The In the Lab articles are a series of texts that speak about innovative strategies that could work perfectly in a defined metagame. Given the current meta, filled with Survivals, Vengevines, Goyfs and such, Transformers (as I like to call it) seems like a fun but solid deck based on the milling strategy. Wait, what? Milling? Did that ever work? All those questions get their answers in the article, that covers almost every aspect of a deck design: History, Maindeck structure, Mana sources, tutors, creatures, etc.. Sideboard options, and finally 10 sample hands and how they were played.
I really hope you guys enjoy this bite of freshness:
[Article]: In the Lab - Legacy Transformers. By Jordi Amat
Cheers!
piZZero - Jordi Amat
Cool article and a really fun deck.
I can't help but wonder why you don't run force, it's not like you can't support it.
I'm also curious about the Champion, isn't something like Thopter Sword a better plan B? it's in colour and you have tutors for it and it takes up less space.
I think a lot of your tutor targets are a little redundant like meekstone and ensnaring bridge, why run both?
Are answers to problems like pithing needle really better than catch all bounce spells or something? you are the proactive one who can win at any time, why sit back and play a controlling long game?
I think it would be pretty easy to trim some cards and just run +4 Force +2 Thopter foundry, and +1 Sword. I think that would give you a way stronger deck.
I think the shell and engine and main idea are really cool and strong, i think it just needs some tweaking.
Thanks a lot for your comments.
The deck is on a very Beta stage. I'm sure it can be improved a lot and there's plenty of room for that in this deck. As you said "Why not run Force of Will?, Why not run Thopters/Sword? Why running Champions?, etc...". Personally, I treat this deck (as you said) with a very proactive approach. It can win you the game any turn, any time. BUT, a deck also needs to be able to recover from a bad situation (lost too many spells to multiple counterspells, or got couple lands destroyed, etc...), and for that I like cards like Ensnaring Bridge, Meekstone or Etched Champion. Speaking of which, EC (same initials as Eternal Central, so that's a +1 xD) has won me several games thanks to the excellent evasion he has. I aso thought of the possibility of running 1 single Sword of Fire/Ice to speed up the beat down with champions if needed.
If you desire, we can open a thread to talk about the deck, improve it and discuss possible options. I'd love to see more Transformer lists!
Very nice deck. Looks a lot fun!
How does it deal with a deck that SnT decks that run 4 Emrakul though?
Thanks.
Super Bizarros Team. Beating everything with small green dudes and big waves.
He addresses that in the article.Originally Posted by ScatmanX
I can see 1 Tormod's solving the problem of 1 Emrakul.
Can't see how he deals with 4...
Edit: Oh! Not on the article, but on the comments! Thanks for pointing that out.
Super Bizarros Team. Beating everything with small green dudes and big waves.
Why wouldn't it take care of all of them? They all go into the graveyard from one activation and trigger at the same time, then you nuke them with Crypt.
Cool deck Jordi, I definitly see it improving. Can't wait to see pictures of this deck pimped out :)
I worked on something similiar in June of this year with a team mate. The big problem was lots of creature removal, a lot of counterspells, faster combo, and progenitus/Emrakrul (much easier to get around). Thanks to the downswing of combo, the most popular decks having less and less removal, and decks with lots of counterspells often losing, the decline of fatty decks/Natural Order somewhat, and the errata of TA to not be a 2:1 if countered this deck has much more potential than 4 months ago.
My biggest critique is that I'm not sure if I would ever play 4 of anything legendary unless it won me the game.
This errata pisses me off. Nature's Claim, Disenchant, Naturalize, Qasali Pridemage, et al. now counter it.
Yes and no...before the sac was part of the cost so any counterspell 2 for 1'ed you. While now an artifact destruction card will cut off one option if you have multiple artifacts in play you can still get something.
If you want to open a thread go for it, if you could provide a link here though as i mostly just visit this part of the forum.
Etched champion does evade well but so will thopter tokens, and they will be a faster clock and pad your life total better, other than the casting cost, to me it looks like a strict upgrade, i just don't see 2/2 beats being a very good plan B, though a SoFI would help with that, i'm not sure if that's really the path you want to go down, as you can't equip it if you have a painter in play =(
I agree that you need some answers in here, i'm definitely not advocating no answers, i just think that you shouldn't have redundant answers or so many of them even if you have lots of ways to find them, i think Meekstone and Bridge do the same thing, and one is clearly better than the other.
I've done the following changes to the deck and it's even more sick :D
-4 Etched Champion
-1 Meekstone (even though I love this card due to the low cost it has and the ability of Trinket mage to fetch for it)
+3 Tezzeret the Seeker
+1 Voltaic Key
+1 Sensei's Divining Top
Voltaic Key is awesome while in play and it allows pretty cool tricks with Top and Monoliths. And the Tezzeret the Seekers are the nuts in the deck! They can be easily played on turn 2 and fetch absolutely anything. And it's a true plan B of the deck. On the mid/late game, Untap artifacts and get the horde of artifacts to do the job for you.
I'm still not convinced yet about Thopter/Sword as we are adding another 2 card combo here but as a plan B. Plans B need to be easy to obtain because we probably come from a position (bad situation) where we are still recovering from.
Tezz seems like a fine plan B, and helps a lot with plan A, it is probably better than Thopter, nice thinking on that one.
Key will need some testing, i'm thinking it will be fine when it comes up naturally but probably something you never want to tutor for.
I haven't tested the matchup, but it looks like aggro decks like zoo will crush you. Especially if they play pridemage. Have you considered wrath in the board?
Brainstorm without fetch lands seems sketchy.
Nice deck btw! I like the basic concept.
You still have 12 shuffle effects.
Turn 1 or 2 brainstorm digging for land/whatever is such a key play, that counting trinket mage and transmute artifact as good shuffle effects would be fairly misleading. Brainstorm is so important to avoid mana flood or screw, and also to get rid of spare moxes etc., which means you must have a shuffle effect.
It's easy to cut the lone (path to exile) island and the city of traitors for 2 fetch lands. I would play more lands, so cutting 1-2 cards for 2 more fetchlands would be ideal.
Have you guys considered Auriok Salvagers for this deck? 1 Spellbomb + 1 Lion's Eye Diamond and you are good to go!
I played a few games against this deck, and I must admit that it seems incomplete without Force of Will. There are enough blue cards to support it, it fits into the deck's strategy perfectly, and it's one of the strongest cards ever printed. What is the reasoning not to include this card?
Suddenly, Fluffy realized she wasn't quite like the other bunnies anymore.
-Team R&D-
-noitcelfeR maeT-
To me it seems like a terrible topdeck when you'll likely have 1/2 of your combo already in play/hand. This deck works similar to the (Vintage) Steel City Vault, where you throw bomb after bomb and if you run out of gas, then you draw7. Here you have plenty of bombs, and if you run out of gas you play a sick amount of tutors that will ensure you find more bombs. That's my theory behind the decission.
I'm sure some guys have already tested the deck, and I'd like to know their feelings about the FoW matter. Personally I never felt the need for them, and even though I've got 1,2 or more bombs countered, I've managed to win the game.
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