The Zeta Set
The Zeta Set is a . A theme groups drops that share a franchise or an idea.Secret LairSpecial Magic cards sold by Wizards of the Coast on their own online store for a short time. Most are cards that already exist, given new art by a well-known artist or another franchise. A Secret Lair copy of a card plays exactly like any other copy of it.Open the full glossaryThemeOur way of grouping Secret Lair drops that share a subject, like Marvel or Fallout, so every version is on one page.Open the full glossary
Released 121 cards
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Every card in this drop
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Rulings for the Cards on This Page
explain how a card 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
274 rulings for 88 cards
All That Glitters
A permanent that's both an artifact and an enchantment is counted only once.
You still control Auras that you put onto the battlefield attached to a permanent you don't control.
Because All That Glitters is an enchantment, the enchanted creature usually gets at least +1/+1.
An Offer You Can't Refuse
If the target is still legal as it resolves but the spell can't be countered for some reason, its controller will still create two Treasure tokens.
If the target is no longer legal as An Offer You Can't Refuse resolves, no Treasure tokens are created.
Anger
The timestamp for the "in your graveyard" ability is set at the time that this card goes to your graveyard, regardless of whether you control a Mountain at that time.
Animate Dead
If Animate Dead isn't on the battlefield as its triggered ability resolves, none of its effects happen. The creature card won't be returned to the battlefield.
If the creature put onto the battlefield has protection from black—or if the creature can't legally be enchanted by Animate Dead for another reason—Animate Dead won't be able to attach to it. It will be put into the graveyard as a state-based action, causing its delayed triggered ability to trigger. When the trigger resolves, if the creature's still on the battlefield, its controller will sacrifice it.
Abilities such as shroud and protection function only on the battlefield unless otherwise specified. A creature card with shroud may be targeted by Animate Dead, and Animate Dead will become attached to the creature that enters the battlefield.
Animate Dead is an Aura, albeit with an unusual enchant ability. You target a creature card in a graveyard when you cast it. It enters the battlefield attached to that card. Then it returns that card to the battlefield, and attaches itself to the card again (since the card is a new object on the battlefield). Animate Dead itself never moves into a graveyard during this process.
Once the creature is returned to the battlefield, Animate Dead can't be attached to anything other than it (unless Animate Dead somehow manages to put a different creature onto the battlefield). Attempting to move Animate Dead to another creature won't work.
Arcane Signet
If your commander is a card that has no colors in its color identity, Arcane Signet's ability produces no mana. It doesn't produce {C}.
If you have two commanders, the ability adds one mana of any color in their combined color identities.
If you don't have a commander, Arcane Signet's ability produces no mana.
Brainstorm
You draw three cards and put two cards back all while Brainstorm is resolving. Nothing can happen between the two, and no player may choose to take actions.
Cathartic Reunion
Because discarding two cards is an additional cost, you can't cast Cathartic Reunion if you don't have at least two other cards in hand.
Cauldron Familiar
If an effect refers to a Food, it means any Food artifact, not just a Food artifact token. For example, you can sacrifice Tough Cookie (an Artifact Creature — Food Golem) to activate Maraleaf Rider's ability (an ability with "Sacrifice a Food" in its cost).
You can't activate Cauldron Familiar's last ability unless it's in your graveyard.
In a Two-Headed Giant game, Cauldron Familiar's first ability causes the opposing team to lose 1 life twice, and you gain 1 life once.
Chatterstorm
Spells cast from zones other than a player's hand and spells that were countered or otherwise failed to resolve are counted by the storm ability.
A copy of a spell can be countered like any other spell, but it must be countered individually. Countering a spell with storm won't affect the copies.
The copies are put directly onto the stack. They aren't cast and won't be counted by other spells with storm cast later in the turn.
The triggered ability that creates the copies can itself be countered by anything that can counter a triggered ability. If it is countered, no copies will be put onto the stack.
If a spell with storm has targets, you may choose new targets for any of the copies. You can make different choices for each copy.
Chromatic Lantern
Lands you control won't lose any other abilities they had. They also won't gain or lose any land types.
Chromatic Orrery
Chromatic Orrery's last ability can have you draw at most five cards. "Colorless," "artifact," and "gold" are not colors.
Chrome Mox
If the exiled card is multicolored, you choose one of that card’s colors each time you tap this artifact for mana.
This artifact's activated ability can never add {C}, even if the exiled card is colorless or has a colorless mana symbol in its mana cost.
If no card is exiled with this artifact, it can’t add mana. The same is true if the exiled card is colorless.
Clone
Clone copies exactly what was printed on the original creature and nothing else (unless that creature is copying something else or is a token; see below). It doesn't copy whether that creature is tapped or untapped, whether it has any counters on it or Auras and Equipment attached to it, or any non-copy effects that have changed its power, toughness, types, color, or so on.
Any enters abilities of the copied creature will trigger when Clone enters. Any "as [this creature] enters" or "[this creature] enters with" abilities of the chosen creature will also work.
You can choose not to copy anything. In that case, Clone enters as a 0/0 Shapeshifter creature, and is probably put into the graveyard immediately.
If Clone somehow enters at the same time as another creature, Clone can't become a copy of that creature. You may choose only a creature that's already on the battlefield.
Clone's ability doesn't target the chosen creature.
If the copied creature is copying something else (for example, if the copied creature is an Evil Twin), then Clone enters as whatever that creature copied.
If the copied creature has {X} in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0.
If the copied creature is a token, Clone copies the original characteristics of that token as stated by the effect that created the token.
Cloud Key
The cost reduction applies only to generic mana in the cost of spells of the chosen type you cast.
To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you're paying (such as a flashback cost), add any cost increases (such as kicker costs), then apply any cost reductions (such as that of Cloud Key's ability). The mana value of the spell is determined by only its mana cost, no matter what the total cost to cast that spell was.
Clown Car
Results can be numbers not ordinarily possible on a six-sided die. Spells like Scooch can change the result to 0 or 7, for example.
Some effects may modify the result of a die roll. This may be part of the instruction to roll a die, or it may come from other cards. Anything that references the "result" of a die roll is looking for the result after these modifications.
Each die is identified by the number of faces it has. A six-sided die is a die with six equally likely outcomes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The roll must be fair. Although physical dice are recommended, digital substitutes are allowed except in cases where the physical die is required for the effect.
If X is a very large number, you may be required to roll more dice than you physically can in a reasonable time frame. In such cases, we encourage you to use digital resources for simulating die rolls or generating random numbers.
In an Un- game, if X is actually infinite (Urza's Fun House is a pathway to many game states some consider to be unnatural), you can assume that every natural result on a six-sided die is rolled infinite times, leading to infinite Clown Robot tokens and infinite +1/+1 counters on Clown Car. If abilities trigger from you rolling those results, they will each trigger infinite times. Have fun!
If a die is rerolled, the original roll essentially never happened: it doesn't cause any abilities to trigger, and no effect that cares about die rolls will consider it.
If an ability triggers "whenever you roll a die," it will trigger whenever you roll any die, including the planar die. This is a change from previous Un- rules. Some abilities use the result to determine part of the effect. If you get a non-numerical result (currently just the planar die, but the future is long), that part of the effect won't do anything.
Something in the game must tell you to roll a die. If you roll a die for any other reason (to simulate a coin flip, to choose pizza toppings, to create alternate timelines), that roll doesn't count.
Command Tower
If you have two commanders, the ability adds one mana of any color in their combined color identities.
If you don't have a commander, Command Tower's ability produces no mana.
If your commander is a card that has no colors in its color identity, Command Tower's ability produces no mana. It doesn't produce {C}.
Cruel Reality
There are many important moments in the story, but the most crucial—called “story spotlights”—are shown on cards. These cards have the Planeswalker symbol in their text box; this symbol has no effect on gameplay. You can read more about these events in the official Magic fiction at http://www.mtgstory.com.
The enchanted player can’t choose to lose 5 life if they have a creature or planeswalker that can be sacrificed.
The enchanted player chooses a permanent to sacrifice from among the creatures and planeswalkers that player controls. You don’t choose which type of permanent the player has to sacrifice.
Cultivate
If you choose to find only one basic land card, you put it onto the battlefield tapped.
Cut Down
The total power and toughness of a creature is determined by adding its power and toughness. For example, the total power and toughness of a 3/2 creature is 5.
Darksteel Monolith
If you cast a card for an alternative cost of {0}, you can't pay any other alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs like kicker. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those.
You must still follow any relevant timing rules for the colorless spell you cast from your hand.
Dig Through Time
You can exile cards to pay only for generic mana, and you can't exile more cards than the generic mana requirement of a spell with delve. For example, you can't exile more than seven cards from your graveyard to cast Treasure Cruise unless an effect has increased its cost.
Because delve isn't an alternative cost, it can be used in conjunction with alternative costs, such as flashback. It can also be used to pay for additional costs that include generic mana.
Delve doesn't change a spell's mana cost or mana value. For example, Treasure Cruise's mana value is 8 even if you exiled three cards to cast it.
Disintegrate
The “can’t regenerate” is an effect of Disintegrate and not an effect of the damage. It works even if the damage is prevented or redirected. If redirected, the damage does not take this effect with it.
Disintegrated creatures do not go to the graveyard at all before being exiled. They do not trigger abilities which trigger due to a creature going to the graveyard.
Dispatch
If you control three or more artifacts when Dispatch resolves, you'll tap the creature, then exile it.
Doomsday
If your graveyard and library combined contain five or more cards, you must choose five cards from among them. You can't choose to find fewer than that.
If your graveyard and library combined contain fewer than five cards, all of those cards will wind up in your library.
Dueling Grounds
The ability affects all players.
Eerie Interlude
If a creature token is exiled, it ceases to exist. It won’t be returned to the battlefield.
If a double-faced card is exiled, it will return with its front face up.
Auras attached to the exiled creatures will be put into their owners’ graveyards. Equipment attached to the exiled creatures will become unattached and remain on the battlefield. Any counters on the exiled creatures will cease to exist.
Eternity Vessel
A landfall ability triggers whenever a land you control enters for any reason. It triggers whenever you play a land, as well as whenever a spell or ability puts a land onto the battlefield under your control.
Whenever a land you control enters, each landfall ability of the permanents you control will trigger. You can put them on the stack in any order. The last ability you put on the stack will be the first one to resolve (As a result, you can have those abilities resolve in the order of your choosing.).
A landfall ability doesn't trigger if a permanent already on the battlefield becomes a land.
In a Two-Headed Giant game, your life total is the same as your team's life total, so Eternity Vessel enters with a number of charge counters on it equal to your team's life total. When its landfall ability resolves, it causes its controller to lose or gain the appropriate amount of life, and the team's life total is adjusted by the amount of life the player gains or loses as a result of this ability. Suppose Eternity Vessel has 15 charge counters on it when its landfall ability resolves, and its controller's team has 11 life. That player's life total is 11, which becomes 15, for a net gain of 4 life. The team's life total becomes 15.
For your life total to become the number of charge counters on Eternity Vessel, you actually gain or lose the necessary amount of life. For example, if your life total is 4 when Eternity Vessel's landfall ability resolves and Eternity Vessel has 12 charge counters on it, the ability will cause you to gain 8 life. Other cards that interact with life gain or life loss will interact with this effect accordingly.
Eternity Vessel's landfall ability cares only about how many charge counters are on it, not what its controller's life total was as it entered. The number of charge counters may be changed by other spells and abilities.
Feed the Swarm
The amount of life you lose is determined by the permanent's mana value as it last existed on the battlefield.
If the target permanent is an illegal target by the time Feed the Swarm tries to resolve, the spell doesn't resolve. You don't lose any life. If the target is legal but not destroyed (most likely because it has indestructible), you do lose life.
