Zameck Guildmage is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
: This turn, each creature you control enters with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
Complete guide
Zameck Guildmage is a versatile utility creature from the Simic Combine that provides both growth and card advantage. It allows you to invest mana to bolster your future creatures or recycle existing growth into fresh resources.
Enhancing Your Forces
The first ability of Zameck Guildmage creates a replacement effect that applies to any creature entering the battlefield under your control for the rest of the turn. This ability is cumulative; if you activate and resolve it multiple times, each creature will enter with that many additional counters. Note that this does not affect creatures already on the battlefield; it only changes how new creatures enter.
Converting Growth to Knowledge
The second ability allows you to remove a +1/+1 counter from a creature you control as part of the activation cost. Because removing the counter is a cost, players cannot respond to the removal itself to stop the ability from being activated. Once the cost is paid and the mana is spent, the ability goes on the stack and will eventually allow you to draw a card.
Strategic Timing
To maximize the Guildmage, activate the first ability before you cast your creature spells. If you wait until a creature is already entering, it is too late to apply the effect. For the second ability, it is often best used in response to your opponent's removal spells, allowing you to get value out of a creature that is about to leave the battlefield anyway.
Interaction examples
Llanowar ElvesWith Zameck Guildmage on the battlefield, you pay {G}{U} to activate its first ability. After it resolves, you cast Llanowar Elves. As Llanowar Elves enters the battlefield, it receives a +1/+1 counter, making it a 2/2 creature instead of its usual 1/1 stats.
Birds of ParadiseIf you have excess mana, you can activate Zameck Guildmage's first ability twice. When you subsequently cast Birds of Paradise that same turn, the two resolving effects stack. Birds of Paradise will enter the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters, significantly increasing its survivability.
Assume your Birds of Paradise already has a +1/+1 counter on it. You can pay {G}{U} and remove that counter from Birds of Paradise to activate Zameck Guildmage's second ability. The counter is removed immediately as a cost, and when the ability resolves, you draw a card.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Zameck Guildmage
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
Zameck Guildmage's first ability is cumulative. For example, if it resolves twice in a turn, each creature that enters under your control that turn will do so with two +1/+1 additional counters on it.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
Zameck Guildmage's first ability has no effect on creatures already on the battlefield when it resolves.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Popular combos
Real combos played by the community, sorted by popularity.
Ashnod's Altar + Zameck Guildmage
- 1Activate Zameck Guildmage's first ability by paying
. - 2Activate Ashnod's Altar by sacrificing the persist creature.
- 3When the persist creature dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield without a -1/-1 counter on it due to Zameck Guildmage.
- 4Repeat from step 2.
Altar of Dementia + Zameck Guildmage
- 1Activate Zameck Guildmage's first ability by paying .
- 2Activate Altar of Dementia by sacrificing the persist creature.
- 3When the persist creature dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield without a -1/-1 counter on it due to Zameck Guildmage.
- 4Resolve the Altar of Dementia ability.
- 5Repeat from step 2.
Phyrexian Altar + Zameck Guildmage
- 1Activate Zameck Guildmage's first ability by paying .
- 2Activate Phyrexian Altar by sacrificing the persist creature.
- 3When the persist creature dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield without a -1/-1 counter on it due to Zameck Guildmage.
- 4Repeat from step 2
Goblin Bombardment + Zameck Guildmage
- 1Activate Zameck Guildmage's first ability by paying .
- 2Activate Goblin Bombardment by sacrificing the persist creature.
- 3When the persist creature dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield without a -1/-1 counter on it due to Zameck Guildmage.
- 4Resolve the Goblin Bombardment ability.
- 5Repeat from step 2.
Spawning Pit + Zameck Guildmage
- 1Activate Zameck Guildmage's first ability by paying , causing your creatures to enter with an additional +1/+1 counter this turn.
- 2Activate Spawning Pit by sacrificing the persist creature.
- 3When the persist creature dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it and at least one +1/+1 counter on it due to Zameck Guildmage.
- 4Remove a -1/-1 counter and a +1/+1 counter from that creature as a state-based action.
- 5Resolve the Spawning Pit ability.
- 6Repeat from step 2
Viscera Seer + Zameck Guildmage
- 1Activate Zameck Guildmage's first ability by paying .
- 2Activate Viscera Seer by sacrificing the persist creature.
- 3When the persist creature dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield without a -1/-1 counter on it due to Zameck Guildmage.
- 4Resolve the Viscera Seer ability.
- 5Repeat from step 2.
Zameck Guildmage + Carrion Feeder
- 1Activate Zameck Guildmage's first ability by paying .
- 2Activate Carrion Feeder by sacrificing the persist creature.
- 3When the persist creature dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield without a -1/-1 counter on it due to Zameck Guildmage.
- 4Resolve the Carrion Feeder ability.
- 5Repeat from step 2.
Zameck Guildmage + Yahenni, Undying Partisan
- 1Activate Zameck Guildmage's first ability by paying .
- 2Activate Yahenni by sacrificing the persist creature.
- 3When the persist creature dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield without a -1/-1 counter on it due to Zameck Guildmage.
- 4Resolve the Yahenni ability.
- 5Repeat from step 2.
Legal formats
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Meta decks with Zameck Guildmage
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