Diabolic Tutor? But yeah Merchant's Dockhand does let me dig through cards in the longer game, but this deck wants to be reactive, in contrary to the 0-CMC build. You need to have Fatal Push and Metallic Rebuke in your hand while you go online slowly with your artifacts (that actually does something, not like Cathar's Shield), and to do that you need to sculpt your hand. You dumb your hand and they Murder your Herald of Anguish. Now what? Cross your fingers and hope to draw into gas? I'd rather do the opposite :)

I like the servo build more than 0-cmc because they have a board pressence :) If you are running more planeswalkers, definitely play Heart of Kiran.

Thank you very much for the upvote! Top #3 today, wow :)!

I'm not sold on Aether Hub here. What are your thoughts on it from playtesting?

So far it has been running a lot more smoothly. I took out Sunken Hollow for it. With 4 x Spire of Industry I had a hard time playing the dual lands untapped, and now it's running way better. There is a chance that you only have colorless mana sources, but in that case Prophetic Prism helps fixing. Also Renegade Map if you really need a specific color.

Atm I'm happy with Aether Hub MB :)

I can recommend watching these guys stream. One of them is playing a deck that is very similar: https://www.twitch.tv/jay_tde/v/116714008?t=02h29m49s

Thanks for the response/explanation. The mana-fixing does make sense to run the automatic untapped land in aether hub. Thoughts on Tezzeret's Touch as an alternate win condition? Assuming that Herald of Anguish is our win condition here, how effective in closing out games has he been for you? Goldfishing the deck, he does come out early pretty consistently, but obviously that's without opponents slinging counters and creature removal.

Yeah the deck has two main win con at the moment. Ultimating Tezzeret the Schemer is actually quite plausible, if you are ahead. He has such a high starting loyalty, and in this shell, he's easily defendable/defends himself.

Herald of Anguish usually comes down between turn 4 - 6 if you are goldfishing. He dosn't close out games, but he adds incremental value on the board. He will get eaten up by removal a lot, so I've been toying around with some ideas. I have 3 considerations:

Alternative wincons:

Tezzeret's Touch is great in this deck since it gives a lot of value to Prophetic Prism and Metalspinner's Puzzleknot. I'd rather stick onto a Ornithopter since it has evasion, but that would mean it had to be a different build. Not sure about this one, but it could be a sideboard card!

Mechanized Production is really great with Prophetic Prism since it adds a clock + card drawing value. It's and that makes it harder to tap out, if it just gets countered. Could also be a sideboard card, or maybe a one of mainboard!

Metalwork Colossus is also a option since it works well with artifact synergy and can be tutored with Inventors' Fair. It would mean I had to take out some Herald of Anguish and other spells that are detrimental to the game plan..

Heart of Kiran is also possible, but I would have to run more PW's like Liliana, the Last Hope, Ob Nixilis Reignited or Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, but this also makes the deck weaker due to cuts

These are jsut some ideas that I have been considering so far, but I have yet to come up with which is the better.

Awesome write-up. I kind of like the idea of maybe 1 or 2 Metalwork Colossus in the mainboard. Honestly just 1 might be fine if we cut 1 Herald of Anguish or 1 Tezzeret the Schemer. The fact that we we have so much card draw, even being able to dig so hard with Merchant's Dockhand for it. The only meta card that will truly stop it is Stasis Snare? Just throwing in 1 might increase our win % without having to cut too much.

Yeah Stasis Snare and Declaration in Stone hits it. Not sure if people play Descend upon the Sinful anymore. Cutting 1x Herald of Anguish or/and 1x Tezzeret the Schemer is properly the best way. I've considered adding Yahenni's Expertise to the mainboard since I presume a lot of people are going to play G/B aggro. If so I will exchange 2x Merchant's Dockhand with 2x Yahenni's Expertise. Dockhand can come in against control builds

I would say 2 heart of kiran per 4 Tezzeret is solid.

