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Thread: MonoArtifacts with 4 Null Rod

  1. #1
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    MonoArtifacts with 4 Null Rod

    Hollywood recently 5-0d with this beaut:
    https://www.mtgo.com/en/mtgo/decklis...TheHollywoodMK

    An old-school player's dream.
    Black Vise + Ankh of Mishra!
    4 maindeck Null Rod... not in Vintage, and in a monoartifact deck!!


    VicePost Prison
    Continuous Artifact
    Opponent loses all abilities and becomes a 0/1 goat


    //Lands: 24
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 City of Traitors
    4 Cloudpost
    4 Glimmerpost
    4 Wasteland
    4 Urza's Saga

    //Artifacts: 20
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Black Vise
    4 Ankh of Mishra
    4 Null Rod
    4 Trinisphere

    //Creatures: 8
    4 Lodestone Golem
    4 Thought-Knot Seer

    //Planeswalkers: 8
    4 Karn, the Great Creator
    4 Karn, Scion of Urza

    //Sideboard: 15
    1 Mycosynth Lattice
    1 Liquimetal Coating
    1 Sorcerous Spyglass
    1 Thorn of Amethyst
    1 Grafdigger's Cage
    1 Pithing Needle
    3 Torpor Orb
    2 Warping Wail
    4 Leyline of the Void

  2. #2

    Re: MonoArtifacts with 4 Null Rod

    Is there a point to the Null Rods besides being a weird meta call?

    Kinda gimps Karn into Lattice.

  3. #3
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    Re: MonoArtifacts with 4 Null Rod

    Also gimps Karn into Coating (can't activate Coating). I guess you only play those lines when you don't have Null Rod out?

    I assume its to hate out artifacts that would get around the prison (Mox, Vial, Baubles). Karn does that too though.

    4x Sorcerous Spyglass would be less suicidal and more flexible (also covers fetchlands, Thespian's Stage, M&B, other walkers). I don't see many scenarios where you want Null Rod more than Spyglass.

    Maybe it's just to show off massive cojones.

  4. #4

    Re: MonoArtifacts with 4 Null Rod

    I rarely post anymore but here we go. It's basically a straight-shot to dismantle control and combo/8-Cast/Echo-LED shenanigans. That's it. It's extremely powerful if you hit the right match-ups, get the play more than the draw, etc.

    Null Rod main won that league in every single match. If you're casting Karn with Null Rod out and using it to get Lattice, that's fine - albeit more or less uncommon to perform that play. Stick a Vise and win the game in that situation, because no one is playing anything anyhow. Null Rod isn't a "weird" meta call anymore - Legacy has devolved into a series of fast artifact mana decks online. It's the same concept behind running Leyline of the Void main: you're looking to get a leg up on certain match-ups and hose them with a combo finish - if you can find that. Null Rod operates the same architetually, except you're attacking more unfair match-ups and punishing those players by stealing game one.

    If you haven't noticed, there's a dude on MTGO (along with an army of other trophy hunters) that are spinning the wheel every round with like 10,000 trophies. People mimic by habit, including inexperienced players seeing what's winning and picking those decks up. It's old hat. If you slam a Null Rod against the lion's share of the format game one when they don't expect it, they're out of business. And that's a lot of the format.

    The deck is flawed and I know that. The sideboard needs tweaking and the lands have tension with City and Cloudpost. Other than that, there's really not much more to explain other than the fact you use Ankh and Vise to soften an opponent's life total and smash them with large beaters. Karn also turns otherwise somewhat useless artifacts into beaters.

  5. #5
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    Re: MonoArtifacts with 4 Null Rod

    Thanks for the comment Hollywood. Good meta hate for MTGO combo Leagues.

    ThrabenU video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFMrQbEXuJU
    2-3

    I think the deck has more potential than the video shows. Phil often took slow lines over proactive lines. Yet the deck lacks removal to come back from bad board positions, so it needs to be in the proactive seat. Maybe you'd play those games differently.

    In Round 1, Trinisphere seems more important than Chalice @ 1 (even if they are Depths, Crop Rotation won't win in 1 turn through 3sphere, so you could play Chalice next turn). In game 2 he doubles down on the same gamble, knowing the > 40% chance of Allosaurus nullifies his play. OTP Vise into 3sphere seems like the better line. Then after 3sphere, T3 Lodestone Golem seems much better than Wasting Bayou and doing nothing for 2 turns. Golem amounts to even more mana denial, a proactive clock, and still hedges against Boseiju. Game 2 seemed winnable with a more proactive approach.

    Round 4 G2 same thing. Could go T1 Vise T2 3sphere to ride that Vise train longer (playing Ankh T3 instead, at 2 higher life, knowing opponent is still forced to play out lands). I thought that even before seeing the Force of Vigor, which really punishes not playing 3sphere first. 3sphere would mean no FoV, no Reclaimer + Liberator next turn, more Vise damage... A completely different G2 position that could have recovered instead of conceding at 19 life.

    In Round 2 vs Delver, boarding out cheap pressure (Ankh) and keeping 20x 4CMC.dec seems wrong against Daze+Wasteland. Board out Karn TGC instead? It's so slow. In game 3, I'd play that Lodestone ASAP instead of going all-in on Saga vs Meltdown. I think Phil is too used to playing low-curve Saga decks, where you can just go all-in on Saga and don't strand 4s in hand. It seems like the Delver matchup could be more favorable if played differently postboard.

    Overall the curve seems crowded at 4, leading to cards stranded in hand. Especially if you board out Null Rods or Ankh. Awkward when the lands don't cooperate to make 4 mana quickly.

    Maybe cut some 4s for earlier proactive cards (Nettlecyst? Or even Tangle Wire. Also it's good to have 1 Saga target that trades positively (Relic of Progenitus, Expedition Map, or even Mishra's Bauble) so you can draw a card in response to artifact blowouts.

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