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Sakashima the Impostor

Legendary Creature — Human Rogue

You may have Sakashima the Impostor enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except its name is Sakashima the Impostor, it's legendary in addition to its other types, and it has "{2}{U}{U}: Return Sakashima the Impostor to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step."

CMC
4
Mana cost
{2}{U}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
Saviors of Kamigawa
Price
$18.08
EDHREC rank
#1988
Buy on TCGplayer
Sakashima the Impostor card art
Sakashima the Impostor copies any creature on the board and keeps its own name, which means it sidesteps the legend rule and enables loops that other Clone variants can't — most visibly with Gyruda, Doom of Depths, where a second Gyruda trigger is the entire win condition. The four-mana cost and built-in bounce ability make it resilient, but the name-retention trick is the reason it's irreplaceable in the decks that want it, not just a Felidar Guardian-style blink target.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Gyruda, Doom of Depths

Gyruda, Doom of Depths

68.8% of decks · synergy 0.65

Gyruda, Doom of Depths runs Sakashima the Impostor as a combo piece, not flavor — copying Gyruda with Sakashima bypasses the legend rule and immediately triggers another mill-and-reanimate, looping until the deck has eaten every even-CMC creature from every library.

02
Sakashima of a Thousand FacesVial Smasher the Fierce

Sakashima of a Thousand Faces // Vial Smasher the Fierce

43.3% of decks · synergy 0.42

Sakashima of a Thousand Faces already removes the legend rule for all your Legendaries, and slotting in Sakashima the Impostor gives you a fifth or sixth copy of your best creature on any given turn while Vial Smasher converts the extra cast into free damage.

03

Aang, at the Crossroads

39.2% of decks · synergy 0.38

Aang, at the Crossroads cares about copying spells and creatures to stack triggers, and Sakashima the Impostor's name-retention means it can copy Aang himself without disappearing — doubling his attack trigger without sacrificing the original.

04
Koma, Cosmos Serpent

Koma, Cosmos Serpent

37.6% of decks · synergy 0.35

Koma, Cosmos Serpent generates a Serpent token every upkeep, so a second Koma via Sakashima the Impostor means two tokens per turn cycle; since both stay in play without legend-rule conflict, the token flood accelerates faster than opponents can answer it.

05
Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist

Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist

36.6% of decks · synergy 0.34

Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist forces everyone to share Salamander tokens, but Sakashima the Impostor copying Gor Muldrak puts two separate trigger sources on the stack each upkeep — doubling the token pressure on opponents while Gor Muldrak's protection clause keeps both copies relatively safe.

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

Commander is where Sakashima the Impostor earns its slot — the legend rule is a constant obstacle in a format built around legendary creatures, and Sakashima's name-retention erases that obstacle cleanly. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but essentially unplayed; four mana for a Clone effect is too slow when those formats end games on turns one and two, and the legend-rule workaround solves a problem those formats rarely encounter. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home for the same reasons as Commander, particularly in combo-oriented builds where copying a powerful Planeswalker-adjacent creature can loop a win condition. Standard and Pioneer don't have Sakashima the Impostor in their card pools, and Pauper's rarity restrictions keep it out as well — this card was always built for the multiplayer legendary-matters space.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Phantasmal Image copies any creature for two mana and is under $2, but it loses Sakashima the Impostor's name-retention entirely, so it can't copy a second copy of your legendary commander without both dying to the legend rule. Clone and Mirage Mirror are similarly priced and similarly unable to solve that core problem — if the legend-rule bypass is the reason you want Sakashima the Impostor, there's no true budget replacement; if you just need another copy effect, any Clone variant in the $1–3 range does the mechanical lifting.

Price Context

Current price

$18.08 mid tier

At $18.08, Sakashima the Impostor sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it's not a barrier for most Commander budgets. It holds value because the legend-rule bypass is unique and the card sees consistent demand across Gyruda combo, copy-matters, and Simic goodstuff builds with no functional reprint that undercuts it.

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Sources

Mentioned

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