My lowest TCGPlayer market price is currently $1.99 for my Fifth Dawn printing. Psst. With something like Karn, Silver Golem or Karn, the Great Creator, you can saw me in half!
Saw in Half an Ascendant will be two 6/6, not 8/8. Basic on rule 706.2. When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s characteristics and, for an object on the stack, choices made when casting or activating it (mode, targets, the value of X, whether it was kicked, how it will affect multiple targets, and so on). The “copiable values” are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name, mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned face up” abilities that set characteristics, and by abilities that caused the object to be face down. Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.
While that would be true when you normally copy a creature, Saw in Half specifically says "..except their base power is half that creature's power..". You are creating a modified copy, whose base power is equal to half the destroyed creature's current power. Now, the card has not been released yet, so the exact rulings are still pending, but I am pretty sure this card will look back in time and check for the power the creature had when it was still on the battlefield.
I like the hilarity of saw in half on Wurmcoil engine since the flavor breaks down in spectacular fashion, or using it on creatures with Fleshbag maurauder-style effects or such. I think you definitely run this in Sidisi Undead Vizier for the double tutor.
This seems disgusting with Elenda. Wait til you have a bunch of counters on her, saw her in half, get a bunch a vampires, the copies have half whatever her power was at the time, sac one to legend rule, get more vampires, and now you have an Elenda copy with higher base power which will accrue more counters then die for even more vampires!
I ran Gary in my Araumi deck, getting 3 copies just ended games so I ended up taking him out. It was fun the first time, after the 2nd I had enough of him!
The saw in half and dualcaster is extra spicy compared to the normal dualcaster combo, because you get 2 dualcaster ETBS for every saw. So you ALSO get infinite copy target spell. Any spell. An opponent plays any spell and you can copy it infinitely in response.
Wurmcoil Engine you get 4 3/3 Creatures two which can make two more each. Or how about Modular Cards. Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang's Token get 2 3/3 blue Dragon Spirits with the sword ready to equip one of them
@manubrex he did not say any thing about battle cruiser. Albino is the one that assume that is what he said and you follow what he said is that for him card that go infinit to easy or that are counter it or I win are no fun for him. I also dont like it but some people love it and it okey just not for me p.s. there are cEDH that dont interact they just want to combo turn one or two those are I play alone and I want you to watch
You forgot about the part where, you can choose to copy Saw in Half ONCE, and literally any other spell on the stack with your second Dualcaster Mage... Infinitely. Player damage into lethal, tutor into "draw your whole deck", targeted removal into one-sided board wipe etc.
@@InquisitorSinCross Nope. The copies aren't CAST, just put on the stack. I know it's confusing, but some copy spell effects DO say you CAST the copies, but most do not. It's a very important distinction. Dualcaster Mage doesn't work with storm, sorry to burst your bubble.
Saw in Half works incredibly well with Athreos, Shroud-Veiled. Put a coin counter on a good creature you control. Then Saw {it} in Half. The coin puts that creature back into play, plus the two copies!
It’s going to be great for my Tergrid deck. Most of my creatures have an edict etb and it can help me keep tergrid on board. Basically every creature in my deck either benefits from the cloning effect or could benefit from the spot removal protection. Plus if you combine this with Nightmare Shepard you can get three copies.
They need to change the wording for Saw in Half IMO. Simply change it from "round up" to "round down". This will obviously make this card weaker, but still strong and avoid the long list of combos that make your opponents groan.
There is no mention of the mechanic "Storm". For instance, after all the copies have been played that you want, cast a "Brain Freeze" to mill your opponents to death. No need for creature effects.
In Golfari and someone Teferi's Protection's away from your craterhoof? On your next turn, show them the power of flexseal by sawing your craterhoof in half! Disclaimer: do not actually saw your Craterhoof card in half unless you are able to spare the money to.
Great video, just as usual :) One mistake though around 7:50 Grey Merchant sawed into half does not raise your devotion from 8 to 10. And I didn't get how I would get 3 copys of an opponents creature with Marchesa (11:38).
The tokens come into play as identical copies of the original card with halved power/toughness. Devotion on the first trigger was 8. Saw Gary, which reduced it to 6. Then the tokens enter, each adding two black to devotion. 10.
Hang on a sec here: rules issue at 6:16. Your Serra Ascendant/equipped creatures will have their printed P/T halved(Layer 7b), then applicable bonuses applied (layer 7c). This means the Serra copies will still be 1/1's (half of 1, rounded up) that get +5/+5 if your life is 30+. Edit: Was talking over the card with someone (else) and he pointed out that one place says base P/T & the other omits "base". Not sure how I missed that, but on that alone I see my mistake. The following convo was enjoyable and challenging though (until I went out of bounds, sorry about that.)
The original creature doesn't have it's P/T halved, though. The tokens are new objects with *base* P/T of half what the creature's *current* P/T was when it died. The only thing that happens to the orignal creature is that it dies - its printed P/T never even gets looked at.
@@TriangleChloros The reason the original P/T is halved on the copies and no bonus is applied is that copy effects are Layer 1 meaning the original card is copied exactly as printed (two times) prior to anything else being applied. Later, in Layer 7, the P/T setting and the bonuses which affect the OG would be applied to their respective target(s). Since the card's effect only copies the creature and not the bonuses, they will only be applied to the original (if it didn't die/change zones in the mean time.) For a quick 44 minute explain then test on Layers you could check out: ua-cam.com/video/4aGpAqFtNJA/v-deo.html
@@dwpetrak It's not copied as printed, though. It's perfectly possible for an effect to only *partly* copy a card. In this case, the power/toughness is an exception to the normal copying process, just like with Quicksilver Gargantuan. That's why it says 'except' on the card. (Also, even if it was worded differently, it would start as a 1/1 in layer 1, the set to half the last known p/t of the destroyed creature in layer 7b (which is 6/6, so it would set to 3/3), and the bonus would be applied on top of that in layer 7c. Which has the same result.)
