CadaverousBl00m's Guide To Multiplayer Artifice
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Card Elements and Roles
2a. Cockroach Cards
2b. Gorilla Cards
2c. Pigeon Cards
2d. Rattlesnake Cards
2e. Spider Cards
2f. Plankton Cards
2g. Combinations
3. Colour-Hosers and Alternate Wins
4. Artifacts and Various Colours
5. Land and Artifact Mana Sources
6. Synergy and Strategy
7. Sample Decklists
8. Multiplayer Artifacts You Need To Own
9. Dealing With Artifact Pwnage
10. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Artifacts were always intended to be universal tools in the game of Magic, able to be added to virtually any deck you choose. Have you got a multiplayer deck? If you do (and if you're reading this, the odds are high!), you've got room for artifacts in it. So once we step into the multiplayer realm, how do we know what makes a good artifact inclusion for a deck? Let's explore!
Thanks to Mirrodin block, Scars block, and the Esper shard of the Shards block, it is nowadays entirely possible to build a competitive artifact-based multiplayer deck. Along with discussing the best artifact cards available, this guide will give you some artifact-based multiplayer strategies to befuddle your playgroup with.
This guide doesn't include Eldrazi or Karn Liberated. Yes, they're colourless. Yes, they're awesome fun. No, they're not artifacts. I'll leave them for someone who wants to write the Guide to Multiplayer Colourless.
2. Card Elements and Roles
Okay, so obviously, there are piles and piles of artifacts (as of Shadows Over Innistrad, try 1619 on for size)!
To break these up, let's stick to Anthony Alonghi's method of referring to a card's function, as we've seen in other guides, and mention the better ones under each grouping.
2a. Cockroach Cards
Like cockroaches in real-life, Cockroach cards are hard to kill. Just when you think you've got rid of them, they're back again, annoying you once more. In terms of Magic, we're looking for things here that are hard to kill or recurse well.
We can break this down further into four categories:
Hard To Kill
Am I impossible to get off the table. Or even indestructible?
Winter Orb. Land lockdown for the table. Still unfun to play against after 15 years!
Repeatable
Can I keep activating multiple times? This includes equipment, which can obviously be re-equipped on multiple creatures, especially after the initial one dies.
Altar of Dementia. Wins the game if left alone. Turns your creatures into rattlesnakes as the game goes on.
Ashnod's Altar. A combo piece for so many infinite combos that we've lost count.
Birthing Pod. An interesting repeatabale creature tutor that is still being broken in new ways.
Citanul Flute. The gold standard of creature tutors when it comes to artifacts. It's fetching the best creature out of your deck every turn if you have the mana.
Dragon Arch. Creature-sneaking for gold cards. Loved by the Invasion/Planar Chaos dragons.
Isochron Scepter. Has spawned decks. Very very good, though not much fun with Orim's Chant imprinted!
Lightning Greaves. Exceptionally versatile, and annoyingly hard to stop.
Mimic Vat. Still being broken in new and exciting ways. Recursable with things like Gravedigger.
Mirari. Brutal in an MBC deck with Corrupts flying about.
Mirrorworks. Oh the Johnny possibilities! Sundering Titan... artifact land... keep going!
Planar Portal. Got 6? You've got the best card in your deck. Each turn.
Proteus Staff. Produces some entertaining game situations. Can turn your weenies into bombs.
Skull of Orm. Still one of the few enchantment returners, and still useful.
Sword of the Meek. Was pretty good, and then they printed Thopter Foundry.
2b. Gorilla Cards
Gorilla cards, as the name suggests, are the big, dumb facesmashers. The ones you lay on the table, and then pump your fist and scream "FTW!" - opponents are either dealing with them straight away or their time on this earth is limited.
Artifact-wise, we can split our gorillas into two categories - the beatstick creatures, and the non-creature artifacts that are big, bold and brash.
Platinum Emperion. Great, so long as you're not playing fetch lands!
Snake Basket. I've made 200+ snakes before. How about you?
Worldslayer. Let's find ways of resetting the board over and over and over!
2c. Pigeon Cards
In real life, pigeons are fed better when there are more people around. They naturally flock to places where there are heaps of people with heaps of food. Likewise, Pigeon cards like hitting up the nine-player free-for-alls. These are usually the obvious "good in multiplayer" cards, benefiting from there being multiple opponents.
Bonehoard. Potentially huge with the extra graveyards it has in MP. Great with mill.
Fellwar Stone. The more opponents there are, the more likely it is to tap for any colour.
Mind's Eye. By far the best artifact card drawer for multiplayer. Up there with Rhystic Study.
Sun Droplet. Once you get into the multiplayer arena, this makes you almost unkillable. One of the best pigeon artifacts.
2d. Rattlesnake Cards
We all know the famous "Don't tread on me" rattlesnake. Rattlesnake cards work in the same way - they say "Stay away, I'm dangerous" to your opponents.
Aether Spellbomb. Fetchable by Trinket Mage. Recursable with Academy Ruins. Card draw. Bounce. Combo. Combo. Combo.
Basilisk Collar. Nothing says "keep away" like deathtouch. Everything else makes the Collar gold.
Brittle Effigy. I've got 4 and an itchy tapping finger... don't make me do it!
Dispeller's Capsule. Rattlesnake artifact and enchantment removal. Fetchable with Trinket Mage.
Null Brooch. Forces your opponents to stall. Especially good with Grafted Skullcap.
Predator, Flagship. Underrated creature remover that also makes your guys evasive.
Pyrite Spellbomb. The red damage version of Aether Spellbomb, and just as good.
Quietus Spike. Nothing says "block me" like "I'll halve your life if you don't".
Triskelion. Already a good deterrent, before you start putting it next to things like Immaculate Magistrate.
2e. Spider Cards
Spider cards spin a pretty web for your opponents, and then let them fly into it. They make your opponents pay for their uninformed decisions. Usually, these take the form of instants, so there aren't too many artifacts that fall into this category.
Darksteel Sentinel. The Sentinel's flash makes it produce some awkward blocks for your opponent, and gives you a solid body afterwards.
2f. Plankton Cards
Ah, plankton. Where would whales be without it? Likewise, we can't have a whale of a time without Plankton cards - cards that allow everyone to feed off them or gain benefit. These are the cards that make you everybody's friend (at least until you start swinging at them).
2g. Combinations
Often, cards can be a combination of the above categories.
In reality, a lot of the very best cards are going to be those that serve a dual purpose. So a lot of the bomb artifacts you want are going to be in this list, achieving two very separate purposes for you at the same time.
Cockroach/Gorilla: I'm big, dumb, and I just hang around! This includes hard-to-kill gorillas, continuous effects that win the game, and bomb equipment.
