In one of the first articles that I wrote, I mentioned that the majority of the decks that I use tend to be mono-colored. When I was first building the stack of decks that I currently have, the hardest one to build was the one made up of only artifacts.

I had plenty of them to choose from; that was about the only problem that didn't show up in the course of trying to create this deck. In fact, when I first started taking cards out of binders that I was considering for use, I ended up with so many that the deck was of a size more suited for five color play than casual.

Artifact creatures, on the other hand, I had to scan over and over and over again. Artifacts tend to be expensive, and the creatures are no exception. The problem is that while the pure artifacts tend to produce effects that might actually be worth their cost, the creatures tend to be over-priced without being worth anything. No self-respecting Magic player of any stature is going to want to play a 4/4 vanilla creature for a casting cost of six.

The immediate response to the above statement would be that while the creatures are overpriced, there are multitudes of mana-producing engines that are available to help in this situation to offset things.

True. So then the question that I throw right back to you is that while you are putting out Sol Rings and Thran Dynamos and Grim Monoliths, your opponents are putting out creatures. These, in turn, are causing you damage while you are still building your mana base.

Effective artifact creatures are not easy to find for any price, and finding ones that worked that were not monstrosities was giving me a headache. I did eventually find small creatures to use, and they ended up being more integral to the deck than the larger ones did. So without any further ado, I submit to you:

Mechanics
1 Oasis
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Maze of Ith
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
1 Snake Basket
1 Ashnod's Cylix
1 Crawlspace
1 Feldon's Cane
2 Umbilicus
2 Rocket Launcher
2 Braidwood Cup
3 Thran Dynamo
3 Puffer Extract
4 Voltaic Key
1 Living Wall
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Teeka's Dragon
2 Shield Sphere
2 Masticore
2 Dancing Scimitars
2 Mantis Engine
3 Junk Diver
3 Obsianus Golem
3 Roterothopter
4 Jhoira's Toolbox

As you can see, I managed to range from no casting cost whatsoever all the way up to nine. I also run the gambit in another sense: I have cards in here that people would consider mandatory in a deck such as this, and I have others that people would wonder what the hell I had in mind when I put them in there. These cards are obvious to me as well, believe it or not. In my defense, this deck is my oldest remaining deck that has not been tweaked once since its initial construction. Keep in mind also that this deck was constructed for entertainment's sake.

Let's discuss the land first: The inclusion of Urza's trilogy of lands is a no-brainer; with the mana curve this deck requires overall, there really isn't any other way to go. The Oasis really should go; I forget myself why I put it into the deck in the first place. Although it is a card that exemplifies my play style nicely. The Mishra's Factories are in theme, and the Mazes are just too good not to include. I have all three of my Mazes in multiple decks, and this one is no exception.

The Wasteland and Strip Mine are to defend the Mazes against the Dust Bowls that everyone else at the table packs. I mentioned some months ago that people were using Mazes more often, and the Dust Bowls started appearing. Now the Dust Bowls are still around, while I am practically the only person who has any Mazes left in regular use.

Next up are the four single artifacts. The Snake Basket is in there so that if I don't happen to have anything better to do during someone's discard phase, I can hopefully come up with a small army... Although it is annoying that the snakes are green, as opposed to colorless. It is the only thing that I am aware of that is slightly out of theme for the deck. The Crawlspace serves as the artifact equivalent to a Propaganda, and hopefully serves as a deterrent until the majority of my mana supply is up and running. Ashnod's Cylix is in there strictly for amusement purposes on my end, and hopefully irritation's sake on the behalf of my opponents. This ties in to the whole remove-from-the-game angle that you find over and over again in my articles. And the Feldon's Cane is in case I actually run out of something that I really need to have, but my other options of getting it back have failed.

The two Umbilici are for more sources of irritation to my opponents. With the Shield Spheres, Roterothopters, and Voltaic Keys for no-cost or cheap costing items to pick up every turn, I am hoping that my mana curve will inconvenience me far less than the other people. The Shield Spheres get an extra bonus in that if I have had to block with them and they weren't outright killed, I can pick them up next turn and lay them down again for their full amount of toughness.

The two Rocket Launchers are the direct damage of the deck. When I realized that they read"any target," they got put in. It is extremely rare to find anything released in today's sets that gives you that much choice. The closest I can think of is Vindicate, which says"Destroy target permanent." Paying two mana to cause one point of damage may not seem like a great exchange... Until you let it simmer in your head awhile. There are multiple things out there that have protection. These days, protection ranges from specific colors to artifacts to enchantments to creatures. But protection from artifacts, or colorless damage of any source is rare, however, and the odds of someone having a way to stop it are slim.

