Was running through 1-drops and saw this guy Drowned Rusalka.
Seems decent with Hangarback Walker, Wurmcoil and Vedalken Shackles.
Can sac Walker when we need the fliers, Wurmcoil before it gets Pathed or our opponents creatures after stealing with Shackles. Also a good blue 1-drop that fits the synergy of the deck.
Yeah I have been looking at her as well at one point. Shackles wasn't enough for me to consider her but with both Shackles and Hangarback she looks like she could do some work. Definitely worth testing.
At one point, my opponent had a Cranial Plating on each of his four Vault Skirges. For 6-7 our so turns I kept recurring Walker with Academy Ruins, casting for eight, then on opponents turn sacrifce Walker to the Rusalka, getting 4 flying blockers, then sacrificing the fliers before combat damage to prevent my opponent from gaining life. Interestingly enough, although Academy Ruins locked my draw, I was still able to draw cards via Drowned Rusalka. Having an Aether Vial allowed me to vial in the creatures I drew off of Drowned Rusalka, keeping my mana open when it came to activating its ability on my opponents turn.
I like the fact that its not simply a sac outlet, but also "card advantage", esp when your hellbent.
Not sure if I should run more than one, but its definitely a card I wish to find once I land Hanagarback Walker.
Sidenote: Only thing I can't stand is the artwork on Drowned Rusalka. Its looks creepy and the frame has a faded look to it, like the card was ran through a washing machine...definitely would get it altered if it becomes a mainstay lol. Sage of Epityr has to be the sickest looking blue one drop I've seen, next to promo Judge's Familiar!
Really? I prefer the original art on Familiar. The bird looks so cool with that little war helmet.
Sounds like Rusalka does a lot of work. Between Ruins and Rusalka it's almost like you had a Trading Post in play ;). Behold the power! Have you thought on adding more than 1 or is it that much weaker than Sage?
I'm completely in camp Evolutionary Leap now. It feels good going off with the Enchantment in play. Between Engineer/Architect and Hangarback/Wurmcoil/Master of Waves it basically says: "draw an arbitrary big amount of cards, put an arbitrary big amount of tokens into play and make an arbitrary big amount of mana"
I really like promo judge's familiar too. In fact i love all the promo for this deck: chief engineer, myr superion, phyrexian metamorph and signal pest. The alternate art on signal pest is the best, the original art i don't like at all, especially when i realized the big pincers aren't actually the head
The alternate art on signal pest is the best, the original art i don't like at all, especially when i realized the big pincers aren't actually the head
Hello architect enthusiasts! I haven't posted in this thread for about a year and I know that it has shifted to focus on the monoblue/non-heartless lists, but I finally dusted off the old Heartless Architect deck and took it for a spin at a 16-man tournament last night. I made a lot of changes to my list from last summer the day of the tournament but managed to come in 5th place despite never testing the build. My record was 3-0-2 beating Junk, Eggs, and U/W Merfolk, and losing to another U/W Merfolk and G/R Tron.
So I know there are some strange choices in here, but there were several things I played just because I wanted to try and this was a low risk setting to give them a shot. The discard suite is kinda awkward, but I'm working on picking up Thoughtseizes and I didn't play Vedalken Shackles because I don't have fetches yet and can't reliably get enough islands.
My initial thoughts:
Chormatic Star was a fun idea but was ultimately too cute. They got sided out in almost every match and only kinda helped once.
Liliana of the Veil played very well and I'm caught between wanting to bump her up to 2 and thinking she doesn't really fit.
Wurmcoil Engine is a fantastic card, but I guess we all knew that before.
Mainboarded Ghost Quarters were a great idea and won me games.
Mana Leak felt a little awkward. I usually felt like I would rather have removal.
The Trinket Mage toolbox in the sideboard was extremely effective.
Welcome! I originally tried a version of this (without Heartless Summoning) but found that Lodestone Golem is best ran along side other artifacts/enablers. He makes all of your non-artifacts spells, like your planeswalkers and disruption unnecessarily expensive, add to this that multiple Lodetones stack. If you really want to profit from Heartless Summoning, just run 3x Myr Superion instead.
Thats a mono blue version its like artifact merfolk. its got lords and mana lands and things and Hangerback walker as a powerful token maker. oh perhaps I should consider Myr superion in there somewhere.
