Pointed Discussion

Great Surgeon He Took My Tonsils Out When I Was 8

awesome for stealing abilities or moving them on your own creatures as needed.

if it hit more keywords and/or did the switch permanently, this could be fun.

gatherer ruling made me so happy. target whatever I want, it loses shadow it doesn't have, give my creature shadow, if I'm not mistaken.

@LouisianaxLimey; Sorry, that's not exactly what it means.
Say you have this, Storm Crow, and Walking Sponge on the battlefield.
Splicer may target only a creature with one of the named abilities and then a second creature. Say you wanted to give the sponge flying until end of turn. You would tap the splicer targeting Storm Crow and then Walking Sponge. If you tapped the Sponge to make storm crow lose flying in response to this ability on the stack, Storm Crow would be an illegal target of this ability, but since it is still targeting Sponge, sponge will gain flying anyway. Thats what the ruling means.
Now, if you want to give your creatures shadow, try Dauthi Embrace.

I like it, but it's kind of limited.

@Tommy9898; Brilliant idea, but it appears Wizards has already thought of that.

702.7c Adding or removing first strike any time after combat damage has been put on the stack in the first combat damage step won’t prevent a creature from dealing combat damage or allow it to deal combat damage twice.

None of that works anymore, you can't put combat damage on the stack and

"702.7b If at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike or double strike (see rule 702.4) as the combat damage step begins, the only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are those with first strike or double strike. After that step, instead of proceeding to the end of combat step, the phase gets a second combat damage step. The only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are the remaining attackers and blockers that had neither first strike nor double strike as the first combat damage step began, as well as the remaining attackers and blockers that currently have double strike. After that step, the phase proceeds to the end of combat step."

And

"702.7c Giving first strike to a creature without it after combat damage has already been dealt in the first combat damage step won't prevent that creature from assigning combat damage in the second combat damage step. Removing first strike from a creature after it has already dealt combat damage in the first combat damage step won't allow it to also assign combat damage in the second combat damage step (unless the creature has double strike)."

Most importantly, you can't play spells during the damage step, the first strike one, or the normal one, or in between the two. The only way to remove or give first strike or double strike to those creatures is with triggered abilities and static abilities (Like when this creature deals damage, destroy target Oblivion Ring that contains a Humility.)

Here is a neat trick. Use this in a deck that uses its own first strike creatures. Once one of them does first strike damage, you can remove its ability. Than it will do normal damage. This card can give double strike to first strikers!

Edit: Damn.

I thought MoE was funny this time. Plus, who doesn't want him to be operated on by a Phyrexian?

hey, i need a ruling on this: can phyrexian splicer's ability be used as an instant?
sidenote: (spell check thinks "phyrexian" should be spelled "anorexia" lol)

It's cool to do a search for "splicer" and find out that everything with that name is a Phyrexian card.

They should reprint an updated version of this card... on a creature, preferably.

Probably best to use with Spirit of the Night against Akroma, Angel of Wrath.

Also, situations where giving an opponent's creature shadow, to prevent them from being able to block with it, are common enough to give this much more utility than it looks like. Especially if you throw a third player in the mix.

Don't be caught dead with this in a deck that doesn't have shadow creatures already. Big ones or small ones, giving your opponents shadow as a way of make their creatures worse rather than better is a combat trick worth its weight in silver, if not gold. Duathi Embrace is a good card to use with it as well.

Actually, while it's really only going to be seen in casual, it's kinda neat. You can screw up combats really badly by taking a giant flyer and smashing it into the ground in front of your defending friend. You can drop a flyer on the attack to get a flyer, or you can grant any creature First Strike if you or an opponent control a first strike creature.

How best to use this ability? If you control a flyer, a first striker, or a shadow guy, you can attack with them. Then when you're attacked, swap the ability onto the other. OR in the case of first strike, if they block the one without first strike and let the FS creature through, you can swap it to kill the creature that blocked the non-FS creature.

Things like this are usually threatening enough after someone has seen it work once or twice that they'll stop blocking; meaning you don't have to spend that 2 mana and this acts as kind of a better Dolmen Gate

I seriously hope Wizards considers printing a modern variant of this card in some form. It's an interesting mechanic, and it's SO close to carving a niche for itself in EDH. The only thing that's holding it back is the additional tap in its activation cost.

Don't see it? Ok, lets consider this in a mono green deck list. Green has always needed answers to flying creatures. Without the tap cost this card would almost be on par with downdraft defensively. In fact, for even numbers of attacking flying creatures the activation cost is effectively the same, except with this card you can pay the cost with colorless mana. This is primarily due to the fact that for each flying creature you downdraft, you can assign flying to a blocker. For odd numbers of flying attackers it's nearly as good, requiring n+1 colorless mana for n attacking flyers. That slight difference in cost is reasonable when you consider the additional utility this card provides, and the fact that you're playing mono green, and can probably afford it. Ok, so spidersilk armor doesn't require continuous mana investment, but without the tap cost this card could offer so much more than bolstered defense against flying creatures. On the attack it would allow you to grant your creatures flying while simultaneously downdrafting your opponent's flying defenders. This ability also lends itself to combos with flying hate you'll find elsewhere in green. Ok, so flying is a big deal, but what about the other abilities this card applies to?

I noticed in others' comments that trample was often overlooked when considering this card's potential. It's true, green tends to have plenty of access to trample. So why would it be relevant in a mono-green EDH deck? The answer is simple. It's relevant because you have access to trample. Flying and trample are fairly common keywords, and as such interactions with either are going to be much more likely than with the other keywords involved. Additionally green has a tendency to balance large beater cards or aggressive mechanics by excluding trample as an ability. While you may be able to provide this keyword to those cards by other means, such as rancor, this card would reduce the necessity to include such cards simply for that reason. Green has plenty of trample cards that would be willing keyword donors.

As for first strike and shadow they're just gravy. There are some interesting mechanics that are possible with the shadow mechanic, but unless you're playing shadow yourself you're not likely to encounter cards with the ability. First strike is more prominent than shadow, but still considerably less so than trample and flying. It's a powerful ability to borrow, but in green hopefully your creatures will outsize that of your opponent. It does however provide green with an answer to deathtouch.

The other nice thing about this card is that it belongs to a family of cards that allow you to meddle with combat you're not involved in in multiplayer. This can lead to some very interesting strategic play, and will occasionally promote temporary cooperation or alliances. I personally love such mechanics as they provide varied play and increased interaction between decks.

As far as future printing of this mechanic is concerned I'd love to see it left as an open ended activation cost, even if it's necessary to make it a green enchantment and lose the first strike and shadow abilities to do so. The activation cost for the ability does need to maintain a CMC of two however so that it remains playable. That being said that cost could be GG if necessary. Splashability is nice, as the player could bring their own fliers into the mix, but it's not strictly necessary for the mechanic to shine.

EDIT: Looking back I just noticed the one ruling this card has associated with it. Removing the tap ability would allow a player to stack triggers in such a way that X creatures gain one of the abilities listed for 2X colorless mana, even if there is only one creature on the field with the ability. This is an interesting wrinkle in the card's wording but it doesn't feel like a very green ability. The mechanic might need to be reworked slightly to avoid this scenario for color and power level concerns.