Magic: The Gathering's Ichormoon Gauntlet gives unprecedented power to Planeswalkers 

Do you want to make your planeswalkers stronger than ever?
Ichormoon Gauntlet gives two more powers to all of your planeswalkers in Magic: The Gathering (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

As Magic: The Gathering’s Phyrexia: All Will Be One spoiler continue, some incredible cards have been revealed. Few are more interesting than the Mono-Blue artifact called Ichormoon Gauntlet. It sounds like a piece of equipment, but it’s anything but. This card will likely be used in any deck that needs counters, especially planeswalker decks.

This could be the card planeswalker (superfriends) decks need to make them unstoppable. Alongside Tekuthal Inquiry Dominus, it will be an exciting time for these planeswalker-heavy control decks in Magic: The Gathering.


Is Ichormoon Gauntlet going to give planeswalker decks too much power in Magic: The Gathering?

Ichormoon Gauntlet could be a must-use for various decks across Magic: The Gathering’s formats. Even with artifact removal being available, this card will be an immediate threat. With a low mana value and incredibly high value for your decks, it can activate ultimate abilities easily or even constantly take extra turns for minimal effort.

Ichormoon Gauntlet in Magic: The Gathering (Image via Wizards of the Coast)
Ichormoon Gauntlet in Magic: The Gathering (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

Ichormoon Gauntlet

  • Mana Value: 2U
  • Type: Artifact
  • Rarity: Mythic Rare
  • Passive Ability: Planeswalkers you control have +0: Proliferate, and -12: Take an extra turn after this.
  • Second Ability: Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, choose a counter on target permanent. Put an additional counter of that kind on that permanent.

Besides giving all of your planeswalkers the ability to Proliferate, it has another, even better power. Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, you can pick a counter on a permanent and add one of those counters on that same permanent.

You can run this in decks that utilize Oil counters, +1/+1 counters, or loyalty counters. However, I don’t see the -12 extra turn trigger all the time in Magic: The Gathering. This is because players will likely leverage any artifact removal they can put forth to stop it from happening.

However, doing this means that planeswalker cannot use up-tick abilities in exchange for a free proliferate in Magic: The Gathering unless you're running Urza Planeswalker. He can use loyalty abilities twice so that you can use the +0: Proliferate and another ability or he can proliferate twice a turn.

You can run this Magic: The Gathering card in spell-heavy decks to increase counters, but I see it working the best in control-based Superfriends decks. The ability to trigger your planeswalker ultimates faster via proliferate is nothing to sneeze at.

If you combine these with Tekuthal and Inquiry Dominus, you could suddenly start using the -12 power to take extra turns easier than one might think. Tekuthal can make you increase twice, each time you would do it usually.

Combine this with Urza, and you can increase 4 times in one turn, which adds 4 loyalty counters to each of your planeswalkers. There are so many ways to use this card to end games.

I also foresee this being used in Infect decks by playing low-cost planeswalkers to keep proliferating those Poison counters. Ichormoon Gauntlet is a flexible, powerful card you can use in various situations.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One arrives on February 10, but pre-release events will kick off on February 3, 2023.

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