Welcome back! Today's creature takes tokens and makes itself bigger. But if there are no tokens, it spits out a token. Obviously, the smaller the token it eats, the more efficient it is. But what is the name of the card, and what is its two creature types?

I know it's how the template works - but I really do hate "Do this. If you do not, then..." ...why are you even playing this game if you're not going to follow the rules? "If you cannot" would be so much nicer. Anyway, not relevant.

I'm tempted to suggest that this is a dog, which creates and then eats its own poo tokens. The more obvious mtg thing would be some kind of fungus, since those do this sort of thing a lot. Ok, maybe try and think of a name? And I immediately see this is sort of like the old Spawning Pool. Except it turns tokens into itself or more tokens. So it's a respawning pool?

Oh! I know,let's go new-kamigawa on it. It's mal-code. A Dataphage Creature type is then Spirit And the token it creates is then a Virus.

Name - Cannibal Ooze

Type - Ooze

(Merry Christmas to anyone who celebrates it!)

(Happy Boxing Day for everyone who celebrates that too. 😄)

­Swarm of Boggarts
Creature - Goblin
2/2 green ouphe creature token

Returning to a shadowmoor-y world where unseelie magical creatures run around mischeivously in forest. Assuming that MTG uses "goblin" as a catch-all for "not-flying" or "not-pretty" fae-ish creatures, and ouphe for more magical-y ones.

Imagining this as a tribe of misfits slowly absorbing more assorted creatures into its ranks.

Happy boxing day to people who celebrate it ostentatiously pedantically following a traditional calendar of putting boxing day on St Stephen's Day on the next non-Sunday day after Christmas :)

Voting is up! Click here to choose your favorite card name!

Jack wins this week with Swarm of Boggarts! Pricing this creature is kind of tough, but I had to admit that a 2/2 that could become a 4/4 in two turns was too expensive at . Certainly, it can make a 2/2 token every turn, but unless you are constantly throwing away that token... let's just say you're never in full control over what this creature is doing and that makes it okay to ramp up to 3/3.

See everybody on (((NTC #089)))!

@Vitenka: You'll be happy to know this card uses an incorrect template. The current wording makes it unclear whether "If you do" refers to sacrificing or putting counters. Ambiguity is not allowed.

"If you do"/"If you don't" is reserved for optional effects ("you may") like Crovax the Cursed or Nightsnare.

­Xathrid Demon demonstrates a way "If you can't" is use.

Unfortunately there is only one card I see that matches the level of branching of this card in Magic's repertoire: Gargantuan Gorilla. (Look how it doesn't fight!)

Ah! Thank you SecretInfiltrator. Updated to 'If you can't sacrifice a creature'.

It's not true that "If you do" is reserved for optional effects. Everything from Standstill to Academy Rector use "if you do" with mandatory effects to account for things that might have happened since the ability triggered. If a counterwar erupts with Standstill on the battlefield, only the last played spell's opponents draw, and you only get an enchantment with Rector if it wasn't a token copy and you haven't done some sneaky instant recursion en route. And so on.

That said, I agree "If you can't sacrifice a [token] creature" is the right wording here.

To clarify: "'If you do'/'If you don't' is reserved for optional effects" is meant to refer to cards that use both phrases juxtaposed. There are plenty of cards that use 'If yo do' by itself with mandatory effects.

­Academy Rector just does not happen to be one of them, since it is an example of 'If you do' referring to an optional action.