How do you feel about Faerie Artisan's. Overall cost is a bit high but the ability to copy potentially relevant creatures and have them be Arcum targets as a bonus seems like a strong package.
It competes with Arcum at 4 mana, can't be recurred short of Timetwister, and eats removal like nobody's business. I doubt I would run it in a competitive event, but despite that it does seem like an incredibly fun card.
Those are pretty much my exact criticisms. It's an amusing card and would surely be a lot of fun to play at a more laid back table but I just can't see it ever being worth its cost at a competitive table. It suffers from Padeem, Consul of Innovation-syndrome in that it's a not-game-changing ability that directly competes with Arcum in terms of cost, is not itself an artifact, and does not come with any intrinsic protection. Besides Conqueror's Flail I don't see any cards in Commander 2016 that are relevant for Arcum (or mono-blue decks in general, really); most of the significant releases, including all the new commanders, are in the multicolor department.
Speaking of, here's my Breya thread in some shameless cross-promotion. To make that list, I started off with my Arcum list and retooled it from there, so you'll find many similarities between the two decks for that reason.
My expectations are still low, but I'll be interested to see whether WUBR artifacts with a killcard commander is more fun and powerful than mono-U artifacts with a tutor-on-a-stick commander. Arcum will remain dear to my heart no matter what, but if--big if--Breya really does prove to be the better choice, I won't be above making her my main deck and fleshing out my thread for her.
What do you think of this card, apparently it was leaked along with a few other cards and is a game day promo. It gets a lot of our combo and stax pieces.
Trophy Mage
2U (Uncommon)
Creature - Human Wizard
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may search your library for an artifact card with converted mana cost 3, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
Trinket Mage has some better qualities by hitting a top or mana crypt or other lower cmc cards to help setup for Arcum the next turn for example. But if I had to pick I think I'd choose this new one
Any results on your end thus far? Let us know whenever you get them.
So, I know it's been a minute, but I've been playing the deck for the past month off and on (I've only been really playing Arcum and Zur lately), and I can safely say: Dramatic Reversal is nuts. There was literally never a time in which I drew it that I was not satisfied with its performance. When drawn, tutoring out Scepter becomes extremely viable if you have any fast mana or artifact creatures that produce mana, which I did all but one time (I tutored Gilded Lotus off of Hangarback and Arcum, untapped him with Minamo, sacrificed the token to get Scepter, exiling Reversal, and activated it with Lotus still open so I could cast a counter if need be. I cast a creature from hand, grabbed Turbine, and won from there). It's pretty much the same thing as drawing Power Artifact but with a more narrow artifact to tutor out (having a nonland source of at least two colorless mana isn't difficult. The deck runs 14-15 nonland mana sources so I've had that all but one time), and beyond that, being able to pay 1U for: "Untap Arcum and get Rings/Monolith/Staff" is pretty huge on its own, and probably doesn't need the Scepter setup if the latter being as narrow as Null Brooch bothers you.
Isochron Scepter was a little more underwhelming, however. I only drew it twice and both times in which I did, I didn't really want it over a piece of acceleration or something, though I did make the best of the situation the second time and set up Negate on the Scepter. This was amusing because I was forced to tutor tertiary combo pieces that game due to an exiled Rings of Brighthearth, so I grabbed Clock of Omens the next turn, which worked out great after 1 turn of Scepter being useless (I spent a turn and almost all of my mana generating 1/1 Myr tokens, and then used them to untap the Turbine each endstep, allowing me to tap my other permanents to counter spells, essentially). I guess, in this scenario, it led to me pinning down the Tazri deck that was countering/destroying/exiling my things, allowing me to assemble the Possessed Portal lock and prevent him from ever dropping a Food Chain.
Overall, it's not bad. Not being able to tutor for Reversal kind of hurts its impact a bit, but I'm literally never dissatisfied to see the card thanks to it being 1U: Untap Arcum regardless of other permanents on field. Sometimes I find myself without the time to get Lattice to make Arcum an artifact for Key, Clock, etc., to untap him, and Reversal lets me spend my mana to further my end game by one entire turn if it's not countered, which is huge. Scepter... is going to require more testing, of course. It's nuts in some scenarios, okay in some others, and abhorrently worthless in a few, making it into the, "This is as situational as Null Brooch" category. It's worth a shot to try out, however.
On another note, I seriously hope that this upcoming 'artifact set' of Kaladesh gives Arcum a couple more useful cards for us to run.
So I had a big long post typed up and then I accidentally hit back and the whole thing was lost. Hate it when that happens. Now I'm all sleepy and should go to bed, but I'll still try to get most of my previous thoughts in before I do.
Firstly, I've been super busy this last month with work and final exams, so I've only played a handful of games on each of my decks. Scepter didn't come up at all, Dramatic Reversal did once and I loved it and I'm leaning toward adding it in officially but I want to test it more to be sure.
Not worth its space. If I wanted a blue creature that tutors for artifacts, I'd play one that does it from the command zone. Oh wait...
Will still be giving this one a playtest. Agree that the lack of "or less" really hurts it (albeit the only thing keeping it balanced with Trinket Mage), but in fairness 3cmc alone is nothing to scoff at: Staff, Rings, Metalworker are three game-ending targets that we pretty much always have a use for at any point in the game, and also to lesser importance we can fetch Tangle Wire, Trini, Thousand-Year, Bridge. I'm still skeptical and leaning against it, but it's "good enough" that I think it at least deserves a fair chance to prove itself if it can.
So, I know it's been a minute, but I've been playing the deck for the past month off and on (I've only been really playing Arcum and Zur lately), and I can safely say: Dramatic Reversal is nuts. There was literally never a time in which I drew it that I was not satisfied with its performance.
Like I said, it only came up once for me because I haven't had a chance to playtest much lately, but yes, at least from what little I've seen it appears very promising. Glad you're positive about it, your thoughts sound similar to mine (or what I expect mine to be after a few more games).
Isochron Scepter was a little more underwhelming, however.
As I feared. For all the bashing we do of Null Brooch, and deservedly so, there's something to be said for having "Negate on a Stick" in a single artifact that is tutorable by Arcum. Suffering through the not-so-uncommon dead draw Stick, or having to blow a tutor just to find something to use with it, is a huge deal. And often enough you'll be in that situation where there's a spell on the stack that you just absolutely need to counter right that moment or the game is over (classic example is obviously Ad Nauseam), and only Brooch lets you tap Arcum and discard hand to Negate, no questions asked. When you get hit with Duress -> discard your countermagic -> Ad Nauseam, you'll want Brooch in your deck, not Stick.
It's the reason I just haven't been able to kick the Brooch. As much as I hate it, it does something important--countermagic on demand, with no "if"s (discarding your hand is a cost, but not an "if," because you can always do it)--that I've found literally no other card in the game capable of doing in the same way.
I'll still be giving the Stick its due testing. Like I said, it hasn't actually come up in any of my games yet because I haven't had more than a couple chances to play Arcum in the last month. But all the concerns I have about it now are the same ones I did before, and I'm not sure the printing of Dramatic Reversal by itself is enough to change my mind.
First of all, welcome to MTGS and thanks for posting in my thread (I see it's your first post on this account).
Secondly, unlike DR and Stick I have no ambivalence about this one, I just can't see it working in this deck. Nearly every artifact that hits our GY is either cmc2 (that is, our dorks) or cmc0 (myr tokens, as well as Lotus Petal). Saccing a cmc 2 dork with this on the field usually won't let us grab anything, as we have nothing in our GY of cmc 1 and only one card in the deck ends up in the GY as cmc 0. We could sac the Scrap Trawler itself to grab something cmc2, but then we're only getting that single use out of it, so it mind as well be a Junk Diver that lets us get any cmc.
I've also done a little playtesting on Braids and Breya and will be updating those lists. But, tomorrow. Too sleepy now.
Hello again, TheTrueNub. Is it a viable choice to also include Static Orb in the deck to complement the other stax components, especially Winter Orb and Tangle Wire since for example; having both Static Orb and Winter Orb in play will drastically lock the board as opponents will only be able to untap only 2 permanents per turn, meaning that if an opponent decides to untap a land, then can only untap another permanent due to both orb's effects. We on the other hand can find ways circumvent these stax effects, by playing Clock of Omens or Unwinding Clock with Mycosynth Lattice.
I know that the above isn't easy to setup but it does give us options to play around with our toolbox commander.
PS - the removal of the Sculpting Steel from the main deck IMO feels unwarranted, when compared to Copy Artifact and Phyrexian Metamorph being part of the current main deck. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because of the flexibility being able to tutor up Sculpting Steel by Arcum himself and the other tutor components in the deck VS the other 2 versions; also it is an integral part of the Staff, Scuplting (copying Staff), rock that produces 3 mana and clock of omens combo (It does require many components to setup, however they are all tutorable by Arcum and it gives us another option to combo off).
I'm actually very much looking forward to Paradox Engine. It may at least be better than Isochron Scepter and let me turn every card in hand into Dramatic Reversal.
Also, this looks great. Tap 3 artifacts, get Rings of Brighthearth for UUU? Yes, please.
So of course I say "I'll do it all tomorrow" but then I get super busy with more finals and everything else, and then holiday celebrations, and blah blah, and nothing happens. Finally, finally, finally, I'm done with everything and my schedule is back to normal now (happy 2017 btw), so I can get back into Magic again along with it (and make good on my promise to update my several MTGS threads).
