So after I failed miserably in sneak preview, I have some questions :-)

Opponent has Lord Mograine in play with 1 dmg, and some other allies, with 4 health or less.

(Pay) 1, Destroy a Death Knight you control -> Put a 3 [Melee] / 3 [Health] Ghoul ally token into play.

I play Corpse Explosion, to try and clear the board.

Remove target ally in a graveyard from the game. If you do, your hero deals 4 shadow damage to each opposing hero and ally.

But my opponent foiled my plans, by using Mograine's power to turn the soon-to-be-dead allies into ghouls.
We had some debate about whether he could do this so the ghouls would come into play after my Corpse Explosion.

The judge ruled that he could, and I lost the game, but I'm not quite sure that was the correct ruling.

Was this correct? Why or why not?

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Level 1 judge

Danish WOW TCG Forum @ http://worldofwarcraft.dk

The Ghouls would take the damage. Corpse Explosion would be on the chain still when the Ghouls are created. He can indeed do this, but ultimately it wouldn't do anything.

Token is not hero or ally. I doubt corpse explosion can harm them...

Edit: it seems that Token rules has changed in 4.0 too. Now ally token in all respects is the same as an ally while in play and can only be distinguished by text that refers explicitly to “tokens” or “non-token” cards.

Thus, it seems that Corpse Explosion will kill off the ghouls.

Edit2: Silly me, I was thinking about totem rules, not token rules! So there was no rule change in this respect.

Side question: never been at a tourney - isn't judge supposed to provide reasoning why he ruled this or that way?

Not necessarily. A yes or no answer is usually enough to keep the game moving, though if the explanation is short there's not really a reason not to give it. If you have a question about a judge's ruling, you can ask for an explanation or further clarification after the match.

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They gave me some judge levels or something, too...

I experienced the EXACT same situation at my Sneak Preview yesterday! I had Mograine in play with a field full of deathknight allies and 3 open resources when my opponent used his Corpse Explosion. I wanted to use Mograines power instantly to turn him and my other deathknight allies into ghouls and thereby save them from Corpse Explosion. We had a long discussion about if the Ghouls would be hit by his Corpse Explosion or not, and ultimately the judge ruled my way and said that they wouldn't be hit. But afterwards I have thought more and more about it, and I simply can't see, why they wouldn't be hit by it. I mean, Corpse Explosion is put on the chain and is poised to do 4 damage to everything on my side, and in response I choose to destroy my deathknight allies and replace them with 3 ghouls, but in continuation Corpse Explosion would still resolve and do 4 damage to them all and ultimately wipe my board anyway, right? Or could there be some freaky rule, that would make the judge's call right somehow?

I would really like some official ruling on this, as I'm getting pretty confused.

Corpse Explosion goes on the chain first.  It resolves off the chain last.

Very simple.

So the ghouls would get the damage I assume... And I would think the same thing... So the judge was just plain wrong?

Hvae Rasmus tror du måske vi snakker om den samme situation?

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Level 1 judge

Danish WOW TCG Forum @ http://worldofwarcraft.dk

Yes.  Sorry for the quick response, I was in a hurry.

Corpse explosion's cost is paid.
Corpse explosion goes on the chain.
The ally's power cost would be paid by paying 1 and destroying a Death Knight.
The ally's power goes on the chain.
The ally's power resolves; token enters play.
Corpse explosion resolves, token dies.

Corpse explosion's cost is paid.
In response, the ally's power activates.
Ally's power cost would be paid by paying 1 and destroying a Death Knight.
No one has any other responses, chain is set.
Ally's power goes on the chain.
Corpse explosion goes on the chain.
Corpse explosion resolves, allies die.
Ally's power resolves, tokens enter play.

When a power is added to the chain by an action player, the responding player can (with the correct understanding of timing) choose to have his response happen before or after the event to which he's responding.  That's basic chain usage.

The confusion comes when the activated power is "destroy [object] ->."  That cost isn't stopped if the object would be destroyed.  That cost is payed at the same time resources would be tapped, before any chain event happen, regardless of timing.  It was the whole reason people used Chipper Ironbane back in the first set: because he couldn't be stopped by targetting/killing him.

In essence, the ruling was correct.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the ruling was incorrect.  Your example above does not take into account the true use of the chain.  Let's look at the situation a few different ways.

Player A plays Corpse Explosion.  Player A passes priority.  Player B adds the payment power to the chain by paying 1 and destroying the ally (at this point the ally is in the grave since all costs must be paid to add a link to the chain), then passes priority back to player A.  The chain now looks like this:

Top<<Payment Power<< Corpse Explosion

Both players pass priority.  Payment power resolves.  Player B gets a 3/3 Ghoul for utilizing the payment power.  Assuming no other links are added to the chain, both players pass priority again.  Corpse Explosion resolves.  All opposing allies are dealt 4 damage, which would include the ghouls since they are now in play.  The Ghouls have fatal damage and during pre-priority processing are destroyed by the game.

Now we'll try it another way.  Player A plays Corpse Explosion.  Player A then passes priority.  Player B passes priority.  Corpse Explosion resolves and deal 4 damage to each of the opposing allies.  At this point the game checks to see if any characters have fatal damage.  During this check, no player receives priority, so Player B cannot respond at this point.  If any allies have fatal damage, they are immediately destroyed and sent to the graveyard.  Then, Player A would receive priority again as he is the acting player. 

There is no way to activate the power and get the 3/3 ghouls to survive in this situation.

Tinytode is correct.

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My entire collection for sale.

I think the confusion lies in a misunderstanding of when a link is added to the chain.

A link is added to the chain at the same time as the cost is paid. In fact, paying costs is part of the process of adding a link to the chain. You don't pay costs, let others respond and then add the link after everyone has responded.

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The hands of a healer

I think maybe there could be confusion in how many "links" are added to the chain, and which parts you are allowed to respond to.

I for instance wasn't totally clear about what happens when a damage dealing effect like Corpse Explosion resolves off the chain.
As I understand it, it creates a damage packet for each character hit, and I wasn't sure if those packages go on the chain. And if so, if they could be responded to.


Just for further understanding:
In Tinytodes second example, he explains, that there is no window to respond between a character is dealt fatal damage, and that character is destroyed. (which makes sense, otherwise you could just heal your guys to safety)

I believe this check is called Pre-Priority Processing?
Does PPP happen after each link is resolved?
Say for instance Exploding Corpses is the second to last link.
Are the characters that are dealt fatal damage destroyed before the last link resolves?

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Level 1 judge

Danish WOW TCG Forum @ http://worldofwarcraft.dk

All characters with fatal damage are destroyed during PPP. PPP occurs right before a player would receive Priority. PPP will occur every time a link resolves.

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No quote for you!