Tawnos, Urzas Lehrling

13/07/2018

Activated abilities contain a colon. They’re generally written “[Cost]: [Effect].” Some keyword abilities (such as equip) are activated abilities and will have colons in their reminder text. An activated mana ability is one that produces mana as it resolves, not one that costs mana to activate.

13/07/2018

Any choices made when the ability resolves won’t have been made yet when it’s copied. Any such choices will be made separately when the copy resolves. If a triggered ability asks you to pay a cost (such as that of Mirrorworks), you pay that cost for the copy separately.

13/07/2018

If the ability divides damage or distributes counters among a number of targets (for example, the ability of Verdurous Gearhulk), the division and number of targets can’t be changed. If you choose new targets, you must choose the same number of targets.

13/07/2018

In some cases involving linked abilities, an ability requires information about “the exiled card.” When this happens, the ability gets multiple answers. If these answers are being used to determine the value of a variable, the sum is used. For example, if Soul Foundry’s enters-the-battlefield ability is copied, two cards are exiled. The value of X in the activation cost of Soul Foundry’s other ability is the sum of the two cards’ converted mana costs. As the ability resolves, you create a token copy of each card.

13/07/2018

Tawnos’s ability targets an ability that is on the stack and creates another instance of that ability on the stack. It doesn’t cause any object to gain an ability.

13/07/2018

The source of the copy is the same as the source of the original ability.