Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #852: Creature Tokens, Part 1

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

In this podcast, I talk about the history of creature tokens in Magic.

I'm not pulling out of my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the Drive to Work Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so today I'm talking about the history of tokens. So this is a tool that Magic uses all the time, but it was something that, I mean, as you'll see, it goes all the way back to Alpha. But it's something that we slowly sort of found over time. But it's something that we slowly sort of found over time. Okay, so if we go back to Alpha, there's only one card in Alpha that actually makes tokens, and that is a card called the Hive.

So let me read you the original text for the Hive, then I'll read you the Oracle text. So the original text for the Hive, it was an artifact that cost five. It was a mono artifact, which meant it had a tap. Back in Alpha, there were different kinds of artifacts, and mono artifact meant you had to tap it. So it said 5, and it didn't say tap because it was a mono artifact, but 5 and tap. Creates one giant wasp, a 1-1 flying creature.

Represent wasp with tokens, making sure to indicate when each wasp is tapped. Wasps can't attack during the turn created. Treat Wasps like artifact creatures in every way, except they are removed from the game entirely if they ever leave play. If the hive is destroyed, the Wasp must still be killed individually. Now, in modern, in Oracle, it's five tap, create a 1-1 colorless insect artifact creature token with

flying named Wasp. So, one of the interesting things about this, from a history standpoint, is Richard wanted to do something cool, right? He wanted to make this thing that made creatures, but how do you represent that? So, Richard's like, oh, okay,

well, just, you know, the set also had counters, so obviously there were other, you know, the idea of, oh, you might have to use glass beads or something or coins or something to represent something was already going on the set, and it's a neat idea to make, oh, it makes these little wasp creatures. Now, interestingly, Richard on this card sort of had to define what a token was, because there was no such thing. Obviously, it's alpha. And it's this thing that sort of, like, for example, the idea that

tokens don't go to the graveyard, or I guess they hit the graveyard technically, but they disappear. I think what Richard was trying to do is, okay, well, you're going to use a token. Well, what happens when it dies? Oh, when it dies, or when you unsummon it, or when it goes somewhere that's not the battlefield, I guess it just goes away.

The other interesting thing is he clearly labels it as an artifact creature, but he doesn't give it a color. I mean, retroactively, it was given a colorless because it doesn't define the color. But it's very interesting that clearly, like, on the fly, Richard made it one of like, a lot of early cards, especially in Alpha, is Richard just made a cool card and like, okay, how do we make it work?

Well, I like this thing. The hide, that sounds cool. And it makes wasps. That sounds cool. He did name them. So for the very first card ever, it did say it's a wasp token. It did say it was 1-1. It did say it was flying.

It did say it was an artifact. And it did define sort of what happened to it. But anyway, I think when it first got made, it was definitely... And this is the case of early Magic. It wasn't that Richard was trying to define a whole new hmm, like he was just trying to make a card, right? He was just trying to make, how do I make this

one card work? Okay, well use tokens. But it really early on set the it put the stake in the ground, right? It said, okay tokens are a thing. And the Hive, by the way, for those that don't know, I've talked about this a little bit,

the Hive is very, very popular. It is not a strong card. 5 mana for 5 tap, make a 1-1 flying artifact creature is not a really strong effect. But it was novel and it was very cool. I remember when I opened my first Hive because you couldn't trade for Hive.

No one would trade you a Hive. So I remember when I opened it, I was so excited that I finally had the Hive. And I've always really liked token creatures, as you will't trade for a hive. No one would trade you a hive. So I remember when I opened it, I was so excited that I finally had the hive. And I've always really liked token creatures, as you will see as we continue on. I'm a big fan of token creatures. Okay, so the next time tokens appear is actually the very next set, Arabian Nights, the first expansion. So

there are three, or two, sorry, there's two cards that create tokens. One is Rook-Egg. So once again, I'm going to read you the original card as written, and then I'll read you the Oracle text, which is always much shorter. So if Rook-Egg, so Rook-Egg is three and a red for a zero, three, summon egg. If Rook-Egg goes to the graveyard, a Rook, a four, four, red flying creature,

comes into play on your side at the end of the turn. Use a counter to represent Rook. Rook is treated exactly like a normal creature, except that if it leaves play, it's removed from the game entirely. Okay, so once again, it defines what it is. For the first time, it defines color, because Wasp, I mean, Wasp was colorless, but it didn't have any color definition. This one says,

okay, I'm a 4-4 red flying creature, and it names it, just like Richard named the first one the Wasp, but this one's named Rook, so we find that tokens have to have names. And it names it, just like Richard named the first one the wasp, this one's named Rook. So we find that tokens have to have names. And it has this, it builds into it the rule of, hey, it's just removed if ever

leaves play, you know, leaves play is what the battlefield was early on. So now, by the way, the Oracle text now is, when Rook egg dies, create a 4-4 red bird creature token with flying at the beginning of the next end step. Oh, you will notice, by the way, I should point out from the Oracle text, neither Wasp nor Rook Egg, I think, defined the creature type.

