HOME | WHITE | BLUE | BLACK | RED | GREEN | COLORLESS
ARTIFACTS AND LANDS
Commons:
Aesthir Glider***
Amulet of Kroog**
Brass Man**
Clockwork Swarm***
Dragon Engine**
Ebony Horse*
Ebony Rhino**
Flying Carpet**
Glasses of Urza*
Library of Leng*
Mightstone***
Oasis**
Obsianus Golem***
Onulet**
Primal Clay****
Staff of Zegon**
Tawnos’s Wand**
Urza’s Chalice*
Urzalands**
Yotian Soldier***
Ah, the artifacts, cornerstone and theme of the set. More or less at least ? there are plenty of them, but synergies exist only mildly. Since there are so many, I think the average deck will play 6-8 artifacts. It’s unlikely someone wants to play more without benefits like metalcraft, but it is even more unlikely someone will play less than six.
Let’s start with Aesthir Glider- a 2 power flyer for three mana is rarely bad, and especially not if you can cast it with colorless mana. It has the small drawback of not being able to block, but it should always be attacking anyway. There are enough other cards that can block better. The Glider is also a card that I like to take early, as it is always good and doesn’t force you into a certain color. The same is true for the other artifact creatures as well, but as usual the colored cards are just better. There a few exceptions like the Glider or Yotian Soldier.
Ah, the Soldier, another one of the artifacts that I would like to take high. This set has an affinity for ground stalls, and this Antiquities common is one of the reasons. Barring a few exceptions he keeps the ground against every common non-flyer. Wasting removal on him also feels weird, since he is not really a threat.
My favorite of the artifact guys is Primal Clay. It’s obviously the most flexible common and strong as well. You will usually play it as a 2/2 flyer, but it’s always nice to have more options. Lastly, it’s another cornerstone stalling card too.
But this wouldn’t be an artifact set if the big artifact creatures weren’t better than the regular green card! Clockwork Swarm and Obsianus Golem provide every deck with the critical 4 power creatures to push through stalls. At least sometimes… often they will just get double-blocked, die, and the ground stall goes on… Okay, I’m a bit pessimistic about both of these, as I imagine the format will resolve around flyers most of the time. If a single card has troubles breaking through two Elite Cat Warriors, I’m not sold on it.
The other artifact creatures are just slightly worse. Brass Man is another defender but helps hitting the critical metalcraft. It’s also another card no one wants to throw removal at, but with just 3 toughness, it’s rarely needed. Dragon Engine fits nicely into the Phyrexian theme of Scars of Masters Edition. It’s also an old friend from MED, as well as it’s a great mana-sink later in the game. It will probably deal a few damage in the early game, and the trade with a 3 power guy later- nothing special, not a high pick, but always makes the deck. Another old buddy is back in Onulet! While a generic Gray Ogre always made the cut in MED, it’s not exactly the case here. It will end up in decks a lot, but it’s not more than a filler. It even will die slightly less often, thanks to some 1/X dudes. The last common artifact creature (hah, common artifacts… when I started during Urza’s Saga / 6th Edition I would have never expected that there were common artifacts! Of course, I also bought some Tempest packs, but I had no idea about the rarity of Rath cycle cards before Exodus and the internet was not used by my family back then) is Ebony Rhino, and it brings an enormous size! At least talking it’s huge if you’re talking about its mana cost- 7 is a lot for a 4/5 trampler. But it’s still fine sometimes, the format is not that fast that it would always stay in the sideboard. Still, more of a filler than a real card.
But hey, not all artifacts are creatures! In fact, the really cool artifacts are exclusively non-creatures! At least, they were in the childhood… Amulet of Kroog is still a fine on board trick, even in 2011. Preventing one damage is not bad when the creatures have a lack in power in general. Cleric effects can change how a game resolves further, and this one is really hard to get rid off.
Ebony Horse has a kinda strange effect. If you need to ?chump attack? (what do you call attacking with guys you expect to die for little value?), it can be useful, otherwise you play it just for the metalcraft count! Also, can someone explain why an ebony horse is an artifact? Since when are black horses robots or machines of artifice? I guess a white effect with the picture of a black horse has to be an artifact… tricky artists.
