@Tugatog: That looks sweet. Obviously I want to tinker around with it! I've always wondered what it looks like if you commit as hard to comboing this archetype as possible.
@FullMetalTezzeret: I think I agree with you about Codex Shredder. It's slightly better at G1, but makes you very GY dependent for collecting on the value, so you suffer more vs. Surgical, Leyline, or RIP. This place was quiet, but I think that's just how the holidays are!
@Everyone: If you've played the deck with an off-color like green or red, how many non-Opal sources do you feel like you need? I've noticed my moxen are off a lot, and don't love relying on them for colored mana. (Usually my issue is that I want to looting on T1.)
@The_Nobodys: Hmmmmm. That *is* an interesting walker. Kind of like a Sai that can't be Pathed, and doesn't cost mana to operate, but a little slower, but doesn't cost you material to keep advancing your material. Huh.
@The_Nobodys: What was your list like Tug's "One Sword To Rule Them All" list? You mentioned Scrap Trawlers?
I have a set of Spellskite post-board vs. BGx, so I always want to needle Liliana to protect them from an edict. As such I've tended to not want to SB Liliana into that MU to avoid the non-bo (even though she is conceptually good here, and performs very well vs. 4c Shadow which is similar).
I came to report back on playing with Lantern of Insight and Codex Shredder. To make room I tried -2 Pithing Needle, -4 Mishra's Bauble, -2 Inventor's Faire to make room for +4 Codex Shredder and + 4 Lantern.
Over time I was very impressed with the Shredders, they would mill Faithless Looting and Sword of the Meeks into the GY for card/selection advantage, and then at 5 mana I could use them to regrowth whatever I needed. There were a lot of MUs where regrowthing choice threats or answers was amazing. (Hello Tron! Would you like *another* Unmoored Ego?!) Shredder also diversified my win conditions, which feels like it's going to take some pressure off of my SB choices in a few MUs.
Over time I really didn't like Lantern. I started with 4, then went down to 3, then 2, then 1. I often ended up using it to reshuffle my deck to avoid a bad topdeck, which I guess is on par with drawing a card, but it just wasn't impressive for the space it was taking up.
I might cautiously say that Codex Shredder is better than Bauble in the Faithless Looting builds, and a great 1-drop if you're looking for good 1-drops and not satisfied with the current choices. I think I want the first three Pithing Needles first, but might play a Shredder main before Needle 4? Less clear about other builds, but it's entirely possible that so long as you are a 4x Sword build it's going to contribute excellent value.
I also confirmed the idea that playing with less than 2x Inventor's Faire tends to result in not-quite-finding your key pieces fast/often enough in highly interactive match-ups.
A few comments have led me to wonder... I see everyone keeps 4 Mishra's Bauble come thick or thin. The 75 seems short on space to have all the best answers available because of the versatility of Whir. Is it possible Bauble is actually not the best thing? Like, if a list has 4 Bauble and 0 Nihil and 0 Pyrite, is it better with 2 Bauble and one of each bomb? Or even 0 Bauble and 4 bombs?
@Systrill: Glad to hear the list performed well for you! I'll be very interested to hear how you like your variant card selections over time. Tell me where you want the Nihil Spellbomb so much? You and The Nobodys both seem very fond of them, so I worry that I'm missing something when I keep passing them over. I think vs. humans I like Grid > Tezzeret because of Gaddok Teeg, and the fact that Tez can be a really awkward draw early, where bridge actually helps you considerably.
@McGimp: I'm not sure there is a Discord for this group. Maybe @The_Nobodys knows? They've been here for 5 years...!
@All: I'm trying out Lantern-Shredder as early mana rocks/enablers on my stream tomorrow. Got a bunch of ideas borrowed from Grixis Whir or Lantern Control I want to test out in our shell over the next few days. (www.twitch.tv/tolariawest 9:30 AM - 2:30 PM PST M-T-Th-F).
I found other folks talking about their sideboard plans to be really interesting, so I thought I'd go through mine. Hopefully it's useful to somebody, or maybe folks can point out where they think I have the wrong idea?
