token mana from food chain
Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 22, 2013, 7:47 a.m. by akay_1223
when you get Spawnwrithe tokens when you use Food Chain on the tokens does it add 1 mana or 4 mana?
so essentially what i am asking is : when you copy a creature does that include mana cost?
Epochalyptik says... #4
That's incorrect. The CMC of tokens is zero unless that token is a copy of something. If it's a copy, it has all copiable characteristics of the original object, including mana cost. Exiling a Spawnwrithe token with Food Chain would give you four mana.
February 22, 2013 7:59 a.m.
I guess I should tell that to the Judge at my local FNM. When a Ratchet Bomb went off for 0, he insisted that it kills off all tokens, including the Pack Rat tokens someone had.
February 22, 2013 10:10 a.m.
MagnorCriol says... #7
Yes, your local FNM judge was incorrect, then. Pack Rat tokens very definitely have a CMC of 3.
February 22, 2013 11:46 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #8
The essential thing behind all this is that tokens only have the characteristics specified by the effect that created them. Most tokens don't have mana costs simply because the effect that created them didn't give them one, only specifying a name/type, color, P/T, and sometimes an ability (the WR 1/1 haste Soldier tokens from Sunhome Guildmage , for example). However, a copy effect copies all of the original's copiable characteristics, which is basically everything written on the original. Mana cost is a copiable characteristic, so tokens created by a copy effect will have a mana cost if the original has a mana cost.
Rayenous says... #2
The CMC of tokens are 0. As such, you would get 1 mana if you use Food Chain to exile a token copy of Spawnwrithe .
Note: Questions like these are better asked in the MTG Q&A.
February 22, 2013 7:50 a.m.