Emry Inspector

After quite some time without playing Legacy, i decided to go to a small shop tournament. I checked the meta and soon found out that i needed a new deck. As i was not expecting to be able to do great results, i decided that i would brew something.
I did some tests and finally ended with the list below. As expected, results at the tournament were not good but the deck shown some nice potential. I am trying now to improve it and would gladly welcome advice and hints. I don't plan to obtain a tier 1 deck but something decent enough for tournament would be great.

// Emry Inspector

// 13 Artifact
3 Mox Opal
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Lotus Petal
3 Thorn of Amethyst

// 24 Creature
2 Esperzoa
2 Foundry Inspector
3 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Etherium Sculptor
3 Master of Etherium
2 Sparkhunter Masticore
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
4 Lodestone Golem

// 3 Instant
3 Swords to Plowshares

// 20 Land
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Tundra
4 Wasteland

// 15 Sideboard
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Ensnaring Bridge
SB: 2 Ratchet Bomb
SB: 2 Crucible of Worlds
SB: 2 Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 3 Hydroblast
SB: 2 Disenchant

Here are some explanations :
- The mana base : i don't like much the 12-posts mana base so i ended using steel stompy mana base. i did not play enough games to be really sure but i may need 1-2 more mana source (i mulliganed a lot for mana).
- The prison package is quite classic and need no explanation
- Etherium sculptor/foundry inspector : after some tests i found that the lower mana cost of sculptor was better than the higher body is inspector (i almost never used it as a beater). Those slots are a blast and let me steal many games.
- Esperzoa : i felt that some flying creature were needed. i would love to play more of them but their drawback make that quite difficult.
- Master of Etherium : our Tarmo and he is usually bigger.
- Golem : a good beater with more sphere effect. If he hits the field early enough, it is game.
- Masticore : a metagame call against Planewalker. I find it to be quite good even when no planewalker.
- Canonist : a metagame call against combo that could go to sideboard but i quite like it MD.
- Emry : our broken plan for the long run.
- Swords/ratchet bomb : i needed some disruption. My first try was ratchet bomb but i was not overly fond of the results so i ended with swords that is not very good with chalice @1. I am not happy with those slots and looking for better cards there ?
- the Sideboard : should be improved, that is just a raw one.

How do you think i can improve it (if it is worth it) ?

The overall shell of resistors, Lodestone Golem, and Master of Etherium looks strong. Emry recursion is great. I think you can tune other slots.

Swords to Plowshares + Chalice of the Void is a nonbo. You can avoid that by running 2-3cc removal instead (Declaration in Stone, Glass Casket, Winds of Abandon, Detention Sphere, Engineered Explosives).

Esperzoa looks like a weak slot. The only reason to even consider it is if you have some ETB combos where you can reuse it for value. I've tried to build decks around that, and it's still too fragile and clunky. A much better win condition is Urza, Lord High Artificer. Or you could just run 4 Steel Overseer, which seems amazing with such a high artifact creature count.

Phyrexian Revoker is good enough to run some copies main. It disrupts combo but also planeswalkers and other things.

I think you want to go up to 4 Mox Opal. Maybe add 3-4 Mishra's Bauble because the synergy with Emry is too good to pass up. At worst a Bauble will cycle, but with Emry you end up drawing a free card every turn.

The manabase looks shaky. You have few ways to get colored mana, but so many colored spells. I would just cut Wasteland, then replace it with mana-producing lands.
4 Flooded Strand
2 Tundra
1 Island
1 Plains

Etherium Sculptor and Foundry Inspector look like weak slots. You could have just draw another land or mana rock instead, or something more interactive. How often has the cost reduction helped?

Another card that is very strong in artifact stompy decks is Karn, the Great Creator. It can tutor for any artifact out of the sideboard. This means you only need to have 1-ofs for conditional SB cards like Ensnaring Bridge, Ratchet Bomb, Phyrexian Revoker. It can save you space and diversify lines. Karn is normally amazing in Legacy, but it's a bit awkward with Thorn, Canonist and Golem. Something to consider.