Excellent Match-Ups - The deck has the easiest time with aggressive decks that pack disruption instead of burn due to the high redundancy of cards and combos available, and being able to fall to a low life total without consequence. Most are white and play RIP/Stony Silence post-board, so we need alternate win-cons.
Humans - Needle on Vial or Horizon Canopy. Looting can discard Sword around Meddling Mage.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -4 Pithing Needle
SB: +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +1 Torpror Orb, +3 Welding Jar
Spirits - Needle on Vial or Mausoleum Wanderer. Looting can discard Sword around Spell Queller. Whir for X > 2 if possible.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -4 Pithing Needle
SB: +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +1 Torpor Orb, +1 Grafdigger's Cage, +2 Welding Jar
Eldrazi & Taxes - Needle on Vial or Eldrazi Displacer. Keep Flickerwisp, Strangler, and Displacer tricks in mind.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -1 Krark-Clan Ironworks, -2 Pithing Needle
SB: +1 Torpor Orb, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Boggles - Needle on Horizon Canopy. Post-board keep Needle on Seal of Primordium.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere
SB: +2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Very Favorable Match-Ups These decks tend to be explosive aggro decks that have minimal reach turned off by either Witchbane Orb, Spellskite, or Pithing Needle. They can sometimes win on speed or reach, but are usually contained in a timely fashion.
Hardened Scales - Usually Needle Arcbound Ravager first, unless you have a Spellskite + Bridge or there's a compelling problem on the table. Eventually a Needle (or Witchbane Orb) will be needed on Walking Ballista. Sometimes you need to needle Steel Overseer, Inkmoth Nexus, Throne of Geth and/or Module.
SB: -4 Sword of the Meek, -4 Thopter Foundry, -1 Krark-Clan Ironworks, -1 Damping Spehre
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, +1 Phyrexian Revoker
-OR-
SB: -1 Damping Sphere, -1 Witchbane Orb, -2 Faithless Looting
SB: +4 Welding Jar
Hollow One - Needle a land.
SB: -3 Pithing Needle, -1 Witchbane Orb, (Keep one Needle for E.E.)
SB: +3 Welding Jar, +1 Grafdigger's Cage
Thing in the Ice - Needle a land.
SB: -4 Pithing Needle, -1 Witchbane Orb
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +1 Grafdigger's Cage
Favorable Match-Ups - These match-ups you won't win all the time, but will win most of the time. These are fair interactive decks that just can't deal well with a resolved Thopter-Foundry and the endless value it creates. They also lean on planeswalkers which can be easily answered with Pithing Needle.
Azorious Control - Needle Teferi, then Search for Azcanta, then Jace. Jace can be killed by Thopters where Azcanta can't. Though it's reasonable to needle an active Jace. Usually name Cryptic Command with Ego, then Detention Sphere to protect your win-cons.
SB: - 3 Ensnaring Bridge, -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 KCI, -2 Mox Opal, -1 Damping Sphere
SB: + 4 Unmoored Ego, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Tezzeret
Jund // Abzan //Golgari Midrange - Needle Liliana, unless you have an active Thopter-Sword in which case Ooze can be better.
SB: -3 Mox Opal, -2 Faithless Looting, -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +2 Tezzeet, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
Slightly Favorable Matches - These are combo decks (burn is a combo) that can beat you to the punch if you don't find the right cards really fast. I win these more often than I lose them, but I'm not surprised when I lose one of these.
Slightly Unfavorable Matchups These match-ups tend to consist of a fast clock plus disruption, either aggro-control or combo-control decks where their control aspect stops our prison aspect from checking their win cons. I win sometimes, but I lose a little more often.
4c Death's Shadow - Needle a land. You probably can't play around Stubborn Denial, but if you can do so.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -4 Pithing Needle
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid (maybe should have +1 Cage?)
Very Unfavorable Match-Ups There are some combo decks that are too hard to contain, and control decks that go deeper than us.
