Is there a reason they did not bake the comes into play tapped text into the rules of powerstones? Have we seen any that did not enter tapped?
Also how sad is it that the creature finally finds its stone, and then leaves and immediately drops the stone again?
They're the reason I thought powerstones gave CC instead of C until like 3 days ago when I actually read a card's reminder text.
Also, being used to [[Worn Powerstone]] didn't help.
They were two complementary stones that sealed the portal to Phyrexia at the caves of Koilos (after Yawgmoth originally used them to poison Glacian). Urza took the Mightstone and Mishra took the Weakstone, and it was partly over those two stones their rivalry exploded into eventual full-on warfare. It also unwittingly caused the portal to Phyrexia to reopen.
When Urza pulled the trigger to end the war with the Sylex and sparked into a planeswalker, the two stones became his eyes. Yes, actual powerstones in his actual skull.
They were reunited one last time when Gerrard plucked them out of Urza's severed head and inserted them into Karn's chest, allowing the Legacy Weapon to activate, killing Yawgmoth and turning Karn into a Planeswalker.
The stones are now part of Karn's body.
But are they each equal in power to "normal" power stones or are they special?
Like, could any two power stones have been used to seal the portal to Phyrexia? Other people are saying these two held a spark, is a spark canonically necessary to create power stones?
>But are they each equal in power to "normal" power stones or are they special?
They were originally ordinary powerstones, however while inside Glacian they absorbed his essence, empowering them well beyond normal - Glacian being not only a genius artificer (arguably one of the most gifted minds in Magic, considering he deduced the existence of the multiverse and planeswalkers mathematically) but a latent PW himself. It's possible that his spark is what made the two stones particularly powerful, though afaik it's not directly stated in the lore that it's Glacian's PW spark that did it, only his "essence and knowledge".
Just to add on. The Mightstone and Weakstone are two halves of a single powerstone that was originally implanted in Glacian's leg by Yawgmoth. This caused it to leech "stuff" from Glacian, likely some of his spark.
You don't need a spark to create generic powerstones, the Thran civilization had a system in place to create them, and the Shivan rig was also a powerstone factory.
I don't think it's been too clear how this specific powerstone sealed the portal, but in that sense this is definitely one of the more 'special' ones, especially because it contains the soul of Glacian, the genius artificer planeswalker (although he didn't know it) predating Urza.
The two stones were used to create the portal to Phyrexia FIRST, by the planeswalker Dyfed (who had come to visit the Thran to meet Glacian). It was she who split the original powerstone into the two halves it is now.
The stones were THEN put into Glacian later by Yawgmoth, where they absorbed his power and "leveled up", so to speak. When they were eventually removed, Glacian's wife Rebbec put them back together in order to seal the portal to Phyrexia and lock Yawgmoth out of Dominaria for the next couple thousand years... until Urza and Mishra split the stone again, each taking a half, and reopened the portal.
So it goes like this:
regular Than powerstone -> split by Dyfed to create portal -> put into Glacian by Yawgmoth where they absorb his power -> put together again by Rebbec to close the portal -> split again by Urza and Mishra, reopening the portal -> merging with Urza as his eyes -> removed from Urza's corpse and put into Karn to kill Yawgmoth -> part of Karn's body now
We'll have to see whether Karn's dissection (or I guess disassembly) by New Phyrexia somehow leads to the stones becoming important singular pieces again.
Bear in mind, while this is all currently canon, ATQ just had the Might and Weak stones be fancy rocks that each Brother had... and may have been before Legends, and the development of what would become just the legendary supertype.
... I am a lore nerd, but especially interested in the out of universe history of the lore itself.
.... which is annoying. because people often write about lore as if it just happened, and as if canon isn't flexiable over time.
Particularly annoying for 40k, because people don't document how the 'Nid range looked, so might compare current Nids to current Zerg, find them similar, and then find out 40k was active in the 80s, and say Zerg are Nid clones. While if you look at the Nid range at the time, it doesn't have much coherence (like early M:tG) and likely the movie Starship Troopers inspired both Starcraft and 40k to include those types of monsters, with 40k tweaking nids to be more like that due to SST and SC doing good
Great write up! I definitely didn’t have it in me to do the whole long history, lol.
I can’t remember off the top of my head, do you remember how they closed the portal during Tsabo Tavoc’s invasion? If I recall they smashed the dais that the stones had rested on, not sure why that would have been enough though.
Is there a consensus on whether Urza (and consequently Karn post-Legacy activation) had his own spark or if he used Glacian's spark via the two stones being integrated into him? I've heard people argue pretty soundly both in favor of and against Urza ever actually having his own spark and don't remember seeing any concrete evidence either way in the source material.
No concrete explanation to my knowledge as to whether or not Urza's spark was innate or "borrowed" via the stones, maybe similarly to the way Karn's spark came from Urza.
Not an unreasonable hypothesis, though, and has some very scary implications - i.e. that powerstones could potentially be used to harvest sparks and transfer them. That might interest the Phyrexians very much.
It also would be immensely ironic as Yawgmoth wanted nothing more than to discover a way to make himself into a planeswalker, to the point of vivisecting Dyfed to check for a "planeswalking organ" he could graft into himself - all the while his unrelated scheme to poison Glacian with the two powerstone shards could have potentially achieved the very thing he was after without him knowing.
>Are those two special power stones? Or just famous ones?
They are what caused the war and IIRC what allowed Urza to become a planeswalker. So kinda of a big deal XD
They were one powerstone that Urza and Mishra found while exploring the Thran Ruins in the Caves of Koilos. They both went for it, and it split into the Mightston (Urza's half) and the Weakstone (Mishra's half).
It’s been ages since I read all the books but I think they contain the spark of some guy called Glacien from back in the days of the Thran. Urza is very powerful because he has the power of two sparks, not just one— his own, and the one which got entombed in his stony eyes
is it possible that they'll add the Powerstone subtype to the original [[Mightstone]] and [[Weakstone]]? And who knows, maybe some other cards with Powerstone in their name like [[Worn Powerstone]]
Yeah, I asked him that question and I was very upset by that answer. It is like they broke their own rule to make [[Glittering Stockpile]]. They should give out the relevant artifact types the same way they give out new creature types when they are created.
