Darksteel Constructed Review - Conclusion

By Zvi Mowshowitz · 2004-01-30

Originally published on Brainburst · Available at the Internet Archive

And now, the conclusion. First comes the remainder of the artifacts, then the top 10 and the awards ceremony.

Arcbound Worker - 1
Artifact Creature (C)
Modular 1 (This comes into play with one +1/+1 counters on it. When it's put into the graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature)
0/0
Anything less just doesn’t count.
**

This is the introduction to the modular mechanic: Nothing but a point of modular for one mana. As I see it, the idea of modular is to create a creature that will effectively stick around after you kill it because you can move the counters on to another creature, and let them work together to become even harder to kill because you can move those +1/+1 creatures even more if they go onto another Arcbound creature. The Worker serves a few different purposes. The main one is to allow an Arcbound deck to play an Archbound creature on turn one, which will safeguard the tokens you will then place on your other creatures. If they’re killed, the counters can go here. Outside a general Arcbound deck I can’t see playing this card.

Arcbound Ravager - 2
Artifact Creature
Sacrifice an artifact: Put a +1/+1 counter on Arcbound Ravager.
Modular 1 (This comes into play with a +1/+1 counter on it. When it's put into a graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.)
0/0
It counts what is no longer there.
***

That’s an interesting ability to put on an Arcbound creature, since it is relatively painless to eat Arcbound creatures and this also allows you to sacrifice the Ravager itself or other Arcbound creatures and put the counters on creatures at instant speed, which has the potential to tie your opponents up in knots if you have a few artifacts on hand. Whatever is in combat is suddenly big enough to handle whatever it is up against, and targeted destruction won’t be good enough unless you take out everything. That could turn out to be a dangerous package, but this risks coming down to a card however tricky that only gives you +1/+1 if you don’t abuse it enough. With every artifact you can sacrifice that situation improves. Combined with a lot of artifact lands, Chrome Mox and a good mix of artifact lands this could be extremely dangerous in formats that allow players to mess around with multiple creatures but I also worry that they will force players to play too many artifact creatures and that will force them to sacrifice card quality in order to get the synergy these cards offer. There’s so many good creatures out there and right now few of them are artifacts.

Arcbound Slith - 2
Artifact Creature - Slith
Whenever Arcbound Slith deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Modular 1 (This comes into play with one +1/+1 counters on it. When it's put into the graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature)
0/0
It counts every turn.
***

Slith Firewalker proved very good because it hits right away, effectively coming into play as a 2/2, while the other Sliths came up short. Arcbound Slith doesn’t have the advantage of Slith Firewalker but it does have decent compensation for it. You have to block Arcbound Slith, which means something else gets through and then that kills off the Arcbound Slith which allows it to add its counters somewhere else. If this card starts to grow, it is far more devastating than the other Sliths because killing it will only move the counters somewhere else as well. Even in the worst case scenario, you still get to put a counter somewhere and you get a chump block or distracted blocker out of it. If an Arcbound deck can threaten to pump up the Slith enough that it can’t effectively be blocked, which with a Ravager isn’t as difficult as it sounds, it could become very difficult to stem the tide without using outright artifact or creature removal.

Arcbound Stinger - 2
Artifact Creature (C)
Flying
Modular 1(This comes into play with one +1/+1 counters on it. When it's put into the graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature)
0/0
It can count, just not that high.
*

When did a stinger become the version that flies? It doesn’t matter, because this is a horrible Arcbound creature and there are two far better two drops for such a deck. Flying does let you place counters onto a flyer, and that’s theoretically kind of nice but doesn’t make up for the abilities you can get on the other two drops. This is no time for little dinky guys when you can be manufacturing giants.

