Is self-assembler a good card?

Standard Deck Help forum

Posted on Oct. 2, 2016, 11:27 a.m. by xtopazinferno

Self-Assembler doesn't seem to be a great card, a 4/4 for isn't very good, and all it does is tutor for itself. Is there any deck it fits in?

_Delta_ says... #2

No I don't think any. I would only use it in limited if I was desperate for a semi strong creature.

October 2, 2016 11:48 a.m.

clayperce says... #3

xtopazinferno,
I'm with Delta-117. I like it quite a bit in Limited as a two-of, because it fits in any deck, has Artifact synergy, and " for a 4/4 Draw a Card" is pretty good. But I don't even like it there as a three-of, because having two in hand is just depressing.

Really, the most interesting thing about the card is probably the speculation about the creature subtype ... we haven't seen Assembly-Workers since back on Dominaria, so there's some thought that may actually be the next plane, after Amonkhet ...

October 2, 2016 12:23 p.m.

Dorotheus says... #4

Honestly kind of figured that the speculation would have been that half of the technology on Kaladesh was brought in from other planes by Saheeli, Tezz, or others potentially. People think that Vehicles were brought in from Dominaria.

October 2, 2016 3:27 p.m.

shadow63 says... #5

It could be used as a giant Squadron Hawk but I'm hoping next set it gets another card for it to search up

October 2, 2016 4:57 p.m.

JohnnyBaggins says... #6

In Limited, I'd consider it if I had three. In Standard, it's simply not good.

October 2, 2016 5:16 p.m.

sirbar says... #7

I played it in limited last Friday in a U/W vehicles deck and I was pretty happy with it as a three of. But there is so many ways of getting card advantage in this limited format that I don't know how necessary it is. Still good if its what you get passed though.

October 2, 2016 11:13 p.m.

JohnnyBaggins says... #8

If you have three, you're in a good spot if that's your 5-drop. If you're casting a 4/4 on Turn 5, 6 and 7, you're in a good place. Sure, there's no question that there's ways to beat this, Gearhulks and simply bigger creeps, but the card enables you definitely casting all three of them, which no other 5-drop does. But I'd still rather have Arbobrback Stomper, Ambitious Aetherborn and Riparian Tiger as my three -drops.

I just realised that Stomper is an uncommon. My point still stands valid.

October 3, 2016 4:20 a.m.

mobiusxero says... #9

Random thought on this. Eldritch Evolution + Self-Assembler creates the possibility for a guaranteed turn 4 self assembler followed by a 5,6,7 in almost every game you play. I believe that turns the normally negative card advantage of Eldritch Evolution to a positive advantage. Throw in the new familiar we just got and there is card advantage to be generated.

October 6, 2016 5:57 p.m.

somsoc says... #10

Panharmonicon + Self-Assembler makes it a 5 mana 4/4 than draws two more 4/4s!

In reality I think it's mostly a limited card, it's potentially pretty great if you draft multiples of it. And perhaps in Aether Revolt they will add more 'Assembly-workers'.

October 7, 2016 7:06 p.m.

Nick88A says... #11

I agree that as a stand alone card for a 4/4 is not good enough. However I was planning on using it along side Foundry Inspector and Chief of the Foundry Preferably a couple of them on the field.

This way you can reliably pump out some half decent creatures for what becomes a reasonable cost.

October 10, 2016 3:51 a.m.

somsoc says... #12

@Nick88A I like both those cards in an artifact deck, but the odds of having one of either of them in play and getting to play the Self-Asembler are not amazing.

Even with 4x Self-Assemblers and 4x both of the others it is about 40% on T4/T5 - and Self-Assembler gets a lot worse if you're not playing it on curve. Also to draw both of them by T4 and then an Assembler on T5 is 20%. And really you'd want to draw Inspector for T3, play discounted Assembler for T4, and Chief for T5 - the odds of that sequence are even lower, at 14%, or around 1/7 games. That's if you have 4 copies of Assembler, which I don't think you want (probably 2 at most) - so the odds of pulling it off are much lower with only two copies.

A lot of the time the Assembler will just be a 4/4 you get to play on T4, or a 5/5 on T5 - plus drawing a card. It's not terrible but it's not as strong as other creatures you can play for 4 or 5 mana.

Don't let this discourage you from building it though. It would definitely be fun to pull off that play! It's just probably not something to build the entire deck around. Using Chief to buff smaller creatures is already strong. (and if you really want to go all-in on discounting things, there's also Jonny 5!)

October 10, 2016 5:17 p.m. Edited.

This discussion has been closed