Skittles

[Anusien]

With how good cards like Etched Oracle are (and there might be others, but I can't think of it), is Reroute worth playing?  It also hits Goblin Legionnaire, Infused Arrows and Dimir Guildmage

[Matt]

Here's what I've been playing.

// Lands
    2  Mountain
    2  Forest
    2  Plains
    2  Swamp
    2  Island

    1  Selesnya Sanctuary
    1  Golgari Rot Farm
    1  Gruul Turf
    1  Boros Garrison
    1  Izzet Boilerworks
    1  Orzhov Basilica
    1  Dimir Aqueduct

    1  Dromar's Cavern
    1  Crosis's Catacombs
    1  Treva's Ruins

    1  Gemstone Mine
    1  Mirrodin's Core (not too happy with this)
    1  Treetop Village
    1  Wasteland

// Artifacts (6)
    1  Etched Oracle
    1  Fellwar Stone
    1  Sensei's Divining Top
    1  AEther Vial
    1  Skullclamp
    1  Bonesplitter

//Black (5)
    1  Bone Shredder
    1  Dauthi Marauder
    1  Dauthi Horror
    1  Shadow Guildmage
    1  Smother

//Green (5)
    1  Eternal Witness
    1  Skyshroud Elite
    1  Thornscape Battlemage
    1  Wild Mongrel
    1  Moldervine Cloak

//Red (5)
    1  Fireslinger
    1  Tin Street Hooligan
    1  Flametongue Kavu
    1  Hearth Kami
    1  Lightning Bolt

//Blue (5)
    1  Steamcore Weird
    1  Sea Drake
    1  Trinket Mage
    1  Rishadan Airship
    1  Man-o'-War

//White (4)
    1  Kami of Ancient Law
    1  Soltari Trooper
    1  Mother of Runes
    1  Steelshaper's Gift

//Gold (B, U, R, W, G, W)
    1  Cavern Harpy
    1  Moroii

    1  Goblin Legionnaire
    1  Lightning Helix

    1  Selesnya Guildmage
    1  Armadillo Cloak

Cavern Harpy is great with the blue CIP creatures. I almost went with Phyrexian Rager in black, but I figured the shadow guys were just better.

Because the control decks use so many creatures too, to play aggro you have to play evasion.

With ten bouncelands, Gemstone Mine is amazing. The Lairs were chosen to best correspond with the missing Dissension karoos.

Skyshroud Elite might have to change. He's "just" a groundpounder. Maybe Civic Wayfinder in this slot?

Vial is the best card in the deck, of course.

Possible considerations: Fire Imp, Rancor, Phyrexian Reclamation

[Vegeta2711]

For those of you intent on playing aggro, Mercadia's Downfall may be worth a consideration. <3 Skittles.

[Anusien]

Phyrexian Reclamation is crazy good.  It does sick things with Etched Oracle and Radiant's Dragoons, like recurring them.  It's also gotten me back FtK and recurred Drift of Phantasms and Krosan Tusker.  I have to imagine that it's suitably sick in aggro decks.

[Nomad]

Anusien - if you're going the enchantment-based route it looks you are - put in a Sterling Grove.

Reroute might be worthwhile.  There are a good number of targetted activated abilities, but I somehow doubt it'll be quite good enough.

Kowal - I might feed you the foil Goblin Legionnaire I picked up last week next time I see you.

Creature recusion - I was really pleased with Golgari Guildmage in his one test flight so far.  Although I'll admit that he actually got up to 6/6 with counters on and beat Ultima's face in.

Skittles tournament on the 12th March:
http://home.comcast.net/~princetonmagic/calendar.html

[Philatio]

For those of you intent on playing aggro, Mercadia's Downfall may be worth a consideration. <3 Skittles.

Hmmmm.  Hadn't thought of that one before.  Had thought of Price of Progress, though.  Each could be pretty ouchie.

One comment about people's manabases - since the new Karoo guildlands are all the rage, I really think that if you
are seriously going to run like 7 of them or something, you should be running the Kamigawa lands like Lantern-Lit
Graveyard; they're reprints from Tempest (Rootwater Depths, etc).  You're basically running 10 allied duals with no
drawback if you always have a way to bounce them in hand (and obviously gemstone).

[Hi-Val]

Matt- have you considered Ghastly DeMISE over Smother? It doesn't hit black creatures but it nails a lot in the format. I think of it as the black Swords. Also, you're right that No Rest is ass, I should have made it Phyrexian Reclamation instead. Good call on the shadow guys; have you thought of Dauthi Embrace? It seems potentially wicked with good hitters.

I find that both Goblin Legionnaire and Helix are underperformers. The legionnaire just costs too much mana for a 2/2 that shocks; Fire Imp does something more relevant there and there's also Ghitu Slinger. Both cost pretty much the same mana because it's not often that you have WR early. Past that early stage, I'd rather have bigger hitters. Helix is a Lightning Bolt, which isn't bad, but it's also weird mana and the secondary lifegain isn't so relevant either, as far as I have found. I could be wrong though.

I am probably going to cut Faith's Fetters for Kami of Ancient Law in my deck, even though Fetters is incredible. Enchantments are just too backbreaking. Also, I feel like Brown Ouphe is just on the verge of playability, and that is terrible and fascinating.

In my Honden deck, basically all of my green is just devoted to mana ramping. Because of this, I've found cards like Captain's Maneuver and Confiscate to be both pretty darned good.

[Anusien]

What playable morphs are there?  I'm testing Willbender right now because he does everything I want out of Reroute (hose Etched Oracle) but he also owns stuff like FtK, Fireball/Fanning the Flames, half of Thornscape Battlemage.  The only problem is that I can't think of any other morphs I want to play.

New slide list, and this one doesn't suck.  Massive thanks to Orlove who helped make the manabase work with the suggestions on transmute cuts and Diabolic Tutor.  Tutor is freaking incredible in decks that can support the BB.  The few reservations I have: Trinket Mage only has Top to fetch, Scrap seems weak.  Otherwise I'm in love with this new list, especially because Shoreline Ranger gives me a much needed finisher.
Artifact:
Fellwar Stone
Etched Oracle
Crystal Shard
Darksteel Ingot
Sensei's Divining Top
Wayfarer's Bauble

Black:
Gravedigger
Bone Shredder
Diabolic Tutor
Phyrexian Reclamation
Dimir Machinations

UB:
Dimir Guildmage
Perplex

Blue:
Drift of Phantasms
Trinket Mage
Shoreline Ranger
Exclude
Willbender

Green:
Krosan Tusker
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Eternal Witness
Uktabi Orangutan
Thornscape Battlemage
Cartographer

Red:
Steam Blast
Flametongue Kavu
Scrap
Lightning Rift
Magma Jet
Fire Imp

White:
Renewed Faith
Disenchant
Auramancer
Radiant's Dragoons
Nikko-Onna
Astral Slide

Land:
Blasted Landscape
Barren Moor
Forest
Polluted Mire
Mirrodin's Core
Tranquil Thicket
Plains
Golgari Rot Farm
Island
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
Swamp
Mountain
Snow-Covered Island
Snow-Covered Forest
Snow-Covered Swamp
Snow-Covered Plains
Snow-Covered Mountain
Drifting Meadow
Forgotten Cave
Lonely Sandbar
Remote Isle
Slippery Karst
Secluded Steppe
Smoldering Crater

[Matt]

Matt- have you considered Ghastly DeMISE over Smother? It doesn't hit black creatures but it nails a lot in the format. I think of it as the black Swords.

I've loved it in other formats but I don't like it here so much, because it won't kill a Tog.

have you thought of Dauthi Embrace? It seems potentially wicked with good hitters.

Yeahbut there's nothing I want to cut. I'd rather just pick evasion guys in the first place and not waste a slot on a non-threat, non-card advantage card. Wonder, for example, would be a lot better.

