Hello, this is something that I've never been able to get a good clarification on, so I figured I would ask here.
Let's say I reveal a Wear/Tear to Dark Confidant's trigger. I would lose three life, as in this case the cmc of Wear/Tear is three, being the sum of the two halves. Why is this different then when Wear/Tear is revealed from Counterbalance? From gatherer:
4/15/2013: In every zone except the stack, split cards have two sets of characteristics and two converted mana costs. If anything needs information about a split card not on the stack, it will get two values.
Why is the information check different between dark confidant and counterbalance?
As the ruling you quoted says, when Dark Confidant or Counterbalance asks for Wear/Tear's CMC value, they get two values instead of one (1 and 2).
Dark Confidant makes you lose life equal to both values, so you lose 1 life and 2 life = you lose 3 life.
But Counterbalance wants to compare the value with something else, so it has to work differently. It will compare both of Wear/Tear two CMCs to the spell's single CMC and if either one is equal, the spell is countered. So Wear/Tear will work to counter a spell with CMC of 1 or 2, but not one with CMC of 3 because 3 is not equal to 1 or 2.
It is the same, it just has different results. Ask quoted it gives two answers when asked about its cmc in non stack zones. Counterbalance asks if it equals the answer which is 1 and 2. while Bob is telling you to lose life = to the answer, since it gives the answer 1 and 2 you lose 1 life and you lose 2 life aka you just lost 3 life.
If a spell or ability asks what a fuse card's cmc is, it is both halves, and thus the sum.
If a spell or ability tries to compare a fuse card's cmc to something else, it is both halves and is thus compared to either half, but not both halves together.
Based on this logic, when counterbalance's triggered ability resolves, it will compare the converted mana cost of the spell on the stack to both halves of the fuse card.
When dark confidant's triggered ability resolves, it will look at the converted mana cost of the spell, which is both halves, and you will lose life equal to the sum of those costs.
This should also mean that one could cast Firemind's Foresight and search for a copy of Breaking/Entering, as that card would have a cmc of two and 6.
When you are told to take an action in respect to a mana cost or converted mana cost of a split card, you are told to do something with respect to two values. Taking one thing and another thing is called conjunction, conjoining, or conjunctifying, which I mention because I'm going to use that word to encapsulate that step of this process.
With split cards in these cases, it isn't that you combine the two values and then act on them; instead you have two actions to take, and you combine them.
The meaning of conjunction or addition when applied to "losing life" is different from the conjunction or addition of "does this number equal that number?" With Dark Confidant you do two life losings to satisfy the verb that compels that action. With Counterbalance you do two comparisons to satisfy the verb that compels that action. It's the same, but the relation of the actual action to conjunction, what it means to conjunctify that action, plays out differently with respect to the two CMCs (or mana costs, or characteristics) which are the grammatical objects of those actions.
All of this is for split cards which aren't fused on the stack. For that, I refer to ToddB's post. Fuse specifically establishes how its characteristics as a spell are determined from the text on the card. Conveniently, it metaphorically fuses the two sets of characteristics into one set of characteristics to manage, more or less.
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Let's say I reveal a Wear/Tear to Dark Confidant's trigger. I would lose three life, as in this case the cmc of Wear/Tear is three, being the sum of the two halves. Why is this different then when Wear/Tear is revealed from Counterbalance? From gatherer:
4/15/2013: In every zone except the stack, split cards have two sets of characteristics and two converted mana costs. If anything needs information about a split card not on the stack, it will get two values.
Why is the information check different between dark confidant and counterbalance?
Dark Confidant makes you lose life equal to both values, so you lose 1 life and 2 life = you lose 3 life.
But Counterbalance wants to compare the value with something else, so it has to work differently. It will compare both of Wear/Tear two CMCs to the spell's single CMC and if either one is equal, the spell is countered. So Wear/Tear will work to counter a spell with CMC of 1 or 2, but not one with CMC of 3 because 3 is not equal to 1 or 2.
If a spell or ability asks what a fuse card's cmc is, it is both halves, and thus the sum.
If a spell or ability tries to compare a fuse card's cmc to something else, it is both halves and is thus compared to either half, but not both halves together.
Based on this logic, when counterbalance's triggered ability resolves, it will compare the converted mana cost of the spell on the stack to both halves of the fuse card.
When dark confidant's triggered ability resolves, it will look at the converted mana cost of the spell, which is both halves, and you will lose life equal to the sum of those costs.
This should also mean that one could cast Firemind's Foresight and search for a copy of Breaking/Entering, as that card would have a cmc of two and 6.
Thanks for the clarification.
With split cards in these cases, it isn't that you combine the two values and then act on them; instead you have two actions to take, and you combine them.
The meaning of conjunction or addition when applied to "losing life" is different from the conjunction or addition of "does this number equal that number?" With Dark Confidant you do two life losings to satisfy the verb that compels that action. With Counterbalance you do two comparisons to satisfy the verb that compels that action. It's the same, but the relation of the actual action to conjunction, what it means to conjunctify that action, plays out differently with respect to the two CMCs (or mana costs, or characteristics) which are the grammatical objects of those actions.
All of this is for split cards which aren't fused on the stack. For that, I refer to ToddB's post. Fuse specifically establishes how its characteristics as a spell are determined from the text on the card. Conveniently, it metaphorically fuses the two sets of characteristics into one set of characteristics to manage, more or less.
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