Just a funky idea I had brought about by the discussion in the Temur thread and the "Species Surger" deck posted there (not sure who to credit the deck to, Hakeem? Beast? IDK, someone).



Could something like this actually work do you think? I know it is kind of janky, but I at least see a little bit of potential.

so what artifact creatures deal damage sharding sphinx summons a token surge deals more damage rinse and repeat?

Basically the idea is just to abuse Warstorm Surge and Blasting Station to ping people until they are dead.

Myrsmith should provide a sufficient source of damage via both. With Warstorm out, she pings the opponent for 1 every time we play an artifact, and those tokens she makes can also be saced to Blasting Station to ping for 1 also.

Sphinx if nothing else, tacks an extra 1 damage onto each creature we manage to get through with. Since each token made should proc Warstorm and ping for 1, and each token can be saced to Blasting Station to ping for 1.

Esperzoa is a decent blocker/beater early on, and can serve to let us retrigger Myrsmith/Warstorm Surge. With Warstorm Surge on the table he becomes 4 damage to the face a turn for 3cmc, which isn't a bad place to be.

Sanctum Gargoyle lets us get removed creatures and used Capsules back, but again serves to let us abuse Warstorm/Blasting Station. We can feel a bit more comfortable sacing creatures to Blasting Station or making less than optimal attacks knowing we can use Sanctum Gargoyle to get stuff back if needed. It helps to keep the fuel coming for Blasting Station/Warstorm/Myrsmith by keeping our hand/board stocked full of creatures to use them.

Galvanic Juggernaut is just a good cheap beater at 4 cmc (and sometimes 3 cmc with Sculptor), one that becomes a Lava Axe to the face with Warstorm Surge (again potentially for 3cmc), is an Artifact so works with Master/Myrsmith/Esperzoa/Sphinx. We should have a relatively easy time untapping it as well with Blasting Station and Myrsmith/Sphinx tokens around.

Not sure if bounce is the correct choice here since we are already running and could instead run burn which is generally better in the early game before we get set up and are likely at our weakest. I feel like Peel has enough potential with Myrsmith/Warstorm Surge that it isn't a terrible call, and I decided to go with Voyage's End rather than Vapor Snag simply for the Scry effect to give us another way to try and dig for our pieces.

Completely just pulled this out of my bum, so I don't know if it could be something or not. Won't be able to get any testing in with it tonight. Looks like it could work and be pretty fun though.

Heyho fellow planeswalkers!

So i decided to built a deck on my own (actually it's one of my very first attempts to be a 100% fair) and wanted it to be about Guttersnipe, Talrand, Sky Summoner and the abuse of Archaeomancer and Cloudshift. So here is my actual list:



what i absolutely love about this deck that you can save a creature or your whole side of the board from Anger of the Gods with Gods Willing or even Safe Passage if you have the mana open.

I'm thinking about -2 Quicken, -2 Gods Willing, +4 Vapor Snag or Voyage's End. Thoughts? mabye +3 bounce spell and +1 island.

i think you need more ways to defend the master of etherium. i don't think peel from reality and voyages end is enough, you also might want to add trumpet blast if you have a ton of tokens or to trade them. try to mash in cloudshift or gods willing and trumpet blast and this deck might be better (in my opinion).

i guess i would go like -1 blasting station, -3 peel from reality, -3 voyage's end, +3 trumpet blast(mabye just +2 and keep all 3 stations), +4 cloudshift.

you wont have answes to bombs but you need to overwhelm your opponent fast or you'll lost with almost all artifact decks. they lack some really good cards. we need more than just master of etherium to make artifact a thing!

i haven't played any artifact deck yet so my suggestion might make the deck even worse

Normally I would agree with you, but this isn't built to be a more traditional Artifact deck. My Esper Artifact deck posted in the Esper thread is more along those lines (being closer related to the more established Artifact aggro decks like TS and Raffinity).

The goal here isn't so much to overwhelm your opponents early on. The idea behind the deck was to be more combo oriented. Of course the deck can still potentially win by dropping a ton of tokens followed by a lord effect (aka Master), but that isn't what we are really going for here.

The deck is basically looking to stall out games with those early tokens until we can stick our combo pieces (Warstorm Surge+Esperzoa/Myrsmith/Sphinx/Gargoyle, or Blasting Station+Myrsmith/Sphinx/Gargoyle) at which point we just burn our opponent out, or start nuking creatures to establish board control UNTIL we can afford to burn them out.

I feel like something like this could work, and it is at least somewhat different than the more traditional Artifact builds people (myself included) have made/played previously.

Get rid of the 2 mountains and add 2 more islands. You only run 2 total cards that need and they both cost 6 cmc so no point in dropping an early source. If you really need more then run Crumbling Necropolis instead.

=-+


This is a fair point. With only 2 cards we could maybe even drop the Mountain count down a bit lower, but I think we still want to run as much as we can, since the whole basis of the deck was built around the idea of Warstorm Surge, so we most certainly want to be able to cast it whenever we have it in hand.

I do feel you are correct that those sources really don't need to be Mountains though, since we have no early game. Crumbling Necropolis doesn't seem like a bad idea.

So it seemed like folks really enjoyed the effort and the post put together by Mixayn over in the main portion of the DotP forums and therefore I figured I'd step up my game and copy some of the ideas s/he used in my presentation of this deck.

The Idea

Of course I soak up as much DotP as I can and therefore enjoy tuning in regularly to Hakeem928's youtube channel to see some good quality DotP decks in action (and of course pick up tips/tricks along the way). Recently Hakeem featured his version of the cloudshift combo which centers around:



The main focus is to cast cloudshift onto the archaeomancer so that when it re-enters the battlefield, it can return the cloudshift that just got sent to the grave. Meaning you can repeat the process infinitely as long as you have the available mana to keep casting it. Then you find cards that allow you to abuse this 'enter the battlefield' combo. Typically this is inserted into a defensive/control style shell that allows the player the time to find the particular combo pieces and protect the combo as they 'go off'. If you watch Hakeem's matches, the deck works quite well and does exactly what it's suppose to do. The videos got me to wondering if there was another way to take advantage of this combo (or more appropriately, if there was another shell that could take advantage of this). The thought wasn't entirely original but I decided this could work quite well in a sac/steal shell (and since I hadn't seen it yet in the forums, I figured this variant was worth exploring). If it is somewhere in the pages of decks on the forums then - my bad. Don't I have yolk on my face?!?! Regardless, I'm going to continue on like I'm a special snowflake.....

The Deck

Now don't get me wrong, I still included the token generation theme which will allow you to build an army and just alpha strike your opponent. These 'bosses' are:



But now we could also abuse the token production with:



The cloudshift/archeomancer/station combo allows us to use up those other pesky tokens that just sit around and can't attack but didn't get sacrificed to blasting station when they first came into play. For example Goblin Rabblemaster is in play and you let the token be created but don't sac it, then swing with Rabble and the token(s) to get the +X/+0 bonus. Now you can bounce the Archaeomancer which counts as a body re-entering the board which triggers the Blasting Station allowing you to get in the tap/sac/untap step. This will give some value/reach at instant speed and still let you get your Rabble bonus. This in conjunction with a token generator will allow for two creatures (or 2 triggers) to come in and let you eat up any additional/unused tokens you have in play. This gives some flexibility in growing an actual board state without losing out on Blasting Station triggers and allows for some instant speed shenanigans (similar to say - Raise the Alarm).

We can also include:



Which pairs quite nicely with both Blasting Station and Cloudshift. Steal a dude, beat down with it and then sac it to Station. Or if you'd prefer, steal a dude, beat down with it and then blink it with Cloudshift and keep it. I will say that in my testing, I stole a Banisher Priest, blinked it and then exiled the opponents last blocker to allow me to swing for lethal. Good times (sorry if that was you!)

The Cloudshift combo also allows for some pretty impressive draw.



Add in any token generation on top of the combo and you run out of mana quick (well you run out of mana quick with just the combo but what-evar). Yes you need for Cloudshift and everything dies to removal etc etc blah blah blah. This doesn't have to sit around long to get the card advantage you need and my suggestion is not to cast it 'shields down'. The draw potential does allow for Chasm Skulker to get quite big, quite fast. Just don't forget to 'crack' him with blasting station to get a bazillion triggers.

All these 'show piece' cards above where the core of the deck idea. Everything else is meant to produce additional tokens and fuel/compliment this theme. The one strange duck; Traumatic Visions. It is there as a '25th land' (as I was told ) that can be blinked back from the grave for a late game/clutch interrupt. Honestly I'd like to have a 2nd one but the cut is probably Baneslayer Angel to fit it in and I just don't want to give up that card. I already had to cut Stormbreath Dragon which was hard (yes I know these are in every deck that everyone plays but it's because they are so dang good. They just win games and therefore just good tech to include them).

Please note that this is quite a busy deck (anyone who's played a Blasting Station deck will know this). There is a TON of triggers and decisions that take place and you will need to be considering the game phases, stack and zones at all times throughout the match. You will also have to turn OFF auto resolution to ensure you can properly use all these triggers (I'm assuming most folks know this but better to be safe than sorry). The deck is a lot of work (as are most Station decks) but it surprisingly satisfying to micro everything.

The Legend I sure hope someone gets the man, the myth, the legend reference here instead of thinking I'm some sort of pompous arse





Special thanks goes out to Hakeem. I've been picking his brain for a little while now and he's made several suggestions that you currently see in the list.

I hope folks give it a spin and I'd love to hear feedback/thoughts.

Oh and all the tap lands are tri-lands. Just because of the one thread in the main forums area AND because it drives folks like Hakeem crazy with their OCD. Muahahaha!

elk

So I did take the deck for a spin. I will say I have built two of my own blasting station decks and played other people's as well. What distinguishes your deck is that it is very very focused on token production, with a lot of synergistic cards and the ability to run away with the game.

I can't say I have ever seen a decklist that includes young pyromancer, chasm skulker, rabblemaster, talrand, and mentor all in one. These are basically the most annoying and powerful cards currently available in the meta. This is because they can run away with the game over a number of turns, if left alone. The sheer number of token producers ensures that some of them should survive. The late game is very strong with archaeomancer / cloudshift potentially drawing you a ton of cards or creating a ton of tokens. The deck potentially has the answers for nearly any situation and reasonable draw to help find them, with the ability to recur key spells via archaeomancer.

That was the good. The bad is the inverse of synergy - overreliance on a few key cards. Blasting station does amazing things but you won't always draw it. Cloudshift can keep your token producers alive but you won't always hit the land drops to make that happen. Act of treason is your only answer to big creatures, and even then you need blasting station or cloudshift for it to be a permanent answer. The deck is very consistent at producing tokens, but that isn't always enough to win. Rabblemaster is enough of a threat to win all by himself, but other than that the token producers are generally slow to generate board position for their cost. I mean it is clearly a combo deck and it is fine if you want to build it that way, but I prefer to have a plan "B" for when I do not draw blasting station.

From my perspective, the prime cuts would be chasm skulker, archaeomancer, and some of the cloudshifts in favor of a few more robust cards with an immediate board impact - Brimaz, triplicate spirits, ogre wardriver etc. There are just far too many cards that do nothing or are very weak the turn you play them. If you are ahead the deck will spiral into an out of control card advantage machine, but if you are behind it is too difficult to regain the initiative.

Other than that I think your mana could use a little switching. I realize you want plains to use cloudshift multiple times per turn, but you have got a lot of blue cards in this build. 7 cards with UU in their cost is a lot. I would suggest either -1 plains +1 island or add an azorius gate or two.

Also +1 points for post formatting, although a minor gripe is that I prefer to view decklists sorted by mana cost, not "type" or "favorite band" or whatever.

now if only you formated the deck planner in a way that was easy to read like by color or by cmc

Thanks HenWen for spinning the deck and on the feedback! I wanted to look at a few of your comments in a bit more detail:


The over reliance is the combo. It's what the deck is attempting to do repeatedly. Find the combo pieces and abuse them. The second sentence is the downside. The deck isn't specifically meant to be just for blasting station but the deck jumps up a notch in effectiveness when it does show up. Primarily though (I guess this would be the plan B you mentioned) is the win with tokens idea. Over flood the board and keep swinging wide. That leads to your next comment:


and that's a problem. If the deck can't win with a buttload of tokens, than it's falling short of the mark. The standard cloudshift combo uses Talrand and Bone-Wand and I went Talrand and Pyromancer. I realize the Pyro isn't putting out evasive creatures nor is it putting out any decent sized ones but in my testing it was usually putting out enough of them that it generally didn't matter (I just flooded the board and went wide). If you weren't finding that, than it may require tweaking. Before I start to tweak though, may I inquire as to how many games you ran the deck and what sort of decks did you end up facing? It would help for tweaking sake (as in where you getting brick walled by decks just as wide or too much removal or just some big fatties? Was it evasive damage you couldn't chump etc)

I snipped this just for the sake of the comments above (hopefully I was addressing this point). but it does lead into the next comment:


Archaeomancer and Cloudshift are at the heart of the deck so they have to stay maxed. Chasm on the other hand was a late addition. It's not too bad a card especially if it can grow and in conjunction with Station it's quite powerful. Having said that, it can be a let down too. Originally this was a Negate slot which gave the deck some overwatch protection for the token generators but if the 'plan B' with tokens wasn't powerful enough to win just based on the numbers game, this could translate into some form of help for it. Possibly a Trumpet Blast or maybe a Raid Bombardment (Trumpet being a good finisher and Bombardment being great pressure that can still let me sac the tokens after). There is also the potential to add back in Stormbreath Dragon which is always a game winner.

On the same note you touched on with mana. Yes there are several sources but generally you only need 2 blue sources to cast and at 12 sources, it should be able to be found (you most likely aren't casting Traumatic Visions nor are you putting down multiples of Talrand and I'd assume you aren't putting down multiple Archaeomancers in a turn). White is the repeating source that can be an issue if not available which is why it was favored so high. Having said that, the one thing I've found in my testing; even at 24 lands, is that the deck somehow manages to not draw enough (even with all the draw potential). I swear I'm being biased when I say it but I blame RNG (any other deck at 24 lands I seem to flood )

I know that HenWen also touched on this but I figured I'd get ya both in one shot. I agree with it looking odd and I do typically post the planner in different appearances (if you check any of my other deck posts you'll see...honest...you'll see...really... ) but I put it in this 'mode' specifically because it was a combo style deck. I liked that it separated it out into the pieces of the combo so it would be easier to see what it would be doing or how I was considering it when it was built. Just a little attempt at some flare (which apparently failed )

Again thanks for the feedback. It's always great to receive.

elk

Elk - Archaeomancer / cloudshift is very strong. With 5 other cards it will create a token, with 2 other cards you can draw a card every time you 'shift the 'mancer. And I can see that both cards add utility other than just that combo - cloudshift is useful for dodging removal and for making threaten effects permanent. But I think it is too slow as the primary support for your token producers.

Let me just give one example from a game I just played. I am playing against the AI piloting my boros token deck. The AI goes first with turn 2 command. I have pyromancer, raise the alarm, blasting station, and archaeomancer in hand, which is a pretty solid start for this deck. I cast turn 2 pyromancer. The AI goes turn 3 rabblerouser, and follows up with mentor and back to back triplicate spirits. I am behind, and everything in the deck requires several pieces to work. I go turn 3 blasting station and turn 4 raise the alarm to kill the AI rabblerouser. I had access to some good cards including act of treason, cloudshift, and archaeomancer, but I did not have the mana it would take to keep up with the AI's token production.

Given a few turns to set up by casting archaeomancer, drawing a few more plains, etc. obviously your deck would have outdone the boros token setup. Archaeomancer/cloudshift is a combo that requires a lot of mana to work, although I had all the necessary pieces this game I was way behind the AI in token production, by 10 to 3. The AI had nothing but tokens at the end while I had a whole bunch of slow and powerful dudes on the board. The AI had 0 cards in hand while I had cloudshift, another pyromancer, archaeomancer and talrand in hand - all cards which have basically no impact on the board the turn they are played.

