clone at instant speed, I can see a lot of uses for it
1qazxsw
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Yeah. It being only your creatures might hurt, but the flashback is probably gonna be useful, and the instant speed makes up for the drawback.
djflo
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
I doubt Mono-Blue Illusions will use this because it targets, but it's quite good. Not sure that it'll make constructed though...
Cyberium
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
It's always easier to manage your own creatures. That said, you control and know what creatures you want to play (rather than wait for your opponent to play his/hers), which makes this instant-clone a very powerful spell for toolbox style decks.
Eternal Witness, Mystic Snake, Man'o War, Izzet Chronarch, etc
When having one of something in edh just isnt good enough. For extra fun copy it with riku
tcollins
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(2 votes)
MWAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAAH COWER BEFORE ME PUNY MORTAL, I NOW HAVE TWO PHAGE, THE UNTOUCH-
..oh wait.
PastProphet
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
"This is not a clone, not how much it looks like one. This targets creatures YOU control, clone can copy anything." -you're right, this is not a Clone... it's not even a creature, it's an Instant !
I'm going to go work on my Shapeshifter EDH deck now...
The_Stray
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(5 votes)
I pulled this and a Skaab Ruinator at the prerelease. Much beatdown ensued. But the most fun I had with this card was fighting against a werewolf deck and using this to copy my Creepy Doll twice. That was the highlight of the night, honestly...I kept giggling like a lunatic. And then my opponent asked me to stop, because he'd just watched the Doctor Who episode "Night Terrors" not too long ago...
GENERICPLAYER
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
A Charmbreaker Devlis every turn? Yes please.
Virde
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(5 votes)
I am SUPER excited about this card.
For me? HELL NO
I want every person to run this card. Why?
I run a Chancellor of the Spires Deck. You have one of these badboys sitting in your graveyard when I drop ole Spires and I get 1 Billion Chancellor's. I could go for Infinite, but hell, 1 Billion is enough for me. =D
Clone: + can be used on any creature including opponents' + doesn't target, gets around shroud/hexproof/protection + can be used as a kill spell versus legends (including Progenitus and the like since it doesn't target) + single {U} means it's more flexible in the decks it can be run in - slightly more expensive to cast - no inherent 2-for-1 (via flashback)
Cackling Counterpart: + cheaper mana cost + easy to flashback, recursion built right in +++ instant speed + combos with Mnemonic Wall/Izzet Chronarch/Charmbreaker Devils/etc. + can be twincast, etc. - only targets own creatures - can't target shrouded dudes - more restrictive (double blue) mana cost - tokens die forever with boomerang effects, unlike Clone et al.
Phyrexian Metamorph: + usable in any color deck + hits creatures and artifacts as needed + copies any player's stuff, not just your own + cheap and super-easy to cast + kills legends dead + doesn't target gets around shroud/hexproof/protection - vulnerable to more forms of removal - damage taken from phyrexian mana (not all that much a minus)
There, now talk about something else. All 3 cards have uses and merits and all 3 are worth playing in the right deck, depending on what you want to do with them.
EDIT: Thanks for the correction Virde, reminds me to RTFC once in a while.
Jaceevoke
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(3 votes)
@Minus_prime
Don't forget Sun Titan, do you like the Idea of being able to play 20 mana leaks? cause I know I do
Anubisisking
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It lose's a lot of power by only being your own creature. But at instant speed, I think it makes up a lot of that power by being able to copy creatures with ETB effects at instant speed.
I realized this card's worth last time I was playing limited. I saw that instant speed, and had a stunning revelation. I decided to swing out with both of my Lantern Spirits, and my Murder of Crows. My opponent thought he saw the opportunity to attack, and so he swung with his 3/3 Fester Boar, and his Geistcatcher's Rig (which I had been harmlessly blocking with my Lantern Spirits). I used this card to copy my Crows, and block his 3/3 Festerhide. It died, which made him smile.
He said, "Oh, hey, thanks! You actually did me a favor!" And he played his now mobid-fueled Somberwald Spider. A 4/6 reacher, stout enough to block my crows and my spirits unscathed. I don't remember his life total exactly, but he knew that I couldn't just swarm him with my fliers long enough to kill him before he blocked and killed all of them. What he didn't know is that when the crows had activated upon his Boar's untimely demise, I cycled through two cards (having two Murder of Crows on the field). I chanced upon an island.
So next turn, his spider silently departed, and I swung in for a lot of damage. He played the spider again, all it took was a quick flashback of Silent Departure to win me the game.
Moral of the story:
Even if a card seems bad, it can become your very favorite limited savior. Even if I don't like Cackling Counterpart very much... And as much as I think Silent Departure is a shiddy card, I'll have fond memories of the both of them because they saved me in the kind of pinch that made me absolutely love MTG.