Arcbound Crusher - 4
Artifact Creature
Trample
Whenever another artifact comes into play, put a +1/+1 counter on Arcbound Crusher.
Modular 1 (This comes into play with one +1/+1 counters on it. When it's put into the graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature)
0/0
It counts everything.
**

This starts out as a lowly 1/1, but the risk of it being taken out right away is somewhat minimized by the fact you do still get to keep the counter. After that, you should be able to grow it rapidly. You should be running at least eight artifact lands, and all your other creatures will be artifacts so this should be up to at least 3/3 on its first attack even if your opponent doesn’t help. Is that good enough? Compared to most creatures, clearly it is not, but compared to other more expensive Archbound creatures this is a bargain. If you’re going to play more of these than just the cheap twelve, you would go here next, and this certainly has a lot of explosive potential both with and without affinity.

Arcbound Hybrid - 4
Artifact Creature
Haste
Modular 2 (This comes into play with two +1/+1 counters on it. When it's put into a graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.)
0/0
It counts fast.
*

Can a 2/2 for four mana possibly be a good deal? Modular is nice, but it doesn’t seem like it can possibly be that nice. If nothing else the Crusher almost has to be far superior to the Hybrid, and you shouldn’t need more than one modular four drop.

Arcbound Reclaimer - 4
Artifact Creature - Golem (R)
Modular 2 (This comes into play with two +1/+1 counters on it. When it's put into the graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature)
Remove a +1/+1 counter from Arcbound Reclaimer: Put target artifact card from your graveyard on top of your library.
0/0
It counts what others no longer do.
*

Once again we have the problem of a 2/2 for four mana. If you remove the counters from the Reclaimer you won’t get to move them to another creature, and that more than makes up for the silly ability to reclaim artifacts since you still have to redraw them normally. There is no funky engine here. If you could get the effect by sacrificing the Reclaimer, that would be another story.

Arcbound Bruiser - 5
Artifact Creature (C)
Modular 3 (This comes into play with three +1/+1 counters on it. When it's put into a graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.)
0/0
It gives you until the count of three.
*

Like the Hybrid, the Bruiser offers only limited-style statistics for a creature and now we’re in the higher cost range where the gap between limited and constructed starts to get even bigger. I can’t think of this as a bomb even in draft, and it is perfect there in an underpowered struggle between two creature armies. It will be lost in a constructed world.

Arcbound Fiend - 6
Artifact Creature (U)
Fear
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may move a +1/+1 counter from target creature onto Arcbound Fiend.
Modular 3 (This comes into play with three +1/+1 counters on it. When it's put into a graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.)
0/0
*
It counts what it isn’t supposed to.

Stealing counters from your own cards is no prize, but the idea here seems to be to steal your opponents’ +1/+1 counters. Even if you get a shot at such counters a decent portion of the time consider what a six drop is supposed to be able to do: Silvos. Visara. Myr Incubator. Stealing a point of power and toughness per turn is rather pathetic when you look at things that way.

Arcbound Lancer - 7
Artiface Creature
Modular 4 (This comes into play with four +1/+1 counters on it. When it's put into the graveyard, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.)
First strike
0/0
*
It counts but not at grade level.

The price is too high. You’re getting a 4/4 for seven mana, and the ability to move those four points around isn’t going to be able to explain away that you’re paying seven mana for four power. Seven mana is the Earth shattering zone.

Arcbound Overseer - 8
Artifact Creature - Golem (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature with modular you control.
Modular 6
0/0
*
It counts for everyone.

His first turn attacking he’ll be a 7/7 and he gives a bonus to all your other modular creatures as well, but this still not enough impact for an eight drop despite a huge bump up from the Lancer. This is a big creature that will let you respect yourself in the morning, but it won’t justify the cost. The bonus only happens when you have enough going on that you shouldn’t need it, and the Overseer desperately needed to have trample.

Auriok Siege Sled - 6
Artifact Creature
1: Target artifact creature blocks Auriok Siege Sled this turn if able.
1: Target artifact creature can't block Auriok Siege Sled this turn.
3/5
It has exactly the kind of respect it wants the most.
*

As usual with large creatures that instinctively seem weak, the first thing I did was create the best case scenario for the Siege Sled. Suppose you could outright choose which creatures block it, would that make it playable? No, that wouldn’t justify paying six mana for a 3/5. So if you have to pay mana to get that from only artifact creatures, clearly this isn’t going to get the job done.

