History: This is a new concept out of Hour of Devastation. It first saw Tournament Results out of the Hour of Devastation ProTour 07/30/2017
Uniqueness:"Why isn't this the same thing as UW Gifts? There are a variety of factors that go into making this deck unique. My primary points being that:
Marionette Master. When reanimated off of God-Pharaoh's Gift comes back as a 4/4 with 3 1/1 Servos. This alone is a powerful interaction. When combines with a Metalwork Colossus in the graveyard it can often be an instantaneous kill.
Metalwork Colossus. In addition to working powerful in conjunction with a reanimated Marionette Master it also finds a unique interaction in this deck. God-Pharaoh's Gift also has the perk of costing 7, that alone can make it come down cheep.
I'm not sure I really agree with your premise. U/B is one of the most 'fair' builds of Gifts. I understand that it is designed to 'function' without Gifts, but that detracts from using the combo. This deck uses the combo more effectively and takes advantage of random Board states more effectively.
A turn 1 Insolent Neonate into turn 2 Cathartic Reunion opens up the possibility for free turn 2 Hollow One (of any quantity you may have in hand) giving many decks problems...
At the same time, having access to Metalwork Colossus (I'm not convinced 4 is the right number) to take advantage of having God-Pharoah's Gift in play seems quite strong. Throwing in a potential 7/7 with reach seems good, too.
I saw this list and am going to try and play a few games online with it to see how it plays at least before passing too much judgment...
*I don't know why the Mothership has this listed as UB.
I feel that this version of the deck closes the game fastest after getting Gift out. It is not uncommon for the other builds to still lose after getting out Gift. Many games you will win with this deck before even attacking.
Red is an aggressive gameplan to get 6 creatures in your yard and see as many new cards as possible. In most games you play and drop Gate to the Afterlife turn 5.
I took this through a friendly league to a 4-1 record. My overall impression is that it is very explosive. Compared to the UB version you have much more early interaction while remaining as fast or faster at filling your yard. I did unlock the achievements for the turn 2 free Hollow One and a turn 4 combo kill (cycle, cycle-cycle, gate, cycle, neonate, pitch master to neonate, pitch colossus to gate, crack gate, reanimate, gg). If your opponent is tapped out then reanimating the Marionette Master does exactly 20. You attack for four, sac two servos, hold priority, and sac servo + god-pharaoh's gift. You can also pick up an extra activation by playing ballista for zero if you have it.
The deck dies hard to graveyard hate. My match loss involved a game three where Ramunap Red landed a Scavenger Ground and multiple deserts and fired it off any time I was close to a critical mass. In that situation your top end is pretty weak. I guess the plan is to go with Drake Haven? That doesn't seem super-viable against mono red.
I'd say drop the riverwinder for censor and you got a decent deck that could race mono red. I am split on the black version because that one does not offer the draw this one does plus the unique walking ballista addition. Mono red is truly a problem deck.
I took this through a friendly league to a 4-1 record. My overall impression is that it is very explosive. Compared to the UB version you have much more early interaction while remaining as fast or faster at filling your yard. I did unlock the achievements for the turn 2 free Hollow One and a turn 4 combo kill (cycle, cycle-cycle, gate, cycle, neonate, pitch master to neonate, pitch colossus to gate, crack gate, reanimate, gg). If your opponent is tapped out then reanimating the Marionette Master does exactly 20. You attack for four, sac two servos, hold priority, and sac servo + god-pharaoh's gift. You can also pick up an extra activation by playing ballista for zero if you have it.
The deck dies hard to graveyard hate. My match loss involved a game three where Ramunap Red landed a Scavenger Ground and multiple deserts and fired it off any time I was close to a critical mass. In that situation your top end is pretty weak. I guess the plan is to go with Drake Haven? That doesn't seem super-viable against mono red.