Antares2
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Dear Wizards, please stop printing clones. After Phantasmal Image I am more then sick of them.
Ferlord
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Since my blue deck contains no true powerful creatures, I usually copy my Clone or Vesuvan Doppelganger.
I also go around doing this like, "So I play Cackling Counterpart on my (copy card), making it a copy of a copy"
"INCEPTION. DUDUDUDUDUDUUU DUUUDUDUDUDU DUUUUUNNN DUN DUUUUUUNNN (my impersonation of South Park's impersonation of the Inception music)"
Kryptnyt
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Turn two, mana leak. Turn three, mana leak. Turn four, Snapcaster Mage, mana leak. Turn five, Cackling Counterpart, mana leak. STOP LEAKING MY SPELLS BROHAM
Aen3ma
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
T2: Mayor of Avabruck They play a spell on their turn to prevent him from flipping T3: You don't play anything, he flips They either play two spells to flip him back, play some random spell, or kill him You play Cackling Counterpart Token never flips back T4: Profit
Mirran_Savior
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Works wonders in many decks, like it's done for me and my Splinterfright. Yeah, milling myself for 4 cards every turn sounds insane, but not as much with a Laboratory Maniac in your hand. ;)
Lash_of_Dragonbreath
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Like most "clone" cards, t's great, but a little situational, depending on you already having a decent creature out. Only being able to choose form your creatures is a downside - you can't copy your opponent's creatures, but that's what Evil Twin is in the same set for - but you also gain instant speed, lower CMC and flashback, which make it very playable. And, regarding my opponent's creatures, I've always prefered to Mind Control them anyway.
Right now I'm using it in my upcoming Faerie deck, in which it usually fills the role of Spellstutter Sprite #5-8.
Ragamander
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
And here's yet another way to get a Phyrexian Dreadnought out way earlier than should be possible.
PROTIP: Before the comes-into-play trigger of the original resolves, cast Cackling Counterpart. Have the copy eat the original, and have the original eat itself.
ApotheosisCM
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Never let this card sit in your graveyard if an opponent has a Chancellor of the Spires that wants to multiply itself an infinite number of times.
TPmanW
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
There's a lot of clone effects in standard right now between this, Phyrexian Metamorph and Phantasmal Image. This one's best though since it only costs 1/10th the price of the others. Come to think of it Back from the Brink and Essence of the Wild are kind of clone-y too. Somebody at WOTC must have really liked Clone back in the day.
This is disgustingly good with the new RtR mechanic Populate. I will be genuinely shocked if Bant Token Control isn't a thing.
Just imagine this on a Thragtusk. 8 Mana for 10 health and two 5/3s that become 3/3s after they leave the battlefield.
Oh, and did I mention that with those two creatures: 1. There's one that can abuse Blink effects for the ETB/LBT triggers? 2. The other can abuse Populate effects for ETB trigger... and spawn even more Thragtusks?
Now consider all of this with Parallel Lives and/or RtR's new Growing Ranks (Populate at the beginning of your upkeep).
Brb, my inner-Johnny needs to change his pants.
Vakyoom
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ok so this is gonna be a fun one. I've already got myself working on a U/W/G populate deck with this card, Talrand, Sky Summoner, Trostani, Parallel Lives, Druid's deliverance, Sundering Growth, Call of the Conclave and a bunch of other instant/sorceries that help make tokens/fix your mana pool.
Can you imagine the uber? You make lots of tokens, gaining life and having more tokens come into play though Talrand, gaining life via Trostani, cloudshifting the important creatures like Thragtusk and Centaur Healer. You cackling counter part one of those two, getting beefy tokens(two at a time with parallel lives), plus two drakes(thx to parallel lives again), then swing for a ****-ton.
WIth the only 5 cost creature in the deck being Thragtusk, and plenty of activated abilities to eat up your extra mana you've got, there's a serious chance this deck could be insanely brutal and very fast. Nothing like a turn 3 Talrand/Trostani to make your opponents sweat early.
Cackling counterpart exceeds Back from the brink in this instance, because of its card type. Getting a token for putting a token on the field is... whoa. Just protect your investments from Killing Wave/Supreme Verdict with the newly-returned Syncopate! Which gives you more tokens with Talrand! AHHH!
Lord_of_Gelectrodes
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This little guy is about to get a LOT better with populate.
SkyknightXi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I find myself wondering how preferable this could be to Dance of Many for purposes of populate. It's a little more expensive than the Dance to cast, meaning you might have to wait a little longer, but you don't have an upkeep cost to worry about. Then again, it's also a little less flexible in that you can't copy a creature you don't control. Of course, copying enemy creatures is probably a Plan B or Plan C, rather than initial plan.
