I guess the gearhulks do add a lot of game to that idea. I dig it! Let us know the package you arrive at. It definitely makes Goblin Welder & daretti more fun with Sneak Attack and Feldon of the third path.
General How to execute a minimalist Artifact theme
- Thread starter FlowerSunRain
- Start date
I guess the gearhulks do add a lot of game to that idea. I dig it! Let us know the package you arrive at. It definitely makes Goblin Welder & daretti more fun with Sneak Attack and Feldon of the third path.
Good idea. Do you do that in red too for Daretti, Scrap Savant and Goblin Welder? Does black still have regular creature reanimation? What other artifacts do you run as reanimation targets?
Dom Harvey
Contributor
The only thing holding me back from the Welder deck is a lack of good targets - the big artifact creatures are either too strong for me (Wurmcoil Engine, Sundering Titan) or too weak (Triskelion etc). Maybe the answer is non-creature artifacts but there aren't many of those either. God-Pharaoh's Gift?
Try non-creature options.
T1: Goblin Welder
T2: Faithless looting discard Tangle Wire or Gilded Lotus, play Chromatic star, Weld into play wire or lotus.
Tangle Wire with Welder can get filthy. So can Winter Orb. If those cards are too powerful for what you are running, what about Memory Jar?
Welder is unreasonably powerful for a one drop.
T1: Goblin Welder
T2: Faithless looting discard Tangle Wire or Gilded Lotus, play Chromatic star, Weld into play wire or lotus.
Tangle Wire with Welder can get filthy. So can Winter Orb. If those cards are too powerful for what you are running, what about Memory Jar?
Welder is unreasonably powerful for a one drop.
Going back to this thread, I'm switching to a paradigm of minimalist/incidental archetypes, and the best payoff I've found for this archetype is:
It's colorless, so any deck can run it leaving the colors open. It can therefore go in WR aggro/artifacts as well as UB control/artifacts. By itself, it's a bad equipment but still does _something_. With one more artifact it's quite good. With 2+ other artifacts it's strong.
Another one I'm going to try is:
This is a threshold design. It's useless without another artifact. Having one artifact is enough to achieve most of its potential, and with more it gets better but not by a lot. That's exactly the sort of card I'm looking for as a build-around.
Other options I'm thinking of but still skeptical about:
It's colorless, so any deck can run it leaving the colors open. It can therefore go in WR aggro/artifacts as well as UB control/artifacts. By itself, it's a bad equipment but still does _something_. With one more artifact it's quite good. With 2+ other artifacts it's strong.
Another one I'm going to try is:
This is a threshold design. It's useless without another artifact. Having one artifact is enough to achieve most of its potential, and with more it gets better but not by a lot. That's exactly the sort of card I'm looking for as a build-around.
Other options I'm thinking of but still skeptical about:
Cranial Plating has been a clutch addition for my artifact archetypes.
Opposite of minimalist, but this is also a rad incentive/buildaround:
Opposite of minimalist, but this is also a rad incentive/buildaround:
I just thought, that I figured out, how I wanna execute my minimalsit artifact theme, but then Kirblinx made me rethink it with his ode to Goblin Welder 
Now I wonder, if a deck, that abuses cheap artifacts taht get sacced and artifact recursion good be a nice way to make this more interesting than just midrange with artifacts.
You would still play cards like Etched Champion or Cranial Plating, which don't care if you have creatures or noncreature-artifacts, but you would not play stuff like Steel Overseer I suppose.
Interesting artifact recursion:
The the best thing would probably be artifacts that put themselves into your graveyard, but one's that are good enough to be fine in other decks. I'm thinking stuff like:
Could something like this be viable? Or is it too parasitic to include in a cube, that is not over 25% artifacts?
Now I wonder, if a deck, that abuses cheap artifacts taht get sacced and artifact recursion good be a nice way to make this more interesting than just midrange with artifacts.
You would still play cards like Etched Champion or Cranial Plating, which don't care if you have creatures or noncreature-artifacts, but you would not play stuff like Steel Overseer I suppose.
Interesting artifact recursion:
The the best thing would probably be artifacts that put themselves into your graveyard, but one's that are good enough to be fine in other decks. I'm thinking stuff like:
Could something like this be viable? Or is it too parasitic to include in a cube, that is not over 25% artifacts?
I don't know if an archetype can be built entirely with cheap-ish artifacts that go to the GY, but I do know that the "baubles" are a really solid low-end basis for an artifact deck to function. Lots of them are also good in a variety of decks that want color fixing/smoothing, cantrips, etc.
