Interaction between Shivan Phoenix and Turn to Frog?
Asked by TitanWalls 7 years ago
My buddy attacked me with his Shivan Phoenix and I cast Turn to Frog on him and blocked for lethal damage. At this point he said his card would return to his hand, but I insisted that since the creature had no abilities when it was being put into graveyard, then it wouldn't return. Who's right?
Because in Turn to Frog it says "target creature loses all abilities", it means Shivan Phoenix loses its recursion ability. Therefore, because when it went to the graveyard without it's special ability, it no longer had that ability, it stays in the graveyard.
Neotrup says... Accepted answer #1
Abilities like that of Shivan Phoenix are applied from the battlefield, not the graveyard. If the creature doesn't have the ability when it dies, it doesn't get returned. So no, the card stays in the graveyard. If another creature were a copy of the phoenix, it would be returned, even though the ability isn't on the card.
March 4, 2017 12:22 p.m.