Just like yesterday's card, this is a strong
creature that anybody can cast with any color of
mana. While yesterday's card had trample, this
has a unique sort of evasion that will at least
discourage throwing disposable tokens in front
of it. Any creature this Engine gets blocked by
will have taken some legitimate investment for
its controller to get onto the board. And if
that creature does manage to kill the Engine,
the opponent is still taking six damage. That's
almost a third of what you start with, so even
if you cast the Engine and your opponent
immediately kills it, you've gotten a decent
return on investment. I can see a situation
arising where an opponent can't afford to kill
the Engine OR let it hit them, and are forced to
keep producing creatures that are big enough to
block the Engine but not capable of killing it.
Speaking of New Phyrexia . . . I have a feeling
that J. Robert King used a phrase similar to
this card's name in one of his novels about the
Phyrexian Invasion. I'd have to read all of them
again to be sure, and I don't particularly feel
like doing that now; fortunately, there's a lot
of other things to talk about with this card.
Not only does it address the odd lack of big
metal spiders in Magic, it completely ignores
one of the most popular strategies for dealing
with large creatures. Even some of the Titans
were occasionally vulnerable to someone throwing
a Saproling or some such in its way. Plus, as
you know, I prefer death triggers on my large
creatures instead of comes-into-play triggers,
and there are few that discourage your opponent
to target something quite as much as this one.
Today's card of the day is Scuttling Doom
Engine which is a six mana 6/6 artifact that
can't be blocked by creatures with power two or
less and when it dies it deals six damage to
target opponent. This is a very solid
aggressive threat that can work for any color
deck and has a combat effect that is often
superior to Trample as it prevents multiple
smaller creatures from teaming up to destroy it.
Another concern for an opponent looking to
respond to it is the six damage dealt when it
dies which can be avoided with an exile, bounce,
or return to library effect if your own
sacrifice option isn't available. Overall
this is a very strong card for the cost that can
fit into many different designs including burn,
artifact, or mono-Black sacrifice which should
have it see play across a variety of formats and
settings.
In Limited this is a very strong first pick in
Booster that fits into any build and has no real
drawback as even if it is destroyed it deals
considerable damage to your opponent. The
prevention of lower power creatures from
blocking it is a huge benefit as well and it
should always be included in the typically
multicolor Sealed decks when in the pool.
Like yesterday, we have a 6/6 artifact
creature for 6 mana. It is helped by the fact
that it can't be chump blocked by anything less
than 3 power, so it's going to get through for 6
damage quite often.
"But it dies to Doom Blade", the old argument
goes. It sure does. But if it does, someone is
taking 6 damage to the face! So, unless they
have a steady stream of 3 power blockers,
they're usually going to take 6 damage at least
once. I see the Doom Engine making his presence
known in decks for some time.
For added fun, attack with this for 6,
sacrifice it to Shrapnel Blast (also in M15),
and deal 17 damage in one turn!
Well now this is pretty interesting. A powerful
attacker that literally cannot be chump blocked.
As we discussed yesterday, a 6/6 for 6 is
already playable. The difference between
Scuttling Doom Engine and Soul of New Phyrexia
is that the Soul is a bit tougher with its
indestructible activated ability, while the
Engine practically has a built-in burn spell.
6 damage to the face is pretty painful, but how
can you avoid it if Scuttling Doom Engine is
played? You can't really, at least not
easily. This thing definitely wants to be played
in a more aggressive deck, full of other burn
spells and good attackers, so that this 6 damage
either from the attack or the triggered ability
is enough to finish your opponent off.
I kind of like the idea of this card literally
walking over smaller guys that aren't strong
enough to hold it back.