There has been a bit of hype about a build with lots of xspells & gaeas cardle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT6ZlaTWFK0.

May want to check that out for ideas.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reeplcheep

There has been a bit of hype about a build with lots of xspells & gaeas cardle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT6ZlaTWFK0.

May want to check that out for ideas.

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That's basically a Steel Stompy-Affinity hybrid. Steel Stompy is a more proven but different deck. OP could go that direction.

It exploits the fact that Steel Overseer is very strong with Arcbound Ravager, Walking Ballista and Stonecoil Serpent.

@FTW : thank you for your advices

- Swords to plowshare is obviously bad in that shell, the real problem is that alternate options are quite weaker. E.Explosives are quite similar to ratchet bomb : quicker but more costy (4 manas to destroy cc1 permanents when chalice is online). I had forgotten glass casket, the nice point is it is an artifact. I will try it. Other options are to go Black instead of White but i guess i need better reasons than just those slots.

- Revoker used to be main deck but when i trimmed the deck i had to make some choices. I guess it will be metagame calls.

- Esperzoa : i quite agree with you. When i tested the deck, i found i was very weak to delver and could loose quickly to a turn one delver. Another problem was that i must run enough creatures with decent power : i am slower than steel stompy so i must put bigger guys on the battlefield. On the list above, actually 11 creatures have small power and only 13 are big guys. Esperzoa adresses both problems. its drawback is not really one when playing artifact lands and many cc0 artifact but i can't afford to have two of them on the battlefield at the same time. that's why i play only 2 of them. I tried to find some nice ETB tricks but nothing was really convincing. So to sum up, they are not the best ones but they are not so many good flying artifact creatures within cc2-cc3 range.

- I did not test Urza LHA because i did not own it and i don't want to use a lot of cc4 cards (I kept only golem because of its sphere effect). Now that i have more time and i read it again, i will definitively give it a try but i may need to squeeze a karakas or two if i can. Chalice and thorns would produce mana which is quite neat too.

- Mishra's bauble : that is a good idea. I tried to squeeze a draw engine in the deck but i had to cut it when i trimmed the deck. I did not think about that card that could be more interesting than what i tested. I will test it.

- Mox opal/petal lotus : i used to run 4 opal but double one in opening hand is just bad and i don't have metalcraft on turn one very often. I was wondering if 4th petal would not be better because recurring it with Emry is not so bad. i need to test more here, maybe one more land would be just better.

- Manabase : i run 14 blue sources and 10 white source, that is not so bad. However, i definitively agree that the manabase need more work as i had to mulligan too much often. Wasteland are great with sphere effect but not so interesting in the current meta. Crucible used to be main deck but i found that strategy was too slow. I will try without wasteland and see.

- Karn : i tested both karn (the great creator and scion of urza), up to 6 total slots in various combinations. They are great of course but using them leads to another deck so i put them away for the moment. In my current shell, they are often off-tempo.

- Sculptor/inspector : i should have given more explanations in my opening post. In a way they are the core of the deck and they are much better than they look. Trying to make the story short : in Vintage, a turn one inspector is one of the most broken play that a workshop deck can do because next turn will be amazing. Decks running ravager/ballista/overseer became tier one because of inspector. Trust me here, i have been playing about every possible iteration of workshop decks for many years. Of course, Legacy is very different from Vintage. In Legacy, we can't have reliably 3 mana on turn one but 2 mana is quite easy. That is were sculptor comes in ... it would be much better if its cost was only colorless but blue is not the worst color for such deck. So here is the philosophy of the deck :
I had played steel stompy some time ago and i wanted to be able to run bigger threat. On the other hand, the really big guys that MUD decks are playing require to use lots of mana artifacts. Basically, i wanted something in between trying to get the best of both world. I also know the decks that are using Mystic Forge but they are sort of "all-in combo" decks, very strong but not what i want to play.
To make it short, a turn 1 sculptor make my deck about as quick as steel stompy but i am throwing on the battlefield much bigger guys. You are asking if they helped : you are not playing the same deck when they are online. When everything goes as it should, the deck is like a bulldozer that can't be stopped. Of course, it is not always like that. That is why i said the deck has potential but needs lots of tuning. Maybe it is flawed and can't work properly but i am curious to see if i can get something at least decent (and fun to play).

