Pointed Discussion

If it's ability wold cost no mana, it would actually be playable.

I disagree, its very playable as it is. One mana isn' t much to pay. The only downside is that it's one time use only

First of all it's better than you think. Compared to other cards like scavenger folk, those have to be tapped in order to work. This card allows the artifact ability to be countered and destroyed. All you need is one green mana opened at all times. Besides, this prevents your opponent from actually using the artifact's ability unless they want it destroyed to make a trade-off of something else-a bluff you might say.
It's a 2/2, forcing your opponent to block so they can get rid of it. In that case, now's the time to play combat tricks, saving this guy and annoying the hell out of your opponent even more.

Best against equipment, Nevinyrral's Disk, and a few other things I can't think of but that exist

What noise do you make when you've caught yourself in the gears of a clockwork monstrosity?

"OUPHE!"

that's right, you got your 2 of every color and a door to nothingness, and i got my ouphe and a forest... yes.

It's important to consider the source- there were a whole lot of artifacts floating around this set (more artifacts than not, I recall), and so this essentially meant you could counter nearly any activated ability.

Unfortunately, it's horribly costed no matter what you do with it. It's over the curve for it's P/T and the extra mana plus the sac means that you're paying 3G to counter an activated artifact ability once. The worst of both worlds, especially given that Green had really good artifact hate in this set.