Regards Old Schoolers! Today I bring you a Top that can be very interesting both for experienced players in the funniest Old School format: 7pts Singleton, and for those who start playing in it.
I’ve listed the top ten artifacts in the format that meet these criteria in order of importance:
– Not worth points. In 7pts there are 11 artifacts that are worth points: Sol Ring (4), Black Lotus and Moxen (3), Black Vise (2), and City in a Bottle, Mana Vault and Winter Orb (1)
– That they are not creatures. There are many highly played artifact creatures in 7pts that we will dedicate another article to.
– That they are very useful and / or very played in the 7pts Singleton format.
We start with the Top!
TOP 10
Fellwar Stone
Given the fully justified 3-point cost of Moxen, 7-point decks are not (luckily) a kind of jewelry in which whoever steals the stones first has the advantage, as is sometimes the case in regular OS. Here each player will generally go ashore in turn. But there is another stone, not as attractive as our five precious stones, but which can be very useful in the format: the Fellwar Stone.
In exchange for «losing» our second turn we will have four mana sources on the third turn. A boost that can be tremendously useful in a format with little acceleration. In addition, the stone is not only useful for that, but it can also provide us with mana of the color produced by the opponent’s lands. In a format where you can barely play duals and where all multi-color decks play City of Brass, the Fellwar Stone can provide us with all five colors in many games.
TOP 9
Jalum Tome
If the Jayemdae Tome were the Bible, his little brother the Jalum Tome would be the Apocryphal Gospels. Either you love it or you hate it, there is no middle ground. For some it is literally great, and other players see it rather weak.
Of course, it is widely played in 7pts, a format in which sometimes you have excess mana sources and you would like to exchange them for a better resource. I will summarize its advantages and disadvantages:
Advantage:
– In an advanced game, it allows you to exchange useless lands or cards against the rival deck for more useful ones.
– Its summoning and activation mana cost is much lower than that of Jayemdae Tome.
– Very useful in aggro decks with low CMC of their spells, to seek to exchange lands for resources.
– Combined with Land Tax it becomes very powerful.
Disadvantages:
– You have to remember that playing and activating it is always a card disadvantage, so I don’t see it as very effective in control decks.
– It does not combine very well with the X costs of the deck. If you discard the lands instead of land-drop then you will not have much accumulated mana to play the X costs that are the most useful of the 7pts format.
– If you are very desperate, you may be forced to discard useful cards until you find the answer you need.
Knowing this, it’s your choice to play it, it has as many fans as detractors!
TOP 8
Nevyinral’s Disk
Little can be said about this great classic. The all-rounder of massive removals. With few enchantment destroyers in the 7pts format, the Nevinyrral’s Disk becomes a wild card for many decks and widely used as a last resort.
The absence of enchantment destroyers is one of the main reasons to use it, but of course it works as Wrath of God, or to unblock those thick 7pts games where both sides of the table are filled with permanents.
In 7pts it becomes better than in regular Old School since there is not as much removal of artifacts per deck (and it also has to be reserved for worse things) so the disc usually survives a turn many times without the need to protect it with counters.
TOP 7
Rocket Launcher
Another artifact that, in this format, survive more times the turn you need to be effective. In addition, thanks to this format, many of us have discovered according to its text in Oracle that … it can be used twice before being destroyed! If you activate it at the end of the opponent’s end step, it will stay alive until the start of the next end step, which will be at the end of your next turn! Amazing!
It is also very useful given the lack of removal against annoying creatures of some colors (Preacher, Royal …) and it can be used to destroy them with a colorless artifact that fits on any deck. It can also be a direct damage finisher for decks that don’t play the color red.
Also noteworthy is its combination with another of the highly played creatures in 7pts, the Guardian Beast. As long as Beast is untapped, Rocket Launcher it will be indestructible and we can use it as many times as we want.
TOP 6
Skull of Orm
An artifact that lives its golden age in Old School thanks to 7pts. Being a singleton format, the possibility of being able to play the same card from the graveyard twice is undoubtedly very succulent. That is why cards like Regrowth, Recall or Timetwister are worth points. For this reason, many graveyard recovers such as Reconstruction, Feldon’s Cane or the beautiful Skull of Orm are seeing play.