@@TriangleChloros What you are saying is logical, but it doesn't follow MTG rules. You always copy as printed first, you are talking about a replacement effect and those are handled based on the layer that applies to them. Watch the video and thank me later. (Or not, whatev.)
@@dwpetrak 707.9c Some copy effects specifically state that they don’t copy certain characteristics and the affected objects instead retain their original values. Copy effects may also simply state that certain characteristics are not copied. No, you don't.
If you saw Reyhan, Last of the Abzan in half, you make two of her. One dies to the legend rule immediately, and both of them see it so you get to put 6 +1/+1 counters on something. Then the original's death trigger resolves, adding another 3 counters. "I'm targeting Reyhan with a burn spell" "In response, I keep her instead as a 9/9"
With the copy combo, since you get two wizards and two copy triggers, you could also make a ton of copies of another spell. Even a shock kill everyone.
This is definitely going into my Meren deck. It runs both Gary and Kokusho already, but this can work nicely with other things like Massacre Wurm, Wurmcoil Engine, Protean Hulk, and pretty much any other ETB that you want to copy in there.
other funny combos Juri, Master of the Revue: damege effect trigers, create two tokes, one also deals dmg because legendary rule and the last one gets counters again Vastwood Hydra: because u dived the counters of the orignal its like u just made a dublicat + if one dies u can put the counters on other monsters Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager: the copies get both +3 and halb the power of the orginal, and u get two X/X black and green Hydra creature token. first one with power equal to the original Grakmaw and secound one equal to one of the copys. and the last one gets a counter for ding copy
Because Saw in Half is instant speed you can cast it with the original Grey Merchant trigger on the stack. So all 3 triggers will resolve with 2 Gary's in play and net you a little extra damage
Alesha Aristocrats would love it. Got the cards you need to combo off and Karmic Guide on the battlefield, saw it in half and go. Plenty of ETB and LTB creatures it'd synergize well with too.
How does this work with consuming aberration? It’s power and toughness are equal to the cards in all graveyards, but when it’s sawed in half, both are half the original’s power and toughness but also equal to the number of cards in graveyards? I’d assume the text trumps the power halving but I’m not sure
707.9d. When applying a copy effect that doesn't copy a certain characteristic, retains one or more original values for a certain characteristic, or provides a specific set of values for a certain characteristic, any characteristic-defining ability (see rule 604.3) of the object being copied that defines that characteristic is not copied. Consuming Aberration has a characteristic-defining ability that sets its base power and toughness (see 604.3a and the card's first Gatherer ruling), so the base P/T from the copy effect applies and the conflicting ability isn't copied.
Actually the wording on the power/toughness is interesting. Think of hitting a creature with graft here, they have say 4 counters=> token has base power 2 and enters with four counters. So 6 Power/toughnes...
Honestly, the fact that black now has access to semi-flicker is remarkable in itself, as black typically has to rely on reanimation to abuse ETBs. A few more of this effect could potentially open up whole new archetypes.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Dualcaster doesn’t say “may” so you would have to keep targeting Saw In Half creating an infinite loop, right? You would need other creatures out with relevant ETB abilities to win the game without forcing a draw or some other shenanigans. (Assuming we have a completely empty board)
I think that reef worm will do pretty well with this card so you get a 3/3 and 2 1/1 that can get pretty out of hand quickly since they still have the original ability.
So if you Saw in Half a clone like spark double that makes cpoies of legendary creatures non-legendary, do you make two copies of non-legendary creatures if the spark double copied a legendary creature? Cause that could lead to a whole different plethora of shenanigans
Grave Titan is another one. If you do it in the same turn, you're getting 6 2/2 zombies on the spot. Then when the two copies attack, you get another 4 zombies.
@@JefroDestroyer I totally Timmy'd on that one lol. Reef worm and strionic resonator combo just got another toy. Also wurmcoil would like this for pricy players
You can do a fun Magic trick With Elenda. I like to call it the Mysterious Box of Vampires. Just saw your Vampire friend in half, and watch all the vampire tokens spill out. But it doesn’t end there! One of your Elenda halves will also explode into even more vampires. To top it off, your shiny new Elenda has higher base power than the original, for an even quicker start to the next token spam.
If you're playing red, green and black landfall, try Saw in Half, Dualcaster Mage, and Oracle of Mul Daya. Alternate way to get the abilities of Fastbond, but without taking damage.
If it is a token copy of a creature, the original mana cost will factor in when calculating devotion, but its CMC in the context of when a card checks for it would consider the token 0 still. So Gary’s token copy means +2 to devotion, but a card that says destroy target creature with CMC 2 or less or what have you, would still hit it, since it is a token form of that creature.
@@Durtaz This is incorrect. If you have a token Gary it's mana value is still 5. Cruel Cut for instance cannot kill that Gary token. Only tokens that are NOT copies of things have a mana value of 0, such as Saproling tokens or Clue tokens.
I always wanted to build around Crafty Cutpurse with cards like the Hunted cycle, Fractured Identity, Haunted Angel, and Alliance of Arms. Saw in Half seems like another card that seems good with Crafty Cutpurse. Maybe one day I'll find a commander that works well with it.
