(Data Doll MKII | Art by Tatiana Trubnikova)

Bright Lights has revitalized the Mechanologist class as a whole, and might have just revived one of the most obscure heroes in the game into a playable state: introducing Data Doll MKII.

Regarded as a joke hero by most, but a fiercely loved pet card by some, Data Doll MKII‘s powerful item-cheating ability is offset by a huge drawback: having only three intellect. Only designed to be a young hero, and as such, with only 20 life, the loss of the fourth card on redraw is backbreaking in so many scenarios, especially in the faster-paced formats of Blitz and Commoner.

However, the new crank mechanic, which awards an action point, has allowed enterprising players such as We Make Best to get around her weakness and turn her into a monster in Blitz, where she has access to powerful engines such as Teklo Foundry Heart and Micro-processor.

With the loss of powerful tools in mind, today we visit the workshop to tinker with this Mechanologist hero and see if she can also hold her ground in Commoner.

Low-To-The-Ground

With one fewer card, we have fewer cards to pitch. Thus, we’ll run a lean list with cheap boost attacks that still pack a punch. Zipper Hit and Zero to Sixty still lead the pack in terms of power-to-cost, while Dumpster Dive and Sprocket Rocket can serve as additional conditional copies.

We run rainbow copies of Zero to Sixty, while the yellow Zipper Hit is still efficient on its own. Dumpster Dive blue is solely for pitch, but there is an argument for running the yellow copy instead.

Filtered Access

Dive Through Data and Data Link serve as decent on-hit attacks that can set up further boosts on the same turn, or fix our top card for our end of turn hand refill. Optekal Monocle seems like a decent card, especially for slower matchups where we can fix our top card several turns in a row – or just Opt until we get a decent offensive card on top in faster games.

Crank That

This is where the exciting stuff comes in. Crank is a new mechanic which allows us to remove a steam counter from item cards when they enter the field to gain an action point. By cheating crank cards into play through Data Doll MKII‘s ability, we can then gain additional action points, which are different from the go again granted by boost cards. This circumvents the hero’s inherent three intellect weakness; by cheating cards and action points into play, we can have a resource advantage that can be utilized offensively or defensively.

Mode: Offense

Boom Grenade is our bread and butter, and one of the biggest payoff cards in the deck. By cheating in any of the rainbow copies, this essentially acts as an additional action point and a pump, all in one. Hadron Collider is likewise a potent inclusion with the same ceiling as the red ‘nade.

Junkyard Dogg seems like such a powerful card to run in the deck, as the graveyard will be filled with items to scrap. However, a case can be made for the ever-reliable Throttle. The more cards get released, the more Payload becomes an unexpected way to end games, as Mechanologists don’t often have ways to manipulate blocks.

Command: Defense

Data Doll MKII suffers more in the defense department, due to Flesh and Blood‘s inherent rule that players draw up to their intellect at the end of the turn. Despite accruing several action points and items during your turn, you’ll still only be able to block with the three cards in your hand – and heaven forbid you drew into your item cards.

We attempt to solve this dilemma by running a slew of defensive item options, such as Dissolving Shield, Dissipation Shield, and Mini Forcefield. By cheating these cards out, they serve as additional defenses during the opponent’s turn, essentially giving us a four-card hand with only one hero ability proc.

Suiting Up

Hope Merchant’s Hood remains a format all-star, as it helps us filter item cards back into the deck, with hopes of drawing into attack action cards. Stubby Hammerers is an interesting choice, as Goliath Gauntlet has very few hits in the deck. While Stubby only provides two to three damage on average, we can assure that we actually get to use the equipment every single game. We just want to go all-out on a single turn anyway to put our opponent on the back foot – they can’t attack us if they begin their turn with zero cards in hand.

Vest of the First Fist is still a flexible resource-generating chest piece, meanwhile Achilles Accelerator is Mechanologist’s best leg equipment. With its innate Arcane Barrier (“AB”), we run two more ABs in the sideboard for Wizard matchups.

Teklo Plasma Pistol is a core card for our game plan, as it serves as a useful way to offensively use up our remaining action points generated via crank.

There are so many moving parts that it’s difficult to come up with an optimized decklist for Commoner as of yet. I’m still not convinced it can be the powerhouse that it now is in Blitz, but it can now certainly win a game or two – or even spike – at a local Armory event.

Welcome to the Club.

The Deck

The Commoner Club: Data Doll MKII

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Hero (1) 1 Data Doll MKII Weapons (1) 1 Teklo Plasma Pistol Equipment (4) 1 Achilles Accelerator 1 Hope Merchant’s Hood 1 Stubby Hammerers 1 Vest of the First Fist Main (40) 2 Boom Grenade red 2 Data Link red 2 Dissolving Shield red 2 Dive Through Data red 2 Dumpster Dive red 2 Hadron Collider red 2 Junkyard Dogg red 2 Mini Forcefield red 2 Sprocket Rocket red 2 Zero to Sixty red 2 Zipper Hit red 2 Boom Grenade yellow 2 Dissipation Shield yellow 2 Dissolving Shield yellow 2 Mini Forcefield yellow 2 Zero to Sixty yellow 2 Zipper Hit yellow 2 Boom Grenade blue 2 Dumpster Dive blue 2 Zero to Sixty blue Sideboard (7) 1 Nullrune Gloves 1 Nullrune Robe 1 Payload red 2 Dissolving Shield blue 2 Optekal Monocle blue

Kenny Suzuki

Kenny is a non-binary Flesh and Blood player of Philippine and Japanese descent. A two-time A Game of Thrones: The Living Card Game National Champion, they started playing Magic: The Gathering during the Zendikar Block and eventually switched to harder stuff, like Legacy and Modern. When not asleep, they are probably compulsively building new decks, working on their design brand, thrifting for pretty clothes, bringing their kpop photocards everywhere, touching grass or malding over Teamfight Tactics.