Budget White Metalcraft

[Slycne]

It seems like the only way you could get a turn three double striking Edgewright with the Piston sledge equipped is

1) Plains, Memnite, (Memnite, Signal Pest, or Vault Skirge)
2) Plains, Edgewright, (Memnite, Signal Pest, or Vault Skirge)
3) Plains, Piston Sledge, sacrifice an artifact to equip and swing

Basicly you need to be up to four artifacts on board by turn three, which would have an above average difficulty to begin with, not to mention that all of the artifacts involved other than Piston Sledge are creatures, and therefore susceptible to removal spells.

Piston Sledge attaches for free when it's played. So you only need 2 other artifacts in addition to Piston Sledge for that turn three double strike swing.

When Piston Sledge enters the battlefield, attach it to target creature you control.

 

[XSin]

A few years back I ran a Time Spiral block Rebel deck for kicks against my mates and it surprised everyone by absolutely destroying them. The only deck at the time in our local meta that could stand up was Dragonstorm and even that was about 50/50 rate.

The best part was I never put any rares in it just because I used cards I had anyway and honestly couldn't think of anything that it needed rare-wise in that block. From memory it went something like this:

4x Knight of the Holy Nimbus [http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=118907]
4x Blightspeaker [http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=124506]
4x Amrou Scout [http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=113619]
4x Children of Korlis [http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=110525]
4x Big Game Hunter [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=134739]
4x Aven Riftwatcher [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108899]

Plus some Dawn and Midnight Charms, with a sidedeck of a few different types of rebels, mostly with various evasion like Zealot Il-Vec [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108898]

Took it to a couple of FNM's for fun and did fairly well, it's always been more fun to me to play the Rogue style decks that no-one expects, when 4 out of 5 people are running one of the 3 top decks at the time, ripped straight off the net with no alterations its hilarious to place using a deck that you made yourself for kicks for less than 10% what it cost them

 

[Salrius]

Piston Sledge attaches for free when it's played. So you only need 2 other artifacts in addition to Piston Sledge for that turn three double strike swing.

When Piston Sledge enters the battlefield, attach it to target creature you control.

Wow I can't believe I missed that, thanks for clearing it up for me.

 

[TheMusrich888]

I plan to go to a Standard tourney next week, and I have this question about Standard:

Are any cards from off-set precons, like the Duel Decks (like Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas) or Premium Decks (like Graveborn) Standard-legal?

 

[Regiment]

I have a friend who uses a very effective deck based on Pestilence. To make things worse, he plays a lot of creatures with protection from black, guaranteeing that he can clear out all of my little Humans without losing his own creatures. One of his favorite tricks is to attach Pariah to one of his creatures with protection from black, preventing him from taking any damage from Pestilence at all. I argue that the Pestilence damage is then considered white, since it is being changed by Pariah, and so it should damage the enchanted creature even if it has protection from black. Which of us is correct?

I plan to go to a Standard tourney next week, and I have this question about Standard:

Are any cards from off-set precons, like the Duel Decks (like Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas) or Premium Decks (like Graveborn) Standard-legal?

Only cards that are standard-legal anyway by virtue of being in a standard-legal set. So Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is not legal, but Zombie Infestation is.

 

[Encaen]

I have a friend who uses a very effective deck based on Pestilence. To make things worse, he plays a lot of creatures with protection from black, guaranteeing that he can clear out all of my little Humans without losing his own creatures. One of his favorite tricks is to attach Pariah to one of his creatures with protection from black, preventing him from taking any damage from Pestilence at all. I argue that the Pestilence damage is then considered white, since it is being changed by Pariah, and so it should damage the enchanted creature even if it has protection from black. Which of us is correct?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I believe your friend is actually spot on. Pariah doesn't change the source of the damage, instead it simply changes where the damage is dealt. Pestilence is still the source, hence Protection from Black is going to keep the creature alive.

614.9. Some effects replace damage dealt to one creature, planeswalker, or player with the same damage dealt to another creature, planeswalker, or player; such effects are called redirection effects.

