Welcome back to the Deck Garage, folks! As
the gloom of Innistrad's night falls over
the Magic community, not everybody is
embracing the horrific Halloween spirit just
yet. Scars of Mirrodin block got us all
nostalgic for the days of Darksteel Forge
and artifact tricks, and some of use aren't
ready to put away our toys yet. Mirrodin was
a deeply nostalgic set for me, so as much as
I've been loving the ghoulish gothic horror
of Innistrad, I'm always ready to tinker
with a clockwork contraption gleaming in the
light of Mirrodin's five suns.
--------------
Heya, I sent a pair of decks in last week,
but I'm
gradually
figuring those out as I read more of your
articles. This one here, though, has got me
completely stumped, and I know how much you
love a good challenge!
Creatures:
x4 Master Transmuter
x4 Puresteel Paladin
x4 Ornithopter
x3 Pathrazer of Ulamog
x1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Spells:
x4 Fabricate
Artifact Equip:
x4 Argentum Armor
x4 Paradise Mantle
x4 Lightning Greaves
x4 Deathrender
Other Artifacts:
x1 Darksteel Forge
Lands:
x4 Ancient Den
x4 Seat of the Synod
x4 Darksteel Citadel
x4 Glimmervoid
x4 Tundra
x2 Plains
x2 Island
I started with the bright idea of a
Pathrazer of Ulamog + Argentum Armor combo.
I reckoned that Master Transmuter +
Puresteel Paladin was a nifty combo, sending
Ornithopters and Paradise Mantles back into
my hand, in return for free Argentum Armor,
Lightning Greaves, and Deathrender. Then I
would simply replay the 0 mana cost Paradise
Mantles and Ornithopters, drawing extra
cards (in the case of the Paradise Mantles).
Fabricate would help to bring in whichever
Artifacts I was in need of, as well as the
Darksteel Forge, which would protect all of
my
various equipments and creatures easily,
thanks to the Master Transmuter. The one
problem I am having trying to make it all
work is: how to bring in the Ulamogs?
I've looked at numerous options. Deathrender
on a Master Transmuter, Puresteel Paladin,
or Ornithopter, would be a fun trick, but
not likely to work more than once. I figured
that I'd have to take matters into my own
hands, and started looking for a way to
sacrifice a creature with the Deathrender
equipped, in order to bring the Ulamogs into
play. Substituting the Ornithopters for Heap
Dolls was the cheapest option, mana-wise,
but left me with no flying creatures. There
don't seem to be any cheap, flying artifact
creatures that can sacrifice themselves. (if
Ornithopter could sacrifice itself, it would
fill the requirement perfectly, and my
problem would be completely solved).
Swapping out the Paradise Mantles for
something that grants flying or reach, means
I have less mana generation, and less 0 cost
artifacts to swing around with my
Transmuters. Swapping out the Lightning
Greaves would leave my Ulamogs vulnerable to
spells and abilities. And swapping out the
Deathrenders means I have no cheap way to
play them.
Culling Dias and Grafted Wargear didn't
quite seem to fit the bill either. It's
starting to look like my best option is
simply to toss in a copy of Akroma's
Memorial, and burn a second Fabricate on it.
Otherwise, I could simply use Broodstar
instead of Ulamogs, but that's missing the
whole point of this deck.
I'd really like to make this work, without
having to pay for the Ulamogs up-front. Is
there anything you can think of to bring
them into play?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A puzzler involving metallic components and
how they interlock? Do I have to get the
horseshoe out from between the rings? No,
that's a different metal puzzle.
So, we're already halfway there. We've
already
got Puresteel Paladin making Argentum Armor
cost zero to equip, and Master Transmuter to
cheat the casting cost as well. Ornithipter
and Paradise Mantle supply the metalcraft
and the artifact to Transmute, and then we
drop whatever artifacts we want. Our
ultimate goal is to drop a massive Eldrazi,
equip it with the Armor, and then we have a
creature that 16/16 at the smallest and
forces our opponent to sacrifice several
permanents plus one we choose ourselves. The
chink in the plan is that the Eldrazi,
despite being colorless, are not artifacts
and therefore can't be dropped into play
with the Transmuter like Darksteel Forge
can. How to cheat one out then?