I played a bunch in the TP room and found the same thing. If they can't interact with you once you hit a Marionette Master, it's pretty well over. That wasn't the only explosion, though. I found myself with many favorable board states as the double free Hollow One on turn 2 or 3 happens more than you expect. Insolent Neonate plus Cathartic Reunion nets you 4 extra cards of digging on turn 2 which is very powerful for a graveyard strategy.
That said, Walking Ballista wasn't as good as I had hoped and Metalwork Colossus is more sac enabler than useful as a playable. I want to try nearly any other sac outlet...
Drake Haven is also not as bad as it sounds against Red. I did want more cyclers, though, when I've tried that strategy.
I'd say drop the riverwinder for censor and you got a decent deck that could race mono red. I am split on the black version because that one does not offer the draw this one does plus the unique walking ballista addition. Mono red is truly a problem deck.
Red is a race. Don't be afraid to block (with anything) and try to stick a Hollow One quickly. It may get abraded, but if they are spending mana on non-creatures, you're in good shape. The reward here is that you end up with an army of 4/4s that match up quite well and their reach is limited to Shock. It's a tough match, but not as hopeless as you may think.
I think this list could use one or two Trophy Mage. The quick Hollow One hands are neat, but it's rare that it wins you the game on its own. We really really really want God-Pharaoh's Gift running. If all four of your gates wind up in the bottom half of the deck it is very hard to win.
By the numbers, if you do not have a gate in your opening hand there is a 9.4% chance they will all be in the bottom half. Going up to six copies via Trophy Mage drops that to 2.6%. Seems worthwhile to me. I'm not sure what you would cut to fit them in, though.
Metalwork Colossus. In addition to working powerful in conjunction with a reanimated Marionette Master it also finds a unique interaction in this deck. God-Pharaoh's Gift also has the perk of costing 7, alone or in conjunction with a previously played Hollow One the Colossus can come down cheep. It also works off of just 2 Hollow One.
This does not work the way you want it. Metalwork only counts none creature artifacts. Hollow one is a creature. The only way to reduce metalwork's cost in this deck is gates and gifts
[b] Metalwork Colossus[/b]. In addition to working powerful in conjunction with a reanimated Marionette Master it also finds a unique interaction in this deck. God-Pharaoh's Gift also has the perk of costing 7, alone or in conjunction with a previously played Hollow One the Colossus can come down cheep. It also works off of just 2 Hollow One.
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This does not work the way you want it to. hollow one does not reduce metalwork's cost
I have to say, this deck is capable of losing in an amazing number of ways. If your gates are on the bottom half of the library, you lose to any halfway decent draw. If your opponent has incidental graveyard hate, you lose--btw, the green/red ramp deck is running at least one scavenging ground maindeck and can tutor up deserts nearly at will. If your opponent has more Cast Outs than you have God-Pharaoh's Gifts, you lose. The deck feels like a glass cannon to me.
Took a slightly different version to gameday and ended up top 4, beating 2BG (1 energy and 1 deulirum) 1UB eldrazi and lost to UB zombie and mardu vehicle.
The only change I am consider making to the main is to add another land, but still not sure what to cut. The sideboard still needs lots of work.
As previous posts mentioned, this deck does lose when you can't find a gate, but with all the looting that's not really a big issue. Only lost a single game for not having a gate on time. The bigger problem is that with only 20 lands, there are lots of one land opening hand that feel risky to keep. ( For example, on the draw, one land, two one mana cycler, one gate, keep or mulligan?)
Still, since most people are not prepared against this deck, you can usually win game 1 with a surprise combo kill. Game 2 and 3 are more of a race.
Some tip and thoughts about playing this deck:
1.The tokens created by GFG does have mana cost, so it can't be killed by fetal push.
2.Sacrificing a free Hollow One for a two mana EDF feels great, and can protect your combo-off turn.
3.Grasp on Champion of Wit's effect on stack leads to only discading, so be really careful.
4.Though this deck does focus on combo kill, it is still fine to crack gate and get GFG to simply generate card advantage as long as you have a back up one.
