Phantasmal Image and Blightsteel Colossus
Asked by cryptichorror 13 years ago
If Phantasmal Image (or any clone, really) comes into play and copies Blightsteel Colossus, where will it go when it dies? Graveyard, or shuffled into my library?
Rhadamanthus - Not saying you're wrong, I just want to learn. Blightsteel reads "if it would be". I always interpreted that as it never touches the grave.
March 1, 2012 11:19 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #3
Yes, that's right. The replacement effect causes it to go to the library instead of the graveyard. That's why it works differently from the cards with abilities that trigger when they go to the graveyard from anywhere.
March 1, 2012 11:33 a.m.
cryptichorror says... #4
It doesn't touch the graveyard, and I don't think Rhadamanthus was saying it did. He's saying it's a replacement effect, and would apply before either creature (Phantasmal Image or Blightsteel Colossus) would hit the graveyard.
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1
Blightsteel Colossus
' ability is a replacement effect (you can tell because it uses the word "instead"), so it gets applied as long as it exists right before the event it would replace would occur. Because the Phantasmal Image
copy of the Colossus still has the ability before it would actually change zones, it gets applied, and the Image gets shuffled into your library.
The answer is different if the copied creature has a triggered ability (starts with "when", "whenever" or "at") that triggers when it goes "to the graveyard from anywhere", like on Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
and friends. That kind of ability triggers from the graveyard, and a Phantasmal Image
in the graveyard wouldn't have that ability anymore, so it wouldn't trigger.
March 1, 2012 9:28 a.m.