Speaking of our wonderful and kind leader, the subject of today’s tip is going to be Lazav the Multifarious, and how he interacts with cards that refer to themselves by name. Let’s take me, Etrata the Silencer, as an example. My first ability says “Etrata the Silencer can’t be blocked”- so you might think that if Lazav became a copy of me, because his name remains “Lazav the Multifarious”, it wouldn’t apply- but no! Whenever an ability refers to the object it’s printed on by name, it in fact means “This object”, no matter what its name actually is at that point. Our glorious leader copies my ability perfectly, and can’t be blocked!
This applies to abilities on the stack that refer to their source by name as well. For example, my second ability says “Etrata’s owner shuffles Etrata into their library.”. Once again, when it says Etrata, it means “this object”, so what this actually means is “This object’s owner shuffles it into their library”. It may look different, but the general idea remains the same- anything that would have referred to Etrata now refers to Lazav. When the trigger resolves, Lazav’s owner shuffles him away just as they would shuffle away Etrata.
Truly, our guildmaster is as powerful as he is cunning- you’d never know the difference between whoever he’s copying and the real deal! In any case, that’s all for today, but make sure to return soon- we’ve got excellent intelligence all this week for House Dimir eyes only. Best of luck, and stay unseen!
Today’s Rules Tip was written by Alistair Crook