If you copy Kodama of the East Tree's triggered ability, does that copy trigger the original ability again?
Asked by JoyTheEnbySliverLover 1 year ago
So if I had a permanent enter the battlefield, the triggered ability of Kodama of the East Tree would trigger and I could put another permanent on the battlefield. If I copied the ability whilst it is still on the stack, with a Strionic Resonator, I would be able to put a third permanent onto the battlefield.
My question is, would the 3rd permanent put onto the battlefield by the copied ability cause the original triggered ability of Kodama of the East Tree to trigger again?
If so, would that mean I could reuse the Strionic Resonator over and over again to put permanents from my hand onto the battlefield? (For the purposes of the question, forget about the fact that I would have to untap the Strionic Resonator every time I want to use it. Just assume I have a way of untapping it at instant speed.)
JoyTheEnbySliverLover says... #2
Gidgetimer, this rule does imply that the copied triggered ability would not trigger the original ability due to the wording of Kodama of the East Tree. The ruling you shared says "A copy of an ability has the same source as the original ability" which conflicts with Kodama's triggered ability saying "if it wasn't put on the battlefield by this ability". The ability has the same source and thus doesn't allow itself to trigger that ability. However, if I had another Kodama on the battlefield, they would both infinity trigger each other though as they are different sources triggering.
As for my curiosity about repeatedly having the ability trigger, I was asking because copying the ability and getting a trigger out of it would double amount of creatures I could put out for each activation of Strionic Resonator, thus allowing me to use less time and resources.
Regardless, thanks for the response and I wish you all the best.
Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #1
There is no unambiguous rule to point to for this question. There is a rule about copying abilities and effects that count how many times an ability has resolved though. So I feel confident saying that the copy of the ability is treated as being the same ability for the purposes of Kodama of the East Tree triggering.
707.10b A copy of an ability has the same source as the original ability. If the ability refers to its source by name, the copy refers to that same object and not to any other object with the same name. The copy is considered to be the same ability by effects that count how many times that ability has resolved during the turn.
As for your second question. If you can repeatedly untap Strionic Resonator at instant speed there would be no need for the copy to trigger the Kodama. You could just copy the original over and over again. (assuming that we were also not mana limited as well as the assumption about untapping)
January 23, 2023 6:10 p.m.