Will animating Machine God's Effigy through Sydri, Galvanic Genius or March of the Machines return the creature subtypes?
Asked by Mave 3 months ago
If I understood the rules of Machine God's Effigy correctly the reason why it doesn't has the subtypes like Saga, Myr, Construct or Forest is because those types are only available if the card is an Enchantment, Creature, Kindred or Land. But since it is an artifact it keeps types such as Treasure, Vehicle, Clue, Food etc. So would Sydri, Galvanic Genius return the type since it turns Machine God's Effigy into a creature and therefore it becomes able to hold the card type? And since March of the Machines directly causes Machine God's Effigy to enter as a Creature would it be able to retain the creature types or is there sth in the rules that simply erases all nonartifact creature types from it? So far I haven't seen this exact question. There were questions that refered to making a Mishra's Warform Token from Machine God's Effigy. They didn't go into detail regarding the creature type and only write "the copy will be an Artifact Creature - Construct". Mishra, Eminent One would be a similar case like Sydri. But why wouldn't the creature type be "dormant" in the copy? I read that e.g. copying a Vehicle with Machine God's Effigy or any other creature will keep the p/t dormant so if Machine God's Effigy gets crew it becomes able to turn into a creature with the regular P/T stats.
I meant if Machine God's Effigy is used to copy a creature like Replication Specialist. As far as I know if it copies Goldhound it becomes a copy of Goldhound but with the exceptions. Since it is an artifact it still is a Treasure but not a Dog since only Kindred and Creatures have the type. Would animating it in any described way activate the Dog creature type?
August 20, 2024 6:07 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #3
A card can not have subtypes for a type that it doesn't have. The subtypes are removed, not made "dormant". There is no such prohibition on P/T as a printed characteristic.
205.3d An object can’t gain a subtype that doesn’t correspond to one of that object’s types.
Another example of this is if a creature is enchanted with Song of the Dryads and Life and Limb is on the battlefield, the creatures is a 1/1 Creature Land- Saproling Forest. It doesn't have any of the card's original types.
August 20, 2024 10:46 p.m.
I still don't understand but I will now just play with Machine God's Effigy that it simply has no other card types besides the Artifact types on the card it copies.
August 21, 2024 1:59 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #5
I'll try one more way to explain it.
When Machine God's Effigy copies something it starts with the copiable characteristics of the card. These are what is printed on the card (there are things that modify copiable characteristics, but for ease we will assume that none apply at this stage). Then the copy effect modifies those characteristics to determine what Machine God's Effigy enters as. The modification that the copy effect makes is that the copy is an artifact. As per CR 205.3d quoted above, the copy can not gain subtypes that don't correspond with a type that it does not have. So the copy will not get any creature, battle, planeswalker, or enchantment type. When you later animate it the Machine God's Effigy will not have any creature types and will be a typeless creature unless another effect gives it a type.
Gidgetimer says... #1
Your original premise is wrong. The reason Machine God's Effigy doesn't have any subtypes at all is that it wasn't printed with any subtypes.
Unless something makes it a treasure, it isn't a treasure; unless something makes it a food, it isn't a food; unless something makes it an elf, it isn't an elf. Sydri, Galvanic Genius and March of the Machines don't grant any creature subtypes, so it would just be an artifact creature with no subtypes. Mishra, Eminent One gives the subtype "construct", so the Machine God's Effigy copy is a construct.
August 19, 2024 10:11 p.m.