Hydra Broodmaster Monstrosity X/X

[RDJDenley]

If I activate Hydra Broodmasters monstrosity for 11 mana (including the one G cost) do I then have 10, 10/10 hydras, or 5, 5/5 hydras?

There are so many X' on this card I don't know how to read it!

[Nymuera]

If I activate {Hydra Broodmasters} monstrosity for 11 mana (including the one G cost) do I then have 10, 10/10 hydras, or 5, 5/5 hydras?

There are so many X' on this card I don't know how to read it!

5 5/5's

[Gorzo]

When something has multiple X's appearing on the card, when you cast/activate it, you choose a value for X and every single X on that card becomes that number.

Using {Hydra Broodmother} for example. If you choose 5 for X, the ability will read like this:

{5}{5}{G}: Monstrosity 5
When Hydra Babymama becomes monsterous, put 5 5/5 green hydra tokens on the battlefield.

If you choose 1 for X, it looks like this:
{1}{1}{G}: Monstrosity 1
When Hydra Ovarydrive becomes monsterous, put 1 1/1 green hydra token on the battlefield.

If you choose 10...
(10)(10){G}: Monstrosity 10
When Hydra Babbycannon becomes monstrous, put 10 10/10 green hydra tokens on the battlefield (and hopefully win the game)

And so on.

Edit: so to clarify, you're not "activating the ability for 11 mana," but rather you activate the ability, set a value for X (and figure out additional or reductions in costs), then pay all costs with your available mana.

[lotrwk]

I really love me some hydra babycannon.

[RDJDenley]

Wait there are two different answers here..

If I pay 1 G and 10 additional mana (11 in total) do I play 10, 10/10 hydras or 5, 5/5 hydras?

One of you said that the 10 mana is divided between the number of X on the card.. and the other states that your cumulative activation cost is the number for all X on the card.

Can someone please confirm? Haha

[Ekann1]

Paying one and G will give you 5 5/5s. You need to divide the mana between the 2 X's.

[Gorzo]

You're still looking at it in terms of "activating the ability for 11 mana." It's important to follow the flow of how activating abilities and/or casting spells actually happens, because it follows a pattern that can help figure the more confusing abilities like this hydra out.

The flow of casting a spell/activating an ability:

Step 1: declare the spell/ability. It goes to the top of the stack. (Super simplified, see rule 601 and 602 for details)
Step 2: determine mode (this includes determining value for X)
Step 3: select targets (not relevant in this case)
Step 4: if the spell/ability requires you to distribute an effect between things, choose how those things are distributed (not relevant in this case)
Step 5: determine all costs for the spell/ability (add in additional costs, take out reductions, etc)
Step 6: activate mana abilities in order to pay mana costs
Step 7: pay all costs now
Step 8: the spell/ability is now cast/activated! It is on top of the stack, and priority now goes to active player.



So... By following this model, and assuming you have 11 lands available to tap, here is how the ability needs to be activated.

1: "I'm gonna activate Broodmother's Monstrosity."
2: looking at your lands, you know you need to pay {G} for the ability, leaving you with 10 left for {X}{X}. If you declare X as 5, you know you can pay for it with all of your mana (5+5+1=11) but if you made each X a 10, you could not (10+10+1=21). So you would choose 5 for X (I assume).
3/4: N/A
5: {X}{X}{G}. Well, we've already determined that {X}={5}, so {5}{5}{G}. That's 1 green mana, 5 of any color, and 5 MORE of any color. 11 total.
6: tap those lands!
7: the costs are all mana, so pay all that mana you just tapped from those lands!
8: it's on the stack! Your 5 5/5 hydras are on the way.

[Ekann1]

An amazing explanation, as usual.