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There are some fun "edge cases" to certain MtG rules.  If you don't find these kinds of things fun, then this page isn't aimed at you.

SeeAlso MagicTheGathering/ComboMeThis and SillyMagicIdeas.







Emblazoned Golem and Mycosynth Golem


This one could actually be useful. Pointed out in [Mark Gottlieb's column]. MTG: Emblazoned Golem has "Kicker X" and comes into play with X +1/+1 counters; but you have to spend only coloured mana, and at most 1 mana of each colour on X. So it normally maxes out at 5 counters - but there's actually no restriction on X, you just may be unable to pay it. MTG: Mycosynth Golem gives all artifacts Affinity for Artifacts - reducing the cost to play any artifact by the number of artifacts in play.

Now, the CompRules glossary states "A kicker cost is an additional cost to play a spell." and that Affinity really means "This spell costs you {o1} less to play for each [text] you control.". Then, 409.1f states "The player determines the total cost of the spell or ability... The total cost is the mana cost... plus all cost increases and minus all cost reductions.". So, let's say we have 12 artifacts in play. Then - in order - we declare Emblazoned Golem, choosing X. Say we choose X=10. Then we determine costs: mana cost 2 + kicker cost 10 - affinity reduction 12 = 0. We have a free Golem with 10 counters on it. That's neat, if a little weird.


Duplicants and Shapeshifters


Another piece of extreme rules silliness that has led to errata. Consider a MTG: Volrath's Shapeshifter (or MTG: Unstable Shapeshifter), taking the form of a [Death-Mask Duplicant], imprinting at least two creature cards, and then turning into a MTG: Duplicant... The creature ends up with multiple values for its power/toughness. :D This is handled like the way split cards' characteristics are: Anything that asks for the value of its power or toughness gets multiple answers; anything that asks if its power or toughness gets a yes answer if any of them do. So if I end up with a Duplicant imprinted with both MTG: Grizzly Bears and MTG: Visara the Dreadful, then its P/T is "2/2 and 5/5". So in combat it will deal "2 and 5" damage, for a total of 7. But if its dealt 2 damage, the state-based effects will ask "Does this creature have damage greater than or equal to its toughness on it", be told "yes" since that's true for one of its P/T values, and the creature will die.

The rules team have given MTG: Duplicant errata so it uses the value of the most recent imprinted card. (There's no way to imprint multiple creatures simultaneously, only [multiple sorceries].) Given that the discussion on [this thread] shows that the rules could actually just about cope with the weirdnesses that used to happen, I propose to ignore this errata, for the reason that anyone who plays all three creatures in the same deck is definitely going to be doing it for purely this reason, and if they can manage to abuse it (or confuse people with it) then they thoroughly deserve to succeed! --AlexChurchill
*boggle* --Requiem
2010 Update: A couple of years back, the Rules Team decreed all Imprint abilities to be "linked abilities", an irritating term designed to close all the delightful loopholes that can ensue from combining abilities of multiple cards. So this doesn't work any more: if something ends up copying a Duplicant but didn't exile a card with Duplicant's ETB ability, it doesn't have any P/T. --AlexChurchill


Equipment


Equipping isn't targetting?  But sometimes it is?  Is this rule deliberately badly worded, or what?  Does protection from artifacts remove the equip effect?  Does protection from abilities?  Shouldn't MTG: Whispersilk Cloak (as currently written) immediately remove itself?  --Vitenka
No, no more so than creature enchantments like MTG: Robe of Mirrors should remove themselves. You're confused about when targetting happens. There's no circumstance in which anything is ever "continually" targetted. A piece of equipment attached to a creature isn't in a state of targetting it (nor is a creature enchantment). What does target is the "Equip:" ability. To attach an Equipment (eg MTG: Lightning Greaves) to a creature, you activate the Equip: ability which involves choosing targets and paying the equip cost, and the ability then goes on the stack and may be responded to. When the ability resolves, if the target is still legal, the equipment becomes attached to the creature and there's no "targeting" involved any more. In the case of Whispersilk Cloak or Lightning Greaves, this will prevent any *more* equipment being attached to the creature until the Cloak moves somewhere else.  The situation is exactly parallel with creature enchantments, with the spell itself taking the place of the activated ability "Equip:". --AlexChurchill

