Hey VoodooKick, I gotta agree with you about Sword of Light and Shadow - that card is so perfect for us. I would like to find a way to add it back into my deck, possibly with aTrophy Mage to tutor for it. Reusing Mausoleum Wanderer and Walking Ballista feels so good. My deck has been running really well lately though, so I don't know what I'd cut.
As far as Chalice of the Void goes, it has been great for me. Yes it sucks to turn off your own 1 drops, but I usually side some of those out to compensate. You are correct that we already have a lot of game against combo with Golem/Thorn/Thalia, but Chalice gives us game against creature decks like Zoo and Elves, as well as turning off most of the removal in the format. Landing a Challice on 1 and a Challice on 2 leaves some decks with basically no way to win. Just sucks that they cost a lot of money, because otherwise this is basically a budget deck.
Black mid-range decks are tough, I feel your pain. The discard in particular can be a beating, since our deck needs to have the right mix of ramp and action. These decks are beatable though - I have actually fared decently against them. Chalice and Spellskite help against their removal, and tax effects (Thorn/Thalia/Golem) help a lot against K Command and Anger of the Gods, especially with Mausoleum Wanderer and friends. Graveyard hate is good against most of their creatures, and Ballista can kill thier Lilianas. I really like my Path to Exile against these decks too, especially against Death's Shadow. You also play Sword of Light and Shadow, which gives you a lot of game against these decks as well.
Has Signal Pest not being able to crew copter ever been an issue?
Not really, I always seem to have another dude to crew copter. I have a total of 32 creatures, signal pest is the only one that doesn't crew, leaving 28 creature cards that can crew it. Also when on the throne of the god-pharaoh plan, you can crew pest along something else because crew only cares about the TOTAL power. When you really need to tap down your team for life loss, this works.
Also you guys seem to be not running Academy Ruins? Its always served me well..
I'd love to run it, and i also love inventors' fair, but i'm out of room for them. I think in my build blinkmoth nexus x4 is more important and i would not run less than 18 blue mana sources (counting cavern of souls on vedalken) and 14 islands (for mausoleum wanderer).
Blinkmoth is important for copter crewing post removal/sweeper, for attacking in general and for its ability to just become a tapped guy for throne.
I've been peeking at this thread for a while now, and I decided I'm gonna take the dive after seeing the spotlight on MTGGoldfish. Now I know that the decks that he posts on there are definitely not tuned at all, however I like the idea of casting cheap Wurmcoil Engines and Mindslaver!
Coming here, I see a few different takes that I was hoping I could get a better understanding on. Here are a few questions for anybody willing to teach me
1) How do Chief Engineer and Etherium Sculptor play off each other? To me they seem like the same card, and I would prefer to have Etherium Sculptor over the Engineer so there's no overlap with the Grand Architects. Can somebody explain why they would go well together rather than one over the other?
2) Trinket Mage w/ Walking Ballista - how does this version feel? Do you ever find yourself stranded with ballista's when your Architect gets blown up? How often are you able to combine it with Basilisk Collar?
3) Myr Superion - this card has always interested me. How often does this get stuck in hand? It seems like it is only playable with Heartless or Architect out. If this happens, it seems like the deck kind of vomits itself on the board...at which point, how does it get back on its feet?
Went undefeated tonight with Ace1's Grand Architect aggro deck. Beat Ad Naus, Elves, Grixis Death Shadow, Abzan Coco variant. I really like this build. I didn't actually get to put Throne into play, as i never happened to draw it, but most games I was able to beat down while also applying a tax. Walking Ballista was amazing as always
One of the crazier lines of play tonight was Turn 1 Mausoleum Wanderer, Turn 2 Chief Engineer, Etherium Sculptor, Etherium Sculptor, Smuggler's Copter able to crew, Turn 3 Walking Ballista X=4.
I really like the Unified Will, as they fight unfair decks. Same with Thorns. The Commandeers are pretty much exclusive for tron. The Phyrexian Revoker did work as well, I think they make more sense than needle. Being able to hit mana abilities was a plus, as I ran into Lotus Blood, Devoted Druid (half of it), Heritage Druid.
@gruul_me_harder: having both chief engineer and etherium sculptor makes the deck more consistent. The rest of the deck goes so well with them that you want the full 8 plus 4x grand architect. Redundancy is our friend!
I'd stay away from myr superion now that fatal push is a thing. We now can play smuggler's copter and walking ballista so we don't need the big guy anymore. Removing it from the deck has made it much more consistent because yes you used to have a lot of clunky hands with it.
@shadowgripper: congrats on your 4-0! I see that you opted for etched champion, how has this worked out?
