[Single Card Discussion] Artificer's Intuition (and lists)

[policehq]

Artificer's Intuition (Fifth Dawn) 1U
Enchantment
U, Discard an artifact card from your hand: Search your library for an artifact card with converted mana cost 1 or less, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Concept 1: MaskNought
I've posted a deck here already using this card to fetch 2 Phyrexian Dreadnoughts with Illusionary Mask that won me 4 FBB Taigas in a tournament. The report, an updated decklist (at the time, though now updated), and replies (mostly concerning an error with Misdirection) here. The concept of the deck was mostly focusing on the synnergy between Artificer's Intuition and Sensei's Divining Top, which is crazy unrealized, underrated synnergy to run wild through your deck and find what you need. The fact that Artificer's Intuition doesn't fetch Illusionary Mask is irrelevant because you can constantly look through different sets of the top three cards of your deck.

Concept 2: GrimLong
Artificer's Intuition sets up amazingly well for Yawgmoth's Will. It is easy to cast on the first turn, and on turn 2, you pay U, discard an artifact, get Lotus, cast Demonic/Grim Tutor for Yawgmoth's Will, pay U, discard, grab Lion's Eye Diamond, sac Lotus for Will, Diamond in response, replay discarded artifacts and Grim Tutor again for Tendrils of Agony. This is almost too easy (and I've found it to be faster than The Man Plan, which requires UB2 on turn 2 as opposed to U1 turn 1, UU turn 2). I know quite well, since I have an Artificer's GrimLong deck, that the more tutors you play, the less threats your opponent has to cast, but between the possibility to play this before Mana Drain and obvious disruption like Duress, Unmask, and Force of Will, you can often get your Yawgmoth's Will pushed through. My versions of the deck are outdated since I grabbed Grim Tutors while everyone else was grabbing Imperial Seal at somewhere around $20, which tells you how long it's been since I tested. My testing with that concept was limited, too, because of this discovery:

Concept 3: Judo Top
After making the Illusionary Mask combo deck, I realized that if I'm going to base a deck around Artificer's Intuition and Sensei's Divining Top, Helm of Awakening would be the superior combo piece and constructed Judo Top, a faster (in my testing experience) version of Sensei, Sensei since it does not rely at all on the massive 2UUU Future Sight. Here is the list:

1 Black Lotus
3 Flooded Strand
4 Island
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
5 Mox
2 Delta
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Academy
1 Tropical Island

4 Helm of Awakening
4 Top

4 Artificer's Intuition

1 Recall
3 Brain Freeze
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Crop Rotation
4 Deep Analysis
1 Echoing Truth
4 FoW
1 Intuition
4 Mana Leak
3 Scroll
1 Mis-D
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rebuild
1 Regrowth
1 Time Walk

Side:
1 Annul
1 DSC
3 Extract
1 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Naturalize
1 Personal Tutor
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Pithing Needle
1 Rushing River
1 Tinker
1 Tormod's Crypt

I switched the second color two Green for two reasons:
1) I found that my Demonic Tutor was usually grabbing Tolarian Academy.
2) Regrowth *usually* fills the role of Yawgmoth's Will. This sounds like total blasphemy, but generally you just need to recover a card.

The deck goes infinite with a pair of Tops and Helm of Awakening, and it has consistent turn 1-3 kills with protection.
[EDIT: This deck has consistent turn 3 kills with protection, but I meant to add that turn 1 and 2 kills are possible. Turn 1 kills at all, and Turn 2 kills with protection are unlikely, but have happened during the testing of this deck.]

1 Tropical Island - I fetch it if I have Crop Rotation or Regrowth, and Artificer's Intuition can get Mox Emerald or Lotus Petal if needed.

Deep Analysis - I found it important, recently, testing against the Ichorid decks (with Hermit Druid) and combo decks that have Darksteel Colossus, that Deep Analysis reads "target player," so I use it instead of Accumulated Knowledge. Also, it dodges Chalice and actually achieves card advantage, unlike Thirst for Knowledge, Brainstorm, Impulse, etc.

Merchant Scroll - I think everyone that has played Gifts knows the power of this card. Fetching Misdirection first turn against any deck with Blue is intimidating, aside from the fact that it is a UU1 Ancestral Recall and can grab Intuition or any bounce spell you need.

I think the rest of the card choices speak for themselves. The sideboard is largely irrelevant since it is based on my testing and tournament experience.

Concept 4: Hate (the weakest concept)
Artificer's Intuition fetches Pithing Needle, Tormod's Crypt, and Phyrexian Furnace. Mostly this is only relevant to support one of the earlier concepts and their sideboards, but it is worth mentioning.

Is everyone just overlooking this card, or have you tested it and not found it as great as I have? It confuses me to see that this doesn't see more action. Steve posted a deck pre-Top that abused Skullclamp and Myr Servitors, but neither of these cards have the synnergy with Artificer's Intuition that Sensei's Divining Top has.

I believe Concept 2 is probably the strongest use of this card, but to be honest, I'm just not strong enough of a Tendrils player to put an optimal list together and test it correctly. I know what I'm looking for in opening hands, two mana, an Artificer's Intuition, an artifact, and a tutor, and I know that goldfishing provides turn 2 kills once this is achieved. I also know that with Dark Rituals, the artifact acceleration, and the Grim Tutors, Artificer's Intuition is not *necessary* to win. It is, though, an amazing setup choice, just like Trinket Mage.

I hope someone can take Artificer's GrimLong and get it running, but I am still going to be running Helm of Awakening because going for an infinite combo involves less math and layered decisions. Besides, the current version of the deck is serving me well.

-hq

[warble]

Eek, you scoop to oath and any deck that sides in gaea's blessing.  One of the reasons peoples don't like having the one kill condition.  Future sight/top has stifle for that contingency.  Null rod game 1 will typically roll you as well as workshop because sphere of resistance makes your combo seem ridiculously expensive and chalice for 1 makes you cry.  It's not that it's hateable, it's that most decks' maindeck will take you out.  Masknought is cool because 12/12 creatures even when they cost 3 or 4 mana are still 12/12 creatures.  I see in your report you note that masknaught can do workshop injustice.  Judo top cannot do this, so it is a less powerful version of the deck.  Grim long has duress cabal therapy and sometimes both to protect yawgmoth's will.  Without those and plenty of mana you can't go of early enough to claim inevitability over a deck or the proper turn to go off (turn 3 if you protect well, turn 1 if you draw nuts).  Your claim of turn 1 wins with top brain freeze is not cool because grim long's claims to this are justified, dragon's claims to turn 2 wins consistently are justified, but the amount of mana you'd have to have to go off on turn 1 is just ridiculous.

[policehq]

Eek, you scoop to oath and any deck that sides in gaea's blessing.

1) Ancestral Recall in response to Gaea's Blessing trigger.
2) 3 SB Extract (more versatile in the metagame than Stifle), which also get rid of random copies of Darksteel Colossus, which generally mean combo, and giving them another draw phase, which is bad (except when I am able to cast Ancestral Recall or Deep Analysis). Sensei, Sensei ran Stifle in the sideboard and 1 less counter than I run now.
3) Decks side in Gaea's Blessing?

Null rod game 1 will typically roll you as well as workshop because sphere of resistance makes your combo seem ridiculously expensive and chalice for 1 makes you cry.

3 Instant speed bounce spells maindeck, 1 Mystical Tutor, 3 Merchant Scroll, 4 Force of Will, 4 Mana Leak... As in, the same bounce that Tendrils runs, with similar amount of search/draw capability, with more counters.

Testing > Irrational Theory based on inability to read decklists.

Your claim of turn 1 wins with top brain freeze is not cool because grim long's claims to this are justified, dragon's claims to turn 2 wins consistently are justified, but the amount of mana you'd have to have to go off on turn 1 is just ridiculous.

Even one of the designers of Sensei, Sensei reported a turn 1 kill. He was even using Cunning Wish to get Brain Freeze, making the kill ghastly more expensive and difficult turn 1.
I can't imagine what he had to do to achieve his turn 1 kill, since he needs UU3. My deck needs U2. Sensei, Sensei has not performed well, and I have tested this and it against various decks and concluded that this is superior. Sensei, Sensei can draw all the cards it wants to, but Artificer's Intuition gives me quality (the exact cards I need) instead of quantity.

Still, I did type the consistency of turns 1 and 2 in a misleading fashion, and that has been edited.

