Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1125: Mercenaries

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

In honor of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, I did a card-by-card design podcast on cards with creature type Mercenary.

I'm not pulling my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for Drive to Work at Home Edition. Okay, so I haven't done a card-by-card episode in a while. I tend to do these at home because it's easier for me to read the cards. So in honor of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, I thought I would take one of the outlaw creature types and talk about its history. So I take a look at them. Number one with the most was Rogue. These numbers are pre-Outlaws of Thunderdungeon. 464 Rogues. Way too much to talk about. Number two with 147 was Pirates.

Number three with 92 was Warlocks. Number four with 83 was Assassin. And number five with 47 was Mercenary, which is enough that I think I can handle in one episode. So, today is all about Mercenaries. Okay, so the very first Mercenary ever actually shows up in Ice Age. It is a card called Mercenaries. Summon Mercenaries.

It is now a human Mercenary in Oracle. Okay, so the card says it's a 3-3 for 3 and a white so for 4 mana, 1 of which is white 3-3 and for 3 mana the next time mercenaries would deal damage to you this turn prevent that damage so the idea is

it's a 4 mana 3-3 but your opponent can pay to stop it it's funny looking back like a hill giant in white is, like you get a lot of upside nowadays. But back then, it got downside. I know white was a little bit smaller. Even in Ice Age, this was kind of a weak card.

And it was a rare, of course. Okay, the next time a mercenary would show up, and the first time it's, mercenaries would just summon mercenaries, plural, like it was matching the card title. The first time that mercenary would show up, and the first time it's mercenaries would just summon mercenaries, plural, like it was matching the card title. The first time that mercenaries showed up that it wasn't the name of the card, there were two of them in alliances.

Rogue Sky Captain and Soldier of Fortune. So Rogue Sky Captain, two in a red, flying. I'm going to read you the text as it was printed. At the beginning of your upkeep, you put a wage counter on Rogue Sky Captain. During your upkeep, pay two for each wage counter on Rogue Sky Captain

or remove all wage counters from Rogue Sky Captain and target opponent gains control of Rogue Sky Captain. So this is kind of a riff on cumulative upkeep. So Ice Age had introduced cumulative upkeep, the same design team, the East Coast Playtesters, who designed that set, designed alliances. And so I think they were trying to make a card where the idea is that of Cumul of Upkeep,

but the downside of the card is your opponent gets control of it rather than it dying. And for that, you get a 3-4 flyer in red for two and a red. We don't... These days, I mean, we do do flyers in red because we have dragons and phoenixes, but this is the kind of card that probably wouldn't be specifically here.

I think the idea that it went back and forth made it feel red, like you exchange control, maybe the chaos of it. Okay, the other card, Soldier of Fortune, red, 1-1, Mercenary. Red and tap, target player shuffles his or her library. Okay.

Bit of piece of trivia on this card. This was one of the very first cards I ever designed. At least, it's in alliances, I think I designed three cards that got in, three or four cards, that got into this. This was one of them. A huge mistake.

This card probably gets used more to harass people than anything else, to make people shuffle their cards, you know, in formats where they don't want to be shuffling their cards. Um, but anyway, it's one of the first cards I ever, well, one of the first cards I ever made to see print. I, there's some cards that showed up in Tempest that I designed before this that showed up in Tempest.

I mean, I designed those earlier, but this is the first, or one of the first cards of my design to make it in. Okay, next we get to Portal. Portal has a card called Mercenary Knight, two and a black. When Mercenary Knight comes into play from your hand, choose and discard a summoned creature from your hand or destroy Mercenary Knight. This is one of the earliest, the idea is that I have to sacrifice a creature as an additional cost. Now, obviously, it does it as an enter the battlefield effect, basically, rather than as an additional cost. But one of the things that was going on, this was Portal. Portal was really simplistic. It didn't have a lot of things going on.

