Recruit

Keywords · beginner

To recruit is to loot and, if you pitched something worth pitching, get a body out of it. It was introduced in The Hobbit.

How it works

• Recruit means "Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card this way, create a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token."
• The draw happens first, so the card you just drew is a legal choice to discard.
• Discarding a land still completes the recruit -- you simply get no token.

Rules notes

• The token is white and a Human Soldier regardless of the colors of the card discarded or the color of the source that told you to recruit.
• Recruit is a keyword action, not an ability. It appears inside another ability's effect ("Whenever you attack, recruit"), so the timing and triggering belong to that ability.
• If you cannot draw -- an empty library -- you do not lose the game immediately; the state-based action is checked the next time a player would receive priority.
• The discard is not optional and not a cost. If an effect stops you from discarding, follow as much of the instruction as you can.

Rule reference

[701.70]