As for me went 3-0-1 yesterday with my usual list:
I found them to be redundant but I run a different build than most of the people here do since I play 4x Aether Vial.
3) Myr Superion - this card has always interested me. How often does this get stuck in hand? It seems like it is only playable with Heartless or Architect out...
I took out Etherium Scupltor and added Myr Superions because I needed strong threats early. Aether Vial helps alot as another way of getting Superion into play; even at "instant speed".
Overall, I feel like the aggro list such as Ace1 maybe be more consistent and powerful, but I enjoy midrange more and developed my deck to play a longer game; heres my list for reference, haven't tuned it in a while:
More report, went 3-0 today with the same list 2 posts above.
R1 2-1 vs bant auras. Lost G1 on a mull to 4, could even have won but my opponent had a great draw. G2 was close but my opponent made a bad attack and didn't see i had lethal. G3 i go turn 1 wanderer, turn 2 engineer into sculptor into throne, turn 3 empty my hand. Throne made my opponent lose 10 life over turn 2 and 3. My opponent scooped.
R2 2-1 vs infect. Games were close, ballista and golem did the job G1. G2 my opponent got wild defiance and killed me one shot turn 4 with inkmoth nexus. I had copter ready to be crewed on defence but he had distortion strike + one other one mana pump. G3 my opponent's draw was medium, and i got all enablers. Fortunately i got 2 architect so those engineers and sculptor were enough pressure for me to win, at 9 points of poison facing blighted agent
R3 2-0 vs mono-black control/infect. G1 my opponent kept a greedy 6 and i goldfished a turn 4 win. G2 opponent had a bunch of removal but not enough to beat my aggression. He never found a threatening win con. He one-for-oned my stuff a bunch but the deck's threat density made this irrelevant. Again enablers + architect got there.
Note that i was paired down the 2nd and 3rd round. There were 2 other 2-0 R3 and they played each other. Strangely the store guy made us play only 3 rounds instead of four. Didn't face any tiered decks, so it is what it is.
The only change i'll make is cut one of the 2 relics for a basilisk collar in the sideboard. Feels like one is needed in the 75. Other than that, fun times, still love the deck!
Awesome, this is why we play the deck, love it!
As for me can't seem to lose went 3-0 again.
R1 bye
R2 win 2-0 vs eldrazi tron
R3 win 2-0 vs infect
Tournament was weird because we were 5 people only... people are preparing for the standard GP this weekend in my area i guess... And R3 a guy dropped so i didn't even play the guy who was 2-0 because the other two already played one another and there would have been 2 byes... so we ended with 2 players at 3-0... super weird...
Still played the other undefeated player for fun after the tournament. He was on reckless zoo. Matchup felt hard but i still beat him 2-1. Throne was super important, killing him for exactly lethal.
Hey guys! Been watching this for a little bit now as I've always tried brews with architect. Now that most are running coppters what are people's thoughts on a couple oboro'? Seems fairly free with the mana base and it's nice to bounce back into hand to discard if copter draws gas.
I was testing the version you were playing that I saw holydiva streaming and I found myself a few times wanting to be able to put some cards in my hand to loot. I'm now testing this (I know you and others seem to dislike Myr but it's just soooo big for so low cost) but I still may need 1 or 2 more blue sources for mana.
You'll notice I'm hedging against tron a bit with artifacts but when I never had two blue cards to exile on the comendeer plan I was really sad. That said I assume quicksilver actually triggers so after that resolves I can return oboro and keep my fountain in play correct? Lastly my question is are people boarding in stony vs a lot of you? It really only shuts down balista but if it's really common that definitely changes some sideboard plans.
Oboro, palace in the clouds seems nice. I was actually playing it at some point, when in my metagame were people were playing choke and boil in their side. Never thought of the application with copter, seems like a great idea. Hate the idea of having to pay $$$ for it but it could be worth it.
I'm however very much against playing a second copy. Small advantages like that are great but they must never become a liability. We have to analyze, is the second copy going to give us more advantage than having the disadvantage of sometimes having two with no copter? It think the first copy is basically free, all upside, but the second can turn a keepable hand into a mull, which is something you never want to happen. This is also why i'm going to cut down on caverns. It is relevant only once in a while but i've had islandless hands with wanderers, which is super sad. I think 3-2 caverns are fine, but not 4.
Bouncing oboro keep fountain around forever, very good catch.
Stony i see from time to time. It does turn off copter in addition to ballista, because crew is an activated ability. Still worth siding vs us, so expect it, but we are nowhere near as vulnerable to it as other artifacts decks are. I have beaten the card multiple times. But yes don't side in artifacts with activated abilities vs white decks, they'll pretty much bring at least one copy.
