Does Cipher chain?
Asked by MagicWig 4 years ago
I’m probably being stupid, but when you Cipher a spell to a creature, then it deals combat damage to a player, and you cast a copy of that spell can you then Cipher the copy to a creature? For example if you were to play Hidden Strings and encode it to any creature, Arbiter of the Ideal for example, then you attack with Arbiter of the Ideal, and your opponent can’t block. If you choose to cast a copy of Hidden Strings, could you then exile, and encode the copy to Arbiter of the Ideal or another creature you control? I assume not, but just want to make sure.
Rhadamanthus says... #2
MagicWig: A correct answer to your question has been up for a while. I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so that this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. Please remember to take care of this yourself in the future.
Raging_Squiggle says... Accepted answer #1
The reminder text for Cipher specifies that it must be a “spell card” in order to successfully encode it onto a creature. Since copies are not cards, they cannot be “re-ciphered”.
Also worth noting that a copy or token of something that goes to exile immediately ceases to exist at the next SBA’s anyway so it wouldn’t encode even if cipher worked for the copy.
April 5, 2020 4:32 p.m.