Pointed Discussion

Little slower than the negator but makes up for it in the fact that he's not always a liability. Awesome once you have control of the board. Just be sure to Duress that burn spell your opponent is waiting to play.

an ok card. would make a cool figurine in my room tho.

I was running this in my Nim and Myr deck as an artifact that generates black mana. I was really expecting this card to be in Scars of Mirrodin, but I guess it isn't.
Wizards, there's still time to fit it into the block.

The words "if it's a creature" here are, from a rules perspective, completely meaningless. Somebody who knows the comp better than myself will have to explain if there's a situation where it matters.

this card misses the whole point of negator- you could drop it first turn with dark ritual and have an instant 5/5, and end the game in like 4 turns at worst. Now you have basically just a mana source for most of the game, until you can turn it into a creature without fear of it being dealt damage. With that drawback it needs to attack early, or it is ineffective.

@ROBRAM89: The "if it's a creature" clause would apply if a different effect turned the Totem into a creature momentarily. If my opponent plays March of the Machines, then plays Shock, dealing 2 damage to my 3/3 Phyrexian Totem, the triggered effect is placed on the stack requiring that I sacrifice 2 permanents if the Totem's a creature. While that's on the stack, I can Naturalize March of the Machines, turning my Totem back into a noncreature artifact. So even though it took 2 damage, by the time the triggered effect resolves, the Totem is no longer a creature, and I sacrifice no permanents.

Of course, this example is almost pointless, as there aren't many reasons I would wait for the damage from Shock to resolve before playing Naturalize (Rite of Passage, maybe?).

@ToidDiPuts

Haha, their homage to the Negator was a looooot scarier...

can be good in a pox deck since it dodges the pox effect..

Interesting card as it dodges the main issue of the Negator. Attacking with a 5/5 on T4 (with no accel) isn't bad.

I use this in my Vish Kal EDH deck. Not only does it provide ramp for a mana-starved deck, it can feed Vish Kal in emergency situations (5 counters for 3 mana!).