And one of the reasons for that was, back in the day, artifact creatures did not have creature types. A, artifact creatures did not have creature types. And I think here, the idea that this was a creature type that was different, like it was an egg, but when it hatches, it's not an egg, it's a bird. I think basically that it's named in the idea that it's a rook. They didn't worry about what the creature type was. Now, one of the rules now when we make creature types is we define what color they are, their power and their toughness,

and their creature type. And then if they have abilities. But for example, you would say, create a, you know, whatever the power toughness is, then color, then creature type, creature token, and then width if it has any abilities.

So we'll get your create. By the way, back in the day, it just, in the early days, it just told you to make one. Okay, the other thing that made tokens was Bottle of Suleiman. So the original Rabia Night's text for mono artifact, which means you have to tap it, one colon

tap is implied by mono artifact. Flip a coin with opponent calling heads or tails while coin is in the air. If the flip ends up in opponent's favor, Bottle of Suleiman does 5 damage to you. Otherwise, a 5-5 flying Jinn immediately comes into play on your side. Use a counter to represent

Jinn. Jinn is treated exactly like a normal artifact creature, except that if it leaves play, it is removed from the game entirely. No matter how the flip turns out, Bottle of Suleiman is discarded after use. So the current tax is 1. Sacrifice Bottle of S Mane is discarded after use. So the current tax is, one, sacrifice Bottle of Soul Mane. Sacrifice technology didn't exist yet. Flip a coin.

If you win the flip, create a 5-5 call with Jhin. Artifact creature token with flying. If you lose the flip, Bottle of Soul Mane deals 5 damage to you. So the other thing here is, this is interesting, where this is a conditional. Bottle of Soul Mane is the first conditional. It doesn't necessarily make you a token. There's a 50-50 chance it makes is a conditional. Bottle of Silmane is the first conditional. It doesn't necessarily make you a token. There's a 50-50 chance it makes you a token. And again,

it gives it a name, and it defines what it is, and it says it's a five-five flying djinn. And it also defines that it's an artifact creature. I think at the time, the idea is whatever made you was what you were. So if an artifact creature made you

an artifact creature, or if an artifact made you, you tend to be an artifact creature. We didn't get to the point where something could make something of another color, for example. Okay. Okay, so next time tokens show up is in Antiquities, which is the very next set. So it's the second set of magic. And this was another very popular card. So it shows up on a card called Tetravis.

So Tetravis, I'll read you through. I'm having fun reading the original text just because it's very different from the later text. So Tetravis is six generic mana, artifact creature, 1-1, flying. Tetravis gets three plus one plus one counters when cast. During your upkeep, you may move each of these counters on or off Tetravis. Counters move off of Tetravis, become an independent

1-1 flying artifact creature. If such a creature dies, the counters are removed from play. Such creatures may not have enchantments cast on them, and they do not share any enchantments on Tetravis. Interestingly, the Oracle text is just as long.

The Oracle text is flying. Tetravis enters the battlefield with three plus one plus one counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove any number plus one plus one counter from Tetravis. If you do, create that mini one one colorless Tetra by artifact creature tokens. They have flying and, quote, this creature can't be enchanted, unquote. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may exile any number of tokens created by Tetravis.

If you do, put that many plus one plus one counters on Tetravis. So the funny thing here is, because this is very early technology, the idea of it's a counter on the card and a token off the card, and you can just kind of move it between. In modern technology, we have to define, like, well, you're getting rid of the counter and making, creating a token, or you're getting rid of the token and creating a counter.

So that gets more wordy. So this counter, this does a little bit different. So for the first time, it makes more than one. It's the first... I mean, the wasp could, over time, make multiple counters. But this is the first one where, on one turn, it can generate multiple tokens because you can move all the counters at once.

And it's the first token maker that interacts with counters. We hadn't done that before. Also, it's the first one that has sort of an ability, a grafted ability on it. Before, obviously, Wasp Head flying, Rook Head flying, Bottle Swimming Head flying. So they all had a creature ability.

