My personal main deck. Kraken Hatchling is included in the deck only for personal reasons, and can be substituted by another card in the deck list if desired.
The deck is designed mostly to cheat out certain artifacts and artifact creatures, and to abuse their ETB effects to your advantage.
Master Transmuter is at the heart of this, as her practically cheating effect allows you to get a turn 5 (or sooner) darksteel forge. If not darksteel forge, then there are plenty of other lynchpins that allow the deck to ramp and scale well into the mid and late game. To reiterate, and I cannot stress this enough, Master Transmuter can, at instant speed might I add:
- Put ANY artifact on the field for 1 Blue, and return another artifact to your hand. You CAN return MT to your own hand to get that artifact out! You CAN also play the same artifact you returned to your hand! You also have the option to just not put an artifact out, and effectively bounce your own boys for one blue mana.
The best cards for bouncing with MT's and/or esperzoa's ability, in no particular order:
- Filigree Angel will keep you at a generous amount of health.
- Ethersworn shieldmage is a cheap bounce-able Fog meant to tide you until a better option becomes available.
- Sharuum's effect allows you to further abuse certain ETB effects if those creatures happen to be in your graveyard (Simulacrum somehow becomes even stronger because of this)
- Ethersworn Sphinx can be used to cascade any other permanent in the deck (save for darksteel forge), allowing you to ramp aggressively, and stands as one of the easiest cards to cast in the later phases of the game.
- Scourglass is an obviously important board wipe, and can be cheated out during your upkeep in order to instantly activate it (condition-wiping a board for only one blue mana during upkeep will generally get you dirty looks, be warned).
- Solemn Simulacrum is a GOAT. Cheap to cast (free if all the sculptors are present), ensures you continue land ramping, and a 2/2 that draws a card when it dies. Only catch is trying to kill it once Darksteel forge is out, otherwise just abuse its ETB effect.
- Sphinx Summoner gives you any of these above artifact creature you're missing, including MT. If you're screwed in the early game for the strategy, Sphinx summoner is your best chance to fix that.
Other cards to note:
- DARKSTEEL FORGE CAN BE PUT ON YOUR BATTLEFIELD FOR ONE BLUE MANA WITH MASTER TRANSMUTER's ABILITY.
- Etherium Sculptor gives you cheaper artifacts. There are 4 of them. Which means even if you have all these expensive mana cards in hand, the Sculptors will take a lot of the load off of MT's back and get your momentum going sooner. The unsung heroes of the deck.
- Esperzoa is the de facto substitute to Master Transmuter. Solid field presence, and a bounce at upkeep can help keep your momentum going if your Transmuters aren't in the equation.
- Filigree Attendant boasts a strong attack for cheap. Effectively becomes your juggernaut once DS Forge is present.
- Sharding Sphinx allows for fodder Thopter creation, and once darksteel forge is present, allowing you to generate infinite blockers (and near infinite life including Filigree Angel).
- Ethersworn Adjudicator will draw aggro away from MT, but will draw aggro to you. If that's not a problem, congrats, you have good kill pressure every turn, and a strong standalone card.
- Diabolic Tutor & Elixir of Immortality allow your game to not only get started if necessary, but will also allow it to keep going by giving some graveyard returns.
- Sphinx of the Steel Wind will also draw aggro from MT, and is a powerful keyword soup mamacita. Red/Green beware!
- Sphinx Sovereign is mostly in for flavor, but can be good pressure given the right situation.
WEAKNESSES: the deck is midrange in nature, and needs time to build up. You will likely fold to any early game pressure or aggro. Your entire strategy revolves around MT, so she must be protected at all times while she's on the battlefield. Do not play her just to have her out.
The Maybes are alternatives to many of the cards in the deck, and are far from the only viable options out there.
- Blinkmoth Infusion can cheat MT to safety if she's tapped, but Unwinding Clock can also do the same while staying more permanent. Can be insanely good if you convert more of the deck's lands into artifact lands, but gets pricier.
- Unwinding Clock means our favorite bullshit strategies don't have to end just because our turn is over. I generally find it an unfun idea, but you don't have to follow my doctrine. Also insanely good with converting the deck's lands into more artifact lands.
- Thousand Year Elixir makes MT a self-starter, and makes keeping her safe easier. Considering its a non-cheap card meant for only one purpose, this one is really up to you.
- Magister Sphinx can be a good F U to your friends' lifegain decks. It makes for a good MT/Esperzoa bounce guy, but isn't super useful otherwise.
- Ethersworn Canonist was once part of the deck, but I took her out as I considered her to be unfun. She is strong though, cheap to cast, and effectively designates fellow artificiers as the only ones allowed to have fun. It can also make your early game easier on you.
- Mechanized Production, be spicy and choose Master Transmuter. Provides a win condition, but generally too pricey and draws a lot of aggro that MT might not be able to afford. Choose Thopter, however, and have a safe win.
- Felidar Sovereign. Considering Filigree Angel's insane lifegain, this is an easy win condition. It's just not an artifact, so it can't be cheated out, and is susceptible to being Scourglassed.
