Notably the equipped creature is given the ability by the Crowbar, therefore if the token loses summoning sickness then you can destroy a Null Rod or Stony Silence with this, which is nice.
If you really need to destroy something immediatley, rather than wait for the citizen token to lose summoning sickness you can pay 1W for the Crowbar, another 2 to equip to an existing creature without summoning sickness and then another W to destroy the thing.
If you're recurring this with Lurrus it leaves behind citizen tokens, so pack multiple in your deckbox.
Mother of Runes makes this fall off (I haven't done this).
And if there's nothing to destroy, a 2/2 is ok.
~ requires work when building your deck; if you want to cast it on turn3 you'll want a creature in the graveyard. This means you'll need a bunch of cheap creatures with loot/rummage abilities, or cheap creatures which sacrifice at will for good value, or cheap creatures that mill.
~ is amazing value if you can bring something back. It's almost game over against aggro, you just need a creature to trade turn2 and GG.
Goes infinite with Saffi Eriksdotter and a sacrificer.
You should avoid casting ~ on turn2 if there's a chance the opponent could Wrenn and Six it. I know I keep saying that for every X/1 creature but I believe it's an important consideration and demonstrates how problematic Wrenn and Six is for creature diversity in 7PH.
~ isn't good enough if you can't trigger it multiple times because many decks can ignore it whilst they drop bigger creatures or combo off.
Bringing back three 1drops is powerful but the trick is getting those 1drops to trade with your opponent's resources rather than just get ignored. Ragavan, Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes and Deathrite Shaman are some 1drops that tend to get removed immediately.
I can imagine an extreme control deck that plays enough counterspells to get to this. My current rank for 2mana counterspells goes:
I imagine such a deck would involve Lurrus, which ~ can bring back.
Could be ok in graveyard based creature combo decks that have a midrange plan and occaisionally draw their combo. Something like Recurring Nightmare or Survival of the Fittest + Necrotic Ooze + Pyrexian Devourer.
Possible addition to a Time Walk deck running Doublecast, Dual Strike, Galvanic Iteration, Sea Gate Stormcaller, Teach by Example, Twinferno and lots of tutors for Time Walk.
This is good if you can force your opponent to draw cards with cards like Wheel of Fortune, Wheel of Misfortune, Windfall, Timetwister, Time Spiral, Winds of Change, Pain's Reward. There's a small chance they do it themselves with Treasure Cruise or Sylvan Library but you can't rely on that.
A huge game winning threat for two mana. It connives off both players, so you can play this turn2 followed by a Bauble or Gitaxian Probe, then the opponent might pump it, then you untap, cast two spells and attack with a 4/5 flier on turn3, and you've filled your graveyard and got card selection. All in one card without putting any extra work in that blue decks aren't doing already.
You may even be able to run this in a nonblue deck if you have enough ways to meet the condition.
Mana Drain
Counterspell
Mana Leak
Evasive Action
Lose Focus
Remand
Miscalculation
Make Disappear
Rune Snag
Quench
Not really sure where Remand sits on that list.
There's always a risk of having your aura destroyed in combat or end of turn to cause a blowout, so you need to weigh up the benefits and risks.
Possible target for aura tutors such as Heliod's Pilgrim or Open the Armory if you don't have mountains for Chained to the Rocks or snow lands for On Thin Ice.
Loops with Saffi Eriksdotter, Body Double or Karmic Guide if you also have a way of sacrificing for value, e.g. Altar of Dementia or Goblin Bombardment.
Supports Death's Shadow and Scourge of the Skyclaves.
High mana cost, which could be good with effects like Vial Smasher, the Fierce or Cragganwick Cremator.
Solid threat and card advantage. An example of why graveyard hate is important.
Food Chain + Squee, the Immortal + ~ = win.
Excellent threat for 'medium red'. The deck is mono red or Gruul and runs a bunch of ways to cast Blood Moon and other powerful 3drops on turn2. This deck used to rely on 4 and 5 drops but these days I think you can go all 3's, which means you can run Obosh, the Prey Piercer.
Cheap fuel for mono red Basser storm.
A nice 1drop to sac to Pyre of Heroes in Human Tribal.
