Pokey, the Scallywagg

Each time a spell or ability instructs you to flip a coin, you may apply Pokey’s second ability as a replacement effect to roll a d20 instead. If the result of that roll is 1-10, the original spell or ability sees the result of the flip as tails. If the result of the roll is 11-20, the original spell or ability sees the result of the flip as heads. If the result of the roll is somehow less than 1 or greater than 20, the original spell or ability doesn’t see heads nor tails (you’ll have to read the effect carefully then to determine what happens).

Each time a spell or ability instructs you to roll a d20, you may apply Pokey’s third ability as a replacement effect to flip a coin instead. If the coin comes up heads, the original spell or ability sees the result of the roll as 20. If the coin comes up tails, the original spell or ability sees the result of the roll as 1. If the coin somehow doesn’t come up heads or tails . . . good luck!

For many playtest cards, you’ll need to make a generous assumption that basic game rules would be updated to allow them to work. The Mystery Booster 2 Playtest Card Notes section (reproduced here in individual Gatherer rulings) provides guidance for fitting these cards into the existing rules structure.

If you apply Pokey’s second ability as a replacement effect to flipping a coin, other than the original effect that called for the coin flip, all other game effects, including replacement effects and triggered abilities, recognize that you rolled a d20 rather than flipped a coin. For example, you can then apply the replacement effect of Pixie Guide but not the replacement effect of Krark’s Thumb. And after the roll, the ability of Brazen Dwarf would trigger, while the first ability of Tavern Scoundrel would not trigger.

If you apply Pokey’s third ability as a replacement effect to rolling a d20, other than the original effect that called for the d20 roll, all other game effects, including replacement effects and triggered abilities, recognize that you flipped a coin rather than rolled a d20. For example, you can then apply the replacement effect of Krark’s Thumb but not the replacement effect of Pixie Guide. And after the roll, the ability of Tavern Scoundrel would trigger, while the first ability of Brazen Dwarf would not trigger.

If you really want to, you can apply the effects of both Pokey’s second and third abilities to a coin flip or a d20 roll. For example, if you would flip a coin, you can choose to replace that flip with a d20 roll, and you can choose to replace that d20 roll with a coin flip. (Since you can only apply a replacement effect to a single event once, the nonsense stops there.) In that case, you’d flip a coin. If it’s heads, that would count as 20 for the replaced d20 roll, which would count as heads for the originally replaced coin flip. Great job.

Playtest cards aren’t legal for play in any tournament format other than Mystery Booster Limited formats. On the other hand, we expect they will spice up a wide variety of non-tournament games (as long as everyone’s on the same page about using them!).

Playtest cards use a modified version of game symbols, such as and . These modified symbols should be treated as the standard symbols during play.