MTG Salvation

Lands:
I needed to have lands that tap for more than 1 mana to make the Candelabra get lotsa mana! The Academy Ruins is for the Mindslaver Lock

Creatures:
The Guildmage allows me to move the Power Artifact to different permanents to both save the enchantment and to use the Power Artifact on multiple artifacts. The Triskellion is really good when you manage to play it turn 3 and the Clockwork Dragon gets tonnes of counters to outright kill your opponent or for Triskellion to use with Simic Guildmage.

Non-Creature Spells:
Well I need Power Artifact. Crop Rotation to get the right lands. Living Wish powers a nice Toolbox. Fabricate is to fetch some cards and Braingeyser to draw cards or, in the case of life.dec, draw them out. The Mindslaver is to help you along with disruption and the ruins lock. Basalt Monolith gives you infinite mana and with Gemstone Array you can generate infinite coloured mana. The Candelabra helps you out in the beginning to power out an explosive turn. Barl's Cage and even Goblin Cannon can be used for crowd control, and the Goblin Cannon is another win con.

Sideboard:
Toolbox for my Living Wish and Defense Grid to help me vs. Countermagic.

So I tried doing something a little unusual and take advantage of the lower mana requirements that Power Artifact will give me. The primary wincon is Goblin Charbelcher. To that end and thanks to the benefit of Power Artifact I'm only running 14 lands in this build. The secondary wincon comes in the form of an army of 5/5's thanks to Tezzeret the Seeker. This deck is also creatureless if you noticed.

Also judges, remember that this is a control deck. As such even though it's tempting to dump your hand/deck it is beneficial to set up your control first. Get the forcefield as a first priority against creature decks. Winter orb will always hurt them more than it hurts you. Even if it slows your tempo take that loss as you will come out the winner in the end. Once the orb is out try and get a helix with a power artifact on it. Also, the more power artifact you can stick on the staff of domination the better. Once this is done then worry about getting a Charbelcher. Finally, as annoying as it is, sticking a power artifact on the monolith and going infinity mana helped out in every game I did it huge.

Please judges be nice and not penalize me for having multiple vintage restricted cards such as lotus petal and sol ring as without them I couldn't try building an alternative and different deck such as this. The rules do allow it even if it just seems wrong. I'm just trying to increase the power of my deck as my last build lost big points from the judges for lack of power.

The base of this deck comes down to it's artifact mana production. Sol ring for bulk mana. Lotus Petal for mana fixxing. I tried not to have many Grim Monoliths as it's pretty much going to be in everyone's deck. I just need it for it's base uses. The infinity combo it allows it's just icing on the cake. Also, it runs a varied toolbox thanks to various tutoring abilities.

Thanks to this large amount of artifact mana generation I am only running 14 lands. Add into that mix a Goblin Charbelcher and it's just nasty. Stick a Power Artifact on it and it's basically doing an average of 6 or so damage for every time you use it. With Tezz and Voltaic Key you can do this many times a turn for very few mana.

Protection comes in the form of Mana Drain and Forcefield. Only use the mana drain on creatures if you absolutely have to. Once you can establish Forcefield as creature defense you should be safe from combat damage.

Winter Orb(see avatar) + a Mishra's Helix with a Power Artifact on it it's pretty well a hard lock. Even without Winter Orb the Helix + Power Artifact is just NASTY as it reads pay:1mana::symtap:: Tap 3 lands. Also, the more Power Artifacts you put on the Helix the more broken it gets.

Staff of Domination with Power Artifact is just silly and completely saved my hide against a burn deck. Add in infinity mana thanks to the Monolith and it basically reads: Draw your deck and play it all sans the blue cards. This isn't recommended though as you need cards in your library to win with the charbelcher. I would just stick with infinity life.

Tezzeret the Seeker is soooo useful in this deck. The ability to untap my artifacts lets me blast you twice with a Charbelcher, have insane amounts of mana, tutor up the key artifacts I need. Also, the ultimate generally means death to the other player.

The single Feldon's Cane in case artifact removal or counters removed your key cards. Also helps if they have life gaining and you have used up the bulk of your deck trying to kill them with the belcher.