I tried it being UR (with goblin engineer) and mono U but so far UW looks like the best option.

@Reeplcheep : thank you for the link, i will look that long video as soon as i can find some free time :)

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Originally Posted by Albarkhane

- Sculptor/inspector : i should have given more explanations in my opening post. In a way they are the core of the deck and they are much better than they look. Trying to make the story short : in Vintage, a turn one inspector is one of the most broken play that a workshop deck can do because next turn will be amazing.

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Vintage is a different format. First, you have Workshop to cast it on 1 land on turn 1. Second, Vintage is more about explosive acceleration. Legacy is more about 1-for-1 card parity and tempo. Many Vintage-viable strategies cannot be ported into Legacy due to a fundamental difference in how the formats work. In Legacy, spending a card to play Nightscape Familiar is pretty bad even if it makes your other plays cheaper, because you have gone down a card to play a subpar body, which is bad against the large number of fair tempo decks.

There's a reason Foundry Inspector is tier 1 in Vintage but Sculptor (an old card) has never made much impact in Legacy over 10 years. At 3 mana you might want Metalworker, which at least has much higher payoff for the vulnerability it has. Inspector might work in Legacy with 4xMystic Forge, but that is more of an all-in deck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Albarkhane

- Esperzoa : i quite agree with you. When i tested the deck, i found i was very weak to delver and could loose quickly to a turn one delver. Another problem was that i must run enough creatures with decent power

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Stonecoil Serpent solves all these problems. Beats flyers. Big attacker. Even dodges multicolor stuff like Decay, Oko, and Coatl. Can be cast on curve at any size.

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- Mox opal/petal lotus : i used to run 4 opal but double one in opening hand is just bad and i don't have metalcraft on turn one very often. I was wondering if 4th petal would not be better because recurring it with Emry is not so bad. i need to test more here, maybe one more land would be just better.

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Mishra's Bauble helps build metalcraft earlier. The extra mana rocks are good with Emry and Urza. A 2nd Opal generates 1-time mana just like a Lotus Petal would.

@Albarkhane

I really like the direction here. I brewed up a fair Emry deck in UB a little while ago. Totally unproven of course, but it reliably Goldfishes into a fairly overwhelming board by T2-T3 while holding interaction

Core went something like 4 Emry 4 Strix 4 Bauble 3 Petal 3 Opal; blue cantrips (incl. some Thoughtscours); discard spells (incl. Cabal Therapy), Forces & E.E. for interaction; and then a mix of about 8 strong beaters: Gurmag, TNN/Etched Champion, Vantress Gargoyle, new Saheeli/Sai

My mana base ended up on 16 lands: 5 fetches | 2 USea | 2 Island | 1 Swamp | 4 Seat of the Synod | 2 Vault of Whispers

Crucial inclusion: 2x Unearth as Emry #5-6: This kind of deck is just too dependent on that card. (T1 Emry into T2 Angler + Strix is a pretty common opening.)

I'm not saying that going cantrips & discard over Chalice is necessarily better here, or that Urza isn't ultimately the stronger wincon, but I absolutely believe that Strix is the perfect glue card for your plan: enables metalcraft, wards off aggro/tempo decks; never dead; fantastic with Emry (and here, Cabal Therapy).

@FTW
@Tobitzki

Thank you for all your advices and hints.

Stonecoil serpent is the obvious answer to my problem. I just totally forgot it has reach.

I get your point about inspector/scuptor and mostly agree. But when the plan is to play several spells a turn those cards are better than a mana source. For exemple, they allow to cast a fatty and use Emry to cast another one. Tempo gain can be worth a card especially because i plan to close the game quick (a golem + a master is a really quick clock). For me their body is just added bonus that can be used to chumpblock if needed. However, i made lots of change in the deck and had to cut them to get some space. I will see when the deck will be stabilized if they can be useful or not in that iteration of it.

