LeBlanc, Deceiver

For both Leblanc Deceiver and Mirror Image, there are two windows to react:

• The trigger/spell itself
• Its reflexive trigger

Now here are the possible scenarios on what happens when an enemy reacts with an item that removes your intended unit.

Leblanc Deceiver (React to trigger itself & intended unit of target IS alone at BF)

• Your intended unit is removed (by enemy reaction).
• Trigger resolves; play Reflection token at BF, and add reflexive trigger as pending item.
• Finalize reflexive trigger: a choice to target has to be made ("another unit there"). There is no other unit. The trigger fails to finalize and is removed from the chain.
• Result: A simple Reflection token that has NO Temporary.

Leblanc Deceiver (React to trigger itself & intended unit of target is NOT alone at BF)

• Your intended unit is removed (by enemy reaction).
• Trigger resolves; play Reflection token at BF, and add reflexive trigger as pending item.
• Finalize reflexive trigger: a choice to target has to be made ("another unit there"). There is at least 1 other unit; you select it. The chain item finalizes.
• Result: A Reflection token that copies a unit that was NOT the intended unit and has Temporary.

Leblanc Deceiver (React to reflexive trigger)

• Trigger resolves; play Reflection token at BF, and add reflexive trigger as pending item.
• Finalize reflexive trigger: a choice to target has to be made. You choose your intended unit. The chain item finalizes.
• Your intended unit is removed (by enemy reaction).
• Result: A Reflection token that whiffs its copy (no longer "there") and has Temporary.

Mirror Image (React to spell itself)

• Your chosen unit is removed (by enemy reaction).
• Mirror Image resolves; play Reflection token at base, and add reflexive trigger as pending item.
• Finalize reflexive trigger: no choices of targets are made (this is a programmatic determination). The chain item finalizes.
• Result: A Reflection token that whiffs its copy ("that unit" is gone) and has Temporary.

Mirror Image (React to reflexive trigger itself)

• Mirror Image resolves; play Reflection token at base, and add reflexive trigger as pending item.
• Finalize reflexive trigger: no choices of targets are made (this is a programmatic determination). The chain item finalizes.
• Your chosen unit is removed (by enemy reaction).
• Result: A Reflection token that whiffs its copy ("that unit" is gone) and has Temporary.

So to summarize this all up, the ONLY time an uncopied Reflection Token will be played without Temporary is when reacting to Leblanc Deceiver trigger and the unit conquered/held alone. That is it.

95% of the time, the enemy player will want it so that the Reflection token will have Temporary and whiff its copy. So if you are playing against a Leblanc (that likes to angle shoot or ruleshark), make it abundantly clear that you are reacting TO THE REFLEXIVE TRIGGER.

If I conquer a battlefield with Zilean, Time Mage, can I copy him with my Deceiver legend? Will I make infinite Zileans?

Yes, you can copy Zilean, but you will not make an infinite number. The Deceiver reflexive trigger effect for turning the tokens into copies of Zilean takes place after they are already resolved.

Let’s walk through this step by step. Remember, we are first going to add to the chain and then we will work in reverse order to resolve these things.

You trigger Deceiver when you score the battlefield, discarding a card and exhausting her as the cost to finalize the trigger. When the effect resolves, you play a 0 [M] Reflection token to the chain. Zilean’s replacement effect sees you playing a token and it replaces that event with you playing the token and a copy of that token. Now there are two 0 [M] Reflection tokens waiting on the chain. The Deceiver trigger puts the reflexive trigger on the chain that copies a unit (chosen on finalization) and gives the tokens Temporary. Remember, you finalize all of these items in the order that they were added to the chain, starting with the two tokens that are placed on the chain in the order of their controller’s choosing.

So now we work through the above ordering in reverse:

As soon as either token is finalized, it resolves immediately. Both tokens enter ready when they resolve this way, because the copy that is generated by Zilean’s replacement effect inherits any modifications (rule 375). Next you finalize the reflexive trigger, choosing a unit to copy. You target Zilean. When it resolves, it will cause the two Reflection tokens to become a copy of Zilean, as well as granting them Temporary—both Reflections receive this modification for the same reason that they are both ready, because of rule 375. By this point, even if the two tokens become copies of Zilean, there is no subsequent play game action involving tokens to apply their replacement effects to, so they will not be able to cause any further tokens to be produced.

375. If an event that a Replacement Effect applies to would be modified by a Game Effect, or the results of that event would be modified by a Game Action, the Replacement Effect will inherit those modifications.

Q. You are playing Deceiver. You conquer a abttlefield using Loyal Poro equipped with Shepherd's Heirloom. The Deceiver triggered ability fires, and you choose to discard 1 to create a Reflection token copy of the Loyal Poro. Does the token have 5 might?

No.

472.1.B.3 Copy effects will copy the copyable traits of a Game Object: by default, those are the printed traits of the Game Object. When a Game Object becomes a copy of something, its copyable traits are updated to the new traits it has received.

Card text now reads as:

When you conquer or hold, you may discard 1 and exhaust me to play a ready Reflection unit token there. Then do this: It becomes a copy of another unit there. Give it [Temporary].