Those were the days, one year ago, when Cranial
Plating quickly jumped into prominence as one of
the most dangerous cards in the extremely
dangerous Affinity deck. A year later finds the
Affinity deck neutered to say the least, and
Cranial Plating much less interesting. This card
is good in a deck with (obviously) LOTS of
artifacts. I just don't see the use of this card
in any constructed format where you cannot use
the artifact lands (Type II). In limited, this
was an above average card, but this was only
true because the limited format was so entirely
artifact based. If Cranial Plating were in the
current block, it would see very little play in
limited.
Whenever Skullclamp got banned, Affinity had to
find a new piece of equipment to turn itself
into a mildly degenerate deck. It found Cranial
Plating right away, and never missed a beat. I
suppose that should say something on how good
Cranial Plating is -- it filled the void left by
Skullclamp and Affinity wasn't hurt in the
least; it might have even been better. If I had
to list off the five best pieces of equipment,
Cranial Plating is likely on the list. The only
major drawback is that you have to play a fair
number of artifacts to make the Plating
worthwhile, which can limit the number of decks
it goes into.
Awesome card, especially in limited. If you're
playing Mirrodin limited, you absolutely,
positively play this card, regardless if you are
going Black or not. If you are going Black, then
it's even better, but you really don't need to
be. The advantage of Cranial Plating comes from
the huge amount of Artifacts available in the
set. Plating can make the weakest creature a
nasty threat. Slap it on a 1/1, and attack away.
You'll probably get your x/1 killed, but you'll
take something with it. Do it again and again,
sacrificing your little guys, and you'll kill
more and more of your opponent's creatures.
Eventually, if you have enough creatures, you'll
get through.
