MTG Salvation

Iron Souldiers delivered a kickin' at the dances this weekend, Caligula. 6-1-1 finish after 2 FNMs. My only loss was to Esper Gifts in round 3, after we went to time, and on the final turn 5. He knocked me out of my karate shoes with an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite attack. It's a shame, because I could have won the previous turn had I been able to 'unearth' my Anathemancer for the win --- my own grafdigger's cage stopped me.

The deck has evolved from trying to be "The Best of Both Worlds" - that was greedy & self-defeating....Passthechips was right. All manner of control has been moved to a 5-color sideboard, and the main deck is unbridled fury - van dammage all over creation. If you count the enchantments, there are (24) creatures in this deck, (5) Moxen, (9) Card drawers, (7) Cantrips, only (17) lands and best of all (1) Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas.

In the absence of Infect and the decline of Lightning Bolt, this deck-style is poised to achieve. When I saw the rise of 8-Whack, it was clear that a door was opening for us again. As for fast attacks, one time I was able to deliver 25 damage in (3) turns. The lines of play are pretty intuitive. I do watch my opponent's carefully for their pounce preparedness with a path to exile or fatal push in hand. Funny how you can sense these things in folks that's when I slow roll an Ensoul Artifact or Dark Confidant (probably our 2 most critical plays).

Otherwise, trust in the threat density of the deck, and just press that attack. Sure, you gotta be wary of Anger of the Gods or a swelling Wrath of God. The deck develops and feeds into itself throughout the game into a patterned rhythm. It's not like the more narrow win-cons of Naya Zoo or Burn - where the spells tend to be more static. With us, our threats vary in timeliness & effectiveness (sometimes an Ensouled Vault Skirge equals gg). But generally, there's an early Bomat Courier with a metal-crafted Mox which drops a Goblin or a Spellbomb ---> Dark Confidant or Eidolon pressure ---> well-timed Ensoul Artifact ---> Bomat Courier pops for free cards & a drawn Galvanic Blast finishes the game. The deck's a hoot.



Question: Turn 1 --- Goblin Guide or Bomat Courier. I lean towards Goblin Guide.

Hey Ray, have you tried Vexing Devil in this deck? It's one of my pets.. obviously not viable for Pyro Prison, but it seems like a winner in this list!

What a marvelous idea, Caligula! Vexing Devil - Tried and Successful. I'm toggling with the counts, but it has found a home.

Update: I've added some Green Highlighted Arrows to the Official Primer. I'm conflicted about how to deal with what is "A Tale of Two Decks".

The First Implementation of Iron Souldiers: Aggro with a kick of control/draw: Relic of Progenitus, Spellskite, Engineered Explosives, Vendilion Clique, Ensnaring Bridge, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, and Serum Visions. Alllllllll of these cards are gone from the main deck. Some get shuttled in'n'out of the sideboard, but otherwise these are vestiges of a day gone by.

The Second Implementation of Iron Souldiers: In "The New Age" of Iron Souldiers, the singular focus in game 1 is aggression. As evidenced by the new cunning inclusion, Vexing Devil, the idea is to savagely attack an opponents life total and hope for a finishing blow from recurring Eidolon of the Great Revel shocks, a top decked galvanic blast, or a 5/5 haste-bot.

For the moment, I'll maintain a hodge-podge of both designs. Honestly, it just comes down to whether or not this thread gets any traction. Do folks have an interest in Robots with Black Belts. My LGS' have been entertained with its explosive power on a spare land base, and the tournament record is impressive. But....is anyone else up for hitting the dojo? Any suggestions on the build? Please post up a response, if you'd like to see more talk of a deck that has combined:

• Affinity
• Red Deck Wins
• Tezzeret
• Gobots
• And added 5-Color Control to the sideboard

FNM Tourney Report - 25 players:

Round 1 - G/b Elves: It isn't as tough as it looks. As quickly as I can spill out ground'n'pounders, they can go even faster with slightly larger 2/2 bodies put against +1/+1 Lords. So, it comes to 5/5 fliers and removal coupled dark confidant draws. Similar to our matchup with Affinity, the edge comes from (7) bolts [galvanic/pyretic] buttressed by (3) zealous persecution and (2) Engineered Explosives. The fact that my artifact sideboard threats double towards metalcraft and 5/5 ensoul targets: grafdigger's cage and torpor orb is an assist.