Next is Flying Carpet. Now, this artifact feels epic! Luckily, it got graded down to common, though; I was always unhappy to open this as a rare in my 6th Edition packs, even Dragon Engine and Dancing Scimitar were cooler. Anyway, later in it’s existence, it lost a critical line of text. Once, people who used the carpet and died took the carpet with them, but the new magical Flying Carpet survives every attack! As it is, it’s a pretty useful card. You really never want more than one, but it helps very well getting a critical mass of flyers.
Mightstone is another useful card ? it can make a green deck work! Of course, it’s also really strong with flyers… Just be sure that you are actually playing the beatdown, otherwise it will most likely backfire.
Staff of Zegon and Tawnos’s Wand are pretty similar ? they cost 4 mana and do something for half of their initial investment. One is defensive and the other one offensive, but at least both help your metalcraft count! They are also always useful if you have the mana to spare. No high picks, but I have no problem playing them. Oh, and if anyone can tell me where I get such a cool pajama set like the guy in Staff of Zegon wears, he or she can be sure to never be out of cookies again!
The last 3 artifacts in the common slot ? Glasses of Urza, Library of Leng and Urza’s Chalice ? are big stinkers. From time to time you will meet a noob who plays one of them (most likely the Glasses, as they are fashionable), but don’t be too hard on your poor opponent (even though I will mercilessly flame them)! At least all three are possible targets for your Trinket Mage to tutor up and then sac them in Kuldotha Forgemast… wait, wrong format. Curse you Wizards, theming even the Classic set with artifacts!
Now let’s talk about the lands. First up is Oasis. As I said earlier, damage prevention is always good. Just make sure while building to count any you play as spells as they don’t make mana. I can imagine playing one, maybe two sometimes, but I would never go higher.
Now, the Urzalands – namely Urza’s Tower, Urza’s Mine and Urza’s Power Plant. They are hard to evaluate, but I don’t think it’s worth the effort. There’s a land from the triad in every booster, so in general there should be eight of each at the table. You will need at least three of them each to make it work (I can’t really do the math here, maybe someone else can do ? it’s just a feeling), but that already uses nine(!!) land slots. So if you want to make it work, you will end up mono-colored or one color and splash. And then you still need cards to make Urza’s real estate even matter. The problem is that I don’t know when you are able to find the time to pick up the lands in draft. If they come around at pick 10 and later then it might work. Sadly, there is another problem as well ? of cards that are worth ramping into, there are only a few! Even worse is, if you can’t find the Tron, the spells just rot in your hand. And as I already mentioned, you have to play less basic lands as well, what means less powerful colored cards. Where is the upside?!
It will be nice to see how strong the Tron will really end up, but right now I see it as a bad ?build around me? theme.
Uncommon:
Book of Rass**
Basalt Monolith***
Bronze Horse**
Celestial Sword*
Clay Statue***
Clockwork Avian****
Clockwork Gnomes**
Coral Helm**
Diabolic Machine**
Elephant Graveyard*
Grapeshot Catapult**
Horn of Deafening**
Icy Manipulator*****
Juggernaut****
Living Wall***
Pentagram of the Ages**
Planar Gate*
Scarecrow***
Shapeshifter***
Soldevi Golem****
Tawnos’s Weaponry***
Weakstone***
During my journey through this set, I have came across with a lot of silly cards. It’s to be expected, as this set is about old cards, and a lot of the silliest stuff… is from Legends. I really love Legends, maybe more than any other person. When I started, it was already old and really scarce, but our store had some cards in its binder. And how epic they looked and sounded! But of course they did, as they were Magic‘s Legends! Now-a-day, I still love the pictures from that time the most, but I look down to the wasted names. Be prepared for some of the most silly cards ever printed in the higher rarities of artifacts in this set ? like Planar Gate. What did I told you about epicness? Making creatures costing 2 less for 6 mana and a card really feels epic, but in a failing sense. Another epic fail is Celestial Sword (the name is so grandiose, you can probably hear it echoing into eternity if you’re reading this out loud), for just 9 mana, I can Giant Growth a creature! And it even dies at the end of turn! What do you mean I can only enhance my creatures… Sure, sometimes it will inflict the last three damage through a flyer or unblocked creature to kill, but in most cases, it will end up as the random expensive artifact with no effect. Luckily, these two cards are the only real stinkers here ? with their epic flavor, I can forgive them.
