First comment! ^_^ no but seriously, this card is about as good as it gets in any artifact deck. playing Bone Sword or Everflowing chalice to bring out spninx of steel wind for example. Thats awesome. I actually play this in my esper deck and i pay 1B to put a sphinx soveriegn out turn 4.
I do have one question though. Is it possible to bring back a token. for example bring back a 1/1 thopter token to my hand which in turn goes to grave the bring out another artifact.
darkfury
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(7 votes)
tokens fizzle if they hit the graveyard, but if they are exiled you can bring them back
Evermint
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(14 votes)
Etherium is such a blasphemy to nature. Take this girl, for example. What would've been a hot chick is now a creepy perfectionist with an exposed metal skeleton.
On topic, this card makes Esper decks.
LostFool
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(2 votes)
@darkfury tokens cease to exist when they go to any zone other than the battlefield. Any ways, great card.
shocker300
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Can this be used to get by Iona, Shield of Emeria? Her txt reads "Your oppenents can't cast spells of the chosen color." Key word is "cast" and Master Transmuter reads "put." Now since your not paying casting cost, I would assume this is a great card to play against Iona decks if I am correct...Someone pplease clarify..
FYI using this card to bring out Inkwell Leviathan or anything else with a cast color..
Zoah
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
She's creepy... In so many ways... Pretty much an elvish piper form Esper... Except... More creepy...
Ironic that she actually mentions the perfect combo with herself in her flavor text: Urza's Bauble
allmighty_abacus
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(22 votes)
I'd tap that... to drop a darksteel colossus on the fourth turn.
BaneSlayerKirby
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(12 votes)
I don't even want to imagine how her body is below her waist.
ElTaco
★★★☆☆ (3.1/5.0)(5 votes)
Can I use her for a second artefact land a turn?
CeremonialBathory
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
@shocker300 - You could use her to play artifact spells of the color chosen with Iona, yes. Iona only stops you from playing the cards normally, putting them in to play with an ability such as Master Transmuter, Elvish Piper or Mindwrack Liege is still possible.
@ElTaco - Yes. The rule of playing only one land a turn only applies if you play that land as a land. It sounds confusing, but it isn't really. Take for instance fetch lands, like Evolving Wilds. You can play that land, tap it and put another land from your library on the battlefield because you're using its ability to do so.
This card is absolutely broken in the right decks, with the right decks being any deck that has an expensive artifact.The only thing worse than this that is similar is tinker, where your target doesn't have to be in your hand. still ridiculously broken.
ParaDox420
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(4 votes)
Definitely a favorite in my artifact deck. Does this trigger Mishra, Artificer Prodigy's ability? He says Whenever you play an artifact spell, ... That means you have to cast it, yes? Otherwise I'd have broken things happening here. One neat trick, I drew a prototype portal, I'll return this one from the field and play it to prototype a prototype. Infinitely copy things. Like the new Mirrorworks, she's gunna help me break that. Mainly I like Bottle Cloister Ensnaring Bridge and Venser's Journal .. play lots of bottles, draw lots of cards, then gain lots of life... Paradox haze upsets most people. Then I return bridge to my hand with transmuter if I need to get through it's ability, recast it and laugh cuz I have no hand on your turn. =) My friends scoop if I prototype the bridge.. which master transmuter just lets me choose to prototype anything, even if I already played it. =) I must have a set of her..
I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned another wonderful application of this little gem. Yeah, you can Tinker out your Blightsteel Colossus on turn 5 with no ramp (earlier if you build your deck around it), but a more subtle - and potentially just as useful - use is to protect your artifacts. Naturalize on your Memnarch? Nope, that Memnarch is now a Silver Myr. The Myr doesn't even get Naturalized since the target is no longer on the field. Throwing your horde of small artifact creatures at your opponent's big bruisers? Just tap a couple Transmuters and bounce back whoever gets blocked. On the defensive, return and replay whatever tapped creatures you want to block with, or block and bounce your Memnites before your opponent assigns damage. And since returning the artifact is a cost and playing an artifact is the ability, you can just bounce something and put it back down at the same time and still fizzle the spell.
If you want some mana ramp, just bounce an Ornithopter for Seat of the Synod. And if you want to be really mean, and have the mana for it (easy with Vedalken Engineer or Etherium Sculptor), you could always Font of Mythos as an instant with Shimmer Myr/Leyline of Anticipation, get your draw two, then return it to your hand, netting yourself an artifact on the field and a one-sided draw-2 at instant speed, every turn, for 4U at absolute most. On top of that, you can combo her with a number of cards, like Basalt Monolith or Vedalken Archmage with 0 CMC artifacts, for mana ramp or easy draws. Or you can plop a Gilded Lotus, enchant her with Pemmin's Aura, and start an infinite mana loop. And you can put down a Vedalken Archmage and get an infinite mana and draw loop that you have full control over (something most infinite draw loops don't give you).