5.The black decks usually have hand distribution post board, so cast gate as soon as possible.
6.Though written on the card, many people did not notice that GFG is not legendary, so you can have muticopy on board.
7.GFG's effect doesn't target a card in graveyard, so even if opponent response to the trigger and remove a creature form the graveyard, you can still choose something else.
Overall, this deck is not tier 1 since it dies to graveyard hate and Dispossess, but it's fun to play with, especially for people who loves combo killing.
I had an opponent rage quit when I politely informed him that his fatal push didn't work. Granted he was just mad at wizards for the inconsistency, not at me.
I had an opponent rage quit when I politely informed him that his fatal push didn't work. Granted he was just mad at wizards for the inconsistency, not at me.
Lol how did that happen?
Anyways has anybody tried using combustible gearhulk in a build like this?
I was thinking of doing a creature line up like this
4 champion of wits
4 inventor's apprentice
4 ornithopter
2 hope of ghirapur
2 pia nalaar
4 striped riverwinder
3 marionette master
3 metalwork colossus
2 combustible gearhulk
Rather than just waiting to mill yourself this gives you some sort of early damage, while ensuring you still have fodder for the gift when it comes down. And between strategic planning, tormenting voice and cathartic reunion, you'd be sure to hit the 6 creature card req for the gate. And with all the artifacts you can sac or blow up you'd be sure to always trigger off marionet masters ability.
Because Eternalize removes a card's mana cost as part of making the token copy, he assumed that the same applied from God-Pharoah's Gift.
I can understand going for a more aggro approach, similar to how UW uses their early creatures. My problem with what you mentioned is that most of the creatures added don't help very much in getting to our end game, they're just kinda aggro creatures. So i feel a bit of a disconnect between them and the end game. Might be worth tuning, if we get some utility low drops from Ixalan.
I took this in for FNM. Went 2-2
Beat Zombies and Second Sun Control.
Lost to Ramunap Red twice.
Both Ramunap game threes I was 1 turn away from winning.
People were fascinated by the deck all night. Especially if I didn't win game 1. Then on a game 2 win they would be like, "Oh, so that's what your deck does."
Also what about Bomat Courier as a cheap artifact creature that can sac' itself and basically "loot" ?
It might be better than Walking Ballista here as it won't be very big with the low land count.
Yeah, I forgot that you also need to sac' Gift so it is probably not a great idea.
Maybe Ravenous Intruder can be the better option here.
The problem with this deck seems to be that is an all-in combo deck with no interaction or Plan B if the combo is disrupted
(either by removing Gift or by interacting with the GY: Kalitas, Crook, Scavenger Grounds) and the deck doesn't "goldfish" fast enough to afford being so non-interactive.
The combo is probably not great against decks that can gain life and survive a 16 damage combo-turn.
I play yahenni undying partisan and its a good sac putlet to my artifact creatures. Also I need to clarify this, metalwork colossus says that you need to sac 2 artifacts to get it back to your hand. So does it mean I can only sac two at a time?
4 Champion of Wits
4 Curator of Mysteries
4 Desert Cerodon
4 Hollow One
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Marionette Master
4 Metalwork Colossus
3 Striped Riverwinder
4 Gate to the Afterlife
1 God-Pharaoh's Gift
Sorcery (4)
4 Cathartic Reunion
Land (20)
2 Aether Hub
5 Island
2 Ipnu Rivulet
7 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
Idea:To get God-Pharaoh's Gift out early with Gate to the Afterlife
History: This is a new concept out of Hour of Devastation. It first saw Tournament Results out of the Hour of Devastation ProTour 07/30/2017
Uniqueness:"Why isn't this the same thing as UW Gifts? There are a variety of factors that go into making this deck unique. My primary points being that:
Combos:
What're your thoughts on this deck?
Metalwork Colossus seems like a dead card here most of the time (without Gift) and same with Marionette Master.