Have you tried Toxrill? He already likes to create tokens for other players, so his slime counters can kill them and create slugs for yourself. Crafty Cutpurse could be good redundancy to utilize those tokens when Toxrill isn't available. Throw in things like Genesis Chamber, Infernal Genesis, Tombstone Stairwell, Hunted Phantasm/Hunted Horror, Slaughter Specialist, and Clackbridge Troll. Where Crafty Cutpurse only works on ETB, maybe put in some clone or blink effects that can also benefit your other ETB creatures.
Yesterday played Tazri I only upgraded with a sol ring and arcane signet, wanted to keep the deck very budget, my buddies were both going off with Aesi, and Kalia. Maybe you know but I ended up going infinite with the deck lol, for a budget deck you make some fun builds 🙌💯 definitely recommend trying some of Mitch's crazy ideas!
Probably just because I play him, but I immediately thought Chatterfang. Make one Squirrel into 4. Doesn't seem super powerful, but hey, it would work.
ok so there needs to be an errata in the video with the serra ascendant and anything that comes in with counters or anything like that.... it specifically states *ahem* "destroy target creature. if that creature dies this way, its controller creates 2 tokens that are copies of THAT creature, except their BASE power/toughness are cut in half. Round up each time." (sorry for shorthand on the power/toughness part just makes sense to do it that way tbh) serra ascendants base p/t is 1/1 it will come back as a 1/1 then if you are 30 or more life it will gain +5/+5... they wont come in as 8/8s because it is a secondary effect that are giving them the +5/+5... would be nice to break that card absolutely in half in any mardu deck for the rest of eternity, but that is not how that mechanic works unfortunately.
@Abbadon You totally butchered what the card says about base power and toughness. This card performs like a normal copy card EXCEPT that it changes how it copies power and toughness and modifies them. It says, verbatim "create two tokens that are copies of that creature, EXCEPT THEIR base power is half that creature's power and THEIR base toughness is half that creature's toughness. Round up each time. "Their base p/t" in the text refers to the tokens, NOT the original target's. So yes, they would indeed be 8/8's.
I think I'll wait to see what the CRC says on this before daydreaming too much. It's hard to see a deck this wouldn't be considered an auto-include. Wasn't that the rationale behind the ban on Lutri?
Creatures with fabricate work pretty well with it. Copy Angel of Invention (my favorite card) first putting the counters on angel then making two copies.
I would just make 6 tokens. Giving counters first just means the Angel of Inventions will be 2/2's instead of 1/1's. Since it'll be a 4/3 split in half. - I know it's the same P/T, but generally speaking you'll want the bodies more than +1/+1
Honestly, I think it would be two copies of the final result. Since for all purposes its treated as one creature. (if you bounce a mutated creature all cards go back to hand, if you exile it all cards get exiled.) The only other possible thing that could happen is that you get 2 copies of every creature that was used on the mutate (what i mean by this is: If you mutate gemraiser on a parcelbeast. then you target it with Saw in half. You might get 2 2/2 Gemraisers AND 2 1/2 parcelbeasts. Because they get separated when they go to graveyard, but both were targeted by the Saw in Half)
Could be interesting combined with volrath. Have volrath copy something, saw it, then copy again with the copies to get back to 7/5. Not even accounting for what you copy that isn't bad
Surprised you didn't mention Toshiro Umezawa as a good commander for this card! Although you wanna be sawing your own creatures, being able to cast this spell from the graveyard is always great for double value!
This is going to go great in my Chatterfang deck. Avenger of Zendikar is bad enough when Chatterfang is on the board but with this it’s just even worse.
While not commanders in themselves, I can already picture a lot of my favourite combos working well with this card. But how well depends on if it is actually their current power/toughness or if its meant to be their base power/toughness. As well as, in both instances, what that means for * and 0. Simplest one for me? Consuming Aberration in my Phenax deck. Already great because Phenax lets you tap a creature to mill equal to its toughness, which already effectively doubles the Aberration in one on one (power and toughness each equal to the number of cards in all graveyards) and still boosts in larger groups. But now Saw in Half that Aberration and... Well, lets go conservative and say there's only 10 cards in all graveyards (given mana costs for everything, that's a very slow game). You have a 10/10 you can tap to mill 10, making it a 20/20. Then Saw in Half (sadly I believe this doesn't trigger the Aberration's other effect unless used on something else) and you get 2 Aberrations. If it is by their current power/toughness, they should each be a 10+*/10+*. Obviously the Saw in Half and Aberration would bring the total cards in the graveyard to 22 (not a huge difference) making each one essentially a 32/32 right away. When you can tap them for Phenax, that then makes the first mill 32 cards and the second mill 64 cards, which is pretty well an instant mill out for one player, or makes them instant mill out for 2 players next turn. Not to mention their other effect of milling through to a land every time you cast a spell now being doubled by having 2, ramping them up pretty quickly. Or my more crazy combo, a green/black deck (not sure the commander to use though) with Corpsejack Menace and Doubling Season or Parallel Lives (both would be best, Doubling Season alone better than just Parallel Lives). Corpsejack doubles the number of +1/+1 counters an effect would give, stacking. Parallel Lives doubles the number of tokens an effect gives, also stacking. Doubling Season does both (well, any counter, not just +1/+1 counters, but still). Saw in Half anything with Doubling Season or Parallel Lives and you get 4 tokens instead. If that's Corpsejack, you now have 4 creatures that each double counters you get from an effect. Green and Black both have good ways of getting +1/+1 counters, so give something 1 counter and it doubles to 2, then again to 4, then again to 8, then again to 16. And if you have Doubling Season, it then doubles again to 32. To make this really crazy, if you add White, you can have Cathar's Crusade, which gives every creature a +1/+1 counter whenever a creature enters the battlefield, so that combo with Parallel Lives instead of Doubling Season means everything gets 16 +1/+1 counters for each creature that enters the battlefield, and just bringing out those Corpsejack tokens gives everything +64/+64 as a result. If you stack effects more, you can have Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, and Annointed Procession. Saw that Corpsejack in half and get 2 tokens, doubled by DS to 4, again by PL to 8, and again by AP to 16. Then Cathar's Crusade triggers, giving 1×2^17 +1/+1 counters to every creature for every creature that entered the battlefield, meaning 16+2^17 or more than 2 million +1/+1 counters for every creature you control. But obviously that's an extreme version of the combo, what happens if it goes perfectly, and not likely to happen ever, but also insane if you ever do pull it off. Also not budget, considering the price of Doubling Season alone. And finally, the more... Curious, theoretical one. What happens with 0? If you Saw in Half a 0/1 creature, what do you get? Because half of 0 is undefined, its infinity, so technically speaking, you'd have a creature with infinite power. Obviously the ruling would just make it so that 0s just give 0s, but its interesting that mathematically speaking, the Unfinity set would make it possible to literally get infinity as a result, and great to joke about at least.
