Re-evaluating 5/3 with an eye towards Transmute Artifact

[diamond66]

The recent discussion on the Vintage forum regarding the use of Transmute Artifact in a deck specifically designed to abuse the power of Su-Chi and silver bullets has led me to reexamine my build of 5/3.  The aforementioned deck, I felt, lacked the necessary disruption and pressure to properly address the current metagame.  Combo was a disasterous first game, as was Oath much of the time.  The near complete inability of the deck to win game one, no matter how strong games 2 and 3 were post board, made me completely abandon the idea as a valid deck choice.  While I do recognize the power level that the multiple silver bullets add to the deck, the consistant need to win games 2 and 3 against several of the strongest and most prevalant deck types (Oath, Doomsday, Belcher, MeanDeath, etc.), is simply unacceptable.

What I suggest, therefore, is a hybrid of the Transmute deck and of 5/3, attempting to assimilate the finer points of both decks into one that is capable of both consistant disruption and considerable pressure.  The addition of transmute artifact to the deck will also allow for a smaller number of situation specific silver bullets both in the main deck and the sideboard.  The deck list follows, and a brief discussion of some of the Sideboarding possibilities ends the post.

Mana Base (27):
4 Mishra's Workshop
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
2 Glimmervoid
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus

Men (15):
2 Su-Chi
4 Juggernaut
4 Goblin Welder
1 Platinum Angel
1 Triskellion
1 Sundering Titan
1 Duplicant
1 Razormane Masticore

Draw (5):
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Thirst For Knowledge

Search (5)
1 Tinker
4 Transmute Artifact

Disruption/Bullets (8):
4 Trinisphere
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Memory Jar
1 Mindslaver
1 Jester's Cap

SideBoard:
2 Seal of Cleansing
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Eon Hub
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 REB
3 Rack and Ruin

Against Oath, the deck is fairly well set up main deck, with an aggresive set of threats and multiple ways to find Platinum Angel, Duplicant or Jester's Cap.  However, the game is not especially good game one, requiring a solid draw on this decks part to pull out a win.  However, post board, Transmute can come out and be replaced with the standard set of STPs and Seal of cleansing.  As a fifth card out, I would suggest Mindslaver.

The Stax matchup is good game one, and gets better with the addition of Eon Hub out of the Board.  Rack and Ruin can also be added, removing possibly the cap and the Trinispheres, especially if going second.  

The combo matchup remains relatively the same for this deck and conventional 5/3, with an early trinisphere and constant pressure often enough to take a win.  The board offers several options against combo, however they are also relatively similar to conventional builds, and therefore I will not go into specific commentary regarding them.

I chose Razormane over Karn for Several reason, and the "mirror" demonstrates this fairly well.  While this card is a liability while your opponent has welder dominance, it enables you a constant source of damage that will remove opposing welders, juggernauts, and the like, and will enable more welder tricks on your part.  However, using a Karn in this spot can certainly be justified, and it is a matter of preference and metagame that I chose to include the former over the latter.  

As for the maindeck cap and mindslavers, I felt that they were valid, powerful choices in a deck that can consistantly "tutor" for artifacts, and each one can disable a deck on it's own with a single, well timed activation.

While I have done some extensive preliminary testing, I am open to any and all thoughts, and would greatly appreciate the feedback of the forum in general.

[Whatever Works]

From my experiences playing 5/3 I find this incredibly unrealistic... It is not easy to get double blue out to transmute and the deck would have absolutely no synergy at all... and how would juggernaught be better then su-chi if you did manage to make it work??? your better off just sticking with the tinker decks that are out there that have synergy (well kinda), or to try and take another approach at it.

[Marton]

If I were to play this, I would probably test out:

-1x razormane masticore (which seem overwhelming to me with 1x triskelion and 1x duplicant)
-1x jester's cap (I don't feel it is justified maindeck. this really is a metagame call)
-1x transmute artifact (doesn't seem to have enough to sacrifice, and UU seems hard to get)

+1x wasteland (goes well with trinisphere)
+1x time walk
+1x mana vault


I like the deck idea but I feel it has too many 'bombs'. Sure the cards are good, but it feels like there is too many 'big fatties' that can't be cast reliably. It seems to me that there are 1/2 cards 'too many' that are costly mana-wise in this deck.

[BigMac]

I am puzzled. How is this version better equiped against the decks you think are hard matchups match one. As far as i can see the only difference is the added juggies. You lose the TA synergy as you cut 2 su-chi and you dont even have the brainstorm fetch combo what makes the tinker deck so reliable.

You have to understand that it is an aggrodeck and adding 4 juggernauts doesnt make it better. It makes it more suicide. Leaving you game one with less options than the tinkerdeck.

For example you have the 2 blue required for  a TA and you have a juggernaut on the table against combo. You TA it for a Jesters cap so you can take out the kill cards, or at least cripple it a bit. You do not have the 2 extra needed mana to actually use the cap untill another turn, which could mean you could be dead by then. However if you TA a Su-Chi you will perhaps get manaburn for 2 but you at least can use the jesters cap to severely cripple your TPS or Oath opponent. And with the tinker deck this could very well be performed on turn 1 or 2. It would require good hands, but with your deck the chances of this happening turn 1 or 2 are severely less.

And taking out your transmutes the second game is just plain bad. Losing searchcards is always bad. The whole point of the tinker deck was the power of TA in that deck. So taking it out and assuming your deck gets better is just plain wrong. If you add 2 Eon hubbs against Oath or stax, playing with 4 TA and a tinker means you have actually 7 chances of getting that gamebreaker out sooner rather than later.

Just stick with the gameplan og 1 of the 2 decks. Jumping on 2 plans is bad more than that it is good.

[Triple_S]

If you know you are playing against combo, you just mulligan into a Trinisphere.  And you try to win the die roll.  Because when it comes down to it, the ENTIRE FORMAT comes down to the die roll.

[diamond66]

I understand the argument about Juggernauts and Su-chi in regards to TA, however I think you are looking at this the wrong way.  I think no matter what the article says to the contrary, the Transmute deck functions primarily as a combo deck. It's general purpose is to drop whatever bomb will beat the opponent as quickly as possible.  While that is a viable strategy, it is not what I am suggesting here.  First and foremost, this deck is about the artifact beats.  You want Juggernaut and Su Chi early as they are a fast, powerful clock to put your opponent on.  Later, when these threats have been dealt with, then you go on the attack with your bullets and your Transmutes.  That is the way that 5/3 has always functioned, and that is fundamentally the way that this deck plays.  

As for the comment about TA against combo, I really don't think there is a single situation I would realistically TA for anything other than Trinisphere first.  Unless I am looking at an immediate loss and absolutely need something removed, I think the quickest and easiest way to attack combo is by removing their explosiveness, and that means abusing Trinisphere.  And to be honest, with the way that most workshop decks work, if I have either an early su-chi or juggernaut AND can also TA, it most likely means I will have the 4 mana needed to activate cap (assuming I paid 4 for one of the earlier threats.  While this is not always necessarily the case, I think that the times I will be able to use it will outweigh the times I will not.

[Moxlotus]

UU makes 5/3 cry.  While getting 1 blue isn't too bad, getting 2 sucks.  Especially if your first land is MWS and 1 of the next 2 is a Strip.  You are adding TA (which are hard to cast) and very situational cards (mindslaver...10 mana and jester's cap) and removing cards that are excellent in the current environment (CoW, StP, Seal).  You really can't hybrid the 2-ts like MadDragon-the deck is trying to do 2 things...and its doing both very badly.