I designed this for Oath of the Gatewatch Game Day, February 13th, 2016.
Constructicon Standard is a continuation of Constructicon Legacy and Constructicon Modern. The deck is an entirely colorless aggro weenie deck with built-in midrange capacity. It is capable of spewing out creatures fairly quickly during the first few turns with sufficient lands to build up to popping
Foundry of the Consuls
or
Spawning Bed
later in the game in order to perpetuate the onslaught once initial resources have been spent. Meanwhile, Tomb of the Spirit Dragon allows lifegain to stall against other fast decks. One huge advantage of playing a deck like this is that every land can do something other than tap for mana, while none of them enters the battlefield tapped.
My analysis of each card:
Bonded Construct
: This is exactly the kind of card which is overlooked by lots and lots of MTG players. I had a lot of success winning with cheap decks in Standard using
Loyal Pegasus
, and this card does the same kind of job. While it cannot attack alone, it can block alone.
Bonded Construct
rocks!
Chief of the Foundry: Artifact-creature lord! No further comment necessary.
Hangarback Walker: This card is a house! For any deck where you are missing an important card, Hangarback Walker is likely to be at least a filler. I have not built a deck without it since it came out...L.O.L. This 4x playset accounts for 57.5% of the cost of the entire deck. Those building on a very limited budget can try
Runed Servitor
in its place.
Hedron Crawler
: This card is rubbish, but it is mana acceleration, allowing me to drop
Ugin's Construct
on turn 3 instead of turn 4 or to pop a
Foundry of the Consuls
or
Spawning Bed
a turn earlier than I would have been able to without it. This card is lackluster, but it is ramp, and the deck needs a little ramp.
Keeper of the Lens
: Another rubbish card, save that I need something to drop early to enable
Bonded Construct
to attack. It can block a 1/1 or 1/2 and live, which counts for something. When I played this card in summer Standard constructed tournaments, it actually drew fire from players who wanted to keep their morph creatures secret, so I got some mileage out of a card I did not especially like. Also, dropping it on turn 1 and equipping it with Ghostfire Blade on turn 2 turns it into a nice 3/4 beater.
Ramroller
: Almost a
Juggernaut
for one less mana. Sweet!
Ugin's Construct
: A nice nearly vanilla beater. I am expecting a few questions when I drop this out, sacrifice nothing, and just have it on the battlefield for a very nice cost.
Spatial Contortion: Oh my! Colorless removal! This card is beautiful. I expect it to be useful in popping Hangarback Walker to make an air force when I most need it.
Ghostfire Blade: I am surprised and baffled by how little play this card has received. It is the current Standard equivalent of Cranial Plating, and it is easier to cast. Budget builders can maindeck
Hedron Blade
or Captain's Claws in its place.
The next section addresses the lands. Anyone lacking playsets of any of these can substitute Wastes or whatever of the Magic Origins pain lands are available. Basic lands will do in a pinch, with the rider that they may interfere with casting Spatial Contortion or
Warping Wail
.
Foundry of the Consuls
: Since I only need colorless mana, I can make sure that every card has a backup ability. I am sure that my board will get wiped from time to time, so here is plan B ready to pop.
Spawning Bed
: This card is also part of plan B, along with
Foundry of the Consuls
.
Mage-Ring Network
: This card is rubbish. Mirrorpool might be better, but the fact that it enters the batlefield tapped prohibits me from choosing it. There is at least some tiny chance that at one point or another
Mage-Ring Network
's hideous ramp ability will be useful, so it is marginally better in this deck than Wastes.
Rogue's Passage: This card is tried and true. When I can make a
Ramroller
equipped with Ghostfire Blade unblockable, things are good, very good!
Sea Gate Wreckage
: Repeatable card draw for when the hand is spent! Beautiful!
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon: The deck has repeatable lifegain to avoid losing while building up for the finish. I love this card!
Moving to the sideboard:
Orbs of Warding
is here in case I go up against some kind of burn or weenies.
Hedron Blade
is a replacement for Ghostfire Blade against eldrazi and devoid creatures if I have to start trading creatures card for card in the long game. In short,
Hedron Blade
enables a shift from aggro to midrange play against certain decks while I nuild up the mana necessary to pop
Spawning Bed
and
Foundry of the Consuls
.
Spidersilk Net
is there in case I need to deal with flyers.
Titan's Presence offers alternate removal with a capacity to remove creatures with a maximum power of 4, hoping that
Ugin's Construct
is in my hand at the time.
Warping Wail
is counter, removal, and mana acceleration. While it is a great card, its utility in this deck is bound to be entirely situational, which is why it is not maindecked.
Captain's Claws is for attempting to go extra wide against decks which drop things like Siege Rhino. I had wanted 3x of these for the sideboard but was only able to acquire 1x by Game Day.