Static Orb is viable, but it's more difficult for us to work around than Winter Orb. The good thing about Winter Orb is that it's basically always useful to us, the situations in which we can't play it because it would hurt us more than it helps are very few and uncommon. Static Orb not so much--as you say, with Lattice we can turn Arcum into an artifact and then untap him, or just use Clock of Omens to tap down Static on the previous player's end step and get all our untaps, but it needs that extra bit of setup or else Static Orb will more likely give more advantage to our opponents than to us. It's not always a guaranteed droppable piece, there will be some occasions when it's a dead draw, and for that reason I don't run it mainboard. But it's still viable should you choose to include it in your list.
The reason I've lately been running the list without mainboard Sculpting Steel isn't because the card isn't good, but because I haven't found it to be good enough. Yes, the staff+copy+lotus+clock combo is a thing in concept, and including Steel lets Arcum tutor all those pieces by himself, but I don't think I've ever actually had that combo come up in any of my games--maybe once? In all time? More combo options aren't always a good thing if those combo options are so clunky as to never actually happen. And like Spine of Ish Sah, while it's a cool Arcum tutor, if your best Arcum tap in that particular moment is "copy a thing" (or, in the case of spine, "destroy a thing,") you've probably already lost the game. In other words, the 1-3 Arcum taps you get per game should be huge game-enders like Possessed Portal, Mycosynth Lattice, Rings of Brighthearth, and so on; if those aren't options, and you're reduced to spending your taps on "destroy 1 permanent" or "copy 1 artifact," then your deck is already pretty much decimated and your chances of winning are small to 0. So why waste card slots for that scenario?
In my personal gameplay, more often than not, rather than tutoring for Sculpting Steel, I mostly found myself casting it from hand--and all too often it was used to copy a Silver Myr or some mana rock for lack of any better targets, which was a terribly inefficient play. I would rather have Copy Artifact, which can at least copy a 2cmc dork like Silver Myr at efficient cost in addition to its other uses, or Phyrexian Metamorph, which can copy creatures as artifacts as well as artifacts directly, than Sculpting Steel, whose only benefit is that it's potentially tutorable by Arcum in the rare circumstances where you'd actually use Arcum to drop anything but a nuclear bomb.
All that said, onward to my preliminary thoughts on new cards:
Planar Bridge -- It's a jumbo Planar Portal. For a more laid-back big mana build I can see it, but barring Metalworker shenanigans we should never have 8 to throw around, and if we've got infinite colorless we'd be looking for Staff of Domination instead.
Paradox Engine -- Interesting. 5cmc makes me nervous, that's pretty much the upper limit of what we should be casting from the hand, reserved only for those cards which are strong enough as to justify it (Turbine, Kuldotha, Tezzeret). But stapling a Dramatic Reversal to every spell is quite something. I can see it being potentially "Reversal on a stick, almost" in the way Brooch is "Negate on a stick, almost." Worthy of testing for sure.
Reverse Engineer -- Tap two artifacts and you draw 3 for 1UU. Tap 3 artifacts and you draw 3 for UU. The fact that you actually need to tap the artifacts is a significant nerf relative to the old affinity/metalcraft mechanics where it was sufficient to simply control the artifacts, particularly since usually our early-game artifacts all tap for mana in the first place anyway. Even so, I think it's worth a test and potentially very promising: once we get non-mana-producing artifacts rolling, like Turbine tokens, Arcum's shoes, etc, the task becomes much easier.
Whir of Invention -- This is some power. Even without the "Improvise," it's a Reshape with no sac cost at instant speed for just one more mana. That's significant. Then you've got the Improvise on top. Neato.
Trophy Mage -- See previous post. Leaning against it, but won't knock it 'till I try it.
Over 100 spoilers yet to go as of this post. Let's see what else we get.
I think Paradox Engine will make the cut in my list. In moderate testing, pulling Engine with Arcum when you have 4-5 mana is a better call than trying to cast it from hand as 5 is a lot to put down for an artifact (I have a hard time justifying Forgemaster, at times, lol). My last game I landed turn 3 Arcum with mana open for a counter, then untapped for my fourth turn. I tapped my Plague Myr + Ancient Tomb for mana and then sacrificed Plague Myr to Arcum to pull Engine, then cast Hedron Crawler, untapped and pulled Myr Turbine from the library and made a token, then cast Torpor Orb from hand just to do so, untapped again. Passed the turn with U open to counter. Opponent cast a spell, I countered it, untapped again, and sat with Arcum open until my turn, in which I pulled Rings, then the following turn I went off. I would have been able to make much stronger use out of the Engine that game if I kept a better hand-- I was limited on blue mana pretty badly (was chit-chatting and when I looked at my hand, I saw a U symbol on one of my lands when I said keep. It was Academy Ruins), which I'll admit doesn't happen too often.
Another game the Engine went absolutely nuts, with me grabbing it with Arcum and then dropping Myr Sire and Junk Driver from hand thanks to controlling Mana Vault, and the Junk Diver allowed me to return the first creature back to my hand to cast it again to gain another untap. I grabbed Rings, Staff, and Monolith in the same turn thanks to Engine. Engine is just a card you can randomly grab with Arcum and perform a clean blowout with if you have 2-3 spells in your hand that you can cast that turn. Otherwise, don't pull Engine. Engine makes pulling Turbine feel like less of a stumbling block, which sometimes you have to grab Turbine because you just don't have more than one artifact dudes in hand. I've had good experience with Turbine > Engine > Cast 3 spells and win that same turn. Something simple like topdecked Lightning Greaves + Voltaic Key + counter spell just leads you straight into a victorious position when you would have needed one more turn to assemble the Rings-Staff combo. Still incredibly situational, though, but I'm excited for the potential (I am the dumbass that added Isochron Scepter after all. However, this seems more reasonable of a card to add to a Commander whose greatest power lies in turning sideways repeatedly, and we need more ways of utilizing that). I'm basically pulling Scepter straight out and slapping Engine in its place.
There's a noticeable lack of synergy with Paradox Engine and Null Brooch, however. I strongly feel like Paradox Engine is an incredibly strong card that Arcum uses better than any other Commander, though, so I'm going to toy around with things and see how best I can accommodate everything in my build. Or I may finally go without Null Brooch in my deck- countering a spell might be easier if I have artifact mana up to assist in casting the spells should I pull Engine in those cases. In any event, going a turn faster in specific situations might prevent me from having to discard my hand to keep them from casting Ad Nauseams anyway (I hardly ever have to stop Storm spells in my new meta- the Storm decks here have pretty consistently won through Aetherflux Reservoir and the like instead of Grapeshots, and a lot of the times, tossing my hand to stop one guy's Ad Nauseam just left me vulnerable for another guy to take both of us out rather than me still being in position to defend myself).
Hope of Ghirapur seems worthwhile to include. It's one mana, has an extremely relevant ability, and can be fodder for Arcum. There's literally no reason I can think of not to include it when generally less useful cards are played for situational benefit in this deck.
Inspiring Statuary is... a card. An Etherium Sculptor that Arcum can tutor but it requires you tap down your artifacts. Not sure it's worthwhile, but I don't see anyone else mentioning it so I thought I'd bring it up.
Thoughts on the new set? Personally, I think I'll go this way,
Scrap Trawler - Include
Walking Ballista - Likely include
Hope of Ghirapur - 50/50 include
Whir of Invention - not sure due to the UUU cost
Why Scrap Trawler mrjumbo? How many 0-1cmc artifacts can you see yourself regrowing with it? Sac a token, grab nothing; sac a 2cmc dork, grab a 0-1cmc thing (how many of those do we have?); sac Trawler itself, mind as well be playing Junk Diver. Also why Walking Ballista? Paying 2 for 1 damage or 4 for two damage?
I think Paradox Engine will make the cut in my list. In moderate testing, pulling Engine with Arcum when you have 4-5 mana is a better call than trying to cast it from hand as 5 is a lot to put down for an artifact (I have a hard time justifying Forgemaster, at times, lol). Engine is just a card you can randomly grab with Arcum and perform a clean blowout with if you have 2-3 spells in your hand that you can cast that turn
There's a noticeable lack of synergy with Paradox Engine and Null Brooch, however.
(I hardly ever have to stop Storm spells in my new meta- the Storm decks here have pretty consistently won through Aetherflux Reservoir and the like instead of Grapeshots, and a lot of the times, tossing my hand to stop one guy's Ad Nauseam just left me vulnerable for another guy to take both of us out rather than me still being in position to defend myself).
Hope of Ghirapur seems worthwhile to include. It's one mana, has an extremely relevant ability, and can be fodder for Arcum. There's literally no reason I can think of not to include it when generally less useful cards are played for situational benefit in this deck.
Inspiring Statuary is... a card. An Etherium Sculptor that Arcum can tutor but it requires you tap down your artifacts. Not sure it's worthwhile, but I don't see anyone else mentioning it so I thought I'd bring it up.
Commenting on all of these in order, firstly yes, I've been seeing a lot of good things from Paradox Engine (henceforth referred to as PE or Engine). The 5cmc is obnoxious, but it appears to be the same type of huge tempo-boosting play as Clock of Omens+Mycosynth Lattice--where, if it sticks, it's not an infinite combo on its own, but it immediately lets us do so many actions and tutor so many things that our winclock drops to 0 or 1 (like a Time Stretch, mechanically speaking). I also like the synergy with one-shot rocks; I've had a few games where I played it from hand T2 using Mana Vault or Grim Monolith and being able to re-use the rocks all game with additional spells.