There was only a couple keywords on them. So there was a lot of enter the battlefield effects. In fact, Portal is where, I mean, technically, Visions was the first set to have an enter the battlefield effects. In fact, Portal is where I mean, technically Visions was the first set to have an enter the battlefield effect, but Portal made a lot more use of them because the creatures couldn't do all that much. There couldn't be attack triggers or combat triggers

and there wasn't a lot of abilities. So there was a lot of things that played into the when you play the space, or when it comes into play. Now it's the enter the battlefield. But anyway, also the idea of I get more, but it costs me a creature. It's two black for a four or four, but I have to sacrifice a creature.

Okay, next up we get to Tempest. Douthy Mercenary. Two and a black for a two one. At the time it was Summon Knight, but I think they later went back and added Mercenary because Mercenary's in the name of the card. And the great creature update. If your name

had a creature type in it that made flavor sense, we would put it in. Anyway, so it's got Shadow. So this creature can be blocked only by creatures with Shadow. One and a black. Delthian Mercenary gets plus one plus zero until end of turn.

This card actually saw some play. Basically, in normal play, it was unblockable because these people didn't have shadow creatures. And so the idea for three mana, you got a two, one that you could pump. Anyway, this saw a little bit of play. Okay, now we get into Mercadian Masks. And Mercadian Masks has the lion's share, I think, of the 47 mercenaries. 33 of them come from Mercadian Mask Block.

Why? Why do they come from Mercadian Mask Block? And the answer is, it was a mechanic. An unnamed mechanic. But basically, a lot of mercenaries had the ability that you could search for mercenaries. And so the idea was, some of them searched for rebels, some searched for mercenaries. The rebels went up. It was a small creature that looked for something bigger than it. Mercenaries went down.

They were a bigger creature that looked at things that were cheaper than it. Surprise, surprise! Rebels were the strong mechanic, and mercenaries were the weak mechanic. But anyway, because it was a key part of the set that you could mechanic and mercenaries were the weak mechanic but anyway because it was a key part of the set that you could go get mercenaries there are a lot of mercenaries

like over half of the mercenaries in existence like I said there are 54 so 33 of the ones in existence before Outlaws

of Thunder Junction are from the set okay Alley Grifters one blood black two two whenever Alley Grifters becomes blocked

defending player discards a card from his or her hand. So this basically is something that is you don't want to block it, because if you block it, it makes them discard a card. Bog Smugglers. One blood black, two two. Swamp Walk. Swamp Walk was creatures unblockable

as long as defending player controls the swamp. We stopped making Swamp Walk was creatures unblockable as long as the defending player controls the swamp. We stopped making Swamp Walk a while ago. Let's see. Other creatures. Highway Robber, two black black. When Highway Robber comes into play, you gain two life and target opponent loses two life. Misshapen Fiend is a one black, one one flying creature.

And let's see. Molten Harpy is a flying creature, black for a 2-1 flying creature and to give you upkeep you sacrifice unless you pay 2 so at an upkeep cost

Primeval Shambler 4 and a black for a 3-3 black he gets plus 1 plus 1 so it's like a shade although it's a mercenary not a shade

Rampant Crawler is a black 1-1 that can't be black by walls Silent Assassin that's funny Silent Assassin is That's funny. Silent Assassin is a human mercenary assassin. So it's both a mercenary and an assassin.

For three and a block, destroy a target blocking creature and end in combat. So if you block it, it can die. Skulking Fugitive. Two block, three, four. When it becomes a target of spell or ability, sacrifice it. What we now call the illusion downside. And then Strong-Armed Thug,

two and a black. When Strong-Armed Thug comes into play, you may return a mercenary card from your graveyard to your hand. It's a 1-1. So it lets you get back a mercenary. Now, there were a whole bunch of cards with the mercenary ability.

So the mercenary ability is it was some amount of mana and search your library for converted mana cost that or less. So, for example, Katarin Brute is two and a black for a 2-2. Two taps, search your library for a mercenary library for converted mana cost that or less. So, for example, Katarin Brute is 2 and a black for a 2-2. 2 tap, search your

library for a mercenary card with converted mana cost 2 or less, and put that card into play. Then shuffle your library. The way it worked is the amount of mana you had to tap was 1 less. So Katarin Brute costs 3 mana. It could go and get a 2-mana creature, but it costs 2 to do that. For example, Katarin

Kidnapper is 2 and a black black, four, two. Mercenary, obviously. Three and a black, search the library for mercenary costs with three mana or less. So Katarin Brute got two. Katarin Kidnappers got three.

