Generous PlundererHow it works & interactions with other cards

A Gift with a Price

At the start of your upkeep, you have a choice: create a Treasure token for yourself or decline the offer. If you choose to create one, a second ability triggers immediately, requiring a target opponent to also create a Treasure token. While giving away resources seems counterintuitive, the second half of Generous Plunderer's text makes this a lethal trade. The opponent's Treasure enters the battlefield tapped, meaning they cannot use it immediately to stop your plans.

Resolution Step-by-Step

First, the upkeep trigger goes on the stack. You do not choose a target yet. Second, as the ability resolves, you decide whether to create a Treasure. If you do, the 'reflexive' ability triggers and goes on the stack; this is when you select the target opponent. Finally, that opponent creates a tapped Treasure. Later, during your combat phase, when Generous Plunderer is declared as an attacker, its separate damage ability triggers, checking how many artifacts that player controls at that exact moment to deal damage.

Common Mistakes

A common error is thinking you must give away a Treasure even if you don't make one for yourself; the gift only occurs 'When you do' create yours. Also, remember that the damage ability triggers upon attacking, not when combat damage is dealt. This means the damage happens during the Declare Attackers step, potentially softening up a player before your creatures even connect. Importantly, the reflexive trigger to give a Treasure is a targeted ability, which counts as committing a crime in specific game formats.

Strategic Implementation

Generous Plunderer is best utilized in decks that can capitalize on both artifacts and aggressive starts. Because it has menace, it is difficult to block, ensuring it stays on the board to trigger its attack ability multiple times. You should prioritize targeting opponents who already have high artifact counts to maximize the passive damage, effectively turning their utility artifacts into liabilities.

Interaction examples

Building the Hoard

Generous PlundererTreasure

During your upkeep, you use Generous Plunderer to create a Treasure. An opponent creates a tapped Treasure. When you move to combat and attack that opponent, Generous Plunderer deals 1 damage to them immediately because they control that single Treasure artifact.

Punishing the Efficient

Generous PlundererOrnithopter of Paradise

If your opponent has an Ornithopter of Paradise on the field and you have given them two Treasures across previous turns, Generous Plunderer will deal 3 damage to them as soon as it is declared as an attacker, before blockers are even chosen.

Synergistic Scaling

Generous PlundererProfessional Face-Breaker

With Professional Face-Breaker on the battlefield, the Treasure you gain from Generous Plunderer's upkeep can be sacrificed to exile the top card of your library for extra card advantage. Since both creatures have Menace, they are harder to block, increasing the likelihood that Professional Face-Breaker triggers its own Treasure creation during the combat damage step.