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View Full Version : Tricky Exalted Shapeshifter Scenario



tyleredw
12-27-2009, 03:51 AM
So i came across this scenario on MWS today, and I think the bulk of my confusion comes from my inexperiance in dealing with both morph creatures and shapeshifters due to their lack of play in actual decks.

Anyway, here's the scenario:

His board:

Some lands
Noble Hierarch
Vesuvan Shapeshifter (face down)

My board:
Some lands
Noble Hierarch
Rhox War Monk

It's his attack phase, and he declares an attack with just his morph creature. Exalted triggers when he declares it as an attacker and the morph creature becomes a 3/3. We move to declare blockers, and i declare no blocks. At this point, he pays the 1U to flip his shapeshifter, and chooses to copy my Rhox War Monk. I have no responses to any of this, and in his view, the Shapeshifter is a 4/5 due to the exalted, and i take 4 damage.

I just took his word for it, since arguing on MWS is a complete and utter waste of time, but my first impression of the scenario was that the shapeshifter doesn't keep the exalted boost, and when he chooses to copy my War Monk, it just becomes a 3/4 and i would take only 3 damage. My reasoning was that the exalted triggered on a 2/2, and when he copies my creature, it overwrites its power/toughness on the card at the time and makes it to be that of my creature at the time.

Who's right?

Malchar
12-27-2009, 04:00 AM
His shapeshifter retains the boost. It comes down to a matter of layers. Copying effects are applied before temporary power/toughness boosts. So, first the shapeshifter becomes a 3/4, then the +1/+1 is applied on top of that. It's also important to remember that the shapeshifter is still the same creature the whole time even though it is now copying something.

pi4meterftw
12-27-2009, 04:43 AM
It's interesting to note that even if your ruling were correct, if the other rules are still the same or reasonable he could just flip the shapeshifter earlier for the desired effect.

tyleredw
12-27-2009, 05:41 AM
It's interesting to note that even if your ruling were correct, if the other rules are still the same or reasonable he could just flip the shapeshifter earlier for the desired effect.

True, but there could've been scenarios of trying to bait blockers and such that would make him want to wait, i suppose.

dorsch
12-27-2009, 06:09 AM
To unmorph a permanent only changes the state of the permanent, exactly like tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped and phased in/phased out. It is still the same permanent.