Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1054: Apes and Monkeys, Part 2

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

In this podcast, I finish talking about all the cards with subtype Ape and Monkey.

I'm not pulling my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the Drive to Work at Home Edition. Okay, last time I started talking about the Apes and Monkeys of Magic. There are 48 of them, and I think I talked about 19 of them. So my goal is to try to finish today. I gotta pick up the pace. There's so much fun talking monkeys. So, okay, we're up to Unhinged. Unhinged had two monkeys. Tainted Monkey, one in a black for a 1-1, Creature Ape. Tap, choose a word. Tiger player puts the top card

of his or her library into his or her graveyard. If that card has the chosen word in its text box, the player loses three lives. And then it's, come on, choose monkey. Everybody loves monkeys. And then it's, come on, choose monkey. Everybody loves monkeys. And so, basically, the reason this is an uncard, and this would be acorn if we made it in Infinity, is normal magic can't reference if certain words are in text. It can talk about a specific name of a card. But normal magic,

the normal rules can't look at a text box and say, hey, is that word in it? The reason for that is that every card is considered to be the same equivalent of the English version of it. So the idea that different words would be different in different languages

means it wouldn't line up. And so that's not something we're allowed to do. It's a lot of fun. So that's why we do it. The other fun thing, there's two fun things about this card real quick. This was a piece of slush art. I have no idea what card this was made for,

but it was a piece of slush art that I found and I said, oh, this absolutely positively has to be an un-card because it was awesome. The other thing that's funny is, originally in one of his foot, he was smoking a cigar. But we don't show characters using tobacco in art. And so we had to take it out. But all the smoke that's there that seems like, I don't know, incense or something, that was originally from that. So, um, anyway,

this is definitely a fun card, and um, oh, and the reason it's called Tainted Monkey is that was the name, I mean, that's the art I had. So I'm like, okay, I guess I'm making this a monkey. And we went through a lot of names, and somehow Tainted Monkey was funny, so. The other card is Monkey, Monkey, Monkey.

So, three and a green for a 1-1. Creature type ape. As Monkey, Monkey, Monkey comes into play, choose a letter. Monkey, Monkey, Monkey gets plus one, plus one for each non-land permanent whose name begins with the chosen letter. And the flavor text is many matches make more madcap monkey mayhem. And then all the objects in the art are things that start with M. And so you can go look at that. There's like a metronome and a

masticore and a mermaid. So anyway. And a mummy and matches. So once again, just like we can't care about words in text, we can't care about qualities of names. Normal rules cannot say, oh,

I care about what cards start with a certain letter. Once again, it has to do with all the different languages, have to be treated the same, but they start with different letters and different languages. So both the monkeys are playing in language space, I guess. In Unsets, monkeys like language. Oh, wait, there's that. Sorry. There's a third monkey in Unhinged.

It's three monkeys. Or three apes. Utabi Kong. Five green, green, green for an 8-8 trample. When Utabi Kong comes into play, aka enters battlefield, destroy all artifacts, tap two untapped apes you control, put a 1-1

green ape creature token into play. And then it says, I desire the acquisition of a potassium-rich fruit comestible of substantial magnitude. That is making fun of I Want a Banana This Big. Last time I talked about Gorilla Titan. That was a flavor check.

So it's making fun of that. And this card is making fun of Ooktabi Orangutan. Not much more I can say on that on this podcast. But if you want to go look at the two cards, hopefully you can figure out for yourself some of the jokes going here. I will admit that this card, there's nothing about this card that is, I mean, flavor aside, there's nothing mechanically about

this card that the normal rules can't handle. So if we were taking old uncards and choosing to make them eternal or acorn, this would be eternal. There's nothing that the rules can handle about it. Okay, next up, we get to Cold Snap. So Cold Snap

has Simian Brawler. So Simian Brawler costs three and a green for a 3-3 creature. It's a creature Ape Warrior. I think this is the first... There's some things, like I know Gorilla Shaman now has Ape Shaman,

but I believe this is the first ape or monkey that has a class creature type printed on it. So he's an Ape Warrior. So you discard a land. Stimmy and Brawler gets plus one, plus one until end of turn. And the flavor text is, it's odd to see the apes rip down trees to arm themselves in defense of their force.