Akroma's Memorial. Let's see... if you can't rid of this in the next couple of turns, every single one of my creatures turns into Akroma? Yeeeaaah...
Behemoth Sledge. Essentially a repeatable Armadillo Cloak. Nothing subtle about that!
Blightsteel Colossus. Indestructible and kills in one swing. Can we ask anything more?
Darksteel Colossus. The prototype indestructible gorilla. Currently out of Standard, but still getting snapped up by casual players like the hero it is.
Darksteel Forge. An "FTW" for artifact decks. This + Mycosynth Lattice + Memnarch = a slow drawn-out death for all of your opponents, one by one.
Goblin Charbelcher. People have built decks that allow this to go off for lethal. Over and over.
Inkwell Leviathan. An untargetable facesmasher. Fun to drop with Quest for Ula's Temple.
Loxodon Warhammer. The N00bstick, so named because any ol' n00b can smash face with it over and over.
Lux Cannon. Subtle, it is not. Repeatable, it certainly is.
Memnarch. He's going to take your stuff, and yet he's big enough to leave a dent still.
Mycosynth Golem. Accelerates your deck, and is still a respectable body in itself.
Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Has taken Darksteel Colossus's throne as best artifact finisher. Extremely hard to kill, is a big flying body, and has the adorable combination of vigilance and lifelink.
Icy Manipulator. One of the originals in this category. Excellent control.
Kuldotha Forgemaster. No-one's broken this yet, but I suspect it's due. Its ability has the potential to be very good in multiplayer environments.
Spine of Ish Sah. Recurses and sits in your hand, threatening to take the next big threat on the table. Who cares if it costs 7? It's repeatable colourless removal!
Stuffy Doll. Impossible to kill, last thing you want blocking your gorilla.
Cockroach/Spider: You just fell for the trap! Again!
Cryptic Gateway. Tribal creature-sneaker that works instantly. Raging fun with Dragons and other fat tribes.
Master Transmuter. I've seen it swap a thopter token for a Darksteel Colossus. In response to an attack. Repeatable recursion, saves itself too.
Vedalken Orrery. Turns every nonland card of yours into a potential trap.
Cockroach/Plankton: I'm repeatable, and everyone loves it!
Contagion Clasp: Throw those -1/-1 counters around. Well, your opponents at least have a chance of enjoying what you proliferate.
Gorilla/Pigeon: I'm big, dumb, and I love having people around!
Sphinx Sovereign. It's already a flying monster. When it nails everyone for three life at end of turn? That's just gold.
Sundering Titan. Not only is it huge, it's also less likely to be taking your own lands in this environment. And then there's Master Transmuter...
Gorilla/Rattlesnake: I'm big, dumb and frightening!
Ethersworn Adjudicator. Sits and threatens, and people forget it also happens to be a 4/4 flier.
Steel Hellkite. It's massive, flying and pumpable. And if I let it through, it's taking a bunch of my permanents with it?
Wurmcoil Engine. Fat, deathtouching, and reproduces on death. Now I want to recurse it!
Gorilla/Plankton: I'm big and dumb, and everyone loves me!
Coat of Arms. I've now got ten 10/10s! Hang on... what did it give you? Oh...
Pigeon/Rattlesnake: I'm scary and I'm bothering the whole table!
Norn's Annex. The new gold standard in multiplayer defense. Has the potential to completely shut out non-white decks and token decks from attack.
Nullstone Gargoyle. Forces the whole table to stall. And given it's a 4/5 flier to boot, that can be handy.
Pigeon/Plankton: I'm affecting the whole table, and I like having more people around.
Storm Cauldron. Well, they love the "two lands a turn" bit. They're probably not so keen on the rest. Infinite with Fastbond and Glacial Chasm. Can stall the board.
Rattlesnake/Spider: I'm scary, and I trap people.
Sunforger. When you pay WR, people know it's going to be bad. They just have no idea how bad.
3. Colour-Hosers and Alternate-Wins
There are only a couple of obvious colour-hosers and alternate wins that come in artifact form.
The colour-hosers, while few in number, are nonetheless interesting and fun to play with.
Naked Singularity is not so much a colour-hoser as an "everyone not playing artifacts" hoser. This plus Eon Hub in an all-artifact deck is a guarantee of hate.
And while not an artifact itself, special mention should be given to Ritual of Subdual, which turns all mana colourless while it is out. This helps the game play heavily to the favour of the artifact player (especially with Eon Hub out), but will get them hated on fairly quickly!
The alternate win-conditions provided by artifacts were disappointing and hard to pull off until Mirrodin Beseiged came out. Now, it's death by Blightsteel Colossus poisoning. And two other impossible options.
Darksteel Reactor is an alt-win that will earn you no friends. Let's put a twenty-turn clock on all of my opponents and see if I can last that long!
Door to Nothingness is nigh-on-impossible to activate once, let alone enough times to remove all of your opponents. It's harder to use effectively in multiplayer, as it's going to frighten more people.
Poison Decks are now completely viable in multiplayer thanks solely to Blightsteel Colossus. Unblocked, it's an insta-gib. Previously, we were limited solely to Serpent Generator, Corpse Cur, Ichorclaw Myr, Necropede and Vector Asp as artifacts capable of dealing poison counters. There is also Grafted Exoskeleton, which is perhaps the only other decent artifact-based alt-win - throw Grafted Exoskeleton on something large and evasive and go to town (hmm... Sphinx of the Steel Wind looks even better all of a sudden...).
4. Artifacts and Various Colours
W White
These days, white is the colour of Equipment and artifact protection. While there are a few other fun things we can do here, Equipment is probably our focus when playing a white artifact deck.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant is your planeswalker of choice, potentially giving you a permanent Darksteel Forge effect for your artifacts (among other good stuff).
U Blue
Blue is the key artifact colour. Want to build an artifact-heavy deck? Chances are that the one colour you're running in the background is blue. With its powerful tutors and artifact-related power abilities, it has been the colour of artifice since the very beginnings of Magic.
Arcum Dagsson will turn your artifact creature fodder into non-creature artifacts (thopters for Darksteel Forge, anyone?).
B Black
Black has little interaction with artifacts, usually just forcing people to sacrifice them rather than actually working with them. The majority listed here will reward you for playing artifacts, or punish your opponents for killing them.
Beacon of Unrest will repeatably recur artifacts (or creatures, and out of opponents' graveyards too).
R Red
Red is expert at destroying artifacts. Working with them? Not so much its strong point. Most of the red cards of note will allow you to sacrifice artifacts for your own benefit.
Barrage Ogre throws your artifacts at other people's faces.
Bazaar Trader passes your artifacts around. Here, have this Bronze Bombshell!
