It’s been a while since I brought you Part 4 of An Artificer’s Tale, where I finally gave the first complete version of my new Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer EDH deck. In a way, that almost felt like the end of the tale; my challenge to build a new deck from the ground up, trading as much as possible (and spending nothing) had been completed. But I’ve built EDH decks before, and so I know as well as anyone that a deck is never truly “finished”.

Since then I have made a handful of changes (which I will go over shortly) but more importantly I’ve been able to play a good number of games. And it’s here that I have begun to discover the most brilliant thing about what I have done. Since I put the deck together without first considering or even looking for all the individual card combinations or interactions, I get to discover everything as I go along! And as I’ve learned, this deck can do some seriously cool things…

But first, changes to the deck. The following cards have been removed:
Shimmer Myr – During early testing I never found this guy that exciting to have, so he was an easy cut.
Lightning Greaves – This card doesn’t really do all that much for me (other than hasting one of the 11/11 indestructile golem brothers), and I’ve discussed before in other posts why I tend to find shroud is never really that relevant for me in EDH.
Devil’s Play – Mass removal is great, but this was just a spell I originally included simply because I had it. Not much fun though and a bit.. dull.
Eternity Vessel – This seemed like a great idea at first, but unless I have one of my Panoramas in play it will never really be that relevant. Originally I had some counter manipulation (such as Ion Storm) that synergised with this well, but now I don’t really see the Vessel ever having much impact on games.
Energy Chamber – It’s slow to do anything, especially pumping creatures, and the extra charge counters will rarely do much given the theme has een slowly cut from the deck.
Serum Tank – This was actually cut after a few of the games below, but it just never came up and I simply replaced it with better ways to draw cards.

These were replaced by:
Font of Mythos – I was (and still am) after Howling Mine, but in the meantime I managed to aquire this also.
Buried Ruin – Just one of those useful lands that I didn’t already have a spare copy of, finally managed to get one.
Mindslaver – I try not to use this in a mean way, but it’s great deterrant to any opponent wishing to try and screw me.
Voltaic Key – Standard ability-abusing artifact!
Crystal Ball – This came in as a budget version of Sensei’s Divining Top, although having played with it a little I think I might actually just prefer this!
Rings of Brighthearth – This is the most major new addition to my deck. It would’ve been in sooner but it just took me ages to locate and trade for one. It has awesome potential with so many of the cards in my deck, incldng my general, as you will read below.

And so I took the deck on what I considered to be its first real outing. I was facing off against Riku of Two Reflections (a common opponent for me) and Kaalia of the Vast‘s Pre-Constructed deck.
I opened with Rings of Brighthearth and Mirrorworks. And from there my board got a bit stupid -double Lux Cannons followed by double Contagion Engines. Tapping the Engine and activating Rings to Proliferate 4 times, then activating the Rings again on both Cannons meant I was able to destroy 4 permanants every turn for a “mere” 10 mana! Needless to say, this locked up the game pretty quickly, and whilst I could have won from this position very easily, it asn’t all that interesting to play out and so I decided to use Slobad to sacrifice my rediculous engine of destruction and allow the game to continue.
Later, I managed to get Primeval Titan on my Mimic Vat. Again, the Rings allowed me to double up the Vat’s ability and draw a lot of land out of my deck very quickly. Not too shabby when I have Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle in play and most of my lands are mountains. My opponents had cool plays of their own, although as I was only focussing on memorising my own game the only insane thing I remember is the Riku player gaining an insane amount of life from his Venser’s Journal due to the fact I had 2 Temple Bells and 2 Otherworld Atlas (both with 2 counters on) in play.
With 3 mountains left in my library, all three Panoramas and Valakut in play I set up a situation where I could kill either of my opponents at instant speed, should it be necessary. That moment came when a Devastation Tide would have completely ruined my board. I cracked all 3 Panoramas, when in response he removed the divinity counter from his Myojin of Infinite Rage. And so the game went to a point where there were very few lands left in anyones deck, no permanants in play and everyone had very large hands that were about to be (mostly) discarded. With that, we all agreed to scoop and call it a draw! Fantastic

In a second game, this one with 3 other players although I forget exactly who all the Generals were, once again Rings of Brighthearth allowed me to do some silly things. Along with Myr Turbine and Unwinding Clock I was able to create a lot of indestructible dudes very quickly, followed by finding Myr Battlesphere and swinging for a lot of damage. Unfortunately my game fell apart when the Riku player cast Into the Core and copied it, ruining my board. I survived for a while longer but my deck failed to put up much of a fight after that.

Rings of Brighthearth is obviously an incredble card, I always knew it would be and the above situations only really go to prove that. However one less obvious interaction that only came to me during a game (1 on 1 vs Riku) was with Keldon Megaliths. I was literally about to decide to cut this land from the deck thinking it would rarely be relevant, but having emptied my hand, along with the Rings it allowed me to essentiaally keep Riku out of the game! I really like lands utility lands in EDH, no matter how minor the effect may seem at first there is always a situation where it will prove vital. The Rings do so much for this deck, and whilst much of it would be very obvious were I just to take a proper look through the deck and work out all sorts of interactions, I plan to continue to do all my real discovering in-game. I just can’t wait to get to play with Trading Post!

And just one final note, I have finally ordered a foil Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer! Yes, I have spent my first £1.50 on cards for this deck and he should be with me shortly. Actually I tell a lie.. I also ordered a Myr Retriever and a couple of other bits at the same time. So I have now infact spent just short of £5 on cards. Along with the money on sleeves, I have a brand new awesome EDH for less than £10. Thats not bad going, really