Card Talk 8

Arni Metalbrow card art

Today is the eigth post in my Card Talk series.

Reminder how Card Talk works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game. 

Today's card is . . .

Toymaker

Hmmmm . . . Toymaker. A colorless uncommon artifact from Mercadian Masques.

Card Talk 6 also featured an artifact, so I won't repeat observations about that card type here.

Spellshapers are a creature type that first appeared in this set. In fact, this set contains a full third (19/57) of all spellshapers printed, with 13 more coming in the rest of the block. This tribe shows up across all colors and have a common ability format: {mana cost}, tap, Discard a card from your hand: [ability]. Toymaker's ability enables you to make your noncreature artifacts into artifact creatures for a turn. Mercadian Masques had 27 noncreature artifact cards, seven of which had mana value of five or greater, providing some interesting targets for this ability.

The spellshapers' "discard" mechanic would pair well with madness, which enables you to cast a card for a reduced cost if you are discarding it.

Mercadian Masques was released in October 1999 and was the first set of the block of the same name. Blocks typically had 3 sets: the first (and largest) release followed by two smaller ones, all centered on a common theme, plane, and so on. Blocks stopped in 2018, though some subsequent expansions (like Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, and War of the Spark) had a block-like feel to them due to their common themes/etc.

This set followed the overpowered Urza's Saga block, and tried to compensate by being overly weak. The most expensive card in it, Rishadan Port ($33), is followed by just seven other cards valued at $10 or more. Compare that to Urza's Saga, where its most expensive card (Gaea's Cradle, $826) is followed by 20 cards valued at $10 or more.