OVERVIEW:
This deck has medium to long-term win conditions, as it seeks to finish the game at around the turn 9-11 mark. We will seek to win through a combination of Marionette Master, Syndicate Trafficker and Metalwork Colossus. We will find our win conditions through Metalspinner's Puzzleknot, Implement of Improvement, Midnight Entourage, Morbid Curiosity and Inventors' Fair , while stalling the game with servo tokens from Sram's Expertise, Servo Schematic and Marionette Master, and lifegain through Inventors' Fair, Underhanded Designs, Implement of Improvement, Aetherborn Marauder and Tidy Conclusion
**_Detailed combat tricks_**
This deck revolves around making Optimal use of Marionette Master direct damage output, while falling back onto Metalwork Colossus and an ever growing Syndicate Trafficker for a secondary win condition.
Marionette Master:
Ideally you will want to cast this as a 4/6 creature so that all sacrificed artifacts will deal 4 damage to your opponent, but if you need to fall back onto your secondary win conditions you may want to consider playing the 1/3 with 3 extra servos instead.
Syndicate Trafficker:
This guy coupled with the Marionette Master can end the game real fast, while getting bigger and bigger as he does so. His snack of choice will be servo schematic, as you get an artifact for eating an artifact, but feel free to munch on servos if you need to find your other win conditions or lands to play them. The other artifacts can be more useful used as they should be used, but in a pinch anything would do. You will want to keep 1 manna open for him during all turns just to ensure you can go indestructible if you have to. Once you have the Marionette Master on the field, EAT EVERYTHING!
Metalwork Colossus:
This guy is big, can get out onto the field real quick in an artifact deck like this, and has the potential to deal a whopping 8 damage while returning to your hand from the graveyard due to Marionette Master. When it comes out, it'll be the biggest guy on the field, and will force a chump, a defensive opponent or a killspell, but you really want him in your graveyard if you are working towards your primary win condition, which means he is pretty much a win-win addition to the deck.
Now in order to reach these win conditions effectively, we will need lots of artifacts. Servos are a great source of artifacts, as they are relatively easy to get and are great chump blockers which can delay the game a few turns, not to mention that while Marionette Master is in play, every servo on every turn is a potential 4 direct damage. This shuts down an aggressive opponent as he will lose 4 life-points for every creature he attacks with.
Artifacts and servos
Implement of Improvement:
We are running 4 of these artifacts in our deck. For 1 manna, you get an artifact with a self-sacrifice mechanic that draws you a card and gives you 2 life. It has lots of value for its price in this deck.
Metalspinner's Puzzleknot:
We are running 3-4 of these artifacts as well. For 2 manna, you get an artifact, draw a card and lose a life. In addition you may repeat the effects for 3 manna and a self-sacrifice mechanic. It doesn't quite have the value of the Implement of Improvement, but it does draw you twice as many cards.
Servo Schematic:
The 4 copies of this card is the single best complement card to Syndicate Trafficker. For 2 manna, you get an artifact that spawns a servo upon entry, and an additional servo when it gets sacrificed. This means it effectively buys 3 turns of safety to the Syndicate Trafficker while growing him by 3 +1/+1 counters and dealing s possible 12 damage through the Marionette Master. It is value itself and beats its rival, Cogworker's Puzzleknot by a mile in this deck.
Cultivator's Caravan:
This vehicle helps the Metalwork Colossus enter sooner more than any of our other artifacts. It is also a free manna, and can be used as a 5/5 body. The 3 crew cost also works perfectly with all the creatures we are running in this deck.
Universal Solvent:
One thing we can be fairly helpless against are really aggressive plainswalkers. Now there are better cards that deal with plainswalkers, but that would be the only purpose they would have in this deck. Cast Out does have flash, but it may not be a permanent solution, as when it leaves the battlefield the plainswalker comes back. Vraska's Contempt is probably the single best plainswalker kill-spell out there, but apart from being too expensive for a super-budget deck like this, it is also limited to plainswalkers and creatures, where as Cast Out can deal with enchantments and artifacts as well. The main problem i have with these cards though are that i like themed decks, and they look weird in this deck lol, but feel free to add 2 copies of either of those. Universal Solvent however is firstly an artifact, so it does what artifacts do in this deck, with a self-sacrifice mechanic too mind you; and secondly it may be found with Inventors' Fair, which increases your chances of finding an answer drastically. It also deals with absolutely all permanents, lands included, so it is slightly more versatile as you can manna screw your opponent. The downside is that though you can drop the artifact at 1 manna, it doesn't actually become an answer until the 7 manna mark, which is really expensive and you will likely have to deal with the plainswalker for a turn or two before this comes into play, which may be too late. We will be running 1 of these in our main-board and 1 in our sideboard.
Inspiring Statuary:
This artifact helps towards getting the Metalwork Colossus out faster, in addition to getting out the Marionette Master faster. It speeds up our win conditions like no other.
Sram's Expertise:
This card drops 3 servos for the trafficker to eat, in addition to giving you the ability to cast a 3 manna card for free. You only have to look at the manna-curve to see the value here.
**The aetherborn theme:**
So in a deck like this, it would make sense to run artifact-creatures, however as a personal preference i decided to go the aetherborn theme instead since we are already running 4 Syndicate Trafficker in addition to Inspiring Statuary for the sole purpose of speeding up the Marionette Master arrival. We can used the latter mentioned artifact better if we have more non-artifact spells in our deck.