JeppeFulg Diabolic Tutor 2BB search your deck for a card, put it into your hand and shuffle your library.

I've been looking at it as an alternate tutor to Dockhand in case he gets hit by early temoval.Granted one could side in Dispel or Negate for a control match up to deal with such issues.

I could do just fine with the main board you have but my sideboard may alter due to decks I see played at my store.

you have 3 fatal push in the main board and 2 in the side, you got 1 free card slot buddy :)

Whoops thanks man :)

Love the deck! When my blue black control deck grows up it wants to be this deck. I went the onithopter route.

I'm really loving a one-of Metalwork Colossus right now. It's been closing out games that Herald isn't!

started playtesting this list and love it. i see you just removed the tezzeret touches. personally i think they are a strong inclusion to ward off aggro or snipe a walker. had multiple games they drop a turn 3 saheeli into what appears to be a safe board only to smash her with a prism

Yeah I'm toying around with the deck atm, seeing what works.

Congrats on all the upvotes.. Um.. In terms of playability some feedback, you need 1-2 more mana.

Listen, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but this deck is kinda awful. You don't produce nearly enough artifacts in order for it to excel as an improvise deck. It pains me to see a Herald in this deck when you can't drop it turn 3 or 4 in most scenarios. Here is the constructive criticism; add Servo Schematics and 0 drop artifacts. If you don't find a way to speed up this deck, I can't see it being able to stand up to other, faster decks. I'm sorry if I come off as a jerk.

What are your thoughts on Contraband Kingpin in the sideboard for more aggressive matchups? Good body and lots of scry triggers.

Constructive feedback is never disrespectful Stephen815 and nothing to apologize for. I do wonder how many of these top decks actually see play testing!!

Thank you very much for the comments and the feedback

Smootvicious Yeah he has worked before in my UB control decks. I'm still tuning the sideboard :)

Stephen815 The deck runs 15 artifacts that do something when they hit the field (From my calculations you need around 14-16 to see around 1-2 artifacts in your hand each start).

I have tried the 0 CMC version, and yes it's faster, but does nothing in the long game. This is not a aggro affinty, but a artifact control deck :) You dumb your whole hand and play your Herald of Anguish, while praying it wont get eaten by removal or countered, since you have no protection. The 0 CMC version is cute, but really inconsistent. Thanks for the comment though :)

I have done a lot of playtesting with both the 0 cmc version and this. This works better in my opinion against the decks in this meta.

dwarvishandsavy I'm changing the numbers constantly, but I would agree it needs a land more for consistency.

having tried the aggro oriented improvise decks myself i can say they are poor. the speed does not help against the incosistency. This deck so far has been very solid. the version im running has been strong in all of the matchups ive faced (most testing against B/G counters which has felt about equal if not favorable depending on start). the only decks ive yet to really test are control such as UB or jeskai cat (this performed well against 4c saheeli). aggro is rough depending on the start. personally i main boarded 4 fatal push and 4 tezzeret touch to give a bit more survivability in the GB and vehicles matchups (uncontested grim flayer will end you).

I am also testing 2 of marionette master as an alternate win con. its interesting because she feels like a win more card, yet the games shes seen use she closed the match out as my opponent was recovering. Without her i feel like i would have lost

Marionette Master could be cool! Also, I just read the channelfireball decktech on a similar list that was used in the Richmond Open. He used the Tezzeret's Touch in the sideboard to bring in when all of his opponents sideboarded out removal for game 2. Just an interesting idea.

just read the article and its interesting, i was debating deadlock traps myself but didnt initally feel the energy was there. Obviously it has some merit though. might have to give this new brew a try and see how it rolls. obviously the downside is if this does become a popular deck people will start to realize the SB tech and prepare for it

It was a good read. Nice to see the deck get some traction. It's been long since Tezzeret had some brewing articles. I like his take on the deck. I'm a little on the fence about Deadlock Trap, but I'm gonna test it. I changed the deck with Tezzeret's Touch in SB and Mechanized Production back mainboard :)