Saheeli Rai is interesting to me in that she has
two abilities that strongly requires interaction
with other cards, and another that can win the
game by itself, albeit slowly. Her +1 is an
almost-impossible-to-stop one-card burn deck,
but using her in that manner seems like kind of
a waste. I know I'm going to be looking through
all of Magic's history for three artifacts that
either win the game on the spot or do something
completely hilarious when they all come into
play at once, and so should you. And I don't
think it's a coincidence that they printed a
card with her -2 ability in the same set as the
Gearhulks and Filigree Familiar.
She’s pretty clearly an artificer, and a potent
one at that. In particular, her -2 is a very
powerful ability; copying a Gearhulk is
obviously a backbreaking move, but there are
lots of other fun creatures worth copying. At 3
mana, she drops early and can start messing
around, and she can even drop later and still
have an impact.
Her other two abilities aren't bad, but they're
more of a “sideshow”. Her +1 pings opponents
slightly and can help set up your next turn, but
it's not great otherwise. This makes her -7 less
likely to go off, though digging out three
artifacts should end the game in short order.
Saheeli's low mana cost makes up a bit for her
inability to protect herself, and she does very
well in an established board. But if you don't
have something for her to immediately exploit,
she's probably going to underwhelm, and she's
not a great topdeck if you're trying to come
back from a bad situation.
