Copying a legendary Creature
Asked by riddlechest 8 years ago
We recently had a discussion:
I wanted to play a Clever Impersonator to copy Reya Dawnbringer.
He told me that it would be forbidden, as the Impersonator would become legendary then as well.
I answered, that he would only copy all properties and abilities.
What is the truth about that?
TheRedMage says... Accepted answer #2
It is not "forbidden" but it might not work the way you would like if the Reya Dawnbringer is under your control.
When you copy a permanent, you copy each one of the "copy-able characteristics" of the original permanent, unless the card explicitly says otherwise (like Sakashima the Impostor, who doesn't copy the creature's name, or Quicksilver Gargantuan, who doesn't copy its power/toughness). You can check the rules for a complete list of what these characteristics are, but, long story short, for most intents and purposes you can treat the clone as a xerox copy of the original card. Ongoing effects are not copied (so if I Giant Growth my creature and copy it, the copy won't also have +3/+3) but everything on the original card is.
Relevantly to this discussion, this includes the creature's supertype(s), type(s) and subtype(s), as well as the name. You are allowed to play a Clever Impersonator to copy your own Reya Dawnbringer but as soon as it has entered the battlefield, the rules of the game will notice that two legendary creatures with the same name (the original Reya and your Clever Impersonator, who has now inherited both the supertype Legendary and the name from the original Reya) and ask that you send one to the graveyard before you have a chance to respond.
If the Reya Dawnbringer is on your opponent's side, none of this applies. The legendary rule now allows for two copies the same legendary creature to be on opposite sides of the field (since fall 2013) and you can copy your opponent's legendary creatures as much as you want.
BlueScope says... #1
There's lots of things wrong here, let me try to help clear everything up.
You can have Clever Impersonator enter the battlefield as a copy of Reya. Yes, it will be legendary, but that only matters if you control both Reyas, in which case you need to choose one of them and put that card into your graveyard. If you copied an opponent's Reya and don't control one yourself, they can happily co-exist on the battlefield (this is a change from previous rules).
What you cannot do is cherry-pick what you want off of Reya, and add it to Clever Impersonator - you copy all characteristics of the card as a whole, which include name and types.
October 6, 2015 5:22 a.m.