Personal Tutor, Tinker, and Darksteel Colossus make for a potent game 2 win in certain match-ups, but they do not fit, and are not needed, maindeck.

-hq

[kirdape3]

Go look through the archives of StarCityGames.com for Steve Menendian's article on the deck Suicide Virus.  It's a rather good version of Affinity that has 4 Artificer's Intuitions in it.

[o]

The deck goes infinite with a pair of Tops and Helm of Awakening, and it has consistent turn 1-3 kills with protection.
[EDIT: This deck has consistent turn 3 kills with protection, but I meant to add that turn 1 and 2 kills are possible. Turn 1 kills at all, and Turn 2 kills with protection are unlikely, but have happened during the testing of this deck.]

How exactly does your deck win?  2 Tops and A Helm for sure give you infinite spells for storm, but it doesn't draw the deck without Future Sight.  You just need to have the Brain Freeze in your hand?

If so, that seems rather weak to me, especially considering the other very strong choices for combo decks available right now.

[policehq]

Go look through the archives of StarCityGames.com for Steve Menendian's article on the deck Suicide Virus.  It's a rather good version of Affinity that has 4 Artificer's Intuitions in it.

I'm genuinely amazed that people reply with things like this without reading my entire post.

Steve posted a deck pre-Top that abused Skullclamp and Myr Servitors, but neither of these cards have the synnergy with Artificer's Intuition that Sensei's Divining Top has.

How exactly does your deck win?  2 Tops and A Helm for sure give you infinite spells for storm, but it doesn't draw the deck without Future Sight.  You just need to have the Brain Freeze in your hand?

Brain Freeze or Mystical Tutor or Merchant Scroll in hand, or in the top three cards of my library, or the ability to re-arrange the top three cards of my library with fetches and Artificer's Intuition itself and finding Brain Freeze. It's really not hard.

Let me reiterate that this is a card that sets up for Yawgmoth's Will just as well as, or better than, Trinket Mage and Intuition, two popular Tendrils decks now. Since I am not a Tendrils player, I wanted to show Concept 2 to the Open Forum. I mean, if I can make it work with my weak Tendrils abilities, I'm sure that Steve (who can turn Suicide Virus, which was really bad, into something he calls competitive) could break it into shards.

[EDIT: Actually, Steve did the same thing when he wasn't able to continue testing his version of Suicide Virus. He left his results to TMD to see if anyone here could break it. He also showed various Tendrils lists, even including the currently-used Draw-4 style deck and Kobolds (!).]

-hq

[AngryPheldagrif]

What do you do if they counter Helm of Awakening?

What is your plan versus Oath, aside from praying that you have not either used Ancestral, they do not counter it, they do not Duress it, and you actually see it at a relevant time?

How can 20 mana sources possibly be enough, especially since the deck is extremely vulnerable to Chalice at any number as well as Null Rod? Not to mention the likelyhood of pitching artifacts to the AI.

Using Artificer's Intuition to search out both Tops requires 1UUU and discarding 2 artifacts. How is this better than Future Sight?

[policehq]

What do you do if they counter Helm of Awakening?

Well, there are four of them, and they are easy to find. What does an Oath deck do when Oath is countered? What does a Tendrils deck do when Burning Wish/Rebuild/Yawgmoth's Will is countered? What if I counter their counter? What did Gifts decks do if Time Vault was countered, or Flame Fusillade, or after several rounds of pinging, the loop is disrupted? What if an animate spell is countered in Dragon, or worse, if the opponent is able to use the stack against the Dragon player? What if I counter their counter targeting my Helm? Well, I'll be dumbfounded.

Card X + Counterspell Y = Automatic game loss Z = Bad logic B.S. If they counter Helm of Awakening, I keep going. I counter their threats. I draw cards. I tutor specifically against their deck.

What is your plan versus Oath, aside from praying that you have not either used Ancestral, they do not counter it, they do not Duress it, and you actually see it at a relevant time?

What happens if Oath draws Gaea's Blessing?

I sideboard. Oath is not a good match-up. That is obvious. I'm testing approximately 20% wins against Oath game 1. That's awfully low, and the sideboard really addresses Oath. Even then, I just don't see Oath here.