I like the strix idea but i am a bit worried about the double color requirement. With Emry, it is a reccuring creature removal (well, sort of) and a draw engine. Sounds quite neat. So, i dropped white and tried black.

So, yesterday i tested that list with a friend (without sideboard as i did not test it so far) :

// 17 Artifact
3 Mox Opal
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Lotus Petal
3 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Mishra's Bauble

// 20 Creature
4 Master of Etherium
2 Sparkhunter Masticore
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Stonecoil Serpent
3 Baleful Strix

// 3 Instant
3 Eliminate

// 20 Land
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Underground Sea
2 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Swamp

We could not test a lot but here is where i am :

- the mana base is much better and i don't regret wastelands. I used 4 petal because i could not manage to find my 4th opal at that time. However, i think i will actually remove it and add a 21th land instead. Probably a 3rd polluted delta (i could try a random utility land but so far i see none that could really fit the plan).

- sphere effects : i am not yet fully sure how should go the golem/thorn split. I chose 4 golem because i wanted to increase my creatures number. As my creature number is getting lower, I am wondering if sphere of resistance could end being better than thorns. The answer is probably meta dependant too. For now, I will keep it like that and maybe add a few spheres in sideboard (for tribal matchups and combo).

- Eliminate is great. I might try to squeeze a 4th one if i can. Maybe i will add a few more removals in sideboard to address what eliminate can't deal with.

- i did not test enough to be fully sure but i had no mana problem to cast early strix. The card is great and make the black splash worth it.

- Bauble is great for artifact count (metalcraft and master). Emry + strix/bauble package is great value if the game happen to last long.

- Masticore could have been revoker but i like its big body so i will keep them for now. its drawback is not so bad as we have often dead cards (sol lands/mox opal after the first one) and cc = 0 artifacts that can be recurred with Emry.

My overall feeling is the deck is getting better, especially stability and balance. There is still a lot of work on it but it is fun to brew and play.

How about cranial plating?

Best regards

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Originally Posted by Mr. Headshot

How about cranial plating?

Best regards

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My first feeling was it might be overkill but in my meta there are lots of combo decks so it could be interesting to get a quicker clock. I did not test it yet but i will definitively put it on my test list.

This might be too far away from what you want to do, but I put together a pretty sick Stompy deck with Emry that I call UW Echo Stompy.

Here's the list, if you're not interested in clicking on the link:

U/W Echo Stompy

Lands (8)
4 Seat of Synod
4 Ancient Den

Creatures (12)
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
4 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
4 Monastery Mentor

Spells (40)
4 Narset, Parter of Veils
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
4 Echo of Eons
4 Thoughtcast
2 Urza's Bauble
2 Mishra's Bauble
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Opal
2 Mox Amber
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

Sideboard (15)
4 Force of Will
2 Force of Negation
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Dispatch
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ashiok, Dream Render

Some of the cards might be expensive and it has some weaknesses that your list doesn't have as bad (Collector Ouphe, Chalice on 0, Engineered Explosives on 0, etc), but the power level is considerably higher. Some games are basically over after turn 1, like turn 1 Narset into LED/Echo to Mind Twist the opponent, or turn 1 Erayo flip + Emry into turn 2 Mentor making half-a-dozen tokens.

@Hanni

This is a quite different list from what i am trying to achieve. Your list is much more all-in and i like the monastery mentors in it. I am working on something more slow but more resilient, i mean i like to have a B-plan when things go wrong. That is just the way i like to play. However i read and follow your thread in case some sweet technology is found that i could also use for my list. If i can manage to find some time, i will try it to get a better feeling about it.

Yeah, I know they are pretty radically different, where I'm more combo oriented vs aggro oriented, but your list was originally UW with Emry with a little bit of other overlap, which is why I posted it.

If you're committed to the Master of Etherium plan, you should probably be running Sai, Master Thopterist. Master of Etherium plays well with a swarm approach.