Utility comes in the form of 7 Draw Spells, the 3 Expedition Map, Voltaic Key and the pair of Tinkers. Expedition Map is especially useful not only to get my special lands but to thin the lands out for my Charbelcher.

Great Tinker targets will be situational.

The Shield Sphere are for anti-aggro.

The The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is for VERY creature heavy decks. When combined with Winter Orb it is just evil.

Mishra's Workshop for another source of colourless. Helps against decks with lots of artifact hate that keep destroying your mana producers.

The counters to help against decks with lots of hate/counters/key cards to deal with.

The Pithing Needle is to help against decks with those KEY cards you need to deal with.

The extra lands are against decks with land hate.

So I've done enough games of testing to know it's basic strengths and weaknesses. Gotta say I've never played such a broken deck, have fun playing this one judges. Not saying it wins the fastest. It's control. It isn't supposed to. But as you can see from my avatar I love control and this takes the cake. Forcefield shuts down 60% of what I'm up against. It's like humility in artifact form, only better. Being able to lock their lands generally shuts them down just as bad(and makes them quit). Gaining infinity life or drawing and playing my deck (although not advised as you need cards for the charbelcher) thanks to the Staff of Domination is just silly. Never used Goblin Charbelcher before. It's a beast. Pretty well at the end product now. I gotta say I was worried about how this build would preform as it was a 14 land build with no creatures. Not exactly the norm. Still having trouble playing a full game as everyone seems to quit out on me. If you would like to playtest your build on MWS PM me and we can work something out.

1 Mana Draw Spells: Ponder, Brainstorm and Preordain are all cheap draw spells that can net you either your missing combo pieces or your win-con. The deck relies heavily on blue mana (in order to cast Blue Sun's Zenith) so I tried to keep the CMC of draw as low as possible. Cast these spells whenever you are missing anything. The fetchlands are there to shuffle away your Brainstorm cards.

Candelabra of Tawnos is in there in order to maximize your islands. You'll often not need it, but it really comes in handy if you fail to draw your Time Spiral (to untap lands) and need a little boost in blue. Great for when you're holding Power Artifact and Blue Sun's Zenith with only three islands in play.

Counterspell, Turnabout and Repeal are all defensive cards. Turnabout can be used to help you, but most of the time you'll be casting the much better Time Spiral. I may play with those numbers. Repeal is amazing with infinite colourless mana, and digs you closer to your win-con. Counterspell, is well, counterspell.

Time Spiral I love casting this card. Period. I cast it with a full hand, I cast it with green eggs and ham. This card essentially translates to "Draw seven cards." I've cast this card with two Blue Sun's Zenith in my hand because I didn't have that third Island untapped. Guess what happened? I drew another Time Spiral, and an Emrakul. You know what happened when I cast that second Time Spiral with an Emrakul on the board? I drew my Zenith, I didn't have to attack with my Eldrazi because my opponent drew infinite cards. Seriously, cast this spell and try not to laugh maniacally.

This deck doesn't need a lot of lands, hence the grand total of 19. Threw in a few fetches in order to thin it out further to maximize the chances of drawing your win-con. Don't be afraid to keep a two land hand with any of the CMC1 draw-spells, that's often game over if you have either Power Artifact or a Monolith in your hand too.

So the deck's 2 targets for Power Artifact are Demonspine Whip and Wine of Blood and Iron.

Demonspine Whip is unique in the sense that it doesn't give the equipped creature an ability - but the activated ability of the Whip belongs to the equipment. So since the pump ability is the activated ability of an artifact, it is perfect for abusing with Power Artifact. This means the ability of Demonspine Whip reads as: " :1mana:, Equipped Creature gets +3/+0 until end of turn." So with 5 mana, you activate this ability 5 times seperately, (don't dump all at once!) to create 5 different triggers of +3/+0, causing a +15/+0 pump. Insane. The damage plan is actually exactly perfect. Take a 1/1 creature with Evasion (played Turn 2). Turn 3, Demonspine Whip + Equip. Turn 4, Power Artifact on whip, activate Whip twice for +6/+0, attack for 7 with Evasion. Turn 5, activate Whip 4 times for +12/+0, attack for 13 damage. Voila, 20 damage total, win on Turn 5. Of course, this is a very ideal scenario - but I think the concept of it is very interesting.

