Forum: boardgames.stackexchange.com
Tags: <magic-the-gathering><mtg-joke-cards>
Title: What are Riggers and Contraptions in MTG and how do I assmble them? (Steamflogger boss question)
Question: I just saw this card called  Steamflogger Boss  today, but I've never heard of a Rigger, a Contraption, or an ability called 'assemble' in Magic. Am I missing something? Does this card refer to a very rare card type  like locus  of which there are only a few examples? It seems like the card would make perfect sense if I could only find something that could assemble a darn contraption...

Answers:
sents: text: Steamflogger Boss was printed in the set Future Sight , and the card alludes to the fact that riggers and contraptions may be part of the game in a coming set (the preceding 2 sets in the Time Spiral block were about the past and present).
text: However, seeing as there are still no mention of the assemble mechanic as of 2012, it is still primarily a joke card in the same vein as the Unhinged and Unglued sets.
text: While a 3/3 for 4 mana isn't terrible , it is definitely weak enough that it will only see actual play in limited decks that desperately need to fill up some mid-range creature slots.
text: Aaron Forsythe, the director of Research and Development for Magic: the Gathering, commented that the card was purely a joke and was probably a bad idea.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/191/Gordon Gustafson
score: 10
sents: text: Update:
text: It is now the future.
text: We now know what this mechanic is thanks to Unstable!
text: Contraptions aren't put into your main deck.
text: To play with them, you must build a separate Contraption deck In Constructed formats, such as Standard-but-with-silver-borders, Commander-but-with-silver-borders, and all-Un-set-Constructed-but-with-Steamflogger-Boss-I-guess, your Contraption deck contains at least fifteen unique Contraptions.
text: The Contraption deck is "singleton," meaning you're limited to only one of each Contraption.
text: In a Limited format, such as Booster Draft or Sealed Deck, your Contraption deck can contain any or all the Contraptions in your card pool.
text: The fifteen-card minimum and the one-of rule don't apply.
text: You can play whatever Contraptions you draft or open.
text: Several cards in the set will instruct you or a creature you control to assemble a Contraption.
text: To do this, turn the top card of your Contraption deck face up.
text: Then, put it onto the battlefield under one of your Contraption deck's three sprockets, helpfully labeled Sprocket 1, Sprocket 2, and Sprocket 3.
text: At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control at least one Contraption, you move the CRANK!
text: counter forward one sprocket (so, from 1 to 2, from 2 to 3, or from 3 to 1).
text: Then you can crank any of the Contraptions under that sprocket.
text: This causes their abilities to trigger.
text: You can put these abilities on the stack in any order.
text: Also, you don't have to crank a Contraption if you don't want to.
text: How you assemble your Contraptions determines what kind of infernal machine you're building.
text: Load up one sprocket to produce a devastating turn every three turns, or spread them out to make sure you get something every turn? Taken as a copy paste of the major points for the article detailing them here .
text: To all you still back in 2012, I hope this was helpful, you just have to wait 5 years or so to play with them.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/22380/Adam LeBlanc
score: 10
sents: text: Actually, there are other Riggers besides the Steamflogger Boss.
text: Moriok Rigger from Fifth Dawn had
text: the Rigger Sub-Type retroactively added to it after the Grand Creature Type Update.
text: Any Changling is also a Rigger, as well as the Mistform Ultimus
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/1873/user1873
score: 9
sents: text: Read the ruling at the page you linked: Contraption is a new artifact type.
text: There are currently no artifacts with this type.
text: And there's no current game meaning of "assemble."
text: Wizards had a bit of "fun" with Future Sight, creating weird card such as this one, Dryad Arbor , Ghostfire , etc.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/2880/ikegami
score: 8
sents: text: Yes, Contraptions are (at time of writing) a joke, but let's not forget that a Steamflogger Boss does buff other Steamflogger Bosses (without even mentioning the many, many other Riggers that exist in the game of Magic, most of which are admittedly Changelings).
text: Your first Steamflogger Boss may just be a Hill Giant, but your second is a 4/3 haste, and by the time the third hits the table, you have three hasty 5/3 bad boys on your team.
text: Okay, maybe this scenario isn't exactly the pinnacle of brokenness, but it it goes to show that Steamflogger Boss's (first) ability isn't quite useless.
text: You could do worse for a cost of 3R...
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/436/thesunneversets
score: 2
sents: text: Future Sight was a set full of "what ifs" - glimpses into possible futures for the game, and this was one of them.
text: Some of them were simply gags, and this was one of them.
text: (Although it's worth mentioning that new sets are starting to use terminology in the manner of assemble - detain, for instance)
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/916/Allen Gould
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Steamflogger Boss was printed in the Future Sight set and alludes to riggers and contraptions in a future set. They aren't put in your main deck.
Future Sight was a set full of glimpses into possible futures for the game, and the card alludes to the fact that riggers and contraptions may be part of the game in a coming set. With the Contraption deck you're limited to only one of each Contraption.  Contraptions aren't put into your main deck: To play with them, you need to build a separate Contraption deck  In Constructed formats and your Contraption deck contains at least fifteen unique Contraptions.