[Discussion] Transmute Artifact, what's the best build?

[juzam2]

hi, until i saw this deck in this forums i had been worked in it for some time. i had made a lot of versions but the last is the best. very agressive as i like be it.

tinker surprise juzam2 1.5

// Lands
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mishra's Workshop
3 Flooded Strand
3 Island
2 Shivan Reef
4 Volcanic Island
// Creatures
4 juggernaut
4 Su-Chi
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
4 Goblin Welder
// the deck
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Tinker
4 Transmute Artifact
2 Fire // Ice
1 Timetwister
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
2 Gilded Lotus
1 Memory Jar
1 Ancestral Recall

as you can say i included four copies of juggernaut to make very agressive deck. the oponent have a lot of creatures to kill and can't kill all. one reason for i have put juggernauts is su-chi + transmute artifact. you can start playing a su- chi, attack with it, sacrifice with a transmute artifact and play 2 creatures (juggernaut & su-chi for example)

[Zeke]

That deck is very similar to the one we are working on in my thread (Combining 5tinks and 5/3).   The two decks are smiliar, but still radically different.

[BigMac]

Instead of the crucible wasteland options i run 2 mountains, a timetwister and 1 still debatable card.

I sided out 1 mountain often which makes me believe it can go as well leaving me with 2 choices for the main deck. 1 of those will go to Jesters Cap. The other iam still thinking about 2 cards, 1 is gifts ungiven and the other is fact or fiction.

The reason i choose not to run CoW wastelands is because of 2 reasons.

1: i think you really lose some speed of the deck if you go for recurring wasteeffects.

2: i think that to many decks nowadays run basic lands. Next to that the wasteeffect comes after they use it to play something. If someone plays orchard mox oath you will lose because of the loss in speed you normally have when you do not run this random wincondition.

Yes i do see it as a random wincondition, but the same goes for losscondition because you focus to much on the control crucible aspect. Off course the combo with the fetches is great but not that often used as you will seldom TA for a crucible as there are far more usefull cards to TA or tinker for.

That is the basic difference of oppinion Bram and Rudi on 1 side and me on the other have, the rest of the deck is the same. (little sideboard differences but these also are almost the same)

[Zeke]

Well, after testing numerous versions with Juggernaut I've found that the two decks really can't come together.  So, I've gone back to plain ole 5tinks, with the following being my most recent build.

Again, some choices are because of proxying reasons.

4 Su-Ch
2 Triskelion
1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel

4 Goblin Welder
4 Transmute Artifact
1 Tinker

4 Thirst for KNowledge
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor/Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar

1 Mindslaver
2 Fire/Ice

6 SoLoMox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
2 Gilded Lotus

4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Volcanic Island
4 Island
3 Fetch
2 Mountain
1 Academy

Sideboard:
3 Eon Hub
4 Trinisphere
3 Old man of the Sea/Lava Dart
1 Jester's Cap
4 Open Slots.

Not sure what to put in the final slots, perhaps a Duplicant, though I never really felt inclined to put it in.  I really liked Jester's Cap, so that is a possiblity, as is the possiblity of 2 each Elemental Blast (2 red 2 blue).

[rvs]

Jester's Cap should definately be in the maindeck. It just wins games so easily.

[Covetous]

I'd run at least 1 MD duplicant plus definitely jester's cap.  Since you're running Mindslaver I would also run pentavus because he's obviously good with slaver and is also just great in general.  You probably don't need 2 MD trikes, so at the least I'd replace one with Mr. Dupes.  I have been brainstorming different builds of this deck, trying to fit in either juggernauts or force of wills.  I don't think there's room for either.  Same with crucible/waste.  You need lots of blue mana, so running more colorless lands doesn't help you.  The same goes with mountains--I don't really think you need them.  All you have for red spells is welder, but it's only your secondary plan so I'd still focus on the blue.  Also, you probably don't need 26 sources--you could probably cut the 2 mountains for a blue fetch and a business spell.  

So, all in all I would cut the 2 mountains and a trike for a blue fetch, a duplicant and a jester's cap.  I would also consider cutting the mystical tutor for the pentavus--with 5 tinkers, do you really need to lose card advantage to tutor one up?

[rvs]

Often, it tutors up Time Walk.

