This card is a bit too slow in tournament play,
as it's five mana for something that can't do
more than one point of damage per turn without
help. But it does pretty much destroy an
opponent's chance to attack you with non-evasive
creatures (and intimidate doesn't count as
evasion against a Stuffy Doll). Still, Stuffy
Doll really needs some sort of combo to be
effective-- Earthquake, Guilty Conscience,
Pariah, or the like. And those decks are just
too slow in any competitive format in which
they're still legal.
In Casual, Stuffy Doll can be a force. You can
combo it with whatever you like, and the game is
more likely to go on long enough for you to
actually get it off. Trouble is, a lot of casual
play is also multiplayer. Stuffy Doll makes you
pick a player, which means that casting this not
only earns you an enemy, it also prompts other
players to attack you just in the hopes of
damaging the other guy... and as long as they're
swinging at you, they might as well swing with a
few other creatures too. It can be a useful tool
to keep people off you, or to create alliances
and allow some players to "attack" a player
whose defenses they couldn't otherwise get
through, but Stuffy Doll is still primarily a
combo piece.
There's a very Shadowmoor vibe about this
particular version of Stuffy Doll; I almost
wonder if it should have the creature type
Scarecrow. Is it a coincidence that the last
time this card was around, there was a red spell
that dealt 13 damage in a nearby set - and there
is again now? That's as close as a card can get
to physically begging you to design a combo deck
and take it to FNM. Even if you "only" use the
Doll as a card that punishes opponents for
attacking you with a creature with power greater
than zero, that's still pretty decent. My only
concern is that without the original art, people
aren't going to realize that it was originally a
reference to the character depicted on Black
Vise.
Today's card of the day is Stuffy Doll which is
a five mana 0/1 Indestructible that can tap to
deal one damage to itself and any damage done to
it is dealt to the player chosen when it comes
into play. This is a fun card to alter how
an opponent attacks or to use alongside global
or high damage creature burn. Even
attacking with it can be effective if instant
speed pump is available to punish the opponent
if he blocks, by targeting their creature, or
Stuffy itself when it isn't blocked.
Overall this has been a popular card in the past
and will be played in current formats for the
different style of deck it promotes.
For Limited this doesn't quite have the
potential of other formats, but it is an
excellent blocker against large threats and a
strong target for any power increases as it is
harder to remove and makes blocking less
appealing. As an artifact it can be played
in any deck and is a good first choice in
Booster and an excellent card to include in any
Sealed builds.
In Multiplayer this is technically weakened by
only ever working on one player while it is in
play, but the impact on the game when every
player can get a free attack on that opponent by
having you block with it should be major.
