a cool interaction I haven't seen talked about.
Standard forum
Posted on Dec. 18, 2016, 2:56 p.m. by abenz419
I know that Syndicate Trafficker is a little frail because he essentially always needs you to have an artifact and threatening to protect him from the moment he's played with his 1 toughness, but I've still been kind of fond of him for whatever reason. Maybe it's because I got a play set of him from like my first 6 prize packs , lol, I don't know.
Well, I noticed something the other day that makes me want to build a deck that would be playable at my local shop. Syndicate Trafficker+Animation Module puts you in a position to protect the trafficker from damage and removal almost always. Now you do need slightly more than just those two cards, like an initial artifact to sacrifice. However as long as you have mana available you can keep sacrificing an artifact to grow/protect your trafficker while producing another artifact to replace it with the module's ability.
I'm sure I'm not the first to see this, but I feel like this makes the trafficker possibly a viable option to play at it'll be an extremely hard threat to remove with damage based removal being more popular currently. Getting your initial artifact is simple too as there are turn 1 plays that provide us with artifacts like Thraben Inspector and Bomat Courier, along with other 2 drops like Scrapheap Scrounger. It seems more of a matter of if mardu, orzhov, or rakdos would be the best color pairing option. I've also toyed around a little bit (nothing definitive) and the module works great with Drana, Liberator of Malakir as well. Leaving mana up when you go to combat and connecting with Drana means you can create a token for every counter you put on in combat. Attack with 2 creatures, pay 2 mana, get 2 tokens, repeat. If they can't answer Drana immediately your board can double in size every turn without spending any resources from your hand..... tons of value potential there as well I think.
What do you guys think? Like I said I'm sure I'm not the first to notice but it's definitely not something I've seen brought up like some of the other combos and interactions out there. Building your deck right means that simple two card combo can give you essentially a potentially ever growing and impossible to remove (barring exile) creature for 2 mana every turn..... is it worth it?
Forget Scrapheap Scrounger.
What you want is Eager Construct. Of Eager Constructs fame.
You've thought of a cool combo that I haven't heard of before. I like it.
December 18, 2016 3:56 p.m.
Seems like a pretty legit deck, it seems a lot like the B/G energy+counter decks that went around for a while but mostly died off once the meta settled. Taking it to an artifact theme from am energy one does open up a lot of possibilities. The biggest problem is it doesn't curve well... Module into Trafficker into Tireless Tracker would be best but then you lack the protection of your combo.
December 18, 2016 4:22 p.m.
I actually don't think you want to be in green. Mardu, B/W, or R/B seem like the places to be. Turn 1 Thraben Inspector, turn 2 Syndicate Trafficker, turn 3 Animation Module with mana to protect and create a servo. In games where your worried about the trafficker dying before you untap turn 3, then you turn 2 Animation Module and turn 3 Syndicate Trafficker with mana available to protect. It's a little slower but allows you to play around removal better. You also get Scrapheap Scrounger which gives you an artifact to sac that can be recurred along with the suggested Eager Construct as 2 drop artifacts. Also being in those 3 colors gives you things like Inventor's Apprentice, Toolcraft Exemplar, and Unlicensed Disintegration, etc. playing around the central artifact theme and keeping the deck agressive. Or you can go with things like the gearhulks and work parts of the mardu reanimator deck that going around into the deck. Like I said, I'm not sure which color combination would really be the best but I feel like it'll be some 2 or 3 color combination of W/B/R, whichever ends up the most consistent. Tireless Tracker is basically the only thing that comes to mind that would benefit the strategy in green. But it's also a less efficient Syndicate Trafficker that cost more because and it requires clues to grow and it doesn't actually keep the combo going with the module because the module will only trigger from Tireless Tracker when you sac a clue and it creates servo tokens. Not to mention the tracker doesn't protect itself which makes it tougher to go all in on like you can with the trafficker. Tireless Tracker is good not because it's the focus of the decks that run it, but because it provides a bunch of extra value in what are essentially these "good stuff" decks that use it. The other stuff in the deck require so much attention that the tracker essentially generates value in the background.
December 18, 2016 4:53 p.m.
wbroomhead says... #6
I threw a little something together for this, seems really neat. Fits in a Mardu vehicles shell very well.
Mardu Syndicate Module
Standard
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joshuaizac says... #2
I've never seen any of that other than with Thraben Inspector, but I have seen a pretty scary Abzan home brew clue/control deck with a couple of Marionette Masters, and some Tireless Trackers
December 18, 2016 3:23 p.m.