Arcane Foundry › Commanders › The Motherlode, Excavator

The Motherlode, Excavator

Legendary Artifact Creature — Robot · {3}{R}{R} · Red commander

When The Motherlode enters, choose target opponent. You get an amount of {E} (energy counters) equal to the number of nonbasic lands that player controls. Whenever The Motherlode attacks, you may pay {E}{E}{E}{E}. When you do, destroy target nonbasic land defending player controls, and creatures that player controls without flying can't block this turn.

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What The Motherlode, Excavator actually does

Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.

• Triggered ability · etbWhen The Motherlode enters, choose target opponent. You get an amount of {E} equal to the number of nonbasic lands that player controls.
• Triggered ability · attackWhenever The Motherlode attacks, you may pay {E}{E}{E}{E}. When you do, destroy target nonbasic land defending player controls, and creatures that player controls without flying can't block this turn.

What a The Motherlode, Excavator deck needs

Plays as combat trigger. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.

• blink and recursion aimed at the commander itself (its value is its own enter trigger)
• haste, evasion and protection for the commander, and extra combats (its own attack is the engine)

The The Motherlode, Excavator deck plan

The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.

• 8× Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
• 7× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
• 5× Evasion that does NOT target or attach — for a commander your own auras and equipment cannot legally touch
• 9× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
• 6× Make the commander connect — a body that never deals combat damage never triggers
• 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
• 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
• 1× Answer a whole board at once
• 7× Refill your hand

Best cards for The Motherlode, Excavator

Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.

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Arcane Foundry is free to join and every tool is included: the Arcane Forge deck builder, the ARCANE Analyzer that scores a deck by simulating games rather than counting staples, a card scanner, a collection vault, and live webcam Commander tables. Read the guide · Browse all commanders · Pricing