First printed in Modern Horizons 3 (2024)
Hydroelectric Specimen 
Creature — Weird
Flash
When this creature enters, you may change the target of target instant or sorcery spell with a single target to this creature.
Whenever the research team stepped out, the specimen emerged to conduct experiments of its own.
1/4
Hydroelectric Laboratory
Land
As this land enters, you may pay 3 life. If you don't, it enters tapped.
: Add .
As long as the scientists were present, the specimen floated patiently or swam quietly about, biding its time, watching.
- Illustrated by
- Raoul Vitale
Legality
- Legal in
- Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator, Commander, Duel Commander, Tiny Leaders, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Competitive Brawl
- Not legal in
- Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, Future Standard, Alchemy, Penny Dreadful, Premodern, Old School 93/94, Pauper Commander, PreDH, Standard Brawl
Rulings (8)
- A modal double-faced card can't be transformed or be put onto the battlefield transformed. Ignore any instruction to transform a modal double-faced card or to put one onto the battlefield transformed.
- If an effect allows you to play a specific modal double-faced card, you may cast it as a spell or play it as a land, as determined by which face you choose to play. If an effect allows you to cast (rather than "play") a specific modal double-faced card, you can't play it as a land.
- The spell's target is changed to Hydroelectric Specimen only if Hydroelectric Specimen is a legal target for that spell.
- The mana value of a modal double-faced card is based on the characteristics of the face that's being considered. On the stack or the battlefield, consider whichever face is up. In all other zones, consider only the front face. This is different than how the mana value of a transforming double-faced card is determined.
- If a spell has multiple targets, you can't target it with Hydroelectric Specimen's ability, even if only one of those targets is a creature or all but one of those targets have become illegal.
- If an effect allows you to put a card with particular characteristics onto the battlefield without instructing you to play or cast it, you consider only the characteristics of a modal double-faced card's front face to see if that card qualifies. If it does, it enters the battlefield with its front face up. For example, if an effect allows you to put a creature card from your graveyard onto the battlefield, you can put Disciple of Freyalise onto the battlefield. However, an effect that lets you return a land card from your graveyard to your hand won't let you return Garden of Freyalise to your hand, as that card has only its front face's characteristics while in the graveyard.
- To determine whether it is legal to play a modal double-faced card, consider only the characteristics of the face you're playing and ignore the other face's characteristics. For example, if an effect stops you from casting creature spells, you can't cast Disciple of Freyalise, but you can still play Garden of Freyalise.
- If an effect allows you to play a land or cast a spell from among a group of cards, you may play or cast a modal double-faced card with any face that fits the criteria of that effect. For example, if an effect allows you to play lands from your graveyard, you can play Garden of Freyalise, but you can't cast Disciple of Freyalise.
Prices
MTGO price: 0.003 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 1 Nov 2026).
In Limited on MTG Arena
Win rates in Arena drafts and sealed, retrieved from 17Lands (CC BY 4.0).
| Set | GIH WR | vs set | IWD | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modern Horizons 3 (MH3), Premier Draft | 53.3% | -1.8 | +0.1 | 24235 |
| Modern Horizons 3 (MH3), Sealed | 54.7% | -1.3 | -1.9 | 1155 |
- GIH WR
- win rate of the games in which the card was in the opening hand or drawn
- vs set
- points above or below the average win rate of all decks in the set
- IWD
- improvement when drawn: GIH WR minus the win rate when the card stayed in the library
- Games
- games in which the card was seen
