Copying & Tokens

Copiable values, what a copy carries, and how tokens differ from cards.

The rules are CR 707 ("Copying Objects") and CR 111 ("Tokens"). Copiable values are settled in layer 1 — 613.2.

Copying is far more predictable than it looks, because it only ever cares about one thing: copiable values.

Copiable values are what layer 1 produces

Work through the layer pipeline and stop after layer 1. Whatever the object is at that point — essentially the values printed on the card, plus any copy effects already applied to it — is its copiable values. Everything else is applied in layers 2 through 7, after copiable values are settled, and is therefore not copied.

So a 2/2 with three +1/+1 counters and a +2/+2 until-end-of-turn effect, wearing an Aura, under someone else's control, copies as a plain 2/2. Counters, pumps, control changes, Auras and Equipment are all layered on top and none of them come along.

Two follow-ons:

• Copying is a snapshot, not a link. Once an object has been copied, later changes to the original's copiable values don't propagate. And if the copy effect came from a static ability, the values it grants are locked in the moment that effect first starts to apply.
• Choices aren't copied. If a permanent had an "as this enters, choose a colour" decision made for it, something entering as a copy makes that choice fresh, chosen by the copy's controller.

Becoming a copy as it enters

A permanent that enters "as a copy" of something becomes the copy as it enters — it does not enter and then transform. There is no intermediate state, nothing can be done in between, and its enters-the-battlefield triggers are the copy's triggers.

Conversely, a permanent already on the battlefield being made to copy something else doesn't cause enters- or leaves-the-battlefield abilities to trigger at all.

For a double-faced permanent, copying uses the copiable values of whichever face is currently up. A copy of a transformed permanent is a copy of the transformed side, typically with no way back — the copy isn't itself double-faced. (Tokens created as copies of double-faced cards are a documented exception and do get both faces.)

Copying spells and abilities

To copy a spell or ability is to put a copy of it onto the stack. The copy was never cast and a copied activated ability was never activated.

That single sentence answers a lot of questions:

• "Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery" does not trigger for the copy.
• The copy was never paid for, and there was no casting to respond to.
• It still resolves as a normal spell on the stack.

A copy of an ability has the same source as the original, so if the ability refers to its source by name it means that same object — not some other object with the same name.

A copy of a permanent spell becomes a token as it resolves. It can be countered while on the stack, and once it leaves the battlefield it ceases to exist like any token — you can't reanimate it. It also isn't "created", so "whenever you create a token" effects don't see it.

When an effect lets you "choose new targets" for a copy, you may leave any number unchanged, even ones that would now be illegal. Only the targets you actually change have to be legal.

Tokens

A token is not a card. It's subject to anything affecting permanents in general, or its card types and subtypes — but effects that say "card" miss it entirely. A token can't be the target of "return target creature card from your graveyard", can't be drawn, and can't be discarded.

• The player who creates a token owns it, and it enters under their control. Ownership decides which graveyard it briefly goes to; control can change later without ownership following.
• A token's name is set by the effect creating it. If the name isn't specified, it defaults to the token's subtypes — so "a 1/1 white Soldier creature token" is named Soldier.
• A token that dies genuinely goes to the graveyard, so death triggers see it. Only then does a state-based action notice a token outside the battlefield and make it cease to exist. That's why token sacrifice engines work.
• A token that has left the battlefield can never come back. If something would move it, it stays where it is.

27 questions in this track, checked against the 2026-06-19 Comprehensive Rules.

Rules covered: 111.1, 111.2, 111.3, 111.4, 111.6, 111.7, 111.8, 111.9, 111.10, 111.10a, 111.10b, 111.13, 607, 613.2c, 704, 707.2, 707.2b, 707.2c, 707.3, 707.4, 707.5, 707.6, 707.7, 707.8, 707.8a, 707.9, 707.9a, 707.10, 707.10b, 707.10c, 707.10f.