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CardName: Novice Swordsman Cost: W Type: Creature - Kithkin Soldier Pow/Tgh: 1/1 Rules Text: {4}{W}: Novice Swordsman gains all activated abilities of target creature until end of turn. Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Arena Common

Novice Swordsman
{w}
 
 C 
Creature – Kithkin Soldier
{4}{w}: Novice Swordsman gains all activated abilities of target creature until end of turn.
1/1
Updated on 05 Mar 2013 by DrugsForRobots

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History: [-]

2011-01-02 03:16:34: DrugsForRobots edited Novice Swordsman
2011-01-05 04:35:22: DrugsForRobots edited Novice Swordsman
2011-02-17 06:13:17: DrugsForRobots edited Novice Swordsman
2011-08-10 17:05:40: DrugsForRobots edited Novice Swordsman
2011-09-11 21:16:42: DrugsForRobots edited Novice Swordsman
2011-11-10 15:38:00: DrugsForRobots edited Novice Swordsman
2013-02-27 20:06:31: DrugsForRobots edited Novice Swordsman

Huh. First off, I like the idea of a common creature that activates to get all activations on another card. I'm less sure about the static abilities... I guess I just like to see Magic take one step at a time. But, sure, that's cool too.

I'm curious, though, as to why this needs to be at sorcery speed. What are you seeing DFR that I'm not? New World Order perhaps?

Magic has been happy to grant activated abilities for a while now: this is similar to Quicksilver Elemental, but there's been Myr Welder, Necrotic Ooze, Dark Impostor and probably others. I think it's very deliberate that they're all rare, and it might be more sensible to step down to uncommon before common, BICBW.

MtG has so far shied away from granting arbitrary triggered or static abilities. It's a constant disappointment that cards like The Mimeoplasm don't properly mash two cards together. I imagine there are probably good reasons, but I've not seen them.

Note, though, that characteristic-defining abilities are a subclass of static abilities, and they shouldn't be copied. If you point this at Maro, it gets Maro's size-specifying ability. If you point it at Maro and Nightmare in the same turn, the resulting Maro-Nightmare is well named.

LOL. IIRC the rules just about handle Maro-Nightmare, but I don't think the judges would. The most hilarious interpretation would be "the number of cards in your hand is equal to the number of swamps you control", but I don't think it ever works like that :)

But but.. Maths! (I kinda expect the last P/T setting ability granted to be the one that wins. I do wonder what happens if you manage to grant:
~ has P/T 7
While ~ has P>3, ~ has ...
~ has P/T 1
Though. Does it get to check the intermediately evaluated P/T or not?

Sorry, were there some missing line breaks in that? I can't quite see what sequence of abilities that was.

Yeah, many of Vitenka's comments have lost linebreaks. I edited them in for the rest of us.

I don't understand this. I added linebreaks in the comment.

Test1 test 2

... ok, I shake my fist at thee, markdown!

Thanks, Alex.

Ah, I see what you mean! I don't know if it works for P/T, but you could ask the same question about other characteristics. I think I know the answer, but I'm not sure.

If they're in different layers (eg. all copy effects are determined before all control-changing effects), the first layer is always completed first.

If they're in the same layer, I think you'd get something like:

  1. "Target creature gains trample UEOT"
  2. "UEOT, if target creature has trample, it has flying"
  3. "Target creature loses flying UEOT"

I believe the answer is that normally they would be applied in timestamp order, but because #2 depends on #1 and #3, #1 and #3 are determined first, and then #2, so it ends up with neither ability.

However, if there's a dependency loop, the effects revert to a timestamp order, so I don't know if you could have something like:

  1. Target creature gains trample UEOT.
  2. UEOT, if target creature has trample it has flying.
  3. If target creature has flying, it loses trample UEOT.

I'm really really not sure, but I think #2 and #3 form a dependency loop, so are applied in timestamp order, in which case, I think it ends up with flying but not trample??

2013-03-05 16:49:58: DrugsForRobots edited Novice Swordsman

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