Role tokens are new MTG enchantment Aura tokens, introduced with Wilds of Eldraine. In this article, we’ll talk about everything you need to know about them, including:
- What is an MTG Role token?
- How do different Role tokens work?
- How many Role tokens are there?
- And more!
There’s quite a lot to talk about, so let’s get right to it.
How Do Role Tokens Work?
All Role tokens are Aura tokens with enchant creature. They can be created by various cards and effects. There are seven different predefined Role tokens. You can find all of them, and their effects in the following table:
| Role | Enchanted Creature... |
|---|---|
| Cursed | has base power and toughness 1/1. |
| Monster | gets +1/+1 and has trample. |
| Royal | gets +1/+1 and has ward 1. |
| Sorcerer | gets +1/+1 and has "Whenever this creature attacks, scry 1." |
| Wicked | gets +1/+1 and "When this Aura is put into graveyard, each opponent loses 1 life." |
| Young Hero | has "Whenever enchanted creature attacks, if its toughness is 3 or less, put a +1/+1 counter on it." |
| Virtuous* | gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control. |
*The Virtuous Role token only appears in Wilds of Eldraine Commander decks, and isn’t in the main set.
If a creature gets more than one Role token attached to it by the same player, only the newest Role remains on it. Any other Roles go to the graveyard. (Where they cease to exist, since they’re tokens.)
To recap, Roles are auras that give your creatures some sort of benefit. The only exception is the Cursed Role, which you want to put on an opponent’s creature. Creatures can’t have more than one Role from the same player on them.
Examples
Here are some examples to make things clearer. First up, Monstrous Rage:
Let’s say you attack with Grizzly Bears. Your opponent block with their 2/2, expecting a trade. However, you use Monstrous Rage on your creature. It gets +2/+0 and a Monster Role token attached to it, which gives it +1/+1 and trample.
Your Grizzly Bears is now a 5/3 with trample. It wins combat, and deals 3 damage to the opponent. On top of that, it keeps the Monster Role, so it’s a 3/3 trampler on next turns.
Second Example, Second Role
What happens if you play Charmed Clothier on one of your later turns, and choose your Grizzly Bears with Monster Role as the target for the Royal Role?
Well, since both Role tokens are controlled by the same player – you – only the newest Role remains. The Monster Role goes to the graveyard, and ceases to exist. The Royal Role remain, so your Bear is now a 3/3 with ward 1.
MTG Role Tokens – FAQ
In this section, you’ll find answers to the frequently asked questions about Role tokens. Some of them are recaps of the things we’ve already talked about. Of course, this is a big topic, so if there’s something you want to know, but you didn’t find the answer, let us know in the comments and we’ll get back to you.
Role token is a predefined aura token with enchant creature.
There are seven different Role tokens: Cursed, Monster, Royal, Sorcerer, Wicked, Young Hero, and Virtuous.
It’s an Aura that gives the enchanted creature base power and toughness 1/1.
It’s an Aura that gives the enchanted creature +1/+1 and trample
It’s an Aura that gives the enchanted creature +1/+1 and ward 1.
It’s an Aura that gives the enchanted creature +1/+1 and whenever the enchanted creature attacks, scry 1.
It’s an Aura that gives the enchanted creature +1/+1. When Wicked Role is put into a graveyard, each opponent loses 1 life.
It’s an Aura that gives the enchanted creature a +1/+1 counter whenever it attacks, if its toughness is 3 or less.
It’s an Aura that gives the enchanted creature +1/+1 for each enchantment you control.
Yes, but only if they’re all controlled by different players.
Yes, they are.
This depends on who controls the Role token. If different players control these two Roles, they remain on the creature. If both are controlled by the same player, the newest one remains, while the other goes to the graveyard.
Flavor
Eldraine is a world of fairy-tales. In those, you can encounter a familiar cast of characters: kings, princesses, young heroes, monsters, evil antagonists, and so on. These roles are represented by, well… Role tokens.
Members of the royal family are guarded, which is represented by ward 1. Young heroes start small, but then grow into their powers. (Thus they get +1/+1 counters until they grow into big creatures.) For most of the Role tokens, you can find a reasonably flavorful explanation for the mechanics.
MTG Role Tokens – Interactions
Here we’ll highlight some interesting interactions that you can use with Role tokens, as well as some interesting tidbits.