Goblin Welder plays swapsies between battlefield and graveyard.
G Green
While green is very good at destroying artifacts, or rewarding you for having opponents play artifacts, it has little synergy with artifact-heavy decks.
Hypergenesis can drop your expensive artifacts into play quickly.
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy will work well in an artifact-heavy deck where you want multiples of certain cards on the table.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is fun, sure, but nowhere near as good as Tezz 1.0 in a heavy artifact deck.
5. Land and Artifact Mana Sources
Land
Of the handful of lands that work well with artifacts, some are famous, some are banned or restricted, and some are rarely going to hit a multiplayer table.
Tolarian Academy has to be the gold standard here. It spawned a meta-dominating tourney deck, and saw several cards restricted. In an artifact-heavy deck, it is an exceptional accelerant. Making it an artifact itself, and then untapping it constantly... that's where it starts getting evil.
In any other format, Mishra's Workshop would probably be listed first. Only because of the longer play time in multiplayer does it lose out here. It's still sensational.
12-Post (4 Cloudposts, 4 Glimmerposts, 4 Vesuva) is possibly the best potentially budget solution available to those working an artifact deck at a kitchen table. It's such effective mana ramping that Cloudpost has been banned in Modern.
Academy Ruins allows for some excellent recursion of artifacts, and is particularly good with the Spellbombs in a Trinket Mage toolbox deck.
Expedition Map. While not a stone in itself, it fetches your best non-basic land (usually Academy Ruins first, so you can do it again). Trinket Mage finds it, too.
Fellwar Stone. It's old, but it deserves mention as it becomes that much better in multiplayer.
Gilded Lotus. The card that made people play Twiddle again.
Grim Monolith. Basalt Monolith, bigger, better and just as combo-able.
Lion's Eye Diamond. At first, people thought losing your hand was too big a disadvantage. And now it's a Vintage staple.
Lotus Bloom. The suspended Lotus. You've got a three-turn wait, and it's still awesome.
Lotus Blossom. Possibly the worst Lotus, and yet still underrated.
Lotus Petal. The best common ever printed, period.
Mana Vault. Another of the mana artifacts that drove the Academy deck.
Metalworker. Insanely good mana producer that is worth over $10, and yet still worth every cent.
Mox Diamond. Almost as good as the original Moxen.
6. Synergy and Strategy
Some of the most popular artifact synergies include the following:
Metalcraft
New in Scars block, this keyword lets you benefit from having three or more artifacts in play. You're obviously going to be more successful when using 0cc artifacts and artifacts with Metalcraft themselves. To this end, Mox Opal fits both of these categories, and in this regard is probably worth its high price tag.
The Mirrodin artifact lands and Memnite are also good 0cc artifacts that fit well. Etched Champion and Rusted Relic are good artifact creatures with Metalcraft abilities.
There are several archetypes in Scars Block Constructed that focus on dropping numerous metalcraft artifact creatures next to Tempered Steel.
Esper
Esper was without a doubt the most powerful shard in the Shards block. People were purposely drafting it in Limited. And if that's happening, you know it's powerful down to the common level.
Firstly, you're almost certainly playing WUB, so Arcane Sanctums are in, along with some other mana fixing.
Esper certainly gives us numerous ways to win:
We can play creature beatdown with Master of Etherium, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, Inkwell Leviathan and Sharding Sphinx.
At the common/uncommon level, Etherium Sculptor, the Capsules and Tidehollow Strix all see heavy play in multiplayer environments, and are well worth investing in.
Continual Board Reset
This synergy is all about exploiting Darksteel Forge.
Traditionally, the trick is to get the Forge out early (via Tinker or something similar), and then play Nevinyrral's Disk or a similar artifact-based reset. The indestructibility granted by the Forge will allow it to stay out and continually reset the board. From here, you are limited only by the tools you have at your disposal to win.
Another alternative is to equip an indestructible creature with Worldslayer and get an unblocked swing in with it. From there, you are resetting the board every turn.
Finally, this can also be achieved by imprinting Soulscour on Panoptic Mirror, but trust me when I tell you that this takes much longer to set up, and is much harder to protect!
Academy
The classic Academy deck has been known to work in multiplayer environments, but it's obviously harder to do - there will be more disruption, and more targets.
The deck drops Tolarian Academy first turn along with a pile of mana artifacts. Mox Opal is ripe for this deck format now - the original used Lotus Petal alone. Throw in Mana Vault, Voltaic Key, Tinker, Sol Ring and Grim Monolith, and chances are good that you have an Academy capable of producing at least UUU once you've played your hand out.
Then you cast Windfall and fill your hand up again.
The idea is to eventually pick your deck up, cast Mind Over Matter, throw out the non-kill cards to MoM to untap the Academy continuously, generate a heap of mana, and Stroke of Genius or Braingeyser your opponents for the kill.
If your playgroup uses the Vintage or Legacy restricted list as a basis for your deckbuilding (as a lot of groups do), this deck is a lot harder to pull off these days.
Vintage-wise, at time of writing, Mana Vault, Lotus Petal, Sol Ring, Tinker, Windfall and the Academy itself are all Restricted. Legacy has banned Tolarian Academy altogether!
Proliferate
Another new addition from Scars of Mirrodin, proliferate decks abuse Inexorable Tide, Thrummingbird, Steady Progress, Contagion Engine and Contagion Clasp to control the board and win with an artifact that works using counters of some description.
Board controllers like Triskelion and Grim Poppet adore being used in this capacity. Triskelion in particular can machine gun the whole board quickly in a well-rounded deck.
Anything that makes use of charge counters is particularly good here also. Combined with Energy Chamber, things can get nasty quickly. Chimeric Mass, Lightning Coils, Lux Cannon and Umezawa's Jitte are all ripe for abuse here. You can even go tribal and run Door of Destinies!
Finally, any blanket artifact damage probably likes being next to proliferate, as it inevitably uses counters. This includes Armageddon Clock, Time Bomb and Magma Mine among others.
Myrball
The idea behind Myrball is to generate a pile of Myr and then go swinging with Myr Battlesphere. This is generally made possible by Myr Matrix, Myr Propagator and Myrsmith, and accelerated by Myr Reservoir. Myr Galvanizer will allow you to attack all out with the Battlesphere and beef your little guys up in the process.
The Reservoir and Myr Retriever add some recursion.
Stations
Station decks are possibly the ultimate Johnny artifact deck. They're full of expensive, synergistic cards that go infinite together, pieced around the four Stations from Fifth Dawn - Blasting Station, Grinding Station, Salvaging Station and Summoning Station.
Obviously, there are many, many ways of sending these infinite. The usual Station deck will seek to accelerate the Stations out quickly using artifact mana and/or Tinker-like spells, and provide a fair bit of sacrificial fodder for recursion.
