The best artifact deck ever

[sailortwift]

I've been wanting to try this for a long time, and now with mirrodin back there are a ton of new cards to add to this. The idea was to build a really aggressive artifact deck that would slow down the opponent at the same time

I included a bunch of smaller aggro creatures that help control the board and also grab lands and draw cards.

With tinker and Trash for Treasure I have the chance to drop some huge creatures in the early turns and after looking at a bunch of them, I still can't decide so i figured I would ask you what creatures you would grab with Tinker

I also decided to go for 100 cards just so i could include all the ones i thought were good, if you think the list would work better at 60 cards let me know how you would change it because i am really curious.

Here's the list without the fatties
34 + X Creatures
-------------------
X Fatties
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Epochrasite
4 Etched Champion
2 Master Transmuter
4 Master of Etherium
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Etched Oracle
4 Solemn Simulacrum

12 Artifacts/ Enchantments/ Planeswalkers
-----------------------------------------
1 Sensie's Divining Top
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Sol Ring
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Energy Chamber
2 Grim Monolith
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

13 Instants/ Sorceries
--------------------
4 Thoughtcast
4 Path to Exile
4 Trash for Treasure
1 Tinker

35 Lands
-------------------
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Academy Ruins
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Glimmervoid
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Ancient Den
3 Island
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Mountain



In it's current state, I have room for 6 big creatures as targets for tinker and such. Here's what I was considering:

Darksteel Colossus- Probably the most obvious grab, the only problem he really faces that early in the game is Path to Exile, other than that it's an almost guaranteed win.

Inkwell Leviathan - Slightly weaker than darksteel colossus, but shroud means he won't be getting Pathed anytime soon, Overall I suppose it depends on the opponent's deck but it might be best to have 1 Leviathan and 1 Colossus
Steel Hellkite - Getting this card out early in the game could mean serious trouble for your opponent, Not only that he has evasion in the form of flying which means you might get more out of him than either of the two aforementioned cards.

Platinum Angel - Not exactly a fatty, but still a 4/4 with flying who buys you quite literally all the time in the world to get set up. Definitely worth adding.

Platinum Emperion - An 8/8 that protects your life total completely, I would add this card just for the artwork but I still want to see what you guys think.

Suncrusher - Even though I will only be playing him from my deck most of the time, meaning no counters, He still has some potential.

Mycosynth Golem - An old favorite of mine, with all the low cost artifact creatures in the deck I could probably drop my entire hand onto the board if i chose to grab him with tinker.

Filigree Angel - Assuming I drew Tinker late in the game, this card can really gain some life, I'm not a huge fan but i at least recognize that it's pretty strong

Bosh, Iron Golem - A cool card with great flavor, and also an ability that can allow me to shoot my creatures at my opponents, whether it's as a way to make use out of them when they are already going to die, or save them from getting removed from the game, or just to finish off the opponent


So let me know what you guys think!

[rchrhds]

Hey man honestly please do yourself a favor and put (deck) and (/deck) before and after your deck so its in a nice neat box, except use [] around it and not (), I had to use () because if I used [] it would make the box. Honestly, if you don't start doing this Blutsau is likely to start giving you infractions left and right.

[Michealmas]

He does like doing that...

[Blutsau]

If you guys (rchrhds and/or Michealmas) have a problem with my moderation, please PM me, or take it to my mod desk - sailortwift's thread, or any other in Casual for that matter, is hardly the right place for this topic.

The tag rchrhds mentions looks like this:
[deck]1x Shock
1x Mountain[/deck]
and will give you this:

Deck
1x Shock 1x Mountain

It's easier to link a deck like this than card by card, what, from the looks of it, is what you did.

