The idea for this deck is to drop creatures that cantrip other creatures. There are three main cards, that I see, who will work for this deck.
*Note I excluded Solemn Simulacrum from this list because it only cantrips on the way out and if I am paying 4 I would rather immediately have the card rather than having a card later.
AGGRO
The most likely route this deck will take is to be a mock version of the affinity-zoo decks. The main advantage this deck has over affinity is the inherit card advantage and possible tempo advantage. Also its awesome.
The first route I will explore is the one that includes Disciple of the Vault. This card will be perfect for our deck as we have an insane amount of artifacts that will probably be entering the graveyard. It also makes me consider Genesis Chamber much more seriously. Disciple hits an opponent anytime an artifact enters the graveyard, which the tokens from genesis chamber will be doing. It also doesn't care who the control of the artifact was. Now with these 6 cards Disciple of the VaultGenesis ChamberBaleful StrixShardless AgentFaerie MechanistChief Engineer we can have a pretty good foundation for a deck.
Considering the hurtful manabase Disciple of the Vault may need to be replaced by Blood Artist which effectively does the same thing for use but costs more mana. However the life gain may be essential in some match-ups. As of right now I am unsure but it is at least on the table.
Another potential option is to run 4 Master of Etherium
The reason this card was not in the above list is because it works against Arcbound Ravager. However this does not need to be the case. Arcbound can work in the way that it just nets value when your opponent tries to spot remove your threats. If this were more the route we were looking to take the deck feels a little less like dumping your hand and praying and instead playing more value creatures such as Lodestone Golem that makes it hard for them to deal with our board. The deck although is very similar to the one linked just above.
Given both of these decks I began playtesting them an noticed there is about one period in time where the deck is very vulnerable. This point is when you cast Chief Engineer and they have a bolt or a path to take it out. You will always be able to get at least one convoke out of your Chief Engineer simply because of how priority works, but if you have a Genesis Chamber in play they can respond to the trigger before you can convoke.
I can think of 2 cards that help mitigate this problem. One of them being Daze and the other being Shimmer Myr. The reason I don't include Spellskite is that you can't have both Spellskite and Chief Engineer down on turn 2. This is not to say that we should omit Spellskite from the decklist and in fact maybe it should be in the main deck to begin with.
Shimmer Myr works when you cast it in response to their removal and then holding priority to cast your future convoked artifact cards.
Here is another card that I would like to add to the discussion.
This card combos more with Chief Engineer but it seems to only have synergy when you have a Chief Engineer in play and ideally I want to deck to function without Chief Engineer.
EQUIPMENT DISCUSSION
Yet another possibility is including Cranial Plating or various other equipment cards to make our small creatures more effective. A lot of the swords could have a potential spot in the deck if that is the route we want to go. The reason I have avoided this idea is that I would prefer to be dropping creatures that combo with both Genesis Chamber and our Chief Engineers. I like the idea that Cranial Plating has a cmc = 2 which gets hit by Shardless Agent's cascade but it still seems to sidetrack the game plan.
Also, if the deck remains casual I think we should consider skullclamps but as of now I'd like to use cards that are modern legal.
MIDRANGE/HUGE ARTIFACT RAMP BUILD
The midrange build that uses Chief Engineer has been explored in another primer where the deck also utilizes Grand Architect and Sphinx Summoner. It also uses Phyrexian Metamorph to copy the sphinx summoner's to chain card advantage but the deck is not exactly the swarm approach that I was hoping to create.
Some last things that have crossed my mind is that we may not be in the right colors. Having access to white may be very valuable to us in terms of disrupting our opponents gameplan. Two cards that stand out are
and
It may be that the correct route for the deck is not the BUG aggro approach, but instead an Esper Hate Bears style artifact deck that gains huge tempo swings through the Chief Engineer
I'll play test some more with the different styles of deck and come back with more information on how they play.
