Sakashima the Impostor and Helm of the Host

Asked by chosenone124 5 years ago

Suppose I have a Storm Crow. I cast Sakashima the Impostor copying Storm Crow, leaving me with a 1/2 Flying Legendary creature named Sakashima the Impostor.

I cast Helm of the Host, equip it to Sakashima, and enter combat. I have the token copy Grizzly Bears (if possible). What are its characteristics?

chosenone124 says... #1

Additionally, let's say I cast Sakashima copying nothing. I equip Helm to it, and the token copies something. Will the token be legendary?

May 4, 2018 5:41 a.m.

Rhadamanthus says... #2

In your original question the token can't copy anything else because it doesn't have the "as this enters..." ability. A copy effect takes into account the results of any other copy effects the original is subject to, so the token is just a non-Legendary Sakashima the Impostor with flying and ": Return [this] to its owner's hand at end of turn".

For your second question, the way the relevant rule is written seems to indicate the token won't be legendary:

706.9b Some copy effects specifically state that they don't copy certain characteristics and instead retain their original values. These effects use the phrase "except its [characteristic] is still [value]" or "except it's still [value(s)]." They may also simply state that certain characteristics are not copied.

So if the "except it's still Legendary" part of the effect really means it keeps the original Legendary/non-Legendary supertype value then whatever the token copies won't be Legendary because it's original value for that characteristic doesn't include Legendary. This seems very strange because it implies that if the token copies a Legendary creature the result won't be Legendary. It's so strange that I'm not satisfied this answer is correct, but it's what the rule seems to say.

May 4, 2018 9:29 a.m.

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #3

I have no idea what made me think of this today, but the answer to your question changed to something less dumb and confusing with the M19 CR update. The "it's still (blah)" phrasing was removed from the 3 cards that used it (Sakashima the Impostor, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Quicksilver Gargantuan) and now they just set the characteristics to the given value.

July 30, 2018 9:56 p.m.

Please login to comment