I'm having a hard time deciding between card:Accorder's Shield - which is fantastic equipment - and Semblance Anvil , which is fantastic full stop for artifacts.

At the moment, we have 12 artifacts, and 14 creatures (I counted the Glint Hawk Idol in that total.) By choosing artifacts with the Semblance Anvil , we get to cast the majority of our artifacts for free. even if we chose creatures, our mana cost will be negligable. I think this is way too good to pass up. speed is key.

I vote Semblance Anvil . It will not come around again.

Semblance Anvil looks good but in my experience plays pretty badly. For -2 card advantage you get slightly cheaper spells. I actually unmainboarded it in a draft deck once after being disappointed with its performance. I vote card:Kemba's Skyguard with card:Accorder's Shield taking a close second.

Agreed. Accorder's Shield isn't bad, especially when you're trying to play with equipment (are we still?) but the Anvil is just to great. It's such an efficient cost-reduction engine. I'm very surprised we're seeing it here.

Semblance Anvil is my vote.

card:Kemba's Skyguard flying 2/2 +2 life. our decided color. seems pretty good with out equipment too.

oh and about the last pick... Tempered Steel

CAN WE PLEASE PICK UP A Liquimetal Coating AND DESTROY WITH IT

I was almost ready to try and launch into a very compelling argument for the Sylvok Lifestaff (still think this would combo well with our perilous myr) and then i saw it card:Kemba's Skyguard 2/2 flier and 2 life when it enters the battlefield. Sounds pretty good to me, we are going to dominate in the sky!

Uncertain about the Semblance Anvil . I do see the point above about reducing the casting cost... I can definately see an advantage to being able to lay down almost your entire hand for little to no mana.... on the other hand....we don't really have a high mana curve to begin with so i am not sure that this helps our deck very significantly....

For now my vote is card:Kemba's Skyguard but i could be convinced of the anvil or even the staff....

Don't look past Semblance Anvil . You drop that and exile one of our Trigons (most likely) and we can pretty much play out our hand by turn 5.

If would be a huge pick if we had a couple Golem Artisan s or Darksteel Sentinel s or Chrome Steed s.

But, we don't and now it's a very tough choice with the card:Kemba's Skyguard.

We already have a few 2/2 fliers. And accelerating metalcraft in a metalcraft deck is too good to pass up.

Semblance Anvil

Semblance Anvil IS NOT GOOD- we dont have expesnive artifacts so it wont hurt us that much to play them for the cost. Semblance anvil has terrible card advantage. especially in a metal craft deck. we need as many artifacts as possible on the table, and semblance anvil DOES THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE WANT. plus if they destroy it (which is very very easy) we just got two for oned for very little gain.

Both the sheild and the skygaurd are fantastic cards. The skygaurd is a 2/2 with evasion. The sheild is a 0 cost metal craft enabler, great against infect, and makes most things we would put it on fantastic. I vote the shield. the anvil is terrible.

Right now, we have picked 8 2-cost artifacts, 2 3-cost artifacts, and 2 4-cost artifacts.

If we take the shield, we get one 0-cost metalcraft enabler, yes.

If we take the Anvil, and imprint an artifact, suddenly it's 8 0-cost artifacts, 2 1-cost artifacts, and 2 2-cost artifacts. (Of course we're unlikely to play ALL of the artifacts we've taken, but I'm just illustrating the point here.)

If we imprint an artifact creature, our Glimmerpoint Stag becomes a 3/3 vigilance flickering 2-drop, our Scrapmelter becomes a Shatter with a free 3/3 body, and that Scudder we just took becomes a 1-drop 3/3 flyer.

Our deck is cheap, but the Anvil makes it downright theft. The Anvil is NOT a bad card, because it enables us to cheaply establish a strong board position. Simply the threat of 2-for-1 doesn't make it bad; that just means its benefits have to outweigh the risks.

Don't get me wrong, I like the shield too. It's a good equipment, it's good particularly for metalcraft. And I can see an argument that we should stop picking utility cards now. I won't be disappointed if we take it. But the Anvil's usefulness outshines the shield's.

