Is there anything that stops you from using Lochmere Serpent's third activated ability when it is still in play?

Asked by DrukenReaps 4 years ago

Lochmere Serpent has 3 neat abilities that I'm considering for my Mairsil deck. The third ability is meant to return it from your graveyard to your hand but I don't really care about that part. It also exiles 5 cards from a graveyard which could be of use to me. It does state it can only be done at sorcery speed but is there any reason you couldn't use the ability when it is still on the battlefield? And that part of the effect just doesn't do anything?

xtechnetia says... Accepted answer #1

Activated abilities can have wording which imply from where it is legal to activate them (defaulting to the battlefield in the absence of other indicators), even if the card text doesn't outright define it.

For example, Advanced Stitchwing has an activated ability which is implied to only function when the card is in the graveyard, and the Gatherer rulings confirm this ("Advanced Stitchwing's last ability can only be activated while it's in your graveyard"). Presumably when the rulings for Lochmere Serpent are available, they will explicitly state something similar.

September 19, 2019 5:23 p.m.