Collected company and cost reduction
Asked by Rett4389 6 years ago
Say I have a semblance anvil on the field with a creature imprinted on it which would reduce the cost of creatures by 2 when I cast my collected company and hit a creature with cmc 5 is the cost of the card reduced down to 3 and able to be selected for one of the choices of coco or is the cost seem as 5 and I would be unable to grab it?
I'm talking about the cost reduction of the creature since if I get a creature that cost 5 with [semblance anvil] reducing the cost of that creature is it able to be grabbed by [collected company] is what the question was asking sorry I didn't clarify it better because the cmc of the creature that cost 5 would be reduced to a cmc of 3 does it apply to the ability of [collected company] or does the cost reduction only applies if you are casting from your hand?
October 16, 2017 10:08 a.m.
Semblance Anvil isn't changing the cards' converted mana costs, it's just applying a cost reduction to cast it. On the stack when casting a card like the one in your example, you'd have paid 2 mana for a spell with 4 CMC. This is important as the spell wouldn't be able to be countered with something like Spell Snare as the spell doesn't have a CMC of 2.
As such, Collected Company only looks at the mana on the top of the card and not any other cost reductions in play.
October 16, 2017 11:13 a.m.
On most cards the CMC is a fixed number that can never be changed. The exception is cards with in their mana costs. They still have a CMC that is a fixed number in all zones other than the stack though. On the stack the CMC is determined by the chosen value of X, in all other zones X is treated as 0.
In short, even though Semblance Anvil changes the amount of mana you pay for a spell, it cannot change the CMC of a card not on the stack, which is what you're trying to do, nor does it change the CMC of most spells (it can help you choose different value when casting Primordial Hydra though, so changing CMC of spells is not completely off the table).
October 16, 2017 12:05 p.m.
Tyrant-Thanatos says... #5
In short, Converted Mana Cost and Mana Cost are two completely different things.
Semblance Anvil only affects Mana Cost, not Converted Mana Cost, so it won't affect the value that Collected Company looks at.
October 16, 2017 2:01 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #6
There's no interaction between Semblance Anvil and Collected Company because you're not casting the creatures you reveal. Semblance Anvil doesn't do anything to a card's mana cost or converted mana cost, just the total cost to cast it. The only way to change a card's mana cost (or its CMC) is to turn it into a copy of a different card.
Let's be clear about a few things:
- A card's "mana cost" is specifically the symbols printed in the upper-right corner of the normal card frame. For example: Reflector Mage's mana cost is and Primordial Hydra's mana cost is
- A card's "converted mana cost" is the sum of the values of all the symbols in its mana cost. always counts for 0 unless the card is currently a spell on the stack, in which case it counts for the number chosen for X while it was being cast. For example: Reflector Mage's converted mana cost is 3 and Primordial Hydra's converted mana cost is 2 everywhere but the stack
- To determine the total cost to cast a spell (short version), you start with its mana cost, apply any alternative costs that replace the mana cost, apply any optional or mandatory additional costs, then apply any cost reductions. This is where Semblance Anvil actually matters
Blo says... #1
Please link all relevant cards in your question with double brackets > [...]
Semblance Anvil reduces type costs (creature, instant, sorcery, etc), Collected Company doesn't have the [creature] type so it's cost will not be reduced.
In your question you seem to think that the Anvil reduces the cost of anything. It does not. It will reduce casting costs and alternative/additional casting costs.
It does not have anything to do with the Collected Company though, as the cmc requirement isn't part of the casting cost. It's part of the effect.
Even if you would imprint a [instant] type card under the Anvil, your Collected Company would get the cost reduction, and thus cost instead of , but the requirement of converted mana cost 3 or less stays the same.
You would be unable to grab it.
October 16, 2017 8:09 a.m.