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Moxonomy

Sonic Screwdriver

Artifact3 generic mana

A three-mana artifact that does four things and none of them well, which is exactly the point of a Swiss-army utility rock. The tap-for-any-color line is the load-bearing one: this is a five-color mana source before it is anything else, and the other three abilities are what it does once the manabase no longer needs it. Untapping another artifact reaches for a partner (a mana rock, a tap-ability engine, something you want to fire twice a turn), which means the card is worth more the more artifacts share the table with it. The scry costs two and taps it, so it competes with the mana line rather than complementing it; you get to smooth a draw only on turns you can spare the activation. The evasion clause, three mana to make a creature unblockable, is the closer bolted onto a fixing tool, the line that turns a durdle rock into a way to end a game you were already winning. What holds the whole thing together is the single tap symbol: every ability past the first costs mana and the tap, so the card offers a menu but lets you order exactly one dish per turn. That constraint is what keeps a card with four abilities from being a four-in-one bomb. It is a toolbox that hands you one tool at a time, which is a fitting piece of design for a device famous for doing whatever the plot required, one setting at a time.

Sonic Screwdriver (who)
WHO · #790uncommon
Pricing
Normal:
Foil: $17.95
Oracle Text

Rules text

Tap: Add one mana of any color. 1 generic mana, Tap: Untap another target artifact. 2 generic mana, Tap: Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.) 3 generic mana, Tap: Target creature can't be blocked this turn.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
N/A
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
N/A
Historic
N/A
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
N/A
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
N/A
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
N/A
TLR
Legal
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

1 set
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