Protection from, say, blue removes all blue things enchanting it - Prot-white had to be given an extra line to stop it removing itself.  (Whilst I'm vaguely ranting, are whispersilk and loxodon warhammer grossly overpowered, or is it just me?)  --Vitenka
You're right about protection. Untargetability doesn't make any equipment or creature enchantments fall off if they were already there, although it'll prevent any new ones being added on. "Protection" (the keyword ability) will make them fall off if they have the characteristic being protected against. If a creature enchanted by a white enchantment and equipped with a piece of equipment gains protection from white, the enchantment will fall off; if it gains protection from artifacts, the equipment will fall off. If it gains untargetability, nothing will fall off because of that. MTG: Loxodon Warhammer is terrifyingly strong, yes; a number of other equipment are often very good, including MTG: Fireshrieker, MTG: Lightning Greaves, arguably the Cloak, and of course notoriously /SkullClamp. --AlexChurchill
So protection from artifacts will make equpiment fall off?  I'd like a reference for that, if possible.  --Vitenka (And yeah, I've restarted playing again... I give it a week this time.)
Well, CompRules section 502.7d is the official reference: "Protection is a static ability, written "Protection from [quality]."... A permanent with protection can't be equipped by Equipment that have the stated quality. Such an Equipment stops equipping that permanent, but remains in play. (See rule 420, "State-Based Effects.")" See also the [Mirrodin FAQ], which quotes 502.7d; or "Protection" on /MajorRuleChanges. --AlexChurchill
Thank you, we'd been having trouble with this one, due to the 'so is equipment targetting it or what' - and equipment that bestows protection from artifacts would immediately remove itself again?  --Vitenka
Nyehehe. I suppose so. No such equipment has yet been printed ;) You may like to note the third card in the "Equipment granting untargetability" sequence, [Neurok Stealthsuit]: if you have blue mana open then you can move it around at instant speed (rather than using the normal sorcery-speed equip ability) - this means that for two blue mana you can render any of your creatures untargetable in response to them being targeted by your opponents. Fun card :) --AlexChurchill
Requiem giggles, slightly hysterically, at the thought generated by the above.
 Game Breaker (3)
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gains protection from artifacts
When ~this~ becomes unattached, attach it to target creature you control unless you pay (1).
Equip 0
^_^



Spellweaver Helix causing rules problems


Remember looking at [Spellweaver Helix] when Mirrodin was new, and trying to think of odd fun things to do with it?
Well, the rules team have demonstrated just how odd those fun things can get.  This interesting discussion is currently going on on the JudgeList?:

 Date:    Mon, 20 Oct 2003 09:35:35 -0700
From:    Jeff Jordan <jeffjo@EROLS.COM>
Subject: Re: Spellweaver Helix

 On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 11:01:13 -0500, Manrique, Christopher wrote:
>If a [Spellweaver Helix] is in play, imprinted with both [Ghitu Fire] and
>[Relentless Assault].  During the End Phase, the player controlling the
>Helix plays Ghitu Fire, paying the extra cost to play it as an instant.
>Can the Player at this time play the imprinted Relentless Assault, thus
>getting another attack phase, then another main phase, but not having to
>another End Phase?

 This is a known problem that has cropped up in various places, including
mtg-l (and now dcijudge-l). The Rules Team was not able to address it in
time for the October rulings, but the plan is to reword Relentless Assault
(and similar cards) so that they do not add any additional phases unless
they resolve in an actual Main Phase.
[...snip...]
Until these cards ar officially updated, you should play them as though
they only add phases if they resolve in a main phase.

     Jeff



Silliness with NaN


With three simple cards--MTG: Mox Lotus, MTG: Transcendence, and a source of artifact sacrifice or destruction, you can lose infinity life from mana burn, and then gain 2*infinity = infinity life with Transcendence.  The only reasonable assumption to make here is that your life total becomes NaN.  What are the ramifications of that?

There are two IEEE-imposed rules on NaN that guide most of the interactions here:
-Any operation involving NaN gives an answer of NaN; and
-Any comparison of NaN to anything (even another NaN) gives an answer of false.

So losing the game for having 0 or less life will never be an issue, since NaN is not less than or equal to 0.  If you play Blessed Wind, you'll make an undeterminable gain of (20-NaN) or (NaN-20) life, and you'll remain with NaN life, not 20.  Basically, you're permanently immune to damage or any effects it may have.

Reverse the Sands becomes really interesting.  If your opponent has, say, 10 life, then the players make (once again undeterminable) gains of 10-NaN and NaN-10 life.  What is for certain is that the NaN life total propagates from one player to both of them.  Now you can play the rest of the game in peace, until someone gets hit by some other method of losing.