If a permanent on the battlefield has {X} in its mana cost, X is 0 for the purpose of determining its mana value.
Fireball
You can target more than X creatures. However, if the number of legal targets at the time Fireball resolves is greater than X, none of them will be dealt any damage.
You may cast Fireball with zero targets, regardless of the value chosen for X. If you do so, it will not be a targeted spell, and no damage will actually be dealt when it resolves.
For example, if X is 5 and you choose three target creatures, Fireball has a total cost of {7}{R} (even though its mana cost is just {5}{R} and its mana value is 6). If those creatures are all still legal targets as Fireball resolves, it deals 1 damage to each of them.
Fireball's damage is divided as Fireball resolves, not as it's cast, because there are no choices involved. The division involves only targets that are still legal as Fireball resolves.
Foundry Inspector
Once a player has announced an artifact spell, no player may take actions to try to remove Foundry Inspector from the battlefield before that spell's cost is locked in.
If an artifact spell has {X} in its mana cost, choose the value for X first, and then reduce the cost by {1}. For example, an artifact that costs {X} with X chosen as 4 costs {3} to cast if you control Foundry Inspector.
Garth One-Eye
Each Garth One-Eye keeps track of card names chosen for itself, but not for other Garth One-Eyes. (Garths One-Eye?) If Garth One-Eye leaves the battlefield and returns, or you control another copy of it, it won't remember the choices made during earlier activations. However, if another player gains control of Garth One-Eye, it will remember choices made for it.
Official card text for each card Garth One-Eye references can be found using the Gatherer card database at Gatherer.Wizards.com.
If all choices have been named before, Garth's ability won't do anything when it resolves.
Resolving copies of permanent spells become tokens as they enter the battlefield. These tokens are not considered “created” when this happens.
As Garth One-Eye's ability resolves, you must choose one of the listed card names. You may choose not to cast the copy created, but you won't be able choose that card name again later.
You must pay the costs for the chosen card, but you cast the copy as the ability resolves, which may not be a time that you could normally cast that card.
Generous Gift
If the target permanent is an illegal target by the time Generous Gift tries to resolve, the spell doesn't resolve. No player creates an Elephant. If the target is legal but not destroyed (most likely because it has indestructible), its controller does create an Elephant.
Ghostly Flicker
The two targets can have different card types. For example, you can target one artifact and one creature with Ghostly Flicker.
Giant Spider
This card now uses the Reach keyword ability to enable the blocking of flying creatures. This works because a creature with flying can only be blocked by creatures with flying or reach.
Glimpse the Impossible
Only the cards that remain in exile are put into your graveyard. For example, a permanent spell cast this way will remain on the battlefield.
You pay all costs and follow all normal timing rules for a card played this way. For example, if one of the exiled cards is a land card, you may play it only during your main phase while the stack is empty.
Go for the Throat
If the targeted creature is also an artifact when Go for the Throat tries to resolve, it won't resolve.
If the targeted creature is also an artifact when Go for the Throat tries to resolve, it won't resolve.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
The amount of life you gain is the total amount of life lost, not simply the value of X.
Colorless and generic mana symbols ({C}, {0}, {1}, {2}, {X}, and so on) in mana costs of permanents you control don't count toward your devotion to any color.
If an activated ability or triggered ability has an effect that depends on your devotion to a color, you count the number of mana symbols of that color among the mana costs of permanents you control as the ability resolves. The permanent with that ability will be counted if it's still on the battlefield at that time.
Mana symbols in the text boxes of permanents you control don't count toward your devotion to any color.
Hybrid mana symbols, monocolored hybrid mana symbols, and Phyrexian mana symbols do count toward your devotion to their color(s).
If you put an Aura on an opponent's permanent, you still control the Aura, and mana symbols in its mana cost count towards your devotion.
Gut Shot
If you're at 1 life or less, you can't pay 2 life.
A card with Phyrexian mana symbols in its mana cost is each color that appears in that mana cost, regardless of how that cost may have been paid.
To calculate the mana value of a card with Phyrexian mana symbols in its cost, count each Phyrexian mana symbol as 1.
As you cast a spell or activate an activated ability with one or more Phyrexian mana symbols in its cost, you choose how to pay for each Phyrexian mana symbol at the same time you would choose modes or choose a value for X.
Phyrexian mana is not a new color. Players can't produce Phyrexian mana.
Guttersnipe
In a Two-Headed Giant game, Guttersnipe's ability causes the opposing team to lose 4 life.
Guttersnipe's triggered ability resolves before the spell that caused it to trigger. It resolves even if that spell is countered or otherwise leaves the stack without resolving.
High Tide
The effect applies even if the Island in question entered the battlefield after High Tide resolved.
The delayed triggered ability refers to any land with the land type Island, not just those named Island.
Hypnotic Specter
The ability triggers even if the Specter’s damage is being redirected to an opponent. It does not trigger if damage that would have been dealt to the opponent is redirected to a nonopponent player or a creature, or if the damage is prevented.
Imp's Mischief
If a spell targets multiple things, you can't target it with Imp's Mischief, even if all but one of those targets have become illegal.
You don't choose the new target for the spell until Imp's Mischief resolves. You must change the target if possible. However, you can't change the target to an illegal target. If there are no legal targets to choose from, the target isn't changed. It doesn't matter if the original target has somehow become illegal itself.
This only targets the spell being changed, not the original or new target of the spell it is affecting.
The target of a spell that targets another spell on the stack can be changed to any other spell on the stack, even if the new target will resolve before the spell does.
You can't make a spell which is on the stack target itself.
If there is no other legal target for the spell, this does not change the target.
You can choose to make a spell on the stack target this spell (if such a target choice would be legal had the spell been cast while this spell was on the stack). The new target for the deflected spell is not chosen until this spell resolves. This spell is still on the stack when new targets are selected for the spell.
You choose the spell to target on announcement, but you pick the new target for that spell on resolution.
Once the spell resolves, the new target is considered to be targeted by the deflected spell. This will trigger any effects which trigger on being targeted.
