Here's an example:

Jim is running a Mask deck and has an Illusionary Mask and three untapped Swamps in play. Kerry is playing Keeper and has three untapped Islands in play. On Jim's turn, Jim taps a Swamp and announces that he is using the ability of the Illusionary Mask and puts a card face down into play. Kerry responds by playing Mana Drain, targeting the face down card. Jim says,"Re-he-he-ally? I don't think so."

In this example, Kerry didn't realize that Jim wasn't playing a spell by putting the card into play face down, he was playing an ability, and you can't counter abilities with Mana Drain.

Continuing with the example, now that Kerry knows that Mana Drain does not work.

Kerry plays Stifle on the ability wiping the stupid grin off of Jim's face.

Alright, the first trick is recognizing that using an Illusionary Mask is an ability (so it can be Stifled). It is not casting the creature card. Here's the second trick:

After Kerry Stifled the Illusionary Mask, Jim realizes he still has two untapped lands, so he taps another Swamp and puts the card face down on the table again. Kerry is tapped out, so he just sits there with his thumb up his butt. On Jim's next turn he flips up the card, and surprise of all surprises, it's Phyrexian Dreadnought. Kerry tells Jim that he has to sacrifice the Dreadnought because of the comes-into-play ability. Jim says,"Bite me," and announces his attack, bringing Kerry down to eight life.

This is really what Illusionary Mask is for. It's not there to put creatures into play without the fear of Mana Drain (although that is a nice side benefit). The real trick here is that once the Dreadnought gets turned face up, the comes-into-play ability won't trigger, since the card was already in play (Comp Rules 504.2). This works for any creature with a comes-into-play trigger, like Worldgorger Dragon, for example. Although, why you would waste your time putting the Dragon through the Mask is beyond me. We'll get to the Dragon later, anyway.

Landstill/Fish
Standstill
We're going to start this section off with a helpful tip, instead of a rules trick. If your opponent has a Standstill on the board, the proper time to break it is at the end of the opponent's turn when they have a full or nearly full hand. They will get to draw three cards, but they will also have to discard down to seven, since it's the end of their turn. This negates the card advantage they would have reaped from the Standstill.

The other thing you need to know about Standstill is that it cannot be Stifled. Literally, you can cast a spell, breaking Standstill, then cast Stifle on the Standstill trigger, but your opponent will still get to draw the cards from Standstill. The Standstill sacrifice doesn't happen until the triggered ability resolves. Here's an example:

Phish has a Standstill in play. On Wanda's turn, she announces that she is casting Time Walk. Phish is overjoyed, since he gets three cards, but Wanda is thinking that's not going to happen, because she has Stifle up her sleeve. Wanda casts the Stifle on the Standstill trigger, but Phish draws three cards anyway. Heated words are exchanged. Wanda calls Phish a dirty cheating hippy, and Phish calls Wanda a b-list scream queen. So, who is right and what happened?

Well, what Wanda didn't realize is that Standstill wasn't sacrificed off of the first trigger and so it triggered again off of the Stifle. This is what happened:

1) Wanda announces Time Walk and it goes on the stack

2) Standstill trigger goes on the stack.

3) Wanda announces Stifle targeting the first Standstill trigger

4) Standstill triggers again because of the Stifle.

When this stack resolves, the second Standstill trigger resolves first. Standstill is sacrificed upon resolution of the trigger (not the trigger going on the stack) and Phish gets to grub three cards. The Stifle counters the first trigger (which is meaningless anyway, since Standstill has already been sacrificed), and Wanda gets an extra turn from the Time Walk.

You'll notice that if Phish and Wanda got into a counterspell war in the above example, the opponent of the player who put the last spell on the stack will get to draw the cards, since it's the trigger from the last spell that will ultimately resolve.

Misdirection
Landstill/Fish are also more likely than any other deck to be running Misdirection. There are really only two points to make about Misdirection. First, Misdirection can only change spells with a single target. This is a good reason to split the targets when casting the Fire portion of Fire / Ice. Second, Misdirection can counter counterspells that have a single target, since the second target isn't chosen until Misdirection resolves. Clear as mud? Here's an example:

Phish casts Grim Lavamancer. Wanda fears the poking and casts Mana Drain targeting the Grim Lavamancer. Phish pitches a Cloud of Faeries to pay the alternate cost of Misdirection and declares Mana Drain as the target (and that's all Phish declares at this point), then both players pass priority. Wanda is still smarting from the Standstill gaff, but she's pretty sure she's got this one wrapped up, because what else could the Misdirection target? The spells resolve last in first out, so:

1) Misdirection resolves and now Phish chooses the new target for Mana Drain. He can't have Mana Drain target itself, but he can have the Mana Drain target Misdirection. Just like any other spell, Misdirection doesn't leave the stack until it's finished resolving (Comprehensive Rules 401.2), so it's still a valid target.

