I have been attempting to make a budget Zedruu the Greathearted deck, and am confused as to the rules for owning tokens. There are cards like Hunted Troll that give your opponents tokens, but do you own them, or do they? Does ownership mean that it has to be a card from your deck, or a token you had when it ETB, or a token you put into play?
"A token is ... owned ... by the player under whose control it entered the battlefield""The player who creates a token is its owner" (C.R. 111.2). Therefore, in the case of Hunted Troll, the tokens will be owned by the targeted opponent. (Note that in the specific case of Hunted Troll, the wording is now "target opponent creates four ... tokens" [C.R. 108.1], whereas in the printed card from Ravnica: City of Guilds, the wording was "put four ... tokens into play under target opponent's control". Under either wording, however, that wouldn't change who owns those tokens under current rules.Under the previous wording, the tokens would have been owned by the player who created those tokens — formerly: "put" those tokens "into play" [C.R. 403.5, 701.6c] — under current rules. However, use the Oracle text of a card to determine its wording [C.R. 108.1].)
EDIT (Feb. 12, 2018): Added rule citation.
EDIT (Jul. 13, 2018): One rule materially changed with Core Set 2019.
EDIT (Oct. 4, 2018): One rule was renumbered with Guilds of Ravnica.
EDIT (Sep. 28, 2019): One rule was renumbered with Core Set 2020.
The rules for ownership of tokens changed with Core Set 2019. Now, "[t]he player who creates a token is its owner" (C.R. 111.2), as opposed to the player under whose control the token entered the battlefield. As a result, in rare cases, the difference can matter (such as if Gather Specimens is involved). See also my edits to comment 2.
EDIT (Sep. 28, 2019): One rule was renumbered with Core Set 2020.
Hunted Troll and it’s ilk received errata with the rules change. They now state “target opponent creates”, drastically changing the way the cards function. I find the rules change and errata completely unnecessary, as they result in the exact same game state, but the owner of the tokens is the opponent.
The M19 rules change is functional when it comes to effects like Gather Specimens.
- When Hunted Troll was printed, the owner of the tokens was the Troll player.
- Then the rules changed, and the owner was whoever the tokens first entered under control of, which could be affected by Gather Specimens and similar effects.
- Now the rules have changed again, and the tokens are owned by the player who does the creating. Thanks to errata, that is not the Troll player. And the ownership would not be affected by Gather Specimens.
Any idea why they changed these rules? The hunted series and a handful of other cards (e.g. forbidden orchard, varchild's warrider) had a niche use for exploiting the fact that the originator of the tokens owned them (e.g. Gruul Charm) and with Commander Legends would have had beautiful synergy with Blim, Comedic Genius and Zedruu the Greathearted. I similarly find this change unnecessary (and more than a little obnoxious).
Any idea why they changed these rules? The hunted series and a handful of other cards (e.g. forbidden orchard, varchild's warrider) had a niche use for exploiting the fact that the originator of the tokens owned them (e.g. Gruul Charm) and with Commander Legends would have had beautiful synergy with Blim, Comedic Genius and Zedruu the Greathearted. I similarly find this change unnecessary (and more than a little obnoxious).
In fact there were at least two relevant rule changes involving the ownership of tokens: one in Magic 2010 and another in Core Set 2019.
In Magic 2010, the owner of a token changed from "the player who controlled the spell or ability that put it into play" (C.R. 200.4a, as was in effect in Alara Reborn) to "the player under whose control it entered the battlefield" (C.R. 110.5a, as was in effect in Magic 2010). The reason (according to the "Magic 2010 Rule Changes" article) was that the previous rule "[was] poorly understood, mainly because it [didn't] make a ton of sense", and "allow[ed] [players] to do unintuitive tricks with cards like Brand or Warp World. Few people [were] aware of this rule, and assume[d] that the owner of the tokens [was] the player under whose control they entered the battlefield."
In Core Set 2019, the owner of a token changed to the player who created that token. However, the rationale given in the update bulletin was scant: "We've been considering changing the rule ever since token creation was retemplated to use the 'create' [keyword action], but there was never really a good place to put it."
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"A token is ... owned ... by the player under whose control it entered the battlefield""The player who creates a token is its owner" (C.R. 111.2). Therefore, in the case of Hunted Troll, the tokens will be owned by the targeted opponent. (Note that in the specific case of Hunted Troll, the wording is now "target opponent creates four ... tokens" [C.R. 108.1], whereas in the printed card from Ravnica: City of Guilds, the wording was "put four ... tokens into play under target opponent's control".Under either wording, however, that wouldn't change who owns those tokens under current rules.Under the previous wording, the tokens would have been owned by the player who created those tokens — formerly: "put" those tokens "into play" [C.R. 403.5, 701.6c] — under current rules. However, use the Oracle text of a card to determine its wording [C.R. 108.1].)EDIT (Feb. 12, 2018): Added rule citation.
EDIT (Jul. 13, 2018): One rule materially changed with Core Set 2019.
EDIT (Oct. 4, 2018): One rule was renumbered with Guilds of Ravnica.
EDIT (Sep. 28, 2019): One rule was renumbered with Core Set 2020.
EDIT (Sep. 28, 2019): One rule was renumbered with Core Set 2020.
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- When Hunted Troll was printed, the owner of the tokens was the Troll player.
- Then the rules changed, and the owner was whoever the tokens first entered under control of, which could be affected by Gather Specimens and similar effects.
- Now the rules have changed again, and the tokens are owned by the player who does the creating. Thanks to errata, that is not the Troll player. And the ownership would not be affected by Gather Specimens.
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People were abusing these cards with Warp World.