A 1/4 lifelink body for 1W is already a decent baseline. I support white artifact decks, and in a deck with cards like Oswald Fiddlebender and Mishra's Bauble, this seems like a very solid card.
Especially with a bauble, you can cast this on 2 and immediately convert it. Once it deals any damage, you bring the bauble back and start again. This card-advantage engine is not costing you any tempo, in fact you paid 2 mana and got a 2/4 with lifelink, which is above rate.
It's also a white 2-drop with lifelink, so it pairs very nicely with Heliod, Sun-Crowned.
Two mana to play as a vehicle, crack a free bauble to transform into a 2/4 at a convenient time (letting it hide from sorcery speed creature kill for the turn unless it needs to block), and use the lifelink to bring the bauble when it attacks. Seems like a decent line if everything goes well, acting as a sort of white ophidian that deals damage and has a bigger butt.
How likely you are to get the right cards to let this little value engine work is the real question, I think.
The whole point of a 1/4 lifelink is to stall aggro to a halt. However, the Living Metal ability only lets the body be relevant while it's your turn, so the stats are quite irrelevant. The 2/4 lifelink for 2W is much more reliable, but still isn't amazing.
Another drawback is that if you're stuck on the Living Metal mode with no trinket in sight, it can't even become an actual creature.
Honestly, one of the bigger obstacles for this card might be Lurrus. This card thrives when you take the same sort of trinket artifacts that Lurrus decks love... but lurrus is the deck that uses them better as an engine and this doesn't fit into lurrus.
Honestly, one of the bigger obstacles for this card might be Lurrus. This card thrives when you take the same sort of trinket artifacts that Lurrus decks love... but lurrus is the deck that uses them better as an engine and this doesn't fit into lurrus.
There's also Park Map and Mind Stone that you can grind value with with no outside support. Walking Ballista or Engineered Explosives can pick something off and get this to flip once, as can trading an artifact creature in combat.
Infinite with Bottle Gnomes, right? I'm iffy with DFCs and UB so this is unlikely, and white is very tight as it is.
Developer comments seem clear that the “once per turn” is supposed to track the ability through flipping and reflipping. You can sac the gnomes and return them once per turn/twice per turn cycle but at that point might as well use implement of improvement.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
Developer comments seem clear that the “once per turn” is supposed to track the ability through flipping and reflipping. You can sac the gnomes and return them once per turn/twice per turn cycle but at that point might as well use implement of improvement.
This isn't relevant for cube, but it does go infinite with two bottle gnomes: have Ratchet on front face, sacrifice one Gnome and let its ability resolve, triggering Ratchet. Holding priority, sacrifice the second gnome and let its ability resolve, triggering Ratchet again. The first Ratchet ability resolves bringing back the first Gnome and flipping Ratchet to the 1/4 side, then the second ability resolves bringing back the second Gnome and flipping Ratchet back to his front face. You are back at the initial board state, but have gained 6 life.
Something that actually could happen in cube: Ratchet, Blood Artist or any other card that gains you life when a creature you control dies, a repeatable instant-speed artifact/creature sacrifice outlet and an artifact creature that comes with an additional body to sacrifice, like Lesser Masticore, Night Scythe, Esika's Chariot or Breya's Apprentice. The Masticore can also be replaced by any two artifact creatures, one of them can even be Walking Ballista or any other 0-toughness creature. If using Scythe, Chariot or the apprentice, you need to gain 1 life from some other source to start the loop.
The loop here is: sacrifice masticore, resolve persist, resolve blood artist ability. In response to Ratchet's ability, sacrifice masticore again, triggering blood artist, triggering Ratchet again. Return Masticore with the first Ratchet ability, flipping Ratchet to his back face. The second ability doesn't return anything, but still flips Ratchet back to his front face. With two artifact creatures, the second ability should return the 0-toughness creature if used.
Of course, this is so hard to set up that it shouldn't affect the evaluation of the card.
Developer comments seem clear that the “once per turn” is supposed to track the ability through flipping and reflipping. You can sac the gnomes and return them once per turn/twice per turn cycle but at that point might as well use implement of improvement.
This isn't relevant for cube, but it does go infinite with two bottle gnomes: have Ratchet on front face, sacrifice one Gnome and let its ability resolve, triggering Ratchet. Holding priority, sacrifice the second gnome and let its ability resolve, triggering Ratchet again. The first Ratchet ability resolves bringing back the first Gnome and flipping Ratchet to the 1/4 side, then the second ability resolves bringing back the second Gnome and flipping Ratchet back to his front face. You are back at the initial board state, but have gained 6 life.
Something that actually could happen in cube: Ratchet, Blood Artist or any other card that gains you life when a creature you control dies, a repeatable instant-speed artifact/creature sacrifice outlet and an artifact creature that comes with an additional body to sacrifice, like Lesser Masticore, Night Scythe, Esika's Chariot or Breya's Apprentice. The Masticore can also be replaced by any two artifact creatures, one of them can even be Walking Ballista or any other 0-toughness creature. If using Scythe, Chariot or the apprentice, you need to gain 1 life from some other source to start the loop.
The loop here is: sacrifice masticore, resolve persist, resolve blood artist ability. In response to Ratchet's ability, sacrifice masticore again, triggering blood artist, triggering Ratchet again. Return Masticore with the first Ratchet ability, flipping Ratchet to his back face. The second ability doesn't return anything, but still flips Ratchet back to his front face. With two artifact creatures, the second ability should return the 0-toughness creature if used.
Of course, this is so hard to set up that it shouldn't affect the evaluation of the card.
