Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Text:

When Gray Merchant of Asphodel enters the battlefield, each opponent loses X life, where X is your devotion to black. You gain life equal to the life lost this way. (Each in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to black.)

Rulings:

• 1/24/2020 The amount of life you gain is the total amount of life lost, not simply the value of X.
• 1/24/2020 In a Two-Headed Giant game, each opposing team loses twice X life.
• 1/24/2020 Colorless and generic mana symbols (<img src="/Handlers/Image.ashx?size=small&amp;name=C&amp;type=symbol" alt="Colorless" align="absbottom" />, <img src="/Handlers/Image.ashx?size=small&amp;name=0&amp;type=symbol" alt="0" align="absbottom" />, <img src="/Handlers/Image.ashx?size=small&amp;name=1&amp;type=symbol" alt="1" align="absbottom" />, <img src="/Handlers/Image.ashx?size=small&amp;name=2&amp;type=symbol" alt="2" align="absbottom" />, <img src="/Handlers/Image.ashx?size=small&amp;name=X&amp;type=symbol" alt="Variable Colorless" align="absbottom" />, and so on) in mana costs of permanents you control don’t count toward your devotion to any color.
• 1/24/2020 Mana symbols in the text boxes of permanents you control don’t count toward your devotion to any color.
• 1/24/2020 Hybrid mana symbols, monocolored hybrid mana symbols, and Phyrexian mana symbols do count toward your devotion to their color(s).
• 1/24/2020 If an activated ability or triggered ability has an effect that depends on your devotion to a color, you count the number of mana symbols of that color among the mana costs of permanents you control as the ability resolves. The permanent with that ability will be counted if it’s still on the battlefield at that time.
• 1/24/2020 If you put an Aura on an opponent’s permanent, you still control the Aura, and mana symbols in its mana cost count towards your devotion.