The advantage of the Skull is that you can use it as many times as you want (at the modest price of 5 mana per activation), and it becomes very powerful when we already have a lot of lands on the table. The possibilities are endless: Drop of Honey, Spirit Shackle, Inmolation, Control Magic… But the one we have seen it combine best with is Copy Artifact.
Can you imagine how it works with a Chaos Orb on the table and a Copy Artifact?
Undoubtedly the craziest move we have seen with this card is combining it with Sage of Lat-Nam and Steal Artifact: I stole your artifact, I eat it with the Sage, I draw a card, I put the Steal Artifact on hand with the skull, I stole another artifact …
Very fun to play and unplayable on traditional OS!
TOP 5
Tawnos’s Coffin
Another 7pts staple. This card is also used most often as a colorless removal for many decks. But of course what she is best known for is her interaction with Tetravus and especially Triskelion.
Combined with Triskelion it becomes a finisher in itself, since the possibility of keeping the counters makes it return to the game with three more counters each time, being able to do 6, 9 or up to 12 damage if we want.
Basically it is a removal that can act as a finisher at late game thanks to the Triskelion. Does anyone give more for four colorless mana?
TOP 4
Aeolipile
Another of the big stars of the format that fits perfectly in almost any deck. A bolt in the form of an artifact with a very affordable cost and that can help to curve the deck.
Destroy a lot of very annoying creatures in the format: Preacher, Royal Assasin, Aladdin, WitchHunter, Ali From Cairo, Argivian Archaeologist, Ball Lightning, Hypnotic Specter, Nettling Imp… etc.
A creature removal for colors that does not have as much removal as green, but also a small finisher in practically any deck, as this Aeolipile fits both aggro decks and control decks.
TOP 3
Jayemdae Tome
It is true that you need 8 mana to «get it back» and 12 to start making true card advantage, but in a format where there are usually plenty of mana sources left over late in the game, the tome is a necessary resource in practically all decks.
I would play it in all kinds of decks, aggro, control … even in a Monored Burn, or a monogreen. I find it incredible in the format, and a clear objective of the removal of artifacts that we all carry on the deck. Once it starts working we have very few turns before we start to go behind in the game.
Luckily, with not so many moxen and accelerators being played in the format, the tome is controllable in the first turns. If the opponent wants to play it on turn four and draw on turn 5, he will be two turns without playing anything to get the card back, which will give us some time. Now, if your opponent has 8 or 10 mana sources on the table, feel free to throw your artifact removal to Jayemdae Tome!
TOP 2
Icy Manipulator
With the Jayemdae Tome, there can be some question as to whether it should be included on all decks. But with the Icy Manipulator there can be no debate: it is essential in every deck.
It can be a kind of «removal» for big creatures, at least to keep them under control and buy turns. We can do «mana denial» to our opponent, we can tap a creature to attack with our own, we can tap the Maze of Ith to attack, or we can use it as a finisher by tapping the opponent’s City of Brass to deal damage per turn.
Needless to say, combined with other cards such as Winter Orb, Royal Assassin, Damping Field … etc. makes it one of the most mythical Old School cards and specifically 7pts Singleton.
One of those cards that will be useful in all games, that you will always want to draw, and that you will not want to see it in front of you, whatever you play.
TOP 1
Chaos Orb
The Old School multipurpose. It takes creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and lands out of the way. Words are unnecessary.
The oly thing I want to highlight, is its powerful interaction with other cards very played in 7pts and hardly played in regular OS such as Guardian Beast (we can use it every turn) or Argivian Archaeologist (we can recover it every turn).
So far this Top 10 of very useful and highly played artifacts in 7pts. Surely some has surprised you by comparing it with the regular Old School. I think that the best thing about 7pts is to create original decks, so we should not take this list as a guide, but rather think about those more hidden artifacts that are not played in regular OS, but that may be worthy of belonging to this list of 7pts artifact staples shortly. Maybe the Ring of Renewal? Standing Stones or Mana Batteries? Barl’s Cage? Horn of Deafening?
Much remains to be discovered and played in the format!
Liga Madrileña Old School MTG 