Mirror Entity

Mirror Entity

Regular

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Gold

Set:	EXPERT1
Type:	Spell
Spell school:	Arcane
Class:	Mage
Rarity:	Common
Cost:	3
Abilities:	Copy, Secret, Summon
Tags:	Summoning-related, Triggered effect
Artist:	Raven Mimura

Secret: After your opponent plays a minion, summon a copy of it.

"You go first." - Krush'gor the Behemoth, to his pet boar.

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Mirror Entity is a common mage spell card, inducted into the Legacy set, formerly from the Classic set.

Other versions

Core

Classic

How to get

Mirror Entity can be obtained through Classic card packs, or through crafting.

Card	Crafting cost	Disenchanting
Mirror Entity	40	5
Golden Mirror Entity	400	50

Core set

Two copies of regular Mirror Entity (Core) are obtained for raising mage to level 1.

Two copies of golden Mirror Entity (Core) are obtained for winning 50 games as mage.

Mirror Entity (Core) is uncraftable and cannot be crafted or disenchanted.

Notes

• Like the other Secrets that trigger when your opponent plays a minion from their hand (Repentance, Snipe, Sacred Trial), Mirror Entity triggers in the After Play Phase following the Battlecry Phase. This means that all effects and death processing related to the minion's Battlecry resolve before the game queues and resolves Secrets such as Mirror Entity.
  • Mirror Entity, Sacred Trial, Snipe, Repentance and Potion of Polymorph all trigger in order of play.
  • Mirror Entity does not trigger if the minion is mortally wounded (such as by Snipe), pending destroy (such as by sacred trial) or already dead and removed from play (for example by using Injured Blademaster + Brann Bronzebeard).

• Minions are copied in every detail, including current stats, card text, and enchantments.

• If Mirror Entity's controller is at the limit of 7 minions when an enemy minion is played, Mirror Entity will not trigger.

• As Mirror Entity minions are not played from the hand, any Battlecries possessed by them will not be activated. However, like all secrets, Mirror Entity takes effect after any Battlecries from the triggering minion.

• One example of the above rule can be seen when copying a minion such as Frostwolf Warlord whose Battlecry potentially modifies its own stats. For example, if a Frostwolf Warlord is played alongside 4 other minions, its Battlecry will result in an 8/8 Frostwolf Warlord. If Mirror Entity triggers from that minion, it will produce an 8/8 Frostwolf Warlord, but that minion's Battlecry will not activate. In this way Mirror Entity can copy the consequences of the target minion's Battlecry, but will not activate it for the copy minion. However, if the copy is returned to the player's hand and then played, the Battlecry will activate normally.

• This can work to the mage's advantage when Mirror Entity triggers against strong units with negative Battlecry effects, such as King Mukla, Leeroy Jenkins, and many Demon cards, making Mirror Entity a good play early-on against warlocks, who often accept discard effects or self-damage in order to summon powerful, low-cost minions.

• Mirror Entity can trigger and copy a minion that is only alive due to a friendly Health Aura. The copy will lack the Health Aura and immediately die.

• Mirror Entity only triggers if the minion is still controlled by the opponent player after the Battlecry finishes. Mirror Entity will also not copy the 'pending destroy' effect of Sacred Trial (played before it), and the copy will survive.

Known bugs

• In Patch 20.4.0.84593, Archdruid Naralex copied by Mirror Entity will give Dream cards to your opponent instead of you.

Fixed bugs

• Until Patch 7.1, Mirror Entity would copy a played minion even if it is mortally wounded by Snipe, already removed from play, including the interesting case case where it is mortally wounded, and a friendly Health Aura saves the copy from dying.

Strategy

This card is best played in the late game, as it has a higher chance to copy a strong minion then. It is also useful for countermanding an opponent with an empty board who may attempt to play in a large minion to regain board presence. In fact, a good strategy to coerce your opponent into giving you a free minion is to flood your side of the battlefield with smaller minions or a large one of you own, as this will likely prompt them to play something costly in order to defend themselves.

When playing against a Mage, this secret can be baited by playing a weak minion before playing any larger ones. If this secret does not trigger, you are safe to play larger minions; if the secret does trigger, it will only copy the weak minion, and you will then be free to play larger ones. Playing a weak minion also may allow you to attack with them, possibly dealing with Vaporize, another popular Mage secret. The effect of Mirror Entity can also be mitigated somewhat by playing an understatted minion with a powerful non-buffing Battlecry: the Battlecry will only activate for the original minion, and not for the copy. Bear in mind though that if the Battlecry buffs the summoned minion, Mirror Entity will copy the buff along with the minion, making cards like Twilight Drake most often a bad choice.

Lore

This spell doesn't seem to have a precise match in Warcraft lore. However, mages are well-known as masters of illusions, able to summon multiple fully-functioning images of themselves to assist in battle or even teaching and spell-casting, such as through the spell Mirror Image.

Trivia

• This card's art is a reference to Valve's Portal game series. The games feature a "portal gun" capable of opening small wormholes between two locations through which the player and other objects can pass, with one portal appearing light blue and the other orange. The two modes of the portal gun also caused it to glow the colour of the corresponding portal, similar to the mage's hands in this card's art. The mage also has a necklace and a badge on his left arm resembling the Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube and Aperture Science logo respectively. However, the portals only move objects around, they do not mirror or duplicate them.

Gallery

Mirror Entity, full art

Patch changes

• Year of the Gryphon rotation (2021-03-30): Moved from Classic to Legacy set.
• Patch 20.0.0.77662 (2021-03-25): Now has Arcane spell school (previously: no spell school).
• Patch 4.2.0.12051 (2016-03-14): Now reads "After your opponent" instead of "When your opponent".
• Patch 1.0.0.3388 (2013-06-22): Now activates when your opponent plays a minion, rather than when an enemy minion attacks.