Death-Mask Duplicant MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 7 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Artifact Creature — Shapeshifter |
| Abilities | Imprint |
| Released | 2004-02-06 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Darksteel |
| Set code | DST |
| Power | 5 |
| Toughness | 5 |
| Number | 115 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | normal |
| Border | black |
| Illustred by | Thomas M. Baxa |
Key Takeaways
- Offers graveyard-induced card advantage and can disrupt opponents’ strategies with its imprint ability.
- Enables mana-efficient plays by copying powerful creatures, saving mana for other actions.
- Imprint activation at instant speed provides surprise elements and tactical responses to opponents.
Text of card
Imprint : Remove target creature card in your graveyard from the game. (The removed card is imprinted on this artifact.) As long as an imprinted creature card has flying, Death-Mask Duplicant has flying. The same is true for fear, first strike, double strike, haste, landwalk, protection, and trample.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Death-Mask Duplicant offers a unique type of card advantage, allowing you to potentially have access to any creature card in any graveyard. This not only gives you more options but can also disrupt your opponent’s graveyard strategy.
Resource Acceleration: While Death-Mask Duplicant doesn’t directly generate resources like mana, its ability to become a copy of the most powerful creatures in the graveyard can save you mana that you would have spent casting those creatures from your hand.
Instant Speed: Death-Mask Duplicant’s imprint ability can be activated at instant speed, meaning that you can wait until the optimal moment during your opponent’s turn to choose the best creature to copy, reacting to the game’s state and surprising your opponent with a strategic play.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: The Death-Mask Duplicant asks for a significant sacrifice before leveraging its potential. Discarding another creature card means dipping into your valuable arsenal, which can deplete your hand and strategic options, especially if you’re playing with a deck that does not replenish cards often.
Specific Mana Cost: The Duplicant demands an exacting seven mana to summon, including a generic requirement that may strain your resource base. This steep cost ensures that its impact is reserved for the later stages of the game, reducing its early-to-mid game utility.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the idea of imitating another creature’s abilities is intriguing, the mana investment into the Duplicant is substantial. In a meta where pace can dictate the victor, allocating seven mana to a single card can be a risky move that may not always align with the agility required to outmaneuver your opponent.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Death-Mask Duplicant offers flexibility in various deck builds given its ability to become a copy of any creature card in your graveyard, enhancing strategies across multiple archetypes.
Combo Potential: This card can seamlessly slot into engine combos, synergizing with self-mill tactics and reanimator themes, as it mimics the best creature you need at any stage of the game.
Meta-Relevance: With a shifting meta that often revolves around powerful creature strategies, having Death-Mask Duplicant could prove to be a game-changer, adapting and countering key threats on the board.
How to beat
Death-Mask Duplicant is an intriguing creature card known for its imprint ability, allowing players in Magic: The Gathering to exile a creature card from their graveyard and have the Duplicant gain the printed power, toughness, and creature types of the card exiled this way. Such flexibility can pose a significant challenge if this card stands between you and victory.
To effectively handle Death-Mask Duplicant, consider strategies that minimize the value it gets from the graveyard. Graveyard hate cards like Rest in Peace can remove the potency of the duplicant’s ability by preventing any use of the graveyard as a resource. In the face of such stifling effects, Death-Mask Duplicant becomes merely a shell of its potential. Additionally, utilizing instant-speed removal spells like Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares can efficiently dispatch the Duplicant before its imprint ability can be activated, especially since it has to be done as a sorcery.
Counter spells also serve as a robust defense by never allowing the Duplicant to hit the field in the first place. By staying one step ahead with these strategies, you can ensure that the Death-Mask Duplicant’s utility is severely hindered or altogether nullified, paving the path to your triumph in the match.
Cards like Death-Mask Duplicant
Death-Mask Duplicant is an intriguing artifact creature card that offers players a unique mechanic to enhance their gameplay in Magic: The Gathering. Similar to the Duplicant, it has the capacity to exile creatures. However, Death-Mask Duplicant stands out with its imprint ability, allowing it to gain the exiled card’s power, toughness, and abilities, morphing its role on the battlefield substantially.
Another card that echoes this mimicry theme is Clone. Clone allows you to copy any creature on the battlefield upon entering, but it lacks the flexibility to change targets as the game progresses. Phyrexian Metamorph offers a closer resemblance with its ability to become a copy of any artifact or creature, albeit with an additional cost. Still, it cannot adapt like Death-Mask Duplicant, which can strategically be altered throughout the match.
Summing up, Death-Mask Duplicant’s dynamic ability to adopt different roles makes it a versatile toolbox card, unlike its static counterparts. This inherent flexibility to respond to changing game states can give players a substantial edge, ensuring that Death-Mask Duplicant holds its unique place among MTG artifact creatures.
Cards similar to Death-Mask Duplicant by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Death-Mask Duplicant MTG card by a specific set like Darksteel, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Death-Mask Duplicant and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See Magic products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Death-Mask Duplicant has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Restricted |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Death-Mask Duplicant card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2004-12-01 | Death-Mask Duplicant gains all landwalk and protection abilities of the imprinted creature cards. If Death-Mask Duplicant imprints a card with protection from red and a card with protection from creatures, it has protection from red and from creatures. |
| 2004-12-01 | Death-Mask Duplicant has an activated imprint ability. This ability can be activated any number of times, so multiple creature cards can become imprinted on this creature. |