MasterMoumoute
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@MrBarrelRoll : You've forgot a reaaaally cool combo possibility with Cracking Counterpat : since it produces a token, you can copy a card with a good "as it enters the battlefield" effect, for example Armada Wurm, or even something like Acidic Slime, wich isen't bad at all and is cheap, so it can be used in a cheap deck. Then, you populate with any cards, or even with Growing Ranks, and you get to trigger a nice ability more often.
So, a big + for Counterpart when it's used with some Return to Ravnica cards.
Hugomanen
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Guttersnipe called, he wants to burn the opponent without ever playing a burn spell.
Assuming you can get to 7 mana, lets just look at those two cards and the flashback alone. Play guttersnipe, play cackling, 2dmg, flashback cackling, 4 dmg (since you now have two guttersnipes) Thats 6 damage already, and with three guttersnipes two or three instants later and your opponent is dead. Even without flashback all you need to finish off your opponent is the counterspells you would run to protect your permanents anyway.
@Hugomanen: What a waste of this card. If you already had 7 mana out, why wouldn't you get a bigger creature with a more dangerous effect than guttersnipe like Djinn Illuminatus (using the same theme).
Borborygme
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Awesome with the Populate mechanic. Imagine Cackling Counterparting your Armada Wurm or your Thragtusk. Now you have a token that you can use populate on, that either generates another Wurm token or gains you 5 life when it comes into play. Too much fun!
Really helps Biovisionary get some friends pretty quickly when combined with populate effects.
BegleOne
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'll always remember this season as "the standard where you could populate Thragtusk tokens".
Jokergius
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
You know what's a great way to abuse this with either Mnemonic Wall and Archaeomancer??? Casting Cackling Counterpart to copy ( sexy aliteration there, guys ) either the wall or the wizard, then once the spell resolves the ability of the token will trigger, ergo bringing back the spell back in your hand. AND if you have High Tide it just makes it even FUNNIER!!
JaxsonBateman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Love it in UG card advantage/control/ramp. It just works so, so well with Eternal Witness. Have 3 mana up at the end of your turn (and confident that your opponent won't be able to remove in response)? Use your pseudo-activated ability "1UU: put a copy of Eternal Witness into play". With other useful cards in the graveyard, you can also pinch it if you need to, and get out, say, a Mana Leak or Cryptic Command.
Both cards have some viability on their own (there are far worse things than ramping at instant speed by copying a Noble Hierarch/Birds of Paradise, and with value control cards Eternal Witness just loves that kind of deck), and the two combining to form a potential wincon and also make use of any excess mana you find yourself with is great.
It's even rekindled my love affair with Urban Evolution. Oh, so you end up getting up to 9 mana and using all your cards in hand? Make 3 tokens at will. That's pretty good when you consider you aren't running cards that are potentially dead otherwise.
Comments (47)
Eternal Witness, Mystic Snake, Man'o War, Izzet Chronarch, etc
This card looks really good.
*edit: Mono Blue Illusions is going to use this to copy Lord of the Unreal obviously.
..oh wait.
-you're right, this is not a Clone... it's not even a creature, it's an Instant !
I'm going to go work on my Shapeshifter EDH deck now...
For me? HELL NO
I want every person to run this card. Why?
I run a Chancellor of the Spires Deck. You have one of these badboys sitting in your graveyard when I drop ole Spires and I get 1 Billion Chancellor's. I could go for Infinite, but hell, 1 Billion is enough for me. =D
Edit: :
MrBarrelRoll , Phyrexian Metamorph does not target.
+ can be used on any creature including opponents'
+ doesn't target, gets around shroud/hexproof/protection
+ can be used as a kill spell versus legends (including Progenitus and the like since it doesn't target)
+ single {U} means it's more flexible in the decks it can be run in
- slightly more expensive to cast
- no inherent 2-for-1 (via flashback)
Cackling Counterpart:
+ cheaper mana cost
+ easy to flashback, recursion built right in
+++ instant speed
+ combos with Mnemonic Wall/Izzet Chronarch/Charmbreaker Devils/etc.
+ can be twincast, etc.
- only targets own creatures
- can't target shrouded dudes
- more restrictive (double blue) mana cost
- tokens die forever with boomerang effects, unlike Clone et al.
Phyrexian Metamorph:
+ usable in any color deck
+ hits creatures and artifacts as needed
+ copies any player's stuff, not just your own
+ cheap and super-easy to cast
+ kills legends dead
+ doesn't target gets around shroud/hexproof/protection
- vulnerable to more forms of removal
- damage taken from phyrexian mana (not all that much a minus)
There, now talk about something else. All 3 cards have uses and merits and all 3 are worth playing in the right deck, depending on what you want to do with them.
