A black mana card releasing in theModern Horizons 3set may not bea Legendary Creature, but it’s been cemented as a legend among MTG fans by name alone.
As a 1B Skeleton Noble, Emperor of Bones can be cast in the early game and set up a reliable recursion engine as soon as cards begin to hit the grave.
At the start of combat on your turn, Emperor of Bones can exile a card from any graveyard. It’s best to start this exile stockpile as soon as possible, as it’ll provide you with greater choice later on.
The Adapt mechanic is a great way to trigger Emperor of Bones’ best effect, but you’ll usually get more use out of putting +1/+1 counters on via external sources.
Whenever a +1/+1 counter is put on the Emperor of Bones, you can return a Creature exiled with its effect to the field under your control.
This effect also isn’t limited to triggering once per turn. So, if you’ve spent the first few turns of the game exiling with this card, you can put all those Creatures back onto the battlefield under your control for a hugely impactful turn.
Unfortunately, Emperor of Bones’ reanimated permanents don’t last for long, as they are sadly limited by theFinality Counter introduced in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. However, that hasn’t stopped cunning MTG players from brainstorming a way around this drawback.
Asexplained by Reddit user Bad_M00n: “Power Conduit can remove the finality counter to give Emperor another counter and another buddy.”
Emperor of Bones will work incredibly well in Modern with graveyard-focused recursion and +1/+1 strategies, and of special note to Commander players isUniverses Beyond: Fallout’s The Wise Mothman, as it perfectly combines the two themes. If you’re looking fora Commander deckto slot this spectacular Skeleton into, The Wise Mothman is an ideal pick.
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Jack Bye was a Games Writer on Dexerto’s UK team, specializing in ecommerce content. He is a Magic The Gathering and DnD expert, covering all things tabletop games. He also has bylines at WePC and VideoGamer.
