Seems rather insane stats wise. It doesn't stop the opponent from attacking you like a Windborn Muse can, but during the mid-game it makes it very inconvenient to attack you. Reach is a big help. Eventually, it'll get outclassed, but by then you have hopefully stabilized. Being colorless means any deck can play this, and I'd be very surprised to see it go late.
This card absolutely wrecks aggro (especially red based, as red has a hard time dealing 5) and...not much else. I don't love designs like this. Kind of reminds me of Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Mirran Crusader, cards that just randomly hosed some decks and other decks didn't care about at all. It's certainly powerful where it's good though.
I think this card poses pretty real problems for any deck that wins with creatures, not just red! A 5/7 indestructible vigilant trampler on the backswing is not a joke. Definitely want to keep an eye on this card.
This is really good at what it does, although what it does is fairly narrow and not something I want to support or necessarily need at the moment. I wish there were more ways to force your opponent to attack you like Gideon Jura. If I really want a 3-cmc anti-aggro card, I think I'd rather just play something like Filigree Familiar (or whatever its strictly better counterpart is called) since that at least gives you blink / recursion applications rather than just being a giant hate wall.
If you are playing an aggressive deck, you don't want a creature with defender.
If you are a control deck playing against an aggressive deck, the aggressive deck is not going to care about their life total unless it drops to 0, which requires you to hit with this four times. If a 2/5 wall sticks to the board and you survive the opponent's next four attacks, you would be winning even without the ability to attack with it. Oh, and as a control deck, you likely don't have many other creatures in your deck, so your opponent gets to save their removal for this creature.
If you are playing a combo deck, the case is similar to that with control, but you are much more likely to die to the 4 attacks due to likely having less cards to help you survive.
Against anything other than an aggressive deck, this card is terrible. If the opponent doesn't need to attack you to win, a creature with defender does nothing. If your opponent is attacking you with midrange-deck sized creatures, the 2/5 stats aren't enough to play defense.
The only reasonable application seems to be to play this card in a midrange deck versus aggro. There, it can be a good card, but this is a very narrow application, and even then this card is at best a slight upgrade to what your other options would be.
If you want a defensive colorless 3-mana creature, something like Circuit Mender is going to serve you much better. It gains you life, replaces itself and can be played outside of a purely defensive role in decks looking to sacrifice for value or artifact synergies.
I'll likewise argue against this card - it is an impressive blocker, but I think ultimately plays a very narrow role. I'll appreciate a Wall of Blossoms/Wall of Omens because they'll at least cantrip in the matchups a blocker isn't all that important ... Mangolassi's suggestion of Circuit Mender is also a better alternative IMO. This feels like a card that starts in the sideboard and comes in against RDW or something.
I'll likewise argue against this card - it is an impressive blocker, but I think ultimately plays a very narrow role. I'll appreciate a Wall of Blossoms/Wall of Omens because they'll at least cantrip in the matchups a blocker isn't all that important ... Mangolassi's suggestion of Circuit Mender is also a better alternative IMO. This feels like a card that starts in the sideboard and comes in against RDW or something.
The reason I think this card is so strong against red aggro is because it has 2 power, and a ton of red aggro creatures only have 2 toughness, meaning the aggro deck will have to 2-for-1 itself to bolt this after it blocks, unlike wall of blossoms/roots/omens etc. The other reason is that cracking back for 4 every turn after 3 while being able to stick back to block is relevant. A ton of times the control deck will stabilize at less than 5 life only to die on like turn 7 to a couple of drawn bolts or something. This card, by itself, will kill the aggro player by turn 7 unless the aggro player stops attacking or chumps to absorb some damage, both of which are great for the control player.
All that being said, I will not run this card, despite thinking it's very good against aggro in control, because I think there are a lot of other cards that are good against aggro but have much broader application and because I don't like cards that exist to only hose 1 specific deck.
I wouldn’t cube this if it cost 2 mana, and if it cost 1 then it would be Cube-able in the same way Pyroblast is. At 3 mana I would not even board this in against mono red.
2/5
Artifact Creature - Wall
Defender, vigilance, reach, trample
Weathered Sentinels can attack players who attacked you during their last turn as though it didn't have defender.
Whenever Weathered Sentinels attacks, it gets +3/+3 and gains indestructible until end of turn.
Seems like really good stats for only 3 mana. Definitely backbreaking against aggro. Thoughts?
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
If you are playing an aggressive deck, you don't want a creature with defender.
If you are a control deck playing against an aggressive deck, the aggressive deck is not going to care about their life total unless it drops to 0, which requires you to hit with this four times. If a 2/5 wall sticks to the board and you survive the opponent's next four attacks, you would be winning even without the ability to attack with it. Oh, and as a control deck, you likely don't have many other creatures in your deck, so your opponent gets to save their removal for this creature.
If you are playing a combo deck, the case is similar to that with control, but you are much more likely to die to the 4 attacks due to likely having less cards to help you survive.
Against anything other than an aggressive deck, this card is terrible. If the opponent doesn't need to attack you to win, a creature with defender does nothing. If your opponent is attacking you with midrange-deck sized creatures, the 2/5 stats aren't enough to play defense.
The only reasonable application seems to be to play this card in a midrange deck versus aggro. There, it can be a good card, but this is a very narrow application, and even then this card is at best a slight upgrade to what your other options would be.
If you want a defensive colorless 3-mana creature, something like Circuit Mender is going to serve you much better. It gains you life, replaces itself and can be played outside of a purely defensive role in decks looking to sacrifice for value or artifact synergies.
The reason I think this card is so strong against red aggro is because it has 2 power, and a ton of red aggro creatures only have 2 toughness, meaning the aggro deck will have to 2-for-1 itself to bolt this after it blocks, unlike wall of blossoms/roots/omens etc. The other reason is that cracking back for 4 every turn after 3 while being able to stick back to block is relevant. A ton of times the control deck will stabilize at less than 5 life only to die on like turn 7 to a couple of drawn bolts or something. This card, by itself, will kill the aggro player by turn 7 unless the aggro player stops attacking or chumps to absorb some damage, both of which are great for the control player.
All that being said, I will not run this card, despite thinking it's very good against aggro in control, because I think there are a lot of other cards that are good against aggro but have much broader application and because I don't like cards that exist to only hose 1 specific deck.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588