To body of Kelsing, go Elvish Hunter. As we continue, our ongoing theme of elves being somewhat on the destructive side. So in this case, you... I think they get the idea they rip down trees, so we had you discard a land and rip down trees. Okay. Our next one shows up in Planar Chaos.

We don't get a monkey for a little bit. So it's Simian Spirit Guide. Two and a green for a 2-2. Creature, Ape Spirit. Remove Simian Spirit Guide in your hand from the game. Add red to your mana pool. And then the flavor text is, all my spells smell like burnt hair lately.

Jaya Bower, task mage. So this card is referencing a card called Elder Spirit Guide. So one of the things we did in Planar Chaos is there was a bonus sheet. All the cards on the bonus sheet are existing cards in magic, but color shifted to a different color. So red was now the color of Rituals, and so we took what was a green card that really never made sense in green and put it in red. The card was very good in green, and it is very good in red.

Apparently, mana for not—I mean, it costs you the card, but mana for a card can be very valuable. So definitely, both of those see play. People keep asking where we're making the other three, but I don't think there are plans to make the other three. It's not a cycle, so. Okay, next up we get to Worldwake. This is the second set in the Zendikar block. Summit Apes.

Three and a green for 5-2. As long as you control a mountain, Summit Apes can't be blocked except by two or more creatures. And the flavor text is, if you climb Skyfang Peak, avoid the pass. Generation of apes made that trail

and they don't tolerate trespassers. Sakhir Akum Expeditionary Host. Or House. Oh, Expeditionary Host. Once again, there's a theme we have with monkeys that monkeys do not get along well with humans. They like to break artifacts.

They're somewhat destructive, and they do not get along. Avoid the apes. All the flavor tracks are like, avoid the apes. So this card is messing around. I think this is part of a cycle where if you control a land of a different type, a basic land of a different color, then you get an ability that's natural for that color. So basically this is Menace, although spelled out.

Menace hadn't become a keyword yet. In fact, is it Menace on the... Yes, it's Menace in the Oracle text. Anyway, the idea is if you have Mountain, which means you're playing red, then you have Menace, which is a more red ability than a green ability. Okay, next up, we go to M15

for Curred Chieftain. 3 and a green for a 3-3, creature 8. Curred Chieftain gets plus 1, plus 1 as long as you control a forest. 4 and a green, target creature gets plus 2, plus 2 and gains trample at the end of turn. If it would assign enough damage to its blockers to destroy them, you may have it assign the rest of the damage to

defending player or planeswalker. Oh, that's just defining what trample is. Okay, so this is 5th edition. I'm sorry. The Core Set Magic 2015. So I think the idea here is this is a riff off Kurd Ape. I talked about Kurd Ape in the last podcast from Arabian Nights. It's a little bit bigger.

That was red for a 1-1 that becomes a 2-3. And this is 3 and a red for a 3-3, then it becomes a 4-4. So it's just a larger Kurnate. Now, to give it something a little bit extra, because it's an uncommon, it also has a green-activated ability where it can what we call Rootwalla. It can sort of get bigger for the turn. So it's plus 2 plus 2

and Trample. And so this is definitely, I assume what we were doing in Magic 2015 was we wanted to have cards that felt like they were two-color cards, but make them still playable in a one-color deck in Limited. So this is a red card that you can play. I mean, it's a Hill Giant in a

mono-red deck. Nothing amazing, but, you know, whatever, your 23rd card or something. But obviously playing red and green, it gets much better. Okay. Next up, we get to Khans of Tarkir. So, there are two monkeys, apes, I should say,

two apes in Khans of Tarkir. So, we have Sadisi's pet, three and a black for a one-four. It's a zombie ape. It's got lifelink, and it's got morph, one and a black. You may cast this card face down as a 2-2 creature for 3, turn it up

at any time for its morph cost. And the flavor text is the salt I distinguish between pet and slave by the material of the chain. So basically what happened here is this is one of only two black apes. All apes in magic, barring this one

and one that's upcoming, are red or green. And so that makes it special here. I think the idea is they wanted to have a, we wanted a lifelink creature and so either it had to be white or it had to be black. And since they wanted to put this into

the Sultai, it needed to be black because white's not in Sultai. It needs to be black because white's not in Sultai. Sultai's black-green. Black-green-blue. So anyway, I think... And then the idea, they thought it'd be cool

to do a zombie of an existing thing. So zombies are in black. So it's important to point that while this is the first ape not in red or green, it also is a zombie ape, so it's an undead ape. So it's not your normal.

