That is amazing with mana up. Pay two to copy, say, Invisible Stalker, go to combat and attack, then after blockers are declared, pay another 2 two become, say, Blightsteel Colossus to kill someone via infect. Tons of shenanigans here!
That doesn't work. It doesn't retain the activated copy ability once it becomes something else.
It does work if you change it to Blightsteel after it fails to be blocked.
How do you activate a tap ability that requires attacking, after the creature is already tapped to create the trigger? This card's own tap to exert ability seems like it's lacking vigilance to make that mechanic work.
There is no triggered ability and it doesn't have to attack.
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Soooo, Bontu gave everyone the license to kill each other, and yet two of the initiates drop the hearts they cut out to stop Gideon from intervening in the murder of Djeru's crop mate? That doesn't make sense on at least two levels.
Its not about pointless killing, its about obedience to the gods (Bontu wants to thin their numbers for some reason).
I did get a chuckle from Gideon's offhand mention of various initiates trying to stab him through his shield while he stands there in horror.
Also also, supposedly a crop is like 20 people, but there are only four named crops in the cards? Are we to assume that the current population of Amonkhet is ~80, that we only got four named crops (in which case why bother naming them) or that a crop is actually bigger, more like a district, in which case the description of crops is pretty inconsistent.
The members of this crop seem unsurprising by the idea that Gideon is the only survivor of his crop. Maybe the vast majority of crops totally suck and get wiped out early on. Dejru suggests something like that when he mentions that crops which lose too many members get absorbed in others to keep the numbers consistent.
Also also also, apart from the open question where children come from, what are the rules for what gets mummified? I mean, we have mummified cats, sphinxes, manticores and even illusions for crying out loud. (Seriously, how does that even work.) Do they just mummify everything that dies, indiscriminately. Does that mean there are camel mummies? Bird mummies? Sandwurm mummies? If no, where's the line?
They seem to mummify mainly the honored dead which covers all sentient being that die without becoming outcasts. Mummifying pets is detail taken from ancient Egypt. Gotta say the manticore is kind of a stumper (Maybe it was a pet?) and a mummified illusion is ridiculous.
Is it possible that Oketra put him into the ToA because she wanted him to realize exactly what was going on here? Its pretty clear that while the first three trials are difficult, and potentially lethal, the Trial of Ambition is specifically designed to have a body count- you have to sacrifice at least five people to even get to the final room (one in the sludge pool, and four on the pillars), and then you basically have to halve your number to cross the final bridge. That means, at the very best, 7 survive the trial (15 make it to the final room- 7 kill another 7 for their hearts, and the odd man out is stranded, with probably no other alternative but to dive into the water, get bitten, and die). That's a MINIMUM 65% casualty rate.
To be fair, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that the trials are custom-tailored to each crop (or at least tweaked), seeing as they have to be admitted first.
You've got to wonder how long setup and clean up take. I mean the trial is so extensive that it took hours to finish. You probably can't do more than one a day. I guess with tireless mummies as workers you might squeeze two in.
Bontu is quite accurate about Gideon when he challenges a world for their belief system. Who the hell did he think he was, to question a foreign culture when its inhabitants do not?
You don't think ritualistic mass murder is something that should be questioned?
It's only recurring if you do a lot of work to bring it back from exile.
That's crazy talk, man. Crazy!
You can only change it once a turn.
There is no triggered ability and it doesn't have to attack.
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Its not about pointless killing, its about obedience to the gods (Bontu wants to thin their numbers for some reason).
I did get a chuckle from Gideon's offhand mention of various initiates trying to stab him through his shield while he stands there in horror.
The members of this crop seem unsurprising by the idea that Gideon is the only survivor of his crop. Maybe the vast majority of crops totally suck and get wiped out early on. Dejru suggests something like that when he mentions that crops which lose too many members get absorbed in others to keep the numbers consistent.
They seem to mummify mainly the honored dead which covers all sentient being that die without becoming outcasts. Mummifying pets is detail taken from ancient Egypt. Gotta say the manticore is kind of a stumper (Maybe it was a pet?) and a mummified illusion is ridiculous.
You've got to wonder how long setup and clean up take. I mean the trial is so extensive that it took hours to finish. You probably can't do more than one a day. I guess with tireless mummies as workers you might squeeze two in.
You don't think ritualistic mass murder is something that should be questioned?