Paying cumulative upkeep is always optional. If it’s not paid, the permanent with cumulative upkeep is sacrificed. Partial payments of the total cumulative upkeep cost can’t be made. For example, if a permanent with “cumulative upkeep {1}” has three age counters on it when its cumulative upkeep ability triggers, it gets another age counter and then its controller chooses to either pay {4} or sacrifice the permanent.
Although a creature can gain the triggered ability only once, it can be targeted by multiple Musicians to increase its number of music counters.
This ability has no duration. An affected creature will retain the triggered ability until the game ends, it leaves the battlefield, or some other effect causes it to lose its abilities. It doesn’t matter if Musician is still on the battlefield or not.
This printing is one of 3 catalogued treatments from ME2 — the lineup includes Foil and Nonfoil alongside the standard finish. Across our catalog the Rarix library tracks every variant in the same family so collectors can compare price, scarcity and demand inside a single lineage.
Card #56 of *Masters Edition II*, the set that shipped alongside the September 2008 Masters Edition II release.
Card type: Creature — Human Wizard, color identity blue, printed at rare. Rares occupy the bottom-of-pack rare slot in standard boosters. Mana cost: {2}{U} (3 converted). Keyword abilities: Cumulative upkeep.
Legal in Legacy, Vintage, and Commander. This printing is on Wizards of the Coast's Reserved List — Wizards has committed never to reprint cards on that list, which underwrites a structural scarcity floor on every surviving copy.
EDHrec ranks this card #22,054 in Commander, putting it in the fringe-play tier of the format's playable pool.
Illustrated by Drew Tucker. Rarix catalogs 258 other cards credited to this artist.
Magic: The Gathering · ™ & © Wizards of the Coast · Illus. Drew Tucker
Card data via Scryfall. Rarix is fan-made; not endorsed by the rights holders.
If a music counter is put on a creature by some other means (Fate Transfer, for example), but that creature has never been affected by Musician’s ability, that creature won’t have the triggered ability and its controller won’t have to pay mana. The music counters will stay on that creature but won’t do anything.