@MagnorCriol We won't be drowning in cards though. Unless we get Semblance Anvil in our opening hand its worthless. It we are top decking we can pay the casting cost anyways... The negative card advantage is a big turn off too.

how interesting! I posted yesterday, saying almost exactly what post #8 says, but I guess it didn't make it to the internets.

To reiterate: Semblance Anvil has no place in a 40-card draft deck. It wastes cards, opens you up to 2 for 1s, and takes the place of a card that actually does something.

Skyguard is okay, and so is the shield, but the Sylvok Lifestaff is a gem! it screw the early game of non-infect decks just about completely -- there's no profit in our opponent bashing in if we can trade and gain life -- a perilous myr wearing a lifestaff is one of the single most annoying things we can do early game, because anything the opponent does results in a net gain for us. and with it's superlow CMC and equip costs, we can cast it, equip it, swing, and then equip it on a defender all on one turn if need be.

Sylvok Lifestaff is my vote, and I'd like to super anti-vote for the semblance anvil. it's crap.

Sylvok Lifestaff fits our deck realy good, it is fast and cheap to equipt, and it activates our hawks, and it works for lifegain for mid game, when some of the small crittes arent usefull.

Also as sayed a Perilous Myr with this in is down right nasty. It also fit on the 2 white 2/2 that get lifegain/first strik with and equipment on, and having a 3/2 first strik lifegain on turn 3 is nasty, and even if they are killed, we still get 3 life after also.

Sylvok Lifestaff has my vote, card:Kemba's Skyguard is fine also, but not the anvil, it just dosent fit.

Alright, ya'll convinced me. And I think I like the Lifestaff over the Skyguard... but it's really close.

Changing to Sylvok Lifestaff

A quick thanks to the hive mind for grabbing some equipment while I was off on vacation. I can't believe Barbed Battlegear tabled. That's just silly.

I think Semblance Anvil is a great card, but it won't play to the best of its ability in this deck. Our costs are low and we have no draw power.

I won't be disappointed with card:Kemba's Skyguard. However, without mana fixing, the double white requirement could make it slower than it looks. The lifegain is "meh" given how much more life we should gain off equipped Shikari.

I'd be happy with either of the equipment cards. Slight favor for Sylvok Lifestaff as it's faster and works well with both the kitties and our bomber myr.

change my vote to the lifestaff

Although I think we'll see another Lifestaff in the next pack or two, I'll change my vote to Sylvok Lifestaff as well.

fair enough. I haven't drafted this set before, and The anvil looked good at first glance. I guess it isn't so good after all.

I still don't understand why Sylvok Lifestaff is getting the nod over card:Accorder's Shield. extra power and lifegain if our creature bites the dust is nice and all, but better than extra toughness and vigilance?

Lifegain is useless against infect. the shield will make our cats very effective as both blockers and attackers. First strike, lifelink and vigilance? yes please!

I'll change my vote to the shield. If anyone can explain why the staff is better, i'd appreciate it.

I hear what you're saying, Vortxis. Here's my thinking re: lifestaff.

Yes, it isn't great against infect. however, we will face at most 1 good infect deck. most SoM drafts support one good infect deck or 2 half-assed infect decks.

Our deck is small, fast, and evasive. I'd rather have an aggro artifact, like the lifestaff; that one damage will add up when our flyer is swinging for 3 instead of 2 every turn.

equip cost. the lifestaff's equip cost of 1 means it can be tossed around from creature to creature to creature on a given turn, giving you multiple options on offense or defense. the accorder's shield is a big mana drain, and there's no way you're going to waste the 6 mana to move it around. once it's on, it's pretty much stuck.

that said, the shield isn't terrible here. but the lifestaff is a better choice for our deck.

Okay, okay, I see the merit behind the arguments. I change my vote to the equipment. I still say the Anvil is a great card, but I guess I can see why it's not the best choice for us here.

-1 Semblance Anvil

+1 Sylvok Lifestaff over the shield because I think the cheapness both to cast and equip is a slight edge better for our deck than the shield. Buuuuut I still won't be disappointed if we choose the shield.

I'd go with the life staff or the skyguard. I have never taken a semblance anvil because it's one of those cards like golem foundry, sounds great, but is just underpowered in limited unless you've built for it, which, with a low cost deck, we obvioulsy haven't built for it.