MTG Exalted, Battalion, Mentor and Myriad guide image showing a massive fantasy battlefield with warriors charging, a lone heroic attacker, army combat, dragons, and Commander combat mechanics.

MTG Exalted, Battalion, Mentor & Myriad Guide

Most combat mechanics in Magic: The Gathering care about how many creatures you attack with. This group cares about it in every possible direction — some reward exactly one, some reward a crowd, one turns a single attacker into an army spread across the whole table.

This guide covers exalted, battalion, mentor, melee, battle cry, dethrone, myriad, and afflict — with what actually counts, when it counts, and the rules that decide games at the table.

This is the eleventh article in our series on advanced MTG mechanics, following our guides to the Eldrazi mechanics, landfall and prowess, and unearth and persist.

Part One: Attacking Alone

Exalted

Exalted (CR 702.83) is a triggered ability: whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. A creature "attacks alone" if it is the only creature declared as an attacker that combat.

  • Every exalted source you control triggers. Exalted can live on any permanent — creatures, enchantments, even lands. If you control four permanents with exalted and attack with a single creature, all four trigger, and that lone attacker ends up +4/+4.
  • The bonus goes to the attacker, not to the source. Even a creature without exalted itself gets the full benefit of every exalted ability you control, as long as it is the one attacking alone.
  • It works even if the exalted creature is the one attacking. A creature with exalted that attacks by itself triggers its own exalted ability along with everyone else's.
  • Creatures put onto the battlefield attacking later do not stop exalted. Exalted checks whether exactly one creature was declared as an attacker. If another effect later puts a creature onto the battlefield tapped and attacking, the original exalted triggers still happened.

Part Two: Attacking in Groups

Battalion

Battalion is an ability word — no independent rules meaning, just a flavour label — for effects that trigger when the creature with battalion attacks alongside at least two other creatures (three attackers total).

  • The creatures don't need to attack the same target. Three creatures attacking three different players, planeswalkers, or battles still satisfy battalion.
  • Once it triggers, later changes don't matter. If two of the three attackers are removed before the battalion ability resolves, the ability still resolves normally.
  • Read each card — the effects vary completely. Because it's an ability word, there's no shared rules text; some battalion cards deal damage, some pump the team, some do something else entirely.

Mentor

Mentor (CR 702.134) is a triggered ability: whenever this creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature with power less than this creature's power.

  • Power is compared twice. Once when the ability is put on the stack (to determine if there's a legal target), and again as it resolves. If the target has grown to match or exceed the mentor creature's power by the time it resolves, the counter doesn't get placed.
  • Multiple instances of mentor trigger separately, and each can target a different (or the same) smaller attacker.
  • It targets, so it needs a legal attacking creature with strictly lower power at the time the ability is put on the stack — if none qualifies, the ability doesn't go on the stack at all.

Melee

Melee (CR 702.121) is a triggered ability: whenever this creature attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each opponent you attacked with a creature this combat.

  • It counts opponents, not creatures. Attacking three different opponents with three creatures (including the melee creature itself, if relevant) gives melee +3/+3 — attacking one opponent with five creatures gives it only +1/+1.
  • Multiplayer is where melee shines. In a duel there's only ever one opponent to attack, so melee never exceeds +1/+1. In a four-player Commander game, attacking all three opponents makes it +3/+3.

Battle Cry

Battle cry (CR 702.91) is a triggered ability: whenever this creature attacks, each other attacking creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn.

  • It excludes itself. The creature with battle cry does not pump itself, only its allies.
  • The bonus is applied when the trigger resolves. Battle cry looks at the other attacking creatures as the ability resolves. Once the +1/+0 has been applied, it lasts until end of turn even if the battle cry creature later leaves combat or the battlefield.
  • Multiple instances trigger separately, and additional combat phases trigger battle cry again each time the creature attacks.

Part Three: Attacking the Right Target

Dethrone

Dethrone (CR 702.105) is a triggered ability: whenever this creature attacks the player with the most life — or tied for the most life — put a +1/+1 counter on it.

  • The counter goes on before blockers are declared. Dethrone triggers and resolves during the declare attackers step, so your opponent has already lost the chance to block a smaller creature by the time they see the bigger one.
  • Once triggered, later life changes don't matter. The check happens as the attack is declared. If the defending player's life total drops (or someone else's rises) before dethrone resolves, the counter still goes on.
  • Planeswalkers and battles don't count. Dethrone only triggers when the creature attacks a player directly, even if that player's planeswalker or battle is technically the highest-life target's possession.
  • Ties count. If two or more players share the highest life total, attacking any one of them satisfies dethrone.

