The map, which MTG New Capenna breaks wide, contains only 9 words

It turns out you only need a single line of text on a Magic the Gathering Map to start some punishing shenanigans. Among the maps published in magic‘s newest set, Streets of New Capenna, a certain six-mana green artifact has deckbuilders raving about its potential to take over games and encourage table turn reactions. Allow me to introduce you Bootlegger’s Stash.

Before we look at some of Bootlegger’s Stash’s specific uses, let’s clarify why this card’s ability is noteworthy in the first place. In short, by giving all of your lands the ability to produce treasure, this card generates value in the form of a concept magic Players sometimes refer to “material”.

Look at your everyday life magic Maps: Lands and Spells. Most of the time, when you have lands or creatures, playing a card from your hand just puts an object or “permanent” card into play. But common exceptions to this principle are cards that form tokens. Classic examples such as Thraben Inspector

(which gives a clue) or Hordeling outbreak (making three Goblins) represents one card in hand, but produces multiple permanents on the battlefield, here in the form of tokens. When magic Players refer to “material,” it’s usually that ability to create multiple permanents from one card.

In general, token makers are not a big deal. Virtually every set has them, and the majority see relatively little play because the value these cards generate in play isn’t strong enough for competitive engineered formats like Standard or Modern. But every once in a while, a unique new token maker breaks through because it’s easy to seem, annoying to deal with, and the tokens themselves are good enough to want multiples.

Older players may remember when bitter blossom or Gideon, Ally of Zendikar were format-defining cards for their unique abilities to spawn a steady stream of pesky creature tokens onto otherwise elusive permanents. Today in modern format, Ragavan, swift thief is one of the most played creatures, thanks in part to its ability to continually generate treasure counters on a cheap, aggressive body.

Like previous Token Maker All-Stars, Bootlegger’s Stash checks one critical box: It continues to produce material after it’s played – treasure tokens, no less. These allow you to extend the range of your mana base beyond your land count and color limitations. Popping half a dozen Treasure Tokens once is fun, but pull this trick two or three times in a single game and you’ve built up a massive resource bank that potentially triggers some other powerful synergies. By turning your lands into token makers, the decks that max out all those treasures quickly become overwhelmed with a variety of outlets that can tap into a never-ending supply of widgets.

time sieve

One of the scariest uses for Stash is as a threat to allow an infinite draw combo if invoked at the same time as a two-mana artifact time sieve. Best of all? The combo is as simple as throwing both cards.

Since Time Sieve only requires five artifacts to activate, and Stash can activate at least six treasure tokens each turn, once the two artifacts are online at the same time, your opponent had better have some artifact removal handy, or they’ll never get back to the be in line.

Academy Manufacturer and Chatterfang

One of the limitations of Stash’s potential is the fact that it only produces one type of token. Of course, having access to tons of mana via treasure is powerful, but at some point you need something to spend that mana on. With the help of a few other token generators, Stash can produce so much more stuff with each activation. The simplest double whammy is to have Academy Manufacturer

on the board that diversifies your material production into mana, card draw and life gain effects. With Manufactor out, every treasure you craft comes with one hint token and a food stamp, which provides an integrated application for all the mana you produce. Crack the clues to search your deck and find a way to win, or replenish your health with tasty food when opponents are pressuring you.

You can take this combo a step further by creating creatures with it Chatterfang, squirrel general, the most adorable apex predator currently hiding in the huge catalog of legally playable maps. Although Chatterfang works without Academy Manufactor, it gets significantly stronger as you generate more tokens. By themselves, Chatterfang and Stash produce an additional 1/1 Squirrel with each Treasure you make. The bare minimum, that’s at least six squirrels in each round while both cards are on the board.

Things really get out of hand when you also have Manufactor on the board because now every land you tap produces two extra artifact tokens along with three squirrel tokens. Assuming we’re still only working with the six lands you used to cast stash, this means you can craft up to 36 tokens between squirrels and other widgets each turn. So unless you’ve drawn a time sieve to make infinite moves, your virtually infinite supplies should kill the game.

Streets of New Capenna is now out for magic on the internet and Magic: The Gathering Arenaand will be available for tabletop play on April 29th.