"Grafted Exoskeleton: Turning Everything Phyrexian"

"Grafted Exoskeleton: Turning Everything Phyrexian"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

The TV series "Dark Skies" talks about an alien invasion that has seemingly destroyed human society as we know it. The unstoppable aliens are harnessing humanity in their conquest by put some special device along the backs of their subjects that seemed to control them and revealed later to alter their DNA to resemble the alien invaders themselves (Or their workers) as well. 

Hmmmm. A device that is grafted to the back of a victim. Turns that victim into something else. Something deadly. Where have I seen that before?

Oh yeah. This was it. The Phyrexians had a name for it. They called it...

And now on to the Grafted Exoskeleton , one of my favorite pieces of equipment that came out in New Phyrexia. At 4 colorless mana this piece of hardware / Artifact could clamp on to any of your creatures and then? Give it +2/+2 and the infect mechanic! Now imagine having an Ornithopter hovering and doing 2 Infect damage each of your turns? An opponent dies in 5 turns.Also considering that in Magic most low casting creatures have a power stat of 1/1. A Grafted Exoskeleton could instantly turn your 1/1 Mana dork or land fetcher into a formidable 3/3 that could kill in 4 turns! One of my favorite things to latch this on to is the ever dependable Solemn Simulacrum. Not only does he become a 4/4 Killing Machine he also nets you one card when he dies! And now we can talk about a this equipments drawback...whenever its gets removed from one permanent , that permanent needs to be sacrificed. Meaning if you equip it to your Mutavault or Blinkmoth Nexus, that land is gone because the Grafted Exoskeleton drops from it at the end your turn when these animated lands go back to being lands.It isn't much of a drawback when you are about to win the game. 

One of the worst case scenarios I have seen with this card was when it got attached to an Invisible Stalker that went to town virtually unopposed. Or in the hands of Skull Briar or any Slith for that matter that suddenly starts growing for each successful hit. Skull Briar doesn't take long to grow into an enormous 6/6. Better yet imagine any creature with stats starting at 8/8 that becomes 10/10 infect and you get a pretty frightening picture. An It that betrays that should have killed you in 4 turns now kills you in one. An Emrakul that seemed pretty impossible to stop now becomes 17/17 infect. Talk about hopelessness. Of course the big question is if your opponents would ever let you keep this piece of equipment around unmolested. With this thing around 10 seems like a pretty awfully law number.