RE: The mana base, Chalice, Null Rod
I need an Island and a Mox turn 1. Artificer's Intuition isn't the only way to get 2 Sensei's Divining Tops. Island and Mox X allows for Mana Leak, Artificer's Intuition, Merchant Scroll, Helm of Awakening, Time Walk. 5 fetches and 4 basic Islands go a long way against land hate. Chalice @ 0 let's me discard Moxen and completely not care. Chalice @ 1 allows for Merchant Scroll grabbing Echoing Truth against multiple Chalices. Chalice @ 2 happens against Stax under certain circumstances, allows Mystical Tutor, Chain of Vapor, and Rebuild. I am working on the mana-base.

Cards that are somewhat expendable are:
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Regrowth
1 Deep Analysis
This can raise my land count by 2 and add Intuition, which is important.

Just because the deck can go off goldfishing on Turn 3 consistently doesn't mean that I aim to do that every game. I know that games require playskill beyond goldfishing, and this deck does have interactive cards of its own. Combo decks that involve counters and draw engines do have late-game capabilities.

Look at the decklists from Richmond day 1 and 2, and the results Sensei, Sensei put up with Future Sight. Altogether not impressive. The combo is still powerful and has potential. You haven't put Sensei, Sensei and Judo Top up against each other against these various decks and compared the results.

I could just go on and on responding to the same arguments Steve had to face when he posted a thread on Suicide Virus, but since they are unfounded and presupposing that my only plan is to race to 2 Tops, a Helm, and Brain Freeze, it's rather useless bothering.

Judo Top works here. It's gotten me a top 8 at a sanctioned event. I beat Chalice WU Fish, 5c no-Welder, no-Wire Stax, Control Slaver, and reanimator (okay, whoopdeedoo there). I got a box of Japanese Ravnica that had a foil Overgrown Tomb. Sorry it doesn't look like it will do the trick for you and that Team Low-Rollers are not reputable enough on TheManaDrain and that South/North Carolina and Georgia do not get any attention. It sucks for me, too, because tournaments are long drives.

Some Tendrils player, please read Concept 2 in the initial post and see if you believe it could be a viable set-up for Yawgmoth's Will in GrimLong. Like I've repeated, I am not a strong Tendrils player, and I can make it work. We can forget about Judo Top. "What ifs" are annoying and apply no perspective to interactive game-play. I presented the idea in this forum because more competent players will read it and can apply Artificer's Intuition to their GrimLong decks possibly instead of Intuition or Trinket Mage. If it doesn't work, fine. Izzet Guildmage hasn't shown his face in Vintage, Suppression Field was thought to be hot, and these cards were discussed here, but didn't make the cut. No heartbreak or hard feelings.

-hq

[dicemanx]

I like your concept 1 - you create some good synergy in the deck, and your success with it at least demonstrates that the idea is viable.

However, I'm most interested in concept 2, mainly on the strength of being able to fetch two lotuses with AI. Have you actually attempted to put some lists together and try it out? The major obstacles here are deciding what business to cut from Grimlong (which might make this concept weaker than the original Grimlong), and whether AIs are anything more than just cute tricks.

Concept 3 I don't buy for a second. Any claims of consistent turn 3 kills based on a 4 card combo are frankly outrageous. This is in addition to the mana issues and vulnerability to cards like Null Rod and CotV, even if you do have bounce and counters. That just puts even greater pressure on you to find the right mix of cards. Divining Top has search power, but you ask the deck to do too much. Losing Future sight is also a severe loss here, particularly because the card could almost single-handedly win games, in addition to setting up alternate combos. I'd put more energy into the first two concepts, or to the Virus deck.

[nataz]

I remember reading your post about mask and AI and really getting excited about it. I liked the mono-blue version with kira and MisDirection, and thought it was a blast to play, however it died to a bunch of crappy hate stratigies, namely null rod + rebuild + pithing needle.

To help shore up some of the holes, I wanted to add in red for mix monkey, and then wanted to add black for confidant. This took me in the direction of a 5-color deck, which eventually lead me to a back-up plan with tendrils. A lot of the testing and theory for this deck grew out of a combonation of both your lists, and Steve's archbound virus lists, with the idea that you would play an aggro-combo route similar to foodchain gobbo's. You can either smash face with a 12/12, or you can run with a mini-tendrils + small dood beats.

