Use This One Trick to Understand How Copying Works in Magic

This one simple trick will help you understand how to interact with copy effects in Magic: The Gathering. Except when it comes to mutate. We don’t talk about mutate...
_______________________________
！Opinions expressed in this video are those of the author/video creator and not necessarily Cardmarket.

➥ Buy and Sell your cards: 🛒

You can find us on:

[salamanteri_]

Mutate and flip cards are the funky bunch of copiable values.

[Naykid]

This is all true. For example, if you slam a Song of the Dryads on an Avacyn, she's now a land and can be targeted by the ability of Thespian Stage, but when you copy it, you get a copy of the base form of the card, which is an 8/8 angel that gives all your stuff indestructible.

[irreleverent]

Mutate and clones with an "except" rider, like Sakashima or Quicksilver Gargantuan.

[apostateCourier]

Copying Mutate was what I was hoping for an explanation on =(

[dalexa]

Also good for another video.
Remember, if you steal an opponent card you get all their attachments BUT they are still theirs not yours. If they are equipments he can move them around to other valid targets during their turn.

[BusinessSkrub]

What about enchantments that alter card text? Like something like Tezzeret's Touch, which says "enchanted artifact IS a creature with P/T 5/5...." since the "card" is being altered, do you copy the base artifact or the enchanted permanent because its base statistics have been changed, not modified?

[evanklindt]

What if you copy a card that has been blitzed out? Would the copy gain the added text to draw a card when it dies?

[ericstudios]

Not even going to lie, when I saw the title and what he was saying I thought that he was about to reveal the secret to a magic card trick. 🤣

[jonathanmillis]

Same applies to tokens, you just look at the card that created the token and follow the same steps that the first player did.

[brennanruiz]

One weird exception is Alchemy’s perpetual effects, because they permanently alter the card, but apparently work on some layer higher than copy effects but lower than Humility.

[jokersjacket]

Oooo I did not know that about mutated cards. I guess its because they basically become one card?

[lovetownsend]

Ever been a moment at tournament where something so bizzar happened they made up a rule on spot?

[bertdog]

Mutate is really not that hard, it’s wildly overblown. Imagine mutate as basically taping cards together. When you mutate below you tape the text box onto the existing creature. Mutate stacks only have 1 set of copiable values, such as P/T, MV, color, and type, whichever card is on top is the card you look at for those values

[Yakmage]

what about copying copys? if i use phantasmal image to copy progenitor mimic copying dack's duplicate copying glasspool mimic copying pirated copy copying quicksilver gargantuan copying sakashima of a thousand faces copying grizzly bears what do i have then?

[ravenknightvincent]

This is different from spells, where copying also copies all its status. Copies of kicked spells are kicked, for example.

My favorite combo with this rule is Lava Spike + Desperate Ritual + Izzet Guildmage for infinite damage.

[keepingitcasualmtg]

Copying a mutate isn’t as scary as it seems! You copy the whole mutate pile except it’s mutated 0 times!

[Shikogo]

Wait so copying a clone gets you a clone, not the thing it's copying? Was this a recent change? I used to really be into the rules and could've sworn that worked differently...

[pavma]

I always struggle with protection from everything because infact in does protect you from a whole lot.

[Ahtimakara]

My favourite interaction, That I actually still have in my Legacy Pet deck (12post) for fun, is... Song of the Dryads + Vesuva !! thats so much fun

[sirius.]

What Happens If Spark Double enters the Battlefield as a Spark Double, which enters the Battlefield as a Spark Double... How many counters has each permanent