How does morph work?
Asked by Zgarbas 14 years ago
So I have a Warbreak Trumpeter in my EDH deck but I've never played a card with morph before. Sooo... 1. If I have a Frogtosser Banneret on the battlefield, does it reduce the morph cost(XXR to ??) or the morph cast(3 to 2) cost? If so, don't I have to reveal it or will my opponents have to take my word for it? 2. What color is the morph creature, since it doesn't state? 3. When can the card get countered? When cast face-down, when turned face up, or at both times? 4. While face down, does it count as a goblin?(for a Reckless One , for example) 5. Can I turn it face up as a response? E.g. an opponent Disfigure s it whilst facedown, can I morph it to get my tokens before it dies?
sporkife has everything correct here.
To clarify the last point, paying a cost is always possible, and Morphing a creature is the same as paying a cost. Fetch lands like Arid Mesa , for example, can be sacrificed before being turned into an Island by Spreading Seas . Viscera Seer can be sacrificed to Scry 1 if it is targeted by Disfigure . Paying a cost is stack independent and always trumps spells.
February 26, 2011 2:07 p.m.
Thank you!
And, for a more particular question(which has me being confused by the stack by anything else). Situation: I have a face-down Trumpeter on the table, a card that has a sac a creature: ability and plenty of mana. Opponent casts a Day of Judgement 1. Can I turn him face up, get the tokens and then sacrifice them for the effect? 2. If so, and the card is Goblin Warrens , I sac them, getting plenty of new tokens for the previous ones...do they also die to the day of judgement?
February 26, 2011 2:44 p.m.
okay. so, face down Warbreak Trumpeter , a Goblin Warrens , and a pile of mana, opponent casts a Day of Judgment .
Day on the stack. You pay the morph cost, with X=3, say. He flips face-up and the triggered ability goes on the stack with X=3. Your opponent lets the triggered ability resolve. You get 3 gobbo tokens.
At this point, the Day is still on the stack, and sacing the tokens to the Goblin Warrens can only result in tokens that will come into play before the Day resolves, which will destroy them. If you have, say, a Fecundity or something out this could be good, but otherwise they're all just going to die for no real purpose.
@Karisto: actually, morph is one of the very few things that doesn't use the stack (the normal ones being mana abilities and playing lands, and the odd one out being phasing, plus I'm forgetting something I think). Those abilities you mentioned are activated abilities, which have the colon between the cost and the effect, but if you look at a morph card there's no colon anywhere. Morph doesn't use the stack and as such cannot be responded to or prevented. Any triggered abilities that occur because it flips face up, however, do use the stack and can be countered and responded to.
February 26, 2011 4:12 p.m.
Thanks! That bit of info made me grin :). (for the record, it's a goblin sac deck, so i'll probably have a Boggart Shenanigans , if not a Furnace Celebration as well on the table, or better sac cards such as a Tar Pitcher , or god forbid a Gempalm Incinerator . I hate boardwipes and the thought of punishing the people who do them is quite pleasing)
sporkife says... Accepted answer #1
February 26, 2011 1:32 p.m.