I do agree that two might be too many but I like to see a card when testing it.
You're testing this post as well?
Just kidding, that's fair enough. I'll get an oboro for sure since the downside to one seems nearly nonexistent. Let us know how it goes!
This may be a dumb question, but what is the main purpose of the blink moth nexus? Is it primarily a beater?
Primarly a beater yes, it is great with signal pests. It also pumps and is pumped by master of etherium, can crew copters post sweeper and can animate itself to deal more life loss with throne of the god-pharaoh. Just a way to mitigate land flooding.
This may be a dumb question, but what is the main purpose of the blink moth nexus? Is it primarily a beater?
That's exactly what it is and if you can't attack with it you can tap them to activate themselves so throne hits them with damage still. 1 mana to activate and a blue mana to make it blue and then you have master/architects pumping it.
Edit: also for me it turns into a creature if I need to cast Myr with it.
I don't like the sideboard at all. Counters are weird since we are a tap out deck. Commandeer is odd, i have no idea what this is for and when exactly are we supposed to hold onto 2 other blue card instead of spamming the board with them... Don't know why revoker instead of needle, dies to more stuff and can't be trinket mage'd (which has been pretty good from the side). Also i came to the conclusion that we want at least one basilisk collar in the 75. Maybe shadowgripper can explain these choices?
So first losses tonight, it had to happen at some point
went 2-2 beating eldrazi tron and moon prison, losing to knightfall and grixis death's shadow.
Couldn't get an oboro, the card was out of stock at my store, bummer.
What does your current list look like Ace? The TCGPlayer list was similar to mine, as Corbin follows me on the twitter. May or may not be exact list from last week.
Same list as before, except i added oboro instead of the 4th cavern. Was stuck with wanderer and cavern as my only blue sources in my starting hands a bit too often for my tastes. We want to avoid having to take mulligans we can avoid. Also added basilisk collar in the side.
As far as Chalice of the Void goes, it has been great for me. Yes it sucks to turn off your own 1 drops, but I usually side some of those out to compensate. You are correct that we already have a lot of game against combo with Golem/Thorn/Thalia, but Chalice gives us game against creature decks like Zoo and Elves, as well as turning off most of the removal in the format. Landing a Challice on 1 and a Challice on 2 leaves some decks with basically no way to win. Just sucks that they cost a lot of money, because otherwise this is basically a budget deck.
Black mid-range decks are tough, I feel your pain. The discard in particular can be a beating, since our deck needs to have the right mix of ramp and action. These decks are beatable though - I have actually fared decently against them. Chalice and Spellskite help against their removal, and tax effects (Thorn/Thalia/Golem) help a lot against K Command and Anger of the Gods, especially with Mausoleum Wanderer and friends. Graveyard hate is good against most of their creatures, and Ballista can kill thier Lilianas. I really like my Path to Exile against these decks too, especially against Death's Shadow. You also play Sword of Light and Shadow, which gives you a lot of game against these decks as well.
Easier since I run Aether Vial aswell...its my "Stoneforge Mystic" impersonation.
Also you guys seem to be not running Academy Ruins? Its always served me well..
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
Not really, I always seem to have another dude to crew copter. I have a total of 32 creatures, signal pest is the only one that doesn't crew, leaving 28 creature cards that can crew it. Also when on the throne of the god-pharaoh plan, you can crew pest along something else because crew only cares about the TOTAL power. When you really need to tap down your team for life loss, this works.
I'd love to run it, and i also love inventors' fair, but i'm out of room for them. I think in my build blinkmoth nexus x4 is more important and i would not run less than 18 blue mana sources (counting cavern of souls on vedalken) and 14 islands (for mausoleum wanderer).
Blinkmoth is important for copter crewing post removal/sweeper, for attacking in general and for its ability to just become a tapped guy for throne.
I've been peeking at this thread for a while now, and I decided I'm gonna take the dive after seeing the spotlight on MTGGoldfish. Now I know that the decks that he posts on there are definitely not tuned at all, however I like the idea of casting cheap Wurmcoil Engines and Mindslaver!
Coming here, I see a few different takes that I was hoping I could get a better understanding on. Here are a few questions for anybody willing to teach me
1) How do Chief Engineer and Etherium Sculptor play off each other? To me they seem like the same card, and I would prefer to have Etherium Sculptor over the Engineer so there's no overlap with the Grand Architects. Can somebody explain why they would go well together rather than one over the other?
