Living Weapons - LW's

[Borg]

Can Living Weapons be a Legacy deck ?
Take a look and you make the call.

Living Weapons
Flayer Husk
Batterbone
Nettlecyst

Non-Living Weapons
Shadowspear
Bloodforged battle-Axe
Umezawa's Jitte
Sword of Fire and Ice

Lords
Stone Haven Outfitter
Reyav, Master Smith
Koll, the Forgemaster
Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms
Bruenor Battlehammer

Synergy & Utility
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Steelshaper's Gift

"you die now"
Fervent Champion

Removal and control
Swords to Plowshares
Prismatic Ending

Land
Urza's saga
Spire of Industry
Karakas


Living Weapons have some similarity with Modular cards imho.
If the Phyrexian 0/0 Germ token dies, the Equipment simply remains on the Battlefield for the next creature.

A perfect creature for this strategy is Fervent Champion who can pick up ALL Equipment on the ground ( and even from LW's in play just to trigger the Outfitter ) up and strike anytime.

Stone Haven Outfitter in particular looks like a very good lord as it pumps your living weapons, draws cards as they die.

More excellent lords for LW's : Koll and Reyav.
Koll boosts LW's right away and can put other equipped creatures ( like Fervent Champion ) back into your hand if they were to be detroyed.
Reyav gives double strike = extra damage and survivability.

Nettlecyst and Saga's Constructs can be huge.

Deck is untested.

Decklist per cc & amount
//CC1 - 22
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
4 Flayer Husk
4 Fervent Champion
3 Prismatic Ending
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Shadowspear
1 Bloodforged Battle-Axe

//CC2 - 11
4 Stone Haven Outfitter
4 Batterbone
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Reyav, Master Smith
1 Koll, the Forgemaster

//CC3 - 5
4 Nettlecyst
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

//CC4 - 2
1 Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms
1 Bruenor Battlehammer

//Lands - 20
2 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
3 Urza's Saga
2 Spire of Industry
3 Plateau
3 Mountain
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Karakas

[FTW]

Some cards you may want to look at:

4 Puresteel Paladin
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Kaldra Compleat
Sram, Senior Edificer
Colossus Hammer
Sigarda's Aid
Kor Outfitter

You could probably build around equipping Colossal Hammer for free using Sigarda's Aid or Puresteel Paladin with Metalcraft. Metalcraft should be a good theme to build around with 4 Nettlecyst anyway. It's easy to reach with cheap living weapons (Flayer Husk), artifact lands, other cheap equipment, and acceleration.

For example, Turn 1 Kor Duelist Turn 2 Sigarda's Aid & attack & flash in Colossus Hammer = 11/11 double strike. Turn 2 win if unblocked, or at least it kills anything blocking it.

[Borg]

@FTW I have a Puresteel Paladin deck, with the cards you mentioned ( Hammer, SFM, Batterskull ) etc but that deck just takes too long to set up imo.

Rather than needing to put creatures and equipment together, which you don't necessarily have together in hand, Living Weapons bring you creature+equipment in 1 card.
If you have one, you have both, so to speak and the bonuses for being equipped take effect immediately. You only need two cards here instead of three.

I haven't played the deck yet but I'm anxious to see Stone Haven Outfitter in action.
She just seems perfect for LW's.

Sram didn't make the deck because the deck really wants to play other cards T2,T3 and later he may not be very impactful anymore. ( I'll keep the option open )
Batterskull & Kaldra need SFM, but there simply is no room for her and I think that would simply be another deck to build then.

I had two Puresteel Paladins in there at first but removed them to make room for Ragavan.
The cards I removed for ragavan : 2 PP , 1 Akiri, Fearless Voyager, 1 Akiri, Line-Slinger
I hope Ragavan gets banned soon because this card is just too omnipotent.

Sigarda's Aid I don't like as copy 2-4 are dead cards.
Just like non-living equipment, which are technically also dead cards, unless you have a creature to equip.
I like to keep that type of cards to a minimum.

LW's avoid the dead card handicap.
LW's are also great with Humility as that actually gives all Germs +1/+1 but again, that's another deck.

[FTW]

Fair enough, that's a different deck.

The best LWs are still Batterskull and Kaldra Compleat, enabled by Stoneforge Mystic.

About the whole "dead card" thing, there's a tradeoff. A 2-mana 1/1 (Batterbone) is basically a dead card. So is paying 5 mana equip for +1 vigilance and lifelink (compare to Shadowspear). Although you technically got a creature out of it as a LW, that body isn't worth the card or mana. Something to keep in mind when playing LWs. It only puts you ahead in cards if the card is worth it. Jitte isn't really more of a dead card than a 1/1 attacking Batterbone.

