My friend says that you can't have more then one legendary creature on the battlefield at the same time. For example, I had {Heliod, God of the Sun} out, and say if I wanted to put {Nylea, God if the Hunt} out, would I have to sacrifice Heliod? Or does this only apply to planeswalkers (like having two Jaces etc,)?
Quote from: Popper23345 on August 14, 2014, 11:21:36 AM
My friend says that you can't have more then one legendary creature on the battlefield at the same time. For example, I had {Heliod, God of the Sun} out, and say if I wanted to put {Nylea, God if the Hunt} out, would I have to sacrifice Heliod? Or does this only apply to planeswalkers (like having two Jaces etc,)?
Follow up question, (in hindsight, I think the answer is no) can you have two of the same legendary creatures out at the same time, for example, two {Nylea, god of the Hunt} so you could pay 8 mana to buff a creature up +4/+4
Summing it up:
You can only have one Legendary of the same name. You may have any number of Legendary permanents as long as none of them have the same name.
Same thing about Planeswalkers, but it depends on the Planeswalker subtype. You can have any number of Planeswalkers al long as they're not the same character.
Side note: If you have a {Nylea, God of the Hunt}, you can activate her ability any number of times. So if you had 8 mana, you can give your creatures the buff twice.
Other side note:
If you have two Legendary creatures with different names, but are the same character, that is fine.
So you can have a {Mikaeus, the Lunarch} and a {Mikaeus, the Unhallowed} out but not two of the same one.
Thanks to both of you :)
The only exception this rule that I can think of are the cards:
{Mirror Gallery}
{Brothers Yamazaki} with only two out
also in the specific example you mention, you could get your two buffs by paying the 3G activation cost on your single Nylea then paying 3G again to activate it a second time. Since that ability does not include the tap symbol you could knock yourself out activating it as many times as you can afford with your lands.
Yeah you only sacrifice it if someone brought out another helios
Quote from: Swamplord99 on August 18, 2014, 06:58:57 PM
Yeah you only sacrifice it if someone brought out another helios
What swamp lord? If an opponent brings out the same legendary creature you both don't sac it anymore. That's the old legand rule.
If the same player controls two or more legendary permanents of the same name, that player will choose one of those permanents, and the others are sent to their owners' graveyards when state-based effects are checked. This is not a destruction effect, and can't be prevented by regeneration or indestructibility.
From the Comprehensive Rules (Magic 2014)
704.5k If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "legend rule".
Currently, only two cards circumvent the "legend rule." Brothers Yamazaki allows up to two of them to be in play at the same time (though a third will send at least one to the graveyard, depending on how they are controlled), and Mirror Gallery cancels out this rule.
Explanation of the latest change
One way to think about the new "legend rule" is that it now looks at each player individually. It doesn't matter what any other player controls. Clearly, this has a few play ramifications. If you control a legendary permanent, having another one enter the battlefield (by playing a second one or creating a copy of the first one) will leave you with one on the battlefield. It may be the old one. It may be the new one. That's up to you.
Also, creating a copy of a legendary permanent controlled by another player will simply give you a copy. The one controlled by the other player won't explode, won't leave the battlefield, and really won't be affected at all. Clones do what they were intended to do, which isn't to be situational killing machines.