Volrath, the Shapestealer and Copy Effects
Asked by SpammyV 4 years ago
If I have Volrath, the Shapestealer become a copy of a nonlegendary creature and then have a Clone enter the battlefield choosing Volrath, the Clone enters the battlefield as whatever Volrath is copying and gains his activated ability. If I activate the Clone 's ability and turn it into another creature, what happens to the Clone at the start of my next turn?
Does the Clone become what Volrath was a copy of? Does the Clone become Volrath? Does the Clone become a 0/0? Does nothing happen to it?
Also, if I use Quasiduplicate or another effect to create a token that is a copy of Volrath while he is a copy of another creature, what happens to the token at the beginning of my next turn if I use the activated ability?
The copy ability gained from Volrath, the Shapestealer will wear off at the start of your next turn, at which point the Clone will revert to the Volrath copy it was. So if Volrath was copying a Storm Crow when Clone copied Volrath, then the Clone will revert to a 7/5 Storm Crow with the activated copy ability. This is because the time limit on Volrath's copy ability is not one of the copiable values of the object, and Clone 's copy effect has no duration.
The same applies to tokens made with Quasiduplicate . They will copy whatever Volrath is copying (let's say that Storm Crow ), and if you activate the copy ability, then at the start of your next turn they will revert to the Volrath-Crow.
- 706.2. When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s characteristics ... The “copiable values” are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name, mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by its face-down status, and by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned face up” abilities that set power and toughness (and may also set additional characteristics). Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.
Rhadamanthus says... #1
In your first question, the Clone goes back to whatever it was when it entered the battlefield: the creature Volrath was copying as a 7/5 with the special activated ability. Your second question involving Quasiduplicate sounds like it's the exact same circumstances as the Clone question, so that means the answer is the same. Let me know if I missed something different about the Quasiduplicate question.
The key thing to know is that if you apply a new copy effect on top of an older one, the older one doesn't get erased. It's still there, just covered up by the new one. If the new copy effect goes away then the older one will have precedence again.
August 30, 2019 3:20 p.m.