First printed in Tempest (1997)
Creature — Shapeshifter
Whenever another creature enters, this creature becomes a copy of that creature, except it has this ability.
"In a world of untruths, the living lie rules."
—Oracle *en*-Vec
0/1
- Illustrated by
- Terese Nielsen
Legality
- Legal in
- Legacy, Vintage, Premodern, Commander, Duel Commander, PreDH, Oathbreaker
- Not legal in
- Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Pauper, Future Standard, Historic, Timeless, Alchemy, Penny Dreadful, Old School 93/94, Gladiator, Pauper Commander, Tiny Leaders, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Competitive Brawl
Rulings (6)
- When it changes "shape" to a new creature, any "enters" abilities of the creature do not trigger.
- If a creature enters that has some characteristic or ability set when it enters, the copy does not get to make that choice (because it is not entering. All values are zero and all checks for choices consider the choice not to have been made.
- If the creature has power/toughness that is continuously recalculated, so does this copy of it.
- The copy effect is not targeted.
- The ability is granted as part of the copy effect, which means it will be removed by any effects that would remove abilities regardless of when the effect was created.
- If an Unstable Shapeshifter is on the battlefield when another Unstable Shapeshifter enters, the first one gets the second one's triggered ability, so it will copy the next creature that enters twice. It will only do so the next time a creature enters, because the second "becomes a copy" effect to resolve will erase the extra triggered ability.
Prices
MTGO price: 0.09 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 31 Oct 2026).
Combos
2 combos, the most popular first:
- Infinite self-mill: Mirror-Mad Phantasm + Unstable Shapeshifter
- Near-infinite creature ETB, Infinite draw triggers…: Chainer, Nightmare Adept + Infinite Reflection + Liliana, Dreadhorde General + Unstable Shapeshifter (+ 1 other requirement)