Invasion - a Complete Review (artifact)

• intro
• white
• blue
• black
• red
• green
• multicolor
• split
• artifact
• land

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
You can choose black to make the Golem invulnerable to certain black spells like Dark Banishing. I guess it could be useful if you want to tweak the number of permanents of a color there are in play, or if you want to cast something like Favorable Destiny on the Golem. Still, none of this warrants paying 6 mana for a 4/4.

298. Bloodstone Cameo, 3, Artifact, Common T: Add B or R to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
If Mirage diamonds and Yagmoth body parts were played quite a bit, and they were, these will be popular as well. I love the fact that they're common, making cheap multicolor decks possible.

299. Chromatic Sphere, 1, Artifact, Uncommon 1, T, Sacrifice Chromatic Sphere: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Draw a card.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
Barbed Sextant revisited. I guess it could come in handy in a deck that just needs one off-color mana during the final turn, but it's such an uninspired choice for reprinting, I'm not giving it any marks above 1.

300. Crosis's Attendant, 5, Artifact Creature - Golem 3/3, Uncommon 1, Sacrifice Crosis's Attendant: Add UBR to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
I guess these can help to bring out the dragon legends, but they're not very good otherwise. It's nice to have different mana colors available from one card, but you need to sacrifice the card, making it not much of a trade. I guess a few of these, an Anarchist, Living Death and a way to sacrifice the Anarchist could give unbounded mana, but there have to be easier ways to do that.

301. Darigaaz's Attendant, 5, Artifact Creature - Golem 3/3, Uncommon 1, Sacrifice Darigaaz's Attendant: Add BRG to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
Ditto.

302. Darke-Skull Cameo, 3, Artifact, Uncommon T: Add U or B to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
Drat, maybe they aren't common after all. That costs them some fun rating.

303. Dromar's Attendant, 5, Artifact Creature - Golem 3/3, Uncommon 1, Sacrifice Dromar's Attendant: Add WUB to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
See the other attendants.

304. Juntu Stakes, 2, Artifact, Rare Creatures with power 1 or less don't untap during their controllers' untap steps.

==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 4
It won't do much good against weenies, because they tend to have at least 2 power, but it'll stop quite a few irritating cards, like Tradewind Rider, Mother of Runes etc. It becomes even more fun under Living Plane.

305. Lotus Guardian, 7, Artifact Creature 4/4, Rare Flying T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
By the time you can cast this, who needs more mana? The power of Bird of Paradise and such is that they come out on turn one. A bad rare, but if the picture on it reminds of Birds of Paradise it could become a pretty expensive one, because it already has Lotus in its name, which automatically adds quite a bit to the card's value.

306. Phyrexian Altar, 3, Artifact, Rare Sacrifice a creature: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
Ashnod's Altar, but you get only one mana per creature. Colored mana, though. I'm sure there's some sort of engine deck just waiting to happen that will put this to good use, but that doesn't make it a good card. It has some fun potential, though.

307. Phyrexian Lens, 3, Artifact, Rare T, Pay 1 life: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 2
I don't think any deck will be that desperate for 5 color mana.

308. Plannar Portal, 6, Artifact, Rare 6, T: Search your library for a card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 5
A reuseable Demonic Tutor? Sign me up! The mana cost might keep it out of tournaments, but this baby can make quite a few of my bad combo decks work.

309. Power Armor, 4, Artifact, Uncommon 3, T: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each basic land type among lands you control.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
This will be big in sealed, obviously. Even at only +3/+3 it's quite good. At +5/+5 it's ridiculous.

310. Rith's Attendent, 5, Artifact Creature - Golem 3/3, Uncommon 1, Sacrifice Rith's Attendant: Add RGW to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
See the other attendants.

311. Seashell Cameo, 3, Artifact, Uncommon T: Add W or U to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
Yup, it looks like they're uncommon after all.

312. Sparring Golem, 3, Artifact Creature - Golem 2/2, Uncommon Whenever Sparring Golem becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each creature blocking it.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
Usable artifact creatures are rare and the ones that are any good are usually good only because they have a very special ability (Bottle Gnomes, Ticking Gnomes, Metal Worker etc). You can't really call neo-rampage a very special ability, yet Sparring Golem is quite playable. It's not great, but if it gets blocked, it's at least a 3/3 for 3 mana, which is solid.

313. Tek, 5, Artifact Creature - Dragon 2/2, Rare As long as you control a plains, Tek gets +0/+2. As long as you control an island, Tek has flying. As long as you control a swamp, Tek gets +2/+0. As long as you control a mountain, Tek has first strike. As long as you control a forest, Tek has trample.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 5
This is one of those cards that succeeds in rewarding players for getting out a lot of different basic lands. If you have all the basic lands out, you have a 4/4 flyer with first strike and trample for 5 mana. Not bad.

314. Tigereye Cameo, 3, Artifact, Uncommon T: Add G or W to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3

315. Treva's Attendant, 5, Artifact Creature - Golem 3/3, Uncommon 1, Sacrifice Treva's Attendant: Add GWU to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
See the other attendants.

316. Troll-Horn Cameo, 3, Artifact, Uncommon T: Add R or G to your mana pool.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3

317. Tsabo's Web, 2, Artifact, Rare When Tsabo's Web comes into play, draw a card. Lands with an activated ability that doesn't produce mana don't untap during their controllers' untap steps.

==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 4
Every color gets a good Port hoser. If people persist in using Ports, expect a lot of these in sideboards. It's a generally useful card against other lands as well, like Volrath's Stronghold, Kjeldoran Outpost (and I only just got one! Argh!) and even High Market. Not to mention Thawing Glaciers, so it might pop up in extended as well.

318. Urza's Filter, 4, Artifact, Rare Multicolored spells cost up to 2 less to play.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
I once tried to make a multicolor-only deck, but it failed miserably. That's probably because I used Thawing Glaciers as the only way of getting the land I wanted. Still, I don't know how useful this will be, because a lot of multicolored spells don't have a big generic component. I guess you can cast Lobotomies for 2 mana, but still.