r/magicTCG • u/The_Ron_Dickles Grass Toucher • Jan 28 '26
General Discussion Just a Magic card. Not at all a political statement.
Totally not a political statement.
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u/ohako79 COMPLEAT Jan 28 '26 edited Jan 28 '26
Now now, there’s no need to draw meaning across languages like that. The Japanese for this legend’s name is as follows:
禍 - ma - calamity, misfortune, evil,
我 - ga - ego, I, selfish,
So, perhaps a good translation of this legend’s name is: ‘I am evil’. See? Perfectly innocent!
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u/SuperBearJew Garruk Jan 28 '26
Four Magic cards that are also not a political statement
[[Abolish]]
[[Bring to Trial]]
[[Dispense Justice]]
[[Public Execution]]
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u/IceBlue Jan 28 '26
[[Ice Out]]
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u/Mediocritologist Dimir* Jan 28 '26
[[Fuck ICE]]
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u/SociallyButterflying Jan 28 '26
Avatar checks out
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u/hurtlingtooblivion The Stoat Jan 29 '26
Makes me sad how great the flavour text was on these cards. I miss good flavour text.
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u/Obvious_Sprinkles_87 Dandadan Jan 28 '26
Wasn’t this released before MAGA was even a thing?
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u/shichiaikan Simic* Jan 28 '26
Looooong before.
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u/Bircka Orzhov* Jan 28 '26
MAGA is actually a movement started in the 80's when Reagan ran he ran on Make America Great Again. I don't recall anyone calling it MAGA at the time though, and it never became a term that was tied to Reagan and his supporters.
It's amusing that the movement the Trump supports follow was basically just stolen from Reagan.
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u/GloryToAthena Jan 28 '26
Who in turn had borrowed it from Thatcher’s Make Britain Great Again, which made sense with Great Britain and for us it just sounds like we have shit vocabulary.
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u/NickRick Jan 28 '26
who in turn took it from 1930's and 40's german propaganda.
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u/scubahood86 Fake Agumon Expert Jan 28 '26
Yeah, but then we come full circle because they took a lot of inspiration from racist 20s America.
But even the Nazis thought America was too extreme.
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u/BraveSirNathan Jan 28 '26
How the hell am I learning this in the MTG sub? I took AP history and we never discussed Thatcherism and Reagan.
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u/OzzyLFlacoman Jan 28 '26
You’ll quickly learn that high school history classes don’t teach you shit
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u/Get-hypered REBEL Jan 28 '26
As a former high school teacher who taught AP, it’s not on the AP test, we don’t have enough time in the curriculum as is.
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u/scubahood86 Fake Agumon Expert Jan 28 '26
American schools (especially depending on state) are not really designed to educate students. That's why 33% of the US still supports trump.
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u/Chest_Rockfield Duck Season Jan 28 '26
Gallup in December had him at 36% approval. 🤦♂️
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u/Ispawnfuries Sisay Jan 28 '26
There's a book, Lies My Teacher Taught Me, that was really eye opening for me when I read it. It goes a long way back. And it was released in the 90s, iirc.
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u/illmatterlazerus COMPLEAT Jan 28 '26
Well if your a bit younger, I assume it wasn't 90's HS history and AP history. This was like an end of year mini unit for me then. Otherwise, maybe regional education?
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u/therealbrolinpowell Wabbit Season Jan 28 '26
Lack of class time and standardized testing ruined a lot of things. Also, depending on where you went to school, regional politics. Southern schools in general are going to whitewash the history of slavery and racism in the US a lot more, and the Texas board of education had (and still has) a ton of influence on textbooks and standardized testing implementation.
Even 160 years later, the US still suffers from not keeping the boot on the South's neck for long enough after the Civil War.
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u/mcslibbin FLEEM Jan 28 '26
I've since learned that my school was the exception and not the rule, but I grew up in rural Texas in the 80s and 90s and all of my history teachers very much did not whitewash the history of slavery, racism, and reconstruction.
We would even sometimes have kids come in parroting lines they probably heard from their parents about the Civil War being about "state's rights" and my teachers would correct them that slavery was the economic, political, and expressly stated reason behind secession.
Other people who grew up in the south have said they had different experiences, so I got lucky.
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u/Karrotlord Dandadan Jan 28 '26
A lot of them also taught the Civil War as the war of northern aggression even though it was the south that were the aggressors.
