With the Magic: The Gathering release of Universes Beyond: Fallout, you may find yourself wondering about the new keywords and mechanics. What are Rad Counters? What are Junk Tokens? What are Brain Counters? What are Bobbleheads? All of those questions will be addressed within.

What is Radiation? What are Rad Counters?

A Rad Counter is a type of counter a player can have that causes that player to mill cards at the beginning of their precombat main phase, then lose 1 life and remove one rad counter for each nonland card milled this way. Radiation is a fantastic new mechanic for Mill decks, making The Wise Mothman, who helms the Mutant Menace Precon, the new standard for Mill strategies. Fellow Nerd Leagues Creator Adam was very happy with the addition of Screeching Scorchbeast and Nuclear Fallout to his Phenax, God of Deception Deck.

What are Junk Tokens?

"Tap: Sacrifice this artifact: Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. Activate only as a sorcery.” It might go without needing to be said but cards associated with Junk Tokens synergize well with token making decks. Dogmeat, Ever-Loyal, the face Commander of Precon Scrappy Survivors is a fine leader of a Junk Tokens Deck. Some powerful cards highlighting the Junk mechanic are Rose Cutthroat Raider, who gains you an extra red mana when you sac a Junk Token, and Boomer Scrapper, who can get huge quickly with saccing your tokens.

What are Brain Counters?

Brain Counters are a mechanic currently exclusive to Rex, Cyber-Hound. For a cost of 2 Energy Counters, you can Activate Rex's ability to choose a target creature card in a graveyard and exile it with a Brain Counter on it. Rex then gets all activated abilities of cards in exile with Brain Counters.

What are Bobbleheads?

The Quintessential Fallout collectible, Bobbleheads are an artifact subtype. All of them can tap for a mana of any color, and each one also has a different activated ability that gets stronger for the total amount of Bobbleheads you control. There are 7 total Bobblehead Cards which are based on the Fallout Primary Stats. These can be nifty additions to artifact decks.

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