Metamorphic Alteration and interaction with exile
Asked by stensiagamekeeper 5 years ago
Main Senario: I've had a Deadeye Tracker out for most of the game and have activated it a number of times. I also have a Rona, Disciple of Gix on board. I cast metamorphic alteration (a card in core set 2019 https://www.cardkingdom.com/catalog/search?search=header&filter%5Bname%5D=%22Metamorphic+Alteration%22&ac=1) targeting Deadeye Tracker and choose to make it a copy of Rona. Can I then cast cards exiled with it from before it was enchanted.
How does this work with cast triggers such as Oblivion Sower, additional costs Gurmag Angler or coming out of the graveyard such as with Scrapheap Scrounger? What if they are exiled face down, e.g. Gonti, Lord of Luxury or Bomat Courier? How much bigger would the Deadeye Tracker be in the above situation if it became a copy of a Bishop of Binding? Could you use Admonition Angel to get all the cards exiled by Painbringer onto the battlefield?
stensiagamekeeper says... #2
wow that was fast!
Thanks a million. For what it's worth, the second part of my question was more about making Gurmag Angler and suchlike copies of rona in the same way as in the first part and whether casting the exiled cards was still possible.
I guess I've always thought of linked abilities as being denoted by phrasing like "the exiled card" or "that card". It still doesn't make that much sense to me that Bomat Courier's abilities are linked when it says "all cards exiled with bomat courier".
June 20, 2018 9:27 p.m.
FancyTuesday says... #3
I know, it's not exactly the most intuitive rule. Some of our earliest lessons in MTG rules lawyering are "abilities that reference a card by name mean [this card]" and to read abilities literally, so it's easy to apply the text the way you did. However, here's the relevant rules citation:
607.2a If an object has an activated or triggered ability printed on it that instructs a player to exile one or more cards and an ability printed on it that refers either to “the exiled cards” or to cards “exiled with [this object],” these abilities are linked. The second ability refers only to cards in the exile zone that were put there as a result of an instruction to exile them in the first ability.
FancyTuesday says... Accepted answer #1
I'm afraid the cards previous exiled with Deadeye Tracker will not be available to be cast with the Metamorphed Rona, Disciple of Gix. Abilities like the ones Rona possesses are linked abilities and refer only to cards associated to other linked abilities, not others that may incidentally qualify.
With Rona, Disciple of Gix you are still casting the card. Cast triggers still trigger, and abilities that effect/decisions you make when casting still apply, so Delve still functions. Just be on the lookout for the wording "if you cast [this] from your hand" which would obviously not be the case when casting from exile.
Scrapheap Scrounger would not work because the ability says "from your graveyard to the battlefield" and it is in exile, not the graveyard.
I believe the other questions are answered with the "linked abilities" rule rendering them invalid.
June 20, 2018 8:56 p.m.