Oh, Katarin Persuader, which costs black black, which is a two, one, did it for one. Katarin Enforcer, which was a three, black, black, four, three, thatan Enforcer, which was a 3-4-3, that sort of had fear, can't be black except by artifact creatures and black creatures,

was for 4. And the Cateran Slaver was 4-5-5-5 with Swamp Walk for 5. Cateran Overlord was 4-5-5-5, 7-5, you could sacrifice a creature to regenerate it, for 6. So basically there were 6 creatures. There was a 1-drop, a 2-drop, a 3-drop sacrifice a creature to regenerate it, for six. So basically there were six creatures. There was a one drop, a two drop, a three drop, a four drop, or sorry, a two drop that got one, a three drop that got two,

all the way up to a seven drop that got six. Okay, that was Mercadian Masks. Now the mechanic continues on into Nemesis, which is the next set. So Nemesis does a couple things. First off, it introduces, for the first time, a mercenary that is not... Well, the first mercenary was white.

Mercenaries. Rogue Cat, Sky Captain, Scourge of Fortune were red. All the ones that I talked about in Mercadian Mass were black. So for the first time, you get a blue one in Sea Hunter. So Sea Hunter is 2 blue So for the first time, get a blue one in Sea Hunter. So Sea Hunter is two blue blue for a 2-2, and it's

three and tap and search for a merfolk. So most mercenaries search for a mercenary, but we made one in blue and one in red. The red one was called Mog Catcher. Two red red for a 2-2. Each of these costs two colored red for a 2-2. Each of these costs

2 colored mana for a 2-2 creature. For 3 and tap, they went and got it didn't limit the size. It went and got any Morpho or any Goblin. So the idea there was they were sort of offshoots of the Mercenary mechanic. Once again, the Mercenary mechanic wasn't

named. Then, there's a bunch of new cards in Nemesis a Phyrexian Driver 2 and a black 1-1 when Phyrexian Driver comes into play all of the Mercenaries get plus 1 plus 1 until end of turn so this is like a Mercenary type of card

we got Phyrexian Prowler who has 3 and a black for 3-3 and Phyrexian is fading fading something showed up in the set. So, creature comes into play with end fading counters, in this case three. Beginning of your

upkeep, remove a fade counter if you can't sacrifice it. Fade counters will later turn into vanishing counters when we brought them back in Planar Chaos. Everybody was playing fading wrong. They thought that when you took off your last counter, it went away. Not that it stayed for one more turn after.

You have to not be able to remove a counter for it to go. But people got confused by that. This one, by the way, has a remove a fade counter from Frexton Prowler. It gets plus one, plus one. So the idea is, I have a four mana for three, three. It only sticks around for three turns. But I can make it stick around for less turns

and make it bigger. We have Spineless Thug. 1 and a black, 2-2. Spineless Thug can't block. Spineless Thug is one of those cards that would show up in a lot of core sets. And then Spiteful Bully. Spiteful Bully is 1 and a black,

3-3. At the beginning of your upkeep, Spiteful Bully deals 3 damage to a target creature you control. You can tell a lot, by the way. Creatures were a lot weaker back in the day. So the idea of two men for a 3-3 and giant downside. It lightning bolts a creature you control. It could be this creature, by the way.

Target creature... So, at some point, if you just want to kill anything else, you could kill Spiteful Bully. Which is a little bit... Nowadays, when we do black cards, just want to kill anything else, you could kill Spiteful Bully, which is a little bit... Nowadays, when we do black cards, we tend to make it a little more out of your control if you're black, that you can't just choose. So, probably, if we made this card now,

we'd say, like, target non-mercenary or something, or something where it couldn't target itself. Anyway, now, there were a couple of the mercenary fetching cards. There were three of them. The cheapest one was Wrathly Intimidator, one-ball black, two, one. It had basically fear. It can't be blocked by

except by artifact creatures and black creatures. And for two and tap, it got a creature of two or less. And then Wrath of the Assassin and Wrath of the Fiend. Wrath of the Assassin was two black, black for a two, two. One black, black, tap. Destroy target, tap. Non-black creature. And for three, you could get something two or less.