I finally drooped the idea in favor of just running Oath/Combo-Oath/Suppresion Oath at waterbury (most Meh idea ever) sometime around mid-November. Here is what I eventually ended up with, and some of the conclusions that I came too. I never really got it running the way I wanted it to, but when it did work it certainly was a blast to play. Hopefully my notes can be of some use, specifically the SB plan with the idea of speed modulation (stolen from Steve M)

c/p from private boards:

Topic: I <3 synergy, I H8 combo
...
And I die to null ROd


// Worst Mana Base ever!
4 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
2 Seat of the Synod
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Vault of Whispers

// Fast Mana (I even play the suck!)
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Chrome Mox

Mana 21

// Wnzor
3 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Tendrils of Agony

// Bad opponent, Bad
2 Gorilla Shaman
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Darkblast

// FeedME semore
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Artificer's Intuition
3 Dark confidant
1 Crop Rotation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor

// I think I broke it
4 Illusionary Mask
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Life from the Loam
1 Pithing Needle
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will

// Sideboard (TBD)
SB: 4 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 3 Echoing Truth
SB: 2 Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 Pithing Needle
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt

so yea, I like. Tyler should remember an Idea i stole off the TMD boards of AI + Dreadnaught. Tops make the deck tick, but its the addition of Dredge that makes it go BOOM.

check it out, We all know the tutor power of top by now with shuffle effects. I have a billion tutors, AI, and Dredge.

also, you can dredge back art. lands to feed AI. Also nice for pulling back gemstones.

AI fetches tool box stuff like needle and EE, along with the main kill of Dreadnaught, while fueling a HUGE will later on.

Dark Confidant is sweeet in this deck, often times giveing you an extra card for zero life. At the most it will be like two life, but thats hardley ever.

plan B: Cast duress, cast cabal therp, cast will, win with tendrils b/c you have a billion artifacts in your GY.

Mox monkey adds the the cunfusion under mask, sacs to cabal, AND eats chalice. Can easily nail Null rod too, the trick is to set up crop rotation => tolarian. its actually easier then it may seem.

darkblast dredges, AND kills dark C, while of course doing the normal stuff like nailing welders and shaman to the wall.
more to come later,
peace

//////

now for the downsides of the deck
1. Chalice, big frowz. Sure, I can beat it with the mox monkey, but first turn chalice for 0 is a pain in the ass.
2. Null rod, ditto to chalice, but easier to deal with b/c it doesn't come on line until like turn two.
3. welder, annoying cause it pops dreads, less annoying cause i play needle.

same plan for removal, cept now you lean hard on tolarian academy to get shaman working.
plus, it still feels unfocused.

things I looove about it.
-ridiculous turn two when on the play. Derp, its soo easy to swing for 12 turn two.
-dark C is sooo good in the deck
- its not that hard to swing for a few, and then pop a Tendrils for like 6-10

\\\\\\

revised:
// Worst Mana Base ever!
4 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Vault of Whispers

// Fast Mana (I even play the suck!)
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Chrome Mox
1 Candleabra of Tawnos

Mana 21

// Wnzor
3 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Burning Wish

// Bad opponent, Bad
2 Gorilla Shaman
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Darkblast

// FeedME semore
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Artificer's Intuition
3 Dark confidant
1 Crop Rotation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor

// I think I broke it
4 Illusionary Mask
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Life from the Loam
1 Pithing Needle
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will

// Sideboard (TBD)
SB: Balance
SB: 1 TOA
SB: Minds Desire
SB: Mind Twist
SB: 3 Echoing Truth
SB: 2 Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 Pithing Needle
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt

//////

here is where this ended up.

the whole AI concept is interesting, both for this deck and archbound virus, but they both run into the same problem. A first turn null rod or chalice is a pain, and it is significantly hard to over come. with he rise of null rod in stax.dec, and the rise of chalice again in oath, the prob of losing the coin flip and running into hate turn 1 is pretty high.