I'd rather have Vile Manifestation, Horror of the Broken Lands and Archfiend of Ifnir in the deck and not have to play graveyard fillers
like Insolent Neonate and Cathartic Reunion to have more room for interaction.
I'm not sure I really agree with your premise. U/B is one of the most 'fair' builds of Gifts. I understand that it is designed to 'function' without Gifts, but that detracts from using the combo. This deck uses the combo more effectively and takes advantage of random Board states more effectively.
A turn 1 Insolent Neonate into turn 2 Cathartic Reunion opens up the possibility for free turn 2 Hollow One (of any quantity you may have in hand) giving many decks problems...
At the same time, having access to Metalwork Colossus (I'm not convinced 4 is the right number) to take advantage of having God-Pharoah's Gift in play seems quite strong. Throwing in a potential 7/7 with reach seems good, too.
I saw this list and am going to try and play a few games online with it to see how it plays at least before passing too much judgment...
4 Curator of Mysteries
3 Striped Riverwinder
4 Walking Ballista
4 Marionette Master
4 Metalwork Colossus
4 Hollow One
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Champion of Wits
4 Cathartic Reunion
Artifact (5)
1 God-Pharaoh's Gift
4 Gate to the Afterlife
Land (20)
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Aether Hub
8 Mountain
6 Island
1 God-Pharaoh's Gift
4 Chandra's Defeat
1 Sweltering Suns
2 Aethersphere Harvester
3 Drake Haven
2 Negate
2 Abrade
*I don't know why the Mothership has this listed as UB.
I feel that this version of the deck closes the game fastest after getting Gift out. It is not uncommon for the other builds to still lose after getting out Gift. Many games you will win with this deck before even attacking.
Red is an aggressive gameplan to get 6 creatures in your yard and see as many new cards as possible. In most games you play and drop Gate to the Afterlife turn 5.
I've tested Geier Reach Sanitarium but felt there hasn't been a need for it.
The deck dies hard to graveyard hate. My match loss involved a game three where Ramunap Red landed a Scavenger Ground and multiple deserts and fired it off any time I was close to a critical mass. In that situation your top end is pretty weak. I guess the plan is to go with Drake Haven? That doesn't seem super-viable against mono red.
I played a bunch in the TP room and found the same thing. If they can't interact with you once you hit a Marionette Master, it's pretty well over. That wasn't the only explosion, though. I found myself with many favorable board states as the double free Hollow One on turn 2 or 3 happens more than you expect. Insolent Neonate plus Cathartic Reunion nets you 4 extra cards of digging on turn 2 which is very powerful for a graveyard strategy.
That said, Walking Ballista wasn't as good as I had hoped and Metalwork Colossus is more sac enabler than useful as a playable. I want to try nearly any other sac outlet...
Drake Haven is also not as bad as it sounds against Red. I did want more cyclers, though, when I've tried that strategy.
Red is a race. Don't be afraid to block (with anything) and try to stick a Hollow One quickly. It may get abraded, but if they are spending mana on non-creatures, you're in good shape. The reward here is that you end up with an army of 4/4s that match up quite well and their reach is limited to Shock. It's a tough match, but not as hopeless as you may think.
By the numbers, if you do not have a gate in your opening hand there is a 9.4% chance they will all be in the bottom half. Going up to six copies via Trophy Mage drops that to 2.6%. Seems worthwhile to me. I'm not sure what you would cut to fit them in, though.
This does not work the way you want it. Metalwork only counts none creature artifacts. Hollow one is a creature. The only way to reduce metalwork's cost in this deck is gates and gifts
This does not work the way you want it to. hollow one does not reduce metalwork's cost
I knew this, I was being dumb when writing it.
This is the version I use.
