I love the splash of one grid and one willbreaker in thopters. Love it.

But what are the odds of hitting both? Without the combo, Grid is meh.. Willbreaker can at least do stuff with Twin Bolt and Whirler Rogue.

I might cut 1 Epiphany/1 Vial, as I like the 2 cards from Epiphany. The only other card I realized I don't have in here that most do are the Nalaar parents. I think I cut them because I was trying to keep the down to a minimum requirement.

I've tried the Reclusive Artificer, but honestly he's never been all that great for me.

The Aether Grid is cute, as well as Willbreaker. I've tried the Aether Grid a few times, and I've been absolutely destroyed by it once. It's one of those niche cards that at the right time and place is absolutely devastating. Since they do nothing in multiples, it is reallly hit and miss. The Willbreaker is usually "do they have removal". He has a devastating game state effect, but the body is so weak a strong breeze just screws him. If the meta didn't have so much removal, he'd be great.

I'll figure out what I might change while at work and I'll post up another 10 games hopefully tonight.

Artificer hasn't ever set the world on fire for me either. It has performed well against me a time or two.. but when I use it, it's just meh. I'm a big fan of Chandra's parents.. they have won me quite a few games in several different lists. I'm not feeling the Aether Grid/Willbreaker thing. It's so cute, but it adds inconsistency and slows the deck. Maybe I'd like Aether.Grid if it actually won me a game or something.. but that takes like 37494 turns to do.. when I could just be attacking.

If there were more flyers, too. The fact that Thopters are "flying monkeys" and that there really are not too many flyers and even less creatures with reach make them pretty strong in the meta.

Chandra's parents...I was thinking about where I would put them when I was trying to overcome my insomnia last night (obviously, that did not help matters any). I might try and sneak them in there, but I would have to increase the mana to 24 and up the a bit to compensate.

On a side note, one thing that has surprised me the last week or so is the large amount (ok, 20-30%) of Voltron decks I've been seeing in the upper ranks on Steam. I have to assume that it is working for some people, since most of them are at Rank 35+, but against real-life people I don't use them because they are pretty easy to disrupt. For you guys/gals on Xbone, are you seeing this or is it just in the Steam meta I'm experiencing? Also, is anyone else on Steam seeing the same meta shift I am mentioning?

I have been seeing Boros Voltron decks since day one.. and lately more Orzhov. I think it's the F2P crowd running them, since most of those cards are available right off the bat. They're not scary at all.. I feel like I beat them 24/25 times. You'll know for sure if it's the F2P crowd if you see Reprisal.. since that's all they get to start with besides Angelic Edict.

I'd assume the core is the same for most of the Izzet artifact decks and we're all just variations on the filler.

So with that said, here is the 'variation' I've been testing for a while now and had some reasonable success with.





Fairly straight forward/simple deck (and before Barney can comment - Yes, that's about all I'm capable of) where I didn't go the Alchemist's Vial and Esperzoa route. I think the only odd ball that I don't see folks use/play often is the Soulblade (since ya know.. Esperzoa...). Still though, It's just fine as a 5 drop to beat down with and has the potential of being a 4th/5th Chief (extra value out of a flipped Jace too) where Esperzoa can get pretty expensive or cost tempo. Other than that, the deck uses a fair amount of draw to find your threats, beats down and uses burn for reach/removal (with Disperse being a utility catch all).


elk

edit - I'm sure I'm doing something wrong with the sheet since I've got some quotes/squiggles etc but it still looks better than what I posted before.

edit2 - updated list to include Fiery Conclusion (based on Origins - BFZ update not included ...yet)

i think you gotta axe the Soulblades and Ephipanies. The rest is really solid. Think of the fun and mayhem we can have with those extra six slots. I know I want one splash each of Reclusive Artificer, Willbreaker...so now I got four slots to play with...hmmmm

Epiphany is fairly useful to draw into threats and it's been more effective than several of the other draw options.

Soulblade is experimental but has been quite a good draw every time I've had it. I'm suggesting it's worth the spin/test before you discard it.


elk

I've already discarded the deck's creator so it doesn't matter anyway

I think Soulblade makes a lot of sense in a token deck.. it's another Lord effect.. and if you got two spells, you can really clear the way for your army of 3/3 Thopters.. 4/4s if Chief is on the board.

