With mostly cards from the newest sets, we get in multiplayer a deck that does really well. I was surprised how well it did (it's so cutthroat that my playgroup thinks it's the strongest deck any of us plays, in a no-banlist environment but we play mostly creature based decks and not a lot of removal/counters).
The strategy is to play lot's of boardwipes, but you yourself play around them so your stuff doesn't get hit. Vehicles do a great job at that, and there are a few older cards that work as well (they also play around a lot of removal, enchantments, sorcery and planeswalker). If you read the stickied primers or played a lot of multiplayer you know that wrath effects are usually a huge backdraw for the guy who plays them: He spends most of his turn, but he get's nothing, everyone else get to rebuild before him and everyone is mad at him.
What color do we want? WWhite, obviously. The best wraths, the great artifact support, great removal and easy to come by lifegain to migitate early attacks. You could splash into Ublue for Supreme Verdict, or Rred if you want access to earlier wraths and Built to Smash.
Cards (listed from good to bad in each category):
Glint Hawk Idol: The best of them. Flies, is cheap to activate and often activates for free. Guardian Idol: Very important piece. Ramps you into earlier wrath effects, but is a bit more expensive to activate. Myth Realized: Does not profit from artifact synergy, but can get huge since every spell is noncreature. Also the only real manasink (not that we produce a lot) Chimeric Mass: Decent, because it helps to optimize mana usage. Also cheap to activate. Mishra's Factory: A bit risky, but a good use for land slot so no real opportunity cost to include it. Multiples on the field synergize as a bonus. (not legal in modern though)
Sub-par: Forbidding Watchtower: Not really worth to include a tapland for this, one power often isn't enough to crew. Debatable if it is good or not. Haunted Plate Mail: Way to expensive (4 cmc competes with wraths and vehicles), but no cost to activate. Equip ability is nearly useless. Thunder Totem: More expensive to cast and to activate than Guardian Idol, and the first strike is nearly irrelevant.
Cultivator's Caravan: The ramp into earlier wraths and cost is just a great deal for a 5/5, and not many other cards here are cmc=3. Crew 3 is a bit awkward sometimes, though. Smuggler's Copter: Just plain great value card, help's to find relevant pieces and is easy to crew. Not a budget card, though. Fleetwheel Cruiser: Good damage and the trample/haste is relevant against rebuilding opponents. Ovalchase Dragster: Almost as good as Cruiser, one more damage but no free crew on the first round. The toughness should hopefully be nearly irrelevant as you want to attack into a just-wiped board. Renegade Freighter: Just a good trampler with a relevant body as attacker since you aren't supposed to be blocking anyway. Fills the not much used 3 cmc mana gap.
Sub-par: Skysovereign, Consul Flagship: The pinging and the flying is pretty irrelevant, but decent in a planeswalker-heavy meta. Crew 3 is awkward and 5 cmc is competing with wraths. Bomat Bazaar Barge: Meh. Card draw is nice, but not god enough to justify crew3 5/5 for 4. Ballista Charger: Basically attacks for 7, but a bit expensive. Sky Skiff, Demolition Stomper, Aradara Express: Just no!
Fumigate: Absolutely fantastic. Get's rid of most creatures and keeps you alive. Wrath of God: Optimally costed so you don't risk opponents building up value from their boardstate Day of Judgment: Budget alternative to Wrath, and you probably won't see regenerate played anyway.
Sub-par: Phyrexian Rebirth: Not bad, but just needlessly turns on the removal you normally play around. Does put in a potentially huge artifact body on an empty board, though. Supreme Verdict: Requires you to splash blue, but necessary in a counter-heavy meta. End Hostilities: Might be good in equipment-heavy metas and if you face Rancor a lot Hallowed Burial: If you face graveyard interaction
Built to Last: most instant speed removal is blanked by this, and is does great with our tramplers Blessed Alliance: Ties the whole deck together: Can deal with problematic attackers (if you wrath a lot it's likely you won't hit low-value fodder with this), give you live or enable relevant blockers
Debatable (and in no way exhaustive list): Dispense Justice: Better at letting other sac their attackers, but way less flexible Porphyry Nodes: Great if there's not many cheap creatures. Doesn't hit you at all, but could get killed after your wrath. Silence: If you have to fight more counterspells and instant removal Apostle's Blessing: If you need to fight against more targeted removal or push through blockers Tempered Steel: Could be good, but you have to adjust to crew costs
Most of these cards are very budget-friendly, and you can get away with building a good version for less than 40$.
Interesting build. Steel Golem tends to attract removal quickly (duh), but it might still buy you a turn or more - and it's a decent body for only 3cmc.
If you're running mono-coloured, I'd consider a mass of manlands like Mishra's Factory & Dread Statuary.
If you consider splashing black, without including any other creatures, a single Nether Spirit works.
Or a set of Bloodghast after a wrath for crewing vehicles too, something like Undiscovered Paradise can help.
If I was going to build a Vehicle deck, I'd consider packing a critical mass of wraths, probably 8, a set of Luminarch Ascension and some other token producers and/or creatures that recur without help, and a group of manlands, all that don't care if a Wrath hits the board. Aradara Express has menace, very useful after a wrath me-thinks.
I'd also want some draw, and some artefact/enchantment removal to deal with perms that stop you swinging.
I have never once cast a Wrath in any multiplayer group and felt it was bad for me... I completely disagree with that assessment.
If you are in the situation where you cast a wrath to survive, that's obvious, but that's not what I am talking about. Getting into a position where you need to cast one in the first place is bad, and usually you better build your deck so you don't have to.
if you go outside of modern there is also Chimeric Idol.
I don't think that's a great card. being 3/3 instead of 2/2 isn't that great of an advantage, but not leaving mana up for instants isn't good.
. How do you think adding 4 decent card draw spells would change the deck? Would it increase or decrease the win %?
If you invest in good blue/white duals it probably would be better to run some. I am not aware of good card advantage that would fit here in mono-white.
Facing counterspells is only problematic for your wraths, since your board presence come out early and will hopefully stick. Again, Silence and splash blue for Supreme Verdict.
Mass artifact removal is indeed a problem for this deck. If you face that you obviously need to lean more heavy on Myth Realized and manlands, and play less vehicles. You might play Buried Ruin.
Playing artifact/enchantment removal yourself is of course an option. But honestly, you are usually aggressive enough to deal with the most problematic player early.
I have never once cast a Wrath in any multiplayer group and felt it was bad for me... I completely disagree with that assessment.
If you are in the situation where you cast a wrath to survive, that's obvious, but that's not what I am talking about. Getting into a position where you need to cast one in the first place is bad, and usually you better build your deck so you don't have to.
I'm referring to any situation in which I cast a Wrath. I routinely play control heavy decks that run lots of Wrath effects, card draw, and powerful win conditions. UB Control/UWR Control shells that are build to Wrath on curve, and keep the board clean, and not lose to aggro ever. It isn't a disadvantage in the least, in fact it is infuriating to any aggro players because of how hopeless their decks feel. It doesn't allow them to profitably play magic. My UWR Control deck, in fact, WINS by casting sweepers like Blasphemous Act while Repercussion is on the table.
Whether I cast them on curve because that's what my deck does, or cast them defensively because I didn't want to lose, they have never once felt disadvantageous.
Again, I completely disagree with your assessment.
The problem with relying on vehicles with a *creatureless* deck is that you'll be wanting to Wrath almost every turn to protect yourself. And there are plenty of decks out there that don't mind you Wrath routinely - in fact you'd be helping out quite a few strategies by fuelling their grave and protecting them from creature attack, and of course by leaving yourself wide open to attack.
I don't think leaving mana open to instants is going to help unless you're playing a duel.
I'm with iemspaticus with thoughts on Wrath.
This vehicle approach looks very mana hungry, especially if you get stuck with having to block attacks.
I think you may struggle to Wrath on the same turn you want to attack with your cars. I'd want a minimum of 8 wrath effects, even in a duel. Massacre, Planar Collapse, Breaking Point are more.
