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Moxonomy

Smile at Death

Enchantment3 generic manaWhite manaWhite mana

The recursion clock built for the smallest bodies in the deck. Every one of your upkeeps it can haul up to two power-2-or-less creatures out of the graveyard, and the +1/+1 counter it staples on isn't a bonus so much as a nudge: a token maker or a one-drop hatebear that keeps coming back returns a little sturdier than it left, though the counter is lost when it dies again. The power ceiling does the balancing work; it walls off the effect from resurrecting anything with a real body, so the reward stays pointed at go-wide fodder, sacrifice pieces, and enter-the-battlefield triggers rather than reanimator payoffs. The comparison worth drawing is to graveyard-toolbox white of the sort Sun Titan and Reveillark practice, but where those cards loop through their own deaths and cap the tempo, this asks nothing of you between upkeeps: it is a passive, uninterrupted stream that only stops when the graveyard runs dry. The tension is entirely on the deckbuilding side. A pile of two-power creatures that generate value on the way in makes the enchantment a grinding inevitability; a deck full of expensive threats leaves it a five-mana enchantment doing nothing. It rewards the archetype that was already committed to death and rebirth at the bottom of the curve, and does very little for anyone else.

Smile at Death (ptdm)
PTDM · #24smythic
Pricing
Normal: $9.99
Foil: $4.95
Oracle Text

Rules text

At the beginning of your upkeep, return up to two target creature cards with power 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. Put a +1/+1 counter on each of those creatures.
Legalities

Format Status

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

Other printings

2 sets
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