75% Or So

I feel like this deck is in a good place. Testing has been positive, I don't hate the cards that I draw at any given moment. I cut Blinkmoth Urn for the Saheeli, Sublime Artificer because I just won't be able to use that much mana, and my opponents don't need the boost.

I think I would like to make space for a Trash for Treasure but I'm just not sure where. So I ran the deck through deckstats.net and decided I would cut an Island for the card. Again, I expect this to be good but not gamebreaking.

Which is where I like my Commander decks: tuned, but shy of competitive, that 75% good rate. This should give me some solid outs, without being the scariest threat at the table.

Well, most of the time. Decklist for Saheeli, the Gifted.

Instant 1 Chaos Warp 1 Magmaquake 1 Thirst for Knowledge 1 Shattering Pulse Planeswalker 1 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer	Artifacts 1 Endless Atlas 1 Retrofitter Foundry 1 Mimic Vat 1 Mirrorworks 1 Prototype Portal 1 Unwinding Clock 1 Commander's Sphere 1 Hedron Archive 1 Izzet Signet 1 Magnifying Glass 1 Mind Stone 1 Prismatic Lens 1 Scrabbling Claws 1 Sol Ring 1 Swiftfoot Boots 1 Unstable Obelisk 1 Worn Powerstone 1 Izzet Locket 1 Jinxed Ring
Enchantment 1 Enchanter's Bane 1 Thopter Spy Network 1 Goblin Bombardment 1 Efficient Construction 1 Kyren Negotiations	Sorcery 1 Saheeli's Artistry 1 Echo Storm 1 Saheeli's Directive 1 Aether Gale 1 Blasphemous Act 1 Reverse Engineer 1 Tidings 1 Trash for Treasure
Lands 1 Darksteel Citadel 1 Great Furnace 1 Seat of the Synod 14 Island 12 Mountain 1 Forge of Heroes 1 Buried Ruin 1 Command Tower 1 Foundry of the Consuls 1 Highland Lake 1 Izzet Boilerworks 1 Izzet Guildgate 1 Swiftwater Cliffs	Creatures 1 Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer 1 Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice 1 Vedalken Humiliator 1 Treasure Nabber 1 Ancient Stone Idol 1 Soul of New Phyrexia 1 Inkwell Leviathan 1 Sharding Sphinx 1 Hellkite Igniter 1 Bosh, Iron Golem 1 Darksteel Juggernaut 1 Duplicant 1 Myr Battlesphere 1 Scuttling Doom Engine 1 Steel Hellkite 1 Thopter Assembly 1 Loyal Apprentice 1 Geode Golem 1 Etherium Sculptor 1 Whirler Rogue 1 Chief of the Foundry 1 Pilgrim's Eye 1 Thopter Engineer 1 Meteor Golem 1 Sai, Master Thopterist

"What's Your Win Condition?"

Matt asked me this after a few games with the new setup.

"Well, Goblin Bombardment," I replied, "assuming I can't just overrun with tokens."

"Have you considered Kyren Negotiations?"

Well...damn. What a great idea! My creatures don't need haste for the Negotiations to be useful, and I've had a lot of success with this deck generating tokens so this just seems like a perfect fit. It's an awesome way to get extra mileage out of my tokens, especially when board stalemates arrive-and they always do.

The Negotiations paid off right away in a game against Matt and Caitlin. Saheeli, the Gifted's ultimate suddenly became a lot more powerful, allowing me the luxury to play patiently, using my creatures more strategically to block and still get damage in.

After that game, it was suggested that I add in Scrap Mastery or some other way to recur artifacts that had gone to my graveyard. Trash for Treasure and Daretti, Scrap Savant are possibilities, and of them, Daretti is the card I believe would push this deck over the top into a more competitive vein, as is Intruder Alarm, an idea that was also floated. This is a fun, goofy-ish token deck and I don't think I want to lock the boardstate down with Intruder Alarm; it creates unfun situations. Saheeli, the Gifted doesn't have an expedient way to close the game out once Intruder Alarm arrives so I'm shying away from it, but it's certainly an avenue for someone to use.

Another card that I'm looking to add is Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. It's a second copy of Efficient Construction with a potentially useful secondary ability but I'm mostly playing it to get more Servo tokens. My order for War of the Spark just arrived yesterday, so testing these final changes will happen soon.