But this one has the Can't Be Enchanted. I think they added that because they were worried about... I'm not sure what they were, but they were... I assume that was done developmentally. That was some sort of play design issue. But anyway, so this introduces the idea that tokens and counters can have a relationship with each other. It introduces the idea you can have extra text on things. And Tetraverse was

a really popular, I mean, like I said, Wasp was super, super popular. Rook Egg was actually decently popular. Bottle of Soul Mane wasn't that popular just because you had a chance to, like, I get it or I take five damage. It was actually played a bit. It wasn't the most popular

card, but it did see a little bit of play. But Tetris was super popular. So in general, one of the things I'll say early on is tokens out of the gate were relatively popular. Wasp was a super popular card, even though it was very weak. That was the novelty of tokens. Rook Egg was quite popular.

Bottle of Soulman, I think if it wasn't quite so all or nothing, might have been a little more popular. And even then, it did get played. It definitely got played. Tetris was super popular. So you can see just very early on, just, you know, tokens very early took this realm of being something

that people really enjoyed. Okay, so next up we get to Legends, which was the third. And Legends really made a bunch of counters. Legends is the first set to really... Obviously, the Ribbon Knights had two, but as you'll see, there's a bunch here. So first up, Master of the Hunt.

I'm just going to read the Legends versions of these, just because... So Master of the Hunt is two green green, and then activated, it's a two two summon master. For two green green, put a Wolves of the Hunt token into play. Treat this token as a 1-1 green creature with the ability Bands with other Wolves of the Hunt. Okay, so a couple things. One is, so we have seen flying before.

This is the first one that grants a keyword ability that's not flying, which is Bands with others, which was an ability in Legends that's a keyword ability that's not flying, which is Bands with Others, which was an ability in Legends that's a variant of banding, which is, banding is complicated and Bands with Others is more complicated. Because Bands with Others is like banding, but a Bands with Others creature can only band with other creatures

with Bands with Other with the same Bands with Other. So in this case, the wolves of the hunt could band with other wolves of the hunt, was the idea. So the hunt could band with other wolves of the hunt was the idea. So the hunt could band together with the flavor. Okay, Boris Devil Boon. Three black and red for a 2-2 legend, a legendary creature.

What is Boris? Nowadays he is a zombie wizard, but back in the day in Legends, when it first got introduced, Legends was a creature type, not a super... Well, on creatures it was a creature type. Weird introduced, Legends was a creature type, not a super... Well, on creatures, it was a creature type. Weirdly, it was a super type on lands and things.

But on creatures, it was a super type... I'm sorry, on creatures, it was a creature type. We only had one creature type per creature, mostly. So they were just some in Legend. We later fixed them, so now it's a zombie wizard. Anyway, two black, red, and tap put a minor demon token into play. Truth is token is a 1-1 red and black creature.

So it's funny. Now in the Oracle text, you create a 1-1 black and red demon creature token named minor demon since it said it was minor demon, even though it was trying to be flavor. This is the first time that there is a multicolored token. The tokens had always been colorless or single color before. Next up, Hazan Tamar. Four white, green, red

for a 2-4 legend. Now it's a human warrior. On your next upkeep after Hazan is put into play, put star, we would now use X, token stand warriors into play where star is the number of now use X, token sand warriors into play, where star is the number of lands under your control. Treat the warriors as

1-1 white, green, and red creatures. If Hazazan tomorrow leaves play, all sand warriors are also removed from the game. So this is the first one that creates a three-color token. And it also is the first one that makes multiple tokens. I mean, I guess Tetravis could remove

multiple tokens to make them at once. This is the first one that has kind of an X built into it, so it's a variable number of tokens you're making. And I think, it's funny, they're called Sand Warrior tokens. We later, because Warrior was a creature type,

we made them Sand Warrior, so they're both creature type Sand and tokens. We later in order, because Warrior was a creature type, we made them Sand Warrior. So they're both creature type Sand and Warrior. So we had to make Sand a creature type in order to make Sand Warrior and Warrior be Warrior. Rather than make like Sand hyphen Warrior. So Sand is a very odd creature type that exists really

because of this card. Next is Stang. Sting is four green-red, or four red-green in modern reading of things. Three-four summon legend. Now it's a human warrior.