This does not check if the current target is legal. It just checks if the spell has a single target.
Imperial Recruiter
If a creature card has "*" in its power, the ability that defines its power works in all zones.
Because the "search" requires you to find a card with certain characteristics, you don't have to find the card if you don't want to.
Imprisoned in the Moon
Becoming a land may cause other Auras to become illegally attached. These are put into their owner's graveyard, and any Equipment attached to the land become unattached and remain on the battlefield. Counters on the land remain on it even if they don't do anything.
If you remove Imprisoned in the Moon from a planeswalker after tapping it for mana, you can still activate a loyalty ability of that planeswalker even though it's tapped.
If the enchanted permanent is a land and has land types, it retains those types even though it loses any intrinsic mana abilities associated with them. For example, a Plains enchanted by Imprisoned in the Moon is still a Plains, but it can't tap for {W}, only for {C}.
The permanent will keep any supertypes it previously had. Notably, if Imprisoned in the Moon is enchanting a legendary permanent, that permanent will continue to be legendary.
At the time the permanent becomes enchanted, Imprisoned in the Moon causes it to lose all abilities except the noted mana ability. Any abilities the permanent gains after that point will work normally.
Invigorate
To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you're paying (such as the alternative cost of Invigorate), add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was.
If an effect says that an opponent can't gain life, you can't have that player gain life to pay Invigorate's alternative cost. If an effect instead replaces life gain, such as that of Sulfuric Vortex, you may choose to pay the cost even though the cost's action is replaced with nothing.
Jester's Cap
As long as there are three or more cards in that library, you must find three cards and exile them. If there are fewer than three cards in the player's library, you exile all of them.
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
You're the defending player if a creature is attacking you, a planeswalker you control, or a battle you protect.
If you're the defending player, Kazuul's ability triggers once for each creature that attacks, not just once per combat. The attacking player chooses whether to pay {3} or let you have an Ogre token each time one of those abilities resolves.
As the ability resolves, you can't put the Ogre token onto the battlefield without explicitly giving the attacking player the option to pay {3}, even if the attacking player has forgotten about this ability.
The ability triggers and resolves during the declare attackers step. If you put an Ogre token onto the battlefield as a result, you may block with it during that combat phase.
In a multiplayer game, the ability checks whether you're the defending player for each individual attacking creature. For example, if one creature attacks you and two creatures attack another player, Kazuul's ability triggers just once.
If an attacking creature has a "Whenever this creature attacks" ability, that ability is put on the stack first, then Kazuul's ability is put on the stack. Although Kazuul's ability will resolve first, and potentially create an Ogre token, any target of the other ability will already have been chosen at this point, and thus could not have been the new Ogre token.
Laboratory Maniac
If for some reason you can't win the game (because your opponent has cast Angel's Grace this turn, for example), you won't lose for having tried to draw a card from a library with no cards in it. The draw was still replaced.
If two or more players each control a Laboratory Maniac and each player is instructed to draw a number of cards, first the player whose turn it is draws that many cards. If this causes that player to win the game instead, the game is immediately over. If the game isn't over yet, repeat this process for each other player in turn order.
Land Tax
You shuffle your library if you search, even if you don't put any basic land cards into your hand.
This ability has an "intervening 'if' clause." That means (1) the ability won't trigger at all unless any one of your opponents controls more lands than you, and (2) the ability will do nothing if you control at least as many lands as each of your opponents by the time it resolves.
You can fetch any of the "Snow-Covered" lands, since they all also have the supertype basic.
Life from the Loam
Once you've announced that you're applying a card's dredge ability to replace a draw, players can't take any actions until you've put that card into your hand and milled cards.
If an effect puts a card into your hand without specifically using the word "draw," you're not drawing a card. Dredge can't replace this event.
You can't attempt to use a dredge ability if you don't have enough cards in your library.
If you're drawing multiple cards, each draw is performed one at a time. For example, if you're instructed to draw two cards and you replace the first draw with a dredge ability, another card with a dredge ability (including one that was milled by the first dredge ability) may be used to replace the second draw.
Dredge can replace any card draw, not only the one during your draw step.
One card draw can't be replaced by multiple dredge abilities.
Mana Echoes
The creature entering the battlefield shares a creature type with itself if it has any creature types, so Mana Echoes usually adds at least {C}.
The amount of mana to add is determined only as the triggered ability of Mana Echoes resolves. The ability isn't a mana ability; players may respond to it.
Mana Echoes counts the number of creatures that share a type, not how many types they share. For example, if a Human Warrior enters while you control two Humans and two other Human Warriors, you'll add five {C}.
Manifold Key
Activating Manifold Key's last ability after a creature has become blocked won't cause that creature to become unblocked.
Mental Misstep
If a spell has {X} in its mana cost, X is considered to be the value chosen for it while that spell is on the stack.
If you're at 1 life or less, you can't pay 2 life.
A card with Phyrexian mana symbols in its mana cost is each color that appears in that mana cost, regardless of how that cost may have been paid.
To calculate the mana value of a card with Phyrexian mana symbols in its cost, count each Phyrexian mana symbol as 1.
Each Phyrexian mana symbol in a spell's mana cost contributes 1 to that spell's mana value. For example, Mental Misstep's mana value is 1, regardless of how its cost was paid.
As you cast a spell or activate an activated ability with one or more Phyrexian mana symbols in its cost, you choose how to pay for each Phyrexian mana symbol at the same time you would choose modes or choose a value for X.
Phyrexian mana is not a new color. Players can't produce Phyrexian mana.
Merchant Scroll
Because the "search" requires you to find a card with certain characteristics, you don't have to find the card if you don't want to.
Mortuary
This is not an optional ability.
Mox Tantalite
The mana value of a spell cast without paying its mana cost is determined by its mana cost, even though that cost wasn't paid.
Cards exiled with suspend are exiled face up.
Exiling a card with suspend isn't casting that card. This action doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to.
If the spell requires any targets, those targets are chosen when the spell is finally cast, not when it's exiled.