This card is begging to go into my Juri deck just for flavor. It’s gotta be the most rakdos non rakdos card I’ve seen. I’m hoping for more like this in this set to fill out the circus aesthetic! At the very least this can sac Juri and deal an additional 1 damage to a token or something. Otherwise duplicating an aristocrat could be very cool!
I'm 50/50 on the card. Half of me wants to play it, while the other half wants me to play it.
I see what you did there... so both halves wants the first half to play it
I'm excited to play Saw in Half in response to an opponent's spot removal. Just so that I can say "ln response I shall saw my creature in half!"
This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them!
I bet they didn't saw that coming!!
You could always saw your (illegal) Toy Boat in half
That's a lotta damage!
Flavor
My lowest TCGPlayer market price is currently $1.99 for my Fifth Dawn printing.
Psst. With something like Karn, Silver Golem or Karn, the Great Creator, you can saw me in half!
Goddamn it bauble
T1 swamp, sol ring, pass.
T2 plains, cast ascendant, then saw it in half on opponents endstep to untap t3 with 2 8/8 fliers with lifelink
Saw in Half an Ascendant will be two 6/6, not 8/8.
Basic on rule 706.2. When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s
characteristics and, for an object on the stack, choices made when casting or activating it (mode,
targets, the value of X, whether it was kicked, how it will affect multiple targets, and so on). The
“copiable values” are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name,
mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, power, toughness, and/or
loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned
face up” abilities that set characteristics, and by abilities that caused the object to be face down.
Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not
copied.
While that would be true when you normally copy a creature, Saw in Half specifically says "..except their base power is half that creature's power..". You are creating a modified copy, whose base power is equal to half the destroyed creature's current power.
Now, the card has not been released yet, so the exact rulings are still pending, but I am pretty sure this card will look back in time and check for the power the creature had when it was still on the battlefield.
I like the hilarity of saw in half on Wurmcoil engine since the flavor breaks down in spectacular fashion, or using it on creatures with Fleshbag maurauder-style effects or such.
I think you definitely run this in Sidisi Undead Vizier for the double tutor.
This seems disgusting with Elenda. Wait til you have a bunch of counters on her, saw her in half, get a bunch a vampires, the copies have half whatever her power was at the time, sac one to legend rule, get more vampires, and now you have an Elenda copy with higher base power which will accrue more counters then die for even more vampires!
That's soo good 😳. Putting it in rn
You speaking my language 😂. Already planing to get one for her 😂
As a devoted Gisa & Geralf fan who's had a lot of fun with Cleaver Skaab + Gary, I can vouch for the joy of doubling him. Lol.
I ran Gary in my Araumi deck, getting 3 copies just ended games so I ended up taking him out. It was fun the first time, after the 2nd I had enough of him!
The saw in half and dualcaster is extra spicy compared to the normal dualcaster combo, because you get 2 dualcaster ETBS for every saw. So you ALSO get infinite copy target spell. Any spell. An opponent plays any spell and you can copy it infinitely in response.
Wurmcoil Engine you get 4 3/3 Creatures two which can make two more each. Or how about Modular Cards. Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang's Token get 2 3/3 blue Dragon Spirits with the sword ready to equip one of them
I think maybe half of the “broken” cards wizards has printed in the last few sets are actually good
@@Dragon_Fyre strategic and interactive being battle cruiser? Dont need to dunk on different play types
@manubrex he did not say any thing about battle cruiser. Albino is the one that assume that is what he said and you follow
what he said is that for him card that go infinit to easy or that are counter it or I win are no fun for him. I also dont like it but some people love it and it okey just not for me
p.s. there are cEDH that dont interact they just want to combo turn one or two those are I play alone and I want you to watch
Wizards secretly teaming with UA-camrs to create cards good for clickbait
Did you say "half"? 😏
You forgot about the part where, you can choose to copy Saw in Half ONCE, and literally any other spell on the stack with your second Dualcaster Mage... Infinitely.
Player damage into lethal, tutor into "draw your whole deck", targeted removal into one-sided board wipe etc.