2) Trinket Mage w/ Walking Ballista - how does this version feel? Do you ever find yourself stranded with ballista's when your Architect gets blown up? How often are you able to combine it with Basilisk Collar?
3) Myr Superion - this card has always interested me. How often does this get stuck in hand? It seems like it is only playable with Heartless or Architect out. If this happens, it seems like the deck kind of vomits itself on the board...at which point, how does it get back on its feet?
Thanks in advance for any input
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Etherium Sculptor
4 Chief Engineer
4 Grand Architect
2 Master of Etherium
2 Etched Champion
4 Walking Ballista
4 Lodestone Golem
2 Throne of the God-Pharaoh
14 Island
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Unified Will
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Scrap Trawler
2 Commandeer
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Grafdigger's Cage
One of the crazier lines of play tonight was Turn 1 Mausoleum Wanderer, Turn 2 Chief Engineer, Etherium Sculptor, Etherium Sculptor, Smuggler's Copter able to crew, Turn 3 Walking Ballista X=4.
I really like the Unified Will, as they fight unfair decks. Same with Thorns. The Commandeers are pretty much exclusive for tron. The Phyrexian Revoker did work as well, I think they make more sense than needle. Being able to hit mana abilities was a plus, as I ran into Lotus Blood, Devoted Druid (half of it), Heritage Druid.
I'd stay away from myr superion now that fatal push is a thing. We now can play smuggler's copter and walking ballista so we don't need the big guy anymore. Removing it from the deck has made it much more consistent because yes you used to have a lot of clunky hands with it.
@shadowgripper: congrats on your 4-0! I see that you opted for etched champion, how has this worked out?
As for me went 3-0-1 yesterday with my usual list:
4 mausoleum wanderer
4 signal pest
4 chief engineer
4 etherium sculptor
4 walking ballista
4 grand architect
4 master of etherium
artifacts: 6
4 smuggler's copter
2 throne of the god-pharaoh
lands: 22
4 blinkmoth nexus
4 cavern of souls
14 island
1 grafdigger's cage
2 relic of progenitus
2 pithing needle
2 quicksilver fountain
2 scrap trawler
2 trinket mage
2 orbs of warding
2 echoing truth
Beat gifts storm, esper mill, abzan CoCo devoted druid combo, and intentional draw last round.
I took out Etherium Scupltor and added Myr Superions because I needed strong threats early. Aether Vial helps alot as another way of getting Superion into play; even at "instant speed".
Overall, I feel like the aggro list such as Ace1 maybe be more consistent and powerful, but I enjoy midrange more and developed my deck to play a longer game; heres my list for reference, haven't tuned it in a while:
8 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Academy Ruins
1 Watery Grave
1 Tectonic Edge
Artifacts (8)
4 Aether Vial
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Grand Architect
4 Chief Engineer
3 Sage of Epityr
3 Lodestone Golem
3 Myr Superion
2 Hangarback Walker
2 Walking Ballista
2 Spellskite
1 Filigree Familiar
1 Trophy Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Filigree Familiar
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Dismember
1 Spell Snare
1 Echoing Truth
1 Silent Arbiter
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Crucible of Worlds
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
R1 2-1 vs bant auras. Lost G1 on a mull to 4, could even have won but my opponent had a great draw. G2 was close but my opponent made a bad attack and didn't see i had lethal. G3 i go turn 1 wanderer, turn 2 engineer into sculptor into throne, turn 3 empty my hand. Throne made my opponent lose 10 life over turn 2 and 3. My opponent scooped.
R2 2-1 vs infect. Games were close, ballista and golem did the job G1. G2 my opponent got wild defiance and killed me one shot turn 4 with inkmoth nexus. I had copter ready to be crewed on defence but he had distortion strike + one other one mana pump. G3 my opponent's draw was medium, and i got all enablers. Fortunately i got 2 architect so those engineers and sculptor were enough pressure for me to win, at 9 points of poison facing blighted agent
R3 2-0 vs mono-black control/infect. G1 my opponent kept a greedy 6 and i goldfished a turn 4 win. G2 opponent had a bunch of removal but not enough to beat my aggression. He never found a threatening win con. He one-for-oned my stuff a bunch but the deck's threat density made this irrelevant. Again enablers + architect got there.
Note that i was paired down the 2nd and 3rd round. There were 2 other 2-0 R3 and they played each other. Strangely the store guy made us play only 3 rounds instead of four. Didn't face any tiered decks, so it is what it is.
The only change i'll make is cut one of the 2 relics for a basilisk collar in the sideboard. Feels like one is needed in the 75. Other than that, fun times, still love the deck!
