First printed in Stronghold (1998)
Creature — Phyrexian Shapeshifter
As long as the top card of your graveyard is a creature card, this creature has the full text of that card and has the text "
: Discard a card." (This creature has that card's name, mana cost, color, types, abilities, power, and toughness.): Discard a card.
0/1
- Illustrated by
- Ron Spencer
Legality
- Not legal in
- Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Pauper, Future Standard, Historic, Timeless, Alchemy, Penny Dreadful, Old School 93/94, Gladiator, Pauper Commander, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Competitive Brawl
Rulings (6)
- If the top card in your graveyard isn't a creature card (meaning a card with the type Creature, which may or may not have other types such as Artifact or Enchantment), then it's just a 0/1 blue creature. Older cards of type Summon are also Creature cards.
- If the top card in your graveyard is a creature card, this card uses the listed characteristics, including color and any other types. But, this card keeps the granted ability in addition to those from the card being copied.
- If the top card in the graveyard has any other undefined characteristics, then those characteristics are not acquired and the shapeshifter uses the characteristic from its own card.
- A copy of a Volrath's Shapeshifter will have the shapeshifting ability.
- When it changes forms, any "enters" abilities of the card it "copies" do not trigger.
- The ability that sets its characteristics is a text-changing effect.
Prices
MTGO price: 0.21 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 1 Nov 2026).
Combos
3 combos, the most popular first:
- Infinite death triggers, Infinite creature ETB…: Thousand-Year Elixir + Volrath's Shapeshifter + Whisper, Blood Liturgist + Xathrid Necromancer
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers, Infinite death triggers…: Pawn of Ulamog + Thousand-Year Elixir + Volrath's Shapeshifter + Whisper, Blood Liturgist
- Infinite death triggers, Infinite creature ETB…: Rotlung Reanimator + Thousand-Year Elixir + Volrath's Shapeshifter + Whisper, Blood Liturgist
