Can I use a creatures morph cost in I manifest it?
Asked by Kjartan 9 years ago
If I use Whisperwood Elemental and get Ruthless Ripper with its ability, can I then still turn it faceup by revealing a card, since I never activated its morph ability to begin with?
Can you explain why. Since its morph ability isn't active while its manifested, why can I still turn it faceup with its morph cost?
January 7, 2015 7:42 a.m.
Morphed and unmorped are a state, similar to tapped and untapped. The card isn't something different, it's just face down. Read the specific text of the morph ability, it doesn't say "to unmorph this card" it says "you can pay this cost to turn this card faceup". Manifest defines that you can pay the card's CMC to turn it face up. Therefore, manifested morphs have an alternate cost they can use to flip them. On something like Ruthless Ripper, this gives you more flexibility. On something like Icefeather Aven it can become cheaper to flip them and use their faceup ability by using their CMC, whereas Sagu Mauler makes sense to still pay the morph cost. Cards with the biggest benefit are Hooded Hydra (GG for a 5/5? Yes please) and Master of Pearls
January 7, 2015 7:49 a.m.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/serious-fun/brazen-evasion-manifestation-2014-12-30
Manifested cards with morph can be flipped up by paying the casting cost or the morph cost. If your morph card has an ability, like Ponyback Brigade, you get the effect whether you pay the morph cost or the manifest cost to flip the card. Morph cards say "when it is turned face up." They don't care how that happens.
Basically, morph abilities are active always when a card is face-down. The same is true for manifest and both require the same conditions to be met - a the card must be face down. The only difference between the two in this case is the cost.
The design team did a really good job on making manifest feel like "the morph of olden times".
January 7, 2015 7:52 a.m.
Okay, I get it, thank you for the answear, I thought it would work like that. Its just that the "Turn it face up anytime for its morph cost" is a part of its morph ability, hence, it could be a part of the ability that it should be cast by its morph ability to have that part of the ability be active. Its sort of like being able to pay a Kicker cost after the spell has resolved. It sounds stupid, but you can follow me on this right?
Now what I need to know to fully understand this, and be absolutely sure, not that I doubt you, but 100 percent sure; What ruling is it exactly, that allowes this interaction to be doable? It is a rule that to me sounds both logical and correct in how it works, but not completely when I read it on paper.
January 7, 2015 8:05 a.m.
Since the specific rules regarding manifest haven't been posted anywhere as far as I know, I'd refer you to the article Boza posted, since it was written by the guys at magic explaining the manifest mechanic.
January 7, 2015 8:11 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #7
As piebandit said, the final official rules for Manifest haven't been published yet, but you can get the result everyone's talking about from this rule related to Morph:
702.36d Any time you have priority, you may turn a face-down permanent you control face up. This is a special action; it doesnt use the stack (see rule 115). To do this, show all players what the permanent's morph cost would be if it were face up, pay that cost, then turn the permanent face up. (If the permanent wouldn't have a morph cost if it were face up, it can't be turned face up this way.) The morph effect on it ends, and it regains its normal characteristics...
The key thing here is that in order to use the morph ability to turn something face-up, it isn't necessary that the morph ability was also what caused it to be face-down in the first place. For example, this concept is what allows cards like Ashcloud Phoenix, Master of the Veil, Mischievous Quanar, and Weaver of Lies to work the way they're supposed to.
Boza says... Accepted answer #1
If you manifest a card with morph, you have two options to turn it face up:
January 7, 2015 6:36 a.m.