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For example Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Can I use the -8 ability even though she only has 4 loyalty? I understand it would kill her. Or would I have to get 8 loyalty first with the +1 ability?

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3 Answers

up vote 7 down vote

Wizard's wording on the matter is thus:

606.5. A loyalty ability with a negative loyalty cost can't be activated unless the permanent has at least that many loyalty counters on it

It doesn't specify how those counters get there. It could be through +X abilities, proliferate, or even cool things like Doubling Season. But they must exist on the planeswalker in order to pay the cost.

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3  
606.5 is a specific case of 117.3: "A player can’t pay a cost unless he or she has the necessary resources to pay it fully. [...]" – ikegami Oct 25 '12 at 21:30
up vote 1 down vote

First things first - planeswalkers don't have "life", they have "loyalty counters".

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the side of the table you're sitting on), you can't play an ability with a negative loyalty cost unless the planeswalker has at least that many loyalty counters on it.

See here for this and other official rules for planeswalkers in Magic.

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I was wondering, can you use the ability twice? or do you need a spell to make that happen? – James Oct 25 '12 at 20:49
@james As the official rules state "You can play one of these abilities only at the time you could play a sorcery, and only if none of that planeswalker's abilities have been played yet that turn." – ghoppe Oct 25 '12 at 20:52
You can play only one of the planeswalker's abilities on each of your turns, and as far as I know it's currently impossible to get around that restriction... but if you have enough loyalty counters, you can definitely play the -8 ability twice on two consecutive turns! (That's a lot of loyalty counters though.) – thesunneversets Oct 25 '12 at 20:52
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@thesunneversets Two Doubling Seasons in play. 16 loyalty counters when it enters the battlefield. Done. ;) – ghoppe Oct 25 '12 at 22:37
up vote -1 down vote

I found out you have to use the +1 ability till you get enough loyalty.

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Do you have a rules reference for that? – Pat Ludwig♦ Oct 25 '12 at 20:44
This is a problem for something like Garruk Relentless – corsiKa Oct 25 '12 at 20:44
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Well, you need to get at least as many loyalty counters on the planeswalker as the cost of the ability you plan to use. You don't necessarily have to use Tamiyo's +1 ability to get them there (though that's the obvious route) - you could Proliferate existing counters, for example... – thesunneversets Oct 25 '12 at 20:45
Wow thanks for reminding me about proliferate!!! – James Oct 25 '12 at 20:48

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