I find that both Goblin Legionnaire and Helix are underperformers. The legionnaire just costs too much mana for a 2/2 that shocks; Fire Imp does something more relevant there and there's also Ghitu Slinger. Both cost pretty much the same mana because it's not often that you have WR early. Past that early stage, I'd rather have bigger hitters. Helix is a Lightning Bolt, which isn't bad, but it's also weird mana and the secondary lifegain isn't so relevant either, as far as I have found. I could be wrong though.

Yeah I've only played one game with them, but I wanted to cram Fire Imp in somewhere. I think I'll go -Helix -Legionnaire, +Fire Imp +somewhitecard. I do like having that extra bit of reach, though.

I am probably going to cut Faith's Fetters for Kami of Ancient Law in my deck, even though Fetters is incredible. Enchantments are just too backbreaking.

Yeah Hondens are really popular. Fetters is neat I guess but the extra threat is better in aggro (like how [card]Sell-Sword Brute[/card] is a very good card in Ravnica Limited, just because decks there can be so slow).

Speaking of slow, I kind of want to find more cards which punish people for using more expensive cards, the way Winter Orb does. I know there's no Orb effect, but even cards like [card]Remand[/card] can generate ridiculous tempo. Daze won't work because so few islands, and Force Spike effects in general aren't so great when everyone has bouncelands. Maybe Snap? I do have a LOT of CIP guys, and the Karoos will let Snap generate mana.

[Nomad]

What playable morphs are there?  I'm testing Willbender right now because he does everything I want out of Reroute (hose Etched Oracle) but he also owns stuff like FtK, Fireball/Fanning the Flames, half of Thornscape Battlemage.  The only problem is that I can't think of any other morphs I want to play.

I like Willbender, I think he's still in my SB.  I used to play Whipcorder too, as he only needs single W to actually use.  Important to have a little Morph bluffing action in there.  Echo Tracer?

Blastminer and the LD Morph are in my bad LD deck.  Blastminer just isn't as good as Dwarven Miner in the face of red Honden or Granite Shards.  If Trench Wurm was 2/4...

[Hi-Val]

Matt- I like your idea of punishing people for expensive spells. I lamented earlier that Exhaustion isn't in the format, otherwise it would be an allstar. There's a card out of Mirrodin I think that's 1U and taps 3 opposing lands (early frost or something?). In the early and midgame, that's a Time Walk and I really like the ability. There's also cards like Overwhelming Intellect and Induce Paranoia that are questionable but could be interesting.

More and more I think that Skittles is fundamentally about whoever has more mana in play winning the game. The format is just slow enough that the person who gets the Sakura Tribe Elder or Explosive Vegetation off early has the best shot of winning. Thoughts on this idea?

[Cross]

If you're looking for time walk effects Hi-Va;, both remand and memory lapse are excellent in the early/midgame at providing a ton of tempo. I use remand, but am looking to add  lapse.

I was thinking about adding force spike, but the decks are mana heavy, so after the first few turns it's probably useless.

[Philatio]

Matt- I like your idea of punishing people for expensive spells. I lamented earlier that Exhaustion isn't in the format, otherwise it would be an allstar. There's a card out of Mirrodin I think that's 1U and taps 3 opposing lands (early frost or something?). In the early and midgame, that's a Time Walk and I really like the ability. There's also cards like Overwhelming Intellect and Induce Paranoia that are questionable but could be interesting.

More and more I think that Skittles is fundamentally about whoever has more mana in play winning the game. The format is just slow enough that the person who gets the Sakura Tribe Elder or Explosive Vegetation off early has the best shot of winning. Thoughts on this idea?