Antisynergy with brooch is valid, but hopefully you won't be using them in the same situations. Brooch is the "oh bleep" card for the counter-or-lose spells. Engine is the card you use to pre-empt the "oh bleep" moment by simply outracing it. If both Harry and Sally get Ad Nauseam at the same time and are both primed to win with it, and Harry goes first and plays his, you brooch it, and then Sally goes second, plays hers and wipes you both out, I don't think there's really much that can be done about that sort of situation with the tools presently available to us. If you didn't stop Harry, wouldn't he have won anyway? In that sort of situation the best you can do is play kingmaker and brooch either Harry or Sally, leaving the other to win. That's just a symptom of a meta dominated by a 5cmc instant that basically reads "put your deck into your hand." If Sally is even one turn slower than Harry, though, or you have Voltaic Key or a clock effect in order to get multiple Negates per turn out of Brooch, then you're much safer.
(Don't get me wrong, I'd get rid of Brooch in a heartbeat if I could. My stomach turns over having to defend it as much as I do. But "spell hate artifacts" are few and far between--without W we don't get things like Nevermore and Meddling Mage--so there's just nothing else quite like it, and if you can get over the steep initial hurdle of discarding your hand, squeezing out 3+ Negates a turn is very attainable.)
Hope of Ghirapur is funny. I'm actually leaning somewhat against it by its concept. Needing to attack means it can't work on the turn its played, it only works on your turn (unlike most Silence effects which can be used either defensively on your turn or offensively on an opponents'), if they have any chump flyers it doesn't work at all, and it only works on one person. It's a blend of Spellskite and Silence, except it's much more situational than Spellskite and much less protective than Silence. None of our dorks are fantastic, obviously, but which dork would you cut for it? A 2cmc-tap-for-1 dork like Manakin? An advantage-dork like Myr Sire or Myr Retriever? Those are dorks that I'm never unhappy to see in a hand; they're not amazing, but they're always useful. I can foresee many possible situations where HoG is played and does nothing but sit there like a 1cmc Ornithopter. I dunno, maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but I'll need a better sales pitch than what I've heard thus far.
What I see in Inspiring Statuary, meanwhile, isn't a card that Arcum can tutor, but rather a card that can help cast Arcum. Think about it this way: T1 Island, Pithing Needle; T2 Island, Etherium Sculptor; T3 Island, Inspiring Statuary tapping 2 islands, Arcum Dagsson tapping 1 island and 3 artifacts. All that said, at 3cmc it falls prey what I would call Palladium Myr syndrome, where even though it can effectively tap for multiple colorless, it can often do so too late to actually accelerate Arcum pre-T4 unless you've already got some other form of ramp (in that example it was Etherium Sculptor) to play Statuary sooner. As well, similar problem with other Inspiration spells, until we start churning out tokens--which isn't generally until after is already set up--most of the artifacts on our board are already tapping for mana on their own anyway (i.e. all the Manakin-type dorks and mana rocks are useless with it). So, not an auto-include by any definition. Being able to tap down cards like Winter Orb on the end step before your turn using instant spells is amusing, but not really viable (we don't run enough instants).
If I were to play Arcum I'd run Isochron (a ton of op instants) and then paradox engine with a ton of artifact and creature mana ramp.
Being able to cast an instant repeatedly with just a sol ring out is op. Brainstorm the deck to hand maybe or counterspell the table all seem useful. The fun part would be what instant you manage to imprint every game with the initial fetch for isochron. It's like ordered chaos.
The artifact (the schematic itself) left over after the creature is used as fodder cannot be immediately sacrificed to Arcum.
The schematic is worse with recursion because the card is not put into the graveyard after the servo is sacrificed to Arcum (whereas Myr Sire will end up in the graveyard to be recurred with Junk Diver or Myr Retreiver).
Advantages:
Much better in a Possessed Portal lock because you are essentially getting three permanents for one card.
Immediately puts two artifacts on the battlefield, which is better for Clock of Omens, Tangle Wire, and any of the improvise cards we might want from this set.
So I just want to make it clear: I have Null Brooch in my Arcum deck, I defend it, and while it may or may not be a useful card depending on the matchup or board state, it has saved me countless times. My comparisons of select cards to Null Brooch is simply because it is one of the more situational cards listed in your, and my, lists, so when doing a comparison, it's most easily done with cards of similar value at certain points of the game.
As for what I'd remove for Hope of Ghirapur- in my own list, I'd be dropping Elixir of Immortality which I really don't have any reason to run in my new meta (I dropped Dross Scorpion already, so I had 15 creatures to your 16). In the list in the OP, I'd remove Dross Scorpion. Unwinding Clock is just more useful much of the time (though I don't even like it quite as much anymore; my board state has to be a very particular way before I'll pull it over practically anything else, and even then, it usually involves Rings being exiled and Clock of Omens being the stronger card to pull at that moment). I know Scorpion works in the Possessed Portal lock, but unless you topdeck it and pull Mycosynth Lattice first, which in three years' time I still have never assembled (similar reason as to why I dropped Karn, actually), it's just a generally worse Clock of Omens. I originally dropped Scorpion for Dramatic Reversal and never looked back though- one untap of the board, unconditional, is just much better with this kind of deck for me than multiple untaps if you pull your end-game cards out of order or to support Possessed Portal, which can already be done by two other cards in the deck (either Clock, though especially Unwinding).
I think I'm dropping Elixir for Hope of Ghirapur, and maybe Sculpting Steel for Paradox Engine. I may keep Isochron Scepter just to try it out since its reliance on Dramatic Reversal will be significantly lowered with a Reversal I can pull directly from my library whenever I want. Unsure about still having Mystical Tutor- I really want Whir of Innovation in here. I think Hope of Ghirapur will actually be very helpful in ensuring we get our Commanders down early- yes, it's fodder you may not want to sac to Arcum, it instead may help you get Arcum down, unabated, early in the game against that one player who has mana open on turns 2-4. Topdeck it after Arcum's down? No problem, it's half of Myr Sire for half the cost with the exact same use at this point of the game. Well, that's how I'm looking at it, anyway.
I'll be dropping Command Beacon and Reliquary Tower for more U producing lands, so I can more easily accommodate the UUU cost of Whir. Not sure that'll be enough though, so I may drop Buried Ruin and Tolaria West for general Islands as well (I'm half tempted to put Back to Basics in my build due to the sheer number of greedy mana bases around me right now).
Off the topic of new cards: I'm having a little trouble upkeeping the Possessed Portal lock right now, too. It's being used a lot less of a lock and more of a, "Let's just discard my hand over the course of the next 3-4 player's turns because you all need to slow the hell down." Fully powered Yisan, Sharuum (less of a threat, honestly), Food Chain Tazri, Animar, and then mounds of mediocre stuff that is only hard to deal with because everyone decides to mess with the Arcum player while letting Sharuum and Yisan combo out (not even kidding- 3 other players at a table tried to kill Arcum in one turn, with the third succeeding, when Sharuum had t1 Sword of the Meek, t2 Thopter Foundry on board, and had Fabricated for Ashnod's Altar on his third turn with full intent to cast on his fourth, right before the third player killed my Commander. The last spell that finally hit Arcum? Anguished Unmaking. Turn Aside and Swan Song stopped both prior spells. My second turn was Grim Monolith into third turn Arcum and a Lotus Petal on the side (topdecked it that turn); I hadn't gotten my fourth turn yet, but I figured two counters would surely be enough protection. Not salty at all, nope, lol). So, generally speaking, I've just been pulling Portal as it completely ruins Animar and Yisan's days and gives me an extra turn or two to ready myself-- until Yisan puts Tajuru Preserver in his deck, but I'll cross that ensnaring bridge when I get there. Portal has been doing some work as a great, "Break in case of douchebaggery" card- I haven't gone for Unwinding Clock in over a month because I simply haven't had the availability to do so. This meta is in a weird position where certain Commanders get hated on by the whole card shop, collectively (Roon and Arcum being two, for some reason), but it's not quite good enough for me to play Zur. It's weird when my favorite deck, Arcum, has a harder time winning than my Ghave Rube-Goldberg list.
Long post, I know. I just like talking about this deck. My bad if that's annoying. Also, if any of my potential choices seem bad, let me know, as I'm super indecisive and will probably change my mind (you'll notice that Gilded Lotus and Null Brooch are still there- mainly because of good arguments made for their inclusion).
@TrueNub,
Scrap Trawler
I already play all 3 return from GY artifacts (Myr Retriever, Junk Diver and Workshop Assistant), and I'd gladly play the 4th (albeit, Scrap Trawler is of a different variant). Personally, I think they are the type of cards that are solid and reliable. Won't blow you away, but you're never sad to see them. Plus points if you can manage to loop them (although that won't be possible with Trawler). Often times, I usually recur a 2 drop which I sacrificed earlier, so in that regard, Scrap Trawler is like the other 3.
Hope of Ghirapur
It's fodder but with an extreme upside. While you can only activate it on your turn, the noncreature silence effect lasts until your next turn, meaning Arcum is not only safe from counterspells, he's also safe from sweepers and removal. You're assured of getting at least an activation out of Arcum, and sometimes that's all you ever need.
