Mardu MonumentHow it works & interactions with other cards

Finding Your Foundations

The primary role of Mardu Monument is to stabilize your mana base. When it enters the battlefield, you search your library for a basic Mountain, Plains, or Swamp. This provides immediate card advantage by ensuring you have the specific color needed for your more complex spells later in the match.

Marshalling the Troops

Once the artifact has served its purpose as a land-fetcher, you can activate its second ability by paying two generic, one red, one white, and one black mana. Upon sacrificing the Monument, you create three 1/1 red Warrior creature tokens. Because the tokens gain haste and menace, they can immediately participate in combat and are difficult for your opponent to block effectively.

Timing and Restrictions

It is crucial to remember that the sacrifice ability can only be activated as a sorcery. This means you must use it during your own main phase when the stack is empty. You cannot use this ability in response to an opponent's spell or during their combat phase to create blockers.

Interaction examples

Accelerating into the Monument

Sol Ring

If you control a Sol Ring, you can tap it to provide the two generic mana needed to cast Mardu Monument. As the Monument enters, its triggered ability goes on the stack. You search for a basic Mountain, Plains, or Swamp, add it to your hand, and then shuffle your library.

Fixing Colors with Signets

Arcane Signet

With an Arcane Signet on the battlefield, you can tap it for a missing color—like Black—to help pay the activation cost of Mardu Monument. After paying the full five mana and sacrificing the Monument, three Warrior tokens are created.

Creating the Warrior Horde

Warrior

During your main phase, you pay the activation cost and sacrifice Mardu Monument. You put three Warrior tokens onto the battlefield. Even though they are tokens, they gain haste and menace until the end of the turn, allowing them to attack immediately and require two blockers each to be stopped.