This is basically Clone, but for artifacts,
enchantments, or even planeswalkers. Now that
the "planeswalker rule" has been modified,
copying an opponent's 'walker could be a slick
move indeed. I seem to remember Phrexian
Infiltrator being one of the strongest cards to
come out of New Phyrexia, and this does that
card one better. I've mentioned the value of
"versatility" several times this week, and this
guy does it just about as well as it can be
done. Best advice I can give? Get your playset
of this guy now, before the price spikes. And if
it already has spiked, well, you should still
get it now because it's not going down anytime
soon.
Did anybody really need a super-powered, mythic
rare Clone? Was anybody really not getting
enough mileage out of making their own copy of a
great creature they weren't even running in
their deck to begin with? Who out there was sad
that they couldn't copy Gaea's Cradle? This card
is for them, I guess, but to me it feels a
little like box-checking on the part of the
designers. Still, there are interesting tricks
you can do with planeswalkers - for
example: play Elspeth's -3 ability, cast this as
a copy of her, send the original to your
graveyard, play the Impersonator-Elspeth's +1
ability. You now have three tokens and your
opponent, hopefully, has nothing. And I have to
admit, the flavor-concept of this guy
impersonating Erebos is rather funny.
Today's card of the day is Clever Impersonator
which is a four mana Blue
0/0 that may enter the battlefield as a copy of
any non-land permanent.
Aside from the extra Blue in the mana cost this
is a dramatic upgrade over the already powerful
Clone by adding planeswalkers, artifacts, and
enchantments to the list of potential targets.
Whether it is stacking effects of your own
creatures or adding an opponent's most useful
threat to your arsenal this is a fantastic card
that will see widespread and frequent play in
nearly any format.
In Limited this is an easy first pick in Booster
that is at worst a stall for nearly any threat
and can add a huge advantage when copying a bomb
from your own side of the battlefield. The
double Blue and needing something to target are
the only drawbacks, but in most situations this
is a great card to have or topdeck. In
Sealed this requires Blue to be a primary color
of the deck and is worth quite a bit when
considering which colors to use in that role.
This shapeshifter is arguably the best card to
come out of the set. Planeswalkers are huge, as
are the fetch lands, but not much else in the
game gives you the options this guy does.
Did your opponent play a big planeswalker? Oh,
look, you have one too!
Does your opponent have a big creature you can't
deal with? I'll bet making him a twin brother
will hold him at bay.
Is your one big creature not quite getting
through for enough damage? Two of them should do
the job nicely.
Imagine how powerful having TWO Obelisk of Urds
would be?
You get the picture. There are very few times
when the Impersonator wouldn't be useful as a
copy of something on the battlefield. Even if
you need to use him to copy a mana producing
creature or artifact, he could help accelerate
you to the big spell in your hand. But most of
the time, he's going to be copying something
worth at least 4 mana, making his cost quite
efficient.
About the only time he's no good is if you are
behind on the board with nothing to copy and
your opponent is beating you with instants and
sorceries. But that's relatively rare, and no
card is perfect.
