So, after some back and forth on Discord, I'd like to ask all of your opinion on manifesting a permanent card on the battlefield.
I was told that CR 108.2 and 108.4 allow for the wording "Target nontoken creature's controller manifests it." That is, the ability targets the creature, and whoever controls that creature flips it face down, and can bring it back for its mana cost.
Is this correct?
Manifesting a nontoken permanent
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BaconCatBug
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I am not entirely sure you even need to limit it to nontokens. Nothing prevents tokens from being face down after all. I suppose the main issue would simply be it might not have a mana cost to turn itself back up so excluding tokens may be prudent.
And there is a pretty small leap from manifesting a card in another zone to just manifesting a permanent. That is, it probably wouldn't take much of a change to the current rules for Manifest. The main issue is more that Manifest has a built in wording for "put that permanent onto the battlefield face down" which doesn't work if it is already on the field but, again, probably easily solved for.
If you did want to make things more clear, or more in line with the current rules, you could either say "Turn target permanent face down. It becomes manifested". Or "exiled target nontoken permanent and its owner manifests it". The latter would be limited to nontokens since they can't return after being exiled and referencing the owner just makes it clear since cards in exile don't have controllers.
But, if all you are trying to do is just turn a permanent face down and have it be manifested, your wording above seems fine (with an appropriate addendum in the rules to say that manifesting a card already on the field just results in it being turned face down and becoming manifested).
And there is a pretty small leap from manifesting a card in another zone to just manifesting a permanent. That is, it probably wouldn't take much of a change to the current rules for Manifest. The main issue is more that Manifest has a built in wording for "put that permanent onto the battlefield face down" which doesn't work if it is already on the field but, again, probably easily solved for.
If you did want to make things more clear, or more in line with the current rules, you could either say "Turn target permanent face down. It becomes manifested". Or "exiled target nontoken permanent and its owner manifests it". The latter would be limited to nontokens since they can't return after being exiled and referencing the owner just makes it clear since cards in exile don't have controllers.
But, if all you are trying to do is just turn a permanent face down and have it be manifested, your wording above seems fine (with an appropriate addendum in the rules to say that manifesting a card already on the field just results in it being turned face down and becoming manifested).