2) Mana Drain now tries to target Misdirection, which has now left the stack and is no longer a valid target. Mana Drain fizzles.

3) Grim Lavamancer resolves and Wanda is pissed.

TPS (The Perfect Storm, Tendrils, Dutch Tendrils, Long, 5 Lotus, Draw 7)
When Lion's Eye Diamond was first printed in Mirage, it felt like Wizards was giving us the old stink eye. Sure, they gave us a new Black Lotus, but you couldn't use the damn thing to cast any spells. That didn't stop people from lusting after it, but eventually, people decided it was one of the biggest crap rares ever. When Wizards dropped the storm mechanic on us, Steve Menendian started messing around with the Diamond again, and realized that Lion's Eye Diamond is pretty useful if you're going to discard your hand anyway, like when casting Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, or Diminishing Returns. And funny how the Diamonds work with Yawgmoth's Will. So a deck was born, abused, and promptly restricted.

Lion's Eye Diamond
Before Long.dec got neutered by the last round of Type 1 restrictions, knowing how to use the Lion's Eye Diamond was important. Currently, it's only run in Long's cousin, TPS, and Madness builds.

The ability of Lion's Eye Diamond is a mana ability (Comp Rules 406.4), which basically means that it doesn't use the stack and resolves immediately. This explains why you can't cast a spell from your hand when you activate the Diamond. It resolves immediately, not last in, first out. So, the trick is to have your hand already on the way to the dumpster to get any benefit. A quick example:

George is playing TPS. He's got a Black Lotus on the table, and a Lion's Eye Diamond and a Timetwister in his hand. He's playing against Funky, who is running Keeper. Funky has a Stifle in his hand and an untapped Island on the board.

George plays the Lion's Eye Diamond, then sacrifices the Lotus for UUU. Funky knows that something bad is coming, but even though he is holding a Stifle, he is helpless. He knows mana abilities cannot be countered (Comp Rules 406.4)!

George uses the mana from the Lotus to cast Timetwister, and in response sacrifices the Lion's Eye Diamond for BBB. Once again, Funky's Stifle is useless, since the Diamond activation is another mana ability. John gets the mana from the Diamond immediately and discards his empty hand (Timetwister is on the stack, not in his hand). Timetwister now resolves and the Lotus and Diamond are shuffled back into his library from the Timetwister. Both players have a fresh hand of seven cards and George has BBB floating in his mana pool.

Storm
Ah, storm. The mechanic Wizards wishes would go away. TPS and Draw 7 are really the only decks in Type One that use the mechanic. Remember, Mind's Desire was preemptively restricted for us, so we didn't get to mess around with any Twiddle Desire decks like some formats did. There isn't much to say about the mechanic except that it's a triggered ability. Continuing with the previous example:

We'll skip forward a few plays so that George has now played nine spells in his turn. Funky still has the untapped Island and drew a new Stifle off of John's Timetwister. John casts the dreaded Tendrils of Agony, but Funky finally puts the Stifle to good use. He realizes that Storm is a triggered ability (Comp Rules 520.03) and drills a hole in George's dreams of respectability by stifling the storm trigger.

However, Funky still loses two life from the Tendrils. He may have countered the stormed copies of the spell, but the original spell was not and could not have been countered by the Stifle.

WMUD (Weldermud, Stax, Workshop Prison, Artifact Prison, Prison)
When Wizards messes with the restricted list, normally it's to hamstring a deck. In this case, Wizards managed to spawn several new decks by unrestricting Mishra's Workshop. As some of the last unrestricted fast mana in Type 1, aggro decks like TNT, control decks like Slavery, and prison decks like the MUD variants all seek to abuse the fast mana provided from the workshop. As far as we're concerned, the rules lawyering comes into play in the prison varieties, specifically with Smokestack and Tangle Wire.

Smokestack/Tangle Wire
Smokestack and Tangle Wire have abilities that trigger at the beginning of each player's upkeep, so when they're in play at the same time, the question is who gets to choose how they go on the stack? Basically, triggered abilities from permanents controlled by the active player go on the stack first, in any order the active player chooses, then the triggered abilities from permanents controlled by the opponent go on the stack in any order the opponent chooses (Comprehensive Rules 410.3). For example:

Primus is playing a WMUD deck and has a Smokestack in play with one counter on it. He casts Tangle Wire and passes the turn. Let's assume that Porksoda, his opponent, has Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, and three Underground Seas in play:

1) Porksoda untaps

2) In Porksoda's upkeep, the Smokestack and Tangle Wire trigger. Porksoda controls no permanents with triggered abilities, so as the active player, he has nothing to put on the stack first. Now the opponent's triggered abilities go on the stack in the order the opponent chooses. In this case, Primus makes the correct play and announces that Tangle Wire goes on the stack first, then Smokestack.