The other thing that was in Conjuring Dark here was hooting mandrills. As we get more and more different types of apes. Five in the green for 4-4. Creature type ape, delve. Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting the spell pays for one. So the idea is, and it has trample.

It's a 4-4 trampler. Oh, it's Slave of Texas. Interlopers in S Saltai territory usually end up as Crocodile Chow or Baboon Bait. Again, the theme of don't mess with the crocodile. I was going to say, don't mess with the monkeys. So this one, the idea essentially is it gets cheaper

the more cards you exile for your graveyard. So if I exile five cards for my graveyard, I can cast this for green and have a 4-4 trampler. So that's pretty good. Okay. So next up, we get to our very first monkey! So, I think, are there any monkeys?

So, monkey, monkey, monkey, and tainted monkey ended up being changed to monkeys, because they have monkey in their name, but both of them at the time, and zodiac monkey, oh, I'm sorry, zodiac monkey actually was creature they have monkey in their name, but both of them at the time, and Zodiac Monkey, oh, I'm sorry, Zodiac Monkey actually was creature type monkey in

Portal 3 Kingdom, so, and Tree Monkey was monkey in, okay, so the portal sets did in fact use monkey. So, this is the first monkey to show up in a standard legal set, but not the first time monkey was used as a creature type. But anyway, so we're in Kaladesh.

So Kaladesh has Wily Bandar, green for a 1-1. It's a cat monkey, so our first cat monkey. Two in a green, wild Bandar against indestructible end of turn. And then part feline, part primate, all trouble. This was us. I think we made these cat monkeys. I don't know if they're based off existing mythology. They might be.

Kaladesh obviously borrows a lot from India, and so maybe... I actually don't know. I don't know whether this is a made-up thing, or this is a thing that we're borrowing from real-world mythology. My guess is it's real-world mythology, but I don't 100% know. That is a fine question.

Let's see, let me put Bandar so I'm not driving in front of my computer. I could... What is it, Bandar? No, okay. I'm not sure whether we made it up or not. Okay, anyway, Scrounging... Oh, the second Bandar shows up in Eighth Revolt, which is the second set in Kaladesh.

It's one in a green for a 0-0 cat monkey. Scrounging Bandar enters the battlefield with two plus one plus one counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may move any number of plus one plus one counters from Scrounging Bandar onto another creature. So the idea is, he's a 2-2, but then you can move his stuff, and

there were some synergies in Kaladesh with counters Fabricate Existed and stuff like that. Anyway, those are the two bandards. There's one in each of the two sets. Okay, next we get to Unstable. So there are three monkeys in Unstable, or I should say, one ape

and two monkeys. There's Druid of the Sacred Beaker, two in a green, two, two. Creatures are deer, bird, ape, druid. These were factions. The green and white faction are made up of things that are a whole bunch of different animals. And so all of them

you will see that we have another one coming up here. So the artist would draw a fun combination of creature types, and then we just identify them and put them in the creature type line. Anyway, the ability is tap, add green to your mana pool for each Crossbreed Labs watermarks among permits you control. Crossbreed Labs is the name add green to your mana pool. For each Crossbreed Labs watermarks, among permits you control,

Crossbreed Labs is the name of the green-white faction. And they have a little, like, a test tube that has two tops to it. It says, others try to be the best in their class. She strives to be the best in her phylum. A little science joke there. So anyway, one of the themes in the set was watermarks matter, because watermarks aren't allowed to matter in normal sets. Because once again, I mentioned this in part one, everything has to be the same as the English version of the card,

and different printings might have different watermarks on them, so we can't use watermarks. So watermarks, Unstable made use of watermarks mattering, because we couldn't normally. And this was part of a cycle. There were five factions, because Unstable was built around a faction. There were five factions. And then each faction had its own watermark, and there was a cycle of uncommons that cared about that watermark that all scaled on it, I believe.