And of course since she can use her own ability on herself, after summoning sickness passes, there's essentially no way anyone can kill her if she's untapped and you have one blue mana. This card would be a 5/5 even if just for the ability to drop your fatties for U, add in the protection, nigh invulnerability, and combo potential for a slim, splashable casting cost and you've got a complete monster.
Jedijoe
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Lyoncet is correct. I too am amazed no one had mentioned the Blightsteel Colossus in all its glory. I'd personally throw in a couple of Contagion Engines and a few Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas' for fun and/or flavor too.
ChampionofSquee
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
@ StagingTheUniverse: because the forge can't swing for 11 trample damage (that turn if you have some greaves out)
Moleland
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Insane.
BlackAlbino
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Use it... Wha? USE IT. But.. USE IT!!!!!
Ava_Adore
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
works against iona same reason it doesnt work with mishra,
A key card in any artifact deck, only reason this wouldnt get 5/5 is people who have been absolutely destroyed by her effect, you can use it for three main things,
bounce a card for protection, returning it to your hand and putting it back into play or something else back into play.
bouncing a cheap card so you can put something better into play,
bouncing a card to your hand then putting it back into play to get its effect,
best finish with this that I have achieved is two glassdusk hulks, return Sharuum to my hand with transmuters ability, to put sharuum back into play, which returns magister sphinx from my graveyard putting an opponent on 10 life, then attack with two 5/5 unblockable hulks to kill my opponent
This is easily one of the best cards in the game at any point of it's history. If this doesn't have the combo potential to instantly end games, then I don't know what does.
Arachibutyrophobia
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
broken card is broken
CylonLover
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
God I love you you Kristen Bell looking artifact creature that has ruined so many of our enemies' days
I just want to point out that she may put an artifact onto the battlefield. "Don't worry, Darksteel Colossus, you'll be safe from the Final Judgment in my hand. Return an artifact? Why would I want to do that? Oh, thank you Mr. Voltaic Key, I do think I'll save myself, too."
Negated
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Plan: have a hand with a low CMC artifact, this, 2 Spine of Ish Sah. Vindicate for 1 mana each turn.
skormeus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm gonna run this with the Contagion Engine and bounce it back and forth to grief my opponents creatures. throw in Kulrath Knight and it's a party :D
PhyrexianFryCook
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The art direction of Esper is my favorite of all time.
JaxsonBateman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A very awesome card in casual artifact decks, and it was indeed the cornerstone of my first 'power' deck in my playgroup. It makes your artifacts hard to remove, and allows you to put new ones out with massive discounts - very, very good stuff.
Personally, I love having her shift Sharuum into my hand and back out, so he can recur the Myr Battlesphere I just fed to my Time Sieve. As long as you can get a Kuldotha Forgemaster out (did somebody say Summoner Sphinx?), that's not actually a very hard combo to set up.
Manite
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
My bro and I were talking about how Phyrexians would probably like the Esperians, seeing how they "augment" their bodies with metal and all, when he told me to view this card sideways. Look closely behind the Transmuter, and you'll see what looks a lot like the mark of Phyrexia. Coincidence? Probably.
Looks like a very useful card, though the Etherium body is freaky.
roguepariah
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My personal favorite use for her is to bounce my Uba Mask during the opponent's draw step to put something like a Duplicant into play. Why do it the quick way, when you can draw out the suffering.
shotoku64
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Remember, she's an artifact too, so if you have no other artifacts on the board she bounce herself back to your hand and still drop your draco, colossus, etc.
Necropsy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My absolute favourite card. Completely degenerate. Absolutely catastrophically powerful once it hits the board, especially with a Thousand-Year Elixir lying around.
Dodges removal like a boss Pops one-hit-win fatties into play Can play friggin' GLEEMAX Drop a lattice (for U, even) All the things dodge removal! Just.... if it were possible to 6/5....
Breldan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@pigknight: She's that good.
catalyst6
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This is one of my most favorite Magic cards ever printed. The sheer amount of shenanigans you can pull with this lady is insane. The moment you realize she can bounce an artifact for one blue, your brain will explode with combo possibilities.
Ancestral_Forget
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is probably the most powerful creature in the game.
