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Avarice Totem on Reddit: Roundup, Threads, and Tactics

If you’ve ever built a deck around manipulating the politics of the board, Avarice Totem is the kind of artifact that stirs up both admiration and chaos in equal measure 🧙‍♂️🔥. This colorless 1-mana artifact from Fifth Dawn might look modest at first glance, but its familiar “swap control” downside is precisely the kind of swing that turns a slow lift into a game-changing staircase. The card’s ability—{5}: Exchange control of this artifact and target nonland permanent—is a classic example of Magic’s design around tension and leverage. On Reddit, threads about this Totem tend to pivot on how players navigate the moment when they can swap away a foe’s prized nonland permanent with their own little lump of metal magicaly power. It’s politics, it’s timing, and it’s delightfully reckless in the right hands ⚔️.

When folks discuss Avarice Totem, they often point to multiplayer formats where coalition-building and backstabbing are the name of the game. In Commander, for instance, the artifact can become a fulcrum for late-game drama: you pump 5 mana into relinquishing your Totem and the opponent’s big creature, artifact, or land becomes yours for a moment—then you pivot to leverage the surprise swap for a favorable board state. The key is timing and intent. Do you steal a problematic pen, a game-winning bomb, or a key mana-rock that will let you stay in the race? The best Reddit threads help new players see the subtle art of conversation as a resource in addition to mana and cards 🧙‍♂️🎲.

Souls and steel, the essence of Mirrodin. Memnarch lacks one but has an abundance of the other.

From a design perspective, Avarice Totem sits at an intriguing crossroads. It’s an artifact with a low mana cost that pays for a high-stakes effect—an archetype that has drawn thoughtful discussion on Reddit threads about set-influenced value and power budgets. The Fifth Dawn era was all about the metallic, temperate vibe of Mirrodin, and the Totem’s flavor text—“Souls and steel, the essence of Mirrodin. Memnarch lacks one but has an abundance of the other.”—tightens that theme nicely. The card’s rarity, listed as uncommon, reflects a deliberate balance between opportunity and risk: it’s not an all-you-can-swap engine, but it’s a reliable political tool in the right deck and a fun puzzle for online communities to decode 🧠💎.

Why Redditors love the tactical angle

Several recurring threads highlight how Avarice Totem fits into different shells. In artifact-heavy builds, it acts as a stealth counterpoint to control strategies: you don’t win by brute force alone, you win by making the right permanent become opponent’s problem at the right time. In coin-flip or blink-centric decks, the Totem’s ability can generate dramatic tempo swings—suddenly your opponent no longer commands a crucial threat, and you’re free to pivot to a game-ending plan ⚔️. And because the Totem is colorless, it slots into almost any deck that can generate five mana—letting players explore cross-color synergies without heavy color commitments 🎨.

• Timing and politics: threads discussing when to activate the ability, and which target to pick for maximum disruption without tipping your hand.
• Board state management: articles and comments debating the risk of trading away your own resources versus the potential payoff of seizing a rival’s bomb.
• Deck-building synergies: explorations of how Avarice Totem plays with other artifacts, equipment, or blink effects to create resilient, tempo-forward archetypes.
• Budget and value: discussions about foil vs nonfoil copies, given the card’s evergreen reprint potential and price curve over time 🧭.
• Flavor and art: appreciation posts that celebrate Ben Thompson’s illustration and Fifth Dawn’s metallic aesthetic, connecting flavor to gameplay in a satisfying loop 🎨.

As with many classic politics-heavy cards, the fun often comes down to the stories you collect around your matches. A Reddit thread might narrate the moment you forced an enemy planeswalker to swap with a fragile token, only for a second player to swoop in and reverse the swap, turning the room into a chorus of groans and laughter. That shared “you won’t believe what happened next” vibe is what keeps fans coming back to discuss Avarice Totem, turning a simple artifact into a social artifact of its own 🧙‍♂️💬.

Art, lore, and the tactile joy of collecting

The artwork by Ben Thompson captures the stark, gleaming essence of a metallic totem—the kind of piece that feels right at home on a table of artifacts and a chorus of reflavored lore. The rarity and printing history matter to collectors as well. A Varice Totem’s foil versions fetch higher prices than its common brethren, a signal of its enduring appeal to players who love both the game’s mechanical depth and its collectible thrill. For new players peering into Fifth Dawn’s space-age Mirrodin, this card becomes a touchstone for what magic design can feel like when a single mana investment unlocks a cascade of strategic possibilities 🔥💎.

For those curious about the broader ecosystem, the card sits in Modern and Legacy lines while remaining a legal, if unusual, pick in Commander circles. It’s a reminder that a small, colorless artifact can still shape the battlefield in ways that feel big and thematic—an enchantment of iron, intellect, and opportunistic play ⚔️.

Practical takeaways for your next match

• Look for moments when you can swap away a heavy threat or a problematic permanent that your opponents rely on.
• Be mindful of tempo: paying five mana for a single swap won’t always be worth it unless you leverage the board state advantage.
• In multi-player games, read the room. The Totem shines when others can’t immediately capitalize on the disruption you create, letting you rally back with a stronger late game.
• Budget-conscious players can use the nonfoil version to keep a deck’s power level intact without breaking the bank; foil variants add collectible shine for your display shelf 🧩.

Whether you’re a veteran commander player or a casual collector who loves metallic flavor and tricky politics, Avarice Totem invites lively discussion and bold plays. The Fifth Dawn era gave us a lot to chew on, and this little artifact remains a versatile, if sometimes mischievous, piece of Mirrodin’s metallic heartbeat 🎲.

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