The Servitor's ability has an "intervening-if clause," namely "if Myr Servitor is in play." That clause only refers to the creature it's printed on, not any other Myr Servitors—and keep in mind that when a Myr Servitor rises from the dead, the game considers it to be a brand-new creature. Let's say that when your turn starts, you have three Myr Servitors in play and one in your graveyard. We'll call them, for the sake of convenience, Servitor A, Servitor B, Servitor C, and the dearly departed one is Servitor D. At the beginning of your upkeep, the ability of each Servitor in play triggers. Sure, you have just one Myr Servitor in your graveyard at the moment... but that will change. • Put Servitor A's ability on the stack. • Put Servitor B's ability on the stack. • Put Servitor C's ability on the stack • Servitor C's ability resolves, and Servitor D jumps back into the fray. • Sacrifice Servitor C and Servitor D to some nifty effect. Atog. Phyrexian Plaguelord. Goblin Bombardment. Whatever. • Servitor B's ability resolves, and you return Servitor C and Servitor D to play. But they come into the game fresh, with no memories. • Now sac Servitor B, Servitor C, and Servitor D to whatever you want. Having a Disciple of the Vault in play as you're doing all this couldn't hurt. Well, it couldn't hurt you. It could hurt your opponent quite a bit. • Servitor A's ability resolves, and back out from the graveyard hop Servitor B, Servitor C, and Servitor D. You're in even better position than when you started, and you've gotten 5 sacrifice effects out of this. You have an 11/12 Atog, or have spread around -5/-5 via your Plaguelord, or have simply dealt 5 damage with Goblin Bombardment, or whatever else you could manage—for free! This gets downright obscene if you have a Genesis Chamber standing by. In fact, anything that triggers on artifacts or creatures coming into play or leaving play will go gaga for these tenacious Myr.
it's not the best card, but it's my favourite :) i already created and tested dozen of decklists with these guys. getting all of them outside and playing around with saccing and cip effects is fun as hell imo. :D their ability is similar to a Lifeline-like effect for themselves.
edit: the biggest fun you might have with Servitors unfortunately only works in casual play: by wishing them into your library via Research or Living Wish unfortunately this won't work in tournament play since you could only fetch cards from your sideboard, and cards in your sideboard are affected from the four-card-limit of your deck. well, these guys can only hardly become part of any deck-to-beat since their trigger can be hosed too easily.
also keep in mind that having three in the graveyard and one on the battlefield means no more than three triggers, theres no possibility to sac in between since the word "Myr Servitor" within their ability always refers to the card itself (that's about what the copypasta from Mazaera says)
other cards that synergize with these guys: (older list from 1/3/2009 4:48:48 PM, if you want a more complete one take a look at that one i did a while back on the community forums: http://community.wizards.com/johnny/go/thread/view/77865/20047769/Myr_Servitor) - for fetching them: Buried Alive (to get three of them in your gy), Trinket Mage (to get one of them into your hand), Unerath (in case you've got all of them in gy or want to trigger the Mage's cip effect again), Intuition (likely the best card for this), Artificer's Intuition (although the former is in general much more preferable), Remembrance (especially useful if you use Research and something to sac them) Mask of the Mimic (not the best choice since you require one sacrifice and still another Servitor in play)
-graveyard triggers for sacrificing: Fecundity (for drawing cards) Foster (for getting creature cards and milling some stuff into your gy) Grave Pact (beware the trible-black mana cost)
-for making use of their cip effect during the upkeep: Genesis Chamber (you can either let your opponents get some of these and make it to your advantage with cards like Disciple of the Vault, or try to tap the card instead) Arcbound Crusher (especially with Genesis Chamber and artifact lands) Aura Shards (for getting rid of your opponents artifacts and enchantments)
Great for keeping goblin lackeys at bay in a mana expensive artifact deck...
Eved
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Blocking fatties, sacrificing for abilities like Lord of the Pit, and just annoying your opponent in general. This card is great, and the workhorse of my black deck.
DarkbladeWraith
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
These little guys see a lot of playing time in several of my decks, and in each one they are abused and exploited something awful. Whether they're being sent on Deathrender-augmented kamikaze missions in order to bring out my multitude of Dragons, Demons or Wurms, being sacrificed to the Phyrexian Altar to power my fiendish spells or generally just being mashed into the dirt as simple chump Blockers, I love having them around.