If you cast a card "without paying its mana cost," such as with suspend, you can't choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those if you want to cast the card.
If the first triggered ability of suspend (the one that removes time counters) is countered, no time counter is removed. The ability will trigger again at the beginning of the card's owner's next upkeep.
If the second triggered ability is countered, the card can't be cast. It remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it's no longer suspended.
A card with no mana cost can't be cast normally; you'll need a way to cast it for an alternative cost or without paying its mana cost, such as by suspending it.
When the last time counter is removed, the second triggered ability of suspend (the one that lets you cast the card) triggers. It doesn't matter why the last time counter was removed or what effect removed it.
Due to a recent rules change to suspend, you are no longer required to cast the suspended card as the second triggered ability of suspend resolves. Instead, as the second triggered ability resolves, you may cast the card. Timing permissions based on the card's type are ignored. If you don't cast the card, it remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it's no longer suspended.
If a card with no mana cost is given an alternative cost equal to its mana cost (by Snapcaster Mage, for example), that cost cannot be paid and the card cannot be cast this way.
Suspend is a keyword that represents three abilities. The first is a static ability that allows you to exile the card from your hand with the specified number of time counters (the number before the dash) on it by paying its suspend cost (listed after the dash). The second is a triggered ability that removes a time counter from the suspended card at the beginning of each of your upkeeps. The third is a triggered ability that gives you the option to cast the card when the last time counter is removed.
If the card has {X} in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost.
If an effect refers to a "suspended card," that means a card that (1) has suspend, (2) is in exile, and (3) has one or more time counters on it.
You can exile a card in your hand using suspend any time you could cast that card. Consider its card type, any effects that modify when you could cast it (such as flash) and any other effects that stop you from casting it (such as from Meddling Mage's ability) to determine if and when you can do this. Whether you could actually complete all steps in casting the card is irrelevant. For example, you can exile a card with suspend that has no mana cost or that requires a target even if no legal targets are available at that time.
Mulldrifter
If you pay the evoke cost, you can have Mulldrifter's own triggered ability resolve before the evoke triggered ability. You can cast spells after that ability resolves but before you have to sacrifice Mulldrifter.
To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you're paying (such as an evoke cost), add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell is determined by only its mana cost, no matter what the total cost to cast that spell was.
Mycosynth Golem
Two or more instances of the affinity ability are cumulative, even if they’re both affinity for the same thing.
If Mycosynth Golem is sacrificed as part of the cost to cast a spell, the cost reduction will already be locked in, and the cost won’t be increased.
The spells gain affinity for artifacts as they’re put onto the stack. They don’t have the ability while they’re cards in your hand.
Narcomoeba
If Narcomoeba is revealed or looked at while moving from your library to your graveyard (such as with Mind Funeral), its ability will trigger when it's put into your graveyard. It was still in your library while it was revealed or being looked at.
If Narcomoeba is removed from your graveyard before its ability resolves, you can't put it onto the battlefield.
Nature's Claim
If the target artifact or enchantment is an illegal target by the time Nature's Claim tries to resolve, the spell doesn't resolve. No player gains 4 life. If the target is legal but not destroyed (most likely because it has indestructible), its controller does gain 4 life.
Obeka, Brute Chronologist
If the turn ends before the end step, any "At the beginning of the next end step" triggered abilities won't get the chance to trigger that turn because the end step has been skipped. Those abilities will trigger next turn at the beginning of the end step.
If the turn ends during the end step after "At the beginning of the next end step" abilities have triggered but before they've resolved, those abilities won't trigger again next turn.
Ending the turn this way means the following things happen in order: 1) All spells and abilities on the stack are exiled. This includes spells and abilities that can't be countered. 2) If there are any attacking and blocking creatures, they're removed from combat. 3) State-based actions are checked. No player gets priority, and no triggered abilities are put onto the stack. 4) The current phase and/or step ends. The game skips straight to the cleanup step. 5) The cleanup step happens in its entirety.
If any triggered abilities do trigger during this process, they're put onto the stack during the cleanup step. If this happens, players will have a chance to cast spells and activate abilities, then there will be another cleanup step before the turn is over.
Panoptic Mirror
To imprint a split card, you pay X equal to card's mana value, determined by the combined mana cost of its two halves. If the copied card is a split card, you choose which one side of it to cast, but you can't cast both sides.
The creation of the copy and then the casting of the copy are both optional.
You don't pay the spell's mana cost. If the spell has X in its mana cost, X is 0. You do pay any additional costs for that spell. You can't use any alternative costs.
Exiling a card when the activated ability resolves is optional. If you choose to exile a card, you can exile only a card with mana value equal to X.
The triggered ability triggers only once each upkeep, not once per imprinted card. If no cards are imprinted on Panoptic Mirror when the triggered ability resolves, it does nothing.
As Panoptic Mirror's triggered ability resolves, it allows you to create a copy of one of the instant or sorcery cards imprinted on Panoptic Mirror in the Exile zone (that's where the imprinted card is) and then cast it without paying its mana cost.
You may imprint a card on Panoptic Mirror in response to the upkeep-triggered ability. If you do, that card is available to copy when the triggered ability resolves.
Path to Exile
If the target creature is an illegal target by the time Path to Exile tries to resolve, it won't resolve and none of its effects will happen. The creature's controller won't search for a basic land card.
The controller of the exiled creature isn't required to search their library for a basic land. If that player doesn't, the player won't shuffle their library.
Power Sink
Only lands that actually have mana abilities will get tapped. This includes basic lands and lands with mana abilities printed on them, as well as lands which have been granted a mana ability by some effect.
Does not increase the mana cost of the spell. It just requires a separate expenditure in order for it to succeed.
When this spell resolves, you either pay X mana or let your lands become tapped. The lands that become tapped are not “tapped for mana”. If you choose to pay, you may pay the X mana using whatever mana abilities you want to use.
Pyroblast
Pyroblast can target any spell or permanent, not just a blue one. It checks the color of the target only on resolution.
