Hey everyone! I've been feeling nostalgic recently, so I'm trying to rebuild a classic deck of mine from high school.
I built this deck around Darksteel Reactor, paired with Dismantle and Sun Droplet. I first noticed this core during Mirrodin standard, and I'm sure it has nutty potential. The obvious play is to Dismantle the Sun Droplet to help the Reactor get there. However, you can also Dismantle the Reactor itself. The first line of action fails to resolve, since the Reactor is indestructible. Then, you don't move the counters, you place new counters on the permanent of your choice. Perhaps that very same Reactor! So in a pinch, Dismantle can double our Darksteel Reactor counters.
The first thing I want to add is a tutor base to ensure that I can assemble my combo(s). Fabricate is my go-to, since it curves nicely (T2 Sun Droplet, T3 Fabricate, T4 Darksteel Reactor) and I already own a playset. However, it's been a long time since I played artifacts, and I'm not sure if there are better tutors for my purpose. Outside of googling my pieces, Thoughcast can replenish my hand quite well and give me the ability to go deeper into my deck
Modular creatures were great at the time, but I wonder if there are more efficient creature targets for the Conduit. Anything that stacks +1/+1 counters would be eligible for the creatures slot. Steel Overseer maybe, if I get a decent amount of creatures onto the board. My current plans have moved away from blockers to control. Muddle the Mixture helps protect our guys and ourselves and can transmute into a Sun Droplet, Coretapper, Chamber, Conduit, oh my! If i'm going all-in on counter magic, I have to weigh Remand versus Unsubstantiate. Remand draws a card, but Unsubstantiate can give me tempo advantage.
As far as the charge counter ramp, I'm weighing Coretapper versus Surge Node. The Node is cheaper and harder to remove than its creature counterpart, but it costs mana to move the counters and can't sac for two freebies. I think the decision will come when my mana curve is better defined.
I've found several cards that perform well in the shell's counter-manipulating nature. These could be back up targets for my Chambers and Coretappers:
Astral Cornucopia - Ultimate fast mana. It can be played for free and charged up with the Chambers and Coretappers. This could enable a T3 Reactor while helping with other expensive effects in my maybe pile.
Golem Foundry - Gives me accelerated board presence, possibly netting a 3/3 every single turn. The best part is that the tokens can be targeted by Overseer, and those counters can be used via Conduit.
Brain in a Jar - IT LOOKS SO FUN! I can manipulate the counters to recast Fabricate, or bring back a counterspell at instant speed. That said, it feels like I would have to build around this just as much as Reactor. This would be an all-in situation.
Lux Cannon - A great broom to sweep up anything that gets past my other control. The only draw back is the cost, though Cornucopia can mitigate that.
Orochi Hatchery - can be used to go very wide on attack, and is easily turned on with a Cornucopia. Sadly, we can't hit those little green guys with Overseer, so this card is low on my list.
So those are my ideas. Even though most (if not all) of my cards listed are Modern legal, I'm not concerned with format for this one. Help me rebuild a piece of my childhood, people!
Vorel of the Hull Clade used to be an edh general of mine and I used reactor as a win con in that deck. Everflowing Chalice only makes colorless but it does cost less mana then cornucopia. Lastly Twitch can help you get extra mileage out of Vorel, Coretapper, or Surge Node.
Unfortunately every try hard from Sacramento to Shanghai preaches from the top of their 27 lands + Mana Reflection that Tooth and Nail and Time Stretch are fine to play in the same turn but Armageddon is unfair.
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I built this deck around Darksteel Reactor, paired with Dismantle and Sun Droplet. I first noticed this core during Mirrodin standard, and I'm sure it has nutty potential. The obvious play is to Dismantle the Sun Droplet to help the Reactor get there. However, you can also Dismantle the Reactor itself. The first line of action fails to resolve, since the Reactor is indestructible. Then, you don't move the counters, you place new counters on the permanent of your choice. Perhaps that very same Reactor! So in a pinch, Dismantle can double our Darksteel Reactor counters.
Back in the day, I had playsets of Coretapper and Energy Chamber to accelerate Droplet and Reactor. There were several modular creatures (like Arcbound Worker and Arcbound Stinger) so that Power Conduit would be even more effective.
So here's the big, baggy core of a deck I'm working with:
4 Dismantle
4 Sun Droplet
4 Coretapper
The first thing I want to add is a tutor base to ensure that I can assemble my combo(s). Fabricate is my go-to, since it curves nicely (T2 Sun Droplet, T3 Fabricate, T4 Darksteel Reactor) and I already own a playset. However, it's been a long time since I played artifacts, and I'm not sure if there are better tutors for my purpose. Outside of googling my pieces, Thoughcast can replenish my hand quite well and give me the ability to go deeper into my deck
Modular creatures were great at the time, but I wonder if there are more efficient creature targets for the Conduit. Anything that stacks +1/+1 counters would be eligible for the creatures slot. Steel Overseer maybe, if I get a decent amount of creatures onto the board. My current plans have moved away from blockers to control. Muddle the Mixture helps protect our guys and ourselves and can transmute into a Sun Droplet, Coretapper, Chamber, Conduit, oh my! If i'm going all-in on counter magic, I have to weigh Remand versus Unsubstantiate. Remand draws a card, but Unsubstantiate can give me tempo advantage.
As far as the charge counter ramp, I'm weighing Coretapper versus Surge Node. The Node is cheaper and harder to remove than its creature counterpart, but it costs mana to move the counters and can't sac for two freebies. I think the decision will come when my mana curve is better defined.
I've found several cards that perform well in the shell's counter-manipulating nature. These could be back up targets for my Chambers and Coretappers:
Mook's Cube!
Mook's Frontier Atarka Red Primer!
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