The card pool for Jeskai is obviously totally different than Jund. My best starts generally come from rabble rouser and blasting station, and it is probably the same in your deck. But the runner up would have to be sprouting thrinax. Four blasting station triggers the turn it is played is usually a board wipe. I would like to add Jeskai late-game potential into my Jund pile, and add Jund stability to your Jeskai pile.

so is it just me or does blasting station act a little weird? shouldn't I be able to pause inbetween it's untap triggers? or am I just going crazy

@ HenWen - Lets be honest here...Boros tokens; even piloted by the AI, is one of the best decks in the game atm. As much as Blasting Station can munch boardstate, comparing a start to that sort of deck is a bad example. Also consider the start you described for the AI. Outside of a mirror match, most decks would have a tough time stabilizing against that (unless you hit an early Anger of the Gods or happen to be running some sort of Fog deck). There are some details missing like if the AI went T4 Mentor, then did it swing with the Rabble? In the end though it's a bit moot point since you're playing the AI. The AI is great for testing draws, mulligans, consistency etc but typically not for actual play (it makes way too many terrible mistakes, plays in a set/predictable pattern and draws the nuts way too frequently...no seriously...it rarely ever misses land drops, always has an answer card, knows it's cards several deep in it's deck, knows your hand and several cards deep in your deck etc etc etc...it can be brutal for gauging any sort of testing).

Regardless, it's the reason I was looking for details on your runs. Sometimes you're just outmatched or have a bad match up. Your example is a perfect case of this. Sometimes it's other factors like flood/screw, misplays, not enough testing etc. Sometimes it means the deck needs work/tweaks or sometimes it just means the deck is a smouldering pile. Cloudshift is a valid combo deck and as my first post indicated, is typically in a defensive/control shell allowing the person time to find all the pieces and protect the pieces (and themselves) while they do it. This was just another way to try and abuse that infinite combo. It's not going to be a top tier deck by any means (not many will be at this point - now it's just looking for decent/playable/fun) and the indication you made in your first post implied you were having some success at certain points which means the deck is at least playable. With some work, modifications and testing it should turn out to be 'optimized' giving it the best chance to be successful. That's all I can hope for.

Also keep in mind that cloudshift/mancer in this deck is infinite tokens, infinite station triggers, infinite draw and infinite blocking (mana depending and assuming they don't have trample in the case of the blocking reference). I get that it costs a bit more but it's hard to get that sort of value out of many other combo cards in our pool.

As an update, I ran +2 Raid Bombardments for -2 Chasm Skulker and -1 Act of Treason for +1 Traumatic Visions. Visions just helps ensure fixing more often and I'm still drawing Treason enough to be useful. Raid Bombardment has been interesting and think it has merit. I even swung with my archaeomancer to get the trigger before I cloudshifted it back.



Go into your options and ensure that Auto Resolution is turned off. As long as it's turned off, you should be able to pause between triggers to activate station again.


elk

I'm pretty sure I turned tht off... I'll check later

Why not work in 1 bone wand?

I think you could get by with 3 archeomancers too.

It did have 1 bone wand originally. It was dumped though. I don't agree about the archaeomancer cut. It wouldn't make sense to limit the point of the deck.


elk

You still have 20 spells for the triggers currently anyway. While I totally see the argument for it, I don't think 1 archeomancer is going to be missed much. Not to mention generally you wont really ever need more than one. I also feel like 1of the wand could be really helpful here in a number of the matches that I can foresee the deck struggling in. I would also say that for my personal tastes and experiences, the stealing strats are just not reliable enough and I would encourage shooting for other options in those slots too. I really wouldn't feel comfortable ever running all 4 personally.

after all it's up to you what to change and what not to. everyone who like to play your deck is free to change whatever he wants. i don't agree with bonewand too - it's one of the slowest win cons this game has to offer. it can be strong, no doubt but to make it really good you need archaeomancer and cloudshift. and 3 cards to have is something you dont want to have. i'd rather take a banefire than a wand unless i play a hardcore control deck wich would make bonewand pretty awesome.

i haven't played your deck at all yet because right now i focus on my own decks. do you have mana problems? i could see a -2 skulker +2 visions if need be.