Mirror of the Forebears

Mirror of the Forebears card image

Mirror of the Forebears: Artifact, Commander 2017. As this artifact enters, choose a creature type. Printings, prices, and format legality on Mana Grove.

Mana cost
{2}
Mana value
2
Type
Artifact
Colour identity
Colourless
Rarity
Uncommon
Set
Commander 2017 (C17)
Released
2017-08-25
Collector number
54
Artist
Kieran Yanner
Commander rank
10,285 (by how often it appears in Commander decks)

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About Mirror of the Forebears

Mirror of the Forebears is a Magic: The Gathering card, an uncommon colourless artifact from Commander 2017 (C17), a Commander product released in August 2017. It is collector number 54 in that set, with art by Kieran Yanner. It costs {2} (two generic mana) to cast, for a mana value of 2. It has no colour identity. It is legal in Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander and Oathbreaker. It has been printed in 2 sets, from Treasure Chest (2016) to Commander 2017 (2017). The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $1.78 (normal finish, as of 2026-11-12).

Card text

As this artifact enters, choose a creature type.

{1}: Until end of turn, this artifact becomes a copy of target creature you control of the chosen type, except it's an artifact in addition to its other types.

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $1.78 (as of 2026-11-12).

The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.

Format legality

Legality of Mirror of the Forebears by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

LegacyLegal
VintageLegal
CommanderLegal
Duel CommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal

Other printings of Mirror of the Forebears

Mirror of the Forebears has been printed in 2 sets. The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.

PrintingRarityYear
Treasure Chest (PZ2) #65751Uncommon2017

Official rulings

The 8 most recent official rulings for Mirror of the Forebears, newest first.

  • If you somehow control a Mirror of the Forebears with no chosen creature type, its activated ability can’t be activated.
  • If an effect begins to apply to Mirror of the Forebears before it becomes a copy of another permanent, that effect will continue to apply. For example, if Mirror of the Forebears is activated twice in response to itself targeting first Spirit of the Hearth then Temur Sabertooth, the ability it has while it’s a copy of Temur Sabertooth can be activated and its effect will continue to apply while Mirror of the Forebears is a copy of Spirit of the Hearth.
  • If Mirror of the Forebears becomes a copy of a legendary creature you control, you’ll put one of them into your graveyard.
  • If Mirror of the Forebears copies a creature that’s copying something else, it will become whatever the target is copying.
  • Once the second ability of Mirror of the Forebears resolves, it no longer has that ability.
  • You must choose an existing creature type, such as Vampire or Cat. Card types such as “artifact” can’t be chosen.
  • If you activate the second ability of Mirror of the Forebears multiple times in a turn in response to itself, then each time one of those abilities resolves, it will overwrite whatever Mirror of the Forebears is copying. Mirror of the Forebears will wind up as a copy of the permanent targeted by the last ability to resolve. When the turn ends, all instances of the ability will wear off at the same time.
  • You can’t choose multiple creature types, such as “Cat Warrior.” A Cat Warrior is both a Cat and a Warrior. It’s affected by anything that affects either type and unaffected by things that affect non-Cat or non-Warrior creatures.

Similar cards

Other artifact cards with no colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.

In these precons

Mirror of the Forebears is in the decklist of these preconstructed Commander decks.

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