My Tempered Steel BUDGET Deck

[PwN]

So... Yesterday i needed a budget MTGO deck, and i realized i could pick up the following, very effective, list for only 3 tix:

Creatures:

4 Vault Skirge
4 Porcelain Legionnaire
4 Myrsmith
4 Memnite
4 Etched Champion

Spells:

4 Tempered Steel
4 Dispatch
4 Darksteel Axe (Godly w/ Myrsmith)
4 Glint Hawk Idol
4 Origin Spellbomb

Lands:

20 Plains (Unglued :P not added in cost tho i had em)

This list seems to work amazingly well but needs some tweaking...
Any Suggestions?

Average Scenario:

Turn1: Vault Skirge, Plains
Turn2: Myrsmith, Plains
Turn3: Tempered Steel, Plains
Turn4: Darksteel Axe, Myrsmith ability, equip, Plains
game pretty much.

[vger]

@PwN,

Given that this is budget and the rotation of SOM is occurring in a few weeks time, I can't really recommend anything much.

But you might want to consider the following cards: Chronomaton and Signal Pest. They do seem more important than Myrsmith and Darksteel Axe, being cheap artifact creatures that can be pumped by Tempered Steel.

If possible, do play a full set of Inkmoth Nexus as well. They can be quite important against sweepers and are very short clocks themselves (especially when Tempered Steel is in play).

If cost were to not be a factor, you can also consider splashing an extra colour for more options (mainboard/sideboard) which you can work with.

Green provides you with Gavony Township to improve board presence.

Blue provides you with Moorland Haunt to Recover from board sweepers, as well as maximizing every card you may have.

Black provides you with Vault of the Archangel and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad to have some resilience against sweepers.

Red provides you with Galvanic Blast for more reach, Rally the Peasants and Slayer's Stronghold for more explosiveness.

And don't forget the Mox Opal when splashing for any of these colours.

Hopefully this helps!

[PwN]

[QUOTE=vger;2983972]

If possible, do play a full set of Inkmoth Nexus as well. They can be quite important against sweepers and are very short clocks themselves (especially when Tempered Steel is in play).

[QUOTE]
Ill see what i can do about the nexus, hopefully it runs low? dont mind about it cycling, i play a lot of extended. Unfortunatley, having to budget means i had to cut Mox Opal and splash red from original deck. thx for the suggestions!

[PwN]

Thanks so much for the great idea! I scraped toghether the cash for 4x Inkmoth Nexus and put in Chronomaton and Signal Pest, and it works GREAT! Here is the revised list:

Creatures:

4 Signal Pest
3 Chronomaton
3 Porcelain Legionnaire
4 Vault Skirge
3 Etched Champion
4 Memnite

Spells:

4 Tempered Steel
4 Dispatch
4 Glint Hawk Idol
3 Origin Spellbomb

Lands:

4 Inkmoth Nexus
20 Plains

Works great now, as you said the Blinkmoths are very short clocks XD

Anyway thx so much for the suggestion.

[Epik]

Hey, I played Tempered Steel a lot during its reign in standard. Won me a box worth of boosters over the 2 months I ran it. If you aren't so set on standard only cards pick up a couple Hero of Bladehold. Two would be a good amount, I personally ran 3 of her but she is moderately expensive. Also Glint Hawk in general has good interaction in this deck. I would take a 2/2 flier over a potential 6/3 first strike. Flying is very good in this deck, even if TS doesn't come online you should have chipped their life total enough to drop Hero of Bladehold and swing with fliers for victory.

I'm not a fan of Chronomaton. He seems like a lame version of Steel Overseer, who wound up not being so great either. Well they do both grow stronger they are highly susceptible creatures that don't fit the theme of smash face fast. I would get Spellskite. Good defensive ground man and good to eat spells aimed at TS or Bladehold.

Next up on my list is something that I played around with that I didn't see too many other people use is Phyrexian Metamorph. For three mana copy your opponents bomb that won him the last game and have it boosted by TS. Or target the Bladehold you just played and watch your opponent scoop when they don't get the answer they needed.

This whole archetype is about to rotate out soon anyways though. But if you want to play it in extended Mox Opal is just too good in this. Also Isolated Chapel is nice for your Vault Skirge and the couple Dismembers in your SB.

Hope some of this helped. Happy Hunting.

[vger]

@Epik,

Well you may be really surprised by how decent Chronomaton can be in Tempered Steel. Granted it isn't the strongest card ever, but it can still do its job fine here for various reasons.

For instance, its cheap casting cost and it being an artifact makes it a valuable asset to Tempered Steel decks - Tempered Steel decks do not run a high number of lands, preferring to run an aggressive curve as low as possible. Given enough of such cheap critters (along with Memnite, Signal Pest, Vault Skirge etc), it is then only possible for the pilot to flood his field to take maximum advantage of Tempered Steel and other metalcrafted effects.

And unlike Vector Asp at the same casting cost, Chronomaton actually has a more relevant ability in the scenarios where you don't have a Tempered Steel on the battlefield.

Glint Hawk, meanwhile is probably a lot more worse nowadays. It doesn't get pumped by Tempered Steel like Chronomaton and unless you have a Memnite/Mox Opal, you are going to realize that you are merely playing a much more balanced flying 2/2 (You will find this more often as games go long). And let's not mention the risk of getting card disadvantaged when your opponent kills that Memnite with Gut Shot, just when you are going to bounce it with Glint Hawk. Or you could even have it bounced by Vapor Snag, then out-tempo'ed when you have to bounce your artifacts and recast them all over again.

As for Spellskite, it actually isn't bad. In fact, it can be relevant in today's meta as it deals with Monogreen Infect decks and could also survive Slagstorm/Bonfire of the Damned. Yet you do have to sacrifice some power for such resilience in Spellskite, which is a decision Tempered Steel players have to question themselves from time to time when building the deck.

Now we will move on to Phyrexian Metamorph. Wonder why you don't actually see it being widely played in Tempered Steel decks? The main reasons are that a) its casting cost is way too hefty for Tempered Steel decks and b) it does nothing significant in this archetype since you don't actually have many powerful targets for it. No doubt you can still Clone your opponent's powerful creatures with it, but won't it be more feasible to race against them and not risk a dead card in the maindeck? Even if you really do need such effects, it is probably better as a sideboard option.