Chimeric Egg - 3
Artifact (U)
Whenever an opponent plays a nonartifact spell, put a charge counter on Chimeric Egg.
Remove three charge counters from Chimeric Egg: Chimeric Egg becomes a 6/6 artifact creature with trample until end of turn.
It hatches only to repair itself again. Weird.
**

Every three of their spells you’ll get a 6/6 for a turn, which ideally means two points of damage per spell they cast. That would be worth three mana, but there are a lot of things that can go wrong here. They can chump block it, they can cast artifacts, they can destroy it at the wrong time. Given that the best case scenario is still not going to be much more efficient than a 3/3, which is par for three mana, this is hard to justify but if you can invest three mana to get a 6/6 then that has to be considered. If they’re planning on blocking it (or letting it block their creatures) then this could be a strong weapon in a creature battle at low cost. Another consideration is whether this is going to be used offensively or defensively. If you use it offensively, you’re giving your opponent somewhat of a break on the third turn, but if you use it defensively then you’re not putting up any defense at all on that turn. The delay is going to hurt you.

Coretapper - 2
Artifact Creature - Myr (U)
T: Put a charge counter on target artifact.
Sacrifice Coretapper: Put two charge counters on target artifact.
1/1
A grand achievement: The universal plug.
**

It’s hard to evaluate Coretapper because it is completely dependant on the cards it will be charging. The gold standard would be Darksteel Reactor, since that wins the game outright, but to me the whole point of the Reactor is to win the game without wasting slots or effort on it and using other cards to make it work faster works against that. If anything this is bad for the Reactor because it forces it to have a high counter requirement. Right now I am unable to find a card that uses charge counters and will get enough out of this card. Chimeric Egg is an example of a card that might be usable and is completely dependant on charge counters, but if you need another card to power it then clearly the card is not being efficient. Serum Tank gets the most bang from each charge counter, but you shouldn’t need extra charges and if you do then it becomes a weak Jayemade Tomb since you’re using a 1/1 and three mana instead of four mana and that only makes you more comboish and vulnerable. Don’t forget this is around, because if nothing else Fifth Dawn could have cards that cry out for a little extra charge.

Darksteel Brute - 2
Artifact
Darksteel Brute is indestructible (“Destroy” effects and lethal damage don't destroy it.)
3: Darksteel Brute becomes a 2/2 artifact creature until end of turn.
All it ever does is sit there. What do you mean you don’t think you can deal with it?
*

This is the opposite of Chimeric Egg. The Egg offers you mana efficiency but doesn’t fire all that often. This is horribly mana inefficient but is as reliable as creatures get. As usual, the creature that is too reliable at the expense of mana is unplayable while the one that is mana efficient is of interest but has other issues. Darksteel Brute will never be a good play. If you’re blocking, you’re paying three mana on their turn to block one guy and do two to it. If you’re attacking, you’re paying three mana for each attack with a 2/X. Sure, he can’t be destroyed and there will be some decks he annoys the hell out of, but if you want to go crazy spending mana on something they can’t touch then Myr Matrix is your go to card.

Darksteel Colossus - {11}
Artifact Creature (R)
Trample
Darksteel Colossus is indestructible (“Destroy” effects and lethal damage don't destroy it.)
If Darksteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Darksteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead.
11/11
***
Somehow, I don’t think I was ever that worried about it getting itself killed.

I hate ‘no cheating’ clauses, don’t you? You can’t sneak the Colossus onto the table from your graveyard, you have to get it there from your hand and that’s a lot harder given his casting cost. There’s the obvious point that this is the best general purpose Tinker target ever printed, but it was banned so that only matters to Vintage players and they can use Swords to Plowshares or Moat or something. Right now there are no good ways to cheat it into play in Standard and in Extended we’re restricted to silly things like Show and Tell that are not going to be good enough. This isn’t all that much better than the creature level below it, especially in an Extended with both bounce and Edicts that can deal with it. Most practical ways of removing an Akroma will stop a Darksteel Colossus. In short, this card only makes sense if you’re not going to pay 11 and right now I don’t see a good way to not pay 11 – but if you get any creature into play for free, this is a very strong choice.

