Re: Duplicant

Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Duplicant - This card was created during development. A number of
>players on the Internet have wished that it could copy the entire
>creature instead of just the power, toughness, and creature type.
>Well, the card used to do exactly that. This was what the development
>team had in mind when they created it. But the rules couldn't support
>the mechanic (go look up the ruling on Vesuvan Doppelganger if you
>want to see why) so the change was made very late in development.
>
>Why couldn't they make it a regular copy effect?

a), it could NOT be made a continuous copy effect. We had just ended several
years of agony in dealing with the only existing one, Volrath's Shapeshifter,
by FINALLY making it not one. And b), it's very hard to word it as something
that just reads in the abilities of the card on resolution _without_ then
applying a continuous effect making it a copy of the card, see a). Plus
which, c) this can't actually happen, due to lack of existing such cards,
but if there were an Imprint card that removed two creature cards, like
Spellweaver Helix does for sorceries, and your Doppelganger came into play
as one, then later changed itself to a Duplicant ... what do you do?

And d) it was decided by Higher Levels that just copying those three
qualities had little or no chance of the confusion levels that could arise
if it copied all the creature's abilities. [Hmm, I don't remember if
Phyrexian Dreadnaught played a part in this decision, but if it didn't,
it probably ought to have.] For example, what happens, quick without looking,
if it copies abilities and you imprint a Clone on it? or a Spike Weaver?
(Answer: what players _think_ intuitively ought to happen is _not_ what
actually happens.)

Dave
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