Arms Depot MTG Card

Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Artifact — Contraption
Released	2017-12-08
Set symbol
Set name	Unstable
Set code	UST
Number	169
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Borderless
Illustred by	Chuck Lukacs
Un-set :-)	This card is part of an Un-set

Key Takeaways

Arms Depot secures card advantage, ensuring a full hand and pivotal resources at crucial game moments.
Enhances board presence and resource acceleration, key for mid-game dominance and artifact-centric plays.
Instant speed grants strategic flexibility, keeping opponents guessing and maximizing tactical responses.

Text of card

Whenever you crank Arms Depot, put two +1/+1 counters on target creature.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Arms Depot offers valuable card selection, permitting a quick replenishment of your hand and ensuring you get the tools you need when you need them. This can easily tip the scales in a close game where every option counts.

Resource Acceleration: By contributing to artifact synergies, Arms Depot can simultaneously enhance your board presence and increase your resources, fueling more potent plays and potentially leading to a decisive mid-game advantage.

Instant Speed: The instant speed nature of Arms Depot allows for strategic flexibility, providing the option to respond to opponents’ actions on their turn or to end your own turn with a statement. This versatility is key in maintaining the element of surprise and maximizing your tactical options.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Arms Depot requires discarding a card to activate its ability which can deplete your hand and hinder your long-term game strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a precise mana combination to cast, which can be restrictive and potentially problematic in multicolored decks that may not always have the right mana available.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost that is on the higher side for its category, Arms Depot may not be the most mana-efficient selection for your deck, especially when alternatives might offer similar benefits for less.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Arms Depot slides easily into several deck archetypes, given its utility in enhancing creature capabilities. It’s particularly useful in decks that are hungry for +1/+1 counters.

Combo Potential: With its ability to accrue and distribute counters, Arms Depot works well with strategies that exploit the proliferation of counters, or need a reliable source of them to activate certain abilities.

Meta-Relevance: As the MTG landscape often includes creatures that thrive off of +1/+1 counters, Arms Depot’s capacity to consistently bulk up your forces makes it a relevant choice for keeping pace with competitive play.

How to Beat Arms Depot

Arms Depot is quickly climbing the ranks as a notable card for enhancing creature capabilities on the battlefield in Magic: The Gathering. Players recognize the potential for this card to turn the tide of a match by incrementally bolstering your creatures’ power. Unlike equipment that targets a single creature, Arms Depot accumulates charge counters and can be tapped to distribute +1/+1 counters, magnifying the threat level of your entire army over time.

Countering Arms Depot can be straightforward. Removing it before it accumulates an impactful number of counters is key. The utility of artifact destruction spells like Naturalize or Shatter should not be underestimated in such situations. Enchantment-based removal such as Disenchant is also effective. Timing is critical as allowing your opponent to move towards a critical mass of counters can prove to be your downfall. Moreover, counterplay through versatile spells like Abrade, which offers both creature and artifact destruction choices, provides flexibility while dealing with Arms Depot.

Ultimately, prioritizing Arms Depot as a removal target can stymie your opponent’s board development strategy, making it an essential part of your gameplay when facing decks that include this powerful support card.

Cards like Arms Depot

Arms Depot is an intriguing magic artifact in Magic: The Gathering, echoing elements from well-known predecessors in the card advantage niche. With parallels to the infamous Ichor Wellspring, which provides card draw upon entering and leaving the battlefield, Arms Depot expands on that concept by offering modular counters. These counters not only replace themselves with new cards when moved but also hold potential for strategic board interactions.

Another kin in terms of utility is Mishra’s Bauble, a zero-cost artifact known for its incidental card draw after a one-turn delay. While not providing immediate card advantage like Arms Depot, it is valued for its cost-effective deck manipulation capabilities. Comparable in function is Conjurer’s Bauble, which also manipulates the deck, albeit through a different means, by allowing players to retrieve a card from their graveyard at the expense of one card’s delay in draw.

Through the lens of flexibility and strategic depth, Arms Depot shines in MTG as it ushers in a dynamic playstyle, where the play value can increase over time, unlike its peers, which offer more immediate but static rewards. Its unique blend of modular counter mechanics with card draw potential makes Arms Depot a distinct and tactical card choice for players.

Cards similar to Arms Depot by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Arms Depot MTG card by a specific set like Unstable, 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 Arms Depot and other MTG cards:

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Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Arms Depot card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2018-01-19	Any Contraption that’s on the battlefield and wasn’t assembled immediately heads to the scrapyard. However, if it’s a not an actual Contraption card (like Copy Artifact isn’t), it goes to your graveyard as normal. Non-Contraption cards can’t be in the scrapyard.
2018-01-19	At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control any Contraptions, move the CRANK! counter to the next sprocket. You may then crank any number of Contraptions on that sprocket, causing their abilities to trigger. Cranking a Contraption is always optional.
2018-01-19	Contraptions are artifacts. Anything that interacts with artifacts will interact with Contraptions.
2018-01-19	Contraptions aren’t put into your main deck. They go into a separate deck called the Contraption deck.
2018-01-19	If a Contraption would leave the battlefield and go to any zone other than exile, it instead goes to the scrapyard, the Contraption deck’s version of the graveyard. Things that affect the graveyard do not affect the scrapyard. You can exile Contraptions just fine.
2018-01-19	If you crank multiple Contraptions, their abilities can be put onto the stack in any order. The ability put onto the stack will resolve first.
2018-01-19	If you or a permanent you control are instructed to assemble a Contraption, reveal the top card of your Contraption deck. Put it onto the battlefield on one of the three sprockets.
2018-01-19	If you or a permanent you control assembles a Contraption and your Contraption deck is empty, nothing happens. You don’t lose the game.
2018-01-19	In Constructed formats, a Contraption deck must have at least fifteen different Contraption cards and no more than one of each.
2018-01-19	In Limited formats, a Contraption deck may include any number of Contraption cards in your card pool. You don’t have to include every Contraption card you draft or open in sealed deck. In those formats, your Contraption deck may include duplicates.
2018-01-19	In silver-bordered games using Contraptions, you have three sprockets, illustrated on the back of Contraption cards. At the start of the game, put a CRANK! counter on sprocket 3.
2018-01-19	While Contraptions you control are on the battlefield, the Contraption deck is not, even if you are using it to signify the three sprockets.