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I've been playing Magic with my boyfriend and I wanted to cast Complete Disregard (CD) targeting one of his creatures, but my question is, does CD work with base power or with power after alterations?

Specifically: the creature I wanted to target was Impostor of the Sixth Pride acting as a Sliver creature, with Cleaving Sliver giving it +2/+0 and also with a +1/+1 counter on it. Now, I am pretty sure that the +2/+0 obtained from Cleaving Sliver matters more than the +1/+1 counter, still, would Complete Disregard work on it?

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No, Complete Disregard won't work (and incidentally you can't target the Impostor, since it's not a legal target). Complete Disregard, like almost* all other cards simply cares about the actual power; the base power doesn't matter. Both buffs (+2/+0 from Cleaving Sliver and the +1/+1 counter) alone would be enough to raise the Impostor's power above 3, so that it ... wait for it ... completely disregards Complete Disregard.

*: the few cards for which this is not the case explicitly mention 'base power' and/or 'base toughness' (example), and as @murgatroid99 notes, they all change the base power/toughness, they do not check it.

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    I want to add, regarding your last point: there are cards that set base power and/or toughness, but there are no cards that check base power or toughness, or use it as the input to a calculation.
    – murgatroid99 ♦
    Commented Feb 23, 2021 at 17:18
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    To add extra clarification around that, note that "base power" is a somewhat recent wording addition to MTG; created simply to make it clearer how interactions between effects that set power to a specific number and effects that change power work. "Base power" has no real rules usage outside of adding clarity to effects that set a creature's power/toughness.
    – GendoIkari
    Commented Feb 23, 2021 at 18:21
  • @murgatroid99 Since your comment, there is (at least) one card that does check for base power; Baird, Argivian Recruiter.
    – Matthew Jensen
    Commented May 11, 2023 at 1:44
  • Sure, it looks at base power, but not in the same sense as cards like in the question. The actual value of the base power doesn't matter for it, all that matters is whether the current power is greater than the base power.
    – murgatroid99 ♦
    Commented May 11, 2023 at 2:20

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