For three and tap, you could get three or less. And then Wrath of the Fiend was three and a black for a two, two. For three and tap, you can get three or less. So those are all the ones in Nemesis. Okay, which brings us to the third set in the block, Prophecy. So Prophecy has a few.

Six more. One is, it has a white mercenary. Like I said, the very first mercenary was white, but this is the first mercenary since then. So this one is a rebel mercenary. So remember, the rebels were mostly in

white, and you went upward. You went upward to get it. This was a mercenary informer, so the idea, I think, is he is really a rebel at heart, but he's snuck among the mercenaries. So he's pretending to be a mercenary.

He's a double agent. Mercenary informer can't be the target of black spells or abilities. So sort of, not quite protection, but part of protection. So he can't be hurt by black things. And then two and a white, put target mercenary card

on the bottom of its own library. And it's a 2, one for three mana. So the idea is it's a rebel that's an anti-mercenary card. But it itself is a mercenary, I guess, because it's high, I guess, flavor-wise, it's hiding among the mercenaries. Okay, so of the mercenaries that are left, we had three mercenaries, or five mercenaries. So, a couple things. There's three of them that don't fetch. There's

Agent of Shaku, one and a black for a 1-1. One black, sacrifice a land. Target creature gets plus two, plus O at the end of turn. Sacrificing a land was a theme of prophecy. That's what's going here. Death Charmer. When Death Charmer deals combat damage to a creature, that creature's control loses two life unless he or she pays two.

There's a mechanic we had done something in green if I remember the name of it. It was a little Nass Asp that would hit you and then you had to pay mana or you sort of took his poison. Anyway, Death Charmer is playing in a similar space. And then Pit Raptor. Two black black, four three, flying first

strike. At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Pit Raptor unless you pay two black black. One thing you can see here as I go through these, early Magic really played around a lot more with upkeep costs. Like, every turn you have to pay this cost. Richard did a whole bunch of an alpha, and it stuck around for a bunch of years. We eventually came to the conclusion that they just weren't really fun. It's not that we never do them, but we do them pretty infrequently. No one here as frequently as they were back in the day.

Okay, so there's two here that can fetch. Oh, I'm sorry. I said there was a mercenary informer. There's a mirror to it. There's the rebel informer. So the rebel informer is two and a black for a one-two. The mercenary was two and a white for a two-one. Rebel informer can't be the

target of white spells or abilities, so it mirrors it. And for 3, you put target Rebel on the bottom of the zone of the library. So the idea is, there is a Mercenary pretending to be a Rebel, and a Rebel pretending to be a Mercenary, and they mirror each other. And then the one card that actually fetches Mercenaries is called Bogglider. 2 and a black for a 1-1, flying. Tap Sacrifice the Land. Search your library for a Mercenary card with converted mana cost two or less,

and put the card into play. So as we evolve along, as we like, for example, the Mercenary mechanic was pretty straightforward in the first set. We saw Sea Hunter and Mog Hunter, which allowed you to fetch other things other than Mercenaries in the second set. And the third set, hey, we finally have a card in which it

doesn't require mana to fetch things. It still follows the rules that it fetches something smaller than it is, but it doesn't require mana, which is something new. Okay, now we get out of Arcadian Mass Block. Okay, next up, we're into Onslaught. Doomed Necromancer. So two and a block for a 2-2. Black and tap. Sacrifice Doomed Necromancer. So two and a black for a 2-2. Black and tap.

Sacrifice Doomed Necromancer. Return target creature card from your graveyard to play. This was a riff... We had done different cards that got back things from the dead. And this, the idea here is there's a card called Hell's Caretaker that I really liked. Where it lets you each turn sacrifice a creature to bring it back. This is Hell's Caretaker, but a little more contained, where it's just this creature can sacrifice itself to get something back.

But it's pretty powerful. It's actually a bit cheaper now. We learned over the years that if we aren't careful with reanimation, it makes it hard for us to make good large creatures, and good large creatures are fun. So we're a little more careful these days with that. Next up, Goblin Turncoat. Goblin Turncoat is from Legion. It's the second set in the Onslaught block, and the only mercenary in that set.

