Overview of the Deck
The historical roots of this deck are in Scars of Mirrodin/Innistrad Standard. The redundancy in both Grand Architect and Heartless Summoning being able to cast Myr Superion very early in the game sparked an artifact ramp deck that either aggro’d the opponent with these myrs and Wurmcoil Engines or Mindslaverlocked its opponents. The interaction was powerful enough that it has been able to be adapted for Modern with all of the fun tools that the eternal format provides for us to improve both consistency and power.
Heartless Summoning: It makes up 50% of the deck’s name and is one the core pieces of the deck’s engine. You could say it’s the heart of the deck but that would be too cheesy. It is the fastest of our engine pieces and leads to some of the most explosive lines of play. It helps us ramp out large threats by reducing their cost and even makes some of our smaller creatures free. The -1/-1 it adds to all of our creatures can be seen as a lot but a turn 3 or 4 5/5 Wurmcoil Engine or double 4/2 Lodestone Golem is still hard for a most decks to deal with. We can even take advantage of this drawback if we have Vedalken Shackles on this field as it allows us to just use shackles as a pseudo kill spell every turn. Yes it is amazing but you almost never want to see it in pairs. Run 2-3
Grand Architect: The card that makes up the other half of the name, this piece of the engine not only accelerates out artifacts but has 2 more relevant abilities. This Vedalken Artificer allows us to tap down our blue creature to generate 2 for our artifact spells while also proving a lord effect for our blue creatures which helps us with our game plan of beatdown. Further he has a neat little ability to turn our artifact creature blue which can in turn negate the downsides of a Heartless Summoning. Run 4
Lodestone Golem: While he may be relatively unused in Modern, this Golem is restricted in Vintage for doing exactly what this deck does best: making him come down too early and taxing everyone else too hard. The non-artifact tax will slow down every non-affinity deck in the format while his 5/3 will continue applying pressure. Slamming down multiples is almost always an autowin. Golem is MVP: Run 4
Wurmcoil Engine: A very notable beater from the original deck, this wurm is incredibly hard to remove as it passes the Bolt test, Dismember and forces opponents to either 2 for 1 themselves in getting rid of it. Its only weakness is Path to exile. Run 1-3
Myr Superion: Everyone else plays goyf? We play Super Myr! Run 0-4
Phyrexian Metamorph: The ability to with any of the main 3 enablers come down for 2 life and clone the best thing on the field is nuts. From Wurmcoil Engine to Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, this versatility allows us to adjust our game plan on the fly and often seems to seem like we have a sideboard in game 1. Run 2-4
Sphinx Summoner: Our creature tutor that doubles as a wincon. When paired with any of a few permutations of our engine, you can chain Phyrexian Metamorphs copying Sphinx Summoner filling the battlefield with flyers. This chain often threatens lethal damage and can protect itself by following up the chain with a Spellskite or a Lodestone Golem. Untapping with a board full of sphinxes can be a turn 4 kill against unsuspecting opponents. Run 0-2
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas: This planeswalker has his own dedicated control thread which can be found here. The ability to dig for a threat or turn a Spellskite or Darksteel Citadel into a 5/5 is huge. Further, his ultimately can usually be used the turn after he is played and wins games. All 3 abilities are huge for our deck and he is really irreplaceable. Run 2-3
These are cards that I have personally tested and change from time to time depending on the metagame and how I want the deck to play. I will add more as there is more discussion on cards.
Spellskite: I strongly recommend having the full playset split between your mainboard and sideboard. Sure skite does not do a lot in terms of making the opponent dead, but the horror is free with our Heartless and it is both a strong protection piece and hate card. skite is powerful against Infect, Burn, BGx, Eldrazi, Zoo, Scapeshift, Knightfall, Nahiri Control, and even has a few tricks against Affinity (I’m looking at you Arcbound Ravager). Run 0-4
Noxious Gearhulk: Hulk smash! The black gearhulk is tutorable, removes blockers, brings our life total out of the danger zone, and is a 5/4 menace that is very happy to run into the red zone. Run 1
Filigree Familiar: Cute little robofox who unfortunately serves the purpose of being roadkill. Run 2-3
Vedalken Shackles: Serves as interaction with our opponent’s board. Grand Architect can get these online early in the game so we can steal our opponent’s creatures. Shackles also serves as repeatable removal vs 1 toughness creatures if you have a Heartless on the board. These have recently fallen out of maindeck favor for many of our pilots, but strong cases can be made for their inclusion somewhere within the 75.
Duplicant: This robot used to be our tutorable removal spell before Noxious Gearhulk but it still has a few things going for it. You may consider playing 1 in the sideboard.
Trinket Mage: Now typically a sideboard all-star for the deck, he can often can be mainboard if you want to run a package based around him. I will cover the packages later in primer.
Treasure Mage: Again another package creature who with Heartless Summoning comes down for a single U and allows us to tutor up a finisher such as Wurmcoil Engine, Mindslaver, or many others. Use him if you want to play more toolboxy midrange.
Perilous Myr: a small myr who when paired with Heartless Summoning becomes a free Shock which can be used if you feel you need more removal for small creature based decks such as Death and Taxes, Delver ect.
Dismember/Slaughter Pact/Vendetta/Murderous Cut: Our removal needs to be as cheap as possibly to be viable alongside Lodestone Golem. Expect to be paying extra for it, but that investment is almost always worth it. Serum Visions: This is our ultimate turn one spell if you decide to run it the earlier you play it the more effective it is as it can allow us to set up our mana for a turn 3 Grand Architect or further dig for a threat. its main competition is found below: Sleight of Hand. It has the added bonus of being able to scry away extra copies of Heartless Summoning Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize: Turn 1 discard helps to protect our early engine pieces as that is when the deck is the most fragile. These are especially useful in BGx and control heavy metas.
Guide to Playing the Deck
So if you can't tell by now this deck's main plan is to play into midgame and use its versatility to keep pushing pressure while using the interacting synergies to possibly drop ridiculously early beaters such as Wurmcoil Engine to close out the game.
Opening Hand
The game starts the moment we get draw our opening hand. This is often where we can decide if we are going for an early win or a more grindy matchup. Ideally you will have 2 sources of Blue as well as 1 source of black in your opening hand so you have the ability to cast the turn 3 Grand Architect and a turn 2 Heartless summoning. Your opener should include at least 1 cost-reduction spell such as Heartless summoning or Etherium Sculptor or a way to find it (such as Serum Visions) unless you are in a matchup that you know you can afford a slow start. At least 1 threat is optimal, but it is much easier get the deck rolling when you already have the engine online and you are waiting for some business than the other way around.
**Important Note: Having a Myr Superion in your opener and no way to cast it is functionally the same as taking a mulligan because the card is completely useless unless you are a particularly lucky person. So if this is the case, take the mulligan!
In a later update I will post Several opening hands and discuss them in depth so you can get an idea for the deck.
Early Game (Turns 1-3):
Turn 3 is the most important turn for us. A slow start may cause us to Architect on turn 3 and then explode on turn 4, but otherwise you should be using turns 1 and 2 to try and make as much as possible happen on turn 3.
To summarize
turn 1: Serum Visions or Discard Spell or Tapped Land
turn 2: Heartless Summoning (and any skite/myrs you have)/Sculptor/Engineer or skite or Gint-Nest Crane
turn 3: Everything else
I have outlined a few of the many possible optimal turn 3 plays below. I could keep going for a long time, but I think you will get the idea. Just make sure you count your mana for the different possibilities so you can create the most effective board state possible.
(These are not all of the explosive turn 3 plays. Just what I could think of off the top of my head. If people think of more let me know. A list of possible lines of play is not a bad idea with all the options in these decks.)
With Turn 2 Etherium Sculptor 1UUArchitect + Metamorphs (copying Sculptor) + Wurmcoil/other 6 drop 1UUArchitect + Shackles (leaving 1 creature untapped to be able to activate Shackles) 1UUArchitect + anything else in the deck (except 6s and Sphinxes)
Midgame (Turns 4-7):
Turn 4 and on is when we have a chance to reach critical mass of efficentcy and typically close out the game in these turns. This si the most verisitle turns of our game plan and this is where our Phyrexian Metamorphs shine brightest. Being able to copy Lodestones Golem to tax the spell heavy deacks or drop a Wurmcoil Engine against the creature heavy this is the most skill intensive area of our deck. This is when we often run into the issues of overextending and learnign what is overextending and what isn't is a skill that you only get from playing the deck over and over and learning from your mistakes.
Matchups
Here’s where you want to talk about how your deck interacts with the meta game. Does it prey on the little interaction of modern? Maybe punishes greedy mana decks with cards like Blood Moon? Explain its match ups and if it is good or not and why.
Death’s Shadow Grixis
Game 1 Post-board Death’s Shadow Jund
Game 1 Post-board Burn
Game 1 Post-board Bant Eldrazi
Game 1 Post-board Affinity
Game 1 :rate: Post-board Eldratron
Game 1 Post-board :rate: Abzan
Game 1 Post-board RG Valakut
Game 1 Post-board Gx Tron
Game 1 Post-board Jund
Game 1 Post-board Merfolk
Game 1 Post-board Grixis Delver
Game 1 Post-board Abzan CoCo/Evolution
Game 1 Post-board Grixis Control
Game 1 Post-board Infect
Game 1 Post-board Ad Nauseam
Game 1 Post-board Jeskai Control
Game 1 Post-board Dredge
Game 1 Post-board Revolt Zoo
Game 1 Post-board Elves
Game 1 Post-board Sun and Moon
Game 1 Post-board UR GiftStorm
Game 1 Post-board Eldrazi&Taxes
Game 1 Post-board Lantern Control
Game 1 Post-board Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1 Post-board
Sideboarding and Alternate Card Choices
This is the section for you to go into recommended sideboards, and other cards to think about when building this deck. Explain what matches these cards are good for, and whether it’s a better main deck choice or sideboard choice.
One thing to note is we have access to Trinket Mage which is a huge card to be reminded about as we can play a single copy of trinkets (artifacts cmc 1 or less) as Trinket mage will be copies 2 and 3 typically. Please note that this is a working list and will consdtantly be updated based on new card options. Old options will remain on the list becasue sometimes you need to go back to move foward.
CMC 0 Chalice of the Void: We need 1 copy at minimum in our sideboard. We tend to play minimal 1 cmc spells we can set this to 1 and basically get rid of most creature removal in the format (Lightning bolt, Fatal push, Path to exile). Further it counters Death Shadow and other 1 drop creatures that are pormonate threats for many teir 1 decks. Just remember we have to be the ones to call the counter effect on the spell.
Engineered Explosives: Again this is typically a 1 of in our sideboards as we are a 2 color deck by default which means we can clear most prominent threats like Goyf or Merfolk lords which can help us shore up many matchups.
Walking Ballista: This guy is a tank figurativly and kinda literally. While he is a sort of nonbo with Heartless summoning he can be really fun as it provides an end game for use around Ensnaring bridge and further can nuke out creatures if needed. We should play atleast 2 in the mainboard or sideboard.
CMC 1
Basilisk Collar: This little collar can turn all our things into miniWurmcoil engines which when you are head or behind against creature decks is huge.
Grafdigger's cage: this guy shuts down Chord, Coco, and reanimator decks liek none other. It also should be noted it can stop Past in flames storm. Its a strong card and is a good source of grave removal.
Nihil Spellbomb: One of our other grave removal options. While it may not stop the search from coco and such it does exile the graveyard so we can make Snapcaster mage or Delver creatures much harder to use. I would recommend using 2 copies of some grave removal.
Pithing Needle: the only trinket we should have atleast 1 to 2 copies of in our sideboard. This can shut down Ad nauseum[/c] storm by naming Lightning storm further it stops planeswalkers, many creatures, fetch lands and more. It is one of the few cards that will come in to the deck after nearly every matchup. Look to see a more detailed guide on pithing needle later.
CMC 2
Ratchet Bomb: a budget replacement for Enigneered Explosives. While it might be slower it is also less mana intensive and more flexible after cast. Can be used as a replacemnt for EE but can't be trinket maged.
CMC 3
Vedalken Shackles: Shackles make for some of the most frustating combat math for opponents and further maybe one of the few cards in the sideboard options that really takes practice on how to best use it.
Trinket mage: This is 2 to 3 copies at minimum. He fetches all our trinkets and allows us to only play 1 copy of each trinket while functionally having several of each as he makes copies 2-4 depending on how many you play. Also note he can fetch Darksteel citadel from the main board.
Filigree Familiar: Our little fox buddy who keeps alive against burn and other hyper aggro decks. he gives us a bit of life to help offset our manabase damage and further provides a blocker against goblin guide and other creatures.
Kira, great glass-spinner: This guy make Spellskite a freaking nightmare to deal with and makes spot removal much harder to use. Note that it does prevent us from using tezzeret's -1 ability.
