Quicksilver Elemental MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Elemental
Released	2003-10-02
Set symbol
Set name	Mirrodin
Set code	MRD
Power	3
Toughness	4
Number	47
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Tony Szczudlo

Key Takeaways

Quicksilver Elemental excels in duplicating powerful creature abilities, enhancing your battlefield strategy significantly.
Instant speed activation of its abilities enables reactive plays, making it a versatile card in fast-paced games.
The card requires careful mana management due to its blue mana activation cost and potential for high resource investment.

Text of card

: Quicksilver Elemental gains all activated abilities of target creature until end of turn. (If any of the abilities use that creature's name, use this creature's name instead.) You may spend blue mana as though it were mana of any color to pay the activation costs of Quicksilver Elemental's abilities.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Quicksilver Elemental lets you leverage existing abilities on the battlefield. This means any creature you control with powerful effects can be duplicated, giving you additional value and a strategic edge by effectively doubling the utility of your other creatures’ abilities.

Resource Acceleration: With the ability to untap creatures that have tap abilities producing mana, Quicksilver Elemental can serve as an engine for resource acceleration. By refreshing your mana dorks or other utility creatures, you pave the way for more actions within a turn, ramping up your capacity to play key spells faster.

Instant Speed: Quicksilver Elemental’s activated abilities can be used at instant speed, making it a formidable tool for responding to your opponents’ actions. During the heat of battle, this quality shines, permitting reactive strategies and surprise shifts in board state that can turn a game in your favor.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Quicksilver Elemental doesn’t directly have a discard cost, it can potentially copy abilities from creatures that do. If the elemental mimics such abilities, players must be cautious about their hand size and be prepared to part with valuable cards, turning it into an undesirable trade-off during gameplay.

Specific Mana Cost: To activate Quicksilver Elemental’s ability requires blue mana specifically. This can be restrictive as it mandates the inclusion of blue mana sources in your deck to utilize the ability, possibly limiting deck diversity and forcing players to focus on blue-centric mana bases.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of three mana including two blue, Quicksilver Elemental might appear affordable. However, the real expense comes when you consider the additional mana investment needed to utilize copied abilities. This layered mana demand can make it less efficient compared to other plays you could be making with the same amount of resources.

Reasons to Include Quicksilver Elemental in Your Collection

Versatility: Quicksilver Elemental stands out due to its ability to copy abilities from other creatures on the battlefield. This attribute allows it to adapt to a variety of situations, making it a flexible pick for decks that thrive on dynamic gameplay and versatile strategies.

Combo Potential: This card’s unique skill set makes it a linchpin in intricate combo chains. By adopting other creatures’ abilities for itself, Quicksilver Elemental can be the key to unlocking powerful interactions and unexpected synergies within your deck.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where creatures with potent abilities are prevalent, Quicksilver Elemental’s capacity to mimic and potentially use those abilities against your opponents can position it as a tactical asset. Its relevance can increase further when facing decks that rely on certain creature-based strategies, giving you an edge by turning their strengths to your advantage.

How to beat

Quicksilver Elemental in MTG presents a unique challenge with its ability to gain all activated abilities of other creatures on the battlefield. To effectively counter this versatile creature, you must approach it with strategy and precision. Removal spells are your best friend against Quicksilver Elemental. Playing cards like Path to Exile or Doom Blade can eliminate it before its abilities become a nuisance. Countering it with spells like Counterspell when it’s cast can save you from a headache later in the game.

Another tactic is to limit the abilities it can copy. Using cards like Cursed Totem or Linvala, Keeper of Silence can prevent Quicksilver Elemental from utilizing its power effectively. Lastly, altering combat conditions can be effective. Strategies like enforcing deathtouch with cards like Basilisk Collar or using a card that prohibits it from attacking or blocking, such as Pacifism, will neutralize the threat it poses.

The key is to stay one step ahead and prevent the Quicksilver Elemental from overwhelming you with a combination of carefully timed removal, strategic counters, and preemptive board control. With the right approach, you can contain and surpass the challenge it presents.

Cards like Quicksilver Elemental

Quicksilver Elemental is a unique creature in the world of Magic: The Gathering, with its ability to absorb the abilities of other creatures on the battlefield. This feature provides a distinctive comparison with cards like Mairsil, the Pretender, which exiles another card from your hand or graveyard and gains its activated abilities. However, Quicksilver Elemental’s capacity to repeatedly gain abilities directly from creatures in play can often lead to more immediate impacts on the game state.

Experiment Kraj is another creature with a parallel mechanic, gaining the abilities of every creature with a +1/+1 counter on it. While Experiment Kraj and Quicksilver Elemental share the potential for dynamic ability combinations, the Elemental’s activation cost and flexibility can lead to more diverse strategic options in any given turn. Furthermore, creatures like Cairn Wanderer or Lazav, the Multifarious also mirror the theme of adopting abilities, but are limited by their reliance on the graveyard, unlike Quicksilver Elemental’s direct and versatile ability-copying mechanic on the battlefield.

In essence, while other cards can mimic or utilize abilities of creatures from various zones, Quicksilver Elemental stands out in MTG due to its direct interaction and endless potential on the battlefield. It indeed holds a unique position in its capacity to dynamically change the board with its active playstyle.

Mairsil, the Pretender - MTG Card versions

Lazav, the Multifarious - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Quicksilver Elemental by color, type and mana cost

Vesuvan Doppelganger - MTG Card versions

Sun Ce, Young Conquerer - MTG Card versions

Timin, Youthful Geist - MTG Card versions

Meloku the Clouded Mirror - MTG Card versions

Azami, Lady of Scrolls - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Quicksilver Elemental MTG card by a specific set like Mirrodin, 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 Quicksilver Elemental and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Quicksilver Elemental has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Quicksilver Elemental card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2004-10-04	If you make two copies of an ability that can be activated once a turn, you can activate each of them once a turn.
2004-10-04	If you use this card to gain Wall of Deceit’s ability to turn itself face down, you will not be able to turn this card face up because it will not have the Morph ability.
2004-10-04	You can activate the ability more than once, collecting abilities from multiple creatures (or the same creature more than once).
2004-12-01	Quicksilver Elemental can gain the activated abilities of any creature on the battlefield that you can target with its ability, even if you don’t control that creature.
2004-12-01	Quicksilver Elemental gains only activated abilities. It doesn’t gain keyword abilities (unless those keyword abilities are activated), triggered abilities, or static abilities.
2004-12-01	Quicksilver Elemental has a rather tricky interaction with Leonin Bola. You can actually unattach your opponent’s Bola as part of the cost of activating the Elemental-copied ability.
2004-12-01	The granted abilities effectively use “this permanent,” rather than “ -hat card’s name],” so you treat the abilities as if they were printed on Quicksilver Elemental. For example, you treat an ability that says “Sacrifice a creature: Nantuko Husk gets +2/+2 until end of turn” as “Sacrifice a creature: Quicksilver Elemental gets +2/+2 until end of turn.”
2016-06-08	Activated abilities contain a colon. They’re generally written “ -ost: -ffect].” Some keywords are activated abilities and will have colons in their reminder text.