Lazav wants a deck that sacrifices its own creatures to drain opponents' life. It also suits a deck that gives up its own cards on purpose to get something back.
Mana cost
Blue, Black ()
Power / toughness2 / 3
RarityRare
Whenever Lazav attacks, exile target card from a graveyard, then investigate. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with ", Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
Whenever you sacrifice a Clue, you may have Lazav become a copy of a creature card exiled with it until end of turn.
Picked for what they do in Lazav's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Lazav's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Lazav works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast2 Feb 2024
Clue is an artifact type. Even though it appears on some cards with other permanent types, it's never a creature type, a land type, or anything but an artifact type.
Wizards of the Coast2 Feb 2024
If an effect refers to a Clue, it means any Clue artifact, not just a Clue artifact token. For example, you can sacrifice Wrench to pay for Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth's activated ability.
Wizards of the Coast2 Feb 2024
If the target of Lazav, Wearer of Faces's first ability is illegal as the ability tries to resolve, it won't resolve and none of its effects will happen. You won't investigate.
Wizards of the Coast2 Feb 2024
Some abilities trigger "whenever you sacrifice a Clue". Those abilities trigger whenever you sacrifice a Clue for any reason, not just to activate a Clue's activated ability.
Wizards of the Coast2 Feb 2024
Some spells and abilities that investigate may require targets. If each target chosen is an illegal target as that spell or ability tries to resolve, it won't resolve. You won't create any Clue tokens.
Wizards of the Coast2 Feb 2024
You can't sacrifice a Clue to pay multiple costs. For example, you can't sacrifice a Clue token to activate its own ability and also to activate Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth's ability.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryUBPlayers write colors as letters: U for blue, B for black. Blue is U because B was already taken by black.AristocratsAristocrats decks sacrifice their own creatures on purpose and profit every time one dies, often by draining life from each opponent. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you like, decides when that happens.Open the Aristocrats pageSacrifice PayoffRewards you whenever something is sacrificed, meaning put into the graveyard on purpose. The reward might be a +1/+1 counter, a card, or a drained opponent, and it is the reason a deck sacrifices its own creatures. Compare Sacrifice Outlet, the card that lets you sacrifice, and Death Trigger, which fires when a creature dies for any reason. Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, Mayhem Devil, Savra, Queen of the GolgariOpen the Sacrifice Payoff pageToken EngineMakes tokens again and again rather than once. A token is a creature or other permanent created by a card, with no card of its own. Something that makes one token gives you a body; something that makes them every turn gives you a board you can keep rebuilding after it is cleared. Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, OphiomancerOpen the Token Engine pageCloneCopies a creature or another permanent already on the battlefield. Copying the best thing on the table is often cheaper than casting something equally strong. Phyrexian Metamorph, Helm of the HostOpen the Clone pageToken MakerCreates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind.Open the Token Maker pageSacrificeSacrifice decks give up their own creatures, Treasures and other cards on purpose and get something back each time. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you want, is the heart of the deck.Open the Sacrifice pageGraveyard HateEmpties graveyards or stops cards from coming back out of them, shutting down decks built on reusing their graveyard. Bojuka Bog, Scavenger Grounds. It answers a whole plan rather than one card: without it, something like Eternal Witness keeps returning the same card all game.Open the Graveyard Hate pageClonesClone decks copy the best creature on the battlefield, whoever owns it, so they always have one of the strongest things on the table. A copy also gets the original's 'when this enters' ability, so each clone can bring a fresh effect too.Open the Clones pageClues MatterClue tokens are artifacts you can pay 2 mana and sacrifice to draw a card. Making one is called investigate.Open the Clues Matter page
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