This card seems very good in artifact-heavy decks.
If you have 4 artifacts ETB in the 3 turns after you play this, this card ends the game as fast as Inkwell Leviathan while being feasible to hardcast, even harder to block and protecting itself well (nowhere as well as shroud, but still, removing this mana-efficiently is not possible).
Most notably, if you have a Retrofitter Foundry or Sensei's Divining Top, this card is guaranteed to do at least 19 damage in 3 turns, and you can cast it for just 5 mana. I have The Underworld Cookbook in my cube (with Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, they have actually been great). Cookbook and this alone get this out on turn 3, and deal 19 damage by your turn 6, while gaining life. Urza's Saga can fetch any of these out of your deck.
This might not make it in most cubes, but at the very least, it should be an auto-include in artifact cubes.
This does have some cool applications as some sort of blue artifact matters psuedo Carnage Tyrant with its ward 4 and potential to grow / be unblockable. I don't think this gets there for me though. While more castable, this is more narrow than Inkwell Leviathan because that can be played in both an artifact / Tinker deck or in reanimator / Oath of Druids, where this is only really good in an artifacts matters shell.
Unless they errata this, it’s a 5/5 from the self-trigger so it kills and blocks better than some bone posts imply. It’s not a cheats target but I think it’s a really potent hardcaster.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
Blastoise seems like a sweet card as part of an artifact archetype. It's a little weird that this buffs itself as Sliver Lord says above. I doubt they'll errata it, since the card isn't likely to be problematic in any format, but it strikes me as unintended and sloppy. People will have to be reminded. It's unblockable the turn it comes out if you can haste it, for whatever that's worth.
It's really not bad as a goodstuff card, bridging the gap between a backup reanimation artifact target and a top-end finisher a little bit like Sphinx of Jwar Isle (which I think is underrated). But ward 4 isn't insurmountable. It just means you need cheap removal to beat it.
Improvise is an ability that can be very minor, or hugely important depending on the environment, and the deck. A few early artifacts may not be so hard to come by.
I think this card's great all over, but it strikes me as too fair for small cubes. But what do I know? I don't have a small cube.
This card seems very good in artifact-heavy decks.
If you have 4 artifacts ETB in the 3 turns after you play this, this card ends the game as fast as Inkwell Leviathan while being feasible to hardcast, even harder to block and protecting itself well (nowhere as well as shroud, but still, removing this mana-efficiently is not possible).
Most notably, if you have a Retrofitter Foundry or Sensei's Divining Top, this card is guaranteed to do at least 19 damage in 3 turns, and you can cast it for just 5 mana. I have The Underworld Cookbook in my cube (with Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, they have actually been great). Cookbook and this alone get this out on turn 3, and deal 19 damage by your turn 6, while gaining life. Urza's Saga can fetch any of these out of your deck.
This might not make it in most cubes, but at the very least, it should be an auto-include in artifact cubes.
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It's really not bad as a goodstuff card, bridging the gap between a backup reanimation artifact target and a top-end finisher a little bit like Sphinx of Jwar Isle (which I think is underrated). But ward 4 isn't insurmountable. It just means you need cheap removal to beat it.
Improvise is an ability that can be very minor, or hugely important depending on the environment, and the deck. A few early artifacts may not be so hard to come by.
I think this card's great all over, but it strikes me as too fair for small cubes. But what do I know? I don't have a small cube.
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