Welcome! I originally tried a version of this (without Heartless Summoning) but found that Lodestone Golem is best ran along side other artifacts/enablers. He makes all of your non-artifacts spells, like your planeswalkers and disruption unnecessarily expensive, add to this that multiple Lodetones stack. If you really want to profit from Heartless Summoning, just run 3x Myr Superion instead.
That's not the same experience I have been having with Lodestone. It is a form of disruption itself, putting the opponent off balance while I am still able to continue playing my own threats. Yes it does tax some of my disruption, but knowing that in advance makes me able to plan on it and play around it. Also I mostly play cheap disruption (Dismember, Slaughter Pact, and I'm considering Murderous Cut which I think you were playing in older lists) which help to slightly offset that cost. The only piece that was really hurt by the Golems was the Mana Leaks, but those felt awkward already and will probably be cut very quickly. My main concern about Lodestone is that it is very fragile and I find many times that I don't really want to swing with it. That being said, it hits hard when it connects and can easily close out games.
Myr Superion is a card that I played in the original standard version of the deck, but I cut it a long time ago because it wasn't reliable enough. It led to lots of really explosive game ending plays, but is an awful topdeck and in my experience it relies on the engine too much.
@Variousboots, I still play Murderous Cut and 2x Mishra's Bauble that replace themselves and act as delve fodder. I also run 6 fetchlands for that very purpose and for Sage of Epityr. A good replacement to Mana Leak is Logic Knot which I run in the side.
For Myr Superion to be cast reliably, you need 4x Vial, Engineer and Grand Architect (All though I've had success with only 4x Engineer and Architect before) but it's completely worth it. IMO Superion is probably one of the strongest cards in the deck, if not the strongest.
I'm liking the aggressive Signal Pest/Master of Etherium lists though,
@halikiu, Sharding Sphinx is cool in that shes an artifact, but I think if the intent is to go wide, Master of Waves is a better option. Also with the amount of removal and hate in the format, I think resiliency (ignoring exile effects) is what we need when we drop a bomb. So for 6 cmc I want to cast a Wurmcoil Engine or Hangarback Walker on 3.
@Narvuntien, Drowned Rusalka is still a card I'm testing as a one-of; have you gotten some playtime with it?
I haven't tested any version of this deck yet, but it seems sweet and I'm going to build some version of it soon. I'd like to ask some of the more experienced players: many seem to run a black splash, some a full esper version. What about just a white splash for Path, some sideboard cards and Reveillark? Lark could offer recursion for the fragile combo pieces that are not artifacts and cannot be recurred with Academy Ruins or such. It could also bring back Duplicant and Metamorph. It's a nonbo with Hangarback Walker and Wurmcoil, though. The deck would probably move to a different type of grindy control deck. Would this be completely dumb or clearly inferior to the aggro/straight combo plan?
White is a fine splash since it's a strong sideoard color. I've run UW before with 3 main deck Thalia's who was actually pretty decent. I'm on Grixis now but mostly since it offers the best sideboard options for this deck in my experience Thoughtseize and Pyroclasm are both really good when it comes to beating stuff like Affinity, Elves and Tron.
I think we can do better than Lark though. If we have 5 lands on the field we probably don't care about recuring mana creatures. Especially since there's an abundance of great value cards at 5+ (Batterskull for instance).
@SirPicaro, in trying to leverage Lodestone's tax and hitting my opponents mana with stuff like Tectonic Edge, Path to Exile seems like a nonbo since they get to search for mana. It would also cost more with Lodestone out thus not be as efficient.
I think we can do better than Lark though. If we have 5 lands on the field we probably don't care about recuring mana creatures. Especially since there's an abundance of great value cards at 5+ (Batterskull for instance).
Good point. I was mostly thinking about upping the amount of Duplicants and Metamorphs and maybe playing a Master of Waves (with Thirst for Knowledge to dig & bin reanimator targets), but maybe it's too cute.
Hangarback Walker: haven't bought those just yet but they seem like a solid addition.
Vedalken Shackles: capacity to put us over the top, however, how can we foil kolagan command to protect it?
Lark: Seems too slow.
Here's my current version followed by commentary:
4 Grand Architect
2 Bident of Thassa
4 Martyr of Frost
4 Myr Superion
4 Chief Engineer
4 Sage of Epityr
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Flooded Strand
4 Buried Ruin
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Hallowed Fountain
12 Island
1 Academy Ruins
4 Sky Hussar
Phyrexian Metamorph, Academy Ruins, Martyr of Frost: infinite counterspells, this is further true when you keep drawing because of sky hussar and boost you mana with grand architect (6 mana + academy or 3 mana plus academy plus architect plus a blue dork.
