I had a quick question about a card I designed. I know the card itself is really really strong, but I want to know if it works ruling wise.
Mimetic Virosa 2BG
Creature - Fungus
Mimetic Virosa has all abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards.
2/2
I know this creature will have all activated, triggered, and static abilities (keyword and nonkeyword). My question is - does it get ETB effects to trigger as it enters the battlefield? So if I had an Acidic Slime in my graveyard, would Mimetic Virosa destroy an artifact, enchantment, or land when it entered the battlefield?
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My Cubes - The Busted Cube. A fully functional, almost 100% custom cube. The project started out by asking "What if other colors got cards on the power level of Mana Drain,Ancestral Recall, and Time Walk?" Draft and enjoy!
Yes, it will have all triggered abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards, so each such ability will trigger appropriately.
However, this ability doesn't work because it inherits static abilities. In particular, characteristic-defining abilities that define power and toughness may conflict if the characteristic is defined differently. For example, if you have a Tarmogoyf and a Geist-Honored Monk on the battlefield, and you have four types among cards in your graveyard and you control ten creatures, is Mimetic Virosa a 4/5, 10/10, 2/2, or some other power and toughness combination?
Normally, this is done by timestamps; that is, whichever card entered the appropriate graveyard first would be applied first, with the last one "winning" out. However, timestamps only apply to objects as they are relative to each other, and since each ability that Mimetic Virosa inherits affects the same object, there is no defined order of which "wins" in this way.
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How to use card tags (please use them for everybody's sanity)
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Would the card function properly if it was amended to say "Mimetic Virosa has all activated, triggered, and keyword abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards?"
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My Cubes - The Busted Cube. A fully functional, almost 100% custom cube. The project started out by asking "What if other colors got cards on the power level of Mana Drain,Ancestral Recall, and Time Walk?" Draft and enjoy!
You probably want the wording to be the same as Necrotic Ooze, so maybe "As long as ~ is on the battlefield, it has all abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards." If you want cast triggers to work, then use "As long as ~ is on the stack or the battlefield".
Would the card function properly if it was amended to say "Mimetic Virosa has all activated, triggered, and keyword abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards?"
Sort of. The only two keyword CDA's so far are devoid (color-defining) and changeling (type-defining). This card would hypothetically prevent Wizards from implementing any other type- or color-defining CDA's in the future. There's also the issue that "keyword ability" isn't really a valid rules text term, and of course, there's also the issue of some keywords no longer being keywords based solely on executive decisions.
Obviously, if none of that matters to you, then your wording works fine. I'd advise against explicitly referencing "keyword abilities" in rules text, though; like the stack, players know that they're there, but they just don't the formal term to refer to them as a whole.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How to use card tags (please use them for everybody's sanity)
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Might "Mimetic Virosa has all abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards, except its base power and toughness is 2." Work?
While that works, it comes off as being relatively hard to comprehend. As in, a player unfamiliar with the rules who looks at just this card may ask how inheriting abilities and having base power and toughness stay a constant value have anything to do with each other.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How to use card tags (please use them for everybody's sanity)
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
"Mimetic Virosa has all abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards, except its base power and toughness can't be changed by abilities gained this way."
"Mimetic Virosa has all abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards, except its base power and toughness can't be changed by abilities gained this way."
I think this covers everything.
Doesn't quite address the CDA issues that Thought Criminal brought up.
Yeah, I didn't consider that. It was just a response to Thought Criminal's phrasing, "While that works, [it's confusing]."
Looking into it a little further, I don't think there's a way for this ability to work at all, even with a novella for rules text.
109.3. An object’s characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, abilities, power, toughness, loyalty, hand modifier, and life modifier. . . Any other information about an object isn’t a characteristic.
That's a lot of stuff. Exempting all of these to prevent conflicting characteristics would prevent ANY non-triggered, non-activated, non-keyword abilities from being gained. Every other existing card with a similar "all abilities" ability limits it to all activated abilities. You could probably get away with "all activated and triggered abilities" without breaking the game, but in order to include any keyword abilities, you'd need to list them individually (see Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Soulflayer).
Devoid removes all colours, even if more are added, so that's a non-issue.
According to you (specifically you), what happens when a creature that has devoid is affected by a Thoughtlace? What colors, if any, is that creature?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How to use card tags (please use them for everybody's sanity)
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
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I had a quick question about a card I designed. I know the card itself is really really strong, but I want to know if it works ruling wise.
Mimetic Virosa 2BG
Creature - Fungus
Mimetic Virosa has all abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards.
2/2
I know this creature will have all activated, triggered, and static abilities (keyword and nonkeyword). My question is - does it get ETB effects to trigger as it enters the battlefield? So if I had an Acidic Slime in my graveyard, would Mimetic Virosa destroy an artifact, enchantment, or land when it entered the battlefield?
Regular 450 unpowered cube (with some custom cards) - 450 Unpowered
However, this ability doesn't work because it inherits static abilities. In particular, characteristic-defining abilities that define power and toughness may conflict if the characteristic is defined differently. For example, if you have a Tarmogoyf and a Geist-Honored Monk on the battlefield, and you have four types among cards in your graveyard and you control ten creatures, is Mimetic Virosa a 4/5, 10/10, 2/2, or some other power and toughness combination?
Normally, this is done by timestamps; that is, whichever card entered the appropriate graveyard first would be applied first, with the last one "winning" out. However, timestamps only apply to objects as they are relative to each other, and since each ability that Mimetic Virosa inherits affects the same object, there is no defined order of which "wins" in this way.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Regular 450 unpowered cube (with some custom cards) - 450 Unpowered
Sort of. The only two keyword CDA's so far are devoid (color-defining) and changeling (type-defining). This card would hypothetically prevent Wizards from implementing any other type- or color-defining CDA's in the future. There's also the issue that "keyword ability" isn't really a valid rules text term, and of course, there's also the issue of some keywords no longer being keywords based solely on executive decisions.
Obviously, if none of that matters to you, then your wording works fine. I'd advise against explicitly referencing "keyword abilities" in rules text, though; like the stack, players know that they're there, but they just don't the formal term to refer to them as a whole.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
While that works, it comes off as being relatively hard to comprehend. As in, a player unfamiliar with the rules who looks at just this card may ask how inheriting abilities and having base power and toughness stay a constant value have anything to do with each other.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
I think this covers everything.
Doesn't quite address the CDA issues that Thought Criminal brought up.
If you have Transguild Courier and Barrage Tyrant in your graveyard, is the Virosa all colours or none of them?
Yeah, I didn't consider that. It was just a response to Thought Criminal's phrasing, "While that works, [it's confusing]."
Looking into it a little further, I don't think there's a way for this ability to work at all, even with a novella for rules text.
109.3. An object’s characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, abilities, power, toughness, loyalty, hand modifier, and life modifier. . . Any other information about an object isn’t a characteristic.
That's a lot of stuff. Exempting all of these to prevent conflicting characteristics would prevent ANY non-triggered, non-activated, non-keyword abilities from being gained. Every other existing card with a similar "all abilities" ability limits it to all activated abilities. You could probably get away with "all activated and triggered abilities" without breaking the game, but in order to include any keyword abilities, you'd need to list them individually (see Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Soulflayer).
According to you (specifically you), what happens when a creature that has devoid is affected by a Thoughtlace? What colors, if any, is that creature?
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall