Upheaval Artifacts

[sun tzu]

I really love to start decks thinking about a really fun card to build around. This will never be tier 1, but any help or feedback would be appreciated to make it as competitive as possible!

The general strategy is to play ramp cards, while (mostly) ignoring their plan, cast upheaval, then replay all of my artifacts + a threat and push my advantage when they have no permanents in play.


Lands 20
6 [UNH] Island
3 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [JGC] Flooded Strand
4 [UNH] Plains
1 [ME4] Tundra
2 [JGC] Windswept Heath

Creatures 6
2 [PRE] Wurmcoil Engine
2 [DDF] Trinket Mage
1 [UD] Masticore
1 [PTR] Eternal Dragon

Spells 34
4 [UL] Grim Monolith
3 [V13] Thran Dynamo
3 [OD] Upheaval
4 [US] Voltaic Key
3 [ALA] Tezzeret the Seeker
1 [SOM] Mox Opal
2 [RTR] Sphinx's Revelation
4 [FNM] Brainstorm
1 [US] Worn Powerstone
2 [RTR] Supreme Verdict
4 [TSP] Ancestral Vision
2 [UL] Defense Grid
1 [AVR] Temporal Mastery

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [DDF] Trinket Mage
SB: 1 [UD] Masticore
SB: 1 [RTR] Supreme Verdict
SB: 2 [UL] Defense Grid
SB: 1 [M14] Elixir of Immortality
SB: 1 [ISD] Witchbane Orb
SB: 1 [FNM] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 [ANH] Terminus
SB: 1 [MPR] Disenchant
SB: 1 [FNM] Seal of Cleansing
SB: 1 [8E] Ensnaring Bridge
SB: 1 [NPH] Batterskull


Any help and / or constructive feedback would be appreciated!

[hotlikedimes]

I like it. I think there should be some fow action in there to protect the upheavel. I think you could go way lower on threat density for fow and then your wincon is tezzeret + a bunch of artifacts and win the turn after the upheavel. You could play mox diamonds in addition to mox opal to generate double blue post upheavel or signets to generate color to get there.

I'm not sure of there's a realistic line you can take that will let you upheaval in an acceptable time period and win quickly thereafter. But I think tezzerets ult is probably the most efficient way to do it.

[Mystical_Jackass]

First I think Trinisphere would be perfect in this deck, even if it steps on a few cards it's exactly what you want to drop after reset to stall them and take the game. Otherwise quick tempo decks can still race you. I'd also throw in Ensnaring Bridge, works well with Tezerret. Essentially this seems like a Tezzerator variant just slower, I think you need to ensure that after casting Upheaval you will auto-win. Right now it's still sort of ambiguous, you should win but they could just come back and kill you since there's no real lock-pieces or counters. It seems to me that you'd want stuff like 3sphere, Glen Elandra & Jace because he works as bounce and brainstorm all together. I'd probably use the walkers as the only win-conditions then just be ultra gay and run "icy manipulator"/Unheaval to freeze the board, just my 2-cents though.

[mulder]

No Ancient Tombs or City of Traitors?

[sun tzu]

thank you for the feedback guys :D


First I think Trinisphere would be perfect in this deck, even if it steps on a few cards it's exactly what you want to drop after reset to stall them and take the game. Otherwise quick tempo decks can still race you. I'd also throw in Ensnaring Bridge, works well with Tezerret. Essentially this seems like a Tezzerator variant just slower, I think you need to ensure that after casting Upheaval you will auto-win. Right now it's still sort of ambiguous, you should win but they could just come back and kill you since there's no real lock-pieces or counters. It seems to me that you'd want stuff like 3sphere, Glen Elandra & Jace because he works as bounce and brainstorm all together. I'd probably use the walkers as the only win-conditions then just be ultra gay and run "icy manipulator"/Unheaval to freeze the board, just my 2-cents though.
I do like the idea of 3sphere, but it is very clunky in my deck. The only real time I especially benefit from this are vs matchups where its insane like storm (small % of the field), or when I play upheaval with it in play (after playing a bunch of ramp artifacts first or it will set me back a lot), or after I start to rebuild post upheaval to make the advantage more 1 sided. Icy is probably too expensive, but with voltaic key it could be nice..

bridge is another good idea i'll have to test.

I like it. I think there should be some fow action in there to protect the upheavel. I think you could go way lower on threat density for fow and then your wincon is tezzeret + a bunch of artifacts and win the turn after the upheavel. You could play mox diamonds in addition to mox opal to generate double blue post upheavel or signets to generate color to get there. I'm not sure of there's a realistic line you can take that will let you upheaval in an acceptable time period and win quickly thereafter. But I think tezzerets ult is probably the most efficient way to do it.
The only problem with force is that it requires another blue card to use with upheaval, which doesnt happen all the time unfortunately. When such a large % of my deck is mana and mana producers, a lot of the time I cant afford to 2for1 myself with force by pitching a tezz or another blue card.



No Ancient Tombs or City of Traitors?
im trying to be very resilient to wasteland with all my basics and fetches. i certainly considered this, however.