Steve M's answer to this with archbound virus was to modulate speed. Arcbound virus is fast, but it can be even faster. If you lose the coin flip, and then lose the game to hate, you are assured to go first second game. Use that second game to modulate the cards w/in the deck to make it faster. In the arcbound virus case, add Minds desire, another cloud, fastbond, ect. In the mask.dec case you lose the 12/12's and focus more on the tendrils plan, and add in a rebuild (which is now in the SB). This allows you to hopefully race the hate in your opponents deck, by making an explosive turn one that they can not recover from

Game 2, you slow your deck down, because you are going second. Instead of adding more combo elements, you slow your deck down and add overload, naturalize, etc, to deal with the hate. Play the long game, and win on beats.

This strat. does work sometimes, but not all the time. Basically, I don't like playing on this thin of a margin.

things to learn from this deck:

-Dark Confidant is amazing, and really everyone should be at least looking into putting him in a whole series of decks. Not kidding, I can't stress this enough.

-Hybrids are interesting, and can be workable strat. for SB options, or even MD.

-Finally, Top + Card Disadvantage Tutors, + dredge mech is a very viable search engine, and something to think about when building decks in the future.

[vroman]

Concept 4: Hate (the weakest concept)
Artificer's Intuition fetches Pithing Needle, Tormod's Crypt, and Phyrexian Furnace. Mostly this is only relevant to support one of the earlier concepts and their sideboards, but it is worth mentioning.

I tried a deck like this long, long ago. Also on the list of quality targets are:
chalice of the void
engineered explosives
candle tawnos (furthers going infi w academy)
cursed scroll
avarice totem Yes! (10 mana trick fairly easy w academy = steal anything repeatedly)
my win condition was: magma mine. godawful. I also ran like 3-4 Retract. maybe a different approach could yield more impressive results.

the problem w this and any other single minded engine deck, is finding and resolving the key peice: artificer intuition.

[policehq]

I tried a deck like this long, long ago. Also on the list of quality targets are:
chalice of the void
engineered explosives
-vroman

I forgot to mention these, but they are found in my MaskNought lists. Engineered Explosives really got me out of a lot of trouble playing MaskNought and A.I.

Did you ever try Avarice Totem with Tel-Jilad Stylus and the re-finding power of Artificer's Intuition?

I forgot to mention that I also played this weird deck with The Rack and really lame cards like Tinker/Welder -> Salvaging Station, and I tested a deck at one point going for a fast Possessed Portal with 3 Servitors.

I remember reading your post about mask and AI and really getting excited about it. I liked the mono-blue version with kira and MisDirection, and thought it was a blast to play, however it died to a bunch of crappy hate stratigies, namely null rod + rebuild + pithing needle.

I found the 5c list having more power to fight hate because of the answers the other colors provides. Gorilla Shaman was absolute murder to the first mana-base, and Kira was played sometimes, and Hanna's Custody (because of Shaman) was used the rest.

I still love the deck. I play a lot of MaskNought decks, and will until Gottlieb says I can't. I have not playtested the deck with any Dredge mechanic, even though as soon as I saw Dredge I liked it for its synnergy with Sensei's Divining Top. I play Hermit Druid (sorry TMD'ers) with Ichorid, but am playing around with a transformational sb going into the old Hermit Druid/MaskNought/Sutured Ghoul deck, but that does not have Top and Intuition.

The idea behind concept #3, though, was that you have to pitch 2 less artifacts for the combo, and the synnergy is between Artificer's Intuition and Sensei's Divining Top. I'm not "making claims" with the deck; I'm posting results. Sensei, Sensei was a 4-card combo deck. It won on turn 1 and most often on turn 4, and it had less answers to hate and less counters. That's neither here nor there, since finally people have given attention to the other concepts. It's very single-minded, it may never place me a top 8 again, and it is still under-going changes. I did not play Oath, but I did win games after Meddling Mage, Pithing Needle, Chalice @ 1, Chalice @ 2, Chalice @ 0, Goblin Welder (with pitched artifacts in the grave), Force of Will, and Sphere of Resistance resolved (different games of course). Yes, hate slows you down. The deck only wins through hate by removing it, or, in the case of counters, finding the piece again and resolving it. This, very obviously, prevents a turn 3 win.

However, I'm most interested in concept 2, mainly on the strength of being able to fetch two lotuses with AI. Have you actually attempted to put some lists together and try it out? The major obstacles here are deciding what business to cut from Grimlong (which might make this concept weaker than the original Grimlong), and whether AIs are anything more than just cute tricks.

