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Skill Borrower

{2}{U}

Artifact Creature — Human Wizard

ALAShards of Alara#56rare
Foil
Border
black
Frame
2003
Pull rate
about 1 per booster–1 in 1793
Illustrator
Shelly Wan
Found in
Shards of Alara MTGO Redemption · Shards of Alara MTGO Redemption Foil · 3 more
Printings1CombosIn 1
CommanderLegalModernLegalStandardNot legal
Format legality
AlchemyNot legal
BrawlNot legal
CommanderLegal
Competitive BrawlNot legal
DuelLegal
Future StandardNot legal
GladiatorNot legal
HistoricNot legal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
Old SchoolNot legal
PauperNot legal
Pauper CommanderNot legal
PennyLegal
PioneerNot legal
PreDHLegal
PremodernNot legal
StandardNot legal
Standard BrawlNot legal
TimelessNot legal
Tiny LeadersLegal
VintageLegal
Play with the top card of your library revealed. As long as the top card of your library is an artifact or creature card, this creature has all activated abilities of that card. (If any of the abilities use that card's name, use this creature's name instead.)
1/3

Plays as: Topdeck Matters

Market · per finishspark updated 2h ago · prices as of 2026-07-12
Nonfoil+2.9%
$0.36
$0.19 low$0.16 gap
Foil+0.0%
$2.43
$1.13 low$0.53 gap
Cheapest playable copy$0.36· across 1 printing

Rulings

5 · latest Oct 1, 2008 · one tap opens all
  • WotCOct 1, 2008

    Activated abilities contain a colon. They’re generally written “[Cost]: [Effect].” Some keywords are activated abilities; they have colons in their reminder text.

  • WotCOct 1, 2008

    If an effect tells you to draw several cards, reveal each one before you draw it. Skill Borrower will momentarily gain the activated abilities of artifact and creature cards revealed this way, but you won’t be able to activate those abilities while the effect is still happening.

  • WotCOct 1, 2008

    If the top card of your library changes while you’re activating one of Skill Borrower’s activated abilities gained from that card, the ability will still be activated and will resolve normally even though Skill Borrower has lost that ability.

  • WotCOct 1, 2008

    Skill Borrower may gain activated abilities that it can’t use. For example, if the top card of your library is an artifact or creature card with cycling, Skill Borrower will have cycling. However, since cycling can’t be activated from the battlefield, this won’t have any significant benefit. The same is true for unearth.

  • WotCOct 1, 2008

    The only difference between a colored artifact and a colorless artifact is, obviously, its color. Unlike most artifacts, a colored artifact requires colored mana to cast. Also unlike most artifacts, a colored artifact has a color in all zones. It will interact with cards that care about color. Other than that, a colored artifact behaves just like any other artifact. It will interact as normal with any card that cares about artifacts, such as Shatter or Arcbound Ravager.