Wine of Blood and Iron is similar in this aspect. The normal activation cost is way too steep, but it is perfect for abusing with Power Artifact. This then becomes a repeatable Berserk for (sans Trample). Granted, you have to sacrifice the Wine at end of turn, but you should only really need 1 strike to win with this deck. So with 2~3 activations of this right after another, with an original 3-power creature, it is 3, 6, 12, 24 power, with a 2-power creature, it is 2, 4, 8, 16, more than enough to kill.

So the deck is running on a Rogue subtheme, backed up with Dimir Infiltrator as a tutor engine. You'll notice that the majority of cards in the deck are costed at 2 mana, including all the creatures. This is done on purpose to follow an ideal curve - Turn 2 Evasion Creature, Turn 3 Demonspine Whip and Equip or Wine of Blood and Iron, Turn 4 tutor for Power Artifact and play it, etc. This may seem like an ideal scenario, but the game plan actually does follow closely to this. 2CMC also means fetchable via Dimir Infiltrator, although this card should only be used to get combo pieces Demonspine Whip/Power Artifact.

Looter il-Kor - In making this deck, I wanted to make Evasion a key factor. Otherwise, Demonspine Whip and Wine of Blood and Iron just do not have any impact. So every creature in the maindeck has some form of Evasion (Flying, Shadow, Unblockability, Protection). Having Shadow practically guarantees getting through, and the draw ability is quite welcome. Is also a Rogue to be supported via Oona's Blackguard.

Oona's Prowler - The second consideration for the deck was the Power issue. Wine of Blood and Iron is ideally used with high power creatures for huge double pumps. Using it on a Power-1 creatures is wimpy. Power-2 is acceptable, and Power-3 is crazy. Of course, the drawback with this card is that your opponent can discard to make it useless. If they do, then okay, that's card advantage for us. The drawbacks are also mitigated by combining with Oona's Blackguard and Rise//Fall - keep their hand count low. After sideboard, this card and Looter il-Kor are key to dumping Nether Traitor and Bloodghast into the graveyard.

Oona's Blackguard - The 3rd issue with the deck was the disruption. There simply wasn't enough space for everything with the Power Artifact combo taking 10 slots. This seemed like the ideal disruption via discard - all of our Rogues have some form of Evasion. This card also gives Rogues some extra power/toughness - important in targeting with Wine of Blood and Iron.

Dimir Infiltrator - this can fetch half the cards in the deck if necessary, although as I stated before, should only fetch the main Combo pieces needed to win. However, from my own testing it wasn't ideal to fetch both combo pieces (Demonspine Whip/Power Artifact) if you already didn't have 1 of them in your hand. It was almos better to draw into 1 rather than tutoring for both and wasting a turn. Stalling with Bitterblossom became very viable in that scenario.

The card is also a good creature for Demonspine Whip as it is unblockable. The Sideboard is actually crafted around for fetching with this card as well - most of the Sideboard is also conveniently at 2CMC.

Bitterblossom - churns out 1/1 Flying Rogue tokens. I never actually played with this card until before today, and now I see why Standard was crazy about this card. It is insane. Combine with Oona's Blackguard for 2/2 flying tokens with a discard ability, or even with Grixis Charm's +2/+0 ability for a finish. The flying tokens of course, are a good target for Demonspine Whip as well. Lastly, the tokens can be used to chump block until the 2 Combo Pieces are assembled.

Rise//Fall - The "Rise" part is quite useful - remove a problematic creature from the board, and return 1 creature from your graveyard. This is ideally used for returning Dimir Infiltrator after using its Transmute ability, but any creature is fine too - especially if discarded via Looter il-Kor. The "Fall" part is another good disruption option to back up the discard support.