As for me can't seem to lose went 3-0 again.
R1 bye
R2 win 2-0 vs eldrazi tron
R3 win 2-0 vs infect
Tournament was weird because we were 5 people only... people are preparing for the standard GP this weekend in my area i guess... And R3 a guy dropped so i didn't even play the guy who was 2-0 because the other two already played one another and there would have been 2 byes... so we ended with 2 players at 3-0... super weird...
Still played the other undefeated player for fun after the tournament. He was on reckless zoo. Matchup felt hard but i still beat him 2-1. Throne was super important, killing him for exactly lethal.
I was testing the version you were playing that I saw holydiva streaming and I found myself a few times wanting to be able to put some cards in my hand to loot. I'm now testing this (I know you and others seem to dislike Myr but it's just soooo big for so low cost) but I still may need 1 or 2 more blue sources for mana.
1 Basilisk Collar
3 Smuggler's Copter
1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh
Artifact Creature (20)
4 Etherium Sculptor
4 Lodestone Golem
2 Master of Etherium
2 Myr Superion
4 Signal Pest
4 Walking Ballista
4 Chief Engineer
4 Grand Architect
3 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Sage of Epityr
Land (20)
1 Academy Ruins
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
3 Cavern of Souls
9 Snow-Covered Island
2 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Echoing Truth
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Mindlock Orb
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Quicksilver Fountain
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Wurmcoil Engine
You'll notice I'm hedging against tron a bit with artifacts but when I never had two blue cards to exile on the comendeer plan I was really sad. That said I assume quicksilver actually triggers so after that resolves I can return oboro and keep my fountain in play correct? Lastly my question is are people boarding in stony vs a lot of you? It really only shuts down balista but if it's really common that definitely changes some sideboard plans.
I'm however very much against playing a second copy. Small advantages like that are great but they must never become a liability. We have to analyze, is the second copy going to give us more advantage than having the disadvantage of sometimes having two with no copter? It think the first copy is basically free, all upside, but the second can turn a keepable hand into a mull, which is something you never want to happen. This is also why i'm going to cut down on caverns. It is relevant only once in a while but i've had islandless hands with wanderers, which is super sad. I think 3-2 caverns are fine, but not 4.
Bouncing oboro keep fountain around forever, very good catch.
Stony i see from time to time. It does turn off copter in addition to ballista, because crew is an activated ability. Still worth siding vs us, so expect it, but we are nowhere near as vulnerable to it as other artifacts decks are. I have beaten the card multiple times. But yes don't side in artifacts with activated abilities vs white decks, they'll pretty much bring at least one copy.
You're testing this post as well?
Just kidding, that's fair enough. I'll get an oboro for sure since the downside to one seems nearly nonexistent. Let us know how it goes!
Primarly a beater yes, it is great with signal pests. It also pumps and is pumped by master of etherium, can crew copters post sweeper and can animate itself to deal more life loss with throne of the god-pharaoh. Just a way to mitigate land flooding.
That's exactly what it is and if you can't attack with it you can tap them to activate themselves so throne hits them with damage still. 1 mana to activate and a blue mana to make it blue and then you have master/architects pumping it.
Edit: also for me it turns into a creature if I need to cast Myr with it.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=13958&writer=Corbin Hosler&articledate=5-22-2017
This version is close to mine, the only difference is etched champion instead of master of etherium number 3-4, like shadowgripper.
I don't like the sideboard at all. Counters are weird since we are a tap out deck. Commandeer is odd, i have no idea what this is for and when exactly are we supposed to hold onto 2 other blue card instead of spamming the board with them... Don't know why revoker instead of needle, dies to more stuff and can't be trinket mage'd (which has been pretty good from the side). Also i came to the conclusion that we want at least one basilisk collar in the 75. Maybe shadowgripper can explain these choices?
So first losses tonight, it had to happen at some point
went 2-2 beating eldrazi tron and moon prison, losing to knightfall and grixis death's shadow.
Couldn't get an oboro, the card was out of stock at my store, bummer.
4 mausoleum wanderer
4 signal pest
4 chief engineer
4 etherium sculptor
4 walking ballista
4 grand architect
4 master of etherium
artifacts: 6
4 smuggler's copter
2 throne of the god-pharaoh
lands: 22
4 blinkmoth nexus
3 cavern of souls
1 Oboro, palace in the clouds
14 island
1 grafdigger's cage
1 relic of progenitus
1 basilisk collar
2 pithing needle
2 quicksilver fountain
2 scrap trawler
2 trinket mage
2 orbs of warding
2 echoing truth