As for your deck, I think you have about two very general problems, the first being the easier to solve, namely that 35% lands are not nough independant of how many cards the decks ends up with.
The second is that you try to do too many things at once. Agro, Prison, cheat fat into play and hard cast fat. One of these is enough to win a game, when done properly. They can be mixed to some extend, but all four together is bluntly put, a mess. Your draws will be excellent single cards that don't add up to something that can win - what won't be fun. You should cut atleast two strategies, you'd end up f.e. with Agro Prison, or Prison into hardcasting fatties (~= Control).
It might take some time to fill the deck up to 100 cards, if you have a better idea of where the deck should go (and thus not just shuffle up a pile of good cards), that and consistency are about the only contra points against going for 100 cards. Both are far from unsolvable obstacles however, as shown by EDH.

[sailortwift]

Point taken, I am going to try this deck formatting thing now... and also re-doing this as a 60-card deck

Deck
29 Creatures 1 Darksteel Colossus 4 Arcbound Ravager 4 Ethersworn Canonist 4 Epochrasite 4 Etched Champion 4 Master of Etherium 4 Lodestone Golem 4 Etched Oracle 4 Artifacts/Enchantments 1 Umezawa's Jitte 1 Sol Ring 2 Grim Monolith 2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas	5 Instants/Sorceries 4 Trash for Treasure 1 Tinker 22 Lands 1 Tolarian Academy 1 Academy Ruins 4 Glimmervoid 4 Seat of the Synod 4 Ancient Den 4 Great Furnace 4 Vault of Whispers

With this i decided to cut Solemn Simulacrum, because he's really not very good without the basic lands, and he is more of a long-game control card than an aggro creature like most of my other guys.

I ended up having enough room for exactly 1 darksteel colossus, and I don't see this as a huge problem because there's only one tinker in the deck anyways.

I would have liked to include some more fat artifacts who stay in the graveyard because they have good synergy with trash for treasure, epochrasite is also a really good card to sacrifice and/or bring back using trash for treasure

Thanks for all the advice, let me know what you think of the 60 card version!

[Feral Hydra]

What about steel overseer and eitherium sculpture maybe even akroma's memorial...

The deck is good though...

[Matchbox20]

Originally Posted by Blutsau

As for your deck, I think you have about two very general problems, the first being the easier to solve, namely that 35% lands are not nough independant of how many cards the decks ends up with.
The second is that you try to do too many things at once. Agro, Prison, cheat fat into play and hard cast fat. One of these is enough to win a game, when done properly. They can be mixed to some extend, but all four together is bluntly put, a mess. Your draws will be excellent single cards that don't add up to something that can win - what won't be fun.

I was thinking this exactly. There are some great cards in your deck as it currently stands, but you're mixing way to many strategies together for it to be effective at all. I'd break your cards down into a 60 card deck or even two depending on what you have lurking in your binder that's not included in this deck. Overall, the best artifact deck will be the one that plays around one strategy for the purposes of consistancy and efficiency.

Assuming that you want "the best artifact deck ever" to refer to one that wins often, I'd strongly recommend checking some competitive decklists for a better idea of what strategy appeals most to the Spike inside of you.

If you want to go pure aggro here's an affinity list from a recent SCG tournament:

Spoiler:

Deck
Creatures 2x Ornithopter 3x Etched Champion 4x Disciple of the Vault 4x Arcbound Ravager 4x Frogmite 4x Memnite 4x Myr Enforcer 4x Signal Pest Other Spells 4x Thoughtcast Artifacts 2x Thopter Foundry 3x Mox Opal 3x Springleaf Drum 4x Cranial Plating	Land 1 Blinkmoth Nexus 1 Glimmervoid 1 Ancient Den 4 Darksteel Citadel 4 Seat of the Synod 4 Vault of Whispers

Some variations of this list include Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas as opposed to Thopter Foundy. Others include Master of Etherium instead of Etched Champion. It all depends on what you play against.

Of course, since you're playing with Vintage rules, you can easily mix Sol Ring and Tolarian Academy into the above list.

The game plan is simple: Kill your opponent as fast as possible before they have a chance to respond. Cranial Plating pumps your creatures a huge amount and lets you swing for an early win.

