Also, you missed thatmarkguy's submission.

Knifethrower. I love how it conveys a story without flavor text.

knifethrower

I have waited for the proper criteria to make Knifethrower's submission ever since Frostblight Scavenger got voted in, so it would be strange of me not to vote for it, I suppose.

I did post it only 3 minutes before his ballot went live, so he was surely already working on the ballot. But doesn't this forum software have a "before posting this, here's a new post that appeared since you started your post; in light of this would you like to edit your post?" safeguard? Or are we strictly enforcing midnight cutoff now?

knifethrower

Effigy

Knifethrower's seems a little better than anything we've seen before. It should probably be 1/2.

knifethrower

Cato for the flavor home run.

Just a bit curious, how did my card turn out? I was very happy with it at first, but now I am not too sure.

Anyways, TPzombieW gets my vote.

It seems pretty solid to me. The flavour text is a nice tough, if a bit wordy.

Aww, thanks!

Final Tally:

Knifethrower: 5.5
Cato: 2
Effigy: 1
TPzombieW: 1

And Knifethrower takes it! Antique Guardian has been added to the spoiler.

Rogue Replica –
Artifact Creature – Rogue (C)
, Sacrifice Rogue Replica: Return target artifact to its owner's hand.
2/2

Desert Totem
Creature-construct (c)
, sacrifice [cardname]: Destroy target enchantment.
, sacrifice [cardname]: Destroy target artifact.
2/2

Bookkeeper
Artifact Creature - Construct
, sacrifice ~: return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
1/4

I'm thinkin' of something along the lines of Orochi Leafcaller as a mana (filtering) rock. An artifact that basically gives green decks the ability to filter their green mana to any color. Which flavorfully works in a world where the only place green thrives is at the borderline between the lands that are the domain of the nongreen.

Maraka Powerstone
Artifact (C)
: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
All power is rooted in life. All life is rooted in Maraka.

Oldpeak Deliverer --
Artifact Creature - Gargoyle (U)

Flying
: If Oldpeak Deliverer has flying, prevent all damage that would be dealt to another target creature this turn. Then, Oldpeak Deliverer loses flying until the end of turn.

1 / 1

I understood the criteria in such a way that the artifact has to have some use even if you can't spend colored mana on it.

Hm. I can see how that might be the intention.

It crossed my mind to have it able to be sacced for a mana (maybe ETB tapped and tap+sac for 1 mana), but that seemed too powerful to me (to keep at a 1-cost). Any deck could play it on 1 to pop on 2 for a 3-mana second turn, and for some colors that's thought to be too fast. Maybe sac-and-1 to filter to another color and draw a card? So it's a one-shot cantrip Shimmering Grotto for nongreen decks - worth sliding into multicolor limited decks in a pinch - while being the same everflowing filter for green decks.

Potential respin:
Maraka Powerstone
Artifact (C)
: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
, sacrifice Maraka Powerstone: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Draw a card.
All power is rooted in life. All life is rooted in Maraka.