Krark-Clan Ironworks - Needle Engineered Explosives, then usually Inventors' Fair.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -4 Sword of the Meek, -4 Thopter Foundry, -1 Krark-Clan Ironworks, -1 Ensnaring Bridge
SB: +1 Phyrexian Revoker, +4 Unmoored Ego, +4 Welding Jar, +2 Tezzeret
Grixis Whir - Needle Engineered Explosives, then Academy Ruins and try to deck them. G1 Don't cast/use Bauble or Looting. Need Witchbane to stop Ipnu Rivulet recursion *before* they GQ your manabase out. You can also nut them with infinite thopters, but they get Bridge down pretty fast. G2 you can blindside them with Unmoored Ego for a key lock piece (Chalice or Witchbane Orb to leave them open to more Egos?) I think most of our paths to victory involve decking. They also have Tez and Grid, so they will likely Needle/Spyglass/Revoker these.
SB: -4 Faithless Looting, -1 Bottled Cloister, -4 Spellskite
SB: +4 Unmoored Ego, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Tezzeret, +1 Phyrexian Revoker
@DustyCrumbz: Awesome! Great report, and glad you'll finally get a chance to play at the PT. If at all possible, find other folks qualified for the PT and work with them to prepare. It's a very hard event to prepare for alone, but also a lot of the people who may want to help you and aren't qualified often aren't capable of helping.
@Al: Personally I've chosen to play all Spellskites main > Welding Jar. As everyone points out, Jar is a great SB answer to destroy effects, but there aren't much of that pre-board. Skite improves a ton of match-ups (and it blocks to buy you time!) Our builds are a little different, but this might be good for you too?
@Jace: Sam is currently just a house guest, though I think he's about to stay for another month, so getting *more* like a room mate...
@Draftsquare: Thanks. I was *shocked* by not being able to retarget the Kholghan's Command. Sam and I talked about it, and he polled a bunch of players, and we've firmly established 1) it's a MODO bug, 2) lots of players think it works like electrolyze, 3) judges all agree you can retarget each instance of the word target.
I found a solution to the Tron match-up. My deck dedicates a lot of resources to do it, but they are good cards elsewhere, so it's not absurd. I lose around 70% of game 1s, and am not sure how many G2s I lose, but I'm 4-0 in post-board games so far with this plan and it feels very good. (I even won a game after massively punting twice.)
The key parts is that I have 4 Unmoored Ego, 4 Pithing Needle, 4 Spellskite, 4 Welding Jar, 1 Damping Sphere, and 4 Whir. With these cards I attack their gameplan:
1) Their deck is about unfair mana, so I make them play fair mana. I will Unmoored Ego for a tron piece not in play, or Whir for a Damping Sphere.
2) At 5 mana they can Oblivion Stone, at 7 they can Karn, and at 8 they can Ugin. I will (preferably) Pithing Needle or (if needed) Unmoored Ego them off of this threat before they can do it.
3) At this point the game becomes about them getting to Ulamog, and it is critical to have either two Spellskites in play or (better) Unmoored Ego them for Ulamog before they can cast the first one. (And this is where the plan falls apart G1. You lack the tools to lock them because of Ulamog, so you need to have won with Thopter-Sword by here.)
4) They probably have a Worldbreaker, but I find you probably have a Spellskite around for this.
Sometimes you do situational things. I've Unmoored Ego on Nature's Claim when they've played 0 so far and I don't have a Jar or Skite to protect my prison pieces. I've Pithing Needled map when I didn't have a Sphere, etc. But mostly this is the roadmap to victory.
I make room for all of this by cutting out Thopter-Sword, and KCI, and just bringing in Tezzeret, AoB as my win-condition. Tezzeret only takes two slots, and helps build your prison when he's not winning outright.
I usually leave in around 3 bridges. I believe they cut Wurmcoil after seeing all the Thopters and bridges, but you can't rely on that. I don't want to Whir for one, but I don't need one very early either.
Obviously, everyone else will have different tools, but I am glad to report on finding a solution that does not involve playing Chalice of the Void.
@TheNobodys: Thanks so much for posting your SB guide. I'd never even considered taking my Opals out in any match, but it makes a ton of sense! A few match-ups I have some questions about:
Storm: What do you name with Ego? I've found their endgame tends to be to storm into Echoing Truth/Wipe Away, and you can lose if you don't have a way to deal with them getting rid of your Damping Sphere. My solution has been a 2nd Sphere, but I suspect that's overkill?
KCI: What's your fundamental game plan? G2/3 I usually Pithing Needle E.E., then Inventor's Fair (if KCI/Spine is still a possibility). My next artifact is usually Damping Sphere to slow them down (do you get Phyrexian Revoker first G2/G3?) Then I generally just try to lock it down with Welding Jars and Spellskites. Eventually I find Tez or Grid for the win. It's very good when I get rid of KCI, but if I don't find a Revoker or Ego for KCI it feels really rough. Also, sometimes even when I have the Whir or Ego they have the counter. I consider this to be my worst MU by a lot, so I wonder what's your secret? (I board out my full Thopter-Sword to make room for SB cards by playing win-cons that are single cards). Maybe this is a place where your Inquisitions and Spellbombs shine and my choices are costing me here, but curious to see if maybe I'm doing/thinking about the MU wrong.
Control: What are your thoughts/plans vs. control?
10-0 today with the revised version of Thopter-Bridge. Let's not kid ourselves, it's a small sample size so the record doesn't mean a lot. But it does feel good!
I removed the Spellskite in the main to put in a Bottled Cloister. JacetotheFace joined me on my stream and kept pointing out cases where it would be useful, and I realized that Ironworks just wasn't sufficient for emptying my hands quickly for Bridge when there were too many lands, and Cloister is just perfect for that. Not to mention sometimes you would like to draw two cards a turn, especially post-board when you're looking for non-artifact cards. Spellskite was supposed to help with Infect, but it turns out they could just beat me down with 1/1s before I emptied my hand, so it didn't quite matter I could turn off most of their pump spells.
I'm still looking for help figuring out what to do post-board vs. Tron, KCI, and control decks with either white hate enchantments or Blood Moon. I'm pretty locked in on 1 Grafdigger's Cage, 1 Torpor Orb, 4 Spellskite, but everything else is negotiable! (Systrill made some comments on stream that convinced me I'd been under-utilizing Torpor Orb, and it's very good despite the non-bo with Thopter-Sword, since the decks it is good against also turn off your combo with enchantments.) The 2nd Damping Sphere is for Storm specifrically, but is good vs. several other decks and I could part with it if I had a plan that replaced its utility there. Tezzeret Agent of Bolas and Girapur Aether Grid are there to be alternate win-cons when Thopter-Sword is turned off, and additional threats vs. control. Unmoored Ego seems like the best Tron-killer (get a Tron land early, take out Ulamog and Worldbreaker later), and seems to have good value against KCI, Amulet Titan, Scapeshift, and other decks dependent on a single spell. But, please, tell me what you'd do here? I've got 8 slots pretty open to fix just 3 match-ups!
Speaking of Unmoored Ego, who has experience with it? Which matches do you like it? When you play it in each match, what do you usually name? For some decks it's obvious, but like, what do you name vs. Storm? Or UW control? Or Blood Moon control?
@dustycrumbz: I do like not over-reacting. I've actually found that vs. UW a Thopter Foundry is fine even with RIP in play. You can just make a few thopters and beat down with them. Eventually they start using removal on them because they have no choice. You have plenty of artifacts that are semi-dead here, so plenty of fuel to keep up gentle pressure.
@dusty: I think Azcanta and Tezzeret fill very similar roles. They are both slower cards that shine in match-ups where you're facing discard or counters. Tezzeret's main advantage is that he is an alternate win-con, and TBH I think he's both faster and more versaitle. I guess Azcanta dodges countermagic a little better, and there are fewer answers to it once it's on the board?
