Can I just move Zed, Without a Shadow to my shadow's location without swapping?

Question

Accepted Answer

No. Zed, Without a Sound’s Action explicitly moves two units — “move me and a Shadow Clone you control to each other's locations.” You must choose and attempt both Moves when you activate the Action; you cannot choose to move only Zed and leave the Shadow behind. If one of the Moves is impossible, that Move may be replaced or ignored by the rules, but the other Move still occurs if it can be performed.

You cannot opt to only move Zed, Without a Sound to the Shadow Clone’s location. The Action requires both Moves to be chosen and attempted when finalized [355.4]. If one Move cannot legally be performed, that Move will be handled according to the Move/cleanup rules (e.g., becomes a Recall per 442.2.c) or be ignored while the other Move is still executed as able [359.3.e.11] [442.2.c].

When you activate the Action on Zed, Without a Sound, you finalize the ability and must make the required choices for its Moves — specifically, choose the Shadow Clone you control and choose destinations for the Moves (Zed’s destination and the Shadow’s destination) as part of finalization [355.4] [355.9]. You cannot choose to omit the Shadow’s Move; the card’s instruction is to move both units to each other’s locations, so both Moves are part of the same effect and must be specified [355.4]. As the ability resolves, the game attempts to execute both Move instructions. If one Move cannot be legally performed (for example its Destination is invalid or would cause the Move to be illegal), that Move is handled according to Move rules (it may Recall instead per 442.2.c or be ignored) while the other Move still executes if it can be performed [442.2.c] [359.3.e.11]. If the Shadow Clone ceases to be a legal chosen object (for example it leaves to a non-board zone before resolution), the instruction referencing it may be unable to execute; instructions that can’t be followed are ignored while linked/remaining instructions follow as able [359.3.e.11] [359.3.e.12].

If you do not control any Shadow Clone when you try to finalize the Action, you cannot put the Action on the chain because you have no valid target to choose for the 'Shadow Clone you control' requirement (targets must be valid when finalized) [355.9]. If the Shadow Clone’s destination would be invalid (for instance moving it to a Battlefield that would cause three players’ units to be present or otherwise disallowed), that Move will be replaced with a Recall per [442.2.c], while Zed’s Move can still happen. If the Shadow Clone becomes a different game object by moving to a non-board zone before the Action resolves, the connection is severed and the instruction that referenced it will be ignored—this can cause the Shadow’s Move to fail while Zed’s Move still occurs if possible [359.3.e.4] [359.3.e.5]. (See related clarifications about targets and non-board zone changes [FAQ:unleashed#22].)

The Action printed on Zed, Without a Sound is not an option that lets you pick and choose to only perform one half; it explicitly instructs two Moves: “move me and a Shadow Clone you control to each other's locations.” When you activate that Action you must finalize it by making all choices required for each Move, which includes choosing the Shadow Clone and choosing a valid destination for each Move [355.4]. A "valid Location" must be a different location than the unit’s current one and must be a location the unit is allowed to be present at [355.4.a].

Because both Moves are part of the same ability, you cannot simply declare only Zed’s Move and omit the Shadow’s Move at finalization. If, during resolution, one of the Moves cannot be performed for some rules reason, the Move rules handle that situation: an illegal Move can become a Recall per [442.2.c], and more generally instructions that can only be partially followed are followed as much as possible and the rest ignored [359.3.e.11]. That means if the Shadow’s Move is impossible but Zed’s Move is possible, Zed will still move while the Shadow is recalled or otherwise fails to move as determined by the Move rules.

Also note target legality timing: the Shadow Clone must be a legal chosen object when you finalize the ability or you can’t finalize/put the ability on the chain with that target [355.9]. If the Shadow becomes a different object by moving to a non-board zone before resolution, any instruction referring to it will be unable to execute and will be ignored, while any other instructions that can still execute will do so [359.3.e.4] [359.3.e.5].

In short: you must attempt both Moves; you cannot choose to move only Zed, Without a Sound. If one Move is impossible, the game’s Move/partial-execution rules determine the result, and the other Move will still happen if it can [355.4] [359.3.e.11] [442.2.c].