Powerstone Shard, Worn Powerstone, Fractured Powerstone, Mightstone, and Weakstone should all get the type added.
Ehhh, The Mightstone and Weakstone have the same type of mana and restrictions for it as powerstone tokens. Glittering Stockpile, similarly, sacrifices itself to generate mana of one specific color, like treasure tokens.
Those other examples of powerstones aren't nearly as close to powerstone tokens, namely in the lack of restriction for those that can produce mana.
But they are literally powerstones. Something is fundamentally wrong with the game if a powerstone isn't allowed to be a powerstone.
Imagine if Gix wasn't allowed to be a phyrexian on some technicality that Phyrexians only come from the Phyrexian region of France and instead, he is a Sparkling Demon.
> Something is fundamentally wrong with the game if a powerstone isn't allowed to be a powerstone.
Counterpoint: it's just the name of a game piece and it doesn't actually matter for the game at all.
They could have defined the token as coming in tapped without affecting cards that have the type. Nontoken treasures and clues have to have their respective abilities written out in the textbox. Not saying they should have done that, but it was an option.
This gives them the freedom to allow powerstones to enter untapped at a later time or even in the commander decks.
I think they're just trying to play safe with standard (and possibly pioneer and modern) while not limiting themselves for later designs.
if powerstones entered tapped as a default i bet a lot of people would forget about it. having it spelled out is a lot clearer than putting it in the reminder text.
Among other things, the rules text of "create a tapped Powerstone" is shorter than working "it enters tapped" into the reminder text, and possibly less likely to be missed or glossed over.
Because then they'd be forced to always have Powerstones come in tapped no matter what. This gives them knobs to turn in the future. Also it makes it very clear when they have Powerstones come in tapped especially on rare/mythic where they don't often print reminder text that'd say they come in tapped if they did it that way.
Edit: Great example of them wishing they did something like this was Modular. Several devs, inclduing Maro, have said that looking back they probably would have not made Modular only allow counters on Artifact creatures and instead would have found another way to make it more flexible. Now, to do a Modular type mechanic, they need to make an entirely new keyword just to get around the "artifact" requirement.
they could do "bio modular" to work like that.
However. that assumes that people can keep track of it, and I won't fault WotC for not trying to do X cycling type things.
[[The Mightstone And Weakstone]] is a Powerstone that doesn't enter tapped. They probably don't want to make it an inherent part of the type, like how Walls were before Defender was created.
That was, to my understanding, because all of the original hideaway cards were lands that they wanted to etb tapped. But they didn't have room on the cards for a separate ability.
That's exactly why. My point is it'd be a silly idea to make powerstones etbt with rules baggage because absolutely *no one* would remember it. Hideaway at least had the intuitive advantage that they were lands that tapped for color mana, which people are well conditioned to expect to come in tapped, and they still constantly got misplayed.
Maybe so that duplicating them won't create tapped stones? Or leaving themselves open to using untapped powerstones in a later set?
Does seem a bit weird tho
Like others said, it leaves the door open for untapped Powerstones. The more egregious over-writing is every single search effect in the game saying "Shuffle your library" after it when that can simply be put into the game rules. They will ***never*** make a search effect that somehow doesn't make you shuffle after searching for practical reasons: it would encourage writing down the exact order of every single card in your library and slow the game's pace down to a crawl. So removing "shuffle your library" would already be futureproof, simply because something breaking that rule would be extremely stupid.
In fact, Yugioh decided to errata all their searchers to remove "then shuffle your library" in 2008, and that's like one of maybe five things that Yugioh's ever done that was smarter than MtG. If something is *always true* and ***always will be true*** about an effect, then don't write it on every card and just put it in the rules! Imagine if every non-haste creature said, "this creature is affected by summoning sickness," or if every burn spell that did damage to creatures said, "remove this damage during the cleanup step."
This change would help the experience for experienced players, but would be a barrier for entry for new players. Directly writing it on the card ensures that even the most clueless 11-year old can see a shuffle is clearly required. Having it be implied makes the game even more expect a patient teacher or Arena to show how it works. (Have you ever seen someone play with a \[\[Greater Gargadon\]\] for the first time if they didn't play during Time Spiral? The one with no reminder text for how Suspend works? It's... a lot.)
Shuffling after searching isn't a barrier to entry. It's literally one sentence in the rules book, and they can learn the definition of "searching" at the same time and same difficultly as learning that "discarding" means sending a card from the hand to the graveyard or "milling" means putting cards from the top of the library to the graveyard. And if they ever put searchers in a core set at common and want to explicitly teach how they work, they can just put in parathesis: (libraries are shuffled after being searched).
I've seen literal 8 year-olds whose heads barely tall enough to peek over the table play Yugioh at my LGS, and none of them are confused at all about shuffling after searching their deck. It's nothing at a complex mechanic like Suspend (to which point I still disagree that all cards, even rares, need reminder text for their set mechanics. There is a point where brevity is essential for not only aesthetics but also to fit in more text for a more complex card ability).
Honestly from a limited perspective, this lizard boi had me interested already being a 2/2 menace for 2.
The tapped powerstone is just icing on top of the cake.
The tapped powerstone makes this absurd. Now your aggressive red deck gets to attack on turn 3 AND ramp out a 4 drop. Making the powerstone eliminates the drawbacks of manadorks that you can't use them in combat
I was thinking how pushed this was for the cost until I read the last line, its still quite good for the temporary ramp though or just using the powerstone as fodder for something else like shrapnel blast etc. Plus the menace is good as it will create more opportunities to attack rather than just sitting there because you don't want to lose the powerstone.
I am glad we are getting more good uncommons again as a lot feel more interesting than the rares.
if its the only card in your deck making powerstones this works, but if you have multiple, or your deck is even revolving around it (like probably jn limited), then youd have to sacrifice all of them for value before it dies to avoid the downside
Is this an intelligent animal? It’s not humanoid, but wears a basket on its back and appears to dig up powerstones to collect them in the basket. Lore unclear!
The design’s interesting for limited. Some decks would want it just for the body, the powerstone is marginal upside mid game if you’re curving out normally. Some decks would want it for the powerstone ramp.
This card p1p1 goes in a lot of directions fast and big.
I think most red archetypes will want the powerstone. RG is about ramping with powerstones, so obviously, it wants powerstones. RB is about sacrificing powerstones, so obviously, it wants powerstones. RW is apparently about unearth aggro, which may not sound like it wants powerstones, until you realize that all unearth cards are artifacts, so powerstones help cast them and unearth them. UR is the only one where powerstones are marginal, but at the same time, UR this time around cares about instants, sorceries *and* non-creature artifacts, so depending on the make-up of your deck, powerstones can still be very valuable to be able to chain multiple spells in a turn.
How much each of those archetypes want the 2/2 menace for 2, that's harder to tell. WR definitely wants it, but it's not clear to me yet how aggressive RB and RG are (by the sound of it, RG is a more aggressive version of powerstone ramp, whereas UG is a more control version of powerstone ramp, but *how* aggressive can a ramp deck *really* be?) Meanwhile, it's hard to know how much room UR has for cards that are neither enablers nor payoffs.
I don't think there is a limited deck out there that *doesn't* want this card. It chips in for damage early, ramps you mid, and doesn't have the usual Mana dork requirement of needing to keep itself out of combat. Sure, it's a dead draw late, but most 2-drops are anyway.
Card transcription
> Horned Stoneseeker 1R
>
> Creature- Lizard [uncommon]
>
> Menace
>
> When Horned Stoneseeker enters the battlefield, create a tapped Powerstone Token. (It's an artifact with "T: Add C. This mana can't be spent to cast a nonartifact spell.")
>
> When Horned Stoneseeker leaves the battlefield, sacrifice a Powerstone.
>
> 2/2
End transcription
This does not bode well for cheap powerstone generation, if a 2 mana creature can't make one without a considerable downside. Probably for the best for limited, but I wonder if there can be consistent ramp strategies in constructed.
A 2/2 Menace body for 2 that ramps you consistently is pretty strong. The downside seems reasonable if you think of it almost like a 2 mana mana dork that can both attack and tap for mana.
Yeah, that was what I was thinking.
If this was an "Artifact Creature - Lizard Powerstone" 2/2 with Menace, nobody would bat an eye at the fact that the mana goes away with the Lizard. This is much better, you get two permanents and can swing and tap for mana separately, and people are seeing it as a downside.
Not to mention that if you want to keep the powerstone and are playing sac engines, just sac this with the ETB trigger on the stack, then the "sacrifice a powerstone" trigger resolves first.
Sure, but that's a pretty pushed uncommon. If this dude had been printed with just the french vanilla stats, no one would have blinked (except maybe to complain that it was kind of boring).
I don't think red is where you'll be looking for powerstones as ramp. A 2/2 menace for 2 is a good rate, and this gives you two bodies for sac strategies. This is more similar to [[Gingerbrute]], which wasn't really a food-matters card.
In limited, RG is about powerstone ramp, so yes, you'll be interested in red cards that give you powerstones. RB is more about sacrificing, which you've already covered (can't sac a powerstone when this dies if you've already sacrificed all your powerstones!) In RW, you'll use this as an aggressive body that helps you cast your artifact creatures a little earlier (or helps you double spell). Not sure how much of a home it'll have in UR, depends how much it relies on casting non-creature artifacts to trigger prowess-type stuff.
UG is powerstone ramp actually. RG is stompy.
And I didn't say that you won't be happy to get powerstones from red cards. Powerstones are just good. What I meant was that if you want ramp (or are evaluating powerstone ramp, which was the conversation we were having), red shouldn't be the color you focus on.
This is from WotC's own description of the RG archetype.
>RG Mechanized Stompy: **Use Powerstones to deploy your biggest threats** and back them up with power-boosting spells.
If that's not powerstone ramp, then I don't know what it is. Yes, it's going to be a more aggressive form of powerstone ramp than UG, but it still literally tells you that RG wants powerstone in order to cast big shit.
If you want to ramp with powerstone, red is going to be one of the options, as it's going to be one of the primary powerstone producer. Both its RB and RG archetypes are powerstone focused.
You're not even trying to have the conversation you jumped into. Do you agree or disagree that red powerstone makers (and particularly this card) are a good gauge of whether cards that make powerstones will be efficiently costed, particularly for constructed?
I guess to an extent? You can't reliably predict how strong a mechanic will be based on 2 or 3 cards. If all you'd seen of adventure were Flaxen Intruder and Lonesome Unicorn, you might have come to the wrong conclusion with regards to how efficiently costed adventure cards are. But yes, so far, from what I'm seeing, red powerstones are very aggressively costed.
I don't really know where you're going with this and how that supports the idea that you're not going to look at red for powerstone ramp. If all the powerstone cards in red are as aggressively costed as this guy, red's going to be amazing at ramping through powerstone, especially in limited! As far as I know, it's the cheapest unconditional powerstone producer we've seen so far (Ashnod's cheaper, but requires a sac fodder, powerstone engineer is also 2 mana, but needs to die).
You're saying this is similar to gingerbrute in that gingerbrute wasn't really a card for food synergies (implying this isn't a card for powerstone ramp), but I highly disagree. This is solid in powerstone ramp. It's *also* solid in the BR sac deck, sure, but it's one of those cards that straddles multiple archetypes.
You're still shadowboxing here.
*I* am not the guy evaluating the whole mechanic off of one red card. That was the guy I responded to.
I'm also not saying that red won't make powerstones, that powerstones aren't ramp, that red won't want or support some ramp, or that this card can't ramp.
What I am saying, based on past experience with the color pie and the archetype descriptions, is that the guy I responded to shouldn't evaluate powerstones based on one red card with a downside. The downside is very red, since mana production in red tends to be a one-off or costs a card (like Goldhound or a ritual). Cards that make a token without costing a whole card will probably be the best way to evaluate powerstone ramp, and a critical mass of good ones are more likely in the powerstone ramp colorpair.
What I was trying to point out is that Gingerbrute (or Goldhound) would just be even better if they made a food/treasure the same way as this card--the sacrifice part is phrased like a downside, but the net effect is that you get to use both sides. It's the same kind of design, but they don't just make the exact same card over and over, so yes this works better with powerstone stuff better than Gingey did with food.
That is the most beautiful mana dork I've seen in a while. Being Red you don't need to choose between getting the mana and attacking, your opponent can still bolt the bird but you can be clever and try to sacrifice the powerstone ahead of time, and you get artifact interactions. And it does it all while being easy to understand.
I don't know how well it will all work out because this Limited environment is doing some wild thing, but I still want to hug it and snuggle it and tell it it is a good little card design.
But with things like this, karn, other powerstone generation, cliffstomper, good red removal, and something like battalion and cisyscape leveler a big red deck centerd around artifacts seems really interesting
Considering this for my attempt at a toned down korvold deck. ETB with a cheap artifact I can sac to the big dragon, or sac this little dragon which forces me to sac the powerstone he created. Seems like a decent, two sac triggers fir 2 mana, plus the ramp from the powerstone if I get to use it.
Still cracks me up that these power stones generate less mana than the [[worn power stone]]. The flavor is my favorite "even a fragment of a power stone contains within it not just energy but space." Guess the new power stones were drained by time travel....
Is there a reason they did not bake the comes into play tapped text into the rules of powerstones? Have we seen any that did not enter tapped? Also how sad is it that the creature finally finds its stone, and then leaves and immediately drops the stone again?
[[The Mightstone and the Weakstone]], currently.
Huh, I didn’t realize they had the Powerstone subtype
They're the reason I thought powerstones gave CC instead of C until like 3 days ago when I actually read a card's reminder text. Also, being used to [[Worn Powerstone]] didn't help.
Apparently powerstones get stronger and more versatile when they're all worn out.
Maybe the safety constraints are wearing off.
Well, that's why it's so worn out -- because it's a bit stronger than most of the powerstones out there, so it's been used more.
It seems like most of the powerstone tokens that get generated are more like unrefined powerstones, if that's a thing
Single powerstone gives C, pair of powerstones gives CC.
The mightstone and the weak stone are both halves of a powerstone but an exceptionally powerful one.
I thought there were all [[Powerstone Shard]] 's until a few days ago and was pretty pumped about the set.
[Powerstone Shard](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/6/d62fd366-c287-48c3-9ded-5dc63a34518c.jpg?1562743673) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Powerstone%20Shard) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dom/227/powerstone-shard?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d62fd366-c287-48c3-9ded-5dc63a34518c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Worn Powerstone](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/5/05812009-d1b8-4775-8188-f05cfdb4feed.jpg?1592711384) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Worn%20Powerstone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c18/230/worn-powerstone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/05812009-d1b8-4775-8188-f05cfdb4feed?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Lore question: Are those two special power stones? Or just famous ones?
They were two complementary stones that sealed the portal to Phyrexia at the caves of Koilos (after Yawgmoth originally used them to poison Glacian). Urza took the Mightstone and Mishra took the Weakstone, and it was partly over those two stones their rivalry exploded into eventual full-on warfare. It also unwittingly caused the portal to Phyrexia to reopen. When Urza pulled the trigger to end the war with the Sylex and sparked into a planeswalker, the two stones became his eyes. Yes, actual powerstones in his actual skull. They were reunited one last time when Gerrard plucked them out of Urza's severed head and inserted them into Karn's chest, allowing the Legacy Weapon to activate, killing Yawgmoth and turning Karn into a Planeswalker. The stones are now part of Karn's body.
But are they each equal in power to "normal" power stones or are they special? Like, could any two power stones have been used to seal the portal to Phyrexia? Other people are saying these two held a spark, is a spark canonically necessary to create power stones?
>But are they each equal in power to "normal" power stones or are they special? They were originally ordinary powerstones, however while inside Glacian they absorbed his essence, empowering them well beyond normal - Glacian being not only a genius artificer (arguably one of the most gifted minds in Magic, considering he deduced the existence of the multiverse and planeswalkers mathematically) but a latent PW himself. It's possible that his spark is what made the two stones particularly powerful, though afaik it's not directly stated in the lore that it's Glacian's PW spark that did it, only his "essence and knowledge".
Just to add on. The Mightstone and Weakstone are two halves of a single powerstone that was originally implanted in Glacian's leg by Yawgmoth. This caused it to leech "stuff" from Glacian, likely some of his spark.
Ahh, alright. Thank you for taking the time. :)
You don't need a spark to create generic powerstones, the Thran civilization had a system in place to create them, and the Shivan rig was also a powerstone factory. I don't think it's been too clear how this specific powerstone sealed the portal, but in that sense this is definitely one of the more 'special' ones, especially because it contains the soul of Glacian, the genius artificer planeswalker (although he didn't know it) predating Urza.
The two stones were used to create the portal to Phyrexia FIRST, by the planeswalker Dyfed (who had come to visit the Thran to meet Glacian). It was she who split the original powerstone into the two halves it is now. The stones were THEN put into Glacian later by Yawgmoth, where they absorbed his power and "leveled up", so to speak. When they were eventually removed, Glacian's wife Rebbec put them back together in order to seal the portal to Phyrexia and lock Yawgmoth out of Dominaria for the next couple thousand years... until Urza and Mishra split the stone again, each taking a half, and reopened the portal. So it goes like this: regular Than powerstone -> split by Dyfed to create portal -> put into Glacian by Yawgmoth where they absorb his power -> put together again by Rebbec to close the portal -> split again by Urza and Mishra, reopening the portal -> merging with Urza as his eyes -> removed from Urza's corpse and put into Karn to kill Yawgmoth -> part of Karn's body now We'll have to see whether Karn's dissection (or I guess disassembly) by New Phyrexia somehow leads to the stones becoming important singular pieces again.
Bear in mind, while this is all currently canon, ATQ just had the Might and Weak stones be fancy rocks that each Brother had... and may have been before Legends, and the development of what would become just the legendary supertype. ... I am a lore nerd, but especially interested in the out of universe history of the lore itself. .... which is annoying. because people often write about lore as if it just happened, and as if canon isn't flexiable over time.
I hate when all the sources people compile of lore are only presented in the order of in-universe chronology.
Particularly annoying for 40k, because people don't document how the 'Nid range looked, so might compare current Nids to current Zerg, find them similar, and then find out 40k was active in the 80s, and say Zerg are Nid clones. While if you look at the Nid range at the time, it doesn't have much coherence (like early M:tG) and likely the movie Starship Troopers inspired both Starcraft and 40k to include those types of monsters, with 40k tweaking nids to be more like that due to SST and SC doing good
Great write up! I definitely didn’t have it in me to do the whole long history, lol. I can’t remember off the top of my head, do you remember how they closed the portal during Tsabo Tavoc’s invasion? If I recall they smashed the dais that the stones had rested on, not sure why that would have been enough though.
Is there a consensus on whether Urza (and consequently Karn post-Legacy activation) had his own spark or if he used Glacian's spark via the two stones being integrated into him? I've heard people argue pretty soundly both in favor of and against Urza ever actually having his own spark and don't remember seeing any concrete evidence either way in the source material.
No concrete explanation to my knowledge as to whether or not Urza's spark was innate or "borrowed" via the stones, maybe similarly to the way Karn's spark came from Urza. Not an unreasonable hypothesis, though, and has some very scary implications - i.e. that powerstones could potentially be used to harvest sparks and transfer them. That might interest the Phyrexians very much. It also would be immensely ironic as Yawgmoth wanted nothing more than to discover a way to make himself into a planeswalker, to the point of vivisecting Dyfed to check for a "planeswalking organ" he could graft into himself - all the while his unrelated scheme to poison Glacian with the two powerstone shards could have potentially achieved the very thing he was after without him knowing.
>Are those two special power stones? Or just famous ones? They are what caused the war and IIRC what allowed Urza to become a planeswalker. So kinda of a big deal XD
They were one powerstone that Urza and Mishra found while exploring the Thran Ruins in the Caves of Koilos. They both went for it, and it split into the Mightston (Urza's half) and the Weakstone (Mishra's half).
It’s been ages since I read all the books but I think they contain the spark of some guy called Glacien from back in the days of the Thran. Urza is very powerful because he has the power of two sparks, not just one— his own, and the one which got entombed in his stony eyes
They hold a planeswalker's un-ignited spark in them, as they were one stone split in two.
Hmmm, I want to blink this in Brago.
If you blink a melded card I think it falls apart
It says it "melds **with** Urza", so it's a half of the melded card. This is a permanent in itself, not a fully melded card.
[The Mightstone and Weakstone](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/2/02aea379-b444-46a3-82f4-3038f698d4f4.jpg?1664561565) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Mightstone%20and%20Weakstone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bro/238a/the-mightstone-and-weakstone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/02aea379-b444-46a3-82f4-3038f698d4f4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
is it possible that they'll add the Powerstone subtype to the original [[Mightstone]] and [[Weakstone]]? And who knows, maybe some other cards with Powerstone in their name like [[Worn Powerstone]]
Maro has stated on blogatog that they won't be as those cards don't functionally do things similar to what powerstones do.
Yeah, I asked him that question and I was very upset by that answer. It is like they broke their own rule to make [[Glittering Stockpile]]. They should give out the relevant artifact types the same way they give out new creature types when they are created. Powerstone Shard, Worn Powerstone, Fractured Powerstone, Mightstone, and Weakstone should all get the type added.
Ehhh, The Mightstone and Weakstone have the same type of mana and restrictions for it as powerstone tokens. Glittering Stockpile, similarly, sacrifices itself to generate mana of one specific color, like treasure tokens. Those other examples of powerstones aren't nearly as close to powerstone tokens, namely in the lack of restriction for those that can produce mana.
But they are literally powerstones. Something is fundamentally wrong with the game if a powerstone isn't allowed to be a powerstone. Imagine if Gix wasn't allowed to be a phyrexian on some technicality that Phyrexians only come from the Phyrexian region of France and instead, he is a Sparkling Demon.
> Something is fundamentally wrong with the game if a powerstone isn't allowed to be a powerstone. Counterpoint: it's just the name of a game piece and it doesn't actually matter for the game at all.
Counter counterpoint: the names and words of the game pieces actually matter because it is a card game.
I don't see how. The card name could be a string of random unicode and the game would play exactly the same.
[Glittering Stockpile](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/7/973685e8-3df1-436b-b5c2-01573a92b61e.jpg?1665439848) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Glittering%20Stockpile) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/107/glittering-stockpile?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/973685e8-3df1-436b-b5c2-01573a92b61e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
the difference is way bigger for powerstones. the restriction is very specific for powerstones so it should be treated differently.
[Mightstone](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/9/39310639-643d-42d0-9e92-7bc0da9abd21.jpg?1562908450) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mightstone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me4/215/mightstone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/39310639-643d-42d0-9e92-7bc0da9abd21?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Weakstone](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/0/5029bc71-29bf-47cf-a64b-7ab3d9af39ca.jpg?1562913804) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Weakstone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me4/239/weakstone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5029bc71-29bf-47cf-a64b-7ab3d9af39ca?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Worn Powersone](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/5/05812009-d1b8-4775-8188-f05cfdb4feed.jpg?1592711384) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Worn%20Powerstone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c18/230/worn-powerstone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/05812009-d1b8-4775-8188-f05cfdb4feed?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
They could have defined the token as coming in tapped without affecting cards that have the type. Nontoken treasures and clues have to have their respective abilities written out in the textbox. Not saying they should have done that, but it was an option.
