This artifact deck I designed was based on the Affinity decks in Modern. The idea was to have a low number of lands and a ton of cheap artifacts. Here is a breakdown of some of my card choices:
Ensoul Artifact- The older versions of this deck that I attempted to build were absolute garbage, but the winning hands involved some number of Ensoul Artifact and any cheap artifact to pair it with. Sometimes you get the nuts and have a turn 1 Darksteel Citadel that starts swinging as a 5/5 Indestructible Creature before your opponent plays a single spell. This raw power encouraged me to play the full playset of this very niche card, and after weeks of playtesting I can honestly say that 5 is the right number.
Day's Undoing- I was very skeptical about this card at first, but after considering the kinds of decks that could abuse it I was hooked on it's ridiculous rate of 7 cards for 3 mana. Actually, if you include the draw on your turn after playing it, you could say 8 cards for 3 mana. Where do I sign up for that kind of Magic? This new mythic is perfectly at home in a deck designed to unload it's hand on the first 2 turns. Some of my easiest matches involve 5 permanents on my battleifeld and a Day's Undoing being cast on turn 2 (post-combat mainphase, after i've dealt some damage with whatever early creature i have). When an opponent has a grip full of 3-6 mana cost spells in their hand and plays a tapped land on turn 2, they can't begin to recover from your artifact-heavy hand into an early Day's Undoing. It is backbreaking against Mardu Dragons, Caryatid based green decks, and any generic Midrange strategy.
Reality Shift &
Keeper of the Lens
- What a combo wombo! Aside from the obvious synergy between these two cards, the reason I chose the
Keeper of the Lens
over some of the other cheap artifact creatures is the fact that when equipped with a
Ghostfire Blade
his power/toughness keeps him out of Draconic Roar and Bile Blight range. This is a big deal in a format defined by cards with 3 toughness like Fleecemane Lion and Mantis Rider to a lesser extent. The Reality Shift was a concession to this decks weakness, which is usually high pressure attacks from over-powered creatures like
Siege Rhino
or
Dragonlord Atarka
. One of the more nuanced plays with Reality Shift is letting your opponent scry an important card to the top before making them manifest it. Oh, you realy needed that Ugin, the Spirit Dragon off the top? Now it's a 2/2, and by the way I'm going to look at it because of this creature you've never seen before. Good Day.
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
&
Mage-Ring Network
- These two lands are the absolute ham in this sandwich. The
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
is your reward for dumping a bunch of Ornithopter and other cheap colorless creatures onto the battlefield. When you have multiples, your late game plan of producing Thopters every turn with Thopter Spy Network turns into a serious amount of lifegain that very few decks can beat. The inclusion of a pair of
Mage-Ring Network
was encouraged by this deck's likelihood of getting into a grindfest with tons of lifegain and topdecking lands. When you can charge the
Mage-Ring Network
up to 4-5 counters or more, you can really unload when you finally draw something like a Hangarback Walker or a
Briber's Purse
.
