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.
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.)
