Pointed Discussion

i would have loved if this was a "real" card.

Great idea + incredible flexibility. And you can cascade into it with even the cheapest cascade spell and have it destroy someone's land. Awesome!

Its missing "how."

what color is how?

still fun card, I wanna do all of it at once

how could be all colors

Yea, this is the real split card

Awesome card for 5-color decks. 5 useful abilitys on one card, all at playable costs. Still great at 3-color, decent in 2-color.

I guess "How" would have to be an artifact, preferably with an effect like that of Null Rod.

Thankfully, both Who and Why have costs low enough that you can put it on a stick. Then you get instant-speed universal (except Planeswalkers) removal for 2

Shouldn't it be Who // What // Where // When // Why? Or even Who // What // Where // When // Why // How? Admittedly, the latter would require, at the time, either an artifact or a land. And permanents on a split card? Yick.

What is the converted mana cost of this?

How should be colorless...

I'm fairly certain this is the first and only cycle in the history of Magic that has been contained on a single card.

@artemoila
What is the converted mana cost of this?

One, two, three, three and four. Yes, three twice. And not, this is not a 13, it is a 1 and a 2 and so on.

Well, this except while on the stack, where it's only the CMC of the part you chose to cast, and if you're casting "Who", the CMC depends on the value of X (it would be 1+X).

So, if you're wanting to put it on a Isochron Scepter, it has a converted mana cost below two, so you can imprint it. It also has a CMC greater than 2, but the Scepter only asks if it has a CMC below 2, and it has.
On the other hand, if you're revealing it for Dark Confidant, you will lose 1 life and 2 life and 3 life and 3 life and 4 life, for a total of 13 life.
And finally, Spell Snare can only counter it if you're casting as a "Why" or a "Who" if X=1, nothing else.

Yes, split cards are a bit exotic, even outside of un-cards.

The most blatantly flexible card in magic

"Okay, I'm casting When."

"I don't know man, I'm not going to play your deck for you. What are you even casting?"

"No, I'm not casting What. I chose When."

"Well, of course you chose when you cast it. Just tell me the spell you're casting."

"When."

"Now!"

"Yes, of course I'm casting it now. I'm targeting your creature spell."

"Okay, fine. Whatever. Wait, why?"

"You idiot, I can't target spells with Why."

"What?"

"Can't target your spell with that, either."

"Then, how exactly is your spell doing that?"

"How isn't on the card."

"Why?"

"That one is, though."

"Screw it! I concede. There's no way I can gain enough life to win at this point anyway."

"You know, Who might be able to help with that."

"Who?"

"Exactly."

"Nevermind. Let's try out our other decks."

"Neat. Can I use my Ambiguity deck?"

"What does that use?"

"It doesn't use What. It's just a blue deck."

"Uh, okay. Sure."

How is Purple.

The next un-set should have "How" as a colorless instant that reads "Counter target spell if it is played from a card with different converted mana cost"

Couldn't think of another way to make this work well without specifically saying "Counter target spell played from a split card"

Also, this text would counter X spells... oh well, they're wizards, they could come up with rules text that would only make it counter Who/what/where/why/when, and it would probably be convoluted enough to work with this and ambiguity lol.

Andrew's Occasional Random Card of the Day #23 - 7/25/2011 - Who/What/When/Where/Why

Hm. This might actually be a reasonable card in a 5-color Commander deck. I'd seen this card before and thought it was a funny 'split card' progression, but I'd never actually considered playing with it. Each piece is an overcosted version of some simple effect, though not significantly overcosted. And each of those effects could potentially be pretty useful within a game of Commander. I don't know the general expected etiquette of Commander games when it comes to Un- cards, though. Of course, they're not black-bordered so they're not 'allowed' technically, and I've never seen someone playing with one, but I think if you just starting casting one, people would just laugh and continue enjoying the game. Even the 'target player' on the Who portion makes this potentially a political card as much as it is versatile.

On another note, split cards are supposed to be read as "X and Y". In the case of a five-card split, I guess the correct reading is "Who What When Where and Why." Also, for anyone interested in such things, while normally a cards' mana symbols and color references are according to the color-wheel-order (white, blue, black, red, green; with rules about what to do with enemy colors and green-white, etc.), split cards's color order were, of course, determined by the phrase that named them. For instance, in a blue-red pairing, blue comes first, but on Fire/Ice, red came first because of the term 'fire and ice'. And in the case of this card, we see a mish-mash of colors in different shapes and sizes just to make the concept work.

I might have to splash four colors in my Riddle of Lightning deck for this.

Gelzo - man, that was brilliant! Funny as hell, nicely done.

Do not use with Dark Confidant unless you REALLY want Death's Shadow.

This card is perfect for a Cube.

If you're playing a five-color deck, and your opponents don't mind you using Un-cards that are only kind of Unhinged/Unglued (Y'know, cards that still function completely under the normal comprehensive rules), this is actually a really good control card.

Assuming you have access to one mana of any color, you can destroy ANY problematic noncreature, nonplanswalker for 4 or less. Plus you can stop any problematic creature as long as its still on the stack. Basically, the only thing it won't get rid of in planeswalkers.

You almost have a card that says "Destroy target permanent." An advanced search for cards with the text "destroy target permanent" returned 16 results.

Out of all 16 of those cards, 15 of them are A) A heck of a lot more expensive and/or B) Have some sort of targeting restriction. Only one (Vindicate) is cheaper.

I would definitely play this in any casual, 5-color, control-ish deck.

They forgot the most important interrogative: WTF?

Would be awesome with Isochron Scepter, were it legal in any format.

@Gelzo: Abbott and Costello reference for the win.

Oh and I love this card, the versatility is amazing. But don't use it with Dark Confidant or you'll die.

I wish it had fuse

This is hilarious.

Destroy target noncreature permanent, or counter target creature spell, or useless lifegain.

ARGH TOO MANY QUESTIONS!

Who, what, where, when, and why...

The real question is How do you even play this thing?