Next up, we have Monkey, creature-type Monkey. This is, so whenever a non-token creature you control dies, dot dot dot, and then augment two and a green. So two and a green, reveal this card from your hand, combine it with a target host, augment only as a sorcery. And then it says plus two plus two. So the idea is

if you have this card in your hand, you have to have a host, creature type host on the battlefield. They always have an effect. Usually when you enter the battlefield, they do an effect. You override this, you put it on the left part of the thing. It overtakes the name. And then it adds to its name and changes its name. It gives it a creature type.

It can change its power toughness. And then it gives it a... So this is whenever a non-token creature you control dies. So whatever the output is, this is the input. So the augments give the input. Augment was based on, we did a thing called link. For years we tried to do a thing where you could put two cards together.

It's the same thing with later lead to meld in normal magic. It led to host augment. We came up with the idea of a left side and a right side that you put together, but they're modular, so any left side can go with any right side, and the left side's the input, the right side's the output. It had a very

weird creative, which is why I ended up putting it in unstable. It's an interesting question whether or not it would work in the rules. Like, if we went back and could this be acorn, or would it have to be acorn, or could it be? I think in my gut, I think it could be eternal, but the way we set up

the rules might cause some problems because we didn't design the rules thinking it had to be. That's my only worry. Okay, next up. Willing test subject. Two and a green for a 2-2. Spider monkey scientist. Reach. Whenever you roll a 4 or higher on a die, put a possible counter on willing test subject.

6, roll a 6-sided die. So basically, there's all the unsets except for unhinged have a die rolling theme because die rolling is fun and this was playing around in there so the idea essentially is green cares about die rolling

green wants lots of dies to be rolled so every time you roll a high die she gets bigger but also she can have you roll dice but she also cares about other things rolling dice so she's really good in a die rolling deck okay next up have you roll dice. But, she also cares about other things rolling dice, so she's really good in a die rolling deck. Okay, next up.

We get to Dominaria. We get Grun, the Lonely King. So, is this the first legendary ape? This might be the first legendary ape. Let me look. Yes, it is. This is the first ape that can be your commander. So, four green, green, five, five. Legendary creature, ape warrior. Kicker, three. You may pay an additional three as you cast a spell. If Grun, green, five, five, legendary creature, ape warrior, kicker three, you may pay additional threes, you cast

a spell. If Grun, the Lonely King was kicked, it enters the battlefield with five plus one plus one counters on it. Whenever Grun attacks alone, double its power toughness until end of turn. Ah, it's an ape. It doubles its power toughness. I love double. So double's always fun. I think this

was made, I just thought, we thought it'd be cool to have a legendary ape. We actually hadn't one. So it's interesting up until before Dominaria, which is not that long ago, we never had a legendary ape. So we finally made one. And this one really is playing in, I mean, it's playing in mono green space. Most monkeys

are green. There's some red monkeys, but more monkeys are green. And basically, the idea is it doubles when it attacks so it's a 5-5 but you can kick it to make an 8-8 and then if you can put counters on it in other ways it just gets better because every counter you put on it it essentially attacks for double that

so every plus one plus one counter essentially is plus two plus two on an attack okay next up in M20 Silverback Shaman so three green green for 5-4 creature ape shaman. It's got trample. When Silverback Shaman dies, draw a card. The apes of Yavimaya

draw strength from the spirits of their ancestors. Oh, another little theme we play up in apes is they're very tied to nature and stuff. They tend to live in the forest. Anyway, this is a pretty generic, straightforward card. I think giant apes are kind of fun. So the King Kong

trope is good. The core sets like to have just good resonant things. So this was made as a cool resonant card. And I guess when King Kong dies, you're sad, so you draw a card. Next up is from Commander2019.