Finer Direction

After playing the Saheeli deck multiple times, I have a sense of what it wants to do: make a ton of tokens and overrun my opponents with them.

There are a few cards that just don't fit this well-or need to be removed for more relevant cards that fit the theme better. So here's the first round of cuts:

Loyal Drake (I have card draw and this goes against the theme)
Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor (goes against theme)
Coveted Jewel (bad)
Into The Roil (too narrow)
Psychosis Crawler (too narrow)
Maverick Thopterist (there are better cards)
Dreamstone Hedron (a difficult cut but I thought I could do better)
Vessel of Endless Rest (doesn't fit the theme)

And the replacements:

Feldon's Cane
Meteor Golem
Shattering Pulse
Phyrexian Altar
Goblin Bombardment
Efficient Construction
Sai, Master Thopterist
Jinxed Idol

Of these Jinxed Idol is the most interesting one to me, since the Gather wording on it says "whenever a non-token permanent is put into the graveyard". I have token creatures to spare, so there's a genuine chance to mess with some players' strategies, especially ones that want to use sacrifice effects. Sure, it's not so hot against other token decks but you can't win 'em all. Plus, I like the political element that the Idol introduces.

The rest are there to help solve other problems: Shattering Pulse to take care of artifacts, and Meteor Golem for other permanents, Goblin Bombardment to make use of all the tiny artifacts creatures Saheeli's ultimate generates, Phyrexian Altar for mana, and finally Efficient Constrution and Sai, Master Thopterist to increase the number of Thopters this deck can generate.

I look forward to seeing how these changes pan out because they feel smart and focused towards the theme. My one questionmark is Phyrexian Altar. I had added that card, because I was hoping to find some more expensive bounce effects: Distorting Wake or Capsize being my top two, and then sacrificing any hasted-but-sacrifice at end of turn tokens to feed into a board reset.

I am apparently using those cards in other decks because I don't seem to have any. I'm going to do a little digging for another spell like this that I can use but for now, I want to get some more games under my belt!

Commander-Sahili

I bought all the Commander decks from last year, but I haven't really played them or done a deep dive into them. I attribute this to feeling pretty unenthusiastic about these Commander decks for the first time, to the point where I outright took one apart; Lord Windgrace.

Well, it's time to change that. I know more people who like playing Commander right now, so this is as good a time as any to practice with and improve those decks from last year!

Let's start with Saheeli, the Gifted. The deck starts off like this:

Instant Chaos Warp Magmaquake  Into the Roil  Thirst for Knowledge	Artifacts Coveted Jewel Endless Atlas Retrofitter Foundry Blinkmoth Urn Mimic Vat Mirrorworks Prototype Portal Unwinding Clock Commander's Sphere Dreamstone Hedron Hedron Archive Izzet Signet Magnifying Glass Mind Stone Prismatic Lens Scrabbling Claws Sol Ring Swiftfoot Boots Unstable Obelisk Vessel of Endless Rest Worn Powerstone
Enchantment  Enchanter's Bane  Thopter Spy Network	Sorcery Saheeli's Artistry Echo Storm Saheeli's Directive Aether Gale Blasphemous Act Reverse Engineer Tidings
Lands 15 Island 12 Mountain Forge of Heroes Buried Ruin Command Tower Foundry of the Consuls Highland Lake Izzet Boilerworks Izzet Guildgate Swiftwater Cliffs Darksteel Citadel Great Furnace Seat of the Synod	Creatures Maverick Thopterist Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice Vedalken Humiliator Treasure Nabber Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor Ancient Stone Idol Soul of New Phyrexia Inkwell Leviathan Sharding Sphinx Hellkite Igniter Bosh, Iron Golem Darksteel Juggernaut Duplicant Myr Battlesphere Psychosis Crawler Scuttling Doom Engine Steel Hellkite Thopter Assembly Loyal Drake Loyal Apprentice Geode Golem Etherium Sculptor Whirler Rogue Chief of the Foundry Pilgrim's Eye Thopter Engineer

 
Red/Blue artifact decks are relatively new to the Magic landscape so I'll be engaged in a deck that I haven't got much experience with, and I'm looking forward to it. I don't expect to turn this into a monster, but something that is more effective will work just fine.