Hey guys, as this deck is very untested it is going into the newbie forum here on TMD...
The ideas came to me when I read the thread on starcitygames mentioning Artificer's Intuition.
I dont think this exact list is going to be optimal in the least, but It feels like a solid place to start for somebody interested in a deck based on AI...
The following is the last post I made in the thread on SCG.com
The link to that thread by the way is
http://www.starcitygames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=279436&sid=bdb1e5d13cea5aae95cbfbeac285cfa2Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 6:45 pm Post subject:
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I can say from experience that the servitor engine is just okay...I just hate having to focus on such an engine...in rivers affinity the servitor engine is almost secondary as being able to clamp other things like retreiver and even ravager is just as good most of the time (especially doing nasty things with retreiver) The servitor engine is okay sometimes though, and I can possibly see AI being used in such a manner to get multiple things...intuition gets you 3 servitors sure, but it cant grab you quite as interesting of an assortment of objects...at least not if you want them in play...
I could possibly see something running maybe 2 AI in it, with the servitor/skullclamp engine and enough other tutors to get to it somewhat reasonably...ravager/triskelion seems like a decent enough kill for such a deck, or you can go with something like staff/metalworker...or both...
The only major issue I could forsee is the mana base is going to be a little rough if you want to do this type of deck...Im bored at work so im going to go through some deck building right now...bear with me...feel free to argue any of these ideas as well, since im just at work going off my head...
It only seems logical if we are going to run one of those two kills (of course there might be others, but this is a logical first step) then we want workshops availible, to not only blast out our artifact kill cards, but be able to drop clamp servitor first turn with ease (or first turn metal worker, which is really busted)
That would immediatly take up some spots, and then we have blue to worry about
possibly something like
4 Workshop
2 Ancient Tomb
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
2 Seat of the Synod
Then maybe some city of brass or gemstone mines to let us use more tutors??? Maybe not if you want to run mono blue...but multi might be good
3 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
Then our standard artifact mana
5 Moxen
1 sol ring
1 mana vault
1 mana crypt
1 black lotus
Maybe
1 Lotus Petal
Thats 27 though, and we might be able to cut this back to saaaaay 25...
Drop the petal drop an ancient tomb or city of brass???
You can switch out the city and gemstones for islands/seat of the synod/darksteel citadel if you want too.
I like the artifact lands for their tutorability with AI...The only tricky spot comes when you want to add in wastes/strip mine....You have to ask do you want to go more aggro, or more combo with this deck...To run them we would have to alter it even more...
-1 more ancient tomb
-3 Gemstone Mine
-2 City of brass
+4 Wasteland
+1 Strip Mine
+1 Island or Seat of the Synod...
that would leave the mana base looking like
4 Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Island
1 Snow Covered Island (because when I drop this turn one and they assume gifts it will be funny...but you can run regular island if you want)
3 Seat of the Synod
9 Artifact mana sources
The question would then obviously be...is this enough blue to support the AI and probably Thirst for Knowleges, with obviously ancestral and maybe time walk...?
Our deck is starting to take shape obviously (it already has in my head, thats why I started with the mana base...)
2 Artificer's intuition
3 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Myr Servitor
3 Skull Clamp (cause hopefully we will AI or thirst into these, 4 is overkill)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Metalworker
3 Staff of Domination
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Triskelion
2 Myr Retreiver (30)
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Question marks...Probably more disruption...
then the mana base as stated above....
That might be a good starting point for testing....
On the other hand you can run something more control/combo feeling...
Dropping
-4 Ravager
-1 Triskelion (because I want two in this workshop deck to help against fish)
-2 Retreiver
which leaves us with 10 spots
we can add then
+4 Force of Will
+1 Thirst for Knowledge
+4 Brainstorm (with intuition as our shuffle effect without fetch lands)
+1 Artificers Intuition...
We would also want room for chalice of the void...and cutting the brainstorms would allow for this, the deck probably already has enough draw as it is...this leaves FoW with few pitch targets though...hmmm
That might be another good direction to take it...certainly would draw a lot of cards, but makes skullclamp more dependant on getting servitors with the AI...just a thought though, it should be hard to get to the servitors with that much draw...
Remember this is 100% NOT TESTED, and is just off the top of my head...these lists could be terrible, but could also be kinda cool...
That being said I think I like the second idea better...
that list is
Draw:16
3 Artificers Intuition
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Myr Servitors
3 Skullclamp
Stuff to think about: 19
4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Triskelion
4 Metalworker
3 Staff of Domination
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Trinket Mage
Mana: 25
4 Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Island
1 Snow Covered Island
3 Seat of the Synod
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
Total 60
As a warning this list is not tested (I cant say it enough on here) And is just something to get people started on maybe...I dont know if it is better than any existing metalworker/staff deck because I havnt tested this yet...so dont hammer me on that aspect...I would hope to get some testing feedback to know what you guys think...
I wont put up a SB as of yet, but im sure it would include some interesting artifacts to get with AI...maybe SlapJack would have some ideas here...stuff like engineered explosives and pithing needle will be there for sure though im guessing, and maybe phyrexian furnace or tormods crypt as well..there are a number of possibilities...
speaking of SlapJack (EDIT: LotusHead here on TMD.com), this deck COULD also work around the salvager kill condition, and would fit nicely into something like that deck which is already designed to utilize cheap artifacts...pyrite spellbomb and such are great here...
What do you all think of these ideas as a starting place...
Most of the ideas mentioned stem from Rivers Affinity and the Strawberry/Blueberry Crush thread here on TMD...
Ideas? Questions? Comments?
