If Lazav is using Mirror-Mad's ability

Asked by dryhamm 4 years ago

With my only copy of Mirror-Mad Phantasm in the graveyard, and Lazav, the Multifarious having already used his ability to become a copy of it (except still named Lazav). Can I have Lazav use the copied ability of Mirror-Mad to mill my own deck out?

The 1st ruling on gatherer for Mirror-Mad seems to contradict the 3rd ruling on this. https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=227297

Kogarashi says... Accepted answer #1

Yes, you can mill your deck this way.

To explain the rulings, the first is simply explaining that only the controller of Mirror-Mad Phantasm (or whatever creature has gained its ability in some fashion) may activate its ability. You can't activate the ability of a Phantasm an opponent controls just to get rid of it or mill part of their library. (However, since it's shuffled into its owner's library, you could steal someone else's Phantasm and then activate its ability to mill part of their library.)

The third ruling, on the other hand, is explaining that if something is able to gain Phantasm's ability (such as Necrotic Ooze gaining the ability or Lazav, the Multifarious copying the Phantasm), it doesn't change which card the ability is looking for when you start revealing cards in your library. It says "card named Mirror-Mad Phantasm," not just "until you reveal Mirror-Mad Phantasm." The latter is interpreted in game rules as "until you reveal [this card]," which would mean revealing Necrotic Ooze or Lazav in the case of copied abilities. It's also not feasible to track through a hidden zone. So the ability looks for a card with the same name, and that name doesn't change just because the ability ended up on a differently-named creature.

There's no contradiction. You can only activate the ability if you control the creature it's on, and when you reveal cards in your library, you're looking specifically for any card named "Mirror-Mad Phantasm" regardless of which creature had the ability when you activated it.

The second ruling is relevant to your question. Once the ability starts resolving, Lazav, the Multifarious would be shuffled into your library. It stops being a copy of Phantasm at this point, but even if it didn't, Lazav retains its own name while copying a creature, so unless you somehow have a duplicate Mirror-Mad Phantasm in your library, you'll end up revealing your whole library without revealing Phantasm, and then your whole library gets dumped in your graveyard.

  • If no card named Mirror-Mad Phantasm is revealed (possibly because it was a card copying Mirror-Mad Phantasm or it was a token), all cards from that library will be put into their owner’s graveyard. (2011-09-22)
March 19, 2020 2:53 p.m.

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