Enchantment Synergies
Role tokens are enchantments, which opens up a ton of possibilities. For example, let’s say you’re playing a deck that rewards you for enchantments coming into play.
Your Setessan Champions and similar cards will trigger whenever a role comes into play, so that’s something to keep in mind.
Role Tokens in Commander
Do you want to play with Role tokens in Commander? That’s possible, thanks to the Virtue and Valor, one of the two Wilds of Eldraine Commander decks. It brings you two commander that you can use with this theme.
The first one is Ellivere of the Wilds Court, which is one of the rare ways of getting a Virtuous Role token. Besides, it can provide card advantage, if you’re playing with enchanted creatures. Given that Role tokens help with that, it shouldn’t be too hard to draw some cards.
The second commander in the Virtue and Valor deck is Gylwain, Casting Director. Whenever it, or another creature comes into play, it gets one of these three Role tokens: Royal, Sorcerer, and Monster. This ability can play well with any kind of constellation-like effect, as we talked about before. (For example, Archon of Sun’s Grace.)
So, if you want to take the new tokens for a spin a Commander, order Virtue and Valor deck. Besides the two commanders, it’ll likely contain other cards that will be good in this strategy.
Cursed / Wicked Art Swap
You might’ve noticed something strange with the token represents either Cursed or Wicked Role. Here, take another look:
Typically, curses turn people into frogs, and witches are regarded as wicked. There was a mistake, and this token went to print with the incorrect artwork. Thankfully, the text is correct, so you can still use those, although it is a bit of a flavor-fail.
Cursed Role Token
Speaking of the Cursed Role token, that one is particularly interesting. It’s the only one that you don’t want to put on your own creatures in most scenarios. Instead, you’ll want to use it on your opponents’ creatures, making them into small 1/1.
That’s why you can use Asinine Antics to reduce the opponent’s creatures to mere 1/1s. You are also getting a ton of enchantments in play, which can be quite beneficial for some strategies.
Conclusion
That’s all about the Role tokens. Hopefully, you now know how they work, and you’ll be able to use that knowledge to your advantage.
If you want to know more about the newest set, which introduced these tokens, you can find Wilds of Eldraine spoilers here. Additionally, this set is also bringing us reprints of iconic enchantments from all over Magic’s past. They can be found in our Enchanting Tales Guide.
Until next time, have fun and may you always play your favorite role – both in Magic, and in real life.
At the beginning of the text, you mention that you wouldnt want to place a “Wicked Role” on your own creatures. I think you meant “Cursed Role”. Because Wicked on your own creatures works best. It drains life from opponents, and not from you. Correct?
I might be reading this wrong… am I?
You are right! Guess that art swap confused me to haha. Thanks for letting us know, it’s now fixed.
With the way its wiped, it makes me curious, does the creature become a target of the ‘enchantment’ before the token enters? Or isit just popping into existence like when you put a creature onto the field with quicksilver amulet?
That’s a great question, although the Quicksilver Amulet isn’t the most accurate analogy.
So, the Role token is created already attached to a creature. The Role token itself doesn’t target a creature. Instead most spells that create Role tokens, target creatures. So, for example Monstrous Rage targets a creature, and a Monster Role token is created already attached to that creature.
On the other hand, Asinine Antics, doesn’t target creatures. Therefore, even if an opponent’s creature has hexproof, it’ll still get a Cursed Role attached to it.
Amazing. How do roles behave if you have Parralel Lives or Doubling Season on the battlefield? If you get two roles instead of one, do you choose new targets for each extra one? Or do all the extra role tokens target the same creature and thus “fall off”?
Great question, will probably add a section about this interaction. If the effect that creates a Role token specifies a target (and most of them do), the additional copies all go to the same target. You decide which one you get to keep, and all the other ones fall off. However, this can still be useful with Wicked Role, as your opponent will lose a life for each Wicked Role that goes to the graveyard.
Attach a role is considered targets a creatiure? If I have Season of Growth in play (draw a card if a creature is targetted) and I play Monstrous Rage (plus 2 to target creature and attach a role to hit), Do I trigger Season of Growth two times?
No, attaching a Role doesn’t not target a creature. Only the spells that places a Role on a creature does that. In your scenario, you’d only trigger Season of Growth once.
A card like Witch’s Mark instead target a creature, right? (And trigger SoG)
Witch’s Mark targets a creature. Wicked Role doesn’t. You get one Season of Growth trigger.