CMC of a permanent w/ X in casting cost

Asked by aeonstoremyliver 12 years ago

If my opponent casts Primordial Hydra and pays 4 for X and GG, once it becomes a permanent, would it's converted mana cost be 2 or 6?

djgunn says... #1

Once it's in play, it's converted mana cost is 2. I think. But, I'll totally bow out to Epochalyptik here if he has a different answer. And, he'll probably have way heftier rules support.

October 16, 2012 1:52 a.m.

I was thinking it was 2 also, so Abrupt Decay would work, haha. I know that a spell w/ X in it's casting cast has a total CMC to what X is + whatever, e.g. - Fireball is X + R. When it's not being cast the CMC is R.

October 16, 2012 2:07 a.m.

rushtowait says... Accepted answer #3

Any permanent with X in it's CMC is considered 0 when spells that take CMC into consideration are used to target them. This is the same for tokens too, so Abrupt Decay can be used to destroy any token w/o Indestructible

202.3b When calculating the converted mana cost of an object with an X in its mana cost, X is treated as 0 while the object is not on the stack, and X is treated as the number chosen for it while the object is on the stack.

October 16, 2012 2:28 a.m.

I thought so. Thanks!

Flipped cards CMC = 0 as well . . .

Where do you find the extensive rules at? Also, is there a search engine on the site?

October 16, 2012 2:53 a.m.

Epochalyptik says... #5

The magnifying glass icon on the hotbar is the search function for the site. The rules (and many other resources) can be found here.

It should be noted that part of rushtowait's first paragraph is incorrect. Although tokens normally have a CMC of 0, any tokens that are copies of other permanents inherit the copied permanent's CMC (among other values). Therefore, a token copy of something will not have CMC 0 unless the object it is a copy of has CMC 0.

October 16, 2012 3:04 a.m.

Really? Huh. . . I was under the assumption that all tokens have CMC 0. Good to know, thanks!

October 16, 2012 3:15 a.m.

rushtowait says... #7

Yep, sorry about that. Was referring to generic tokens like those from Call of the Conclave . Tokens from Cackling Counterpart would have the CMC of w/e it copied.

October 16, 2012 3:25 a.m.

This discussion has been closed