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Moxonomy

Garland, Royal Kidnapper

Legendary Creature — Human Knight2 generic manaBlue manaBlack mana

Monarch almost always works one way: you crown yourself, and the drawback is that everyone else gets to try to take it. This design inverts the whole transaction by handing the crown to an opponent on purpose, because the coronation is no longer a card-draw perk you cover, it is the pull on a theft trigger. The second ability watches for any opponent to become the monarch and immediately borrows one of their creatures, and it does so for exactly as long as they wear the crown. That leash is what makes the engine cyclical: give the crown away, take a creature, reclaim the crown (or let a third player grab it, or take it back yourself), and the borrowed creature snaps home while the next coronation feeds a fresh target into the same trigger.

The third ability exists to keep the loan from being wasted. The +2/+2 makes the stolen creature worth having, and the can't-be-sacrificed clause plugs a hole from your side: a controlled creature is precisely the kind of thing a thief wants to feed to Ashnod's Altar or a similar outlet for one last burst of value before the crown moves and the leash breaks. This card forbids you that shortcut, forcing the theft to stay a theft rather than a disguised sacrifice. The design leans hard on a multiplayer table where the crown can ping-ponging between several opponents; a duel only ever offers one target and one direction, which flattens what makes the second trigger interesting.

Garland, Royal Kidnapper (fic)
FIC · #442rare
Pricing
Normal: $5.80
Foil: $5.45
Oracle Text

Rules text

When Garland enters, target opponent becomes the monarch. Whenever an opponent becomes the monarch, gain control of target creature that player controls for as long as they're the monarch. Creatures you control but don't own get +2/+2 and can't be sacrificed.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
N/A
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
N/A
Historic
N/A
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
N/A
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
N/A
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
N/A
TLR
N/A
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