KYLE'S DRAFT DECK #1 ARTIFACT DECK DENIAL

PLANESWALKERS OF MIDGARD PRESENTS

MATT'S DRAFT DECK #1 ARTIFACT DECK DENIAL

With our first draft of Fulcrum: Godfall there was a lot of colors splashing about but Kyle found the tricks in Black and Blue to be too difficult to pass up; combo'd with some hefty hand taxing and meaty creatures, Kyle had what it took to get ahead of the competition.

P.S. I wanted to call his deck "Greedy Card Shark"

Alrighty, so this time I wanted to downplay the black creatures (since they had some severe creature advantage in the first set that was a little irritating-- a lot of black and green decks floating about), but this is less about black effects, a couple of black fillers, and one big black planeswalker than it is about blue aritfact creatures and nasty enchantments. The way to win with this deck is card advantage; make you opponent dump their hand, keep drawing cards, and you'll have enough threats down that they can't deal with them all. The only thing that kept this deck from steamrolling any opponent is some strong anti-artifact support in two opposing green decks; leading to a final record of 6 wins and 4 losses.

Kyle told me he really despised the Rust Monsters and, while I rather like them, I can see how some cards related to them might need to be nerfed to allow strategies like the ones in Kyle's deck to keep from getting derailed for cheap mana.

CONTAINS 40

PLANESWALKERS

(1 Planeswalker: 1 Black Planeswalker )

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? I think Kyle might've splashed another color but, when you get a planeswalker in a draft, you kind of usually feel obligated to build you deck around that card and the best thing about The Black Knight; you don't have to build your deck around him, though wither creatures help boost his usefulness, what makes him nice is his nasty removal and the ability to drop a bomb of black wither creatures. He is an all around threat and a card that has left a good first impression at a glance in practice.

CREATURES

(15 Creatures: 2 Artifact Creatures, 4 Black Creatures, 9 Blue Creatures (5 Blue Artifact Creatures, 4 Artifact Creatures))

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? A weird little card that gives black and blue ammunition to fight their own colors and it has tribal going for it; its a nice bit of filler at the very least and in limited is a really flexible and nasty card that fits in the dower deck of woe.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? This card is a swell hammer, without the artifact Achilles Heel of being artifact, and with some Pirate to help boost your card advantage in a pinch.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? As this deck's control is limited to card advantage and most relies on creatures to get to the endzone, Eel Raider gets an enemy creature off the battlefield, begins swelling up, and helps clear the opponent's defenders so your theft and pirate cards can land blows.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? Kyle helped me with the final development of blue and helped give this card its special niche; its easy to see why he'd be attracted to building a deck around the color he helped giving input to and it certainly paid off with quick drops that nail your opponent's effectively.

Deck contains. 3.

Reasons? A full set of these would've been even better but three is enough of a reason to run blue; the two drop card is one of the most competitive creature slots in the game and cards in that niche need to be special; a couple of Greedy Drones are enough to give you card advantage and make your opponent's thrash about in frustration.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? And here is one of the favorites of the set, Greedy Hammerhead. His hefty body makes him ideal for gnawing away at your opponent's life and hand, feeds your own hand, and, in a pinch, is capable of blocking most smaller theft/pirate creatures without much fuss.

ske

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? With six other artifact creatures, this makes a nice bit of potentially bulky filler to throw down after your opponent has abused their artifact removal. A 6/6 for 1 is enough of a threat to be attractive in any artifact deck in this format.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? And here we have our one extremely frustrated skeleton of the set that I, like the skeletons of the first set, have mixed feelings about. Lacrozian Legionnaire serves a good purpose in this deck of easy to remove creatures as a reusable blocker.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? With all the artifact creatures in the deck, it is easy to see the appeal of Lich Artisan, who fits well into black-artifact decks as a difficult to remove artifact buddy.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? Nullnauts are a limited crew of creatures and simply deserve to have a presence in this set, but that has made them difficult to design. Take Nullnaut Mindcrusher for instance; his destructive ability has been changed a lot to accommodate a balance between being effective but not overpowered or useless. A lot of creatures have a three or lower converted mana cost, so its useful, but it can't deal with threats bigger than itself; which makes since. Nullnaut Mindcrusher is all about being a big bully; which is what Nullnauts are.

 

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? Since there are only two ways to get land and Scout Ship is cheap, colorless, and a good blocker, his use as a mana accelerator made him a popular card at the draft (move over Pacean Farmer) and its easy to see the potential for this card to need some nerf action.

Deck contains. 2.

Reasons? A nifty and utilitarian creature that helps you keep from getting your best cards milled out; not to mention its corrupt effect (might need some nerf action in the form of mana manipulation).

NON-CREATURE SPELLS

(7 Non-Creature Spells:1 Artifact, 1 Black Enchantment, 2 Black Instants, 2 Blue Enchantments, 1 Blue Sorcery)

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? A legendary enchantment has to be able to have an instantly attractive effect and the ability to make you creatures bigger and unblockable by non-artifact creatures of a different color is quite attractive if not in needing of some manipulation here, there, and everywhere.

Deck contains. 2.

Reasons? And here is the nasty linchpin in the alternate strategy of this deck by milling your opponent; preventing them from getting the card they need to remove your threats and, being all around obnoxious, this card was an easy aid to Kyle's milling out of my deck twice.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? A nice card to round off your card advantage and prevent yourself getting milled; a nice filler and useful if it just lets you draw one card.

Deck contains. 2.

Reasons? A mixed response, but this card certainly has its place; wait to make sure your opponent has no more lands (like if they don't play one during their turn) and slap down this card to make them discard their entire hand. Making your opponent top deck is the best kind of card advantage you could hope for.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? And these Charms are already becoming a tricky thorn in my side; as I try to balance their usefulness into an artifact you can put down turn one and keep using.

LANDS

(17 Lands: 9 Islands, 8 Swamps)

CONTAINS: 9

CONTAINS: 8

And that's it, hope you like it, title pending...and if you wanna do some testing, give me a hoot and a holler.