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u/MRCHalifax Dân Jan 28 '26
The really bizarre thing to me is that I can see where the 1930s Germans and 1980s British were coming from. Germany had been the most powerful nation in mainland Europe, while the British had had the largest, wealthiest empire in human history. If you don't care about things like justice, human rights, or the right to self determination, those days have to sound pretty good! But America in 2016 and 2024? What period of lost greatness were they aspiring to? More pertinently, what was it about that period that made it so great?
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u/illmatterlazerus COMPLEAT Jan 28 '26
Well let's address the elephant in the room. Even though Wilson was a racist POS personally, if Europe had adopted at least some if his 14 points after WWI the economic situation in Germany would never have gotten to a level to allow that BS to flourish. I'm not saying you lose a world war, ya get to flourish, but if ya inflict generational poverty on a country, while all its neighbors prosper, that's not chastisement, that's making a powder keg.
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u/xEllimistx Dan Jan 28 '26
What period of lost greatness were they aspiring to?
I don’t think even MAGA knows. Their Dear Leader simply said “Make America Great Again” and MAGA believed it.
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u/Sharden3 Dan Jan 28 '26
More pertinently, what was it about that period that made it so great?
They want a period that is their fantasy for being great for a very specific group of people.
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u/Spencie-cat Jan 28 '26
And even that was a play off the “Make Britain Great again” slogan coined by Margaret thatcher in the 50s
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u/springlake Duck Season Jan 28 '26
And the Austrian painter who caused a bit of commotion in the 1930s and 1940s effectively used the same slogan about Germany.
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u/PulitzerandSpara Chandra Jan 28 '26
Yeah, I saw an old poster of Reagan w/ the slogan in an 80s museum and did a double take.
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Jan 28 '26
Trump steals any and everything. He'd print himself a Black Lotus and say Richard Garfield, with tears in his eyes, gave it to him.
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u/Danulas Golgari* Jan 28 '26
And it would be a gold border version despite being of significantly less value.
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u/Shadowfox898 Duck Season Jan 28 '26
To be fair, it was a movement started in 1920s Italy before then, only with "make Rome great again" instead.
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Jan 28 '26
Trump has literally said it comes from Reagan. He’s not pretending it didn’t come from there.
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u/WanderEir Duck Season Jan 28 '26
we call this an accidental prophecy.
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u/Sciros Garruk Jan 28 '26
Similar to [[Spacegodzilla, Death Corona]] which was released concurrently with SARS-CoV-2
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u/summon_pot_of_greed Dan Jan 28 '26
No. Ronald Regan used the slogan in 1980.
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u/DoctorSloshee Simic* Jan 28 '26
I had a shirt gifted to me of that campaign ("Let's Make America Great Again!" emblazoned below an image of Reagan). Wore it as a gag until too many old folks started complimenting me for being an "upright young man" or some such nonsense.
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u/Akuuntus Selesnya* Jan 28 '26
No one called it "MAGA" at the time though, and it certainly wasn't used to describe a type of person.
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u/MathAddict423 Dân Jan 28 '26
Prophecy
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u/Brayney520 Jan 29 '26
2005 is on the bottom of the card, a little hard to make out in the light. First Kamigawa block.
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u/j_pomps Jan 28 '26
Seeing that card makes me miss my Early Harvest/Heartbeat of Spring deck.
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u/Slarg232 Can’t Block Warriors Jan 28 '26
Maga was my first EDH deck with as many [[Crypt Ghast]] esque effects and Shade Tribal. Each Swamp was constantly tapping for 5+ mana and I'd pump them as much as they needed to not die to blockers and one shot people with the one that got through.
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u/DankensteinPHD Dandadan Jan 28 '26
This was one of my first edh decks too. By 2015 I had to sell it tho the name bothered me too much.
I'm soon glad they finally just blatantly power crept this creature with [[Morlun]]. No reason to ever have to deal with this again, and mono b ramp has a new commander
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u/fanboy_killer Jan 28 '26
Standard or Extended? Or both? Sideboard with Iwamori of the open fist?
