Undercover Operative card art

Undercover Operative

Creature — Shapeshifter Rogue MV 4

Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.

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What it doesCombosRulingsIn the 99Every version

What it does

You may have this creature enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it enters with a shield counter on it if you control that creature. (If it would be dealt damage or destroyed, remove a shield counter from it instead.)

Combos with Undercover Operative

Lines this card is part of — what it needs alongside it, and what the two of them do. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.

Showing the 8 shortest and most explosive. This card appears in more than these — follow any of them through to Commander Spellbook to browse the rest.

Combo data from Commander Spellbook, the community-maintained database of Magic combos. Mirrored nightly.

Rulings

6 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.

  • 2022-04-29

    Shield counters don't prevent players from sacrificing creatures.

  • 2022-04-29

    Removing a shield counter in this way isn't the same as regenerating a creature.

  • 2022-04-29

    A creature with a shield counter on it may still be destroyed by state-based actions if it has damage marked on it equal to its toughness or has been dealt unpreventable damage by a source with deathtouch.

  • 2022-04-29

    “Shield” is not an ability that creatures have and shield counters are not keyword counters. If a creature with a shield counter loses its abilities, the shield counter will still protect it as normal.

  • 2022-04-29

    If a permanent that would be dealt damage has more than one shield counter on it, that damage is prevented and only one shield counter is removed.

  • 2022-04-29

    If a permanent with a shield counter is dealt unpreventable damage, that damage will be dealt and a shield counter will still be removed.

Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.

In the 99

Every deck whose current list includes Undercover Operative, whatever its commander.

Decks running it 2
Games played 7
Win rate 42.9%
Confirmed on board 0 Games where a board photo caught it actually in play.

Most played under

Commander Decks Games Win rate
Namor the Sub-Mariner 1 7 42.9%
Eluge, the Shoreless Sea 1 0 —

Colors it shows up in

  • Mono-Blue 2 decks

Every version of Undercover Operative

4 printings, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly — a printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall genuinely publishes none for some of them.

Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Undercover Operative — a name search across every version, for the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.

Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only — no individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.