Resolving Tinker is synonymous with Winning more often than not. It either puts your opponent on a two turn clock from a giant angry robot, or you combo off for the win with a fresh hand. Did I mention it can be an Armageddon? There is only one 3-cost sorcery stronger than Tinker, and I hope it stays that way. The power level of this card is absurd.
MrChuckles
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(6 votes)
I love this card...
2pcsofcandy
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(18 votes)
I think the fact that this card is only an uncommon embodies the ridiculousness that is Urza block.
Darklit_Gargoyle
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(6 votes)
turn 3 inkwell leviathen
SlackWareWolf
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(8 votes)
Turn 3? Turn 1! (Lotus, or Fastbond + Lands or Moxes)....
Malachorn
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(9 votes)
So, waitasec, you're telling me that when I play this card that I have to also sacrifice one of my artifacts? The ability better be pretty freaking amazing... um... waitanothersec... you're telling me that I get to get ANY artifact in my deck and I can put it straight into play?!??!?
Holy crap!!! Did they even playtest this card?!?!?
...actually, why would they even have to playtest this card to not realise how freaking insanely broken that idea is?!?!?
may seen bad at first glance but 4 words: darksteel colossus, turn three. It wasn't quite as good when they made it because the best thing you could get was phyrexian collosus
SleetFox
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(10 votes)
This card could be reprinted under a new name and be unbroken by requiring the artifact to have an equal or lesser converted mana cost. It would still be pretty darn powerful, just not turning Welding Jar into Darksteel Colossus powerful.
Taltor
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(12 votes)
well, for those who state that Urza block had too crazy cards, remember that Urza lived to be over 4000 years old and was arguably the greatest artificer ever. Not to mention he had the support and influence of artificers rivaling his expertise, including Tocasia, Jhoria, Teferi, Sisay, and others. Besides, he figured out how to speed up and slow down time. Over powered, perhaps, but Phyrexia was an opponent that demanded nothing less.
Belz_
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
@Taltor:
I don't think flavour justifies overpowered mechanics in-game.
That said, I didn't live through Urza block so I can't speak for its overpowered-ness...
Chosen_of_the_Dark_Sun
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(7 votes)
I love how Gornash down there says "may seem bad at first glance, but...". No Gornash, I'm pretty sure everyone immediately sees how absurd this thing is.
I like turning things into Time Vaults more...the fact that everyone's fixated on artifact creatures kind of makes me laugh.
bijart_dauth
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
forget inkwell, or darksteel, or Aladdin's lamp (don't really know why that was even mentioned), i like the gleemax idea, but really, i think darksteel forge would be one of the best cards to have early game, simply because if you have a pretty good guaranty that every card you cast will be very difficult to kill (if not impossible), than you can pull some very destructive combos, (see Nevinyrral's Disk) yes the colossus could win you right then (well, decide the game any way) fewer people are going to be running artifact exile (or permanent exile) than creature exile, and exiling all you creatures (thus making your forge useless,) is harder than exiling one
Stray_Dog
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(14 votes)
"Maybe we should make it rare and cost ?"
"Nonsense. No one would ever use that. is at least playable."
You can use Lotus Petal in place of the Mox Opal too.
ChaosFire
★★☆☆☆ (2.4/5.0)(6 votes)
@VampireCat:
Ok...Tinker is only legal in Vintage. You're not going to play artifact lands in Vintage, they're worse than basic lands for Vintage's purposes. Secondly, why even bother with the artifact lands, you have a sol ring and a mox out.
As for everyone else...
GET OFF THE BLIGHTSTEEL HORSE. It's just a creature. You know what wins the turn it comes out? Time Vault. None of this waiting-a-turn crap. And that's important. Because unless something's gone horribly, horribly wrong, Vintage games don't go longer than MAYBE your turn 2, usually not even that long.
Here: Mox Saphire, Mana Vault, Tolarian Academy, play Tinker sacking Mana Vault putting Time Vault into play tapped, play Voltaic Key with one of your floating mana and use the other to activate the kay and untap the Time Vault. Use Time Vault and take infinite turns until you've played enough lands and Voltaic Keys to win with a Phyrexian Collossus. Or your beloved Blightsteel Collossus.
Oh, and my de***ion up there left you with 2 cards still in hand, aka Force of Will and something blue.
I love Vintage.
EDIT: Apparently S C R I P T is in the censor somehow...
I guess this has been fixed by Kuldotha Forgemaster.
Pontiac
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(5 votes)
This card won me more games than I can count, I cast tutor and my opponent would ask "getting Ancestral?" nope "Time Walk?" nope, tinker my mox (whatever) Colussus of Sardia
drop Voltec Key. they'd plow or disenchant, I'd Force of Will, Counterspell, Force Spike or Mana Drain they'd scoop.
Then they printed Darksteel Colossus and things got even easier!
Kami_Kira12485
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(2 votes)
@VampireCat: Why not add TWOLotus Petals and add {R} for Crimson Wisps, and kill them by turn 1?
CovetousDragon
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(11 votes)
"I wonder how it feels to create balanced cards." -Unknown designer of the Urza's Block team.
The thing is, no Time Vault deck would be caught dead without Tinker, probably few to zero Tendrils cards would be caught dead without Time Vault.
Many many cards are broken in Old School Magic, and many of them lead to dominatingly powerful decks.
Tinker just might be one of the EASIEST to see exactly what you do with it and make decks that do stupid things, though. I mean you don't have to own or have played against Moxen to know that your Ornithopter is one of the best cards in your deck when you look at Tinker.
