So i'm pretty much undefeated with this list on MWS, which isn't saying much but it at least shows promise. The deck is pretty similar to the Extended deck but thanks to some new tools from MBS is IMO T2 viable. The list:
MBS gave us two new engines for artifact aggro. Signal Pest, and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. In combination with Tempered Steel, Steel Overseer, and 4 Preordains finding a way to boost our cheap artifact creatures is rarely an issue. Phyrexian Revoker is also a very solid addition.
Originally the deck had a sweet Flayer Husk, Bonehoard, SoBaM, Stoneforge Mystic package until I realized that 0/0 black Germs don't gain any advantages from Tempered Steel and Steel Overseer. Trinket Mage is still pretty sweet because it can fetch a a beater (Memnite), a lord (Signal Pest), or the 4th land for a Tezzeret (Mox Opal).
The deck has some blazing fast starts and can also play a decent long game thanks to Tezz and Overseer.
The sideboard is still being worked out but is serviceable.
The mana is the worst part but it isn't horrible. There are times when I can't cast all my spells, but I can almost always cast a Tempered Steel OR a Tezzeret. Plus Preordain and Mox Opal help smooth things out.
My suggestion would be remove the Preordains and turn Etched Champion into a 4-of, maybe bump Tezzeret to 4 or possibly turn another one of your actual threats into 4. Remember, this isn't a control deck - and Etched Champion gets protection from every color. That's sortof a big deal.
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WKnights of New MirrodinW
Thanks to arête and Heroes of the Plane Studios for the Signature and Avatar!
And I would say add a Venser or two. It seems as if the opponent throws down a respectable flying blocker, you won't be able to get damage through. Then you would just use his minus ability to gain 'unblockableness' to alpha strike.
It's safe to say that the deck isn't going to get the speed of the extended version, but can definitely get a solid turn of speed regardless. I wonder about benefits of Overseer Vs. Goldmane, You can't search goldmane but he's more stable even if he's a higher cost. you'll have to up your land count. most likely take advantage of chalice, lodestone golem and darksteel juggernaut. there's other options available too, but that's a start, I'm thinking I might start working on a standard version since I'm running the deck in extended already. I think I like going just TS and Tezz for buffing and trying to dig for lodestones and juggernauts. the real thing you're going to feel is the lack of tidehollow sculler and springleaf drum. There really isn't a solid replacement for sculler. Even though revoker's ability is completely unrelated may give you a solid 2 drop to make up for it. For springleaf you have to resord to something like chalice though which makes your 1 drops that much more important. overall I think the concept is sound, but I have to give it a lot more thought as to how to make everything fit.
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I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Don't discount Preordain until you've tried it. Preordain isn't only good in control decks. It is even arguably better in combo decks which this deck sort of is. I got the idea from a Wescoe post in response to the Michael Jacobs Extended Tempered Steel videos on SCG. Preordain helps dig for the right color mana you need, finds a lord effect if you don't have one, or finds creatures if your out of gas. It does pretty much everything you want.
Etched Champion is good but too many can clog up your hand and slow down your draws. He's also not particularly fast when your trying to race. I think 2 maindeck is correct. You could possibly sideboard the other 2 for decks where you can expect a lot of combat. Ajani Goldmane and Monument are good ideas. You don't want your curve too high though. 3-5 is the number of 4+ drops you want I think. I could see potentially cutting black and running Goldmane instead of Tezz, but I really like having Duress after sideboarding.
Verito: a chalice + golem/juggernaut build is an interesting idea. Would be a slightly different deck I think but sounds like it's worth exploring.
Adam W: Glink Hawk Idol seems good. Myrsmith as well. At that point i'd want to cut a color again. Let me know how the testing goes.
So, I've got a little while to sit here and type the short novel I want to on this deck, and I think it's about that time.