I think one of Grillo's penny cubes had some sort of artifact thing going on involving cheap artifacts. I seem to remember this card was good:
For artifact "reanimator", specifically the Goblin Welder variety, I've found the cheap artifacts that stick around to be slightly better. They provide the on-board fuel the deck needs in order to sacrifice for the top-end artifacts in the yard. Cards like
and so on. mana rocks are good for this too, of course.
Very important card imo if you are trying to use baubles in your artifact archetype:
I think one of Grillo's penny cubes had some sort of artifact thing going on involving cheap artifacts. I seem to remember this card was good:
For artifact "reanimator", specifically the Goblin Welder variety, I've found the cheap artifacts that stick around to be slightly better. They provide the on-board fuel the deck needs in order to sacrifice for the top-end artifacts in the yard. Cards like
and so on. mana rocks are good for this too, of course.
Very important card imo if you are trying to use baubles in your artifact archetype:
It would not be a complete strategy, more some kind of unique feature to that archetype. What Insco and Grillo are running looks pretty cool.
But isn't Auriok Salvagers super extremely narrow? It's not even good in every white artifact deck.
And has anyone testet these cards before and can report on them as well?:
But isn't Auriok Salvagers super extremely narrow? It's not even good in every white artifact deck.
And has anyone testet these cards before and can report on them as well?:
No experience with those, but to add to a previous card brought up. Scrap Trawler has been great for me.
There's also
and
Switching out
for
is an easy enough sub for most cubes.
There's also
and
Switching out
for
is an easy enough sub for most cubes.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
A really good one for this theme that's easily missed is
I play it in my cube, and it has been sweet multiple times, with, among others, Makeshift Munitions
I play it in my cube, and it has been sweet multiple times, with, among others, Makeshift Munitions
How do you go infinite with Teshar?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
It's a brain melting combo anyway Seth even botches the combo in the first match he assembles it
Seth even botches the combo in the first match he assembles it I sat down last evening with my cube co-manager and we proxied up some cards to test. Here is what I can report in terms of a minimalist artifact theme:
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain: She was a removal magnet. In a deck with 12+ artifacts and maybe an opportunity to recur them, she seems to be able to draw as much as an Archivist, but she's also a 3/3 and doesn't have to tap for the draw.
Marionette Master: The best sursprise of the evening. Won a game in a Grixis artifact deck where black was able to recur him with Phyrexian Reclamation. One of it's modes was always a good play.
Hanna, Ship's Navigator: Also a pleasant surprise. She is kinda slow, but if you can stabilize, she can turn into a value machine. Recurred some Serrated Arrows two times to win a grindy game in a Jeskai artifact deck.
Urza's Bauble: Not really great. My buddy said, this might be a better card for constructed and not really a thing for a minimalistic thing.
Scrap Trawler: Got played once and was a 3/2 that traded and got back a Spellbomb. That's already decent but we both expect him to be capable of more. High hopes here.
Darksteel Juggernaut: Was really great in one game, not impactful in another. Also high hopes but hard to tell.
Dispeller's Capsule, Aether Spellbomb, Executioner's Capsule, Pyrite Spellbomb, Chromatic Sphere: Seems like going for these cheap utility artifacts is a nice way to integrate a theme like this.
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain: She was a removal magnet. In a deck with 12+ artifacts and maybe an opportunity to recur them, she seems to be able to draw as much as an Archivist, but she's also a 3/3 and doesn't have to tap for the draw.
Marionette Master: The best sursprise of the evening. Won a game in a Grixis artifact deck where black was able to recur him with Phyrexian Reclamation. One of it's modes was always a good play.
Hanna, Ship's Navigator: Also a pleasant surprise. She is kinda slow, but if you can stabilize, she can turn into a value machine. Recurred some Serrated Arrows two times to win a grindy game in a Jeskai artifact deck.
Urza's Bauble: Not really great. My buddy said, this might be a better card for constructed and not really a thing for a minimalistic thing.
Scrap Trawler: Got played once and was a 3/2 that traded and got back a Spellbomb. That's already decent but we both expect him to be capable of more. High hopes here.
Darksteel Juggernaut: Was really great in one game, not impactful in another. Also high hopes but hard to tell.
Dispeller's Capsule, Aether Spellbomb, Executioner's Capsule, Pyrite Spellbomb, Chromatic Sphere: Seems like going for these cheap utility artifacts is a nice way to integrate a theme like this.