CMC 4
Yahenni's Expertise: Our Wrath and out against token and elf decks. the reason we run this is that we can drop Myr superion off our wrath spell which is juts gravy.
Dodecapod: A nice awnser to discard that fights over this spot with Nephalia Academy While it isnt nessicary to run a copy it is helpful if your meta is discard happy.
Sorry for the late tournament report. So I ended placing 9th by .2 points so I was mildly salty by the end of the tournament but it gave our deck very strong publicity. This was a $1.1K tournament at a new store in the Cities in Minnesota called Lodestone Coffee and Games. So its very aptly named that Lodestone Golem was probably #1 performer in my games. The tournament had 68 players so we played 6 rounds of swiss.
I did change up my decklist right before the games and i also messed with the sidebaord prior. here is what I ran:
Game two:
I don’t remember what happened game two other than he slammed a doubling season turn 3 via dorks and then dropped a nahri, the Harbinger which ulted into an Emerkul on turn 4.
Game three:
Game three was fantastic for me. Turn 1 Serum visioned a Crane to the top and then dropped the Chalice of the Void onto the field for X=1 killing his dorks and Nissa’s oath. I then Proceeded to drop a crane to grab a lodestone. Then I dropped an architect next turn and slowly beat him down with my crane as he had plant tokens to block for days.
Game 3: He ended up mulling to 4 as he said he didn’t get lands. I proceeded to land a turn 2 Heartless Summoning into 2 Myr Superions and a Spellskite. I proceeded to land a lodestone and that secured the win.
Round 3: Grixis Delver 2-0
Game 1: So I don’t remember these games very well so I apologize. All I remember was getting a sphinx chain going via Grand Architect wrecking his insectile aberration.
Game 2: Had to mull to 4 but couldn’t deal with a turn 3 lodestone golem into metamorph copy of golem. He scooped on turn 3.
Round 5: Infect: 1-2
Game 1: He landed a forest into Glistener elf. I follow up with a visions into a 3rd land for hand and then got to put a crand and architect on top. I dropped a heartless summoning into Spellskite. He dropped a Noble Hierarch and a Inkmoth Nexus. I blocked his glistener with skite bringing him to a 0/1. Next turn I was able to drop the architect and pump out a Myr Superion. He dropped a blighted agent and hit me for 2 infect from the Inkmoth Nexus. I followed that up with a Tezzeret turning my skite into 2/2 rather than the 0/1. And I beat in for 5 which was surprising to me. I got slammed with more infect next turn putting me to 4 infect. Next turn I got to use Tezz’s +1 putting a lodestone into my hand. I dropped a heartless summoningand then landed Crane into a metamorph into 2 lodestones via the metamorph and beat in for more damage and ended taking the game from there.
Game 3: I drew all lands but my opener was 3 lands 2 skites, myr superion, and heartless summoning. He had both his nature’s claims and his Viridian corrupter to clean me out on turn 5.
Round 6: American Delver 0-2
Started with the hand of 2 lands, heartless summoning, spellskite, 1 superion and a tezzeret. I proceed watch my opponent bolt my spell skite and hit me with 3 flipped delvers while I drew no lands.
Round 2: So when I get mana screwed you’d think after shuffling Id get a decent time. Nope and ended up drawing all lands while he used 3 Path to exiles to clean out my Myr Superions and then I proceeded to just draw lands.
So I ended the tournament with 13 points with a 60% win rate and got 9th by a .2% winrate… That means I lost by one match in game 1…
Anywho my overall notes:
Glint-Nest Crane: I love this card. I think I’m going to try getting 4 in the main deck and keep 3 serum visons as I wound they both helped my consistency but I rathered seeing a glint-nest crane in my hand turn 1 than a serum visions as it allowed me to save some life or play a come into play tapped land turn 1 so I could stay on curve.
I felt that the manabase was reliable but I didn’t shuffle enough towards the end. I should have been pile shuffling between each game. The last few games were an issue with the mana base but the rest of the tourney was fantastic.
The sideboard was decent. I missed having my thorn of Amethysts for delver matchups but Chalice of the Void has been very strong replacement. I feel like I may add a 3rd Trinket Mage to the sideboard so I can search out the 1 cmc or less artifacts that clean up the opposing decks.
Sorry you barely missed top 8 there, but you still made a good showing with the deck and just had some bad luck in the last two rounds. I can't wait to get back to the Land o' Lakes and take my own trip to the Lodestone mecca.
First of all, I think you forgot to list one card in the SB. Engineered Explosives maybe?
My main question is how do you feel about doing a 4/1 split between metamorph and sphinx? I have been also allotting 5 slots to them, but with a 3/2 split for a more reliable tutoring and consistent sphinx chains.
Secondly, would you consider playing Expedition Map in the side to help find GQs and AR when you need them?
Also, I am 100% going to start testing out GLint-Nest Cranes in place of Visions. They really seem to do everything we want in digging and being blue.
On the metamorph split: I have found as good as the Sphinx Chain is, I often can't afford the lifeloss that is requires more times than not with how aggressive the meta is. I still find I draw the sphinx and use it when I get it but I don't feel the sphinx chain is a strong as it used to be back during eldrazi winter. I am currnelty trying out 2 of them in place of my last Serum visions currently.
On Expedition Map: I feel while it helps tutor these up, i am running 3 Ghost Quarter and I draw them reliably enough to not need the tutoring.
Glint-Nest is a fantastic card and I have already moved my list into having 4 main board. Below is my currently list:
One of my favorite things about this deck lately is how often you can survive an Emrakul attack and then come back and win the game.
But for more constructive conversation. I have been a little hesitant ever since I started running Superions again but they have been performing so well and they give us an edge in so many matchups.
Also I am considering running a third Tezz. The card draw engine alone is already pretty good and he frequently is the main force keeping me ahead of my opponents, especially in grindy matches.
Yes. I love that momenet you get hit with an emerkul and you go to 2 lands and an Grand architect or Heartless Summoning and then just slam a wurmcoil engine or Batterskull in earlier builds so regain your life and stabilize again.
I felt the same way with superions and then again Glint-nest Crane but they both have pushed the deck from a midrange deck into the realms of an aggro deck in certain matchups.
I also have been thinking about another tezzeret, agent of bolas but ever since I decided to play 4 Glint-nest cranes I have found the etb trigger from them is a tezzy ability which is really nice and makes me want another tezzy more.
IF I do add a 3rd Tezz some changes I'm thinking about:
+1 Darksteel Citadel: being able to have a 3rd tezzy means I can get my 5/5 indestructible beater more often so I feel I may add one more in place of a Ghost Quarter.
Moving Dismembers to sideboard and mainboaring Vedalken Shackles to the mainboard as I can turn them into a creature but further it increases our density of artifacts so less wiffing.
Game Report
So tonight was a local modern night so I went to play it was 10 man with 3 rounds.
Game two: slammed a wurmcoil turn 3 and jsut wrecked him from there.
Game three: we hit a board stallmate and i attacked after doing bad math to lose the game.
Round 2: Jund 2/0
Game 1: Landed a turn 2 heartless into 3 Myr Superions on the play. Needless to say the turn 3 was 2 metamorphs secured that game with out much debate.
Game 2: Turn 3 lodestone golem into a metamorphed lodestone making him tap out to remove one with terminate I followed up with another lodestone and metamorph to take the game.
Round 3: Esper Control
Game 1: He tapped out on turn 3 to land a Giest of St. Traft which I responded with a Lodestone Golem which blocked it with my Glint-nest Crane blocking the angle token. Then he tapped out for a batterskull in which I metamorphed twice and he scooped.
Game 2: I landed a turn 2 heartless on the play which led to a spellskite and myr superion. then on turn 3 had my Grand Architectremanded but I dropped another superion and a Glint-nest Crane for another superion. He scooped again to that.
After a rough morning of running Architect online I have a few thoughts.
First of all, I have had several games where mana was an issue. Several times I was stuck with too many colorless sources (I only run 4 so maybe I'm unlucky), one case where an early Blood Moon blanked my fetches so I was stuck on only 1 island and could not cast the three Grand Architects in my hand, and a few cases where I awkwardly drew Sunken Hollow without the 2 basics on board and that cost me a turn. For now, I'm bringing Hollows down to 2 and am strongly considering adding another Island so I am running 23 lands. I don’t think I would want to increase my colorless land count. If anything I would drop Academy Ruins for another Ghost Quarter or Darksteel Citadel. My current mana base is:
MVPs of testing lately have been Glint-Nest Crane and Spellskite. Skite is relevant in every matchup and I can’t see any reason to not run 4 Skites in the MB, afterall I end up bringing my 4th in from the side every single time anyway. Glint-Nest Crane is an amazing blocker, evasive attacker, and keeps our hand fueled with beaters and helps us dig for SB cards. I am going to start playing 4 of these as well.
I understand choosing to play more Etherium Sculptors in place of Chief Engineers to try maxxing out our artifact count for crane but engineer is just too much better in my mind because it can cast Myr Superion so much more easily than sculptor. Artifact loading is not worth getting myrs stuck in your hand in my mind and honestly I have very rarely wiffed as is. I am going to stick with my 2/2 split.
Noxious Gearhulk is awesome, but only if you can play it and then only if it has good targets. This is a low enough number of matchups that I’m moving mine to the SB and conveniently also lowering my curve.
Filligree Familiar… Lots of mixed feelings here and I know that Ulka has been expressing some dislike for the cute little fox. There are some matchups where the fox is awesome and others that are a little lackluster. I am never disappointed with drawing it, but in most cases it could be something better. It is clearly the best vs great in being a value beater vs grixis control and has an important place vs Jund because their removal only ends up giving us a new card. But the problem is that in a lot of other scenarios I either want it to be a cheap artifact creature that has some sort of removal or bounce ETB effect or a Myr Superion analogue to push the speed of the deck. The possible replacements I can think of are:
The only one on this list I really see any chance of playing is Scrapheap Scrounger and even then the inability to block seems pretty bad. I think I’ll give a shot testing out 2 scroungers in the main and 2 Filligree Familiars in the side, but my guess is that familiar will hold onto that flex spot until we get a better option printed.
Trophy Mage
2U
Creature - Human Wizard
When Trophy Mage 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 Scrap Trawler:
Scrap Trawler
3
Artifact Creature - Construct
Whenever Scrap Trawler or another artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return to your hand target artifact card in your graveyard with lesser converted mana cost.
3/2
So each one of these is viable in our list but the main two i'm excited for is Trophy Mage and Yahenni's Expertise. Both have primarily sideboard potiental and I will talk about both. Yahenni's Expertise is very much a catch-all awnser for aggro for us and it can drop Myr Superion so it is looking to replace dismember in the sideboard.
Yahenni's Expertise is awesome! A board wipe that lets us drop a Myr Superion is going to be really good. As you said, it works as a great catch-all versus aggro and helps us to play a controlling role in those matchups while also applying pressure. I wouldn’t go as far as to drop all instant speed removal (Dismember and co.) from the 75, because this does not answer infect very well and I don’t want to be caught without an instant speed kill spell for turn 3. This does little to nothing against most of the midrange/control decks in the format aside from the bonus of removing Lingering Souls tokens, but I am looking forward to having serious game against merfolk. Those matches were always painful.
Trophy Mage has some sweet implications for the SB that you have covered pretty well. I would just like to add the thought of tutoring that 1of Staff of Domination for when you have Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Grand Architect in play and you feel like you would enjoy infinite life, infinite mana, and want to draw your deck
Scrap Trawler is intriguing but I don’t think it’s what we want in the 3 cmc slot. They unfortunately shot down the combo potential by adding the “lesser converted mana cost” clause. But it could still be a power house in some sort of grindy sacrifice engine. This + Smuggler’s Copter may make me reconsider my old janky Disciple of Deceit toolbox brew that I have always been tempted to try out….
So overall, I am by far the most excited for Yahenni’s Expertise because it 100% has a place as at least a 2of in the 75 and will significantly improve several bad matchups. Trophy Mage will be very fun to play with and I will gladly pick up a playset of the promos to add to my collection of other fancy artifactwizards.
The most notable thing is probably that I have dropped Wurmcoil Engine, Sphinx Summoner, and Noxious Gearhulk from the list. The idea here is lowering the curve. The meta has been speeding up considerably. According to MtgGoldfish, of the 10 decks that hold a meta share of >3%, the only non-aggro decks are Jund, GW Tron, and Lantern Control. This list was an attempt to lower our higher-than-average curve and add a little more interaction with quick decks.
I opted for faster removal and shackles split between the MB and the SB in place of Gearhulk, because he only almost always comes down too late and if we are playing the hulk, then we are either already going to win or in a long grindy board stall and there are better things we could have doing with the rest of the game.