So this is Thieving Amalgam. Five black black. You heard me. Six seven. Ape snake. At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, you manifest the top card of that player's library. Put it on the battlefield.

Face down as a 2-2 creature. Turn to face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card. Whenever a creature you control but don't own dies, its owner loses two life and you gain two life. but don't own dies, its owner loses two life, and you gain two life. So, obviously, this is a card where you manifest the top of your opponents. This might be the only card that does that. So, anyway, the idea is you're manifesting your opponent's stuff, and if you can turn them up... Oh, no, no, no.

If it dies, you still control it, and you don't own it. So, the idea, essentially, is you're manifesting, but then as things die, you get to drain your opponent. This is the second black ape and the only one that's not a zombie. So this is an ape. Now it's an ape snake. That's why it's black.

Although a green could have an ape snake, but its abilities are all very, very black. So I'm not quite sure why they made this an ape snake, but they did. Okay, next up, we're going to get to Ikoria, Lair of the Behemoth. So there's three monkeys, or three apes, I should say. There's Ferocious Tigorilla, three in a green for a four-three.

Ferocious Tigorilla enters the battlefield with your choice of a trample counter or a menace counter. From a certain perspective, it's an inspiring story of overcoming obstacles. So this is, he's part gorilla, part ape. So, he's a cat ape. Um, so, what's going on is, on Ikoria, uh, the monsters get breeded together and make cool, weird monsters. And so, um, this is a cat and an ape.

Uh, we have Prickly Marmoset. So, two and a red for a two-three creature monkey. First strike. Whenever you cycle a card, Prickly Marmoset gets plus two plus one until end of turn. It's either terrified or extremely mad at us. It's definitely one of the two. John Old Mission Naturist.

So this is a monkey that kind of looks like a porcupine, sort of. Anyway, it's another weird creature, but it's a little monkey. And the idea is you don't want to mess with it because it's prickly. And then we have a Kogla, the Titan Ape. Three, green, green, green. Seven, six. Legendary creature

ape. When Kogla the Titan Ape enters the battlefield, it fights up to one target creature you don't control. Whenever Kogla attacks, destroy target artifact or enchantment. Defending player controls. One in the green, return target human you control to its owner's hand. Kogla gains indestructible end of turn. So this is us making King Kong.

So it cares about humans and humans help it and it breaks things and it's a giant thing that can fight stuff. So this is us doing our version of King Kong. In a set all about giant monsters. Go figure. Okay, next up is Ragavan

Nimble Pilferer. So this is from Modern Horizons 2. It's Red Manifold 2-1 Okay, next up is Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. So this is from Modern Horizons 2. It's Red Mana for 2-1, Legendary Creature, Monkey Pirate. Whenever Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer deals combat damage to a player, create a treasure token and exile the top card of that player's library. Until end of turn, you may cast that card. And it's dash 1 for 1 and a red.

You may cast the spell for its dash cost. If you do, it gains haste and is returned from the battlefield to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step. Ragavan is very, very, very good. It is played in every format I think it is playable in. So Ragavan first showed up his, what's her name?

What is her name? I'll get her name in a second. It, uh, what is Ragavan? Hold on. So Ragavan showed up as a token. Okay, I'm looking it up. Oh, Kari Zev. So Kari Zev from...

Where did Kari Zev first show up? She first showed up in Dominaria, and she made a Legendary 2 run Red Monkey Creature Token! And so we decided to give him his own card in Modern Horizons 2. And we gave him a very good card, and so he's quite good. Okay, next up,

Simeon Sling. Red, oh, I'm sorry, now we're getting into this is Kamigawanean Dynasty. So this is an artifact creature, an Equipment Monkey. Is this is an artifact creature, an equipment monkey. Is this the first artifact creature? Oh, by the way, Ragavan's the first legendary red... First legendary monkey

and first legendary red April monkey. The other two were having green. Simeon Sling I think is the first artifact monkey. I don't think we have other artifact monkeys. So he is 1-1. Equipped creature gets plus 1, plus 1. Whenever Simian Sling or equipped creature becomes blocked,

it deals 1 damage to a defending player and reconfigure 2. 2. Attach target creature you control or unattach from a creature. Reconfigure only as a sorcery. While attached, this isn't a creature. So this was one of our reconfigure cards. So reconfigure is based on an ability called Lysids from way back in Tempest,

where it was a creature that could turn into an aura. So this is a creature that can turn into an equipment. And it's a mechanic that we have in set, and this is a little monkey. And he's very cute. Next up, we get to Dominaria United. So we have two cards from Dominaria United.