4 Champion of Wits
4 Curator of Mysteries
2 Desert Cerodon
2 Elder Deep-Fiend
4 Hollow One
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Marionette Master
3 Metalwork Colossus
3 Striped Riverwinder
4 Gate to the Afterlife
2 God-Pharaoh's Gift
Sorcery (4)
4 Cathartic Reunion
Land (20)
2 Aether Hub
7 Island
7 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Chandra's Defeat
2 Sweltering Suns
3 Drake Haven
2 Negate
2 Abrade
2 Dispel
2 Crook of Condemnation
The only change I am consider making to the main is to add another land, but still not sure what to cut. The sideboard still needs lots of work.
As previous posts mentioned, this deck does lose when you can't find a gate, but with all the looting that's not really a big issue. Only lost a single game for not having a gate on time. The bigger problem is that with only 20 lands, there are lots of one land opening hand that feel risky to keep. ( For example, on the draw, one land, two one mana cycler, one gate, keep or mulligan?)
Still, since most people are not prepared against this deck, you can usually win game 1 with a surprise combo kill. Game 2 and 3 are more of a race.
Some tip and thoughts about playing this deck:
1.The tokens created by GFG does have mana cost, so it can't be killed by fetal push.
2.Sacrificing a free Hollow One for a two mana EDF feels great, and can protect your combo-off turn.
3.Grasp on Champion of Wit's effect on stack leads to only discading, so be really careful.
4.Though this deck does focus on combo kill, it is still fine to crack gate and get GFG to simply generate card advantage as long as you have a back up one.
5.The black decks usually have hand distribution post board, so cast gate as soon as possible.
6.Though written on the card, many people did not notice that GFG is not legendary, so you can have muticopy on board.
7.GFG's effect doesn't target a card in graveyard, so even if opponent response to the trigger and remove a creature form the graveyard, you can still choose something else.
Overall, this deck is not tier 1 since it dies to graveyard hate and Dispossess, but it's fun to play with, especially for people who loves combo killing.
One note: Grasp happens with the Champion trigger on the stack. After the Grasp resolves you can decide whether or not to use the may ability.
Lol how did that happen?
Anyways has anybody tried using combustible gearhulk in a build like this?
I was thinking of doing a creature line up like this
4 champion of wits
4 inventor's apprentice
4 ornithopter
2 hope of ghirapur
2 pia nalaar
4 striped riverwinder
3 marionette master
3 metalwork colossus
2 combustible gearhulk
Rather than just waiting to mill yourself this gives you some sort of early damage, while ensuring you still have fodder for the gift when it comes down. And between strategic planning, tormenting voice and cathartic reunion, you'd be sure to hit the 6 creature card req for the gate. And with all the artifacts you can sac or blow up you'd be sure to always trigger off marionet masters ability.
Soft board wipe includes incendiary sabotage
You guys think this kinda build is worth a shot?
I can understand going for a more aggro approach, similar to how UW uses their early creatures. My problem with what you mentioned is that most of the creatures added don't help very much in getting to our end game, they're just kinda aggro creatures. So i feel a bit of a disconnect between them and the end game. Might be worth tuning, if we get some utility low drops from Ixalan.
I took this in for FNM. Went 2-2
Beat Zombies and Second Sun Control.
Lost to Ramunap Red twice.
Both Ramunap game threes I was 1 turn away from winning.
People were fascinated by the deck all night. Especially if I didn't win game 1. Then on a game 2 win they would be like, "Oh, so that's what your deck does."
What could we board to help with Red?
Also what about Bomat Courier as a cheap artifact creature that can sac' itself and basically "loot" ?
It might be better than Walking Ballista here as it won't be very big with the low land count.
Btw, here is the Mtggoldfish streamed league with the deck -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdhK-wlWHzk
Maybe Ravenous Intruder can be the better option here.
The problem with this deck seems to be that is an all-in combo deck with no interaction or Plan B if the combo is disrupted
(either by removing Gift or by interacting with the GY: Kalitas, Crook, Scavenger Grounds) and the deck doesn't "goldfish" fast enough to afford being so non-interactive.
The combo is probably not great against decks that can gain life and survive a 16 damage combo-turn.