Topic: Colors for an Artifact deck.

Hello fine people of deckbox, here is my quandary.

I love artifact themed decks, and I'm wanting to building a pretty bitchin' one for casual play.  The thing that I'm trying to figure out is if mono white, mono blue, or W/U together makes the more efficient build.  I want this deck to be able to smash a friend of mine with very expensive cards (power 9).

First, let me tell you about his deck:
He plays G/W control.  Lots of cards like Balance, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Wrath of God, etc... and has few creatures (but good ones) like Thrun, Sigarda, and a few others I can't remember.  He also plays original duals, Mox's and two Lotuses.  So far, the only thing that I've been able to beat him with are straight aggro decks.  Tribal Elves, and Goblins, to be exact.

So with that in mind, is an artifact deck viable against this type of build?  I don't mind having an expensive deck, but I'm not going power 9 with it.  As for my quandary, let me tell you what I like about each color,

White: Has dispatch, which easily becomes one of the best removal spells available.  Also Tempered Steel, which is a most excellent anthem.  Decent tutelage, good recursion, and Hanna's Custody seems like it would be good against his deck.  Also enchantment hate for his Asceticism.

Blue: Easily the best artifact tutors in the game.  Between Tinker, Tezzeret, and Fabricate, you should never be without a decent card.  Also, cards like Etherium Sculptor and Master Transmuter make it really easy to get your bombs out.

So what say you?  I'm tired of losing to this guy, and I want to beat him with something other than mindless aggro.   Thanks for taking the time to read this nonsense, and extra thanks to anybody who replies!

Tradelist - Wishlist - Profile
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Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

Well the obvious first recommendation is you want a Darksteel Forge if he plays a lot of removal, regardless of what colors you pick.
Personally I'd want to go pure colorless, but if i had to pick colors i'd say mono-blue and that would be mostly for tutor purposes. It would also allow you to make use of Memnarch to take control of his big creatures. If that wasn't enough for you, you can speed up your stealing of his creatures with Mycosynth Lattice. If you really feel like having some fun with Artifacts throw in a Quicksilver Amulet and combo it with any eldrazi or well anything over 4 mana really. Oh and if you decide to use Mycosynth Lattice I strongly recommend a Darksteel Juggernaut just because he becomes stupidly powerful.

A card I'll recommend in a sideboard but not main deck is Worldslayer mostly because it's easy to abuse it and make the game not fun. That said, as a sideboard card that is there for those times he needs to be knocked down a peg, it is useful. In combo with Darksteel forge and Mycosynth Lattice it destroys everything you don't control.

Also 2 cards any artifact deck should run are Golem's heart for obvious reasons and Blinkmoth Urn. The Urn may be a little group huggy but unless he runs a bunch of artifacts he probably won't see much use from it.

Check out this deck if you decide you need some more ideas for artifacts.

Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

Man, there is all sorts of good stuff in that post.  Thanks for the plethora of useful information!

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Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

Well, since he is playing with two lotuses, I would think playing with 4 tinker would be allowed.  Also, the artifact lands from the original Mirrodin block come in handy to splash color and as fodder for the tinker to get a blightsteel colossus out very early game.

Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

beeganator wrote:

Well, since he is playing with two lotuses, I would think playing with 4 tinker would be allowed.  Also, the artifact lands from the original Mirrodin block come in handy to splash color and as fodder for the tinker to get a blightsteel colossus out very early game.

Oh yeah, there are absolutely no format/legality restrictions with this guy.  No holds barred.

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Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

Forgot lotus petal  those will speed up a deck pretty well.

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Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

While they do speed up the deck I'd prefer either something like Silver Myr that gives me a body on the field and mana, or cards like Gilded Lotus that give me more mana even if it takes a little longer to get them out. While there is something to be said for the tempo boost Lotus Petal brings to the field, it is a single use mana source.

It should probably also be noted that I'm mostly an EDH player, so my bias against Lotus Petal may be more because of the singleton build of EDH decks. After all a single free mana amidst 100 cards is not a good return as opposed to several copies in a deck of 60 cards.

Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

Ah, but lotus petal is a great target for Tinker, which can turn that petal into a blightsteel colossus.

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Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

Good point, wouldn't have thought of that. Mostly because Tinker is banned in EDH so aside from knowing it is an artifact tutor it isn't really on my radar.

Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

I had a deck that used tinker to get Blightsteel's older brother darksteel colossus out.  Turn one usually was this.

seat of the synod or any other artifact land
lotus petal
tinker sacrificing the artifact land and bringing out darksteel

After the Blightsteel came out, I was not allowed to play that deck because it was usually game over on turn two with an 11/11 infect trample on the board.

Last edited by beeganator (2013-05-11 11:33:23)

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Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

Darksteel Colossus is an awesome card as it is devastating even in EDH. I was strongly advised against it for my artifact deck, mostly because with Mirrorworks and a Conjurer's Closet in my deck it ends games too quickly. Especially when you throw a Darksteel Juggernaut in the mix. Mirrorworks the first one and then keep hitting him with conjurer's closet and mirror works for stupidly overpowered creatures and more mana than you can use with a Blinkmoth Urn and another one from Mirrorworks.
I need to find a good mana sink artifact. Preferably something i can pump mana into to generate counters or tokens. A myr, thopter, or golem generator would be perfect as they would lead to even more mana to sink into tokens. Only one i can think of is Myr Matrix, anyone else know of another that you don't have to tap to use?

Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

But I do want to end the game as quickly as possible.  I want to not just win, but utterly destroy this guy for gloating every time his $3,000 deck beats my $200 one.  Tinker plus Blightsteel sounds like just the ticket.

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Re: Colors for an Artifact deck.

Then by all means run Darksteel Colossus it is one of the most aggressive cars i've seen that wasn't an Eldrazi or Marit Lage