Round 2 - Bant Control: This is a good matchup. Our threat density simply overwhelms. I'm not much for keeping notes or putting up detailed reports, but I will say the highlight was firing off (3) Galvanic Blasts in a row to drop him from 9 to 0.

Round 3 - Goryo's Vengeance/Breach: 2-0. Obviously, we're fast. But, with the right draw, they can be faster. 5/5 barrel-chested bruisers took game 1. In game 2, I nailed a turn 2 Rest in Peace to the board. He later Through the Breach an Emrakul the Aeons Torn into play, but it wasn't enough.

Round 4 - Grixis Death's Shadow: The deck of the day, but through 2 pretty drawn out games, I maintained control with the marked assistance of Dark Confidant. The highlight was in game 1 where he twice passed on a zealous persecution in discard. I had him at 3, but he had my attacks covered. But I ripped Goblin Guide off the top, and the +1 snuck in for the win. One of the critical abilities of our creatures is haste: Bruce Lee-bots has (12) of 'em. The 2nd game had me facing facing kolaghan's command (expected) doubled through snapcaster mage (again - no surprise) and some free draws of Tasigur, the Hidden Fang. My ensoul artifact darksteel citadel proved very problematic for him (grixis can't kill enchantments) and the win came from flying attack: vault skirge.


Main Deck Notes: (17) lands is ok when your average CMC is less than 1-cmc: .83%. Secondly, that makes for an easy use of Dark Confidant. I won game 1 last night versus that Grixis Death's Shadow deck with only one land in play.

Zealous Persecution...main deck. Yeah. It's the best way to clear out an opponent's board and push your own attack into a lethal range or favorable battle exchange in blocks. It tremendously helpful in facing Elves or Affinity or Lingering Souls - There have been some devastating game swings and wins at the tables.

Would you consider more spire and less mana confluence?
Also why is ravager not in this deck? Feels like it should be here as you have so many artifact sac targets and blanks removal.
Could also consider the zealous persecution pontif guy. His ability activates when he resolves and then haunts to do it again later. IDK lose the instant ability to cast it but gain the little body and potiential double use.
Okay scrath all the other ideas. I think I may have found a card for you. Blind Obedience. Looks like that could clear the way for you while also slowing down the opponents.

Thx for chiming in, Megatog -- Seems like you know your chops.

"Would you consider more spire and less mana confluence?"
I'd love to follow that path, and used to run the mana base that way. But, my red spell base has gotten greedy, and I can't risk not having on T1. The only enabler for insta-red off of spire of industry are my (8) 0-Drops [mox opal & mishra's bauble]...Affinity has twice as many [ornithopter & memnite]. So, at the cost of life, I opt for mana confluence. It may seem costly, but in the war of attrition our damage gets dealt faster.

Also why is arcbound ravager not in this deck? Feels like it should be here as you have so many artifact sac targets and blanks removal.
He runs at a high cost -- more so than (2) colorless mana Whereas ravager has a lot of targets in Affinity (particularly the (8) Nexus lands), I can't afford to dump my permanents for the +1/+1 bonus. Although there are times when an extra Opal could get ditched. I'll consider him, megatog. As for blanking their creature kill, we got that covered: (26) creatures alongside the draw spells of Dark Confidant, Bomat Courier, and Mishra's Bauble. Pretty tough for an opponent to keep up.

"Blind Obedience. Looks like that could clear the way for you while also slowing down the opponents.
It's like root maze. Huh. It doesn't offer much for immediate board impact or damage, though. I do dig the recurring damage that it offers. Again, thanks for the words, dude.

I like your attitude Stacx. The thing about obedience as I was looking at it was how immensely powerful it is early. Makes blocking hard for them while you beat in. Yes it's a terrible top deck when drawn late, but even then when not in the final rounds you can bleed them for a few points here and there. Makes use of your low cost and 5c manabase.Even your moxen become a little more useful late game. Tap the existing one for a black then play the new one and drain for 1. While that's not powerful in itself the added 4 to 6 or so damage provided throughout the game can add up. And making blockers for your Bruce Lees to enter tapped means they can't strike in and expect to block the crackback. Just a thought though.

Fellow Sensei, Be_lakor! Welcome to the Dojo. So, you've been tooling with a similar machination, eh? Kuldotha Forgemaster is a seducing option. Sooooo many potential kill locks.

With your use of blue spells, it does seem like you're a bit more controll-y. And, I'm shifting towards a mainboard of straight anger. Reminds me of the creature: Anger http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=430295
How inspired is the designer who positioned Anger at the development table!?!? "O.K. here's what I'm thinking: He's diminutive in stature & too expensive, his imbued special powers are pretty tame, but...and, I have to be perfectly clear about this...he's absolutely furious. Now, who's with me?"

I definitely tried Smuggler's Copter, as you suggested. And, as you surmised: too slow. I have been considering (2) other options:

1st:
Asylum Visitor: This is the 5th Dark Confidant and hits for a little more damage to make up for the blanking extra draws on an early casting. He's 'in-color' with so, as much as I call this a 5-color deck, I'm migrating harder to rakdos colors due to the use of (4) Blackcleave Cliffs. I like packing up my creature threat density since, like li'l turtles heading to the sea, I know they're not all going to make it. Here's the cool kicker on A. Visitor: Bomat Courier activation. Tap a Red, to discard Visitor directly onto the field and then draw up some free cards. Yeeeeehaw.

2nd:
Grafted Wargear: This is very unlikely to make the cut, but it does have advantages over my one equipmunk: Cranial Plating. It has to be noted that folks often remark that they are waiting for me to drop a cranial and swing hard. Truth: I don't generally have that many artifacts onboard as I'm constantly cycling them through or they are dying. I try to keep myself right at the 'metalcraft' threshold. So, cranial isn't all that much better than wargear. But, the ease of drop on cranial and the insta-equip will keep it in the 60-count. Still, I like the idea of beefy beater that cant' be traded away in combat with a Lingering Souls token.

After another FNM event, 20+ people, the newly revived and redesigned version of Iron Souldiers stands at 15-3-1. Most recent deck upgrades and swapouts have been pretty significant. Again, the path of Anger has led to me to the dark side of winning. As Dark Helmet once remarked, 'evil will always triumph, because good is dumb'.

Virtually all controlling cards are now in the sideboard, and the main deck has a new merciless beater - Tarmogoyf. Probably seemed like an elementary inclusion to some, but it took me a while to see the light on this 2-CMC Black Belt. Man can't win on 1-drop creatures alone. So, the Vexing Devil count got diminished in lieu of a Llurgoyf count. Seems wise.

We said goodbye to Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas ....my liege!!!!! And, Engineered Explosives got shifted into the sideboard along with the wonky zealous persecution. These cards all had reasonable applications, but they were niche or too expensive. So, we welcome more firepower: Shrapnel Blast - it's a world ender.

Hour of Devastation has a new toy! Claim // Fame And, early testing has been promising. The implementations are all pretty obvious, but I have to say that where the graveyard was once a resource unused, now I'm seeing some recursion & tarmogoofy growth. claim // fame is akin to unearth with the added bonus of resurrecting anything and gaining haste. Brutal.

I bumped into a player on Cockatrice last night who's been following this thread for a couple years. He noticed the new addition of Tarmogoyf right away, and applauded the change. Again, Iron Souldiers 2017 is a world of difference from Iron Souldiers 2016. The Official Primer is cosmically in shambles, and yet, it's pretty quiet on the thread...so, I just wonder if there's another discussion board out there that I need to migrate to...or maybe scratch and rebuild the thread to reflect the new, hyper-aggressive build. Any other mages tried chucking this breed of cardboard?

This is the new version........Tarmo Power coupled with Atarka's Command

Is this version better???? The Magic 8-Ball says that "all signs point to hells yeah"

Dusting off the cards, aaaand it's back. Van Dammage with a Roundhouse Kick of Control! I've been running Iron Souldiers on Modo for the past few days. Tweaking as we've gone - I'm trending up on the win rate. I walked away from this deck - despite a very positive win record at FNM - because I felt outpaced in speed by Hollow One and then Dredge decks.

But, I've made catering alterations. (2) Grafdigger's Cage in the main deck! Why not? They enable metalcraft, can be animated on turn 2 into a 5/5 hasty beefcake, tossed to a Shrapnel Blast or....oh, yeah...completely disable a graveyard strategy or cheaty-summon spells. Extra burn has actually been surprisingly adept at closing wins faster than before as well. Also, there has been a very marked decline in token decks which caused a real headache in the past.

Other Updates: reduce the color requirements by removing atarka's command. Add a 2nd shrapnel blast. Oh, let's just put it up on the big board and take a gander!