Ahead of the World Championship, it has come to our attention that a niche but important interaction has previously been ruled incorrectly. To ensure that players and judges alike have the same understanding of this interaction we have decided to publish this article ahead of the World Championship. We apologise for any inconvenience that may have occurred in previous tournaments as well to the preparation for the upcoming draft event this weekend. The following is the correct ruling for the Ward X ability.
Two or more instances of Ward X
If a single object has two or more instances of the Ward X ability, only one of those instances (of the player’s choice) will modify an applicable damage event.
The idea is that the destruction of the Ward X’s source acts as a “cost” to prevent the incoming damage, similar to how Spellvoid requires you to destroy its source to prevent arcane damage (except that Ward X is mandatory). This means that having two or more instances of Ward X on a single object is redundant, as prevention effects are applied in sequence and once the object is destroyed from applying one instance of Ward X, none of the other instances exist anymore.
The comprehensive rules will be expanded to help communicate this interaction in more detail in the next update. Furthermore, judges for the World Championship will be instructed to rule as such for the weekend-long event.
Ash
Sand Cover
Sand Cover
Fyendal's Fighting Spirit
Example for Uprising
Nic controls a single Ash token. Tyler attacks Nic with Fyendal's Fighting Spirit (red) and Nic does not defend. During the reaction step, Nic plays and resolves Sand Cover (blue), then Sand Cover (yellow), giving their Ash Ward 2 and Ward 3 respectively. During the damage step of combat, Nic may choose the order of their prevention effects - Nic chooses to apply Ward 3, destroying their Ash and modifying the damage to be dealt down to 4. Because the Ash no longer exists, Ward 2 also no longer exists and can not be applied to the damage event. There are no more replacement effects to apply, so the damage event occurs and Nic is dealt 4 damage.