I like this card very much, and not just because
of the novelty of having a mono-green artifact.
While green has an embarrassment of riches at
five and six mana in the context of modern sets,
there are few that can play as many roles as
Verdurous Gearhulk, which can act as a permanent
Overrun effect in decks that want to go wide
with lots of creatures, do an interesting
impression of Spectral Force when you need to go
big, and basically anything in between. It even
acts as a combo card with the likes of Crowned
Ceratok and Hardened Scales, and that's
something that most of green's expensive
creatures can't say.
Verdurous Gearhulk is pretty potent on its own;
if you have no other creatures on board when
this hits, he’s coming out as an 8/8 with
trample for 5 mana, a set of stats that most
decks will be hard-pressed to beat. It’s not
unanswerable, but it presents a very short clock
for your opponents to have to try and come up
with something. You also, if you have creatures
that can end the game more quickly, use the
Gearhulk to put counters on them, to smash faces
faster. It may be the “simplest” Gearhulk in
terms of its effect, but it’s an extremely
powerful, game-ending tool once it hits.
And this is all without getting into fun tricks,
like “blinking” him after you’ve put counters on
other creatures and using copy tricks (like
Saheeli Rai) to get more counters on the first
Gearhulk. This guy is slated to be a house in
Standard, and I’d be wary of it whenever you’re
playing the format for the next 2 years.
