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Moxonomy

Surveillance Monitor

Creature — Vedalken Detective3 generic manaBlue mana

Collect evidence was built to give the graveyard a second job: not fuel for reanimation or delve, but a running total you spend to switch effects on. Most of the mechanic's payoffs read that count once, at cast, and stop there. This one reroutes the reward into a repeatable trigger. The enters clause is a suggestion, not a requirement (you may collect evidence 4), but the second line is the engine: whenever you collect evidence from any source, you mint a flying Thopter. That turns a one-time graveyard drain into a token spigot, provided you keep feeding it fresh evidence to spend. The 3/3 body is incidental; the value lives in how many other collect-evidence effects you can route through this triggered ability, each one arriving with its own 1/1 flier attached. It is a design that reads flat in isolation and compounds only when the deck is assembled to hand it evidence again and again, converting spent graveyard cards into a widening board. The cost is structural to the deckbuilding rather than the individual trigger: every collect-evidence effect scales to whatever number that card demands, so exiling to satisfy them all keeps draining the same graveyard the Thopter engine depends on. The tension is between how many fliers you want and how many recursion targets or delve-style cards you can afford to burn making them.

Surveillance Monitor (mkm)
MKM · #73uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.13
Foil: $0.06
Oracle Text

Rules text

When this creature enters, you may collect evidence 4. (Exile cards with total mana value 4 or greater from your graveyard.) Whenever you collect evidence, create a 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
Legal
Pioneer
Legal
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
Legal
Historic
Legal
Alchemy
N/A
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
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