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The little engine that (hopefully) could
The idea for this deck is to drop creatures that cantrip other creatures. There are three main cards, that I see, who will work for this deck.
*Note I excluded Solemn Simulacrum from this list because it only cantrips on the way out and if I am paying 4 I would rather immediately have the card rather than having a card later.
The most likely route this deck will take is to be a mock version of the affinity-zoo decks. The main advantage this deck has over affinity is the inherit card advantage and possible tempo advantage. Also its awesome.
Disciple of the Vault Genesis Chamber Baleful Strix Shardless Agent Faerie Mechanist Chief Engineer we can have a pretty good foundation for a deck.
Here is a sample decklist using the above ideas.
4 Chief Engineer
4 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 Faerie Mechanist
4 Genesis Chamber
3 Disciple of the Vault
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Vault Skirge
4 Myr Servitor
4 Myr Retriever
2 Lodestone Golem
4 Polluted Delta
3 Watery Grave
2 Breeding Pool
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Glimmervoid
Considering the hurtful manabase Disciple of the Vault may need to be replaced by Blood Artist which effectively does the same thing for use but costs more mana. However the life gain may be essential in some match-ups. As of right now I am unsure but it is at least on the table.
Another potential option is to run 4 Master of Etherium
The reason this card was not in the above list is because it works against Arcbound Ravager. However this does not need to be the case. Arcbound can work in the way that it just nets value when your opponent tries to spot remove your threats. If this were more the route we were looking to take the deck feels a little less like dumping your hand and praying and instead playing more value creatures such as Lodestone Golem that makes it hard for them to deal with our board. The deck although is very similar to the one linked just above.
The difference I would make is +2 Lodestone Golem -1 Arcbound Ravager -1 Disciple of the Vault to create the following decklist.
4 Chief Engineer
4 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 Faerie Mechanist
4 Genesis Chamber
2 Disciple of the Vault
3 Arcbound Ravager
4 Vault Skirge
4 Myr Servitor
4 Myr Retriever
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Polluted Delta
3 Watery Grave
2 Breeding Pool
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Glimmervoid
Given both of these decks I began playtesting them an noticed there is about one period in time where the deck is very vulnerable. This point is when you cast Chief Engineer and they have a bolt or a path to take it out. You will always be able to get at least one convoke out of your Chief Engineer simply because of how priority works, but if you have a Genesis Chamber in play they can respond to the trigger before you can convoke.
I can think of 2 cards that help mitigate this problem. One of them being Daze and the other being Shimmer Myr. The reason I don't include Spellskite is that you can't have both Spellskite and Chief Engineer down on turn 2. This is not to say that we should omit Spellskite from the decklist and in fact maybe it should be in the main deck to begin with.
Shimmer Myr works when you cast it in response to their removal and then holding priority to cast your future convoked artifact cards.
Here is another card that I would like to add to the discussion.
This card combos more with Chief Engineer but it seems to only have synergy when you have a Chief Engineer in play and ideally I want to deck to function without Chief Engineer.
Yet another possibility is including Cranial Plating or various other equipment cards to make our small creatures more effective. A lot of the swords could have a potential spot in the deck if that is the route we want to go. The reason I have avoided this idea is that I would prefer to be dropping creatures that combo with both Genesis Chamber and our Chief Engineers. I like the idea that Cranial Plating has a cmc = 2 which gets hit by Shardless Agent's cascade but it still seems to sidetrack the game plan.
Also, if the deck remains casual I think we should consider skullclamps but as of now I'd like to use cards that are modern legal.
Here is a link to the other forum where they talk about the midrange/late game version of a Chief Engineer deck. http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/modern-deck-creation/563145-grand-architect
It may be that the correct route for the deck is not the BUG aggro approach, but instead an Esper Hate Bears style artifact deck that gains huge tempo swings through the Chief Engineer
I'll play test some more with the different styles of deck and come back with more information on how they play.