#assembly-worker

Academy Manufactor

Automated systems at the Tolarian Academy sort new acquisitions for optimal use, determining which should be studied, eaten, or sold.

Assembly-Worker (Time Spiral) - Chippy

With their factories long destroyed, some of Mishra's creations still toil in remote areas, endlessly performing and reperforming their last orders.

Art by Joseph Meehan

What is an Assembly-Worker (flavorfully)?

An Assembly-Worker is an artificial creature designed to create other artifacts. They tend to be vaguely humanoid and do menial labor.

What is an Assembly-Worker (mechanically)?

Assembly-Workers are artifact creatures, most of which assist in the the aid of other Assembly-Workers. Of the six Assembly-Worker creatures, one came from an old card that was being flavorful and the rest evolved from R&D being cute. Urza’s Factory and Assembly-Worker were both designed as a clear throwback to Mishra’s Factory, and the three in Kaladesh are only not “Constructs” because Mishra’s Factory required Assembly-Worker being its own creature type.

Can I make an Assembly-Worker deck?

I would love to see you try, but without heavy reliance on Changelings, there’s just not enough Assembly-Workers to be any good. Running four copies of each still leaves you well shy of a reasonable deck, and your mana curve is too high to be useful. Mishra’s Factory is a good, aggressive card, but none of the others are particularly good.

Is Assembly-Worker a good creature type?

I have very mixed feelings here. The only reason they exist as they are is because Mishra’s Factory existed so early and specified them, with Assembly Worker itself cementing their existence. By all accounts, they should be Constructs, but that would be an actual buff to Mishra’s Factory, which is already pretty solid. On the other hand, Construct is already an awful, overly generic creature type that only exists because it was decided that all creatures (except Nameless Race) need a creature type, and Assembly-Workers already have both clear mechanical identity and a lot of synergy. So, right now, Assembly-Worker is not a good creature type, but another handful in a return to Kaladesh could easily make the difference there, and I’m still happier seeing things as not-Constructs than as Constructs.  In fact, there’s a few creatures, like Chief of the Foundry and Kuldotha Forgemaster, which should probably be Assembly-Workers instead of Constructs.

Self-Assembler

It sees itself in all of its creations.

Academy Manufactor

Assembly-Worker

Assembly-Worker