@Dustycrumbz: I read that MD RIP was very successful in the MOCS for UW decks, so I think you're right that this will be a trend on the rise. I think having 1 copy of a Planeswalker doesn't hurt you much, esp. if you have Bottled Cloister. When I played with Serum Visions I didn't want more than 1 since drawing an early copy was pretty blank. Once I started playing with Faithless Looting it seemed I could go up to 2 MD copies comfortably.
@TheNobodys: Man, being able to tutor up an uncounterable RIP disenchant G1 sounds awesome. In my testing I've found even with 4 Whir, 4 Looting, 4 Foundry, 4 Sword, and 2 Inventors' Fair I can go 30 cards deep and sometimes not find one of my combo pieces. I'm very seriously considering adding the 1s Muddle to my own 75 because of this.
@FullMetalTezzeret: I think I agree with you about Codex Shredder. It's slightly better at G1, but makes you very GY dependent for collecting on the value, so you suffer more vs. Surgical, Leyline, or RIP. This place was quiet, but I think that's just how the holidays are!
@Everyone: If you've played the deck with an off-color like green or red, how many non-Opal sources do you feel like you need? I've noticed my moxen are off a lot, and don't love relying on them for colored mana. (Usually my issue is that I want to looting on T1.)
@The_Nobodys: Hmmmmm. That *is* an interesting walker. Kind of like a Sai that can't be Pathed, and doesn't cost mana to operate, but a little slower, but doesn't cost you material to keep advancing your material. Huh.
@The_Nobodys: What was your list like Tug's "One Sword To Rule Them All" list? You mentioned Scrap Trawlers?
Over time I was very impressed with the Shredders, they would mill Faithless Looting and Sword of the Meeks into the GY for card/selection advantage, and then at 5 mana I could use them to regrowth whatever I needed. There were a lot of MUs where regrowthing choice threats or answers was amazing. (Hello Tron! Would you like *another* Unmoored Ego?!) Shredder also diversified my win conditions, which feels like it's going to take some pressure off of my SB choices in a few MUs.
Over time I really didn't like Lantern. I started with 4, then went down to 3, then 2, then 1. I often ended up using it to reshuffle my deck to avoid a bad topdeck, which I guess is on par with drawing a card, but it just wasn't impressive for the space it was taking up.
I might cautiously say that Codex Shredder is better than Bauble in the Faithless Looting builds, and a great 1-drop if you're looking for good 1-drops and not satisfied with the current choices. I think I want the first three Pithing Needles first, but might play a Shredder main before Needle 4? Less clear about other builds, but it's entirely possible that so long as you are a 4x Sword build it's going to contribute excellent value.
I also confirmed the idea that playing with less than 2x Inventor's Faire tends to result in not-quite-finding your key pieces fast/often enough in highly interactive match-ups.
@McGimp: I'm not sure there is a Discord for this group. Maybe @The_Nobodys knows? They've been here for 5 years...!
@All: I'm trying out Lantern-Shredder as early mana rocks/enablers on my stream tomorrow. Got a bunch of ideas borrowed from Grixis Whir or Lantern Control I want to test out in our shell over the next few days. (www.twitch.tv/tolariawest 9:30 AM - 2:30 PM PST M-T-Th-F).
2 Island
2 Inventors' Fair
4 Glimmervoid
4 Spire of Industry
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Darkslick Shores
Creatures
4 Spellskite
Spells
4 Faithless Looting
4 Whir of Invention
4 Mox Opal
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Pithing Needle
4 Sword of the Meek
4 Thopter Foundry
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Damping Sphere
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Krark-Clain Ironworks
1 Bottled Cloister
4 Welding Jar
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Torpor Orb
1 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Unmoored Ego
Excellent Match-Ups - The deck has the easiest time with aggressive decks that pack disruption instead of burn due to the high redundancy of cards and combos available, and being able to fall to a low life total without consequence. Most are white and play RIP/Stony Silence post-board, so we need alternate win-cons.
