Rather than letting you deal damage, Phenax turns your biggest butts into an effective mill engine
Yes, you can stifle/counter evoke
Karn even resulted in the banning of Mycosynth Lattice in Modern since turning everything into artifacts and stopping your opponents artifacts from activating abilities stops them from ever tapping their lands for mana again
Throw in the aforementioned Tamiyo's Journal (which also makes a clue token on each of your upkeep steps), Trail of Evidence , Pitiless Plunderer , Spell Swindle, and Confirm Suspicions , and we'll be making a lot of artifact tokens every turn
Swords to Plowshares and Boros Charm are the best two cards at what they do while also going well with our Sunforger
Again, it's hard to believe these are actual Magic cards