Treasure Tokens: An Analysis
Treasure Tokens
Treasure tokens debuted in 2017 and have become an increasingly prevalent tool appearing in many Magic: The Gathering sets. Currently, in June of 2022, there are 169 cards which either generate treasure tokens or have the 'treasure' subtype.
This has drawn controversy from some members of the game's playerbase and some online content creators, who argue that treasure generating cards are appearing too frequently.
There are other members of the Magic: The Gathering community, however, who have a significantly more positive view of the tokens.
The 5 year history of treasures is the story of the gradual rise of an initially niche mechanic into an integral part of the game's design...
Revel In Riches, picture credit: Eric Deschamps, Vraska, Relic Seeker, picture credit: Chris Rahn, Brass's Bounty, picture credit: Grzegorz Rutkowski, Treasure Map, picture credit: Cliff Childs
Revel In Riches, picture credit: Eric Deschamps, Vraska, Relic Seeker, picture credit: Chris Rahn, Brass's Bounty, picture credit: Grzegorz Rutkowski, Treasure Map, picture credit: Cliff Childs
Ixalan Block 2017-2018
Treasure tokens debuted in Ixalan which was released in September of 2017.
In this set treasures appeared primarily, though not exclusively, in Red, Black and Blue. These colours had a 'pirate theme' and many of these pirates generated or cared about treasure tokens in some way.
More treasure cards would appear in Rivals of Ixalan, a small expansion set, released in January of 2018.
Notable treasure cards from Ixalan block include...
-Revel in Riches, an alternative win condition card relying on you having 10 treasure tokens at the start of your upkeep.
-Vraska, Relic Seeker, the first, and currently only, planeswalker card which generates treasure tokens. This is also the only treasure card in Ixalan block with Green in its mana cost.
-Brass's Bounty, A card which remains one of the of most effective ways of generating a large amount of treasure tokens, albeit for an expensive mana cost.
-Treasure Map, One of Ixalan's signature double faced land cards which, when flipped, enables you to turn all of your treasure tokens into card draw.
Hullbreacher, picture credit: Sidharth Chaturvedi, Smothering Tithe, picture credit: Mark Behm, Dockside Extotionist, picture credit: Forrest Imel
Hullbreacher, picture credit: Sidharth Chaturvedi, Smothering Tithe, picture credit: Mark Behm, Dockside Extotionist, picture credit: Forrest Imel
The Quiet Years 2019-2020
From 2019 to 2020 only a few treasure cards were printed. They appeared only sporadically in a handful of sets.
Despite this, many of the treasure cards which appeared in this period impacted the game significantly.
Notable treasure cards from this time include...
-Hullbreacher, which was banned from the commander format in July of 2021.
-Smothering Tithe, which is currently the third most popular White card in Commander, according to EDHREC, and commands an approximately $20-30 price tag.
-Dockside Extortionist, which EDHREC currently records as the third most popular Red card, which typically costs $50+.
Goldspan Dragon, picture credit: Andrew Mar, Monologue Tax, picture credit: Justine Cruz,Tireless Provisioner, picture credit: Josu Hernaiz, Academy Manufactor, picture credit: Campbell White
Goldspan Dragon, picture credit: Andrew Mar, Monologue Tax, picture credit: Justine Cruz,Tireless Provisioner, picture credit: Josu Hernaiz, Academy Manufactor, picture credit: Campbell White
Kaldheim to Modern Horizons 2, Early 2021
In 2021 treasure cards began appearing with greatly increased frequency. 58 treasure cards were printed in 2021. This exceeds the number which had been printed in all of the sets released from 2017-2020 .
Kaldheim was released in February, it had a complex limited environment which encouraged players to draft several different colours. Treasure tokens helped make this possible, due to their ability to fix your mana.
Strixhaven: School of Mages, which released in April, had treasure as a theme for the Red/Blue Prismari college. Here treasure tokens represented prized works of art, rather than literal treasure. There were also 4 new treasure cards included in the Commander decks released alongside the set.
Modern Horizons 2, which came out in June, featured 9 treasure cards, as well as the first appearance of treasure in mono-Green.
Notable treasure cards from this era include...
Goldspan Dragon, A dragon which produces treasure, whenever it attacks or is targeted by a spell, and also doubles the value of your treasure tokens.
Monologue Tax, a budget friendly alternative to Smothering Tithe but one which is typically capable of generating fewer treasure tokens. It triggers when players cast multiple spells in a turn, rather than when cards are drawn.
Tireless Provisioner, a call back to the card Tireless Tracker from Shadows Over Innistrad. Can generate either food or treasure tokens when a land is played.
Academy Manufactor, An 'artifact tokens matter' card which gives you a treasure, food and a clue tokens whenever you would create any of the 3.
Deadly Dispute, picture credit: Irina Nordsol, Old Gnawbone, picture credit: Filip Burburan, Prosperous Innkeeper, picture credit: Eric Deschamps, Xorn, picture credit: Yigit Koroglu
Deadly Dispute, picture credit: Irina Nordsol, Old Gnawbone, picture credit: Filip Burburan, Prosperous Innkeeper, picture credit: Eric Deschamps, Xorn, picture credit: Yigit Koroglu
Adventures In The Forgotten Realms Onwards, Late 2021
Adventures In The Forgotten Realms was released in July of 2022. A crossover between Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, It featured 22 new treasure cards, more than any prior set.