Darksteel Forge - 9
Artifact (R)
Artifacts you control are indestructible. (“Destroy” effects and lethal damage don't destroy them.)
"Is that all we get? Can we possibly turn this in for something with the word ‘colossus’ in the title?” - Pontifex, senior Researcher
*

It may cost nine, but this one doesn’t have me thinking thoughts of Tinkers past. All this does is make your artifacts indestructible, which means it doesn’t win the game on its own. It costs nine mana! For nine mana you need to be able to win the game on your own, without any help. At best this is going to help your other cards live long enough to win the game, but you’re giving removal way too much credit if you’re willing to invest in a 9 drop just to make sure nothing else gets killed. Will it be very hard to beat a Darsteel Forge in an artifact deck? Yes, of course it will, but it better be all but impossible and it isn’t. Nine is a large number.

Darksteel Gargoyle - 7
Creature - Gargoyle
Flying
Indestructible (“Destroy” effects and lethal damage don't destroy it.)
3/3
“Sure, do whatever you want. It’ll just glare back at you.” – Pontifex, senior researcher
*

You’re paying two mana for indestructible, which is more than I’d want to pay, but the real problem is you’re also paying an extra mana to get a respectable flying artifact. That means that when you compare this with something like Hoverguard Observer the true cost ends up being three above par. Not ever dying is nice, but it’s not this nice.

Death-Mask Duplicant - 7
Artifact Creature - Shapeshifter
Imprint - 1: Remove target creature card in your graveyard from the game. (The removed card is imprinted on this artifact.)
As long as an imprinted creature card has flying, Death-Mask Duplicant has flying. The same is true for fear, first strike, double strike, haste, landwalk, protection, and trample.
5/5
It would be a shame to let all this go to waste.
**

In the best case scenario, this would be a seven drop that had haste, double strike, flying, trample and protection from all colors for eight mana, assuming you removed the haste creature right away so the Duplicant could attack. That would make him the best fatty ever printed, but you can’t get all those abilities out of the same creature. By far the most powerful ability here is double strike, although protection from all colors (Iridescent Angel) is nice too. That means the creature of choice would be Dragon Tyrant, which will give you flying, trample and double strike. If you’re going to Buried Alive and then reanimate a creature, choosing this option costs one extra mana and can’t be pulled off a second time since the creature is gone and will give you ten power in the air that sticks around, with haste if you use the last slot on Anger in Extended. That seems worse than the Sutured Ghoul option, and since on its own this is just a 5/5 you can’t use it ‘normally’ and there’s no natural way to play a double strike creature these days. Without double strike, the Duplicant is going to have a hard time being too impressive.

Drill-Skimmer - 4
Artifact Creature (C)
Flying
Drill-Skimmer can't be the target of spells or abilities as long as you control another artifact creature.
2/1
No one looks at one when they have another choice.
*

There just isn’t anything here. For four mana you get a 2/1 flyer, which is at most a two point clock and that’s not getting it done. Untargetability is a nice plus but this has it exactly when it doesn’t need it – when there’s another target to kill instead – and even if you got two of these into play to lock up the situation that’s still not impressing me at all.

Eater of Days - 4
Artifact Creature - Leviathan (R)
Flying, trample
When Eater of Days comes into play, you skip your next two turns.
9/8
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” – Ford Prefect
**

Skipping two turns for an artifact that isn’t indestructible is not much of an option. The hope is that with a 9/8 back to block your opponent won’t be able to do much more than draw two cards and deploy permanents, but if he can bounce or kill the Eater of Days you’ve all but forfeited the game. It is also a little annoying that you’re one power short of killing in two attacks, which puts a damper on this cards’ upside. If you intend to skip the two turns, forget it. That’s awful. The only way to stop that is to Stifle the turn loss on Eater of Days, so is that practical? Five mana and two cards for a 9/8 flying trampling creature is indeed a worthy bargain but now it has to deal with the requirements for combos. Sometimes you’ll be able to dare throw out a naked Eater of Days (shudder) but most of the time it will end up being a dead card. Stifle will be fine on its own, but if you use it by itself then you’re abandoning Eater of Days. Either way you need to go with something more reliable.