And of course, whatever you can have as a life total, you can convert to other resources.  Serra Avatar would be a NaN/NaN? creature, incapable of taking lethal damage, but additionally any creature that it damages is also immune to lethal damage until damage wears off (even if it's a 1/1 that was later hit with a Searing Wind, NaN + 10 damage fails to be considered lethal damage on any toughness, including 1).  Smacking your opponent in the face with such a creature is another way to get the NaN life total to propagate.

Storm Herd will let you have NaN creature tokens, and from this point on the answers get unclear.  Tapping a Gaea's Cradle at this point gives you NaN mana.  How does this work?  Is your mana pool considered perpetually empty or perpetually full?
(PeterTaylor) 308.2f / 309.2d: "Once the player has enough mana in his or her mana pool, he or she pays all costs in any order." The key question is what constitutes "enough mana". My understanding would be that to pay 2RG you must have at least one red, one green, and two of any colour or of generic mana (all of them without disabling restrictions). Thus adding NaN G mana with the Cradle would mean that you can't pay 2RG because !(NaN*G > G), but you could pay 2R if you had RRR+NaN*G in your pool.

Collective Unconscious makes you draw NaN cards.  What the hell does that even mean?  By 423.2, that's the same as "Draw a card" repeated NaN times--what comparison is used here, to determine if that means "draw cards forever" or "don't draw at all"?  I can't imagine that it would mean something else, such that your hand size and the cards therein couldn't be determined, but you never know...
(PeterTaylor) Surely it would either be for(cardsDrawn=0; cardsDrawn<NaN; cardsDrawn++) drawCard(); (while draws 0 cards) or for(cardsLeft=NaN; cardsLeft>0; cardsLeft--) drawCard(); (which also draws 0 cards).

A targeted spell on one of the tokens plus Radiate will get you NaN spells on the stack.  Does this hang the game or what?
Probably it functions as a way to clear the stack, or at least end the phase, since the question "Are there any objects on the stack?" will be answered false. Possibly it means nobody can respond to anything from now on, because I don't think the stack is explicitly cleared between phases (since it would never normally need to be). Actually, in that case it would just mean no spells, activated or triggered abilities would ever resolve, since when both players pass in succession the phase/step would end rather than letting the top item resolve. Strange. --AC''
The check in 300.2 is "Is the stack empty?" That sounds to me like a check for stack.len==0, not stack.len>=1, and doing it that way the stack would never be empty.  But you can't ascertain that any object exists on the stack, so what happens when both players pass?

I'm trying to think of some resource conversion whereby you would be called on to pay NaN mana, and then we can discuss whether that's the same as {} or {0}.  Any other resources you can think of that it's possible to create NaN of from this point?
We actually found a way to do this.  Mycosynth Lattice in play, so that all your creatures are artifacts, then play Overrule on something.  More easily, just play a card with affinity for artifacts: the cost will be reduced by NaN and therefore becomes NaN itself.

In conclusion, Magic Online should have had Mox Lotus.  Then we can see just how badly the program can break.
--SadisticMystic
Oh, superb. You delightfully strange people - magnificent. Actually, some of these questions don't need infinities and suchlike, only cards like the innocuous MTG: Mons' Goblin Waiters. The same MTG: Storm Herd technique will then give you a fractional number of creatures, which can then go through MTG: Collective Unconscious, MTG: Radiate or suchlike to obtain fractional numbers of other strange things. They didn't print "Draw 3 1/2 cards" in Unhinged, this was probably deliberate, but we can still obtain that effect. Now what will it do? (Pleasingly, if someone casts MTG: Blessed Wind on you to remove the fractional nature of your life total, you can restore it with MTG: Biorhythm.) --AlexChurchill
Better yet, you don't need any silver-bordered cards to do this, just the silver-bordered rules.  Based on the FAQTIWDAWCC answer for Necro-Impotence, Invoke the Firemind for {2.5}UUR should be a legal play as long as the threat of silver-bordered cards ever entering the game exists.  That also sets you up nicely for fractional mana burn.