If you're looking to play prison/control, then you'll likely want to play Stax:

Spoiler:

Deck
Creatures 4x Magus of the Tabernacle Other Spells 4x Ghostly Prison 4x Oblivion Ring 4x Armageddon Artifacts 4x Mox Diamond 4x Chalice of the Void 4x Trinisphere 4x Crucible of Worlds 4x Smokestack	Land 4x Plains 4x Flagstones of Trokair 4x Ancient Tomb 4x City of Traitors 4x Mishra’s Factory 4x Wasteland

Again, you can probably find a way to sneak Sol Ring in here.

Stax is a prison deck that looks to win by, well, locking the opponent down. This is probably the farthest away from your list as Mox Diamonds cost a ton of cash and are neccesary to make the deck work.

There's also the new Forgemaster combo deck out there if you want to look at it for some ideas on cheating out fat creatures.

Spoiler:

Deck
Artifacts 2 Crucible Of Worlds 4 Grim Monolith 2 Lightning Greaves 3 Mox Diamond 2 Sensei's Divining Top 4 Voltaic Key Artifact Creatures 4 Kuldotha Forgemaster 4 Lodestone Golem 4 Metalworker 2 Myr Battlesphere 1 Steel Hellkite 1 Sundering Titan 4 Wurmcoil Engine Creatures 4 Goblin Welder	Legendary Artifacts 3 Mox Opal Artifact Lands 4 Great Furnace Lands 4 Ancient Tomb 4 City of Traitors 4 Wasteland

Lastly, if you're playing a deck with Tinker you should probably be focused on getting that tinker into your hand and playing it asap - as in on turn 1 or 2. So cards like Demonic Tutor, Brainstorm, Ponder and other cards are great choices. It's also a good idea to have some backup in the form of Counterspell, Spell Pierce or, budget providing, Force of Will.

In terms of Tinker targets, for single player at least, the best two options are: Blightsteel Colossus and Inkwell Leviathan. If you're looking to build "the best artifact deck ever" from a Spike's standpoint you shouldn't even look at other creatures aside from those two. They'll let you handle pretty much any deck out there and they kill your opponent in 1-3 turns depending on chump blocks and such.

Just my thoughts. For best results you really need to pick one strategy and stick to that, otherwise you'll be all over the place.

Note: I pulled these decklists from the legacy forums on here!

[Masterclass_Massacre]

Tinker if you're playing casual/vintage.

Any other format, try Master Transmuter

[sailortwift]

In regards to what kind of deck i wanted it to be, i really liked the idea of it being an aggro deck that slows down the opponent through cards like Ethersworn Canonist and Lodestone Golem, both of which are decent artifact creatures and interact well with the rest of the cards in the deck. Other than that it's basically an aggro deck, and i figured while i was at it i would toss in a copy of tinker. I think you guys are right about tinker though because it's a card that needs to be built around. Right now you guys are right, the only card that really benefits a whole lot from Tinkeris Darksteel Colossus, who can't be brought back with Trash for Treasure.

I checked out Etherium Sculptor, who does fit the theme, but i don't think he is a strong enough creature on his own to be aggressive.

I also really like Steel Overseer but i am unsure if there is really room in the deck for him

Should I explain why i picked the cards I did? I feel like maybe if i did you guys could point me in the direction of some replacement cards, or some that i might not even need in here

[Gaea's Regent]

Ethercaste Knight is a pretty aggressive creature, often overlooked.

[markupatam]

I personally like my ravager deck better:
4 arcbound ravager
4 arcbound worker
4 disciple of the vault
4 frogmite
4 Ornithopter
4 myr enforcer
3 master of etherium

4 thoughtcast
4 cranial plating or skullclamps
3 aether vial
4 springleaf drum

4 seat of synod
4 great furnace
4 vault of whispers
3 darksteel citadel
3 inkmoth nexus

I have no history of getting beat when using this deck.

[rchrhds]

You have a ton of artifacts so Cranial Plating is gonna be very good here, also I would add like two copies of Darksteel Juggernaut, overall though deck looks fine.