The decision to counter a spell or destroy a permanent is a decision made on announcement before the target is selected. If the spell is redirected, this mode can't be changed, so only targets of the selected type are valid.
Pyrokinesis
If another effect causes Pyrokinesis to cost more, you must pay that additional cost even if you pay its alternative cost.
You divide the damage as you cast Pyrokinesis, not as it resolves. If any of the targets become illegal, damage is dealt to the other targets as originally assigned. If all targets are illegal, Pyrokinesis doesn’t resolve.
Each target must be assigned at least 1 damage.
Quicksilver Elemental
Activated abilities contain a colon. They're generally written "[Cost]: [Effect]." Some keywords are activated abilities and will have colons in their reminder text.
The granted abilities effectively use "this permanent," rather than "[that card's name]," so you treat the abilities as if they were printed on Quicksilver Elemental. For example, you treat an ability that says "Sacrifice a creature: Nantuko Husk gets +2/+2 until end of turn" as "Sacrifice a creature: Quicksilver Elemental gets +2/+2 until end of turn."
Quicksilver Elemental has a rather tricky interaction with Leonin Bola. You can actually unattach your opponent's Bola as part of the cost of activating the Elemental-copied ability.
Quicksilver Elemental gains only activated abilities. It doesn't gain keyword abilities (unless those keyword abilities are activated), triggered abilities, or static abilities.
Quicksilver Elemental can gain the activated abilities of any creature on the battlefield that you can target with its ability, even if you don't control that creature.
If you use this card to gain Wall of Deceit's ability to turn itself face down, you will not be able to turn this card face up because it will not have the Morph ability.
If you make two copies of an ability that can be activated once a turn, you can activate each of them once a turn.
You can activate the ability more than once, collecting abilities from multiple creatures (or the same creature more than once).
Raffine, Scheming Seer
Once an ability that causes a creature to connive begins to resolve, no player may take any other actions until it's done. Notably, opponents can't try to remove the conniving creature after you discard a nonland card but before it receives a counter.
If no card is discarded, most likely because that player's hand is empty and an effect says they can't draw cards, the conniving creature does not receive a +1/+1 counter.
Connive X is a variant of connive. If a creature connives X, its controller will draw X cards, discard X cards, then then put a number of +1/+1 counters on the conniving permanent equal to the number of nonland cards discarded this way.
Reliquary Tower
If multiple effects modify your hand size, apply them in timestamp order. For example, if you put Null Profusion (an enchantment that says your maximum hand size is two) onto the battlefield and then put Reliquary Tower onto the battlefield, you'll have no maximum hand size. However, if those permanents enter in the opposite order, your maximum hand size would be two.
Return to Dust
If a spell or ability copies Return to Dust, the copy exiles only the first target artifact or enchantment. This is because the copy wasn't cast at all.
Return to Dust can always target a second artifact or enchantment; it just won't exile it if it's not your main phase when you cast Return to Dust.
Ruxa, Patient Professor
Auras and Equipment that grant abilities will use the words "gains" or "has," and they'll list a keyword ability or an ability in quotation marks. A creature with no abilities affected by such an Aura or Equipment would no longer get the +1/+1 bonus or be able to assign combat damage as though it weren't blocked. If the Aura or Equipment does not give the creature any abilities, the creature will continue to benefit from Ruxa's last two abilities.
A creature or creature card with no abilities is one with no rules text at all. This includes true vanilla creatures (including Grizzly Bears, Runeclaw Bear, Bear Cub, and other adorable bear students), face-down creatures, many tokens, and creatures that have lost their abilities. Abilities that function only in zones other than the battlefield count. For example, a creature with cycling {2} is not a creature with no abilities.
Notably, neither of Ruxa's last two abilities give any creatures an ability.
For each attacking creature you control with no abilities, you decide whether it will assign combat damage to the blocking creatures or if it will assign combat damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking. You can't split damage assignment between them. You make this decision individually for each qualifying creature just before it deals combat damage.
Scute Swarm
A landfall ability triggers whenever a land you control enters for any reason. It triggers whenever you play a land, as well as whenever a spell or ability puts a land onto the battlefield under your control.
Whenever a land you control enters, each landfall ability of the permanents you control will trigger. You can put them on the stack in any order. The last ability you put on the stack will be the first one to resolve (As a result, you can have those abilities resolve in the order of your choosing.).
A landfall ability doesn't trigger if a permanent already on the battlefield becomes a land.
The token copy won't copy counters or damage marked on Scute Swarm, nor will it copy other effects that have changed Scute Swarm's power, toughness, types, color, and so on. Normally, this means the token will simply be a Scute Swarm, but if any copy effects have affected the original Scute Swarm, the token will take those into account.
If Scute Swarm leaves the battlefield before its triggered ability resolves, the token will still enter the battlefield as a copy of Scute Swarm, using Scute Swarm's copiable values from when it was last on the battlefield.
The token copy will have Scute Swarm's ability. It will also be able to create copies of itself.
Scythecat Cub
A landfall ability triggers whenever a land you control enters for any reason. It triggers whenever you play a land, as well as whenever a spell or ability puts a land onto the battlefield under your control.
To double the number of +1/+1 counters on a creature, put a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the number it already has. Other cards that interact with putting counters on it will interact with this effect accordingly.
Whenever a land you control enters, each landfall ability of the permanents you control will trigger. You can put them on the stack in any order. The last ability you put on the stack will be the first one to resolve (As a result, you can have those abilities resolve in the order of your choosing.).
A landfall ability doesn't trigger if a permanent already on the battlefield becomes a land.
Sengir Vampire
If Sengir Vampire and a creature it dealt damage to are both put into a graveyard at the same time, Sengir Vampire's ability will trigger, but it will do nothing when it resolves.
Each time a creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, check whether Sengir Vampire had dealt any damage to it at any time during that turn. If so, Sengir Vampire's ability will trigger. It doesn't matter who controlled the creature or whose graveyard it was put into.