First up, we have Yavimaya Steelcrusher, one in red for a 2-2. It has an ape warrior. It has enlist. As this creature attacks, you may tap a non-attacking creature you control without summoning sickness. When you do, add its power to this creature until end of turn. One, sacrifice Yavimaya Steelcrusher, destroy target artifact. I'd like to see monkeys still destroying artifacts. So the theme carries on from the very early days. Basically, Enlist was a revamped version of Banding. Not quite as complicated, but the idea that I can... This creature and another creature can kind of band together.

So it's a redone version of banding. Dominaria sets tend to do throwbacks just because it's all about the history and the history of the game and stuff. We also have Silverback Elder. Two green, green, green. So five mana total. Three witches green.

Five, seven for an ape shaman. Whenever you cast a creature spell, choose one. Destroy target artifact or enchantment. Destroy artifacts or enchantment. Destroy artifacts or enchantments. Look at the top five cards of your library. You may put a land card from among them on the battlefield tapped. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in random order, or you gain four life.

So this is a Mythic Rare from Domino United. And it gives you a choice. The Elder, he does many things. He can destroy things, because apes destroy things. He can help you find land, because apes will scout for things. And I guess you can gain life, because he's... I don't know, you can rest. You because apes destroy things. He can help you find land, because apes will scout for things. And I guess you can gain life, because he's... I don't know, you can rest. You can kick back and rest. Okay.

Next ape we get to is in the Brothers' War. Simeon Simulacrum. So it's three generic mana for 2-1. He's an artifact creature ape, so the second artifact creature. When Simian Simulacrum enters the battlefield, put two post-mortem counters on target creature you control. And he has Unearth. Unearth 2-green-green. 2-green-green, return this card between a graveyard

to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile at the beginning of the next end step, or if it would leave the battlefield, Unearth only as a sorcery. So, the interesting thing about this card is we were definitely messing around with... We made a lot of references to

Antiquities. And so... In Antiquities... Is there... Oh, no, no, no, sorry. It's making reference to Solemn Psychcle Lacrim. Okay, sorry. This is actually referencing...

There is a Soltevi Cycle Lacrim, but that's not in... That was in Ice Age. So anyway, I'm thinking... It's making reference to Solemn Cycle Lacrim, which was a card won by... In one of the Invitationals. Jens Torin won.

This is not exactly that. Simulacrum just means a robot. Oh, the other thing I should point out is people seem to like that the creature in it appears to be dabbing, which people find very fun. Okay, next up. Kibu Utabi Prince. So this is

from Jumpstart 2022. In fact, there were two monkeys in Jumpstart. I think there was a monkey deck and these were in the monkey deck, I think. So, Kibu Utapi Prince is a legendary creature, Monkey Noble. The first Monkey Noble. Tap is a 2-2. Each player creates a colorless

artifact token named Banana. With Tap sacrifice this artifact, add red or green, you gain two life. Whenever an artifact an opponent controls is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a plus or minus counter on each creature you control that's an ape or monkey. So this is the first one that's made to be a commander that connects apes and monkeys together.

Whenever a Kibo attacks, defending Plato's sacrifice is an artifact. So it does all the things. It's a commander. It references monkeys. It makes bananas. It destroys artifacts because it's a monkey. So anyway, people have asked about this because it's the first treasure that, or it's like treasure, it's an artifact token that makes mana,

but it makes various particular mana. People are like, oh, is there a whole range of fruit that do different colors? I think this is a one of, I don't think we're going down that path, but, and people know that I'm not a big fan of bananas. But I do appreciate good designs, and this is a good design. So I can appreciate banana tokens more so than actual bananas. The other card is Towering Gibbon. Three and a green for a star four. Ape. Reach.

