trstn

thing in the ie might be good addition instead of ertai/tradewind

waiting on armory automaton

waiting for ornithopter

waiting for jp channel

waiting for last fling, play with fire, and last pit-fighter

considering turning thran engine into a super aggro deck using inititates of the ebon order. instead of "(2): add (1) of any color" ebon initiates can do "(1): add (B)," so it nets neutral mana -- I just have to figure out some mana fixing details. also the max mana an initiate can handle is 4; any more than that and they will die at end of turn. theres a (1B) card that also does (1): add (B) without overheating and dying so it could work too, it just has a slightly higher mana cost.

wizard rockets card

idea to use burning wish to draw sorcery spells from sideboard. essentially extends size of deck by # of sorcery in sideboard. caveat that sideboard loses several slots in exchange for potential in-game flexibility.

Burning Wish (1/R) = casts spell from outside game. can retrieve spells from exile. weak to counterspells. must also cast retrieved spell.

Balance (1/W) = clears creatures/lands and thins hands- good because it makes opponents sacrifice permanents
Rite of Oblivion (B/W) = cheap 1x removal- exile stronger than destroy
Grapeshot (1/R) = easy one-shot win if surfing long enough. resistant to counterspells.

SDT is the new wave.

master of dark rites for demon deck

bloodghast

add legolas's quick reflexes

Replacing AA with Sensei's Divining Top (SDT) offers an artifact-based alternative to AA's scry. SDT can tap to draw top card and replace with itself. Since top card is revealed by Mystic Forge and HoA makes SDT free to cast, it creates an infinite surf refresh, possibly even eliminating the need for Keys in the deck (no need for MF resets?).

Keys can be replaced with defensive spells (Zuran Orb, Defense Grid, Engineered Explosives, Winter Orb, Salvage Titan, etc.)

New consideration: Adding Sensei's Divining Top (SDT) to deck. It could add to the surf potential

Grim Monolith should replace Mana Vault ??

Mana Crypt should replace Mana Vault. It's just so damn expensive.

Ancient Tomb should replace Crystal Vein. It's just so damn expensive.

Needs Defense Grid.

Wish is (2)(R) sorcery that lets you play a spell from outside the game. For some reason mtgvault won't let me add it to the deck.

Wish pairs well with MF as a backup/recursion spell for Grapeshot. It also helps fix the number of non-artifacts I need to run in the deck. There is a tenuous balance of cards within the deck. Currently the ration of Artifacts : Non-Artifacts is 43 : 17. Darksteel Citadel is included among the Non-Artifacts because it cannot be played from the topdeck despite being an Artifact; Lands are not cast, so MF doesn't apply to it. Might be worth replacing with Ancient Tomb.

So there are 17 cards that cannot be surfed and there are 8 keys, 4 MF. Since we are not currently using graveyard shenanigans, I need to brute force through the deck to get a large surf going. By including Wish, I have a way to interact with Grapeshot in case it gets exiled by MF or an opponent. It even opens a way to protect Grapeshot from mill if MF is out by exiling from topdeck instead of allowing it to go to the graveyard, which we cannot interact with.

Exiling Grapeshot with MF is risky to do mid-surf. If the Storm Counter is big, but there is no way to draw it from the top deck, then it might be best to exile and try to keep the surf going. The math is extremely tricky on that. Serum Powder lets us filter bad hands, thereby reducing the number of cards in the deck. If there are 12 lands, that's 1/5 of the deck, meaning that a land should appear almost every 5 cards, meaning almost every Serum we use to filter bad hands should include a land or 2. Then we need to play lands before we can start surfing. Assuming that it takes about 2 or 3 lands to get the deck moving, we can reasonably guess that the total number of non-surfable cards could drop down to 13 or 12 at the point we start surfing big. So we need at least 12-15 ways to remove cards from the topdeck.

Currently, there are 4 MF, 4 Voltaic Keys, and 4 Manifold Keys. There are also 4 Chromatic Stars, 4 Conjurer's Baubles, and 2 Artificer's Assistants. Normally, I would exclude Forges beyond the first, but since we are trying to surf big, we can assume that we will have more than one out in a game. Between the 4 MF and 8 Keys, we can exile the topdeck 12 times in an ideal turn/surf for 8 mana. Then the trinkets (Stars&Baubles) allow me to draw up to 8 cards for roughly ~4 mana (Helm of Awakening makes trinkets free) which is replaced by the Stars. Lastly, the two Artificer's Assistants allow me to Scry1 for every artifact I surf and help screen the topdeck. That's 22 cards to help manage the topdeck. Ignoring the fact that AA filters more than one card from the topdeck throughout the game, we can that at a minimum, the deck allows use tor remove up to 20 cards from the topdeck.

So the ratio of Non-Surfable Cards to Topdeck Interaction Cards within the deck is 17 : 22. There are about ~23% percent more cards that can filter the topdeck than there are cards that need to be filtered. Adding Wish makes it ~19% more cards than need to be filtered, assuming it doesn't replace a card that can filter the topdeck or another non-surfable card. Since we are going for a big surf one shot, 3 Grapeshots might be a bit much, as they will only get in the way early game. Running a solitary Wish allows us to cut down our copies of Grapeshot to 2 and can recover one of those two from exile. If we replace a Grapeshot with Wish, we can keep the ratio to just beneath 1/4 more filter cards. If we go down to one Grapeshot, the ratio becomes 16 : 22, which is ~28% more filter cards than non-surfable cards. It might be best to include another copy of Grapeshot in the sideboard for Wish to target as well.

The mana curve here is kind of tight, but the plan is to surf out 2-3 Helms of Awakening so that almost everything in the deck is free to cast (except for MF, Grapeshot, Artificer's Assistant, and possibly Wish?) Including a copy of Paradox Engine in the main board and side board would help guarantee a large surf as well and would provide another good target for Wish, though it does increase the demand for mana. At the very least, having the option for a strong ability like that gives a mid-game piece to help close the combo.

There are 12 cards to filter/add mana (Opal, Star, Petal) and there are 5 cards with specific color costs (AA, Grapeshot... add Wish?). Including cards like Mana Crypt or Mana Vault helps to add extra casting ability for payoff spells (which are?). Ancient tomb and Crystal Vein are good considerations for land since they also help generate mana. There should be no problems with running out of mana. Urza's Saga provides some mana and a useful tutor for 0-1CMC artifacts (think Keys, Opal, Star etc.)

I think it's tight, but it might work.

MFCK only works if deck is entirely artifact. Lands and Colored Permanents stall it out. If splashing non-artifact, MF goes by the wayside, though CK might still have a place.