Double whammy today, since Tuesday got taken up by the new Trigger rules. Today we finish our Return to Ravnica previews with the Izzet League’s Overload mechanic, and the Selesnya Conclave’s Populate mechanic. First, the Izzet: mad scientists that act on equal parts whim, inspiration, and the wishes of their draconic patron Niv-Mizzet, these mages […]
Category: Copies
Torpor Orb doesn’t stop Clone effects or other ʺas this entersʺ abilities.
As Scars of Mirrodin’s time in Standard is coming to a close, it seems fitting to give a final hurrah to one of the most confusing cards in the block: ! This confusion can be attributed mostly to the difficulty people have in understanding the difference between triggered and static abilities, but once you know […]
Can you respond to the choice of what to copy with Phantasmal Image? It depends!
This is a very common question with any kind of copy creature. The most important thing to note is that the static ability that lets you choose to copy something is NOT a triggered ability (if it was, pretty much every Clone-type creature would die for being 0/0 before you could choose to copy something!). […]
Sever the Bloodline will also exile clones of the targeted creature.
Cards like (with or without kicker) and that make a token copy of a card seem to be fairly intuitive to most players. What is that token? Well, it’s exactly the card that it copied! If you copy a with Cackling counterpart, the token created is still named Runeclaw Bear. On the surface, creature cards […]
Infinite Reflections always takes precedence over Clone effects.
So you may have read the Oracle rulings on and wondered, “Why does this always win over other copy effects? Can’t I choose the order to apply these effects?” Well, the answer is that you CAN choose the order, but you always get the same end result. Let’s say you control Infinite Reflection attached to […]
When Infinite Reflection leaves play, your creatures don’t stop being copies of what was enchanted.
When enters the battlefield, all your creatures become a copy of whatever it’s enchanting, and while it’s on the battlefield attached to a creature, each other creature that enters the battlefield under your control becomes a copy of that creature. If the enchanted creature or Infinite Reflection leaves the battlefield, the creatures that have become […]
What is and isn’t copied with your clone-style creatures.
So what happens when you copy something with , or , or ? Does it copy counters? Does it copy abilities the card gained? Whenever you use something to get a copy of something else, what it copies are the copiable values. These things, and only these things, are what get copied. The copiable values […]
When you copy a double-faced card, you get the side that is showing at that moment.
When you copy a double-faced card with a clone effect, you get an exact copy of the currently showing side. Anything that isn’t a double-faced card can’t transform. So if you copy a with a , you end up with an exact copy of the Chalice of Death. The game doesn’t acknowledge or care that […]
You choose something new to copy when your Phantasmal Image comes back from undying.
When a copy of a creature with the undying ability dies, the undying ability will trigger and return it to play. This is due to the last known information when the card was in play, which is what leaves-the-battlefield abilities (like undying) look for to determine whether they should trigger. When it returns to the […]