Walking Ballista
Versatility is king. Need fodder, he's there. Need removal, he's there. It doesn't look impressive at first glance but there is value in having options.
Btw, I'm removing non-artifact creatures for these cards (Sculpting Steel, Thirst for Knowledge, Fact or Fiction) to up my fodder count.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vintage Workshops
Legacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH: Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!
Urza, Lord High Artificer
So, I've been tinkering with Arcum very heavily the last week and yesterday I read something that gave me an epiphany:
Paradox Engine is the enabler this deck has been waiting for. You can go straight for Engine, cast any spell from hand to untap, go get Citanul Flute, and then you can pull the series of Ornithopter, Shield Sphere, Memnite, and Phyrexian Walker from your library for 4 Arcum untaps in serial that allows you to win the game the same turn as when you untap with Arcum.
Engine is the card that finally makes playing the 0-drop "do nothing" artifact fodder like Ornithopter and Memnite worth running. I'll be dropping Isochron Scepter, Unwinding Clock or Kuldotha Forgemaster, Mystical Tutor, Sculpting Steel, Elixir of Immortality, one of the stax cards (I run Static and Winter Orb, Tangle wire. I feel I could easily drop at least 1 of them), and another card- most likely leaning toward Possessed Portal since it'll be less necessary as I will only need 1 Arcum untap, not 2, meaning my need to drag the game on will be significantly lessened. This'll let me fit in 4 0-cmc creatures, Citanul Flute, and Paradox Engine. With the boost in speed, I may finally remove Null Brooch (because why pull Brooch when I could go straight for the win?), but I'm unsure if I can do without the utility.
In testing with Engine, Flute, and the 0 drops last night at the card shop, I played 5 games including decks like Surrak Dragonclaw, Animar, Sharuum, Yisan, Omnath, Azami, MimeoplasmHermit Druid, Food ChainTazri, and a few others (they let me use a proxy for Engine). I won three of the games on the fourth turn with minimal acceleration (one of the games was literally just Silver Myr into third turn Arcum. Fourth turn, sacrificed the Myr to get Engine, tapped 2 and cast Millikin, sacrificed it to get Flute, pulled the whole Forge-Lattice-Disk combo and everyone scooped), and then the third turn in one game thanks to having double acceleration (something that would've forced me to go to turn four without Engine and Flute). I lost the fifth game due to Sharuum exiling my second turn Arcum with Boots equip on the stack, which Tazri untapped and went off the turn right after mine and no one could stop it since the removal was spent on my Commander, lol.
I think Engine is real. There's no question in my mind, anymore. While it may require a shift of some mainboard cards, it speeds us up an entire turn and turns us into one of the most consistent decks in the format (and unlike Yisan, we don't have to tap multiple times over multiple turns anymore). The Flute is the worst of the cards to have stuck in hand, but it's really no different than drawing Lattice, Forge, or Possessed Portal. Hell, Scrap Trawler may be more worthwhile now since a spell in hand is worth two in a bush with Engine out.
Edit: Apparently, on Reddit, there's a guy running Walking Ballista and just killing people by pinging them to death. Really cutting down on the overhead of the expensive artifacts, and getting right to the heart of winning. I really, really like this approach to Arcum, and we can literally win in any way we want, now.
Arcum truly is the best user of Paradox Engine. Aether Revolt is being great to us!
^Do you really need the 4th 0-drop? You only really need 3 0 drops for 3 untaps for either the Disk-Forge-Lattice (needs 1 mana at the end) or the Rings-Monolith-Staff/SDT (needs 2 mana at the end). Heck, you can even choose to drop 1 combo now because you basically win on the same turn.
Or even just 2 0-drops, by using Walking Ballista at the end. Basically, you sac fodder for Paradox Engine, cast-fodder then sac it for Citanul Flute, tap Flute for 1st 0-drop, cast then sac for Monolith, tap Flute for 2nd 0-drop, cast then sac for Rings, tap Flute for Walking Ballista, cast for infinite then win from there.
You're right; I can make do with only 2-3 of them, very good point. I guess I kind of flew off the handle at the concept of them no longer being useless that I went a bit too far.
Yes, I'll stick to adding Ornithopter, Shield Sphere, and Memnite, and go from there. 3 options of 0 cost artifacts is certainly enough to 'combo' with, right? Hell, I could even fetch Mana Vault after the first 0 drop sacrifice to generate infinite mana by grabbing Myr Retriever and Junk Diver, as I'd have infinite colorless mana, untaps, and noncreature tutors at that point. Maybe only do 2 of them, then.
I actually think the sheer number of artifact spells could probably drop, so we run only the most valuable of cards. I do believe I'll put Back to Basics in, and I'll lurk around this thread again like I've done for the last three years while everyone settles on what the best artifact spells to run actually are. A *lot* more flexibility is available now in building Arcum, thanks to Paradox Engine.
^Actually, after thinking about it more, I think you're better off with having just 1 0-drop (basically useless out of the combo), and 1 Myr Moonvessel, which has some more utility as a fodder outside of the Flute.
1. Activate Arcum to get Engine.
2. Cast 2nd fodder, which untaps Arcum, activate Arcum to get Flute, tap Flute to get a 0-drop.
3. Cast 0 drop, which untaps Arcum and Flute, activate Arcum to get Basalt, tap Basalt (3mana in pool), tap Flute to get 1-drop (Myr Moonvessel or Hope of Ghirapur (2mana in pool).
4. Cast 1 drop (1mana in pool), which untaps Arcum and Flute and Basalt, tap Basalt (4 mana in pool), activate Arcum to get Rings, tap Flute to get Walking Ballista.
5. Go infinite mana, cast Walking Ballista, win.
Good catch about looping Retriever and Junk Diver as well!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vintage Workshops
Legacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH: Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!
Urza, Lord High Artificer
I like it! I *just* removed Moonvessel back when Dramatic Reversal so adding it back in would be a fine thing to do, too. Honestly, there's going to be a *lot* of flexibility in card slots. Cards that were paramount to the strategy won't even be necessary any longer- Myr Turbine, Possessed Portal, Disk-Forge-Lattice, Kuldotha Forgemaster, etc., could be viable protection spells for our gameplan rather than situational pieces.
I'm really loving all the room that Engine will allow us to explore. I will be so sad if it gets banned, lol.
On another note, I just won against a Yisan deck that managed turn 1 Yisan thanks to Mana Crypt, and his play was Sakura-Tribe Scout t2 > Scryb Ranger t3 > Opponent's end step Rec Sage to deny my Silver Myr, which I untapped controlling Arcum for my fourth turn and dropped an Ornithopter and Blinkmoth Nexus and went off anyway. No need to pull pieces to slow people down, destroy things, or scramble to keep in the game. Just went off and killed him. There were 5 of us total and I was right after the guy that played first, which I think is the only reason I managed to have an impact, but still, I didn't have Mana Crypt, I literally just had a mana dork and none of my fancy acceleration cards. Kind of nice to still be able to pull a win when normally t1 Yisans were death sentences unless you could pull Spine (if they didn't go get the sac-a-land-to-shroud guy) or Tangle Wire before they pulled enough to win.
I'm going to keep tinkering with my list until we meet again on Saturday, but I think more low-cost creatures the better, and I'll probably be dropping some major cards for counters and protection and try that out too. It seems all in, but it'll be 1-2 turns faster than this deck has ever been able to do for me, even with a godhand.
@pook and pie - Very very insightful findings on this new combo and it definitely opens up new plays on how the deck functions.
On another note, may I suggest springleaf drum as support ramp; it's cheap and it only requires that you tap down a creature, perfect complement for the 0 CC artifact creatures or mana dorks suffering from sickness
Or even just 2 0-drops, by using Walking Ballista at the end. Basically, you sac fodder for Paradox Engine, cast-fodder then sac it for Citanul Flute, tap Flute for 1st 0-drop, cast then sac for Monolith, tap Flute for 2nd 0-drop, cast then sac for Rings, tap Flute for Walking Ballista, cast for infinite then win from there.
I actually think the sheer number of artifact spells could probably drop, so we run only the most valuable of cards. I do believe I'll put Back to Basics in, and I'll lurk around this thread again like I've done for the last three years while everyone settles on what the best artifact spells to run actually are. A *lot* more flexibility is available now in building Arcum, thanks to Paradox Engine.
Firstly, Paradox Engine + Citanul Flute shenanigans are legit. Props to whoever came up with that idea. (I'm not even sure it was the guy on reddit as I think he mentioned he saw someone else playing it, but maybe I'm remembering wrong--props to whoever anonymous thinker out there thought of it, in any case).
Secondly I agree with mrjumbo that you actually don't need to load up on *that* many 0cmc dorks because it's so easy to pull a Grim or Basalt Monolith and tap Flute for 1 a few times instead of constantly tapping it for 0.
I would have no qualms gutting some of the mainstays of the deck thus far to make room for this new interaction, but I'm naturally quite reluctant to get too "glass cannony" without sufficient testing. I will be eager to hear how your games go, Pook and Pie, because if with enough playtesting the case becomes self-evident that all-in Arcum is the way to go then I will happily re-write this primer to reflect that. But in the meantime I'm going to be working up to that point more slowly.