We had Pentavus in the original build, and it never worked out. You never really need it, since 1 or 2 slaver activations is enough. It seems I have to say it again:

This is a Memory Jar deck, not a Slaver deck.

[Zeke]

I love love LOVE Triskelion.  It is, by far, my favorite creature of the deck.

Especially with the mana base the way it is, and the way I can sometimes we affected by 7/10s.

I have a lot of graveyard interaction in my meta, with Welder Survival and Cerebral Assassin being two very popular decks, as well as a couple graveyard-loving decks.

Would Tormod's Crypt be a viable choice for the sideboard?

[Hanzalot]

Hi,

I just wanted to bring to your attention a slightly different build, used by Andreas Klaes to top 8 in Essen on the 4th of december.

His build differs in two ways. 1) He uses FoW, 2) He has added 3 Solemn Simulacrum which provides some extra draw when tinkered away and also gives the deck mana stability.

To make room he has cut the 2 Gilded Lotus, 2 Fire/Ice, 1 Brainstorm, 1 Transmute Artifact and a land.

Other things to notice is that he has 7 basic lands and uses Mind's Eye and Duplicant instead of Crucible of Worlds and Platinum Angel.

The list:

Andread Klaes "Greets to NL"

1 Black Lotus
1 Duplicant
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Eye
1 Mindslaver
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
3 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Su-Chi
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
3 Transmute Artifact
4 Goblin Welder

Lands (17):
4 Island
4 Mishra's Workshop
3 Mountain
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Volcanic Island
 
SB:
1 Duplicant
1 Eon Hub
1 Forcefield
1 Jester's Cap
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Shattering Pulse
1 Tormod's Crypt
4 Trinisphere

I don't know if Andreas has an TMD account. If he has it would be great to hear from him. Otherwise perhaps the other experts on this deck have something to say on this list.

And lastly, thanks to the creators (Morefling, Bram, BigMac?...) for this great deck.

Hans

[rvs]

I spearheaded the developement, and bigmac helped in the turning (and putting up the results ) - Anyway, I know Andreas Klaes and I'm sure the build is working for him, but it is by no means optimal. FoW is truly horrible in the deck since you have no cards you want to pitch, unless you want to lose. This might sound trivial since FoW would be in there to stop you from losing from brokeness of your opponent, but you should just outbreak him. Solemn is very bad since it's not a threat, and developing your mana base is not so important for an Aggro deck, especially not in T1.

Cutting Gildeds would be a mistake since they are also very good transmute targets, and they singlehandly win games against decks like Stax or other control decks that let it resolve.

Duplicant is a matter of preference. I never found it to be really useful, but i you expect a lot of Oath, it's definately a viable option.

[BigMac]

Having seen the top 8 i can understand some of the metachoices he may have made, as there was no combo, nor stax in the top 8 in a field of 23.

Also sideboardwise he had a very defensive build (REB) which means he was trying to protect his explosiveness.

To me this means taking the strong point out of the deck. As this deck is mainly aggro, speed is of the utmost importance. With that speed you can find answers you need when playing certain decks.

Many decks nowadays play welders. For welderwars fir/ice is a very viable and good solution. It provides a good solution next to trike. Duplicant to me has always proven bad, as it tends to get in the way of your own speed.

Simulacrum seems nice but it takes out the speed. Casting a gilded lotus means you can still play a thirst or do something else with that mana. Simulacrum doesnt provide the mana right away losing tempo, the card drawing comes after it goes away, due to blocking or transmuting, which menas at least 1 extra turn or you allready have 2 blue meaning you dont need the mana that bad anyways. A gilded basically (mostly casting with MWS) means you turn 3 colourless mana into 3 coloured mana which always is a good thing.

Taking out the mountains is debatable. My oppinion on the matter is just a more stable manabase as it helped me a lot in games getting me to win them as it another basic to get you by the crucible waste combo.

Not playing platinum or jester's cap main deck can only mean you dont expect a lot of combo, as without those it is almost a certain loss game 1. So when expecting a big control meta, you could choose not to play them, but i do not recommend it.

As for cutting a TA, that is just plain bad, playing with 5 tinkers is, well lets just say tinker is restricted for a reason, playing 5 of them is just plain good.

