Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Core 2019, where this week I’m exploring some of the new cards from the new set. Yesterday, I talked about how Zombies will be taking over the battlefield once again, while today I shift my focus to artifacts.
One of the archetypes in Core 2019 is artifacts matter, so I'll be talking about some cards that fit into that today. The great thing about Standard having more cards that like artifacts is that it fits well with the historic mechanic from Dominaria. This could even lead to a Standard historic deck focused around artifacts.
I want to start today off by looking at a card draw spell that could draw you anywhere from 0 to 6 cards, depending on what you’ve currently got on the battlefield. Here is One with the Machine:
This is one of those cards that could be dead in your hand, or it could be great. Thinking about some of the most played artifacts, a lot of them cost two mana like Heart of Kiran, Sorcerous Spyglass, or Treasure Map. I'd say you really hit a home run with this card if you draw four or more cards.
Here are some artifacts you could play to draw that many cards: Icy Manipulator is a great defensive card and four mana to boot. The Immortal Sun helps all aspects of your game, and could even draw you six cards. Another great one is Torrential Gearhulk. You can play it end of turn, then draw six cards on your turn.
Next, I want to talk about a Legendary creature that will reward you for playing a ton of artifacts in your deck. Let's take a look at Sai, Master Thopterist:
There are two levels to this creature. First, it will create a 1/1 Artifact Thopter token anytime you cast an artifact. This adds two artifacts to your battlefield for every one that you cast. If you have a lot of cheap artifacts that you can cast, Sai, Master Thopterist will give you even more value out of them thanks to the token it creates.
There's a unique challenge in figuring out the value of the next part of this card. It's a draw card ability, but one that requires you to sacrifice two of your own artifacts to use. This means you probably won’t be able to use it multiple times per turn. For even more value, you can sacrifice artifacts that give you something when they go to the graveyard, like Scrap Trawler. Each artifact you sacrifice this way could draw you another artifact that you can use to repeat the process.
Some other great artifacts to use are the five-card cycle from Aether Revolt that includes Implement of Combustion. If you have two of those in play and sacrifice them, you are now drawing three cards instead of one. Servo Schematic is another artifact that will gain you more value in the form of a 1/1 Servo token if sacrificed.
Last, but certainly not least, we have the return of Tezzeret. He often switches between mono-blue and multicoloured, but his love of artifacts never changes. Here is Tezzeret, Artifice Master:
To start off, you get five loyalty for five mana, which is average. Now, let’s breakdown all the Planeswalker abilities.
[+1]: Create a 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying. – This is a great ability. It adds artifacts to the battlefield, and lets Tezzeret protect himself. If you don’t need them to block, you can amass an army of flyers to take out your opponent over time.
[0]: Draw a card. If you control three or more artifacts, draw two cards instead. – I like this ability because even if you don’t have the three artifacts needed to draw two cards, you still get something. You can still draw an extra card every turn and get some card advantage without losing any loyalty counters.
[-9]: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your end step, search your library for a permanent card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library." – Wow, this ultimate is a game changer. Each end step you get to tutor for any permanent from your deck, allowing you to shape the rest of the game in your favour. This is quite the powerful ability if you can get to it, but it’ll take five turns just to get there without any outside help.
As you can see, artifacts are coming to take us away. The only question you must ask yourself is what side will you be on?
Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Core 2019. Join me tomorrow as I go over some of the best new artifacts from Core 2019.
