Mendicant Core, Guidelight

one white mana one blue mana Legendary Artifact Creature — RobotPower and toughness*/3

Mendicant Core's power is equal to the number of artifacts you control.

Start your engines! (If you have no speed, it starts at 1. It increases once on each of your turns when an opponent loses life. Max speed is 4.)

Max speed — Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may pay one generic mana . If you do, copy it. (The copy becomes a token.)

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Foil 0.97 $

20 printings · up to 1.52 $

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Mendicant Core, Guidelight rulings

2025-02-07
A resolving copy of a permanent spell becomes a token, so the token isn’t “created.” Effects that care about a token being created won’t interact with a token that enters the battlefield from Mendicant Core’s last ability.
2025-02-07
The copy remembers any decisions that were made for the original spell as it was cast, including values chosen for X in its mana cost and whether any alternative or additional costs were chosen. For example, if the original artifact spell had kicker and its kicker cost was paid, the copy will also be kicked.
2025-02-07
Start your engines! isn’t a triggered ability. Increasing your speed to 1 is something that happens as a state-based action as soon as you control a permanent with the ability. Notably, this includes gaining control of a permanent with the ability that another player controls.
2025-02-07
Your speed doesn’t change until a spell or ability says so, such as the inherent triggered ability that cares about opponents losing life during your turn. Notably, losing control of permanents with start your engines! doesn’t affect your speed.
2025-02-07
Each player tracks their speed (or lack thereof) separately. Increasing your speed has no effect on whether another player has speed.
2025-02-07
If an effect needs to know what a player’s speed is and that player doesn’t have a speed, their speed is considered 0.
2025-02-07
A player “has max speed” if their speed is 4.
2025-02-07
“Max speed — [ability]” means “As long as you have max speed, this object has [ability].” If the granted ability functions in a zone other than the battlefield, the max speed ability does too.

Mendicant Core, Guidelight keyword rules

Max speed Rule 702.178

A max speed ability is a special kind of static ability. “Max speed — [Ability]” means “As long as your speed is 4, this object has ‘[Ability].’” See rule , “Start Your Engines!”

Start your engines! Rule 702.179

Start your engines! is a static ability. If a player controls a permanent with start your engines! and that player has no speed, their speed becomes 1. This is a state-based action. See rule 704.

Players do not have speed until a rule or effect sets their speed to a specific value.

If a player has no speed and they are instructed to increase their speed by a certain value, their speed becomes that value.

There is an inherent triggered ability associated with a player having 1 or more speed. This ability has no source and is controlled by that player. That ability is “Whenever one or more opponents lose life during your turn, if your speed is less than 4, your speed increases by 1. This ability triggers only once each turn.”

Rules and effects may refer to whether a player has “max speed.” A player has max speed if their speed is 4.

Some effects refer to a player’s speed. If that player has no speed, their speed is 0 for the purpose of an effect that refers to speed.