Well, Deathrender is half of the equation,
but the other half is the creature wielding
Deathrender dying. We can't rely on an
opponent to aim their kill spell at the one
creature we've made it apparent that we want
to die, and we currently have no way of
self-terminating our Deathrending patsy. We
need a card that lets you sacrifice a
creature... or an artifact, since our deck
is full of artifact creatures like
Ornithopter. Luckily, there are several
classes of cards that let us do just that.
Fourth Class: The Quick and Dirty
Approach
Disenchant, Dispeller's Capsule, etc.
This is the simplest answer. You want your
creature dead? Kill it! White has plenty of
creature removal, but almost none of it
actually kills a creature-- most of it
exiles its target, puts it back in your
library, or leaves it in play with an Aura
on it. Blue is equally bad at killing
creatures and artifacts. So I stuck with
artifact kill for this section,
as it's something you should probably have
anyway. If you have a decent reason to
maindeck a Disenchant effect, then by all
means you should. The only problem with this
section is the card disadvantage. You're
pointing a kill spell at your own creature,
and that's something that should always make
you step back and question your strategy.
Third Class: The Confusing Approach
Reweave, Polymorph
I'm amused with myself that I found a decent
use for these! Usually these cards only find
their way into decks built around them-- the
only cards in your library they can hit are
the one or two you're hoping to cheat out,
and the rest are non[X] ways to put an [X]
token into play. So, when your opponent sees
you play one of these, he'll erroneously
assume that you're using it to cheat out
something massive. And in a roundabout way,
you are, except instead of hoping to hit
something off the top, you're hitting the
creature that was wielding the Deathrender
and dropping your fatty into play from your
hand-- whatever you rip off the top is all
gravy.
Like the Disenchant above, this has the
secondary effect of giving you a card that
can be pointed at problem spots on your
opponent's side of the board. But doing that
with these runs the risk of giving your
opponent an even more fearsome card for
free, so as removal, I'd label them
Emergency Use Only.
Second Class: The Alternative Fuel
Approach
Thopter Foundry, Time Sieve, Vivisection
These are a slightly better choice than the
spells
in Third Class simply because the sacrifice
occurs when the spell or ability is put on
the stack instead of when it resolves. So,
after a few games, once your opponent has
seen your combo go off, he won't be able to
just counter the Polymorph to stop you from
going off. The do have a bit in common,
though, to the extent that I consider
lumping Polymorph et al. in with these.
After all, Vivisection is also a 3U sorcery,
and Thopter Foundry and Time Sieve are both
normally seen in other combo decks. But
since the Foundry and Sieve hit play several
turns before you're actually ready to
sacrifice the creature with the Deathrender,
they're even better at bluffing the other
folks at the table about what sort of combo
you're actually attempting to pull off.
These cards are all a cut above Third Class,
though, in that they allow you to trade your
creature for a known quantity instead of a
randomly-determined one. But Time Sieve
requiring FIVE artifacts is awfully steep a
price for a deck that doesn't run Open the
Vaults, and it even requires you to splash
black. I'd go with the Foundry out of any of
these cards, or Vivisection depending on how
many extra cards you typically manage to
draw off of Puresteel Paladin.
And speaking of Puresteel Paladin...
First Class: The Synergistic Approach
Piston Sledge, Demonmail Hauberk, Grafted
Wargear
This is the most obvious solution. You're
already running a deck based off Equipment.
And since the Paladin grants all Equipment
"Equip 0" instead of replacing their Equip
costs with 0, you can still choose to pay
the cost even with the Paladin out. You can
even sacrifice your last creature to the
Hauberk or Sledge-- since you can pay to
Equip something onto its current wielder,
the target for the ability will be legal
when you declare it, then you pay the cost
of sacking the target. Grafted Wargear is
less forgiving. Since you need to actually
move it to another creature, you can't just
Equip it to the creature wearing it... but
you can use Master Transmuter to return it
to your hand, "unequipping" it that way.
And thus we see the enduring charm of
artifact-based decks. Like the great
clockwork machines they depict in their art,
a little scrapyard delving quickly reveals a
flood of new interactions and interlocking
pieces. I can hardly wait to go back to
Mirrodin again!
Oh wait, it's Phyrexia now. Poop. Oh well...
Good luck!
~BMoor
First Class: The Synergistic Approach