Put into the context of this combo I can also begin to see the usefulness of Walking Ballista. Still not entirely sold on Hope of Ghirapur, mrjumbo, even with the point you made; it doesn't actually guarantee you one tap out of Arcum or guarantee him any protection at all, as it only works against the one player who you attacked when the whole table will be gunning for Arcum.
If the primary strat is going to be "tap arcum, fetch engine, cast a thing" here's the best possible progression I can think of--it's basically what you said, mrjumbo, although I'm not sure if you mixed up your math as I can only see it working with Myr Moonvessel rather than Hope of Ghirapur without additional mana investment:
Tap Arcum for Citanul Flute, tap flute for 0drop, play 0 drop, everything is untapped.
Tap Arcum for Basalt Monolith, generate 3, tap flute for Myr Moonvessel and play it, paying 2 total, with 1 remaining in pool, everything is untapped.
Tap Arcum (saccing Moonvessel to add 1 for a total of 2 in pool) for Rings of Brighthearth. Now we've got all the prereqs for infinite mana (rings, untapped basalt, and 2 free mana), which we proceed to generate.
Stop right there for a second. Even without Walking Ballista, we've got an untapped Citanul Flute, Paradox Engine, and infinite colorless mana. That in itself equates to as many board untaps/Arcum tutors as we have colorless creatures in the deck, or infinite board untaps/Arcum tutors if we loop Junk Diver and Myr Retriever as Pook pointed out. We can set up whatever combo we want. And that whole sequence takes 1 arcum tap and 1 cast spell afterward. The only new cards required are Engine, Citanul Flute, Moonvessel, and a single zero-drop. That's it.
So, once again, if we wanted to, we could gut the whole deck and make it fixed entirely around the Paradox Engine combo in an ultra glass-cannony build--and maybe that's the better thing to do, we'll find out with testing. But in the meantime, we could just make 4 cuts, add those 4 cards, and get the entire benefit of "1 arcum tap + spell = win" without sacrificing any of the deck's toolbox or versatility. We could keep Possessed Portal in for the "break glass in case of douchery." We could keep the Tangle Wires and Orbs to play the stax game before resolving Arcum (though we'd have to avoid Trinisphere and Chalice of the Void as 0 and 1 drops actually matter to us now).
We could even keep Disk + Forge in, if we so choose--but we could also simply replace them both with Walking Ballista, thereby freeing up a card slot. Unlike Ballista, Disk/Forge/Lattice works at instant speed and doesn't target anything, but I'm still willing to give it a try without them; Forge is the last piece of uncastable clunk still in there after I removed Spine a while back, and while having an artifact-based board wipe is a good thing I think we can maybe get by without it.
That's what I'm thinking of starting with for the time being, at least for the current round of tests.
With those changes alone, pretty much all of the benefits of the Arcum we've known and loved for years are preserved--the only thing I lose is a little bit of early stax power, i.e. Trini and Chalice, in order to be able to consistently hit those 0 and 1 drops--but I make up for that slightly by adding Static Orb, which is powerful stax that plays much more nicely with Paradox. We avoid packing the deck full of 0 drops, which, while better now with Paradox Engine, are still useless on their own. And most importantly we pick up the entire utility of "tap Arcum, cast any spell, win game" with Paradox Engine and the rest of the cards. Citanul Flute and Ornithopter are the only real "dead draws" where outside of the combo they aren't nearly as useful--and even then, they're still much more playable outside the combo than, say, Darksteel Forge, a dead draw in the most literal sense where we can't even play it.
I'm feeling good about this. I think it's time to finally update the primer.
Speaking of, here's my Breya thread in some shameless cross-promotion. To make that list, I started off with my Arcum list and retooled it from there, so you'll find many similarities between the two decks for that reason.
My expectations are still low, but I'll be interested to see whether WUBR artifacts with a killcard commander is more fun and powerful than mono-U artifacts with a tutor-on-a-stick commander. Arcum will remain dear to my heart no matter what, but if--big if--Breya really does prove to be the better choice, I won't be above making her my main deck and fleshing out my thread for her.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Trophy Mage
2U (Uncommon)
Creature - Human Wizard
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may search your library for an artifact card with converted mana cost 3, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
2/2
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
So, I know it's been a minute, but I've been playing the deck for the past month off and on (I've only been really playing Arcum and Zur lately), and I can safely say: Dramatic Reversal is nuts. There was literally never a time in which I drew it that I was not satisfied with its performance. When drawn, tutoring out Scepter becomes extremely viable if you have any fast mana or artifact creatures that produce mana, which I did all but one time (I tutored Gilded Lotus off of Hangarback and Arcum, untapped him with Minamo, sacrificed the token to get Scepter, exiling Reversal, and activated it with Lotus still open so I could cast a counter if need be. I cast a creature from hand, grabbed Turbine, and won from there). It's pretty much the same thing as drawing Power Artifact but with a more narrow artifact to tutor out (having a nonland source of at least two colorless mana isn't difficult. The deck runs 14-15 nonland mana sources so I've had that all but one time), and beyond that, being able to pay 1U for: "Untap Arcum and get Rings/Monolith/Staff" is pretty huge on its own, and probably doesn't need the Scepter setup if the latter being as narrow as Null Brooch bothers you.
Isochron Scepter was a little more underwhelming, however. I only drew it twice and both times in which I did, I didn't really want it over a piece of acceleration or something, though I did make the best of the situation the second time and set up Negate on the Scepter. This was amusing because I was forced to tutor tertiary combo pieces that game due to an exiled Rings of Brighthearth, so I grabbed Clock of Omens the next turn, which worked out great after 1 turn of Scepter being useless (I spent a turn and almost all of my mana generating 1/1 Myr tokens, and then used them to untap the Turbine each endstep, allowing me to tap my other permanents to counter spells, essentially). I guess, in this scenario, it led to me pinning down the Tazri deck that was countering/destroying/exiling my things, allowing me to assemble the Possessed Portal lock and prevent him from ever dropping a Food Chain.
Overall, it's not bad. Not being able to tutor for Reversal kind of hurts its impact a bit, but I'm literally never dissatisfied to see the card thanks to it being 1U: Untap Arcum regardless of other permanents on field. Sometimes I find myself without the time to get Lattice to make Arcum an artifact for Key, Clock, etc., to untap him, and Reversal lets me spend my mana to further my end game by one entire turn if it's not countered, which is huge. Scepter... is going to require more testing, of course. It's nuts in some scenarios, okay in some others, and abhorrently worthless in a few, making it into the, "This is as situational as Null Brooch" category. It's worth a shot to try out, however.
On another note, I seriously hope that this upcoming 'artifact set' of Kaladesh gives Arcum a couple more useful cards for us to run.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
Firstly, I've been super busy this last month with work and final exams, so I've only played a handful of games on each of my decks. Scepter didn't come up at all, Dramatic Reversal did once and I loved it and I'm leaning toward adding it in officially but I want to test it more to be sure.
Will still be giving this one a playtest. Agree that the lack of "or less" really hurts it (albeit the only thing keeping it balanced with Trinket Mage), but in fairness 3cmc alone is nothing to scoff at: Staff, Rings, Metalworker are three game-ending targets that we pretty much always have a use for at any point in the game, and also to lesser importance we can fetch Tangle Wire, Trini, Thousand-Year, Bridge. I'm still skeptical and leaning against it, but it's "good enough" that I think it at least deserves a fair chance to prove itself if it can.
Like I said, it only came up once for me because I haven't had a chance to playtest much lately, but yes, at least from what little I've seen it appears very promising. Glad you're positive about it, your thoughts sound similar to mine (or what I expect mine to be after a few more games).
As I feared. For all the bashing we do of Null Brooch, and deservedly so, there's something to be said for having "Negate on a Stick" in a single artifact that is tutorable by Arcum. Suffering through the not-so-uncommon dead draw Stick, or having to blow a tutor just to find something to use with it, is a huge deal. And often enough you'll be in that situation where there's a spell on the stack that you just absolutely need to counter right that moment or the game is over (classic example is obviously Ad Nauseam), and only Brooch lets you tap Arcum and discard hand to Negate, no questions asked. When you get hit with Duress -> discard your countermagic -> Ad Nauseam, you'll want Brooch in your deck, not Stick.
It's the reason I just haven't been able to kick the Brooch. As much as I hate it, it does something important--countermagic on demand, with no "if"s (discarding your hand is a cost, but not an "if," because you can always do it)--that I've found literally no other card in the game capable of doing in the same way.
I'll still be giving the Stick its due testing. Like I said, it hasn't actually come up in any of my games yet because I haven't had more than a couple chances to play Arcum in the last month. But all the concerns I have about it now are the same ones I did before, and I'm not sure the printing of Dramatic Reversal by itself is enough to change my mind.
First of all, welcome to MTGS and thanks for posting in my thread (I see it's your first post on this account).
Secondly, unlike DR and Stick I have no ambivalence about this one, I just can't see it working in this deck. Nearly every artifact that hits our GY is either cmc2 (that is, our dorks) or cmc0 (myr tokens, as well as Lotus Petal). Saccing a cmc 2 dork with this on the field usually won't let us grab anything, as we have nothing in our GY of cmc 1 and only one card in the deck ends up in the GY as cmc 0. We could sac the Scrap Trawler itself to grab something cmc2, but then we're only getting that single use out of it, so it mind as well be a Junk Diver that lets us get any cmc.