Gemini Engine - 6
Artifact Creature (R)
Whenever Gemini Engine attacks, put an attacking Twin artifact creature token into play.
Its power is equal to Gemini Engine's power and its toughness is equal to Gemini Engine's toughness. Sacrifice the token at end of combat.
3/4
There are always signs that it’s coming.
*

Gemini Engine is effectively two creatures on attack, but it can be killed as if it was just one even when it is attacking. That makes this more along the lines of an easier-to-deal-with double striker, and without pump effects you only get six power per turn. That’s not good enough. Pump effects will be doubled, but this is less efficient at that than some of the pure double strike creatures had the potential to be in the past. I do like the flavor on the card but the power level comes up short as it likely must to keep things under control.

Juggernaut - 4
Artifact Creature (U)
Juggernaut attacks each turn if able.
Juggernaut can’t be blocked by Walls.
5/3
Reraise.
***

Welcome back, my friend. Good to see you again. Can you believe they banned you once? Those days are over, and three toughness is no longer a dangerous vulnerability. Some colors have far better options than Juggernaut, but others don’t have anything clearly better, especially blue, and this is an artifact creature where you can dump your Modular tokens at minimal card quality cost.

Memnarch - 7
Artifact Creature - Wizard Legend (R)
1UU: Target permanent becomes an artifact in addition to its other types. (This effect doesn't end at end of turn.)
3U: Gain control of target artifact. (This effect doesn't end at end of turn.)
“We will find the weapons of mass destruction.”
4/5
**

Memnarch is just too expensive. The package sounds good for the wealthy and he has the goods, but you can’t afford it and if you try things only get worse: You end up tapping all your mana every turn and there’s nothing left for your retirement, education or health care. But I digress. Yes, Memnarch can take artifacts for four mana and anything else for seven mana, and that’s extremely powerful if unchecked – don’t let him run around stealing everything you hold dear! He shows what a seven drop should be able to do, which is win the game at any cost without worrying about what happens to the American people. If you’re looking for a way to break a stalemate and create a radically unfair redistribution of wealth, Memnarch is your man. Yeah. Good old Memnarch.

Myr Landshaper - 3
Artifact Creature - Myr (C)
T: Target land becomes an artifact in addition to its other types until end of turn.
1/1
“By cutting down these ancient Forests and carting off everything in sight, we protect their future.” – Memnarch, uh, yeah, Memnarch
*

The only good reason to turn a land into an artifact is to destroy it, so is that a worthy cause? The problem I see is that Myr Landshaper is not something you can depend on keeping in play. If you could, then it would make sense to try and launch a full frontal attack on their land by playing tons of artifact destruction, but instead you have to use your first turn at three mana, which would be the turn you cast Stone or Molten Rain, and cast this hoping it lives. If it does, then you can start in with cards like Oxidize on their land once per turn but how many more artifact removal spells can you play then they have artifacts? This is almost impossible to get much use out of, especially considering how easy it is to use creatures to blow up lands if they live. For example, consider Dwarven Blastminer.

Myr Moonvessel - 1
Artifact Creature - Myr (C)
When Myr Moonvessel is put into a graveyard from play, add 1 to your mana pool.
1/1
“Now that we have brought an end to the death tax that takes the pennies off of ordinary people, their misfortune helps create good jobs for working families!” – Memnarch
*

One mana when it dies isn’t a benefit, it’s a drawback. There’s no good way to sacrifice it, and you wouldn’t want to burn up a card just to get one colorless mana if you had any choice. When not being used for mana it is a pathetic vanilla 1/1 that is often going to end up mana burning you for one when it dies.

