A basis for breaking Artifacts (Blue/Red/Black)

[warble]

In order to effectively "break" the artifacts that we find in the format, a variety of "standards" have been developed.  The competition of mono-blue with blue/red, blue/red/black and blue/black/white are all valid, and it is not the purpose of this thread to delve into the intricacies of color choice.  Rather, I would like to explore both the validity and the card choice of the blue/red/black "broken artifact" basis.  A number of assumptions are made, but the most basic will be:

1) The optimal mana base is volcanic island/underground sea/fetch land.

2) Mana drain is a necessary part of "breaking" artifacts.

3) By turn 2, a minimum of 2 counterspells MUST be played or available, or the deck will lose.

4) The artifacts are sufficiently broken such that having any two artifacts with high CC is a "win".  We will also state that having one artifact with a high CC and 4 mana open is a win, because this discussion mainly branches into a control slaver discussion.

Now, on to the discussion.  The below list consists of 21 "mana" 23 "spells" and 4 "creatures.  Omitted are any broken artifacts (aside from mana production) allowing us to discuss the true basis for our deck.

Land basis:
4x Volcanic Island
2x Underground Sea
4x Blue Fetch Land
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Tolarian Academy

We have chosen the "basics" from experience.  Using Yawgmoth's Will, it is almost always optimal to have an extra black floating for Demonic Tutor, and running less then 2 Underground Sea makes "splashed black" succeptable to waste/strip and luck to such a degree that it is no longer viable.  Tolarian and Library are broken enough to win a game by themselves, and therefore "make the cut."  One notable omission is the new Boseiju tech, but as a basis we need overwhelming historical evidence that the card merits inclusion.  Therefore, this is not part of our basis.

Artifact mana basis:
5x Moxen
1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
-- > 1x Lotus Petal

The inclusion of Lotus petal, Mana crypt and exclusion of Mana vault is mainly due to emphasis on a first turn mana drain/thirst.  While Mana vault is inherently broken when combined with a goblin welder, it is Lotus Petal that allows us to run vampiric/mystical tutor.  Synergy when compared with brokenness in this instance merits going broken.  However, this is once topic that will likely spark some debate.  Having a first-turn play that can use 2 colored mana is inherently stronger then a first-turn play with only one, so we choose lotus petal.

Creature basis:
4x Goblin Welder

The only creature that has "justified" itself to break artifacts over and over and over is the goblin welder.  Both offensive and defensive, the welder not only attracts a first-turn force of will consistently, but when combined with Yawgmoth's will turns the will into a win.  We also all respect the goblin welder's massive attack power and vicious ability to render the opponent's life points in jeopardy.  Okay, maybe it is all about not having to pay any casting costs for your broken artifacts.

Blue basis:
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
4x Brainstorm
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
--> 1x Mystical Tutor
1x Tinker
--> 1x Fact or Fiction
3x Thirst for Knowledge

Note that our basis includes only 3 Thirst for Knowledges, accepting as many decks do that alternative "power blue" exists and to construct a deck that utilizes other blue draw in some (albeit rare) cases the 4th thirst for knowledge is excessive.  In almost every case the card run that costs us our 4th thirst is draw power, but to splash a bazaar (perhaps the strangest reason to cut a thirst) sacrifices must be made.  Mystical Tutor is chosen mainly because of lotus petal, to increase the blue count, and because keeping a hand with mana drain and no force is iffy, but going first with a petal eliminates the need to mulligan this hand in particular.

Black basis:
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
--> 1x Vampiric Tutor

The reason to run black is very simple, it has the most powerful tutors in the game and a card that reads "if you resolve this card, target opponent scroops his cards and complains about how broken I am"  The reason to splash black is because the strength in the early game is lacking, as can be seen by psychatog.  Duress is not seen as a basis for two reasons.  First, because skeletal scrying violates the fact that duress was seen as "the only option for this slot" and second, because duress can be a dead card in some matchups whereas misdirection/shoal does not suffer this problem and helps force of will.

Finally, I will give an example of card choices for the remainder of the cards, giving us some basis for "completion" of this deck:

3x Island
1x Underground Sea

2x Duress

1x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Cunning Wish

1x Triskelion
1x Pentavus
1x Platinum Angel
1x Mindslaver

Knowing that we have 12 cards to "choose" that are not part of the basis, is this basis optimal?  Is there a more "broken" way to construct blue/red/black?

Edit: Have --> cards that *should* meet with contention for this basis.  Please somebody object to those cards!

[Toad]

Are you trying to re-invent Drain Slaver?

[warble]

I am not trying to reinvent drain slaver.

What I'm hoping to do is create a basis whereby players who choose to play a broken blue/red/black artifact deck will feel comfortable experimenting with breaking other artifacts.

Drain slaver obviously falls into the "broken artifacts" deck category because mindslaver is really, really broken.  Sundering titan also falls into this category, as does jester's cap IMO.  However, I don't want to focus on the artifacts, I want to find a basis that disregards slaver completely (if possible) and allows for any choice of broken artifacts to work.

The first question: is this possible?  I don't know, but I'm trying!

