Jumat, 15 Mei 2015

Modern Masters 2015 Artifacts Edition Part 1: Artifact Creatures

Okay, at first I'm not sure whether I'd dive in MM2 cards or not, as it is expensive and my wallet is pretty unfriendly lately. I think I might be focus back on during Origins, but seeing that there are already many articles about MM2 draft just make me excited! Even though I'm not gonna draft for a while I still think it's fun to do card research.

As I said in my post before about MM2 Review, let's check some artifact cards that is included in the set. I guess their viability will be deciding factor on how viable an artifact or equip deck will be in the draft. It's quite exciting to see a card with higher power level than ones I only knew in Tarkir blocks, albeit slowly, I think I can see begin to see how other format's power is.


Alloy Myr
Do you remember mana rocks such as Banners from KTK or Monuments from DTK? Alloy Myr is exactly that except that it is also a 2/2 creature and provides any color of mana. I think this card will be quite important, not to mention 5-color might be a deck very viable to draft this time. 

Binding Souleater

Dromoka Dunecaster, albeit limited in what it can tap, is a card that is still annoying to face during DDF Draft. Blinding Souleater can tap any creature with exactly same activation cost and is pretty much splashable as you can pay 2 life instead of 1 white mana. 2 life is a lot, but maybe compared to being hammered by a 5/5 creature, it's still a good price to pay. I see that it'll be really useful when you're still trying to build your board and needs as much mana as possible.

Cathodion

Cathodion's ability is a bit tricky, I guess, as the mana will disappear when phases or steps end. I don't really know what will trigger him in the main step so you can have some freedom to use the 3 mana, and 3 free mana seemed pretty game breaking for me. Even so, his 3/3 body looks really solid, so maybe you can treat the ability as a rare bonus.

Frogmite

For you to be able to cast Frogmite at reasonable cost, you'd need two artifact before casting Frogmite (it'll end up casting two mana). But in my opinion if you can gather some artifacts (like 3 or 4) it'll be pretty nice to have a really cheap or even free additional 2/2 body.

Glint Hawk Idol

I haven't check with other flyer in the deck, but 2/2 flier seemed pretty nice. Hawk Idol is easy to trigger and also very cheap to transform. Like Chimeric Mass, you'd have to time their use well (Although, unlike Monuments, those are really cheap to transform.

Gust-Skimmer

I think 2 mana is quite reasonable for 2/1 flier, as 2 damage can adds up fast unless your opponent plays a flier as well. In my opinion though, you probably shouldn't play it if you cannot reliably use it flying ability.

Myr Enforcer
When you draft a bunch of artifacts, you could get a sweet price casting this. Playing multiple 4/4 in single turn is really good and it's a common so you can draft around it easily. During early part of the game though, I don't think you'll want to see it at all.

Runed Servitor
I think Runed Servitor is just OK. As much as I like to draw card, I don't really happy when my opponent does the same because of my own card.

Rusted Relic

Rusted Relic does nothing unless you have 2 other artifact, and I don't think that it's hard to achieve. If you cast artifact turn 2 and turn 3, Relic will come on turn 4 as 5/5 that can block, and I think that's really solid.

Skyreach Manta

The same as Etched Oracle, I prefer to see that Skyreach Manta gets less power the less diverse mana you have. However, that might be mitigated a little bit by it's flying ability. If you could get 4 mana, it will be awesome already, and if you could get to 5 mana, I think 5/5 flier won't dissapoint.

Etched Oracle (Uncommon)
Unlike Monstrosity, which can wait for the mana to gather later, Etched Oracle would need you to have at least four source of different color to have it reach it's full potential lest you'd get an underpowered artifact creature. The fact that it's power/toughness is also limited by your mana availability worries me a bit as well. The ability is impressive, however you will also be losing Oracle, so maybe it would be nice to activate the ability as a response to something that will cost you the Oracle as well. And that's why I think 4 color mana is going to be valuable when playing her.   

Chimeric Mass (Rare)
Chimeric Mass can be as big as you want if you have the mana. It's cheap to turn into creature but you'll have to pick whether you want him as a defender or attacker. Overall it's value is quite solid the longer the game gets.

Etched Champion (Rare)

The cover boy of the set, Etched champion have a powerful Metalcraft effect (and he counts as one as well). As it's Metalcraft will be easily activated, and there are a lot of things you can do by having protection, I think Champion is going to be an amazing card.

Etched Monstrosity (Rare)

I think it's rare to see a 5/5 with 5 mana cost. When you can gather all 5 color of mana you'll be getting a ton of advantage from him.

Lodestone Golem (Rare)
Lodestone makes any nonartifact more expensive by 1 mana, this could hurt both you or your opponent, of course, when you could build a dominant artifact deck this will be good for you, but if you are not, and your opponent have many artifacts, it would spell only trouble. Ability aside, 5/3 for 4 mana is pretty great.

Lodestone Myr (Rare)

Lodestone Myr grows by tapping your unused artifacts. I think this is great if you have an artifact that doesn't need to be tapped to be used, otherwise, I think you'd need to tap quite a number of them if you want the Myr to be big, as the base 2/2 is really low for a 4 mana creature. Perhaps he'll shine in game Stalls though, as you can just converge all your artifact creature into him.

Precursor Golem (Rare)
I'd say this card is insane. Pay 5 to have three 3/3 creature is amazing. It's ability could be both its weakness or strength, and if there are pump instant or sorceries, they will benefit greatly. I also think that the ability also extends to other Golem as well, not just the Precursor Golem.

Spellskite (Rare)
Spellskite will mess your opponent's plan with their removals or ability. It's cheap, high toughness to survive burn spells. It's great.

For me, the common ranks are:
1. Alloy Myr
2. Binding Souleater
3. Rusted Relic
4. Glint Hawk Idol
5. Cathodion
6. Frogmite & Myr Enforcer
7. Skyreach Manta
8. Gust Skimmer
9. Runed Servitor

Honestly I think Runed Servitor is far inferior compared to the others. The only rare I'm uninterested with is Lodestone Myr.

There are all of the artifact creatures of Modern Masters 2015! Solid enough to build a deck around? See you in the next part!


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