Ghostfire and Painter's Servant

[Maveric78f]

Is Ghostfire still colorless with Painter's Servant into play ?

[Van Phanel]

No.

Ghostfire's ability is a characteristic-defining ability and thus always applied first. Painter is applied after it, so it will have whatever color you named with Painter.

[cdr]

Slightly more specifically, both effects apply in layer 5 ("other"), and CDA effects always apply first within each layer.


405.2a. A static ability is a characteristic-defining ability if it meets the following criteria: 1) It defines an object's colors, subtypes, power, or toughness; 2) It is printed on the card it affects, it was granted to the token it affects by the effect that created the token, or it was acquired by the object it affects as the result of a copy effect; 3) It does not directly affect the characteristics of any other objects; 4) It is not an ability that an object grants to itself; and 5) It does not set the values of such characteristics only if certain conditions are met.


418.5. Interaction of Continuous Effects

418.5a. The values of an object's characteristics are determined by starting with the actual object, then applying continuous effects in a series of layers in the following order: (1) copy effects (see rule 503, "Copying Objects"); (2) control-changing effects; (3) text-changing effects; (4) type-changing effects (which includes effects that change an object's card type, subtype, and/or supertype); (5) all other continuous effects, except those that change power and/or toughness; and (6) power- and/or toughness-changing effects. Inside each layer from 1 through 5, apply effects from characteristic-defining abilities first, then all other effects in timestamp order. Inside layer 6, apply effects in a series of sublayers in the following order: (6a) effects from characteristic-defining abilities; (6b) all other effects not specifically applied in 6c, 6d, or 6e; (6c) changes from counters; (6d) effects from static abilities that modify power and/or toughness but don't set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value; and (6e) effects that switch a creature's power and toughness. Within each sublayer, apply effects in timestamp order. Note that dependency may alter the order in which effects are applied within a layer or sublayer. See also the rules for timestamp order and dependency (rules 418.5b-418.5g).