Scrapheap Scrounger has been performing surprisingly well. Yes, I am hoping for a good replacement, but the robot is aggressive and it also plays out nicely in several scenarios where I drop it turn 2 and then tap it with either Architect or Engineer for a powerful turn 3. That being said, there are several matchups where I side them out immediately.
I have been liking Academy Ruins less and less the more I play with this deck. It shines in grindy board stalls which we can find ourselves in vs BGx and control decks, but i feel like we would rather be going underneath them instead of playing their own game.
I miss chaining sphinxes and tutoring answers, but I think a lot of time they come down a turn too late in the current meta. If it ever swings more towards control, i think I would want them more. But for now I am trying out a list without them.
Wurmcoil Engine was the hardest cut to make. This is just a test to see how the deck performs on a significantly lower curve and with engineer I am finding more scenarios where I can play it turn 3, but more often than not it comes down turn 4-6 and does not help us in the early turns at all which are the most critical to our survival. If Aether Revolt gives us a really aggresive 1-3 drop artifact, then I could definitely see tabling Wurmocoil completely.
with some adaptations, like Glint-Nest Crane, i like so much how this card can filter, attacking and block.
but my doubt is about how Lodestone Golem can act, yes taxing the opponent is very strong, but when you need to cast your non-artifact spells? most time would to cast him early to break opponent, but it can breake you curve, guess
and other thing .. the -1 of heartless int he skite, make him bolt vunerable, it dont make fragile and lost some efficience?
Foundry Inspector in this case, for use only generic mana can be an option vs Scultor even not being blue
After a rough morning of running Architect online I have a few thoughts.
First of all, I have had several games where mana was an issue. Several times I was stuck with too many colorless sources (I only run 4 so maybe I'm unlucky), one case where an early Blood Moon blanked my fetches so I was stuck on only 1 island and could not cast the three Grand Architects in my hand, and a few cases where I awkwardly drew Sunken Hollow without the 2 basics on board and that cost me a turn. For now, I'm bringing Hollows down to 2 and am strongly considering adding another Island so I am running 23 lands. I don’t think I would want to increase my colorless land count. If anything I would drop Academy Ruins for another Ghost Quarter or Darksteel Citadel. My current mana base is:
MVPs of testing lately have been Glint-Nest Crane and Spellskite. Skite is relevant in every matchup and I can’t see any reason to not run 4 Skites in the MB, afterall I end up bringing my 4th in from the side every single time anyway. Glint-Nest Crane is an amazing blocker, evasive attacker, and keeps our hand fueled with beaters and helps us dig for SB cards. I am going to start playing 4 of these as well.
I understand choosing to play more Etherium Sculptors in place of Chief Engineers to try maxxing out our artifact count for crane but engineer is just too much better in my mind because it can cast Myr Superion so much more easily than sculptor. Artifact loading is not worth getting myrs stuck in your hand in my mind and honestly I have very rarely wiffed as is. I am going to stick with my 2/2 split.
Noxious Gearhulk is awesome, but only if you can play it and then only if it has good targets. This is a low enough number of matchups that I’m moving mine to the SB and conveniently also lowering my curve.
Filligree Familiar… Lots of mixed feelings here and I know that Ulka has been expressing some dislike for the cute little fox. There are some matchups where the fox is awesome and others that are a little lackluster. I am never disappointed with drawing it, but in most cases it could be something better. It is clearly the best vs great in being a value beater vs grixis control and has an important place vs Jund because their removal only ends up giving us a new card. But the problem is that in a lot of other scenarios I either want it to be a cheap artifact creature that has some sort of removal or bounce ETB effect or a Myr Superion analogue to push the speed of the deck. The possible replacements I can think of are:
The only one on this list I really see any chance of playing is Scrapheap Scrounger and even then the inability to block seems pretty bad. I think I’ll give a shot testing out 2 scroungers in the main and 2 Filligree Familiars in the side, but my guess is that familiar will hold onto that flex spot until we get a better option printed.
The manabase is something I know we talked about earlier but I agree with adjusting the colorless sources as we value the blue more than anything. I currently adjusted out my Academy Ruins to the sideboard as it only really shines in certain match-ups and allows me to play an additional Island. This has really helped in my past few games and allows me have a better match-up against the more linear decks that infect our meta... (im sorry that was a bad pun).
I agree with the sentiment that Glint-nest Crane and Spellskite are our strongest cards currently. These cards have proven to be huge in many match-ups. From stealing the pump spells from infect to hitting walkers during a ground stall they both have proven themselves as key cards to the deck. I'm still not 100% sure on a 4th skite in the mainboard as of now but I agree it should be 3 or 4 in the current meta depending on how you want to take the deck.
I feel the Etherium Sculptor vs Chief Engineer is a debate that we are going to have for a long time as both have their merits but in vastly different ways.
Etherium Sculptor
1. Is an artifact: this helps us keep a higher density when we Tezzy or glint nest which is huge. Also he can be -1ed by Tezzy to become huge late game when we stall out.
2. His passive ability works with grand Architect's to allow for a 3 mana reduction just by himself.
Chief Engineer
1. Can power out Myr Superion easier: this allows us to slam a more aggressive board plan earlier which is always nice.
2. Has an addition toughness: this can when paired with Grand Architect can make him bolt proof.
Let me know if I missed any points on either but I personally like the ability to have 3 mana reduction of Sculptor and not have Engineer's ability negated by having a Grand Architect out.
Filigree Familiar has been up for a lot of debate between us. I personally love him sideboard as in the zoo/burn match-up we have a blocker that gains us life and nets us Card advantage which really helps in that match-up but otherwise I feel is a bit weak in most match-ups. I know you are trying Scrapheap but I personally have added Serum Visions to help consistency in its place which I have been very happy with.
The same can be said about Noxious Gearhulk: I love him in midrange match-ups where we can grind games out as his Menace makes for very nice swings but I agree he isn't Mainboard material especially with Dredge being a big of a player in this metagame. Mine has been placed in the sideboard and I love him here as he is a better Duplicant which is always nice.
The most notable thing is probably that I have dropped Wurmcoil Engine, Sphinx Summoner, and Noxious Gearhulk from the list. The idea here is lowering the curve. The meta has been speeding up considerably. According to MtgGoldfish, of the 10 decks that hold a meta share of >3%, the only non-aggro decks are Jund, GW Tron, and Lantern Control. This list was an attempt to lower our higher-than-average curve and add a little more interaction with quick decks.
I opted for faster removal and shackles split between the MB and the SB in place of Gearhulk, because he only almost always comes down too late and if we are playing the hulk, then we are either already going to win or in a long grindy board stall and there are better things we could have doing with the rest of the game.
Scrapheap Scrounger has been performing surprisingly well. Yes, I am hoping for a good replacement, but the robot is aggressive and it also plays out nicely in several scenarios where I drop it turn 2 and then tap it with either Architect or Engineer for a powerful turn 3. That being said, there are several matchups where I side them out immediately.
I have been liking Academy Ruins less and less the more I play with this deck. It shines in grindy board stalls which we can find ourselves in vs BGx and control decks, but i feel like we would rather be going underneath them instead of playing their own game.
I miss chaining sphinxes and tutoring answers, but I think a lot of time they come down a turn too late in the current meta. If it ever swings more towards control, i think I would want them more. But for now I am trying out a list without them.
Wurmcoil Engine was the hardest cut to make. This is just a test to see how the deck performs on a significantly lower curve and with engineer I am finding more scenarios where I can play it turn 3, but more often than not it comes down turn 4-6 and does not help us in the early turns at all which are the most critical to our survival. If Aether Revolt gives us a really aggresive 1-3 drop artifact, then I could definitely see tabling Wurmocoil completely.
So I maybe weird but I really have been loving having Veldaken Shackles Mainboard and my Black removal sideboard. I have found Shackles makes more decks play nervously which is good for us while the black removal is better in the infect match-up it seems.
I can understand dropping Sphinx Summoner and Noxious Gearhulkbut I think dropping Wurmcoil Engine is a huge mistake. Wurm is our main plan against most decks and honestly is the only reason I win most of my games that are close. He is too powerful with his 6 life swap that he gives us. Further he may eat removal a lot but we still most of the time get our tokens which I would play him just if he dropped the tokens. I think
Coil is something you should have sideboard at minimum as he does wonders in many aggressive match-ups such as Dredge and Burn if we can resolve him. I like him so much I have been debating on adding a 3rd Coil.
with some adaptations, like Glint-Nest Crane, I like so much how this card can filter, attacking and block.
but my doubt is about how Lodestone Golem can act, yes taxing the opponent is very strong, but when you need to cast your non-artifact spells? most time would to cast him early to break opponent, but it can breake you curve, guess
and other thing .. the -1 of heartless in the skite, make him bolt vunerable, it dont make fragile and lost some efficience?
Foundry Inspector in this case, for use only generic mana can be an option vs Sculptor even not being blue
Welcome Ghgiunco to the Heartless Thread.
I do enjoy that decklist that the articles runs however I find it is weaker than the lodestone build. Lodestone Golem offers us an aggro plan that taxes and slows the opponents while we can keep slamming our stuff as lodestone primarily taxes our Tezzerets, Serum visions, and Grand Architect all of which can wait to be played or in the later twos case can be payed for as they offer enough to our game-plan to pay for the tax.
The big thing with his Tax is that the main card that becomes 'unplayeable' due to the tax is Tezzeret which we want to hold back anyway as he offers us advantage if they can deal with our lodestones. Pluse with Lodestones and Metamorphs we can often timewalk them as lodestones cost minimal for us if we have a combination of heartless summoning and Grand Architect out.
As for Skite, yes he is fragile but its still alright as if he eats a bolt instead of lodestone or Architect he has done his job.
The reason we don't run Foundry Inspector is he can't be tapped by Grand Architect for 2 mana in addition. That lack of an ability is huge as that is what allows us to power out our stuff and the bit more power doesn't even compare to that lack of an ability.
Sorry if I am a bit harsh on Foundry Inspector, I had some poor testing with him and im still kinda bitter about it
dont worry to be "bit harsh" hahah i dont care, i want to learn more and more, to play other styles .. this is my current list, if i have some luck is this: (except SB i dont list by laziness, will update soon
this deck give games from merfolk, death and taxes, ad nauseam, Through the Breach. but whenever I ell can improve the list.
heartless is a build a always wanted to play, and mix with transmuter, my favorite card, make it mor strong, i visit every thread about architect, master and heartless, and enjoy all tips can i get from.
My points:
Wanderer can make a early interruption with Architect as a pseudo Spellpierce
The tezz seekertutoring work really well, find a Ensnaring Bridge or when sideborded a Torpor Orb, or a Transmuter instead keep alive.
Master + Greveas just can won game turn 4 or simple give you Tempo, controlling board.
skite shine anyway with no need mor details.
Architect ramps really well and bomb ur sphinx.
hope this dicussion dont die from here, wait more tips from you
Oh discussion won't die here. I'm very open to discussion various versions of the deck that focus on Grand Architect and Heartless summoning.
Personally I feel you deck is a bit too unfocused. I would hone it down a bit and try to increase numbers. If I was to run the list I would go with something Like this:
I would do this to add more consistency and the one Card i really like in these builds is Parasitic Strix as he is a cheap caster with heartless or Architect out and is one you would love to bounce to Transmuter as you can recast and siphon off some more life.
First thing I would say, i forgot before, you make me a mana base, i guess my base was very sick as well nice suggestion starting here.
Rly like you lost your time to make a list, tks.
Parasitic Strix makes me thinking like 2in1 cards, love this type, and is blue, tap for 2 manas too, its nice, but, and about Filigree Familiar can make this too and a card advantage too ?
life, draw, can be returned, is cheap with both engine of deck.
Ensnaring Bridge is a auto-win innumerous matches to see it out the list, can be transmuted beat and do it again, when you flood or have a creature is hard to deal like ulamogs (indestrutible this @#$%$) hahah
I buy heartless in store and waiting to arrive. excited for this
The manabase was just a quick toss at it. I've gotten decent at the primary mana base but it takes time to develop the manabase you want for the deck.
I feel like you could run a split of both Familar and Strix or just toss 8 copies in with heartless and Architect to make for 1 mana or U mana drops that just give you breathing room.
why we dont have a blue drop 1 like Kraken Hatchling, he can block things like a .. guide .. and turn 3 can play something like treasure mage + wurmcoil + greveas or a creature up to 8 CMC
Alright I’ve missed a lot on here but I’ll try to respond to everything. I apologize in advance for the novel I’m about to write but hopefully I don’t ramble too much. @Ulka
I feel the Etherium Sculptor vs Chief Engineer is a debate that we are going to have for a long time as both have their merits but in vastly different ways.
Etherium Sculptor
1. Is an artifact: this helps us keep a higher density when we Tezzy or glint nest which is huge. Also he can be -1ed by Tezzy to become huge late game when we stall out.
