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Mono-Color Artifact Decks in The Brothers' War Standard

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Hello everyone. While many people are focusing on the Phyrexia: All Will Be One previews, you shouldn't forget about the cards we currently have. Our most recent release, The Brothers' War, was chock-full of exciting cards to play, with many of them being artifacts. This week, I have three mono-colored decks that all include a fair amount of these artifacts. Let's get started.

Mostly Mono-White Aggro Artifacts

We'll begin this week with an aggressive White deck that splashes a hint of Blue mana for ability activations. Let's take a look at the deck.


Surge Engine
This mostly White deck includes a splash of Blue mana to be able to activate the abilities of Surge Engine. Surge Engine starts off as a 3/2 creature that has defender. For a single Blue mana, you can remove defender and make Surge Engine unable to be blocked. For an additional three mana, you'll change Surge Engine's base stats to be 5/4. Attacking for 5 unblockable damage each turn can end games quickly. If you're able to activate Surge Engine's final ability, you can draw three cards, once per game. I love the way you 'level up' Surge Engine with these abilities, and hope to see more cards like it in the future.

Since this deck is mostly Mono-White, it comes as no surprise to see a full playset of Steel Seraph. Having this artifact Angel on the battlefield allows you to provide flying to one of your creatures, enabling it to attack with evasion. Alternatively, you can give a creature vigilance, allowing it to attack and still be used as a blocker against your opponent's attack. Steel Seraph also has the option to provide lifelink to a creature, giving you extra life which can provide you additional time to cast big threats such as Cityscape Leveler.

This deck includes a playset of one of the most versatile vehicles currently in Standard, Reckoner Bankbuster. Not only does Reckoner Bankbuster offer you some extra card drawing opportunities, but it can also be crewed to provide a beefy blocker or an awesome attacker. It even creates its own crew once all the charge counters have been removed from it. You can also crew it with the help of The Wandering Emperor, who can create a 2/2 Samurai and buff it with a +1/+1 counter on a following turn.

Mono-Green Artifact Ramp

Next, I have a deck for you that will often cast its threats on the opponent's turn. Let's take a look at it.


Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter
Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter allows you to cast colorless and artifact spells as though they had flash. This can allow you to end games quickly by casting huge threats such as Cityscape Leveler or Portal to Phyrexia on your opponents' turn. Big threats can often force your opponent to concede the game, giving you a win from out of nowhere. The main issue with big threats like these is the amount of mana required to cast these spells. Luckily, this deck has an answer for that problem.

In order to ramp up the amount of mana that this deck can produce, we rely on a combination of creatures and spells. Topiary Stomper allows you to search your deck for a basic land to put into play tapped when it enters the battlefield. Llanowar Loamspeaker can tap to provide you with one mana of any color. The Mightstone and Weakstone tap for two colorless mana that can help get your big threats out. Finally, you have Titania's Command, which can put two land cards from your library into play tapped.

In addition to the big threats you can cast, this deck includes a few smaller threats that will grow in size as the game progresses. Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter will gain a +1/+1 counter whenever you cast a spell that costs more mana than Liberator's current power. This includes all spells, not just artifacts. You also have a playset of Teething Wurmlet, who can gain a +1/+1 each turn as long as an artifact enters the battlefield under your control. With the amount of artifacts in this deck, both Liberator and Teething Wurmlet can grow quite large throughout the game.

Mono-Black Artifacts

The final deck I have for you is a Mono-Black control deck that has the tools needed to win any drawn-out fight. Let's check it out.


Phyrexian Fleshgorger
Much like the previous Mono-Green deck, this deck utilizes Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter as a means of casting artifacts at instant speed. This allows you to cast Phyrexian Fleshgorger as an early blocker, thanks to its alternate casting cost provided by its prototype ability. Since it has lifelink, you'll be able to gain some additional health, allowing you to draw out the game, when you'll be able to cast Cityscape Leveler as your finisher.

Mask of Griselbrand is another card that can provide you with a source of lifelink. It can be equipped to any of your creatures, and will provide flying, in addition to lifelink, to that creature. If the equipped creature should die, you can draw a number of extra cards based on a variable amount of life you choose to pay. While Mask of Griselbrand hasn't been widely played in Standard, it's a very solid card and its abilities tie into each other very well.

As you would expect from a Black deck, there is a considerable amount of creature removal in this deck. Cut Down and Go for the Throat are both instant spells that destroy a creature. March of Wretched Sorrow and Parasitic Grasp deal damage while also providing you with some additional life. Disfigure gives a negative buff to a creature, allowing you to remove a creature that is otherwise indestructible. Finally, Gix's Command can destroy each creature with power two or less, as well as forcing your opponent to sacrifice their most powerful creature.

Wrapping Up

The Brothers' War provided us with a lot of powerful artifacts. These decks are a small sampling of what can be achieved when you attempt to harness that power.

What do you think of these decks? Feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

-Mike Likes

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