Humans - Needle on Vial or Horizon Canopy. Looting can discard Sword around Meddling Mage.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -4 Pithing Needle
SB: +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +1 Torpror Orb, +3 Welding Jar
Spirits - Needle on Vial or Mausoleum Wanderer. Looting can discard Sword around Spell Queller. Whir for X > 2 if possible.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -4 Pithing Needle
SB: +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +1 Torpor Orb, +1 Grafdigger's Cage, +2 Welding Jar
Eldrazi & Taxes - Needle on Vial or Eldrazi Displacer. Keep Flickerwisp, Strangler, and Displacer tricks in mind.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -1 Krark-Clan Ironworks, -2 Pithing Needle
SB: +1 Torpor Orb, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Boggles - Needle on Horizon Canopy. Post-board keep Needle on Seal of Primordium.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere
SB: +2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Very Favorable Match-Ups These decks tend to be explosive aggro decks that have minimal reach turned off by either Witchbane Orb, Spellskite, or Pithing Needle. They can sometimes win on speed or reach, but are usually contained in a timely fashion.
Hardened Scales - Usually Needle Arcbound Ravager first, unless you have a Spellskite + Bridge or there's a compelling problem on the table. Eventually a Needle (or Witchbane Orb) will be needed on Walking Ballista. Sometimes you need to needle Steel Overseer, Inkmoth Nexus, Throne of Geth and/or Module.
SB: -4 Sword of the Meek, -4 Thopter Foundry, -1 Krark-Clan Ironworks, -1 Damping Spehre
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, +1 Phyrexian Revoker
-OR-
SB: -1 Damping Sphere, -1 Witchbane Orb, -2 Faithless Looting
SB: +4 Welding Jar
Hollow One - Needle a land.
SB: -3 Pithing Needle, -1 Witchbane Orb, (Keep one Needle for E.E.)
SB: +3 Welding Jar, +1 Grafdigger's Cage
Thing in the Ice - Needle a land.
SB: -4 Pithing Needle, -1 Witchbane Orb
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +1 Grafdigger's Cage
Reveler - Needle a land.
SB: -4 Pithing Needle
SB: +2 Welding Jar, +1 Grafdigger's Cage, +1 Torpor Orb
Dredge - Needle Shriekhorn or Wooded Foothills.
SB: -4 Pithing Needle, -1 Witchbane Orb
SB: +1 Grafdigger's Cage, +4 Welding Jar
Favorable Match-Ups - These match-ups you won't win all the time, but will win most of the time. These are fair interactive decks that just can't deal well with a resolved Thopter-Foundry and the endless value it creates. They also lean on planeswalkers which can be easily answered with Pithing Needle.
Azorious Control - Needle Teferi, then Search for Azcanta, then Jace. Jace can be killed by Thopters where Azcanta can't. Though it's reasonable to needle an active Jace. Usually name Cryptic Command with Ego, then Detention Sphere to protect your win-cons.
SB: - 3 Ensnaring Bridge, -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 KCI, -2 Mox Opal, -1 Damping Sphere
SB: + 4 Unmoored Ego, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Tezzeret
Jund // Abzan //Golgari Midrange - Needle Liliana, unless you have an active Thopter-Sword in which case Ooze can be better.
SB: -3 Mox Opal, -2 Faithless Looting, -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +2 Tezzeet, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
Slightly Favorable Matches - These are combo decks (burn is a combo) that can beat you to the punch if you don't find the right cards really fast. I win these more often than I lose them, but I'm not surprised when I lose one of these.
Infect - Needle Inkmoth Nexus, Pendelhaven, or Horizon Canopy.
SB: -1 Damping Sphere, -1 Witchbane Orb, -4 Pithing Needle
SB +4 Welding Jar, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
Burn - Needle Arid Mesa
SB: -4 Pithing Needle, -1 Damping Sphere
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +1 Phyrexian Revoker
Titanshift - Needle Sakura-Tribe Elder or a land.
SB: -4 Pithing Needle, -1 Damping Sphere, -4 Sword of the Meek, -4 Thopter Foundry, -1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
SB: +4 Unmoored Ego, +4 Welding Jar, +1 Torpor Orb, +1 Grafdigger's Cage, +2 Tezzeret, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
Tron - Needle Oblivion Stone or Karn first. Eventually need Ballista and Ugin.
