MTG Salvation

- Early onslaught -
We are an aggro deck after all. Explosive starts are what we want every game. Auriok Glaivemaster/kitesail apprentice into bonesplitter/leonin scimitar, swing turn 2 is not half bad. One senario we end up with a 4/2 first striker that will eat any early creature early game, the other we end up with a 3/3 flyer that will provide a steady clock and only get bigger as we drop more equipments. We have a very low curve which can lead to swarming which is great because if our opponent is not running a ton of removal, our guys are very proficient in creature combat and will generate psuedo card advantage. While all having the possibility of going Voltron. Being realistic and not living in rainbow land is always good for analyzing how to make your deck better and that's why we must realize we won't kill turn 4 every game, which is why we must be prepared for the Mid-Game, and having something for the late game.

- Good Threat Quality -
While we do have a above average early game just like any aggro based deck, we have our own way of compensating if the deck can't finish early and controlling the Mid-Game. The Mid-Game is where the match is maturing, mana bases are developing and where the tide is most likely to turn on someone. In most cases this is the aggro deck because they just run out of threats or couldn't close the game quick enough before the control deck drowns them in card advantage, the combo deck combos off, or the Midrange deck drops a bomb they just can't match with weenies. Most aggro decks know they won't close every game out super quickly and have a contingency plan. Stompy has cards like rancor to keep their guys relevant. Affinity is great at this, they are a time-bomb waiting to blow with an Atog into fling to finish off whatever they life they didn't finish in the first 4-5 turns.
The way we compensate is with a variety of equipments. After the first few turns removal may have been thrown around killing our guys and now we have 2, 1, or maybe even 0 dudes on board. But since we don't lose value with equipments when our guy dies, any topdeck can be a threat. For example. Turn 7 a kitesail apprentice topdeck can be a very poor draw, but since we should have 2-3 equipments laying around, and leftover mana from our fresh 1 drop, he could be a 5-4 flyer by the time we end our turn. (Play, equip bonesplitter and Vulshok morning star. This alone could end the game in 2 turns.

- Deck Flexibility -
Another strength of our deck is that, with the right cardpool, the games will never get stale. This is a deck with a lot of answers to many scenarios. I personally love running the deck with creatures that like being equipped, since it feels more unique. However that can have its' own weaknesses, that I'll cover in a bit. Lucky for us we can mix it up a little! Keeping true to the equipment based "value retention" feel of the deck we can also run a metal craft mechanic focused deck and supplement it further with artifact creatures and artifact lands. This style of the deck adds a layer of consistency since our creatures will almost definitely already hit the board "buffed" such as ardent recruit, auriok sunchaser, and court homunculus unlike our guys who have to enter and be equipped at sorcery speed before they gain benefits. These guys also generate more toughness generally than our other guys who just want the +2/+0 of Bonesplitter while Ardent recruit is a full 3/3 that lacks the First Strike but is less vulnerable to cards like evincar's justice which can boardwipe us on a bad day. Another aspect of the deck is the equipment variation available at the common level.
You'd think there isn't much, but we have all we need. Every shade in the spectrum. Look at it like this, is your opponent or playgroup mostly a lot of creatures? Then the equipment creatures with first strike and Bonesplitter is the perfect combo to stay ahead. Is your opponent playing burn or damage based removal? Maybe 4/2's aren't the best option anymore, so lets switch bonesplitters out for leonin scimitars (Which puts ardent recruit and Sunchaser out of bolt range) or Vulshok morningstar (which puts Glaivemaster and Kitesail out of bolt range AND our metalcraft guys out of flame slash range!
This deck can even has Flying & Soldier variants, which I won't explicitly cover in this Primer, just to give you an idea of all the wiggle room this deck has.

Bad creature/Equipment Ratio
One of the worst things that can happen to us is getting all equipments and no creatures, or all creatures with no equipments. The latter being devastating because in the Equip Me build a lot of our creatures (Without an equipment) are 1/1 Vanillas! At least if we have a lot of equipments and no creatures we can still pray we top deck a guy and stack the hell out of him. This problem is minimized by the MetalCraft build since they technically don't need equipment on them to be relevant (Even though metalcraft can be stuffed as well.

