As we near the end of week one of Edge of Eternities previews, Wizards has treated us to the set’s final Commander precon. Counter Intelligence stands in stark contrast to World Shaper from yesterday, emphasizing artifact and proliferate synergies over land shenanigans. This is a deck with a lot of moving parts, and one with a lot of subtleties and intricacies to master. It also features one of the least-subtle MTG cards we’ve ever seen in Depthshaker Titan.
This card is essentially a red, artifact-based take on Craterhoof Behemoth. Anyone who’s been on the receiving end of a beating from that monstrosity knows how scary that sentence is. It’s joined in Counter Intelligence by a range of exciting new artifacts, too, all of which can support it and set up a win. Jeskai isn’t exactly known for brutal finishing moves, but after this precon it just might be.
Depthshaker Titan MTG
- Mana Value: 5RR
- Type: Artifact Creature – Robot
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: When this creature enters, any number of target noncreature artifacts you control become 3/3 artifact creatures. Sacrifice them at the beginning of the next end step.
Each artifact creature you control has Melee, Trample, and Haste. (Whenever a creature with Melee attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each opponent you attacked this combat.)- Stats: 5/5
Depthshaker Titan is an undeniable highlight from the MTG Counter Intelligence Commander precon. For seven mana, you get a 5/5 artifact creature with Trample, Haste, and Melee. This is a bit of an obscure ability, but in practice it usually amounts to a +3/+3 boost, as long as you’re spreading the love and attacking all of your opponents.
On top of this, Titan lets you turn any number of noncreature artifacts into 3/3s that, thanks to Titan’s passive, will have Trample, Haste, and Melee. The lack of limitations here is fantastic. You can turn your faithful mana rocks into creatures, as well as other useful pieces like The One Ring. Most Commander decks naturally play a handful of artifacts anyway, and this is a great way to turn them into a win condition.
If you’re going after all three opponents, each animated artifact will be hitting as a 6/6 Trampler. This puts the card very much in Craterhoof territory, but with a few caveats. 6/6 is the ceiling here, so you won’t be scaling exponentially with your board size. On the other hand, noncreature artifacts are pretty easy to keep alive, so it’s easier to surprise your opponents with an out-of-nowhere swing. Titan does force you to sacrifice your animated artifacts at the end of the turn, but the game should be over before then if you set things up right. This is a very scary new card, and one to watch for in red decks going forward.
Insight Engine
- Mana Value: 2U
- Type: Artifact
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: 2, Tap: Put a charge counter on this artifact, then draw a card for each charge counter on it.
On top of Depthshaker Titan itself, Counter Intelligence also includes a number of excellent MTG artifacts to use alongside it. One such card is Insight Engine. For three mana, this is an ever-scaling draw engine, gaining more counters and drawing more cards with each activation. This makes it pretty scary in a long game, if you can afford to pay two mana per use, of course.
This activation cost makes Engine fairly clunky, even in decks built around abusing it. You can untap it extra times with something like Voltaic Key, or add more charge counters via Proliferate or cards like Power Conduit, but there’s no getting around that two mana cost. With so much efficient draw in Commander right now, even outside of the Game Changers list, this could be enough to sink the card.
On the other hand, there’s no sorcery speed restriction here, so it plays nicely in decks where you’re holding up mana anyway. If your opponents don’t play anything worth countering in a turn cycle, you can just draw some cards instead. At more casual tables, access to mana sinks like this is important, as games go long and resource management is king. Being able to hold something up alongside interaction is always good, too, and this can even draw you interaction in a pinch.
Ultimately, Insight Engine seems a bit too fair to be a real player on most Commander tables. It is a solid card advantage option for low-bracket or budget decks, however, and it provides another artifact on board for Depthshaker and friends.
Solar Array
- Mana Value: 3
- Type: Artifact
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: Tap: Add one mana of any color. When you next cast an artifact spell this turn, that spell gains Sunburst. (If it’s a creature, it enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each color of mana spent to cast it. Otherwise, it enters with that many charge counters on it.)
At this point, a three-mana mana rock really needs to do something special to be worth a slot in your Commander deck. There are so many good two mana ramp options that these cards just aren’t seen much anymore. Solar Array is a solid attempt to buck that trend, but it may be too specific to really get there.
Array does two things for you: it fixes your mana, and it lets you juice up your artifacts with free +1/+1 or charge counters as they enter. The +1/+1 side here is fairly underwhelming. At best, you’re getting five extra counters a turn here, and that’s assuming you’re playing a four-color deck and using Array to nab your missing color. That can be okay, but the artifact creature limitation makes it pretty niche.
The charge counter option is more interesting. With Insight Engine above, for example, you can use Array to have it enter with three charge counters, meaning you’ll draw four cards on your first use. It’s also a great way to speed up the Station process on all the new Edge of Eternities Spacecraft. Unfortunately, it won’t work on the mythic lands, but there’s still solid potential here. If you run a lot of charge counter synergies in your deck, Array may be worth a punt.
Moxite Refinery
- Mana Value: 2
- Type: Artifact
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: 2, Tap, Remove X counters from an artifact or creature you control: Choose one. Activate only as a sorcery.
- Put X charge counters on target artifact.
- Put X +1/+1 counters on target creature.
Last, and unfortunately, least, we have Moxite Refinery. While the name here is very exciting, the actual card is anything but. For two mana, then another two per use, this is a sorcery-speed way to convert counters on your artifacts and creatures into +1/+1 or charge counters elsewhere.
In theory, this could enable some interesting shenanigans. If you have a permanent that easily amasses charge counters, for example, you could convert that into a huge buff for a key creature. Unfortunately, many of the best candidates for this are actually enchantments, like Black Market or Druids’ Repository. There are some decent artifact options, mind you, like Spawning Pit or Vexing Puzzlebox.
As for going the other way, this seems like a long shot. Most artifact-centric decks aren’t massive on +1/+1 counter synergies, so your chances of doing much there are slim. Trying to use both sides of this effect will likely spread your deck too thin, and using it to convert charge counters into +1/+1 counters is probably too clunky in the current era. Maybe with a lower cost or instant-speed effect, this could’ve been interesting, but as it stands, it’s an MTG card you won’t mind sacrificing after a Depthshaker Titan turn.
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