{"id":152,"date":"2014-08-19T21:59:59","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T04:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chrischiesa.com\/wp\/?p=152"},"modified":"2014-08-19T21:59:59","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T04:59:59","slug":"modern-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chrischiesa.com\/wp\/?p=152","title":{"rendered":"Modern Robots"},"content":{"rendered":"

I made the rare decision to play constructed yesterday. \u00a0I drove down to Play or Draw<\/a>\u00a0in Avondale, AZ for their Monday Modern tournament. \u00a0I sleeved up Robots and I’ll start with the decklist:<\/p>\n

Artifacts (4):
\n4x Springleaf Drum<\/a><\/p>\n

Artifact Creatures (27):
\n4x Arcbound Ravager<\/a>
\n2x Etched Champion<\/a>
\n3x Master of Etherium<\/a>
\n2x Memnite<\/a>
\n4x Ornithopter<\/a>
\n4x Signal Pest<\/a>
\n4x Steel Overseer<\/a>
\n4x Vault Skirge<\/a><\/p>\n

Artifact Equipment (4):
\n4x Cranial Plating<\/a><\/p>\n

Lands (16):
\n4x Blinkmoth Nexus<\/a>
\n4x Darksteel Citadel<\/a>
\n3x Glimmervoid<\/a>
\n4x Inkmoth Nexus<\/a>
\n1x Island<\/a><\/p>\n

Legendary Artifacts (4):
\n4x Mox Opal<\/a><\/p>\n

Instants (4):
\n4x Galvanic Blast<\/a><\/p>\n

Sorcery (1):
\n1x Thoughtcast<\/a><\/p>\n

Sideboard (15):
\n3x Thoughtseize<\/a>
\n2x Etched Champion<\/a>
\n1x Spell Snare<\/a>
\n3x Delay<\/a>
\n1x Master of Etherium<\/a>
\n1x Grafdigger’s Cage<\/a>
\n4x Ethersworn Canonist<\/a><\/p>\n

The deck won game 1 in all 5 matches. \u00a0The deck does very well if there isn’t any hate, but everyone has something vs the Robots matchup it seems. \u00a0Welcome to being the Dredge of Modern.<\/p>\n

I have a love\/hate relationship with Thoughtcast. \u00a0It’s a card that is good, but it’s best in a slower version of the deck that tries to grind out the opponent. \u00a0When the deck was played in Extended, I ended up with 1-2 Thoughtcast and usually boarded them out games 2-3 in order to keep my artifact count up. \u00a0I think if you are going to play a longer game, you play a full playset. \u00a0If you are going to go aggro, then they get dropped.<\/p>\n

Inkmoth Nexus\/Blinkmoth Nexus aren’t artifact lands. \u00a0Not really. \u00a0They can be artifacts and count toward your Master of Etherium\/Cranial Plating count, but you need to keep them tapped. \u00a0I like Inkmoth Nexus because it’s infect sometimes can bring games to a fast end with an Alpha strike. \u00a0Blinkmoth Nexus is less exciting. \u00a0I had a number of games where I had 2 CC artifacts, a Nexus land, and Mox Opal and sat there unable to do anything.<\/p>\n

Master of Etherium was underwhelming. \u00a0There just isn’t the hard artifact count to support him.<\/p>\n

The deck feels less like Affinity of old and more like it’s trying to enable Metalcraft. \u00a0This is especially true in the new Ensoul Artifact<\/a> robot decks.<\/p>\n

Moving on, the sideboard is a hot mess and was ad hoc and thus has a bunch of issues. \u00a0Ethersworn Cannonist should be cut. \u00a0The Master of Etherium should also be gone. \u00a0I couldn’t find another Spell Snare and thus ended up running 3x Delay. \u00a0I forgot to add the Spellskite<\/a>s (should have 2) and Relic of Progenitus<\/a>. \u00a0I also don’t have the singleton Torpor Orb<\/a> or Whipflare<\/a> that the deck needs.<\/p>\n

My final thought is that the deck requires you to aggressively mulligan in most situations. \u00a0Looking back, I kept hands that were all in on one win condition and didn’t have an alternate plan. \u00a0I would say that Etched Champion, Cranial Plating, Arcbound Ravager and Steel Overseer are the win conditions for the deck. \u00a0If you don’t have at least 2 and the ability to play them out turn 1\/2, throw the hand away.<\/p>\n

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