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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Assembly-Worker
Time Spiral


Reviewed October 16, 2006

Constructed: 1.41
Casual: 2.1
Limited: 2.4

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all our 
Card of the Day Reviews 


Jeff Zandi

 5 Time Pro Tour
 Veteran

Assembly-Worker

Many believe that the workers of the world will one day unite in victory over their masters. That day may still be a little ways off. Assembly-Worker scores big points on the "cute" scale for linking us all back to the halcyon days when Mishra's Factories inhabited Magic decks as far the eye could see.
But while Mishra's Factory was an incredibly useful land that could turn into a 2/2 creature for very little mana or tap for colorless mana, Time Spiral's new Urza's Factory costs a million to create permanent worker tokens that today's card, Assembly-Worker, can then pump up a little bit.
Not good enough. Urza's Factory is very good in limited play, and will also be seen soon in constructed control decks creating a win condition in those decks without including any creature cards. As for Assembly-Worker, this card barely makes the cut in limited decks and certainly does not make the cut in constructed. Assembly-Worker just doesn't do enough, there are lots of better cards for the mana slot, for the creature slot or whatever other kind of slot you were thinking of filling in your deck.

CONSTRUCTED: 2.0
CASUAL: 3.0
LIMITED: 3.0
 

Matt Cortez

Assembly-Worker

Constructed - This is an okay card. Nothing to interesting to make this constructed worthy. It just doesn't pop to me. When you see cards from a new

set some you can tell automatically if a card or cards is worth constructed play. This is not worthy.

Casual - The fact that they decided to make the creature type, Assembly-Worker, is what make's this card neat. Team this up with Mishra's Factory can make this a neat little combat trick. Nothing to make an entire deck around.

Limited - A 2/2 for 3 is not a bad creature. And it's colorless. Not bad since there are not very many mana fixer's. If you can pick up another one they can be a combat trick. Other then that not a bad card for Limited.

Constructed - 2.5
Casual - 3.5
Limited - 3.0
 

BMoor

Assembly-Worker

With Mishra and his factory gone, these things shamble around doing what they were last told to-- being a 2/2 for 3 mana with a marginal combat trick. A 2/2 that can become a 3/3 when blocking is pretty good for three colorless mana, but it's just not useful enough. If Mishra's Factory had been timeshifted, or if this card was a common, then at least you could entertain hopes of drafting three or four and being able to mess up combat. But even if you could, so what?

Constructed- 1.5
Casual- 3
Limited- 2
 

Aethereal

Assembly-Worker

You knew this was coming, right? A slightly better version of the Assembly-Workers made from the factories of the brothers, this guy can tap to pump up his friends, and is on his own a Gray Ogre. He's not useful enough to see any constructed play, but he might see some casual play with the factories.

In limited, a filler creature, as you need multiples for it to be effective and you might not be able to get them. It is a 2/2 for 3 that can go in any deck, though.

Constructed - 2
Casual - 2.5
Limited - 2.5
 

GB250

Here is my review of Assembly-Worker.
Assembly-Worker
And so we begin some Time Sprial reviews, starting with this flavorful, but rather weak artifact creature. One interesting thing to think about is that they designed the "Assembly-Worker" creature type to work with the oracle text of Mishra's Factory, and with Urza's Factory, a new card in the set. It would be neat to see more Assembly-Workers in the future.
On its own, it is unremarkable. A colorless Gray Ogre, its ability simply boosts the power and toughness of a fellow Assembly-Worker. Kabuto Moth, a common creature in Champions of Kamigawa, did the same thing for any creature you wanted, it pumped the toughness by two instead of one, it had flying, and it only had one less power than this rather clunky artifact creature. Granted, the moth required white, but it still doesn't make sense to me that a common in an underpowered block should be stronger than an uncommon in this one.

Constructed: 1/5. Do you remember how much play time Kabuto Moth got in constructed? This card will likely get less, unless they print a card in Planar Chaos that has a combo of Skullclampic proportions with it.

Casual: 1/5. Assembly-Worker Tribal FTW?! Not for a while. Could be good for a few laughs though (I give it Vigilance! Two cards for an expensive Watchwolf! Woo hoo!), and it gives you an excuse to show off your Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter playset of Mishra's Factory. I'm kind of digging for positive things to say at the moment, but if enough creatures of this type are printed later on, the casual rating for this card will increase.

Limited: 3/5. Decent in limited, but only because it is a passable creature that can be played in any combination of colors. Don't expect to get enough Assembly-Workers for the ability to actually be useful, though.
 


Gackley Ferguson

Gackley Ferguson's Review for MTG-COTD for 10/16/06

I really wish that we could start the week off on a strong foot, but with Assembly-Worker as today's card, I fear that a strong foot isn't possible.
For 3 colorless mana you get a 2/2 that you can tap you give target Assembly-Worker +1/+1 until end of turn. I find this completly useless, I mean it would be slightly better if it got a +1/+1 counter, but the fact that you only get it until end of turn kinda stinks. On top of that you only get to targer another Assembly-Worker, so the most you can get is +3/+3 and that's only if you have 4 Assembly Workers out, and are willing to tap 3 of them to get a 5/5.

What's the verdict?

Constructed: 1/5- The only reason I'm giving this a 1 is because I can't go lower. I find these cards completely useless and under no circumstances should they be played.

Casual: 1/5- Again I'd go lower if I could...I just don't see how can warrant taking away 4 slots to other cards that will help you out.

Limited: 1/5- Well Assembly-Worker gets the sweep...It's almost as useless as Leveler from Mirrodin, except Mirrodin has some combos you can pull off with it.

See you all tomorrow, where hopefully we can turn things around.
 

Cyrus Huang

Short review for a bland card.

Constructed: Unlike in limited, there is no reason whatsoever you would play this card. Phyrexian Ironfoot is this guy but just plain better. It's too expensive for too little and there are about a billion other creatures that are better than this guy.
Technically you could make an assembly-worker deck (it would be terrible), but that's casual and I'll let the other reviewers cover that for you.
1/5

Limited: A 3/3 blocker for 3 mana is never bad in limited, especially when it's colorless. There's only one reason you wouldn't put this guy in your deck, which is that every other creature in your colors is better than this guy, which is highly unlikely. He isn't great, but at least he's not that bad and you'll rarely regret top decking him. If you get multiples or urza's factory in your pool as well, well lucky you.
3/5
 

Nick Tan

Assembly-Worker

Well, at least it’s cute. But honestly, this card is hopeless in constructed. In limited, it is still slightly playable, especially with Urza’s factory, and maybe some people will try to make an Assembly-Worker/Urza’s Factory deck to mass-produce an army of workers. Wait, that sounded communist. Bah. Either way, save the workers for a future revolution-themed block in Magic (yes, that was sarcastic.)

Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 2
 
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