Grixis Charm - I was originally using Lightning Bolts and Terminate as removal, but I think these are much better. It's really not worth the mana to remove an opposing creature with Bolt/Terminate when all of your creatures have Evasion/Flying to hit the Red Zone. Removing an opposing artifact/enchantment/planeswalker/permanent for a turn can be crucial for winning, and the +2/+0 ability to all creatures is a mini-overrun, works amazingly with the Bitterblossom tokens. It's an absolute beast for this deck.

Demonspine Whip - I'll just say a couple more about this card - remember you can move it around among your creatures as well. Activate the ability when it's attached to a creature, pump it, and then move the equipment elsewhere to pump another creature. That particular strategy is a precaution against chump-blocking, although the Evasion should lessen such worries.

Wine of Blood and Iron - After a little testing, I do feel that this is the weakest inclusion in here. It's meant to be extra Demonspine Whips 5 and 6, so you don't have to tutor for them. On Turn 3, you can either: play Demonspine Whip + Equip, or play Wine of Blood and Iron, so the gameplan isn't too different. After that, enchant either one with Power Artifact and go crazy. The problem is that even with its activation cost reduced to :2mana:, it's not as abusable with 1-power creatures. With 2-power creatures, it is semi-abusable. The real abuse starts when you enchant it wih 2 Power Artifact and then you get a one-turn repeatable Berserk for 1-mana, however uncommon that may be.

I feel like when the judges test this deck they won't enjoy drawing into Wine of Blood and Iron - but I wanted to include a target for Power Artifact besides Demonspine Whip. Would this deck fair better if these 2 slots were more removal/disruption, probably yes, but then I thought it would be less of a Power Artifact deck and more of a Rogue deck. I didn't want that to happen. Hopefully it still fairs well in testing.

Brainstorm, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor - pretty standard Blue/Black choices. I know the Tutors are a little unfair, but this deck is a combo deck that requires tutors. Combine Brainstorm with fetchlands to shuffle away unwanted cards.

Dunerider Outlaw is a Rogue that should come in against Green-heavy decks. I believe Green-based aggro (stompy or whatever) would crush us, and we'll be forced to play more control rather than aggro. Dunerider Outlaw can hold back some of that. Fetchable at 2CMC. Remember, protection is also a form of Evasion - good with Demonspine Whip. I'd probably substitute it with Looter il-Kor, as it won't be able to block non-Shadow creatures.

Shred Memory - Fetchable @ 2CMC, and should come in against graveyard based decks. It can also be used as additional tutoring via Transmute, if the current maindeck tutoring is not enough.

Defense Grid, Nether Traitor, Bloodghast - these should come in against Control decks with heavy counterspells/discard/removal disruption. All are fetchable at 2CMC, Defense Grid should slow MUC down considerably. Dodge counterspells and counter removal/discard with Nether Traitor and Bloodghast as these just keep coming back. Dump them into the graveyard with Oona's Prowler and Looter il-Kor for card advantage.

Earwig Squad, Rootwater Thief - both Rogues (check updated Oracle text for Thief), to be sideboarded in against opposing Combo decks. Remove their key card(s) and win.

This deck certainly can win without the Demonspine Whip + Power Artifact combo. A crazy nut draw of like double Oona's Blackguard + Bitterblossom is possible and hard for any deck to stop. But of course, this doesn't always happen. Although Dimir Infiltrator can tutor for both Oona's Blackguard and Bitterblossom, I'd like to urge you to not do that if possible. Demonspine Whip/Power Artifact is more resilient toward removal and much more abusive, so I would appreciate it if you could tutor for them instead (that is, if you have 1 of the other combo piece in your hand and need the other. Tutoring for Both is normally a waste of mana). I understand Blackguard/Bitterblossom is very alluring to an aggro/control player, but Rogues are merely meant to support the deck, not be the centerpiece. This is why I tried not to include any Prowl shenanigans. Rogues just go well with the Evasion/Unblockability theme that Demonspine Whip/Power Artifact require. Having a 1/1 token suddenly get pumped to a 16/1 is just insane, and hopefully the brokenness of Bitterblossom doesn't outshine that.