One thing I didn't get to touch on: When the mana pool empties after a phase, or damage is removed after a turn, is it possible to reset a NaN value for a resource?  I'd guess this process is done by removing all mana or damage, but removing NaN from NaN doesn't do anything.  So in the Gaea's Cradle example, the green portion of your mana pool is forever locked in either endless or unusable mode, however that section goes.  Additionally, you mana burn for NaN after every phase for the rest of the game, but this is of little consequence.  In the Serra Avatar example, any creature that it damages would be permanently immune to damage.  Such is the viral nature of NaN.  Don't tick it off.
(PeterTaylor) The CompRules wording is "300.3. When a phase ends (but not a step), any unused mana left in a player's mana pool is lost. That player loses 1 life for each one mana lost this way. <snip>." I think it's ambiguous as to whether it's mana:=0 or mana-=mana, but the first seems slightly more natural. You'd still take NaN mana burn once.

(PeterTaylor) In fact, there seems to be a big hole in all this: "104.2. <snip> If anything needs to use a number that can't be determined, it uses 0 instead." I don't think NaN can be determined.
Then you'd think Mox Lotus doesn't work at all, because I also see "There's no such thing as infinity in Magic rules."  If they're going to introduce infinity in silver-bordered land, and it's a simple step to go from infinity to NaN, I'd think Unhinged should be able to handle NaN without defaulting to some different value for it.  Even if it doesn't, there's something to consider.  After going to NaN life, if I play "Gain 5 life", is it a case of "NaN life can't be determined, and neither can NaN + 5, so you still have 0" or of NaN life instantly resetting to 0 for all purposes and then the life gain properly setting life total to 5?

The "draw half a card" issue was raised again by [Ask Wizards on Friday 8th June 2007]. In the subsequent forum thread, [this post] contains some amusing questions. --AC


Questions


Could probably FAQ this but the wiki is faster, so:  Is redirected combat damage dealt at the same time as normal combat damage?  Interaction between the 'Zealot Imperator' and the green 'gets +1/+1 after damage is dealt' card.  --Vitenka
Yes. I'm assuming you mean MTG: Zealous Inquisitor and either MTG: Fungusaur or [Rite of Passage]? --AC
I mean the latter - and no, I mean Imperator. (Peter) No, you mean Inquisitor. Read the link AC posted (W2 2/2 cleric, abilty W1: one point of damage that would be taken by this is instead dealt to one target creature of your choice) (Note lack of 'tap' in that ability).  I think this is a redirect, but they didn't see fit to keyword it.  Regardless, it's my opinion that the counters go on after both the 2 normal damage and all the redirected damage is dealt.  If it doesn't then some multiplayer combos of doom suggest themselves.
But the Mtg: link has never yet returned a single search result for me.  --Vitenka
(Addition - fungasaur would not work because the counters are added at end of turn - rite of passage adds them in response to taking damage, but explicitly gives it a chance to die first.  Rite of passage is an awesomely good counter to defensive tims and such.)  --Vitenka
Aargh! Right. Several misconceptions going on here.In no particular order:
Search returned zero results, just like every other such link from this century.  --Vitenka
That's really bizarre. Does the same thing happen if you go to the [same URL] in a new window? Or maybe your browser isn't coping well with the long line - what about in a different browser? (Works fine in Mozilla 5 and IE 6) --AlexChurchill
Hmmm - ran IE at it against my beter judgement.  Runtime error line 2, line 23, accidentally started the debugger, cancel attempt to install MSOffice SR1...  I think I prefer the way opera fails at it :)  To answer the obvious questions, Opera 5.12 and IE 5.5  --Vitenka
Hey 'tenka, could you see if http://cards.mtgnews.com/Search?J=Murk+Dwellers and http://cards.mtgnews.com/Search?J=Rite+of+Passage work for you? If so, we ought to get the MTG: links shifted there instead, because that database is actually being maintained (unlike the previous two we've been using). --AC
Yes, those are readable.  Less than pretty, but readable.  --Vitenka  Addendum:  http://cards.mtgnews.com/Search?J=Zealous+Imperator works, so I'm not completely mistaken :)
(PeterTaylor) Well found, Alex.
It's useful, yup. But it doesn't show Oracle text. Now that the Wizards autocard isn't doing evil JavaScript resizes, is there actually any reason not to use the official source? (And to Vitenka: http://cards.mtgnews.com/Search?J=Zealous+Imquixitor works too, and goes to the same place yours does: the Zealous Inquisitor page. It's just using a clever spelling-correction algorithm. :) ) --AlexChurchill