Puresteel and Sram are for the card draw (like Outfitter). Card draw helps counteracts the dead card problem. Esper Sentinel might be better than Sram for curve reasons.

It depends on the purpose of the deck. If you're building this to goldfish on your own, it doesn't really matter how you build it, as long as you have fun. If you're building it to compete with other Legacy decks, some of these things matter. Card draw won't speed up goldfishes but it can sure help if you're getting disrupted by an opponent.

Edit: you could also consider a blue splash for stuff like Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Thoughtcast to get cards

[Borg]

I agree Batterbone is the weaker of the LW's.
Champion can equip it for 2 mana but that is still not good.

Emry : edit : not sure. The germs may die but the hardware stays in play.

Esper Sentinel : good suggestion.

Another card that can generate a steady stream of token creatures is Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients

[Ronald Deuce]

Food for thought: I've seen lists running living weapons, Proteus Staff, and Emrakul with no other creatures.

[FTW]

Food for thought: I've seen lists running living weapons, Proteus Staff, and Emrakul with no other creatures.

That line does seem very interesting, and a good payoff for LW.

There are many ways to make "creatures" without having Summon cards in the library:
Nettlecyst
Flayer Husk
Urza's Saga
Retrofitter Foundry
Karn, Scion of Urza

You can use Polymorph (which pitches to FoW), or just find Proteus Staff with Karn, The Great Creator powered by sol lands.

To fill out the deck, you probably need some artifact filler, card draw, and protection.
Thoughtcast, Force of Will and maybe Brainstorm (if the deck doesn't run Chalice @ 1) are good support in blue cards.
There's also the possible Echo of Eons+Narset, Parter of Veils+Lion's Eye Diamond package.

For example:

Chalice-less

//Lands: 20
4 Urza's Saga
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Seat of the Synod
6 Island

//Creatures: 1
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

//Planeswalkers: 8
4 Narset, Parter of Veils
4 Karn, the Great Creator

//LWs: 8
4 Flayer Husk
4 Nettlecyst

//Spells: 8
4 Polymorph
4 Echo of Eons

//Artifacts: 15
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Mox Opal
1 Mishra's Bauble
1 Retrofitter Foundry
1 Aether Spellbomb

//Sideboard: 15
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Proteus Staff
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Walking Ballista
3 Defense Grid
4 Force of Will
1 Thoughtcast


There might already be enough creature-making engines to cut Flayer Husk for Thoughtcast or Chalice.

[FTW]

So far I've tuned it like this, with more disruption for the opponent. I tested it a bit. The main deck engine works well enough to win some games.


//Lands: 20
4 Urza's Saga
4 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
4 Seat of the Synod
7 Island

//Artifacts: 23
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Mox Opal
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Retrofitter Foundry
2 Defense Grid
4 Nettlecyst

//Planeswalkers: 8
4 Narset, Parter of Veils
4 Karn, the Great Creator

//Spells: 8
4 Echo of Eons
4 Polymorph

//Creatures: 1
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

//Karnboard: 7
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Proteus Staff
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Walking Ballista
1 Defense Grid

//Rough Flex SB for other spots: 8
4 Force of Will
2 Hullbreacher
2 Day's Undoing

Polymorph/Proteus Staff + token -> Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
This can happen as early as turn 1, though turn 3 is more common and less all-in.

What I like about this approach over other attempts at Polymorph.dec is that Polymorph isn't the only way to win. The fair plan is strong (X/X beatdown with Sagas and Nettlecysts). You don't have to walk Polymorph into a 2-for-1 against a removal-heavy deck if the X/Xs can get into the red zone. Karn can find either missing piece: Polymorph (Proteus Staff) or creature (Walking Ballista). The deck can also just win with Karn control.

There's a completely separate combo angle of Echo+Narset for total hand annihilation. Both Echo and Narset can be used individually to refuel the hand if one of the other plans fails, or to dig for another combo piece. If Emrakul is stuck in hand, either LED or Echo can be used to put it back in the library! (so we can get away with only 1 Emrakul instead of 2)

In testing, the ability to pivot and threaten multiple angles at once stood up well to disruption.

Polymorph is normally interrupted by counters or removal spells on the creature. Defense Grid protects against both, while Chalice @ 1 stops most cheap removal and some counters (REB). Both pieces can protect the combo. Grid is also great at protecting Echo lines.