Midnight Entourage:
This 3/3 for 4 body buffs other aetherborn by +1/+1, which is decent, but its other effect is amazing. When it or other aetherborn die, you get to draw a card while losing 1 life. You dont really want more than one of these on the field though, since chumping with aetherborn deals damage to you. For this reason we are running only 2 copies of this in our deck.
Vengeful Rebel:
In addition to being an aetherborn body, it also touches on a subject we haven't covered yet. We do not run many kill-spells in this deck, and so a creature that does exactly this helps cover that gap.
Aetherborn Marauder:
And here comes our only flyer. This guy is obviously also an aetherborn, so he benefits from Midnight Entourage, but more importantly, he presents a complete shift in the way we go about the game. Marionette Master should come in with 3 +1/+1 counters on her, and Syndicate Trafficker collects them for fun. This means you have access to quite a few +1/+1 counters, and that is where this guy comes in. He can take any amount of counters on himself, placing damage and blocking power in the sky in the hands of a lifelinker. If nothing else he can delay the game so that your other win-conditions can pull a win for you. This guy isn't really part of the strategy of the deck at all, but he can make use of what we are working towards, and that is why he gets a spot in the deck. There is only 1 copy of this one however, but in a tight spot he can come through.
**Other cards:**
Morbid Curiosity:
This card can help towards your Marionette Master win condition in addition to drawing you some cards. Its favorite targets will be Vengeful Rebel if you don't need that body on the field, Metalspinner's Puzzleknot as it gets you twice as many cards while avoiding the damage it would deal to you if you spent 3 manna on it's self destruct instead, Servo Schematic as you get a servo and 2 cards out of the deal, and finally the mother of all things insane, if you are struggling and that Metalwork Colossus isn't doing you much good, but you need to find answers quick, drawing 11 cards will more than likely find you what you are looking for.
Underhanded Designs:
This card gives us some removal ability, in addition to chipping away at our opponents life while healing ourselves a little whenever we have nothing to do with our manna. Our two biggest problems in this deck is our lack of kill-spells and the amount of life we have to pay to draw our cards faster. This card serves to fix both problems.
Tidy Conclusion:
This card has a duel purpose use in our deck. It destroys a creature, so it can deal with some big threats, but in doing so, it also heals 1 for each artifact you have, which in this deck should be at least 3 or 4 by the time you play it. Note though, that you can target your own creatures too, say...a servo, to deal damage through Marionette Master. The potential for a 8-10 life-point swing is more than there in a deck like this. Its high manna cost limits the number of them we can bring, and so we have 1 in our main-board, and 1 in our side-board. Extra life delay's the game, and a delayed game may turn out in our favor.
Inventors' Fair
This land helps us find whatever we need at the given time. Perfect for an artifact deck. It also heals up a life each turn which helps keeps us alive since we have quite a lot of -1 life payments in this deck.
**Sideboard:**
Against control decks:
Kambal, Consul of Allocation:
A creature that gives us 2 life whenever our opponent casts an instant or sorcery is a great way to limit control decks ability to play their cards, and sideboarding 3 of these for 3 of our Vengeful Rebel which would be useless against a deck that doesn't run creatures is a great start to our anti-control initiative.
Ovalchase Daredevil:
Our other method of combating control decks is to force them to spend more cards to stop our deck than we use, hence forcing them to run out of cards first. A card that can return from the graveyard to force another removal or counter spell to be played really hurts a control deck in the long run.
Fortuitous Find:
This card forces a counter spell to be played, since you get 2 cards back if the control player doesn't, meaning he wasted 2 of his cards removing the above-mentioned cards. This card takes the control out of said players hands as you are forcing them into their play.
Against creature aggro decks:
If your opponent is simply just out-massing you with relatively small creatures and getting around your chumps, you may just need to gain some life, kill some creatures, and get some more chump blockers.
Hidden Stockpile:
Aggro decks don't tend to have many answers to enchantments, and so it is to them that we will look to our defense. This card gives you a servo if you lost a permanent this turn. In addition, you may sacrifice a creature(servo) to scry 1 if you need a more permanent answer.
Eliminate the Competition:
Okay so this card is a little strong in a token deck. You can sack servos to get rid of the opposing win-conditions, but whats more ,you can board wipe while dealing damage for lethal with this single card if you happen to have 5 servos and a Marionette Master on the field. A nifty little trick is also to target a Syndicate Trafficker with this card, and then paying 1 to save him from the effects. Doing it this way instead of just straight up targeting a servo, is that you get the additional counter on the trafficker. It also means that your sacrifices aren't limited to just servos. Doesn't do much against control decks though, and as such it is in our sideboard.
Essence Extraction:
Adding 3 of these in a deck wherever creatures abound cant ever hurt. You deal 3 damage and heal 3 life, meaning you can pretend like that irritating creature that hit you for 3 never existed.
Maybe board:
Angel of Invention:
This one can be exchanged for Aetherborn Marauder. The added vigilance is nice, along with the fabrication working toward our other win conditions.The extra manna and double-white cost does hurt though, and it cannot get near as big asAetherborn Marauder can.
Weaponcraft Enthusiast:
This card fits better with out win-conditions than Vengeful Rebel does due to the fabricate 2, however replacing Vengeful Rebel means you have less kill capabilities in regards to creatures.