Wizards tries to avoid printing undercosted cards because they lead to fast ways to win. But they LOVE making ALL KINDS of over-costed shite, especially in Artifacts. Tinker cheats on Mana and on Tutoring to do such incredibly stupid things that I wouldn't be surprised if I could win a few games with DRACO at a Vintage tournament, just because removal or no, Tinker gets my Draco out before you can do carp about it and Lightning Greaves and Animate Dead let me use it as a big honking Ball Lightning if I so choose.
This would be a TERRIBLY weak application of Tinker, but it would totally work against a massive number of decks, because Tinker is dumb.
TheKazu
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Highest rated card in Urza's Block.
That's saying something.
omni8000
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(5 votes)
"oh no you guys, they printed that tinker card at the wrong rarity!" "OH GOD NO!" "yeah, draft is gonna suck without this being at a common" "I know, blues looking terrible this block" - Urza's development secret files
TheManakinTransfer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is banned or restricted in every format other than block constructed and freeform which basically has nearly every insanely busted degenerate deck already available to it in order to balance itself out. That tells you something very important about Urza Block.
Earthdawn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Poor Jhoira, nobody likes what she can do.
Aquillion
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Re: Some people suggesting ways to make it balanced.
The amusing thing is that they already printed a balanced version of this -- years before this card was printed. Transmute Artifact is still overwhelmingly powerful, but not game-breaking. (It didn't get as much attention, because there were fewer artifacts when it was current, and it never got reprinted after Antiquities.)
Anyway, this card is even more broken than it seems at first glance. Usually, cost-cheating cards are balanced by the fact that you have to have an expensive card in your hand at the same time to use them; if you draw either one alone, they're useless (or less useful.) Combining tutoring and cost-cheating in one card is almost always going to be gamebreaking. See also Stoneforge Mystic, which made the same mistake.
Comments (42)
Holy crap!!! Did they even playtest this card?!?!?
...actually, why would they even have to playtest this card to not realise how freaking insanely broken that idea is?!?!?
>.>
I don't think flavour justifies overpowered mechanics in-game.
That said, I didn't live through Urza block so I can't speak for its overpowered-ness...
"Nonsense. No one would ever use that.
You can use Lotus Petal in place of the Mox Opal too.
Ok...Tinker is only legal in Vintage. You're not going to play artifact lands in Vintage, they're worse than basic lands for Vintage's purposes. Secondly, why even bother with the artifact lands, you have a sol ring and a mox out.
As for everyone else...
GET OFF THE BLIGHTSTEEL HORSE. It's just a creature. You know what wins the turn it comes out? Time Vault. None of this waiting-a-turn crap. And that's important. Because unless something's gone horribly, horribly wrong, Vintage games don't go longer than MAYBE your turn 2, usually not even that long.
Here: Mox Saphire, Mana Vault, Tolarian Academy, play Tinker sacking Mana Vault putting Time Vault into play tapped, play Voltaic Key with one of your floating mana and use the other to activate the kay and untap the Time Vault. Use Time Vault and take infinite turns until you've played enough lands and Voltaic Keys to win with a Phyrexian Collossus. Or your beloved Blightsteel Collossus.
Oh, and my de***ion up there left you with 2 cards still in hand, aka Force of Will and something blue.
I love Vintage.
EDIT: Apparently S C R I P T is in the censor somehow...
drop Voltec Key. they'd plow or disenchant, I'd Force of Will, Counterspell, Force Spike or Mana Drain they'd scoop.
Then they printed Darksteel Colossus and things got even easier!
that's one cool hidden art..
Or use Reckless Charge if you wanna keep Blightsteel colorless. Also, I don't believe in overkill.
Time Vault is also such a card.
And Tendrils of Agony.
The thing is, no Time Vault deck would be caught dead without Tinker, probably few to zero Tendrils cards would be caught dead without Time Vault.
Many many cards are broken in Old School Magic, and many of them lead to dominatingly powerful decks.
Tinker just might be one of the EASIEST to see exactly what you do with it and make decks that do stupid things, though. I mean you don't have to own or have played against Moxen to know that your Ornithopter is one of the best cards in your deck when you look at Tinker.
Wizards tries to avoid printing undercosted cards because they lead to fast ways to win. But they LOVE making ALL KINDS of over-costed shite, especially in Artifacts. Tinker cheats on Mana and on Tutoring to do such incredibly stupid things that I wouldn't be surprised if I could win a few games with DRACO at a Vintage tournament, just because removal or no, Tinker gets my Draco out before you can do carp about it and Lightning Greaves and Animate Dead let me use it as a big honking Ball Lightning if I so choose.
This would be a TERRIBLY weak application of Tinker, but it would totally work against a massive number of decks, because Tinker is dumb.
That's saying something.
The amusing thing is that they already printed a balanced version of this -- years before this card was printed. Transmute Artifact is still overwhelmingly powerful, but not game-breaking. (It didn't get as much attention, because there were fewer artifacts when it was current, and it never got reprinted after Antiquities.)
Anyway, this card is even more broken than it seems at first glance. Usually, cost-cheating cards are balanced by the fact that you have to have an expensive card in your hand at the same time to use them; if you draw either one alone, they're useless (or less useful.) Combining tutoring and cost-cheating in one card is almost always going to be gamebreaking. See also Stoneforge Mystic, which made the same mistake.