#perplexing chimera

[underworlddreams]

Perplexing Chimera

Artist: Tyler Jacobson Set: Born of the Gods

[dailytopimagic]

Topi’s Daily Card #1092:  Perplexing Chimera

This card is just confusing.  Anything anyone can casts can become your own, and they get a 3/3 creature and get the power to control whatever spell they choose that’s coming next.  As far as comboing this card, you can use Homeward Path, and as long as you’re stealing just non-creature spells, you’ll get the Chimera back for the next thing to steal.  It’s a card that’s hard to judge on its own as it all depends on the quality of cards your opponents are casting, but in any case I imagine you’ll get to look forward to a very interesting game state when this card is out for more than a few turns.

[magicjudge]

Hi, I was the one who asked about perplexing chimera, possibility Storm, and cascade, sorry for the lack of details. Let's say that I control possibility storm and the cascade spell and an opponent controls the chimera. I hope this is enough info, thanks again

Sure, so Chimera’s ability will resolve first and they can exchange Chimera for the spell if they want to.

But they shouldn’t, because Possibility Storm is going to put that spell back into your library when its trigger resolves and gives you a new spell.

If your opponent doesn’t exchange Chimera for the original spell, then it will trigger again on the Possibility Storm spell as well. It will also trigger for the Cascade spell, which won’t trigger possibility storm since you didn’t cast it from your hand.

[foxgirlintestines]

How to complicate a game:

I have 2 Perplexing Chimera’s all of my permanets have shroud, there is a Grip of Chaos, and I have a Homeward Path.

My oponents realized that they would need to cast 3 spells and win 3 consecutive coin flips to do anything to interact with me. The game ended with me beating people to death with the Chimeras.

If you want an example of Grip of Chaos not used for chaos, play against my MtGO Progenitus Enchantress deck. :3

[magicjudge]

If I have a Perplexing chimera out and my opponent casts a spell that targets something, will using strionic resonator to copy chimera's ability exchange control of chimera back to me while still allowing me to choose the new target for the spell?

Yes. It’s a lovely evil combo, as is explained by one of Perplexing Chimera’s Gatherer notes:

2/1/2014: In some unusual cases, you may not control Perplexing Chimera when its triggered ability resolves (perhaps because the triggered ability triggered again and resolved while the original ability was on the stack). In these cases, you can exchange control of Perplexing Chimera and the spell that causes the ability to trigger, even if you control neither of them. If you do, you’ll be able to change targets of the spell, not the spell’s new controller.

[magicjudge]

If I offer up perplexing Chimera to steal the opponents spell, and they in response doom blade ext do I still get there spell?

If your opponent kills Perplexing Chimera in response to its triggered ability, then you won’t be able to exchange it when the trigger resolves because there’s nothing to exchange. Your opponent can’t wait to see if you actually choose to exchange or not when the trigger resolves, though. At that point it’s too late to respond to the ability.

[s0wingsalt]

Aggravation Rating: 5/10

This is a card that I have a soft spot for because I think it has pretty cool design, but MAN does it make playing annoying. Perplexing Chimera does exactly as the name would suggest, and makes playing a game of EDH a lot more complex than it once was.

Ok so first things first, this thing is abysmal in terms of stats. A 3/3 for 5 with two types which are easily removed in EDH? This thing would die really easily if not for its ability, so let’s get right down to it. This ability basically changes the game entirely depending on what you want to cast, so let’s go through the different situations.

If you want to cast a relevant card that is completely independent of Chimera, you have to make sure you don’t make it too powerful of a card, otherwise your opponent will just take it. This makes it hard to play at peak efficiency, as you likely will have to play some weaker cards in the hopes that your opponent will steal one of your less powerful cards before taking your more powerful ones. What’s worse is this card is one of a couple that can take a commander permanently without the aid of an enchantment, which makes it so there’s only a few options to get your commander back. What this means is that not only does Chimera lock you out from playing your powerful cards, it also locks you out from playing your commander unless you have a way to deal with your opponent gaining it.

If you want to cast a removal spell, you have to consider one main question: do you control something that is powerful enough that your opponent will take control of your removal spell in order to deal with the big threat on the table? As such Perplexing Chimera also cuts off removal spells in a way; either you have to direct the removal spell at the Chimera, or you lose your best permanent to your own removal spell. This makes it so that it’s hard to take care of the Chimera unless it’s on an empty board, as otherwise shenanigans will occur.

Now all this can be really frustrating because it locks you out of playing your cards at their peak effectiveness. Chimera warps the game around it in such a way that you can’t afford to ignore it or just play into it, you have to judge every move you make to see if it’s worth making and if it’ll hurt you too much should your opponent decide to take it. This means that basically your opponent gets to sit behind this creature and force you to be extremely deliberate while just playing the game willy nilly as they please, which makes for a far less pleasurable experience for you. it’s just a headache to have to constantly play around Chimera, trying to bait your opponent into activating the ability.

All this being said, I think this card is hilarious. First, it’s actually got pretty good design in that its ability is a trigger rather than an activated ability, meaning a spell can’t constantly swap owners until one person is done with the game. But really the fact that it gives itself to the person who lost the spell means that every annoying aspect of playing against it also gets pushed against the people who play it. Any card that gives itself to another player brings with it all the bad parts of playing that card, and Chimera is no different. Now you get to make your opponent play super deliberately! And man, it’s a satisfying feeling to do so. Add to this fact that it’s pretty much useless in combat and is cleaned up nicely by board clears and the card is pretty alright. Not to mention, in my opinion at least, it can be interesting to try to play around this card, bait your opponent, etc. etc.

TL;DR Perplexing Chimera makes the game super wacky for all sides, but your opponent gets initiative on it and it can be really frustrating to be locked out of playing your best spells (especially if you’re top decking).

[magicjudge]

Player A casts a spell (any spell, really), Player B and Player C both have a Perplexing Chimera under their control. If both of them choose to exchange the spell and their Chimera's, what happens? Would the next player in the turn order (Player B in this instance) have priority over Player C's trigger?

Since multiple players have triggers waiting to go on the stack and assuming it’s A’s turn, B will put their trigger on the stack first since they’re next in turn order, the C will put their trigger on the stack above B’s trigger. 

So player C’s Chimera trigger will resolve first, and they’ll swap the Chimera to A for the spell. Then player B’s trigger resolves and they’ll swap their Chimera to C for the spell.

So the end result is as follows: A controls C’s Chimera, B controls the spell, C controls B’s Chimera.