"Karn, Scion of Urza: He is the Father"

"Karn, Scion of Urza: He is the Father"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

As a true blue Phyrexian , it always give me hope that Karn is in a set because he might usher in a great Phyrexian Return on Dominaria if he still have some of that great Phyrexian oil on his mechanical body.

There is much speculation on who really controls New Phyrexia now but there is no doubt in my mind that should Karn decide to go back there and wrest control himself he could. Or the Phyrexians could control him again and return him  to his rightful role as Father of the machines.

My salivating Phyrexian side aside I was excited about a 4 colorless Mana costed Karn , Scion of Urza included in this deck. He starts with 5 Loyalty counters on him and is within the reach of most creatures or burn spells.

His first ability is a +1 that Reveals the top two cards of your library. An opponent then chooses one of them. Put that card into your hand and exile the other with a silver counter on it. 

Now that is a very slippery slope to slide in when you think about. Opponents will most likely choose cards that might not give you an advantage now but the thing is that the card your opponent did not choose can still come back to haunt them since you are merely exiling it with a Silver counter on it. Like a silver bookmark on a page you want to go back to later.

And this leads to Karn, Scion of Urza's second ability.

A -1 That lets you put a card you own with a silver counter on it from exile into your hand.

"Where the heck is that spell in the aether? Oh yeah follow the silver counter and voila it can be put back into your hand and you can now cast. Think of the aether as an extended library where you can stash things and go back for it when it is useful later. 

It seems like Karn is a bit watered down here but heck for a 4 colorless mana I would still want him and that is because there are several EDH with full of artifacts just waiting for him like Daretti's and Admiral Beckett Brass's Treasure deck or my Blue Black Kaladesh Improvise deck.

It is Karn's last ability that I covet the most. If on the 3rd or 4th turn you have no creatures ,  for just -2 on his loyalty counters you can create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control."

The 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token counts as an artifact so it gets a +1/+1 right off the bat. In the EDH setting I see Karn plopping down on turn 2 with a Sol Ring and 2 lands in play or even maybe turn 1 with a Mana Vault and Sol Ring  in play. It gives me a 3/3 creature on turn one with the possibility of making it bigger.Now I can only imagine if I play 1 artifact land and a Chrome Mox , cast a Sol Ring and Manavault and play Karn , I actually get a 4/4 creature! 

I'm sorry.I just gushed a little bit there thinking of the headaches I could give my opponents.I don't really care if Karn is colorless but not an artifact. I am happy with just this ability. I could only speculate how much Karn will cost when he comes out. Pero sabi nga ng Cashier sa Jollibee "Willing to Wait" naman ako until the Hype passes and I can acquire the Father of the Machines again.