Spincrusher - 2
Artifact Creature
Whenever Spincrusher blocks, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from Spincrusher: Spincrusher is unblockable this turn.
0/2
“These bold ideas will keep our homeland safe from the evildoers.” - Memnarch
*

It starts out as a pathetic creature without power, and its first block is as a 1/3. Eventually if it is allowed to keep blocking it will become powerful, and it does have a cute ability that lets it cut through all those creatures it started out blocking, but given the way constructed matches work the impact of unblockability that costs the power you’ve been building up over many turns is rather minimal. Against an army of 2/2s this could be a strong card since it survives the first fight and then starts picking off anything it blocks, but given how much control your opponent has over its strength and how often it will be dead because it will never survive a block it is legally allowed to make I can’t see this being any good.

Sundering Titan - 8
Artifact Creature
When Sundering Titan comes into play, choose a land of each basic land type, then destroy those lands.
When Sundering Titan leaves play, choose a land of each basic land type, then destroy those lands.
7/10
“We act with everyone’s best interests in mind.” - Memnarch
**

Eight mana is a lot, and there is no compensation for it here. His stats are respectable, but unspectacular even at seven. Destroying one of each basic land is cute, but you can’t even ignore the ones you don’t want to do and that is a serious problem for the Titan as a potential reanimation target as is its inability to hit nonbasic lands. I can’t see choosing this over Petradon, but it could be an interesting option in a format like Standard if reanimation proved viable again by hitting your opponents’ lands right away and hitting them again if and when he managed to kill the Titan. You’d have to limit the number of basic lands you run and couldn’t make use of Anger if it was legal because of concerns over the Mountain, but that’s a price you’ll have to pay.

Voltaic Construct - 4
Artifact Creature - Golem
2: Untap target artifact creature.
2/2
He is not even a key, yet he can open a door many times.
**

Don’t think fair. You just got the chance to untap any artifact creature you want for two mana. Think unfair. In fact, I’m giving out demerits to anyone who didn’t look for potential infinite combos the moment they saw the word untap. That doesn’t mean they’re particularly good, and they aren’t. You need the Construct, an artifact that produces three mana and a way to turn it into a creature which means you’ll need three cards or a Metalworker and two artifacts. Three card combos that produce infinite mana are plentiful, and this seems more like something you might back into than something to aim for. As for using this fairly, that would be a shame on general principles and it also seems unwieldy. Untapping the Construct doesn’t accomplish much, and while untapping an Enforcer or other big creature might be worth two mana it isn’t much of a benefit.

Dross Golem - 5
Artifact Creature - Golem (C)
Affinity for Swamps (This spell costs 1 less to play for each Swamp you control.)
Fear
3/2
There is no place too hostile for them to call it home.
***

Oxidda Golem - 6
Artifact Creature - Golem
Haste
Affinity for Mountains
3/2
There is no place too cold to fuel their fire.
***

Spire Golem – 6
Artifact Creature - Golem (C)
Flying
Affinity for Islands
2/4
There is no place too small for them to find.
***

Razor Golem - 6
Artifact Creature - Golem (C)
Affinity for Plains (This spell costs 1 less to play for each Plains you control.
Attacking doesn't cause Razor Golem to tap.
3/4
There are no people who can drive them away.
***

Tangle Golem - 7
Artifact Creature - Golem (C)
Affinity for Forests
5/4
There is only so long before even nature bends to their will.
**

For all five of these creatures there’s no reason to even think about playing them without playing nearly pure basic land mana bases. A small number of special lands might be something you can get away with, but after about four these creatures will no longer be efficient enough to consider. For those who do play those mana bases and regularly attempt to go to four or five lands these creatures are essentially cookies. They’re great spells for the right deck. Dross Golem seems like the best of the five, because you get three power in evasion for just two mana on turn three or one mana on turn four. The six drops can be played on turn three, and at that point all three of them are better than par at that point. On turn four all of them become great bargains, and all of them fit the themes their color wants to reinforce. White gets a strong defending ground creature, blue gets a nice flyer, red gets a quick attacker. All these creatures would be easy choices at three mana, and there’s the potential for them to get even cheaper. Tangle Golem costs seven mana and has to compete with other green creatures. Without mana acceleration it has to wait until turn four, at which point is not appreciably better than other green creatures so I’d say Tangle Golem comes up short although it would still be good in a deck that doesn’t intend to stop playing forests until the Golem becomes virtually free – but if you’re playing it before turn five, it’s not very impressive. These do seem good enough to overcome the desire to play random non-basic lands like Stalking Stones or eight land splashes for one card that would only be in a deck because you have no reason not to play them, but they’re not important enough to cause decks to stick to monocolor status when they’re being pulled in other direction.