3) Both players pass priority and the stack resolves last in, first out.

4) Since Primus wisely stacked his triggers, Smokestack resolves first. Porksoda decides to sacrifice the Mox Jet.

5) Then, Tangle Wire resolves, and Porksoda is forced to tap his four permanents - the remaining Mox Ruby and three Underground Seas.

6) Porksoda draws nothing important and passes his turn.

Notice that if Primus put the Smokestack trigger on the stack first, then put the Tangle Wire trigger on the stack, this would have happened:

1) Porksoda untaps

2) Again, Porksoda controls no triggered abilities, so it's up to Primus to stack his. Primus is thinking about his bass and incorrectly announces that the Smokestack trigger goes on the stack first, then the Tangle Wire trigger.

3) Both players pass priority and the stack resolves last in, first out.

4) The Tangle Wire trigger resolves and Porksoda taps the Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, and two Underground Seas.

5) The Smokestack trigger resolves, and Porksoda decides to sacrifice his already tapped Mox Ruby.

The difference is that in the first example, Porksoda was left with no untapped permanents. In the second example, Porksoda is left with an untapped Underground Sea. Oops!

As a final Prison example, let's continue with the above scenario into Primus' turn.

1) Primus untaps. Let's assume in addition to the Smokestack and Tangle Wire that Primus has a Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Mishra's Workshop, and two Volcanic Islands in play.

2) Primus is the active player, and his four (yes, four) triggers go on the stack. Primus chooses to put the"add a counter" trigger from Smokestack on the stack first, then"sacrifice" trigger from Smokestack, then the"tap" trigger from Tangle Wire, and finally, the"fading" trigger from Tangle Wire.

3) Porksoda has no triggers and decides not to respond, so the stack resolves last in, first out.

4) Primus removes a fading counter from Tangle Wire so there are now three counters left.

5) Primus taps the Tangle Wire, Smokestack, and Mox Sapphire for the three counters on the Tangle Wire.

6) Primus sacrifices his tapped Mox Sapphire for the one counter on the Smokestack.

7) Primus puts another counter on the Smokestack.

The end result is that Primus has an untapped Mox Ruby, an untapped Mishra's Workshop, two untapped Volcanic Islands, and a tapped Smokestack and Tangle Wire. He really only lost a Mox Sapphire in the whole exchange. Notice that had he screwed up the stacking, he could have ended up tapping four permanents for the Tangle Wire and sacrificing two permanents for the Smokestack. And if he didn't realize that he should tap both the Tangle Wire and Smokestack, all of his mana sources could have been tapped out.

Dragon
If you thought the Workshop trigger discussion was bad, you might want to skip this section. Dragon is nothing but triggers. So far, I've avoided discussing any one deck in detail and have just focused on a few cards and their interactions, however, for Dragon you need to know how the combo itself works to understand what is going on.

Worldgorger Dragon
In the absolute simplest terms, the goal of Dragon Combo is to get Worldgorger Dragon into the graveyard, then animate it (Animate Dead, Necromancy, Dance of the Dead). Easy, huh? The tricky part comes in the details.

Worldgorger Dragon has two triggers, one when it comes into play (CITP) and one when it leaves play (LP). The CITP trigger removes all other permanent you control from the game. The LP trigger returns all of these permanents to you. Time for more examples:

Bruce Lee has managed to dump a Worldgorger Dragon in his graveyard. He then casts Animate Dead using the two Swamps he has on the board and targets the dragon.

1) Animate Dead drags the Worldgorger Dragon out of the graveyard and back into play. This triggers the CITP ability.

2) The CITP ability resolves and removes all permanents Bruce Lee controls from the game. Most importantly, it removes the Animate Dead, killing the Worldgorger Dragon.

3) The Dragon goes to the graveyard and the LP ability triggers.

4) The LP ability resolves returning all of the permanents that Bruce Lee controls untapped (Comp Rules 214.3/217.1c). So Bruce can tap his lands/artifacts for mana. It also returns the Animate Dead which has at least one target - Worldgorger Dragon - so Bruce must target it. This basically restarts the loop at step 1.

Now, if the Dragon is the only target in any graveyard, and Bruce has no way to use an instant to kill his opponent, the game will end in a draw (Comp Rules 421.4), since he can't stop the infinite loop. So the trick is to use the infinite mana you create to either kill your opponent with an instant (e.g. Stroke of Genius) or have some sort of useful creature in your graveyard (e.g. Ambassador Laquatus or Sliver Queen).

Clearly, a lot can go wrong here, let's take a simple example of Bruce's opponent having a Terror. Bruce starts the loop exactly as before, he knows the infinite loop rule and is trying to end the game in a draw.