Not my misunderstanding, I thought it worked that way.  However, you have raised a new misunderstanding by 'dealt'.  Isn't damage which is then prevented is still dealt, or has that also become a replacement?  --Vitenka
Damage which gets prevented is never dealt. Prevention effects are another type of replacement, yes: they replace the thing they prevent with "nothing happens". Section 419 in the CompRules lists some other types of replacement effects, with examples. 419.5a If a source would deal 0 damage, it does not deal damage at all. That means abilities that trigger on damage being dealt won't trigger. --AC
Oooh, and 'protection from' prevents.  Ebil!  --Vitenka

(And to add, the hint text on rite is very non obvious, since putting the +1/+1 counter on the stack in response to the damage going on the stack would have exactly the opposite effect.)
Well, remember there are other types of damage. If someone Lightning Bolts one of your creatures, then the Bolt goes on the stack, but once the Bolt has resolved it's not like the damage itself separately goes on the stack. Since Rite wants to affect both combat damage and other, the only time it could trigger off damage is when the damage would be dealt. The reminder text on Rite does its best to clarify the important thing, the order in which the counter and the damage happen. --AC




[Look at Me, I'm R&D]



(PeterTaylor) I found myself asking some tricky questions when I built a deck today featuring Look at Me. I was considering the impact of replacing 1 with 0.
[Stitch in Time]. Does it now read "Flip a coin. If you win the flip, take an extra turn after this zero"? Or is the "one" at the end of the original text not a number? (A similar issue arises with 1->2).
[Krark's Thumb]. "If you would flip a coin, instead flip two coins and ignore zero." Does this mean that it's possible to trigger both the "If you win" and "If you lose" clauses of a card such as [Bottle of Suleiman]? (A similar issue arises with 2->3).
[Artificial Evolution]. "Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of two creature type[s] with another." So I can turn an Elf Wizard into a Goblin Goblin?
BwaHaHaHa! You are silly. I think the Krark's Thumb trick works (and is nice with MTG: Karplusan Minotaur). Artificial Evolution probably does what you describe, too, although it's a bit tricky to figure out what happens if you do 1->0 instead. I think Stitch in Time doesn't make grammatical sense if you do 1->0 and view the "one" as a number there, though. (But I think "take an extra turn after these two" (as yielded by 1->2) makes sense, and means you take an extra turn after your next one.) --AC




Planeswalker abilities on non-planeswalkers



The new [Planeswalker] cards are permanents. This means that MTG: Mycosynth Lattice can make them into artifacts, and then MTG: March of the Machines can make them into creatures. So you have planeswalker creatures which can be attacked and then block.

But the weirdness doesn't stop there. Consider MTG: Experiment Kraj. Tap him to put a +1/+1 counter on a planeswalker creature. Now he has the planeswalker's activated abilities: you can put loyalty counters on him. (MTG: Quicksilver Elemental can gain those abilities too.) The loyalty starts at 0, but at least if it goes down to 0 again, Kraj won't be put into a graveyard, since only planeswalkers have that state-based effect, and Kraj is never a planeswalker - he just has the activated abilities of one.

Is the once-per-turn limit attached to the ability, or to the planeswalker?  --Edwin
I'd argue from precedent of MTG: Quicksilver Elemental (which has the ruling "If you make two copies of an ability that can be played once a turn, you can play each of them once a turn.") that you'll be able to play the ability multiple times. (And in fact, MTG: Quicksilver Elemental + MTG: Garruk Wildspeaker + Lattice + March appears to be an infinite-<s>mana</s>, -loyalty, -creature and -Overrun combo.) --AC
Probably not infinite mana, what with March and Lattice on the board. --SM

From CompRules, 2129.f:
A player may play an activated ability of a planeswalker only during a main phase of his or her turn, when he or she has priority and the stack is empty, and only if none of its activated abilities have been played that turn.
This looks to me as if the restriction is attached to the planeswalker, so once you copy the ability you can play it as often and whenever you like.  I could, of course, easily be wrong. --Edwin

The interaction has since been fixed with the concept of "loyalty abilities".




My spell resolves and goes where?



Of course most spells will go to either play or graveyard when they're done resolving. It's a bit harder to get spells to go to hand (buyback) or RFG (flashback), and harder still to get them to go to library (the Beacons). But how about a spell on the stack resolves and...stays on the stack?

The key card here is MTG: Worms of the Earth, due to its odd (and practically reality-denying) replacement ability. Then the easiest way to get the next component is MTG: Dryad Arbor, though any land that's been animated such as by MTG: Nature's Revolt will work. (Saproling tokens turned into lands by MTG: Life and Limb will not work, due to the idea of copiable values.)