I've also done a little playtesting on Braids and Breya and will be updating those lists. But, tomorrow. Too sleepy now.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
I know that the above isn't easy to setup but it does give us options to play around with our toolbox commander.
PS - the removal of the Sculpting Steel from the main deck IMO feels unwarranted, when compared to Copy Artifact and Phyrexian Metamorph being part of the current main deck. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because of the flexibility being able to tutor up Sculpting Steel by Arcum himself and the other tutor components in the deck VS the other 2 versions; also it is an integral part of the Staff, Scuplting (copying Staff), rock that produces 3 mana and clock of omens combo (It does require many components to setup, however they are all tutorable by Arcum and it gives us another option to combo off).
Definitely putting these in my big mana Arcum deck.
Also, this looks great. Tap 3 artifacts, get Rings of Brighthearth for UUU? Yes, please.
http://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/avatars/128/592/636189490166247757.png
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
Static Orb is viable, but it's more difficult for us to work around than Winter Orb. The good thing about Winter Orb is that it's basically always useful to us, the situations in which we can't play it because it would hurt us more than it helps are very few and uncommon. Static Orb not so much--as you say, with Lattice we can turn Arcum into an artifact and then untap him, or just use Clock of Omens to tap down Static on the previous player's end step and get all our untaps, but it needs that extra bit of setup or else Static Orb will more likely give more advantage to our opponents than to us. It's not always a guaranteed droppable piece, there will be some occasions when it's a dead draw, and for that reason I don't run it mainboard. But it's still viable should you choose to include it in your list.
The reason I've lately been running the list without mainboard Sculpting Steel isn't because the card isn't good, but because I haven't found it to be good enough. Yes, the staff+copy+lotus+clock combo is a thing in concept, and including Steel lets Arcum tutor all those pieces by himself, but I don't think I've ever actually had that combo come up in any of my games--maybe once? In all time? More combo options aren't always a good thing if those combo options are so clunky as to never actually happen. And like Spine of Ish Sah, while it's a cool Arcum tutor, if your best Arcum tap in that particular moment is "copy a thing" (or, in the case of spine, "destroy a thing,") you've probably already lost the game. In other words, the 1-3 Arcum taps you get per game should be huge game-enders like Possessed Portal, Mycosynth Lattice, Rings of Brighthearth, and so on; if those aren't options, and you're reduced to spending your taps on "destroy 1 permanent" or "copy 1 artifact," then your deck is already pretty much decimated and your chances of winning are small to 0. So why waste card slots for that scenario?
In my personal gameplay, more often than not, rather than tutoring for Sculpting Steel, I mostly found myself casting it from hand--and all too often it was used to copy a Silver Myr or some mana rock for lack of any better targets, which was a terribly inefficient play. I would rather have Copy Artifact, which can at least copy a 2cmc dork like Silver Myr at efficient cost in addition to its other uses, or Phyrexian Metamorph, which can copy creatures as artifacts as well as artifacts directly, than Sculpting Steel, whose only benefit is that it's potentially tutorable by Arcum in the rare circumstances where you'd actually use Arcum to drop anything but a nuclear bomb.
All that said, onward to my preliminary thoughts on new cards:
Over 100 spoilers yet to go as of this post. Let's see what else we get.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Scrap Trawler - Include
Walking Ballista - Likely include
Hope of Ghirapur - 50/50 include
Whir of Invention - not sure due to the UUU cost
WorkshopsLegacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH:
Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!Urza, Lord High Artificer
Another game the Engine went absolutely nuts, with me grabbing it with Arcum and then dropping Myr Sire and Junk Driver from hand thanks to controlling Mana Vault, and the Junk Diver allowed me to return the first creature back to my hand to cast it again to gain another untap. I grabbed Rings, Staff, and Monolith in the same turn thanks to Engine. Engine is just a card you can randomly grab with Arcum and perform a clean blowout with if you have 2-3 spells in your hand that you can cast that turn. Otherwise, don't pull Engine. Engine makes pulling Turbine feel like less of a stumbling block, which sometimes you have to grab Turbine because you just don't have more than one artifact dudes in hand. I've had good experience with Turbine > Engine > Cast 3 spells and win that same turn. Something simple like topdecked Lightning Greaves + Voltaic Key + counter spell just leads you straight into a victorious position when you would have needed one more turn to assemble the Rings-Staff combo. Still incredibly situational, though, but I'm excited for the potential (I am the dumbass that added Isochron Scepter after all. However, this seems more reasonable of a card to add to a Commander whose greatest power lies in turning sideways repeatedly, and we need more ways of utilizing that). I'm basically pulling Scepter straight out and slapping Engine in its place.
There's a noticeable lack of synergy with Paradox Engine and Null Brooch, however. I strongly feel like Paradox Engine is an incredibly strong card that Arcum uses better than any other Commander, though, so I'm going to toy around with things and see how best I can accommodate everything in my build. Or I may finally go without Null Brooch in my deck- countering a spell might be easier if I have artifact mana up to assist in casting the spells should I pull Engine in those cases. In any event, going a turn faster in specific situations might prevent me from having to discard my hand to keep them from casting Ad Nauseams anyway (I hardly ever have to stop Storm spells in my new meta- the Storm decks here have pretty consistently won through Aetherflux Reservoir and the like instead of Grapeshots, and a lot of the times, tossing my hand to stop one guy's Ad Nauseam just left me vulnerable for another guy to take both of us out rather than me still being in position to defend myself).
Hope of Ghirapur seems worthwhile to include. It's one mana, has an extremely relevant ability, and can be fodder for Arcum. There's literally no reason I can think of not to include it when generally less useful cards are played for situational benefit in this deck.
Inspiring Statuary is... a card. An Etherium Sculptor that Arcum can tutor but it requires you tap down your artifacts. Not sure it's worthwhile, but I don't see anyone else mentioning it so I thought I'd bring it up.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
Commenting on all of these in order, firstly yes, I've been seeing a lot of good things from Paradox Engine (henceforth referred to as PE or Engine). The 5cmc is obnoxious, but it appears to be the same type of huge tempo-boosting play as Clock of Omens+Mycosynth Lattice--where, if it sticks, it's not an infinite combo on its own, but it immediately lets us do so many actions and tutor so many things that our winclock drops to 0 or 1 (like a Time Stretch, mechanically speaking). I also like the synergy with one-shot rocks; I've had a few games where I played it from hand T2 using Mana Vault or Grim Monolith and being able to re-use the rocks all game with additional spells.
Antisynergy with brooch is valid, but hopefully you won't be using them in the same situations. Brooch is the "oh bleep" card for the counter-or-lose spells. Engine is the card you use to pre-empt the "oh bleep" moment by simply outracing it. If both Harry and Sally get Ad Nauseam at the same time and are both primed to win with it, and Harry goes first and plays his, you brooch it, and then Sally goes second, plays hers and wipes you both out, I don't think there's really much that can be done about that sort of situation with the tools presently available to us. If you didn't stop Harry, wouldn't he have won anyway? In that sort of situation the best you can do is play kingmaker and brooch either Harry or Sally, leaving the other to win. That's just a symptom of a meta dominated by a 5cmc instant that basically reads "put your deck into your hand." If Sally is even one turn slower than Harry, though, or you have Voltaic Key or a clock effect in order to get multiple Negates per turn out of Brooch, then you're much safer.
(Don't get me wrong, I'd get rid of Brooch in a heartbeat if I could. My stomach turns over having to defend it as much as I do. But "spell hate artifacts" are few and far between--without W we don't get things like Nevermore and Meddling Mage--so there's just nothing else quite like it, and if you can get over the steep initial hurdle of discarding your hand, squeezing out 3+ Negates a turn is very attainable.)
Hope of Ghirapur is funny. I'm actually leaning somewhat against it by its concept. Needing to attack means it can't work on the turn its played, it only works on your turn (unlike most Silence effects which can be used either defensively on your turn or offensively on an opponents'), if they have any chump flyers it doesn't work at all, and it only works on one person. It's a blend of Spellskite and Silence, except it's much more situational than Spellskite and much less protective than Silence. None of our dorks are fantastic, obviously, but which dork would you cut for it? A 2cmc-tap-for-1 dork like Manakin? An advantage-dork like Myr Sire or Myr Retriever? Those are dorks that I'm never unhappy to see in a hand; they're not amazing, but they're always useful. I can foresee many possible situations where HoG is played and does nothing but sit there like a 1cmc Ornithopter. I dunno, maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but I'll need a better sales pitch than what I've heard thus far.
What I see in Inspiring Statuary, meanwhile, isn't a card that Arcum can tutor, but rather a card that can help cast Arcum. Think about it this way: T1 Island, Pithing Needle; T2 Island, Etherium Sculptor; T3 Island, Inspiring Statuary tapping 2 islands, Arcum Dagsson tapping 1 island and 3 artifacts. All that said, at 3cmc it falls prey what I would call Palladium Myr syndrome, where even though it can effectively tap for multiple colorless, it can often do so too late to actually accelerate Arcum pre-T4 unless you've already got some other form of ramp (in that example it was Etherium Sculptor) to play Statuary sooner. As well, similar problem with other Inspiration spells, until we start churning out tokens--which isn't generally until after is already set up--most of the artifacts on our board are already tapping for mana on their own anyway (i.e. all the Manakin-type dorks and mana rocks are useless with it). So, not an auto-include by any definition. Being able to tap down cards like Winter Orb on the end step before your turn using instant spells is amusing, but not really viable (we don't run enough instants).
