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Dr. Madison Li

Dr. Madison Li

Legendary Creature — Human Scientist

Dr. Madison Li wants a deck that saves up energy and spends it on stronger effects. It leads the ready-made Science! deck (2024).

  • Mana costblueredwhite
  • White, Blue, Red ()
  • Power / toughness2 / 3
  • RarityMythic

Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you get energy (an energy counter).

tap, Pay energy: Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains trample and haste until end of turn.

tap, Pay energyenergyenergy: Draw a card.

tap, Pay energyenergyenergyenergyenergy: Return target artifact card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.

Build a deck with Dr. Madison Li Find it in the app

Themes
  • Humans
  • Scientists

Cards That Fit Dr. Madison Li

Picked for what they do in Dr. Madison Li's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Dr. Madison Li's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Sol RingOpen the full glossary

plan6

The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

Decks Led by Dr. Madison Li

Dr. Madison Li leads a ready-made deck.PreconShort for preconstructed deck: a ready-to-play deck sold in a box by Wizards of the Coast. A Commander precon comes with its commander and all 100 cards, so you can play it straight away and change cards later.Open the full glossary

Rulings for Dr. Madison Li

explain how Dr. Madison Li works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

{E} is the energy symbol. It represents one energy counter.

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

Dr. Madison Li’s first ability resolves before the spell that caused it to trigger.

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

Energy counters are a kind of counter that a player may have. They’re not associated with any specific permanents.

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

Energy counters aren’t mana. They don’t go away as steps, phases, and turns end, and effects that add mana “of any type” can’t give you energy counters.

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

If a spell or ability with one or more targets states that you “may pay” some amount of {E}, and each permanent that it targets has become an illegal target, the spell or ability won’t resolve. You can’t pay any {E} even if you want to.

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

If an effect says you get one or more {E}, you get that many energy counters. To pay one or more {E}, you lose that many energy counters. You can’t pay more energy counters than you have. Any effects that interact with counters a player gets, has, or loses can interact with energy counters.

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

Keep track of how many energy counters each player has. Potential ways to track this include writing them down on paper or using dice, but any method that is clear and mutually agreeable is fine. (At higher levels of tournament play, dice may not be allowed for tracking counters that players have.)

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

Some spells and abilities that give you {E} may require targets. If each target chosen is an illegal target as that spell or ability tries to resolve, it won’t resolve. You won’t get any {E}.

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

Some triggered abilities state that you “may pay” a certain amount of {E}. You can’t pay that amount multiple times to multiply the effect. You simply choose whether or not to pay that amount of {E} as the ability resolves.

Wizards of the Coast 8 Mar 2024

Some triggered abilities that state that you “may pay” a certain amount of {E} describe an effect that happens “If you do.” In that case, no player may take actions to try to stop the ability’s effect after you make your choice. If the payment is followed by the phrase “When you do,” then you’ll choose any targets for that reflexive triggered ability and put it on the stack before players can take actions.

10 rulings, all written by Wizards of the Coast. Read the originals on Gatherer ↗

Similar Commanders

Commanders that share the most with Dr. Madison Li, and what they share.

Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryWURPlayers write colors as letters: W for white, U for blue, R for red. Blue is U because B was already taken by black.EnergyEnergy decks collect energy counters, a resource you save up across turns, then spend them on stronger effects. Energy belongs to you, not to any card, so losing your cards does not take it away.Open the Energy pageEnergy ResourceUses energy, a resource written {E} that you collect and spend. Energy sits with you rather than on any one permanent, so it survives anything that destroys your board. Aether Hub, Guide of SoulsOpen the Energy Resource pageReanimationReturns a creature card from a graveyard straight to the battlefield, skipping its mana cost. That is why decks built around it put their biggest creatures into the graveyard on purpose. Named for Reanimate. Animate DeadOpen the Reanimation pageDrawDraws you extra cards. More cards means more choices every turn, and in a 100-card deck it is the main way to find the pieces you need. Rhystic Study, SkullclampOpen the Draw pageCombat TrickAn instant you cast during a fight to change how it ends: making a creature bigger or smaller, or keeping your creatures from dying. Boros Charm, Flawless ManeuverOpen the Combat Trick pageArtifactsAn artifacts deck fills the battlefield with artifacts, cards like Sol Ring that stay in play and keep working turn after turn. Played together, they give you extra mana and extra cards. A handful of keywords turn up on artifacts again and again. Equip means you pay a cost to attach an Equipment such as Swiftfoot Boots to one of your creatures. If that creature dies, the Equipment does not go to your graveyard with it. It stays on the battlefield, and you can pay the cost again to attach it to another creature. Crew means you tap your own creatures with enough total power between them to turn a Vehicle such as Smuggler's Copter into a creature until the end of the turn. A Treasure is a token you can sacrifice (put into your graveyard on purpose) for one mana of any color. A token is a game piece that a card makes, not a card from your deck, and Pitiless Plunderer is one card that makes Treasures. Affinity makes a spell like Frogmite cheaper for each artifact you control. Unearth brings a card like Combat Courier back from your graveyard for one turn, and then it is exiled. Modular creatures like Arcbound Ravager enter with +1/+1 counters and pass them to another artifact creature when they die.Open the Artifacts pageArtifact PayoffRewards you for having artifacts: counting them, triggering off them, or getting cheaper as you play more. Urza's Saga, Mox OpalOpen the Artifact Payoff pageRecursionBrings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, VictimizeOpen the Recursion pageReanimatorReanimator decks put big creatures into their own graveyard early, then bring them back onto the battlefield without paying their cost. It gets a huge creature into play far sooner than you could afford to cast it.Open the Reanimator page