2. His passive ability works with grand Architect's to allow for a 3 mana reduction just by himself.
Chief Engineer
1. Can power out Myr Superion easier: this allows us to slam a more aggressive board plan earlier which is always nice.
2. Has an addition toughness: this can when paired with Grand Architect can make him bolt proof.
Let me know if I missed any points on either but I personally like the ability to have 3 mana reduction of Sculptor and not have Engineer's ability negated by having a Grand Architect out.
I vote we agree to disagree about this question for right now. I think we are both playing splits of each of these so it’s really only a discussion around changing 1 card or so between the two. We can really delve into this another time.
So I maybe weird but I really have been loving having Veldaken Shackles Mainboard and my Black removal sideboard. I have found Shackles makes more decks play nervously which is good for us while the black removal is better in the infect match-up it seems.
I understand this sentiment, but frankly I almost always need the speed of the black removal spells in the current meta. When so much of the meta is dominated by decks that 9 times out of 10 are faster than us, we need quick answers and we also need our ability to use those answers to not be impeded by disruption. I don’t want to rely on one of our vedalkens to make Vedalken Shackles fast enough to keep me alive. Additionally, I think I am finally deciding that I like Slaughter Pact the best out of the removal spells because of the 0 cmc but it does occasionally come out a turn or two too slow, so I will still keep 1 Dismember somewhere in the 75
I can understand dropping Sphinx Summoner and Noxious Gearhulkbut I think dropping Wurmcoil Engine is a huge mistake. Wurm is our main plan against most decks and honestly is the only reason I win most of my games that are close. He is too powerful with his 6 life swap that he gives us. Further he may eat removal a lot but we still most of the time get our tokens which I would play him just if he dropped the tokens. I think
Coil is something you should have sideboard at minimum as he does wonders in many aggressive match-ups such as Dredge and Burn if we can resolve him. I like him so much I have been debating on adding a 3rd Coil.
The Wurmcoil Engine concern is real and I completely understand that. Powering really punishes aggro decks and also helps in some of our longer grindier matchups. I am only testing not having them in the list and I am doing for the sole purpose of lowering the curve. The way that this deck operates, it almost always needs to have engine pieces in order to power out larger threats. That is great because it goes over most decks, but unlike Tron, our engine pieces are much easier to interact with and a large amount of the time they will not sit around for more than a turn. That means that you want to be playing a threat the same turn that you are playing your engine piece (which just so happens to be my biggest issue with Etherium Sculptor) and this is something that is not guaranteed with Wurmcoil Engine. Until I can guarantee turn 3 Wurmcoil Engines or the modern metagame slows down, I think we should keep thinking about dropping our 6 drops as an option.
Update on Scrapheap Scrounger: The little robot is a great threat against control and it also works great alongside Chief Engineer to pay convoke costs. The pressure it adds in many games is also useful. But overall it still feels like a filler card while I wait for a replacement 1 or 2 cost artifact creature like a Myr Superion or a playable Lupine Prototype.
@ghgiunco
Good to hear from you again and I’m sorry that your Master Transmuter thread hasn’t taken off yet. Continuing from my posts in there and emphasizing what Ulka has said, the first thing I would do is consolidate your wincons. That means pick the big artifacts that you think are the best and realistically win you the most games and put several copies of those in instead of running 1 of each.
with some adaptations, like Glint-Nest Crane, i like so much how this card can filter, attacking and block.
but my doubt is about how Lodestone Golem can act, yes taxing the opponent is very strong, but when you need to cast your non-artifact spells? most time would to cast him early to break opponent, but it can breake you curve, guess
and other thing .. the -1 of heartless int he skite, make him bolt vunerable, it dont make fragile and lost some efficience?
Foundry Inspector in this case, for use only generic mana can be an option vs Scultor even not being blue
I think the main thing to consider from that article is that it was written in 2011 and at that time, modern was a significantly slower format at that time. I know I keep harping on the speed of the format, but I think that is its defining feature at the moment (in the past it has been more combo heavy), but I digress. The optimal play in that deck is a turn 2 Heartless Summoning into a turn 3 Master Transmuter and then you still have to wait a turn to activate it unless you have found some way to get a Lightning Greaves into play before that. So, the main thing I would work on is finding what cards (like Grand Architect) make your deck faster and more consistent.
Ulka covered Lodestone Golem pretty well and I have discussed this card at length in the Grand Architect thread in the past. The most I will say at this time is that if you haven’t tried playing with it, you should. A lot of people need some convincing, but once they start playing the golem, the never stop.
The 3 toughness on Spellskite when you have a Heartless Summoning in play can be a real bummer. Just as you said, it makes it vulnerable to bolt, but the thing to keep in mind is that it still plays the role of a lightning rod and pulls away removal from taking out higher value targets like Grand Architect, Lodestone Golem or Tezzeret.
I agree with Ulka that Foundry Inspector is not worth it. It is at its best during a Sphinxchain when you want to cast a cost reduction ability but you only have access to colorless mana, but otherwise it is an overcosted nonblue Etherium Sculptor which is already, in my opinion, the worst enabler we have in our deck.
Ensnaring Bridge is a auto-win innumerous matches to see it out the list, can be transmuted beat and do it again, when you flood or have a creature is hard to deal like ulamogs (indestrutible this @#$%$) hahah
Not gonna lie, this Master Transmuter/Ensnaring Bridge tech is awesome. I think this plus the [c]Epserzoa[/s] that you mentioned could make for a really cool deck. I think I’ll work on putting that together. It sounds wayyy too much fun for me to pass up at least making an a attempt at it.
why we dont have a blue drop 1 like Kraken Hatchling, he can block things like a .. guide .. and turn 3 can play something like treasure mage + wurmcoil + greveas or a creature up to 8 CMC
I think that Torpor Orb/Eater of Days is cool but not good enough to be modern playable. The main reason I have for that is that without Torpor Orb, Eater of Days is really really bad. Skipping two turns is basically conceding, because your opponent will win in that time. Now, if Splinter Twin was still around I would consider Torpor Orb as an option and then a case could be made to play a few Eater of Days and Trickbinds but currently it is too difficult to guarantee getting that specific combo in play.
@VariousBoots
Tks too return, remeber/responde me hahah
Lets start at beggin, ill make some points of views now...
I konw about the date of the article, in the press i expressed myself wrong, or little. missed to say , need the date adapt
when i see Heartless summoning i like this so much interessant, the interaction, and some days ago e find an youtube video with a stream video, and someone play a deck Heartless artifatc, but dont have list, and i dont know the real date.
fact can i note: he dont use Grand Architect, dont know why. but use transmuter (the match vs scape***** he makes a turn 4 plat + greveas )
Off course the plain is to use.
But i see Mulldrifiters act here, and i like de 2 draws for 1. if we have any type of blink (omg)
know why, but i dont like the ideia to play more Sculptor or Chief Engineer, likes so redundant, they can be replace for mor draw or maybe Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize or even a Harsh Scrutiny here, why not ?
make my considerations:
Ethersworn Canonist ( + greveas).. this little simply do a lot of work in too many cases ( today an ad nauseam, have to conceed because turno 2 skite, turn 3 Glist find canonnist.
althought we dont have drop 1 ... my questin include Kraken .. even knowing this not good was a try, why not hahah
wizards really a troll, we dont have any good Drop 1 blue, i know
Torpor Orb/Eater of Days just "appear"" in my dream, i just need to share this, but seens funy if happens.
and Steel Hellkite, have any mension about ? if i lost it , sry
I completely understand that you are making a more modern version of the deck from that article (sorry for the bad pun) and I like all of the steps that you have made already in raising its competiveness. I think Grand Architect is a really good first step in increasing its consistency.
Mulldrifter is a great card to consider for these types of decks, especially with how cheap it is alongside Heartless Summoning but there in the lists that Ulka and I have been playing, there is very little room for cards that do not fit directly into our game plan. The only card slot I could see it contending with is Serum Visions and then Mulldrifter cannot be played turn 1 which is a huge strike against it. Additionally, I think that Glint-Nest Crane fulfills the same purpose as Mulldrifter but it gives us better card selection (I would rather draw 1 artifact than 2 lands) and can be played turn 2.
The reason we play some number of Etherium Sculptor and Chief Engineer is for consistency. That redundancy you mentioned is actually helpful because in our case we effectively run 12 copies of cards that enable our game plan instead of 4. These could be replaced with utility cards like you mentioned, but with the heavy amount of removal that we encounter and the need to execute our game plan as early in the game as possible, I would rather play the smaller vedalken.
Ethersworn Cannonist gets brought up fairly frequently on the Grand Architect thread quite often and for a good reason. It is a very cool card and plays in well with the taxing plan we have with Lodestone Golem. I don't ever play against much Ad Nauseam but if you see a lot of it and storm, then I think it is a very good choice. It also works very well against decks like Suicide Bloo and Infect. So, if you end up testing it, I would be very interested to know how it works for you and what decks it is the best against and against which ones it isn't very helpful.
My reasoning for not including cards like Kraken Hatchling even though they fit into the amazing possibilities of having a blue 1-drop is that decks like these already have enough bad top decks. If the card is only good if it is played turn 1, then I think it will only end up hurting us more than it helps because it will be completely awful when drawn later in the game.
There is a reason why Wizards doesn't give us strong cards at {u} and it has to do with the roles that each color plays. Blue creatures do not get printed at 1cmc unless they are very fragile. What we need to cross our fingers for is something along the lines of Judge's Familiar that they give a toughness of 2 to as some sort of a buff, but I don't think we can hope for anything else.
Steel Hellkite has been discussed in the Grand Architect thread, but it hasn't been mentioned in a very long time so I'm not surprised you haven't seen any of those conversations. Steel Hellkite is an extremely powerful card alongside Grand Architect. A 5/5 flier is nothing to scoff at and its effect is a repeatable one-sided Engineered Explosives. The main problem is twofold. First, it is a 6cmc artifact and it frankly just lost when competing against Wurmcoil Engine for that slot. Other notable cards that have been played in the past but haven't made the contemporary cut include Contagion Engine and Mindslaver. The second problem with Steel Hellkite is that it's pseudo-Engineered Explosives effect doesn't really hit what we want it to hit Once we are connecting with a 5/5 firebreathing flier, the chances are we are already winning and the cards that we would most often be using its effects against are Ensnaring Bridge, Stony Silence, and Lingering Souls (amongst others) and all three of those actually prevent us from using its ability.
Not gonna lie, this Master Transmuter/Ensnaring Bridge tech is awesome. I think this plus the [c]Epserzoa[/s] that you mentioned could make for a really cool deck. I think I’ll work on putting that together. It sounds wayyy too much fun for me to pass up at least making an a attempt at it.
Mulldrifter is a great card to consider for these types of decks, especially with how cheap it is alongside Heartless Summoning but there in the lists that Ulka and I have been playing, there is very little room for cards that do not fit directly into our game plan. The only card slot I could see it contending with is Serum Visions and then Mulldrifter cannot be played turn 1 which is a huge strike against it. Additionally, I think that Glint-Nest Crane fulfills the same purpose as Mulldrifter but it gives us better card selection (I would rather draw 1 artifact than 2 lands) and can be played turn 2.
Maybe i only think in amount over quality when see Mulldrifter can do 2 draws for U .. but you`re right, the best is sack you need then 2 random, maybe by the casa Glint-Nest Crane "cheated on me" two games in sequence, when i find Architect in the fourth card (oh man) .. but eventually he gives you a nice piece.
Ethersworn Canonist gets brought up fairly frequently on the Grand Architect thread quite often and for a good reason. It is a very cool card and plays in well with the taxing plan we have with Lodestone Golem. I don't ever play against much Ad Nauseam but if you see a lot of it and storm, then I think it is a very good choice. It also works very well against decks like Suicide Bloo and Infect. So, if you end up testing it, I would be very interested to know how it works for you and what decks it is the best against and against which ones it isn't very helpful.
i dont have worlds to discrible this card, simply shines, and have tested enough to say that. Against aggro, combo, storm even against controll (you can bait a spell, to ***** out other important thing, since he played a spell, you`re freedommm) she do every we need, locks so hard the opponent, suspect to say better then Lodestone Golem althougt his power he no comparation here.
My reasoning for not including cards like Kraken Hatchling even though they fit into the amazing possibilities of having a blue 1-drop is that decks like these already have enough bad top decks. If the card is only good if it is played turn 1, then I think it will only end up hurting us more than it helps because it will be completely awful when drawn later in the game.
There is a reason why Wizards doesn't give us strong cards at {u} and it has to do with the roles that each color plays. Blue creatures do not get printed at 1cmc unless they are very fragile. What we need to cross our fingers for is something along the lines of Judge's Familiar that they give a toughness of 2 to as some sort of a buff, but I don't think we can hope for anything else.
