Toymaker

Animation effects usually arrive stapled to a one-shot spell or a steep enchantment; here the same trick lives on a repeatable body, paid for each time with a discard, a tap, and a single mana. The conversion math is the whole point: a noncreature artifact becomes a creature sized to its mana value, so the activation that turns a humble mana rock into a fragile attacker can also make an expensive artifact into a genuine threat. Because the animation leaves the artifact's abilities intact, a mana rock still taps for mana while it blocks. The exception is anything that depends on staying attached: an Equipment animated this way becomes a creature and immediately falls off, producing a body but dropping whatever it was buffing. That keeps this a utility piece rather than a beatdown engine, a way to push surprise damage, ambush an attacker at instant speed, or supply a creature on demand for an effect that needs one. The discard cost and the per-target, until-end-of-turn duration mean nothing stays animated past the current turn, so no standing army ever assembles. The body is the catch, fragile and needing protection so the activation survives to be used again: the trade the Spellshaper mechanic always demands, a reusable spell that only keeps reusing as long as the caster lives.