Anyway, now you just play MTG: Clone, or one of its many...well, clones. As it comes into play, choose to have it be a copy of Dryad Arbor. But wait...now this means it's trying to come into play as a land. This makes Worms of the Earth mad, very mad, to the point of just saying no. Clone doesn't come into play...so it has to remain in its previous zone. Note that goes-to-graveyard is only a provision of the rules for resolving instants and sorceries (212.5b, 212.7b). The spell is officially done resolving, but it's still on the stack!

So now Clone gets to resolve again immediately. If you keep choosing Dryad Arbor, it keeps staying on the stack. However, this doesn't seem to be good for much. It won't add to storm count, and eventually by the loop rules you'll have to choose another creature to copy (or if there are no others, decline to use Clone's "may" ability and have it come into play as a 0/0). At least you know how to do something in Magic that you've probably never even imagined doing before.
Well, you could use it along with MTG: Nature's Revolt and MTG: Fractured Loyalty to steal your opponent's lands. (Slightly more usefully, MTG: Nature's Revolt and MTG: Cowardice to bounce them all, but bouncing everything in sight when Cowardice is in play isn't exactly hard). If there's a way to make arbitrary numbers of copies of Fractured Loyalty this would even be useful. --SF, trying to prove he's not totally Magic-illiterate yet.
Making token copies of Auras is remarkably hard. You could get 12 of them with MTG: Copy Enchantment and MTG: Sculpting Steel (having first made it an artifact with e.g. MTG: March of the Machines). However, sadly this wouldn't achieve anything, as MTG: Clone is no longer targeted. --AC
I believe that instead of MTG: Dryad Arbor + MTG: Clone, MTG: Zoetic Cavern + MTG: Jhoira of the Ghitu would work as another way to get a land on the stack. --AC
Suspend uses "play", not "cast", so when the time counters run out you can play Zoetic Cavern during your upkeep as a land. This doesn't take it through the stack, though. Land cards can never be "cast" in any case, and attempting to do so is an impossible action. --SM

The rulings for MTG: Worms of the Earth claim that in this situation the clone goes to the graveyard. Whether that ruling is based on the comp-rules or just some attempt at sanity, I don't know. --Edwin
The ruling is based on a change to the rules that they made after, and in specific response to, this question. Now if a spell is somehow still on the stack after it finishes resolving, it gets forcefully sent off to the graveyard. --SM




Un-shuffling a library



Suppose you have two Swamps and two MTG: Millikin on the battlefield, and three miscellaneous cards in the graveyard. Announce MTG: Tombstalker, declaring an intent to delve for 4. When it comes time to activate mana abilities, tap both Swamps and both Millikins, producing the required 2BB, and probably putting a fourth and fifth card into the graveyard so you can satisfy the delve cost.

But what if they don't actually put cards into the graveyard? What if the top card is MTG: Darksteel Colossus, you shuffle it back in, and the second Millikin hits DSC again?

The rules on illegal actions provide: 715.1. If a player realizes that he or she can't legally take an action after starting to do so, the entire action is reversed and any payments already made are canceled. No abilities trigger and no effects apply as a result of an undone action. If the action was casting a spell, the spell returns to the zone it came from. The player may also reverse any legal mana abilities activated while making the illegal play, unless mana from them or from any triggered mana abilities they triggered was spent on another mana ability that wasn't reversed. Players may not reverse actions that moved cards to a library or from a library to any zone other than the stack.

In this case, the Darksteel Colossus never left the library, just caused it to get shuffled twice. So it appears there's nothing preventing the Millikin mana abilities from being reversed as part of the illegal action. Therefore, after this admittedly unlikely sequence of events, you would be justified in reversing those abilities, and un-shuffling your library!

Now, if only we knew what exactly it means to un-shuffle...
This one tickled me, so ChrisHowlett emailed Daniel Kitachewsky directly. Here's the answer.
"As for your situation, activating Millikin's ability did move a card to a library, so you don't reverse that action, and you leave the library in its shuffled state.
The rules are ambiguous on this one though, and you can never really be satisfied by rulings involving Millikin. This one could change in the future!

[The Great MaGo writes]:
715.1
This rule, about illegal actions, already stated that actions that moved cards into a library, or moved from a library to a zone other than the stack, can't be reversed. It will now say that actions that cause a library to be shuffled can't be reversed either.
Another rules fix I can claim as my very own! --SM

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