Cards like Phyrexian Ingester trigger on ETB while cards like Death-Mask Duplicant have activated imprint abilities. Imprint can be either a triggered or activated ability depending on the card. Is Imprint a Triggered or Activated Ability? When a card or aspects of a card are imprinted onto a permanent, that permanent is altered in some way as long as the card exiled for the imprint remains in exile.Ĭhrome Mox can tap for the color of the imprinted card, Semblance Anvil reduces the cost of spells that share a type with the exiled card, Soul Foundry can tap to make token copies of an exiled creature card, etc. Modern Horizons 2 added one more with Dermotaxi. And the final set in that block, New Phyrexia, had three, but those three were the first to add the ability to non-artifact cards. The follow-up set, Mirrodin Besieged, had another two. It came back with the return of the Mirrodin plane in 2010’s Scars of Mirrodin with five cards. Three more were in Darksteel, the follow-up in the block format in early 2004, and Fifth Dawn wound that block down with only one imprint card. It started on nine artifact cards in the artifact set, Mirrodin, in 2003. Imprint was one of the key mechanics of the plane of Mirrodin. Ready for more? Let’s go! The History of Imprint in MTG If that seems like too much, just keep calm and take a look at Chrome Mox for a second to see why you might want to bother with this effect.

The imprint trigger can also be a static ability on the permanent once cast, and those triggers can be automatic in response to an event or by the controller’s choice, or even as a tap ability. Depending on the rules text of the card, the exiled card can be in your hand, the battlefield, or a graveyard. For imprint cards with an ETB trigger, those are sometimes optional and sometimes not. This ability also shows up on creatures and enchantments. That imprinting can either care about something simple, like the color of the exiled card, or something more complicated, like allowing the permanent to cast a copy of the exiled card. That card is then imprinted on the permanent.

The caster usually has the option on casting to exile a card from their hand. Imprint is an optional trigger when casting the permanent, usually an artifact.

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