Animation: Layers and Timestamps
Asked by TehGrief 9 months ago
Player A controls a Sol Ring, player B casts Titania's Song; Player A's Sol Ring becomes a 1/1 artifact creature with no abilities.
If player A then casts a March of the Machines, since Titania's Song specifies non-creature artifact, does March of the Machines change the artifacts into creatures, causing them to retain their abilities?
What would happen if the reverse was true? Player A controls both Sol Ring and March of the Machines, then Player B casts Titania's Song?
Follow-up question.
If Player A controls Starfield of Nyx (meeting its condition, causing their enchantments to become creatures with power and toughness equal to their converted mana cost in addition to their other types), and Player B cast Sudden Spoiling (causing creatures to lose their abilities), what would the result be?
Would all enchantments controlled by Player A lose all abilities and become 0/2 creatures - or, since the Starfield of Nyx would lose its ability, they would remain enchantments with their innate abilities but not be creatures in addition to their other types?
Neotrup says... Accepted answer #1
Since both Titania's Song and March of the Machines specify noncreature artifact they are both dependent on eachother, forming a dependency loop that means they must be applied in timestamp order rather than dependency order. This means that whichever entered the battlefield first is the one that applies. In the first example March of the Machines does nothing since Sol Ring is already a 1/1 artifact creature with no abilities, but if it had entered first it would be a 1/1 artifact creature with ": Add ."
Starfield of Nyx does not turn itself into a creature since it says "other nonaura enchantements." However, assuming they control two Starfield of Nyx it would be a 0/2 creature with no abilities. This is because its ability starts to apply in layer 4 when it turns enchantments into creatures and doesn't lose its ability until layer 6 when Sudden Spoiling starts to apply. Once the ability starts in an earlier layer, it will continue to be applied in a higher layer, so in layer 7b Starfield of Nyx will give all enchantment creatures a base power and toughness, then that will be overwritten by Sudden Spoiling also in layer 7b due to having a later timestamp.
February 12, 2024 11:56 a.m.