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths
Being able to cast an instant repeatedly with just a sol ring out is op. Brainstorm the deck to hand maybe or counterspell the table all seem useful. The fun part would be what instant you manage to imprint every game with the initial fetch for isochron. It's like ordered chaos.
What do you guys think about Servo Schematic as a replacement for Myr Sire?
Disadvantages:
Advantages:
What are your thoughts?
As for what I'd remove for Hope of Ghirapur- in my own list, I'd be dropping Elixir of Immortality which I really don't have any reason to run in my new meta (I dropped Dross Scorpion already, so I had 15 creatures to your 16). In the list in the OP, I'd remove Dross Scorpion. Unwinding Clock is just more useful much of the time (though I don't even like it quite as much anymore; my board state has to be a very particular way before I'll pull it over practically anything else, and even then, it usually involves Rings being exiled and Clock of Omens being the stronger card to pull at that moment). I know Scorpion works in the Possessed Portal lock, but unless you topdeck it and pull Mycosynth Lattice first, which in three years' time I still have never assembled (similar reason as to why I dropped Karn, actually), it's just a generally worse Clock of Omens. I originally dropped Scorpion for Dramatic Reversal and never looked back though- one untap of the board, unconditional, is just much better with this kind of deck for me than multiple untaps if you pull your end-game cards out of order or to support Possessed Portal, which can already be done by two other cards in the deck (either Clock, though especially Unwinding).
So, here's my current list:
1x Basalt Monolith
1x Clock of Omens
1x Darksteel Forge
1x Elixir of Immortality
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Grim Monolith
1x Isochron Scepter
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mox Opal
1x Mycosynth Lattice
1x Myr Turbine
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Null Brooch
1x Pithing Needle
1x Possessed Portal
1x Rings of Brighthearth
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Spine of Ish Sah
1x Staff of Domination
1x Static Orb
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Tangle Wire
1x Thousand-Year Elixir
1x Torpor Orb
1x Unwinding Clock
1x Voltaic Key
1x Winter Orb
Planeswalker (1)
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
Creature (15)
1x Etherium Sculptor
1x Hangarback Walker
1x Hedron Crawler
1x Junk Diver
1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
1x Manakin
1x Metalworker
1x Millikin
1x Myr Retriever
1x Myr Sire
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Plague Myr
1x Silver Myr
1x Spellskite
1x Trinket Mage
1x Copy Artifact
1x Mystic Remora
1x Power Artifact
Instant (10)
1x Arcane Denial
1x Brainstorm
1x Counterspell
1x Dramatic reversal
1x Muddle the Mixture
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Negate
1x Swan Song
1x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Turn Aside
Sorcery (3)
1x Fabricate
1x Reshape
1x Transmute Artifact
Land (33)
1x Academy Ruins
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Blinkmoth Nexus
1x Buried Ruin
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Command Beacon
1x Crystal Vein
1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
1x Inkmoth Nexus
1x Inventors' Fair
16x Island
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Saprazzan Skerry
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolaria West
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Defense Grid
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Jester's Cap
1x Kill Switch
1x Master Transmuter
1x Mindslaver
1x Neurok Stealthsuit
1x Orbs of Warding
1x Ward of Bones
I think I'm dropping Elixir for Hope of Ghirapur, and maybe Sculpting Steel for Paradox Engine. I may keep Isochron Scepter just to try it out since its reliance on Dramatic Reversal will be significantly lowered with a Reversal I can pull directly from my library whenever I want. Unsure about still having Mystical Tutor- I really want Whir of Innovation in here. I think Hope of Ghirapur will actually be very helpful in ensuring we get our Commanders down early- yes, it's fodder you may not want to sac to Arcum, it instead may help you get Arcum down, unabated, early in the game against that one player who has mana open on turns 2-4. Topdeck it after Arcum's down? No problem, it's half of Myr Sire for half the cost with the exact same use at this point of the game. Well, that's how I'm looking at it, anyway.
I'll be dropping Command Beacon and Reliquary Tower for more U producing lands, so I can more easily accommodate the UUU cost of Whir. Not sure that'll be enough though, so I may drop Buried Ruin and Tolaria West for general Islands as well (I'm half tempted to put Back to Basics in my build due to the sheer number of greedy mana bases around me right now).
Off the topic of new cards: I'm having a little trouble upkeeping the Possessed Portal lock right now, too. It's being used a lot less of a lock and more of a, "Let's just discard my hand over the course of the next 3-4 player's turns because you all need to slow the hell down." Fully powered Yisan, Sharuum (less of a threat, honestly), Food Chain Tazri, Animar, and then mounds of mediocre stuff that is only hard to deal with because everyone decides to mess with the Arcum player while letting Sharuum and Yisan combo out (not even kidding- 3 other players at a table tried to kill Arcum in one turn, with the third succeeding, when Sharuum had t1 Sword of the Meek, t2 Thopter Foundry on board, and had Fabricated for Ashnod's Altar on his third turn with full intent to cast on his fourth, right before the third player killed my Commander. The last spell that finally hit Arcum? Anguished Unmaking. Turn Aside and Swan Song stopped both prior spells. My second turn was Grim Monolith into third turn Arcum and a Lotus Petal on the side (topdecked it that turn); I hadn't gotten my fourth turn yet, but I figured two counters would surely be enough protection. Not salty at all, nope, lol). So, generally speaking, I've just been pulling Portal as it completely ruins Animar and Yisan's days and gives me an extra turn or two to ready myself-- until Yisan puts Tajuru Preserver in his deck, but I'll cross that ensnaring bridge when I get there. Portal has been doing some work as a great, "Break in case of douchebaggery" card- I haven't gone for Unwinding Clock in over a month because I simply haven't had the availability to do so. This meta is in a weird position where certain Commanders get hated on by the whole card shop, collectively (Roon and Arcum being two, for some reason), but it's not quite good enough for me to play Zur. It's weird when my favorite deck, Arcum, has a harder time winning than my Ghave Rube-Goldberg list.
Long post, I know. I just like talking about this deck. My bad if that's annoying. Also, if any of my potential choices seem bad, let me know, as I'm super indecisive and will probably change my mind (you'll notice that Gilded Lotus and Null Brooch are still there- mainly because of good arguments made for their inclusion).
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
Scrap Trawler
I already play all 3 return from GY artifacts (Myr Retriever, Junk Diver and Workshop Assistant), and I'd gladly play the 4th (albeit, Scrap Trawler is of a different variant). Personally, I think they are the type of cards that are solid and reliable. Won't blow you away, but you're never sad to see them. Plus points if you can manage to loop them (although that won't be possible with Trawler). Often times, I usually recur a 2 drop which I sacrificed earlier, so in that regard, Scrap Trawler is like the other 3.
Hope of Ghirapur
It's fodder but with an extreme upside. While you can only activate it on your turn, the noncreature silence effect lasts until your next turn, meaning Arcum is not only safe from counterspells, he's also safe from sweepers and removal. You're assured of getting at least an activation out of Arcum, and sometimes that's all you ever need.
Walking Ballista
Versatility is king. Need fodder, he's there. Need removal, he's there. It doesn't look impressive at first glance but there is value in having options.
Btw, I'm removing non-artifact creatures for these cards (Sculpting Steel, Thirst for Knowledge, Fact or Fiction) to up my fodder count.
WorkshopsLegacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH:
Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!Urza, Lord High Artificer
Paradox Engine is the enabler this deck has been waiting for. You can go straight for Engine, cast any spell from hand to untap, go get Citanul Flute, and then you can pull the series of Ornithopter, Shield Sphere, Memnite, and Phyrexian Walker from your library for 4 Arcum untaps in serial that allows you to win the game the same turn as when you untap with Arcum.
Engine is the card that finally makes playing the 0-drop "do nothing" artifact fodder like Ornithopter and Memnite worth running. I'll be dropping Isochron Scepter, Unwinding Clock or Kuldotha Forgemaster, Mystical Tutor, Sculpting Steel, Elixir of Immortality, one of the stax cards (I run Static and Winter Orb, Tangle wire. I feel I could easily drop at least 1 of them), and another card- most likely leaning toward Possessed Portal since it'll be less necessary as I will only need 1 Arcum untap, not 2, meaning my need to drag the game on will be significantly lessened. This'll let me fit in 4 0-cmc creatures, Citanul Flute, and Paradox Engine. With the boost in speed, I may finally remove Null Brooch (because why pull Brooch when I could go straight for the win?), but I'm unsure if I can do without the utility.
In testing with Engine, Flute, and the 0 drops last night at the card shop, I played 5 games including decks like Surrak Dragonclaw, Animar, Sharuum, Yisan, Omnath, Azami, Mimeoplasm Hermit Druid, Food Chain Tazri, and a few others (they let me use a proxy for Engine). I won three of the games on the fourth turn with minimal acceleration (one of the games was literally just Silver Myr into third turn Arcum. Fourth turn, sacrificed the Myr to get Engine, tapped 2 and cast Millikin, sacrificed it to get Flute, pulled the whole Forge-Lattice-Disk combo and everyone scooped), and then the third turn in one game thanks to having double acceleration (something that would've forced me to go to turn four without Engine and Flute). I lost the fifth game due to Sharuum exiling my second turn Arcum with Boots equip on the stack, which Tazri untapped and went off the turn right after mine and no one could stop it since the removal was spent on my Commander, lol.