Trinket Mage
Trinket Mage decks contain an array of 0-1cc artifacts and a way of recursing Trinket Mage as needed to control the game.
While there are a huge pile of artifacts usable in these decks, the most common are the Spellbombs, the Capsules, artifact lands, Expedition Map, Relic of Progenitus, Voltaic Key and Sensei's Divining Top.
Trinket Mage is typically bounced using Riptide Laboratory and/or Aether Spellbomb, and the artifacts are usually recursed with Academy Ruins and/or Leonin Squire.
Equipment
Equipment decks make for a pretty good n00b starting point when it comes to multiplayer artifact decks. The concept is simple - get Stoneforge Mystic or Stonehewer Giant out early, and fetch the awesome equipment out of your deck one-by-one. Lightning Greaves and Leonin Shikari are important additions to this deck - they ramp up the trick factors exponentially and keep your opponents guessing.
The New Phyrexia 'War of Attrition' event deck is an excellent starting point for this archetype, giving you access to some of the cornerstone cards for a decent budget.
Other deck strategies can be based around a single artifact:
Expedition Map fetching Academy Ruins. Recurse the Map over and over again, pulling the best land out of your deck each time.
7. Sample Decklists
These decks are mostly taken from the WotC Multiplayer forum, or are recommendations of interesting builds from forum members. If you're going to spread the love elsewhere on the Internet, remember to credit the deck's designer (it's good form, you know)!
8. Multiplayer Artifacts You Need To Own
And so we come to the cream of the crop. The cards in these lists represent the cards that send artifact decks to the next level in multiplayer environments. We know them, we love them, we house people with them. If you don't own copies, go get them now!
Blightsteel Colossus. Kills with one unblocked swing, and nigh on impossible to kill. I'd still take Sphinx of the Steel Wind as the #1 finisher, simply out of fun, but this an excellent alternate option.
Darksteel Forge. Can make your entire deck virtually bulletproof. Needs to be answered, and it is difficult to do so.
Master Transmuter. It protects, it recurses, it accelerates. Simply too good in too many departments.
Memnarch. Fantastic target for Tinker, oppressive with open mana. Can win the game off its own bat.
Metalworker. Provides mana acceleration that is brokenly good. Not budget, but will not disappoint if purchased.
Mimic Vat. Simply keeps finding homes where it breaks creatures with good ETB or LTB effects. Incredible value for money ATM.
Mind's Eye. By far the best artifact card draw available. Exponentially good in multiplayer.
Nevinyrral's Disk. The classic reset. Some would argue that it is still the best artifact reset available. Certainly still red and black's best answer to enchantments.
Skullclamp. Baaaaaaaaroken with token decks, sacrifice outlets... well, with most things, really.
Sol Ring. We could have power nines in this list, but budget and availability is always a consideration in a casual environment like multiplayer. Sol Ring is probably the best of the rest - has a price tag that at least doesn't give you a heart attack, and is easy enough to find, especially since being reprinted in From The Vault:Relics as a shiny.
Solemn Simulacrum. Ramp and card draw in a neat little body. Now think of all the things you can use to recurse it...
Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Still possibly the best artifact finisher going around. A wonderful combination of abilities.
Steel Hellkite. Budget artifact finisher that you can build around.
Sundering Titan. Already big. Even better in a multiplayer environment.
Wurmcoil Engine. Already a ridiculously good rattlesnake, that leaves-the-battlefield effect is just golden.
The Support Cards
Academy Ruins. Simply excellent recursion. Keeps those threats hanging around.
Argivian Restoration. An old card that a lot of people have forgotten, but quite simply the best one-shot recursion available.
Leonin Abunas. Makes an artifact deck almost as bulletproof as Darksteel Forge. Combos well with Whispersilk Cloak.
Leonin Shikari. Adds that extra danger factor to an equipment deck. Suddenly everything is a bigger threat, harder-to-kill, and a greater deterrent.
Stoneforge Mystic. Gets equipment decks swing quickly and early. Available for a relative budget price in a New Phyrexia event deck.
Tezzeret the Seeker. The planeswalker artifact decks wanted, and now dropping in price.
Tinker. Restricted or not, swapping an artifact land for a Colossus on Turn 3 never gets old.
Tolarian Academy. Quite simply the best accelerant money can buy for an artifact deck, even at $30 a copy. Even one copy is worth it.
Trinket Mage. Utility extra-ordinaire, and highly available for a budget price.
Vedalken Archmage. Can put an artifact deck on the table in record time.
At the end of the day, this list will always be subjective. For a good idea of the artifacts that are seeing day-to-day use in the decks of forum members, follow this link to a previous discussion on the most useful colourless cards in the multiplayer environment. It will give you a good idea of the variation between various playgroups, and the varying levels of success some people have had with certain cards.
Probably the most disruptive thing an artifact player can come up against is repeatable targetted artifact destruction. Arguably the nastiest cards allowing this to occur are Aura Shards and its little Sliver brother - these can take an artifact deck to pieces in a very short period of time. Really, the best defence against this by far is Darksteel Forge, as Aura Shards can do nothing against it. Secondly, some of the white cards that shroud your artifacts (e.g. Leonin Abunas, Indomitable Archangel) will also provide all the protection you need. While these are creatures, and can therefore be removed fairly easily, they provide a complete lock with Whispersilk Cloak.
Then there is blanket destruction - the artifact sweepers like Shatterstorm and Creeping Corrosion. Decks relying heavily on artifact lands are particularly vulnerable to these effects (a Meltdown will make them cry for the measly cost of R). While Darksteel Forge still does its job in these situations, shroud will get you nowhere - this is usually a cleanup and recovery job. Fortunately, there are still plenty of options here - Open the Vaults, Roar of Reclamation and Second Sunrise will deal with the situation quickly, while Argivian Restoration and other reclaimers will fetch your biggest loss back quickly. You can also make people pay for sweeping you via Disciple of the Vault - the promise of pain is a good way of preventing these things from happening!
Finally, there are the artifact hosers. While these are not often seen on the multiplayer table, they do exist, and if your playgroup is particularly artifact heavy, you should probably be ready for them. Molder Slug is possibly the worst of these, forcing gradual sacrifice of your resources - at least as a creature, the Slug can be removed (e.g. Executioner's Capsule, Brittle Effigy) or dealt direct damage (e.g. Masticore, Tower of Calamities). Other, more subtle hosers like Hum of the Radix require a little more preparation and resources to get rid of. At the end of the day, there will always be situations that we cannot prepare for or handle - and it's then that we wheel out Nevinyrral's Disk and other board reset alternatives!