Other cards? Total War - You won't have untapped creatures, how about anyone else? False Prophet - helps to crew a vehicle potentially, will stop non-evasive attacks cold in most cases, and together with a Wrath can remove indestructible perms. Pendrell Mists, Magus of the Tabernacle, Overburden, Propaganda, Rhystic Study - slow them down?
It's unfortunate that Tolarian Academy is such an expensive option - it could work here very well.
If you run artefact lands like Ancient Den, Seat of the Synod etc. - Unwinding Clock maybe?
I dunno, I'm not suggesting stuff with any focus here, just blurting out idea's.
I'm with iemspartacus, I Wrath whenever there's a build up of creatures and it sets them back. Then I'm free to play my bombs without worrying about being overwhelmed.
If you want to play a creatureless deck, I suggest Enchantments that create creatures so that you don't care if they die. The problem with this is the question of why even bother running Vehicles if Sacred Mesa and Luminarch Ascension are already winning you the game.
Also, I am surprised by your dislike of Aradara Express. You're forcing your opponent to keep creatures back to double block or take 8 to the face. It's also a very high toughness, which means it can get around things like Powerstone Minefield. You can play small utility dorks that will never enter the Red Zone and then use Vehicles that can survive the Minefield that if they're blocked probably kill their opponents.
Why no mention of Mishra's Factory? It's the single strongest enabler not close. Why waste deck slots on do-nothing 2/2s like Glint Hawk Idol when you can simply put your lands to work?
I'm not. The card is awful. Are you really mainphase tapping multiple creatures to attack in multiplayer? What surprises me is no Skysovereign since that card is bonkers and every vehicle deck should play at least 1. I completely disagree with his assessment of the card. Pinging helps a lot at clearing creatures post-Wrath, 6 flying power is a ton and the Crew 3 is easy to support. Card is nuts.
The strategy is to play lot's of boardwipes, but you yourself play around them so your stuff doesn't get hit. Vehicles do a great job at that, and there are a few older cards that work as well (they also play around a lot of removal, enchantments, sorcery and planeswalker). If you read the stickied primers or played a lot of multiplayer you know that wrath effects are usually a huge backdraw for the guy who plays them: He spends most of his turn, but he get's nothing, everyone else get to rebuild before him and everyone is mad at him.
What color do we want? WWhite, obviously. The best wraths, the great artifact support, great removal and easy to come by lifegain to migitate early attacks. You could splash into Ublue for Supreme Verdict, or Rred if you want access to earlier wraths and Built to Smash.
Cards (listed from good to bad in each category):
Glint Hawk Idol: The best of them. Flies, is cheap to activate and often activates for free.
Guardian Idol: Very important piece. Ramps you into earlier wrath effects, but is a bit more expensive to activate.
Myth Realized: Does not profit from artifact synergy, but can get huge since every spell is noncreature. Also the only real manasink (not that we produce a lot)
Chimeric Mass: Decent, because it helps to optimize mana usage. Also cheap to activate.
Mishra's Factory: A bit risky, but a good use for land slot so no real opportunity cost to include it. Multiples on the field synergize as a bonus. (not legal in modern though)
Sub-par:
Forbidding Watchtower: Not really worth to include a tapland for this, one power often isn't enough to crew. Debatable if it is good or not.
Haunted Plate Mail: Way to expensive (4 cmc competes with wraths and vehicles), but no cost to activate. Equip ability is nearly useless.
Thunder Totem: More expensive to cast and to activate than Guardian Idol, and the first strike is nearly irrelevant.
Cultivator's Caravan: The ramp into earlier wraths and cost is just a great deal for a 5/5, and not many other cards here are cmc=3. Crew 3 is a bit awkward sometimes, though.
Smuggler's Copter: Just plain great value card, help's to find relevant pieces and is easy to crew. Not a budget card, though.
Fleetwheel Cruiser: Good damage and the trample/haste is relevant against rebuilding opponents.
