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BMoor's Magic The
Gathering Deck Garage
"Chris's Artifact Deck"
April 1, 2011
It's been far too long since the real
world offered me a break in my schedule to
fix a deck... and between you and me, it
still isn't, really. I'm taking this time by
force. Savor the Moment isn't just a quirky
rare from Shadowmoor, it's a fairly sound
philosophy.
You've all been very patient, continuing to
send me you decklists even as weeks turned
to months since I'd responded to one. Let's
shake off this score of absence with a
topical decklist that also revolves around
an old favorite of mine-- the artifact deck.
----------
Well, here's another deck for you. It plays
like an artifact control deck. The problem
is it starts out too slow. I'm trying to get
a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas in place of
Venser and Darksteel Plate in place of
Dolmen Gate to protect Indomitable Archangel
with. Remember I play casual. This deck so
far is undefeated but I do see it coming
eventually. I plan on buying a box of
Mirrodin Besieged soon so maybe you can
factor that in to the equation. Here's the
deck as it is right now:
Planeswalkers:
Tezzeret the Seeker
Venser, the Sojourner
Creatures:
Darksteel Colossus
Mycosynth Golem x2
Broodstar
Platinum Emperion
Memnarch
Platinum Angel
Ethersworn Adjudicator
Kuldotha Forgemaster
Darksteel Juggernaut
Lodestone Golem
Indomitable Archangel
Veldaken Archmage x2
Platinum Myr
Master of Etherium x2
Ethersworn Canonist
Lighthouse Chronologist
Etherium Sculptor x3
Artifacts:
Darksteel Forge x2
Mirrorworks
Lux Cannon
Thran Dynamo
Semblance Anvil
Howling Mine x2
Dolmen Gate
Mox Opal
Everything else:
Dissipation Field
Fabricate x2
Lands:
Academy Ruins
Darksteel Citadel x3
Seat of the Synod x3
Vault of Whispers
Ancient Den
Halimar Depths
Island x4
Swamp x3
Plains x6
It had Psychosis Crawler for acouple of
days, but it rarely came out and when it
did, I had no drawing power. By late game, I
can start casting my artifacts for free
thanks to Mycosynth, the two Sculptors, and
Anvil. My best combo so far is Ethersworn
Canonist, Ethersworn Adjudicator, and
Darksteel Forge. They can't destroy my
artifacts, can only play 1 nonartifact spell
per turn, and I can pop one permanent per
turn.
I can usually get Canonist out early game,
soon after Adjudicator and usually by mid or
late game, the Forge. So what can you
suggest to speed it up and keep its control
power intact?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As much as I like Psychosis Crawler, I agree
that it doesn't really belong here.
Psychosis Crawler belongs in a deck full of
draw spells, not a deck that just wants it
because it's an artifact.
My first knee-jerk reaction to this deck is
that old saw I like to play: too many
singletons and not enough four-ofs. It's
getting to the point where it's so cliché of
me to say it, I usually don't even say it,
just remark on the fact that it's cliche of
me! But not this time. Since this is a
casual deck, and since I see you have
Fabricate in there, we can run this in a
more toolbox-style. Don't sweat multiple
copies, except for Fabricate, Master of
Etherium, and Broodstar. You need four
Fabricate because they're the whole reason
you can afford to skimp on the rest. You
need four (or at least three) Master of
Etherium because they're both your Artifact
Lord and your heavy hitter-- drawing a
second one makes both more powerful and
increases the bonus your other creatures are
getting. And you need four Broodstar because
it's the most powerful win condition you
have-- it'll be huge every time it sees play
and it flies-- but more importantly, because
you can't Fabricate for it. If you can't get
more Broodstars, Qumulox will work.
Now, to speed things up? I think I know how
to do that. You've got a lot of
cost-reducers and a lot of big, expensive
artifacts. I'd say what you really want is
some cheap-to-moderate (topping out at 5 or
6 mana) artifacts, and then power them out
for cheap. To that end, let's cut the slow
cards.
Lux Cannon, despite costing only four mana,
is probably the slowest thing in here. It
needs three turns to charge up and a fourth
turn to kill something. I do enjoy the fact
that it can kill anything, but Lux Cannon
really needs a way to put extra counters on
it to be effective, and you can Fabricate an
Adjudicator for most of the stuff you'll
want to kill, and that can kill every turn,
kill multiple things in a turn with
sufficient mana, and swing for four if you
need it to. Dissipation Field feels sort of
thrown in as an afterthought, and Howling
Mine comes straight out-- there's better
card draw than that for you. Platinum
Empirion is cute, but in practice not
effective enough, since your opponent can
still win by poison, milling, or by killing
the 8/8 with no self-preservative ability.
And Darksteel Forge can actually go down to
a single copy. If you haven't drawn it by
the time you can cast it, you can Fabricate
for it, and you don't want to draw the
second copy-- it's nine mana for no
additional benefit. And it's not like the
first one is going anywhere, right?
So what to replace them with? Since you've
got Kuldotha Forgemaster, yet another way to
search for artifacts, why not try Ichor
Wellspring? One card coming in, and one
going out when you sack it to the
Forgemaster! Keeping the card draw flowing
is the key to making a deck of this nature
going. Faerie Mechanist is another excellent
choice, getting you your choice of trinkets
and a 2/2 body to boot. And if you add those
two, a singleton Esperzoa or two can let you
play and replay them, and get that card draw
every turn! This combo was very popular in
Alara block constructed, and makes a nice
replacement for Howling Mine, though if you
really want quality card draw, forget the
artifacts and embrace your blue mana!
Foresee, Tidings, Telling Time? Card draw
isn't hard for anyone who can generate blue
mana.
The last card I'd like you to find room for
is Conjurer's Bauble. It also provides a
draw, for the unheard of price of one
colorless mana, and puts a card in your
graveyard back into your deck. Try and make
that card Fabricate, if you can. Then your
next Fabricate will shuffle the deck and
give you a good chance of drawing the old
Fabricates. Unfortunately, you need some way
of putting more than one card at a time from
your graveyard into your deck in order to
make this go on forever... but you don't
intend to play forever, do you? You just
want to go get that powerhouse spell as soon
as possible. And if that spell gets
countered, destroyed, or otherwise handled,
the Bauble can get it back for a second
Fabrication. That's one of the reasons I
said go down to one Darksteel Forge.
Finally, I'd replace a land or two of yours
with Arcane Sanctum. You don't have much
color requirement, but you dont' want to get
caught with an Ethersworn Canonist in hand
and no white source, do you? And the
Adjudicator needs all three colors to be
effective.
Good luck!
~BMoor
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