Soulblade is interesting and may inspire some testing if I ever get the chance again (stainless whiped out my iOS card collection). The alarm bell in my head says that most of the creatures in thopters make opponents removal bad because they go wide or create value when they etb or die, and soul blade doesn't do that. It makes an opponents bone splinters, cruel revivals and reprisals good where otherwise they are bad. I hate epiphany in this deck, you don't want to be drawing cards, you want to be killing opponents more and faster. I wouldn't be mad about 1, but not four, you don't want to spend mana trying to draw action only to draw more cards that cost more mana to try again to draw action.

Covert by that same logic you shouldn't be running Chief of the Foundry. If a creature is a removal magnet that usually means it's good.

Soulblade gets to do something Chief rarely does.. attack.

That card is garbage in thopters. But if you're doing Coverts Abbot thopters hot mess, I guess he belongs. I'd sooner play willbreaker over soul blade. He has more fun with instants and sorceries

have you tried it? or are you just calling it garbage because you've never thought to do it before?

I thought you said it wasn't about fun.. it was about winning.

How do you know it's bad in Thopters? You don't test/brew anything. How can a Lord effect be bad in a token deck? A Lord that can actually attack no less.. a Lord that buffs itself too. What else are you gonna do on turn 5? Play another Rogue/Chandra's Parents at best. Let's do some math from turn 3 on.

T3 Thopter Engineer swing for one
T4 Whirler Rogue or Chandra's Parents swing for 3 (4 if you bring ground units)
T5 Whirler Rogue or Chandra's Parents swing for 5 (8 if you bring ground units)
T6 Chief of the Foundry + Thopter Engineer Swing for 12 (17 if you bring ground units)

Now.. let's try with Soulblade on 5

Turn 3 Thopter Engineer swing for 1
Turn 4 Whirler Rogue or Chandra's Parents swing for 3 (4 if you bring ground units)
Turn 5 Soulblade Djinn swing for 3 (6 if you bring ground units)
Turn 6 Twin Bolt + Disperse to clear the path.. swing for 15 (22 if you bring ground units) even more if you have a 3rd spell.

Sounds HORRIBLE to me!

Beast has it about right. Not to mention outside of the Esperzoa idea, it's still 4 evasive power with synergy to the deck. Also regarding the removal, it's the potential 4th and 5th Chief which allows you to play your lords more freely. So yes they are removal magnets (just like the Chief) but hopefully between the Chief and Djinn you've got enough of them to have their effects last.

I'm not sure I understand the distaste for Epiphany though. I too will play out more aggressively if the hand allows it but keeping the pressure on by drawing more threats after removal/sweeps seems worth it (so it's a T5-7 type play to restock versus on curve). Single target removal does get worse with all the tokens but ensuring you get to the 4 or 5 flyers is important to create a clock. It reminds me of Mentor of the Meek in 2015. It was always in aggro decks and often would cost tempo but keeping the pressure up and your hand full of gas often outweighed that. I still think it's a better choice than the Alchemist's Vial/ Esperzoa chain. In it's worst case, it does have good synergy with Jace/Soulblade and even if you don't have an artifact, it'll still replace itself (not to mention it's more consistant draw than the other options in the deck). Now 4 copies may be too many but to date, I haven't been upset about seeing it in hand/ off the top.


elk

Oh I would suspect that Barney is considering the person who put it together..... as seen here:



Not sure why but when I read this statement, it makes me think you're talking about Disciple of the Ring versus Willbreaker. With Aether Grid and Whirler Rogue (and to a lesser extent some of the removal options) I could see some janky stuff with Willbreaker but that card seems more useful/powerful in a tap/tempo deck. I did run Disciple for a bit too and it worked fine but it did compete with Jace on the odd occasion (Jace had better synergy though).


elk

You got it, Elk, having fun with you just like we always did before these guys ever showed up

But yeah I meant willbreaker. That guy is a removal target.

And yeah, beasts ridiculous stars aligning example is exactly why you can't get romantic and think of stuffing in cards like that.

You liked it in the dumb elf conversation. Goober.