KhaosOmen Paladins out or take as you feel necesary.

Just two real quick questions. The deck looks fantastic, BTW. Does it really matter if you pick blue or black with Diamond Mare? And is the Vraska's Contempt in the sideboard necessary? I like my budget decks, not saying this isn't, but I don't know about the third Contempt

SauceJuice16 the sideboard is always up to interpretation for personal reasons. I just like having the 3rd in there for extra measure and I have 4 to use personally but I wouldn't consider any piece of the sideboard mandatory other than Phyrexian Scriptures, Damping Sphere and Tezzeret's Gatebreaker. And with diamond mare I've noticed to tend to pick Blue only because the majority of what you want regularly hitting the field are blue spells. Black should here and there fill in gaps but I see where sometimes it could play they other way if you just hit all the removal and a Phylactery Lich

Have you thought about a 1 or 2 of torgaar?

Breathofsin he has crossed my mind but trying to keep to cheaper things to play

If you were planning on making it with karn or tez would you put them in the main or side? I know the design is to keep it on the budget side and I dont blame you cause them cards are hella expensive

If I do tezz its 1 in mainboard (mainly cause i only own 1 and 20 a pop for a card dont fly.) I just flat out would prefer to jot use karn but if needed to the paladins for testing get pulled

I have always been a super fan of artifact based decks and now I'm also tinkering (pun intended) with these type decks. I like what you have done so far. I also like the phylactery lich alot but wonder if he is not to prone to get two-for-oned when someone destroys or blinks the artifact with the counter?

I'm also still thinking about how to adjust a artifact based deck into a controll heavy meta (about 50% ...) at my LGS

pruttel85 so the Phylactery Lich plays a fun role I think in here. So usually I will attach him to one of the inert artifacts like Navigator's Compass, Fountain of Renewal, and Gleaming Barrier. This provides them the dilemma that most times those cards are just sitting there for minimal effect. Now you gotta waste a spell to blow up a cheap artifact just to get to the phylactery that's fine. Especially when they have already served their purpose (gaining life) or the barrier getting me the treasure which can then be animated as a 5/5 one way or another or ramp. Big point being it gets people to waste spells on things that could eventually be killing traxos or zahid or my other animated artifacts . Plus that's only if they have that artifact removal so a lot of times if he hits field it's a big panic moment for them if they don't know how to deal with him. Forces them to make some early decisions that if they chose wrong really affects the game later for them. Don't know how many times I've had someone abrade something to kill the Lich and then next turn Traxos, Scourge of Kroog comes out and they have the "god damn it" moment because that's what they wanted to save abrade for but had to use it early to deal with the perceived threat.

as far as the control base of sides there is some trimming that could be done. Negate, Unwind, and Syncopate all work well against control and this deck can be played slower with removal taken out at that point to deal with it. My sideboard only has a little accounting for control. If it's an issue I'd say 3 negate , 3 unwind, 2 syncopate in the side for you or 4/2/2. The sideboard is of course always open to interpretation.

I too have been trying to build an artifact deck and love the fact you're using Phylactery Lich! What are your thoughts on Phyrexian Scriptures and Curator's Ward? If it wasn't rotating out, I would also mention Padeem, Consul of Innovation. LOL Out of curiosity have you worked on a non-budget friendly version of this deck concept? If so, do you have it posted elsewhere in this Site? Would truly love to see your thoughts on that and use something like this at the next Store Championship! Thank you.

pjmistryScriptures is in sideboard. Ive debated between aether tunnel and the ward for sideboard or mainboard. The only thing that would change for a non budget form is 1 tezz artifice master and 2 karn. Tezz obviously taking the cruel machinist spot. One sai and one cast down come out for karn or as you would see fit.

So after playing this deck about 9-10 times, some things I noticed is that it has a LOT of trouble with cards like seal away and cast out since it doesn’t have cards that can deal with enchantments. Another problem it’s been having is dealing with decks that can get wide by turn 5/6. Saprolings seems to cause the largest damage especially. I couldn’t find any board wipes in b/u for standard outside of phyrexian scriptures which makes me thinking of straight up running 2 of them in the main over a cast down and voltaic servant. I was just wondering if you had any solutions to this. As of right now I’m 7-3 w/ the deck so it’s holding it’s own pretty well though.

Ive been in debate on them With a few things. Go wide is definitely weakness if you cant stop early flow. Blink of an eye, and expel from orazca and Perilous voyage immediately come to mind so far to pull a few pieces. And I was gonna up the scriptures to 2 or 3 in sb to be used as needed.

Glad to hear you're getting the results that a lot of people think this deck can't get KhaosOmen

I’ve decided to switch in playing 3 phyrexian scriptures and 3 antiquities because simply: sagas win games. It’s really easy to get out turn 3 5/5 damage with skilled animator but if you can’t control board state through their abrades you’re gonna get screwed. Only thing to get through this is swinging with 8 5/5s or boardwipes. I’ve found a lot more success with these changes.

Want to mess with people's heads? A version of this with 4 Phylactery Lich, 2 Death Baron, a bunch of useful artifacts, and then load up on removal. They see the artifact swarm and think mono-U or some kind of Dimir and you just shock them with mono-B.

Love this build by the way. Scriptures is disgusting here, and would definitely be solid with more in there. Love the previously mentioned combo of Servant and Traxos too.

FSims81 That is a very interesting Idea. I do like scriptures in here but there is a bit of a flaw. IF it comes out late game im only saving one piece of a critical balance of field objects. IE i'll get to keep a zahid or a sai but not both. So it can hurt me a little too also its a balance of 4 drops. I dont wanna stack too hard on the 4 drop range. Trying to find the right balance between scriptures and antiquities war vs vraska's. Also looking at trying out the 2 Explosive Apparatus as another cheap artifact option that could cause some late game extra damage

What are the decks weakest matchups? I'd imagine turbo fog can be a pain so I would maybe add another Negate in the sideboard and possibly a card like Lost Legacy as though even though its rotating it flat out shuts down nexus decks