Turn2 ~, turn3 Transmogrify some huge game-winning creature.
Shape Anew combo? Run Tinker as well. Go get some super expensive artifact on turn4. Build the deck to have a solid midrange dudes plan with the threat of a big artifact.
A good backup plan for Natural Order if you don't have enough creatures to kill them with Craterhoof Behemoth.
Good top-end for Gaea's Cradle decks provided that you have a well planned package of 2mana disruptive creatures main or sideboard that you can convert your manadorks into with ~.
Acts like Thragtusk. Solid top-end if you don't except to verse combo.
Unlike Pithing Needle or Phyrexian Revoker, ~ requires the thing you choose to be on the battlefield already. I believe you can maindeck this in a Time Vault deck that has lots of ways to bring back Time Vault from the graveyard. That way you can jam your Time Vault and if it lives you can Scheming Fence it and win next turn, or if Time Vault dies you'll be able to get it back.
Yet another good 1drop to sacrifice in the Aristocrats deck. I only know one person who has seriously tried to build Aristocrats, so I haven't seen any success yet. The trick would be to sacrifice creatures to disrupt the opponent. Naturally the deck style is good against creatures but it really struggles against combo.
Would be a pretty crazy deck, but if you can cast an Emrakul off this thing then you win the game. The earliest you can except that can happen reliable happen is turn 6 though. There are multicolour 1drops but not many good ones, therefore you're relying on 2drops to trigger ~, then you get the treasure, then pay WUBRG.
Hahahaha! What the fuck. There are 13 different arts for ~. That is ridiculous.
There's probably some token or Hardened Scales deck that can make tokens in your turn and in the opponent's turn, which can make ~ get huge or generate a tonne of mana.
Being a planeswalker helps for dodging sweepers postboard.
You don't get the token when ~ gets bounced by Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Teferi, Time Raveler, but that's ok cause you can blitz ~ to haste attack planeswalkers.
And quite often you'll be able to shut down a mana dork or a Sol Ring or Mana Crypt, the later two being game winning plays.
Such a complicated card. The flavour of the casualty ability makes no sense either; copying yourself is a blue thing.
To achieve the static ability you need spells casting 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Running card selection will help find the next mana value in the sequence but you need to be careful not to lose too much tempo doing so.
Bloodghast is quite accessible via drawing it, Entomb or Unmarked Grave. Sacrificing Bloodghast to ~ is a lot of value.
Perhaps you could Become Immense for a huge chunk of damage and then sac the dude postcombat to ~ and immediately -7 to kill the opponent or bury them in card advantage.
Not amazing at attacking or accelerating but could be good in Shape Anew, Tinker or Cat Tribal (Kaheera).
A smooth way to play ~ is to cast it turn 4 and immediately cast a 1drop. That way you don't risk it dying without value.
You don't need to be spirit tribal to run ~, but it gets even better in that deck.
This card will get worse over time as the average mana value of spells drop with power creep but at the moment it's decent. Put their 3drop spell back in hand and attack in next turn. Flash is nice against planeswalkers with removal abilities and against the increased popularity of Mana Drain.
Strong threat for Esper aggro if that is a deck somewhere.
Solid value. Typically a 4/2 that draws a card when it dies. ~ really shines in decks that discard incidentally. In that scenario your opponent will probably never trade with Toluz, effectively making her True-Name Nemesis.
Not a strong card but I could justify her in a Cruel Ultimatum deck. You would also want a critical mass of instants and sorceries that you can cast with her on turn 5, e.g. Kolaghan's Command (which loops her).
Solid 2-for-1 but you'll want plenty of removal and/or discard to increase the chance of having a creature ready in graveyard to exile. To be clear you wouldn't cast ~ without a target.
Doesn't die to bolt and the ward1 makes it efficient against 2mana removal, but not against Swords to Plowshares, Fatal Push or Karakas.
Cheap demon for Liliana's Contract.
Good devotion for Master of Waves and Thassa, God of the Sea.
Typically inefficient but a nice catchall if you can cast it easily. Especially nice against ward and effects like Nether Void and Counterbalance.
You need to be aware that the opponent might have graveyard hate to thwart the trigger.
Grixis typically doesn't have a problem getting opposing creatures into the graveyard.
~ is better in control decks which don't mind waiting a few turns waiting for a creature to enter the graveyard if there isn't one on turn3.
An excellent Vampire to drop with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord. That's game over really.
Solid threat in decks that need a creature to sacrifice each turn. Good with Hostile Hostel, Cabal Therapist, Fireblade Artist, Braids, Arisen Nightmare and Braids, Cabal Minion.
Strong threat for the blue Hypergenesis deck, which requires blue threats to pitch to Force of WIll and Force of Negation.
Similar sacrifice fodder makers include Ophiomancer and Bloodghast.
Jund aggro. Compatible with Jegantha but not Lurrus.
All-haste aggro. Ardoz, Cobbler of War, Path of Mettle.
Wow, all three modes very useful. You can hold this up to see if the opponent draws a creature you need to kill or if they try to go off with Underworld Breach, and if they don't then you can effectively draw three cards.
Decent in creature combo decks where you're pressuring with creatures and looking for certain creatures to combo. That's my favourite archetype for sure.
Not as good as Questing Beast but por que no los dos?
Good in a super wide tokens deck. Is a cat for Kaheera.
Good against Porphyry Nodes and Drop of Honey.
The trick to this card is maximising the chance that you cast all three cards that get exiled if you cast this turn3. That means you don't want to be running anything that costs more than 3. If you exile a 4drop then you can play a land but the third card will be stranded in exile.
Weak against Fatal Push and gets stonewalled by Tasigur, the Golden Fang, but I still like it for the ability to donk planeswalkers.
Good at triggering cards like Griffin Aerie.
Dunno how they justified a two nonblack demons in this set.
5 colour all forests tokens deck? Last Stand, Beacon of Creation, Spore Burst, Waiting in the Weeds, Unified Front, Nissa, Voice of Zendikar.
Good with Food Chain because it finds another creature tutor and provides two bodies to exile.
Good in Yorion decks with lots of 2drop creatures with ETB triggers that don't run basic swamps or basic mountains. Targeting your own dudes as well as the opponent's is great value.
Strong in decks with ≤1 power evasion creatures. They need evasion so that they don't die to a blocking Goyf when you cast ~. To make such creatures worth playing they need to some useful ability like Birds of Paradise or Ice-Fang Coatl.
In 7PH you want to avoid ETB tapped lands if you can. All the tri lands are better in your deck than in your hand. However, sometimes you really need that mana fixing and it's common to not have any plays turn1, which gives you a window to find your tri land with little cost.
Broker's Ascendancy is particularly crazy with planeswalkers that create creature tokens.
Good in Gaea's Cradle elf decks for finding Craterhoof Behemoth or whatever you need.
Excellent versatile removal for decks that have lots of ways to shuffle the opponent's library.
All the tri lands have greatly improved cards such as Territorial Kavu, Scion of Draco and all the 2mana domain cards, letting them max-out turn2 rather than turn3.
Graveyard hate is so critical in 7PH against delve and escape, that I think ~ is maindeckable. There is almost always fetchlands to fill up the graveyard. All you need to run this is a bunch of ≥2 power creatures, which is easy to do. Companions are a good way to crew if your deck is low on creatures.
Good sideboard if multicolour is your strategy, e.g. Niv Mizzet Reborn, especially if your creatures have death triggers, e.g. Voice of Resurgence or Kitchen Finks.
Good in the sideboard of combo decks for winning counterspell wars. Also good against combo decks, especially if you've brought in Null Rod et al, which will shut down the treasures.
Goes in the sideboard of Human and Warrior tribal against mana dork decks. Good tutor target with Pyre of Heroes or Recruiter of the Guard/Imperial Recruiter.
Game over for Mishra's Workshop decks. It most likely clears any Eldrazi they might have too.
SIDEBOARD
Nice, that's my set review finished. Here are my picks for best cards from the set in rough power order:
Ledger Shredder
Unlicensed Hearse
Riveteers Charm
See you on the Glorious field of battle,
Mulch