When Sting is brought into play, also put a Sting twin token into play. Sting twin token is a three-four green and red legend. If Sting leaves play, remove Sting is an interesting card. So the idea of this card is it's a 3-4 that came with another 3-4. And the idea was it wanted to be a card that represented two twins, the Sting twins. card that represented two twins, the staying twins. So this is very interesting in that it's the first one where the token has a relationship with the card, meaning they have to live or die together. And the token was used as a way to, how do I represent two things with

one card? Nowadays, the interesting thing is, I mean, we might do this technology where a card plus a token. We also do a lot more like one card generates two tokens. As you'll see right now, so far, the first card was an artifact. Bottle of Soul Mane was an artifact. Rook Egg was a creature. Tetravis was a creature.

You'll notice we're getting a lot of things that make tokens right now tend to be permanents. Either they're artifacts or they're creatures. We will get to spells that make tokens in a second but you'll notice early on they didn't do that. Okay, the final token maker

in Legends was Serpent Generator which was one of my favorite cards. We'll get to this in a second. So Serpent Generator is an artifact that costs 6 generic mana. It's an artifact. Four and tap. Put a Poison Snake token into play. Treat this token as a 1-1

artifact creature. If this creature damages opponent, opponent gets a poison counter. If opponent ever has ten or more poison counters, opponent loses the game. So the interesting thing is this was the card that introduced Poison to the game of Magic.

In fact, there were two cards, but this was one of the two. And I was entranced by this card. I mean, I love the Wasp, and this felt like it was like the Wasp, but it could win the game all, I mean, the Wasp could win this game all the time because it could do 20 damage. But it introduced Poison,

and it's very funny that the original card said put a Poison Snake into play, and now it just makes a 1-1 color snake, but it has the Poison ability. So I guess that's why they felt it didn't have to be called Poison, because it does the Poison ability. Okay, so next up we get to the Dark. Okay, so next up we get to the Dark. So the Dark finally has a non-artifact, non-creature that makes a token. So let's talk about that.

So it's called Dance of Many. So once again, I'm going to read the original text, then I'll explain it if it's a little confusing. Dance of Many, this is from the Dark, by the way. So this is the fourth expansion. So you'll notice, by the way, I should point out, every set from Alpha has a token-making card in it so far, right? Alpha did, or Raimi Knights did, Antiquities did, Legends did, the Dark did.

That this was a tool that got used very early on, and was something that, like, the designers saw right away the value of the tokens, and it was something that we realized we had early on, and we just kept using. As you will see, we start using more tokens. I mean, Legends obviously had a bunch of cards. If we get to Fallen Empire State, which hopefully we will before we run out of time, you'll see that we really go so hard.

Okay, so Dance of Mindy. When Dance of Mindy is brought into play, choose a target summon card in play, then put a token creature into play, and treat it as you would have just brought an exact copy of target summon card into play. I'm going to read the Oracle text, because that is a complicated piece of text. When Dance of Many enters the battlefield, create a token that's a copy of your target non-token creature. When Dance of Many leaves the battlefield, exile the token. When the token leaves the battlefield, sacrifice Dance of Many.

At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Dance of Many unless you pay Blue Blue. Okay, so there's a lot going on. First off, this is the first copy token, right? It's a token that makes... that clones a creature already in play. Interestingly, I think... So it says choose a target summon card.

A summon card is what creatures were summoned originally on. So because it defines a card, that's why it says non-token. Nowadays, when you copy something, it lets you copy tokens. And it did this weird thing where this enchantment was tied to the token.

I think, basically, it's funny that in modern technology, this enchantment could have just itself become the copy. But I think back in the day, just the way they figured out how to make it work was it made a token copy and they were linked together. We wouldn't have to do that today. But anyway, and then it had an upkeep cost, which is something we don't do a lot of anymore.

But anyway, you can see us expanding and doing something where, like now we see it's enchantment-making tokens. It's something we're definitely expanding upon. Okay, next up, we get to Fallen Empires. Okay, so Fallen Empires has Ication Town. So Ication Town is five and a white for sorcery. Create four one-one white citizen creature tokens.

So this is the first not permanent, it's a sorcery, the first spell, you know, non-permanent spell that makes it. And it's funny, this card, like one of the famous things about this card was the very first Pro Tour, the format

of the first Pro Tour was you had to play five cards from every, it was like a, I think it was a standard tournament, and you had to play five cards from every expansion in the format except you could play, they could be in your sideboard and in your main deck.

