A question that many judges hear nonstop is “Will X save my Phantasmal Image?”. The answer to that is almost always no; countering the spell that was aimed at it, trying to bounce/blink your Image in response, giving it Hexproof in response, etc.; none of these things will save it from its own sacrifice trigger [or they’ll just trigger it AGAIN, in some cases]. But there is a good way to save it now, and a fun way at that: Deadeye Navigator.

If you have a Phantasmal Image copying anything at all, and it happens to be paired with a Deadeye Navigator, you can laugh in the face of removal. And would-be removal. When you blink the Image and have it come in as something else [or the same thing, if you want and that thing is on the field], it becomes a totally new object with no memory of, or relation to, the Image that triggered. So when the trigger resolves and says “Sacrifice that Phantasmal Image”, the game says “What Phantasmal Image? It’s gone.” so nothing is sacrificed.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Trevor Nuñez, Level 1 judge from Roswell, NM