We are programmed just to do anything you want us to

RAWR! I'm a robot dragon!

Those of you who know me personally probably already know that I recently rediscovered my love for Magic: The Gathering. Sadly, being a Mac partisan without a Boot Camp partition, I’m not cool enough to play Magic Online–I’m stuck with Duels 2012 on my PS3. Which can actually be a lot of fun, particularly when I’m playing Archenemy with the Kiora deck and I bring out all my lands by turn 10.

Here’s a decklist for my current favorite deck, which is white/blue and heavy on artifacts. Once I figured out that most of the cards were going to be from either M12 or Mirrodin Besieged/New Phyrexia, I added an additional goal to make the deck entirely Standard-legal…not that I do any serious tourney play (other than the occasional booster draft, which I suck at, at my local comic book store) or even FNM, but just to add some additional focus. Since then, I’ve added some cards from Scars of Mirrodin and Innistrad.

I probably won’t win any tournaments with it–I’m a decent player but a mediocre deck builder–but it’s fun to play.

Paranoid Android (although usually just called “The Robot Deck”): 60-card deck

Lands (22)
6 × Plains
9 × Island
4 × Glacial Fortress (M12/R)
3 × Buried Ruin (M12/U)

Creatures & Artifact Creatures (20)
2 × Alloy Myr (NPH/U)
1 × Ardent Recruit (MBS/C)
2 × Brass Squire (MBS/U)
1 × Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite (NPH/MR)
1 × Hovermyr (NPH/C)
2 × Mirran Spy (MBS/C)
1 × Phyrexian Ingester (NPH/R)
4 × Phyrexian Metamorph (NPH/U)
1 × Porcelain Legionnaire (NPH/C)
1 × Spellskite (NPH/R)
1 × Spined Thopter (NPH/C)
1 × Steel Hellkite (SOM/R)
2 × Trespassing Souleater (NPH/C)

Non-Creature Artifacts (6)
2 × Darksteel Plate (MBS/R)
1 × Flayer Husk (MBS/C)
1 × Mirrorworks (MBS/R)
1 × Sickleslicer (NPH/U)
1 × Strandwalker (MBS/U)

Other Spells (12)
2 × Demystify (M12/C)
2 × Feeling of Dread (ISD/C)
3 × Remember the Fallen (NPH/C)
3 × Stoic Rebuttal (SOM/C)
2 × Unsummon (M12/C)

Sideboard: I don’t really have a sideboard for this. However, in the deck box I usually keep an extra copy apiece of Demystify, Feeling of Dread, and Unsummon (usually to take the place of a Stoic Rebuttal or Remember the Fallen), two Arrests (in case Feeling of Dread won’t do the job), and a couple of as-needed critters such as Gust-Skimmer (for when I need an extra cheap flyer) and Master Thief (for artifact trolling).

Theory: I’m about 85% Timmy. Combos are fun, and I’m glad that Magic is flexible enough to accommodate lots of different strategies and win conditions. But I’ll also be honest: I’m not much of a strategist, I’m even less of a mathematician, and I’m not particularly creative when it comes to combos.

To me, Magic is, was and always will be a game about beating your opponent into submission with creatures, and I’m particularly fond of the critters I’ve got up at the top of the mana curve. In addition, note that all three fatties (Steel Hellkite, Elesh Norn, and Phyrexian Ingester) all have some form of removal built in.

Copying is also a strong theme here. My all-time favorite Magic card is Clone, so I’m totally gaga over Phyrexian Metamorph: it copies critters like the Clone, and it also copies artifacts, plus it’s cheaper than the Clone if you’re willing to take a two-life hit. Combo it with Mirrorworks (and remember, put two mana into your Mirrorworks when you’re copying it with the Metamorph and you get a third Mirrorworks!) and you’ve got a respectable swarm engine going, whether it be unblockable Land Sharks Trespassing Souleaters, flying Spined Thopters, or first-strike Porcelain Legionnaires. Living weapons provide on-theme equipment.

Ardent Recruit is a bit off-theme, but a one-drop that gets +2/+2 when the metalcraft condition kicks in is a big fat no duh. Another metalcraft favorite is Stoic Rebuttal, which can be a Cancel for the cost of a Counterspell. Spellskite and Darksteel Plate protect key critters (and Brass Squire evades equip costs). Alloy Myr is essentially a 2/2 Myr of Paradise–there’s not a lot of useful acceleration available to this deck, so including this guy is a no-brainer. Plenty of copies of Buried Ruin (oh, if only Academy Ruins wasn’t legendary!) and Remember the Fallen keep the graveyard useful.

The future: I’d like to replace the fourth Phyrexian Metamorph with a second Mirrorworks if I can get a hold of one. I’ve also got a couple of Phyrexia’s Cores hanging around, and I’m wondering if I should jettison a couple of extra basic lands to make room for them. Once Hook drops and the Scars block rotates out of Standard…I’ve got an M11 Voltaic Key which would probably work great here, and I understand that there’s some blue-generating lands in Zendikar block that let you (for all intents and purposes) scry when they hit the battlefield. And an Academy Ruins would be nice.

The other deck I use on a regular basis is a red/green deck based on haste, burn and ramping. I’m also currently working on a black/red vampire tribal deck with proliferate. I’ve got one deck I can use for Commander/EDH, a slightly modified version of the preconstructed “Counterpunch” deck (white/black/green). Decklists for the first two can be seen at my MTG Vault profile page.

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