Grim Monolith (Original Art)

Grim Monolith is one of the most infamous and powerful mana rocks ever printed in Magic, sitting among the legendary artifacts of the Urza’s Legacy era (1999). It’s fast, broken, and central to some of the most explosive combos ever seen in the game. It was designed as a “fixed” version of Mana Vault – another artifact that generates more mana than its cost but doesn’t untap normally. Grim Monolith is played so much, because of the absurd mana acceleration it provides and its combo potential. In combination with cards like Power Artifact, Voltaic Key, and Rings of Brighthearth, it can generate infinite mana (e.g. Enchant Grim Monolith with Power Artifact to reduce its untap cost to (2), tap for (C)(C)(C), pay (2) to untap, net +1 mana each cycle for infinite mana). Grim Monolith was a centerpiece of the “Combo Winter” era (1999-2000), one of Magic’s most powerful and broken periods. At Block Pro Tour New York (1999), this card was heavily featured in Tolarian Academy decks (U/R Academy), that generated insane amounts of mana, together with cards like Tolarian Academy, Voltaic Key, Worn Powerstone, and Temporal Aperture. In Vintage (early 2000’s), Grim Monolith was played in Workshops / MUD decks – allowing the classic “Mishra’s Workshop, play Grim Monolith into Tangle Wire, Smokestack or Karn, Silver Golem curve”. It was also heavily played in Tinker Combo decks, powering out early Tinker into Blightsteel Colossus wins. In early Legacy it saw play in various decks such as Painter Combo, MUD/Stax, Hive Mind and Cloudpost/”12 Post” decks. In Commander/cEDH, this card is still a staple in many different artifact-heavy or combo decks (e.g. Urza, Lord High Artificer and Kozilek, the Great Distortion). Grim Monolith is on the Reserved List, it will never be reprinted.