Sarkhan, the Answerless Question (not really)

Asked by Sorin_Markov_1947 4 years ago

If I use Sarkhan the Masterless 's first ability, and I have a board full of planeswalkers, do I now have a board full of creatures or planeswalker-creatures? Can I, for example, activate loyalty abilities of other planeswalkers? If I cast a spell similar to Ajani, the Greathearted 's second ability, would everything get a +1/+1 counter and a loyalty counter?

Rhadamanthus says... #1

They're just creatures, so they won't get loyalty counters from Ajani, the Greathearted , but you can still activate their abilities (if you haven't already).

Because Sarkhan the Masterless 's ability doesn't say "in addition to their other types", that means they just become creatures and don't keep any other card types they might have had. However, Sarkhan doesn't make them lose their abilities and there are no rules that say a non-planeswalker card with a loyalty ability can't activate the loyalty ability, but they're still restricted to only being able to use one loyalty ability per turn.

October 10, 2019 12:28 p.m.

Kogarashi says... Accepted answer #2

You will have a board full of creatures. For as long as Sarkhan's ability is active, they are not planeswalkers.

This means you can still activate their loyalty abilities because they don't have to be planeswalkers in order to do so. Ajani, the Greathearted 's second ability will put a +1/+1 counter on each one, but not a loyalty counter because they aren't planeswalkers. It's also important to note that they don't lose loyalty due to damage while they aren't planeswalkers.

From the Gatherer rulings on Sarkhan the Masterless :

• Once Sarkhan’s first loyalty ability has resolved, each planeswalker you control (including Sarkhan) is no longer a planeswalker for the rest of the turn. They don’t lose any loyalty counters or abilities, and you can still activate their loyalty abilities if you haven’t done so yet this turn. They don’t lose loyalty if they’re dealt damage while they’re not planeswalkers. (2019-05-03)

And from the Rules section on loyalty abilities:

• 606.3. A player may activate a loyalty ability of a permanent they control any time they have priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of their turn, but only if no player has previously activated a loyalty ability of that permanent that turn.

October 10, 2019 12:29 p.m.