Dualcaster Mage + Saw in half + Grapeshot = 1 turn kill
@@InquisitorSinCross Nope. The copies aren't CAST, just put on the stack.
I know it's confusing, but some copy spell effects DO say you CAST the copies, but most do not. It's a very important distinction. Dualcaster Mage doesn't work with storm, sorry to burst your bubble.
If you can pull this off with Orvar, you get a mega Gold Star
Easy, run him in the 98 under Sakashima and Nadier
Saw in Half works incredibly well with Athreos, Shroud-Veiled. Put a coin counter on a good creature you control. Then Saw {it} in Half. The coin puts that creature back into play, plus the two copies!
It’s going to be great for my Tergrid deck. Most of my creatures have an edict etb and it can help me keep tergrid on board. Basically every creature in my deck either benefits from the cloning effect or could benefit from the spot removal protection. Plus if you combine this with Nightmare Shepard you can get three copies.
Yarok is gonna want to play this card also for the ETB triggers as well.
They need to change the wording for Saw in Half IMO. Simply change it from "round up" to "round down". This will obviously make this card weaker, but still strong and avoid the long list of combos that make your opponents groan.
you mean create all new ways of breaking saw in half? generating 0/0s is probably even easier to break in unique and interesting ways
@@CGray-pq2zm Yeah, getting both ETB and dies triggers would make it stronger.
There is no mention of the mechanic "Storm". For instance, after all the copies have been played that you want, cast a "Brain Freeze" to mill your opponents to death. No need for creature effects.
Unfortunately no. The copies are not cast therefore they don't add to the storm count
Do I have to start running Crafty Cutpurse now?
In Golfari and someone Teferi's Protection's away from your craterhoof? On your next turn, show them the power of flexseal by sawing your craterhoof in half!
Disclaimer: do not actually saw your Craterhoof card in half unless you are able to spare the money to.
Great video, just as usual :) One mistake though around 7:50 Grey Merchant sawed into half does not raise your devotion from 8 to 10. And I didn't get how I would get 3 copys of an opponents creature with Marchesa (11:38).
The tokens come into play as identical copies of the original card with halved power/toughness. Devotion on the first trigger was 8. Saw Gary, which reduced it to 6. Then the tokens enter, each adding two black to devotion. 10.
@@dawnfallon6812 afaik tokens have not CMC or mana value, thus no colored mana, meaning no addition to devotion.
Hang on a sec here: rules issue at 6:16.
Your Serra Ascendant/equipped creatures will have their printed P/T halved(Layer 7b), then applicable bonuses applied (layer 7c). This means the Serra copies will still be 1/1's (half of 1, rounded up) that get +5/+5 if your life is 30+.
Edit: Was talking over the card with someone (else) and he pointed out that one place says base P/T & the other omits "base". Not sure how I missed that, but on that alone I see my mistake. The following convo was enjoyable and challenging though (until I went out of bounds, sorry about that.)
The original creature doesn't have it's P/T halved, though. The tokens are new objects with *base* P/T of half what the creature's *current* P/T was when it died. The only thing that happens to the orignal creature is that it dies - its printed P/T never even gets looked at.
@@TriangleChloros
The reason the original P/T is halved on the copies and no bonus is applied is that copy effects are Layer 1 meaning the original card is copied exactly as printed (two times) prior to anything else being applied. Later, in Layer 7, the P/T setting and the bonuses which affect the OG would be applied to their respective target(s). Since the card's effect only copies the creature and not the bonuses, they will only be applied to the original (if it didn't die/change zones in the mean time.)
For a quick 44 minute explain then test on Layers you could check out: ua-cam.com/video/4aGpAqFtNJA/v-deo.html
@@dwpetrak It's not copied as printed, though. It's perfectly possible for an effect to only *partly* copy a card. In this case, the power/toughness is an exception to the normal copying process, just like with Quicksilver Gargantuan. That's why it says 'except' on the card.
(Also, even if it was worded differently, it would start as a 1/1 in layer 1, the set to half the last known p/t of the destroyed creature in layer 7b (which is 6/6, so it would set to 3/3), and the bonus would be applied on top of that in layer 7c. Which has the same result.)
@@TriangleChloros What you are saying is logical, but it doesn't follow MTG rules. You always copy as printed first, you are talking about a replacement effect and those are handled based on the layer that applies to them.
Watch the video and thank me later. (Or not, whatev.)
@@dwpetrak 707.9c Some copy effects specifically state that they don’t copy certain characteristics and the affected objects instead retain their original values. Copy effects may also simply state that certain characteristics are not copied.
No, you don't.
So you're saying grixis staple?
Saw in half will definitely going in my prosper deck since I already play the dual caster mage combo in it
If you saw Reyhan, Last of the Abzan in half, you make two of her. One dies to the legend rule immediately, and both of them see it so you get to put 6 +1/+1 counters on something. Then the original's death trigger resolves, adding another 3 counters.
"I'm targeting Reyhan with a burn spell"
"In response, I keep her instead as a 9/9"
With the copy combo, since you get two wizards and two copy triggers, you could also make a ton of copies of another spell. Even a shock kill everyone.
Can't wait to have a second Clever Skaab in my Nevinyrral deck!