SB: -4 Thopter Foundry, -4 Sword of the Meek, -1 KCI, -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Ensnaring Bridge
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +4 Unmoored Ego, +2 Tezzeret, +1 Phyrexian Revoker
Storm - Needle Scalding Tarn.
SB: -4 Sword of the Meek, -4 Thopter Foundry, -1 KCI, -4 Needle
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +2 Grid, +2 Tezzeret, +4 Unmoored Ego, +1 Grafdigger's Cage
Slightly Unfavorable Matchups These match-ups tend to consist of a fast clock plus disruption, either aggro-control or combo-control decks where their control aspect stops our prison aspect from checking their win cons. I win sometimes, but I lose a little more often.
4c Death's Shadow - Needle a land. You probably can't play around Stubborn Denial, but if you can do so.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Damping Sphere, -4 Pithing Needle
SB: +4 Welding Jar, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid (maybe should have +1 Cage?)
Very Unfavorable Match-Ups There are some combo decks that are too hard to contain, and control decks that go deeper than us.
Krark-Clan Ironworks - Needle Engineered Explosives, then usually Inventors' Fair.
SB: -1 Witchbane Orb, -4 Sword of the Meek, -4 Thopter Foundry, -1 Krark-Clan Ironworks, -1 Ensnaring Bridge
SB: +1 Phyrexian Revoker, +4 Unmoored Ego, +4 Welding Jar, +2 Tezzeret
Grixis Whir - Needle Engineered Explosives, then Academy Ruins and try to deck them. G1 Don't cast/use Bauble or Looting. Need Witchbane to stop Ipnu Rivulet recursion *before* they GQ your manabase out. You can also nut them with infinite thopters, but they get Bridge down pretty fast. G2 you can blindside them with Unmoored Ego for a key lock piece (Chalice or Witchbane Orb to leave them open to more Egos?) I think most of our paths to victory involve decking. They also have Tez and Grid, so they will likely Needle/Spyglass/Revoker these.
SB: -4 Faithless Looting, -1 Bottled Cloister, -4 Spellskite
SB: +4 Unmoored Ego, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Tezzeret, +1 Phyrexian Revoker
@Draftsquare: Thanks. I was *shocked* by not being able to retarget the Kholghan's Command. Sam and I talked about it, and he polled a bunch of players, and we've firmly established 1) it's a MODO bug, 2) lots of players think it works like electrolyze, 3) judges all agree you can retarget each instance of the word target.
The key parts is that I have 4 Unmoored Ego, 4 Pithing Needle, 4 Spellskite, 4 Welding Jar, 1 Damping Sphere, and 4 Whir. With these cards I attack their gameplan:
1) Their deck is about unfair mana, so I make them play fair mana. I will Unmoored Ego for a tron piece not in play, or Whir for a Damping Sphere.
2) At 5 mana they can Oblivion Stone, at 7 they can Karn, and at 8 they can Ugin. I will (preferably) Pithing Needle or (if needed) Unmoored Ego them off of this threat before they can do it.
3) At this point the game becomes about them getting to Ulamog, and it is critical to have either two Spellskites in play or (better) Unmoored Ego them for Ulamog before they can cast the first one. (And this is where the plan falls apart G1. You lack the tools to lock them because of Ulamog, so you need to have won with Thopter-Sword by here.)
4) They probably have a Worldbreaker, but I find you probably have a Spellskite around for this.
Sometimes you do situational things. I've Unmoored Ego on Nature's Claim when they've played 0 so far and I don't have a Jar or Skite to protect my prison pieces. I've Pithing Needled map when I didn't have a Sphere, etc. But mostly this is the roadmap to victory.
I make room for all of this by cutting out Thopter-Sword, and KCI, and just bringing in Tezzeret, AoB as my win-condition. Tezzeret only takes two slots, and helps build your prison when he's not winning outright.
