New Phyrexia EDH Set Review: Part 6 - Artifacts

Ooh, the big one! Naturally there are a ton of Artifacts in this set. We'll be at this one a while, so let's jump in.

Good budget mana fixer, but I'd rather rely on non-Creature mana. Summoning Sickness + dies to Wrath = not reliable enough. Cute art, must get a foil one.

There is some noise around this one, and people seem pretty excited. It's not doing much for me, but once I've seen some practical applications for it outside of Standard, I may come around.

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Really digging this! Mirari's Wake is one of my favorite cards ever, while I've always hated how the Gauntlets sometimes help your opponents. This card is right in between Wake and Gauntlets. The fact that this can go in every deck that CAN'T run Mirari's Wake makes me a very happy Magic player.

Fucking awesome! I was not expecting this for an Etched Oracle throwback. A 5/5 for 5 that will eventually let you draw 3 cards while becoming a 10/10? Yeah, I'll play this. Unfortunately I don't have any 5-color EDH decks to throw this into, but he'll find a home in my 250-card singleton deck for sure.

Anti planeswalker tech is nice, but is this one really any good?  I suspect not, for the EDH crowd at least.

I'd play this it GAAIV for sure, but I'm not sure it's worth it anywhere else.

Meh.

(I've been told this is actually pretty sweet for Mono-Black decks. I can see where this would be true... but, I'm racist against mono-colored decks, so this card still does nothing for me).

 Insta-kill one player with this + Bloodcheif Ascension. Seems cool, but more like the basis for a 60 card deck, where you can run 4x each. But still, milling someone every single time they take damage or lifeloss makes this seem really intriguing. I'll have to give it some time before I truly understand it's potential.

Mana fixer for non-Green decks. Expedition Map is superior, but if you have room for both...

New Tarmogoyf? Probably not. This could really make a splash in some formats (pitch two Elvish Spirit Guides to start with a 5/6 on turn 1? Acceptable Doesn't work, apparently. My bad!). But EDH isn't probably going to care. He's just a big dumb beater, and those rarely stand out in EDH. It needs some evasion and a good ETBF effect before EDH will care.

Another 6-mana Artifact that combines with Teferi to lock everyone else out of the game. Woo hoo. Fortunately, this one, like Knowledge Pool can be much more fun and exciting when not combined with Teferi. It could be a group-hug staple but the "can't draw cards" clause doesn't play nice with those decks.

I like it. It doesn't color-fix so in multi-color decks this will rarely if ever make the cut, but in monocolor decks, it could easily find a slot.

I'm not big on any of these Shrines, but that's mostly because I don't ever play mono-color EDH decks. This one seems like it could be quite playable in Red, though. Every spell you cast charges it up for more damage later on. So you can point all your burn at one player, and then send this thing to another guy. Mabye?

This one might be good enough, too. I just don't like it as a one-shot effect. Blue decks should be able to do better. Mana-less activation does give it a bit of a boost. Arcum Dagsson decks in particular should be looking at this as a possibility.

Cute for Multiplayer politicking. A bit costly, for my tastes, or else I might give it a whirl.

Mostly a groan-worthy rare, I'll be quite disappointed to see this in my pack. It's pretty funny against decks with Lightning Bolt and such, but those aren't EDH decks. Too easy to play around, since it sits there on the table forecasting what you intend to do with it.

All I can think of is: with Doubling Season out, this comes into play with 12 counters, then can distribute 24 counters. Fate Transfer to move them all at once! But what the fuck are you going to do with 24 charge counters on something? I need ideas, people!

I'm so let down by this. Not because it's not good, but because it's not interesting! Even Body and Mind was at least interesting. This is powerful, but it just feels like they fucked up the cycle. None of the other Swords had symmetry between their two halves, not to mention that this just steps on the toes of the first two Swords. We already had a life gain sword and a direct damage sword. Argh! So mad! Still need one for Rafiq, though!

 FUCK. THIS. CARD.

(Edit: This card CAN be uses as tech against certain Combo decks - think Kiki-Jiki/Pestermite or Disciple of the Vault. The problem is, for me to make use of it, I'd have to DRASTICALLY alter any deck I put it in, as I tend to run a very high number of ETBF effect creatures. This also hoses Sundering Titan (on the way in at least) which is nice, but still not enough to make me like the way this interacts with hundreds of perfectly fun creatures.)

Seems good. More toys for Sharuum/Dagsson. Yawn. I'll be glad when this block is over - not that I haven't LOVED it overall, but I'm getting tired of typing "good in Sharuum decks" but I honsetly can't think of anything better. Oh wait, here's one idea - play this with Mycosynth Lattice in any deck for a colorless, two-card Seedborn Muse. There, that's something, at least.












Well that wasn't too bad. There were a lot of cards not really worth talking about. Unfortunately most of the cards here that were worth discussing, I'm not a big fan of. The new sword is very playable, but I just think it's terribly lazy design. Torpor Orb is stupid and I hate that it exists. Omen Machine and Unwinding Clock can have cool applications but they'll just wind up as dirty combo/lock peices.
The most exciting thing in the batch is probably Caged Sun, though I might be underestimating Batterskull.

We'll finish up the set next post, with colorless, multicolor, lands and a General review of the Legends.