God-Eternal Bontu
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

God-Eternal Bontu

Legendary Creature — Zombie God

Menace

When God-Eternal Bontu enters the battlefield, sacrifice any number of other permanents, then draw that many cards.

When God-Eternal Bontu is put into the graveyard or exile from the battlefield, you may put it into its owner's library third from the top.

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Gidgetimer on Interaction between God-Eternal Bontu and …

3 weeks ago

Everything you said was correct up until you said that the original would be a fizzled target. The sacrifice doesn't use the word "target" and therefore doesn't target.

What happens is that you make the copy. SBAs are checked and you put the original God-Eternal Bontu into the graveyard. You now have an ETB and a "dies" trigger that both need to go on the stack and you control both and so can put them on the stack in any order. When the ETB resolves you will sacrifice any number of other permanents and draw that many cards.

CamraMaan on Interaction between God-Eternal Bontu and …

3 weeks ago

This is going to cause problems at my kitchen table, so I'm preemptively getting a ruling/answer I can refer to.

So I use Jaxis, the Troublemaker to copy God-Eternal Bontu, but I opt to keep the token and sacrifice the real card, putting it back into my deck third from the top. I'm assuming I can order the ETB trigger of the copy and the death trigger of the real card in any order I want, since they should be attempting to enter the stack simultaneously. If I sacrifice enough creatures I should be able to draw Bontu right back into my hand, since he'll be going into my deck before that trigger's resolution, correct?

Next, does the legendary rule's timing prevent me from choosing the original copy as a target to sacrifice to the ETB trigger? My assumption is yes, that it will be gone before the trigger resolves, and therefore would be a fizzled target, but I want to be sure.

TIA!

GeRmS3 on Lands Down, Fang Up

1 year ago

Hopefully, You will be making 3-5 land drops a turn. For basic land recursion there is Life from the Loam, Ramunap Excavator, Crucible of Worlds etc. The big payoff is Splendid Reclamation and World Shaper One cool synergy is God-Eternal Bontu and World Shaper sac all your lands and him and you get to draw a lot of cards and get all your lands back!

Flarhoon13 on Dredgefall Windgrace (Land reanimation)

1 year ago

Lord Windgrace victory yesterday: Torment of Hailfire, x=21 copied with Wild Ricochet, so total x=42.

Turn 4 Stone-Seeder Hierophant, who untapped my lands from turn 5 Boundless Realms to cast World Shaper, making lots of clues via Tireless Tracker.

Turn sixish,God-Eternal Bontu sacrificed my lands, my clues and World Shaper (who immediately resurrected all my lands) and drew a buttload of cards. Stone-Seeder Hierophant untaps allowed me to meant also cast  In Garruk's Wake plus have mana leftover to sac clues and Constant Mists.

Rich used Selvala's Stampede to steal my World Shaper via Sepulchral Primordial after casting my In Garruk's Wake via Diluvian Primordial.

I cast Decimate to get World Shaper back in my graveyard for an amazing Golgari Grave-Troll fueled Twilight's Call. It resurrected God-Eternal Bontu who sacrificed my tapped lands, my clues and World Shaper again. God-Eternal Bontu drew me 25 cards, leaving mana up for Constant Mists to protect my commander alongside Thespian's Stage / Dark Depths combo via Ulvenwald Hydra. I untapped and ... you know the rest.

Blackgate on Innistrad: Corpse Cobblers (Dimir Decayed)

1 year ago

Tainted Adversary works great and replaces the slot Diregraf Horde had perfectly. Both provide a 3/4 body with two decayed tokens as a turn 5 play but Tainted Adversary has death touch and the flexibility to play it on turn 2 if you already have turn a 5 play God-Eternal Bontu in your hand. Thanks zapyourtumor!

KBK7101 on God-Eternal Bontu, Grave Betrayal

1 year ago

Depends. God-Eternal Bontu's trigger is a may ability.

Grave Betrayal only cares about opponents' creatures. If Bontu is an opponents' creature, they have the choice of it staying in the graveyard or putting it third from the top (or command zone if we're talking about commander). If they choose to put it third from the top, it won't return to the battlefield with Grave Betrayal's delayed end step trigger.

Per Scryfall's ruling on Grave Betrayal:

  • If the creature card leaves the graveyard before the delayed triggered ability resolves, it won’t return to the battlefield. This is also true if the card leaves the graveyard and returns to the graveyard before that ability resolves.

If Bontu is yours, then you have the choice of keeping it in the graveyard or putting it third from the top (or command zone if we're talking about commander).

JKLauderdale on God-Eternal Bontu, Grave Betrayal

1 year ago

Grave Betrayal is in play, Wrath of God destroys all creatures... Where does God-Eternal Bontu end up?

Thanks in advance

TheOfficialCreator on Card Analysis #1 - Dreadhorde …

1 year ago

Hello, everyone!

I thought I would try my hand at creating an article series centering around the beauty of different card designs, as each card truly is unique in its own way, and I wanted to make my appreciation of that into a tangible form so that everyone could experience it.

A general outline of how this article series will go is this: a basic introduction (similar to what you’re reading now), cost versus effect, the flavor of the card, how the card interacts with its limited environment, cards that are similar to it and a short little blurb on what makes them different, a custom card inspired by the analyzed card and a short explanation of the process used to create it, the legacy of the card, and finally, a conclusion to round it all out.

