Asking for a friend:If The Grand Calcutron is in play, can foretell and plot abilities be activated from the program?

The Grand Calcutron only affects how you cast spells from your hand, so no.

My playgroup is building acorn/silver border Un-mander decks! I'm building The Grand Calcutron. When it enters the battlefield are all programs decided simultaneously or does it go in turn order?

It’s simultaneous.

For The Grand Calculatron, the rules team seemed comfortable with functional errata to make a card into a Commander.Is there a reason the same text could not be errata'd to Nephilim? It wouldn't affect their play in any other format.

The Grand Calcutron was supposed to have the text and for reasons I won’t get into couldn’t, so we errataed it. Outside of that case, we haven’t errataed “can be a Commander”, but I’m not against it in principle.

Greetings MaRo, big fan, love this game you're a big part in making, and I especially love your enthusiasm for it! It's truly infectious, and your passion clearly shows.

Anyway, as the Officially-Unoffical Un-Rules Manager, I had a question if you have the time. My play group is going to be running an Un-commander night soon where un-cards are totally legal and where we each get to pick a legendary creature, planeswalker, or The Grand Calcutron from an un-set and use that as our commander. I, in the spirit of someone who loves Magic history, am going with Richard Garfield, Ph.D.. Going to do some random number generator table to just increase the randomness, to try to not keep the deck super duper busted and, most importantly, to ensure my turns don't take forever because of decision paralysis. However, this leads me to a few questions about how certain mechanics work when I control Richard Garfield, Ph.D.:

1. Flashback (or really any "cast from the graveyard" effects/abilities, but flashback is the main one). If I have, say, Think Twice in the graveyard and I pay the flashback cost, am I limited to playing it as any card that costs 1U that also has flashback, or can I play it as any card that costs 1U? I'm assuming the former, but wanted to double-check on this point.

2. Alternate casting costs, like delve or madness. I assume that, if I am choosing the pay the alternate cost, it is already too late for me to play a particular card as a different card instead? For example, if I exile 7 cards from the graveyard to delve Treasure Cruise, I can't cast it as Scornful Egotist, right?

3. Suspend, and this is the one I am the least sure about so if you only have time for one rules question (I know you're incredibly incredibly busy making this game we all love, so I completely understand if that's the case), I would love an answer to this. If I have a card suspended and the last time counter comes off allowing me to cast the card, can I cast it as a different card of the same mana cost? For example, if I have Riftwing Cloudskate on suspend and I remove the last time counter, could I cast it as, say, Slime Monster? Also, for this question, does it at all matter if I suspended Cloudskate before or after I cast Richard Garfield, Ph.D.?

Thank you in advance for your help and for your time, and I am really looking forward to all that Magic has to offer! Can I shill for a second for a plane based around the Klondike Gold Rush with Western elements?

1. To use flashback, you must treat the card as a card with the same mana cost, and then pay the flashback costs that actually appears on the card that you are “copying”. 2. Yes, it is too late. Once you start paying additional costs, you’re locked into it being that spell.3. Suspend works similarly to flashback. You can “copy” any spell with the same mana cost and then pay the suspend cost that appears on that “copy”.

Since the The Grand Calcutron can be your commander, can Gleemax as well?

If we printed it today, probably.

UNRules Question: If The Grand Calcutron is played in Commander, can your opponent cast their commander?

Yes. The Grand Calcutron only affects casting spells from your hand.

Yes, but if there was a proper lore reason, like the grand calcutron, could there be MORE artifacts and enchantments that could be your commander?

Here’s the issue. I’m fine making them when it’s the by-product of an interesting idea like the Grand Cakcutron. I’m less interested in using it as a starting point because I don’t believe novelty for novelty sake is a good place to start designs.

Mark! This weekend I played my first Unstable draft, which quickly degenerated into a 5 player star multiplayer game (you win when the two people opposite from you have lost). On turn 2 someone played The Grand Calcutron, and I won by beating people up with a 15/15 Hydradoodle that I untapped with a Multi-Headed Beaver. It was an amazing time, so please accept this virtual high-five!

Accepted!

suppose i have The Grand Calcutron out and i cast the first card in my program, Snapcaster Mage. TGC says "players can only play the first card of their program," does this mean the only card in my program that i can play is the 1st card, or does it mean i can't play any cards at all unless they're the 1st card of my program? in other words, can i flash something back with snapcaster?

If you play a card out of your hand, it has to be the first card in the program. If you cast it from anywhere else, you can cast it whenever.

Does The Grand Calcutron prevent you from playing cards in other players' programs when it says that you may only play the first card of your program?

If you play an effect that allows you to play another player’s cards and they have a Grand Calcutron, you can only play their cards following the order of the program.