Finally! Thank you!

Yes, I have put lists together. I do not have MWS on this computer, but I can try and show some of the cards tested

1-2 Seat of the Synod
2 ESG (to accelerate A.I. without losing an artifact)
5 Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 LED
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
5c mana-base (4 CoB, 2-4 Mine, Orchards?, I think I ended with 3/3/3,which was probably too much)
1 Academy
1 Chrome Mox (usually in SB)
1 Mox Diamond (usually in SB)
Mana sources above stayed somewhere around 20.

4 Dark Rit
3 Cabal "

Disruption is something like:
2 Xantid Swarm/Defense Grid (Grid because of A.I. Swarm because of Therapy)
3-4 Duress
2-3 Cabal Therapy (dependent on Xantid Swarm)

4 Opt/Sleight of Hand/Brainstorm
4 Grim Tutor
4 Artificer's Intuition
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils
1 Burning Wish
1 Crop Rotation
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

2 Bounce (Between Chain of Vapor, E. Truth, Hurkyl's, and Rebuild)

The 1cc's:
1-2 Eggs
1-2 C.Spheres
1-2 Tops
(Usually just went with Chromatic Sphere.)

This is ~58 cards that were staple maindeck.

This testing was done before the release of Ravnica, and please remember this is just from memory that has not been active lately because of my dealings with Judo Top (I'm working on it guys. Give me a bit.). Again, I'm not a Tendrils player.

The Artificer's Intuition decks I have put together based on this concept, abusing Sensei's Divining Top:
1: Look at top three cards of your library; if you like 1, draw it. If not, continue to
U1: Discard an artifact, get another artifact so you can repeat this cycle and look at the top three cards of your library again for something juicy.
Artificer's Intuition keeps feeding itself for the cycle, and yes, in the MaskNought lists I definitely should've busted up Tendrils, because I often, very often, pitched up to six artifacts.

I tested Candelabra of Tawnos but found that it was sub-par because I was usually discarding the early artifact plays for Artificer's Intuition and thus couldn't abuse Candelabra/Academy.

The Tendrils Artificer's Intuition is based on this concept, which has nothing to do with Sensei's Top and thus I was not well-versed with the idea and where I was going (I never played DeathLong or TPS):
Turn 1:
U1 -> Artificer's Intuition
Turn 2:
UU, Discard two artifacts for Lotus and LED. Lotus/Ritual -> Grim Tutor for Yawg's Will, LED -> in response.

Thus with no other cards in hand, you'd have:
Lotus (Storm count 1)
LED (2)
Ritual/any accelerant spell (3)
Grim Tutor (4)
Yawgmoth's Will (5)
2 Discarded artifacts (7)
Lotus (8)
LED (9)
Ritual, maybe (so we'll stay at 9)
Grim Tutor (10)
Tendrils of Agony (11)

I ONLY had THIS set-up in mind when I was testing Artificer's Intuition and GrimLong. I think that avid Tendrils players could think of how to get this done better. I did achieve several wins, just because of tutors, Rituals, and the brokenness of Tendrils decks, without Artificer's Intuition.

Thanks for reading!
-hq

[policehq]

Applying some things I tested with Nataz's build of dXm (dreadnought mask), and applying maindeck anti-hate with more synnergy from Ravnica block, here is the new Judo Top deck:

Lands:
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Gemstone Mine
2 Seat of the Synod
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Vault of Whispers

Mana:
1 Black Lotus
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Disrupt:
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Chain of Vapor
2 Darkblast
2 Gorilla Shaman
3 Duress
1 Rebuild

Combo:
4 Artificer's Intuition
3 Brain Freeze
1 Burning Wish
4 Helm of Awakening
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Get it:
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Burning Wish
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Time Walk
1 Vampiric Tutor

Side:
1 Balance
1 Darksteel Colossus
3 Extract
1 Mind's Desire
3 Pithing Needle
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Tinker
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Vindicate

It's much more able to get out of a lot of tough situations, but I feel, right now, that there are too many cute tricks where I'm jerking myself with synnergy that I lose focus (e.g. Dark Confidant + Top + AI + Dredge). It's a bit slower but a lot more consistent, and it has multiple wins within the maindeck and another possibility post side.

-hq