It's impossible to talk about this deck in standard right now without talking about extended. I've been working on the extended version of this deck since scars first came out in October. At that point what I got most online was ridicule that the deck wasn't viable. However, I was winning extended at my local events, so I knew the deck had legs and just needed some refining. I especially knew this because I play in one of the most competitive locale's in the US, so I continued working on it. At this point the deck is acknowledged as a major contender, and I've worked hard to make sure that I'm a step ahead with the development. As a starting point, here's the list I'm running for extended right now.
I have a sideboard for it as well, but the sideboard is kind of irrelevant since it's a completely different meta. Taking the maindeck though we have a number of considerations when changing to standard. Some are easier to deal with than others.
Fetid Heath doesn't seem like a really big deal since we can change the lands easily enough, but as it stands the deck is reliant on costs that include BB and WW. Fetid Heath Gaurantees both off of one land. We may need to take another look at Sign in Blood for the standard version, it may not get to stay.
Springleaf Drum. This is a HUGE loss. it means that our best bet for bonus mana outside Opal is going to be either Sphere of the Suns or Everflowing Chalice. Sphere produces colored mana and should last long enough, but it costs 2 and comes into play tapped. This means that with an Opal we can turn 1 it and have 4 mana turn 2, but it wont help to activate opal and most likely means we use all our turn 2 mana to ramp. The other option here is Chalice, it's 2 mana for 1 ramp. the drawback is that it's colorless mana so it doesn't help our correction, however it comes into play untapped so we can use it right away.
Tidehollow Sculler is the most efficient 2 drop we could hope for. He comes into play and rips a removal spell from their hand. he's hard to replace, but I think I can cope with revoker because he comes into play and immediately stops planeswalkers and fauna shamans. He can also turn off elf abilities, which is useful since that's a deck right now. Revoker naming Archdruid doesn't seem bad.
Master of Etherium's uses are 2-fold. he's a lord, but he's also one of your primary damage dealers. There's a few options for replacement: Signal Pest or Steel Overseer. Neither of them offers a bonus the turn they come in, but both have the advantage of being a lower cost all in colorless. I like signal pest, because it's a 1 drop it can enable metalcraft and it has evasion. Steel Overseer can buff multiple times and because he hands out counters the bonuses stay even if he dies, but he's a 1/1 for 2 and doesn't start buffing until the turn after. Personally I wouldn't ridicule either choice and could see it being both and skip revoker. The other choice is going with Darksteel Juggernaut to get the beater, but then we're short on lords.
Finally we have Sphinx Summoner, I think all things said and done we can put land in it's place. Although it's great for extended, we need extra land for the standard version.
So, with all those choices taken into consideration, here's a concept build for a standard version. I'm sure it'll need some work, but it should be a solid starting point.
Beat U/W and U/B control, and RDW with Spikeshot Elders (Revoker ftw)
Just wanted to give a little sideboarding advice for anyone interested.
Against U/W and U/B:
They should have a good amount of sweepers post board. We lose to sweepers. So we overload on counters. We try to take out the creatures with the lowest individual impacts and our spot removal. The only case where you leave in GftT is if you suspect Baneslayer Angels. If you see a Squadron Hawk they probally don't have Angels.
+4 Duress
+2 Spell Pierce
+2 Negate
-3 Go for the Throat
-2 Etched Champion
-2 Ornithopter
-1 Signal Pest
While Etched Champion is technically better than an Ornithopter by itself, Grey Ogres tend to be pretty bad against creatureless control decks. I prefer to maintain some speed and keep Mox Opal live. After boarding overextending isn't actually that bad due to our Duresses and counterspells to protect from Day of Judgement.
RDW:
The plan is to land a Tempered Steel at a high enough life that your 3/3's can take over the game. They tend to burn your creatures early so Signal Pest is rarely effective. I take out 1 Tezzeret because you can't afford to have multiples in the early game.
+3 Kor Firewalker
+1 Doom Blade
-1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
-3 Signal Pest
If they are on Kuldotha Rebirth I take out the 4th Signal Pest and an Ornithopter for 2 Leonin Relic Warders. Against other Tempered Steel decks you want to bring in the Duresses and Spell Pierces and take out Go for the Throats and Etched Champions + an Ornithoper or Revoker.
