Pointed Discussion

If it were a little more expensive WITHOUT an echo cost, it would be playable, but this is only for casual play. You can't Tinker or Dark Ritual for it because of echo... :(

Card of the Day - Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Urza's BlueprintsUrza's Legacy rare. The scene in the Urza's Blueprints art appears to come after the blueprints have already been used, since we can clearly see the mostly-built Weatherlight on the left. One can only assume that the blueprints were being used for a last-minute checklist before the voyage began.

Even if you don't play the echo cost, you don't lose card advantage provided you tap it immediately.
Still, by the time you have 6 mana to fool around with, why not play Jayemdae Tome or another artifact card-drawer?

If your so worried about the Echo, why not just play with Thick-Skinned Goblin?

the reason you dont play the tome is because once the mana has been spent on this, it is an additonal (and optional) draw every turn. Assuming you dont use other stuff to untap artifacts its, 6 mana - draw a card, another 6 mana - you may choose to draw an additional card every turn you take.

the tome on the other hand is 4 to draw a card every time.

Card of the Day - Monday, November 29, 2010
Urza's Legacy rare. The blueprints in Urza's Blueprints are for the creation of the Skyship Weatherlight. When Urza had built it, he needed the perfect captain, so he started a long-term breeding plan that eventually produced Gerrard Capashen.

How can you say Jayemdae Tome is better? Here the average cost per card drawn by Tome and Blueprints:
Draw 1: Tome: 8, Blueprints: 6
Draw 2: Tome: 6, Blueprints: 6 or 3 (if you activate it in response to the upkeep cost)
Draw 3: 5.3, Blueprints: 4
Draw 4: 5, Blueprints: 3
Draw 5: 4,8 Blueprints: 2,4

So, the tome can be used on turn 5, which is one turn earlier than the blueprints. However, the tome is much more expensive to draw cards with. Also, if you play the tome without having the mana to instantly activate it, you give your opponent the chance to kill it before you can get any value of it. The blueprints however can be tapped the turn you play them, in response to any removal.

I'd play the blueprints always over the tome.

In my never-ending quest to gain sustained card advantage in artifact decks, having discounted Howling Mine tapping shenanigans and Trigon of Thought bouncing, I landed on good old Urza's Blueprints. Actually, I'm pleasantly surprised. With the addition of Grand Architect to the scene, by turn 4-5 you're usually going to be heavy on (colorless) mana and low on cards. When every one of your Trinket Mages, Etherium Sculptors, and Riddlesmiths can tap to produce 2 and mana accelerators like Everflowing Chalice and Grim Monolith abound, playing this by turn 3-4 becomes trivial, as does paying the echo cost. And after that, you're pretty much set; grab some Voltaic Keys and go to town. No muss, no fuss, no paying or bouncing to put counters back on, no tapping it down with Vedalken Certarch to keep ahead, just straight up, hard card advantage. Also, this has the advantage over Vedalken Archmage of not murdering you if you have more than one out. It gives you complete control over your draws, whereas too many Archmages will deck you before you know what happened.

The other standbys for draw in artifact decks, Thoughtcast and Thirst for Knowledge, still have their place. But with how much artifact acceleration blue has gotten recently, this is starting to become more and more appealing. I certainly still see more aggro-based decks preferring the instants, though.

And run this with Karn, Silver Golem or March of the Machines so your opponent can experience the sheer terror of a 6/6 piece of paper crushing their armies!

Mike-C, I fail to see how Venser (I'm assuming you're talking about the planeswalker) can do anything useful with this, other than making you pay the echo cost every turn. You play this, and can only use Venser's ability any time you can play a sorcery. So even if you bounced it, it would come back in, and on your next turn, you'd STILL have to pay the upkeep cost. Unless you plan on playing it, tapping, bouncing, then tapping again, then sac'ing next turn, which to me seems like a huge waste of mana.

Thick-skinned Goblin or Eon Hub would be great for cards like this. I've actually made a deck that involves lots of cheap cards with echo, and not having to pay their costs. Definitely not a competitive deck, but it's fun none the less.

I also use this card mostly in EDH. over 2 turns isn't all that bad in this format, especially in the right deck. Even without Tolarian Academy in the format, it's not unusual for a good deck to have 8+ mana on turn 3 or 4.

Yet another basketball for Venser to play with.

@endersblade- ahh. Right you are. I stand corrected.

A bit expensive, but when you manage to play it, it truly shines

Is it worth it?

Clock of Omens

Worth it.

Compare with Staff of Nin. This will still net +1 card if they destroy it right away, the staff will only net 1 damage. And this will also draw 2 cards by the time the staff gets 1. Oh and untap effects.

All for the low-low price of 12 mana over 2 turns.