I think Engine is real. There's no question in my mind, anymore. While it may require a shift of some mainboard cards, it speeds us up an entire turn and turns us into one of the most consistent decks in the format (and unlike Yisan, we don't have to tap multiple times over multiple turns anymore). The Flute is the worst of the cards to have stuck in hand, but it's really no different than drawing Lattice, Forge, or Possessed Portal. Hell, Scrap Trawler may be more worthwhile now since a spell in hand is worth two in a bush with Engine out.
Edit: Apparently, on Reddit, there's a guy running Walking Ballista and just killing people by pinging them to death. Really cutting down on the overhead of the expensive artifacts, and getting right to the heart of winning. I really, really like this approach to Arcum, and we can literally win in any way we want, now.
Arcum truly is the best user of Paradox Engine. Aether Revolt is being great to us!
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
Or even just 2 0-drops, by using Walking Ballista at the end. Basically, you sac fodder for Paradox Engine, cast-fodder then sac it for Citanul Flute, tap Flute for 1st 0-drop, cast then sac for Monolith, tap Flute for 2nd 0-drop, cast then sac for Rings, tap Flute for Walking Ballista, cast for infinite then win from there.
WorkshopsLegacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH:
Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!Urza, Lord High Artificer
Yes, I'll stick to adding Ornithopter, Shield Sphere, and Memnite, and go from there. 3 options of 0 cost artifacts is certainly enough to 'combo' with, right? Hell, I could even fetch Mana Vault after the first 0 drop sacrifice to generate infinite mana by grabbing Myr Retriever and Junk Diver, as I'd have infinite colorless mana, untaps, and noncreature tutors at that point. Maybe only do 2 of them, then.
I actually think the sheer number of artifact spells could probably drop, so we run only the most valuable of cards. I do believe I'll put Back to Basics in, and I'll lurk around this thread again like I've done for the last three years while everyone settles on what the best artifact spells to run actually are. A *lot* more flexibility is available now in building Arcum, thanks to Paradox Engine.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
1. Activate Arcum to get Engine.
2. Cast 2nd fodder, which untaps Arcum, activate Arcum to get Flute, tap Flute to get a 0-drop.
3. Cast 0 drop, which untaps Arcum and Flute, activate Arcum to get Basalt, tap Basalt (3mana in pool), tap Flute to get 1-drop (Myr Moonvessel or Hope of Ghirapur (2mana in pool).
4. Cast 1 drop (1mana in pool), which untaps Arcum and Flute and Basalt, tap Basalt (4 mana in pool), activate Arcum to get Rings, tap Flute to get Walking Ballista.
5. Go infinite mana, cast Walking Ballista, win.
Good catch about looping Retriever and Junk Diver as well!
WorkshopsLegacy:
Death and Taxes
EDH:
Arcum DagssonMake Paradox Engine Great Again!Urza, Lord High Artificer
I'm really loving all the room that Engine will allow us to explore. I will be so sad if it gets banned, lol.
On another note, I just won against a Yisan deck that managed turn 1 Yisan thanks to Mana Crypt, and his play was Sakura-Tribe Scout t2 > Scryb Ranger t3 > Opponent's end step Rec Sage to deny my Silver Myr, which I untapped controlling Arcum for my fourth turn and dropped an Ornithopter and Blinkmoth Nexus and went off anyway. No need to pull pieces to slow people down, destroy things, or scramble to keep in the game. Just went off and killed him. There were 5 of us total and I was right after the guy that played first, which I think is the only reason I managed to have an impact, but still, I didn't have Mana Crypt, I literally just had a mana dork and none of my fancy acceleration cards. Kind of nice to still be able to pull a win when normally t1 Yisans were death sentences unless you could pull Spine (if they didn't go get the sac-a-land-to-shroud guy) or Tangle Wire before they pulled enough to win.
I'm going to keep tinkering with my list until we meet again on Saturday, but I think more low-cost creatures the better, and I'll probably be dropping some major cards for counters and protection and try that out too. It seems all in, but it'll be 1-2 turns faster than this deck has ever been able to do for me, even with a godhand.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
On another note, may I suggest springleaf drum as support ramp; it's cheap and it only requires that you tap down a creature, perfect complement for the 0 CC artifact creatures or mana dorks suffering from sickness
Firstly, Paradox Engine + Citanul Flute shenanigans are legit. Props to whoever came up with that idea. (I'm not even sure it was the guy on reddit as I think he mentioned he saw someone else playing it, but maybe I'm remembering wrong--props to whoever anonymous thinker out there thought of it, in any case).
Secondly I agree with mrjumbo that you actually don't need to load up on *that* many 0cmc dorks because it's so easy to pull a Grim or Basalt Monolith and tap Flute for 1 a few times instead of constantly tapping it for 0.
I would have no qualms gutting some of the mainstays of the deck thus far to make room for this new interaction, but I'm naturally quite reluctant to get too "glass cannony" without sufficient testing. I will be eager to hear how your games go, Pook and Pie, because if with enough playtesting the case becomes self-evident that all-in Arcum is the way to go then I will happily re-write this primer to reflect that. But in the meantime I'm going to be working up to that point more slowly.
Put into the context of this combo I can also begin to see the usefulness of Walking Ballista. Still not entirely sold on Hope of Ghirapur, mrjumbo, even with the point you made; it doesn't actually guarantee you one tap out of Arcum or guarantee him any protection at all, as it only works against the one player who you attacked when the whole table will be gunning for Arcum.
If the primary strat is going to be "tap arcum, fetch engine, cast a thing" here's the best possible progression I can think of--it's basically what you said, mrjumbo, although I'm not sure if you mixed up your math as I can only see it working with Myr Moonvessel rather than Hope of Ghirapur without additional mana investment:
Stop right there for a second. Even without Walking Ballista, we've got an untapped Citanul Flute, Paradox Engine, and infinite colorless mana. That in itself equates to as many board untaps/Arcum tutors as we have colorless creatures in the deck, or infinite board untaps/Arcum tutors if we loop Junk Diver and Myr Retriever as Pook pointed out. We can set up whatever combo we want. And that whole sequence takes 1 arcum tap and 1 cast spell afterward. The only new cards required are Engine, Citanul Flute, Moonvessel, and a single zero-drop. That's it.
So, once again, if we wanted to, we could gut the whole deck and make it fixed entirely around the Paradox Engine combo in an ultra glass-cannony build--and maybe that's the better thing to do, we'll find out with testing. But in the meantime, we could just make 4 cuts, add those 4 cards, and get the entire benefit of "1 arcum tap + spell = win" without sacrificing any of the deck's toolbox or versatility. We could keep Possessed Portal in for the "break glass in case of douchery." We could keep the Tangle Wires and Orbs to play the stax game before resolving Arcum (though we'd have to avoid Trinisphere and Chalice of the Void as 0 and 1 drops actually matter to us now).
We could even keep Disk + Forge in, if we so choose--but we could also simply replace them both with Walking Ballista, thereby freeing up a card slot. Unlike Ballista, Disk/Forge/Lattice works at instant speed and doesn't target anything, but I'm still willing to give it a try without them; Forge is the last piece of uncastable clunk still in there after I removed Spine a while back, and while having an artifact-based board wipe is a good thing I think we can maybe get by without it.
That's what I'm thinking of starting with for the time being, at least for the current round of tests.
Right now I'm leaning toward the following changes:
- Dross Scorpion, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Darksteel Forge, Nevinyrral's Disk to SB. Chalice and Trini out because we care about 0-1 drops now, Forge/Disk out to try using Ballista in their place, Scorpion and Forgemaster out because they were always good but not great. Moving these to the SB rather than simply removing them so as to emphasize that they're all still totally viable possibilities for different decks.
- Impulse out. Not as good as I'd hoped.
- In: Dramatic Reversal, Paradox Engine, Citanul Flute, Ornithopter, Whir of Invention, Walking Ballista, Myr Moonvessel.
- Something out for Static Orb to cover for removing Chalice/3ball. Has to be another instant or sorcery. Maybe Pact of Negation?
With those changes alone, pretty much all of the benefits of the Arcum we've known and loved for years are preserved--the only thing I lose is a little bit of early stax power, i.e. Trini and Chalice, in order to be able to consistently hit those 0 and 1 drops--but I make up for that slightly by adding Static Orb, which is powerful stax that plays much more nicely with Paradox. We avoid packing the deck full of 0 drops, which, while better now with Paradox Engine, are still useless on their own. And most importantly we pick up the entire utility of "tap Arcum, cast any spell, win game" with Paradox Engine and the rest of the cards. Citanul Flute and Ornithopter are the only real "dead draws" where outside of the combo they aren't nearly as useful--and even then, they're still much more playable outside the combo than, say, Darksteel Forge, a dead draw in the most literal sense where we can't even play it.
I'm feeling good about this. I think it's time to finally update the primer.
Legacy: GWR Enchantress <--That's my banner! (lol tinypic removed it)
Casual: WB [[Primer]]Clerics Tribal; BU Affinity
EDH: ...U [[Primer]]Arcum Dagsson; BG Legal Stax; B Illegal Stax
Proxy: .WX TriniStax
Other stuff: [[Official]]Shuffling, Truth + Maths