(The following commentary has been edited from my post of this decklist on r/pauper. Please note that I play purely in a paper meta: I don't have MTGO availble for testing.)
Kaladesh promises to give Pauper a whole lot of new artifact goodies for Kitty/Kuldotha lists, and one in particular has struck my interest: Metalspinner's Puzzleknot. Upon a bit of reflection, this seems like an upgrade for the deck over Ichor Wellspring, one of the current engine cards played in the deck but one that's fraught with a few issues. The only card that interacts favorably with Wellspring over any other of the "pistons" (ex. Prophetic Prism, Lone Missionary, etc.) is Kuldotha Rebirth. While it is the deck's namesake, Rebirth has slipped out of its previous status as a 4-of as 1-point sweepers (ex. Electrickery, Shrivel) become more prevalent to combat Delver, Elves, etc.
So, enter the Puzzleknot. The life loss associated with its ETB trigger is minimal, and is offset by the multiple sources of life gain in the deck. The biggest advantage Puzzleknot has over Wellspring is the ability to get the second draw without another spell in hand. While the advantage of Kuldotha decks is the ability to keep your hand full, sometimes you just don’t have a fisher available. Puzzleknot fills that gap.
The other cards in this list are pretty standard for a Mardu Kuldotha list. Bleak Coven Vampires is basically a common Siege Rhino. I'm still not sure if 4 is the right number for them, or to cut 1 for something like Gurmag Angler as a more resilient threat on the offense. I hope to test and refine this build in the upcoming weeks against my local meta, but I'd love some preliminary thoughts/feedback/diagnoses. Do you think my analysis is accurate, or have I overlooked something key about the archetype as it currently stands? Let me know!
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EDH/Commander
(W/U)(W/U)Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage: The New da Vinci (historic control)
(W/B)(W/B)Teysa Karlov: Death Be Not Kind (aristocrats)
(R/G)(R/G)Hallar, the Firefletcher: Yavimaya Burning (kicker and counters)
(B/G)(G/U)Sidisi, Brood Tyrant: Queen of the Damned (dredge)
Maybe Build
(W/U)(U/B)Aminatou, the Fateshifter: And a Child Shall Lead Them (superfriends)
Mardu Wellspring is something that's been around. It is, being fair, usually straight worse than Jeskai - Mulldrifter is real and absurd. The Boros/Jeskai/Mardu Wellspring thread is here.
In Mardu Wellspring I usually run 3 Bleak Coven Vampires and 1 Gurmag Angler and it feels about right. I'll find my full list when I get home.
EDIT: Reading the metagame and what's prevalent and not has become a lot harder with Drake Combo doing what it's doing. Wellspring decks get a lot more time in the sun when nothing that broken is around.
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Honestly, I don't see how Metalspinner's Knot is better than Wellspring. If you don't want to run Kuldotha Rebirth, that's fine I guess but Angelic Purge is a thing that can do the same thing with way more upside and way less life loss.
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That said, KDR tokens are pretty handy in their own right, even if they're a little bit hard to get...
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
That said, KDR tokens are pretty handy in their own right, even if they're a little bit hard to get...
You could also run Thraben Inspector but that doesn't help with Remember the Fallen. Is Remember/Find that good though?
Thraben Inspector does help with Metalcraft, KDR, Angelic Purge, and drawing cards. Its also a decent bounce target and a good turn 1 play into turn 2 Skyfisher.
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The following link is an invitation to join Pucatrade (card trading service though similar to TCGPLayer). If you follow the link then it awards me with tokens to exchange for actual cards. Thanks! https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
RtF is a pretty good beating in this archetype, because you need a way to regain hand size when you lose it; Jeskai was a big deal because Mulldrifter solves this problem perfectly.
You only need them when you're against somebody who's trying to out-control you, but that's fine, because they're also the ones who'll put your creatures in the bin reliably. Your usual get-back will be a piston and a bird, so that's +2 cards once you cycle them in and out.
Dragging your comments from the spoiler thread over here:
The thought that occurred to me was if you are removing Kuldotha, why not replace it with Angelic Purge and leave the Wellspring? It saves you the mana and life of having to activate it. Also, why not play Thraben Inspector in that list to assist with Metalcraft, its a good bounce target, and draws cards if you are dead set on spending mana to sac artifacts to draw cards, oh, and all those artifacts now come with a body.
