Mathas wants a deck that helps every player at the table, itself included. It also suits a deck that sacrifices its own creatures to drain opponents' life.
Mana cost
White, Black, Red ()
Power / toughness3 / 3
RarityMythic
Menace
At the beginning of your end step, put a bounty counter on target creature an opponent controls. For as long as that creature has a bounty counter on it, it has "When this creature dies, each opponent draws a card and gains 2 life."
Picked for what they do in Mathas's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Mathas'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.Open the full glossary
explain how Mathas 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 Coast25 Aug 2017
Creatures that receive a bounty counter other than from Mathas's ability resolving won't gain the triggered ability. Creatures that receive more than one bounty counter as Mathas's ability resolves (most likely due to Doubling Season) won't have the ability multiple times.
Wizards of the Coast25 Aug 2017
If Mathas's ability resolves two separate times targeting the same creature, that creature will have two instances of the triggered ability. Each triggers separately when that creature dies.
Wizards of the Coast25 Aug 2017
The opponents who each draw a card and gain 2 life are the opponents of the player who controlled the creature as it died. This may not be the player who controlled the creature when it received a bounty counter.
Wizards of the Coast25 Aug 2017
The target creature that gets a bounty counter still has the triggered ability it gains even if Mathas leaves the battlefield.
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 glossaryWBRPlayers write colors as letters: W for white, B for black, R for red.Group HugGroup Hug decks give every player extra cards, mana or life, making friends at the table while they quietly work toward their own win. The trick is to be the player best placed to use all that extra.Open the Group Hug pageGroup HugGives everyone at the table something: extra cards, extra mana, extra lands. It really is generous, and that is the trick: the player who built the deck around it knows what to do with the surplus, and the other three usually do not. Howling Mine, Heartbeat of Spring, Rites of FlourishingOpen the Group Hug 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 pageLife GainGains you life, once or over and over. Soul Warden, The Great Henge. In Commander life is something to spend, not just a cushion, and many of these cards also set off others that reward gaining life.Open the Life Gain pageAristocratsAristocrats decks sacrifice their own creatures on purpose and profit every time one dies, often by draining life from each opponent. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you like, decides when that happens.Open the Aristocrats pageCounter ManipulationAdds, moves or multiplies counters already on permanents. It works on any kind (+1/+1, loyalty, charge), so the same card can serve very different decks. Karn's Bastion, Doubling SeasonOpen the Counter Manipulation pageDeath TriggerTriggers when a creature dies, whether it is this creature, one of yours or an opponent's. These are the cards that pay you in an Aristocrats deck: something else makes creatures die, and these decide what you get each time. Blood Artist, Solemn SimulacrumOpen the Death Trigger page
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