Do I get infinite tokens when I cast Cackling Counterpart on Ink-Treader Nephilim and then flashback the Cackling Counterpart

Asked by Skywatch 6 years ago

I saw Card:Ink-Treader Nephilim after running into crazy math combo of Doubling Season, a way to clone it, Opalescence, and populate/Cackling Counterpart

Pieguy396 says... #1

No, you just get two additional copies of Ink-Treader Nephilim, because the Nephilim's rules text says, "Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery spell, if that spell targets only Ink-Treader Nephilim, copy the spell for each other creature that spell could target. Each copy targets a different one of those creatures." If you cast Cackling Counterpart on an Ink-Treader Nephilim, then flash it back, you'll end up with an Ink-Treader Nephilim and 3 token copies of it.

September 30, 2017 11:13 p.m.

Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #2

The bolding in Pieguy's reply is not drawing attention to the important part of the card. Cackling Counterpart can only target one creature and therefore will only ever target Ink-Treader Nephilim if it does target him. The "if that spell only targets..." clause is so that you don't copy things with multiple targets like Incremental Growth.

The reason you will not get infinite copies of spells when you have two copies of Ink-Treader Nephilim out, be that tokens or if you just played two of them, is the part that specifies "Whenever a player casts..." You do not cast the copies, they are simply created on the stack. You only cast a copy if the thing making the copy specifically uses the word "cast".

October 1, 2017 12:03 a.m.

Neotrup says... #4

The end result will be three token copies of each creature you control, not just the Ink-Treader Nephilim, which I'm hoping was apparent, but felt I should state just in case it wasn't.

October 1, 2017 1:50 p.m.

Three token copies? Would it not be two token copies, resulting in three of each creature? You're only casting it twice, so Ink-Treader only ever spreads it around twice.

October 2, 2017 3:52 p.m.

Gidgetimer says... #6

Yes, but the second one targets both the original and the first token, making a copy of each. So you have the original and three tokens for a total of four copies of each creature.

October 2, 2017 4:27 p.m.

Gidgetimer You're right, my bad. How did I miss that? lol

October 2, 2017 4:59 p.m.

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