If Sengir Vampire deals nonlethal damage to a creature and then a different effect or damage source causes that creature to be put into a graveyard later in the turn, Sengir Vampire's ability will trigger and it will get a +1/+1 counter.
Sensei's Divining Top
If Sensei's Divining Top leaves the battlefield while its second ability is on the stack, you'll draw a card and leave Sensei's Divining Top in the zone it's moved to.
Sensei's Divining Top's second ability may be activated in response to its first ability. If so, you'll draw a card, put Sensei's Divining Top on top of your library, and then look at the top three cards and rearrange them.
Simian Spirit Guide
If a spell or ability's cost includes returning a creature to your hand and paying mana, you can't activate Simian Spirit Guide's mana ability after returning it to your hand. This is because mana abilities must be activated before you begin paying costs.
The Jolly Balloon Man
If the copied creature has {X} in its mana cost, X is 0.
Except for the listed exceptions, the token created by The Jolly Balloon Man's ability copies exactly what was printed on the original creature and nothing else (unless that creature is copying something else or is a token; see below). It doesn't copy whether that creature is tapped or untapped, whether it has any counters on it or Auras and Equipment attached to it, or any non-copy effects that have changed its power, toughness, types, color, and so on.
Any enters abilities of the copied creature will trigger when the token enters. Any "as [this creature] enters" or "[this creature] enters with" abilities of the copied creature will also work.
If the copied creature is copying something else, then the token enters as whatever that creature copied, with the stated exception.
If the copied creature is a token, the token that's created copies the original characteristics of that token as stated by the effect that created that token, with the stated exceptions.
Thought Scour
Follow the instructions in the order listed on the card: if you target yourself, you'll put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard and then draw a card.
If the target player is an illegal target when Thought Scour tries to resolve, it won't resolve and none of its effects will happen. You won't draw a card.
Thrummingbird
Players can respond to a spell or ability whose effect includes proliferating. Once that spell or ability starts to resolve, however, and its controller chooses which permanents and players will get new counters, it's too late for anyone to respond.
An ability that triggers "Whenever you proliferate" triggers even if you chose no permanents or players while doing so.
If a permanent ever has both +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters on it at the same time, they're removed in pairs as a state-based action so that the permanent has only one of those kinds of counters on it.
If a player or permanent has more than one kind of counter on it, and you choose for it to get additional counters, it must get one of each kind of counter it already has. You can't have it get just one kind of counter it already has and not the others.
To proliferate, you can choose any permanent that has a counter, including ones controlled by opponents. You can choose any player who has a counter, including opponents. You can't choose cards in any zone other than the battlefield, even if they have counters on them.
You don't have to choose every permanent or player that has a counter, only the ones you want to add another counter to. Since "any number" includes zero, you don't have to choose any permanents at all, and you don't have to choose any players at all.
Unearth
If a card in a player's graveyard has {X} in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Land cards not on the battlefield aren't Swamps while Urborg is on the battlefield.
If an effect such as that of Magus of the Moon causes Urborg to lose its abilities by setting it to a basic land type not in addition to its other types, it won't turn lands into Swamps, no matter in what order those effects started to apply.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth isn't a Swamp while it's not on the battlefield.
Urborg's ability causes each land on the battlefield to have the land type Swamp. Any land that's a Swamp has the ability "{T}: Add {B}." Nothing else changes about those lands, including their names, other subtypes, other abilities, and whether they're legendary, basic, or snow.
Vandalblast
If you don't pay the overload cost of a spell with overload, that spell will have a single target. If you pay the overload cost, the spell won't have any targets.
If you are instructed to cast a spell with overload "without paying its mana cost," you can't choose to pay its overload cost instead.
Because a spell with overload doesn't target when its overload cost is paid, it may affect permanents with hexproof or with protection from the appropriate color.
To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you're paying (such as an overload cost), add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was.
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
If an ability triggers whenever an opponent loses life and causes you to gain life, such as the ability of Exquisite Blood, this will loop until either you win the game or a player takes an action to break the loop.
In a Two-Headed Giant game, life gained by your teammate won't cause the ability to trigger, even though it caused your team's life total to increase.
If you gain an amount of life "for each" of something, that life is gained as one event and Vito's first ability triggers only once.
Because Vito's first ability doesn't deal damage, you won't gain life when it resolves if Vito has lifelink.
Each creature with lifelink dealing combat damage causes a separate life-gaining event. For example, if two creatures you control with lifelink deal combat damage at the same time, Vito's first ability will trigger twice and you may choose a different opponent for each trigger. However, if a single creature you control with lifelink deals combat damage to multiple creatures, players, and/or planeswalkers at the same time (perhaps because it has trample or was blocked by more than one creature), the ability will trigger only once.
Ward of Bones
Spelling this out completely: — Each opponent who controls more creatures than you can’t play creature cards. — Each opponent who controls more artifacts than you can’t play artifact cards. — Each opponent who controls more enchantments than you can’t play enchantment cards. — Each opponent who controls more lands than you can’t play land cards.
Wheel of Misfortune
For each player to secretly choose a number, that player should write down their chosen number without showing it to anyone else. Each player then keeps their number secret until all players simultaneously reveal their numbers.
The number of players choosing the highest number doesn't change how much damage is dealt. For example, if the four players in your game reveal 4, 7, 7, and 7, Wheel of Misfortune will deal 7 damage to each of the last three players and those three players will discard their hand and draw seven cards.
White Sun's Zenith
If this spell doesn't resolve, none of its effects occur. In particular, it will go to the graveyard rather than to its owner's library.
Wild Growth
The additional mana is not an ability of the land and is not something the land can produce.
Wild Nacatl
Wild Nacatl's abilities check for lands with the subtypes Mountain and Plains. Those lands don't need to be named Mountain and Plains. Wild Nacatl will get both bonuses if those two subtypes are contained among the lands you control, even if they're from the same land (such as Plateau or Sacred Foundry).
Also Printed in Other Drops
Some of these cards came in other Secret Lair drops too, each with its own art.