The point is that you don't get a second draw out of Ichor Wellspring unless you draw a sac outlet for it; and since the sac outlets in this archetype are all sorceries/instants, you're only replacing the card you spent.
With Metalspinner's Puzzleknot, you can get an extra card just by paying mana. The life loss will matter against certain decks, but not against others.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
RtF is a pretty good beating in this archetype, because you need a way to regain hand size when you lose it; Jeskai was a big deal because Mulldrifter solves this problem perfectly.
You only need them when you're against somebody who's trying to out-control you, but that's fine, because they're also the ones who'll put your creatures in the bin reliably. Your usual get-back will be a piston and a bird, so that's +2 cards once you cycle them in and out.
Dragging your comments from the spoiler thread over here:
The thought that occurred to me was if you are removing Kuldotha, why not replace it with Angelic Purge and leave the Wellspring? It saves you the mana and life of having to activate it. Also, why not play Thraben Inspector in that list to assist with Metalcraft, its a good bounce target, and draws cards if you are dead set on spending mana to sac artifacts to draw cards, oh, and all those artifacts now come with a body.
The point is that you don't get a second draw out of Ichor Wellspring unless you draw a sac outlet for it; and since the sac outlets in this archetype are all sorceries/instants, you're only replacing the card you spent.
With Metalspinner's Puzzleknot, you can get an extra card just by paying mana. The life loss will matter against certain decks, but not against others.
To me it just looks like a strictly worse black Think Twice and I'm not big on Think Twice outside of decks just looking for the cast trigger. I guess its probably a better bounce target overall than Thraben Inspector because you get the card on ETB and a 2nd on its way out if you spend the same mana you would have with Inspecter.
It might be getting to far off the reservation but I wonder if Disciple of the Vault would be worth looking at if you can fit in Inspector, keep Puzzleknot, swap Wellspring for Prism, and find a way to build in an outlet like Rebirth or Purge. That new Reckless Fireweaver could work too? Dome your opponent's comin in with Fireweaver, while they are on the field with Vampires, and on their way out with Disciple and draw cards the whole time in between?
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The following link is an invitation to join Pucatrade (card trading service though similar to TCGPLayer). If you follow the link then it awards me with tokens to exchange for actual cards. Thanks! https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
I posted this thread and completely forgot about it afterwards, my bad y'all.
Rebirth has just been underwhelming in my (albeit small) metagame: there's almost never a matchup that I don't take it out for games 2-3. This is a deck that takes advantage of that.
I look forward to testing 2 Fortuitous Find once KLD drops: my list is a bit different from what's posted right now, but getting rid of Grim Harvest and Journey to Nowhere should work. And your comments only solidify my desire to go 3/1 split on Vampires and Anglers.
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EDH/Commander
(W/U)(W/U)Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage: The New da Vinci (historic control)
(W/B)(W/B)Teysa Karlov: Death Be Not Kind (aristocrats)
(R/G)(R/G)Hallar, the Firefletcher: Yavimaya Burning (kicker and counters)
(B/G)(G/U)Sidisi, Brood Tyrant: Queen of the Damned (dredge)
Maybe Build
(W/U)(U/B)Aminatou, the Fateshifter: And a Child Shall Lead Them (superfriends)
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4 Ancient Den
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Wind-Scarred Crag
3 Scoured Barrens
3 Bloodfell Caves
Creatures (14)
4 Bleak Coven Vampires
4 Glint Hawk
4 Kor Skyfisher
2 Lone Missionary
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Metalspinner's Puzzleknot
4 Prophetic Prism
2 Chainer's Edict
2 Firebolt
2 Terminate
1 Grim Harvest
1 Journey to Nowhere
3 Pyroblast
2 Electrickery
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Standard Bearer
2 Stone Rain
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Font of Return
1 Oblivion Ring
(The following commentary has been edited from my post of this decklist on r/pauper. Please note that I play purely in a paper meta: I don't have MTGO availble for testing.)
Kaladesh promises to give Pauper a whole lot of new artifact goodies for Kitty/Kuldotha lists, and one in particular has struck my interest: Metalspinner's Puzzleknot. Upon a bit of reflection, this seems like an upgrade for the deck over Ichor Wellspring, one of the current engine cards played in the deck but one that's fraught with a few issues. The only card that interacts favorably with Wellspring over any other of the "pistons" (ex. Prophetic Prism, Lone Missionary, etc.) is Kuldotha Rebirth. While it is the deck's namesake, Rebirth has slipped out of its previous status as a 4-of as 1-point sweepers (ex. Electrickery, Shrivel) become more prevalent to combat Delver, Elves, etc.