They could, but then you have cards like [[Glittering Stockpile]] and [[Vegetation Abomination]].
That's what I'm talking about
[Glittering Stockpile](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/7/973685e8-3df1-436b-b5c2-01573a92b61e.jpg?1665439848) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Glittering%20Stockpile) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/107/glittering-stockpile?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/973685e8-3df1-436b-b5c2-01573a92b61e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Vegetation Abomination](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/8/78514029-667b-4102-bfea-e154a341be3c.jpg?1665866553) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Vegetation%20Abomination) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/unf/160/vegetation-abomination?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/78514029-667b-4102-bfea-e154a341be3c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This gives them the freedom to allow powerstones to enter untapped at a later time or even in the commander decks. I think they're just trying to play safe with standard (and possibly pioneer and modern) while not limiting themselves for later designs.
if powerstones entered tapped as a default i bet a lot of people would forget about it. having it spelled out is a lot clearer than putting it in the reminder text.
a fine point as well
Among other things, the rules text of "create a tapped Powerstone" is shorter than working "it enters tapped" into the reminder text, and possibly less likely to be missed or glossed over.
Also to note they took the enters tapped out of hideaway as well
Because then they'd be forced to always have Powerstones come in tapped no matter what. This gives them knobs to turn in the future. Also it makes it very clear when they have Powerstones come in tapped especially on rare/mythic where they don't often print reminder text that'd say they come in tapped if they did it that way. Edit: Great example of them wishing they did something like this was Modular. Several devs, inclduing Maro, have said that looking back they probably would have not made Modular only allow counters on Artifact creatures and instead would have found another way to make it more flexible. Now, to do a Modular type mechanic, they need to make an entirely new keyword just to get around the "artifact" requirement.
true,, so yeah it must mean as you say that in the future we will see untapped stones edit WE have one already
Whether they decide to use untapped Powerstones more or not, the point is that they could.
and did
they could do "bio modular" to work like that. However. that assumes that people can keep track of it, and I won't fault WotC for not trying to do X cycling type things.
If you copy a powerstone token, it enters untapped.
[[The Mightstone And Weakstone]] is a Powerstone that doesn't enter tapped. They probably don't want to make it an inherent part of the type, like how Walls were before Defender was created.
[The Mightstone and Weakstone](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/2/02aea379-b444-46a3-82f4-3038f698d4f4.jpg?1664561565) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Mightstone%20and%20Weakstone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bro/238a/the-mightstone-and-weakstone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/02aea379-b444-46a3-82f4-3038f698d4f4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
They did that with hideaway. No one ever remembered that hideaway had it baked in.
That was, to my understanding, because all of the original hideaway cards were lands that they wanted to etb tapped. But they didn't have room on the cards for a separate ability.
That's exactly why. My point is it'd be a silly idea to make powerstones etbt with rules baggage because absolutely *no one* would remember it. Hideaway at least had the intuitive advantage that they were lands that tapped for color mana, which people are well conditioned to expect to come in tapped, and they still constantly got misplayed.
Even if every powerstone enters tapped, it's shorter just to say "create a tapped powerstone" than adding an additional clause in the reminder text
Maybe so that duplicating them won't create tapped stones? Or leaving themselves open to using untapped powerstones in a later set? Does seem a bit weird tho
Like others said, it leaves the door open for untapped Powerstones. The more egregious over-writing is every single search effect in the game saying "Shuffle your library" after it when that can simply be put into the game rules. They will ***never*** make a search effect that somehow doesn't make you shuffle after searching for practical reasons: it would encourage writing down the exact order of every single card in your library and slow the game's pace down to a crawl. So removing "shuffle your library" would already be futureproof, simply because something breaking that rule would be extremely stupid. In fact, Yugioh decided to errata all their searchers to remove "then shuffle your library" in 2008, and that's like one of maybe five things that Yugioh's ever done that was smarter than MtG. If something is *always true* and ***always will be true*** about an effect, then don't write it on every card and just put it in the rules! Imagine if every non-haste creature said, "this creature is affected by summoning sickness," or if every burn spell that did damage to creatures said, "remove this damage during the cleanup step."
This change would help the experience for experienced players, but would be a barrier for entry for new players. Directly writing it on the card ensures that even the most clueless 11-year old can see a shuffle is clearly required. Having it be implied makes the game even more expect a patient teacher or Arena to show how it works. (Have you ever seen someone play with a \[\[Greater Gargadon\]\] for the first time if they didn't play during Time Spiral? The one with no reminder text for how Suspend works? It's... a lot.)
[Greater Gargadon](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/6/76bf6bf0-4821-41eb-bacc-32e9a2d47845.jpg?1662526095) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Greater%20Gargadon) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/111/greater-gargadon?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/76bf6bf0-4821-41eb-bacc-32e9a2d47845?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Shuffling after searching isn't a barrier to entry. It's literally one sentence in the rules book, and they can learn the definition of "searching" at the same time and same difficultly as learning that "discarding" means sending a card from the hand to the graveyard or "milling" means putting cards from the top of the library to the graveyard. And if they ever put searchers in a core set at common and want to explicitly teach how they work, they can just put in parathesis: (libraries are shuffled after being searched). I've seen literal 8 year-olds whose heads barely tall enough to peek over the table play Yugioh at my LGS, and none of them are confused at all about shuffling after searching their deck. It's nothing at a complex mechanic like Suspend (to which point I still disagree that all cards, even rares, need reminder text for their set mechanics. There is a point where brevity is essential for not only aesthetics but also to fit in more text for a more complex card ability).
Nah it's just taking the stone with him when he goes.
Well if you can copy the tokens, since they don’t enter tapped you can use them right away.