Pre-established Hate
Thanks to our good friend Affinity any competent player is going to bring in their artifact hate in against us. Which means this new deck is coming in with a lot of hate already waiting for us since Affinity is Tier 1. Hate cards like ancient grudge can really be a blow-out. A playset can potentially knock out 8 of our best artifacts, *shutter*, at instant speed. Nothing feels worse than blocking a Myr Enforcer with a 4/2 First Strike Glaivemaster only to be 2* for one'd when they cast the Grudge popping our equipment and making the Glaivemaster a 1/1 that dies in combat...Ouch. Did I mention they can still flashback?

Non-Interactivity
As a Soul Sisters player in Modern for a long time one thing I learned is that not being able to interact directly with your opponent or his/her gameplan really sucks. "Swing for 13? Cool, take it. My turn, Go off, GG" Really hurts your pride. That's exactly what can happen sometimes with this deck. With no way to mess with the opponent besides swinging at their face, we can have a really bad match-up with combo decks which in all honesty is just a race. What the worst thing about this is that there's nothing really to be done about this besides playing the odds, knocking the top of your deck and hoping for the best. So this really is a "I'm going to do my thing, all that really matters is if you can stop me" deck.

One Drops

2 Drops

3 and Up.

Cranial Plating The most insane equipment ever printed in Pauper. Instantly turns any guy into a 2 turn clock roughly. So powerful that it is banned in MtGO Pauper. Which is why I do not include it in my decklists. Amazingly powerful card, do with it as you will.

Bonesplitter Power UP! This little stick boosts our first strikers into that sweet spot where they just wreck everything in combat. This will be your favorite stick for your guys to be wielding.

Vulshok Morningstar Bonesplitter makes your first strikers badass, this makes anything badass. The toughness buff really hurts your opponents red based removal as have 4 stops Lightning Bolt and having 5 even stops Myr Enforcers, Carapace Forger, and Flame Slash.

Leonin Scimitar This is our middle ground. Not as much power as Bonesplitter but adds toughness which can be relevant. Makes Ardent recruit live through bolt. And makes Sunchaser kill Delver and Spire Golem (Plus Bolt!)

Bone Saw A zero drop equipment that can really help power out of the gates and get Metal Craft early on. Flyers appreciate the extra power since they rarely get blocked.

Sylvok lifestaff Strictly worse than Bonesplitter in my opinion. It get's the "as long as X is equipped" job done. Could beside board tech against MBC's evincar's justice which could potentially wipe our toughness < 3 dudes.

Viridian longbow Best in an aggro or tempo build. Not worth running.

leonin bola Another card not worth using. We aren't a control list. Plus our dudes actually LIKE being equipped.

Unmake Exiling is rarely relevant in pauper, but this is the best unconditional removal in the format. Kills* stuff dead.

Oblivion Ring Catch all removal for any deck even splashing white. This handles any pesky threats that are not creatures. A better card than Journey in most cases, but a tad slow which is why it ranks right below.

Journey to Nowhere Good removal in any deck, however it’s so general that a lot of decks are ready to deal with it. Exiles any dude until your opponent can do something about it. Great for getting rid of something our deck can’t handle like a Marauder or Ulamog’s Crusher.

Celestial Flare This card. This card does so much work. It wrecks the Aura’s matchup, it stops Atogs from getting through once they’ve gotten huge, infect hates this, eye candy might cry.. It is basically made to step on all of the “all in” decks’ hopes and dreams.

Oblivion Ring Catch all removal for any deck even splashing white. This handles any pesky threats that are not creatures. A better card than Journey in most cases, but a tad slow which is why it ranks right below.

Serrated Arrows Card advantage. You'd be surprised how often you can kill 2 or even 3 of their dudes with this. Most of the time this is outclassed since out own guys dominate combat. But if there is a small pesky utility creature that's the problem, this will do it. Mostly outclassed by Journey, due to speed, but this has it's uses.

Sunlance if you really need the extra removal, rarely needed.

Disenchant Strictly worse then Oblivion Ring, almost no reason to use this card.

Arrest Don't ever run this. We have other removal that is strictly better. Period.

Pacifism See Above.

Gods Willing THE Protection spell. Scry is just extra frosting. Don't forget to use this as pseudo unblockability and stack our equipments on for one huge strike!

Mana Tithe Super Secret Tech! Nobody ever expects white to bust out a force spike ! Bring this is against control and also "tighter" decks like Delver. Delver plays a very tight mana base and with all the ponders/preordains to filter their draw, a single early Mana Tithe can be crippling.

Dawn Charm Fog, death ward, or hindering light! This really covers a lot of your bases. Provides extra protection to our guys.

Unified Strike Strictly for the soldier build. Conditional Removal, I personally dislike it, but it's a one mana option for the soldier focused deck.