I would tend to think this is a valid generalization; I think every deck likes to ramp up to a fundamental turn.  Of the 3 decks I have built with real cards (I've had them a long time and they need updating - and boy I should build some more), that is definitely the case.  The control (Honden) deck just likes to zap threats and fetch lands until it can find and play some Hondens or draw spells to hit bombs like Savage Twister.  The 5/3 style beatdown deck does nothing but put lands into play and draw cards for the first 3-4 turns until it hits 4 mana and then just drops a hasted or evasive fat guy for every turn after that.  And the combo/clamp deck just plays lands, tutors for clamp, clamps a creature every other turn to find more lands until all the pieces are in place to just go off.

I know Ultima built a pretty darn good deck I've played against that was basically aggro control that was very effective.  The deck was all creatures with a high power/cost ratio for a decent clock, a good number of counterspells, lots of 2 for 1s, but also a decent amount of land destruction - like maybe 4 to 7 spells worth.  What it did really well between things like stone rain and trench wurm, and the counterspells, was suck up tempo like no one's business.  It did not dedicate itself to land d, which I do think is a poor strategy because it is an uphill fight, but used it as a tool to thwart what you mention above.

[Anusien]

I was wondering about Remand; it seems bad.  I had a fully powered Evasive Action against Rich Shay and he would hit like 15 mana and even Remand wouldn't have done anything.  I like Memory Lapse, and the potential to Hinder as a memory lapse.

The thing I've noticed is that the tempo problem is more like 2HG Sealed than Sealed.  People do nothing but mana fix until they hit 4 or 5 mana and start hitting all their 2fers and 3fers.

[Nomad]

There's also cards like Overwhelming Intellect and Induce Paranoia that are questionable but could be interesting.

I think Overwhelming Intellect is good - but really, it's massive overkill.  Metagame is typically full of random aggro, and a six mana UU spell just isn't going to save your ass against the stuff that leaked into play while you were playing enough land and mana fixing to get that thing online.  Exclude is so much more playable, in my opinion.

More and more I think that Skittles is fundamentally about whoever has more mana in play winning the game. The format is just slow enough that the person who gets the Sakura Tribe Elder or Explosive Vegetation off early has the best shot of winning. Thoughts on this idea?

Not really in agreement, the format is slow, true.  But I've been punished by Ultima's LD Aggro-Control deck with very little land to his lots, and still won because he just ran out of things to do before I really ran out of land.

One other point that's never been mentioned is the scoring system the tournaments have been run under is not DCI swiss style.  It's been:
3pts game win;
3pts match win;
1pt game draw;
1pt match draw.

If you play a deck that's just too slow, you've really got to play fast to get good points.  I kept running this way as there's a real need to give your deck a kick up the ass to get it to win...

[The Atog Lord]

Josh started me playing this format two nights ago, and I really really like this format. I like how, unlike some _other_ five color casual formats, this has no explicit banned list -- just a consistent set of rules about what is and isn't allowed.

So, then I decided to make a deck. The deck is still in progress, but the results so far have been fairly positive.

My deck, for no reason in particular adheres to the following design constraints:
- Disenchant does nothing against me.
- Swordsing a creature in the deck will result in card advantage for me.
- Every card in the deck nets card advantage.
- An exception is made for cards which a) provide mana b) cost no more than two c) they must still be card-neutral

So, here is my list, which remains a work in progress:

// Lands
    1  Gruul Turf
    1  Plains
    1  Orzhov Basilica
    1  Golgari Rot Farm
    1  Boros Garrison
    1  Tranquil Garden
    1  Krosan Verge
    1  Pinecrest Ridge
    1  Cloudcrest Lake
    1  Terminal Moraine
    1  Snow-Covered Mountain
    1  Swamp
    1  Snow-Covered Plains
    1  Mirrodin's Core
    1  Waterveil Cavern
    1  Snow-Covered Island
    1  Forest
    1  Mountain
    1  Dimir Aqueduct
    1  Island
    1  Snow-Covered Forest
    1  Gemstone Mine
    1  Snow-Covered Swamp
    1  Lantern-Lit Graveyard