Ok, so Elenda, the Dusk Rose and Iname as One would deffinetely love this
This is definitely going into my Meren deck. It runs both Gary and Kokusho already, but this can work nicely with other things like Massacre Wurm, Wurmcoil Engine, Protean Hulk, and pretty much any other ETB that you want to copy in there.
other funny combos
Juri, Master of the Revue: damege effect trigers, create two tokes, one also deals dmg because legendary rule and the last one gets counters again
Vastwood Hydra: because u dived the counters of the orignal its like u just made a dublicat + if one dies u can put the counters on other monsters
Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager: the copies get both +3 and halb the power of the orginal, and u get two X/X black and green Hydra creature token. first one with power equal to the original Grakmaw and secound one equal to one of the copys. and the last one gets a counter for ding copy
I want one for Tazri. Plus, you can target Zada with it, which targets all your creatures.
Because Saw in Half is instant speed you can cast it with the original Grey Merchant trigger on the stack. So all 3 triggers will resolve with 2 Gary's in play and net you a little extra damage
The thought of someone sawing a serra avatar in half is absolutely terrifying.
Saw in half Is insane.
Sharuum, rot Hulk, Bladewing the Risen AND Dual Caster Mage are only the beggining
Playing a heavy mill card like cut your losses then sawing dualcaster mage and puppeteer clique in half is gonna be a lot of fun
Alesha Aristocrats would love it. Got the cards you need to combo off and Karmic Guide on the battlefield, saw it in half and go. Plenty of ETB and LTB creatures it'd synergize well with too.
How does this work with consuming aberration? It’s power and toughness are equal to the cards in all graveyards, but when it’s sawed in half, both are half the original’s power and toughness but also equal to the number of cards in graveyards? I’d assume the text trumps the power halving but I’m not sure
707.9d. When applying a copy effect that doesn't copy a certain characteristic, retains one or more original values for a certain characteristic, or provides a specific set of values for a certain characteristic, any characteristic-defining ability (see rule 604.3) of the object being copied that defines that characteristic is not copied.
Consuming Aberration has a characteristic-defining ability that sets its base power and toughness (see 604.3a and the card's first Gatherer ruling), so the base P/T from the copy effect applies and the conflicting ability isn't copied.
With Teysa Karlov on the battlefield, will i get 4 tokens, as "Saw in Half" seems to be a death trigger? ("if this creature dies this way...")
Actually the wording on the power/toughness is interesting. Think of hitting a creature with graft here, they have say 4 counters=> token has base power 2 and enters with four counters. So 6 Power/toughnes...
Honestly, the fact that black now has access to semi-flicker is remarkable in itself, as black typically has to rely on reanimation to abuse ETBs. A few more of this effect could potentially open up whole new archetypes.
My Wilhelt zombie tribal deck is gonna love this. It already focuses on graveyard synergies, death triggers and tokens. 100% gonna add this!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Dualcaster doesn’t say “may” so you would have to keep targeting Saw In Half creating an infinite loop, right? You would need other creatures out with relevant ETB abilities to win the game without forcing a draw or some other shenanigans. (Assuming we have a completely empty board)
If an empty board yes, that's why he said you need to have another creature being targetted with first saw.
If I have that card that ignores legend rule, and saw my commander in half. Does each commander give commander DMG or since they are tokens no?
Super excited about this card, first cards I thought of to use with it is massacre wurm and tree of perdition.
I think that reef worm will do pretty well with this card so you get a 3/3 and 2 1/1 that can get pretty out of hand quickly since they still have the original ability.
So if you Saw in Half a clone like spark double that makes cpoies of legendary creatures non-legendary, do you make two copies of non-legendary creatures if the spark double copied a legendary creature? Cause that could lead to a whole different plethora of shenanigans
Would go great with the commander Runo Stromkirk/Krothus Lord of the Deep. Would love to see a land destruction deck :)
Can wait to cast this on my Dockside to make all the treasures!!!
Yarok just got a new toy too. MOAR TRIGGERS!
Doesn’t it say “base power” though so even if it gets +1/+1 counters that doesn’t change the base powers
7:56 wouldnt your devotion to black be reduce by 2 because tokens dont have a mana cost?
Copies do retain the mana cost.
@@Siegorius oh I had no idea, thanks for the correction
Grave Titan is another one. If you do it in the same turn, you're getting 6 2/2 zombies on the spot. Then when the two copies attack, you get another 4 zombies.
Yeah but then you have to play with Grave Titan
@@JefroDestroyer I totally Timmy'd on that one lol. Reef worm and strionic resonator combo just got another toy. Also wurmcoil would like this for pricy players
You can do a fun Magic trick With Elenda. I like to call it the Mysterious Box of Vampires.
Just saw your Vampire friend in half, and watch all the vampire tokens spill out. But it doesn’t end there! One of your Elenda halves will also explode into even more vampires. To top it off, your shiny new Elenda has higher base power than the original, for an even quicker start to the next token spam.
the second copy also gets a +1/+1 counter because of the other is a token
If you're playing red, green and black landfall, try Saw in Half, Dualcaster Mage, and Oracle of Mul Daya. Alternate way to get the abilities of Fastbond, but without taking damage.
It has always been my understanding that tokens do not represent devotion. Have I been incorrect this whole time?
If it is a token copy of a creature, the original mana cost will factor in when calculating devotion, but its CMC in the context of when a card checks for it would consider the token 0 still. So Gary’s token copy means +2 to devotion, but a card that says destroy target creature with CMC 2 or less or what have you, would still hit it, since it is a token form of that creature.
@@Durtaz thanks for the input!
@@Durtaz This is incorrect. If you have a token Gary it's mana value is still 5. Cruel Cut for instance cannot kill that Gary token. Only tokens that are NOT copies of things have a mana value of 0, such as Saproling tokens or Clue tokens.
