After sooooo many playtests, I believe I've finally broken through with the "Fabricate" mechanic.
Here is a little deck tech with each card's usage and performance thus far.
But first thing's first: Our Objective. Two Sentences explaining what we want to do in every game and our win conditions.
"Quickly develop a field through low drop creatures to set up for a combat heavy mid-endgame. Use Zulaport Cutthroat and/or Marionette Master to overwhelm our opponents with unpreventable life loss, use Angel of Invention in combination with Selfless Spirit to overrun our opponent with an immortal mechanical army, or simply flip
Westvale Abbey
for both drains and a huge board threat."Long-winded, I know.
To really maximize the potential of this possibly broken mechanic, we first have to see what creatures we can use to get it online. After playtesting, I noticed "Fabricate 1" creatures are worthless. Next.
Now, at "Fabricate 2" we see some interesting things start to happen.
Weaponcraft Enthusiast
- Our smaller, yet always reliable first fabricate creature. Truly a hero when it comes to establishing early board state. A cheap, easy 3 body card that can be dual cast on turn 6 and put 10 creatures on the field in the blink of an eye with Panharmonicon. Or just be thrown out on turn three as a way to chump with servos and flicker once you have Pan out. Also gives bodies for Syndicate Trafficker or drains with Zulaport Cutthroat in early game. He's proven to always be a good choice for three mana. A full playset, for sure.
Angel of Invention - Our first heavy hitter. When she enters, she brings 2 2/2 Servo's with her. Always servos with her, they're too stong. Unless you already have your army, in that case she's a 4/3 Lifelink Vigilance! Also notice she's not Legendary. ...Yeah.
Marionette Master - Our biggest wincon. If used with god like draws, she drops in for the kill on turn 6. I'll put a turn by turn at the bottom of the deck teck, but I'll give an example here. If Panharmonicon is on the field, she enters as a 7/9. With Angel of Invention, that's 8/10. Every. Servo. You. Kill. Drains 8 life. Yeah. Just attacking with your Servos at that point can win you the game, and if they don't block Syndicate Trafficker is there to finish the job for you next turn. Your main goal in this deck is to build defense that immediately switches to horde-like offense when she hits the feild. Not to mention you can have her enter with 3-6 servos if you have
Long Road Home
. This decks biggest weakness is field wipes. Marionette welcomes them. Super valueable, underrated card.
Now to our support creatures.
Syndicate Trafficker - Our tricky heavy hitter/Sacrifice outlet. Combos for drains with both Zulaport Cutthroat and Marionette Master. He can survive a ton of interactions and can of just get pretty damn big.
Zulaport Cutthroat - An obvious choice for a sacrifice based token deck. Can sometimes combo with Cataclysmic Gearhulk or Fumigate to just straight up win the game.
Selfless Spirit - As I said, this deck is weak to field wipes. But it's also weak to flying-based decks like Esper Spirits. This creature covers both weaknesses very well. A full playset drastically improved this decks performance.
Now lets move on to our supporting spells.
Harsh Scrutiny - The reason we always want to be on the draw. A turn 1 Harsh Scrutiny can often be just the beggining necessary to take our opponents ability to defend themselves, and it also gives us that Scry. A reveal hand with creature discard AND a scry? Yes, please.
Grasp on Darness - Our cheap removal. Instant speed, gets around indestructible. Both good.
Long Road Home
- Our flicker. I reeeeaaaaaallllllly wanted to use Eerie Interlude in this spot, but during playtests at FNM, it just lead to dead draws. This, however, has everything. Low CMC, Instant speed, AND makes
Weaponcraft Enthusiast
a usable blocker. Also buffs our other two Fabricates for more punch. Works best to flicker a fabricate creature after declaring it as a blocker. But can also be used at the opponent's endstep if you have another one in hand. It's also important to remember this card can effective save key creatures like Angel of Invention and Marionette Master from removal.
But wait! There's more!!
This card can also be used as a bounce. I've used this card as instant removal on Ormendhal, Profane Prince, large token creatures and bounced creatures like
Undergrowth Champion
that have gotten out of control. So much versitility!
Panharmonicon - Our bread and butter. While it feels like a pause to spend turn 4 on this, you can't ask for more value. I've played this turn 4 to lead to a Turn 5 Angel of Invention with 4 Servos, into a turn 6 dual
Weaponcraft Enthusiast
with 8 servos. Whats a dead turn 4 compared to 12 2/2 Servos 2 turns later? Not to mention the ridiculousness of a Marionette Master being played while this is out. This card is definitely broken.
Now, the sideboard is still a work in progress.
Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Ghiraspur Orrery and Collective Brutality have proven to be great swaps against control/noncreature spell based decks. Fragmentize and Anguished Unmaking are to answer vehicle and planeswalker decks, the rest I havent really tried yet.
The first 5 turns.
Ideally, this is how most games will play out.
T1: Harsh Scrutiny
T2: Syndicate Trafficker
T3:
Weaponcraft Enthusiast
T4: Panharmonicon
T5: Angel of Invention
This deck is still a work in progress! The sideboard remains to be optimized and the mainboard still needs work. If you have any suggestions or even just passing thoughts on what could help me out, I really appreciate it! The best ones will be tried out at my kitchen table and my local FNM and the conclusions will be listed along with username tags below.
Works in Progress
10/11/16:: Swapping Grasp of Darkness for
Underhanded Designs
. Reasoning: Emphasize lifedrain, utilizes unused mana, retain instant speed removal slot while still being able to target creatures like Emrakul, the Promised End.
