Monstrosity is an activated ability that after paying the cost, it marks the permanent as Monstrous and (if stated), it gives some additional perk to the permanent.
With the X, it refers to the amount of counters will be put on the permanent. Much like Hundred-Handed One .
It reads "3WWW: Monstrosity 3.....(...". This means that after activating the ability, if the permanent is not marked as monstrous, put 3 +1 counters on the creature.
October 1, 2013 1:52 p.m.
wwhitegoldd says... #3
OK. wrong question. what I wanted to say was how long does Monstrosity last and can you make a creature Monstrous more than once.
October 1, 2013 1:54 p.m.
GreatSword says... Accepted answer #4
It doesn't really "last", it's more a property of the creature that is either true or not true. Once you activate the ability it "becomes monstrous".
There is currently no way to take away monstrous, or to give monstrous to a creature beyond activating its ability.
Effectively, you can only activate Monstrosity once. Multiple activation won't add counters to an already monstrous creature.
October 1, 2013 2:01 p.m.
The rule or text does not restrict you to only paying it once, but the cards have certain restrictions on the text of the monstrous enabled abilities that read "when X becomes monstrous" or "as long as X isn't monstrous".
Following the same example, Hundred-Handed One can block an additional 99 creatures once it becomes monstrous. Also, the creature can only get the +1 counters once since the ability says "If this creature isn't monstrous, put three +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous".
You can pay the activating cost more than once, but it will get the 3 +1 counters once after the first ability resolves, since the first time you activate the ability, it marks the creature as monstrous.
October 1, 2013 2:02 p.m.
Huckster2015 says... #6
So I'm understanding monstrosity three on a stormbreath dragon to mean after the effect is activated he gets three +1 conters added and the effect also is in play "it deals damage to each opponet equal to the number of cards in that players hand" ... then next turn I could pay the cost again and the monstrosity will not give me the counters just the effect
Sam_I_am says... #1
October 1, 2013 1:43 p.m.