Towering Gibbon's power is equal to the greatest mana value among creatures you control. Don't worry, folks. We're perfectly safe here. That's a banana processing plant. Oh, it's a giant monkey. In the art, it's a giant monkey. They're being kind of silly. Anyway, this is played into a theme, I think, in the set,

talking about, caring about wanting high mana values, and so that's something green does. Okay, we have two final monkeys, and both of them are the same kind of card, although one of them is from March of the Machine Commander, and one of them is from just March of the Machine. Okay, so first up is Rashmi and Ragavan.

One green, blue, red, 2-4, Legend of Creed for Elf Monkey. Whenever you cast your first spell during each of your turns, exile the top card of Tiger Porn's library and create a treasure token. Then you may cast the exiled treasure without paying its mana cost if a spell with mana value less than the number of artifacts you control. If you don't cast it this way, you may cast it this turn. So, uh, Rashmi is from...

Rashmi and Ragavan are both from Kaladesh. Um... I think that's right. Ragavan's from Kaladesh. Kari's out from... Okay. I think they're both from Kaladesh because, um that's right. Ragavan is from Kaladesh. Kari is that from... Okay. I think they're both from Kaladesh because this is the team-ups. Merchant of the Sheen did a series of team-ups.

And the team-ups were creatures, legendary creatures from the same world that are fighting together to stop the Phyrexians. So the fun thing we did in these cards is we mixed and matched. And so I think Rashmi is green-blue and Ragavan is red. So combine them together and you get green-blue-red. And the ability does a little bit of what Ragavan does, a little bit of what Rashmi does.

Rashmi interacts with artifacts. Ragavan is stealing things. So it's a mix and match. It's also the first time that a monkey has blue in it. We've made red and green monkeys all the time. We made some black monkeys. No white monkeys yet. So maybe one day we'll make a white monkey.

Finally, the final card. Time is just right because I'm running out of time here. It's Kogla and Yadaro. I think it's from March of the Machine. The other one's from Commander. Two red, red, green, green, seven, seven. Legendary creature, ape, dinosaur, turtle. Because it's combining...

What is... Kogla is from... I think this is from Ikoria? Yeah, Kogla is the ape I talked about earlier. He's the King Kong, the King Kong-like ape. And Yadaro is... Oh, the Dinosaur Turtle. Okay, so yeah.

That's why it's an ape-dinosaur-turtle. So it's King Kong and the Giant Turtle are fighting together. Legendary creature, ape-dinosaur-turtle. When Kogla and Yadaro enter the battlefield, choose one. It gains Trample and Hasten to end of turn. It fights target creature you don't control.

Two red-green, discard Kogla and Yadaro. Destroy up to one target artifact control. Two red green, discard Kogel and Yadaro, destroy up to one target artifact or enchantment. Shuffle Kogel and Yadaro into your library from your graveyard and then draw a card. So this is the first legendary red and green. So if you want to play a... Now, it's not typo for

apes and monkeys. I mean, like Kibo is. But it is red and green and is an ape. So if you want to have a red-green ape deck and you want to have the commander be an ape, this is your option. I guess Rashmi and Ragavan also allows you to do that because you can have a green-blue red deck,

although there's no blue apes other than Rashmi and Ragavan. So anyway, this is again what we did, is we take the abilities of the cards and sort of the designs and morph them together. The team-up cards are very, very popular. Players adored them, and they're seeing a lot of play in Commander and various formats that can play them. Anyway, guys, that is my talk through all of the apes and monkeys. So it's a lot of fun.

It's neat to see how our early themes of monkeys destroying artifacts have managed to make it all the way to modern times. They still live in the forest. They're still angry. And they still don't interact with them. They're dangerous. That seems to be our ongoing theme. Maybe one day we'll make pacifistic, nice

monkeys and maybe we'll put them in white. But we've not done that yet. Anyway, guys, I'm at my desk, so we all know what that means. It's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to make it magic. I hope you guys enjoyed the monkey talk, and I'll see you all next time. Bye-bye.