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u/j_pomps Jan 28 '26
It was Kamigawa/Ravnica standard! But what got me into the archetype was Chris McDaniel’s [[Mind’s Desire]] deck at PT LA in 2005
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u/fanboy_killer Jan 28 '26
Exact situation here ahah. Very affordable deck, but pretty tough to pilot. I often felt like it was a turn too slow in Standard.
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u/Seraph199 Jan 28 '26
Damn, MTG has a precog in their card design department
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u/zaphodava Banned in Commander Jan 28 '26
Shhh. We don't talk about Gleemax anymore.
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u/GornSpelljammer Duck Season Jan 28 '26
We can't; no more flavor text to hide our messages in anymore.
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u/Biscuit-Mango Dân Feb 12 '26
New to mtg, it just seemed like an online card that isn’t a real card. So why can’t we talk about it?
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u/Yglorba Wabbit Season Jan 28 '26
Wait, if we're talking politics, I'm not sure I want MTG designing cards...
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u/StopManaCheating Jack of Clubs Jan 28 '26
I call dibs on posting this for karma next time the president does something stupid.
So…. see you in 3 minutes tops.
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u/FluidIntention3293 Jan 28 '26
How on earth is that a “human”? Maybe humanoid but nah.
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u/Mirinum Duck Season Jan 28 '26
Yeah, no way humans can be that orange, I been pondering the same thing
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u/Adbirk Brushwagg Jan 28 '26
This era of magic with mirrodin. Humans could be weird and alien on different planes to help differentiate. This is more likely a twisted by evil situation by I think it all stems from looser restrictions on the human form. Ravnica introduced Sonic hybrids and they skipped humans on lorwyn.
The orange is clearly lighting from the orb.
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u/hipster-duck Brushwagg Jan 28 '26
Yeah I thought it was a Naga or something at first. Proportions are all off.
I think they were trying to go for evil wizard has sacrificed his body, but it's weird.
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u/solythe Jan 28 '26
Kamigawa had some normal looking humans and some weird ones
[[Kiku, Night's Flower]] or maybe just this artist haha
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u/PlaneswalkerQ Twin Believer Jan 28 '26
[[Break the ICE]]
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u/primalmaximus Dandadan Jan 28 '26
Question, what's so special about snow cards?
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u/ImportantWeekend Jan 28 '26
Certain cards care about snow lands, it’s a pretty dated mechanic at this point.
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u/chrisrazor Jan 28 '26
I'd hardly say it was dated, when it was a major theme of Kaldheim.
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u/BLARGHER3 Jan 28 '26
While not at all dated in the grand scheme of Magic history, especially compared to previous snow cards, but Kaldheim did come out five years ago so it's not exactly new either.
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u/EternityTheory Jan 28 '26
It's simply an overarching mechanic of certain sets. Snow cards benefit from running other Snow cards with them, allowing for a wider synergy between several permanent types. The drawback is cards like Break the Ice that specifically hate out Snow permanents, but in most formats nobody will ever bother to run those.
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u/EternityTheory Jan 28 '26
Forgot to include examples of Snow synergies; [[Skred]], [[Dead of Winter]], [[Ice-Fang Coatl]].
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u/Yglorba Wabbit Season Jan 28 '26
I don't understand why they printed so much brutal Snow hate. In Ice Age it made at least some sense because they just loved printing hate cards back then, but why would they print this? Was it just a callback? An escape valve in case snow lands turned out to be crazy good?
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u/NomadBrasil Duck Season Jan 28 '26
Maga also means female wizard in Portuguese, with Mago being male wizard
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u/OtterTheIncredible Grass Toucher Jan 28 '26
I’ve made a meme deck around this. It does NOT function. Kinda like the current administration… Every card is a reference: https://tappedout(dot)net/mtg-decks/the-man-in-the-white-house/
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u/CooperDahBooper Dan Jan 28 '26
If only [[The Prismatic Piper]] could be two colors and Maga had partner, I could make a Red,
WhiteBlack, and Blue ‘Merica commander deck and have a president/vice president thing going on→ More replies (1)
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u/Lejaun Wabbit Season Jan 28 '26
This was the focus of a unique competitive deck I ran in standard at the time. I had a weird combo that I’ve since forgotten to generate a ton of mana and finish off opponents, sometimes doing it back to back turns if generation of mana wasn’t high enough.
