How does Ashnod's Altar + Sword of the Meek + Thopter Foundry work?
Asked by nobu_the_bard 11 years ago
So, someone played this combo against me in EDH yesterday: Ashnod's Altar + Sword of the Meek + Thopter Foundry
According to him, it generates an arbitrary number of tokens and lifegain, but he couldn't explain how it works to me very well. Could someone step me through how it works? I'd really appreciate it!
RedKunoichi says... #2
I believe they would need a creature to start with. They can then sac that creature to activate Ashnod's Altar . Then they have two open mana. Your opponent can use one of that mana to pay for Thopter Foundry , as well as sacrificing Sword of the Meek . When the thopter enters the battlefield you can then attach Sword of the Meek to it from its ability because the thopter is a 1/1. You now have a thopter and Sword of the Meek . You can sac the thopter to Ashnod's Altar for more mana (continuously generating mana every time you sac a thopter) and then sac Sword of the Meek to Thopter Foundry also using the mana generated from Ashnod's Altar .
You really only need to sac a thopter every other time because Ashnod's Altar makes 2 mana.
February 10, 2014 9:25 a.m.
nobu_the_bard says... #3
Alright thanks for explaining Ashnod's Altar + Sword of the Meek + Thopter Foundry to me! I think the other player's explanation is part of what confused me (he seemed so surprised I didn't just take his word for it he couldn't get his words out right). I had a feeling it'd generate infinite mana also but he wasn't sure, and was jumbled up by my questions.
(It probably doesn't help I'm nearly deaf, either, poor guy, heheh)
February 10, 2014 9:28 a.m.
GinjaNinja, you don't need to sac a creature to start, just pay 1 from your other mana sources.
February 10, 2014 9:35 a.m.
nobu_the_bard when someone says that something produces unbounded number of something you can always ask them to take it through a couple of iterations of their loop before naming a number. Naming a number is an acceptable shortcut for a repeating terminable loop (terminable is an important part here, loops that can't be terminated lead to a draw) but you must demonstrate that your board state constitutes as such.
February 11, 2014 1:57 a.m.
guitaraffe says... #6
cough cough Blood Artist cough cough Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Sorry. Had to clear my throat.. what were we doing?
gufymike says... Accepted answer #1
Thopter Foundry produces a 1/1 thopter and 1 life for the cost of 1 colorless mana sacrificing a non-token artifact.
when a 1/1 creature enters play, return Sword of the Meek back to the batlefield from the graveyard.
when you scarfice a creature, you get 2 colorless mana from Ashnod's Altar .
Now, putting this together, you create a thopter from the foundry by paying 1 and sacing the sword of the meek. The sac is part of the cost, so the sword goes to the graveyard before the thopter assembly ability resolves. When it resolves, you get a 1/1 triggering sword of the meek, allowing it to return to the battlefield, you sac the thopter to the altar, to get 2 colorless, using one to pay for the cost to start the combo again. This will net you 1 extra thopter per sac to ashnod's alt and a bunch of life, it is essentially infinite;. But an upper number must be named by the player and the game moved on. You can also get infinite colorless mana.
February 10, 2014 9:21 a.m.