ZombieSnail
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Favorite card in the block, I had so much fun with this when i started playing. So awesome.
kronos539
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(6 votes)
discard a Servitor to Artificer's Intuition to get another one, repeat, repeat, and next turn you have all of them in play to Skullclamp. Zing.
niallcmurray86
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(3 votes)
LOVE this guy, Myr Servitor is so good. Plus he looks like a Mouser.
ClockworkSwordfish
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Way underrated, as it's a one-drop that can return others to play, not hand. I run a few in my weird graveyard deck: discard some, then play one. Optimally, I can have 3 in play on the second turn and have some mana left over.
Too slow. Takes too long to draw 2 or 3 of them and 'reanimate' them, unless you get lucky. Very few tournament winning decks play this card. Arcbound worker is a much better card for the 1 slot.
Cubozoan
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
These guys may just be my favorite creature card ever. They're so innocuous, and yet their ability makes them an enormous threat. They're insane with Skullclamp. They're insane with Thopter Foundry. They're insane with Arcbound Crusher. They're insane with Genesis Chamber, which is even better with the Crusher. If you are running a deck with lots of sacrificing, or cards that care about when artifacts come into play, or when creatures come into play, or that needs chump blockers who come back turn after turn, a playset of Servitors will rarely do you wrong.
They're even better with Artificer's Intuition, which in a blue deck will allow you to discard one to grab one until you've gotten three in the grave and one in play all ready to reassemble its buddies. There is so much artifact and creature recursion out there that even if the other guy manages to kill your living one, he'll be back before they know it. Might I suggest Myr Retriever or Auriok Salvagers?
AngelPhoenix
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So after making a rather powerful casual Myr deck (Battlespehres, Infect, Tempered Steels, Power Matrix, Swords to Plowshares, the works), I said to myself, what is this deck missing? Then I realized. One-drops. I had nothing uber cheap that I could play first turn, or in conjuction with other Myr: in other words, I have two lands and a plague myr out, and an ichorclaw and a hovermyr in my hand; which do I paly? If one of those two-drop myr is this instead, I can play both.
I partially agree with feeble2002 that this can seem slow to pay dividens, but if you're running myr, almost everything is 2-drop, so having that one super cheap myr to throw out really helps. And even if you don't get a second one for several turns, as soon as number 2 comes out, it suddenly becomes very difficult to get rid of the pair, especially, like BlueOmega said, with a Reservoir around.
For me, this is is right alongside Hovermyr for a card that was exactly what my myr deck needed.
seems it would be a fun way to dodge point removal for a legacy tempered steel deck.
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Fun in Commander if and only if lots of people stick him in. Myr for everyone!
gman92
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I wish I could use this in EDH :( ...they should make an errata for EDH that allows cards like this to actually be used. I think it would be well within the spirit of fairness that EDH possesses.
vantha
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I just love a 1/1 that returns to play for free. Its a artifact Squee!
So many positive comments about you... Such a high rating... And I used to agree. But here's the thing: For 10 years now, I've had a set of you in my Lightning Coils deck, and even with plenty of sac outlets and Fabricate, I can count the times I've made use of your ability on one hand. Multiples of you just don't naturally occur that often, and tutoring for a second copy of you is rarely -- has never, to date, been -- the wisest use of the tutor.
Yeah, one could Johnny up some nice casual fun around you little dudes, but for me, the way you have underperformed, consistently, for a long period of time, in a deck that really should love having you around, has forced a tough choice: effective immediately, you're being replaced with Arcbound Worker.
Comments (26)
• Put Servitor A's ability on the stack.
• Put Servitor B's ability on the stack.
• Put Servitor C's ability on the stack
• Servitor C's ability resolves, and Servitor D jumps back into the fray.
• Sacrifice Servitor C and Servitor D to some nifty effect. Atog. Phyrexian Plaguelord. Goblin Bombardment. Whatever.
• Servitor B's ability resolves, and you return Servitor C and Servitor D to play. But they come into the game fresh, with no memories.
• Now sac Servitor B, Servitor C, and Servitor D to whatever you want. Having a Disciple of the Vault in play as you're doing all this couldn't hurt. Well, it couldn't hurt you. It could hurt your opponent quite a bit.
