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Skill Borrower

Skill Borrower

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Shards of Alara

#56 · EN · Rare · 2008-10-03

Browse all 1 printings ↓

Skill Borrower

{2}{U}

Artifact Creature — Human Wizard

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.)

Power: 1

Toughness: 3

Artist: Shelly Wan

Color identity: U

Reference prices

Reference prices by finish and currency
FinishUSDEUR
Nonfoil$0.30€0.24
Foil$3.47€1.40

MTGO: 0.02 tix

Data snapshot 2026-10-22. Not live offers.

Use in a combo · Use in a deck

Editions & versions

1 printings across 1 edition. Choose a printing to view its artwork and details.

Reference prices · Data snapshot 2026-10-22. Prices vary by seller and condition; — means no quote.

Combos using this card

Infinite Mana/ Deck manipulation

Infinite Draw ftw!

Borrow skills indefinitely

Infinite Mana Standard (edit)

Borrowed Time... Borrow Time Indefinitely

Blue 5 color kill

Another Infinite Planeswalker

Format legality
Standardnot legal
Futurenot legal
Historicnot legal
Timelessnot legal
Gladiatornot legal
Pioneernot legal
Modernlegal
Legacylegal
Paupernot legal
Vintagelegal
Pennylegal
Commanderlegal
Oathbreakerlegal
Standardbrawlnot legal
Brawlnot legal
Competitivebrawlnot legal
Alchemynot legal
Paupercommandernot legal
Duellegal
Oldschoolnot legal
Premodernnot legal
Predhlegal
Tlrlegal
Rulings

2008-10-01 Activated abilities contain a colon. They’re generally written “[Cost]: [Effect].” Some keywords are activated abilities; they have colons in their reminder text.

2008-10-01 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.

2008-10-01 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.

2008-10-01 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.

2008-10-01 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.

Current Oracle text is shown for every printing.