^list seems like one that could use Æther Vial. Frees up mana so you can use Martyr, Ruins, Bident and even Hussar. Vialing in Martyr or even Metamorph instant speed makes it all more resilient.
meh, seems ok if you have golem or superion in hand, even then 3 mana is not the most efficient cost for conditional removal. Also this decks tends to empty its hand quickly, so drawing this without anything to reveal is super duper bad. Consider if you don't actually see any of your big guys with that in hand? Very bad. Also quite frankly if you have wurmcoil in hand, that's already a fine answer to an opposing wurmcoil. And also it is the worst card ever with a golem or two in play.
In the end way too conditional and inefficient for it to be any good. Might be ok in standard with devoid guys in eldrazi.deck, but for modern 3 mana is too much.
Ok so after having played a lot with sage of epityr i decided to cut it from the deck. I've replaced those with 2 copies with 2 tectonic edge and the 2 remaining with old vault skirge. The library manipulation is nice and all but having a do nothing 1/1 that can't attack most of the time is a huge liability.
Also sometimes you get bad top 4 and i'd much rather have drawn either skirge or a tectonic edge. Drawing edge is kind of like putting a land on my top deck anyways, and skirge at least flies over and can attack, and they carry swords very well. With 22 lands i should have to mulligan less often.
I've also changed main deck swords to 2x light and shadow, the card is amazing. Still keeping feast and famine in the board for green decks.
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Chief Engineer
4 Myr Superion
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Evolutionary Leap
4 Grand Architect
3 Skaab Ruinator
4 Master of Waves
3 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Hinterland Harbor
1 Steam Vents
7 Island
Skaab Ruinator is quite sweet with both Vial and Leap.
Seems decent with Hangarback Walker, Wurmcoil and Vedalken Shackles.
Can sac Walker when we need the fliers, Wurmcoil before it gets Pathed or our opponents creatures after stealing with Shackles. Also a good blue 1-drop that fits the synergy of the deck.
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
Against two Affinity style decks, Drowned Rusalka + Hangarback Walker helped in dealing with opposing fliers.
At one point, my opponent had a Cranial Plating on each of his four Vault Skirges. For 6-7 our so turns I kept recurring Walker with Academy Ruins, casting for eight, then on opponents turn sacrifce Walker to the Rusalka, getting 4 flying blockers, then sacrificing the fliers before combat damage to prevent my opponent from gaining life. Interestingly enough, although Academy Ruins locked my draw, I was still able to draw cards via Drowned Rusalka. Having an Aether Vial allowed me to vial in the creatures I drew off of Drowned Rusalka, keeping my mana open when it came to activating its ability on my opponents turn.
I like the fact that its not simply a sac outlet, but also "card advantage", esp when your hellbent.
Not sure if I should run more than one, but its definitely a card I wish to find once I land Hanagarback Walker.
Sidenote: Only thing I can't stand is the artwork on Drowned Rusalka. Its looks creepy and the frame has a faded look to it, like the card was ran through a washing machine...definitely would get it altered if it becomes a mainstay lol. Sage of Epityr has to be the sickest looking blue one drop I've seen, next to promo Judge's Familiar!
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
Sounds like Rusalka does a lot of work. Between Ruins and Rusalka it's almost like you had a Trading Post in play ;). Behold the power! Have you thought on adding more than 1 or is it that much weaker than Sage?
I'm completely in camp Evolutionary Leap now. It feels good going off with the Enchantment in play. Between Engineer/Architect and Hangarback/Wurmcoil/Master of Waves it basically says: "draw an arbitrary big amount of cards, put an arbitrary big amount of tokens into play and make an arbitrary big amount of mana"
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
4 Grand Architect
3 Heartless Summoning
3 Etherium Sculptor
3 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Sphinx Summoner
2 Spellskite
1 Treasue Mage
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Chromatic Star
3 Serum Visions
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Dismember
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Mana Leak
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Darkslick Shores
3 Drowned Catacomb
4 Watery Grave
8 Island
1 Swamp
1 Treasure Mage
1 Duplicant
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Spellskite
1 Dismember
1 Appetite for Brains
2 Duress
2 Trinket Mage
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
So I know there are some strange choices in here, but there were several things I played just because I wanted to try and this was a low risk setting to give them a shot. The discard suite is kinda awkward, but I'm working on picking up Thoughtseizes and I didn't play Vedalken Shackles because I don't have fetches yet and can't reliably get enough islands.