No more to say here, really we dont have nice blue drop 1 and its end. maybe i`ll surrender to Serum Visions, been honest, never see so much value in this (missing Preordain) or discards kozilek, seize, harsh, dont know, need to test here. Your recomentation is Serum Vision right ?! and Spell Pierce for early thread ?!
I'm currently trying to have a better match-up against infect so more dismembers in the sideboard seems better than my Noxious Gearhulk plan as I found he is less useful than I had hoped.
Overview of the Deck
The historical roots of this deck are in Scars of Mirrodin/Innistrad Standard. The redundancy in both Grand Architect and Heartless Summoning being able to cast Myr Superion very early in the game sparked an artifact ramp deck that either aggro’d the opponent with these myrs and Wurmcoil Engines or Mindslaver locked its opponents. The interaction was powerful enough that it has been able to be adapted for Modern with all of the fun tools that the eternal format provides for us to improve both consistency and power.
The Modern version of Heartless Architect is a midrange synergy based deck that uses its namesake cards, Heartless Summoning and Grand Architect, and their similar analogs (Etherium Sculptor, Chief Engineer, etc.) to overwhelm the opponent with powerful artifacts. It has a variety of different ways to win whether that is straight beatdown using Wurmcoil Engine and Myr Superion, going wide by swarming the opponent with clones of Sphinx Summoner, or controlling the game with Lodestone Golem and Noxious Gearhulk.
Why to play this deck:
Sample Decklist
2 Dimir Signet
Artifact Creature (17)
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Myr Superion
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Spellskite
1 Sphinx Summoner
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Chief Engineer
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Grand Architect
3 Mulldrifter
Enchantment (3)
3 Heartless Summoning
Instant (2)
2 Dismember
Planeswalker (2)
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Polluted Delta
3 Watery Grave
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Inventors' Fair
5 Island
2 Swamp
2 Darksteel Citadel
1 Academy Ruins
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Grand Architect
2 Etherium Sculptor
3 Heartless Summoning
2 Chief Engineer
Creatures
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Myr Superion
2 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Spellskite
1 Noxious Gearhulk
2 Filigree Familiar
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Sphinx Summoner
2 Serum Visions
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Dismember
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Lands
4 Polluted Delta
4 Watery Grave
3 Sunken Hollow
6 Island
1 Swamp
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Academy Ruins
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Trinket Mage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Filigree Familiar
1 Spellskite
1 Batterskull
2 Dodecapod
2 Vedalken Shackles
1 Dismember
Card Choices
The Engine of the Deck
Heartless Summoning: It makes up 50% of the deck’s name and is one the core pieces of the deck’s engine. You could say it’s the heart of the deck but that would be too cheesy. It is the fastest of our engine pieces and leads to some of the most explosive lines of play. It helps us ramp out large threats by reducing their cost and even makes some of our smaller creatures free. The -1/-1 it adds to all of our creatures can be seen as a lot but a turn 3 or 4 5/5 Wurmcoil Engine or double 4/2 Lodestone Golem is still hard for a most decks to deal with. We can even take advantage of this drawback if we have Vedalken Shackles on this field as it allows us to just use shackles as a pseudo kill spell every turn. Yes it is amazing but you almost never want to see it in pairs. Run 2-3
Grand Architect: The card that makes up the other half of the name, this piece of the engine not only accelerates out artifacts but has 2 more relevant abilities. This Vedalken Artificer allows us to tap down our blue creature to generate 2 for our artifact spells while also proving a lord effect for our blue creatures which helps us with our game plan of beatdown. Further he has a neat little ability to turn our artifact creature blue which can in turn negate the downsides of a Heartless Summoning. Run 4
Etherium Sculptor: A cheap turn 2 artifact creature that shares a role with Heartless Summoning in enabling for turn 3 Lodestone Golem. It helps us crank our artifact creatures while also not dying to a Heartless Summoning. Also can be tapped by Grand Architect to help produce mana for our larger artifact creatures. Run 0-2
Chief Engineer: In many cases this guy sums up to mini copies of Grand Architect that comes down on turn 2 and can help cast a turn 3 Lodestone Golem. But it is those times when blue mana is unavailable to paint other artifacts blue or black mana is needed to cast Noxious Gearhulk off of a Sphinx Summoner that Chief Engineer really shines. If Wizards ever gives us a good 1 drop, this card will be a pro. Run 0-2
Foundry Inspector/Renowned Weaponsmith/Vedalken Engineer
Lodestone Golem: While he may be relatively unused in Modern, this Golem is restricted in Vintage for doing exactly what this deck does best: making him come down too early and taxing everyone else too hard. The non-artifact tax will slow down every non-affinity deck in the format while his 5/3 will continue applying pressure. Slamming down multiples is almost always an autowin. Golem is MVP: Run 4
Wurmcoil Engine: A very notable beater from the original deck, this wurm is incredibly hard to remove as it passes the Bolt test, Dismember and forces opponents to either 2 for 1 themselves in getting rid of it. Its only weakness is Path to exile. Run 1-3
Myr Superion: Everyone else plays goyf? We play Super Myr! Run 0-4
Phyrexian Metamorph: The ability to with any of the main 3 enablers come down for 2 life and clone the best thing on the field is nuts. From Wurmcoil Engine to Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, this versatility allows us to adjust our game plan on the fly and often seems to seem like we have a sideboard in game 1. Run 2-4
Sphinx Summoner: Our creature tutor that doubles as a wincon. When paired with any of a few permutations of our engine, you can chain Phyrexian Metamorphs copying Sphinx Summoner filling the battlefield with flyers. This chain often threatens lethal damage and can protect itself by following up the chain with a Spellskite or a Lodestone Golem. Untapping with a board full of sphinxes can be a turn 4 kill against unsuspecting opponents. Run 0-2
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas: This planeswalker has his own dedicated control thread which can be found here. The ability to dig for a threat or turn a Spellskite or Darksteel Citadel into a 5/5 is huge. Further, his ultimately can usually be used the turn after he is played and wins games. All 3 abilities are huge for our deck and he is really irreplaceable. Run 2-3
These are cards that I have personally tested and change from time to time depending on the metagame and how I want the deck to play. I will add more as there is more discussion on cards.
Spellskite: I strongly recommend having the full playset split between your mainboard and sideboard. Sure skite does not do a lot in terms of making the opponent dead, but the horror is free with our Heartless and it is both a strong protection piece and hate card. skite is powerful against Infect, Burn, BGx, Eldrazi, Zoo, Scapeshift, Knightfall, Nahiri Control, and even has a few tricks against Affinity (I’m looking at you Arcbound Ravager). Run 0-4
Noxious Gearhulk: Hulk smash! The black gearhulk is tutorable, removes blockers, brings our life total out of the danger zone, and is a 5/4 menace that is very happy to run into the red zone. Run 1
Filigree Familiar: Cute little robofox who unfortunately serves the purpose of being roadkill. Run 2-3
Vedalken Shackles: Serves as interaction with our opponent’s board. Grand Architect can get these online early in the game so we can steal our opponent’s creatures. Shackles also serves as repeatable removal vs 1 toughness creatures if you have a Heartless on the board. These have recently fallen out of maindeck favor for many of our pilots, but strong cases can be made for their inclusion somewhere within the 75.
Duplicant: This robot used to be our tutorable removal spell before Noxious Gearhulk but it still has a few things going for it. You may consider playing 1 in the sideboard.
Trinket Mage: Now typically a sideboard all-star for the deck, he can often can be mainboard if you want to run a package based around him. I will cover the packages later in primer.
Treasure Mage: Again another package creature who with Heartless Summoning comes down for a single U and allows us to tutor up a finisher such as Wurmcoil Engine, Mindslaver, or many others. Use him if you want to play more toolboxy midrange.
Perilous Myr: a small myr who when paired with Heartless Summoning becomes a free Shock which can be used if you feel you need more removal for small creature based decks such as Death and Taxes, Delver ect.
Dismember/Slaughter Pact/Vendetta/Murderous Cut: Our removal needs to be as cheap as possibly to be viable alongside Lodestone Golem. Expect to be paying extra for it, but that investment is almost always worth it.
Serum Visions: This is our ultimate turn one spell if you decide to run it the earlier you play it the more effective it is as it can allow us to set up our mana for a turn 3 Grand Architect or further dig for a threat. its main competition is found below: Sleight of Hand. It has the added bonus of being able to scry away extra copies of Heartless Summoning
Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize: Turn 1 discard helps to protect our early engine pieces as that is when the deck is the most fragile. These are especially useful in BGx and control heavy metas.
Guide to Playing the Deck
So if you can't tell by now this deck's main plan is to play into midgame and use its versatility to keep pushing pressure while using the interacting synergies to possibly drop ridiculously early beaters such as Wurmcoil Engine to close out the game.
Opening Hand
The game starts the moment we get draw our opening hand. This is often where we can decide if we are going for an early win or a more grindy matchup. Ideally you will have 2 sources of Blue as well as 1 source of black in your opening hand so you have the ability to cast the turn 3 Grand Architect and a turn 2 Heartless summoning. Your opener should include at least 1 cost-reduction spell such as Heartless summoning or Etherium Sculptor or a way to find it (such as Serum Visions) unless you are in a matchup that you know you can afford a slow start. At least 1 threat is optimal, but it is much easier get the deck rolling when you already have the engine online and you are waiting for some business than the other way around.
**Important Note: Having a Myr Superion in your opener and no way to cast it is functionally the same as taking a mulligan because the card is completely useless unless you are a particularly lucky person. So if this is the case, take the mulligan!
In a later update I will post Several opening hands and discuss them in depth so you can get an idea for the deck.
Early Game (Turns 1-3):
Turn 3 is the most important turn for us. A slow start may cause us to Architect on turn 3 and then explode on turn 4, but otherwise you should be using turns 1 and 2 to try and make as much as possible happen on turn 3.
To summarize
turn 1: Serum Visions or Discard Spell or Tapped Land
turn 2: Heartless Summoning (and any skite/myrs you have)/Sculptor/Engineer or skite or Gint-Nest Crane
turn 3: Everything else
I have outlined a few of the many possible optimal turn 3 plays below. I could keep going for a long time, but I think you will get the idea. Just make sure you count your mana for the different possibilities so you can create the most effective board state possible.
(These are not all of the explosive turn 3 plays. Just what I could think of off the top of my head. If people think of more let me know. A list of possible lines of play is not a bad idea with all the options in these decks.)
With Turn 2 Heartless Summoning
UUU Architect + Treasure Mage find Wurmcoil Engine/other 6 drop and cast it
UUU Architect + Etherium Sculptor + Wurmcoil Engine/other 6 drop or some combination of Metamorphs or Lodestone Golem
UUU Architect + Spellskite (turning blue) + Wurmcoil/other 6 drop
1UU Architect + Lodestone Golem + Metamorphs
UUB Etherium Sculptor + Sphinx Summoner chaining Metamorphs (2 life per Morph)
1UU Chief Engineer + Sculptor + Treasure Mage and/or 6 drop
UUB Engineer + Summoner chaining Metamorphs (2 life per Morph)
With Turn 2 Etherium Sculptor
1UU Architect + Metamorphs (copying Sculptor) + Wurmcoil/other 6 drop
1UU Architect + Shackles (leaving 1 creature untapped to be able to activate Shackles)
1UU Architect + anything else in the deck (except 6s and Sphinxes)
Midgame (Turns 4-7):
Turn 4 and on is when we have a chance to reach critical mass of efficentcy and typically close out the game in these turns. This si the most verisitle turns of our game plan and this is where our Phyrexian Metamorphs shine brightest. Being able to copy Lodestones Golem to tax the spell heavy deacks or drop a Wurmcoil Engine against the creature heavy this is the most skill intensive area of our deck. This is when we often run into the issues of overextending and learnign what is overextending and what isn't is a skill that you only get from playing the deck over and over and learning from your mistakes.
Matchups
Here’s where you want to talk about how your deck interacts with the meta game. Does it prey on the little interaction of modern? Maybe punishes greedy mana decks with cards like Blood Moon? Explain its match ups and if it is good or not and why.
Death’s Shadow Grixis
Game 1 Post-board
Death’s Shadow Jund
Game 1 Post-board
Burn
Game 1 Post-board
Bant Eldrazi
Game 1 Post-board
Affinity
Game 1 :rate: Post-board
Eldratron
Game 1 Post-board :rate:
Abzan
Game 1 Post-board
RG Valakut
Game 1 Post-board
Gx Tron
Game 1 Post-board
Jund
Game 1 Post-board
Merfolk
Game 1 Post-board
Grixis Delver
Game 1 Post-board
Abzan CoCo/Evolution
Game 1 Post-board
Grixis Control
Game 1 Post-board
Infect
Game 1 Post-board
Ad Nauseam
Game 1 Post-board
Jeskai Control
Game 1 Post-board
Dredge
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Revolt Zoo
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Elves
Game 1 Post-board
Sun and Moon
Game 1 Post-board
UR GiftStorm
Game 1 Post-board
Eldrazi&Taxes
Game 1 Post-board
Lantern Control
Game 1 Post-board
Griselbrand Reanimator
Game 1 Post-board
Sideboarding and Alternate Card Choices
This is the section for you to go into recommended sideboards, and other cards to think about when building this deck. Explain what matches these cards are good for, and whether it’s a better main deck choice or sideboard choice.
One thing to note is we have access to Trinket Mage which is a huge card to be reminded about as we can play a single copy of trinkets (artifacts cmc 1 or less) as Trinket mage will be copies 2 and 3 typically. Please note that this is a working list and will consdtantly be updated based on new card options. Old options will remain on the list becasue sometimes you need to go back to move foward.
CMC 0
Chalice of the Void: We need 1 copy at minimum in our sideboard. We tend to play minimal 1 cmc spells we can set this to 1 and basically get rid of most creature removal in the format (Lightning bolt, Fatal push, Path to exile). Further it counters Death Shadow and other 1 drop creatures that are pormonate threats for many teir 1 decks. Just remember we have to be the ones to call the counter effect on the spell.
Engineered Explosives: Again this is typically a 1 of in our sideboards as we are a 2 color deck by default which means we can clear most prominent threats like Goyf or Merfolk lords which can help us shore up many matchups.
Walking Ballista: This guy is a tank figurativly and kinda literally. While he is a sort of nonbo with Heartless summoning he can be really fun as it provides an end game for use around Ensnaring bridge and further can nuke out creatures if needed. We should play atleast 2 in the mainboard or sideboard.
CMC 1
Basilisk Collar: This little collar can turn all our things into miniWurmcoil engines which when you are head or behind against creature decks is huge.
Grafdigger's cage: this guy shuts down Chord, Coco, and reanimator decks liek none other. It also should be noted it can stop Past in flames storm. Its a strong card and is a good source of grave removal.
Nihil Spellbomb: One of our other grave removal options. While it may not stop the search from coco and such it does exile the graveyard so we can make Snapcaster mage or Delver creatures much harder to use. I would recommend using 2 copies of some grave removal.
Pithing Needle: the only trinket we should have atleast 1 to 2 copies of in our sideboard. This can shut down Ad nauseum[/c] storm by naming Lightning storm further it stops planeswalkers, many creatures, fetch lands and more. It is one of the few cards that will come in to the deck after nearly every matchup. Look to see a more detailed guide on pithing needle later.
CMC 2
Ratchet Bomb: a budget replacement for Enigneered Explosives. While it might be slower it is also less mana intensive and more flexible after cast. Can be used as a replacemnt for EE but can't be trinket maged.
CMC 3
Vedalken Shackles: Shackles make for some of the most frustating combat math for opponents and further maybe one of the few cards in the sideboard options that really takes practice on how to best use it.
Trinket mage: This is 2 to 3 copies at minimum. He fetches all our trinkets and allows us to only play 1 copy of each trinket while functionally having several of each as he makes copies 2-4 depending on how many you play. Also note he can fetch Darksteel citadel from the main board.
Filigree Familiar: Our little fox buddy who keeps alive against burn and other hyper aggro decks. he gives us a bit of life to help offset our manabase damage and further provides a blocker against goblin guide and other creatures.
Kira, great glass-spinner: This guy make Spellskite a freaking nightmare to deal with and makes spot removal much harder to use. Note that it does prevent us from using tezzeret's -1 ability.
CMC 4
Yahenni's Expertise: Our Wrath and out against token and elf decks. the reason we run this is that we can drop Myr superion off our wrath spell which is juts gravy.
Dodecapod: A nice awnser to discard that fights over this spot with Nephalia Academy While it isnt nessicary to run a copy it is helpful if your meta is discard happy.
I did change up my decklist right before the games and i also messed with the sidebaord prior. here is what I ran:
3 Etherium Sculptor
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Myr Superion
1 Noxious Gearhulk
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Spellskite
1 Sphinx Summoner
2 Wurmcoil Engine
Creature (6)
2 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Grand Architect
Enchantment (3)
3 Heartless Summoning
Instant (2)
2 Dismember
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Sorcery (3)
3 Serum Visions
Land (22)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Flooded Strand
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
5 Island
3 Polluted Delta
2 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp
3 Watery Grave
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Dodecapod
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Filigree Familiar
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pithing Needle
2 Trinket Mage
2 Vedalken Shackles
Round 1: Naya (Bant?) Walkers 2-1
Game one:
So the first few turns were him spamming Arbor elf, Noble Hierarch, and Birds of paradise while I just got my colors by turn 2 and dropped a Glint-nest Crane. The crane ended up hitting a Lodestone. I then on turn 3 slammed Grand Architect followed by a Lodestone Golem . Next turn he landed Tamiyo, field Researcher and started to beat in with a 3/3 Arbor elf that drew him cards when it hit. I finally landed 2 more lodestones via Phyrexian metamorphs and then took the game from there.
Game two:
I don’t remember what happened game two other than he slammed a doubling season turn 3 via dorks and then dropped a nahri, the Harbinger which ulted into an Emerkul on turn 4.
Game three:
Game three was fantastic for me. Turn 1 Serum visioned a Crane to the top and then dropped the Chalice of the Void onto the field for X=1 killing his dorks and Nissa’s oath. I then Proceeded to drop a crane to grab a lodestone. Then I dropped an architect next turn and slowly beat him down with my crane as he had plant tokens to block for days.
Round 2: Eldrazi Death and Taxes 2-1
Game one: As I am typing this up I remember losing this game to the fact he landed an Aether vial turn one and a Eldrazi Displacer turn 2 which lead to a Path to exile to clean Myr superion of the field leaving only my Grand Architect which ate a Wasteland Stranger . He proceeded to just overvalue me to defeat.
Game 2: What I can say about this game was Phyrexian metamorphing both his Thought-knot seer and his Flickerwisp I proceeded to turn them blue and wreck the opposing originals. I then just wrecked in with a Wurmcoil Engine.
Game 3: He ended up mulling to 4 as he said he didn’t get lands. I proceeded to land a turn 2 Heartless Summoning into 2 Myr Superions and a Spellskite. I proceeded to land a lodestone and that secured the win.
Round 3: Grixis Delver 2-0
Game 1: So I don’t remember these games very well so I apologize. All I remember was getting a sphinx chain going via Grand Architect wrecking his insectile aberration.
Game 2: So I landed a turn 2 Chalice for 1 after he dropped 2 Delver of secrets and Gitaxian Probed. I then landed a turn 3 Grand Architect into a Myr superion. I slowed his grind with the delvers and proceeded to win via beating with the myr and the 5/5 Darksteel citadel via a tezzeret, agent of bolas’s -1.
Round 4: Dredge 2-0
Game 1: a very typical turn 2 Glint-nest Crane facing down a Narcomeba and Prized Amalgam. I proceeded to block the narc and took 3. But then turn 3 landed a Heartless Summoning and a Myr Superion. The dredge player wiffed on a Cathartic Reunion with dredging a Life from the Loam and a Golgari-Grave troll . I then dropped a Wurmcoil engine and then took the game very quickly from there.
Game 2: Had to mull to 4 but couldn’t deal with a turn 3 lodestone golem into metamorph copy of golem. He scooped on turn 3.
Round 5: Infect: 1-2
Game 1: He landed a forest into Glistener elf. I follow up with a visions into a 3rd land for hand and then got to put a crand and architect on top. I dropped a heartless summoning into Spellskite. He dropped a Noble Hierarch and a Inkmoth Nexus. I blocked his glistener with skite bringing him to a 0/1. Next turn I was able to drop the architect and pump out a Myr Superion. He dropped a blighted agent and hit me for 2 infect from the Inkmoth Nexus. I followed that up with a Tezzeret turning my skite into 2/2 rather than the 0/1. And I beat in for 5 which was surprising to me. I got slammed with more infect next turn putting me to 4 infect. Next turn I got to use Tezz’s +1 putting a lodestone into my hand. I dropped a heartless summoningand then landed Crane into a metamorph into 2 lodestones via the metamorph and beat in for more damage and ended taking the game from there.
Game 2: the infect player landed a turn 1 glissener and slammed my for 1 infect before I land my Grand Architect into spellskite. He Nature’s Claimed the skite and then used the mutagenic growth into become immense on the turn 2 Blighted agent to clean up game 2.
Game 3: I drew all lands but my opener was 3 lands 2 skites, myr superion, and heartless summoning. He had both his nature’s claims and his Viridian corrupter to clean me out on turn 5.
Round 6: American Delver 0-2
Started with the hand of 2 lands, heartless summoning, spellskite, 1 superion and a tezzeret. I proceed watch my opponent bolt my spell skite and hit me with 3 flipped delvers while I drew no lands.
Round 2: So when I get mana screwed you’d think after shuffling Id get a decent time. Nope and ended up drawing all lands while he used 3 Path to exiles to clean out my Myr Superions and then I proceeded to just draw lands.
So I ended the tournament with 13 points with a 60% win rate and got 9th by a .2% winrate… That means I lost by one match in game 1…
Anywho my overall notes:
Glint-Nest Crane: I love this card. I think I’m going to try getting 4 in the main deck and keep 3 serum visons as I wound they both helped my consistency but I rathered seeing a glint-nest crane in my hand turn 1 than a serum visions as it allowed me to save some life or play a come into play tapped land turn 1 so I could stay on curve.
I felt that the manabase was reliable but I didn’t shuffle enough towards the end. I should have been pile shuffling between each game. The last few games were an issue with the mana base but the rest of the tourney was fantastic.
The sideboard was decent. I missed having my thorn of Amethysts for delver matchups but Chalice of the Void has been very strong replacement. I feel like I may add a 3rd Trinket Mage to the sideboard so I can search out the 1 cmc or less artifacts that clean up the opposing decks.
First of all, I think you forgot to list one card in the SB. Engineered Explosives maybe?
My main question is how do you feel about doing a 4/1 split between metamorph and sphinx? I have been also allotting 5 slots to them, but with a 3/2 split for a more reliable tutoring and consistent sphinx chains.
Secondly, would you consider playing Expedition Map in the side to help find GQs and AR when you need them?
Also, I am 100% going to start testing out GLint-Nest Cranes in place of Visions. They really seem to do everything we want in digging and being blue.
On the metamorph split: I have found as good as the Sphinx Chain is, I often can't afford the lifeloss that is requires more times than not with how aggressive the meta is. I still find I draw the sphinx and use it when I get it but I don't feel the sphinx chain is a strong as it used to be back during eldrazi winter. I am currnelty trying out 2 of them in place of my last Serum visions currently.
On Expedition Map: I feel while it helps tutor these up, i am running 3 Ghost Quarter and I draw them reliably enough to not need the tutoring.
Glint-Nest is a fantastic card and I have already moved my list into having 4 main board. Below is my currently list:
3 Etherium Sculptor
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Myr Superion
1 Noxious Gearhulk
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Spellskite
2 Sphinx Summoner
2 Wurmcoil Engine
//Creature (8)
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Grand Architect
//Enchantment (3)
3 Heartless Summoning
2 Dismember
//Planeswalker (2)
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
//Land (22)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Flooded Strand
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
5 Island
3 Polluted Delta
2 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp
3 Watery Grave
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Dodecapod
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Filigree Familiar
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pithing Needle
2 Trinket Mage
2 Vedalken Shackles
But for more constructive conversation. I have been a little hesitant ever since I started running Superions again but they have been performing so well and they give us an edge in so many matchups.
Also I am considering running a third Tezz. The card draw engine alone is already pretty good and he frequently is the main force keeping me ahead of my opponents, especially in grindy matches.
I felt the same way with superions and then again Glint-nest Crane but they both have pushed the deck from a midrange deck into the realms of an aggro deck in certain matchups.
I also have been thinking about another tezzeret, agent of bolas but ever since I decided to play 4 Glint-nest cranes I have found the etb trigger from them is a tezzy ability which is really nice and makes me want another tezzy more.
IF I do add a 3rd Tezz some changes I'm thinking about:
+1 Darksteel Citadel: being able to have a 3rd tezzy means I can get my 5/5 indestructible beater more often so I feel I may add one more in place of a Ghost Quarter.
Moving Dismembers to sideboard and mainboaring Vedalken Shackles to the mainboard as I can turn them into a creature but further it increases our density of artifacts so less wiffing.
Game Report
So tonight was a local modern night so I went to play it was 10 man with 3 rounds.
Round 1: Dredge 1-2
Game one: Dredge just went off hitting a Golgari Grave-Troll and Stinkweed imp off the Cathartic Reunion on turn 2 into 4 Prized amalgam and 3 Narcomoebas which secured the game way to fast.
Game two: slammed a wurmcoil turn 3 and jsut wrecked him from there.
Game three: we hit a board stallmate and i attacked after doing bad math to lose the game.
Round 2: Jund 2/0
Game 1: Landed a turn 2 heartless into 3 Myr Superions on the play. Needless to say the turn 3 was 2 metamorphs secured that game with out much debate.
Game 2: Turn 3 lodestone golem into a metamorphed lodestone making him tap out to remove one with terminate I followed up with another lodestone and metamorph to take the game.
Round 3: Esper Control
Game 1: He tapped out on turn 3 to land a Giest of St. Traft which I responded with a Lodestone Golem which blocked it with my Glint-nest Crane blocking the angle token. Then he tapped out for a batterskull in which I metamorphed twice and he scooped.
Game 2: I landed a turn 2 heartless on the play which led to a spellskite and myr superion. then on turn 3 had my Grand Architect remanded but I dropped another superion and a Glint-nest Crane for another superion. He scooped again to that.
First of all, I have had several games where mana was an issue. Several times I was stuck with too many colorless sources (I only run 4 so maybe I'm unlucky), one case where an early Blood Moon blanked my fetches so I was stuck on only 1 island and could not cast the three Grand Architects in my hand, and a few cases where I awkwardly drew Sunken Hollow without the 2 basics on board and that cost me a turn. For now, I'm bringing Hollows down to 2 and am strongly considering adding another Island so I am running 23 lands. I don’t think I would want to increase my colorless land count. If anything I would drop Academy Ruins for another Ghost Quarter or Darksteel Citadel. My current mana base is:
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Ghost Quarter
7 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Watery Grave
2 Sunken Hollow
MVPs of testing lately have been Glint-Nest Crane and Spellskite. Skite is relevant in every matchup and I can’t see any reason to not run 4 Skites in the MB, afterall I end up bringing my 4th in from the side every single time anyway. Glint-Nest Crane is an amazing blocker, evasive attacker, and keeps our hand fueled with beaters and helps us dig for SB cards. I am going to start playing 4 of these as well.
I understand choosing to play more Etherium Sculptors in place of Chief Engineers to try maxxing out our artifact count for crane but engineer is just too much better in my mind because it can cast Myr Superion so much more easily than sculptor. Artifact loading is not worth getting myrs stuck in your hand in my mind and honestly I have very rarely wiffed as is. I am going to stick with my 2/2 split.
Noxious Gearhulk is awesome, but only if you can play it and then only if it has good targets. This is a low enough number of matchups that I’m moving mine to the SB and conveniently also lowering my curve.
Filligree Familiar… Lots of mixed feelings here and I know that Ulka has been expressing some dislike for the cute little fox. There are some matchups where the fox is awesome and others that are a little lackluster. I am never disappointed with drawing it, but in most cases it could be something better. It is clearly the best vs great in being a value beater vs grixis control and has an important place vs Jund because their removal only ends up giving us a new card. But the problem is that in a lot of other scenarios I either want it to be a cheap artifact creature that has some sort of removal or bounce ETB effect or a Myr Superion analogue to push the speed of the deck. The possible replacements I can think of are:
The only one on this list I really see any chance of playing is Scrapheap Scrounger and even then the inability to block seems pretty bad. I think I’ll give a shot testing out 2 scroungers in the main and 2 Filligree Familiars in the side, but my guess is that familiar will hold onto that flex spot until we get a better option printed.
Yahenni's Expertise:
Yahenni's Expertise
2BB
Sorcery
All creatures get -3/-3 until end of turn.
You may cast a card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your hand without paying its mana cost.
Trophy Mage:
Trophy Mage
2U
Creature - Human Wizard
When Trophy Mage 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
Scrap Trawler:
Scrap Trawler
3
Artifact Creature - Construct
Whenever Scrap Trawler or another artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return to your hand target artifact card in your graveyard with lesser converted mana cost.
3/2
So each one of these is viable in our list but the main two i'm excited for is Trophy Mage and Yahenni's Expertise. Both have primarily sideboard potiental and I will talk about both. Yahenni's Expertise is very much a catch-all awnser for aggro for us and it can drop Myr Superion so it is looking to replace dismember in the sideboard.
However I'm more excited for Trophy Mage as it gives us another trinket package for sideboarding from Veldaken shackles, Crucible of worlds, filigree Familiar, and Sculpting Steel. This should help us in the Tron matchup immensly as we can now play a single crucible sideboard and side it in and abuse Ghost Quarter to out hearts desire. *pun not intended*
I will have a bit more of a thread update later tonight or tomorrow.
and Ralphie I will be responding to your post later tonight.
Trophy Mage has some sweet implications for the SB that you have covered pretty well. I would just like to add the thought of tutoring that 1of Staff of Domination for when you have Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Grand Architect in play and you feel like you would enjoy infinite life, infinite mana, and want to draw your deck
Scrap Trawler is intriguing but I don’t think it’s what we want in the 3 cmc slot. They unfortunately shot down the combo potential by adding the “lesser converted mana cost” clause. But it could still be a power house in some sort of grindy sacrifice engine. This + Smuggler’s Copter may make me reconsider my old janky Disciple of Deceit toolbox brew that I have always been tempted to try out….
So overall, I am by far the most excited for Yahenni’s Expertise because it 100% has a place as at least a 2of in the 75 and will significantly improve several bad matchups. Trophy Mage will be very fun to play with and I will gladly pick up a playset of the promos to add to my collection of other fancy artifact wizards.
PS: I use a different username on this forum
2 Chief Engineer
2 Etherium Sculptor
3 Heartless Summoning
4 Grand Architect
Creatures (21)
4 Myr Superion
4 Spellskite
2 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Glint-Nest Crane
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Lodestone Golem
2 Serum Visions
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Dismember
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Land (22)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Polluted delta
4 Watery Grave
2 Sunken Hollow
7 Island
1 Dismember
2 Trinket Mage
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
2 Filigree Familiar
2 Vedalken Shackles
2 Dodecapod
The most notable thing is probably that I have dropped Wurmcoil Engine, Sphinx Summoner, and Noxious Gearhulk from the list. The idea here is lowering the curve. The meta has been speeding up considerably. According to MtgGoldfish, of the 10 decks that hold a meta share of >3%, the only non-aggro decks are Jund, GW Tron, and Lantern Control. This list was an attempt to lower our higher-than-average curve and add a little more interaction with quick decks.
I opted for faster removal and shackles split between the MB and the SB in place of Gearhulk, because he only almost always comes down too late and if we are playing the hulk, then we are either already going to win or in a long grindy board stall and there are better things we could have doing with the rest of the game.
Scrapheap Scrounger has been performing surprisingly well. Yes, I am hoping for a good replacement, but the robot is aggressive and it also plays out nicely in several scenarios where I drop it turn 2 and then tap it with either Architect or Engineer for a powerful turn 3. That being said, there are several matchups where I side them out immediately.
I have been liking Academy Ruins less and less the more I play with this deck. It shines in grindy board stalls which we can find ourselves in vs BGx and control decks, but i feel like we would rather be going underneath them instead of playing their own game.
I miss chaining sphinxes and tutoring answers, but I think a lot of time they come down a turn too late in the current meta. If it ever swings more towards control, i think I would want them more. But for now I am trying out a list without them.
Wurmcoil Engine was the hardest cut to make. This is just a test to see how the deck performs on a significantly lower curve and with engineer I am finding more scenarios where I can play it turn 3, but more often than not it comes down turn 4-6 and does not help us in the early turns at all which are the most critical to our survival. If Aether Revolt gives us a really aggresive 1-3 drop artifact, then I could definitely see tabling Wurmocoil completely.
with some adaptations, like Glint-Nest Crane, i like so much how this card can filter, attacking and block.
but my doubt is about how Lodestone Golem can act, yes taxing the opponent is very strong, but when you need to cast your non-artifact spells? most time would to cast him early to break opponent, but it can breake you curve, guess
and other thing .. the -1 of heartless int he skite, make him bolt vunerable, it dont make fragile and lost some efficience?
Foundry Inspector in this case, for use only generic mana can be an option vs Scultor even not being blue
The manabase is something I know we talked about earlier but I agree with adjusting the colorless sources as we value the blue more than anything. I currently adjusted out my Academy Ruins to the sideboard as it only really shines in certain match-ups and allows me to play an additional Island. This has really helped in my past few games and allows me have a better match-up against the more linear decks that infect our meta... (im sorry that was a bad pun).
I agree with the sentiment that Glint-nest Crane and Spellskite are our strongest cards currently. These cards have proven to be huge in many match-ups. From stealing the pump spells from infect to hitting walkers during a ground stall they both have proven themselves as key cards to the deck. I'm still not 100% sure on a 4th skite in the mainboard as of now but I agree it should be 3 or 4 in the current meta depending on how you want to take the deck.
I feel the Etherium Sculptor vs Chief Engineer is a debate that we are going to have for a long time as both have their merits but in vastly different ways.
Etherium Sculptor
1. Is an artifact: this helps us keep a higher density when we Tezzy or glint nest which is huge. Also he can be -1ed by Tezzy to become huge late game when we stall out.
2. His passive ability works with grand Architect's to allow for a 3 mana reduction just by himself.
Chief Engineer
1. Can power out Myr Superion easier: this allows us to slam a more aggressive board plan earlier which is always nice.
2. Has an addition toughness: this can when paired with Grand Architect can make him bolt proof.
Let me know if I missed any points on either but I personally like the ability to have 3 mana reduction of Sculptor and not have Engineer's ability negated by having a Grand Architect out.
Filigree Familiar has been up for a lot of debate between us. I personally love him sideboard as in the zoo/burn match-up we have a blocker that gains us life and nets us Card advantage which really helps in that match-up but otherwise I feel is a bit weak in most match-ups. I know you are trying Scrapheap but I personally have added Serum Visions to help consistency in its place which I have been very happy with.
The same can be said about Noxious Gearhulk: I love him in midrange match-ups where we can grind games out as his Menace makes for very nice swings but I agree he isn't Mainboard material especially with Dredge being a big of a player in this metagame. Mine has been placed in the sideboard and I love him here as he is a better Duplicant which is always nice.
So I maybe weird but I really have been loving having Veldaken Shackles Mainboard and my Black removal sideboard. I have found Shackles makes more decks play nervously which is good for us while the black removal is better in the infect match-up it seems.
I can understand dropping Sphinx Summoner and Noxious Gearhulkbut I think dropping Wurmcoil Engine is a huge mistake. Wurm is our main plan against most decks and honestly is the only reason I win most of my games that are close. He is too powerful with his 6 life swap that he gives us. Further he may eat removal a lot but we still most of the time get our tokens which I would play him just if he dropped the tokens. I think
Coil is something you should have sideboard at minimum as he does wonders in many aggressive match-ups such as Dredge and Burn if we can resolve him. I like him so much I have been debating on adding a 3rd Coil.
Welcome Ghgiunco to the Heartless Thread.
I do enjoy that decklist that the articles runs however I find it is weaker than the lodestone build. Lodestone Golem offers us an aggro plan that taxes and slows the opponents while we can keep slamming our stuff as lodestone primarily taxes our Tezzerets, Serum visions, and Grand Architect all of which can wait to be played or in the later twos case can be payed for as they offer enough to our game-plan to pay for the tax.
The big thing with his Tax is that the main card that becomes 'unplayeable' due to the tax is Tezzeret which we want to hold back anyway as he offers us advantage if they can deal with our lodestones. Pluse with Lodestones and Metamorphs we can often timewalk them as lodestones cost minimal for us if we have a combination of heartless summoning and Grand Architect out.
As for Skite, yes he is fragile but its still alright as if he eats a bolt instead of lodestone or Architect he has done his job.
The reason we don't run Foundry Inspector is he can't be tapped by Grand Architect for 2 mana in addition. That lack of an ability is huge as that is what allows us to power out our stuff and the bit more power doesn't even compare to that lack of an ability.
Sorry if I am a bit harsh on Foundry Inspector, I had some poor testing with him and im still kinda bitter about it
1x Academy Ruins
4x Swamp
6x Island
2x Plains
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Glacial Fortress
1x Blightsteel Colossus
2x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Glint-Nest Crane
4x Grand Architect
4x Master Transmuter
3x Mausoleum Wanderer
1x Platinum Angel
1x Sharuum the Hegemon
2x Spellskite
1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
2x Treasure Mage
1x Sphinx Summoner
1x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Dimir Signet
1x Azorius Signet
2x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Lightning Greaves
2x Tezzeret the Seeker
1x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
this deck give games from merfolk, death and taxes, ad nauseam, Through the Breach. but whenever I ell can improve the list.
heartless is a build a always wanted to play, and mix with transmuter, my favorite card, make it mor strong, i visit every thread about architect, master and heartless, and enjoy all tips can i get from.
