Does Artisan of Forms copy a cipher ability? or effects from an instant?
Asked by Ryno88 11 years ago
Say I have a Fabled Hero with a Hidden Strings ciphered to it and this turn I played a Swift Justice to give it lifelink. If I target my Artisan of Forms with a spell and decide to copy the fabled hero which abilities does it get?
Does it have Hidden Strings encoded on it? Does it have lifelink from Swift Justice until end of turn or is it just a 2/2 Fabled Hero with double strike and heroic?
Seraphicate says... #2
Whatever can be seen creature card to be copied will be whatever abilities, P/T, CMC and colour the Artisan of Forms copies. Anything else that affects it, such as counters, abilities from auras, equipment or anything like that will not be copied.
Short answer to your question would be: you'd have a 2/2 Fabled Hero with double strike and 2 heroic abilities.
May 10, 2014 4:32 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #3
@-MisterJ-: Note that ciphering/encoding is not the same as enchanting.
May 10, 2014 7:21 a.m.
I am not sure if this is correct. When looking at posts about Clone and other similar cards like Twinflame , I noticed it copies added effects to the card like haste. I know it doesn't copy counters or auras, but Swift Justice says target creature GETS +1/+0 and GAINS first strike and lifelink making it part of the card itself.
And the cipher from Hidden Strings is encoded on the card. Wouldn't that be copied as being part of the card's text as well?
May 10, 2014 12:24 p.m.
Oh this is very interesting. Epochalyptik, could you help us out here? Maybe give us the official rules or at least a good explanation?
May 10, 2014 1:29 p.m.
Seraphicate says... Accepted answer #6
Cipher from Hidden Strings would not be copied to another creature, when you cast a spell with the cipher ability, you may exile it encoded onto a creature. Your Hidden Strings is exiled, and encoded onto a creature. It does not add anything to that creature, it's cipher ability triggers only when that specific creature has dealt damage to an opponent, enabling you to cast a copy of it.
If you were to cast a Clone of, say, a Fabled Hero , the Clone will enter the field as a 1WW 2/2 with double strike and heroic. If you cast a Twinflame on either creature, unstrived, you have ANOTHER Fabled Hero that is 1WW, 2/2 with double strike and heroic, except that one has haste.
If you decide to do it the other way around, and cast Twinflame first, targeting your Fabled Hero , Twinflame puts a token copy of it down, and it enters with haste. If you cast Clone , and have it enter the battlefield as a copy of the TOKEN, it will have haste. If, for whatever reason, you decide to pick the original, it will not have haste.
May 10, 2014 1:32 p.m.
OOOHHH I think that's the best answer so far. But does that mean if you copy Fabled Hero with Swift Justice on it with Clone , then the Clone would have lifelink?
May 10, 2014 1:35 p.m.
Seraphicate says... #8
"Clone copies exactly what was printed on the original creature and nothing more (unless that creature is copying something else or is a token; see below). It doesn't copy whether that creature is tapped or untapped, whether it has any counters on it or Auras attached to it, or any non-copy effects that have changed its power, toughness, types, color, or so on." - rulings from Gatherer
From that, I would assume that the Clone of whatever creature will not have lifelink, as Swift Justice doesn't actually alter anything on the card, it simply grants an ability until the end of the turn.
May 10, 2014 1:44 p.m.
Thank you! It was just interesting to think about with how encoding actually works.
-MisterJ- says... #1
Artisan of Forms will be a copy of Fabled Hero only. It will not receive anything that is enchanted onto your original Fabled Hero or its +1/+1 counters. Artisan of Forms will also not receive first strike or lifelink since that is not an inherent ability of Fabled Hero
May 10, 2014 4:10 a.m.