Heartseeker - 4
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+1 and has “T, Unattach Heartseeker: Destroy target creature.”
Equip 5 (5: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery. This card comes into play unattached and stays in play if the creature leaves play.)
When you find one, drive it in and stand back.
*

This requires five mana for each creature it destroys and an initial investment of four mana, not to mention a creature to put it on and tap. Given the number of things that go wrong this is radically worse than Predator, Flagship and Predator did not go into creature decks. Attempting to pick off creatures at giant mana cost is something creatureless control decks do.

Leonin Bola - 1
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has “T, Unattach Leonin Bola: Tap target creature.”
Equip 1 (1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery. This card comes into play unattached and stays in play if the creature leaves play.)
Getting one target is easy. More than one at once requires they stop moving first.
*

You can’t stop multiple creatures from attacking, and to stop one requires two cards and a mana every turn – which means you need three cards. You have to use this offensively for it to make any sense at all, and if you’re willing to move this around enough for it to be interesting you’re much better off investing in four drops like Icy Manipulator since we’re talking that amount of mana and time anyway.

Nemesis Mask - 3
Artifact - Equipment
All creatures able to block equipped creature do so.
Equip 3
“That’s when they learn there is no man behind the mask, only other men attacking while you’re dealing with the man.” – Memnarch
*
This is Lure. Lure’s cute, but you wouldn’t pay three mana and a card for it. You certainly wouldn’t pay six mana for it.

Shield of Kaldra - 4
Legendary Artifact - Equipment
Equipment named Sword of Kaldra, Shield of Kaldra, and Helm of Kaldra are indestructible.
Equipped creature is indestructible.
Equip 4
I just have one question. What happened to Kaldra?
*

I am not a fan of one card making a card of another name better explicitly, but I can live with this one. We know the Sword is far too expensive to play, and now we learn that so is the Shield. Eight mana will give you an indestructible creature, and I don’t think it can be argued that this isn’t way too much mana for a card that doesn’t actually do anything other than protect another card.

Skullclamp - 1
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/-1.
Whenever equipped creature is put in a graveyard from play, draw two cards.
Equip 1 (1: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery. This card comes into play unattached and stays in play if the creature leaves play.)
For some it’s an incentive. For others it’s a gold mine.
****

This is one dangerous piece of equipment. It turns one toughness creatures into two cards, and that will almost always be a good deal, perhaps good enough to inspire card advantage engines. Even when this doesn’t kill things outright, it puts your opponent into a bind. They’re taking three or more damage from the creature, and if they kill it off, which will probably require a card, the Skullclamp will draw you two cards and go on to be put on another card. That’s a nightmare. The problem of course is that you are still taking a weenie deck and investing your mana and cards with minimal gain in your clock, but this will often be powerful enough to outright steal inevitability out from under your opponent by giving you so many extra cards that his more expensive cards will no longer win him the game. That’s not something equivalently costed cards like Bonesplitter or Lightning Greaves can hope to do. It’s hard to tell exactly how good a card like this is without trying it out in practice, but it seems very good. I certainly don’t want to be playing against it any time soon, and it’s giving me echoes of Cursed Scroll: Early on not a big deal, but suddenly you’re losing an exhaustion war to an army of one and two drops.

Specter's Shroud - 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
When equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card from his or her hand.
Equip 1
Some masks are made to help people remember, others so they seek to forget.
*

While a point of power is nice, discarding is miles away from drawing two and then discarding one. If this card is of interest to you, you can do better. Artifacts are respectably good at card drawing, but they’re awful at discard.

