Pointed Discussion

Note that, if you let this card add mana to your mana pool, you have to use up the mana before you reach your first main phase, else you suffer mana burn and lose the generated mana. Which means about the same as: "you can use mana generated by this card only to play instants or costs of abilities" (save some exceptions).

Methinks this card is a little bit crazy under the new rules. Oh, exploitable.

Great card in Control and Artifact decks.

In a Rebel deck with Lin Sivvi, it's practically a more powerful Aether Vial.

you need something with a manacost ability to even think of playing this, otherwise you will kill yourself

It pays the echo costs of your creatures!

I think this card is very underrated! two of these would untap a grim monolith during your upkeep and it works well for a lot of activated abilities (cycling perhaps). Limited to your upkeep, but it costs and you get 2 extra colorless to play with.

Run with Gemstone Array.

I always loved the flavor text on this one. Very appropriate :)

Note the 2010 updates, and note the definition of "spells". The mana from this card cannot be used to cast any spell of any kind. Casting a spell is basicly bringing it from your hand to the battlefield. Thus, the mana from this cannot be used to cast instants, creatures, etc.. However, any mana that is required of any card which is already on the battlefield can use mana from Thran Turbine, including upkeeps, echo, and abilities. Also note, mana burn is no longer a rule, therefore not using the mana gained has no ill effect. Also note that cycling is defined as an ability (702.26) and therefore is legal to use Thran Turbine mana.

Use with signets, then use that mana to cast instants. Use with Gemstone Array.
Use with activated abilities akin to the one on Dwarven Blastminer.
Use with suspend? dunno if that works, since the wording on suspend says "rather than cast this from your hand."
Use with Time Spiral storage lands.
Use with Order of the Ebon Hand, Manaforge Cinder, Skyshroud elf,and other similar mana filters.
Use with Chimeric Staff.
Use with Mishra's Helix. Not so effective unless you expect instant responses to things you do during your turn.

You can use this card to pay suspend costs, as you don't "play the card from your hand" when you suspend it :-) Suspend rather, is a static ability of the card. The card is actually "played" when the last suspend counter is removed.

To quote the comprehensive rules:
"502.59a Suspend is a keyword that represents three abilities. The first is a static ability that functions while the card with suspend is in a player's hand. The second and third are triggered abilities that function in the removed-from-the-game zone. "Suspend N--" means "If you could play this card from your hand, you may pay and remove it from the game with N time counters on it. This action doesn't use the stack," and "At the beginning of your upkeep, if this card is suspended, remove a time counter from it," and "When the last time counter is removed from this card, if it's removed from the game, play it without paying its mana cost if able. If you can't, it remains removed from the game. If you play it this way and it's a creature, it gains haste until you lose control of it."

Works for cycling, works on Isochron Scepter, Karn, Silver Golem, et al.
Outstanding and often overlooked card.

Pays for upkeep shenanigans and fun repeatable activated abilities. Get a free Sliver with the Queen or chip in of your own and get a couple ants from another Queen.

I use these to power the ability of my Urza. That and to power Mana Batteries.

The narrow-minded say 'Sucks ass compared to Sol Ring'
The Urza-minded see this as an opportunity to show people how to build a fire by rubbing two sticks together.

If you can't see the value of that, then you will simply never get it.

This simply does too many nice little things to be overlooked. It can slash echo costs, let you cycle cards for free without fluctuator, net you a free card each turn with Well of Knowledge, play activated abilities, rack up a Gemstone Array.... It's really just another cheap artifact from Urza's block that can spit out a ton of mana repeatedly, just in a less blatant manner than Grim Monolith and Thran Turbine.

Mercenaries aren't a particularly strong race, but I find a set of Turbines can help them out a lot. It makes Molting Harpy fearsome and even Pit Raptor manageable. And if you have neither out, it can help pay for recruit costs (during your upkeep, which is a sub-optimal time to do so, but free mana is free mana.)

@iaiji
You can suspend a card only if you could play it, so in the upkeep you can't suspend permanents...

This card had its problems back in the day, considering Mana Burn, but now, it is one of the quickest and best ways to pay for permanent abilities.

However, I suppose you could do better with Heartstone since it reduces the cost by instead of giving you or mana to pay for it. I mean, what if you have more than 1 creature with an ability?

Combos with paradox haze.

Mishra's Helix

Lots of uses; it's a T1 play. T1 this; T2 whatever, T3 basalt monolith! Now you trade 1 at your upkeep for 3 whenever you want. Seems like a fair trade to me..

I've been using this in combination with morphs to flip them up during the upkeep for a reduced cost. Along side this I've been running Basilisk Collar using the mana from turbine to equip collar around for free as it meets the non spell requirement. It wasn't until just yesterday I realized that this combo should not work since equip is sorcery speed. Is there anyway around this to continue using turbine as my collar equipping machine?

Auto-include in any Kruphix, God of Horizons Commander deck.