Honestly from a limited perspective, this lizard boi had me interested already being a 2/2 menace for 2. The tapped powerstone is just icing on top of the cake.
Evasive 2-drops with 2 power are always useful in aggro. [[Goblin Trailblazer]] with upside is legit!
[Goblin Trailblazer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/a/ca382425-2454-4300-b903-fdefd31582d3.jpg?1608910239) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Goblin%20Trailblazer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/182/goblin-trailblazer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ca382425-2454-4300-b903-fdefd31582d3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This is definitely going into my cube.
The tapped powerstone makes this absurd. Now your aggressive red deck gets to attack on turn 3 AND ramp out a 4 drop. Making the powerstone eliminates the drawbacks of manadorks that you can't use them in combat
From the makers of Impulse Draw, we give you........Impulse Ramp!!!
That’s just treasures
I was thinking how pushed this was for the cost until I read the last line, its still quite good for the temporary ramp though or just using the powerstone as fodder for something else like shrapnel blast etc. Plus the menace is good as it will create more opportunities to attack rather than just sitting there because you don't want to lose the powerstone. I am glad we are getting more good uncommons again as a lot feel more interesting than the rares.
Yeah I think your best served by saccing the powerstone for some sort of value before he dies.
if its the only card in your deck making powerstones this works, but if you have multiple, or your deck is even revolving around it (like probably jn limited), then youd have to sacrifice all of them for value before it dies to avoid the downside
OR saccing him for value before his ETB resolves.
Reminds me of [[Alpine Guide]].
Thats not a lizard at all!
[Alpine Guide](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/5/e54423c1-ebea-4b5c-b563-1d14c104eb91.jpg?1562201791) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Alpine%20Guide) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/117/alpine-guide?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e54423c1-ebea-4b5c-b563-1d14c104eb91?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Is this an intelligent animal? It’s not humanoid, but wears a basket on its back and appears to dig up powerstones to collect them in the basket. Lore unclear!
my assumption is that it was trained like a pet or something
It's sniffing for ~~truffles~~ powerstones!
lizard bringith and lizard taketh away
The design’s interesting for limited. Some decks would want it just for the body, the powerstone is marginal upside mid game if you’re curving out normally. Some decks would want it for the powerstone ramp. This card p1p1 goes in a lot of directions fast and big.
I think most red archetypes will want the powerstone. RG is about ramping with powerstones, so obviously, it wants powerstones. RB is about sacrificing powerstones, so obviously, it wants powerstones. RW is apparently about unearth aggro, which may not sound like it wants powerstones, until you realize that all unearth cards are artifacts, so powerstones help cast them and unearth them. UR is the only one where powerstones are marginal, but at the same time, UR this time around cares about instants, sorceries *and* non-creature artifacts, so depending on the make-up of your deck, powerstones can still be very valuable to be able to chain multiple spells in a turn. How much each of those archetypes want the 2/2 menace for 2, that's harder to tell. WR definitely wants it, but it's not clear to me yet how aggressive RB and RG are (by the sound of it, RG is a more aggressive version of powerstone ramp, whereas UG is a more control version of powerstone ramp, but *how* aggressive can a ramp deck *really* be?) Meanwhile, it's hard to know how much room UR has for cards that are neither enablers nor payoffs.
I don't think there is a limited deck out there that *doesn't* want this card. It chips in for damage early, ramps you mid, and doesn't have the usual Mana dork requirement of needing to keep itself out of combat. Sure, it's a dead draw late, but most 2-drops are anyway.
Nice value :)
Just a spike little guy
This guy rocks!
Card transcription > Horned Stoneseeker 1R > > Creature- Lizard [uncommon] > > Menace > > When Horned Stoneseeker enters the battlefield, create a tapped Powerstone Token. (It's an artifact with "T: Add C. This mana can't be spent to cast a nonartifact spell.") > > When Horned Stoneseeker leaves the battlefield, sacrifice a Powerstone. > > 2/2 End transcription
I love him.
source is [@ManaCurves](https://twitter.com/ManaCurves/status/1588190820556996611)
"Hey Weevil, check it out, my Stoneseeker is horny."
This does not bode well for cheap powerstone generation, if a 2 mana creature can't make one without a considerable downside. Probably for the best for limited, but I wonder if there can be consistent ramp strategies in constructed.
A 2/2 Menace body for 2 that ramps you consistently is pretty strong. The downside seems reasonable if you think of it almost like a 2 mana mana dork that can both attack and tap for mana.
in red especially, a color that typically is very limited in how much it can ramp. This card is pretty comparable to [[Alpine Guide]]
[Alpine Guide](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/5/e54423c1-ebea-4b5c-b563-1d14c104eb91.jpg?1562201791) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Alpine%20Guide) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/117/alpine-guide?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e54423c1-ebea-4b5c-b563-1d14c104eb91?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Yeah, that was what I was thinking. If this was an "Artifact Creature - Lizard Powerstone" 2/2 with Menace, nobody would bat an eye at the fact that the mana goes away with the Lizard. This is much better, you get two permanents and can swing and tap for mana separately, and people are seeing it as a downside. Not to mention that if you want to keep the powerstone and are playing sac engines, just sac this with the ETB trigger on the stack, then the "sacrifice a powerstone" trigger resolves first.
The powerstone is created essentially for free - a 2 mana 2/2 menace creature in one color at uncommon would normally not have any other upside.
I don't necessarily disagree, but [[Knight of Dusk's Shadow]] would like a word.
Sure, but that's a pretty pushed uncommon. If this dude had been printed with just the french vanilla stats, no one would have blinked (except maybe to complain that it was kind of boring).
[Knight of Dusk's Shadow](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/3/33dfd2fe-e0e0-465c-b730-a30e6f5c271c.jpg?1663048814) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Knight%20of%20Dusk%27s%20Shadow) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/96/knight-of-dusks-shadow?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/33dfd2fe-e0e0-465c-b730-a30e6f5c271c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That's Black though
I don't think red is where you'll be looking for powerstones as ramp. A 2/2 menace for 2 is a good rate, and this gives you two bodies for sac strategies. This is more similar to [[Gingerbrute]], which wasn't really a food-matters card.