EDIT: Thanks for the correction Virde, reminds me to RTFC once in a while.
Don't forget Sun Titan, do you like the Idea of being able to play 20 mana leaks? cause I know I do
I like it.
*Insert appropriate yo dawg here*
He said, "Oh, hey, thanks! You actually did me a favor!" And he played his now mobid-fueled Somberwald Spider. A 4/6 reacher, stout enough to block my crows and my spirits unscathed. I don't remember his life total exactly, but he knew that I couldn't just swarm him with my fliers long enough to kill him before he blocked and killed all of them. What he didn't know is that when the crows had activated upon his Boar's untimely demise, I cycled through two cards (having two Murder of Crows on the field). I chanced upon an island.
That, and a silent departure.
So next turn, his spider silently departed, and I swung in for a lot of damage. He played the spider again, all it took was a quick flashback of Silent Departure to win me the game.
Moral of the story:
Even if a card seems bad, it can become your very favorite limited savior. Even if I don't like Cackling Counterpart very much... And as much as I think Silent Departure is a shiddy card, I'll have fond memories of the both of them because they saved me in the kind of pinch that made me absolutely love MTG.
please stop printing clones.
After Phantasmal Image I am more then sick of them.
I also go around doing this like, "So I play Cackling Counterpart on my (copy card), making it a copy of a copy"
"INCEPTION. DUDUDUDUDUDUUU DUUUDUDUDUDU DUUUUUNNN DUN DUUUUUUNNN (my impersonation of South Park's impersonation of the Inception music)"
Turn three, mana leak.
Turn four, Snapcaster Mage, mana leak.
Turn five, Cackling Counterpart, mana leak.
STOP LEAKING MY SPELLS BROHAM
They play a spell on their turn to prevent him from flipping
T3: You don't play anything, he flips
They either play two spells to flip him back, play some random spell, or kill him
You play Cackling Counterpart
Token never flips back
T4: Profit
Right now I'm using it in my upcoming Faerie deck, in which it usually fills the role of Spellstutter Sprite #5-8.
PROTIP: Before the comes-into-play trigger of the original resolves, cast Cackling Counterpart. Have the copy eat the original, and have the original eat itself.
Come to think of it Back from the Brink and Essence of the Wild are kind of clone-y too. Somebody at WOTC must have really liked Clone back in the day.
Just imagine this on a Thragtusk. 8 Mana for 10 health and two 5/3s that become 3/3s after they leave the battlefield.
Oh, and did I mention that with those two creatures:
1. There's one that can abuse Blink effects for the ETB/LBT triggers?
2. The other can abuse Populate effects for ETB trigger... and spawn even more Thragtusks?
Now consider all of this with Parallel Lives and/or RtR's new Growing Ranks (Populate at the beginning of your upkeep).
Brb, my inner-Johnny needs to change his pants.
Can you imagine the uber? You make lots of tokens, gaining life and having more tokens come into play though Talrand, gaining life via Trostani, cloudshifting the important creatures like Thragtusk and Centaur Healer. You cackling counter part one of those two, getting beefy tokens(two at a time with parallel lives), plus two drakes(thx to parallel lives again), then swing for a ****-ton.
WIth the only 5 cost creature in the deck being Thragtusk, and plenty of activated abilities to eat up your extra mana you've got, there's a serious chance this deck could be insanely brutal and very fast. Nothing like a turn 3 Talrand/Trostani to make your opponents sweat early.
Cackling counterpart exceeds Back from the brink in this instance, because of its card type. Getting a token for putting a token on the field is... whoa. Just protect your investments from Killing Wave/Supreme Verdict with the newly-returned Syncopate! Which gives you more tokens with Talrand! AHHH!
So, a big + for Counterpart when it's used with some Return to Ravnica cards.
Assuming you can get to 7 mana, lets just look at those two cards and the flashback alone.
Play guttersnipe, play cackling, 2dmg, flashback cackling, 4 dmg (since you now have two guttersnipes)
Thats 6 damage already, and with three guttersnipes two or three instants later and your opponent is dead.
Even without flashback all you need to finish off your opponent is the counterspells you would run to protect your permanents anyway.
Also, obviously, Parallel Lives for double the fun!
Both cards have some viability on their own (there are far worse things than ramping at instant speed by copying a Noble Hierarch/Birds of Paradise, and with value control cards Eternal Witness just loves that kind of deck), and the two combining to form a potential wincon and also make use of any excess mana you find yourself with is great.
It's even rekindled my love affair with Urban Evolution. Oh, so you end up getting up to 9 mana and using all your cards in hand? Make 3 tokens at will. That's pretty good when you consider you aren't running cards that are potentially dead otherwise.