MTG Combo: Animation Module + Fretwork Colony
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Odyssey on
7 years ago
No problem, glad to help. When you evaluate cards like Contraband Kingpin and Gearseeker Serpent in the context of a synergy deck, you have to ask yourself how they perform when you don't have your engine set up. For those two cards, the answer is that they fare very poorly unless your deck is already doing its thing.
Any time you have a synergy based deck you need to consider less ideal cases, such as what happens when you mull to 5 and see three lands and no synergy pieces. What do your other cards do then? Having Contraband Kingpin or Gearseeker Serpent be your two nonland cards in this case is obviously very bad. But having a Vessel of Nascency and a Murder will keep you alive and buy you time to find what you need.
People often make the mistake of putting cards in their deck that are only there to add more synergy to the main engine of the deck. When you draw well and get to do your thing with little opposition, it can feel like these are powerful cards and they should be there, because they will often be the cards that win you the game when you play them. But usually, any kind of recurring, incremental advantage (Animation Module + Fretwork Colony in this case) is enough to win you the game if you can survive long enough for that engine to generate the value it's designed to. You only need one or two "I win" cards to take advantage of that engine (e.g. a card like Overrun could turn 4-5 servos into serious threats and win the game on the spot). You don't want too many of these cards though, since they are only good when you are in a position to win the game, and dead the rest of the time.
In your GB version, you have Drana and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar as the main ways to grow a bunch of servos into big threats. These are better than narrow cards like Contraband Kingpin or Gearseeker Serpent because the former are good on turn 3 as well as turn 8, and do not require any other nonland permanents on your side of the board in order to start pushing your gameplan. You can also find them with the same card that finds your engine pieces (Vessel of Nascency), making that card useful for more than just setting up your engine.
michael921 on
7 years ago
So my thoughts on Contraband Kingpin and Gearseeker Serpent were that they synergized extremely well with my core game plan of Animation Module + Fretwork Colony , as the servos work with both of them. That by paying a mana every turn, I discount the gearseeker and get a free scry before my draw step. I had not considered their viability outside of the combo much however, which greatly decreases their strength.
As for the speed of the deck, it was intentionally slower than my WB version, as I was going for control, but I hadn't realized how far behind this deck was putting me on mana, as the deck does that naturally from the synergy I'm working off of.
I will be trying to revise the GB version into a more delirium-graveyard deck.
Thank you again Odyssey for all the help you provide!