- An Offer You Can't RefuseMarvel: Dan Hipp
- AngerMarvel's Hulk: SMASH!, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, Fallout: SPECIAL
- Animate DeadIron Maiden: Album Art
- Arcane SignetSecret Lair Commander Deck: Odds and Ends, Secret Lair Promo x The Hobbit Arcane Signet, Stardew Valley: A Flicker in the Deep, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Fallout: Greet the Dog
- Ashnod's AltarArtist Series: Veronique Meignaud, Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Vol. 2
- Baleful StrixThe Eyes Have It, Ornithological Studies
- Birds of ParadiseMonty Python and the Holy Grail: Vol. 1, Extra Life 2022, Artist Series: Mark Poole, Ornithological Studies
- BrainstormSecret Lair Commander Deck: Odds and Ends, Dungeons & Dragons: Gale's Ambition, Dandân Deck, Artist Series: John Avon, Artist Series: Mark Poole
- Cathartic ReunionGift Wrapped
- Cauldron FamiliarShowcase: Duskmourn
- Chain of VaporAvatar: The Last Airbender: My Cabbages!
- Chromatic LanternFurby: Doo-ay Noo-lah, 20 Ways to Win, From Cute to Brute, A Box of Rocks
- Command TowerSecret Lair Commander Deck: Odds and Ends, Masters of the Universe: Sold Separately, Hatsune Miku, Stardew Valley: Life in Pelican Town, Marvel's Spider-Man: Villainous Plots
- CultivateHatsune Miku, Their Magic is Limitless, Everyone's Invited!, Raining Cats and Dogs, Black Is Magic
- Dark RitualTheir Magic is Limitless, Garfield: As Intended, Marvel's Spider-Man: Venom Unleashed (Colors), Marvel's Spider-Man: Venom Unleashed (Inks), The Art of Frank Frazetta
- Dig Through TimeEvery Dog Has Its Day
- DoomsdaySpecial Guest: Junji Ito
- DuressArcane
- Eerie InterludeSecret Lair x Star Trek: Beam Me Up
- Foundry InspectorFeaturing: Deathburger
- Generous GiftMy Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sonic: Chasing Adventure, Purrfection
- Ghostly FlickerGhost of Tsushima
- Glimpse the ImpossibleGoblin Storm
- Go for the ThroatMarvel's Spider-Man: Villainous Plots
- GuttersnipeFeaturing: Kevin Eastman (Colors), Featuring: Kevin Eastman (Inks)
- Hullbreaker HorrorFurby: The Oddbodies
- Imp's MischiefThe Hobbit: Over the Edge of the Wild
- Imprisoned in the MoonSecret Lair Commander Deck: Odds and Ends, The Space Beyond the Stars
- Kazuul, Tyrant of the CliffsFeaturing: Gene Luen Yang
- Laboratory ManiacJurassic World: Dr. Ian Malcolm, The Weirdest Pets in the Multiverse
- Life from the LoamRestless in Peace
- Lightning BoltMarvel: Earth's Mightiest Pets, Marvel's Deadpool: I Fixed It (You're Welcome), Avatar: The Last Airbender: Everything Changed, FINAL FANTASY: Grimoire, Featuring: Mitsuhiro Arita
- Llanowar ElvesHatsune Miku, Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing, Special Guest: Kozyndan: Another Story
- Mental MisstepTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, The Meaning of Life, Maybe
- Merchant ScrollLofi Girl: Beats to Cast To
- Mother of RunesArtist Series: Magali Villeneuve, Mother's Day 2021
- Mox TantaliteDan Frazier's Mox Box
- MulldrifterInked, Animar & Friends, Extra Life 2021
- Mycosynth GolemMycosynthwave
- Nature's ClaimAvatar: The Last Airbender: My Cabbages!
- Night's WhisperSpongeBob SquarePants: Internet Sensation, Welcome to Castle Dracula
- Obeka, Brute ChronologistHard-Boiled Thrillers
- Path to ExileHatsune Miku, Ghost of Tsushima, Raining Cats and Dogs, Angels: They're Just Like Us but Cooler and with Wings, Arcane
- Price of ProgressDeceptive Divination
- PyroblastDuality Distorted
- Reliquary TowerSecret Lair Commander Deck: Odds and Ends, Goblin Storm, Fallout: Points of Interest, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
- Sensei's Divining TopSecret Lair Commander Deck: Odds and Ends
- Serra AngelArtist Series: John Avon
- Simian Spirit GuidePrismatic Nightmares
- SkullclampHatsune Miku, Goblin Storm, Brain Dead: Staples, Raining Cats and Dogs, Special Guest: Yoji Shinkawa
- Sol RingSecret Lair Commander Deck: Odds and Ends, Masters of the Universe: She-Ra, Princess of Power, The Hobbit: Smaug's Spoils, Hatsune Miku, Stardew Valley: Welcome to Stardew Valley
- Spell PierceReturn to Mystical Archive, Full Sleeves: the Tattoo Pack
- Thought ScourMahō Gakuin Seishun Hakusho — 魔法学院青春白書
- Thought VesselThe Hobbit: Smaug's Spoils, Brain Dead: Staples, Through the Wormhole, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
- UnearthIron Maiden: Album Art
- VandalblastGoblin Storm, Marvel's Deadpool, Li'l Giri Saves the Day, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
- Vito, Thorn of the Dusk RoseTrick or Treat
- Wheel of MisfortuneArcade Racers, Death Is Temporary, Metal Is Forever
- White Sun's ZenithRaining Cats and Dogs
- WindfallThe Hobbit: He Who Walks Unseen Out of Sight, Iron Maiden: Eddie Unchained, Ghostbusters: Slimer
- Yargle, Glutton of UrborgJust Add Milk: Second Helpings
Portions of Commander Nexus are unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved or endorsed by Wizards. Literal and graphical information about Magic: The Gathering, including card images and mana symbols, is copyright Wizards of the Coast, LLC.