Trove of Temptation is an uncommon Enchantment from Magic the Gathering’s Ixalan set that might be obscure today. Interestingly enough, it was reprinted in Jumpstart 2022, to very little fanfare. But when the Ixalan set was first spoiled to the public, this Trove immediately received attention from deck builders. It makes sense to me why: Trove of Temptation is one of my favorite kinds of cards: those that sit in play and give you incremental value. It’s also very flavorful, so it’s a win-win for me. The first effect is very straightforward.
Each opponent must attack you or a planeswalker you control with at least one creature each combat if able.
The whole Temptation aspect of this card’s design is admittedly rather cute, but also effective in practice. This effect can lead to some very unfavorable combat steps for your opponents, especially in multiplayer situations. Given a fairly developed board-state and substantial creatures in your corner of the battlefield, you’re forcing opponents to potentially choose which of their creatures will walk the plank each combat. This is a pretty useful to slowly grind out value through forced attrition.
This effect is also quite helpful in O-Kagachi decks because the Legendary Spirit Creature has a relevant ability:
“Whenever O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami deals combat damage to a player, if that player attacked you during his or her last turn, exile target non-land permanent that player controls.”
Hurray for synergy! But, wait, there’s more to this Enchantment.
At the beginning of your end step, create a colorless Treasure artifact token with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.”
This is the Trove aspect of the card. After four turns, the Trove of Temptation essentially pays for itself through Treasure tokens. Not only is this a nice way to grind out Treasure tokens to satisfy the alternate win condition of Revel in Riches, it also provides some mana fixing and additional resources at a fair investment.
Trove of Temptation is such a grindy card. It seems best suited for the multiplayer Commander world or the kitchen table. Unsurprisingly, the main long-term home for Trove of Temptation has been in Commander. It’s pretty much an auto-include in Admiral Beckett Brass Pirate Tribal decks, due to its Treasure token synergy. It’s also popped up in some O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami EDH lists, too, as a sweet piece of tech for reasons already mentioned.
But, people tried to build Standard decks with this Enchantment, too. Intrepid deck brewers would try stuffing two or more copies into brews around Treasure token shenanigans. While the first ability is a static ability, the Treasure token creation is one that can trigger multiple times, benefitting from additional copies of the Enchantment in play.
The idea that deck brewers settled on with Trove of Temptation is to include it in decks playing lots of grindy value-generating stuff like Aid From the Cowl and other Enchantments with Revolt, it’s a nice way to generate some extra mana to be able to stay competitive on the mana curve. In other words, the Treasures keep you in the game. It all has brilliant Pirate flavor.
Trove of Temptation is not much sought after today, but it’s still it’s a nice little under-the-radar uncommon that you shouldn’t be giving away for free. It’s just another little nugget of value from the often maligned Ixalan set that deserves to not be overlooked.