Sacrifice a Goblin, Regenerate Goblin Turncoat. So it's one and a black for a 2-1. It's a Goblin Mercenary, so it's a goblin the reason it's black, most goblins are red, but this one he's a mercenary, he doesn't care and he's willing to sacrifice his fellow goblins to help himself so he's

a little bit of a more selfish goblin okay, next up we get to champions of Kamigawa or sorry, this is saviors of Kamigawa, so saviors of Kamigawa. Or, sorry, this is Saviors of Kamigawa. So, Saviors of Kamigawa has one, an Ogre Samurai Mercenary, a Silkenzan Renegade,

two in red for a 3-3, got Bushido 1, which, when this blocks, becomes blocked, gets plus one, so end of turn. At the beginning of your upkeep, if a player has more cards in hand than any other, that player with the most cards in hand gains control of Silkenzan Renegade.

Aha, now I see why you get a 3-3 for 2-R Bushido 1. The idea here, essentially, Saviors of Kamigawa is the third set in the Champions of Kamigawa block. It had a... It cared about Converted Manicoss and it also cared about cards in hand. Oh, I'm sorry, Scourge cared about Converted Manicoss.

Saviors of Kamigawa, cards in Talk, how many cards you had in hand was a theme of that set. So the idea is, I have a creature, as long as I have more cards than you, I keep my creature and it's a little cheaper. Nowadays, we make creatures that are probably close to this without having to have the shenanigans of losing it. But that was the idea.

The mercenary part of it was like, oh, trade size. Whoever pays it more, it'll go to. Okay, it was, uh, the mercenary part of it was like, oh, it'll trade size, you know, whoever, whoever pays it more, it'll go to. Okay, next up we get to Ravnica, Ravnica, the original Ravnica City Guilds. Sell sword brute, one and a red, 2-2. Creature, human mercenary. When

sell sword brute is put into a graveyard from play, it deals two damage to you. Uh, once again, you can see sort of, like, nowadays we make, uh, one and a red, 2-2 with upside. This is a one and a and a red 2-2 with upside. This is a one and a red for a 2-2 with downside. This is before we decided to do that. And the idea here is, like, okay, I get it, but wow, when it

dies, it deals two damage to me. Okay. Next up, this is from Conspiracy Take the Crown. Crown Hunter Hyraling. It's an ogre mercenary, 4-4, 4-4 and a red. When a Crown Hunter Hyraling enters the's an Ogre Mercenary, 4-4, 4-4 in a red. When a Crown Hunter Hyerling enters the battlefield,

you become the monarch. Crown Hunter Hyerling can't attack unless defending player is the monarch. So the idea there is only when he works for you, only when you're the king will he work for you. That's very cute. I like that. And it's just trying to get a lot of different cards

that care about the Monarch in different ways. The idea that it gets the Monarch for you, but only listens to the Monarch was kind of fun. Okay, next up from Dominaria United Commander, Robarian Mercenaries. As you can see, by the way, if you remove Mercadian Masks, there's only been 21 mercenaries

before Outlaws of Thunder Junction. So there's not been tons of mercenaries. There's a bunch in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. There's a whole token and everything. But of the Outlaw things, this is definitely one that we've done the least amount. You can tell I'm already up to Dominar United. Anyway, Rebarian Mercenaries,

three and a white for three, four. Human Mercenary, Vigilance. Rebarian Mercenary has all activated abilities of all legendary creatures you control. Domino United had a legendary theme. We like a lot to play with legendaries and white. White being sort of caring about legendaries and helpful with legendaries. So the idea of this one is, okay, I get all the activated abilities. The reason it says activated abilities is if we say normal abilities, like every read abilities

or keyword abilities, that's really hard to find. We have to list them. That's why if you ever see like, oh, if they have Flying or First Strike or Lifelink or Death Touch, you have to list them out. So this was a little easier to put because you can list activated abilities. Okay, next up.