I usually leave in around 3 bridges. I believe they cut Wurmcoil after seeing all the Thopters and bridges, but you can't rely on that. I don't want to Whir for one, but I don't need one very early either.
Obviously, everyone else will have different tools, but I am glad to report on finding a solution that does not involve playing Chalice of the Void.
Storm: What do you name with Ego? I've found their endgame tends to be to storm into Echoing Truth/Wipe Away, and you can lose if you don't have a way to deal with them getting rid of your Damping Sphere. My solution has been a 2nd Sphere, but I suspect that's overkill?
KCI: What's your fundamental game plan? G2/3 I usually Pithing Needle E.E., then Inventor's Fair (if KCI/Spine is still a possibility). My next artifact is usually Damping Sphere to slow them down (do you get Phyrexian Revoker first G2/G3?) Then I generally just try to lock it down with Welding Jars and Spellskites. Eventually I find Tez or Grid for the win. It's very good when I get rid of KCI, but if I don't find a Revoker or Ego for KCI it feels really rough. Also, sometimes even when I have the Whir or Ego they have the counter. I consider this to be my worst MU by a lot, so I wonder what's your secret? (I board out my full Thopter-Sword to make room for SB cards by playing win-cons that are single cards). Maybe this is a place where your Inquisitions and Spellbombs shine and my choices are costing me here, but curious to see if maybe I'm doing/thinking about the MU wrong.
Control: What are your thoughts/plans vs. control?
I removed the Spellskite in the main to put in a Bottled Cloister. JacetotheFace joined me on my stream and kept pointing out cases where it would be useful, and I realized that Ironworks just wasn't sufficient for emptying my hands quickly for Bridge when there were too many lands, and Cloister is just perfect for that. Not to mention sometimes you would like to draw two cards a turn, especially post-board when you're looking for non-artifact cards. Spellskite was supposed to help with Infect, but it turns out they could just beat me down with 1/1s before I emptied my hand, so it didn't quite matter I could turn off most of their pump spells.
I'm still looking for help figuring out what to do post-board vs. Tron, KCI, and control decks with either white hate enchantments or Blood Moon. I'm pretty locked in on 1 Grafdigger's Cage, 1 Torpor Orb, 4 Spellskite, but everything else is negotiable! (Systrill made some comments on stream that convinced me I'd been under-utilizing Torpor Orb, and it's very good despite the non-bo with Thopter-Sword, since the decks it is good against also turn off your combo with enchantments.) The 2nd Damping Sphere is for Storm specifrically, but is good vs. several other decks and I could part with it if I had a plan that replaced its utility there. Tezzeret Agent of Bolas and Girapur Aether Grid are there to be alternate win-cons when Thopter-Sword is turned off, and additional threats vs. control. Unmoored Ego seems like the best Tron-killer (get a Tron land early, take out Ulamog and Worldbreaker later), and seems to have good value against KCI, Amulet Titan, Scapeshift, and other decks dependent on a single spell. But, please, tell me what you'd do here? I've got 8 slots pretty open to fix just 3 match-ups!
Speaking of Unmoored Ego, who has experience with it? Which matches do you like it? When you play it in each match, what do you usually name? For some decks it's obvious, but like, what do you name vs. Storm? Or UW control? Or Blood Moon control?
2 Island
2 Inventors' Fair
4 Spire of Industry
4 Glimmervoid
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Spirebluff Canal
Spells
4 Faithless Looting
4 Whir of Invention
Artifacts
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
4 Welding Jar
4 Pithing Needle
1 Damping Sphere
4 Sword of the Meek
4 Thopter Foundry
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Bottled Cloister
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Damping Sphere
4 Spellskite
1 Torpor Orb
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
4 Unmoored Ego
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
@TheNobodys: Man, being able to tutor up an uncounterable RIP disenchant G1 sounds awesome. In my testing I've found even with 4 Whir, 4 Looting, 4 Foundry, 4 Sword, and 2 Inventors' Fair I can go 30 cards deep and sometimes not find one of my combo pieces. I'm very seriously considering adding the 1s Muddle to my own 75 because of this.