Judge's Den: Sixth Layer

Welcome back to Wizardden.com's Judge's Den series on layers. Today we are covering the sixth layer that adds and removes abilities. I would consider this the least confusing layer with one rare circumstance that can throw people off. All the previous articles on layers are linked below. Lets dive into the sixth circle of layers.

There are seven layers in total, each with it's own article link here:

Copy Layer

Control Layer

Text Layer

Type Layer

Color Layer

Ability Layer

Power/ Toughness Layer

Abilities are any nonitalicized text in a card's text box. There are many effects that add or remove abilities from a card. Most of these effects that see play can be redundant. Such as gaining multiple instances of first strike or vigilance. Even though the creature does indeed have multiple instances of the abilities, it will have no additional effect beyond the first. Some abilities will stack however, such as exalted or bloodthirst. Text based abilities such as "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card." will also stack. In most cases this layer is pretty simple to work with.

Where the ability layer gets confusing is when you start taking away abilities. The archetype cycle from Born of the Gods all take away an ability from your opponent's creatures. Fortunately these all have the added text of not allowing your opponent to gain the ability either, which is not always the case. In most situations creatures can both gain or lose abilities many times over. When this starts happening we need to refer to our old friend the time stamp. Time stamps are the order of which effects of the same type applied. So whatever happened last takes effect. When that ceases, whatever effect is still active and has the newest time stamp will take over.

It's great to be back to our regular Judge's Den articles. I have many more ideas waiting to be published in the coming months. Thank you all for reading, this has been Ariel with Wizardden.com.