Shady Spectacles
Card Text & Abilities
[Equip] [1][C] ([1][C]: Attach this to a unit you control.) As this is attached to a unit, choose another friendly unit. The equipped unit becomes a copy of that unit for as long as this is attached to it.
Official Rules FAQ & Clarifications
3 Official FAQsShady Spectacles applies a copy effect to the equipped unit. Copy effects copy the printed (or copied, if another copy effect has already been applied) traits of the unit being copied. empowered is a status, a temporary modification, and not part of the printed traits of the card, so it will not be copied by Shady Spectacles. Whatever temporary modifications are applied to the unit as the copy effect is executed on that unit will be unaffected by the copy effect. If the unit has Might increases or decreases, a buff, the empowered status, Temporary, attacker, defender, etc those will remain in place.
Relevant Rules: 477.1.b.1.b.
This question deserves a bit more depth. As of the Vendetta rules update, we have clarified how effects like Shady Spectacles and Svellsongur work; they are replacement effects that replace the event of the equipment being attached to a unit with that event plus whatever their effect specifies.
In the case of Svellsongur, the resulting series of events will be:
Attach → Copy the equipped unit’s text to Svellsongur’s effect text for as long as Svellsongur is attached
For Shady Spectacles, the resulting series of events will be:
Attach → Choose a friendly unit and make the equipped unit a copy of that unit for as long as Shady Spectacles is attached
These events are not simultaneous. The attach event executes first, and then whatever event is instructed by the replacement effect is executed. Thus, the answer in the Spiritforged FAQ is no longer true: if you attach Svellsongur to Aphelios, he will not trigger twice. Svellsongur doesn’t have the copied effect text when the attach event executes.
Similarly here, if Akshan nabs Shady Spectacles from an opponent, it will attach and then make him a copy. If his controller chooses to make him a copy of Aphelios, it’s too late by that point for his new triggered ability to see the attachment event; it’s already been completed.
Relevant Rules: 369.1., 370.1.b.1., 370.1.a.2.
Each instance of the copied ability is a different ability. The game object remains the same throughout this whole process, so any temporary modifications will remain on the Sand Soldier as it transforms, but the copied rules text is an entirely new instance of the ability. It is the same idea as Svellsongur’s copy of an ability being “refreshed” if Svellsongur is detached and then reattached to the same unit.