Um, and you had to have... I think it was five cards. Anyway, um, one of the people that made top eight, a guy named Eric Tam, played Ication Town as one of his, uh,

um, fun Empire cards. Um, and it got a lot of mocking at the time, but, uh, I don't know if he made top eight, so, um... Um, anyway, so as time, but, uh, I don't know, he made top eight, so, um, um, anyway, so, as you can see, uh, as we're running through, um, tokens are something that the, the, the, the designers like, they really are using them. Okay, finally, I've got, I've gotten to, um, oh, wait, wait, sorry,

there's one more, uh, Fallen Empires card I did not get to. Oh, no, there's a bunch... Oh, sorry. There's a whole bunch more Fallen Empire cards. Oh, I'm sorry. We got to Fallen... I said when I get to Fallen Empires and then I forgot about this.

So, Fallen Empires... Okay, so tokens were something that were a tool. Richard used one in Alpha and two in Arabian Nights and there were, what, five in Legends. Fallen Empires is the set where the designer said, we're going to maximize the use of tokens in a way that really had a much larger play.

In fact, there were so many tokens made in the set that the duelist, which was the magazine, actually put out a supplement that was a punch-out card that had punch-out token sheets on it because tokens played such a large role. For example, this is the first time where there's a card of every color

in the set that makes a token. Every color had a different token type and at least one card that made that token. So, for example, white had citizen tokens. Blue has the homeroid spawning bed. So, once again, I'm going to do the original card. Blue, blue, enchantment.

One blue, blue. Sacrifice a blue creature to pay X camera token... Oh, to put X camera token creatures into play where X is the casting cost of the sacrificed creature. Treat this token as one, one blue creatures. So, the blue creatures. So the blue creatures in Fawn Empires

were Camarids. So each of, there were races in, one of the things for Fawn Empires was there's a giant war and each color had a war within itself

and they were fighting between themselves, between them and their enemies. So the Camarid tokens were the Hamarids and then the Hamarids made, sorry, the Hamarids made that's right the homerids made camera tokens

the black card was breeding pit three and a black at the beginning of your upkeep sacrifice breeding pit I'm sorry sorry the original card is three and black enchantment during your upkeep

pay black black or bury breeding pit at the end of your turn put a thrall token into play treat this token as a zero one black creature and then the modern is at the beginning of your upkeep sacrifice. And then the Modern is, at the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Breeding Pit unless you pay black-black.

At the beginning of your end step, create a 0-1 black Troll creature token. So Trolls were these artificial creatures that were made by the Order of the Ebon Hand. Then Goblin Warrens was 2 and a red for enchantment

two red, sacrifice two goblins put three goblin tokens into play treat these tokens as one red creatures so the goblins were the red token type note that this is the first time where you're sacrificing actual cards to generate more tokens and the idea was, this was just trying to up your number of goblins

so it didn't care whether you sacrificed goblins that were tokens or cards. But anyway, it started sort of... You can start seeing the designers start intermixing, meaning early on, the tokens were kept kind of separate. And as we start building on, they start weaving together. Okay, so green actually had the most evolved... So greens had what were called phthalids.

There were actually four cards that make tokens. There was Elvish Farmer, one green, summon elf, zero, two. During your upkeep, put a spore counter on Elvish Farmer. Zero, remove three spore counters from Elvish Farmer to put a sapling token in play. That's the base. So actually, phthalid, which was the basic phthalid. It was G for a one, one, green for a 1-1, summon fungus. During upkeep, put a spore counter on Thalwood.

Zero, remove three spore counters from a Thalwood to put a sapling into play. Treat this as a 1-1 green creature. Oh, I'm sorry. The Thalwoods were the creatures that made the saplings. The saplings were the token. Oh, by the way, this is the introduction of the sapling token. It's a unique token to magic. It's the introduction also...

I guess all of these are pretty new. Citizen and Cameron and Brinkbit. Goblins had existed before, though I think this is the first Goblin token, first time we made a Goblin token. Sapperlings, by the way, is a creature type that we use in magic that we don't put on cards, that we only use as a creature type.

Anyway, Thalad had that base ability. Then Thalad Devourer was a one green, green, two, two that had that ability plus zero sacrifice to Sapperling to give Thalad Devourer plus a 1 green green 2 2 that had that ability plus 0 sacrifice to Sapperling to give Thallad Devourer plus 1 plus 2 until end of turn so every 3 turns you got a Sapperling and then you could Sapperling to make the Thallad Devourer bigger the Elvish Farmer

you could sacrifice it to gain 2 life and then Night Soil which was a separate card was green green enchantment 1 remove 2 creature cards in any graveyard from the game to put a sapling token into play. Treat this as a one-one green creature. So, Night Soil was a little bit different. The Thalads let you, every third turn you make, you know, every third turn you would make a sapling,