If they try to kill another artifact, she very calmly flickers that artifact back to your hand and plays it again. And if you don't want to play it again, no heat, you can play a different artifact or just nothing at all. If they try to kill her, she very calmly flickers herself back to your hand and plays herself again. And of course she doesn't need to come out, you can play a different artifact or just nothing at all. If they try to kill her again, she gets mad and puts out a draco. Then she calmly watches from your hand, unharmed, while draco enjoys his meal.
TheAj
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Amazing art, but somewhat disturbing. Amazing effect, but somewhat degenerate. Amazing card, and not just somewhat awesome.
The only flaw in this cards design is that it isn't a mythic rare. Its just that awesome.
Goatllama
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Master Transmuter, proving that you don't actually need boobs to capture the heart of every MTG player.
MattLynn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It would be too funny to see a newb smirk all hard with a Phyrexian Dreadnought ready to swap for a Memnite or whatever, forgetting that they still need to pay the additional costs, can't just Aether Vial out a d-nought. Oh well, I just got the extra to recast Mimeoplasm, and I've only got Damia, Sage of Stone in mind to copy, but no fatty to boost the 'plasm to a two-hit-commander-damage-haas...I like 16/16 card advantage stuff. So yeah, try to transmute the d-nought out. Better yet, get out yer Sun Titan to reanimate the d-nought and try again. Ooops.
(Also shows how obscenely overpowered Goblin Welder really is, when you compare its cost and activation to this.)
Aquitainus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I don't even have this card and I'm in love with it.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
For dodging removal and being downright broken...
.5/5
Hunter06
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ermahgerd, Modern deck idea, use this with Batter-skull for a pseudo Stoneforge FTW.
4/5 Stars
GrimjawxRULES
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Manite: Blew my mind. I use this card all the time in EDH but never noticed it until now.
With regards to the card, Master Transmuter is downright insane. She abuses artifacts with powerful enters-the-battlefield abilities, cheats stuff onto the battlefield at instant speed, and can even return herself in response to removal. Even better, if she's targeted by spot removal you can return her to your hand and put her onto the battlefield again with her own ability, countering the spot removal in the process.
Such a strong card, not to forget highly splash-able with only 1 colored mana symbol in its casting cost. At this point Master Transmuter's only weakness is really the fact that she doesn't have haste, but even that can be solved with (you guessed it) artifacts - specifically stuff like Thousand-Year Elixir and/or Lightning Greaves. Play this card in any commander deck that deals with artifacts, and any regular 60-card artifact that isn't Affinity. 5/5 all day every day.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Aside from the big shenanigans you can do, you can create two 3/3s every turn with Precursor Golem while giving him psuedo-vigilance.
car2n
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
WOW! Great job, Chippy! Sexy, aesthetically simple, pose, avant-garde and traditional at the same time. I remember Blood Vassal.
Comments (57)
no but seriously, this card is about as good as it gets in any artifact deck. playing Bone Sword or Everflowing chalice to bring out spninx of steel wind for example. Thats awesome. I actually play this in my esper deck and i pay 1B to put a sphinx soveriegn out turn 4.
I do have one question though. Is it possible to bring back a token. for example bring back a 1/1 thopter token to my hand which in turn goes to grave the bring out another artifact.
On topic, this card makes Esper decks.
FYI using this card to bring out Inkwell Leviathan or anything else with a cast color..
Ironic that she actually mentions the perfect combo with herself in her flavor text:
Urza's Bauble
@ElTaco - Yes. The rule of playing only one land a turn only applies if you play that land as a land. It sounds confusing, but it isn't really. Take for instance fetch lands, like Evolving Wilds. You can play that land, tap it and put another land from your library on the battlefield because you're using its ability to do so.
Options for the rest of the deck, Voltaic Key with other useful {t} artifacts
Add green and use Vitalize effects.
"why would anyone use this for a darksteel colossus, when they could use this for a darksteel forge"
Why would you use this for a Darksteel Forge, when you could use this for a Blightsteel Colossus and just win next turn?
I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned another wonderful application of this little gem. Yeah, you can Tinker out your Blightsteel Colossus on turn 5 with no ramp (earlier if you build your deck around it), but a more subtle - and potentially just as useful - use is to protect your artifacts. Naturalize on your Memnarch? Nope, that Memnarch is now a Silver Myr. The Myr doesn't even get Naturalized since the target is no longer on the field. Throwing your horde of small artifact creatures at your opponent's big bruisers? Just tap a couple Transmuters and bounce back whoever gets blocked. On the defensive, return and replay whatever tapped creatures you want to block with, or block and bounce your Memnites before your opponent assigns damage. And since returning the artifact is a cost and playing an artifact is the ability, you can just bounce something and put it back down at the same time and still fizzle the spell.
