Questions on using licids and Mirage Mirror to make Mairsil a Worldslayer

Asked by benouttait 6 years ago

So, I realize this may be a bit of a long shot, but assume a board state including:

Mairsil, the Pretender, having caged among other things a Leeching Licid and a Mirage Mirror

A Worldslayer on the battlefield

An attacking creature

If I use Mairsil, the Pretender's copy of the Leeching Licid's ability to attach him as an aura enchantment to the attacking creature, then activate the copy of Mirage Mirror's ability targeting Worldslayer:

1: Will Mairsil remain attached to the attacking creature?

2: Will he be considered equipped to the creature?

3: Upon Mirage Mirror wearing off, will Mairsil revert to being a creature or a licid aura enchantment?

Related supporting question: Is a licid-aura's special action to pay to revert to being a creature considered an activated ability?

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1

There's something else weird that goes on during this process but thankfully it doesn't interfere with what you're trying to do. The copy effect of Mirage Mirror is applied in Layer 1, but the type-changing effect of Leeching Licid's activated ability is applied in Layer 4. Mairsil is an Enchantment - Aura copy of Worldslayer instead of an Artifact - Equipment, but that's okay because

301.5e An ability of a permanent that refers to the "equipped creature" refers to whatever creature that permanent is attached to, even if the permanent with the ability isn't an Equipment

Yes, Mairsil will remain attached and is considered equipped to the creature. When the copy effect wears off we reevaluate the effects being applied to Mairsil's characteristics and see that it's still supposed to be an Enchantment - Aura (it doesn't have the Licid type because that's a creature subtype, not an enchantment subtype).

The special action to change back into a creature isn't an activated ability, but you can still do it here because it's part of the effect established by the resolution of the activated ability. The current Oracle text for Leeching Licid makes this more clear.

September 16, 2017 1:02 p.m.

benouttait says... #2

How curious; I hadn't even realized it would remain an enchantment. However, looking into the information you pointed out, it raised q further question:

1: Rule 301.5c reads (emphasis mine),

301.5c An Equipment thats also a creature cant equip a creature. An Equipment that loses the subtype Equipment cant equip a creature. An Equipment cant equip itself. An Equipment that equips an illegal or nonexistent permanent becomes unattached from that permanent but remains on the battlefield. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.) An Equipment cant equip more than one creature. If a spell or ability would cause an Equipment to equip more than one creature, the Equipments controller chooses which creature it equips.

Is that referring to the action of equipping the card to another, or the state of being equipped? How does that interact with 301.5e?

September 16, 2017 3:57 p.m.

Rhadamanthus says... #3

The point is that only auras and equipment can actually be attached to things (okay, and fortifications, but there's only one of those in the game). 301.5e is meant to cover the unusual corner cases where an equipment somehow gets turned into an aura, which is what is happening here. Your play works out because the card in question is still an aura.

I just remembered another detail. The part of the activated ability's effect that grants the "enchant creature" ability to the card is applied in Layer 6, so the resulting weird Worldslayer aura has the appropriate ability to stay attached to the creature.

September 16, 2017 4:31 p.m.