If you want to encode the card with cipher onto a noncreature permanent such as a Keyrune that can turn into a creature, that permanent has to be a creature before the spell with cipher starts resolving. You can choose only a creature to encode the card onto.
If the creature leaves the battlefield, the exiled card will no longer be encoded on any creature. It will stay exiled.
If you choose not to cast the copy, or you can't cast it (perhaps because there are no legal targets available), the copy will cease to exist the next time state-based actions are performed. You won't get a chance to cast the copy at a later time.
Last observed on Scryfall 2 months ago at $0.35. Over the trailing 90 days the price moved between $0.24 and $0.36 across 48 observations. Cross-checked across TCGplayer, eBay sold, Cardmarket EU, and Star City.
This printing is one of 2 catalogued treatments from ZNC — the lineup includes 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 #37 of *Zendikar Rising Commander*, the set that shipped alongside the September 2020 Zendikar Rising Commander release.
Card type: Sorcery, color identity blue, printed at rare. Rares occupy the bottom-of-pack rare slot in standard boosters. Mana cost: {4}{U}{U} (6 converted). Keyword abilities: Cipher.
Legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, and Commander.
EDHrec ranks this card #4,643 in Commander, putting it in the niche-pick tier of the format's playable pool.
Illustrated by Clint Cearley. Rarix catalogs 372 other cards credited to this artist.
Magic: The Gathering · ™ & © Wizards of the Coast · Illus. Clint Cearley
Card data via Scryfall. Rarix is fan-made; not endorsed by the rights holders.
The exiled card with cipher grants a triggered ability to the creature it's encoded on. If that creature loses that ability and subsequently deals combat damage to a player, the triggered ability won't trigger. However, the exiled card will continue to be encoded on that creature.
The copy of the card with cipher is created in and cast from exile.
You cast the copy of the card with cipher during the resolution of the triggered ability. Ignore timing restrictions based on the card's type.
If a creature with an encoded card deals combat damage to more than one player simultaneously (perhaps because some of the combat damage was redirected), the triggered ability will trigger once for each player it deals combat damage to. Each ability will create a copy of the exiled card and allow you to cast it.
If another player gains control of the creature, that player will control the triggered ability. That player will create a copy of the encoded card and may cast it.
You choose the creature as the spell resolves. The cipher ability doesn't target that creature, although the spell with cipher may target that creature (or a different creature) because of its other abilities.
If the spell with cipher doesn't resolve, none of its effects will happen, including cipher. The card will go to its owner's graveyard and won't be encoded on a creature.
The spell with cipher is encoded on the creature as part of that spell's resolution, just after the spell's other effects. That card goes directly from the stack to exile. It never goes to the graveyard.
If the copied permanent is a token, the token that's created copies the original characteristics of that token as stated by the effect that put the token onto the battlefield.
If the copied permanent has {X} in its mana cost, X is considered to be zero.
If the copied permanent is copying something else (for example, if the copied creature is a Clone), then the token enters as whatever that creature copied.
Any "enters" abilities of the copied permanent will trigger when the token enters the battlefield. Any "as [this permanent] enters" or "[this permanent] enters with" abilities of the chosen permanent will also work.
The token copies exactly what was printed on the original artifact or creature and nothing else (unless that permanent is copying something else or is a token; see below). It doesn't copy whether it is tapped or untapped, whether it has any counters on it or Auras and Equipment attached to it, or any non-copy effects that have changed its power, toughness, types, color, or so on.
If the token you create is a copy of a creature, you can exile Stolen Identity encoded on that token.