Having FoW can help but to me it is a riddle what you should want to FoW in the first place. If you FoW the duress it is to much honour for that card, and to have a FoW to disrupt a turn 1 combo, pretty hard to defeat that combo anyways when you are not starting, having a FoW first turn wont change that.
Trinisphere, let them as you play your own MWS.
Control, you are never gonna win counterwars anyways, so outdrawing them or out threaten their counters is better than to pitch a blue spell and lose an extra threat and still lose the counterwar. Countering is just counterproductive in this deck. As long as you can play a threat virtually every turn i would like to see them match that with a counter every turn.

We tried having many of those cards in the original build (as Rudi tends to hang towards control very strongly) but i dismissed the counters as being not good. If you would put in FoW and manadrain it would become more of a drain/slaver than tinker/aggro. And as this is a tinker/aggro i say no counters. Of course this is just me.

[Marton]

Hi, I have been playing a budget version of this deck for a few weeks now, and I must say that I love it. My testing led me to some differences with what most people have come up with. First, I tested lightning greaves since I thought it could perhaps work, and I wasn't expecting much of it, but to my surprise it allows for quite a few damn nasty plays. I will also make a brief mention that you CAN greaves your su-chi and still be able to transmute artifact them (if you check the rule, it the sacrifice doesn't target). I have also tried removing 1x brainstorm for 1x trinisphere, and it proved to be a very valuable choice. If I had the trinisphere in there in the first tournament I went I would probably have went higher than 7nd position, and lack of it caused me a final game loss in the second tournament. In the 3rd tournament I went undefeated after I used to current build, featuring 2 'back-breaking' trinispheres.

Here is what I am playing right now. Keep in mind that it is budget and does not features any proxy nonsense

4x mishra's workshop
1x tolarian academy
4x volcanic island
3x polluted delta
5x island
1x darksteel citadel (most questionable card -- replace by wasteland/island?)
1x strip mine
3x wasteland

1x sol ring
1x mana crypt
1x mana vault
1x grim monolith
1x voltaic key
3x gilded lotus
1x darksteel ingot (lack of power results in sub-optimal choices )

1x tinker
4x transmute artifact
1x memory jar
1x mindslaver
1x crucible of worlds

4x goblin welder
3x brainstorm
4x thirst for knowledge

3x su-chi
1x sundering titan
1x platinum angel
1x triskelion

1x lightning greaves
2x trinisphere

[rvs]

At first I had 1 Greaves in as well, since you can do some serious insanity when Jarring (You can pretty easily get to like 2 or 3 jar activations in 1 turn with Greaves), however, it proved to be a win-more card and thus was cut.
I would not recomend running a budget version of this deck, but if your meta allows you to win with that pile, then by all means, win

[Marton]

i use it mostly to protect welders, and it can also double as a win-more card to use the welders when in a memory jar casting frenzy (which, I will point out, the deck is centered around). The greaves are also quite insane on a sundering titan, which is very powerfull in my meta (I tinker for 7/10 almost as often as jar). Of course, greaves and platinum is pretty annoying. I also like the greaves because they force the opponent to stall a bit since they have to be able to deal with your possible next threat the turn you play it. Then you can just play the trinisphere and force the opponent even more to either cross his fingers and play his usual game plan, or to try and play the catchup game against you, which is hard to do with all the draw/acceleration the deck packs.

[BigMac]

Protect welders from what. In a normal metagame the worst you can see is fire/ice and StP. So they get rid of 1 welder, you get another or a big critter that will bash them around.

As Rvs said, we tried the greaves in our original build, it just didnt cut it in the end. Looking at the metagame the greaves are only worth the play mid to late game. Whith this deck you have either won allready or lost allready, there mostly is no inbetween, so a mid to lategame card is dead card early on.

If i can choose to play a Su-Chi turn 1 or a lightning greaves and a welder (MWS mox ruby, which is allready pretty good) i would still go for the Su-Chi probably because if your opponent plays combo he is on a very tight clock (turn 3 slaver is very possible), if it is against drainslaver, he also is on a very tight clock. Playing the greaves and the welder, you have an active protected welder turn 1 with nothing in the yard and a manaburn.

I admit that a turn 1 welder is a good play and often done so, but wheather it is with or without a lightning greaves, nothing to weld yet so it just is a 1/1 haste critter with possibilities in turn 3 or 4. Lets just say that the greaves are subobtimal.