1) Animate Dead drags the Worldgorger Dragon out of the graveyard and back into play. This triggers the CITP ability.

2) In response, Bruce's opponent casts Terror on the Worldgorger Dragon. Both players pass and the stack resolves last in, first out.

3) Terror buries the Worldgorger Dragon. The LP trigger goes on the stack. Both players pass and the stack begins to resolve again.

4) The LP trigger resolves returning no permanents to play, since none have been removed yet.

5) The CITP trigger resolves, removing all of Bruce's permanents from the game.

The spell that Bruce's opponent uses doesn't have to be a Terror, any instant that sends the Dragon to the graveyard will work, anything that destroys the enchantment will work, and, of course, Stifle will work. Additionally, if there is any other creature in any other graveyard, the Dragon player cannot draw the game, he must, at some point, use the animation spell to target that other creature. One last example:

Bruce starts the loop exactly as before, except this time he's going for the kill and has an Ambassador Laquatus in the graveyard. He's playing against Chuck, who has an untapped Underground Sea and the ubiquitous Stifle in his hand.

Bruce starts the loop exactly as before, but since he plans on winning with the Laquatus, he has a few choices. He can either announce how many iterations he wants to loop, or he can go through each step of the loop again and again making sure both players explicitly pass priority. Just to make it clear, let's say he plays it explicitly, and has gone through the loop ten times, tapping his two Swamps each time to that there is now twenty mana in his mana pool.

1) Animate Dead drags the Worldgorger Dragon out of the graveyard and back into play. This triggers the CITP ability.

2) The CITP ability resolves and removes all permanents Bruce Lee controls from the game. Most importantly, it removes the Animate Dead, killing the Worldgorger Dragon.

3) The Dragon goes to the graveyard and the LP ability triggers.

4) Chuck drives the smoking fists of fury into Bruce's face by casting Stifle targeting the LP trigger.

5) The stack resolves last in, first out. Stifle counters the LP trigger, so Bruce is left with all of his permanents removed from the game, and twenty mana in his mana pool. Unless he finds something to do with all of that mana, he's going to lose twenty life from the mana burn.

A final thought for Dragon. The"animate" spells have triggered abilities. If you Stifle these, Worldgorger Dragon will not return to play, and your opponent will still have all of their permanents. It's much better to Stifle the Dragon trigger itself.

Humility
Humility is not a deck type, so don't ask me for the list, but it does deserve an honorable mention. It seems that Sheldon responds to Humility questions on a weekly basis, and there is always someone asking about it in the forums. It's included here, because some Parfait decks run it, and sometimes it earns a spot in Keeper's sideboard. Humility questions could fill up an entire article by themselves, so I'm just going to point you towards Sheldon and the forums and say that the relevant section of the Comprehensive Rules is 418 for most Humility questions.

What's Left?
There are plenty of other Type 1 decks out there, but they just don't create that many confusing rules situations. If you understand the above, you ought to be able to get through the situations that they create just fine. I'll leave you with a short list of the key cards and concepts in two other popular decks:

Food Chain Goblins (FCG)
Goblin Lackey - triggered ability
Goblin Matron - triggered ability
Goblin Piledriver - triggered ability
Goblin Recruiter - triggered ability
Goblin Ringleader - triggered ability
Goblin Warchief - static ability
Food Chain - mana ability (cannot be stifled)

Ravager
Modular abilities are triggered abilities.

* - For example, say black has a pawn on a4 and white has a pawn on b2. Normally, you would think that since white has not yet moved his pawn, he could move 2 spaces up , and thus avoid being captured by the black pawn. The"en passant" rule (translated as"in passing") allows black to move to b3 and capture the white pawn"en passant." The rule evolved so that the white player, in this example, couldn't just breeze by on the way to the end of the board to upgrade his pawn. Basically, this situation will arise at the end of some games when there are only a few pieces left on the board, usually just pawns and kings.

** I did not cover two of the most common Type 1 activated abilities, because they are so simple, namely the Strip Mine/Wasteland and"fetch" land abilities. Using a Wasteland is an activated ability and can be Stifled. Similarly, using a Polluted Delta to"fetch" a land is an activated ability and can also be Stifled. See section 403 of the Comprehensive Rules for further information on activated abilities.

***This is the Oracle version of the text. Although, Stephen D'Angelo no longer maintains the card rulings for the database, this is still the official list of card wordings. Oracle is available at www.crystalkeep.com.

As an aside, this is the original wording of Illusionary Mask:

X: You can summon a creature face down so opponent doesn't know what it is. The X cost can be any amount of mana, even 0, it serves to hide the true casting cost of the creature which you still have to spend. As soon as a face-down creature receives damage, deals damage, or is tapped, you must turn it face up.

The old wording of cards crack me up. That's enough of a reason to collect Alphas.