The Battlefield

Devastating Onslaught

$2.21

Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness

$35.59

AI DraftMar 23, 2026

Devastating Onslaught + Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness

Overview

If you use Etali’s “you may cast … without paying their mana costs” trigger to cast Devastating Onslaught, you are casting the spell without paying its mana cost, so you cannot pay X — X will be 0 in that cast (see Ruling [2023-04-14]). If Devastating Onslaught copies Etali, the tokens copy the printed Etali face exactly (Ruling [2025-07-25]), multiple Etali tokens will trigger Etali’s enter-the-battlefield ability but the legend rule will then force you to keep only one (see and ), and tokens that are moved off the battlefield cease to exist (see and ).

Step 1

You create tokens with Devastating Onslaught that are copies of a target creature you control; if the target is Etali, the tokens are copies of Etali’s printed characteristics (Ruling [2025-07-25]).

Step 2

Each token that enters as a copy of Etali will cause a triggered ability “When Etali enters …” to trigger (that trigger is created when the token enters).

Step 3

After the tokens enter and their triggered abilities are created but before those triggers are put on the stack, state-based actions are checked; the legend rule will force you to choose one Etali to keep and put the other legendary Etali tokens into their owners’ graveyards , and tokens put into zones other than the battlefield then cease to exist /.

Step 4

The Etali enter-the-battlefield triggers that were created when the tokens entered are still put on the stack and will resolve even if the token that created them no longer exists on the battlefield.

Step 5

If one of those triggers lets you cast Devastating Onslaught from exile “without paying its mana cost,” you are casting it without paying its mana cost and thus can’t pay the spell’s mana cost (including choosing and paying a nonzero X); see Ruling [2023-04-14].

Resolution

No. If you cast Devastating Onslaught via Etali’s ability “without paying its mana cost,” you may not pay X — the cast is made without paying the spell’s mana cost, so you can’t pay parts of that mana cost (X) when casting it that way; see Ruling [2023-04-14]. Devastating Onslaught cast this way will have X = 0 and therefore create zero tokens. Separately, if you create tokens that are copies of Etali, they copy the printed Etali text exactly (Ruling [2025-07-25]), each entering token’s “When Etali enters …” will trigger, state-based actions (including the legend rule ) are checked before those triggers are put on the stack , and tokens moved off the battlefield cease to exist /.

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