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Quicksilver Elemental

Creature — Elemental

{U}: This creature gains all activated abilities of target creature until end of turn. (If any of the abilities use that creature's name, use this creature's name instead.)
You may spend blue mana as though it were mana of any color to pay the activation costs of this creature's abilities.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{U}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
Mirrodin
Price
$23.15
EDHREC rank
#8300
Buy on TCGplayer
Quicksilver Elemental card art
Quicksilver Elemental turns any activated ability it can pay for into a permanent acquisition — use a blue mana to steal a creature's ability once, and you own it for the rest of the turn, stacking copies if you pay again. That combination of flexibility and redundancy makes it a cornerstone in Mairsil, the Pretender builds and a payoff engine for Vivi Ornitier, but five mana for a 3/4 with no built-in protection means it lives and dies by your ability to keep it on the battlefield.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Mairsil, the Pretender

Mairsil, the Pretender

60.1% of decks · synergy 0.60

Mairsil, the Pretender cages activated abilities for repeated use, and Quicksilver Elemental's ability to temporarily copy those same abilities means you can access a caged ability through Quicksilver Elemental even on turns when Mairsil is locked out by the once-per-turn restriction — effectively doubling your activations.

02
Vivi Ornitier

Vivi Ornitier

36.1% of decks · synergy 0.33

Vivi Ornitier rewards you for stacking activated ability triggers, and Quicksilver Elemental plugs directly into that engine by copying whatever high-value activated ability is most relevant on the board at any given moment, giving Vivi decks a flexible, reusable axis of attack.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Quicksilver Elemental is a Commander card through and through — the format's multiplayer board states are littered with activated abilities worth copying, and a five-mana 3/4 that grows more dangerous as the game develops fits perfectly into blue's late-game toolkit. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but sees no meaningful play; the formats move too fast and the effect too conditional to justify the mana investment over cheaper, more reliable threats. Oathbreaker follows Commander's logic closely enough that the same synergy-first shells apply, particularly any spellshapers or activated-ability commanders. Outside of singleton formats, Quicksilver Elemental simply doesn't have a home.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

There isn't a clean budget swap that replicates what Quicksilver Elemental does — the combination of permanent ability acquisition and self-stacking on a single body is unique. Chromeshell Crab and Morphling operate in adjacent space for blue creature utility, but if the goal is copying activated abilities specifically, Skill Borrower hits a similar note at a lower price point while accepting the trade-off of only accessing the top card of your library rather than any creature on the battlefield.

Price Context

Current price

$23.15 premium tier

At $23.15, Quicksilver Elemental sits in premium territory for a card that sees play almost exclusively in Mairsil, the Pretender lists — a narrow demand base that keeps supply thin and price sticky. It hasn't been reprinted in a widely distributed product, so that price is unlikely to drop without a direct reprint in a Commander precon or Masters set.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.