The next bunch is a gathering of mediocre cards, usually too expensive to be good. Like Book of Rass. It’s not a bad card, but it’s expensive and takes a while until you get a positive effect out of it. Bronze Horse and Clockwork Gnomes both have potential but are also way too expensive. Even so, they will still end up in most main decks. Diabolic Machine falls into this category as well, the category of cards that want Tron to become good.
Grapeshot Catapult is mediocre as a one of but can be brutal if you assemble multiple copies of it. Pentagram the of Ages and Horn of Deafening are also not bad cards but again are too expensive (which might be another theme of ME4- over-costed cards). They are pretty useful in the late game, but you never want more than one copy. Coral Helm is a card that I undervalue probably, but I don’t like investing two cards to do something useful. It’s kinda threatening by itself and helps a lot in the late game, though.
Now let’s switch to the cards that are definitely good, if not great. The most narrow one is Basalt Monolith, but there are enough expensive cards in the set to get value out of it. I guess it’s more probable that the Monolith powers out a fatty than some Urzalands. Clay Statue has less of a breakout potential but is both a very solid attacker and blocker. Clockwork Avian is more of card that wants to attack and as an evasive artifact creature will be a pretty high pick. Despite being a bit weaker than Air Elemental and Sengir Vampire, I can imagine taking it over them early in the Draft to say open on color as long as possible. Icy Manipulator is still what it was, is, and will ever be ? one of the best and most flexible first picks. I tend to take real threats above it, though, as there is enough removal to nullify Ice Age‘s ?bone crank? (my personal favorite art for the card).
Juggernaut and Soldevi Golem are both pretty good. Five power for 4 mana is huge, especially in this format, and their drawbacks are kinda negligible. It surprises me to see both of them in this set and with the same rarity. From a designing standpoint, this set feels pretty weird. Sometimes, I feel that it makes fun of itself…
Living Wall is also good as it keeps of even the biggest ground-bound threats at bay, but hey, what do you expect from a wall? Also, one of the most creepy artworks in the whole game. I guess that is the reason it got dismissed after Revised. Scarecrow is less creepy, at least until you fight against it with your flyers-r-us deck. It’s kinda expensive, but shuts down the best strategy in the format, so it definitely has some merit. Meanwhile, Weakstone shuts them all off, at least more or less as it will buy time to find solutions. Shapeshifter can be another Living Wall, but it can be a potentially threatening attacker as well. It’s kinda weak for its cost but also it pretty flexible- that’s what can really make the difference, flexibility. The last artifact in the uncommon slot is Tawnos’s Weaponry- effectively it’s the ancient form of equipment, but less flexible. It’s okay in this format and even better than the more epic sounding Celestial Sword (which greatly disappoints me).
Also, a land found it’s way into the uncommons ? Elephant Graveyard. Well, what shall I say ? to make it work, you have to play green. And who really want’s to play green?
Rares:
Al-abaras Carpet***
Alchors Tomb*
Armageddon Clock**
Ashnods Altar*
Badlands****
Bayou****
Bottle of Suleiman**
Candelebra of Tawnos*
City of Brass****
Colossus of Sardia**
Cyclopean Tomb**
Floodwater Dam****
Gauntlet of Might***
Jade Monolith****
Kormus Bell***
Library of Alexandria*****
Mana Matrix*
Mana Vault***
Maze of Ith****
Mishra’s Workshop****
Naked Singularity**
Obelisk of Undoing*
Plateau****
Rakalite**
Ring of Renewal****
Savannah****
Scrubland****
Sol Ring****
Strip Mine****
Taiga****
Tetravus****
Time Vault**
Triassic Egg**
Tropical Island****
Tundra****
Underground Sea****
Urza’s Miter**
Vibrating Sphere***
Volcanic Island****
Again, let’s finish up with the rares ? but this time alphabetically, I promise!
Al-abaras Carpet is a pretty interesting card as it essentially shuts down any non-flying creature (except for Prodigal Sorcerer). It is also a one-man defense if you flood and can keep you in the game. Of course, sometimes you will draw it, and it will do stone cold nothing, but you should get used to that type of card when drafting ME4!
Alchors Tomb is… unique to say at least. A card that helps against color hosers is welcome, but most of the hosers in this set affect spells as they are being cast or destroy lands… The only use I can see for it is against Black and White Knights, and that is just not enough to make it worth playing in my eyes.
Armageddon Clock is cool. Have you ever wondered why the term ?clock? is relevant at all in Magic? Of course, I didn’t play back in the beginning, but I have heard stories about games that took so long that people started to play Armageddon Clock just to finish in a reasonable time! Whether true or not, the card itself is a funny idea, but it’s really bad in the late game. What a weird, weird card for a 6 mana! I can imagine that it is playable if you are ahead on the board and your opponent cannot spend the mana to disrupt it.
Ashnods Altar is one of a few cards that got upgraded to rare. To be honest, the effect suits the golden symbol, but I would have wished for more real rares. To top that, the Altar is mostly unplayable in Limited- no creature is really worth the sacrifice.
Bottle of Suleiman is a bit too random for me. I think I will never play it, but sometimes you need to run good to win (especially if you make bad decisions during the Draft). If you run really good, the Bottle will be a must-play card! Otherwise, if you haven’t made a pact with the MTGO gamemaster, it will just help you lose even faster (which might be a boon if your deck is bad enough to play it)! Essentially it says, ?If you win the flip, probably win the game. If not, then find the concession button.? Some people like to gamble, but I’m not one of them (if I see a realistic chance in winning).
Candelabra of Tawnos is one of those cards that I never understood why it had a high price. It works well with some of the really old lands, but was that effect ever play-worthy? Anyway, you can guess how good it is. I f you have Shop, or even better the Tron, then you can do even more amazing things (at the low cost of having to draw this candlestick). I definitely don’t think it’s worth it, though.
Finally, we have a creature in Colossus of Sardia. In general, he is barely playable, but this set has enough effects to power him out early. Once cast, he will end up as a defender thereafter, but at some point he can attack and nothing will really stop him. Nothing except for a gajillion commons in this set! Whoever wins the first draft with this jewel in their deck gets a cookie from me!
Cyclopean Tomb is able to slowly screw people out of their games, but that takes a lot of mana and a lot of turns. It might be playable against control decks, or to destroy utility lands, but in most games it will just end up as a useless card.
Floodwater Dam is finally a really good artifact. In fact it is like Armageddon, but of course can still end up destroyed by Crumble. It’s pretty strong for weenie decks, but a house in the control mirror as well.
Gauntlet of Might is also one of the better artifact rares in this set and maybe a reason why red is so amazingly strong ? so people can use this Beta-era fist of power all the time in draft. What can I say that the card’s rules text doesn’t already ? if you are red, it’s a big bomb; otherwise it’s unplayable.
Jade Monolith is also pretty big beast as it makes your creatures kinda indestructible. The good thing is that even its mere presence on the board will have an effect and, you (usually) won’t pay too much life for it.
Kormus Bell is another really weird card from Alpha that deserves a joke, but I don’t have one for it. In the right deck it is pretty much a bomb, like Gauntlet of Might, but I don’t see the analogy. What does a Kormus Bell has to do with swamps? Maybe some of the commentators can explain to me more…
Mana Matrix is the Planar Gate for artifacts and enchantments, but with a less epic sounding (and thusly, more disappointing) name. Without the epicness, it is not worth a deeper comment except for ?unplayable.?
Mana Vault, on the other hand, is an epic card that has a place on Banned and Restricted lists since forever. Similar to its small brother Basalt Monolith, its a potent ramp spell, and some decks in this format can’t seem to get enough of them if they want to power out their Diabolic Machines and Colossus of Sardia.
Naked Singularity is the missing part to the color hoser puzzle. It serves as some kind of universal hoser against nearly every deck, while it doesn’t hate the artifact heavy ones. I can imagine playing this card in a deck that enables the Tron, but otherwise it’s very unlikely to get any value out of it.
The next two cards are cruel creations from the past. Obelisk of Undoing and Rakalite aren’t totally useless, but both are way too expensive and inflexible. I can imagine playing the Rakalite at least, but it will never do great, and I will never be excited to see it. At least they will make for good laughs when you win with them!
Ring of Renewal, on the other hand (ring, hand, get it?!), is as great as repeatable draw effects are expected to be. The best thing is that it always draws two cards when your hand is empty.
