I don't actually hate this card. If your environment is casual enough to play it, I can see it being a lot of fun. As an uncommon...
BrimandVormay
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(4 votes)
it gives it fear and vigilance, so if your opponent plays non-black non-artifact monsters he's unblockable and he doesn't tap
RyFryy
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I would like this card a lot more if his ability didn't cost two different manas than his casting cost. Decent enough but nothing special.
Laguz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I hate when cards with amazing artwork are below average. I would never play this guy, but i'd stare at him all day. He should have been the art on Master Transmuter or something, although that card is beautifully drawn itself.
The only creature out there that has both fear and vigilance on its own. Being a near-unblockable, doesn't tap to attack creature is sweet... a little costly for what it does, but the 4 toughness makes it playable in casual (hold the lightning bolts, please). Would be a bomb in limited, I imagine...
NuclearMECCA
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
It was pretty decent when I didn't have many esper artifacts and I threw him in to fill out a deck. But it's not good enough to throw in any legit deck, just useful for brief early deck. Heck, I run a b/u zombie deck and splash of white, and I don't play this guy because it's really not that good.
skew
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Such a great name, flavor and art... wasted :/
Otherwise, what the other guys said, not terrible, but also not very playable.
Rikiaz
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Even if he just costed he would be better. Or even better then that, make him cost and make his abilities separate. Then he would be more usable. He isn't terrible as is though.
Imperialstonedragon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
too weak for modern environment
lorendorky
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(4 votes)
People aren't ''forgetting'' the interaction with Tezzeret the Seeker, this card came out two years before him.
DacenOctavio
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Darth Vader would look great wearing Quietus Spike and being a 5/5 via Mr. Tezz. You guys are missing it, he's just plain good in the Esper deck with a bunch of Etherium Sculptors.
NoobOfLore
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(7 votes)
I swear, it's like half the commenters here don't know what kind of creatures colors other than green get. a 2/4 for 4 is fair for blue. the fact that it's an artifact and that it has a sweet esper ability is icing on the cake.
At first, it's easy to decry this card as lazy design, as I am often tempted to with many Shards block cards. However, I think this card is more than the sum of its parts.
Lore-wise, it's excellent. Tezzeret's de***ion is haunting and captures what Esper (and to some extent, Blue) is with such terrifying accuracy that it's enough to give this card a pass on that alone. The art plays into this very well, so much so that it's hard to discern if the art, the flavor text, or the name came first. Esper's art direction was fantastic, certainly the best of the block, and this card is a perfect example of why.
Flavor-wise, I can see why a slight infusion of black mana would push him over the top in the "I don't want to block this thing" category and grant him fear, but his vigilance presents more of a "how do we make this set feel three-colored?" resonance. With everything else on the card, I think it's fine to overlook this for the most part, but I still wanted to point it out.
A 2/4 for 4 in blue is respectable. In a three-color limited deck this is a great utility card and certainly worth high consideration in draft as an early pick. Ignoring the activated ability he's still playable and with only a single colored mana in his cost you'll be happy to have any sort of creature that can block a Hill Giant on the fourth turn.
I guess I'm still bothered about a Zombie/Wizard with vigilance though.
SilentOppressor
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Somehow becoming a Lich makes you cost less. Poor Egotist.
Tiggurix
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Palochka: How does the ability make him any less playable?!? Evasion + Vigilance is a pretty awesome combination, and you don't have to use it.
SeriouslyFacetious
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My favorite deck is my "Esper Lich" EDH deck... and it breaks my friggin' heart that this card is completely useless to it :(
How about keeping the cost, colour, and body... but making the ability something like "WBU: Lose 1 life and draw a card." Might have to be a rare...
Comments (21)
Otherwise, what the other guys said, not terrible, but also not very playable.
a 2/4 for 4 is fair for blue.
the fact that it's an artifact and that it has a sweet esper ability is icing on the cake.
At first, it's easy to decry this card as lazy design, as I am often tempted to with many Shards block cards. However, I think this card is more than the sum of its parts.
Lore-wise, it's excellent. Tezzeret's de***ion is haunting and captures what Esper (and to some extent, Blue) is with such terrifying accuracy that it's enough to give this card a pass on that alone. The art plays into this very well, so much so that it's hard to discern if the art, the flavor text, or the name came first. Esper's art direction was fantastic, certainly the best of the block, and this card is a perfect example of why.
Flavor-wise, I can see why a slight infusion of black mana would push him over the top in the "I don't want to block this thing" category and grant him fear, but his vigilance presents more of a "how do we make this set feel three-colored?" resonance. With everything else on the card, I think it's fine to overlook this for the most part, but I still wanted to point it out.
A 2/4 for 4 in blue is respectable. In a three-color limited deck this is a great utility card and certainly worth high consideration in draft as an early pick. Ignoring the activated ability he's still playable and with only a single colored mana in his cost you'll be happy to have any sort of creature that can block a Hill Giant on the fourth turn.
I guess I'm still bothered about a Zombie/Wizard with vigilance though.
How about keeping the cost, colour, and body... but making the ability something like "WBU: Lose 1 life and draw a card." Might have to be a rare...