Chaos Orb and Relm's Sketching
Asked by sylvannos 5 months ago
If I make a copy of Chaos Orb, does the token cease to exist after it's been activated as per CR 111.7 since it is no longer on the battlefield? The oracle text on Chaos Orb says " flip it onto the battlefield," implying it must be off the battlefield. If Chaos Orb does count as leaving the battlefield when it is activated, where does it go? Is it technically exiled? In the "air space" zone?
(Yes, there's a reason WotC no longer prints these kinds of cards)
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #2
The word "battlefield" is being overloaded in Chaos Orb's rules text. The first instance of the word is being used to mean "the battlefield zone" and the second is being used to mean "the physical representation of the battlefield zone". The Orb's text doesn't say anything about a zone change before flipping it, so that means it doesn't change zones and it's on the battlefield through this whole process until it gets destroyed at the end.
I agree with Polaris that it would be best to use related Un/silver/acorn rulings as a guide here, since the "normal" rules of the game don't have any more details on exactly how to play and use dexterity cards and those effects have been solidly in Un/silver/acorn territory for many years now. I remember reading an urban legend of a kitchen-table player who animated Chaos Orb, made a token copy with Dance of Many, then went and got a couch cushion for the token to wipe the entire battlefield.
It's interesting to note that the current Oracle text of Falling Star still says "onto the playing area", so it avoids a lot of the ambiguity and confusion in the Orb's rules text. I wonder why Chaos Orb wasn't re-templated that way as well.
July 7, 2025 10:09 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #3
sylvannos: An answer to your question has been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any more follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked one of them as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future, remember to use the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question, or respond with a follow-up if needed.
Polaris says... #1
Reading the updated Oracle text, I don't believe Chaos Orb enters or leaves the battlefield during its activation, until of course it leaves via destroying itself. Even if it were to, the token wouldn't vanish mid ability, as removing objects from zones they can't exist in is a state-based action and will only be checked after the current ability resolves. Your Chaos Orb token will function.
As for what to do with a token, the oracle rulings on Slaying Mantis do tell us that "f you create a token that's a copy of Slaying Mantis, it also enters via flying elbow. However, you must use a Magic card-sized object to represent the token."
July 6, 2025 7:27 p.m.