There's also Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek as a consideration, as well as Steel Overseer. Although if you start going deeper down that route, Hangarback Walker, Walking Ballista, and Arcbound Ravager start to become better creature options, and you end up with a blue Steel Stompy deck instead.

That might not be a bad idea, though. Emry getting back sacrificed dudes seems like a legit card advantage engine to add into Steel Stompy. Toss in Sai, and you probably have a tier deck.

Ballista probably deserves consideration, regardless. Eliminate is a great removal option, but Ballista has way more synergy with the rest of the deck, especially with Emry.

I'm not sure how I feel about Etherium Sculptor. It starts to look strong when you can somewhat reliably cast it on turn 1 and then dump your hand of 2cc creatures on turn 2, but it might not be worth the slot.

Something like this, maybe?

Blue Steel

Lands (14)
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Seat of Synod
4 Wasteland

Creatures (22)
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
2 Sai, Master Thopterist
4 Steel Overseer
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Walking Ballista

Spells (16)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Mox Opal
4 Lotus Petal

That leaves 8 slots for other cards.

Obviously you'll need at least 4 more lands. Other valuable lands include Island, Karakas, Inventor's Fair, Mishra's Factory, Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Darksteel Citadel, and more City of Traitors.

I feel like the 4 Wasteland is important with Thorns, but maybe that's wrong.

You might be able to get away with trimming down to 2 Thorns in the maindeck, but you're probably better off with the whole playset.

Etherium Sculptor, Master of Etherium, Stonecoil Serpent, Phyrexian Revoker, and Lodestone Golem all seem like other strong creature options.

Urza's Bauble might be pretty good in here, too. It doesn't play well with Thorns, and you have tons of other stuff to return back with Emry that it's probably unecessary, but it would significantly improve the decks ability to hit metalcraft and cast Emry for U on turn 1.

4 Mishra's Factory and 4 Lodestone Golem is probably the best way to round out the deck, tbh.

@Hanni
Thank you for your inputs.

Sai, Master Thopterist is definitively a card that i want to test (as soon as i can find some time).
I am less sure about Sword/Foundry combo as it decrease my creature number but i can give it a try.

Overseer/Ravager/Ballista/Walker is a solid package. Actually, it is my fall back plan if i can't manage to brew something different that is efficient enough.

I used to play 4 wasteland (obvious with thorn plan) but i cut them and i don't regret them so far.

I like to play 8 sphere if possible (golem + thorns), so far i am running only 3 thorns but would like to add one more. Trinisphere was a bit disapointing when i tested it in that shell.

Mishra's factory would be good but i am not sure that i can afford to run them (i need UB for strix).

Scuptor is also interesting to be able to cast a card from hand and a card from Emry in the same turn. For the moment, i cut them but i plan to try them again if i can find some slots for them.

Sai is probably better in a deck with more zero cost artifacts and draw engines, but I think it still does enough in your deck to be worth it, and it certainly combos very well with Steel Overseer and Master of Etherium. The sacrifice effect is also nice with Hangarback Walker.

Thopter/Sword is probably too slow for Legacy these days, but being a non-creature is nice for dodging Terminus and such. Probably too much of a liability these days because of Oko, but the Swords do interact with Sai too, so that's why I thought about it. Most likely requires Gaea's Cradle to get the most out of Thopter/Sword, though, and most likely not worth it for you.

I think the Steel Stompy creature package is probably the most efficient if you're going for a "fair" beatdown plan.

Wasteland definitely strains the manabase if you are intent on going with two colors for Baleful Strix. Same with Mishra's Factory. I'm not sure if Strix alone is worth the 2nd color, but maybe it is.

I think Etherium Sculptor works best when you run a bunch of 1 and 2 mana artifacts, so that you can essentially empty your hand quickly. When it's only reducing the cost of a single artifact cast per turn, it's not very good. You'd also need more draw engines to fuel it, because you'd be running out of gas pretty quickly. Thoughtcast is decent, but there are certainly stronger engines out there, like Glimpse of Nature and Echo of Eons (with LED). With the direction you are trying to take this in, I don't think Etherium Sculptor is going to be worth it for you.

