Are cards with * power considered to have power two or less?
Asked by bananamaniaman 9 years ago
I am trying to make a modern deck to abuse Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, but I am unclear about what would happen in that senario.Incase I wasn't clear, I'm talking about cards like Tarmogoyf
SeditiousCanary says... #3
Pentavus, and other creatures with mechanics which cause creatures to enter the battlefield with additional of +1/+1 counters on them (like Graft, Modular, etc.), or which trigger upon entering the battlefield (like Sigil Captain, Oona's Blackguard, or Cathars' Crusade) would work though because the creature targeted has a power under 2 when Alesha, Who Smiles at Death 's ability resolves.
Oddly, it also allows you to target a creature with Defender, and put them into the battlefield tapped, and attacking because the targeted creature is never declared as an attacker.
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1
It depends. Most cards with * in their P/T have what's called a "characteristic defining ability" (CDA). CDAs work in every zone and constantly update themselves as the game progresses. Tarmogoyf is one of these cards, meaning Alesha, Who Smiles at Death can only bring it to the battlefield if there are currenty 2 or fewer card types among cards in graveyards.
It's important to note that if the ability setting the P/T depends on some choice a player has to make, the value of * will be undefined and will default to 0 if that choice hasn't been made for the object. For example, a Sewer Nemesis in a graveyard will be 0/0 because no player is chosen and a Primal Clay in the graveyard will be 0/0 because no P/T and ability combination is chosen.
There are a few exceptions that will make an ability not count as a CDA, but they're rare enough that it's not really worth going into here. If you have specific questions about specific cards, they can be sorted out on a case-by-case basis.
February 6, 2015 3:02 p.m.