Yesterday, Salivanth (who posts at Magic: The Blogging) offered to take the Protection Artifacts deck I posted out for a spin. While I was having a blast in the casual room, Salivanth took it to the Tournament Practice room. Here's how he went.

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Salivanth Protection Artifacts Testing Report

Yesterday, I saw Wrongwaygoback’s post on Twitter about the Protection Artifacts deck featured here and I offered to test the deck out to see how it stood up to the top decks in the Standard format. Wrongwaygoback said sure, and also gave me permission to change the decklist a bit if I liked. Here’s the list I ended up using:

Lands (22)

4 Glacial Fortress
6 Island
4 Mystic Gate
6 Plains
2 Reflecting Pool

Creatures (24)

4 Court Homunculus
4 Esper Stormblade
4 Ethersworn Shieldmage
3 Glassdust Hulk
4 Master of Etherium
2 Vedalken Outlander
3 Ethersworn Canonist

Spells (14)

1 Ajani Goldmane
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
3 Harm’s Way
4 Sage’s Dousing
2 Tezzeret the Seeker

Sideboard (15)

1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Harm’s Way
3 Hindering Light
4 Path to Exile
4 Runed Halo
2 Vedalken Outlander


Explanations: I added 3 lands to the land count to ensure I could ramp up to 4-5 mana consistently, for Ajani or Tezzeret. I also added some Vedalken Outlanders maindeck, as I find them quite useful with a deck like this. Without Ethersworn Canonists, you’re basically dead to Elf Combo game 1.

Other than that, the deck’s fairly solid. The sideboard is meant to give a better matchup against Jund, B/R Burn, Merfolk (actually incredibly similar to this deck) and midrange / token decks.

First Impressions

My first impression of this deck is that the deck is very similar to Merfolk: a W/U aggro control deck that protects it’s creatures. It’s disadvantages are less lords / tribal synergy, but it has an advantage with Ajani and Tezzeret, both of which can be extremely devastating in this deck. I would dearly love to increase the numbers of them, but can’t cut any more creatures, and I didn’t want to change the deck too much.

My theory is to get out a couple of early creatures, then hold back my Shieldmages / counterspells. Like any aggro-control deck, I want to play quick creatures out, then protect them as they fly to victory. That’s my basic theory on the deck, and the style I intend to follow as I play it.

Match 1 vs. Hardtrack’s Five-Color Control

I play Turn 1 Court Homunculus, Turn 2 Esper Stormblade and swing (18). He passes, and I swing again. He uses Plumeveil, I use Sage’s Dousing. (14) He passes again, I swing again. He uses Plumeveil, and I flash in Ethersworn Shieldmage. (12) I pass. I swing: Agony Warp kills Esper Stormblade and -3/-0’s the Shieldmage. He blocks the Homunculus, and I flash in another Shieldmage. He passes, I play Master of Etherium. He counters and taps my guys with Cryptic Command, then plays Hallowed Burial.

I pass, as does he. I play Glassdust Hulk. He plays Cruel Ultimatum. I pass, and he plays Broodmate Dragon. I concede.

Sideboard: +1 Harm’s Way, +3 Hundering Light, -3 Ethersworn Canonist, -1 Vedalken Outlander

Game 2 I mulligan to 6 and get stuck on 1 land with no blue. He plays Plumeveil, I play another Plains. I get Island , with him having about 5 lands in play by this point. I play Esper Stormblade. He passes. I play Vedalken Outlander, he Cryptic Commands. I swing, he blocks with Plumeveil and I use Harm’s Way to kill both.

I play Esper Stormblade, He Essence Scatters. I play Master of Etherium. He plays Esper Charm and draws Broken Ambitions. He plays Cruel Ultimatum. I lay a fourth land and pass. He plays Broodmate Dragon. Next turn he hits me to 7, I draw and concede.

0-1

Match 2 vs. Hardtrack’s R/W Control

He offers another match, I say sure, if he’s willing to switch decks. He does. Turn 1 I cycle Glassdust and pass, then play a Turn 2 Ethersworn Canonist. He passes. I swing (18) and play Master of Etherium. He passes. I attack, and he uses Volcanic Fallout.

I play Master of Etherium, he plays Ajani Vengeant and shoots the Master. I pass. He swings with Mutavault. I use the topdecked Ethersworn Shieldmage to block. Next turn I kill Ajani. He Paths my Shieldmage and plays a second copy of Ajani. I use Sage’s Dousing. I play Ethersworn Canonist and pass. He plays Obelisk of Alara. He plays Goblin Assault next turn and passes. I play Esper Stormblade and pass. He uses Volcanic Fallout at end of turn.

I use Harm’s Way to save the Canonist. I play Tezzeret and search for Court Homunculus. He uses Obelisk to kill Tezzeret, and then Earthquakes for 2 and passes. I pass. He plays Elspeth and makes the goblin a 4/4 flier and swings me to 7, and I concede.

