Gather Specimens

set	min	mtgo
-	NZ$ 1.40	0.02 tix

Spoilers Random card

Name	Gather Specimens
Type	Instant
Description	If a creature would enter the battlefield under an opponent's control this turn, it enters under your control instead.
Flavor	「やりたいことをやるのは自由さ。単にそれがどうなるかって話をしただけで。」 ――意思切る者、ゾリン
Artist	Michael Bruinsma
Set	Shards of Alara #45
Wallpaper	download
Image	download

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About Gather Specimens

Gather Specimens, Instant, designed by Michael Bruinsma first released in May, 2020 in the set Shards of Alara. It's currently being selled by the minimum price of NZ$ 1.40.

A deck that focuses on stealing or controlling opponent's creatures, such as a blue control deck or a Grixis theft deck, would benefit from using Gather Specimens. While Gather Specimens can be a powerful card in certain situations, it may be situational and costly to cast, making it less efficient than other control cards like Control Magic or Blatant Thievery. However, in the right meta or as a surprise factor, Gather Specimens could see play as a fun and unexpected way to disrupt opponents' strategies.

Rules

10/01/08

Gather Specimens isn’t targeted. It affects creatures that would enter the battlefield under any opponent’s control.

10/01/08

Gather Specimens won’t retroactively change the control of creatures that have already enter the battlefield that turn.

10/01/08

If a creature spell controlled by an opponent would resolve, it resolves, but the creature enters the battlefield under your control instead of the opponent’s control. Choices made when casting that spell (such as whether it was kicked or the value of X in the spell’s cost) are remembered. Any “enters the battlefield” triggered abilities will trigger after the creature is on the battlefield under your control.

10/01/08

If the effect that puts a creature onto the battlefield also creates a delayed triggered ability, Gather Specimens doesn’t change who controls that ability. In the unearth example above, your opponent controls the ability that exiles the creature at the beginning of the end step. On the other hand, if the effect that puts a creature onto the battlefield grants a triggered ability to the creature (with “gains” or “has”), the player who controls the creature at the time the ability triggers will be the player who controls that ability. For example, if your opponent casts Makeshift Mannequin and you cast Gather Specimens in response, the creature will return to the battlefield under your control with a mannequin counter and it will have the ability “When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.” If the ability triggers, you’ll control it, so you’ll have to sacrifice the creature.

10/01/08

The above procedure means that if two opposing players have each cast Gather Specimens during the same turn and a creature would enter the battlefield under the control of one of them, it really will enter the battlefield under that player’s control. (The creature would enter the battlefield under player A’s control, so player B’s Gather Specimens affects it. Now that creature would enter the battlefield under player B’s control, so player A’s Gather Specimens affects it. Each replacement effect has now been used, so the creature will enter the battlefield under player A’s control.)

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