10. Conclusion
It's entirely possible to school an entire multiplayer board with deck consisting of close to 100% artifacts nowadays. Give it a shot in your own playgroup and raise some eyebrows! Try some of the cards mentioned above out in your decks, play some of the decks mentioned, and enjoy yourself!
Hi all, this is another MP Guide ported over from the WotC forums for your enjoyment.
This one is a lot less mature than Tich's awesome Guide to MP Black, and it is obviously opened up to a new audience here, so feel free to suggest, contribute, bag out etc. (it's the Internet, I can choose to ignore you if I like).
Also, cookie to someone who can tell me how to do spoiler blocks inside spoiler blocks on here. You can do it on the WotC Forums, and I miss it. There's another guide of mine that I'd like to move over here that would cry without having cascading spoiler blocks.
Great job, these articles are really helpful. My only nitpick is Elixir of immortality in your 'must haves'. I find cards like these complete jank unless I am somehow milling myself. Would you also run 1x feldon's cane in every multiplayer deck? I wouldn't. It takes up valuable deck space and is just as bad as cards like extirpate since it has no real impact to the board state.
Coalition Relic: One of the best Mana stones out there, regardless of how many colors you play.
Grafted Wargear: One of the less known "free" creature sac outlets (i.e.repeatable), but still extremely efficient.
Sunforger: I'd put this in Rattlesnake or Spider because anything can spring out so you want to avoid it or be careful if you can't deal with it right away.
Clock of Omens: I'd put this in deck strategies based around artifacts, A clock deck on full throttle is something to behold.
Myr Retriever: I know you mentionned it but I would put it in rattlesnake for MP as well; lots of players will stop attacking if this means you're getting back the one artifact they dread.
...
Also there needs to be a Mishra, Artificer Prodigy deck in there, he's the man for artifice y'know ;)...
I'll PM you my list and you could put it up if you don't have any, It's one of my better MP decks.
Also, cookie to someone who can tell me how to do spoiler blocks inside spoiler blocks on here. You can do it on the WotC Forums, and I miss it. There's another guide of mine that I'd like to move over here that would cry without having cascading spoiler blocks.
mean
this??
... just imbed the spoiler tags within each other. You can be screwed if you're not careful and get mixed up but it basicaly works.
Also using the quote feature on the bottom of a post is a good way to find out how someone put funky coding in their post :teach:.
the coding for the above looks like this...
[spoiler=You]mean[spoiler=like]this??[spoiler]... just imbed the spoiler tags within each other. You can be screwed if you're not careful and get mixed up but it basicaly works.
[spoiler]Also using the quote feature on the bottom of a post is a good way to find out how someone put funky coding in their post :teach:.
[/spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler]
Primary and only casual rule: "any rule that is fine for the most part of the playgroup, is a fine rule". So any further thread with: "if somebody uses/does .... in a casual game, is it ethical/ok?", read the answer above.
- Being a "Johnny/Spike" means you like self-torture. You win often in casual, so everybody hates you; you loose often in competitive, so you hate yourself.
wow man, what a good thread !!! that will help me alot =)
ty !!
also for lands i suggest the locus family, like cloudpost and glimmerpost
urzatron need a spot too, most of new players doesnt know they exist
and vesuva, the new brother for the urzatron and locus family ^^
Thanks all!
That's pretty much what I was doing with the spoiler tags... don't know why it didn't work. Oh well, we'll have another go, and see if we can lay it out a little more nicely.
@Hammer: The Elixir is an interesting one, agreed. It might well be a Johnny vs. Timmy vs. Spike debate - as a hardcore Johnny who values the ability to recurse my key cards, the Elixir is a potential gamesaver and gamebreaker. To a Timmy, I fancy it's probably complete jank. That said, it's in my must-have list out of respect for its ability to recurse Squadron Hawks, combo brutally with Sanguine Bond, gain life in tight situations, etc. (and yes, Feldon's Cane is balls).
@Ftdori: Thanks! I'll throw those in - nice-looking Mishra deck!
@Zeromd: Good gracious, all this time, and I didn't have 8/12-Post in here? Nice catch! Definitely deserving of a mention, that one.
@Krich: Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to bring Expedition Map in too - it combos far too well with Academy Ruins to not be in here (and Trinky fetches it, too).
And yes, the dual-land guide is coming, as soon as I get nested spoilers working in my posts. But keeping the pricing updated in that thing across two sites is going to be painful!
And yes, the dual-land guide is coming, as soon as I get nested spoilers working in my posts. But keeping the pricing updated in that thing across two sites is going to be painful!
Perhaps you could just slap an "as of" date across the top in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS and be done with it, cutting back on price updates entirely or only once a year. Simply having that list as a resource is valuable enough.
Cheers!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If in the area, check out Gamers N Geeks and Mini War Games in Mobile, Alabama and Underhill's Games in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Krich's Sunforged Djinn deck. What happened to that one, Krich? Can't find the final decklist anywhere!
I've currently got a new Crown / Scepter / Throne of Empires deck kicking around that I'm testing for Worthiness(TM). If it proves as awesome as it so far seems to be, I'll throw details in on the next iteration.
I also have a mate in my playgroup rocking an absolutely brutal MP Stonehewer Giant deck at the moment - I've asked him for his decklist, and I'll throw it up for your enjoyment.
Energy Flux is a very effective artifact hoser that hasn't been mentioned yet in that section.
Ooh, good point (considering I've hosed my buddies' artifact decks with it before... nothing like multiple Energy Fluxes and a Back to Basics to make a deck full of artifact lands cry).
Will throw it in. Cheers!
Prophetic Prism allows for mana fixing, is a cantrip, puts 1 more artifact on the board, and can do shenanigans when combined with cards such as Master Transmuter. I'm not sure if it is worth the 2 mana, though.
One of those cards is a Worn Powerstone that color fixes. The other 2 are 3 mana Rampant Growths. You might want to revisit your opinion of the Relic...
One of those cards is a Worn Powerstone that color fixes. The other 2 are 3 mana Rampant Growths. You might want to revisit your opinion of the Relic...
Compared to Rampant Growth, Chromatic Lantern doesn't require green mana, is an artifact (instead of a basic land), and fixes all mana color issues as long as it is in play.
Moreover, Chromatic Lantern doesn't enter the battlefield tapped, so you get 1 mana back and that makes it the same mana cost as Rampant Growth when played after turn 2.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Table of Contents
Artifacts were always intended to be universal tools in the game of Magic, able to be added to virtually any deck you choose. Have you got a multiplayer deck? If you do (and if you're reading this, the odds are high!), you've got room for artifacts in it. So once we step into the multiplayer realm, how do we know what makes a good artifact inclusion for a deck? Let's explore!
