Kneel Before Megatron

It hit me just before shaving, the day after the last post.

Steel Overseer. Or, as I said to Fuz in my best Samuel L Jackson, "Steel. Godamn. Overseer."

Now I know that not every idea that hits me while shaving is a good one. Friday mornings are full of inspiration and it's always a good idea to suss out which ones work and which ones are less likely to keep your insides inside.

Fuz liked the idea though, so that's a good sign. Later that evening, when I took Megatron up against a Bant golem deck, (including Blade Splicer, Wing Splicer and Precursor Golem) Noah saw the Steel Golem and also expressed some concern. (High point of that evening for me: casting Naturalize on a Precursor Golem with 5 total on the board. Booyaa.)

That concern manifested itself with the phrase "oh, shit" when I played Megatron against Noah on Monday. What you see in the picture is me snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, attacking with a 32/32 flying Arcbound Stinger. If I hadn't been able to do that, Noah would've overrun me the next turn with very large, vigilant golems. 

What does this mean? That I think I've got a deck I can be happy with. It plays a little oddly: I had been expecting to overrun opponents with indestructable creatures but instead I seem to want to overload one awesome creature, a flyer, a trampler, Triskelion, with counters and win there. It is a little 'eggs in one basket' drawback; Noah handily defeated this deck with a control deck that was designed to kill creatures, winning one game where I screwed up, tapping out instead of holding off to drop Darksteel Forge into play in response to a Supreme Verdict but nothing was going to save me from Terminus, which is just savage against this deck. 

All in all, though, I am happy with where this deck has gone and I'm going to keep it in the box for a little longer.

Winnowing the Weak

The short version: 61 cards didn't matter.

It's a big deal, mentally, to go beyond 60 cards because all the math, all the research, is all based around having only 60 cards in a constructed deck that isn't using Battle of Wits. Cards are put in/duplicated based on this math, with the idea that we can gain a level of predictability to our randomized decks. New players are constantly hammered with this information, as they frequently build decks that are 70 or more cards, trying to cram as many good ideas as they can into play.

However, adding one single card? It didn't have a meaningful impact on my games. One was a multiplayer matchup, where I felt I had to add Lifeline to a board with Guttersnipe and Talrand. It was not my best idea but I was going for broke. Yes, I lost that one though I was able to use Fabricate to get a Lifeline so my idiot plan could happen. I'll chalk that one in the 'doing what I hoped' column.

In a R/G matchup, I got beat in game one--which isn't easy to tell by this crappy picture. Sorry: I'll try to do better next time. I won game two and then the pub closed.

But the extra card didn't do anything to make my chances better or worse.

What I did feel though, in both matches, was that I was paying too much for a pretty weak effect in Arcbound Reclaimer.

When I look at the mana curve for this deck, there's a huge glut of things at the two spot; a total of fifteen cards. There are two cards in the three spot and five at the four spot.

But of those cards at the four spot, Arcbound Crusher is able to grow big enough to become a problematic threat, as seen in the previous matchups. Arcbound Reclaimer is a tutor for a graveyard that I am not planning on filling and doesn't really help me after that. So I'm back down to 60 cards, cutting the Reclaimers and adding a third Fabricate. This means I essentially have access to six Darksteel Reactors, six Arcbound Overseers and five Lifelines. I'm comfortable with this level of consistency.

What I'm concerned about now is the Arcbound Sliths at the two spot. You can see it languishing there on the lower right corner in the photo. Again, the power/toughness for the cost isn't doing  much for me, at a spot that already has one of the most notorious creatures in the game and flyers that can be critical to defense (or attack) until I get to the end game.The logical thing: add in something at the 1 or 3 spot.

Unfortunately, there are no modular creatures at those casting costs to add which means it's time to do some research. Ideally, the replacements will be artifacts. I can hear Fuz now, telling me to add in Steel Wall...

61

Megatron's first test run was against a mono-B deck Jason was playing using Abyssal Demon and Hellcarver Demon! Oof. It did not go well; even when I was able to Darksteel Forge to keep a blocker up, taking 5 a turn just isn't going to save me. That said: I was very interested in the Hellcarver/Abyssal interaction. Sometimes I think that all the time I spend revising blinds me to exploring new interactions.

The demon deck was a new build for Jason, so we talked shop for a bit: turns out his plan A for the deck was Hellcarver Demon into Barren Glory, not 'Destroy you with Abyssal Demon and win' which is what I thought his plan A should be. As for me, I had a rough game 2 where I had to mulligan down to five cards. It wasn't a good test, but I still like where he's going with it.

So he moved on to his Aether Rift deck, which is always a little batty. But what happened next is what gives me hope for this deck. Check out this image from game two.

After hammered by Flametongues with Lifeline out (which, HOLY CRAP, creates a painful situation) I get a Darksteel Forge into play. Now it's a waiting game. I'm sacrificing creatures to make a larger Ravager and Crushers while trying to avoid taking 16 damage, 8 of it trample. I can't kill his creatures and the Eldrazi are starting to arrive, forcing me to sacrifice the creatures I've been using to build up my alpha-strike team. If I have to let go of my Arcbound Crushers or Ravager, then they come back as tiny 1/1s instead of Eldrazi-withstanding behemoths. I also have to not kill the Eldrazi because they will come back untapped which means I have to trample through more damage and I can tell, I'm running out of time.

Eventually, I've built up gigantic robots and I do a quick bit of math because I have to attack for the win when I do. An 18/18 trampler can be handled by 3 creatures but that still leaves a 17/17 trampler and a 15/15 Ravager.

All in all, I swung for 60 in that picture and I still only barely made it happen. But I made it happen!

Jason's advice: run more Fabricate to make sure you get Lifeline because that card is insane. I'm inclined to agree but I'm not sure what to cut. Also, I have a nagging suspicion that Lifeline and Darksteel Foundry together is overkill.

I'm just not sure that I should care. So I'm going to do something that people just don't do in this game.

I'm going to 61 cards.