WTF Is the Mimic Gimmick
Currently you have most likely here of the brand new Thopter Foundry, Sword of the Meek "mimic" in standard. This combo uses Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek to gain an amount of thopters and gain one life by sacrificing the sword, getting the thopter, return the sword, and repeat with every time costing one mana.
Now in standard, we have a similar combo with Metallic Mimic and Animation Module. Once you have bother cards on the battlefield, if a Servo enter the battlefield, it gets a counter from Metallic Mimic on creature type Servo. The counter causes Animation Module to trigger, allowing you to pay one mana, get a Servo, and repeat.
Pro's and Cons
Pros: Currently the only reason why this combo is some what better than Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek is the creatures you create are larger that 1/1 thopter with flying. This allows games to close out faster instead of using the classical 1/1 thopter with flying. Probably the only other pro that I could think of is the price. The combo pieces are much easier to acquire and are affordable compared to the others. Also the mimmick gimmick is legal in standard so for playability, it is really your only option.
Cons: Thopter Foundry Sword of the Meek allows you to gain one life. The gain 1 life is actually pretty important. It gives you an incredible advantage for you too consistently win the games. If you have 7 thopters and you get Wrath of Godded, sure you lose all your creatures, but in a life threatning situation, especially in modern, going from 5 to 12 is still quite good so you don't have to be afraid of double Lightning Bolt or Goblin Guide ending the game. I guess you could get a Pious Avangel to be able to have this benefit, but I don't think it would be putting that in a slot where as something like Servo Schematic which will be my next point.
This combo requires a Servo to enter the battlefield in order to begin the chain. In modern all it requires is the two pieces, Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek. This is a huge problem cause practically without a servo to trigger the counter you can't pull of the combo. You can use Animation Module's ability on something like an energy, but the mana cost is 3 to activate it. If you have 5 lands you ultimately only going to get 2 Servos which is not the amount of value you want to be getting out of a deck. If you had 6 lands 3 Servos aren't bad, but not great. In my opinion this is the biggest flaw with the combo. The best way to consistently activate it is play both Servo Schematic and Congworker's Puzzlenot to trigger the combo.
To be honest when Metallic Mimic was spoiled and people found the combo, it became one of the largest standard combos next to Saheeli Copy Cat but my opinion was it was strongly over rated. I was excited to see the cool brews people find with the combo but I doubted it would ever be competitive. I could be wrong though and it could be the next big thing in standard.
The Perfect Deck
My official brew is mono blue. I found that in mono blue you have access to plenty of card draw to help find combo pieces and to disrupt your opponents, well, disruption. The combo is simple to disrupt with artifact hate and is easily beatable without full counterspells. I enjoy running a playset of Negate and Disallow for effective answers to the combo disruption.
Anticipate, Glimmer of Genius, and Glint-Nest Crane provide effective card draw to find our combo pieces. IF we don't have combo pieces in our hand, we can generally reach all pieces around turn 4 or 5 with the help of our card draw.
One of the biggest problems I have seen with this deck is how easily it can get disrupted. Declaration in Stone is a Wrath of God to all our Servos. Fumigate gains my opponent a crap ton of life. The only thing that can save us is our Negate. If our opponent builds up a large enough board state with G/W Tokens, then how will we kill them? Well you don't have to kill your opponent. Just win the game. Mechanized Production is the wild card in the deck. Once you get up to 8 Servos, if you can't win by attacking, drop a Mechanized Production and hope for the best. Leaving up Negate for solid protection after dropping the "you win the game" spell allows for a bit of safety.
Torrential Gearhulk fits at the top of our curve as a bomb. If you have a
Counter spell
or card draw in the graveyard, you can hold up Torrential Gearhulk and use it to disrupt you opponent or give you more card advantage.
Tips and Tricks
Aether Hub in a mono blue deck? Well lets say we have the combo, but we need the Animation Module to trigger before we can produce some 2/2's. Well you can use the Animation Module's ability, targeting the energy counter, to trigger itself and allow you to start making some Servos. This also works well with Glimmer of Genius.
Mechanized Production doesn't just have to copy Servos, it can also copy Metallic Mimic. The more Metallic Mimics you have, the bigger they each get every time they come into play. As long as you choose shape shifter, every upkeep you will get a bigger one, and bigger one, and bigger one to beat down with and win.
Mechanized Production is a pretty crazy card. Although I wouldn't do this often, if you even can, Mechanized Production on Torrential Gearhulk is pretty stupid. Every turn you get a free spell from you graveyard and you get a massive creature. If your left with no other choice, this is a good way to close out the game.
Sideboard
In sideboard we honestly want to head in a second direction. Depending on the matchup, you switch from combo to Dynavolt Tower control. It's very difficult to sideboard with a mono blue deck but depending on the matchup control fits perfectly.
Thanks for reading the article and please +1 the deck. If you plus 1 I will be sure to make more in the future. thanks.
