The deck is based on an older Mtggoldfish deck which seems promising and is looking to improve it as much as possible.
The main idea is to use enchantments like Ensoul Artifact, Tezzeret's Touch and Tezzeret AoB to turn indestructible artifacts into 5/5 beatsticks to quickly close out the game avoiding most common removal besides PtE and Liliana hoping to snipe those with discard spells.
The main targets are the cheapest ones possible: Darksteel Citadel, Darksteel Relic, Darksteel Axe and Darksteel Pendant
(seems better than Darksteel Ingot which is also an option).
The deck also has Vault Skirge as a cheap evasive threat that helps create big life swings to race other fast decks like Burn/Hollow One and in the SB there is Etched Champion to avoid all possible removal with "metalcraft" against control decks.
I think this deck is better than people expect. Especially since so many aggressive decks are good right now. You can main deck Damnation and possibly be correct for the metagame.
Phylactery Lich is a card I want to put on your radar. In this deck its also a 5/5 indestructible for 3 mana. It does exactly what this deck wants to do and so it could be 2-4 more 5/5 beaters for the deck.
I like the idea of Vault Skirge, but its matchup dependent. It opens you up to two for ones, and gives removal a target that you otherwise blank. It maybe a good sideboard card since many opponents will side out removal.
Basilisk Collar is a good substitute for Vault Skirge. You might even main deck one. Gaining 5 life in a chunk is good, and while your creatures beat most other creatures in combat, deathtouch could sometimes be useful. Also in a pinch, its an artifact.
The big thing I'd like to add is some form of card advantage. In a weird way, Damnation and Indestructible creatures are blanking cards and letting you get some card advantage, but you don't have card velocity with this deck. So that's what I'd look for. I also don't know the proper number of each of the cards, but this deck has become redundant, so many of the same effect are playable that its really nice.
I was actually considering swapping Fatal Push and Stubborn Denial places as so far the latter performed much better and the discard can take care of creatures too.
Maindeck Damnation can potentially work but I'm not sure if it is really justified right now.
I'm not sure about the Lich idea, BBB can be pretty rough (with 5x colorless lands in the deck and islands) and 3-mana isn't very fast either
(Skirge is another turn 1 play).
Maybe even maindeck Etched Champion can be better as it can be turned into a 5/5 which can easily gain protection from all colors. Collar is an option, maybe as a SB card for Burn.
For card advantage Tezzeret is pretty much the key card (Pendant also helps a bit with scrying) here but the deck aims to close out games fast (backed with cheap disruption) and not really go long.
One potential issue I could see this deck facing is blue. Counters on your Ensoul effects and Cryptic bouncing the 5/5s leave you with a bunch of indestructible artifacts that are subpar on their own. I think including Stubborn Denial main could be a good way to help mitigate this.
I was actually considering swapping Fatal Push and Stubborn Denial places as so far the latter performed much better and the discard can take care of creatures too.
Maindeck Damnation can potentially work but I'm not sure if it is really justified right now.
I'm not sure about the Lich idea, BBB can be pretty rough (with 5x colorless lands in the deck and islands) and 3-mana isn't very fast either
(Skirge is another turn 1 play).
Maybe even maindeck Etched Champion can be better as it can be turned into a 5/5 which can easily gain protection from all colors. Collar is an option, maybe as a SB card for Burn.
For card advantage Tezzeret is pretty much the key card (Pendant also helps a bit with scrying) here but the deck aims to close out games fast (backed with cheap disruption) and not really go long.
Well if you are going to test on this deck some, I wanted you to know that Phylactery Lich was there so you could keep it in mind. I agree the BBB is not exactly easy, but I'd say more than 80% of the time when you hit 4 mana you have BBB, especially if you try, this deck doesn't need a ton of Blue. Its the reason, I really can't see running more than 2 without playing with the mana base, right now the deck has 6 non-black lands.
Executioner's Capsule might be an idea as a fun of card, that is better than first glance. It can recur with Academy Ruins and it can be found with Tezzeret. But again, I am very comfortable running one of's in my decks and I wouldn't run more than one Capsule. How much targeted removal to run is very metagame dependent. In the general metagame, you have Humans, Hollow One and Affinity being very popular right now. I love the maindeck Damnations. I agree you'll have play anyway with the aggro decks because you should have big 5/5's to slow them down. But those aggressive decks do have flyers. I also wouldn't forget the non-zero number of combo decks that utilize creatures.
I totally agree that you run 4 Stubborn Denial in your 75. Whether you maindeck them or sideboard them is up to metagame, but there are so few answers to your angle of attack preventing the few cards that can interact with you is very important. I'd run at least one main...
I do like the Etched Champions. Yes you can give them +3/+3 in a pinch, but they are basically unblockable and indestructible without being enchanted or animated by Tezzeret. So making them bigger isn't really why you should put them in the deck, but they can get killed by Damnation, so that is an issue. I think the Etched Champions come in against control decks that might be able to target your creatures.
Vault Skirge being a turn 1 play is a little meh, since you have lots of zero/one cost artifacts to get the turn 2 Ensoul Artifact play and Relic, Axe and Citadel are all indestructible. Plus you have your discard spells to play turn 1. I think your natural threats are resilient. So I see the Vault Skirge as good against burn, where you might land it and Ensoul Artifact on turn 3 when they are tapped out. But I'm not sure you want it in an Aggro Matchup, because you also want the Damnations in the matchups and you could turn your damnations into 3 for 2's if you are killing your own enchanted Vault Skirge. That's my issue with Vault Skirge. I think its playable in the right metagame. Its much better game 2 and maybe 3. But it feels pre-sideboarded to me, and I'm not even very sure when you want it.
Also Damping Sphere in the sideboard is probably a must just a matter of how many. As an artifact you can find it with Tezzeret and recur it with Academy Ruins, or make it a creature in a pinch.
Which cards from that deck would you include in this build ?
Personally that looks like a clunkier attempt at a big artifacts deck which is slower than Affinity and pretty fragile and synergy-dependant.
I'm not sure if this even better than the "Grand Architect artifacts aggro" deck which at least has some disruption elements (besides Stub).
Traxos seems pretty slow and still dies to a "revolt" Fatal Push so I probably won't play it outside of a dedicated artifacts deck (preferably with Voltaic Servant to untap it).
The enchantments are harder to targetthan creatures. Few decks run counterspells and we generally only need to land one threat to win the game. We are blanking a lot of removal with our creatures and even though our creatures are two cards, they are much harder to interact with and a larger than almost all creatures played in Modern.
We can beat a lot of decks and we can main deck 12 Thoughtseize and Inquisition Stubborn Denial, so we have a strong ability to blank the sideboard card like Hurkyls Recall.
I think we have game versus the control decks as we turn off removal and sweepers.
We arent supper quick so we do need to slow down opponents. But focusing on opponents having Hurkyls Recall or a counterspell is really not really even decks we have bad matchups against.
Deck seems sweet but I'd strongly suggest adding in some number of Urborg if you are playing lich. The BBB is hard to reach on turn 3 with 5 lands that don't produce black mana.
Also I agree with one of the guys on YouTube that played this. The relic is just cute and not that good. That spot should go to crypt or even bauble to help.
Idea is you are not super good against reanimation decks. Having a few main deck hate goes a long way. The baubles would give you a form of card draw in case you are stocked up on targets but no enchantments.
I disagree about Relic, being free is a huge upside and it allows the fastest starts of the deck attacking for 5 on turn 2.
I'd cut Pendant before Relic.
The deck has so much redundancy that adding "air" like Bauble to the deck doesn't seem very helpful.
I don't think that maindeck graveyard hate is necessary either as the discard and counters can deal pretty well with any fast GY strategy.
Just having a 0 mana do nothing doesn't help in matchup that you need help with.
If you are looking for darksteel then just enchant the axe or land.
Adding main boad hate cards to a weak matchup would make more sense. Yes, bauble and crypt can be killed with push. But what's better having to sacrifice a crypt when turn 2 they try to reanimated a gristlebrand or sitting there while he goes over you for combo?
What's worse.... having a darksteel relic in play but no scissors or being able to dig for them?
Not all games take place in fairytale Christmas land.
I'm not really worried about "Griselbrand Reanimator" to be honest, the deck is pretty rare and maindeck discard + counters (I've moved Stub to the maindeck over Push) should be enough to deal with it even before sideboarding in GY hate.
So it isn't even a bad match-up.
As far as bauble, that card just doesn't do enough and I'd much rather have a critical mass of darksteel artifacts for redundency instead of a free (delayed) cycler.
The deck in the video is pretty interesting (though bad) but completely different from what we have here. Relic is indeed bad in that deck and pretty much any other deck besides this one where it is pretty much a 0-mana Phylactery Lich.
I think the value of all of the indestructible artifacts are low when not animated other than Citadel. Relic is the cheapest, so it may actually be more value than Axe or Pendant.
Okay. I'm not going to continue with the relic debate, but have you tried some urborgs in the deck to be better at casting lich? Seems like a natural fit.
I traded a Marsh Flats for a Urborg. I can't imagine running more than 1 Urborg. I'm sure it adds a percentage point or two, but its not fixing the issue. Urborg is a slight improvement, so thank you, it was a great catch and good tuning decision, with little downside. I am by no means locked into the mana base. I'm not sure that I shouldn't have either added an extra land or changed out a different land.
I know a lot of people want to talk people playing this deck into running more useful artifacts and enchanting them. I do not fall into that camp. Just akin to Boggles, indestructible is our hexproof. We don't want to be enchanting Dryad Arbor in Boggles, you don't want to enchant medium useful artifacts in this deck. Especially since a real strength of this deck is being able to overextend with no fear of sweepers and use your sweepers without sacrificing your board position. Does Boggles enchant a Dryad Arbor every now and again, yes. But the reason Dryad Arbor is in the deck is that it helps the deck get around Sacrifice effects. The Lich maybe overkill. We have a lot of ways to make 5/5 indestructibles in the deck. For BBB he is hard to play, he can also create board states where the only indestructible artifact gets three for one'd by a Path to Exile. I mentioned the Lich so that we'd all know he was there, and that he can play a similar role to Tezzeret's Touch.
Pendant is a bad magic card. We are playing a lot of Bad Magic cards solely because they are cheap and indestructible. Is pendant's ability more useful than Relic, yes. Does Pendant cost 2 more mana than Relic... yes. Does what Pendant does get you enough for two mana? No. In many games if you had a relic in play and can cast Ensoul Artifact on a Relic you are doing something to slow down Humans and give you enough time to find sweepers or amass enough blockers that you can go on the offensive. The turn you think you could be paying for the Pendant might also be the turn you play a removal or discard spell. Pendant might be okay in a control matchup, but its not good in the current aggro metagame. Playtest everything. Maybe the two mana for Pendant works for you, but mostly I find Modern is too fast for Pendant. Notice I still play Pendant, I'm just playing a playset of Relic and only three Pendant. I like the Relic more than the Pendant, but I'm not totally away from the Pendant. I value Relic more because this deck wants to aggressively use its mana in the first couple turns with removal and disruption and this deck doesn't fear over extending. The only sweeper that is played with any frequency that hurts us is Terminus, and we'll just lose some games to Terminus, but we also have Stubborn Denial to help in those matchups. So we do just play our cards into the Board in most matchups, so anything slowing us down hurts us. Even when we are the Control deck against the really aggressive decks, we still aggressively put our cards onto the board. Most control decks don't have enough cards that interact with our game plan to win. We turn off a lot of their cards, especially the sweepers that gain them card advantage. That's this decks strength.
As a toolbox element since you are running so many 1x-of artifacts that cost 0-1 have you considered Trinket Mage ?
Besides fetching SB cards it also serves as extra copies of Relic/Citadel/Axe (and Capsule).
As a toolbox element since you are running so many 1x-of artifacts that cost 0-1 have you considered Trinket Mage ?
Besides fetching SB cards it also serves as extra copies of Relic/Citadel/Axe (and Capsule).
That's a really good suggestion.
I don't think I can imagine doing it maindeck, but I could be convinced. My thinking is that Trinket Mage is too slow for a lot of matchups. But for a sideboard card that could effectively function as a second or third of the "one of cards", I could potentially see it.
I don't feel like my sideboard is good right now. I also don't know if the 2/2 body left over by Trinket Mage is helpful, but I'm not sure it needs to be anything other than a search card. I think there is a lot of value in being able to search up cards in a control matchup. If you did that you might consider Explorer's Map to be able to find Academy Ruins and other lands like Urborg, Field of Ruin, or Ghost Quarter. You might also in that situation add Tolaria West because it can search out some zero cost cards.
If the metagame changes you might move the Damnations out of the maindeck and that could make room for Trinket Mage Package.
Again this deck is actually fairly well positioned right now because its fairs well against the answers to Humans and Hollow One that other people are playing and most sideboards won't have a lot of good things to bring in against you.
Not that it is necessary (or particularly good) but the new Skilled Animator is another way to turn artifacts into 5/5 creatures, an easier to remove Tezzeret's Touch for the most part.
It is pretty much a (much better) blue equivalent of Awakener Druid which works with artifacts instead of forests.
Not that it is necessary (or particularly good) but the new Skilled Animator is another way to turn artifacts into 5/5 creatures, an easier to remove Tezzeret's Touch for the most part.
It is pretty much a (much better) blue equivalent of Awakener Druid which works with artifacts instead of forests.
I see Skilled Animator as a possible sideboard card. Most decks don't have good removal for us and will side out a lot of removal. In game one the Animator is a possible target for the otherwise dead removal in their decks. In decks where you want to be aggressive and ensure you get two 5/5s on the table as fast as possible. Skilled Animator may play a big role.
I see Skilled Animator as a possible sideboard card. Most decks don't have good removal for us and will side out a lot of removal. In game one the Animator is a possible target for the otherwise dead removal in their decks. In decks where you want to be aggressive and ensure you get two 5/5s on the table as fast as possible. Skilled Animator may play a big role.
I wonder if there is room for Sai in this list. It's just a great tool to turn your do nothing artifacts into at least thopters when they are cast and can let you sac excess artifacts to redraw cards. I have been extremely impressed with him in decks that run an excess number of artifacts.
Maybe Sai can be a SB option when you want to overwhelm decks that can handle one big threat (with either bounce or exile effects) to go wider.
Though the deck isn't that artifact-dense with my version having 18x with 4x of them being Darksteel Citadel which doesn't trigger Sai.
I don't think Skilled Animator has a place in the deck unless you want to lower the curve even more and replace Tezzeret.
Overall the deck doesn't seem very well positioned right now as it struggles against go-wide aggro decks and can't effectively race the fast combo decks (though the disruption should slow them down).
I think its better positioned than you might think. White being good means more Path to Exile is bothersome, but often we can turn 2 a 5/5 that can check a Hollow One by itself and if we play a bunch of Wrath effects then we can be in a great position. Being in a spot to cast Wrath and not lose our creatures is one of the biggest benefits to this deck. The deck can interact with non-interactive decks well out of the sideboard.
This deck maybe too slow by a turn, but in general it has pretty good tools.
The main idea is to use enchantments like Ensoul Artifact, Tezzeret's Touch and Tezzeret AoB to turn indestructible artifacts into 5/5 beatsticks to quickly close out the game avoiding most common removal besides PtE and Liliana hoping to snipe those with discard spells.
The main targets are the cheapest ones possible: Darksteel Citadel, Darksteel Relic, Darksteel Axe and Darksteel Pendant
(seems better than Darksteel Ingot which is also an option).
The deck also has Vault Skirge as a cheap evasive threat that helps create big life swings to race other fast decks like Burn/Hollow One and in the SB there is Etched Champion to avoid all possible removal with "metalcraft" against control decks.
The flex slots in the deck right now include: 2x Vault Skirge and 1x Dismember but there some other interesting option which are worth rying as well:
#Trinket Mage can help with consistency finding Citadel/Relic/Axe to enchant and also SB cards like: Relic/Spellbomb, Needle, Cage or Chalice/Explosives.
#Another PW like Karn or Tezzeret The Schemer for more long game potential and grinding through exiling/edicting removal.
#Smuggler's Copter, probably a bit too cute but becomes a 5/5 flying looter that doesn't need crewing which seems good.
# A cantrip or card draw spell like Serum Visions or Thirst for Knowledge.
On a similar note maybe Glint-Nest Crane to dig for artifacts or Search for Azcanta for filtering.
Here is the initial list:
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Creature (2)
2x Vault Skirge
Artifact (12)
4x Darksteel Relic
4x Darksteel Axe
4x Darksteel Pendant
Enchantment (8)
4x Ensoul Artifact
4x Tezzeret's Touch
Sorcery (6)
3x Thoughtseize
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Fatal Push
1x Dismember
Land (23)
4x Darksteel Citadel
1x Academy Ruins
4x Polluted Delta
4x Marsh Flats
2x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
2x Island
2x Swamp
2x Pithing Needle
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Nihil Spellbomb
4x Stubborn Denial
2x Etched Champion
3x Damnation
What do you think ?
Phylactery Lich is a card I want to put on your radar. In this deck its also a 5/5 indestructible for 3 mana. It does exactly what this deck wants to do and so it could be 2-4 more 5/5 beaters for the deck.
I like the idea of Vault Skirge, but its matchup dependent. It opens you up to two for ones, and gives removal a target that you otherwise blank. It maybe a good sideboard card since many opponents will side out removal.
Basilisk Collar is a good substitute for Vault Skirge. You might even main deck one. Gaining 5 life in a chunk is good, and while your creatures beat most other creatures in combat, deathtouch could sometimes be useful. Also in a pinch, its an artifact.
The big thing I'd like to add is some form of card advantage. In a weird way, Damnation and Indestructible creatures are blanking cards and letting you get some card advantage, but you don't have card velocity with this deck. So that's what I'd look for. I also don't know the proper number of each of the cards, but this deck has become redundant, so many of the same effect are playable that its really nice.
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Creature (2)
2x Phylactery Lich
Artifact (11)
4x Darksteel Relic
4x Darksteel Axe
3x Darksteel Pendant
Enchantment (8)
4x Ensoul Artifact
4x Tezzeret's Touch
Sorcery (8)
3x Damnation
2x Thoughtseize
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Fatal Push
1x Dismember
Land (23)
4x Darksteel Citadel
1x Academy Ruins
4x Polluted Delta
4x Marsh Flats
2x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
1x Island
3x Swamp
1x Basilisk Collar
2x Pithing Needle
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Thoughtseize
2x Nihil Spellbomb
4x Stubborn Denial
2x Etched Champion
1x Damnation
Maindeck Damnation can potentially work but I'm not sure if it is really justified right now.
I'm not sure about the Lich idea, BBB can be pretty rough (with 5x colorless lands in the deck and islands) and 3-mana isn't very fast either
(Skirge is another turn 1 play).
Maybe even maindeck Etched Champion can be better as it can be turned into a 5/5 which can easily gain protection from all colors.
Collar is an option, maybe as a SB card for Burn.
For card advantage Tezzeret is pretty much the key card (Pendant also helps a bit with scrying) here but the deck aims to close out games fast (backed with cheap disruption) and not really go long.
Well if you are going to test on this deck some, I wanted you to know that Phylactery Lich was there so you could keep it in mind. I agree the BBB is not exactly easy, but I'd say more than 80% of the time when you hit 4 mana you have BBB, especially if you try, this deck doesn't need a ton of Blue. Its the reason, I really can't see running more than 2 without playing with the mana base, right now the deck has 6 non-black lands.
Executioner's Capsule might be an idea as a fun of card, that is better than first glance. It can recur with Academy Ruins and it can be found with Tezzeret. But again, I am very comfortable running one of's in my decks and I wouldn't run more than one Capsule. How much targeted removal to run is very metagame dependent. In the general metagame, you have Humans, Hollow One and Affinity being very popular right now. I love the maindeck Damnations. I agree you'll have play anyway with the aggro decks because you should have big 5/5's to slow them down. But those aggressive decks do have flyers. I also wouldn't forget the non-zero number of combo decks that utilize creatures.
I totally agree that you run 4 Stubborn Denial in your 75. Whether you maindeck them or sideboard them is up to metagame, but there are so few answers to your angle of attack preventing the few cards that can interact with you is very important. I'd run at least one main...
I do like the Etched Champions. Yes you can give them +3/+3 in a pinch, but they are basically unblockable and indestructible without being enchanted or animated by Tezzeret. So making them bigger isn't really why you should put them in the deck, but they can get killed by Damnation, so that is an issue. I think the Etched Champions come in against control decks that might be able to target your creatures.
Vault Skirge being a turn 1 play is a little meh, since you have lots of zero/one cost artifacts to get the turn 2 Ensoul Artifact play and Relic, Axe and Citadel are all indestructible. Plus you have your discard spells to play turn 1. I think your natural threats are resilient. So I see the Vault Skirge as good against burn, where you might land it and Ensoul Artifact on turn 3 when they are tapped out. But I'm not sure you want it in an Aggro Matchup, because you also want the Damnations in the matchups and you could turn your damnations into 3 for 2's if you are killing your own enchanted Vault Skirge. That's my issue with Vault Skirge. I think its playable in the right metagame. Its much better game 2 and maybe 3. But it feels pre-sideboarded to me, and I'm not even very sure when you want it.
Also Damping Sphere in the sideboard is probably a must just a matter of how many. As an artifact you can find it with Tezzeret and recur it with Academy Ruins, or make it a creature in a pinch.
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Creature (1)
1x Phylactery Lich
Artifact (12)
4x Darksteel Relic
4x Darksteel Axe
3x Darksteel Pendant
1x Executioner's Capsule
Enchantment (8)
4x Ensoul Artifact
4x Tezzeret's Touch
Sorcery (8)
3x Damnation
2x Thoughtseize
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Fatal Push
1x Dismember
1x Stubborn Denial
Land (23)
4x Darksteel Citadel
1x Academy Ruins
4x Polluted Delta
3x Marsh Flats
1x Sunken Ruins
2x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
1x Island
3x Swamp
1x Basilisk Collar
2x Pithing Needle
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Thoughtseize
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Nihil Spellbomb
3x Stubborn Denial
2x Damping Sphere
1x Etched Champion
1x Damnation
Personally that looks like a clunkier attempt at a big artifacts deck which is slower than Affinity and pretty fragile and synergy-dependant.
I'm not sure if this even better than the "Grand Architect artifacts aggro" deck which at least has some disruption elements (besides Stub).
Traxos seems pretty slow and still dies to a "revolt" Fatal Push so I probably won't play it outside of a dedicated artifacts deck (preferably with Voltaic Servant to untap it).
We can beat a lot of decks and we can main deck 12 Thoughtseize and Inquisition Stubborn Denial, so we have a strong ability to blank the sideboard card like Hurkyls Recall.
I think we have game versus the control decks as we turn off removal and sweepers.
We arent supper quick so we do need to slow down opponents. But focusing on opponents having Hurkyls Recall or a counterspell is really not really even decks we have bad matchups against.
Also I agree with one of the guys on YouTube that played this. The relic is just cute and not that good. That spot should go to crypt or even bauble to help.
Idea is you are not super good against reanimation decks. Having a few main deck hate goes a long way. The baubles would give you a form of card draw in case you are stocked up on targets but no enchantments.
I disagree about Relic, being free is a huge upside and it allows the fastest starts of the deck attacking for 5 on turn 2.
I'd cut Pendant before Relic.
The deck has so much redundancy that adding "air" like Bauble to the deck doesn't seem very helpful.
I don't think that maindeck graveyard hate is necessary either as the discard and counters can deal pretty well with any fast GY strategy.
https://youtu.be/Dr8z7MijyC4
Just having a 0 mana do nothing doesn't help in matchup that you need help with.
If you are looking for darksteel then just enchant the axe or land.
Adding main boad hate cards to a weak matchup would make more sense. Yes, bauble and crypt can be killed with push. But what's better having to sacrifice a crypt when turn 2 they try to reanimated a gristlebrand or sitting there while he goes over you for combo?
What's worse.... having a darksteel relic in play but no scissors or being able to dig for them?
Not all games take place in fairytale Christmas land.
So it isn't even a bad match-up.
As far as bauble, that card just doesn't do enough and I'd much rather have a critical mass of darksteel artifacts for redundency instead of a free (delayed) cycler.
The deck in the video is pretty interesting (though bad) but completely different from what we have here.
Relic is indeed bad in that deck and pretty much any other deck besides this one where it is pretty much a 0-mana Phylactery Lich.
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Creature (1)
1x Phylactery Lich
Artifact (12)
4x Darksteel Relic
4x Darksteel Axe
3x Darksteel Pendant
1x Executioner's Capsule
Enchantment (8)
4x Ensoul Artifact
4x Tezzeret's Touch
Sorcery (8)
3x Damnation
2x Thoughtseize
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
Instant (4)
2x Fatal Push
1x Dismember
1x Stubborn Denial
4x Darksteel Citadel
1x Academy Ruins
4x Polluted Delta
1x Marsh Flats
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Sunken Ruins
2x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
1x Island
3x Swamp
1x Basilisk Collar
1x Pithing Needle
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Bontu's Last Reckoning
1x Thoughtseize
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Nihil Spellbomb
3x Stubborn Denial
2x Damping Sphere
1x Etched Champion
1x Damnation
I traded a Marsh Flats for a Urborg. I can't imagine running more than 1 Urborg. I'm sure it adds a percentage point or two, but its not fixing the issue. Urborg is a slight improvement, so thank you, it was a great catch and good tuning decision, with little downside. I am by no means locked into the mana base. I'm not sure that I shouldn't have either added an extra land or changed out a different land.
