Pointed Discussion

interesting mechanic, yet the result of that is far too weak

Works wonders with Merchant Ship.

Ulgh, this card is terrible on so many levels. Who on earth would want to forgo doing damage to an opponent AND pay 2 mana just to get a counter that can later be used to regenerate a creature for 2 MORE mana? This is kind of ridiculous. If all that was required to put the counter on the Cube was the negated damage and a tap and all that was required to activate a regeneration shield was to remove a counter, THEN maybe I'd consider using this in a deck. And even then it's a big maybe.

Not the best card. Works best with the 0 CMC Kobolds from Legends or an Ornithopter.

Back in the day, I thought it was pretty sweet, though. Then again, when I was a kid, I thought The Dark and Fallen Empires were the coolest sets out there, lol... Though Green and Black were pretty good in Fallen Empires.

combo with storm crow

Works great with multiple attackers. If they try and take down your big guy, you prevent the little one's damage and regen your bruiser.

I guess the only real appeal here is that it's an artifact, but the fact is that is still two mana, and I have no desire to meet a condition to have to regenerate.

And what on earth is the flavor here?!

If the regeneration and other activated ability didn't cost mana, this card would still be bad. But at least it would be excusable.

Terrible. Had it just put counters on when a creature dealt combat damage to a foe, it would have been rather useful. As is, it's just another way to get yourself killed.

Whos is Delif and why does he/she have such crappy contraptions?? i wouldnt even use this card for killing spiders.

4 mana and you get to stop one of your creatures from doing damage to regenerate one in the future. WHY?!?!?!

This is among the worst cards ever printed, which is a shame because the designers were toying with interesting design space when they built Delif's cards. Someone mentioned Ornithopter as an idea which at least causes this card to function as a complex 4: Regenerate target creature. Generally speaking though this card is actively stopping you from winning the game by preventing damage for not much gain.

I did have a notion when I looked at it again to pair it with Goblin Psychopath to prevent the damage it would deal to YOU, but... at the point you've made a deck with Delif's Cube and Goblin Psychopath you've gone down the slippery slope of insanity. Maybe that's the key? Are there any other creatures out there that you wouldn't want to deal combat damage from YOUR side of the battlefield? At that point you might have a quirky deck concept.

This would be sort of cool if both adding and removing counters cost no mana. As it is, it's overpriced. But what do you expect from Fallen Empires?

It sole purpose was to have someone spend a force of will.

I think most people forget, that in the days of this card, there was a number of creatures that would have an ability which would trigger upon that creature being unblocked, and then that creature would deal no combat damage but you'd get some effect. Like Orcish Squatters. There were also some auras and other cards that give creatures such abilities. With the cube, you could get the abilities from those creatures and still charge up the cube.

What I also like is that you don't have to tap the cube to use the regeneration ability. And it wasn't that bad for multiplayer either.

Sure, it's bad, but not as bad as some people assume.

Poor Delif.... going down as the worst Artificer amongst the planes....

There shouldn't be any costs involved in the abilities. Preventing the damage is already enough of a payment in my opinion and Delif's Cone actually has a really nifty use in suicide aggro decks as a way to help cushion the blow when someone smites your fatty as it's going in for the kill.

There's not much payoff to use this card, but back in the day it could be used interestingly enough. Say you have a Juzam Djinn on the board alongside a drudge skeleton. You attack with both, your opponant obviously wont block the drudge since it can regerate and instead declares his trio of 2/2 drakes to block the Djinn and finish it off. Because the Drudge is unblocked you can tap the cube and pay two and then two more to save Juzam.
Is it risky and messy? Yes, but that also makes it fun to pull off.