I'll keep updating this as I go when I obtain other valuable information. I think the time for this deck is at the beginning of the season before people realize that it's real deck and start hating it out. Good luck.
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4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Steel Overseer
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Etched Champion
2 Trinket Mage
4 Tempered Steel
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Go for the Throat
3 Mox Opal
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Marsh Flats
3 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Glacial Fortress
1 Drowned Catacombs
4 Duress
2 Spell Pierce
2 Negate
1 Doom Blade
3 Leonin Relic-Warder
3 Kor Firewalker
MBS gave us two new engines for artifact aggro. Signal Pest, and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. In combination with Tempered Steel, Steel Overseer, and 4 Preordains finding a way to boost our cheap artifact creatures is rarely an issue. Phyrexian Revoker is also a very solid addition.
Originally the deck had a sweet Flayer Husk, Bonehoard, SoBaM, Stoneforge Mystic package until I realized that 0/0 black Germs don't gain any advantages from Tempered Steel and Steel Overseer. Trinket Mage is still pretty sweet because it can fetch a a beater (Memnite), a lord (Signal Pest), or the 4th land for a Tezzeret (Mox Opal).
The deck has some blazing fast starts and can also play a decent long game thanks to Tezz and Overseer.
The sideboard is still being worked out but is serviceable.
The mana is the worst part but it isn't horrible. There are times when I can't cast all my spells, but I can almost always cast a Tempered Steel OR a Tezzeret. Plus Preordain and Mox Opal help smooth things out.
Please let me know what you guys think.
Thanks to arête and Heroes of the Plane Studios for the Signature and Avatar!
Or you could go for Eldrazi Monument or something?
Standard: RW Boros Allies. (7-1 at FNM due to LUCK)
BGW Junk Allies. (3-1 at FNM)
EDH: WKemba, Kha RegentW
If you hate the deck, I'm probably playing it!
Etched Champion is good but too many can clog up your hand and slow down your draws. He's also not particularly fast when your trying to race. I think 2 maindeck is correct. You could possibly sideboard the other 2 for decks where you can expect a lot of combat. Ajani Goldmane and Monument are good ideas. You don't want your curve too high though. 3-5 is the number of 4+ drops you want I think. I could see potentially cutting black and running Goldmane instead of Tezz, but I really like having Duress after sideboarding.
Verito: a chalice + golem/juggernaut build is an interesting idea. Would be a slightly different deck I think but sounds like it's worth exploring.
Adam W: Glink Hawk Idol seems good. Myrsmith as well. At that point i'd want to cut a color again. Let me know how the testing goes.
It's impossible to talk about this deck in standard right now without talking about extended. I've been working on the extended version of this deck since scars first came out in October. At that point what I got most online was ridicule that the deck wasn't viable. However, I was winning extended at my local events, so I knew the deck had legs and just needed some refining. I especially knew this because I play in one of the most competitive locale's in the US, so I continued working on it. At this point the deck is acknowledged as a major contender, and I've worked hard to make sure that I'm a step ahead with the development. As a starting point, here's the list I'm running for extended right now.
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Fetid Heath
1 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
2 Swamp
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Master of Etherium
4 Lodestone Golem
2 Sphinx Summoner
3 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Ponder
3 Sign in Blood
4 Tempered Steel
Planeswalkers
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
I have a sideboard for it as well, but the sideboard is kind of irrelevant since it's a completely different meta. Taking the maindeck though we have a number of considerations when changing to standard. Some are easier to deal with than others.
From the deck as it stands we lose:
Fetid Heath
Springleaf Drum
Tidehollow Sculler
Master of Etherium
Sphinx Summoner
Ponder -> Preordain
...
So, let's just start at the top.