The Voltaic Keys, Braidwood Cups, and the Thran Dynamos are all self-evident. While the Puffer Extract, by itself, is also straightforward, it is also one of the most important cards in the deck: This card forms a two-part combo that I happened to stumble across when constructing the deck. Like everything else, the card is really only as good as the amount of mana that I can pump into it. So let's say one of my Roterothopters gets through (because it is a flyer, after all). I use the Puffer Extract to pump it up much higher than it is, but I make sure that I have at least two mana left over. The reason for this is that the Puffer Extract says that at the end of the turn, destroy the target creature it pumped up. It doesn't say that the creature cannot be regenerated... Which is where Jhoira's Toolbox comes in, using it's ability to regenerate the creature you just used. And depending on how much mana you actually used versus what's left over, you can then use one of the Keys to untap the creature so it can serve double duty as a blocker.

The Living Wall is a good example of what I mentioned before; something that is overcosted just to get the thing out there. It makes up for this by having the best regeneration price of anything I have ever seen, one colorless mana. Some people may put more value on the fact that you can use any mana to get it out there in the first place, or on the fact that it has a six toughness, making the regeneration ability unnecessary more often than not.

Karn, Silver Golem, despite his singleton presence in this deck, is also one of the more key cards in this deck. Karn makes one of the best attackers or blockers ever, with his ability to become an 0/8 creature; the only creature that I would prefer to have in his place would be Jareth, Leonine Titan. Karn's ability to make artifacts into creatures allows for some great diversity. You can create creatures from your artifacts to do a sudden creature rush and overwhelm an opponent, or to block those few extra creatures that might slip through your defenses by sheer numbers. The best part, however, is something that I discovered during a game: If someone decides to destroy or disenchant one of your regular artifacts, you can use Karn to make it into a creature and then use the Toolbox to regenerate it. Admittedly, this is a rather roundabout way to save one of your cards, and not necessarily the most efficient - but considering how theme-oriented this deck is, it works out well.

Teeka's Dragon and the Golems serve as the storm troopers of the deck; the cards that always attack whenever you successfully get them out there. The Dancing Scimitars serve much the same function as the Living Wall and the Shield Spheres, with the additional plus of being able to attack if you have nothing better to do with your turn. Although you really want to hope that you can do more than this on any given turn.

The Mantis Engines are in there for the versatility. Again, they are far from the most cost efficient of the available creatures. On the other hand, they have served their purposes on occasion by being able to be made first strikers and surprise flyers if necessary, particularly if none of my Roterothopters are doing me the courtesy of showing up.

The Junk Divers are surprisingly effective as graveyard recursion, and were the card that I underestimated the value of most when I first constructed the deck. Since artifact creatures still count as artifacts, the Diver's ability to basically replace anything that I just lost is a saving grace. The only bad thing about it is that it has to die for me to be able to get anything.

Although the Diver was part of an extended losing battle that I fought once with this deck; my opponent was consistently flying over with an Iridescent Angel and being blocked by one of my Divers. The Diver is one of the extremely few creatures that can even block these damn angels; unfortunately, I had no method of pumping the Diver up enough to kill the Angel. I did, however, already have another Diver in the graveyard, so every time a Diver died I took the other Diver and put it into my hand and then cast it on my turn, thereby having perpetual flying blockers against that rainbow-colored hag.

(I really don't like Iridescent Angel. It ranks right up there in my top five most hated, and I would have to think to come up with another four.)

I ended up losing that game, but I got some enjoyment out of the vast amount of time it took my opponent to kill me. I was hoping to make him concede by eventually boring him to death.

Despite what you might think, I do not consider the Masticores to be an immediate saving grace when they are drawn. I have to be extremely careful when casting them, because of their wonderful tendency to eat away at one's card-drawing capabilities. Given the limitations that this deck has, I have found myself more often than not leaving this card in my hand. Unless it has become glaringly obvious that I cannot win without it, or if there is a creature on the table that I cannot deal with unless it is present, I do not cast it.

The possibilities on how to improve this deck are evident. The Blue Mage of my group has said that it could be improved immensely simply by not keeping it a mono-artifact deck. Well, duh - that isn't the point! Simply the addition or removal of some of the cards that are already in it could improve it. Although I have to admit that I have been contemplating the merits of throwing into a pair of Tolarian Academies the land mix. Unfortunately, despite their current banned status, they are still kind of high up there on the price lists; plus, I am not entirely sure that I want to invest in cards that would really only serve a purpose in one deck that I currently have. I prefer, whenever possible, to use cards that are useful in a variety of decks, as opposed to using cards that would need to have decks built around them in order for them to be useful.

That about covers it for this week. Next time, I will be using this deck - along with a few others - to illustrate some questions that everyone should ask about their multiplayer decks before they bring them to the table. Until then, take care.