I'm a bit bored, so I thought I'd go over the different types of artifact tokens (Blood, Clues, Food, Powerstones, and Treasure... actually, let's throw on Incubator//Phyrexian tokens too, though they're a bit borderline) and how useful I think they are for cubes.
Powerstones (
, maybe )
I'm starting off with the worst one on the list... which is unfortunate, since I think Powerstones have a ton of (mostly squandered) potential. The issue is their narrow usage (you need to have a cube where you either have a bunch of big artifacts that people are trying to power out, or a ton of expensive activated abilities) and incredibly shallow card pool (only ~32 cards, with most of them being pretty low power). If we ever get a set that revisits them, I'd be interested in how they handle them.
Incubator//Phyrexian (, maybe )
On the one hand, I kinda like how the overall Incubate mechanic plays. On the other hand... it's a transforming token that requires tracking counters and only shows up on ~33 cards. It's just a lot of complexity to bring to the table. Though this does feel like it's cheating a bit when it comes to the "non-creature artifact" thing, Incubators are, in fact, not creatures.
Food ()
This list is vaguely in ranked order, by the way. On the one hand, we just got some new Food cards, and the token tends to be stapled to some pretty solid cards. On the flip side, though... Food by itself kinda sucks. It's the most expensive token to crack, and you get a whole three life when you do it. Yay?
Clues (, maybe )
Clues are cool and all, but they're also kinda generic, hence why I'm sticking them in the middle. They're great as a way to sneak some card draw into White or some Artifact-y goodness into Green, but they're just generically good. A nice, clean design that I wish we'd revisit more often than...
Treasure (, maybe )
I have developed a love-hate relationship with Treasure over the past couple years. At first, I was all for them (the Capitalism Cube ultimately came from how cool I thought Revel In Riches was), but then WotC started slathering them on everything, especially within Commander sets. As a result, they've lost some of their luster, and, well... it turns out that churning out Lotus Petals is pretty good. I'm not putting them on top, though, because I'm a bit burnt out on them.
Also... yeah, no, we're including all of the "crack this to add mana" tokens that have shown up over the years (Gold and Etherium Cells) under the "Treasure" category.
Blood ()
Blood tokens are arguably one of the most elegant new mechanics WotC has introduced in the last three or so years, and I love them so much. It's a crying shame that we're probably never going to see them again as a full set mechanic, since I think they have the most depth out of any of the tokens I've listed here. Looting is simply more interesting than drawing cards from a design standpoint.
...
In general, I feel like the general space of non-creature tokens hasn't nearly been explored enough (and, when it does get explored, we mostly just get Treasures). More Clues and Blood, please! Also, a big shout out to Toggo and his mighty invention of the Rock, which is an idea that I'd love to see them revisit the next time they get a hankerin' to make a set with an equipment subtheme (no, seriously, it's probably the only bespoke non-creature artifact token that's actually broad enough to play around with).
Powerstones (
, maybe )I'm starting off with the worst one on the list... which is unfortunate, since I think Powerstones have a ton of (mostly squandered) potential. The issue is their narrow usage (you need to have a cube where you either have a bunch of big artifacts that people are trying to power out, or a ton of expensive activated abilities) and incredibly shallow card pool (only ~32 cards, with most of them being pretty low power). If we ever get a set that revisits them, I'd be interested in how they handle them.
Incubator//Phyrexian (
, maybe )On the one hand, I kinda like how the overall Incubate mechanic plays. On the other hand... it's a transforming token that requires tracking counters and only shows up on ~33 cards. It's just a lot of complexity to bring to the table. Though this does feel like it's cheating a bit when it comes to the "non-creature artifact" thing, Incubators are, in fact, not creatures.
Food (
)This list is vaguely in ranked order, by the way. On the one hand, we just got some new Food cards, and the token tends to be stapled to some pretty solid cards. On the flip side, though... Food by itself kinda sucks. It's the most expensive token to crack, and you get a whole three life when you do it. Yay?
Clues (
, maybe )Clues are cool and all, but they're also kinda generic, hence why I'm sticking them in the middle. They're great as a way to sneak some card draw into White or some Artifact-y goodness into Green, but they're just generically good. A nice, clean design that I wish we'd revisit more often than...
Treasure (
, maybe )I have developed a love-hate relationship with Treasure over the past couple years. At first, I was all for them (the Capitalism Cube ultimately came from how cool I thought Revel In Riches was), but then WotC started slathering them on everything, especially within Commander sets. As a result, they've lost some of their luster, and, well... it turns out that churning out Lotus Petals is pretty good. I'm not putting them on top, though, because I'm a bit burnt out on them.
Also... yeah, no, we're including all of the "crack this to add mana" tokens that have shown up over the years (Gold and Etherium Cells) under the "Treasure" category.
Blood (
)Blood tokens are arguably one of the most elegant new mechanics WotC has introduced in the last three or so years, and I love them so much. It's a crying shame that we're probably never going to see them again as a full set mechanic, since I think they have the most depth out of any of the tokens I've listed here. Looting is simply more interesting than drawing cards from a design standpoint.
...
In general, I feel like the general space of non-creature tokens hasn't nearly been explored enough (and, when it does get explored, we mostly just get Treasures). More Clues and Blood, please! Also, a big shout out to Toggo and his mighty invention of the Rock, which is an idea that I'd love to see them revisit the next time they get a hankerin' to make a set with an equipment subtheme (no, seriously, it's probably the only bespoke non-creature artifact token that's actually broad enough to play around with).
