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Suppose my opponent is tapped out while playing Sliver Overlord as his commander, which has the ability:

{3}: Gain control of target Sliver. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)

On my turn, I play a Rite of Replication, targeting his Sliver Overlord. I now have a copy of it in play.

May I then use the {3} ability to steal his Overlord, and then due to the Legendary rule, sacrifice the copy and retain control of his commander?

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    Is there some reason you would expect not to be able to do this? You seem to know what actions you would need to take to achieve your goal and what rules allow those actions.
    – murgatroid99 ♦
    Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 1:42
  • It was a casual game and my opponent thought that there might be an EDH specific rule that prevented it.
    – Carl Anderson
    Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 2:40
  • In that case, you should probably check out the EDH specific rules
    – murgatroid99 ♦
    Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 2:41

2 Answers 2

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That is correct. The Sliver Overlord is a Sliver so it is a legal target for the token's ability. Once you have control of it the Legend Rule kicks in. The "Legend Rule" says:

704.5k If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "legend rule".

So it is perfectly legal to choose the token copy of the Overlord to put into the Graveyard, and then you can proceed to kill them with their own commander. Note that you aren't 'sacrificing' the token, it is just being put into the Graveyard by state based effects. It will still 'die' and trigger anything that cares about creatures dying, but it won't trigger anything that cares about sacrificing creatures.

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    Not necessarily part of the answer, but as a side note, this was a recent change to the rules. Previously, the legend rule would cause all Legendary permanents with the same name to go away.
    – GendoIkari
    Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 1:08
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Yes, you can do that. Rule 903 and its subrules are the specific rules for the Commander format (also known as EDH). There is no rule that treats a Commander specially except the additional loss condition from "commander damage." When a commander is on the battlefield, it's treated just like any other card. Specifically, there is no rule that says that you can't copy a commander, that you can't take control of another player's commander, or that it should be treated any differently by the legend rule.

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