That being said, let’s begin!


The card of today’s analysis is Dreadhorde Invasion, a card I chose to kick off the series with not only because War of the Spark is my favorite set, but also because it will give us a good platform to walk through the steps of this article series.

Dreadhorde Invasion is an oft-overlooked card that provides its user with a Zombie Army (a mechanic introduced and incredibly localized to War of the Spark, excluding a few exceptions such as Lazotep Chancellor) at the cost of a single life each turn. Obviously this adds up quickly, and the Army that is produced is rather clunky, as it is easier to remove (a la Fading Hope), non-evasive, and rather small even in its beginning stages. For it gives you a 1/1 creature on turn 3. That’s not a great payoff, especially for more advanced formats.

This is where the second clause comes in. If your Army can make it to six power, then Dreadhorde Invasion rewards you handsomely with an added lifelink, allowing you to gain back all that lost life and quickly breaking symmetry with your life versus your opponents. It’s not incredibly cost-effective (heck, a Forced Adaptation is more cost-effective in general), but it’s very fun to play with and can provide a lot more when juxtaposed with the rest of the game. But we’ll get into that later.


The flavor of Dreadhorde Invasion is perhaps my favorite part of the card. The Eternals are probably one of the most unique MTG villains (I mean, come on, they’re blue metal zombies that can cross between worlds and steal planeswalker sparks), and definitely one of my personal favorites. The idea of Dreadhorde Invasion is that Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is executing his plan to become Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, invading the plane of Ravnica with his army of Eternals empowered by The Elderspell in order to steal the sparks of the planeswalkers, trapped there by The Immortal Sun and invited there by the Interplanar Beacon. The invasion is eventually quelled by a joint effort by Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Gideon Blackblade, Ugin, the Ineffable, God-Eternal Oketra, and God-Eternal Bontu, with the defeat of Bolas wrapped up in the brilliant card Despark. Dreadhorde Invasion more than anything flavor-wise represents the whole of War of the Spark, perhaps better than any other individual card in the set (except maybe Enter the God-Eternals). And that is why I love it so much; it is a testament to my favorite set of all time.


As far as Dreadhorde Invasion’s performance in Limited goes, I must say that it has quite an unitive feel to how it operates in multiple deck strategies, similar to how it unites the flavor of the set. It has the keyword amass on it, which is the new ability introduced in the set, and which synergizes well with proliferate. Zombie Armies themselves receive gracious tribal support in the form of Gleaming Overseer, Eternal Skylord, Widespread Brutality, and the like. Beyond this fairly obvious synergy, however, there are many more options for how Dreadhorde Invasion can function in this set. For example, the creation of a creature every turn lends itself very well to sacrifice strategies revolving around Spark Reaper, Ahn-Crop Invader, and Spark Harvest, or even Liliana, Dreadhorde General and God-Eternal Bontu. In addition, the lifelink that can be attained on later turns goes well with Ajani's Pridemate and fits into a subtheme of life gain that the set has.


Dreadhorde Invasion-style effects are somewhat rare, but there is precedence for their existence. The most obvious example is Bitterblossom, an enchantment well-known for its splashes in Modern and which creates small flying threats every turn at the cost of some life. However, there is also Ophiomancer and Endless Ranks of the Dead, or more recently Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia. The thing that sets Dreadhorde Invasion apart from these other cards is its unique combination of losing life and gaining life alongside its ability to make a token larger versus just creating a new token.


Here is a custom card that I made that was inspired by Dreadhorde Invasion.

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The process I went through to design this card went something like this.

1) Look at Dreadhorde Invasion and think about what the card is wanting you to do. What's the general theme of the card?

2) Build a general shell around the idea of losing life to gain life, pulling in inspiration from cards like Bloodghast.

3) Adding a tribal element to make it feel like a Dreadhorde card.

4) Adding a fitting name. "Vowmage" gives a feel of some kind of sacrifice to fufill an obligation, especially to a being like Bolas.

5) Adding flavor text that is both quippy and fits the situation. In this case, I chose to show who the Vowmage's vow is to.

6) Finding some art from DeviantArt that fit the theme. This art is from user Ryushadow, and is the only Eternal art I could find.


Dreadhorde Invasion, like most of its amass kin, is largely forgotten especially in competitive play where it is not a contending strategy. Zombie Armies are incredibly weak to removal and usually aren’t very cost-effective, so their weakness of being a single lone creature that just gets bigger and can be chump-blocked can’t really be ignored. War of the Spark as a whole is a largely forgotten story arc, and despite its misgivings it’s still a shame. Dreadhorde Invasion does not truly have a legacy, though it was reprinted in the Midnight Hunt commander set as a part of Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver’s commander deck. Hopefully, one day, we will see Amass return in a future set with greater support so that Dreadhorde Invasion may one day be viable.


Alright, everyone! That is the end of my article for today. Please let me know what worked for you and what didn’t so that I can sculpt this new article series to your feedback!

Speaking of user feedback, I would like to have every tenth card be voted upon by the community. If you want to submit an idea for what card we will go over, just let me know in your comment. The comment with the highest number of upvotes will have their card in the tenth article of the series.

Thank you all for the wonderful community we’ve made together! See you soon.

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