MTG Salvation

I've been exploring the idea of including an artifact aggro support package to the cube, which would allow some of the lower-end aggro bodies to be replaced with tier-1 1-drops. The cost being the loss of some interchangeable parts for a couple of aggro bodies that are only viable with a high enough density of artifacts to "power them up". Of course, I'm mainly talking about these two cards:



Which have a really high ceiling in terms of 1-drop quality; being much better than Lion clones or tier-3 red aggro beater variants.

There have been a lot of cards printed in recent sets that allow you to play artifacts and continue applying pressure that are playable in aggro shells. Cards like Porcelain Legionnaire and Blade Splicer are already in the cube, but when you start counting up all the other aggro/tempo-playable artifact cards, there's quite the list:


In addition to all the playable artifact mana!

With a handful of extra support cards, potentially in the form of:

• Thraben Inspector
  
• Pia Nalaar
  
• Verdurous Gearhulk
  
• Tidehollow Sculler
  
• Heart of Kiran

or any number of other fringe-playable artifacts, these 1-drops could prove to be formidable replacements for some of the current lower-tier inclusions.

I'll be playing around with this aggro sub-archetype and see if I can't have some success with it.

Please leave feedback with any comments you have about artifact aggro and how it has played out for your group!

Cheers, and happy cubing!

This seems really interesting. I was looking at Thraben Inspector the other day, wishing it had a spot in cube. Maybe this does that. Keep us posted with results.

The list was largely in part to show that the density may already be there for Exemplar/Apprentice to function without needing to go "all in" supporting metalcraft. I could be wrong, but I want to test those two cards out and see if they can function in aggro shells that are already draftable. If they can't work, I can always switch them back out for the vanilla beaters that they replaced.

It's an interesting idea, but Echtergreg's right that you'll need some more payoff cards than Toolcraft Exemplar, Inventor's Apprentice, Pia Nalaar, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. I'll also say that in Kaladesh and Kaladesh block limited Toolcraft Exemplar and Inventor's Apprentice were notoriously unreliable, and both formats are swimming with playable artifacts at common.

Some possibilities:

Cranial Plating
Galvanic Blast
Dhund Operative
Steel Overseer
Chief of the Foundry
Tezzeret's Touch
Ensoul Artifact
Shrapnel Blast
Weapons Trainer

Dhund Operative has been quite good in Kaladesh (block) limited, but the floor is obviously much more acceptable there than it would be in cube.

Some more cards that seem close for a traditional cube environment if you want to increase your artifact density for aggro decks:

Spined Thopter
Hope of Ghirapur
Signal Pest
Trusty Machete
Renegade Freighter
Agent of Acquisitions
Lore Seeker

Definitely keep us posted about how this new archetype plays out for you!

I will. I know there were two ways to try and approach this subtype. Either A) Go "all in" and add in every remotely playable aggressive artifact support card, so the draft is loaded for incentives and payoff cards to draft the shell, or B) See if a couple of small changes would give me an aggressive artifact density high enough to make Toolcraft Exemplar and Inventor's Apprentice reliable enough to be active in otherwise traditional aggro shells.

It would be similar to how the spells matters shell works in my cube without going "all in" on every remotely playable card that triggers off instants/sorceries/prowess, and just tossing Young Pyromancer/Monastery Mentor/Thing in the Ice into decks with a high saturation of noncreature cards. In that example, the latter has worked out better for me than the "all in" approach, and I wanted to experiment with that concept here.

Basically: Are Exemplar/Apprentice better enough than the worst 2-power 1-drops in their respective colors to pay attention to artifact count during the drafting/deckbuilding process, as long as the cost in cube modification to make them work is small/nonexistent? I aim to find that out.

This might just be my personal taste, but I would want my aggro guy to be "powered" up by T2, which means I would want about 5-6 artifacts in my deck between 0-2 CMC to achieve that. This makes, for me, all the 3-5 CMC stuff more of a backup plan to ensure the one drop stays powered. Am I off here?

Also, is Black Vise good enough to add without being considered an all in attempt?

Good luck wtwlf123 with your investigations, I hope you find out something interesting!

No, you're not off. I agree that I'd like to have them "on" by T2 as well, which is harder to do. In the case of Apprentice, it would be replacing a 1-drop that's not swinging for 2 until T3 anyways, and the Exemplar's ability to swing for 3 help to offset this a little bit.

Black Vise is fine, but it would would become your T1 play, so it doesn't really "power up" these guys for attacking for 2 or 3 on T2 anyways.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

Black Vise is fine, but it would would become your T1 play, so it doesn't really "power up" these guys for attacking for 2 or 3 on T2 anyways.

Well I think it would be logical to try to sequence your plays in that case thusly:
T1: Artifact Aggro Guy
T2: Vise, another 1-drop, attack, etc.

And this of course might lead to wanting more like 11 1-CMC plays and having a lower curve aggro deck, more of a Turn 3 rather than a Turn 4 aggro concept.

Just brainstorming ways to help this thing gain consistency!

Quote from B8R »

Well I think it would be logical to try to sequence your plays in that case thusly:
T1: Artifact Aggro Guy
T2: Vise, another 1-drop, attack, etc.

The point was that Vise loses too much value when it's cast after T1, so it would be in a sequencing conflict with the other 1-drops.

Quote from B8R »

Just brainstorming ways to help this thing gain consistency!

Understood, thanks! I want to be able to get Exemplar/Apprentice to work with minimal effort in my current configuration ...or I'll likely pass on the idea altogether. I'm not looking to do a major overhaul to the contents of the cube to power up a couple of 1-drops.

