Ensnaring Bridge in the Antiquities War Deck

[kombatkiwi]

6 Mana is way too much and the affinity effect doesn't really do anything once you already have 6 mana
The plus ability is strong but overall this card seems worse than both Artifice Master and Agent of Bolas

The real new War of the Spark spoiler for this deck so far is the new Karn (imo)

Karn, the Great Creator {4}
Activated abilities of artifacts your opponent controls cannot be activated
+1 Until your next turn, up to 1 target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness equal to its converted mana cost
-2 You may choose an artifact card you own from outside the game or in exile, reveal it and add it to your hand
Starting Loyalty: 5

While the 'animate artifact' ability is not as good at attacking as the DOM Karn ability to make constructs or AOB making artifacts 5/5, it does give you the option to destroy your opponent's 0 cmc artifacts (Chrome Mox, LED, Mox Diamond, etc). Sadly this is not very good because all of these cards are already disabled by the passive. The main upside to this card is the wish effect. Unfortunately it is not like Mastermind's Acquisition also letting you search your library, but there are plenty of good SB options like Ensnaring Bridge and Trinisphere. The other funny thing that I saw someone suggest on discord is that you can add Mycosynth Lattice to your hand from your SB which is like an I-win button when combined with the asymmetric Null Rod passive

Edit: oops I lost track of where I was and basically posted this in 2 threads by accident
I think discussion of the Awar deck should just move to the Tez thread

[FTW]

I don't understand why you would want to get rid of the Ensnaring Bridge in the deck. Abyss doesn't stop the opponent from killing you the turn after you play it, Bridge does. Bridge can be found with Antiquities War when you're desperately digging for it. If you're worried about dis-synergies with Antiquities War, look at the three main situations involving the two:

1. Bridge is in play, you're hellbent, and your opponent has some smol bois threatening lethal (Death+Taxes, Empty the Warrens, GW, Elves, etc). You topdeck AW. In this case, you use War to dig for Explosives/Ballista/etc since your opponent probably had enough creatures to chump the AW Ult anyway. Bridge is a good card cause it's keeping you alive.

2. Bridge is in play and your opponent has a big beefy boi in play (Gris/Emmy/Marit) that can't attack. You topdeck AW. In this case, you've hopefully been sandbagging at least one card in your hand, because when you play AW you'll get at least 4 more cards by the time it pops (assuming you don't wiff, also not taking into account Planeswalkers/Thoughtcast). If you still didn't have enough 5/5's to alpha strike for the win, AW gets you more artifacts for the next AW while Bridge buys you all the time in the world. Bridge is a good card here.

3. Your opponent doesn't use creatures. In that case just don't play Bridge/discard to artificers intuition. Bridge is just okay here.

The only awkward things about Bridge is if you're looking for one more artifact to get on the field before AW pops for a full alpha, but then replacing it with Abyss wouldn't solve that issue.

Yeah I agree with all your points. I don't get why people think Bridge is bad here. It's an artifact that solves many problems none of the other cards can, and this deck can easily win through Bridge as long as you manage your hand size wisely for the matchup. Sure sometimes it can backfire through disruption, but it deals with so many problems and buys time to dig into things. The main complaints seem to be "I can't figure out how to win through my Bridge because I'm bad at Magic, therefore the card must be bad".

Tezz looks really bad at 6 mana in Legacy. Even in Modern it looks too slow.

Karn searching for a 1-of SB Mycosynth Lattice or some other singleton threat could be a very real win condition for this deck.

[frogger42]

Here's a really great list:
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=21581&d=344887&f=LE

This is a list that I rocked a month or two ago, kind of relying on memory:

4 Mox Opal
4 Lotus Petal
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Island
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trophy Mage
4 Master of Etherium
4 Karn, Scion of Urza
4 Force of Will
3 The Antiquities War
4 Thoughtcast
3 Trinket Mage (I think)
4 Walking Ballista


I sense that with TAW you want to smash very very quickly - hence Karn and Master of Etherium. I discounted Master as a dumb beater, but it seriously closes games in a few turns - it's close to another TAW except 1 mana less and dodges Spell Pierce.

