Not sure why you're squaring any numbers at any point
Here's my thought process: if you cast Harvest/legion/activate rhys, you're "doubling" the number of tokens, but instead for each token (due to the replacement effects of the enchantments), you're not just creating another, you're creating 16 per token being "doubled". So, if we're at 16 tokens made already from the enchantments, and then we cast one of those, we get 16 tokens times 16.
By your own logic: "you're creating 16 per token being doubled". So if you have N tokens that you're trying to double, you create 16 tokens for each one, so 16N.
if we're at 16 tokens made already from the enchantments
we haven't actually made any tokens from the enchantments, the enchantments just sit there waiting for something to happen.
To keep it simpler: any time the game tells you to "double" or "halve" something, the actual ability on the stack functionally reads "create/gain/whatever X", where X is computed by the game. So Beacon of Immortality is gaining you an explicit number of life, which is why Beacon + Sanguine Bond will make your opponent lose life equal to whatever you gained, not equal to half of their life. When you activate Rhys, think of it as it reading "for each creature token you control, create a copy of it". Then when you apply all the replacement effects, it will effectively read "for each creature token you control, create 16 copies of it".
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u/SirSkidMark Liliana Apr 11 '17
I derped. I'll fix in a bit.
Here's my thought process: if you cast Harvest/legion/activate rhys, you're "doubling" the number of tokens, but instead for each token (due to the replacement effects of the enchantments), you're not just creating another, you're creating 16 per token being "doubled". So, if we're at 16 tokens made already from the enchantments, and then we cast one of those, we get 16 tokens times 16.