My initial thoughts:
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
I'll see what I can do about a turbo hangerback focused deck, because is pretty insane in the deck.
um... if we are looking for sac outlets... Arcbound Ravager is a card.
wait did I just reinvent affinity
Sidenote: Promo Judge's familiar will forever be my favourite promo as it was the first one I ever won (Thanks to Pack rat in draft)
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
4 Hangerback walker
4 Signal pest
4 Judge's familar
2 Drown rusalka
3 Chief engineer
3 Etherium Sculptor
3 Master of Etherium
4 Grand architect
3 Phyrexian metamorph
4 Lodestone golem
2 Wurmcoil engine
2 trading post
lands
2 Ghost quarter
2 Phyrexia's core
2 Faerie conclave
16 island
Thats a mono blue version its like artifact merfolk. its got lords and mana lands and things and Hangerback walker as a powerful token maker. oh perhaps I should consider Myr superion in there somewhere.
Considering blue black mostly for thoughtseize and creeping tar pit... perhaps Esper so that it can mimic BW tokens deck. since tidehollow sculler is a good card and Orzhov pontif.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
That's not the same experience I have been having with Lodestone. It is a form of disruption itself, putting the opponent off balance while I am still able to continue playing my own threats. Yes it does tax some of my disruption, but knowing that in advance makes me able to plan on it and play around it. Also I mostly play cheap disruption (Dismember, Slaughter Pact, and I'm considering Murderous Cut which I think you were playing in older lists) which help to slightly offset that cost. The only piece that was really hurt by the Golems was the Mana Leaks, but those felt awkward already and will probably be cut very quickly. My main concern about Lodestone is that it is very fragile and I find many times that I don't really want to swing with it. That being said, it hits hard when it connects and can easily close out games.
Myr Superion is a card that I played in the original standard version of the deck, but I cut it a long time ago because it wasn't reliable enough. It led to lots of really explosive game ending plays, but is an awful topdeck and in my experience it relies on the engine too much.
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
I'm liking the aggressive Signal Pest/Master of Etherium lists though,
@Narvuntien, Drowned Rusalka is still a card I'm testing as a one-of; have you gotten some playtime with it?
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
I think we can do better than Lark though. If we have 5 lands on the field we probably don't care about recuring mana creatures. Especially since there's an abundance of great value cards at 5+ (Batterskull for instance).
I was contemplating a white splash for Grand Arbiter Augustin IV at one point.
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
Good point. I was mostly thinking about upping the amount of Duplicants and Metamorphs and maybe playing a Master of Waves (with Thirst for Knowledge to dig & bin reanimator targets), but maybe it's too cute.
Vedalken Shackles: capacity to put us over the top, however, how can we foil kolagan command to protect it?
Lark: Seems too slow.
Here's my current version followed by commentary:
4 Grand Architect
2 Bident of Thassa
4 Martyr of Frost
4 Myr Superion
4 Chief Engineer
4 Sage of Epityr
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Flooded Strand
4 Buried Ruin
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Hallowed Fountain
12 Island
1 Academy Ruins
4 Sky Hussar
Phyrexian Metamorph, Academy Ruins, Martyr of Frost: infinite counterspells, this is further true when you keep drawing because of sky hussar and boost you mana with grand architect (6 mana + academy or 3 mana plus academy plus architect plus a blue dork.
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
In the end way too conditional and inefficient for it to be any good. Might be ok in standard with devoid guys in eldrazi.deck, but for modern 3 mana is too much.
Also sometimes you get bad top 4 and i'd much rather have drawn either skirge or a tectonic edge. Drawing edge is kind of like putting a land on my top deck anyways, and skirge at least flies over and can attack, and they carry swords very well. With 22 lands i should have to mulligan less often.
I've also changed main deck swords to 2x light and shadow, the card is amazing. Still keeping feast and famine in the board for green decks.
4 Signal Pest
4 Judge's Familiar
2 Vault Skirge
4 Myr Superion
4 Chief Engineer
4 Etherium Sculptor
2 Spellskite
4 Grand Architect
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Lodestone Golem
2 Vedalken Shackles
2 Sword Of Light And Shadow
lands: 22
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Tectonic Edge
16 Snow-Covered Island
2 Thorn Of Amethyst
2 Pithing Needle
2 Monastery Siege
1 Hurkyl's recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Mindlock Orb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Torpor Orb
1 Sword Of Feast And Famine
1 Hibernation
1 Vapor Snag