Changes I'd make - 14 blue sources is really low. I'd probably cut a Trinket Mage or two from this list for 2 Chrome Mox. It's terrible with Force, but it sticks around for Opal, Thoughtcast, and TAW / Karn tokens. So dropping it as a dead Mox should be fine. I think I had a Sword of Fire and Ice in here, specifically for True Name. (SB included 2 Tormod's Crypt, Sword of Light and Shadow, Faerie Macabres, and idk what else).

I played this for 2 four-round SCG side events. I strangely mostly faced Chalice decks - about 4 of 8 decks I played ran Chalice. Not caring about Chalice and holding your Force for their only threat is beastly. I tied one match and lost one match, DnT just mana-denied me and I think I played 3 spells the whole match. So the manabase definitely needs some tinkering.

I probably won't play this again because of new Karn and a shaky manabase, but I figure I'd share. I'm definitely not a fan of UU or especially UB spells in the deck. It really messes up what you want to do with the manabase.

EDIT: I'm not a fan of Bridge at all. It shuts down your most powerful cards, TAW and Karn/Master if you run them (definitely you should run Karn).

[johncarvalho]

I played that list from mtgtop8 yesterday on a 3 round tournament, I loved this version (even thou I lost 2 of the matches out of 3, but was probably my mistake ), more than the UB version. You can attack from more angles with the little "affinity" package of cranial plating/master of etherium/skirge.

The only thing I have changed from that list was replacing the explosives for Padeem, I feel he is really necessary in this archetype, its really strong.

match 1 = 2x0 vs goblins
the deck felt resilient, but my opponent was mana flooded on both games, and I believe this matchup is quite bad, as goblins have trashmaster, cratermaker, wasteland and rishadan. ornithopter and skirge are quite good at blocking a turn 1 lackey thou.

match 2 = 0x2 vs burn
I ALWAYS get paired with this guy, its crazy, and I cant seem to beat him. Burn is so consistent now with light up the stage, I need strong sideboarding vs this, maybe up the trinisphere count or even a couple of Chills, im still not sure. He removes my skirges easily and PoP deals a ton of damage.

match 3 = 0x2 vs reanimator
He conceded as he was 0-2 and we played for fun. I kept bad starting hands on both games, but I feel the deck is well prepared to handle combo with fow/chalice/fluster and gravehate.

[Hanni]

Here's a really great list:
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=21581&d=344887&f=LE

This is a list that I rocked a month or two ago, kind of relying on memory:

4 Mox Opal
4 Lotus Petal
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Island
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trophy Mage
4 Master of Etherium
4 Karn, Scion of Urza
4 Force of Will
3 The Antiquities War
4 Thoughtcast
3 Trinket Mage (I think)
4 Walking Ballista


I sense that with TAW you want to smash very very quickly - hence Karn and Master of Etherium. I discounted Master as a dumb beater, but it seriously closes games in a few turns - it's close to another TAW except 1 mana less and dodges Spell Pierce.

Changes I'd make - 14 blue sources is really low. I'd probably cut a Trinket Mage or two from this list for 2 Chrome Mox. It's terrible with Force, but it sticks around for Opal, Thoughtcast, and TAW / Karn tokens. So dropping it as a dead Mox should be fine. I think I had a Sword of Fire and Ice in here, specifically for True Name. (SB included 2 Tormod's Crypt, Sword of Light and Shadow, Faerie Macabres, and idk what else).

I played this for 2 four-round SCG side events. I strangely mostly faced Chalice decks - about 4 of 8 decks I played ran Chalice. Not caring about Chalice and holding your Force for their only threat is beastly. I tied one match and lost one match, DnT just mana-denied me and I think I played 3 spells the whole match. So the manabase definitely needs some tinkering.

I probably won't play this again because of new Karn and a shaky manabase, but I figure I'd share. I'm definitely not a fan of UU or especially UB spells in the deck. It really messes up what you want to do with the manabase.

EDIT: I'm not a fan of Bridge at all. It shuts down your most powerful cards, TAW and Karn/Master if you run them (definitely you should run Karn).

I like this approach quite a bit, but I'd personally drop the Mages (Trinket and Trophy) for Etherium Sculptor and Faerie Mechanist. Might be worse overall, but it definitely plays better with the artifact theme.

I'd also be extremely tempted to try and fit Vault Skirge for curve reasons (Opal and Thoughtcast), possibly also Steel Overseer too, although I have no idea how to fit them.