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I actually have two questions concerning Conspiracy:

  1. If I put the enchantment Conspiracy onto my battlefield, and choose "Wall" for creature type, will all my creatures automatically become "defenders" since walls can't attack?

  2. If I have a Mistform Dreamer on the battlefield, and play Conspiracy (and choose Wall for creature type), will the Mistform Dreamer activated ability be able to overwrite Conspiracy's effect, or will the Mistform Dreamer just get an additional creature type besides being a Wall? Or will Conspiracy overwrite Mistform Dreamer activated ability thus making it a Wall only?"

2 Answers 2

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1) No; in fact, the creature subtype 'Wall' has long since lost any rules weight, and there's no reason that Walls can't attack other than that they have (either through print or via errata) the 'defender' ability: if a Wall were printed without defender, then it would be able to attack just like any other creature. This is confirmed in the rulings you can find on the Gatherer page for Conspiracy:

8/1/2005 If you choose Wall, then your creatures can still attack because creature types don't confer abilities such as defender (any more than, say, choosing creature type Bird would confer flying).

2) This becomes a bit more complicated. The key notion is the concept of timestamping; you can find the specific details in section 613.6 of the comprehensive rules, but the key pieces are these:

613.6. Within a layer or sublayer, determining which order effects are applied in is usually done using a timestamp system. An effect with an earlier timestamp is applied before an effect with a later timestamp.

613.6a A continuous effect generated by a static ability has the same timestamp as the object the static ability is on, or the timestamp of the effect that created the ability, whichever is later.

613.6b A continuous effect generated by the resolution of a spell or ability receives a timestamp at the time it’s created.

Because the effect generated by the resolution of Mistform Dreamer's ability to set its creature type is 'newer' than the effect generated by Conspiracy, the subtype change from Conspiracy is applied first, then the subtype change from the Dreamer's own ability, leaving the Mistform Dreamer as whatever subtype you set it with its own ability. But note that this effect will wear off at EOT when the ability is cleaned up, and whenever you haven't activated Mistform Dreamer's ability in a turn, it will be whatever creature type Conspiracy is set to.

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  • I think i got it now. In fact your answer was what I was leaning towards myself. Regarding my first question I was i doubt, since reading the text on "Mistform Ultimus" said, that even though MU is every creature type, it can still attack as if it wasn't a wall. The text on MD did not have that wording wich lead to my question.
    – Jacob Lund
    Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 19:20
  • @JacobLund This is true of the original version, because when MU was printed Wall did still have a rules meaning. The official wording of MU, though, is the one that's seen on the timeshifted reprint in Time Spiral (gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/…) and you can see that it doesn't include that text. In general, I heartily encourage checking Gatherer for the current wording of any card (the so-called Oracle wording: see boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/6349 ) whenever you have a question about how that card works. Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 19:56
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Question 1. No. from the ruling on gatherer:

8/1/2005 If you choose Wall, then your creatures can still attack because creature types don't confer abilities such as defender (any more than, say, choosing creature type Bird would confer flying).

Question 2. Mistform Dreamer's ability will 'overrwrite' the effect of Conspiracy (rule 613: Interaction of Continuous Effects, specifically 613.2 which instructs you to 'apply effects in timestamp order')

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