Edit: Also, I neglected to mention the fact about goblin welder that you don't have to actually succeed in casting your broken artifacts with a welder out.  This means a welder and a mox is effectively your "win condition".  Just in case anybody forgot how strong Mr. Welder is...as IF.

[xrobx]

Hey man,
I was recently thinking that exact same thing...
I was playing around with blue, black and red, and my girlfriend asked me to make her a deck with this neat card she saw in a shop called "Jester's Cap."  I was like "Hmmm??" Then I got around to some playtesting, and basically tried to optimize something that would be simple, yet fun, and had some originality to it.  I basically came to the same conclusions that those cards that were mentioned in the above article were the optimal choices for the colors given.

Welder say merrit in any deck, because he simply is the king of artifacts.  No explanation needed.

It seems customary that there be atleast 4x mana drains and 4x FoWs in any deck these days for it to be control, yes?  

2-4x Duress simply makes this matchup better against anything but aggro, and there really isn't a large amount of competitive aggro showing its head these days in the metagame.  This helps greatly with combo matchups, as well as control, and is 1cc and easy to drop first turn for a neglidgeable card advantage.

It is of course necesarry to then include the moxen, and other artifact mana as the backbone to the manabase, and to leave it heavy blue feeling was a must.  It had to get around nonbasic hate with a drop like 'island, mox sapphire, go...'  so we keep basic land to avoid hate.  The natural selection would be fetch, and UR + UB for duals, and why not include the powerful blue academy...

Manabase is looking nice, and then I notice he mentions TfK and brainstorm, and the obvious card advantage,and synergies that exist between the two and the rest of the deck.  The importance of dropping cards in the graveyard early on to increase welder's power ever so more.
4x TfK + 4x Brainstorm

The obvious advantages of blue and black is that they provide the most efficient fetch in the game, which in any deck is great to have, so they cannot be omitted.  The tutors show their heads here, as well as FoF, Tinker, and Will, which are all simply game breaking/ending.

This pretty much is standard for a basis to blue control, with red and black.  Now the fun part.  I had to include her damn artifact...

I thought, well, this looks neat and playtested the deck with this as a primary base, and included 2-3x Jester's Cap, and an old man of the sea.

I love the idea of the win cond (creature base, because let's face it, we're basically playing aggro/control here...we use turn 1 creatures that recur damage/lock potential each turn...hence, the same effect of putting the opponent on a clock) being: 4x welder, 1xold man.  That in itself made the deck interesting, and the idea of the synergies behind ripping them with a cap, well that was just sick.

The results showed that cap proved to be as effective, if not more effective, than a slaver itself.   Yes, a slaver lock means game over, I take all your turns, blah...this basically had the same effect, but on a faster clock.  The cap allowed me to play it for the same mana cost, but the activation cost was...2 cheaper...interesting.  I quickly relized that with 2 mana, an early welder + tfk often meant a turn 2/3 cap on the field.  By this time, I would know what my opponent was playing, and may have countered/duressed multiple times.  When I swapped in the cap with the welder, I found these results and was quite pleased:

1) My opponent seemed to be playing psychatog, and ran 2 togs main deck.  Since it was only turn 4/5, he had not yet drawn into one.  I took his 2 togs, he conceded immediately.

2)  My opponent looks to be playing fish, with lots and lots of counter.  Shit, this looks like I lose if he hits 2 mana...I notice the light manabase of the deck, and note the number of lands in library left.  '4 fetches, 4 tundra, 2 island, 1 mishra's factory, 1 sapphire...'  neat...so there are really only 7 coloured mana left in his library, I can do my cap twice and I'll have taken almost 90% of his manabase...ha!  I continue to cap him, and on my turn (turn 3) I swap the mox out (tapping for mana to pay..) and tap volc to add two into my pool, i tap the welder, and eat  a moxen for the cap, which i cap him with again.  Nice...so even against a deck like fish, I can use cap effectively to immobilize the opponent.  He continued to draw into blue cards with only  a mox pearl on the table after his tundra was wasted.  Conceded after a third, then 4th cap off a few moxen/artifact mana.

I don't know if I've answered your question though man, but here is how I feel about the Ubr deck requirements:

-some sort of draw engine be needed, be it brainstorms, ak's, scryings, TfKs, gushes, facts, restricted brokeness that allows a massive card advantage (or disadvantage to opp; ie. twist, duress, etc.).  This is simple, and wouldn't make sense not to have this sort of handicap.

-the best available mana in the game, and free mana off artifacts.  Indeed, we should include welder here, along with the whole blue manabase setup.  We talked about the lands to play, and they simply are the best available.

-disruption is great, and we have amazing access to it.  We have now disruption, manabase, and draw engine.  Now all we are basically saying is, "Well, what 2-3 cards would you like to include to win with?"

That's basically what it comes down to I think...

[jazzykat]

WRT: Jesters Cap. If you are in a good position then yes you will win, but will do so with slavers normally as well. The power of mindslaver when playing against the most powerful decks is still usually greater than cap because you can usually "win" by taking one of their turns without multiple recursions.

Cap could definitely be considered vs. Oath, tendrils,dragon, and psychotog in the side board.