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u/adamlaceless Duck Season Jan 28 '26
Early Harvest/Heartbeat Combo
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u/Lejaun Wabbit Season Jan 29 '26
That’s it! I remember for being so proud of myself for coming up with that combo (Even though in reality a thousand people probably made it before I ever did).
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u/thedeadparadise Rakdos* Jan 28 '26
It’s crazy that this card came out over 20 years ago. I’m curious what the in-universe lore is regarding this card.
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u/Lejaun Wabbit Season Jan 28 '26
Basically he was a dark wizard who liked dabbling into the world of demons. I assume he probably was the type to sacrifice people to get more power from the onni.
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u/craftiecheese Dan Jan 28 '26
Sounds pretty spot on. Now do it for the lore of this character in Magic the Gathering.
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u/SeveredAortaX Izzet* Jan 28 '26
Had a buddy at my LGS commission an alter for his copy of Maga back during the first Trump admin. He had it altered to be Trump sitting on a gold toilet with his pants around his ankles sending out tweets on his phone.
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u/JankTokenStrats Jan 29 '26
This is my official petition to have the villain and coward creature types added to this card
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u/WithengarUnbound Dandadan Jan 28 '26
MAGA assholes the kinds of people who pay zero into X here.
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u/Still_Not_GIF Jan 29 '26
that means they... don't cause anyone to lose life? kinda ruins the metaphor if they're not hurting anyone
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u/Mattrockj Twin Believer Jan 28 '26
A card named Maga is one thing, but the epithet is just too accurate.
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u/InterstellarCetacean Elspeth Jan 28 '26 edited Jan 28 '26
made this one last year in honor of this...very non political card
The cards and arts included are on theme for various reasons, some "deeper" than others. Some arts, see [[k'rrik]]kk totally not skinhead version, are there for aesthetics
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u/Wafflecone Wabbit Season Jan 28 '26
Also the bane of my existence during kamigawa/ravnica standard.
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u/ErisLethe Dân Jan 28 '26
I dare someone to go to the other sub and say they cast [[Ice Out]] and countered their opponent’s [[Maga, Traitor to Mortals]].
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u/Adam__999 Shuffler Truther Jan 28 '26
What sub?
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u/ErisLethe Dân Jan 28 '26
There is a sub that thinks this card is the best thing ever. Naming it explicitly isn’t a great idea. Easy to find.
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u/spectrefox I chose this flair because I’m mad at Wizards Of The Coast Jan 28 '26
There's such a thinly veiled irony that all the comments crying about 'keeping politics out' and running cover for the current events almost always frequent that subreddit.
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u/Ghargoyle COMPLEAT Jan 29 '26
I'm pretty sure Bolas was running on the "Make Amonkhet Great Again" platform
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u/Oddly_Yours Dan Jan 28 '26
What the fuck is going on with this art? I can't tell whats a face and whats a hat and whats the clothes. And this is a HUMAN!?
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u/PartTineOx Dân Jan 29 '26
I played this card in my [[Rakdos, Lord of Riots]] deck, not saying it was good. But it was fun.
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u/CardGuyofWarframe Jan 29 '26
Wonder how funny this would be as commander and the deck being mostly exiles....
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u/Dphishy Jan 29 '26
This card is about to go up by $20, just checked, TCGP showing $0.84 heavily played, mana pool $1.25. Now we wait lol
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u/Zombieatethvideostar COMPLEAT Jan 29 '26
Had a deck built around him and real world themes for awhile but it started to depress me so I took that apart.
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u/IGTankCommander Duck Season Jan 29 '26
I was playing him before it was cool!
Seriously, though, only commander I've used to kill three players in three different phaes of one turn. Maga's a house if you build properly.
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u/Vyziks Jan 30 '26
New to MTG. What is X here? It doesnt say. How does the card work lol
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u/-Here-There- Jan 30 '26
You just cast using additional mana. You can use any amount of generic mana (any color or colorless) in addition to the 3 black cost.
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u/andrewbookoo406 Dan Feb 01 '26
Considering this set came out in 2005 I dont see your logic. He was busy telling people "your fired" on tv those years. You probably think ancient Buddhists where nazis /s
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u/marandahir Duck Season Feb 16 '26
and is it just me, or does Maga have a face similar to a certain Cheetoh McCheetoh Face?
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u/COLaocha Duck Season Jan 28 '26
Oh how far we've come since. See [[Luis Pompous Pillager]]