Small Artifacts (Pre Sword Unban)
Modern
SCORE: 23 | 22 COMMENTS | 3518 VIEWS | IN 5 FOLDERS
Modern Tournament 6/17 and Updates —June 18, 2015
4 rounds at a new venue, only thirteen people this time but there will be more in the future hopefully! Went 4-0 without dropping a single game. Played against Infect, Dimir Control, Bogles, and Affinity. No tournament report this time, instead I'll just highlight some changes to the deck.
The mainboard now includes Chalice of the Void, although I really can't set it to 1 without severely damaging the deck's ability to function. 0 and 2 are the best numbers. I unfortunately never used it in a game this time. I did draw it one game but promptly discarded it to Artificer's Intuition for something better. I'd like to find something else for this slot, but it's staying for now.
The sideboard is more geared for burn and has 4 Wear / Tear. At this point I bring in Wear / Tear against most decks playing white, as Stony Silence completely shuts me down. Swan Song comes in against non-aggro decks that play troublesome spells, and against Infect. Elixir of Immortality is for the occasional mill deck so I don't auto-lose (I can't race them or counter their spells) and for Burn. Speaking of Burn, Leonin Elder and Spellskite come in against them.
That's it for now, if you've got suggestions or questions I'd love to hear them.
Do you think Disenchant is the better choice? Or were you thinking I should find room for both?
I haven't had time to test Wear//Tear vs Disenchant yet, I originally picked Tear because it cost one less than Disenchant to hit Stony Silence (which makes a difference when you have a dead Opal and Citadel on board), and of course I could cast the Wear side if need be.
May 18, 2015 1:52 a.m.
Player3.14 says... #3
I'm curious, how does this deck normally play out? I read the description and some of the update, but it'd be cool to see what the normal game plan is.
Infect is absolutely crushed by Spellskite, which you do already have sideboarded. The skite can steal all of their pump spells, putting them on a 5 or 10 turn clock instead or a 2 or 3. Path to Exile is also excellent, but many infect decks will run cards like Apostle's Blessing and Vines of Vastwood to protect against it, so leaving it in the sideboard may be a better option. You could also engineer some of your maindecked explosives at 1 or 2 (depending on the cmc of their creature) and sac it in response to their pump spells. Hexproof or protection won't stop that! This strategy is less effective when the infect player has creatures with different cmcs or an Inkmoth Nexus.
Tron can be disrupted in two ways - by removing their threats, or by messing with their lands. Blood Moon is by far the most popular method for land disruption, but it is often used by aggro decks because Tron can simply drop a Wurmcoil Engine on turn six with all mountains. Threat removal seems the way for this deck to go. Path to Exile will blast away anything but Karn Liberated, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, or Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. A neat trinket you could try is Brittle Effigy; while it's activation cost is high, it'll deal with any creature, even Emrakul. This still leaves planeswalkers, to which Pithing Needle, one of your maindecked trinkets, can take care of.
For burn, you may need to look outside of artifacts and trinkets for solutions. Dragon's Claw and Spellskite are artifacts, but they have a cmc of 2. Spellskite isn't always great aginst burn as well, but it is useful in multiple matchups so it may be good to include. My favorite burn-hate cards are Leyline of Sanctity and Timely Reinforcements. While these aren't artifacts, they so completely wipe out burn in most cases that they're worth the break from the theme to include.
May 18, 2015 5:49 p.m.
Hey Player3.14, thanks for the long reply! I tried typing up a longer description on how the deck plays but couldn't get it to format properly, so I'll just give you a short one here:
This is a control deck that sort of plays like affinity early, in that it just dumps its hand. You have lots of tools to grind your opponents out and you'll want to do just that. There is a lot of inherent not-so-obvious card advantage in the deck. Supreme Verdict, Engineered Explosives, and Tezzeret are the main engines. Trinket Mage is a 2-for-1 or better, especially when it fetches an explosives to take out multiple creatures. Depending how aggressive your opponent is, during any game you should always have metalcraft active by turn two onward.
Let me know if you'd like the long description and I'll post it as a separate comment :)
What gets me with infect is the blazing fast kills, I just can't interact with them fast enough sometimes. Needle stops their Inkmoths, but without that it gets difficult. Do you think Swan Song is any good against them? I have it in for other matchups but could try it against them.
As for the Tron mu, it's actually been getting better with some recent changes I think. The deck has been through a long two month evolution. I appreciate the Brittle Effigy suggestion, but I like how Executioner's Capsule is cheaper and plays well with Salvaging Station. Between that and Dispatch I can answer most big threats.
I'm afraid you're probably right about the burn matchup. I am bringing in my Spellskites already. I want to test Leonin Elder more, but he probably just isn't good enough. I do like Timely Reinforcements, maybe I will try that out in place of the Elders.
May 18, 2015 10:30 p.m.
Player3.14 says... #5
Thanks! Your explanation clears a lot up. If you have time, it'd be cool to see some of the synergies in the deck, but an extended description might take a while to write.
Another way to go after Tron is to hit the cards in their hand before they're even cast with cards like Vendillion Clique and Thoughtseize. This is good against all of their threats, but can't prevent topdecks. But, if you've already shored up that matchup, all of that may be irrelivent. You may want to have two Pithing Needles in the 75 somewhere to knock out both Karn Liberated and the nasty card advatage engine of Tron, Eye of Ugin.
Swan Song might work, depending on their number of pump spells. I can't give you any absolutes without any playtesting, but here's my oppinion on it:
-The 2/2 is essentially irrelevant
-Swan Song will only stop pump spells, not the creatures themselves. Infect decks tend to have more potential damage in the form of pump spells beyond the requisite 9. They are limited only by a lack of haste and the amount of mana they can put down. Therefore, countering one pump spell will slow their tempo but won't shut them out of the game. It will stop turn 2 kills, but won't stop them killing you a turn or two later.
-This means that you'll have to back up you're tempo slowing with some way to shut them out - possibly Spellskite, Chalice of the Void at X=1 (though this will have some negative effects on you, too. On the bright side, it can be tutored up by Trinket Mage), or some way to kill off all of their creatures.
-From your use of cards like Pithing Needle, I'm sort of getting the idea that this deck can function as a "lock out" deck that can, over the course of a few turns, rip apart a strategy by negating thier effective threats. If I'm wrong in this respect, I might be going for the wrong stragegy.
On a completely different note, Sudden Shock is great for killing off infect creatures without having to worry about a response.
I always like original modern decks that are at the very least FNM competative, and you've done it! I run this and I'm almost done building this, which are modified versions of modern decks (especially the second one), but I've never come up with something this original. Good luck with it!
May 19, 2015 9:18 a.m.
Thanks for your comments Player3.14! I will keep everything you've said in mind going forward, especially the next time I play infect or tron.
I've updated the description. It is now extremely detailed for anyone interested in piloting the deck themselves. I'll be unable to go to tourneys for the next few weeks but I'll provide an update with a report next time I get a chance.
May 19, 2015 8:14 p.m.
Player3.14 says... #7
Good luck! Your description did make a lot of stuff more clear.
Nef says... #1
Disenchant? it has versatility.
May 17, 2015 5:05 p.m.