Knowledge Passed

[Norm4eva]

So I've been reading the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and while the author discussed the nature of finding tulkus and reteaching them their own lessons I came to think, quite naturally of course, "Wow, that might make an interesting Magic card."  So this card is sort of an attempt to capture the flavor of bolstering a guy in play with the spirits of those who battled before him (her(it)).  The template is based off Spellweaver Volute, the latest incarnation of "Enchant Dead Creature" from Future Sight.

Knowledge Passed
W
Enchantment - Aura

Enchant creature in a graveyard

As -this- comes into play, put a (?) counter on target creature.
Creatures with (?) counters on them gain the abilities of enchanted creature.

Flavor text about, meh, enlightenment or delicious cookies or something.

First of all, the casting cost is probably wrong, but I must note that there are multiple targets and so, multiple points of failure.  This is essentially a 3 card combo at its worst; this card, a mans in the yard, and a mans in play.  Hence the use of the word "as" instead of "when"; aside from just giving it another tedious priority pass.
Secondly; because this is basically a reverse Humility (gains abilities, not loses abilities) I don't think that the actual wording is entirely unprecedented.
Third; I sincerely doubt there's a worthwhile Voltron to assemble here, even with dorks like Phage and Akroma roaming around looking for a way to be abused.  Mostly I see this card as a means of reinforcing the creatures in play, like, after a WoG or some similar horrible fate.  Squire finally gets his shit together and figures out how to double strike, something like that.

[Harlequin]

I think static and card defining abilitys are thin ice.  Cards like Yxlid Jailor and even Tarmogoyf pose problems.  I think the only way to do this safely is make it like Death-mask Dupplicant meets Experiment Kraj:

As long as enchanted creature has flying, creatures with a <> counter on them have flying. The same is true for fear, first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, landwalk, lifelink, protection, reach, trample, shroud, and vigilance.

Creatures with a <> counter on them have all activated abilityes of enchanted creature.

[Anusien]

Magic cards have never gained all abilities.  They either gained a subset of abilities (activated abilities a la Experiment Kraj) or copied the abilities a la Vesuvan Shapeshifter.

I think the rules probably handle Yixlid Jailor and Tarmogoy fairly easily (Jailor shuts it down because the card has no abilities).  I'm more uncertain about how multiple copies of this card interact.

[Harlequin]

For Jailor I was thinking, lets say I have squire in play.  I play the card, and enchant a Jailor in my graveyard...
Now, the jailor ability is duped onto the creature - so the creature says "Cards in the GY haveno abilitys" but thats an ability granted from the graveyard.  So It would come into effect and then immediately (static - by itself) the ability would disapear because the jailor not has no abilites.  So now the static ability that removed jailors ability is now gone - so jailor, and squire would not regain the abilitys.  So you end up in a paradox loop of statebased effects where the act of turnning one on immediately shuts it off and turning it off immediatly turns it back on.

For the tarmogoyf example, It gets tricky when you have two card charaterisc defining abilites (not 'becomes' abilities, but actually honest to goodness card defining) competing.  For example I enchant a yarded tarmogoyf and then later enchant a yarded Terravore.  You'll end up with two different definitions (3 if you count the card printed p/t) none of which are at that "Becomes" layer.

 

[Anusien]

For Jailor I was thinking, lets say I have squire in play.  I play the card, and enchant a Jailor in my graveyard...
Now, the jailor ability is duped onto the creature - so the creature says "Cards in the GY haveno abilitys" but thats an ability granted from the graveyard.  So It would come into effect and then immediately (static - by itself) the ability would disapear because the jailor not has no abilites.  So now the static ability that removed jailors ability is now gone - so jailor, and squire would not regain the abilitys.  So you end up in a paradox loop of statebased effects where the act of turnning one on immediately shuts it off and turning it off immediatly turns it back on.

Actually, none of those are state-based effects.  You have Knowledge Passed's ability in Layer 5, and Yixlid Jailer's ability in Layer 5 as well.  Jailer depends on Knowledge Passed, so it will apply afterwards.  It will remove all abilities from cards in the graveyard, and you'll just have a Squire in play.  However this does point out an issue; this grants abilities in Layer 5.  This means that abilities that deal with Type or Color or similar characteristics (layer 4 and above) will not be affected.  So your Squire will have the ability "Changeling" but will not be all types.

For the tarmogoyf example, It gets tricky when you have two card charaterisc defining abilites (not 'becomes' abilities, but actually honest to goodness card defining) competing.  For example I enchant a yarded tarmogoyf and then later enchant a yarded Terravore.  You'll end up with two different definitions (3 if you count the card printed p/t) none of which are at that "Becomes" layer.

You'll apply the card's own CDA and then apply the enchantments in timestamp order.  Neither of them will be CDAs, they'll just be abilities that set the creature's Power and Toughness.

[vartemis]

To get around problems like Jailor or goyf, how about this:

Knowledge Passed
W
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Imprint - Remove target creature card in your graveyard from the game.

Enchanted creature gains all keyworded abilities of the card imprinted on ~this.

I know using the word "key worded" is clunky, and I don't know if this changes the original idea, but copying abilities like goyfs, phage, or even wormfang manta are too clunky, and easy to abuse.  Ideally, as you stated, you just want cards to be able to gain abilities like double strike, flying, protection from whatever...

j

[Harlequin]

Yeah, I don't have the layers here at work with me, just trying to think around this...

But are you sure that */* creatures power and toughness descriptions are not CDA?  I thought they were and thats why they apply in all zones.  I don't think they are just abilites. 

[Anusien]

But are you sure that */* creatures power and toughness descriptions are not CDA?  I thought they were and thats why they apply in all zones.  I don't think they are just abilites.

Tarmogoyf's ability is a CDA.  However it would not apply in the CDA layer (6a) because it has to be printed on the card; granting a CDA will just give you an ability.

Incidentally, you'd have to reword the card because Squire granting "Tarmogoyf's power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1." probably isn't what you want.  It might work, but I'm not sure.

[Norm4eva]

....you know, it should have occurred to me when I said in the first post, "It's just like a reverse Humility" that there would be complications.
I hesitate to use the Deathmask Duplicant wording or anything that uses the phrase "keyword abilities", since that's about as much fun as putting "the stack" or "active player" on a card :/  The thing I hate most about things like DMD is that it could never copy a keyword from the future, or for that matter a failed one from the past.  I'm sure somebody somewhere insists on playing their "Bands with Falcons" deck, so who am I to exclude them from my awesome card?
That said... I may need to rethink the execution.  Anusien brings up a good point; when abilities that reference CARDNAME move onto other creatures, is it just assumed that CARDNAME is whatever creature it's on?  When Knowledge Passed enchants Tarmogoyf, does Squire make itself big, or does it make Tarmogoyf big?

[Harlequin]

It still uses the concept of <this>  For example if Experiment Kraj has the ability of Horseshoe Crab.  When you spend he untaps himself... not the crab.  I imagine this would be universal for activated and non-activated abilities.