New MTG enchantment is perfect for trigger-happy players
WotCMTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s Enchantments include several characters joining the gang, and Annie Joins Up boosts triggered abilities.
Annie Joins Up completes MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s cycle of ‘Joins Up’ Enchantments, and it’s a good contender for the best of the bunch. Where other Enchantments in this cycle focus on combat abilities like Vraska Joins Up’s Deathtouch, Annie Joins Up casts a wider net and focuses on doubling up on triggered abilities.
While this card is in play, whenever a triggered ability of one of its controller’s Legendary Creatures triggers, it triggers an additional time. Focusing on Legendary Creatures can allow players to build some tremendously powerful decks, such as Jodah, the Unifier in Commander, and Annie Joins Up will be right at home in decks like these.
There is often confusion among new MTG players getting used to the game about the difference between an activated ability and a triggered one. Where activated abilities require action such as tapping or paying an additional mana cost on the part of the player, triggered abilities kick in automatically once their requirements are met.
When looking out for triggered abilities, the words when,” “whenever,” or “at”, will be involved, usually found at the start of the ability.
MTG players on Reddit were happy to see a trigger doubler that works for specific mana colors and isn’t a generic auto-include like The Lost Caverns of Ixalan’s Roaming Throne. As mentioned by commenter Sixty3Zero:
“Thank goodness this isn’t able to go into just any Commander deck like the Throne.”
While its passive ability doubling is undoubtedly a great boon for many MTG strategies, don’t overlook Annie Join’s Up’s removal potential either. When this Enchantment enters the battlefield it deals 5 damage to an opponent’s Creature or Planeswalker of the user’s choice.
Ability doublers like this often take a little while to get going, serving as a way to speed up a deck’s engine rather than having an immediate impact. A downside of this is that other players may target and remove this type of card before it’s had a chance to pay off at all.
By including an immediate effect on top of the triggered ability boost, Annie Joins Up completely cuts away a major frustration of this card type, and will likely be beloved by MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction players as a result.