The signature dethrone card is in stock: Scourge of the Throne. Beyond its own dethrone trigger, it creates an additional combat phase when it attacks for the first time each turn while attacking the player with the most life or tied for the most life. It even untaps all attacking creatures, turning a single well-timed attack at the healthiest player into a second combat step.

Part Four: Attacking Everyone at Once

Myriad

Myriad (CR 702.116) is the mechanic built specifically for multiplayer: whenever this creature attacks, for each opponent other than the defending player, you may create a token that's a copy of it, tapped and attacking that opponent or a planeswalker they control. Exile those tokens at the end of combat.

  • One creature, several battles. In a four-player Commander game, a single myriad attacker can generate two extra token copies, hitting all three opponents in the same combat.
  • The tokens are temporary. They exist only for that combat and are exiled at its end — myriad doesn't leave you with a permanent army.
  • The tokens are never declared as attackers. They enter the battlefield already tapped and attacking, which means attack triggers — including the myriad ability itself — don't fire again for them, and any costs tied to attacking don't apply to them either.
  • Each token can trigger the original's other abilities too. If the creature has an enters-the-battlefield or combat-damage ability, the token copies typically bring those along, multiplying the value across every opponent it hits.
  • Multiple instances trigger separately, and duels get no benefit from myriad at all, since there's only one opponent to begin with.

Afflict

Afflict (CR 702.130) is a triggered ability: whenever this creature becomes blocked, the defending player loses N life.

  • It triggers once, no matter how many creatures block. Whether one blocker or five gang up on it, afflict fires a single time.
  • Any way of becoming blocked counts. Declared as a blocker in the normal way, or put onto the battlefield already blocking through some other effect — either satisfies afflict, as long as the creature was unblocked immediately beforehand.
  • It punishes blocking, not attacking. An afflict creature that goes unblocked does nothing extra; the life loss is entirely a tax on the decision to block it.

Quick Reference

Mechanic Triggers on Effect
Exalted A creature you control attacking alone +1/+1 to the attacker, per instance you control
Battalion Attacking with 2+ other creatures Varies by card
Mentor This creature attacking +1/+1 counter on a smaller attacker
Melee This creature attacking +1/+1 per opponent attacked this combat
Battle cry This creature attacking +1/+0 to every other attacker
Dethrone Attacking the player with the most life +1/+1 counter on this creature
Myriad This creature attacking Token copies attack every other opponent
Afflict This creature becoming blocked Defending player loses N life

Why These Matter in Commander

Dethrone and myriad were practically built for the format. Both mechanics need more than two players to reach their full potential, and Commander's default multiplayer structure is exactly where they were designed to live. A myriad creature in a four-player pod hits every single opponent; the same creature in a duel is just a normal attacker.

Exalted rewards a very different deck than the rest of this group. Where battalion, melee, and battle cry all want you going wide, exalted wants the opposite — a deck built around one huge, well-protected attacker and a pile of exalted sources that never themselves attack.

Afflict punishes the defensive instinct multiplayer creates. With three opponents to worry about, players chump-block far more readily in Commander than in a duel — which is exactly the moment afflict collects its tax.

Mentor and battle cry both reward a token-heavy board, since a wide army of small attackers is precisely what benefits most from either a growing counter or a shared pump.

You can find the pieces for these strategies in our full catalogue, or import your decklist directly with our decklist search tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does exalted trigger if the attacking creature also has exalted?

Yes. Every exalted ability you control triggers whenever any creature you control attacks alone — including the exalted creature itself, if it's the one attacking. The bonus always goes to the attacking creature, regardless of which permanent the exalted ability came from.

Does mentor always place its counter?

Not always. Power is checked both when the ability is put on the stack and again when it resolves. If the target attacking creature has grown to equal or exceed the mentor creature's power by the time the ability resolves, no counter is placed — the target has to still be smaller at that final check.

How is melee different from battle cry?

Melee pumps the creature that has it, based on how many different opponents you attacked that combat — it does nothing in a duel. Battle cry pumps every other attacking creature by a flat +1/+0, regardless of how many opponents are involved, but never pumps itself.

Does dethrone still trigger if my opponent's life drops before the ability resolves?

Yes. Dethrone checks whether the defending player has the most life (or is tied for it) at the moment you declare the attack. Once triggered, it resolves and adds the counter regardless of what happens to anyone's life total in between.

Do myriad tokens stick around after combat?

No. They are exiled at the end of combat, every time. Myriad is a one-combat effect, not a way to permanently multiply your board.

Does afflict trigger more than once if multiple creatures block?

No. Afflict triggers exactly once when the creature becomes blocked, regardless of how many creatures are declared as blockers. Ganging up on an afflict creature does not multiply the life loss.

More guides in our advanced mechanics series:

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