Thanks to Mirrodin block, Scars block, and the Esper shard of the Shards block, it is nowadays entirely possible to build a competitive artifact-based multiplayer deck. Along with discussing the best artifact cards available, this guide will give you some artifact-based multiplayer strategies to befuddle your playgroup with.
This guide doesn't include Eldrazi or Karn Liberated. Yes, they're colourless. Yes, they're awesome fun. No, they're not artifacts. I'll leave them for someone who wants to write the Guide to Multiplayer Colourless.
Okay, so obviously, there are piles and piles of artifacts (as of Shadows Over Innistrad, try 1619 on for size)!
To break these up, let's stick to Anthony Alonghi's method of referring to a card's function, as we've seen in other guides, and mention the better ones under each grouping.
2a. Cockroach Cards
Like cockroaches in real-life, Cockroach cards are hard to kill. Just when you think you've got rid of them, they're back again, annoying you once more. In terms of Magic, we're looking for things here that are hard to kill or recurse well.
We can break this down further into four categories:
Hard To Kill
Am I impossible to get off the table. Or even indestructible?
Constant
Do I have a continuous effect?
Repeatable
Can I keep activating multiple times? This includes equipment, which can obviously be re-equipped on multiple creatures, especially after the initial one dies.
Recursive
Can I keep coming back over and over? Do I help other things recurse? Or am I a good recursion target?
2b. Gorilla Cards
Gorilla cards, as the name suggests, are the big, dumb facesmashers. The ones you lay on the table, and then pump your fist and scream "FTW!" - opponents are either dealing with them straight away or their time on this earth is limited.
Artifact-wise, we can split our gorillas into two categories - the beatstick creatures, and the non-creature artifacts that are big, bold and brash.
Artifact Creatures
Unsubtle Artifacts
2c. Pigeon Cards
In real life, pigeons are fed better when there are more people around. They naturally flock to places where there are heaps of people with heaps of food. Likewise, Pigeon cards like hitting up the nine-player free-for-alls. These are usually the obvious "good in multiplayer" cards, benefiting from there being multiple opponents.
2d. Rattlesnake Cards
We all know the famous "Don't tread on me" rattlesnake. Rattlesnake cards work in the same way - they say "Stay away, I'm dangerous" to your opponents.
2e. Spider Cards
Spider cards spin a pretty web for your opponents, and then let them fly into it. They make your opponents pay for their uninformed decisions. Usually, these take the form of instants, so there aren't too many artifacts that fall into this category.
2f. Plankton Cards
Ah, plankton. Where would whales be without it? Likewise, we can't have a whale of a time without Plankton cards - cards that allow everyone to feed off them or gain benefit. These are the cards that make you everybody's friend (at least until you start swinging at them).
2g. Combinations
Often, cards can be a combination of the above categories.
In reality, a lot of the very best cards are going to be those that serve a dual purpose. So a lot of the bomb artifacts you want are going to be in this list, achieving two very separate purposes for you at the same time.
Cockroach/Gorilla: I'm big, dumb, and I just hang around! This includes hard-to-kill gorillas, continuous effects that win the game, and bomb equipment.
Cockroach/Rattlesnake: I'm repeatably warding everyone off!
Cockroach/Spider: You just fell for the trap! Again!
Cockroach/Plankton: I'm repeatable, and everyone loves it!
Gorilla/Pigeon: I'm big, dumb, and I love having people around!
Gorilla/Rattlesnake: I'm big, dumb and frightening!
Gorilla/Plankton: I'm big and dumb, and everyone loves me!
Pigeon/Rattlesnake: I'm scary and I'm bothering the whole table!
Pigeon/Plankton: I'm affecting the whole table, and I like having more people around.
Rattlesnake/Spider: I'm scary, and I trap people.
There are only a couple of obvious colour-hosers and alternate wins that come in artifact form.
The colour-hosers, while few in number, are nonetheless interesting and fun to play with.
And while not an artifact itself, special mention should be given to Ritual of Subdual, which turns all mana colourless while it is out. This helps the game play heavily to the favour of the artifact player (especially with Eon Hub out), but will get them hated on fairly quickly!
The alternate win-conditions provided by artifacts were disappointing and hard to pull off until Mirrodin Beseiged came out. Now, it's death by Blightsteel Colossus poisoning. And two other impossible options.
W White
These days, white is the colour of Equipment and artifact protection. While there are a few other fun things we can do here, Equipment is probably our focus when playing a white artifact deck.
U Blue
Blue is the key artifact colour. Want to build an artifact-heavy deck? Chances are that the one colour you're running in the background is blue. With its powerful tutors and artifact-related power abilities, it has been the colour of artifice since the very beginnings of Magic.
B Black
Black has little interaction with artifacts, usually just forcing people to sacrifice them rather than actually working with them. The majority listed here will reward you for playing artifacts, or punish your opponents for killing them.
R Red
Red is expert at destroying artifacts. Working with them? Not so much its strong point. Most of the red cards of note will allow you to sacrifice artifacts for your own benefit.
G Green
While green is very good at destroying artifacts, or rewarding you for having opponents play artifacts, it has little synergy with artifact-heavy decks.
Gold
There are a couple more rather esoteric gold cards that haven't rated a mention as of yet.
Land
Of the handful of lands that work well with artifacts, some are famous, some are banned or restricted, and some are rarely going to hit a multiplayer table.
Artifact Mana Sources
As we know, there are also plenty of artifact mana sources or enablers around. Let's look at the most effective options here.
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
Some of the most popular artifact synergies include the following:
Metalcraft
New in Scars block, this keyword lets you benefit from having three or more artifacts in play. You're obviously going to be more successful when using 0cc artifacts and artifacts with Metalcraft themselves. To this end, Mox Opal fits both of these categories, and in this regard is probably worth its high price tag.
The Mirrodin artifact lands and Memnite are also good 0cc artifacts that fit well.
Etched Champion and Rusted Relic are good artifact creatures with Metalcraft abilities.
There are several archetypes in Scars Block Constructed that focus on dropping numerous metalcraft artifact creatures next to Tempered Steel.
Esper
Esper was without a doubt the most powerful shard in the Shards block. People were purposely drafting it in Limited. And if that's happening, you know it's powerful down to the common level.
Firstly, you're almost certainly playing WUB, so Arcane Sanctums are in, along with some other mana fixing.
Esper certainly gives us numerous ways to win:
We can play creature beatdown with Master of Etherium, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, Inkwell Leviathan and Sharding Sphinx.
- We can recurse with Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek.
- We can combo with two Sharuum the Hegemons.
- We can drain people with Sphinx Sovereign, Sludge Strider and Magister Sphinx.