I know a lot of people want to talk people playing this deck into running more useful artifacts and enchanting them. I do not fall into that camp. Just akin to Boggles, indestructible is our hexproof. We don't want to be enchanting Dryad Arbor in Boggles, you don't want to enchant medium useful artifacts in this deck. Especially since a real strength of this deck is being able to overextend with no fear of sweepers and use your sweepers without sacrificing your board position. Does Boggles enchant a Dryad Arbor every now and again, yes. But the reason Dryad Arbor is in the deck is that it helps the deck get around Sacrifice effects. The Lich maybe overkill. We have a lot of ways to make 5/5 indestructibles in the deck. For BBB he is hard to play, he can also create board states where the only indestructible artifact gets three for one'd by a Path to Exile. I mentioned the Lich so that we'd all know he was there, and that he can play a similar role to Tezzeret's Touch.
Pendant is a bad magic card. We are playing a lot of Bad Magic cards solely because they are cheap and indestructible. Is pendant's ability more useful than Relic, yes. Does Pendant cost 2 more mana than Relic... yes. Does what Pendant does get you enough for two mana? No. In many games if you had a relic in play and can cast Ensoul Artifact on a Relic you are doing something to slow down Humans and give you enough time to find sweepers or amass enough blockers that you can go on the offensive. The turn you think you could be paying for the Pendant might also be the turn you play a removal or discard spell. Pendant might be okay in a control matchup, but its not good in the current aggro metagame. Playtest everything. Maybe the two mana for Pendant works for you, but mostly I find Modern is too fast for Pendant. Notice I still play Pendant, I'm just playing a playset of Relic and only three Pendant. I like the Relic more than the Pendant, but I'm not totally away from the Pendant. I value Relic more because this deck wants to aggressively use its mana in the first couple turns with removal and disruption and this deck doesn't fear over extending. The only sweeper that is played with any frequency that hurts us is Terminus, and we'll just lose some games to Terminus, but we also have Stubborn Denial to help in those matchups. So we do just play our cards into the Board in most matchups, so anything slowing us down hurts us. Even when we are the Control deck against the really aggressive decks, we still aggressively put our cards onto the board. Most control decks don't have enough cards that interact with our game plan to win. We turn off a lot of their cards, especially the sweepers that gain them card advantage. That's this decks strength.
Besides fetching SB cards it also serves as extra copies of Relic/Citadel/Axe (and Capsule).
That's a really good suggestion.
I don't think I can imagine doing it maindeck, but I could be convinced. My thinking is that Trinket Mage is too slow for a lot of matchups. But for a sideboard card that could effectively function as a second or third of the "one of cards", I could potentially see it.
I don't feel like my sideboard is good right now. I also don't know if the 2/2 body left over by Trinket Mage is helpful, but I'm not sure it needs to be anything other than a search card. I think there is a lot of value in being able to search up cards in a control matchup. If you did that you might consider Explorer's Map to be able to find Academy Ruins and other lands like Urborg, Field of Ruin, or Ghost Quarter. You might also in that situation add Tolaria West because it can search out some zero cost cards.
If the metagame changes you might move the Damnations out of the maindeck and that could make room for Trinket Mage Package.
Again this deck is actually fairly well positioned right now because its fairs well against the answers to Humans and Hollow One that other people are playing and most sideboards won't have a lot of good things to bring in against you.
It is pretty much a (much better) blue equivalent of Awakener Druid which works with artifacts instead of forests.
Do you have a current list available?
Though the deck isn't that artifact-dense with my version having 18x with 4x of them being Darksteel Citadel which doesn't trigger Sai.
I don't think Skilled Animator has a place in the deck unless you want to lower the curve even more and replace Tezzeret.
Overall the deck doesn't seem very well positioned right now as it struggles against go-wide aggro decks and can't effectively race the fast combo decks (though the disruption should slow them down).
This deck maybe too slow by a turn, but in general it has pretty good tools.
YOUTUBE CHANNEL: GOBOTS