Mairsil rules... I have some questions.

Asked by Shaydewalker 7 years ago

Alright so I made a Mairsil, the Pretender deck and finally got to playtest it today... well after about 2 games I think I have a few too many questions to reasonably run the card without clearing all of them up first. To be clear, these are questions that are mainly not mentioned specifically for mairsil and also a few rules that I am foggy on for commander

1- If Mairsil, the Pretender becomes a copy of himself, do his activated abilities refresh(I.E. him using Mirage Mirror)[I have assumed that they would refresh]

2- While a Dominating Licid would lose it's ability when it activates it's effects, would Mairsil, the Pretender retain them(and along with that would he retain all the other abilities he gains?)[I have assumed he keeps all but that one]

3-If Mairsil, the Pretender would gain all activated abilities he has from a different source(Quicksilver Elemental) would the abilities lose their once per turn stipulation[I have been operating under the assumption that they do lose it]

4- If Mairsil, the Pretender would gain Apprentice Necromancer's ability, would he be able to: Sacrifice himself to the cost, hit the graveyard, then be a valid target when the ability would choose a target(Same applies for Hell's Caretaker)[I have been assuming the answer is yes]

5- My deck involves a lot of graveyard recursion- if I were to allow Mairsil, the Pretender to hit the graveyard, would I still be able to redirect him to the command zone if an effect would move him from there to anywhere?[I was assuming yes]

6- When Mairsil, the Pretender Exiles Izzet Chemister with his ETB trigger and uses the second ability will he A) Cast each card he exiled throughout the game, B) Cast each card exiled by this instance of Mairsil, the Pretender, or C) Cast only cards exiled by the Izzet Chemister 's ability?[I was assuming B]

Alright, for now that's all I have. After I get some rulings on those and tinker with the deck some, I'll probably add to this post. Thank you in advance!

BlueScope says... Accepted answer #1

That's a whole lot of questions :) Please link all cards relevant to your question, though: Izzet Chemister

1. I'm not sure what you mean by refresh in this case, but you always copy what's printed on the card you're copying - nothing more, nothing less, except for copy abilities. This means that if you first copy Mairsil with the Mirror, Mirror will become a copy of Mairsil as printed. If you have a second Mirror and target the first Mirror, the second Mirror will also be a copy of Mairsil because the card being copied had already copied a card.
2. Dominating Licid's ability specifies that it only loses that one ability, therefore all other abilities will be retained. It's possible that they don't make a whole lot of sense on an Aura anymore, though (such as ": [this creature] gets +1/+0 until end of turn", which will not do anything for your aura-Mairsil, nor will it get "passed on" to the enchanted creature)
3. Quicksilver Elemental's ability has no relation to Mairsil's, even though they appear to be similar. Mairsil's restriction of activating an ability it has only once each turn only applies to abilities you gain from cage counters
4. The answer's no, you won't get to choose the creature with the ability as a target to return. The reason is that in the process of casting a spell or activating an ability, you first choose targets, then pay costs. In other words, you have to choose a target creature in your graveyard before you sacrifice one to pay for the ability.
5. Every time your Commander would be put in the Exile, Graveyard, Hand or Library zone, you may decide to put it in the Command Zone instead. It doesn't matter whether it already was in one of those zones.
6. When cards refer to themselves by name, it really means "this object". So the ability will indeed only be able to cast spells exiled by that specific "instance" of Mairsil, if you want to put it that way.

Remember to post further questions as a new question, instead of posting them as an answer to this one.

August 26, 2017 3:42 a.m.

Neotrup says... #2

1. Yes, it refreshes the abilities. For those confused, this is Mairsil, the Pretender using the ability of an exiled Mirage Mirror targeting himself. The restriction of "once per turn" on those abilities is what's being refreshed.

2. If Mairsil targets himself with the ability of an exiled Quicksilver Elemental it will gain a second instance of each ability, allowing him to activate each of his abilities twice instead of once. As he has a new copy of Quicksilver Elemental's ability this can be repeated for another as many times as you have mana for.

3. Specifically, only instants and sorceries exiled by the copied first ability of Izzet Chemister can be cast. You won't, for instance, cast the artifact/creature exiled by Mairsil entering the battlefield. This is because the two abilities of Izzet Chemister are linked, so even if it had more abilities, the second still only refers to cards exiled by the first.

August 26, 2017 4:46 a.m.

higgybaby says... #3

Neotrup, I believe that you are incorrect on point 1, as Mairsil is still the same instance of an object, there is no reason that his abilities should be refreshed by making him a copy of himself. The act of copying in this case does not make him a different instance of an object. Rule 706.4 illustrates this point.

Also, to add to point 2, activating Quicksilver Elemental's caged ability targeting Mairsil the first time will give you copies of each ability on Mairsil, resulting in two of each caged ability. Any instances of abilities that have already been used in the current turn cannot be used again, including caged abilities gained with Quicksilver Elemental's ability. However, activating the copied Quicksilver Elemental's a second time will result in a total of four copies of each caged ability, since it copies the original abilities plus the copied abilities from the first activation. This means that each time you use Quicksilver Elemental's ability, the number of abilities on Mairsil grows exponentially.

September 10, 2017 4:25 a.m.

higgybaby says... #4

Nevermind on the first point, I'm dumb. It would definitely give you a new instance of the static ability on Mairsil which grants you caged abilities, which would in turn give you new instances of each caged ability.

September 10, 2017 4:42 a.m.