- And we can control with Master Transmuter, Sen Triplets, Ethersworn Canonist and Ethersworn Adjudicator.
At the common/uncommon level, Etherium Sculptor, the Capsules and Tidehollow Strix all see heavy play in multiplayer environments, and are well worth investing in.Continual Board Reset
This synergy is all about exploiting Darksteel Forge.
Traditionally, the trick is to get the Forge out early (via Tinker or something similar), and then play Nevinyrral's Disk or a similar artifact-based reset. The indestructibility granted by the Forge will allow it to stay out and continually reset the board. From here, you are limited only by the tools you have at your disposal to win.
Another alternative is to equip an indestructible creature with Worldslayer and get an unblocked swing in with it. From there, you are resetting the board every turn.
Finally, this can also be achieved by imprinting Soulscour on Panoptic Mirror, but trust me when I tell you that this takes much longer to set up, and is much harder to protect!
Academy
The classic Academy deck has been known to work in multiplayer environments, but it's obviously harder to do - there will be more disruption, and more targets.
The deck drops Tolarian Academy first turn along with a pile of mana artifacts. Mox Opal is ripe for this deck format now - the original used Lotus Petal alone. Throw in Mana Vault, Voltaic Key, Tinker, Sol Ring and Grim Monolith, and chances are good that you have an Academy capable of producing at least UUU once you've played your hand out.
Then you cast Windfall and fill your hand up again.
The idea is to eventually pick your deck up, cast Mind Over Matter, throw out the non-kill cards to MoM to untap the Academy continuously, generate a heap of mana, and Stroke of Genius or Braingeyser your opponents for the kill.
If your playgroup uses the Vintage or Legacy restricted list as a basis for your deckbuilding (as a lot of groups do), this deck is a lot harder to pull off these days.
Vintage-wise, at time of writing, Mana Vault, Lotus Petal, Sol Ring, Tinker, Windfall and the Academy itself are all Restricted. Legacy has banned Tolarian Academy altogether!
Proliferate
Another new addition from Scars of Mirrodin, proliferate decks abuse Inexorable Tide, Thrummingbird, Steady Progress, Contagion Engine and Contagion Clasp to control the board and win with an artifact that works using counters of some description.
Board controllers like Triskelion and Grim Poppet adore being used in this capacity. Triskelion in particular can machine gun the whole board quickly in a well-rounded deck.
Anything that makes use of charge counters is particularly good here also. Combined with Energy Chamber, things can get nasty quickly. Chimeric Mass, Lightning Coils, Lux Cannon and Umezawa's Jitte are all ripe for abuse here. You can even go tribal and run Door of Destinies!
Finally, any blanket artifact damage probably likes being next to proliferate, as it inevitably uses counters. This includes Armageddon Clock, Time Bomb and Magma Mine among others.
Myrball
The idea behind Myrball is to generate a pile of Myr and then go swinging with Myr Battlesphere. This is generally made possible by Myr Matrix, Myr Propagator and Myrsmith, and accelerated by Myr Reservoir.
Myr Galvanizer will allow you to attack all out with the Battlesphere and beef your little guys up in the process.
The Reservoir and Myr Retriever add some recursion.
Stations
Station decks are possibly the ultimate Johnny artifact deck. They're full of expensive, synergistic cards that go infinite together, pieced around the four Stations from Fifth Dawn - Blasting Station, Grinding Station, Salvaging Station and Summoning Station.
Obviously, there are many, many ways of sending these infinite. The usual Station deck will seek to accelerate the Stations out quickly using artifact mana and/or Tinker-like spells, and provide a fair bit of sacrificial fodder for recursion.
Trinket Mage
Trinket Mage decks contain an array of 0-1cc artifacts and a way of recursing Trinket Mage as needed to control the game.
While there are a huge pile of artifacts usable in these decks, the most common are the Spellbombs, the Capsules, artifact lands, Expedition Map, Relic of Progenitus, Voltaic Key and Sensei's Divining Top.
Trinket Mage is typically bounced using Riptide Laboratory and/or Aether Spellbomb, and the artifacts are usually recursed with Academy Ruins and/or Leonin Squire.
Equipment
Equipment decks make for a pretty good n00b starting point when it comes to multiplayer artifact decks. The concept is simple - get Stoneforge Mystic or Stonehewer Giant out early, and fetch the awesome equipment out of your deck one-by-one.
Lightning Greaves and Leonin Shikari are important additions to this deck - they ramp up the trick factors exponentially and keep your opponents guessing.
The New Phyrexia 'War of Attrition' event deck is an excellent starting point for this archetype, giving you access to some of the cornerstone cards for a decent budget.
Other deck strategies can be based around a single artifact:
Fun artifact-based combos of note:
These decks are mostly taken from the WotC Multiplayer forum, or are recommendations of interesting builds from forum members. If you're going to spread the love elsewhere on the Internet, remember to credit the deck's designer (it's good form, you know)!
Metalcraft
Esper
Continual Board Reset
Academy
Proliferate
Stations
Trinket Mage
Equipment
Mesmeric Orb
Psychogenic Probe
Thrumming Stone
Dragon Arch
Isochron Scepter
Altar of Dementia
Psychosis Crawler
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Sunforger
Other Decks That Defy Categorization
And so we come to the cream of the crop. The cards in these lists represent the cards that send artifact decks to the next level in multiplayer environments. We know them, we love them, we house people with them. If you don't own copies, go get them now!
The Artifacts
The Support Cards
At the end of the day, this list will always be subjective. For a good idea of the artifacts that are seeing day-to-day use in the decks of forum members, follow this link to a previous discussion on the most useful colourless cards in the multiplayer environment. It will give you a good idea of the variation between various playgroups, and the varying levels of success some people have had with certain cards.
The WotC Multiplayer forum has discussed hosing artifacts in a multiplayer environment previously. This is a good starting point to find out what you may be up against when playing an artifact-heavy deck in multiplayer.
Probably the most disruptive thing an artifact player can come up against is repeatable targetted artifact destruction. Arguably the nastiest cards allowing this to occur are Aura Shards and its little Sliver brother - these can take an artifact deck to pieces in a very short period of time. Really, the best defence against this by far is Darksteel Forge, as Aura Shards can do nothing against it. Secondly, some of the white cards that shroud your artifacts (e.g. Leonin Abunas, Indomitable Archangel) will also provide all the protection you need. While these are creatures, and can therefore be removed fairly easily, they provide a complete lock with Whispersilk Cloak.
Then there is blanket destruction - the artifact sweepers like Shatterstorm and Creeping Corrosion. Decks relying heavily on artifact lands are particularly vulnerable to these effects (a Meltdown will make them cry for the measly cost of R). While Darksteel Forge still does its job in these situations, shroud will get you nowhere - this is usually a cleanup and recovery job. Fortunately, there are still plenty of options here - Open the Vaults, Roar of Reclamation and Second Sunrise will deal with the situation quickly, while Argivian Restoration and other reclaimers will fetch your biggest loss back quickly. You can also make people pay for sweeping you via Disciple of the Vault - the promise of pain is a good way of preventing these things from happening!
Finally, there are the artifact hosers. While these are not often seen on the multiplayer table, they do exist, and if your playgroup is particularly artifact heavy, you should probably be ready for them. Molder Slug is possibly the worst of these, forcing gradual sacrifice of your resources - at least as a creature, the Slug can be removed (e.g. Executioner's Capsule, Brittle Effigy) or dealt direct damage (e.g. Masticore, Tower of Calamities). Other, more subtle hosers like Hum of the Radix require a little more preparation and resources to get rid of. At the end of the day, there will always be situations that we cannot prepare for or handle - and it's then that we wheel out Nevinyrral's Disk and other board reset alternatives!
It's entirely possible to school an entire multiplayer board with deck consisting of close to 100% artifacts nowadays. Give it a shot in your own playgroup and raise some eyebrows! Try some of the cards mentioned above out in your decks, play some of the decks mentioned, and enjoy yourself!
May your colourless mana be plentiful!
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
This one is a lot less mature than Tich's awesome Guide to MP Black, and it is obviously opened up to a new audience here, so feel free to suggest, contribute, bag out etc. (it's the Internet, I can choose to ignore you if I like).
Also, cookie to someone who can tell me how to do spoiler blocks inside spoiler blocks on here. You can do it on the WotC Forums, and I miss it. There's another guide of mine that I'd like to move over here that would cry without having cascading spoiler blocks.
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
Couple of points...
I did not see the following artifacts:
Pyrite Spellbomb and Aether Spellbomb: Two of the best Artifact Rattlesnake cards, these belong in the list for sure.
Coalition Relic: One of the best Mana stones out there, regardless of how many colors you play.
Grafted Wargear: One of the less known "free" creature sac outlets (i.e. repeatable), but still extremely efficient.
Sunforger: I'd put this in Rattlesnake or Spider because anything can spring out so you want to avoid it or be careful if you can't deal with it right away.
Clock of Omens: I'd put this in deck strategies based around artifacts, A clock deck on full throttle is something to behold.
Myr Retriever: I know you mentionned it but I would put it in rattlesnake for MP as well; lots of players will stop attacking if this means you're getting back the one artifact they dread.
...
Also there needs to be a Mishra, Artificer Prodigy deck in there, he's the man for artifice y'know ;)...
I'll PM you my list and you could put it up if you don't have any, It's one of my better MP decks.
...
[spoiler=You]mean[spoiler=like]this??[spoiler]... just imbed the spoiler tags within each other. You can be screwed if you're not careful and get mixed up but it basicaly works. [spoiler]Also using the quote feature on the bottom of a post is a good way to find out how someone put funky coding in their post :teach:. [/spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler]
ty !!
also for lands i suggest the locus family, like cloudpost and glimmerpost
urzatron need a spot too, most of new players doesnt know they exist
and vesuva, the new brother for the urzatron and locus family ^^
Deck Building Primer - Casual
Sliver Primer - Casual
Want To Buy List
Now Playing:
Excaliboros R(R/W)W / Maverick G(G/W)W
Bant Pro Excalibur (G/U)W(G/U) / Merfolk (W/U)U(U/B)
Where would land-fetching artifacts go, specifically the wonderful Expedition Map? As a subheading under Land and Mana Sources?
You should consider bringing your nonbasic lands guide thread over, as well.
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
That's pretty much what I was doing with the spoiler tags... don't know why it didn't work. Oh well, we'll have another go, and see if we can lay it out a little more nicely.
@Hammer: The Elixir is an interesting one, agreed. It might well be a Johnny vs. Timmy vs. Spike debate - as a hardcore Johnny who values the ability to recurse my key cards, the Elixir is a potential gamesaver and gamebreaker. To a Timmy, I fancy it's probably complete jank. That said, it's in my must-have list out of respect for its ability to recurse Squadron Hawks, combo brutally with Sanguine Bond, gain life in tight situations, etc. (and yes, Feldon's Cane is balls).
@Ftdori: Thanks! I'll throw those in - nice-looking Mishra deck!
@Zeromd: Good gracious, all this time, and I didn't have 8/12-Post in here? Nice catch! Definitely deserving of a mention, that one.
@Krich: Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to bring Expedition Map in too - it combos far too well with Academy Ruins to not be in here (and Trinky fetches it, too).
And yes, the dual-land guide is coming, as soon as I get nested spoilers working in my posts. But keeping the pricing updated in that thing across two sites is going to be painful!
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
My Cube.
Casual Decks
UG Madness GU
W Stonehewer Equipment W
WU Millfolk UW
B Necroskitter (FFA) B
WU Multi-Kicker (FFA) UW
BW Near-Death Experience (FFA) WB
Okay, fixed all the layered spoiler blocks, added the vast majority of suggestions, a couple of new cards and a couple of new decklists.
Currently chasing the following decklists to add to this guide, if people are able to supply any that work.
I've currently got a new Crown / Scepter / Throne of Empires deck kicking around that I'm testing for Worthiness(TM). If it proves as awesome as it so far seems to be, I'll throw details in on the next iteration.
I also have a mate in my playgroup rocking an absolutely brutal MP Stonehewer Giant deck at the moment - I've asked him for his decklist, and I'll throw it up for your enjoyment.
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
Ooh, good point (considering I've hosed my buddies' artifact decks with it before... nothing like multiple Energy Fluxes and a Back to Basics to make a deck full of artifact lands cry).
Will throw it in. Cheers!
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
Chromatic Lantern probably deserves a spot on this list too.
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
Prophetic Prism allows for mana fixing, is a cantrip, puts 1 more artifact on the board, and can do shenanigans when combined with cards such as Master Transmuter. I'm not sure if it is worth the 2 mana, though.
Tezzeret's Gambit also deserves to be included in the proliferation section. He is often better than Steady Progress.
One of those cards is a Worn Powerstone that color fixes. The other 2 are 3 mana Rampant Growths. You might want to revisit your opinion of the Relic...
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
It is a Worn Powerstone, sure. Every other turn.
Compared to Rampant Growth, Chromatic Lantern doesn't require green mana, is an artifact (instead of a basic land), and fixes all mana color issues as long as it is in play.
Moreover, Chromatic Lantern doesn't enter the battlefield tapped, so you get 1 mana back and that makes it the same mana cost as Rampant Growth when played after turn 2.