@@tonysmith9905 coming in with the save! I really appreciate the correction!
How does this interact with worldgorger dragon
this make me feel like Thor Ragnarok movie with all this art work
I always wanted to build around Crafty Cutpurse with cards like the Hunted cycle, Fractured Identity, Haunted Angel, and Alliance of Arms. Saw in Half seems like another card that seems good with Crafty Cutpurse. Maybe one day I'll find a commander that works well with it.
Have you tried Toxrill? He already likes to create tokens for other players, so his slime counters can kill them and create slugs for yourself. Crafty Cutpurse could be good redundancy to utilize those tokens when Toxrill isn't available. Throw in things like Genesis Chamber, Infernal Genesis, Tombstone Stairwell, Hunted Phantasm/Hunted Horror, Slaughter Specialist, and Clackbridge Troll. Where Crafty Cutpurse only works on ETB, maybe put in some clone or blink effects that can also benefit your other ETB creatures.
[...] but then you saw Gary in half..... this sounds more like a real murder instruction than a magic interaction xD
Throw it in your deck tech for Inalla ritualist archmage. Pretty sure it can go infinite in some janky ways with graveyard play and untap lands drake.
Yesterday played Tazri I only upgraded with a sol ring and arcane signet, wanted to keep the deck very budget, my buddies were both going off with Aesi, and Kalia. Maybe you know but I ended up going infinite with the deck lol, for a budget deck you make some fun builds 🙌💯 definitely recommend trying some of Mitch's crazy ideas!
What would happen if you cast saw in half on world gorger dragon?
Pair this with sakashima in say a vial smasher/sakashima deck….😏
Same idea
Yeah, Sakashima + Rakdos colors sounds great. Sakashima, Saw and Dualcaster in the same deck.
@@DerrickJolicoeur i have this deck already, though not sure if I would add dual caster, like not completely against it but not for it either
Infinite turn combo here.
Saw in Half + Dualcaster Mage + Coretapper + magistrate's Scepter.
Probably just because I play him, but I immediately thought Chatterfang. Make one Squirrel into 4. Doesn't seem super powerful, but hey, it would work.
I wish this was coming to Arena, Syr Konrad would love to do a few magic tricks in Brawl.
ok so there needs to be an errata in the video with the serra ascendant and anything that comes in with counters or anything like that.... it specifically states *ahem* "destroy target creature. if that creature dies this way, its controller creates 2 tokens that are copies of THAT creature, except their BASE power/toughness are cut in half. Round up each time." (sorry for shorthand on the power/toughness part just makes sense to do it that way tbh) serra ascendants base p/t is 1/1 it will come back as a 1/1 then if you are 30 or more life it will gain +5/+5... they wont come in as 8/8s because it is a secondary effect that are giving them the +5/+5... would be nice to break that card absolutely in half in any mardu deck for the rest of eternity, but that is not how that mechanic works unfortunately.
The word base is not on the second clause. It sets the base power/toughness of the token it doesn’t care about the base of the source.
@Abbadon
You totally butchered what the card says about base power and toughness.
This card performs like a normal copy card EXCEPT that it changes how it copies power and toughness and modifies them. It says, verbatim "create two tokens that are copies of that creature, EXCEPT THEIR base power is half that creature's power and THEIR base toughness is half that creature's toughness. Round up each time.
"Their base p/t" in the text refers to the tokens, NOT the original target's. So yes, they would indeed be 8/8's.
What about wurmcoil engine
My araumi deck with sepulchral primordial will love this
Well, there's plenty of boat vehicles. So, now all WotC has to print is a Flex Tape secret lair crossover.
The flex tape jokes... the call to me. Now I need a card with a boat in its art
Ghost Ship?
To show you the power of Dimir, I sawed this Omenkeel in half! Now that's a lot of damage!
I think I'll wait to see what the CRC says on this before daydreaming too much. It's hard to see a deck this wouldn't be considered an auto-include. Wasn't that the rationale behind the ban on Lutri?
Yarok, the desecrated and any etb is now x4
I think this could be fun with something like Enduring Renewal as well
The Dualcaster combo with slivers...yeahhhh
i don't think massacre girl would work with saw in half. the copies will affect each other. or does the legend rule apply before etb's?
Legend rule is a state-based action, so it happens before any triggers and can’t be responded to
The ETB's still trigger before the legend rule though so the etb's from the other massacre copies would still kill whichever you keep right?
@@joelucas4263 yes the massacre girl you decide to keep will get killed by the triggers form the other massacre girls yeah
First card i thought about to saw in half was Grakmaw.
Sawing an ashen rider seams broken exile 3 permanents plus 2 if you have a sac outlet say goodbye to your friends boardstates
Creatures with fabricate work pretty well with it. Copy Angel of Invention (my favorite card) first putting the counters on angel then making two copies.
I would just make 6 tokens. Giving counters first just means the Angel of Inventions will be 2/2's instead of 1/1's.
Since it'll be a 4/3 split in half. - I know it's the same P/T, but generally speaking you'll want the bodies more than +1/+1
Saw in Half Knight Exemplar and now you have 2 2/2s that give each other indestructible.
hard to saw those in half
How would this work with a mutated creature? I assume it would just make two copies of the final result, but just want to confirm.