Spellbinder - 3
Artifact - Equipment
Imprint - When Spellbinder comes into play, you may remove an instant card in your hand from the game.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may copy the imprinted instant card and play the copy without paying its mana cost.
Equip 4
With the right tools anyone can unleash just about anything.
**

There are some very powerful instants in this game. If Spellbinder fires and you’re willing to put those cards into your deck then the game should effectively be over. The problem is that then you need three types of cards in your deck. There are creatures to get through with, this piece of equipment and expensive instants to imprint on it. There’s no way that a consistent deck is going to be able to get enough of all three. What would more likely end up happening is that this would be imprinted with ordinary level instants with the high end being something like Opportunity or a reasonably large burn spell. Those won’t be enough to justify spending seven mana and imprinting a card even if the result was indeed consistent, which it almost certainly would not be.

Surestrike Trident - 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has first strike and “T, Unattach Surestrike Trident: This creature deals damage equal to its power to target player.”
Equip 4 (4: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery. This card comes into play unattached and stays in play if the creature leaves play.)
It always hits but is never cheap.
*

There is no way I’m paying four mana per shot to have my creatures send their power straight to the enemies’ head. That is way too much.

Sword of Fire and Ice - 3
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from red and from blue. Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card and have it deal 2 damage to target creature.
Equip 2
If they’re immune to both, you’ll just have to go berserk.
**

That is one weird set of abilities. Drawing a card when you hit is a good thing, so is protection from two colors (although blue is kinda silly, red’s nice) and the two damage is a throwaway but still appreciated. You’re paying for some stuff you don’t want, but the combined package is cheaper than the individual parts would be. There’s better equipment, but I can see there being some strange situation where this would get the nod.

Sword of Light and Shadow - 3
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from white and from black.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you gain 3 life and you may return up to one target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
Equip 2
The only sword that prefers life to death.
*

This is not as good as the other sword. The protections will tend to be less valuable, three life is no card and Raise Dead is no Shock. I can’t see this getting the nod even in a very strange situation. I understand what they’re trying to do, especially with the whole fifth dawn concept running around, but equipment is at its best when it is simple and direct. You’re already using one card to modify another, so don’t mess around more than you have to.

Vulshok Morningstar - 2
Artifct - Equipment
Equipped Creature gets +2/+2
Equip 2
Not a Scimitar, not yet a Battlegear.
*

This is squarely between two pieces of equipment both completely unworthy of note and below the constructed power curve, and this will be no exception. It’s not that the card is so horrible, just that there’s no reason to choose it given the alternatives. In this case, the obvious better choice would be Empyrial Plate. It’s not what I thought it was, but it’s not bad either.

Whispersilk Cloak - 3
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature is unblockable and can't be the target of spells or abilities.
Equip 2 (2: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery. This card comes into play unattached and stays in play if the creature leaves play.)
Has anyone seen Mr. Potter?
*

This costs five mana to set up, and nothing happens. Untagetability is cute, but it still counts as nothing. Unblockability definitely counts as nothing. Lightning Greaves offers a better set of abilities and costs less than half the price.

Here are the highlights from the artifact creatures and equipment:

A way to turn your creatures into two cards each cheap
Two interesting cheap creatures with the Modular mechanic
The best Tinker target yet.
Juggernaut!
A cycle of affinity cards for basic lands, at least four of which are very strong.

And now, the final ceremony:

Top Ten:

Number of cards I consider “listworthy”: 12
Honorable Mention: Echoing Ruin, Skullclamp

Pat Chapin Memorial Award for Best Design: Mirrodin’s Core
Randy Buehler Award for Most Needed Ability: Mirrodin’s Core
Mark Rosewater Award for the Biggest Potentially Disastrous Idea: AEther Vial
Coolest Card That Will Never See Play: Eater of Days
Most Embarrassing Card: Crazed Goblin
Brandon Bozzi Award for Best Flavor Text: Last Word
Eric Froehlich Award for Card Most Needing To Be Named A Famous Person: Memnarch.

Zvi Mowshowitz