Treasures were a prominent theme in the limited format of Adventures In The Forgotten Realms. Treasure generation was the primary theme of Red/Black which was broadly considered to be the most powerful colour pair in the format by a wide margin.
Adventures In The Forgotten Realms also continued to place treasure generating cards in Green.
After Adventures In The Forgotten Realms was released, treasure cards made a handful of other appearances later in 2021, but with nowhere near the same prevalence.
Notable treasure cards from Adventures In The Forgotten Realms include...
Deadly Dispute, A sacrifice card which draws 2 cards and generates a treasure token. Popular in some of the games more niche formats like Pauper and Cube.
Old Gnawbone, A legendary dragon which generates treasure whenever creatures you control deal damage to another play. The center piece of debates surrounding whether Green should or should not have access to treasure, due to its high power level.
Prosperous Innkeeper, An enabler in Green/White standard life gain decks, which also generates a treasure token as some additional upside.
Xorn, A creature which gives you an extra treasure token whenever you make treasure.
Bootleggers' Stash, picture credit: Anastasia Ovchinnikova, Professional Face-Breaker, picture credit: Dan Scott, Ancient Copper Dragon, picture credit: Antonio José Manzanedo
Bootleggers' Stash, picture credit: Anastasia Ovchinnikova, Professional Face-Breaker, picture credit: Dan Scott, Ancient Copper Dragon, picture credit: Antonio José Manzanedo
Treasure In 2022
76 treasure cards have currently been printed in 2022 exceeding the total for 2021 despite that fact that, at time of writing, it is only June.
Only 7 treasure cards appeared in February's Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and the associated commander decks.
In April, however, Streets of New Capenna released introducing 26 new treasure cards, beating the record previously set by Adventures In The Forgotten Realms. This would be accompanied by a further 16 new treasure cards in Streets of New Capenna's Commander decks.
Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate released in June of 2022 bringing with it 27 new treasure generating cards. Making 2022
Whether Dominaria United and The Brother's War will continue this trend, or whether 2022 will be like 2021 with treasure cards taking a back seat from July onwards remains to be seen.
Notable treasure cards released in 2021 include...
Bootleggers' Stash, Another mono-Green treasure card. The stash allows all of your lands to generate treasure tokens, rather than mana, when they are tapped.
Professional Face-Breaker, A card which allows you to turn treasure tokens into impulsive draw effects and also gives you some treasure for attacking successfully.
Ancient Copper Dragon, Part of a mythic rare cycle of elder dragon's from Battle For Baldur's Gate gives you 1d20 worth of treasure tokens when you hit a player with it.
Community Views
Many Magic: The Gathering content creators have differing views on treasure tokens and their place within the game and its various formats. In creating this article, I asked several of them for their thoughts.
Andy Mangold from Lucky Paper Radio gives his view on treasure tokens in the cube format.
Andy Mangold one of the hosts of Lucky Paper Radio, a podcast about the cube format, takes a positive view of the tokens for cubing.
He described treasure tokens as: "a very flexible mechanic, it's also a mechanic which interreacts with a lot of pre-existing cards in magic's history in interesting ways."
Nizzahon Magic, a Magic: The Gathering YouTuber and streamer, said: "As someone who mostly plays Limited, I really like treasure, since it enables splashes and things like that."
He later added: "The fact Treasure has been a major theme in several sets, and shown up in completely different colour pairs is a little bit weird to me. It doesn't seem like every colour should have equal access to treasure."
DiceTry, A YouTuber who focusses on analysing Magic's colour pie, noted: "For one I love treasures generated by dragons. I think it's so flavourful. Also cards like Big Score, Bank Job and Blood Money are interesting ways to generate treasure tokens. "
He did note, however, that: "I personally think it's a flavour fail to put them in Green. I can understand creating a token which generates mana, as that is very Green, but the fact that it's a treasure doesn't sit right."
Brewer's Kitchen is a content creator, affiliated with the site MTGGoldfish, he focusses on building combo decks which win the game in chaotic, absurd and fun ways.
When I spoke to him for this piece, he expressed concerns regarding the power level of treasure tokens.
He said: "Playing with treasures is very fun but they create free mana, which is notorious for being broken in Magic. Back in Ixalan, the power level of treasure-producing cards was so low that they saw almost no play, though. To be honest, even most of the new cards haven’t really broken the mechanic. But there are some outstanding offenders in pushing it too far like Dockside, Smothering Tithe, and Prosper (and I guess Ragavan in other formats)."
He concluded by saying: "for me, Treasures are fine but they are dangerous when it comes to power creep and should be heavily playtested in R&D. "
He then linked me to a podcast in which he and other members of the MTGGoldfish team summarise their views thoroughly.
Treasure tokens are Lotus Petals and should be threat assessed accordingly!
— Rachel Weeks 🚀 CommandFest Las Vegas (@wachelreeks) April 25, 2022
A tweet from Rachel Weeks, a Magic content creator and member of the Commander Advisory Group.
A graph showing the number of treasures printed over time. (This graph excludes Digital only 'alchemy' cards and cards which have exclusively appeared as secret lair drops).
Ultimately, whether you feel positively or negatively about them, given the significant rise in the number of treasures which have been printed from 2021 onwards, it seems likely that they are here to stay.
Try this treasure quiz.
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