Why is WotC Now Allowing for Copying of Permanent Spells?
General forum
Posted on Sept. 26, 2020, 10:40 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
With Lithoform Engine, wotc is now allowing for copying of permanent spells, which has never before been done in this game, so I wonder why they are doing that.
For the past 27 years, they have been content to allow only instant and sorcery spells to be copied, so I see no reason to change it now. Would it not have made more sense for the third ability on that artifact to be "create a token that is a copy of target nonland permanent?"
What does everyone else say about this? Why is WotC now allowing for copying of permanent spells?
DragonSliver9001 says... #3
"which has never been done before, so i wonder why they are doing that".
...because its never been done before.
"i see no reason to change it now"
other than the fact that wotc is constantly adding new mechanics and interactions to the game because otherwise the game gets stale.
"Would it not have made more sense for the third ability on that artifact to be "create a token that is a copy of target nonland permanent?" "
nope. because that would be a strictly worse ability in the event that the permanent you want to copy becomes countered after you cast it.
September 27, 2020 12:53 a.m.
The fact that it is colorless with colorless costs makes it so powerful. Maybe even really OP.
This card gives traditional blue and red powers to green, white, and black.
Between Blue and Red you could already copy anything in magic. But now it's on one colorless card and any color can use it.
I wonder what kind of interesting new synergies or combos will be unearthed from colors that needed to splash blue or red to do what this card provides.
September 27, 2020 1:11 a.m.
EleshNornsFs says... #5
I think they did it now just to do something new. I also don't think that the ability to copy a permanent that is already out would be strictly worse like DragonSliver9001 suggests. It is a good point that the engine gets through counters, but the drawbacks are that you can't copy anything that was cast prior, you can't copy something multiple times, and it is more mana-intensive on a single given turn.
September 27, 2020 8:21 a.m.
sergiodelrio says... #6
One might argue that, even if the effect at hand in this form is new, we've certainly had all pieces of the puzzle before. You mentioned Instants/Sorceries being copied already. Then we have Ertai's Meddling and there's Commandeer, which can get permanents. Heat Shimmer creates copy Tokens of permanents. This new spell is merely an extrapolation of things we already had, albeit not in this exact form.
September 28, 2020 5:21 a.m. Edited.
Mythos of Illuna was the first of its kind for being able to copy any permanent. Normally, these kinds of effects have a restriction for "non-land" permanents.
September 28, 2020 10:53 a.m.
Daveslab2022 says... #8
You think being able to create a token of any permanent on your side of the field is strictly worse than only permanents on the stack??
I agree with your other points though.
September 28, 2020 11:09 a.m. Edited.
DragonSliver9001 says... #9
Daveslab2022: i misspoke but i was thinking of counterspells.
VampDemigod says... #2
Well, I think this will prove an EDH staple. It also adds more validity to cards like Brothers Yamazaki in the format.
Idk what impact it’ll have on mtg more generally tho. My guess is that we won’t see more of this for two years, and this is a test, to see whether it’s absolutely ridiculous or not.
September 26, 2020 11:32 p.m.