"Durable Handicraft: Made to Survive Hazardous Conditions"

"Durable Handicraft: Made to Survive Hazardous Conditions"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

Once in awhile you go to a PR ,You open your packs and when you are at a loss for words since you did not open a Masterpiece , Planeswalker or any sort of Creature bomb you turn to your Uncommon pile and find a gem that is devastating in limited as you assume as it will be in some other formats like Tiny Leaders.

I am talking about Durable Handicraft , a 2 to cast green enchantment that allows you to pay an extra colorless mana so that the creature you just cast comes into play with a +1/+1 counter on it.It looks harmless when you put it on a 1/1 Servo or Thopter but heck you get 2/2 creatures for just a single extra mana. 

And in Limited formats like Sealed where the mana drops can remain more of less constant , a well thought out deck with a good mana curve could shell out bigger and bigger creatures each turn.

This happened to me in the recent Kaladesh PR on my last round.I was able to cast Durable Handicraft on both games and it shone through allowing me to win both of those games.

Imagine casting Fleetwheel Cruiser for 5 mana , making it a 6/4 creature with Trample and haste! This artifact is the only one of the vehicles who comes in with an Auto-pilot and becomes a creature so there is at least one blocker and some points of damage hitting your opponent.

I was also able to cast an Iron League Steed for 4 mana choosing to put a +1/+1 via it's fabricate ETB effect.Which made it a 4/4 creature with haste that smashed face the moment it came in.

I also got a 3/4 Prakhata Pillar-bug. With such consistent drops I was not able to use Durable Handicrafts Ultimate ability which is to add a +1/+1 counter on all the creatures you control at Instant speed. This final ability is great for all those attacking Servo and Thopter tokens or any other token for that matter.

"Gusto ko ng Counters , madaming madaming counters...Counters man!"

In Tiny Leaders I really plan on adding this to my existing Skullbriar deck. Imagine playing Skullbriar on turn 3 for 3 mana having this curve

Turn 1: Play land(Green) , Play Hardened Scales

Turn 2:Play land(Black) , Play Durable Handicraft

Turn 3: Play any land , Play Skullbriar paying 1 extra colorless mana , putting a +1/+1 counter on it triggering Hardened Scales and putting another +1/+1 counter on it. You now have a 3/3 Commander with Haste and if left unblocked could grow into a 5/5 Monstrosity.

So what happens if Skullbriar dies to removal? You just cast him again , pay the extra 2 colorless Commander mana cost + the 1 mana colorless cost of Durable Handicraft and you will always get 2 +1/+1 counters when you have the Hardened Scales in play!

And what other use could this Enchantment have? Why it can even save your creatures from Hazardous Conditions. A card that give -2/-2 to all creatures except to those who have a +1/+1 counter on them. And guess what Durable Handicraft will make sure that your creature has this needed counter so that it will survive this card.

So there you have it. A gem of an enchantment in uncommon. Funny when I think of Durable Handicraft I was thinking of this:

Pang export!

So what was the first thing that came to your mind when you heard about this enchantment? Thanks for reading and sharing. Keep on brewing!