Honestly, I think it would be two copies of the final result. Since for all purposes its treated as one creature. (if you bounce a mutated creature all cards go back to hand, if you exile it all cards get exiled.) The only other possible thing that could happen is that you get 2 copies of every creature that was used on the mutate (what i mean by this is: If you mutate gemraiser on a parcelbeast. then you target it with Saw in half. You might get 2 2/2 Gemraisers AND 2 1/2 parcelbeasts. Because they get separated when they go to graveyard, but both were targeted by the Saw in Half)
Saw in half is 100% going in my Araumi of the Dread Tide deck.
Could be interesting combined with volrath. Have volrath copy something, saw it, then copy again with the copies to get back to 7/5. Not even accounting for what you copy that isn't bad
Surprised you didn't mention Toshiro Umezawa as a good commander for this card! Although you wanna be sawing your own creatures, being able to cast this spell from the graveyard is always great for double value!
This is going to go great in my Chatterfang deck. Avenger of Zendikar is bad enough when Chatterfang is on the board but with this it’s just even worse.
this definitely goes in my teysa karlov deck
Great job Rakdos for turning some silly spectacle into a massacre.
I also didn't realize that token COPIES also copy the mana value
This card looks great for my Athreos, Shroud Veiled Deck...
Juri, Master of the Revue and if you use dualcaster mage infinite damage
saw in half on a Worldspine/wurmcoil?
My Yarok commander deck cant wait for saw in half, basically another "dance of the many" in that deck.
Saw in Half feels like it was created specifically for my Gyruda copy/reanimator deck
While not commanders in themselves, I can already picture a lot of my favourite combos working well with this card. But how well depends on if it is actually their current power/toughness or if its meant to be their base power/toughness. As well as, in both instances, what that means for * and 0.
Simplest one for me? Consuming Aberration in my Phenax deck. Already great because Phenax lets you tap a creature to mill equal to its toughness, which already effectively doubles the Aberration in one on one (power and toughness each equal to the number of cards in all graveyards) and still boosts in larger groups. But now Saw in Half that Aberration and... Well, lets go conservative and say there's only 10 cards in all graveyards (given mana costs for everything, that's a very slow game). You have a 10/10 you can tap to mill 10, making it a 20/20. Then Saw in Half (sadly I believe this doesn't trigger the Aberration's other effect unless used on something else) and you get 2 Aberrations. If it is by their current power/toughness, they should each be a 10+*/10+*. Obviously the Saw in Half and Aberration would bring the total cards in the graveyard to 22 (not a huge difference) making each one essentially a 32/32 right away. When you can tap them for Phenax, that then makes the first mill 32 cards and the second mill 64 cards, which is pretty well an instant mill out for one player, or makes them instant mill out for 2 players next turn. Not to mention their other effect of milling through to a land every time you cast a spell now being doubled by having 2, ramping them up pretty quickly.
Or my more crazy combo, a green/black deck (not sure the commander to use though) with Corpsejack Menace and Doubling Season or Parallel Lives (both would be best, Doubling Season alone better than just Parallel Lives). Corpsejack doubles the number of +1/+1 counters an effect would give, stacking. Parallel Lives doubles the number of tokens an effect gives, also stacking. Doubling Season does both (well, any counter, not just +1/+1 counters, but still). Saw in Half anything with Doubling Season or Parallel Lives and you get 4 tokens instead. If that's Corpsejack, you now have 4 creatures that each double counters you get from an effect. Green and Black both have good ways of getting +1/+1 counters, so give something 1 counter and it doubles to 2, then again to 4, then again to 8, then again to 16. And if you have Doubling Season, it then doubles again to 32. To make this really crazy, if you add White, you can have Cathar's Crusade, which gives every creature a +1/+1 counter whenever a creature enters the battlefield, so that combo with Parallel Lives instead of Doubling Season means everything gets 16 +1/+1 counters for each creature that enters the battlefield, and just bringing out those Corpsejack tokens gives everything +64/+64 as a result. If you stack effects more, you can have Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, and Annointed Procession. Saw that Corpsejack in half and get 2 tokens, doubled by DS to 4, again by PL to 8, and again by AP to 16. Then Cathar's Crusade triggers, giving 1×2^17 +1/+1 counters to every creature for every creature that entered the battlefield, meaning 16+2^17 or more than 2 million +1/+1 counters for every creature you control. But obviously that's an extreme version of the combo, what happens if it goes perfectly, and not likely to happen ever, but also insane if you ever do pull it off. Also not budget, considering the price of Doubling Season alone.
And finally, the more... Curious, theoretical one. What happens with 0? If you Saw in Half a 0/1 creature, what do you get? Because half of 0 is undefined, its infinity, so technically speaking, you'd have a creature with infinite power. Obviously the ruling would just make it so that 0s just give 0s, but its interesting that mathematically speaking, the Unfinity set would make it possible to literally get infinity as a result, and great to joke about at least.
Wut? "Half of zero" doesn't divide by zero; it just gives you 0/2 = 0.
Use hero’s bane. Pump the hydra even a little, saw it in half, boom, two hydras that can double in size
This card is begging to go into my Juri deck just for flavor. It’s gotta be the most rakdos non rakdos card I’ve seen. I’m hoping for more like this in this set to fill out the circus aesthetic! At the very least this can sac Juri and deal an additional 1 damage to a token or something. Otherwise duplicating an aristocrat could be very cool!
Is it me or does it look like ad nauseam got chain saw arms?
How would mutates react to this?
Pretty good with Piru, The Volatile
Tree of perdition or narcotic ooze with tree of perdition in the graveyard!
Hold up, tokens keep the CMC for devotion??
Right? I was confused here too
@@Sm411z I think Mitch got a bit too carried away lol. Or knows something we don't