Jedid O'Janin, Mercenary. This is also from the Dominarian United Commander deck. It's the first, I mean, it's a white-blue card, but it's the first blue mercenary. Oh, no, it's not the first blue, we've seen blue mercenary. We haven't got a green mercenary yet, but we'll get to one of those. Jedid O'Janin is from Legends,

a character long, long ago. And he is one white and blue, 3-3, legendary creature, cat mercenary. Whenever Jedid O'Janin, Mercenary mercenary another legendary creature enters the battlefield under your control you may pay green. If you do, create a 2-2 green cat warrior creature token with Forest Walk So he actually does have green in his, I mean he doesn't have green

in his mana cost, but it's the first mercenary to care about green and then for his color identity, because green is in the rules text, he's got a white-blue-green color identity and he makes's in the rules text, he's got a white, blue, green color identity. And he makes green cat warriors because he himself is a cat warrior. Yeah, I think that was done

because they wanted to make him a three color. I think the original Jedit... Let's see. Let me check this. I don't think I can do it at home that I can't do. Yeah, the original Jedit or Janda was just white and blue. But one of the things is as he talked about being a cat warrior and forsaking the forest, but it was a little bit weird not to have green

in him. So I think this card, they found a way to get green in him. Okay. Next up, we get into Fallout. I don't know Fallout. I'm not a Fallout player, so I will speak to them as magic cards. I will not speak to them as

the IP. I don't know the IP. I'll just talk about the design. So Wasteland Raider, 2 black block, 4, 3, squad 2. As an additional cost to cast the spell, you may pay 2 any number of times. When this creature enters the battlefield, create that many tokens that are a copy of it. When Wasteland Raiders enter the battlefield, each player sacrifices a creature.

So once again, we talked about the themes of things sacrificing creatures. Squad first showed up about the themes of things, sacrifices, and creatures. Squad first showed up in the Warhammer 40,000 decks. This is the second time we used it. I do think in-universe magic stuff will eventually use Squad. It's a very cool mechanic, and so I have every belief we will use it one day.

Next, Thrill Kill Disciple. Two in a red. It's got squad, one discard a card. So, not only this is a squad that has an additional cost. I'm not sure whether this is the first time we've done additional costs in squad. Most of the ones I remember from Warhammer were mana.

When Thrill Kill Disciple dies, create a junk token. And this doesn't define what a junk token is. A junk token I think lets you impulsive draw. That lets you take define what a junk token is. A junk token I think lets you impulsive draw. That lets you take the top card of your library. And I'm not sure whether it's the end of this turn or next turn. Let's see. Can I look that up?

Let's see if I can look it up. When I'm driving in the car, I cannot look things up. We'll see if it lets me look it up. It does not. So, okay. I'm not quite sure what a junk token does. I know it's impulsive draw. I think it's one tap sack, but I'm not quite sure, but the Junk Token does. I know it's Impulsive Draw. I think it's one Tap Sack, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

But the idea with these is, the Squad Cards are nice, is being able to make multiple copies of them. And so this thing, if I want to make a bunch of copies, now given I have to discard cards to do it, but I can sort of help me generate more cards. The idea is each Junk Token sort of is a card draw. I mean, you've got to be able to use it, but I can sort of help me generate more cards. The idea is each junk token sort of is a card draw.

I mean, you've got to be able to use it, but it's card draw-ish. Okay, next. Gunner Conscript. One and a green for a 2-2. Creature, human, mercenary. Trample. Gunner Conscript gets plus one plus one

for each aura and equipment attached to it. When Gunner Conscript dies, if it was enchanted, create a junk token. When Gunner Conscript dies, if it was equipped, create a junk token. So, one of the themes is the idea of having things get aura or equipment on it. So this card

was obviously designed to play into that theme. And one of the things we like to do sometimes is do a card in which we cross themes, like you can care about auras or care about equipment. They're similar, they both attach. And so this card sort of says, hey, you can play auras with it, you can play equipment, and if you want to optimize, you can care about ores or care about equipment. They're similar, they both attach, and so this card sort of says, hey, you can play ores with it, you can play equipment,

and if you want to optimize, you can play ores and equipment. But it is sort of crisscrossing the streams. Ores and equipment are so close that we do like overlapping them where we can. Okay, and our last card of today. Oh, I realized I've been rushing through to try to get through. I'll do a few thoughts