Sol Ring is similar to Basalt Monolith and Mana Vault, except for that is has no drawback at all. Turn 3 Serra Angel is just silly. Although it’s unlikely to see the scenario, Limited is the only format where you can play two (or more) of them!
Tetravus is a bit tricky. It is not as strong as you are used from Pentavus or Triskelavus but it fits well in the power level of this set. A 4/4 flyer for six generic mana without drawback is obviously always a first pick, but remember that you cannot make tokens at instead speed. This makes it a bit less flexible unless you are in white and have Righteous Charge ? then it’s flat out amazing.
Time Vault is even more tricky. Without a way to abuse it, it is either useless or mediocre. I remember playing Magosi in some decks during Zendikar Sealed. The plan was to stall the ground, give the opponent an extra turn, and after that, attack him (or maybe even her) twice without worry that he can alpha strike against you. I expect this to work way more often here than in Zendikar Sealed, as this format is way slower. In Zendikar, you rarely were able to negate an opponent’s whole turn…
Oh, have I yet to tell you about how tricky Triassic Egg is? Okay, actually it is not even remotely tricky, but ten mana for a reanimate spell is pretty expensive, and the other modes will only get used in 1 out of 20 games or something equally unlikely. It is definitely playable, but it’s slow and unreliable. I easily expect some Draft decks to play too many of these clumsy cards that don’t help with anything at the board, so I just think of this as a warning so that you aren’t one of those unfortunate decks.
Urza’s Miter is good. It reminds me a bit of Inheritance, except for now that you cannot draw the cards even when you sacrificed creatures. It’s a bit annoying that the Miter does not work with Atog and similar shenanigans, but it is still a card that I pick up high and look forward to playing with.
The last card in the batch of artifact rares is actually tricky, as an exception in exception in the set. Vibrating Sphere is some kind of build around card that doesn’t work well with the common flyers, but can help a green deck become some sort of good. It has the potential to be a bomb, but it comes with a big drawback as well. I can’t wait to play with it, but hopefully I can keep the green cards outside when I do…
Now let’s talk about the lands. The 10 Duals and City of Brass are the only mana fixers in the set, and they are pretty good in that role. Just beware of Acid Rain, Conversion, and the ilk!
Then, there is Library of Alexandria. People who play Vintage or played during the early days of Magic can probably better describe how nuts the card is. Sure, it gets weaker in the late game, but it’s is far from bad even at that point and should just win games if you have it in your opener. I assume Library is the best first pick you can get in this format.
Maze of Ith is a few classes under the Library but strong as well. As it doesn’t produce mana, you should look at it as a colorless spell. It is both great in the early game as it is later on and even makes some nasty tricks with your own board position. Another glass-clear first pick.
A bit higher on the power level is Mishra’s Workshop. It is like a fusion of Mana Vault and Sol Ring stuck on an Ancient Tomb. The only drawback is that it doesn’t help with casting colored spells, but if you get it early, this shouldn’t be an issue. If you get it later in a Draft, it might lose some of it’s power (as you haven’t taken a ton of artifacts by that point), but Mishra’s best land will still make the deck a lot of times. Turn 2 Juggernauts cannot be stopped- walls or otherwise!
The last card in this set is a familiar one- Strip Mine. It is not as amazing as the three lands above it, but it is still a good card. I will not waste an early pick on it, but if I get it, I will most likely play it. Unlike Maze, it produces mana, and unlike Workshop, the mana can be spent on colored spells, so unless the color requirements for a deck are very stringent, it will always end up main. Sometimes it will really shine ? when it destroys another one of the sick lands or gets you a tempo advantage by Stone Raining them (or maybe Sinkholing in this set), or, in the best case, completely cuts them off of a color.
Conclusion: Some of the artifacts and lands are truly busted cards and make Limited really unfair part-wise. The other half is just there to make fun of old Magic and to generate flashbacks of the days when everyone was bad. The density of colorless is also nice for Limited, as there are more playable cards in a pack than you are used to, at least used to previous MED sets. I really don’t like that they put Yotian Soldier at common, as it produces lots of stalls and slows down the format artificially. At least there are a bunch of flyers and some really nice uncommons to compensate for that, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.