Necrotic Ooze + Levelers (with other activated abilities)

[(nameless one)]

Necrotic Ooze:

http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/ftl/645rtdufghjikafsf.jpg

If I have this on the field and I have Guul Draz Assassin in the graveyard, can I activate Guul Draz Assassin's level 4+ ability through Necrotic Ooze even though Necrotic Ooze is not on level 4?


Thanks in advance

[luma]

No. The Assassin in the graveyard only has its Level Up ability (and two static abilities, that give it additional activated abilities and P/T). Even if you gave the Ooze 4 level counters, it wouldn't have the Assassin's 4+ ability.

[(nameless one)]

Oh I see, alright thanks!

[rufus]

A related question:
If you flip a Necrotic Ooze (say using Nezumi Graverobber's ability) and then use Dimir Doppelganger's ability to copy Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, what do you get?

[dorsch]

Necrotic Ooze which is flipped and a copy of erayo and has the doppelganger ability.

It would look like this:

Erayo's Essence
Legendary Enchantment, 1U (2)
Whenever an opponent casts a spell for the first time in a turn, counter that spell.
{1}{U}{B}: Exile target creature card from a graveyard.-this- becomes a copy of that card and gains this ability.

[cdr]

Flipped is a status, like tapped.

[Jason]

So Necrotic Ooze has the activated abilities of the flipped cards and un-flipped cards? Can Necrotic Ooze itself be flipped using Nezumi Graverobber? The Graverobber says "if no cards are in that graveyard, flip Nezumi Graverobber". Clearly, Necrotic Ooze is not Nezumi Graverobber

[heroicraptor]

Whenever a card refers to itself using its name, it always means "this object" regardless of its actual card name.

[cdr]

So Necrotic Ooze has the activated abilities of the flipped cards and un-flipped cards?

No. If something is flipped, it has the appropriate flipped text. If it's not flipped, it has the appropriate unflipped text. If something is flipped but is currently a card that doesn't have flipped text, it has the normal text of that card.

The only reason the Ooze is a flipped Erayo in the example above is that it used an ability to become a copy of Erayo.

Normally, an Ooze (even a flipped Ooze) would only have the activated abilties of unflipped cards - cards in the graveyard can't be flipped, so the abilties on the flipped side don't exist.


Can Necrotic Ooze itself be flipped using Nezumi Graverobber? The Graverobber says "if no cards are in that graveyard, flip Nezumi Graverobber". Clearly, Necrotic Ooze is not Nezumi Graverobber

As heroicraptor posted, a card referring to itself by name only means "this card".

[Atwa]

And now the question everyone wonders about:

Does the kill of having a Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion in the graveyard work? I've seen a lot of people saying it doesn't and I must admit I find the wording of Devourer a bit confusing (some things must be lost in translation).

Seriously, did it take a full week of speculating before someone asked this question here to settle this once and for all?

[cdr]

Phyrexian Devourer 6
Artifact Creature -- Construct
When Phyrexian Devourer's power is 7 or greater, sacrifice it.
Exile the top card of your library: Put X +1/+1 counters on Phyrexian Devourer, where X is the exiled card's converted mana cost. If Phyrexian Devourer's power is 7 or greater, sacrifice it.
1/1

It doesn't look at all complicated to me.

There's two power checks - Ooze doesn't care about the triggered ability check, but there's another check as part of the activated ability resolving.

If you flip something that costs 3+ with the Devourer ability, you're going to lose the Ooze (unless you can lower the Ooze's natural power with another card).

[jrsthethird]

When Phyrexian Devourer's power is 7 or greater, sacrifice it.
Exile the top card of your library: Put X +1/+1 counters on Phyrexian Devourer, where X is the exiled card's converted mana cost. If Phyrexian Devourer's power is 7 or greater, sacrifice it.



Triskelion enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from Triskelion: Triskelion deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

If both are in the graveyard, the Ooze has the following abilities:


Exile the top card of your library: Put X +1/+1 counters on Necrotic Ooze, where X is the exiled card's converted mana cost. If Necrotic Ooze's power is 7 or greater, sacrifice it.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from Necrotic Ooze: Necrotic Ooze deals 1 damage to target creature or player.


Since exiling the card is a cost, you get to see the card as the ability is put on the stack; you will be able to see whether the Ooze will hit 7 power or not before the ability that makes you sacrifice it resolves. If you flip a 0cc card, (effectively) nothing will happen. If you flip a 1cc or 2cc, you'll be able to let the ability resolve and ping your opponent twice with the Trike ability.

If you flip a 3cc or greater, you can just flip again in response, until you hit a 2cc. You will likely have multiple instances of the ability on the stack but it works the way you want it to as long as you time it correctly.

One word of caution: you need to explicitly maintain priority after each activation, since if you don't, your opponent can pass priority before you can put the next activation on the stack.