and then you could use the sapling on some of the cards to do things. Um, but, uh, it wasn't, um, and then Night Soil lets you sort of use your graveyard as a resource. I think that's the first time graveyards are used as a resource to generate tokens. Um, but as you can see, Fallen Empires, really they were sort of like, it's the first time you see a sorcery generating it. It's the first time cards that are, you know, cards are being traded to make it. It's the first time you're using graveyard as a resource to make it. Um, Breeding Pit is an upkeep cost, right? Every upkeep the first time you're using Graveyard as a resource to make it. Breeding Pit is an upkeep cost, right? Every upkeep

you're generating. I think that's the first time that it's made it upkeep. So what you're seeing is Fallen Empires really was the designers saying, hey, there's a lot more here. Not only can we use it, not only is it a component, but we can build and make

sort of the core elements of what the set is. So Fallen Empires was the first set where tokens were like a key element of the set. Anyway, I'm almost out of time. I can get through a few more sets here. So, okay,

next up we get to Ice Age. Ice Age, I think just had one at caribou range uh it was two white white enchant land first enchant land when caribou range comes into play choose target land you control white white tap land caribou rage and chance to put a caribou token into play treat this as a zero one white creature and then zero colon sacrifice caribou token to gain one life. So it's funny. The Oracle text is, enchant land you control, enchant land is white, white tap,

create a 0-1 white caribou creature token, sacrifice a caribou token, you gain one life. You'll notice a lot of, as I read the early stuff, the idea of like 0 colon, like we hadn't had sac technology yet. It talks about having to tap the creature rather than we now graph the card. You can see a lot of new template technology that wasn't there yet. But anyway, I think so far every set in a row is used.

So we haven't yet got to a set that hasn't used a token. Next is Fallen Empires. Oh, not Fallen Empires, sorry. Next is Homelands. Homelands has one card that creates a token. Wall of Kelp. Blue, blue, summon wall. Blue, blue, tap. Put a kelp token in play.

Treat this token as a 0-1 blue wall. 0-3. Oh, I'm sorry. There are more. I'm sorry. Homelands has a bunch of tokens. So Homelands, wall of kelp, broken visage, is four and a black, bury target, non-artifact

attacking creature, and put a shatter token in play. Treat this token as a black creature Oh, so Broken Visage is the first time that we're using tokens as a temporary effect. The idea essentially is, I want to kill your creature, but the flavor is, I'm kind of stealing your creature to block one of your creatures. It's not exactly that because I don't steal it, but I'm making a creature of the same, a shadow version of it that's the same size. But it's the idea of using a token creature as a temporary thing.

You'll see more of that later on. Let's see. Drudge spell is black, black enchantment. Black, remove from the game two target creatures in your graveyard to put a Skeleton token into play. Treat this token as a 1-1 black creature with black regenerate, black colon regenerate. Drudge spell leaves play, bury all Skeleton tokens.

So one of the things Homeland did was really call back to a lot of things that were popular in Alpha. This is calling back to Drudge Skeleton. So essentially it's enchantment that allows you to turn dead creatures into Drudge Skeletons. Next is Sanger Autocrat. Three and a black, summon Autocrat 2-2. When Sanger Autocrat...

He's not a human, by the way, not an autocrat. When Sanger Autocrat comes into play, put three Surf Tokens into play. Treat this token to 0-1 black creatures. If Sanger Autocrat leaves play, bury all Surf Tokens. It's a 2-2. You'll notice a lot as 0-1 black creatures. If Sanger Autocrat leaves play, bury all surf tokens. It's a 2-2. You'll notice a lot of 0-1 tokens. I think early on there's a lot of worry that tokens might be using it as things to chump with or

block or sacrifice. Sanger Autocrat, by the way, because it made three at once, there were a bunch of combo decks that used it. For four mana, you made four creatures, and they were all black, which mattered, I think, for the deck that used them. Anyway, I think I'm going to wrap up here.

But one of the things I want to point out is that tokens were something adopted early, embraced by the players early, embraced by the designers early. And I didn't even have to get far in fact I'm at the end of my podcast and I made it up to Homeland

so I'm Homeland came out in the fall of 1994 so I'm barely a year into Magic, I'm just a little over a year into Magic and that's how much tokens I plan to do other podcasts on tokens just because I want to talk about some evolution of tokens... I plan to do other podcasts on tokens just because I want to talk about

some evolution of tokens. And I got as far, I got off to homeland. So I hope you guys enjoyed this. Anyway, but I can see my desk. So we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic.

I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.