This also shouldn’t affect the evaluation of the card because it doesn’t work — if you trigger the front face multiple times, the first front face trigger to resolve can transform it, whoch causes the reflexive trigger to return an artifact. But when any further front face triggers resolve, you:
A) cannot transform it back to the front
B) therefore can’t get any more artifacts back
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
This also shouldn’t affect the evaluation of the card because it doesn’t work — if you trigger the front face multiple times, the first front face trigger to resolve can transform it, whoch causes the reflexive trigger to return an artifact. But when any further front face triggers resolve, you:
A) cannot transform it back to the front
Oh, I asked a judge about this before posting, it could be they were wrong.
Why cannot he transform back to the front face?
EDIT: yeah, I was wrong. 701.28f prevents transforming multiple times
701.28f If an activated or triggered ability of a permanent that isn’t a delayed triggered ability of that permanent tries to transform it, the permanent transforms only if it hasn’t transformed since the ability was put onto the stack. If a delayed triggered ability of a permanent tries to transform that permanent, the permanent transforms only if it hasn’t transformed since that delayed triggered ability was created. In either case, if the permanent has already transformed, the instruction to transform is ignored.
This also shouldn’t affect the evaluation of the card because it doesn’t work — if you trigger the front face multiple times, the first front face trigger to resolve can transform it, whoch causes the reflexive trigger to return an artifact. But when any further front face triggers resolve, you:
A) cannot transform it back to the front
Oh, I asked a judge about this before posting, it could be they were wrong.
Why cannot he transform back to the front face?
EDIT: yeah, I was wrong. 701.28f prevents transforming multiple times
701.28f If an activated or triggered ability of a permanent that isn’t a delayed triggered ability of that permanent tries to transform it, the permanent transforms only if it hasn’t transformed since the ability was put onto the stack. If a delayed triggered ability of a permanent tries to transform that permanent, the permanent transforms only if it hasn’t transformed since that delayed triggered ability was created. In either case, if the permanent has already transformed, the instruction to transform is ignored.
701.28f will stop you:
701.28f If an activated or triggered ability of a permanent that isn’t a delayed triggered ability of that permanent tries to transform it, the permanent transforms only if it hasn’t transformed since the ability was put onto the stack.
edit: huh, didn’t see your edit when writing the post but it showed up in he quote when I hit submit 😆
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
A 1/4 lifelink body for 1W is already a decent baseline. I support white artifact decks, and in a deck with cards like Oswald Fiddlebender and Mishra's Bauble, this seems like a very solid card.
Especially with a bauble, you can cast this on 2 and immediately convert it. Once it deals any damage, you bring the bauble back and start again. This card-advantage engine is not costing you any tempo, in fact you paid 2 mana and got a 2/4 with lifelink, which is above rate.
It's also a white 2-drop with lifelink, so it pairs very nicely with Heliod, Sun-Crowned.
How likely you are to get the right cards to let this little value engine work is the real question, I think.
Another drawback is that if you're stuck on the Living Metal mode with no trinket in sight, it can't even become an actual creature.
Cube Tutor: Here
Utility Lands: Here
good call Rosy
Paired with red you get sacrifice outlets in Goblin Welder, Goblin Engineer, Greater Gargadon, Gut, True Soul Zealot, a few more playable cards to loop in Experimental Synthesizer and Pyrite Spellbomb, plus a lot of creatures that are incidentally artifacts (Bomat Courier, Lizard Blades etc.)
Developer comments seem clear that the “once per turn” is supposed to track the ability through flipping and reflipping. You can sac the gnomes and return them once per turn/twice per turn cycle but at that point might as well use implement of improvement.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
This isn't relevant for cube, but it does go infinite with two bottle gnomes: have Ratchet on front face, sacrifice one Gnome and let its ability resolve, triggering Ratchet. Holding priority, sacrifice the second gnome and let its ability resolve, triggering Ratchet again. The first Ratchet ability resolves bringing back the first Gnome and flipping Ratchet to the 1/4 side, then the second ability resolves bringing back the second Gnome and flipping Ratchet back to his front face. You are back at the initial board state, but have gained 6 life.
Something that actually could happen in cube: Ratchet, Blood Artist or any other card that gains you life when a creature you control dies, a repeatable instant-speed artifact/creature sacrifice outlet and an artifact creature that comes with an additional body to sacrifice, like Lesser Masticore, Night Scythe, Esika's Chariot or Breya's Apprentice. The Masticore can also be replaced by any two artifact creatures, one of them can even be Walking Ballista or any other 0-toughness creature. If using Scythe, Chariot or the apprentice, you need to gain 1 life from some other source to start the loop.
The loop here is: sacrifice masticore, resolve persist, resolve blood artist ability. In response to Ratchet's ability, sacrifice masticore again, triggering blood artist, triggering Ratchet again. Return Masticore with the first Ratchet ability, flipping Ratchet to his back face. The second ability doesn't return anything, but still flips Ratchet back to his front face. With two artifact creatures, the second ability should return the 0-toughness creature if used.
Of course, this is so hard to set up that it shouldn't affect the evaluation of the card.
This also shouldn’t affect the evaluation of the card because it doesn’t work — if you trigger the front face multiple times, the first front face trigger to resolve can transform it, whoch causes the reflexive trigger to return an artifact. But when any further front face triggers resolve, you:
A) cannot transform it back to the front
B) therefore can’t get any more artifacts back
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
Oh, I asked a judge about this before posting, it could be they were wrong.
Why cannot he transform back to the front face?
EDIT: yeah, I was wrong. 701.28f prevents transforming multiple times
701.28f will stop you:
701.28f If an activated or triggered ability of a permanent that isn’t a delayed triggered ability of that permanent tries to transform it, the permanent transforms only if it hasn’t transformed since the ability was put onto the stack.
edit: huh, didn’t see your edit when writing the post but it showed up in he quote when I hit submit 😆
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).