Junk Golem MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Rare
Type	Artifact Creature — Golem
Released	2001-10-01
Set symbol
Set name	Odyssey
Set code	ODY
Power	0
Toughness	0
Number	300
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Brian Snõddy

Key Takeaways

Junk Golem’s death trigger can maintain hand resources, offering sustained battlefield presence.
Converting artifacts into power, the golem accelerates your MTG strategy effectively.
Demands careful mana allocation, potentially clashing with multicolor deck strategies.

Text of card

Junk Golem comes into play with three +1/+1 counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Junk Golem unless you remove a +1/+1 counter from it. o1, Discard a card from your hand: Put a +1/+1 counter on Junk Golem.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Junk Golem offers the benefit of potentially drawing new cards upon its death. This trigger can replace the golem itself in your hand, ensuring that your resources are not depleted and you maintain pressure on the battlefield.

Resource Acceleration: By converting other artifacts you control into raw power, Junk Golem can potentially expedite your game plan. By sacrificing less useful artifacts, it essentially repurposes them into a more immediate threat, hence streamlining your path to victory.

Instant Speed: While not an instant itself, Junk Golem’s synergy with instant speed spells contributes to its versatility. It enables you to respond swiftly to your opponent’s actions, making it easier to protect the golem or strategically deciding when to trigger its card advantage capability.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: With Junk Golem’s ability potentially necessitating the discard of valuable cards, players may find themselves at a resource disadvantage, especially in games where hand size is pivotal.

Specific Mana Cost: This artifact creature demands a precise mana investment to cast, which may not seamlessly fit into multicolored decks that are tight on mana accessibility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Considering its cost-to-effect ratio, the mana required to deploy Junk Golem could be considered steep, making it less favorable compared to other options within the same mana range.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Junk Golem has the ability to adapt to various deck types, offering utility in both aggressive and control strategies. Its self-recycling ability makes it a consistent presence on the battlefield.

Combo Potential: As an artifact creature, Junk Golem works well with synergistic cards that capitalize on artifact mechanics, enabling inventive combinations and interactions within your deck.

Meta-Relevance: Given its cost-effective stats and resilience, Junk Golem can be a strategic choice in environments where attrition and resource management play significant roles.

How to beat

Junk Golem presents a unique challenge on the battlefield of Magic: The Gathering. As an artifact creature, it can unexpectedly come back from the graveyard, making it a persistent nuisance. Key to overcoming this golem is to manage the graveyard. Cards like Relic of Progenitus or Bojuka Bog can provide an edge by exiling the Junk Golem before it has the chance to return. Dealing with Junk Golem may also require direct exile effects, such as with Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares, cutting off the traditional shuffling back into the library.

Another strategy lies in transforming its strength into a weakness. Since Junk Golem’s power is contingent on the graveyard’s contents, graveyard hate cards can make it a less formidable foe. Using Shamble Back or Nihil Spellbomb to keep the graveyard clear ensures that the Junk Golem’s return is far less of an immediate threat. Additionally, strategies that restrict casting from the graveyard, like Grafdigger’s Cage, can stifle Junk Golem’s reanimation directly from the graveyard, putting a hard stop to its resilience.

In essence, mastering graveyard control is paramount when facing off against Junk Golem. A well-timed intervention can neutralize the threat, keeping the golem from coming back to haunt you.

Cards like Junk Golem

Junk Golem is an intriguing artifact creature that MTG players may look at when wanting to incorporate self-recurring creatures into their decks. When evaluating Junk Golem against similar MTG cards, Myr Retriever immediately comes to mind. Both cards have the ability to return from the graveyard to the hand, ensuring a continued board presence. Nonetheless, Junk Golem requires three mana of any color, while Myr Retriever asks for two colorless mana, making the latter a bit more compatible with multicolored mana bases.

Workshop Assistant is yet another artifact creature that mirrors the return-to-hand ability found in Junk Golem. Although Workshop Assistant also has the overhead cost of three mana like Junk Golem, it lacks the solid base power and toughness that Junk Golem presents to players. Therefore, Junk Golem has the upper hand when it comes to sheer battlefield strength.

Diving deeper into MTG strategies, Salvage Titan presents a different angle, offering an alternative way to utilize graveyard resources. It can be cast for zero mana by sacrificing three artifacts, a feature perfect for decks heavy in cheap artifacts, unlike the single recursive capability of Junk Golem. In conclusion, each of these artifact creatures offers unique advantages for different types of gameplay, but Junk Golem holds its own with robust stats and a clear path for card recovery.

Cards similar to Junk Golem by color, type and mana cost

Krark-Clan Ironworks - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Junk Golem MTG card by a specific set like Odyssey, 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 Junk Golem and other MTG cards: