I've been hyped over Inventor's Goggles since it's reveal (A 1 mana +1/+2 with repeatable free equip? That's gotta be good somewhere.) but now with the reveal of Inventor's Apprentice I fell like there's a real deck here just waiting to be, well, invented.
To start the aggro base of this deck we have two powerfully aggressive one drops. Inventor's Apprentice is a 1/1 who becomes a 2/3 as long as we control an artifact. Toolcraft Exemplar is yet another 1/1 but this one becomes a 3/2 during our combat phase and it gains First Strike if we have three artifacts. Friendly reminder, they're a 3/4 and 4/4 respectively with the Goggles which, extra friendly reminder, equips to each of them for free when they enter the battlefield.
As for two drops, we've been blessed with delicious synergy. Stone Haven Outfitter is a lord for any equipped creatures we control and gives us a +1 if any of our equipped creatures trades or eats removal. Snazzy. Oh yeah, and it's a 2 mana 4/5 with the Goggles out. Our other obvious two drop option is Weapons Trainer another ally from BFZ block. She's another lord. This time giving our entire team +1/+0 if we control an equipment. She's also a nice aggressive 3/2 body. Due to the synergy that both of these have with simply having equipment or having it equipped, we'd like to have more equipment than just Goggles to make the most of their abilities. For this reason I'm opting for Bone Saw from BFZ block. Not only does it turn on all of our "if you control an artifact/equipment" effects for no cost, it's also basically Bonesplitter with either the Outfitter or Trainer out on the field.
We should also consider aggressively costed vehicles such as Smuggler's Copter as it's a 3/3 flyer for 2 that any of our creatures can pilot even if they're not powered up which also allows us to dig through our decks a bit to find what we need.
Other possible card choices (bold means probably worth a try): Neglected Heirloom? Probably not worth it, but it's cheap and on-curve. Angel of Invention? Definitely a good curve-topper, but might be too expensive. Master Trinketeer? Probably only worth it if you're running Angel or something else with Fabricate, or you run more than 2 of Pia Nalaar. Stoneforge Acolyte? Not enough Allies Strength of Arms? Could be worth testing, might be a beating if it's consistent enough Thraben Inspector? Certainly a cheap way to get an artifact, but the one-drop spot is so strong already that I'm not sure it's worth it. Maybe if Bomat Courier proves ineffective. Town Gossipmonger? Cheap and aggressive, but doesn't actually do much until turn 3, so I'd rather not. Lupine Prototype? A big, cheap artifact creature, but it won't do much until turn 4 at least, probably even turn 5 or 6. Smuggler's Copter? Definitely good enough to test. Probably the first thing I'd want to add from the list of maybeboard cards. Bygone Bishop? Gives you artifacts for playing cheap creatures. Reckless Bushwhacker? Very solid in general, especially in a deck with a couple of 0-drops.
Don't forget Ironclad Slayer in the maybeboard. If this upcoming standard is going to be artifact heavy, then it's a fair bet you might encounter people that main deck artifact removal, the slayer makes that less of a problem.
I'd also consider main decking a single Gryff's Boon if you are thinking about running Open the Armory since none of the deck's equipment grants evasion. A single Bound by Moonsilver or Faith Unbroken also may be useful as a piece of searchable removal (I feel Moonsilver is way better here since it costs one less to cast and isn't prone to being blown out by instant speed removal, I just listed faith unbroken to be thorough).
I actually kind of like the new Chandra in the deck as the capstone. Basically, you can just cast chandra and then +1 to surge into Reckless Bushwhacker. She also provides a way to get some mid game reach in a deck that otherwise would putter out past turn 4.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Why aren't we running Stonehaven's Outfitter... or the card that gives +1/+1 to all equipped creatures.
Because people forgot completely that Weapons Trainer actually exists, and now that we have the cards to actually make this deck run I'm sure a lot more people are going to realize it exists. So yes, we have a weapons trainer now teaching artificers how to garrote someone with a pair of goggles... and a vehicle how to use a Bonesaw... my head hurts.
Also, as much as I like the idea of spawning a thopter, I think Reckless Bushwhacker is still a better choice than Pia Nelaar. It sort of depends on if we want to go more midrange or more true aggro.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
If we're really interested in going up to 4 mana, Goldnight Castigator is pretty good for reach. Granted it could easily be straight-up worse than Chandra, but voltroning up a 4 power flying haste is certainly a knockout punch.
I think if we should look for inspiration, we should look at the Theros-era Heroic decks. They had the issue of drawing the right half of their deck to avoid being stuck with a bunch of pumps and no creatures. Unfortunately for us, we dont have a hexproof artifact, so we're not going to have that deck's resilience.
I don't think either of these two cards works well in this kind of deck. Lathnu is best served when played in an Energy production style deck. Castigator, while giving the deck reach, makes any hit you take or burn to the face hurt twice as much. And in a deck that wants to aggressive and has no built in lifegain, this can be fatal.
That's a good variation, Aviary Mechanic is actually a great toolbox card the more I think about it. You can use it to abuse ETB effects and if you don't have any land to play you can always just bounce a tapped land and replay it, effectively making the mechanic cost half as much, or just choose to leave that land in your hand so you can have something to throw away to Smuggler's Copter looting.
I can't help but think that Inventors' Fair would be improved by including one or two artifact creatures (or artifacts that make creatures) to search for just in case you find yourself with too much equipment and nothing to equip it to. Maybe a Filigree Familiar since it replaces itself when it dies.
LOL! Thanks! Yeah, I honestly don't know what the sideboard should look like just yet. I added Filigree Familiar to the SB in case I run into an aggro/burn deck that's faster than us. I definitely believe RG Energy Aggro/UR Burn/RB Burn will be things this season.
That's a good variation, Aviary Mechanic is actually a great toolbox card the more I think about it. You can use it to abuse ETB effects and if you don't have any land to play you can always just bounce a tapped land and replay it, effectively making the mechanic cost half as much, or just choose to leave that land in your hand so you can have something to throw away to Smuggler's Copter looting.
I can't help but think that Inventors' Fair would be improved by including one or two artifact creatures (or artifacts that make creatures) to search for just in case you find yourself with too much equipment and nothing to equip it to. Maybe a Filigree Familiar since it replaces itself when it dies.
Thank you. I haven't tested just yet, but I'm not too concerned with not having enough creatures to equip with equipment. My deck only runs 8 equipments and the rest of the deck is nothing but creatures. I do like the idea of running Filigree Familiar in the deck, maybe even mainboard. I'd only do this if I shaved off Inventor's Fair and went down to 22 Lands instead of 24. Now that I think about it, I don't think Fair is needed in this deck. It already has multiple ways to draw into the deck. I think I'm gonna sleeve together practice deck right now and see how it goes. Thank you for your suggestions!
I think the one issue I see with the deck is that it doesn't have a lot of ways to get around the large number of fat bodied creatures that pollute standard right now. They can trade with them once equipped and are on the offensive, but they have to deal with the likes of Spell Queller, Reflector Mage, Sylvan Advocate, Grim Flayer, and at the higher end Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.
The other challenge is to find efficient ways to get bodies on the floor to actually use the gear. Right now from looking at the spoilers, there's a lot of toolbox / extra value creature removal in the upcoming kaladesh standard. Red and black got a significant removal suite, and if we aren't careful it's even possible to get Skywhaler's Shoted down by opposing white decks, since we aren't necessarily going wide.
Some under the radar equipment cards that may help a bit with the value end without splashing a color include Hedron Blade, which basically gives death touch vs Artifact creatures, including crewed vehicles. Haunted Cloak may not buff a creature directly, but it gives it trample, which is highly relevant.
As far as color splashes go, I'm fairly high on green right now. Besides offering some additional power with access to Sylvan Advocate and Duskwatch Recruiter, we get access to three highly relevant spells: Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter, Blossoming Defense, and Larger than life. It also gives access to blanket flying removal in the form of plummet and a planeswalker in the form of Arlinn Kord, who is highly undervalued given her flipped form gives trample to all creatures we control as well as possessing the ability to make a 2/2 wolf to gear up or use to crew something.
As for an alternate win condition, we may want to look towards Reckless Fireweaver and Chandra, Torch of Defiance. The first is an artificer that can do some incidental direct damage to the opponent, the later gives us a way to leap over our opponent or potentially ramp into something like Metalwork Colossus or Combustible Gearhulk. The later choice is probably not going to be as helpful compared to the R/G listing where the value of the three cards could likely be as game breaking as the damage from the discard.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I forgot to mention one more thing for your deck Th3M4g1cM4n. I know you're intending to play the aggro game plan, but I think the deck could gain a lot if you added a little bit of removal. Specifically I think Collective Defiance deserves a spot in the main deck because it gets rid of Kalitas (your biggest threat since he stops Stone Haven Outfitter's death triggers) plus it can deal direct damage to your opponent's face and can cycle away a hand full of useless cards to find what you need, in other words I can't think of a better toolbox card. Besides collective defiance I think Declaration in Stone could be a good sideboard card to bring in against token decks. Also Quarantine Field might be worth testing as well in the sideboard now that Dromoka's Command is rotating. It gives you an extremely versatile answer every problem permanent that isn't a man land.
I forgot to mention one more thing for your deck Th3M4g1cM4n. I know you're intending to play the aggro game plan, but I think the deck could gain a lot if you added a little bit of removal. Specifically I think Collective Defiance deserves a spot in the main deck because it gets rid of Kalitas (your biggest threat since he stops Stone Haven Outfitter's death triggers) plus it can deal direct damage to your opponent's face and can cycle away a hand full of useless cards to find what you need, in other words I can't think of a better toolbox card. Besides collective defiance I think Declaration in Stone could be a good sideboard card to bring in against token decks. Also Quarantine Field might be worth testing as well in the sideboard now that Dromoka's Command is rotating. It gives you an extremely versatile answer every problem permanent that isn't a man land.
I'm not really sure this could be called an aggro deck. In order for both of the one drops to get buffed we need an artifact on the field and the only way that is happening is either by sacrificing turn 1 for a rare artifact creature with a risky ability or a bonesaw, or putting a one drop on turn 1 and then getting a vehicle or equipment turn 2. I view an equipment deck as more of a midrange strategy that can go tall on a few creatures, which is sort of what we are doing right now with the deck. You could ignore equipment entirely and just do vehicles as well.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I forgot to mention one more thing for your deck Th3M4g1cM4n. I know you're intending to play the aggro game plan, but I think the deck could gain a lot if you added a little bit of removal. Specifically I think Collective Defiance deserves a spot in the main deck because it gets rid of Kalitas (your biggest threat since he stops Stone Haven Outfitter's death triggers) plus it can deal direct damage to your opponent's face and can cycle away a hand full of useless cards to find what you need, in other words I can't think of a better toolbox card. Besides collective defiance I think Declaration in Stone could be a good sideboard card to bring in against token decks. Also Quarantine Field might be worth testing as well in the sideboard now that Dromoka's Command is rotating. It gives you an extremely versatile answer every problem permanent that isn't a man land.
I'm not really sure this could be called an aggro deck. In order for both of the one drops to get buffed we need an artifact on the field and the only way that is happening is either by sacrificing turn 1 for a rare artifact creature with a risky ability or a bonesaw, or putting a one drop on turn 1 and then getting a vehicle or equipment turn 2. I view an equipment deck as more of a midrange strategy that can go tall on a few creatures, which is sort of what we are doing right now with the deck. You could ignore equipment entirely and just do vehicles as well.
Yeah I'm not sure I'd call my build an aggro deck either. It's definitely low to the ground, capping out at 3 mana. The idea, at first, was to capitalize on Artificers as a tribal theme. Then I noticed a vast majority of Artificer cards revealed so far also have Dwarves as a creature subtype. Hence the reason I went the artifact Voltron route instead of Vehicles. Smuggler's Copter was the one Vehicle exception I made because of how powerful it is. It can be crewed by every creature in the deck, synergizes with Depala, Pilot Exemplar, provides reach to go over ground creatures via flying, and provides card draw. The deck as it stands definitely wants to be an equipment deck.
I think the one issue I see with the deck is that it doesn't have a lot of ways to get around the large number of fat bodied creatures that pollute standard right now. They can trade with them once equipped and are on the offensive, but they have to deal with the likes of Spell Queller, Reflector Mage, Sylvan Advocate, Grim Flayer, and at the higher end Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.
The other challenge is to find efficient ways to get bodies on the floor to actually use the gear. Right now from looking at the spoilers, there's a lot of toolbox / extra value creature removal in the upcoming kaladesh standard. Red and black got a significant removal suite, and if we aren't careful it's even possible to get Skywhaler's Shoted down by opposing white decks, since we aren't necessarily going wide.
Some under the radar equipment cards that may help a bit with the value end without splashing a color include Hedron Blade, which basically gives death touch vs Artifact creatures, including crewed vehicles. Haunted Cloak may not buff a creature directly, but it gives it trample, which is highly relevant.
As far as color splashes go, I'm fairly high on green right now. Besides offering some additional power with access to Sylvan Advocate and Duskwatch Recruiter, we get access to three highly relevant spells: Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter, Blossoming Defense, and Larger than life. It also gives access to blanket flying removal in the form of plummet and a planeswalker in the form of Arlinn Kord, who is highly undervalued given her flipped form gives trample to all creatures we control as well as possessing the ability to make a 2/2 wolf to gear up or use to crew something.
As for an alternate win condition, we may want to look towards Reckless Fireweaver and Chandra, Torch of Defiance. The first is an artificer that can do some incidental direct damage to the opponent, the later gives us a way to leap over our opponent or potentially ramp into something like Metalwork Colossus or Combustible Gearhulk. The later choice is probably not going to be as helpful compared to the R/G listing where the value of the three cards could likely be as game breaking as the damage from the discard.
You've made some very valid points here. For starters, I agree with every creature you mentioned in your first paragraph, aside from Grim Flayer, presenting some unique problems for my build as it stands. I like both of your recommendations to include Hedron Blade and Haunted Cloak MB. I'll play with the numbers and do some testing to see what I can come up with.
I don't think splashing a third color is the right direction to go in. Yes, green is great at buffing creatures, but in a deck that auto-buffs it's creatures via tribal synergies, green buffs become redundant and slow the deck down. Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter is too mana intensive to be benificial. More often than not, you'll be wanting to cast another artifact spell for 3 mana instead of creating a Servo Construct.
I was looking at Reckless Fireweaver early in the deck's creation. I originally had him in place of Smuggler's Copter. In all likelihood, I will be taking Copter out of the deck. It doesn't really do what its wants to do unless you have a large amount of creatures on the battlefield at one time. It works better in a token strategy. Chandra, Torch of Defiance on the other hand... I absolutely LOVE the card. I have the tendency to want to throw her into every red deck I've made so far, but here I don't think she's necessary. At least not MB. I "get" what she does, working well in both artifact and burn decks. But as soon as she's played opponents are going to go after her. That 4 mana may be better used equiping one or two equipments to another creature instead. The same can be said for cards Metalwork Colossus and Combustible Gearhulk, two cards that fit more in a "Big Red" style deck.
Well the full spoiler is out and it looks like we don't have any further pieces to play with for this deck at the moment.
I do have to agree that the lack of truly fast creatures in the deck may be an issue towards an aggro strategy. Still, I feel that if I were to keep an aggro strategy with this deck that an equipment theme would likely work best in order to take full advantage of Outfitter, Trainer and turn on our 1 drops early with Bone Saw and Goggles.
Also, I'm personally not a fan of Bomat Courier. It is an artifact and it has haste, but those two are attached to a 1/1 body that requires us to discard our hand to get cards with it's ability. Which I don't even see us exiling more than one or two cards as our opponents will likely bring our a blocker and eat the Courier fairly quickly.
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
-Chandra Nalaar
I'm still working on my own build and I'm bending towards more Boros midrange than trying to go under, hence why I'm using Chandra. That and while I know the hype is strong on her, in my own situation there are mechanical reasons I want her in the build. She +1 torches people for 2 late game when you can potentially get walled out or run out of fuel. Her other +1 lets you keep mana open for playing answers on the opponents turn, as well as provides a way to ramp into potential game ending threats.
But yeah, I think people are over valuing her right now because they remember JTMS and don't realize she plays more like Chandra the reusable spud gun. Only instead of potato cores she shoots flaming bits of useless deck space.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Oh yeah, Chandra is no doubt very, very good. She would be great at the top of the curve. I just haven't included her personally because I can't afford a playset
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
-Chandra Nalaar
I've been hyped over Inventor's Goggles since it's reveal (A 1 mana +1/+2 with repeatable free equip? That's gotta be good somewhere.) but now with the reveal of Inventor's Apprentice I fell like there's a real deck here just waiting to be, well, invented.
To start the aggro base of this deck we have two powerfully aggressive one drops. Inventor's Apprentice is a 1/1 who becomes a 2/3 as long as we control an artifact. Toolcraft Exemplar is yet another 1/1 but this one becomes a 3/2 during our combat phase and it gains First Strike if we have three artifacts. Friendly reminder, they're a 3/4 and 4/4 respectively with the Goggles which, extra friendly reminder, equips to each of them for free when they enter the battlefield.
As for two drops, we've been blessed with delicious synergy. Stone Haven Outfitter is a lord for any equipped creatures we control and gives us a +1 if any of our equipped creatures trades or eats removal. Snazzy. Oh yeah, and it's a 2 mana 4/5 with the Goggles out. Our other obvious two drop option is Weapons Trainer another ally from BFZ block. She's another lord. This time giving our entire team +1/+0 if we control an equipment. She's also a nice aggressive 3/2 body. Due to the synergy that both of these have with simply having equipment or having it equipped, we'd like to have more equipment than just Goggles to make the most of their abilities. For this reason I'm opting for Bone Saw from BFZ block. Not only does it turn on all of our "if you control an artifact/equipment" effects for no cost, it's also basically Bonesplitter with either the Outfitter or Trainer out on the field.
We should also consider aggressively costed vehicles such as Smuggler's Copter as it's a 3/3 flyer for 2 that any of our creatures can pilot even if they're not powered up which also allows us to dig through our decks a bit to find what we need.
-Chandra Nalaar
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Inventor's Apprentice
3 Bomat Courier
3 Smuggler's Copter
2 Stone Haven Outfitter
2 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Weapons Trainer
2 Pia Nalaar
1 Fleetwheel Cruiser
4 Bone Saw
4 Captain's Claws
3 Inventor's Goggles
Other Spell (3)
2 Declaration in Stone
1 Open the Armory
Land (21)
4 Inspiring Vantage
1 Inventor's Fair
2 Needle Spires
9 Plains
5 Mountain
Other possible card choices (bold means probably worth a try):
Neglected Heirloom? Probably not worth it, but it's cheap and on-curve.
Angel of Invention? Definitely a good curve-topper, but might be too expensive.
Master Trinketeer? Probably only worth it if you're running Angel or something else with Fabricate, or you run more than 2 of Pia Nalaar.
Stoneforge Acolyte? Not enough Allies
Strength of Arms? Could be worth testing, might be a beating if it's consistent enough
Thraben Inspector? Certainly a cheap way to get an artifact, but the one-drop spot is so strong already that I'm not sure it's worth it. Maybe if Bomat Courier proves ineffective.
Town Gossipmonger? Cheap and aggressive, but doesn't actually do much until turn 3, so I'd rather not.
Lupine Prototype? A big, cheap artifact creature, but it won't do much until turn 4 at least, probably even turn 5 or 6.
Smuggler's Copter? Definitely good enough to test. Probably the first thing I'd want to add from the list of maybeboard cards.
Bygone Bishop? Gives you artifacts for playing cheap creatures.
Reckless Bushwhacker? Very solid in general, especially in a deck with a couple of 0-drops.
Cards I might cut:
Sigarda's Aid
Open the Armory
Fleetwheel Cruiser
Updated with new thoughts
4 inventor's apprentice
4 inventor's goggles
4 smuggler's copter
4 sky skiff
4 speedway fanatic
4 stone haven outfitter
3 pia nalaar
4 cultivator's caravan
2 blessed alliance
not really complete, but it looks promising. still a lot of cards left to be spoiled.
Modern:
Twinning End
Commander:
Mayael the Anema
I'd also consider main decking a single Gryff's Boon if you are thinking about running Open the Armory since none of the deck's equipment grants evasion. A single Bound by Moonsilver or Faith Unbroken also may be useful as a piece of searchable removal (I feel Moonsilver is way better here since it costs one less to cast and isn't prone to being blown out by instant speed removal, I just listed faith unbroken to be thorough).
