The final installation! Artifacts comprise a little over 1/3 of the set, so this will be a long one. I'm really skimming over a bunch of stuff in order to keep this to a reasonable length. I'll just say that very few of the common and uncommon artifacts will make much of a splash. There are a few playable cards in there, but nothing too exciting. Mostly, I'll just touch on the rares and mythics, unless an uncommon really catches my attention.
Artifacts:
This piece of Equipment is understandably expensive. It has such a potent effect, though, it’s worth it if you can find a way to cheat a bit on the cost. Godo, Bandit Warlord, Stonehewer Giant, and Stoneforge Mystic are a few possibilities. If you have access to any of these cards, then this Equipment is definitely worth considering. Combine with Finest Hour or Aggravated Assualt for extra fun!
Why hello there, “fixed” Skullclamp. That’s basically what this is. And by “fixed” I mean “bad”. But anything that even might let you draw two cards repeatedly is always worth a second look. This could get played. It certainly can be a stand-in for those who don’t have the real Skullclamp, though it pales in comparison.
Much,
much less broken than Tinker. But even at a fraction of the brokenness it still is more than good enough to see play in the types of decks that want Tinker effects. Oh joy, Dagsson got another Tinker.
On one hand this card seems really narrow, but at the same time, it seems like it has a lot of potential. Aura Shards? Hoardsmelter Dragon? Glissa Sunseaker? Shattering Pulse? All of these and more can turn Liquimetal Coating into a repeatable Vindicate.
This is rather narrow and I don’t see it being played much, if at all. Still, if your guys are getting popped often, this might be a suitable deterrent, but I’d much rather just have Lightning Greaves. The funny thing about this one though, is that it triggers when you target your own Lash-Equipped creature, so if you have a bunch of Auras or something like that, it could be playable in that case. Meh, probably not.
A decent “creature” that dodges Wrath effects, and the 1 mana activation cost is nice. I still don’t see this going into many decks. But if you can ramp up and cast this for 10 or so, then on the following turn Wrath and then attack with this, it’d be pretty cool. There are better strategies, I feel, but this is still a valid use for the card.
Another card that depends on you having the right cards on top to work well. I much prefer the traditional Clone-style creatures. Then again, this one also works in that it lets you cheat big guys into play for cheap. And yes, in EDH, 5 mana is considered cheap. Unfortunately you’re still only going to get a two or three mana discount most of the time, but if used to sneak out an Eldrazi titan, it’s certainly a good day for you.
This is pretty good by itself, but EDH isn't about "pretty good" stuff, it's about "OMG awesome" stuff. Breaking this with Voltaic Key, Energy Chamber and Proliferate stuff is "OMG awesome". It does require jumping through hoops to get to that level, so it's not going to be played widely, but in a deck that can cheat this effectively, it'll win games.
Pretty unspectacular. A single -1/-1 counter will virtually never make a real difference. You would only consider this if you were very desperate for Proliferate effects, and even then you'd be hoping for something better in the next set.
Definitely better than the Clasp, but rather expensive. I see this being played a good deal more than the Clasp, but not a lot more.
This is good enough to make the cut in most artifact decks, particularly ones that aren't completely devoted to comboing off. Definitely makes a strong case for the viability of an Aggro-based Artifact build. Needs Trample, though. Seriously.
Certainly playable in that hypothetical aggro-artifact deck I keep fantasizing about. If anyone ever actually builds it…
2/2 is a bit too small for EDH, typically, but with some Equipment and buffs, could be a house.
I've already got to use this in EDH and lemme tell ya, I'm calling this one the sleeper hit of the set. If it looks kinda janky, I assure you it's actually quite good. You see, EDH decks tend to be chock full of creatures with ETBF effects or leaves-play effects, running the gamut of Mulldrifter to Yosei to Primeval Titan. The one downside is that you Exile the token created by Mimic Vat, so without a sac outlet, you won't get much mileage out of Yosie tokens. But that is a seriously small quibble. Imprinting Mulldrifter or Shriekmaw is often enough card advantage to outpace your opponent, but there are SO many more devastating plays you could make. A seriously good card for this format.
This guy could actually be really good in an aggro Artifact deck. A little costly, but he provides a veritable smorgasbord of abilities for you to custom build a win condition on the fly.
Playable in the right decks, but the only problem is the potential 2-for-1 you could be handing your opponent. Despite the risks, I would love to try to get this equipped to a Kamal, Pit Fighter or Spikeshot Goblin some day. Also has potential in Rafiq builds that run lots of little unblockable dudes like Jhessian Infiltrator and such.
