Quicksilver Lapidary: Decoding Its Card-Synergy Webs

Quicksilver Lapidary: Decoding Its Card-Synergy Webs

In TCG ·

Quicksilver Lapidary MTG card art from Alchemy: Phyrexia

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Unraveling the Conjure Web: Quicksilver Lapidary in Two-Color Synergy Networks

In the sprawling tapestry of MTG, two-color engines often hinge on the precise balance between speed, card advantage, and explosive interactions. Quicksilver Lapidary sits squarely in that sweet spot for red and blue, offering a compact 2-mana body that travels with a powerful promise: on entry, conjure a card named Mox Opal into your hand. 🧙‍♂️ This small, cheeky impact can tilt the tempo of a game by letting you assemble a mana engine faster than you might expect. The interplay between Lapidary’s Conjure ability and Mox Opal’s mana-providing presence becomes a compact quantitative hypothesis: more artifacts in play and in hand mean more reliable mana acceleration, which in turn accelerates your plan to cast game-changing threats or lock opponents out of the game earlier than the clock would otherwise permit. 🔥

Card snapshot at a glance

  • Name: Quicksilver Lapidary
  • Mana cost: {U}{R}
  • Converted mana cost: 2
  • Type: Creature — Phyrexian Artificer
  • Rarity: Uncommon
  • Set: Alchemy: Phyrexia (YONE)
  • Color identity: Red and Blue (R, U)
  • Oracle text: When Quicksilver Lapidary enters, conjure a card named Mox Opal into your hand.
  • Keywords: Conjure

The two-color pairing here isn’t incidental. Red-teal and blue tactics tend to prize tempo and disruption in equal measure, and Lapidary slides neatly into that philosophy. The Conjure mechanic turns battlefield presence into a probabilistic hand advantage: you know you’re adding a specific artifact to your plan, which can be a game-changer when the deck is packed with artifact-oriented triggers, acceleration, or synergy pieces. The fact that Mox Opal—an emblematic artifact in MTG’s history—enters your hand immediately after you play Lapidary invites a cascade of tempo-friendly options. ⚡

Why this creates a network: synergy, probability, and tempo

Think of an MTG deck as a graph, where each card is a node and each synergy is an edge. Quicksilver Lapidary is a force-multiplier node. When it enters the battlefield, it guarantees a link to Mox Opal in your hand, effectively increasing the edge density between your two-color strategy and your artifact acceleration plan. The immediate consequence is twofold: you gain a reliable artifact to play next turn, and you preserve mana options for big plays that require both colors or colorless resources. 🧬 In a deck that values artifact density, this creates a feedback loop: more artifacts mean stronger Metalcraft/Artifact synergy, which in turn fuels more explosive plays. In practical terms, you’re often looking at a tempo-rich trajectory where Lapidary accelerates your capacity to cast larger threats or pivot into a counterspell-heavy plan a turn sooner than your metronome would predict. 🧭

From a statistical perspective, the value of Quicksilver Lapidary scales with how often your deck can reliably morph a two-mana investment into a consistent Mox Opal draw. If you’re packing enough artifacts and color-smoothing engines, the probability of being able to drop a critical artifact on-curve increases meaningfully. This is where deck builders lean on density and cadence: ensure you have other ways to refill your grip, and consider protective elements that keep your artifact suite intact against removal or disruption. In short, Lapidary acts as an information-rich pivot point: it signals a shift toward artifact-velocity and reservoir-building that can overwhelm slower strategies. 🧙‍♂️💎

Flavor, art, and the design philosophy

Caroline Gariba's artwork breathes life into a compact frame that feels both ancient and razor-sharp—a Phyrexian artificer blending alien metalwork with a gleam of cobalt magic. The Phyrexian flavor here whispers about the relentless drive to forge perfection through technology, and Lapidary’s presence embodies that ethos: a small conduit that births a powerful, age-old artifact into your hand. The Alchemy: Phyrexia set—digital-first and two-color focused—leans into kinetic, fast-paced play, and Lapidary fits that brief with flavor that resonates in both play and lore. 🎨

On the design front, it’s a neat example of how mechanics can hinge on a single on-entry effect to unlock broader synergy. The Conjure keyword is a bridge between hand and battlefield, letting designers design cards that interact with the opponent’s expectations, not just your own, and Lapidary uses that bridge to connect with a legendary artifact ecosystem in a clean, memorable way. ⚔️

Practical takeaways for your next list

  • Prioritize artifact density to maximize Lapidary’s on-entry impact; Mox Opal can become a reliable engine when you have enough artifacts to support it. 💎
  • Protect the Lapidary-Mox Opal engine with appropriate countermagic or disruption to keep the plan on track against interaction-heavy matchups. 🛡️
  • Balance your curve: two-mana investment plus an immediate Mox Opal can accelerate into a decisive turn where you deploy multiple threats or a game-ending spell. 🔥
  • Remember the digital-only nature of Alchemy: your card pool, draw consistency, and hotkey-like access to Mox Opal edges can be more forgiving than paper counterparts—use it to design tempo-rich lines. 🧙‍♂️
  • Flavor and function align here: a two-color artificer with a conjure mechanic gives you a consistent narrative thread—your deck can feel like a network of clever, efficient nodes feeding a larger plan. 🧠
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Quicksilver Lapidary

Quicksilver Lapidary

{U}{R}
Creature — Phyrexian Artificer

When Quicksilver Lapidary enters, conjure a card named Mox Opal into your hand.

ID: b9e9858f-4cdc-4682-be2f-20f555014b07

Oracle ID: e7b3dab1-7d27-4e57-b66f-542442663b92

Colors: R, U

Color Identity: R, U

Keywords: Conjure

Rarity: Uncommon

Released: 2023-02-28

Artist: Caroline Gariba

Frame: 2015

Border: black

Set: Alchemy: Phyrexia (yone)

Collector #: 26

Legalities

  • Standard — not_legal
  • Future — not_legal
  • Historic — legal
  • Timeless — legal
  • Gladiator — legal
  • Pioneer — not_legal
  • Modern — not_legal
  • Legacy — not_legal
  • Pauper — not_legal
  • Vintage — not_legal
  • Penny — not_legal
  • Commander — not_legal
  • Oathbreaker — not_legal
  • Standardbrawl — not_legal
  • Brawl — legal
  • Alchemy — not_legal
  • Paupercommander — not_legal
  • Duel — not_legal
  • Oldschool — not_legal
  • Premodern — not_legal
  • Predh — not_legal

Prices

Last updated: 2025-11-17