The Antiques Roadshow

Modern Artifact Counterspell Creature Cheat Mono-Blue

Balaam__

Creature (15)

• 1x Blightsteel Colossus
• 1x Darksteel Colossus
• 4x Master Transmuter
• 4x Memnite
• 4x Ornithopter
• 1x Platinum Angel

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Fabricate

Land (23)

• 2x Academy Ruins
• 2x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 18x Island

Artifact (7)

• 3x Chalice of the Void
• 4x Mishra's Bauble

Instant (8)

• 4x Counterspell
• 2x Mana Leak
• 2x Remand

Planeswalker (3)

• 3x Karn, the Great Creator

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Sideboard

Sorcery (9)

• 4x Ancestral Vision
• 1x Reshape
• 4x Serum Visions

Artifact (6)

• 4x Lightning Greaves
• 2x Tormod's Crypt

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Maybeboard

Creature (5)

• 4x Riddlesmith
• 1x Spellskite

Artifact (1)

• 1x Quicksilver Amulet

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On occasion I’d watch the Antiques Roadshow. But I always found myself wishing I could speed up the process. Someone would bring out their family heirloom, but if I wasn’t immediately interested in their treasured crap I had no further desire to fixate on it for another 5 minutes to learn of its ‘fascinating’ backstory. Just get the (Antiques Road-)show on the road and show me something better. That idea laid the foundation for this deck.

The Mana Base

•Basic Island s do most of the work, which thankfully isn’t much. No card in the deck requires more than a single mana comprising its cmc, so we avoid any crazy mana costs.

• Darksteel Citadel sees play primarily because it’s the only Modern legal artifact land. It can be targeted in a pinch by Master Transmuter , should something have gone horribly wrong and no other artifacts are in play.

• Academy Ruins is quite useful against pesky Thoughtseize s (Thoughtseizures?) or artifact hate. For the low cost of , sift through your graveyard for an artifact of your choosing and set yourself up for your next draw.

• Inventors' Fair can help us stay afloat against aggro decks, as getting 3 artifacts in play is no issue. There’s more to say about this land under the Tutors subheading.

The Object D’art

Affix your monocle and prepare to examine the accoutrements collecting dust in the attic!

• Mishra's Bauble is great for setting up the next turn. Abuse it, repeatedly if necessary.

• Memnite , a 1/1 for . Cast it every chance you get.

• Ornithopter . Here, have a free flying blocker.

• Platinum Angel is like the insurance paid for by the guy who already knows his antique is worth beaucoup bucks; he’s just bringing it to show off.

• Darksteel Colossus is just an artifact creature. In the same way that a Stradivarius is just a violin.

• Blightsteel Colossus is that same violin, only in real small letters on the back someone scribbled “Antonio Stradivari was here”.

Time for a Commercial Break

In keeping with the theme, these cards break up the flow of the game just as the opponent’s getting into it.

•Ever wish you could recreate the soul crushing blow dealt by an appraiser informing someone their priceless family heirloom is, in fact, worthless? With Counterspell added to the deck thanks to Modern Horizons 2, now you can! Simply adjust your monocle, give your best Churchill squint, and let them know whatever they’re intending to play wasn’t worth the mana they spent to cast it.

• Mana Leak is the ‘PBS Pledge Drive’ of cards, aiming to needle our opponent for a few of their hard earned mana in order to keep our program afloat. ‘Tis a necessary evil.

• Remand buys time and replaces itself with a new card. Win-win.

• Chalice of the Void really makes things difficult for the opponent. Pay and to deny all 1cmc spells from seeing the light of day. We have none, so it won’t affect us, but irritating Path to Exile s or Surgical Extraction s become a thing of the past. If played a bit later in the game, try blocking all 3cmc spells. There goes the neighborhood.

The Tutors

That’s Tutors with a “t”, not “d”-although Catherine of Aragon sounds like it could be a Planeswalker (when Catherine of Aragon enters the battlefield, you become the Monarch). No, these are the cards that shall conduct us to that which we seek.

• Fabricate is the most straightforward of the tutors here; it lets us search for any artifact we might need (including artifact creatures and artifact lands).

• Inventors' Fair also functions as a tutor, and we’ll have no problem at all meeting the prerequisites to use that ability.

• Academy Ruins lets us search our graveyard for the artifact we need, so once again don’t worry about discard or removal.

• Karn, the Great Creator is our sideboard/exile tutor. Between him and the other cards in this category, there’s literally no zone we can’t reach if we absolutely need a particular artifact. His other abilities are nothing to sneeze at either. Poor Karn. A silver golem stands wearing silver armor. Is he made of armor? Or is the armor made of flesh? He screams, for he does not know.

Tonight, on PBS...

Right about now would be the point in time where the guest would give their assessment of what they brought, but the appraiser would say something like, ‘Well, actually...’ and then dazzle them with the true value of their precious item. This deck comes fully prepared to do exactly that.

• Master Transmuter takes that seemingly worthless piece of junk and reveals it’s true worth. “On the market, I’d fully expect this Ornithopter to fetch anywhere from a Platinum Angel to upwards of a Blightsteel Colossus .”

”... All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.”

Top Ranked	Achieved #2 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 11 - 9 Rares 14 - 6 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.32
Folders	Modern, cool decks, Cool Modern Decks, Artifact