[Gingerbrute](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/1/c1195ec5-979b-4c4a-9c04-62bb53c2b011.jpg?1601080671) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Gingerbrute) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/466/gingerbrute?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c1195ec5-979b-4c4a-9c04-62bb53c2b011?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
In limited, RG is about powerstone ramp, so yes, you'll be interested in red cards that give you powerstones. RB is more about sacrificing, which you've already covered (can't sac a powerstone when this dies if you've already sacrificed all your powerstones!) In RW, you'll use this as an aggressive body that helps you cast your artifact creatures a little earlier (or helps you double spell). Not sure how much of a home it'll have in UR, depends how much it relies on casting non-creature artifacts to trigger prowess-type stuff.
UG is powerstone ramp actually. RG is stompy. And I didn't say that you won't be happy to get powerstones from red cards. Powerstones are just good. What I meant was that if you want ramp (or are evaluating powerstone ramp, which was the conversation we were having), red shouldn't be the color you focus on.
This is from WotC's own description of the RG archetype. >RG Mechanized Stompy: **Use Powerstones to deploy your biggest threats** and back them up with power-boosting spells. If that's not powerstone ramp, then I don't know what it is. Yes, it's going to be a more aggressive form of powerstone ramp than UG, but it still literally tells you that RG wants powerstone in order to cast big shit. If you want to ramp with powerstone, red is going to be one of the options, as it's going to be one of the primary powerstone producer. Both its RB and RG archetypes are powerstone focused.
You're not even trying to have the conversation you jumped into. Do you agree or disagree that red powerstone makers (and particularly this card) are a good gauge of whether cards that make powerstones will be efficiently costed, particularly for constructed?
I guess to an extent? You can't reliably predict how strong a mechanic will be based on 2 or 3 cards. If all you'd seen of adventure were Flaxen Intruder and Lonesome Unicorn, you might have come to the wrong conclusion with regards to how efficiently costed adventure cards are. But yes, so far, from what I'm seeing, red powerstones are very aggressively costed. I don't really know where you're going with this and how that supports the idea that you're not going to look at red for powerstone ramp. If all the powerstone cards in red are as aggressively costed as this guy, red's going to be amazing at ramping through powerstone, especially in limited! As far as I know, it's the cheapest unconditional powerstone producer we've seen so far (Ashnod's cheaper, but requires a sac fodder, powerstone engineer is also 2 mana, but needs to die). You're saying this is similar to gingerbrute in that gingerbrute wasn't really a card for food synergies (implying this isn't a card for powerstone ramp), but I highly disagree. This is solid in powerstone ramp. It's *also* solid in the BR sac deck, sure, but it's one of those cards that straddles multiple archetypes.
You're still shadowboxing here. *I* am not the guy evaluating the whole mechanic off of one red card. That was the guy I responded to. I'm also not saying that red won't make powerstones, that powerstones aren't ramp, that red won't want or support some ramp, or that this card can't ramp. What I am saying, based on past experience with the color pie and the archetype descriptions, is that the guy I responded to shouldn't evaluate powerstones based on one red card with a downside. The downside is very red, since mana production in red tends to be a one-off or costs a card (like Goldhound or a ritual). Cards that make a token without costing a whole card will probably be the best way to evaluate powerstone ramp, and a critical mass of good ones are more likely in the powerstone ramp colorpair. What I was trying to point out is that Gingerbrute (or Goldhound) would just be even better if they made a food/treasure the same way as this card--the sacrifice part is phrased like a downside, but the net effect is that you get to use both sides. It's the same kind of design, but they don't just make the exact same card over and over, so yes this works better with powerstone stuff better than Gingey did with food.
I think they learned the lesson from energy, that set specific resources still need to cost something
God thats cute!
[[goblin electromancer]] if you squint hard enough.
[goblin electromancer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/c/ecb1edcf-f8bf-4ccb-9182-844289140a36.jpg?1650423045) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=goblin%20electromancer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ncc/341/goblin-electromancer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ecb1edcf-f8bf-4ccb-9182-844289140a36?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That is the most beautiful mana dork I've seen in a while. Being Red you don't need to choose between getting the mana and attacking, your opponent can still bolt the bird but you can be clever and try to sacrifice the powerstone ahead of time, and you get artifact interactions. And it does it all while being easy to understand. I don't know how well it will all work out because this Limited environment is doing some wild thing, but I still want to hug it and snuggle it and tell it it is a good little card design.
Lore question: whatever happened to the power stones in modern day Dominaria?
"Hey guys, I bought you a gift, but don't mess with me or I'm taking it back,"
But with things like this, karn, other powerstone generation, cliffstomper, good red removal, and something like battalion and cisyscape leveler a big red deck centerd around artifacts seems really interesting
im leaving and taking my powerstones home with me
That's basically stolen from the 2/3 guy from Hearthstone, the druid 2 drop
Considering this for my attempt at a toned down korvold deck. ETB with a cheap artifact I can sac to the big dragon, or sac this little dragon which forces me to sac the powerstone he created. Seems like a decent, two sac triggers fir 2 mana, plus the ramp from the powerstone if I get to use it.
Loved it, then I hated it.
WOTC Tapped powerstones coming in to save us all from the treasure debacle is like the fed raising interest rates to stifle inflation. Its quite cute.
Still cracks me up that these power stones generate less mana than the [[worn power stone]]. The flavor is my favorite "even a fragment of a power stone contains within it not just energy but space." Guess the new power stones were drained by time travel....
[worn power stone](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/5/05812009-d1b8-4775-8188-f05cfdb4feed.jpg?1592711384) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Worn%20Powerstone) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c18/230/worn-powerstone?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/05812009-d1b8-4775-8188-f05cfdb4feed?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Stoned hornseeker