Mercadian Masques - a Complete Review (artifact)

• white
• blue
• black
• red
• green
• artifact
• land
• conclusion

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 5
This is nice. A bit expensive as far as carddrawing goes, but it'll work great in a black deck with Bone Shredders, Thrull Surgeons and other nasty, somewhat situational creatures.

287 Barbed Wire 3 Artifact U At the beginning of each player's upkeep Barbed Wire deals 1 damage to that player. 2: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt by Barbed Wire this turn.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 2
Not versatile enough and too slow to make much difference. Too boring for fun play.

288 Bargaining Table 5 Artifact R X, T: Draw a card. X equals to the number of cards in opponent's hand.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
Drawing is nice, but I'd rather have the grand daddy of all tomes: Jayemdae Tome. Or Urza's Blueprints.

289 Credit Voucher 2 Artifact U 2, T, Sacrifice Credit Voucher: Shuffle any number of cards from your hand into your library, then draw that many cards.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
This is no replacement for Scroll Rack. Having to sacrifice it makes it strictly worse than cards like Tolarian Winds that never see play anyway.

290 Crenelated Wall 4 Artifact Creature-Wall U 0/4. T: Target creature gets +0/+4 until end of turn.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
A more interesting version of Endoskeleton, but the 4 mana is a bit much for what mommy does better.

291 Crooked Scales 4 Artifact R (flip a coin. if you win, destroy target creature. if you lose, you may pay 3 to reflip, or opponent destroys target creature)

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 1
I'm assuming this requires sacrificing the scales, not just tapping them, in which case they'd have a lot more potential. I like this version of flipping coins, because there is more tactical thinking involved. Do you do it now for a 50-50 chance or do you take one hit from the creature and wait until you've untapped for a 75-25 chance? Still, it's a bad card if the wording is what I think it is. Masticore is probably always better to have.

292 Crumbling Sanctuary 5 Artifact R For each 1 damage that would be dealt to a player, that player removes the top card from his library instead.

==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 4
I assume the removal is from the game. People have compared this to Thought Lash, but that has a cumulative upkeep of removing cards from the game and, I believe, you have to remove your whole library from the game if it leaves play. By comparison, this is a whole lot more playable. If you play about 13 rounds on average, this is the equivalent of 60-(7+13) = 40 extra life! For 5 mana, that's a bargain. I suspect this will see quite a bit of play.

293 Distorting Lens 2 Artifact R T: Target permanent becomes color of your choice until end of turn.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
It's no Thran Lens, but there's bound to be a fun deck waiting to be made with 4 of these and lots of bad color hosers that have never seen any play because they're too situational. Decomposition for one or maindeck pyroblasts AND hydroblasts. Too bad this is rare.

294 Eye of Ramos 3 Artifact R T: Add one blue mana to your mana pool. Sacrifice Eye of Ramos: Add one blue mana to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 1
It remains to be seen whether these will turn out better or worse than the Mirage diamonds. On one hand you can tap them for mana immediately, but how often will you have something to cast with it? Compare that to the rather minimal bonus of being able to sacrifice it for mana in a pinch. It's close, I think. From a fun point of view, it's a crap rare and worse, there are five of them.

295 General's Regalia 3 Artifact R 3: The next time a source of your choice would deal damage to you this turn, that damage is dealt to target creature you control instead.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
It's no Pariah, but I can see this getting used in control decks. Nice with Earthquakes to keep yourself healthy or in permission decks to keep the fire away from you.

296 Heart of Ramos 3 Artifact R T: Add one red mana to your mana pool. Sacrifice Heart of Ramos: Add one red mana to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 1

297 Henge Guardian 5 Artifact Creature-Guardian U 3/4. 2: Henge Guardian gains trample until end of turn.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
Every color has better creatures than this, so why would this get used?

298 Horn of Plenty 6 Artifact R Whenever a player plays a spell, he or she may pay 1. If that player does, he or she draws a card at end of turn.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 5
It's nice, but way too expensive for a shared ability like this.

299 Horn of Ramos 3 Artifact R T: Add one green mana to your mana pool. Sacrifice Horn of Ramos: Add one green mana to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
Green of all colors doesn't need this bit of junk.