at the end of this. Is Kellogg Dangerous Mind one black red for a 3-2 legendary creature, human mercenary, first strike in haste. Whenever Kellogg Dangerous Mind attacks, create a treasure token. Sacrifice five treasures, gain control of target creature

for as long as you control Kellogg. So one of the things we like to do whenever we create artifact tokens, be it treasure or food or clues or blood or whatever the case may be, junk in this particular set, one of the things we like to do when we make tokens is we like cards that give you alternate reasons

to use that token. Now, sometimes we specifically name the token by name. Sometimes we'll say stuff like Sacrifice Artifact. But one of the ideas that we like is if a set uses a counter in a larger way, a counter, an artifact token, sorry, an artifact token, we like having things that can make use of that.

So the cool thing about this is, hey, every time he attacks, you make a token so he can generate tokens. And then you have a goal, right? Oh, if I get enough of them, I can steal something. It's tied to how long he's in play. That's a control. So the idea is maybe I can steal over time a bunch of creatures,

but the out is always if you get rid of Kellogg, then you get your creatures back. And that is... One of the things you always have to answer when you make a card is what is the answers to the card? If the card can do something that's pretty powerful, we want to make sure. And so stealing creatures can be quite powerful.

And it's possible in a deck that just, there is ways to generate a lot of treasure. And so the idea of I'm constantly stealing things, so getting five treasure, it's not nothing. I mean, it is a hoop to jump through. But in a deck dedicated to doing, it's not hard to get a decent amount of treasure. So there's a nice answer inherently there.

Now, he's also legendary, meaning that if he's your commander, you can get him back, but you'll lose everything you gain control of when he dies. Okay. The remaining things here are stuff upcoming. I'm not going to get into Outlaws of Thunder Junction,

but what happened was, real quickly, I'll just talk about the Mercenaries of Outlaws of Thunder Junction as a whole. I'm knocking into the cards today. When we were looking, we knew that we wanted sidekicks for the villains, right? Having sidekicks is a big part of being a villain. Originally, we were looking at doing Minion, because Minion is the name,

when you talk about villains, henchmen, villain is a name that you often will use for that. But what had happened was we went to the creative team and Minion is in this weird space. Minion is what we call supported, which means we don't take the cards that are Minion and make them not Minion.

We support it. But we've made a conscious effort not to make new minions. The creator team has asked not to make new... So, there's a conscious intention not to make new minions. And so, when they came to us and said, okay, we'd rather not make minions. Could you do

something else? We went back and gave them a list of things. And Mercenary was nice. The reason we liked Mercenary was, at the time, the thought was we'd make a token that was only that creature type and nothing else in the set would be that creature type. And Mercenary was nice just because there

weren't a lot of Mercenaries. And it allows us to identify the token. We thought Mercenary's name was pretty good for the sidekick. Because villains pay people to come work for them, obviously. And then what ended up happening was when they were designing the set,

we would tag things, whether they were outlaws or not, and basically what would happen is the creative team had to then give them flavor. And warlocks were only spellcasters, so only if you were able to do magic were you a warlock. And assassins had to able to do magic were you a warlock.

And assassins had to kill something. Only if you killed a creature. Pirates really had to have the flavor of pirates to them. And then there was mercenaries and there was rogues. And the idea was, oh, well, just they could all be rogues. But they thought, you know, we have mercenary and they, you know, if you work for money,

like if you are hired for money, let's just make that a mercenary. And, you know, Rogue is more like, I'm a ne'er-do-well, but not necessarily that someone's hiring me. And so they made that division, so a lot of the creatures in the set ended up being a mercenary. So, like I said,

it wasn't planned, but stuff like that happens. Anyway, guys, I hope you enjoyed this sort of jaunt through the mercenaries of Magic. Like I said, there's a whole bunch more mercenaries coming. And there's a brand new token and everything. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this look through Magic's mercenary past. But anyway, as an A, I've run out of mercenaries. And B, I'm at my desk.

We all know what that means. It's at the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking Magic and mercenaries, and B, I'm at my desk. We all know what that means. It's at the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic and mercenaries, it's time to be making magic. I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.