Distended Mindbender

eight generic mana Creature — Eldrazi InsectPower and toughness5/5

Emerge five generic mana one black mana (You may cast this spell by sacrificing a creature and paying the emerge cost reduced by that creature's mana value.)

When you cast this spell, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose from it a nonland card with mana value 3 or less and a card with mana value 4 or greater. That player discards those cards.

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14 printings · up to 0.30 $

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Distended Mindbender rulings

2025-01-24
If you sacrifice a creature with in its mana cost, that X is 0.
2025-01-24
An ability that triggers when a player casts a spell resolves before the spell that caused it to trigger. It resolves even if that spell is countered or otherwise leaves the stack without resolving.
2025-01-24
If a card in a player’s hand has in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0.
2025-01-24
You must choose two appropriate cards if able.
2025-01-24
If there aren’t two appropriate cards to choose, choose whichever you can and that player discards that card.
2025-01-24
Emerge represents two static abilities that function while the spell with emerge is on the stack. “Emerge [cost]” means “You may cast this spell by paying [cost] and sacrificing a creature rather than paying its mana cost” and “If you chose to pay this spell’s emerge cost, its total cost is reduced by an amount of generic mana equal to the sacrificed creature’s mana value.”
2025-01-24
A creature’s mana value is determined solely by the mana symbols printed in its upper right corner (unless that creature is the back face of a double-faced card, is a melded permanent, or is copying something else; see below). If the mana cost includes , X is 0. If it’s a single-faced card with no mana symbols in its upper right corner (because it’s an animated land, for example), its mana value is 0. Ignore any alternative costs or additional costs (such as kicker) that were paid as the creature was cast.
2025-01-24
Colored mana components of emerge costs can’t be reduced with emerge.
2025-01-24
You may sacrifice a creature with a mana value of 0, such as a token creature that’s not a copy of another permanent, to cast a spell for its emerge cost. You’ll just pay the full emerge cost with no reduction.
2025-01-24
You may sacrifice a creature with mana value greater than or equal to the emerge cost. If you do, you’ll pay only the colored mana component of the emerge cost.
2025-01-24
The mana value of the back face of a double-faced card is the mana value of its front face. The mana value of a melded permanent is the sum of the mana values of its front faces. A creature that’s a copy of either has a mana value of 0.
2025-01-24
The mana value of a creature spell with emerge isn’t affected by whether its emerge cost is paid. For example, if you cast Decimator of the Provinces for its emerge cost and sacrifice a creature whose mana value is 3, Decimator of the Provinces’s mana value remains 10.
2025-01-24
The creature chosen to be sacrificed is still on the battlefield as the cost of the emerge spell is determined and as you activate mana abilities to cast the emerge spell. Its abilities may affect the spell’s cost, be activated to generate mana, and so on. However, if it has an ability that triggers when a spell is cast, it will have been sacrificed before that ability can trigger.
2025-01-24
Once you begin to cast a spell with emerge, no player may take actions until you’re done. Notably, opponents can’t try to remove the creature you wish to sacrifice.
2025-01-24
If you cast a spell for another cost “rather than paying its mana cost,” such as an emerge cost, you can’t choose to cast it for any other alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs, such as kicker costs. If the spell has any mandatory additional costs, those must be paid to cast it.

Distended Mindbender keyword rules

Emerge Rule 702.119

Emerge represents two static abilities that function while the spell with emerge is on the stack. “Emerge [cost]” means “You may cast this spell by paying [cost] and sacrificing a creature rather than paying its mana cost” and “If you chose to pay this spell’s emerge cost, its total cost is reduced by an amount of generic mana equal to the sacrificed creature’s mana value.” Casting a spell using its emerge ability follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules and –h.

Emerge from [quality] is a variant of emerge. “Emerge from [quality] [cost]” means “You may cast this spell by paying [cost] and sacrificing a [quality] permanent rather than paying its mana cost” and “If you pay this spell’s emerge cost, its total cost is reduced by an amount of generic mana equal to the sacrificed permanent’s mana value.”

You choose which permanent to sacrifice as you choose to pay a spell’s emerge cost (see rule ), and you sacrifice that permanent as you pay the total cost (see rule ).