Fresh Volunteers MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Human Rebel
Released	1999-10-04
Set symbol
Set name	Mercadian Masques
Set code	MMQ
Power	2
Toughness	2
Number	20
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Jeff Miracola

Key Takeaways

Fresh Volunteers can quickly build a board presence through its unique token-producing ability.
Demands careful planning, as leveraging its full potential requires discarding a card.
Ideal for decks that capitalize on the Rebels and providing a numeric edge.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: With the ability to produce extra creature tokens, Fresh Volunteers offers a solid mechanism for creating card advantage. Deploying multiple units from a single card can overwhelm adversaries and provide you with board presence.

Resource Acceleration: Fresh Volunteers can significantly boost your resource acceleration efforts. By summoning additional creatures, you effectively gain more assets to utilize in future turns, whether it’s for attacking, blocking, or as currency for other card abilities.

Instant Speed: The capability to play Fresh Volunteers at instant speed enhances strategic flexibility. This allows you to adapt swiftly to the dynamic state of the game, surprising your opponent with new blockers or securing critical interactions during their turn.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Fresh Volunteers comes with the stipulation that you must discard a card to fully utilize its ability. While this can be beneficial in some strategies that leverage graveyard mechanics, it can put you at a resource disadvantage if your hand size is already depleted or if the discarded card is of high value.

Specific Mana Cost: Deck building with Fresh Volunteers requires a commitment to white mana. This specific mana requirement means the card is not as flexible in multicolored decks that might struggle to consistently produce the necessary white mana, thus potentially restricting deck diversity.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The mana cost for summoning Fresh Volunteers may be viewed as steep compared to other creatures in the same mana range. Players could find that there are alternative creatures or spells that offer a similar or better effect or value for the same, or lower, mana investment.

Reasons to Include Fresh Volunteers in Your Collection

Versatility: Fresh Volunteers proves to be a highly adaptable card, ideal for slotting into various deck archetypes. Its flexibility shines in soldier or human tribal decks, as well as in strategies that emphasize creature-based synergies.

Combo Potential: The card works seamlessly with strategies that capitalize on the ‘Reinforcements’ mechanic. By providing additional copies of itself, it can magnify the effects of cards that trigger off creatures entering the battlefield or dying.

Meta-Relevance: In a gameplay environment that rewards quick deployment of creatures and early board presence, Fresh Volunteers can provide the necessary tempo. Its relevance is particularly pronounced in metas where maintaining board state with multiple threats is crucial.

How to beat Fresh Volunteers

Fresh Volunteers is a unique card that taps into the strength of creature-based strategies in the Magic: The Gathering gameplay. With its alliance ability, it allows players to rapidly expand their board presence by providing the opportunity to fetch another copy if an opponent controls more creatures. This makes it an essential piece in swarm strategies, thriving especially in decks that aim to outnumber opponents with vast quantities of creatures.

To effectively counter Fresh Volunteers, controlling the creature count becomes paramount. Board wipes such as Wrath of God or Doomskar are potent tools, as they can reset the board, negating the numerical advantage that Fresh Volunteers aims to exploit. Spot removal also plays a crucial role; by selectively removing key creatures, you can prevent the domino effect of the alliance ability. Prioritizing the removal of the original Fresh Volunteers is often a smart tactic to stop the chain from progressing.

Employing disruption to the opponent’s hand with cards like Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek can preempt the casting of Fresh Volunteers, adding a layer of proactive strategy. Lastly, manipulating the opponent’s creature count through pacifism effects or temporary exile spells like Path to Exile can skew the balance in your favor, undermining the card’s intrinsic value and facilitating a win.

Cards like Fresh Volunteers

Fresh Volunteers enters the arena of creature cards with a unique spin amidst Magic: The Gathering’s expansive library. In its comparison, we can look at cards like Dwarven Recruiter and Goblin Matron, both of which also revolve around the practice of fetching specific creature types from your library. Fresh Volunteers stands out, though, with its restriction to Rebels, potentially constricting deck-building choices but greatly rewarding within a focused Rebel strategy.

Furthermore, Fresh Volunteers shares synergy traits with cards such as Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, which can also bring low-powered creatures into play. However, Fresh Volunteers requires no mana investment, coming into play automatically if the conditions are met. This could lead to a quicker deployment of your strategy unlike Alesha, which requires an attack phase trigger. Another card worth mentioning is Norwood Priestess, with the ability to put creature cards into play but at the cost of tapping, compared to the automatic nature of Fresh Volunteers’ ability.

In evaluating these cards side by side, Fresh Volunteers presents itself as a clever tool for players aiming to run a Rebel-centric deck in Magic: The Gathering. It may not have the flexibility of some similar cards, but its no-cost ability could sway its favor for strategic deckbuilders.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Fresh Volunteers by color, type and mana cost

Voice of the Blessed - MTG Card versions

Silverflame Squire // On Alert - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Fresh Volunteers MTG card by a specific set like Mercadian Masques, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Fresh Volunteers and other MTG cards: