If I conquer a battlefield with Zilean, Time Mage, can I copy him with my Deceiver legend? Will I make infinite Zileans?

Question

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can copy Zilean, but you will not make an infinite number. The Deceiver reflexive trigger effect for turning the tokens into copies of Zilean takes place after they are already resolved.

Let’s walk through this step by step. Remember, we are first going to add to the chain and then we will work in reverse order to resolve these things.

1. You trigger Deceiver when you score the battlefield, discarding a card and exhausting her as the cost to finalize the trigger.
2. When the effect resolves, you play a 0 [M] Reflection token to the chain.
3. Zilean’s replacement effect sees you playing a token and it replaces that event with you playing the token and a copy of that token. Now there are two 0 [M] Reflection tokens waiting on the chain.
4. The Deceiver trigger puts the reflexive trigger on the chain that copies a unit (chosen on finalization) and gives the tokens Temporary.

Remember, you finalize all of these items in the order that they were added to the chain, starting with the two tokens that are placed on the chain in the order of their controller’s choosing.

So now we work through the above ordering in reverse:

1. As soon as either token is finalized, it resolves immediately.
2. Both tokens enter ready when they resolve this way, because the copy that is generated by Zilean’s replacement effect inherits any modifications (rule 375).
3. Next you finalize the reflexive trigger, choosing a unit to copy. You target Zilean.
4. When it resolves, it will cause the two Reflection tokens to become a copy of Zilean, as well as granting them Temporary—both Reflections receive this modification for the same reason that they are both ready, because of rule 375.

By this point, even if the two tokens become copies of Zilean, there is no subsequent play game action involving tokens to apply their replacement effects to, so they will not be able to cause any further tokens to be produced.

Rule 375.: If an event that a Replacement Effect applies to would be modified by a Game Effect, or the results of that event would be modified by a Game Action, the Replacement Effect will inherit those modifications.