General abilities
Asked by Beydin83 7 years ago
I was in a multi-player game a few days ago and please note I'm new to EDH. On our first turns I saw a player gain 2 life after the turn was passed and it was because of the players General ability...my question is: if I have a General and one of it's ability is "I may play an additional land during my turn"...can I do said ability even if my commander isn't on the battlefield for each of my turns like the other players general did for him with gaining 2 life on his upkeep?
I actually was wondering the same thing as you a while back, so it's no worries. Still have a friend who thinks you can activate abilities in the command zone.
Just wondering, is your commander Mina and Denn, Wildborn? Just curious, since they were my first commander deck to make.
June 26, 2016 9:30 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #3
As Epoch said abilities only function on the battlefield or from the zone that they say they do. For example suspend (Search for Tomorrow) can be activated from your hand; Rot Farm Skeleton's ability can be activated from the graveyard; and Misthollow Griffin has a static ability that works in exile.
In Commander 2013 one of the cycles of generals was "command zone matters". Two of the cards had abilities that work from the command zone. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician had an activated ability that could be activated from the command zone. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic had a triggered ability that operated from the command zone. The other three had abilities that scaled with the amount of mana spent on them, making commander tax in some way a benefit.
June 27, 2016 12:31 a.m.
@tritonYes it is Mina and Denn, Wildborn
I didn't catch the name of the commander but I found out that it was from a commander pack. Since I haven't been keeping up with format rules and card legality, I didn't know commander sets are made specifically for the commander format and the command zone abilities. So that's where I had confusions.
June 27, 2016 12:39 a.m.
Yes they're commander was Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Thanks everyone.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
I'm going to guess the general was Oloro, Ageless Ascetic.
In your case, no. Unless otherwise stated, a permanent card's (any card that isn't an instant or sorcery) abilities function only while that card is on the battlefield. Oloro has an ability that functions from the command zone.
Of course, if the commander in this case wasn't Oloro or another commander with an ability that functions from the command zone, then you should mention next time that the ability doesn't work they way they've been playing.
June 26, 2016 8:58 p.m.