God from command zone without enough devotion?

Asked by NV_1980 6 years ago

Hi,

While playing commander with a group of friends, I summoned Erebos, God of the Dead from the command zone. I had three devotion in black at the time. However Erebos requires five devotion in black to be considered a creature. A friend of mine insisted that because I didn't have enough devotion for the God to be considered a creature, I wasn't allowed to summon it from the command zone as a commander must be a legendary creature. Was he right?

Neotrup says... Accepted answer #1

No. The Legendary Creature requirement applies to deck construction, if your commander somehow stopped being a creature card in the course of the game, it would still be your commander. Additionally all of Erebos' abilities only apply while he is on the battlefield. When you cast him, even if you have 0 devotion to black, he is considered a creature spell and so could be countered by Essence Scatter, for example. Thus you'd have to have very strange circumstances for him not to be a Legendary Creature card in the command zone.

May 19, 2017 3:03 a.m.

Neotrup says... #2

Also, a note of clarity, a commander in the command zone is never a legendary creature, it is a legendary creature card. A creature only exists on the battlefield, a creature spell only exists on the stack, and anywhere else they'll be creature cards. To be a creature card you need only the word creature printed on it, as (too my knowledge) nothing will change the card type of something neither in on the battlefield nor the stack.

May 19, 2017 3:07 a.m.

BlueScope says... #3

@Neotrup: You said...

you'd have to have very strange circumstances for him not to be a Legendary Creature card in the command zone

I would argue it's downright impossible to have that happen, precisely because of the deck building requirement to have it be a Legendary Creature card, but if you actually had something in mind, I'd be interested to hear about those circumstances.

May 19, 2017 5:26 a.m.

Neotrup says... #4

As I said in my next post, nothing to my knowledge can change the card type while it's in that zone, but you can change subtypes with Conspiracy so it's not so much a rules issue as a they've not designed something that messes with it yet issue (or they have and neither of us are familiar with it).

May 19, 2017 1:56 p.m.

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