Etherium Sculptor would be much better in some sort of Affinity shell with Springleaf Drum, Vault Skirge, Cranial Plating, etc, and with some sort of draw engine/s, which is a totally different approach.

I like the UB direction the deck has gone with Strix and Eliminate, which both synergize better with Chalice @ 1 than Swords.

8 sphere seems good. Definitely 4 Golem. They are one of the best parts about running a deck like this.

Wasteland + sphere seems good on paper, but I think Wasteland is harder in 2 colors, because it is not easy to make a manabase that supports both Chalice @ 1 and Strix. If you play fewer than 8 Sol Lands, T1 Chalice/Thorn and T2 Golem get weaker. If you play too few colored sources, you can't support both blue and black spells, especially Strix. The current UB manabase looks good but could get weaker with Wastelands. Wasteland would work in monoblue, but then you give up a lot of interaction with their board. It depends whether the mana denial or board control are more important to you.

In monoblue you'd probably want some maindeck ways to interact with threats, like maindeck Revoker. (Steel Stompy runs them main too)

In monoblue you could also consider The Antiquities War as a draw engine, since enchantments are conveniently immune to Oko so a Saga is probably better than a Planeswalker in this meta.

In UB the Masticore looks a bit weak. It's good planeswalker hate, but is it better than just playing Progenitus (the 2/2 one)?

Walking Ballista interacts with threats, especially in tandem with Arcbound Ravager.

I forgot about Eliminate. Strix and Eliminate is definitely enough to justify the black splash, and Thorns is still good even without Wasteland.

Stonecoil Serpent is also pretty decent against Planeswalker's, and it's likely better in more situations.

The Antiquities War is alright, but I think there are more powerful draw engines for an Etherium Sculptor deck to use. The Antiquities War is better in a more prison style approach, I think.

Also, I think you are referring to Etched Champion?

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Originally Posted by Hanni

Walking Ballista interacts with threats, especially in tandem with Arcbound Ravager.

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That's a synergy engine, needing Ballista + Ravager or Ballista + Overseer.
That is one potential direction of the deck, but would take a lot of slots and basically become Steel Stompy.

As an individual card, Ballista is way too slow to manage cards like Oko and cards you might want to Revoker if you don't have Eliminate or Strix (monoblue version)

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Antiques War is alright, but I think there are more powerful draw engines for an Etherium Sculptor deck to use. Antiques War is better in a more prison style approach, I think.

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Is 4x Chalice 4x Thorn 4x Golem not a prison-style approach?
The last few lists don't even run Etherium Sculptor, so this looked like it was headed towards Prison/aggro.

Yeah, I meant Etched Champion but could not think of the name. Is that not a better 3-drop threat for the "indestructible planeswalker killer" slot? It's smaller, but also dies to less, doesn't sink your mana, and doesn't require you to discard. Stonecoil is good too of course, but was already in the deck.

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of the prison style artifact deck that was mostly a control deck with more non-creature artifacts. Although now that I think about it, The Antiquities War plays really nicely with creatures with counters on them since it turns them into base 5/5 creatures, so maybe it should have a home in the Blue Steel (Steel Stompy) variation.

Etched Champion is pretty bad at dealing with Oko because it's only a 2/2. You need Steel Overseer or Cranial Plating to make it a significant enough threat to pressure Oko.

My plan is not to lock opponent out of the game but just to slow him down enough so the beatdown plan can be run. So, technically it is not a prison deck (like a stax deck) but more tempo oriented. However name is not really important.

Antiquities war can be interesting but i am not really sure it goes where i want. Still, I will give it a quick try if i can.

I fully agree that Masticore is not good here. I have enough ways to deal with planeswalker now that i run eliminate (+stonecoil serpent for multicolored ones).

I tested etched champion when i used to play steel stompy and i was a bit disapointed. i found it interesting only when using equipment (jitte or whatever).

Here, i want a stronger beater (masticore are 3/4 that is quite nice). My next test will be using Traxos but (because of the curve) i would prefer a creature with cc3 instead of cc4.