// Creatures
    1  Etched Oracle
    1  Twisted Abomination
    1  Nightscape Battlemage
    1  Quirion Trailblazer
    1  Nantuko Vigilante
    1  Eternal Witness
    1  Yavimaya Granger
    1  Thornscape Battlemage
    1  Avalanche Riders
    1  Thunderscape Battlemage
    1  Flametongue Kavu
    1  Tin Street Hooligan
    1  Raven Familiar
    1  Stormscape Battlemage
    1  Steamcore Weird
    1  Nikko-Onna
    1  Sunscape Battlemage
    1  Shrieking Grotesque
    1  Radiant's Dragoons

// Spells
    1  Chromatic Sphere
    1  Barbed Sextant
    1  Wayfarer's Bauble
    1  Terrarion
    1  Sensei's Divining Top
    1  Skeletal Scrying
    1  Ribbons of Night
    1  Death Denied
    1  Far Wanderings
    1  Gerrard's Verdict
    1  Captain's Maneuver
    1  Cauldron Dance
    1  Fanning the Flames
    1  Probe
    1  Mana Drain
    1  Exclude
    1  Orim's Thunder

[That0neguy]

How do artifact lands factor into the card count?  Would you be able to play exactly 60 cards if you played a few artifact lands instead of real artifacts or would they only be half like split color cards?

Also is it worth going down to 60 cards and not be able to run some of the artifacts that are avalible as mana fixers/just plain broken?

[Anusien]

    Artifact lands don't count towards your artifact count.  So yeah, you can try to go up to 12 artifacts if you want to run stuff like thirst or cranial plating.  I tried it out, and you usually can't get enough out to support something like the affinity mechanic, but why not have a go?

[Matt]

I tried Shrieking Groteque and Fire Imp over Helix+Legionnaire. Grotesque was decent if unspectacular, but Fire Imp was a real letdown. He was barely better than the Fire half of F/I, and almost always worse than Magma Jet would have been. I definitely want more reach. For now those two slots are Grotesque and either Incinerate or Magma Jet.

Ok, I retooled it. New list:

(Same manabase, but down to 5 basics + 5 Champions duals)

// Artifacts (6)
    1  Etched Oracle
    1  Fellwar Stone
    1  Sensei's Divining Top
    1  AEther Vial
    1  Skullclamp
    1  Bonesplitter

//Black (5)
    1  Bone Shredder
    1  Dauthi Marauder
    1  Dauthi Horror
    1  Shadow Guildmage
    1  Phyrexian Reclamation

//Green (5)
    1  Eternal Witness
    1  Skyshroud Elite
    1  Thornscape Battlemage
    1  Moldervine Cloak
    1  Dryad Sophisticate

//Red (5)
    1  Fireslinger
    1  Tin Street Hooligan
    1  Flametongue Kavu
    1  Lightning Bolt
    1  Incinerate
    1  Magma Jet

//Blue (5)
    1  Steamcore Weird
    1  Sea Drake
    1  Trinket Mage
    1  Rishadan Airship
    1  Man-o'-War

//White (4)
    1  Kami of Ancient Law
    1  Soltari Trooper
    1  Mother of Runes
    1  Steelshaper's Gift
    1 Shrieking Grotesque

//Gold (B, U, R, W, G, W)
    1  Cavern Harpy
    1  Moroii

    1  Selesnya Guildmage
    1  Armadillo Cloak

New changes in bold. Reclamation hasn't been awesome yet because everyone finds a way to kill it ASAP (like Clamp).
Grotesque has been decent, not amazing. Kami of Ancient Law has been suckular underwhelming, might need to become Nikko-Ona.
The extra burn is decent, but hasn't been a factor yet. Jet is definitely better than Incinerate.
Dryad Sophisticate is AWESOME. A must-have for any aggro deck. Mongrel was a straight-up PIECE, and had to go.

I rebuilt the deck on these premises: one, since control decks have creatures to block with, all your aggressive guys NEED evasion. The only guys who don't evade or remove a blocker have to be awesome (like Etched Oracle). Two, I need more reach - hence the extra burn.

Cards I have not been pleased with: Skyshroud man, Cavern Harpy, Man-O-War, Armadillo Cloak. Cloak invites too many 2-for-1s, Man o War is bad because EVERYONE has CIP guys, Skyshroud is just a beater - he doesn't disrupt or evade, unless I get him turn one and he can "evade" in for like 4-8 while they ramp to 3 mana. And Cavern Harpy SEEMED good at the time, but I have so little I really want to bounce. 2/1 flyer is awesome, and technically repeating Steamcore or something is good, but it's just never come together.

The real question is, what would I replace it with? Dimir Guildmage doesn't do anything much, Sleeper's Robe is worse than Cloak which is itself not great...maybe Lurking Informant? Dimir Infiltrator? Psychatog is another "just a fatass" guy. Maybe Urborg Drake, or Spite/Malice.

What could sub for Cloak? Watchwolf, Wax/Wane, Seeds of Strength, Selesnya Evangel...heh, Aura Shards...Congregation at Dawn?

Some more land destruction would be nice. I have some ideas in mind!

[Philatio]

.
Dryad Sophisticate is AWESOME. A must-have for any aggro deck. Mongrel was a straight-up PIECE, and had to go.

The real question is, what would I replace it with? Dimir Guildmage doesn't do anything much, Sleeper's Robe is worse than Cloak which is itself not great...maybe Lurking Informant? Dimir Infiltrator? Psychatog is another "just a fatass" guy. Maybe Urborg Drake, or Spite/Malice.

What could sub for Cloak? Watchwolf, Wax/Wane, Seeds of Strength, Selesnya Evangel...heh, Aura Shards...Congregation at Dawn?

Hmm, Dryad could be real good.  War new cards!  I love the gems in new sets.  In the pre-ravnica metagame, that would always have been River Boa, but damn, people are just playing less basics these days with the new karoo lands.

If you want U/B with evasion, Moroii comes to mind immediately.

For cloak, I haven't playtest any of those newer cards; my vote would maybe be for seeds depending on how your deck plays.  Since you're saying it is aggro, you probably aren't keeping mana open unless you play lots of burn.  I think of seeds as not a combat trick but usually something to save guys from electrolize/bolt/etc.

An older card I like in WG is charging troll but 4 mana might be able the curve you want.  He is at least good in the board vs other aggro decks.

[Anusien]

I've found, playing against Rich and Apollyon, that sometimes fat asses are as good as evasion, since almost no one has non-damage based removal.  Shoreline Ranger has been a finisher I've been including because it can cycle and thus has some synergy with Reclamation (You'll get better results from Reclamation if you wait to throw it down until you can use it once, therefore maintaining parity).  Also, take a look at Twisted Abomination, and Abomination.

[Matt]

Heh, I'm already playing Moroii. It's one of the best cards in the deck.

[Philatio]

Heh, I'm already playing Moroii. It's one of the best cards in the deck.

Doh.  Reading is tech.

I like spite/malice a lot, but again, if you're aggro, it's just overcosted removal.  In that case, perhaps recoil?  I suppose it gets rid of blockers and annoying things for a turn, and if you were looking for more land D, it still hits karoo lands and such.  Urborg drake is okay, but having played against him, the mandatory attack always seems to be the suck.

But since you are already playing some pump, my gut says dimir infiltrator.

By the way, how does moldervine cloak treat you anyway?  No rancor?

[Anusien]

A turn 3 Recoil on their turn 2 Karoo land creates incredible amounts of tempo.  I built up a list with Rich the other day not based on 1fer land destruction a la Stone Rain, but getting massive amounts of tempo through cards like Avalanche Riders, Fumarole and Recoil.

[Matt]

Moldervine Cloak is insane. Rancor is my 7th green card, if I ever need that.

[Nomad]

Cavern Harpy SEEMED good at the time, but I have so little I really want to bounce. 2/1 flyer is awesome

The real question is, what would I replace it with? Dimir Guildmage doesn't do anything much, Sleeper's Robe is worse than Cloak which is itself not great...maybe Lurking Informant? Dimir Infiltrator? Psychatog is another "just a fatass" guy. Maybe Urborg Drake, or Spite/Malice.

Dimir Guildmage is very late game breaking.  Often find once you've had a big slugfest and pretty much cleared each other's board, a Guildmage with a lot of mana is just game ending.  Problem is, you play him early and he's just boltbait.

[Jacob Orlove]

How do artifact lands factor into the card count?  Would you be able to play exactly 60 cards if you played a few artifact lands instead of real artifacts or would they only be half like split color cards?

Also is it worth going down to 60 cards and not be able to run some of the artifacts that are avalible as mana fixers/just plain broken?

I don't think you understand how deck construction works. Your number of artifacts must be exactly equal to the number of cards of each other color you run, but there is no restriction on your lands (other than that you must have at least 60 cards). Almost every deck posted has been exactly 60 cards, with six cards of each color and six artifacts.

[Anusien]

Cavern Harpy SEEMED good at the time, but I have so little I really want to bounce. 2/1 flyer is awesome

The real question is, what would I replace it with? Dimir Guildmage doesn't do anything much, Sleeper's Robe is worse than Cloak which is itself not great...maybe Lurking Informant? Dimir Infiltrator? Psychatog is another "just a fatass" guy. Maybe Urborg Drake, or Spite/Malice.

Dimir Guildmage is very late game breaking.  Often find once you've had a big slugfest and pretty much cleared each other's board, a Guildmage with a lot of mana is just game ending.  Problem is, you play him early and he's just boltbait.

I don't know.  Like sure, he seems gamebreaking, and he won me a game I didn't deserve through decking by spending 8 mana and making Apollyon draw and discard.  The problem is that most dorks and spells in the format cost like 5 mana, so it's hard to make him draw cards and still do something relevant.  I think I'd rather Treasure Trove; at least for 4 mana it doesn't die to every removal spell ever.  Maybe it's because I was playing Slide at the time and had the manabase from hell, but I like other options more.

[Nomad]

How do artifact lands factor into the card count?  Would you be able to play exactly 60 cards if you played a few artifact lands instead of real artifacts or would they only be half like split color cards?

Also is it worth going down to 60 cards and not be able to run some of the artifacts that are avalible as mana fixers/just plain broken?

I don't think you understand how deck construction works. Your number of artifacts must be exactly equal to the number of cards of each other color you run, but there is no restriction on your lands (other than that you must have at least 60 cards). Almost every deck posted has been exactly 60 cards, with six cards of each color and six artifacts.

I'd be tempted to say that Artifact lands are just lands, and that you need to play equal numbers of coloured spells and artifact _spells_ in your deck.  But I haven't really thought about it much, and I've just drunk a whole load of beer with Phil (actually, I think I had to drink his share too), so I'd be interested in debating that further, since this is now also the rules committee...

[The Atog Lord]

Counting artifact lands as lands instead of artifacts would enable someone to work on an affinity deck. While perhaps not the strongest potential idea, it would at least open up some design space.
But, the main reason I see to count artifact lands as land, and not artifacts, is that if artifact lands count as artifacts, it could potentially allow someone to run "zero" artifacts by just using those lands.

Right now, most decks break down as:
24 land
6 of each color
6 artfacts

Now, imagine that someone runs all six artifact lands. That would give us a breakdown of:
6 artifact lands (6)
18 non-artifact lands (18)
7 cards of each color (7*5=35)
1 other artifact (1)
total = (60)

That gives us 60 cards total which, although technically adhering to the rules, really contains one actual artifact.
In other words, allowing artifact lands to count as artifacts really lets someone get around the requirement that the number of artifacts must equal the number of cards of each color.

And, of course, more artifact lands = more atog food, too. Can't forget about that.