How does Stitcher Geralf calculate his babies power/toughness?
Asked by Geralf_Cecani 6 years ago
Link: Stitcher Geralf
As you can probably tell by my name, I am a big fan of good ol' stitch. He may not be the powerfulest commander but you can't beat him for flavour (its my opinion dont judge me). However, I recently came across an issue with the card. His ability creates an X/X blue zomble, where X is, and I quote: "...the total power of the cards exiled this way."
Now what I don't understand is whether or not that means the total power of the cards exiled in this particular permanent's lifetime (e.g. flickering him would reset the total power of cards exiled cos it's technically a different permanent blah blah) or whether it's the power of creatures exiled with that particular activation (in short, does it or does it not stack). This is a pretty big issue (cos if its the latter hes literally unplayable), so any help regarding this issue is appreciated.
(the gatherer ruling are no help btw i checked)
Geralf_Cecani says... #2
TheVectornaut but whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ;_; he so useless then
*sobbing in background *
but i knew in my heart u was right :(
i was just afraid to admit it
March 27, 2018 4:59 a.m.
TheVectornaut says... #3
If he was U/B, I'd definitely feel he was underpowered. But in mono-blue, he allows the potential for token generation and huge dudes, both of which are seldom available to the color. That being said, I do find it hard to imagine running him before Gisa and Geralf or The Scarab God.
TheVectornaut says... Accepted answer #1
The key here is that both parts of Stitcher Geralf's ability use the words "this way" to denote a particular activation of that ability. You can only exile creatures put into the graveyard by that instance of milling, and the p/t of the token is only equal to the combined power of the removed creatures in that instance of exiling. This actually fits much better with the flavor of Geralf literally sifting through corpses to find just one or two he can stitch together instead of creating a cumulative flesh amalgam. I mean, how could a zombie have gained the stats of a previously created zombie while that prior zombie is still alive?
In contrast, you can look at a card like Sisters of Stone Death where the card name is explicitly mentioned rather than just the ability. Geralf's text is intentionally not worded the same way.
March 27, 2018 3:11 a.m.