General How to execute a minimalist Artifact theme

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Its a lot easier at low power because of red card quality/draw spells, spell bombs/eggs, and salvagers. You get a lot of control elements from white and red, as well as a good selection of creatures both good at attacking and blocking. Also, eternal dragon.

No idea how you could translate that at higher power though. It would be nice to have a solid artifact based control, midrange or aggro control strategy.


Sample Cog deck

WR cogs from CubeTutor.com












I've done a similar deck in U/W (didn't write down the rest of the mana base)

Heroic Cogs










Recuring voyager staff with salvagers is an amazing feeling. I was able to use it to blank an opposing artifact decks jor kadeen, the prevailer

I would imagine this would be represented in a higher power format via goblin welder based shenanigans?
 
I've been really gunning for this theme to work. Here's how it looks currently.

Colorless Non-creature Artifacts



Artifact Creatures



plus a quad squad of Myr Servitor

Colored Artifacts (or cards which create artifacts)



Utility Land Draft Artifacts



Other Cards That Reference Artifacts



plus Goblin Welder and Grand Architect as double squads (I do run an aggressive blue theme)

Here are some artifacts that I have been considering recently.



Non-artifacts



I would like to point out that I do run a black devotion theme, and phylactery counters stay on assembly workers even after they've turned back into a land.

Which ones are worth trying to work in? Maybe double-up on something?

Perhaps a Tolarian Academy for the ULD?
 

CML

Contributor
what big dumb idiots do you like?



just battlesphere. i don't care much for colorless cards. they're either too weak or everyone wants them. a boring complaint, not original, i know, but i run up against it every time i try to add more artifacts. no one would ever pass a wurmcoil and no one would ever take a steel hellkite (for a given environment) and this is just too much to overcome to justify playing them.

on the other hand i run phyrexian metamorph which i guess is the best first pick in my cube? it's REALLY good
 
I like doom engine over soul, hellkite is fine, battle ball is good, never found duplicant to be worth it

I pretty much agree with this except battle ball is a bit gigantic as a reanimate target for my tastes (and also semi-resilient to removal since it leaves four guys behind) and duplicant is a desirable artifact to recur over and over.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
I pretty much agree with this except battle ball is a bit gigantic as a reanimate target for my tastes (and also semi-resilient to removal since it leaves four guys behind) and duplicant is a desirable artifact to recur over and over.

That's fair, I don't really have reanimator in my list.
RE: Duplicant, I just found that he wasn't appreciably better than nekkrataal (even considering the colorlessness) to warrent the 2 extra mana. Sure you could play it in green, but I always found it was better to play better green cards rather than weak colorless ones
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
That's fair, I don't really have reanimator in my list.
RE: Duplicant, I just found that he wasn't appreciably better than nekkrataal (even considering the colorlessness) to warrent the 2 extra mana. Sure you could play it in green, but I always found it was better to play better green cards rather than weak colorless ones

Thanks guys, you convinced me to cut Duplicant. In fact, I am going to cut a lot of artifacts. I had to keep up a decent count because I supported Esper artifact, but since I cut Esper and all the other shenanigans, I guess I might as well cut both suboptimal and must-kill artifacts and just keep the sweet stuff (Bonesplitter, Perilous Myr, Smokestack, mana rocks, stuff like that). This also lets me cut the worst necessary 3-drop in red!



Buh-bye!

Could I still get away with Mimic Vat though? That's pretty close to must-kill...
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Thanks guys, you convinced me to cut Duplicant. In fact, I am going to cut a lot of artifacts. I had to keep up a decent count because I supported Esper artifact, but since I cut Esper and all the other shenanigans, I guess I might as well cut both suboptimal and must-kill artifacts and just keep the sweet stuff (Bonesplitter, Perilous Myr, Smokestack, mana rocks, stuff like that). This also lets me cut the worst necessary 3-drop in red!



Buh-bye!

Could I still get away with Mimic Vat though? That's pretty close to must-kill...

I've found mimic vat a nice reward for control decks, and totally manageable. But then, my enviornment is pretty fast.
I do love the adorable little graveyard hate it does though :p Killing something like TukTuk, Throwing him on the vat and then swapping whats on the vat later so his dies trigger never goes off is super cute
 

CML

Contributor
Thanks guys, you convinced me to cut Duplicant. In fact, I am going to cut a lot of artifacts. I had to keep up a decent count because I supported Esper artifact, but since I cut Esper and all the other shenanigans, I guess I might as well cut both suboptimal and must-kill artifacts and just keep the sweet stuff (Bonesplitter, Perilous Myr, Smokestack, mana rocks, stuff like that). This also lets me cut the worst necessary 3-drop in red!



Buh-bye!

Could I still get away with Mimic Vat though? That's pretty close to must-kill...


mimic vat is surprisingly far from must-kill, it's kind of weak in higher-power environments and in lower-power ones it will either be lots of fun or completely miserable. cards like manic vandal (a strong maindeckable card in power cube!) go a long way to helping make it lots of fun.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
mimic vat is surprisingly far from must-kill, it's kind of weak in higher-power environments and in lower-power ones it will either be lots of fun or completely miserable. cards like manic vandal (a strong maindeckable card in power cube!) go a long way to helping make it lots of fun.
Now I'm conflicted :(
 
Here's the thing about Manic Vandal. Look at him, crushing that glassware without a care in the world. Look at his fabulous hair and moustache. Look at how it's fun for him to crush glassware and he doesn't need another reason.
Now ask yourself... Can I really break up with this handsome fella?
 

CML

Contributor
[His] forceful psychological melodrama now became intelligible: it was about something, about the decline of Western civilization. Apparently, were it to go on being a play about a handsome brute named Manic Vandal and a faded mangy belle named Jhoira, it would not be manageable.
 
Array and the two chromatics already are in my cube, thanks for reminding. :D
Walker looks quite strong? And is Scroll good enough?
 
Nihil Spellbomb is not the kind of hate I want in my cube as it is hurting a lot of decks working with fair graveyard strategies.
But I LOVE Implement of Improvement, and I'm going to switch it in for Renewed Faith. :) thanks for pointing that one out!
 

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
[His] forceful psychological melodrama now became intelligible: it was about something, about the decline of Western civilization. Apparently, were it to go on being a play about a handsome brute named Manic Vandal and a faded mangy belle named Jhoira, it would not be manageable.

What is this?
 
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