Ovalchase Dragster: Almost as good as Cruiser, one more damage but no free crew on the first round. The toughness should hopefully be nearly irrelevant as you want to attack into a just-wiped board.
Renegade Freighter: Just a good trampler with a relevant body as attacker since you aren't supposed to be blocking anyway. Fills the not much used 3 cmc mana gap.
Sub-par:
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship: The pinging and the flying is pretty irrelevant, but decent in a planeswalker-heavy meta. Crew 3 is awkward and 5 cmc is competing with wraths.
Bomat Bazaar Barge: Meh. Card draw is nice, but not god enough to justify crew3 5/5 for 4.
Ballista Charger: Basically attacks for 7, but a bit expensive.
Sky Skiff, Demolition Stomper, Aradara Express: Just no!
Fumigate: Absolutely fantastic. Get's rid of most creatures and keeps you alive.
Wrath of God: Optimally costed so you don't risk opponents building up value from their boardstate
Day of Judgment: Budget alternative to Wrath, and you probably won't see regenerate played anyway.
Sub-par:
Phyrexian Rebirth: Not bad, but just needlessly turns on the removal you normally play around. Does put in a potentially huge artifact body on an empty board, though.
Supreme Verdict: Requires you to splash blue, but necessary in a counter-heavy meta.
End Hostilities: Might be good in equipment-heavy metas and if you face Rancor a lot
Hallowed Burial: If you face graveyard interaction
Built to Last: most instant speed removal is blanked by this, and is does great with our tramplers
Blessed Alliance: Ties the whole deck together: Can deal with problematic attackers (if you wrath a lot it's likely you won't hit low-value fodder with this), give you live or enable relevant blockers
Debatable (and in no way exhaustive list):
Dispense Justice: Better at letting other sac their attackers, but way less flexible
Porphyry Nodes: Great if there's not many cheap creatures. Doesn't hit you at all, but could get killed after your wrath.
Silence: If you have to fight more counterspells and instant removal
Apostle's Blessing: If you need to fight against more targeted removal or push through blockers
Tempered Steel: Could be good, but you have to adjust to crew costs
Most of these cards are very budget-friendly, and you can get away with building a good version for less than 40$.
Modern Legal Sample Decklist:
4x Built to Last
4x Chimeric Mass
4x Cultivator's Caravan
4x Day of Judgment
2x Fleetwheel Cruiser
2x Fumigate
4x Glint Hawk Idol
4x Guardian Idol
2x Ovalchase Dragster
22x Plains
2x Renegade Freighter
2x Wrath of God
My Powered 630 card Vintage Multiplayer Cube
cEDH: WUBR Blue Farm WUBR, UG Kinnan Flips UG, U Urza Scepter U
Steel Golem tends to attract removal quickly (duh), but it might still buy you a turn or more - and it's a decent body for only 3cmc.
If you're running mono-coloured, I'd consider a mass of manlands like Mishra's Factory & Dread Statuary.
If you consider splashing black, without including any other creatures, a single Nether Spirit works.
Or a set of Bloodghast after a wrath for crewing vehicles too, something like Undiscovered Paradise can help.
If I was going to build a Vehicle deck, I'd consider packing a critical mass of wraths, probably 8, a set of Luminarch Ascension and some other token producers and/or creatures that recur without help, and a group of manlands, all that don't care if a Wrath hits the board.
Aradara Express has menace, very useful after a wrath me-thinks.
I'd also want some draw, and some artefact/enchantment removal to deal with perms that stop you swinging.
If you are in the situation where you cast a wrath to survive, that's obvious, but that's not what I am talking about. Getting into a position where you need to cast one in the first place is bad, and usually you better build your deck so you don't have to.
I don't think that's a great card. being 3/3 instead of 2/2 isn't that great of an advantage, but not leaving mana up for instants isn't good.
If you invest in good blue/white duals it probably would be better to run some. I am not aware of good card advantage that would fit here in mono-white.
Facing counterspells is only problematic for your wraths, since your board presence come out early and will hopefully stick. Again, Silence and splash blue for Supreme Verdict.
Mass artifact removal is indeed a problem for this deck. If you face that you obviously need to lean more heavy on Myth Realized and manlands, and play less vehicles. You might play Buried Ruin.
Playing artifact/enchantment removal yourself is of course an option. But honestly, you are usually aggressive enough to deal with the most problematic player early.
Yeah, there is no reason not to run that other than self-restrictions to format.
I'm referring to any situation in which I cast a Wrath. I routinely play control heavy decks that run lots of Wrath effects, card draw, and powerful win conditions. UB Control/UWR Control shells that are build to Wrath on curve, and keep the board clean, and not lose to aggro ever. It isn't a disadvantage in the least, in fact it is infuriating to any aggro players because of how hopeless their decks feel. It doesn't allow them to profitably play magic. My UWR Control deck, in fact, WINS by casting sweepers like Blasphemous Act while Repercussion is on the table.
Whether I cast them on curve because that's what my deck does, or cast them defensively because I didn't want to lose, they have never once felt disadvantageous.
Again, I completely disagree with your assessment.
My Powered 630 card Vintage Multiplayer Cube
cEDH: WUBR Blue Farm WUBR, UG Kinnan Flips UG, U Urza Scepter U
Also Keyrune's, Guardian Idol, Phyrexian Totem - these might be useful since this deck seems to be so mana hungry. I would also consider Warden of the Wall for some defence that won't die to a Wrath.
The problem with relying on vehicles with a *creatureless* deck is that you'll be wanting to Wrath almost every turn to protect yourself. And there are plenty of decks out there that don't mind you Wrath routinely - in fact you'd be helping out quite a few strategies by fuelling their grave and protecting them from creature attack, and of course by leaving yourself wide open to attack.
I don't think leaving mana open to instants is going to help unless you're playing a duel.
I'm with iemspaticus with thoughts on Wrath.
This vehicle approach looks very mana hungry, especially if you get stuck with having to block attacks.
I think you may struggle to Wrath on the same turn you want to attack with your cars. I'd want a minimum of 8 wrath effects, even in a duel. Massacre, Planar Collapse, Breaking Point are more.
Other cards?
Total War - You won't have untapped creatures, how about anyone else?
False Prophet - helps to crew a vehicle potentially, will stop non-evasive attacks cold in most cases, and together with a Wrath can remove indestructible perms.
Pendrell Mists, Magus of the Tabernacle, Overburden, Propaganda, Rhystic Study - slow them down?
It's unfortunate that Tolarian Academy is such an expensive option - it could work here very well.
If you run artefact lands like Ancient Den, Seat of the Synod etc. - Unwinding Clock maybe?
I dunno, I'm not suggesting stuff with any focus here, just blurting out idea's.
If you want to play a creatureless deck, I suggest Enchantments that create creatures so that you don't care if they die. The problem with this is the question of why even bother running Vehicles if Sacred Mesa and Luminarch Ascension are already winning you the game.
Also, I am surprised by your dislike of Aradara Express. You're forcing your opponent to keep creatures back to double block or take 8 to the face. It's also a very high toughness, which means it can get around things like Powerstone Minefield. You can play small utility dorks that will never enter the Red Zone and then use Vehicles that can survive the Minefield that if they're blocked probably kill their opponents.
Mid-Tier:
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG
Why no mention of Mishra's Factory? It's the single strongest enabler not close. Why waste deck slots on do-nothing 2/2s like Glint Hawk Idol when you can simply put your lands to work?
I'm not. The card is awful. Are you really mainphase tapping multiple creatures to attack in multiplayer? What surprises me is no Skysovereign since that card is bonkers and every vehicle deck should play at least 1. I completely disagree with his assessment of the card. Pinging helps a lot at clearing creatures post-Wrath, 6 flying power is a ton and the Crew 3 is easy to support. Card is nuts.
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My Powered 630 card Vintage Multiplayer Cube
cEDH: WUBR Blue Farm WUBR, UG Kinnan Flips UG, U Urza Scepter U