 

[CounterAttack]

I have a small question, relating to my newly-built EDH (or Commander for you non-hipsters) WU deck.

Suppose I cast Xenograft, turning all my creatures into Humans. If I then cast Angelic Overseer later on, would it become a Human due to Xenograft's effect, and thus give itself its conditional bonus (hexproof and indestructible as long as you control a Human)?

Also, does Xenograft's effect last indefinitely, or just while it's on the battlefield?

 

[Slycne]

I have a small question, relating to my newly-built EDH (or Commander for you non-hipsters) WU deck.

Suppose I cast Xenograft, turning all my creatures into Humans. If I then cast Angelic Overseer later on, would it become a Human due to Xenograft's effect, and thus give itself its conditional bonus (hexproof and indestructible as long as you control a Human)?

Also, does Xenograft's effect last indefinitely, or just while it's on the battlefield?

Yes, I do a similar trick all the time with my Blue Illusion deck by playing Phantasmal Image as one of my Lord of the Unreals. Since he is then an illusion in addition to being a copy of Lord of the Unreal, then it gives itself hexproof and +1/+1.

Xenograft is an enchantment, so it's effect is on going for a long as it remains on the board. Same thing as say Honor of the Pure.

 

[CounterAttack]

Hmm... Xenograft's page on the Gatherer says otherwise.

6/1/2011 Creature cards not on the battlefield and creature spells are not affected.

So according to that, any creature I cast after Xenograft isn't affected by the enchantment. Or am I not reading it right?

 

[rofltehcat]

I really like this deck. And it really seems to be budget deck, as opposed to the "building on a budget" column on the MTG website. Last I checked, that guy keeps building $100+ decks.

 

[Slycne]

Hmm... Xenograft's page on the Gatherer says otherwise.

6/1/2011 Creature cards not on the battlefield and creature spells are not affected.

So according to that, any creature I cast after Xenograft isn't affected by the enchantment. Or am I not reading it right?

That's just covering the bases for when Xenograft takes effect. So if you have something that say makes all Human spells and creatures cheaper to cast, you can't apply that effect to Angelic Overseer with Xenograft. Once it resolves and enters the board it becomes a creature that is effected by Xenograft though.

 

[CounterAttack]

That's just covering the bases for when Xenograft takes effect. So if you have something that say makes all Human spells and creatures cheaper to cast, you can't apply that effect to Angelic Overseer with Xenograft. Once it resolves and enters the board it becomes a creature that is effected by Xenograft though.

Right, that makes sense. Thanks. ^_^

 

[messy]

These articles are awesome. And the discussion afterwards is pretty cool, just lurking for the moment to get as much info so when I have time to play I can merk.

 

[fauh]

Might want to include a few Origin Spellbombs / Myrsmith´s that can help activate metalcraft early and Glint Hawk needs to bring his buddy Glint Hawk Idol.

 

[Ewoc]

I didn't know if anyone had suggested it yet (because I didn't want to read EVERY comment), but what about infiltration lens? I actually have a white metalcraft deck and if you had Puresteel Paladin, you get card draw out the wazoo. A 1 drop with 1 equip and you get to draw 2 cards, YES PLEASE! It's also a tiny mind game: "Oh are you going to block that 5/3 double strike and let me get 2 extra cards in my hand or are you going to take it?" Just a thought.

p.s. Also Accorder's Shield is really nice to get metalcraft into play, but it is costly for the equip cost. So it's probably too slow for the Aggro part of your deck, if you don't get the right starting hand.

 

[ironduke88]

p.s. Also Accorder's Shield is really nice to get metalcraft into play, but it is costly for the equip cost. So it's probably too slow for the Aggro part of your deck, if you don't get the right starting hand.

was just bout to suggest the same thing. was also thinking, would it be worth adding some additional artifact creatures like snapsail glider or etched champion. Golem's heart may be helpful if you end up having to eek out some points in the long game...

Am a bit new at this, so let me know if am being stupid and why.

ps love this column, keep it up