So, enter the Puzzleknot. The life loss associated with its ETB trigger is minimal, and is offset by the multiple sources of life gain in the deck. The biggest advantage Puzzleknot has over Wellspring is the ability to get the second draw without another spell in hand. While the advantage of Kuldotha decks is the ability to keep your hand full, sometimes you just don’t have a fisher available. Puzzleknot fills that gap.
The other cards in this list are pretty standard for a Mardu Kuldotha list. Bleak Coven Vampires is basically a common Siege Rhino. I'm still not sure if 4 is the right number for them, or to cut 1 for something like Gurmag Angler as a more resilient threat on the offense. I hope to test and refine this build in the upcoming weeks against my local meta, but I'd love some preliminary thoughts/feedback/diagnoses. Do you think my analysis is accurate, or have I overlooked something key about the archetype as it currently stands? Let me know!
Mardu Wellspring is something that's been around. It is, being fair, usually straight worse than Jeskai - Mulldrifter is real and absurd. The Boros/Jeskai/Mardu Wellspring thread is here.
In Mardu Wellspring I usually run 3 Bleak Coven Vampires and 1 Gurmag Angler and it feels about right. I'll find my full list when I get home.
If I was running Metalspinner's Puzzleknot, I'd want to also run some number of Fortuitous Find and Remember the Fallen. 2-for-1 recursion is very powerful against decks that try to beat you with removal.
EDIT: Reading the metagame and what's prevalent and not has become a lot harder with Drake Combo doing what it's doing. Wellspring decks get a lot more time in the sun when nothing that broken is around.
EDIT EDIT: Here.
4 Ancient Den
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
1 Scoured Barrens
2 Wind-Scarred Crag
2 Bloodfell Caves
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Barren Moor
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Mortuary Mire
Birds:
4 Glint Hawk
4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Prophetic Prism
4 Ichor Wellspring
Beef:
3 Kuldotha Rebirth
3 Bleak Coven Vampires
1 Gurmag Angler
Removal:
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
2 Chainer's Edict
1 Firebolt
Card Advantage:
2 Read the Bones
3 Duress
3 Electrickery
2 Journey to Nowhere
3 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Pyroblast
https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
That said, KDR tokens are pretty handy in their own right, even if they're a little bit hard to get...
You could also run Thraben Inspector but that doesn't help with Remember the Fallen. Is Remember/Find that good though?
Thraben Inspector does help with Metalcraft, KDR, Angelic Purge, and drawing cards. Its also a decent bounce target and a good turn 1 play into turn 2 Skyfisher.
https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
You only need them when you're against somebody who's trying to out-control you, but that's fine, because they're also the ones who'll put your creatures in the bin reliably. Your usual get-back will be a piston and a bird, so that's +2 cards once you cycle them in and out.
Dragging your comments from the spoiler thread over here:
The point is that you don't get a second draw out of Ichor Wellspring unless you draw a sac outlet for it; and since the sac outlets in this archetype are all sorceries/instants, you're only replacing the card you spent.
With Metalspinner's Puzzleknot, you can get an extra card just by paying mana. The life loss will matter against certain decks, but not against others.
To me it just looks like a strictly worse black Think Twice and I'm not big on Think Twice outside of decks just looking for the cast trigger. I guess its probably a better bounce target overall than Thraben Inspector because you get the card on ETB and a 2nd on its way out if you spend the same mana you would have with Inspecter.
It might be getting to far off the reservation but I wonder if Disciple of the Vault would be worth looking at if you can fit in Inspector, keep Puzzleknot, swap Wellspring for Prism, and find a way to build in an outlet like Rebirth or Purge. That new Reckless Fireweaver could work too? Dome your opponent's comin in with Fireweaver, while they are on the field with Vampires, and on their way out with Disciple and draw cards the whole time in between?
https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
Rebirth has just been underwhelming in my (albeit small) metagame: there's almost never a matchup that I don't take it out for games 2-3. This is a deck that takes advantage of that.
I look forward to testing 2 Fortuitous Find once KLD drops: my list is a bit different from what's posted right now, but getting rid of Grim Harvest and Journey to Nowhere should work. And your comments only solidify my desire to go 3/1 split on Vampires and Anglers.