A planeswalker with 7 loyalty counters has:

  • a –7 loyalty ability that creates a 5/5 dinosaur token
  • a passive ability that makes all summoned dinosaurs enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter.

Would the dinosaur summoned be a 6/6 or a 5/5?

My guess would be 5/5 as the planeswalker dies first, then the ability resolves.

  • 1
    What planeswalker is this? I wasn't aware of any planewalkers with any static abilities. – GendoIkari Apr 1 at 16:43
  • 7
    In the upcoming set War of the Spark all of the planeswalkers have static or triggered abilities. However, the one described in this question does not seem to have been spoiled yet. – murgatroid99 Apr 1 at 16:47
  • 2
    Not a real planeswalker a friens of mine stitched it together as a Dreadmaw meme and that question came up, sorry if I caused any confusion. – gerildIr Apr 1 at 22:03
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    This is actually relevant because the new Arlinn produces wolves with her -2 and has a static ability that all your wolves enter with a +1/+1 Counter. – Ral Zarek Apr 2 at 5:40
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    @Caleth not entirely. The templated way allows you to win the game in 2 situations you wouldn't if it was templated differently. One of them, if you -8 Jace and have 6 cards left in your library (and jace loyalty was at 8) you would lose the game as the static ability is no longer there. If you have exactly 7 cards in your library and the last phrase wasn't written in the card, you would need to still draw 1 more card and have Jace in the battlefield when you draw the card to actually win. With the templated wording, drawing the last 7 wins you the game. – fireshark519 Apr 2 at 12:33

The dinosaur enters the battlefield as a 5/5 because, as you say, the planeswalker will be dead before the ability resolves. This is the exact sequence of events:

  1. You activate the planeswalker's ability, putting the ability on the stack and removing 7 loyalty counters to pay the ability's cost.
  2. The planeswalker dies as a state-based action because it has no loyalty counters.
  3. All players gain priority, and pass it or respond to the ability.
  4. The ability resolves and the dinosaur enters the battlefield.
  • I would add a number 2 before your number 2, just "The ability goes on the stack" on your current number 2 "before priority is gained, SBA check the PW has now loyalty counters and takes it to the graveyard" it just makes it easier for people to answer their own questions in the future – fireshark519 Apr 2 at 12:07
  • I fleshed it out a bit. Putting the ability on the stack is actually the first step of activating the ability, so it wouldn't be accurate to put it as a second step of this sequence. – murgatroid99 Apr 2 at 15:15
  • that looks good now :) – fireshark519 Apr 2 at 15:40

After the loyalty ability goes on the stack, state based actions are being checked; they'll see a planeswalker without loyalty counters and it's put into the graveyard.

The ability will resolve (if nothing else happens) and create a token 'long' after the planeswalker is gone, so it won't enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter.

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