Ancient Greenwarden and Mosswort Bridge

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Artaud
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Post by Artaud » 2 years ago

It seems, unless I'm wrong, that Ancient Greenwarden causes Mosswort Bridge entering the battlefield trigger twice and exile two cards instead of one. If that's true, what will happen when I use MB's second activated ability? Does only one (chosen) card get played and I may play the other later? Do I get to play both of them at once even if the card text includes only "card", not "cards" phrase?

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by WizardMN » 2 years ago
There are two different ways to phrase an effect like Bridge's: do something with *the* exiled card (which is how Bridge is worded) or do something with *a/an* exiled card (which is how something like Mimic Vat is worded).

When the effect is worded as Bridge is, it expects only a single exiled card but cases like this allow for multiples. The rules say that if it looks for *the* exiled card, any action is instructs you to take is taken on every exiled card that ability exiled. So, in this case, you are able to play/cast both exiled cards. Which means that when the ability resolves, you will get to play 0, 1, or 2 of the cards.

When it says *a/an* is where you just choose a single exiled card to take the action on.

607.3. If, within a pair of linked abilities, one ability refers to a single object as "the exiled card," "a card exiled with [this card]," or a similar phrase, and the other ability has exiled multiple cards (usually because it was copied), the ability refers to each of the exiled cards. If that ability asks for any information about the exiled card, such as a characteristic or mana value, it gets multiple answers. If these answers are used to determine the value of a variable, the sum of the answers is used. If that ability performs any actions on "the" card, it performs that action on each exiled card. If that ability performs any actions on "a" card, the controller of the ability chooses which card is affected.
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WizardMN
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Post by WizardMN » 2 years ago

There are two different ways to phrase an effect like Bridge's: do something with *the* exiled card (which is how Bridge is worded) or do something with *a/an* exiled card (which is how something like Mimic Vat is worded).

When the effect is worded as Bridge is, it expects only a single exiled card but cases like this allow for multiples. The rules say that if it looks for *the* exiled card, any action is instructs you to take is taken on every exiled card that ability exiled. So, in this case, you are able to play/cast both exiled cards. Which means that when the ability resolves, you will get to play 0, 1, or 2 of the cards.

When it says *a/an* is where you just choose a single exiled card to take the action on.

607.3. If, within a pair of linked abilities, one ability refers to a single object as "the exiled card," "a card exiled with [this card]," or a similar phrase, and the other ability has exiled multiple cards (usually because it was copied), the ability refers to each of the exiled cards. If that ability asks for any information about the exiled card, such as a characteristic or mana value, it gets multiple answers. If these answers are used to determine the value of a variable, the sum of the answers is used. If that ability performs any actions on "the" card, it performs that action on each exiled card. If that ability performs any actions on "a" card, the controller of the ability chooses which card is affected.

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