If you want some mana ramp, just bounce an Ornithopter for Seat of the Synod. And if you want to be really mean, and have the mana for it (easy with Vedalken Engineer or Etherium Sculptor), you could always Font of Mythos as an instant with Shimmer Myr/Leyline of Anticipation, get your draw two, then return it to your hand, netting yourself an artifact on the field and a one-sided draw-2 at instant speed, every turn, for 4U at absolute most. On top of that, you can combo her with a number of cards, like Basalt Monolith or Vedalken Archmage with 0 CMC artifacts, for mana ramp or easy draws. Or you can plop a Gilded Lotus, enchant her with Pemmin's Aura, and start an infinite mana loop. And you can put down a Vedalken Archmage and get an infinite mana and draw loop that you have full control over (something most infinite draw loops don't give you).
And of course since she can use her own ability on herself, after summoning sickness passes, there's essentially no way anyone can kill her if she's untapped and you have one blue mana. This card would be a 5/5 even if just for the ability to drop your fatties for U, add in the protection, nigh invulnerability, and combo potential for a slim, splashable casting cost and you've got a complete monster.
Wha?
USE IT.
But..
USE IT!!!!!
A key card in any artifact deck, only reason this wouldnt get 5/5 is people who have been absolutely destroyed by her effect, you can use it for three main things,
bounce a card for protection, returning it to your hand and putting it back into play or something else back into play.
bouncing a cheap card so you can put something better into play,
bouncing a card to your hand then putting it back into play to get its effect,
best finish with this that I have achieved is two glassdusk hulks, return Sharuum to my hand with transmuters ability, to put sharuum back into play, which returns magister sphinx from my graveyard putting an opponent on 10 life, then attack with two 5/5 unblockable hulks to kill my opponent
This & Elvish piper=win.
I say that because then you have 8 ways to get Inkwell Leviathan or Blightsteel Colossus out.
Second spin: Spine of Ish Sah and copy
Pass
Other player: "...I will never play magic again..."
T1: Show a Chancellor of the Tangle from your hand, Forest, play Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves x2
T2: Island, drop Master Transmuter
T3: Island, play Memnite, tap an Island & Birds (or whatever) x2 for Treasure Mage, search up your library for Blightsteel Colossus or Steel Hellkite & let the swapping begin! :)
Obviously you need a couple lucky draws, but damn that'd be fun.
Personally, I love having her shift Sharuum into my hand and back out, so he can recur the Myr Battlesphere I just fed to my Time Sieve. As long as you can get a Kuldotha Forgemaster out (did somebody say Summoner Sphinx?), that's not actually a very hard combo to set up.
Looks like a very useful card, though the Etherium body is freaky.
Why do it the quick way, when you can draw out the suffering.
Dodges removal like a boss
Pops one-hit-win fatties into play
Can play friggin' GLEEMAX
Drop a lattice (for U, even) All the things dodge removal!
Just.... if it were possible to 6/5....
If they try to kill another artifact, she very calmly flickers that artifact back to your hand and plays it again. And if you don't want to play it again, no heat, you can play a different artifact or just nothing at all.
If they try to kill her, she very calmly flickers herself back to your hand and plays herself again. And of course she doesn't need to come out, you can play a different artifact or just nothing at all.
If they try to kill her again, she gets mad and puts out a draco. Then she calmly watches from your hand, unharmed, while draco enjoys his meal.
Amazing effect, but somewhat degenerate.
Amazing card, and not just somewhat awesome.
The only flaw in this cards design is that it isn't a mythic rare. Its just that awesome.
(Also shows how obscenely overpowered Goblin Welder really is, when you compare its cost and activation to this.)
.5/5
4/5 Stars
With regards to the card, Master Transmuter is downright insane. She abuses artifacts with powerful enters-the-battlefield abilities, cheats stuff onto the battlefield at instant speed, and can even return herself in response to removal. Even better, if she's targeted by spot removal you can return her to your hand and put her onto the battlefield again with her own ability, countering the spot removal in the process.
Such a strong card, not to forget highly splash-able with only 1 colored mana symbol in its casting cost. At this point Master Transmuter's only weakness is really the fact that she doesn't have haste, but even that can be solved with (you guessed it) artifacts - specifically stuff like Thousand-Year Elixir and/or Lightning Greaves.
Play this card in any commander deck that deals with artifacts, and any regular 60-card artifact that isn't Affinity. 5/5 all day every day.
I remember Blood Vassal.