300 Iron Lance 2 Artifact U 3, T: Target creature gains first strike until end of turn.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
Nice to get an edge in creature battles, but expensive. Knighthood is cheaper and never played.

301 Jeweled Torque 2 Artifact U Choose a color as Jeweled Torque comes into play. When a spell of chosen color is played, you may pay 2 to gain 2 life.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
All the lucky charms in artifact. Fun, but still not playable methinks.

302 Kyren Archive 3 Artifact R At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove the top card of your library from the game face down. 5, Discard your hand, Sacrifice Kyren Archive: Put all cards removed from the game with Kyren Archive into their owner's hand.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
This is a bit like Pursuit of Knowledge: nice cardadvantage, but too slow in practice. That's what it looks like to me anyway.

303 Kyren Toy 3 Artifact R 1, T: Put a charge counter on this card. T: Remove X charge counters: Add X plus one colorless mana to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
A colorless Mana Battery. It's probably too slow, but I could be wrong. Then again, it's not very impressive compared to Thran Dynamo.

304 Magistrate's Scepter 3 Artifact R 4, T: Put a charge counter on Magistrate's Scepter. T, Remove three charge counters from Magistrate's Scepter: Take another turn after this one.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 4
For 12 mana and 3 turns of waiting, you get a free turn. For Time Vault you had to give up a turn first, but I think this is just too expensive. Will be good fun in friendly play.

305 Mercadian Atlas 5 Artifact R At the end of your turn, if you didn't play a land this turn, you may draw a card.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
At 5 available mana, most decks won't really need to play anymore land, so this'll be nice for them. The question is whether weenie decks can afford the casting cost.

306 Mercadian Lift 2 Artifact R 1, T: Put a winch counter of Mercadian Lift. T: Remove X winch counters. Put a creature with converted cost of X into play from your hand.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 3
A really slow version of Quicksilver Amulet. I don't see the point.

307 Monkey Cage 5 Artifact R When a creature comes into play, sacrifice Monkey Cage and put X 2/2 green Ape tokens into play where X equals to that creature's converted mana cost.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 5
I think it's just too likely your opponent will cast some weenie before you get to untap and cast something big. And that's too bad, because I like this card. Goes well in my monkey deck: Simian Grunts, Uktabi Orangutan, Hidden Gibbons, Gorilla Warrior and of course Ancient Silverback (all those apes need a leader to stop them monkeying around, if you'll excuse the pun).

308 Panacea 4 Artifact U XX, T: Prevent the next X damage that would be dealt to target creature or player.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
Just too expensive.

309 Power Matrix 4 Artifact R T: Until end of turn, target creature gets +1/+1, flying, first strike and trample.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
This is quite a bit better than the one that only gave first strike and even that at a hefty cost. It still doesn't seem like it'll make the cut, though. Maybe if evasion becomes an issue.

310 Puffer Extract 5 Artifact U X, T: Target creature you control gets +X/+X until end of turn. Destroy it at end of turn.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
Too expensive for something your opponent will see coming.

311 Rishadan Pawnshop 2 Artifact R 2, T: Shuffle target card you control into its owner's library.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
Protection against the Urza Lobotomies, I guess. Not a good card.

312 Skull of Ramos 3 Artifact R T: Add one black mana to your mana pool. Sacrifice Skull of Ramos: Add one black mana to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 1

313 Tooth of Ramos 3 Artifact R T: Add one white mana to your mana pool. Sacrifice Tooth of Ramos: Add one white mana to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 1

314 Toymaker 2 Artifact Creature-Spellshaper R 1/1. 1, T, Discard a card: Target non-creature Artifact becomes Artifact Creature cost/cost until end of turn.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
Give me Karn instead of this guy any day.

315 Worry Beads 3 Artifact R At the beginning of a player's upkeep, he or she puts the top card of the library into his or her graveyard.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 4
There are much better millers around, but it's fun in multiplayer if you're playing a reanimation deck. You get your pick of the best creatures in all the graveyards. I can see people worrying already: "Please, not the Verdant Force, not the Verdant Force!"