Fetid Heath doesn't seem like a really big deal since we can change the lands easily enough, but as it stands the deck is reliant on costs that include BB and WW. Fetid Heath Gaurantees both off of one land. We may need to take another look at Sign in Blood for the standard version, it may not get to stay.
Springleaf Drum. This is a HUGE loss. it means that our best bet for bonus mana outside Opal is going to be either Sphere of the Suns or Everflowing Chalice. Sphere produces colored mana and should last long enough, but it costs 2 and comes into play tapped. This means that with an Opal we can turn 1 it and have 4 mana turn 2, but it wont help to activate opal and most likely means we use all our turn 2 mana to ramp. The other option here is Chalice, it's 2 mana for 1 ramp. the drawback is that it's colorless mana so it doesn't help our correction, however it comes into play untapped so we can use it right away.
Tidehollow Sculler is the most efficient 2 drop we could hope for. He comes into play and rips a removal spell from their hand. he's hard to replace, but I think I can cope with revoker because he comes into play and immediately stops planeswalkers and fauna shamans. He can also turn off elf abilities, which is useful since that's a deck right now. Revoker naming Archdruid doesn't seem bad.
Master of Etherium's uses are 2-fold. he's a lord, but he's also one of your primary damage dealers. There's a few options for replacement: Signal Pest or Steel Overseer. Neither of them offers a bonus the turn they come in, but both have the advantage of being a lower cost all in colorless. I like signal pest, because it's a 1 drop it can enable metalcraft and it has evasion. Steel Overseer can buff multiple times and because he hands out counters the bonuses stay even if he dies, but he's a 1/1 for 2 and doesn't start buffing until the turn after. Personally I wouldn't ridicule either choice and could see it being both and skip revoker. The other choice is going with Darksteel Juggernaut to get the beater, but then we're short on lords.
Finally we have Sphinx Summoner, I think all things said and done we can put land in it's place. Although it's great for extended, we need extra land for the standard version.
So, with all those choices taken into consideration, here's a concept build for a standard version. I'm sure it'll need some work, but it should be a solid starting point.
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Marsh Flats
4 Plains
3 Swamp
3 Island
Creatures (21)
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
3 Steel Overseer
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Darksteel Juggernaut
3 Mox Opal
3 Everflowing Chalice
4 Ponder
4 Tempered Steel
Planeswalkers (3)
3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Indomitable Archangel
4 Duress
3 Thada Adel Acquisitor
If you hate the deck, I'm probably playing it!
Just wanted to give a little sideboarding advice for anyone interested.
Against U/W and U/B:
They should have a good amount of sweepers post board. We lose to sweepers. So we overload on counters. We try to take out the creatures with the lowest individual impacts and our spot removal. The only case where you leave in GftT is if you suspect Baneslayer Angels. If you see a Squadron Hawk they probally don't have Angels.
+4 Duress
+2 Spell Pierce
+2 Negate
-3 Go for the Throat
-2 Etched Champion
-2 Ornithopter
-1 Signal Pest
While Etched Champion is technically better than an Ornithopter by itself, Grey Ogres tend to be pretty bad against creatureless control decks. I prefer to maintain some speed and keep Mox Opal live. After boarding overextending isn't actually that bad due to our Duresses and counterspells to protect from Day of Judgement.
RDW:
The plan is to land a Tempered Steel at a high enough life that your 3/3's can take over the game. They tend to burn your creatures early so Signal Pest is rarely effective. I take out 1 Tezzeret because you can't afford to have multiples in the early game.
+3 Kor Firewalker
+1 Doom Blade
-1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
-3 Signal Pest
If they are on Kuldotha Rebirth I take out the 4th Signal Pest and an Ornithopter for 2 Leonin Relic Warders. Against other Tempered Steel decks you want to bring in the Duresses and Spell Pierces and take out Go for the Throats and Etched Champions + an Ornithoper or Revoker.
I'll keep updating this as I go when I obtain other valuable information. I think the time for this deck is at the beginning of the season before people realize that it's real deck and start hating it out. Good luck.