Now, if I was going with the "all in option A" outlined above, with Scissors and Plating and Masters and Ravagers ...going ham on getting metalcraft and stuff, I'd be all about playing every remotely passable aggressive artifact. But since my goal is to experiment with these 1-drops now that the saturations have come up to an acceptable minimum, I'm looking to keep the total number of changes down.

Understood!

Like I said I'm interested to see what you find out. Keep us posted!!

I will! I'm not sure if they'll be consistent enough, but if they can be, it'll be nice to update some of the lower-tier aggro beaters.

Interesting experiment. Which cards you intend to cut to make room for this package?

I'm still finalizing my overall changes, but it's these two 1-drops that are the real experiments (It'll probably be Lions and Glory Chaser that leave to test these). Most of the other changes were ones I was planning well before deciding to try this out.

I predict Thraben Inspector will be better for you than Toolcraft Exemplar. Inventor's Apprentice is very interesting as red's one drops are shallow.

I was toying around with this idea as well (theory crafting only) and determined the pay off was not quite there... yet. It's on my list of archetypes I WANT to be a thing and hope they print more cards to support it.

I think scrapheap scrounger was a huge move in the right direction for an archetype like this to function.
I'm guessing cranial plating becomes playable as well with the proper support and is a payoff card that most cubes do not run.

That said, I'm glad you are testing it and interested in your findings.

Quote from steve_man »

I think Captain's Claws is a good equipment option if you need more aggressive artifacts.

Ya, it's solid enough. Always keeping it in mind.

Quote from Metamind »

I predict Thraben Inspector will be better for you than Toolcraft Exemplar. Inventor's Apprentice is very interesting as red's one drops are shallow.

Agreed on both accounts. Inspector will be a better midrange card I think, helping support the 'Lark/Alesha/Vat/Feldon/Recruiter(s)/Nightmare/Resto/'Fisher/'Wisp shenanigans deck with a 1-drop that has a reasonably strong ETB trigger. I won't be using it in many aggro decks unless they feature some artifacts matters critters.

Quote from LucidVision »

I was toying around with this idea as well (theory crafting only) and determined the pay off was not quite there... yet. It's on my list of archetypes I WANT to be a thing and hope they print more cards to support it.

I think scrapheap scrounger was a huge move in the right direction for an archetype like this to function.
I'm guessing cranial plating becomes playable as well with the proper support and is a payoff card that most cubes do not run.

That said, I'm glad you are testing it and interested in your findings.

Scrounger was big, to be sure. I was looking through some of my finished aggro decks and observing a relatively high cheap artifact count, which made me wonder if Exemplar/Apprentice could be successful in my current configuration. I'll add them in with a handful of other small changes that can benefit them and see if it works. I'm not interested in the all-in movement towards Ravager/Plating and stuff like that, but I might be able to upgrade a couple aggro dudes with a few small changes.

Thanks for the feedback everybody!

This is an interesting experiment.
In addition to the cards wtwlf are including, I think Ethersworn Canonist, Vault Skirge, Cranial Plating, Galvanic Blast, Signal Pest and Steel Overseer could be playable options for larger cubes.
I especially think Plating is a little underrated. It is arguably worse than Grafted Wargear, but if 'Artifact Aggro' is a thing in your cube, it will often be just as good in that deck.

I may also try it out in the near future .

I posted this in a different thread but it might be relevant here:

Here are the as-fans of each artifact themed expansion. The second number is the corresponding number of artifact cards in a 360 cube.

MRD 7.37 177
DKS 5.98 143
5DN 5.74 144
SOM 5.74 138
MBS 4.43 106
NPH 4.15 100
KLD 3.04 73
AER 4.24 102

An average 360 cube has around 55 artifacts, which result in an as-fan of 2.3, which is significantly lower. If you have experienced inconsistencies with them in KLD, then expect artifacts to come much less in a regular cube.

In comparison to Kird Ape type of cards, where it only checks for basic land types, these are also less consistent, because you have to have mana to cast your artifacts. There are a few artifact aggro cards such as Black Vise, Porcelain Legionnaire, Cursed Scroll, but I am not sure if this is worth it to be able to draft, then draw, then cast them. I think i'd rather have a generic 2/1 for that slot.

(That said, I do have an artifact cube, with almost 50% artifacts where this is played)

So far, the results have been mixed. The good news: There are enough artifacts to "power up" Exemplar and Apprentice. They have been slotted into decks multiple times, and we've had the artifact count to make them consistently good. The bad news: It hasn't always been worth warping the draft/deck and tracking your artifact count for. They're good, and they're better than the generic 2-power 1-drops, but you have to bend the draft around cards that are good but not broken.

I'll keep them in for a while, but my guess is that it's probably better to go "all-in" on the aggro artifact package or leave it out completely. The deck needs some Platings/Ensouls/Etc to make drafting around the theme worth it.

@wtwlf123- That's curious what you say about the warping effect on drafting and deck construction. Are you saying that players are picking cards for their deck they wouldn't normally take just to "turn on" the artifact aggro duders? Instead of more powerful "normal" options that might be in the pack?

@steve_man- I get what you are saying about making impossible cuts, but wouldn't pushing a theme like this in a BIGGER cube just lead to more variance and make it harder to come together?

Quote from B8R »

@wtwlf123- That's curious what you say about the warping effect on drafting and deck construction. Are you saying that players are picking cards for their deck they wouldn't normally take just to "turn on" the artifact aggro duders? Instead of more powerful "normal" options that might be in the pack?

The drafting and deckbuilding process becomes far more automatic when you have to pay attention to the artifact count. This can mean passing/excluding some cards that you might otherwise want to be playing, yes. So while the increase of the replaced 1-drop(s) is higher, the net powerlevel of the deck is likely the same. Something that's not the case with other "build-around" or "payoff" cards in other archetypes.