With the new card Powerstone Shard in Dominaria it has the potential in Modern to create a psuedo-Cloudpost deck. For those who may not know, Cloudpost is just Powerstone Shard on a land, and used to be played alongside Glimmerpost, Vesuva, and Thespian's Stage for massive amounts of mana production. Decks like 16 Post and 12 Post show the cards power, and because of its very fast mana production Cloudpost is currently banned in Modern.
Although Artifacts are easier to interact with than Lands, there are no shortage of ways to copy them in Modern. Another positive is that they can even be a little easier to search out. Cards that allow you to copy Powerstone Shard (roughly from best to worst) include:
There are a plethora of support cards for Artifacts as well. Some of the best ones to help find and put Powerstone Shard and friends into play in no particular order include:
Semblance Anvil - Make all of your 3 cost artifacts now cost 1
Whir of Invention - Use all of that mana you are producing to search out things you need
Ensnaring Bridge - A way to keep you alive while playing all these expensive artifacts
Lodestone Golem - You're playing Artifacts, so why not make other stuff harder to play
There are a ton of options right now and I haven't been able to find anything fast enough to be truly viable. A starting core for a deck could look like this
I like the premise of the deck, though it obviously wont be as strong as posts but hey, those are illegal. I could see this doing well as a ramp deck. I'd start by running Fabricate along with your Whirs.
In my experience with these kinds of copy decks, often times you can be very explosive by copying artifact lords instead of just working on some combo that you may have built the deck to perform. (That's not to say you shouldn't or that it's wrong to build towards a combo or huge ramped out threat, but it's amazing to have an incidental lord army beat down option as your primary or secondary plan of attack.) With lowered artifact costs, Master of Etherium can easily be copied many times over. And it not only pumps your other creatures, but grows with more artifacts on the field. I think it's perfect for the deck since you care about your artifact count. Grand Architect is another strong lord that you can work with as he also supports the artifact plan anyway while beefing up other blue creatures. (Oh Master and Metamorph are blue as well)
Phantasmal Image is another great option as a cheap copy spell. It just doesn't hit on your stone strategy. Foundry Inspector is another card that helps with building your board quickly.
This one didn't catch my eye when the leaks went up! Shard looks super cool!!
I've played with a variety of Metalwork Colossus decks that I think this could fit into. With this extra boost of ramp, I can see other finishers added to the mix as well! Unsure about the interactive elements, but my baseline is something like this:
Thinking about it more, cards like Paradoxical Outcome could be super powerful if we can dump a bunch of Powerstone Shards into play and use all their mana to just replay them while drawing cards. It would also fit the Metalwork Colossus idea as those decks in the past have done the same things.
Guys, what do you think about Mishra, Artificer Prodigy? Cast one Powerstone while he's on board, and you get to search for and dump the other 3 straight into play! The only problem at the moment with this, is somehow getting Mishra to survive a whole turn...
The game plan would be turn 3 Trophy Mage, turn 4 Mishra, Turn 5 Powerstone Shard -grabbing 3 from deck that hard casts an Emrakul
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy can only grab one artifact at time. Still though, casting the first Shard with him in play will get the second, then then casting any artifact-copy spell will get a second allowing you to have 4 shards in play. I like the idea of playing Mishra as it's a great way to power out Shards or any other artifact in the deck. I'll think about that one and see if I can think of anything to support it.
Although Artifacts are easier to interact with than Lands, there are no shortage of ways to copy them in Modern. Another positive is that they can even be a little easier to search out. Cards that allow you to copy Powerstone Shard (roughly from best to worst) include:
4 Powerstone Shard
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Sculpting Steel
4 Mirage Mirror
1 Cogwork Assembler
4 Etherium Sculptor
4 Semblance Anvil
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Whir of Invention
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Paradox Engine
1 Staff of Domination
2 Inventors' Fair
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
In my experience with these kinds of copy decks, often times you can be very explosive by copying artifact lords instead of just working on some combo that you may have built the deck to perform. (That's not to say you shouldn't or that it's wrong to build towards a combo or huge ramped out threat, but it's amazing to have an incidental lord army beat down option as your primary or secondary plan of attack.) With lowered artifact costs, Master of Etherium can easily be copied many times over. And it not only pumps your other creatures, but grows with more artifacts on the field. I think it's perfect for the deck since you care about your artifact count. Grand Architect is another strong lord that you can work with as he also supports the artifact plan anyway while beefing up other blue creatures. (Oh Master and Metamorph are blue as well)
Phantasmal Image is another great option as a cheap copy spell. It just doesn't hit on your stone strategy. Foundry Inspector is another card that helps with building your board quickly.
I've played with a variety of Metalwork Colossus decks that I think this could fit into. With this extra boost of ramp, I can see other finishers added to the mix as well! Unsure about the interactive elements, but my baseline is something like this:
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Metalwork Colossus
4 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Artifacts
4 Mind Stone
4 Powerstone Shard
1 Akroma's Memorial
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Condescend
4 Remand
Lands
2 Firewild Borderpost
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Sanctum of Ugin
8 Island
8 Forest
I've always liked using grand architect myself. I'm interested in what you come up with.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
You actually only need 4 untapped Shards, or 3 untapped Shards with 3 other mana, to get infinite hasty Cogwork Assemblers.
Trophy Mage fetches all the 3 CMC artifacts.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge