Resolving Skeleton Crew's last ability won't cause its second ability to trigger
If a spell has in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost
VS Azorius Auras (Lurrus) Out: In: Your only goal should be to stop them from getting Kor Spiritdancer or Sram, Senior Edificer online
But that last bit of text makes this a good Sheoldred, the Apocalypse-style card-draw payoff and card-draw punishment in Dimir EDH decks that are filling the graveyard and drawing cards, which is like, well, most of them
Dwarven Castle Guard Rating: 4/10 A 2-drop creature that can trade off with an early play and replace itself with a 1/1 token is extremely good
While he doesn't benefit from the shift ability, it also means that, like Clarabelle, you are less limited in what kind of deck you place him in