Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker as a Commander
Asked by DaddyRabbit78 9 years ago
Let say house rules allowed for me to use Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker in a Mono-Red EDH deck.
His +1 is that he turns into a 4/4 Indestructible Flying dragon with Haste which means he can swing as soon as he makes this transformation (correct?).
Questions:
When he comes out from the Commander Zone, does he have summoning sickness and can't use the +1 until the next turn?
He's indestructible, but if an opponent uses enough -1/-1 counters on him to make his Toughness 0, does he return to being a Commander Planeswalker still in play or does he go back to the Commander Zone?
If he does go back to the Commander Zone, does he go back as the Dragon or as the Planeswalker? When you pay the additional cost to bring him back out, is he still the Dragon?
Does his Loyalty Counter go back to it's original value when he does go back to the Command Zone or do Loyalty Counters remain?
Thanks.
hyperlocke says... #2
You can activate abilities of Planeswalker Commanders the turn they come into play.
If you activate his first ability he will become a creature that can attack despite being cast this turn, because it has haste.
While being a creature, he is supsect to everything that could kill an indestructible creature. If his toughness goes to zero or below, he will die. You may put him into your Commander Zone instead of into your graveyard.
When a permanent leaves the battlefield, the game uses the last known information about it to trigger abilities. So if he is a creature and dies somehow, everything that triggers from creatures leaving the battlefield (not dying, as you'd put him into your Commander Zone!) will trigger. If he dies as Planeswalker, every ability triggering from Planeswalkers leaving the field will trigger.
If you cast him again, he will behave just like every other Planeswalker. He will not return as creature. He will get loyalty counters corresponding to the starting loyalty printed on him (4).
sonnet666 says... Accepted answer #1
Usually you are not allowed to use a planeswalker as a commander unless it's one of the ones that specifically says you can (Teferi, Temporal Archmage).
BUT, commander is a casual format, so if your playgroup says it's ok, you can play with pretty much any house rule you want.
If you were to cast him from the command zone, he would technically have "summoning sickness" just like any other permanent, because he's a hasn't been under your control since the beginning of your last upkeep, but it doesn't really matter because summoning sickness doesn't keep you from activating planeswalker's loyalty abilities (they can always activate a loyalty ability the turn they come into play), and when he turns into a creature with his +1, he has haste anyway.
If he's a creature and he gets enough -1/-1 counters, he'll always have to leave the battlefield as a state based action, you may choose to put him in the graveyard or command zone.
When a permanent changes zones it reverts to just it's printed characteristics, so in the command zone Sarkhan is always just a planeswalker.
Every time Sarkhan leaves the battlefield, all loyalty counters on him cease to exist. He always enters the battlefield with 4 to start with.
Basically, every time he leaves the battlefield, he becomes a new object with no memory of his previous time on the battlefield.
Got it?
April 3, 2016 12:41 p.m.