Game 2 I play an Esper Stormblade Turn 2 and swing turn 3. (18) He plays Goblin Assault, I play Sage’s Dousing. I swing (16). He passes. I play Glassdust Hulk and swing. He goes to 13. End of turn he Volcanic Fallouts and Lightning Bolts to kill both my guys. (18, 11)

I play Master of Etherium and Court Homunculus. He Lightning Bolts the Master. I use Harm’s Way and save it thanks to Borderposts. I swing for 3. He Paths Master of Etherium and blocks the 1/1 with Mutavault. I use Harm’s Way. I swing for 1 over the next two turns to hit him to 9, then I go for it. I play a Shieldmage and end of turn, then untap, play Master of Etherium and use Tezzeret to search for Master of Etherium and swing for 8. He goes to 1, then plays Hallowed Burial. Next turn he plays Obelisk of Alara and kills Tezzeret. He plays Ajani, and increases his life to 9. I concede to his board dominance.

0-2

Match 3 vs .Simian’s Time Sieve

Turn 1 we both play Fieldmist Borderposts. I play Esper Stormblade Turn 2, he plays another Borderpost. I swing and pass. (17) He plays Jace, I use Sage’s Dousing. I swing (14) and pass. He passes. At end of turn I play an Ethersworn Shieldmage, assuming correctly that he’s playing Time Sieve, and cycle Glassdust Hulk. I play Ajani and pump up my guys, swinging for 7. He plays Time Warp, and passes his next turn. During my upkeep he uses Pollen Lullaby, then Pollen Lullaby again next upkeep. I gain some life, and pass. He sacrifices Time Sieve, plays Time Warp, and tries to go off, finding Open The Vaults literally with the last card he could draw before defeat. He eventually kills me.

Game 2 was amazing. I played Turn 1 Court Homunculus, Turn 2 Esper Stormblade (18), Turn 3 Master of Etherium (12), Turn 4 Borderpost and Master of Etherium (0). He didn’t have a chance.

Game 3 we both play Fieldmists turn 1. He plays Howling Mine Turn 2, I play Vedalken Outlander. Turn 3 he plays Kaleidostone. I play Ethersworn Canonist and another Borderpost and swing. Turn 4 I play another Borderpost and make a 5/5 Master of Etherium, and swing. (12) Turn 5 he plays Time Warp. Turn 5B he plays Time Sieve and Time Warp. Turn 5C he plays Jace and Time Warp, Turn 5D he plays Elsewhere Flask and Tezzeret, +1’s it, and sacs 5 artifacts to Time Sieve, before playing a fourth artifact. Turn 5E he makes 4 5/5’s, Paths my only blocker, and swings for the win.

0-3 (So close!)

Match 4 vs. Xtdes’ B/G Elves

Turn 2 I play a Canonist, and he plays Llanowar Elves. I play Master of Etherium and swing (17) and he Maelstrom Pulses the Canonist. He swings. (19) I play a Fieldmist Borderpost and Esper Stormblade, and swing (14) He plays Profane Command for 3, killing Stormblade and making me lose 3 life (16).

Turn 5 I play Tezzeret and search up a Court Homunculus. I swing (11). He plays Chameleon Colossus. I attack, he blocks, and I use Harm’s Way to kill Chameleon Colossus and save my Homunculus, then search up another Court Homonculus with Tezzeret. He plays Great Sable Stag. I attack with the 3/3 Homunculus’ and he blocks one. I use Ethersworn Shieldmage, and he concedes.

Game 2 he Thoughtseizes Master of Etherium and swings with Mutavault Turn 3. (18) I play a Borderpost. He swings (16) and I play an Esper Stormblade. He Nameless Inversions, and swings (14). I pass. He plays 2 Kitchen Finks’, I counter the second one with Sage’s Dousing. He goes to 19. He swings, and I use Ethersworn Shieldmage to block. He goes to 21. He tries a Nameless Inversion, I use Hindering Light. He swings with two Mutavaults, I block one with the Shieldmage and go to 10. He plays a couple more guys, swings me to 2, and I concede.

Game 3 I play a land and pass. He plays Llanowar Elves. I play another land and pass. He swings me to 17 with Elves and Mutavault. I play another land and pass. He swings, and I flash in Ethersworn Shieldmage to block. I play Esper Stormblade and pass. He swings, I go to 15. He plays Putrid Leech. Turn 5 I play Master of Etherium and swing, knocking him to 14. He plays Nameless Inversion and hits me to 7. I swing him to 10. He passes. I play 2 Master of Etherium, and swing him to 5 with the Stormblade. He plays Kitchen Finks and passes. I play Tezzeret and swing him to 2. He draws and concedes.

1-3

The deck is solid, but it could use some improvements. If I were to redesign the deck, I would probably include Honor of the Pure, more Ajani and Tezzeret, and cut the Sage’s Dousing to make it more of an aggressive deck with a combat trick or two. Ethersworn Shieldmage is quite strong, and as seen in Game 2 of the third match, the deck is capable of quite a start. It should do well in the casual room or FNM, but I wouldn’t bring it to a top tournament.

Thanks for reading!

-Salivanth.

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Firstly, thanks Salivanth for taking the deck out for a spin, and then making the effort to writing up how it went.
There's a bit for me to think about here, but I like the philosophical question of what to do with a deck that's too good for the casual room, but not good enough for the tournament room? Improve it until it works, or abandon it and move onto the next one?

For now, I'm going it explore tweaking it. There's some movement I'd like to try with Silence, Meddling Mage and Open the Vaults.

So thanks, Salivanth, and good luck with your next series of posts at Magic: The Blogging.