If the legendary creature X is in your own hand, can you use his last ability to play stuff from you're hand for 5?
Asked by prosshrules 7 years ago
I recently pulled the legendary creature X from an unstable booster and was wondering the above question. I noticed his last ability said ": You may play a card in the same hand as X without paying its mana cost." So does that mean if X is in your OWN hand that you play stuff using that ability? If it does I can't wait to play a Mox Lotus for 5 :).
Monomanamaniac says... #2
While X doesn't specify that he has to be in your opponent's hand to activate his second ability, you can only activate his abilities outside of the battlefield when he's in an opponent's hand.
December 13, 2017 7:16 p.m.
adrianopleEmpire says... #3
To try to specify this, I turned to rule 602 (activated abilities) of magic's rules:
602.2a The player announces that he or she is activating the ability. If an activated ability is being activated from a hidden zone, the card that has that ability is revealed. That ability is created on the stack as an object thats not a card. It becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. Its controller is the player who activated the ability. The ability remains on the stack until its countered, it resolves, or an effect moves it elsewhere.
602.5. A player cant begin to activate an ability thats prohibited from being activated. #
I tagged these two rules as there is no rule explicitly stating X's situation and they are the two most relevant. Because X's passive text states that you "can" activate his abilities from your opponent's hand, it in no way implies that he has to be in their hand for you to activate his abilities. Also, because his first activated ability is designed to be used from the battlefield, it wouldn't make sense that you can only activate his abilities from your opponents hand.
Unless MaRo (the silverborder rules manager) makes a ruling that states that X's second ability can only be activated from an opponent's hand, there is no rule constraining the use of X's second ability from it's owners hand, except for 602.2a requiring you to reveal him from your hand (aka. a hidden zone) as an additional cost to activate his ability.
Also, forget about Mox Lotus. The real fun comes from 5 mana, instant speed Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Gleemax. Just remember to run plenty of bounce spells and Mulldrifters.
December 15, 2017 11:58 a.m.
genericaura says... #4
You cannot activate X's abilities unless he is on the battlefield or in an opponent's hand. The rule constraining X's activation is implicit. When the Soul of [Plane] cycle were printed for example, it had to be specified that their second ability could be activated from the graveyard. X says you can activate X's abilities or cast him from an opponent's hand because otherwise you would not be able to. By default abilities can't be activated from hands.
I'm pretty sure you can activate his second ability on the battlefield, but since he isn't in a hand, it doesn't do anything. (There is a chance the wording means that not being in a hand makes the activation illegal since it doesn't have a target but it's a weird enough effect I can't tell for sure if that counts as a target.)
January 6, 2018 6:27 p.m.
Starchief2501 says... #5
genericaura you can activate the bottom ability while he is on the battlefield but it dosent do anything.. there are no illegal target because it dosent target.. magic is a litteral game, and not open for interpertation, you have to take it litteral so if it dont say target, it dosent target..
January 9, 2018 1:19 p.m.
Starchief2501 says... #6
genericaura add to above..all the normal magic rules apply, just because it is an un card dosent change that.. so you can cast the ability it simply dosent work because your cards is in the wrong place so it fizzls.. its like casting a counterspell on a car that cant be countered you can still do it, it just dosent work
bakeraj4 says... Accepted answer #1
No you cannot use that ability to cast cards from your own hand. That ability isn't available to be used until X is in your opponent's hand. If the opponent has a Mox Lotus in their hand, X was placed into your opponet's hand as well, then you could cast the Mox Lotus for from your opponent's hand.
December 12, 2017 1:10 p.m.