It hardly needs to be said that Mill is a pretty bad strategy in EDH, and this is not likely going to be the card to change that. However, if someone is determined enough to make it work, there are worse options than this.
Meh. This card fills me with apathy. It's effect is WAY to iffy to be worth running as a one-shot effect. I used to play this card a bit back in the day, before Academy Ruins existed. It was usually terrible. I almost always hated drawing it. Nowadays the only reason people play this is to recur it infinitely with Ruins - the posterboy for douchebaggery. Without Ruins it's nigh unplayable. With Ruins, your an asshole.
I can't say I'm all that excited about this one either. It's certainly good, but not overwhelmingly so, and in EDH it's downright underwhelming. I pretty much NEVER want to Exile the creatures in my 'yard, as I always have ways to bring them back no matter what colors I'm playing. The GY is my favorite resource to exploit in EDH, and while this technically IS a way of exploiting it, it's also a one-trick pony. I'm iffy on it's powerlevel, but even if I'm underestimating it's power, it's still an incredibly boring card.
Trinket Mage has a new favorite target! At least in multicolor decks like Sharuum. Trinket Mages in Mono-U will still likely want STD or Sol Ring, but in WUB decks, this will probably be the new #1 most-often-searched-for Trinket.
Yawn. No, seriously I love this card, but if I can't play it as a 4-of, it's not worth it. And their probably won't be enough decent Myr to support a Myr-tribe EDH until the NEXT Mirrodin block.
See comments about Battlesphere. Except that I don't even like this in 60-card decks, so yeah.
Ehh... another Myr-tribe only card. Oh well.
I've used this one already, and while it's nowhere near as awesome as the Mimic Vat, it's not terrible by any stretch. Most recently I had it equipped to a Garza Zol. I've yet to actually use the recursion ability on this thing, but the comfort and security of just knowing I had the option was enough. And the +2/+2 and Intimidate package was pretty useful, as it helped ensure my aforementioned vampire queen got to draw me a card every single turn.
TERRIBLE! I have never once had the urge to put platinum angel into an EDH, and this is WORSE than the Angel.
I really want to do something with this, but something tells me EDH is not the venue to do it in... perhaps is the massive amounts of targeted removal in the format?
This seems really cool to me, but for some reason I just want to Imprint other Imprint cards onto it. In particular I want to put a Soul Foundry on this. Then imprint Duplicant onto one of the Soul Foundry tokens. Oh god my brain is melting.
I may be underselling this, but I can't see myself ever considering this unless Rhys the Redeemed somehow became a dominant force in my local metagame. Oh well.
I feel like this is probably pretty terrible. I also feel like the minute I officially write this off as unplayable jank, I'll get my ass kicked by it. Well, technically this thing by itself does nothing, but in the right deck, it might just be a tad broken. Almost all of my EDH decks tend to be fairly even on Creatures vs non-Creatures, so it's not likely to show up in any of my builds, but in a deck that contains a huge majority of one type of spell (most likely Artifacts, really) it's worth a slot.
Now my Grixis deck has a way to deal with Enchantments! Woo hoo! I really think this is going to be stellar in control-ish builds. Ah, see, that's why I love EDH so much - the one format where THIS guy is clearly better than Ratchet Bomb.
Yeah, by now you know I don't do mono-color decks. But for those of you who do play mono; GET THIS NOW! Spikeshot Goblin players, also get this now. Kemba? Yup, she'll want one of these for sure.
Mill is bad in EDH, and 2/2 tokens aren't that much of a threat. Very weak, compared to the previous two Swords.
Worst Rare in the set. So bad not even EDH wants to be seen in public with this.
Second worst card in the set. However, this one has a
slight chance at being played in EDH. Group hug decks could probably find room for it. That's about it, really.
This guy is no slouch. A 6/6 for 6 with no drawbacks and plenty of benefits, and NO COLOR REQUIREMENT! He can be played in ANY EDH deck no matter what. However, I don't think he's so good that he's an automatic inclusion into every EDH deck. However, he's not a bad choice for most decks. I personally would prefer to play him where he'll be the most effective. For instance, he's really fun with Greater Good. I'd definitely run this guy in my Rafiq and Vorosh decks,
maybe in Thraximundar, but certainly not in Uril or Horde of Notions. Still, I'd be hard-pressed to tell someone they
shouldn't run this guy.
Well, that's it! I'm finally free of this nightmare! No, really it wasn't that bad. It's just that I was really busy lately and didn't have time to do this every day like I wanted, so what I thought would take a week has taken a few weeks instead. Oh well. It's over and done, and I can get back to posting stupid decklists now.
Enjoy!
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