Here is another deck I've been toying around with. I found a copy of time sieve and decided this might be fun. Basically it uses the sword of the meek, thopters foundry combo and time sieve to take as many extra turns as needed to build an army of thopters. Then smash my opponent's face in. My main problem is early game. I usually take a bit of a beating the first 3 or 4 turns before I can get all my combo pieces out. I usually have to rely on tutor or tinker to get 1 or 2 pieces out. Any ideas on how to get this working a bit better?

 

Deck: thopters  (60)

 

// Lands

4 Ancient Den

4 Glimmervoid

2 Mishra's Factory

4 Seat of the Synod

2 Tolarian Academy

4 Vault of Whispers

 

// Creatures

4 Master of Etherium

4 Memnite

4 Ornithopter

 

// Spells

4 Enlightened Tutor

4 Expedition Map

4 Sol Ring

4 Sword of the Meek

4 Thopter Foundry

4 Time Sieve

4 Tinker

 

 

Thanks, John, for writing in again. The combo of Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek is a popular one. For our readers who haven't seen it before, here's the plan of what John wants to happen. He wants to get Thopter Foundry, Sword of the Meek, and Time Sieve on the battlefield. Pay one mana to sacrifice Sword of the Meek to the Thopter Foundry, making a 1/1 flying Thopter token. Since Sword of the Meek goes to the graveyard before the token comes into play, the Sword comes right back, attached to the Thopter. Repeat this process a few times until you have 5 artifacts you can spare to sacrifice to Time Sieve to take an extra turn. On the next turn, you do the same thing again, but hopefully you can produce at least one more mana and end the turn with a thopter or two you didn't have to sacrifice. Eventually, you build up enough Thopters to swing over for the win.

 

So what's the problem? It takes three cards and at least 5 mana, so there are going to be lots of times when you just don't draw your combo pieces. Enlightened Tutor and Tinker are designed to help find the combo pieces, and Sol Ring, Expedition Map, and Tolarian Academy help get more mana. Seems like it would work, right? Apparently not, as John mentions he is taking "quite a beating before I can get all my combo pieces out." Let's see if I can help things just a little bit. 

 

The first thing I think of when I hear someone's deck isn't moving fast enough is to look at the most mana costs in the deck and see if we can replace those. In this case, it's a pair of three cost cards: Master of Etherium and Tinker. As good as Master of Etherium is, he's not really part of your combo, and he takes three mana to play. In contrast to your Biovisinoary deck, I think this deck can be fast enough to go all out for your combo, so let's drop the Master. But Tinker? Can we really drop a tutor in a combo deck? Yes, we can. I'll show you why in a moment.

 

-4 Master of Etherium

-4 Tinker

 

In their place, I would like to suggest a couple more cheap artifact creatures - Myr Servitor and Myr Moonvessel. They both can help with early blocking, and both have additional upside after they die. Moonvessel puts mana back into your combo if you sacrifice him, and Servitor, if you can get two out, can bring a repeatable source of blockers or sacrifice targets. Plus, they are both 1/1 creatures that could bring back a Sword of the Meek in the graveyard.

 

+4 Myr Servitor

+4 Myr Moonvessel

 

Now that we have two more 1/1 creatures that don't mind dying for the cause, let's put in a classic overpowered artifact that will help make up for the loss of Tinker: Skullclamp. With all the 1/1 creatures you'll have, you shouldn't have a lot of trouble equipping the clamp and turning a creature into two cards. You'll cycle through your library pretty quickly, hopefully finding you your combo pieces, or at least more blockers until your combo is assembled. To make room for the Skullclamp, we'll remove your one remaining creature that won't die to it and won't bring back the Sword of the Meek - Ornithopter.

 

+4 Skullclamp

-4 Ornithopter

 

Expedition Map, in this deck, is going to end up slowing you down. While searching for Tolarian Academy might be good, it's a three mana investment that doesn't immediately give any results. Plus, if you already have an Academy, it doesn't really help at all. Let's go for more pure value and pick up Careful Study. Getting to see two new cards gets you that much closer to finding your combo. That way you can get rid of duplicate combo pieces, extra lands, or throw something that can come right back - like a Sword or Servitor - in the graveyard. 

 

-4 Expedition map

+4 Careful Study

 

Finally, in the interest of a little durability, let's switch out Mishra's Factory for Academy Ruins. Sure, Mishra's Factory is a fun little man-land, but it's not really helping towards the combo. A three piece combo is fragile, and if an opponent has a way to destroy a piece, it's good to have a way to get it back. We'll just swap out 2 for 2 as we don't want too many colorless mana sources.

 

-2 Mishra's Factory

+2 Academy Ruins

 

If you were to make these changes, your deck would look something like this:

 

Deck: Thopters  (60)

 

// Lands

4 Ancient Den

4 Glimmervoid

2 Mishra's Factory

4 Seat of the Synod

2 Tolarian Academy

4 Vault of Whispers

 

// Creatures

4 Memnite

4 Myr Servitor

4 Myr Moonvessel

 

// Spells

4 Enlightened Tutor

4 Careful Study

4 Sol Ring

4 Sword of the Meek

4 Thopter Foundry

4 Time Sieve

4 Skullclamp

 

As usual, I had a few other ideas that might be worth trying out if you're still having issues:

 

- Remand. It's a cheap counter that slows your opponent down and digs you one card deeper in your deck.

 

- Swords to Plowshares. It's the cheapest and easiest way to deal with an opposing creature.

 

- Spellbombs. There are two cycles of 1 mana artifacts that you can sac to do stuff. Aether Spellbomb jumps to the top of the list as an artifact way to slow down your opponent.

 

- Krark-Clan Ironworks. At 4 mana, it's slow to get out, but 2 mana for each artifact you sac could make the combo run more smoothly once you get it out.

 

- Disciple of the Vault. It's an alternate win condition and a great card for the deck, I just think it's not as fun or creative as the rest of your deck.

 

Readers: Let me know if you enjoy reading these articles, and don't hesitate to send in your decks!

 

- mattedesa