Academy Manufactor Might Be The Best Commander Card In Modern Horizons 2

There are a lot of really good cards in Modern Horizons 2, we don’t think anybody is going to argue against that (someone will, probably). However, it’s not always those cards that inspire you to build something, sometimes it’s the oddities that make you want to brew a new deck.

It’s the cards that feel like something new and exciting that makes you want to put your special brewing hat, gloves, monocle, or whatever else you use to channel the good deckbuilding vibes of MTG. There are a few of those cards in Modern Horizons 2, but one of the ones we really want to mess around with is Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. .

Academy Manufactor is the great enabler

Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. is a three-mana 1/3 Artifact Creature. It’s an Assembly-Worker, which means you can make it bigger with Assembly-Worker or fetch it up with Self-Assembler, but the main thing it does is mess around with the tokens you make. You see it reads, “If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each.”

There aren’t all that many cards that make Clue, Food, or Treasure tokens, not really, so giving us a card that makes one of them into all three of them, suddenly we’ve got a way to make every one of these strategies a little bit more viable.

Now, granted, this is generally going to be more in Commander than other formats, but its impact there is so sizeable that it’s worth mentioning. You can just look at two of our picks for notable new Commander from Modern Horizons 2, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar As long as you've discarded a card this turn, you may pay {B/R} to cast this spell.
When Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar enters, you may search your library for a card named The Underworld Cookbook, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Sacrifice two Foods: Target creature deals 6 damage to itself. and Lonis, Cryptozoologist Lonis, Cryptozoologist Whenever another nontoken creature you control enters, investigate.
{T}, Sacrifice X Clues: Target opponent reveals the top X cards of their library. You may put a nonland permanent card with mana value X or less from among them onto the battlefield under your control. That player puts the rest on the bottom of their library in a random order. .

You want Food, you want Clues? Here, have a Treasure too

Including Artifacts, there are 11 cards in Black and Red, including Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar As long as you've discarded a card this turn, you may pay {B/R} to cast this spell.
When Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar enters, you may search your library for a card named The Underworld Cookbook, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Sacrifice two Foods: Target creature deals 6 damage to itself. that mention Food. That’s mentioning food, not necessarily even making it. For Blue and Green, there are more cards, but it’s still not a huge amount of support for Lonis, Cryptozoologist Lonis, Cryptozoologist Whenever another nontoken creature you control enters, investigate.
{T}, Sacrifice X Clues: Target opponent reveals the top X cards of their library. You may put a nonland permanent card with mana value X or less from among them onto the battlefield under your control. That player puts the rest on the bottom of their library in a random order. .

Without more support, it’s really tricky to build a deck around either of these very clearly Commander-focused cards. But, with Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. , suddenly you’ve got a lot more options, because any card than creates one a Clue, Food, or Treasure, will help you with you strategy. That means you can just fill you deck with cards that make any of those options, which means you can really go hard on these specific strategies.

What cards can you put in Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar?

There are a lot of really good choices here, but there are a few really good choices ot help you get the most out of both Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar As long as you've discarded a card this turn, you may pay {B/R} to cast this spell.
When Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar enters, you may search your library for a card named The Underworld Cookbook, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Sacrifice two Foods: Target creature deals 6 damage to itself. and Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. . For starters, the likes of Revel in Riches Revel in Riches Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control ten or more Treasures, you win the game. , which creates Treasure tokens whenever an opponent’s Creature dies, and wins you the game if you control ten or more Treasure tokens, is an essential pick.

Something like Goldspan Dragon Goldspan Dragon Flying, haste
Whenever this creature attacks or becomes the target of a spell, create a Treasure token.
Treasures you control have "{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add two mana of any one color." , which not only creates Treasures but also allows them to tap for two mana, is also essential. It helps that it’s a pretty good card even without that anyway, but it’s hard to argue with that amount of mana.

Fain, the Broker Fain, the Broker {T}, Sacrifice a creature: Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature.
{T}, Remove a counter from a creature you control: Create a Treasure token.
{T}, Sacrifice an artifact: Create a 2/1 white and black Inkling creature token with flying.
{3}{B}: Untap Fain. is a great addition to the deck as well. They allow you sacrifice Creatures to make +1/+1 counters, remove counters to creatre Treasure tokens, and sacrifice Artifacts to make Creatures. It’s a good suite of tools, and you can easily turn them into a powerhouse thanks to the extra mana that Goldspan generates.

Read More: The 10 Best Demons In Commander

What cards can you put in Lonis, Cryptozoologist?

For Lonis, Cryptozoologist Lonis, Cryptozoologist Whenever another nontoken creature you control enters, investigate.
{T}, Sacrifice X Clues: Target opponent reveals the top X cards of their library. You may put a nonland permanent card with mana value X or less from among them onto the battlefield under your control. That player puts the rest on the bottom of their library in a random order. the choiuces are a little bit less aggresive, but they’re still going to be a huge help. Hullbreacher Hullbreacher Flash
If an opponent would draw a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, instead you create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") is a Creature that lets you Create Treasure tokens instead of letting opponent’s draw extra cards, which means it’s good even without Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. .

There’s also Spell Swindle Spell Swindle Counter target spell. Create X Treasure tokens, where X is that spell's mana value. (They're artifacts with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") which will counter any target spell and then grant you Treasure tokens equal to the mana value of the countered card. Again, this is just a good card in general, so it’s an easy one to include.

Our third suggestion is Tireless Provisioner Tireless Provisioner Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, create a Food token or a Treasure token. (Food is an artifact with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life." Treasure is an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.") who can create either a Food or a Treasure token whenever a Land enters the battlefield under your control, which means you can choose which one is more important to you if you can’t just get them all.

Read More: The 10 Best Flicker Cards In MTG

What other Commanders can Academy Manufactor help?

It’s not like this deceptively powerful Artifact is only useful for those two commanders either. Aside from just being good in any deck that uses any of the three tokens, it’s also great for a few more specific Legendary Creatures.

Gyome, Master Chef Gyome, Master Chef Trample
At the beginning of your end step, create a number of Food tokens equal to the number of nontoken creatures you had enter the battlefield under your control this turn.
{1}, Sacrifice a Food: Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. Tap it. is a Green and Black Food-based commander that lets you sacrifice those tokens to make a Creature indestructible. We’re pretty sure you already know how good that keyword is, so we’ll say no more on the matter.

You’ve also got Magda, Brazen Outlaw Magda, Brazen Outlaw Other Dwarves you control get +1/+0.
Whenever a Dwarf you control becomes tapped, create a Treasure token.
Sacrifice five Treasures: Search your library for an artifact or Dragon card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle. , who is a two-mana Red Dwarf Beserker who can sacrifice Treasure tokens to put an Artifact of Dragon into play directly from your library, which means you can even go and find Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. itself to help you speed things up.

Our final pick is a new one from Strixhaven. Galazeth Prismari Galazeth Prismari Flying
When Galazeth Prismari enters, create a Treasure token.
Artifacts you control have "{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast an instant or sorcery spell." is a four-mana Blue and Red dragon that gives all of your Artifacts the ability to tap for any color of mana that you can then spend on Instant or Sorcery cards. When you’re making three tokens instead of one, and all of them are Artifacts, that makes it really easy to ramp out some beastly spells really early.

As you can see, Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. isn’t an overtly obnoxious card, but in the right decks, it’s going to do a lot of good work that should enable some exciting new strategies. Commander is all about choice, and Academy Manufactor Academy Manufactor If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each. is going to help make a lot more options viable, and we think that’s awesome.

Tagged Commander, Modern Horizons 2, MTG