I have Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice as my commander for a deck I'm building. And looking over Phyrexian Revoker I wondered if I could copy its ability and name a second card as it comes down to lock down 2 potential threats. And since Stuffy Doll is written the same way, Could you name 2 players and have them both linked to Stuffy Doll?
2 Answers
No, that does not work. Those abilities are not activated or triggered abilities, so Tawnos can't copy them.
Phyrexian Revoker and Stuffy Doll have abilities that start with
As [card name] enters the battlefield...
These are replacement effects, as specified in rule 614.1c:
Effects that read “[This permanent] enters the battlefield with . . . ,” “As [this permanent] enters the battlefield . . . ,” or “[This permanent] enters the battlefield as . . . “ are replacement effects.
Tawnos's ability's effect says
Copy target activated or triggered ability...
So it doesn't copy replacement effects. Replacement effects do not go on the stack, so other cards can't copy them either except by copying the whole creature.
Besides them not being classified as "triggered" as murgatroid99 points out, there would still be
607.2d If an object has an ability printed on it that causes a player to “choose a [value]” and an ability printed on it that refers to “the chosen [value],” “the last chosen [value],” or similar, those abilities are linked. The second ability refers only to a choice made as a result of the first ability
So even if you were able to copy the ETB ability, doing so wouldn't do any good; the static ability would refer only to the last chosen value (since the stack is resolved in reverse order, that means that whichever choice you made with the first copy that you put on the stack would control the static ability).
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2In situations with some other kinds of linked abilities that can be copied, the results of all of those copies can be used (607.3). As a result I think it's not really reasonable to say that linked ability rules like the one you quote necessarily mean that only one choice is used. It would be more accurate to say that the rules do not explicitly address what happens when you make multiple choices, because that is never possible.– murgatroid99 ♦Commented Jul 12, 2021 at 4:22
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That's not actually how that reads - there are some abilities that let you change what the chosen linked ability is, those specify they only work on the last chosen one, like Sanctuary Blade (changes when equipped) or Mystic Barrier (changes each turn). While there is no real way to choose multiple values for these replacement effects, that rule wouldn't stop multiple ones from working if you could.– AndrewCommented Jul 12, 2021 at 17:07
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@Andrew What isn't how what reads? How is my answer wrong? Commented Jul 12, 2021 at 18:16
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1I think they're saying that "[the interpretation in your last paragraph] isn't how [the rule you quoted] reads". They reference two cards that use the wording "the last chosen [color/direction]" to explicitly only use one choice, in contrast with the cards referenced in the question, which do not use that wording. If we assume that the "last chosen" wording is functionally significant, it's reasonable to conclude that without that wording, other cards might not only use the last chosen value by default.– murgatroid99 ♦Commented Jul 13, 2021 at 1:01
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exactly what @murgatroid99 said, the word "last" is functionally significant, if it were possible to choose multiple cards with Revoker or players with Stuffy Doll, they don't include the word "last" in their text. There is no specific rule to handle this situation, because it's impossible to happen with all current cards and rules.– AndrewCommented Jul 13, 2021 at 4:57