A few friends have been arguing about how a Kodama of the East Tree and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces interaction works. I agree with one of them, but they're both pretty firm on their interpretation, so I need a rules citation(s) to clarify, and I'm having a hell of a time finding it myself (and being the curious type NOW I MUST KNOW lol).
Player A has a Kodama of the East Tree (I'll call it K1) on the field. Player A then casts Sakashima as a copy of the Kodama (I'll call this K2). K1 sees a 6 cmc permanent etb, so it's 1st ability lets you put another CMC <= 6 card on the field from hand. The confusion is coming from the wording "if it wasn't put onto the battlefield with this ability, you may".
Player A believes (as I do) that "this ability" refers to the ability on that particular permanent, so K2 sees this new card from hand as not having been activated by its own ability, so its 1st ability lets you put yet another card on the field from hand (with CMC <= the prior card's). As long as it's sequenced correctly this would allow a full hand dump (of permanents), and with draw effects and some luck possibly a good portion of the deck as well.
Player B believes that "this ability" means ANY use of the ability from any source/permanent/card. K2 would see this new card from hand has having entered with the ability that it also has, and so no additional permanents would be put on the field from the hand.
This is not the first card with this phrasing. Others I could quickly come up with were Carpet of Flowers (if you had 2 on the field could you produce mana each main?), Ashling the Pilgrim (if you had 2 Ashling could you use one's ability 3 times and the other's at least 3 to have the second not have its counters removed and thus survive the damage (sequencing permitting, of course)?), and so on.
It's convenient that you mentioned Ashling the Pilgrim.
_Lorwyn_(TM) Frequently Asked Questions
Compiled by Mark L. Gottlieb, with contributions from Laurie Cheers, Jeff Jordan, and Lee Sharpe
Document last modified September 25, 2007
***Theme: "Triple Shot" Elementals***
Three red Elementals have abilities that give you a bonus if it's the third time that ability has resolved in a turn.
* When such an ability resolves, it counts the number of times that same ability from that same creature has already resolved that turn. It doesn't matter who controlled the creature or the previous abilities when they resolved. A copy of this ability (created by Rings of Brighthearth, for example) will count toward the total. Abilities from other creatures with the same name don't count towards the total. Neither does an ability that's been countered.
Some other ability with a different source is not "this ability", even if the ability text is remarkably similar (and/or the source has the same name).
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Why bother with mere rulings when so many answers can be found in the Rules?
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Player A has a Kodama of the East Tree (I'll call it K1) on the field. Player A then casts Sakashima as a copy of the Kodama (I'll call this K2). K1 sees a 6 cmc permanent etb, so it's 1st ability lets you put another CMC <= 6 card on the field from hand. The confusion is coming from the wording "if it wasn't put onto the battlefield with this ability, you may".
Player A believes (as I do) that "this ability" refers to the ability on that particular permanent, so K2 sees this new card from hand as not having been activated by its own ability, so its 1st ability lets you put yet another card on the field from hand (with CMC <= the prior card's). As long as it's sequenced correctly this would allow a full hand dump (of permanents), and with draw effects and some luck possibly a good portion of the deck as well.
Player B believes that "this ability" means ANY use of the ability from any source/permanent/card. K2 would see this new card from hand has having entered with the ability that it also has, and so no additional permanents would be put on the field from the hand.
This is not the first card with this phrasing. Others I could quickly come up with were Carpet of Flowers (if you had 2 on the field could you produce mana each main?), Ashling the Pilgrim (if you had 2 Ashling could you use one's ability 3 times and the other's at least 3 to have the second not have its counters removed and thus survive the damage (sequencing permitting, of course)?), and so on.
Thanks.
Some other ability with a different source is not "this ability", even if the ability text is remarkably similar (and/or the source has the same name).