Springleaf drum I haven't ever tested this card tbh. However turning your summoning sickness dudes into extra mana sounds like a good deal to me! Helps metal craft since this one sticks around.

Lotus Petal Good for getting multiple dudes out early. One shot mana boost so use it wisely. Counter synergistic with Metal Craft but do what you have too.

flickering ward Enchantment based protection, adds evasion as well and if it's ever targeted or the creature dies, we can save it at instant speed.

Piety Charm Rarely Auras hate, Sometimes a mini giant growth for the Soldier build, but sometimes it'll give your team vigilance for an alpha swing.

glint hawk idol Come on, spell it. T-R-A-P. But seriously, our dudes are way better than this.

Plains White decks need white mana.

Ancient Den An artifact land. Strictly for upping the artifact count for our metal craft dudes. Good at what it does…being an artifact... This is an Auto 4 of in Metal Craft lists.

Sejiri Steepe Tap land that gives pro color of choice to one of our guys. Usually that's the green light to stack everything we have on him and swing for what should be lethal. Not necessary, but definitely useful.
Secluded Steepe With a curve like ours extra lands are rarely needed, the card draw this provides to replace itself is actually worth the occasional tapped entry. Won't win you the game like the Sejiri Steepe possibly can, but adds more consistency.

Kabira Crossroads Tap land is bad. I actually like lands that do stuff, life gain is neat, but I’d rather play one of our many 1 drops turn one instead.

Standard Bearer Senor Lightning Rod! Focuses all of our oppenent's target spells to her. Protects our team from targeted removal while she is on the field. But that's not all she does. She also draws all of Infects Pump, and all of Aura's, erm, Auras! Really quality sideboard tech that can shut down a deck until it deals with her.

Dust to Dust Affinity Hate + card Advantage!

Circle of Protection: Red For all your Atog/Fling/Cyclops/Torch/Burn/Kiln Fiend Related Injuries. Feel free to include whichever color of circle that is the greatest common factor in your playgroup.

Extra Removal or Protection is always a plus. Keeping your forth copies of Gods Willing or a few O-Rings in the board to have an answer to just everything is never a bad idea.

I haven't been able to test these decks yet, but here are some sample lists I will be playtesting in my own playgroup.

Equip Me!


MetalCrafted!

Aggro:
Aggro is where a few cards shine better than the others. The Sunspear Shikari will be our allstar. Every first striker will be really beating up the other dudes in combat. Be wary of pump. Our 4/4 first striker is beasty and all, but even that can’t stop a groundswell. Lifelink is great from the sunspear and will drastically change the tide of a race. I would almost consider stacking all of our best equipments on this one guy for maximum life gain.
Control:
This one is one of the harder match-ups, depending on the type of control they are running. Our dudes are way better than theirs, but if they slam an Ulamog’s crusher and we don’t have an IMMIDIATE answer, it could be GG. Bring in the Mana Tithes from the SB if you have them. As well as the Gods Willing or whatever protection spells you have. Getting through removal and counter will be most of the fight here. Punch through the damage as quickly as our can and make sure they are always on the backfoot.
Combo:
This is where we shine the least. It’s really a race. You’re racing to get their life to zero while they find their combo pieces. Mulligan aggressively to make sure you have action. Bring in the mana tithes to hopefully see them tap out for their combo so you can bust it up.

1 Drops
2-3 drops

4+ drops

Golem-Skin gauntlets Myr Adapter on an equipment! Stack this on him or the Goblin and you could easily transition into a mid or late game, which the deck seems to lack. When the game is stalled and your board is empty except for your equipments, any top deck becomes a threat with these on the field.

Skullclamp A nice pump aside from the -1 toughness, worst case scenario you get to draw two cards from it. Works beautifully with our Equip Me creatures.

Basic White Weenie support package, courtesy of XBM Yosho.

Swords to Plowshares Along with the below, it is the best white removal spell in the game, possibly a tad worse since we don't want them gaining enough life to survive or stabilize.

Path to Exile Along with the above, it is the best white removal spell in the game.

Brave the Elements You have an army and can deal enough damage to win? Cast this and they can't block you anymore, GG.

dispatch A Path to Exile without a drawback. Requires Metalcraft which shouldn't be hard. Otherwise it is a nice tap effect.

Aether Vial Possible inclusion in the deck so we can spit out dudes, for free, at instant speed. Even scarier with Metalcraft on. More considerable in one build than the other.