My points:
Wanderer can make a early interruption with Architect as a pseudo Spellpierce
The tezz seekertutoring work really well, find a Ensnaring Bridge or when sideborded a Torpor Orb, or a Transmuter instead keep alive.
Master + Greveas just can won game turn 4 or simple give you Tempo, controlling board.
skite shine anyway with no need mor details.
Architect ramps really well and bomb ur sphinx.
hope this dicussion dont die from here, wait more tips from you
Personally I feel you deck is a bit too unfocused. I would hone it down a bit and try to increase numbers. If I was to run the list I would go with something Like this:
4 Lightning Greaves
Artifact Creature (16)
2 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Master Transmuter
4 Parasitic Strix
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Spellskite
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Grand Architect
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
2 Treasure Mage
Enchantment (3)
3 Heartless Summoning
Planeswalker (4)
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Academy Ruins
1 Darksteel Citadel
3 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
8 Island
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
3 Watery Grave
I would do this to add more consistency and the one Card i really like in these builds is Parasitic Strix as he is a cheap caster with heartless or Architect out and is one you would love to bounce to Transmuter as you can recast and siphon off some more life.
Rly like you lost your time to make a list, tks.
Parasitic Strix makes me thinking like 2in1 cards, love this type, and is blue, tap for 2 manas too, its nice, but, and about Filigree Familiar can make this too and a card advantage too ?
life, draw, can be returned, is cheap with both engine of deck.
Ensnaring Bridge is a auto-win innumerous matches to see it out the list, can be transmuted beat and do it again, when you flood or have a creature is hard to deal like ulamogs (indestrutible this @#$%$) hahah
I buy heartless in store and waiting to arrive. excited for this
I feel like you could run a split of both Familar and Strix or just toss 8 copies in with heartless and Architect to make for 1 mana or U mana drops that just give you breathing room.
-4 Parasitic
-1 Tezz agent of bolas
+3 Filigree Familiar
+2 Ensnaring Bridge
rest the same and see the result. or cut 2 slot and run at least 2 parasitic, i rly like the thinking to use parasitic, simples card for good effect
this make me remember the little combo
Esperzoa + wellspring
guess, can do well whit strix or wellsping
nobb question: Heartless affect Mulldrifter`s evoke ?
and ..
why you dont think outside the box ..
have you thought about Torpor orb + Eater of Days ?
@Ulka
I vote we agree to disagree about this question for right now. I think we are both playing splits of each of these so it’s really only a discussion around changing 1 card or so between the two. We can really delve into this another time.
I understand this sentiment, but frankly I almost always need the speed of the black removal spells in the current meta. When so much of the meta is dominated by decks that 9 times out of 10 are faster than us, we need quick answers and we also need our ability to use those answers to not be impeded by disruption. I don’t want to rely on one of our vedalkens to make Vedalken Shackles fast enough to keep me alive. Additionally, I think I am finally deciding that I like Slaughter Pact the best out of the removal spells because of the 0 cmc but it does occasionally come out a turn or two too slow, so I will still keep 1 Dismember somewhere in the 75
The Wurmcoil Engine concern is real and I completely understand that. Powering really punishes aggro decks and also helps in some of our longer grindier matchups. I am only testing not having them in the list and I am doing for the sole purpose of lowering the curve. The way that this deck operates, it almost always needs to have engine pieces in order to power out larger threats. That is great because it goes over most decks, but unlike Tron, our engine pieces are much easier to interact with and a large amount of the time they will not sit around for more than a turn. That means that you want to be playing a threat the same turn that you are playing your engine piece (which just so happens to be my biggest issue with Etherium Sculptor) and this is something that is not guaranteed with Wurmcoil Engine. Until I can guarantee turn 3 Wurmcoil Engines or the modern metagame slows down, I think we should keep thinking about dropping our 6 drops as an option.
Update on Scrapheap Scrounger: The little robot is a great threat against control and it also works great alongside Chief Engineer to pay convoke costs. The pressure it adds in many games is also useful. But overall it still feels like a filler card while I wait for a replacement 1 or 2 cost artifact creature like a Myr Superion or a playable Lupine Prototype.
@ghgiunco
Good to hear from you again and I’m sorry that your Master Transmuter thread hasn’t taken off yet. Continuing from my posts in there and emphasizing what Ulka has said, the first thing I would do is consolidate your wincons. That means pick the big artifacts that you think are the best and realistically win you the most games and put several copies of those in instead of running 1 of each.
I think the main thing to consider from that article is that it was written in 2011 and at that time, modern was a significantly slower format at that time. I know I keep harping on the speed of the format, but I think that is its defining feature at the moment (in the past it has been more combo heavy), but I digress. The optimal play in that deck is a turn 2 Heartless Summoning into a turn 3 Master Transmuter and then you still have to wait a turn to activate it unless you have found some way to get a Lightning Greaves into play before that. So, the main thing I would work on is finding what cards (like Grand Architect) make your deck faster and more consistent.
Ulka covered Lodestone Golem pretty well and I have discussed this card at length in the Grand Architect thread in the past. The most I will say at this time is that if you haven’t tried playing with it, you should. A lot of people need some convincing, but once they start playing the golem, the never stop.
The 3 toughness on Spellskite when you have a Heartless Summoning in play can be a real bummer. Just as you said, it makes it vulnerable to bolt, but the thing to keep in mind is that it still plays the role of a lightning rod and pulls away removal from taking out higher value targets like Grand Architect, Lodestone Golem or Tezzeret.
I agree with Ulka that Foundry Inspector is not worth it. It is at its best during a Sphinx chain when you want to cast a cost reduction ability but you only have access to colorless mana, but otherwise it is an overcosted nonblue Etherium Sculptor which is already, in my opinion, the worst enabler we have in our deck.
Not gonna lie, this Master Transmuter/Ensnaring Bridge tech is awesome. I think this plus the [c]Epserzoa[/s] that you mentioned could make for a really cool deck. I think I’ll work on putting that together. It sounds wayyy too much fun for me to pass up at least making an a attempt at it.
Yes it does. Evoke is an alternate cost and Heartless Summoning affects all casting costs.
The main reason for not playing a 1-drop like Kraken Hatchling is that all of them are either bad (like Kraken Hatchling or Steel Wall) or they die to Heartless Summoning (like Judge’s Familiar or Mausoleum Wanderer). If Wizards ever prints us a good utility 1-drop artifact and/or blue creature, I will be throwing that into the deck in a heartbeat.
I think that Torpor Orb/Eater of Days is cool but not good enough to be modern playable. The main reason I have for that is that without Torpor Orb, Eater of Days is really really bad. Skipping two turns is basically conceding, because your opponent will win in that time. Now, if Splinter Twin was still around I would consider Torpor Orb as an option and then a case could be made to play a few Eater of Days and Trickbinds but currently it is too difficult to guarantee getting that specific combo in play.
Tks too return, remeber/responde me hahah
Lets start at beggin, ill make some points of views now...
I konw about the date of the article, in the press i expressed myself wrong, or little. missed to say , need the date adapt
when i see Heartless summoning i like this so much interessant, the interaction, and some days ago e find an youtube video with a stream video, and someone play a deck Heartless artifatc, but dont have list, and i dont know the real date.
fact can i note: he dont use Grand Architect, dont know why. but use transmuter (the match vs scape***** he makes a turn 4 plat + greveas )
Off course the plain is to use.
But i see Mulldrifiters act here, and i like de 2 draws for 1. if we have any type of blink (omg)
know why, but i dont like the ideia to play more Sculptor or Chief Engineer, likes so redundant, they can be replace for mor draw or maybe Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize or even a Harsh Scrutiny here, why not ?
make my considerations:
Ethersworn Canonist ( + greveas).. this little simply do a lot of work in too many cases ( today an ad nauseam, have to conceed because turno 2 skite, turn 3 Glist find canonnist.
althought we dont have drop 1 ... my questin include Kraken .. even knowing this not good was a try, why not hahah
wizards really a troll, we dont have any good Drop 1 blue, i know
Torpor Orb/Eater of Days just "appear"" in my dream, i just need to share this, but seens funy if happens.
and Steel Hellkite, have any mension about ? if i lost it , sry
Mulldrifter is a great card to consider for these types of decks, especially with how cheap it is alongside Heartless Summoning but there in the lists that Ulka and I have been playing, there is very little room for cards that do not fit directly into our game plan. The only card slot I could see it contending with is Serum Visions and then Mulldrifter cannot be played turn 1 which is a huge strike against it. Additionally, I think that Glint-Nest Crane fulfills the same purpose as Mulldrifter but it gives us better card selection (I would rather draw 1 artifact than 2 lands) and can be played turn 2.
The reason we play some number of Etherium Sculptor and Chief Engineer is for consistency. That redundancy you mentioned is actually helpful because in our case we effectively run 12 copies of cards that enable our game plan instead of 4. These could be replaced with utility cards like you mentioned, but with the heavy amount of removal that we encounter and the need to execute our game plan as early in the game as possible, I would rather play the smaller vedalken.
Ethersworn Cannonist gets brought up fairly frequently on the Grand Architect thread quite often and for a good reason. It is a very cool card and plays in well with the taxing plan we have with Lodestone Golem. I don't ever play against much Ad Nauseam but if you see a lot of it and storm, then I think it is a very good choice. It also works very well against decks like Suicide Bloo and Infect. So, if you end up testing it, I would be very interested to know how it works for you and what decks it is the best against and against which ones it isn't very helpful.
My reasoning for not including cards like Kraken Hatchling even though they fit into the amazing possibilities of having a blue 1-drop is that decks like these already have enough bad top decks. If the card is only good if it is played turn 1, then I think it will only end up hurting us more than it helps because it will be completely awful when drawn later in the game.
There is a reason why Wizards doesn't give us strong cards at {u} and it has to do with the roles that each color plays. Blue creatures do not get printed at 1cmc unless they are very fragile. What we need to cross our fingers for is something along the lines of Judge's Familiar that they give a toughness of 2 to as some sort of a buff, but I don't think we can hope for anything else.
Steel Hellkite has been discussed in the Grand Architect thread, but it hasn't been mentioned in a very long time so I'm not surprised you haven't seen any of those conversations. Steel Hellkite is an extremely powerful card alongside Grand Architect. A 5/5 flier is nothing to scoff at and its effect is a repeatable one-sided Engineered Explosives. The main problem is twofold. First, it is a 6cmc artifact and it frankly just lost when competing against Wurmcoil Engine for that slot. Other notable cards that have been played in the past but haven't made the contemporary cut include Contagion Engine and Mindslaver. The second problem with Steel Hellkite is that it's pseudo-Engineered Explosives effect doesn't really hit what we want it to hit Once we are connecting with a 5/5 firebreathing flier, the chances are we are already winning and the cards that we would most often be using its effects against are Ensnaring Bridge, Stony Silence, and Lingering Souls (amongst others) and all three of those actually prevent us from using its ability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzgFToDhftA
tomorrow a return for mor ideia, in dead here
Pls, do the test and tell me how its work for you
Maybe i only think in amount over quality when see Mulldrifter can do 2 draws for U .. but you`re right, the best is sack you need then 2 random, maybe by the casa Glint-Nest Crane "cheated on me" two games in sequence, when i find Architect in the fourth card (oh man) .. but eventually he gives you a nice piece.
i dont have worlds to discrible this card, simply shines, and have tested enough to say that. Against aggro, combo, storm even against controll (you can bait a spell, to ***** out other important thing, since he played a spell, you`re freedommm) she do every we need, locks so hard the opponent, suspect to say better then Lodestone Golem althougt his power he no comparation here.
No more to say here, really we dont have nice blue drop 1 and its end. maybe i`ll surrender to Serum Visions, been honest, never see so much value in this (missing Preordain) or discards kozilek, seize, harsh, dont know, need to test here. Your recomentation is Serum Vision right ?! and Spell Pierce for early thread ?!
Steel Hellkite my doubt ends here ! hahahah
But i insist, Master Transmuter can do nice tricks here, by a tool 1U + Greveas.
And dont forget Platinum Angel
2 Vedalken Shackles
Artifact Creature (20)
3 Etherium Sculptor
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Myr Superion
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Spellskite
1 Sphinx Summoner
2 Wurmcoil Engine
Creature (8)
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Grand Architect
Enchantment (3)
3 Heartless Summoning
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Sorcery (3)
3 Serum Visions
Land (22)
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Flooded Strand
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
6 Island
3 Polluted Delta
2 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp
3 Watery Grave
1 Academy Ruins
1 Chalice of the Void
3 Dismember
2 Dodecapod
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Filigree Familiar
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
2 Trinket Mage
I'm currently trying to have a better match-up against infect so more dismembers in the sideboard seems better than my Noxious Gearhulk plan as I found he is less useful than I had hoped.