"Enter the battlefield as . . . "

Asked by Arachnarchist 13 years ago

If I have Essence of the Wild out and I then play something like Quicksilver Gargantuan (or Phyrexian Metamorph or Phantasmal Image ), what happens in regard to the following 4 questions:

1. Can any of those shapeshifters enter the batttlefield as anything other than Essence of the Wild ?
2. If I have them enter the battlefield as a copy of Essence of the Wild do they keep their respective extra trait? (i.e. Quicksilver Gargantuan is 7/7, Phyrexian Metamorph is an artifact, etc.)
3. If they keep their extra trait, what happens to creatures that enter the battlefield later, since they will be caught between Essence of the Wild type effects from 2 slightly different creatures?

Arachnarchist says... #1

Yes. I realize I said 4 questions and then only asked 3.

September 24, 2011 9:47 p.m.

SwiftDeath says... #2

im not %100 sure on this and I hope someone will help out with a proper rules qoute but I would think that because they both have an effect that says "they enter the battlefield as" both effects trigger simultaniously so you decide how they resolve on the stack, remember whatever enters the stack resolves in reverse order.

however this is a very unusual situation and im sure that the answer is more compicated than the above assumption they will probably come up with some sort of errata or altered ruling to make this more simple.

I just found a disscusion thread on mtgsalvation and the above is correct so you can choose to have the image enter as other creatures also in a similar effect the only way question 2 works is if you directly try to copy essence of the wild otherwise it will try to enter as other copies it either enters as essence of the wild or whatever you want to copy the effects wont stack if you choose the creature to enter as something else and have it turn into essence of the wild instead it will not be an artifact or a 7/7 and if you have the creatures in question 3 as a 7/7 essence of the wild then as question 1 you will get to once again choose which one they enter as.

this is a very confusing question so if my wording is off i apoligize because it still confuses me somewhat and i wrote it.

September 24, 2011 10:21 p.m.

SwiftDeath says... #3

if they enter off of essence of the wilds effect then they do not keep their additional traits ie. phantasmal images target sac effect, metamorphs additional artifact effect and gargantuans as a 7/7 effect the only time any of these would occur is if you have them enter the battlefield as essence of the wild off their own copy effects. hopefully this is slightly less confusing.

September 24, 2011 10:25 p.m.

SwiftDeath says... #4

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=355143

here is a link to the discussion if you still have questions.

September 24, 2011 10:31 p.m.

Jarrod_0067 says... #5

I would consider you choose what creature you want the Clone to copy while it is resolving. As Essence of the Wild 's ability is static, it will cause a replacement effect on your copy, making it enter the battlefield as a copy of it regardless of whether you chose another creature.

September 25, 2011 10:36 a.m.

RKShepard says... Accepted answer #6

This has been officially answered by wizards. http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/faq/isd

Pertinent rulings:

"Because creatures you control enter the battlefield as a copy of Essence of the Wild, any enters-the-battlefield triggered abilities printed on such creatures won't trigger."

"Replacement effects that modify how a creature enters the battlefield are applied in the following order: first control-changing effects (such as Gather Specimens), then copy effects (such as the abilities of Essence of the Wild and Clone), then all other effects. This is a minor rules change to make Essence of the Wild and similar cards in the future work intuitively."

"If a creature such as Clone is entering the battlefield under your control, there will be two copy effects to apply: the creature's own and Essence of the Wild's. No matter what order these effects are applied, the creature will be a copy of Essence of the Wild when it enters the battlefield."

September 25, 2011 1:59 p.m.

RKShepard says... #7

In short, if Essence of the Wild is on the battlefield, creatures like Clone , Phyrexian Metamorph , and Cryptoplasm will be copies of Essence of the Wild when they enter the battlefield; as such, they will not have the abilities "Enters the battlefield as a copy of...". Quicksilver Gargantuan will be a 6/6 Essence of the Wild .

September 25, 2011 2:03 p.m.

Arachnarchist says... #8

All right, Question #4:

What if I choose to have Phyrexian Metamorph copy a noncreature artifact? Can I apply the metamorphs effect first, and then it will no longer be a creature when the Essence of the Wild effect resolves?

September 25, 2011 3:17 p.m.

SwiftDeath says... #9

so i was wrong after all thank you all for the corrections.

September 25, 2011 7:06 p.m.

RKShepard says... #10

Regardless of the target, Phyrexian Metamorph enters as an Essence of the Wild :

"Other enters-the-battlefield replacement abilities printed on the creature entering the battlefield won't be applied because the creature will already be Essence of the Wild at that point (and therefore it won't have those abilities). For example, a creature that normally enters the battlefield tapped will enter the battlefield as an untapped Essence of the Wild, and a creature that would normally enter the battlefield with counters on it will enter the battlefield as an Essence of the Wild with no counters."

September 25, 2011 7:14 p.m.