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Thraben Inspector
2 Collective Effort
3 Always Watching
4 Inventor's Apprentice
3 Declaration in Stone
2 Incendiary Flow
3 Weapons Trainer
3 Bone Saw
4 Bomat Courier
8 Plains
2 Needle Spires
4 Mountain
4 Inspiring Vantage
Because people forgot completely that Weapons Trainer actually exists, and now that we have the cards to actually make this deck run I'm sure a lot more people are going to realize it exists. So yes, we have a weapons trainer now teaching artificers how to garrote someone with a pair of goggles... and a vehicle how to use a Bonesaw... my head hurts.
Also, as much as I like the idea of spawning a thopter, I think Reckless Bushwhacker is still a better choice than Pia Nelaar. It sort of depends on if we want to go more midrange or more true aggro.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I think if we should look for inspiration, we should look at the Theros-era Heroic decks. They had the issue of drawing the right half of their deck to avoid being stuck with a bunch of pumps and no creatures. Unfortunately for us, we dont have a hexproof artifact, so we're not going to have that deck's resilience.
I don't think either of these two cards works well in this kind of deck. Lathnu is best served when played in an Energy production style deck. Castigator, while giving the deck reach, makes any hit you take or burn to the face hurt twice as much. And in a deck that wants to aggressive and has no built in lifegain, this can be fatal.
4 Needle Spires
4 Inspiring Vantage
8 Plains
6 Mountain
CREATURES
4 Inventor's Apprentice
4 Reckless Fireweaver
4 Weapons Trainer
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Stone Haven Outfitter
4 Aviary Mechanic
4 Inventor's Goggles
4 Stoneforge Masterwork
2 Cogworker's Puzzleknot
4 Filigree Familiar
2 Hijack
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Deadlock Trap
CARD CHOICES
I can't help but think that Inventors' Fair would be improved by including one or two artifact creatures (or artifacts that make creatures) to search for just in case you find yourself with too much equipment and nothing to equip it to. Maybe a Filigree Familiar since it replaces itself when it dies.
LOL! Thanks! Yeah, I honestly don't know what the sideboard should look like just yet. I added Filigree Familiar to the SB in case I run into an aggro/burn deck that's faster than us. I definitely believe RG Energy Aggro/UR Burn/RB Burn will be things this season.
Thank you. I haven't tested just yet, but I'm not too concerned with not having enough creatures to equip with equipment. My deck only runs 8 equipments and the rest of the deck is nothing but creatures. I do like the idea of running Filigree Familiar in the deck, maybe even mainboard. I'd only do this if I shaved off Inventor's Fair and went down to 22 Lands instead of 24. Now that I think about it, I don't think Fair is needed in this deck. It already has multiple ways to draw into the deck. I think I'm gonna sleeve together practice deck right now and see how it goes. Thank you for your suggestions!
The other challenge is to find efficient ways to get bodies on the floor to actually use the gear. Right now from looking at the spoilers, there's a lot of toolbox / extra value creature removal in the upcoming kaladesh standard. Red and black got a significant removal suite, and if we aren't careful it's even possible to get Skywhaler's Shoted down by opposing white decks, since we aren't necessarily going wide.
Some under the radar equipment cards that may help a bit with the value end without splashing a color include Hedron Blade, which basically gives death touch vs Artifact creatures, including crewed vehicles. Haunted Cloak may not buff a creature directly, but it gives it trample, which is highly relevant.
As far as color splashes go, I'm fairly high on green right now. Besides offering some additional power with access to Sylvan Advocate and Duskwatch Recruiter, we get access to three highly relevant spells: Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter, Blossoming Defense, and Larger than life. It also gives access to blanket flying removal in the form of plummet and a planeswalker in the form of Arlinn Kord, who is highly undervalued given her flipped form gives trample to all creatures we control as well as possessing the ability to make a 2/2 wolf to gear up or use to crew something.
As for an alternate win condition, we may want to look towards Reckless Fireweaver and Chandra, Torch of Defiance. The first is an artificer that can do some incidental direct damage to the opponent, the later gives us a way to leap over our opponent or potentially ramp into something like Metalwork Colossus or Combustible Gearhulk. The later choice is probably not going to be as helpful compared to the R/G listing where the value of the three cards could likely be as game breaking as the damage from the discard.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm not really sure this could be called an aggro deck. In order for both of the one drops to get buffed we need an artifact on the field and the only way that is happening is either by sacrificing turn 1 for a rare artifact creature with a risky ability or a bonesaw, or putting a one drop on turn 1 and then getting a vehicle or equipment turn 2. I view an equipment deck as more of a midrange strategy that can go tall on a few creatures, which is sort of what we are doing right now with the deck. You could ignore equipment entirely and just do vehicles as well.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yeah I'm not sure I'd call my build an aggro deck either. It's definitely low to the ground, capping out at 3 mana. The idea, at first, was to capitalize on Artificers as a tribal theme. Then I noticed a vast majority of Artificer cards revealed so far also have Dwarves as a creature subtype. Hence the reason I went the artifact Voltron route instead of Vehicles. Smuggler's Copter was the one Vehicle exception I made because of how powerful it is. It can be crewed by every creature in the deck, synergizes with Depala, Pilot Exemplar, provides reach to go over ground creatures via flying, and provides card draw. The deck as it stands definitely wants to be an equipment deck.
You've made some very valid points here. For starters, I agree with every creature you mentioned in your first paragraph, aside from Grim Flayer, presenting some unique problems for my build as it stands. I like both of your recommendations to include Hedron Blade and Haunted Cloak MB. I'll play with the numbers and do some testing to see what I can come up with.
I don't think splashing a third color is the right direction to go in. Yes, green is great at buffing creatures, but in a deck that auto-buffs it's creatures via tribal synergies, green buffs become redundant and slow the deck down. Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter is too mana intensive to be benificial. More often than not, you'll be wanting to cast another artifact spell for 3 mana instead of creating a Servo Construct.
I was looking at Reckless Fireweaver early in the deck's creation. I originally had him in place of Smuggler's Copter. In all likelihood, I will be taking Copter out of the deck. It doesn't really do what its wants to do unless you have a large amount of creatures on the battlefield at one time. It works better in a token strategy. Chandra, Torch of Defiance on the other hand... I absolutely LOVE the card. I have the tendency to want to throw her into every red deck I've made so far, but here I don't think she's necessary. At least not MB. I "get" what she does, working well in both artifact and burn decks. But as soon as she's played opponents are going to go after her. That 4 mana may be better used equiping one or two equipments to another creature instead. The same can be said for cards Metalwork Colossus and Combustible Gearhulk, two cards that fit more in a "Big Red" style deck.
I do have to agree that the lack of truly fast creatures in the deck may be an issue towards an aggro strategy. Still, I feel that if I were to keep an aggro strategy with this deck that an equipment theme would likely work best in order to take full advantage of Outfitter, Trainer and turn on our 1 drops early with Bone Saw and Goggles.
Also, I'm personally not a fan of Bomat Courier. It is an artifact and it has haste, but those two are attached to a 1/1 body that requires us to discard our hand to get cards with it's ability. Which I don't even see us exiling more than one or two cards as our opponents will likely bring our a blocker and eat the Courier fairly quickly.
-Chandra Nalaar
But yeah, I think people are over valuing her right now because they remember JTMS and don't realize she plays more like Chandra the reusable spud gun. Only instead of potato cores she shoots flaming bits of useless deck space.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
-Chandra Nalaar
2x Cathar's Shield
2x Stoneforge Masterwork
4x Inventor's Goggles
4x Inventor's Apprentice
4x Toolcraft Exemplar
4x Smuggler's Copter instead of Bomat Courier (edit)
4x Reckless Fireweaver
4x Weapons Trainer
4x Stone Haven Outfitter
4x Hanweir Garrison
7x Mountain
7x Plains
4x Inspiring Vantage
2x Aether Hub
Sigarda's Aid, Authority of the Consuls, Galvanic Bombardment, Lathnu Hellion, Thraben Inspector, Declaration in Stone. Lupine Prototype Fairgrounds Wardenare all candidates for sideboard.