• Servitor A's ability resolves, and back out from the graveyard hop Servitor B, Servitor C, and Servitor D. You're in even better position than when you started, and you've gotten 5 sacrifice effects out of this. You have an 11/12 Atog, or have spread around -5/-5 via your Plaguelord, or have simply dealt 5 damage with Goblin Bombardment, or whatever else you could manage—for free!
This gets downright obscene if you have a Genesis Chamber standing by. In fact, anything that triggers on artifacts or creatures coming into play or leaving play will go gaga for these tenacious Myr.
Cleaned from: http://www.wizards.com/MagiC/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mg128
i already created and tested dozen of decklists with these guys.
getting all of them outside and playing around with saccing and cip effects is fun as hell imo. :D
their ability is similar to a Lifeline-like effect for themselves.
edit:
the biggest fun you might have with Servitors unfortunately only works in casual play: by wishing them into your library via Research or Living Wish
unfortunately this won't work in tournament play since you could only fetch cards from your sideboard, and cards in your sideboard are affected from the four-card-limit of your deck.
well, these guys can only hardly become part of any deck-to-beat since their trigger can be hosed too easily.
also keep in mind that having three in the graveyard and one on the battlefield means no more than three triggers, theres no possibility to sac in between since the word "Myr Servitor" within their ability always refers to the card itself (that's about what the copypasta from Mazaera says)
other cards that synergize with these guys: (older list from 1/3/2009 4:48:48 PM, if you want a more complete one take a look at that one i did a while back on the community forums: http://community.wizards.com/johnny/go/thread/view/77865/20047769/Myr_Servitor)
- for fetching them:
Buried Alive (to get three of them in your gy),
Trinket Mage (to get one of them into your hand),
Unerath (in case you've got all of them in gy or want to trigger the Mage's cip effect again),
Intuition (likely the best card for this),
Artificer's Intuition (although the former is in general much more preferable),
Remembrance (especially useful if you use Research and something to sac them)
Mask of the Mimic (not the best choice since you require one sacrifice and still another Servitor in play)
-cards to sacrifice them:
Arcbound Ravager (enalbles free and unlimited saccing to pump this guy)
Sage of Lat-Nam/Etherium Astroable (for drawing cards, requires tapping)
Diabolic Intent (Demonic Tutor with addtional sacrifice cost.)
Blasting Station/Goblin Bombardment (one creature for one damage)
Phyrexian Altar (for mana of any color)
Phyrexian Tower (for BB, requires tapping)
Spawning Pit (for further artifact creatures)
-graveyard triggers for sacrificing:
Fecundity (for drawing cards)
Foster (for getting creature cards and milling some stuff into your gy)
Grave Pact (beware the trible-black mana cost)
-for making use of their cip effect during the upkeep:
Genesis Chamber (you can either let your opponents get some of these and make it to your advantage with cards like Disciple of the Vault, or try to tap the card instead)
Arcbound Crusher (especially with Genesis Chamber and artifact lands)
Aura Shards (for getting rid of your opponents artifacts and enchantments)
-further useful artifact-deck cards
Master of Etherium (same as with Arcbound Crusher)
Lumengrid Sentinel (see above)
Leonin Abunas (for giving your artifacts the so called "troll-shroud")
Tezzeret the Seeker (powerful planeswalker for untapping, fetching or boosting your artifacts)
Thoughtcast (draw one extra card for up to one blue mana)
They're even better with Artificer's Intuition, which in a blue deck will allow you to discard one to grab one until you've gotten three in the grave and one in play all ready to reassemble its buddies. There is so much artifact and creature recursion out there that even if the other guy manages to kill your living one, he'll be back before they know it. Might I suggest Myr Retriever or Auriok Salvagers?
I partially agree with feeble2002 that this can seem slow to pay dividens, but if you're running myr, almost everything is 2-drop, so having that one super cheap myr to throw out really helps. And even if you don't get a second one for several turns, as soon as number 2 comes out, it suddenly becomes very difficult to get rid of the pair, especially, like BlueOmega said, with a Reservoir around.
For me, this is is right alongside Hovermyr for a card that was exactly what my myr deck needed.
Tee Hee.
Yeah, one could Johnny up some nice casual fun around you little dudes, but for me, the way you have underperformed, consistently, for a long period of time, in a deck that really should love having you around, has forced a tough choice: effective immediately, you're being replaced with Arcbound Worker.
Sorry. I'm sure you'll land well.