[Old School Magic] New Strategies for the Old School: Transmute Artifact

Smmenen

http://www.vintagemagic.com/blog/old-school-magic-chapter-5-new-strategies-for-the-old-school-the-transmute-control-deck/

A decklist, tournament report, and some detailed analysis. I hope you enjoy it!

Stephen

Aaron Patten

I remember people playing Transmute Artifact decks in my local game store in 1995 but they were much more like Blaine's list. Thanks for posting this, I have been enjoying the series. There is one line where you say: "With just a Mox, Scepter can be tutored up on turn two, and activated the following turn.." which shouldn't be the case (if it were Sol Ring you could though). Not sure if you're interested in that kind of criticism since the article is already posted but I thought I'd mention it just in case. As always, I'll be looking forward to the next installment.

mediumsteve

What do you think is the staying power of control-based Transmute strategies like your list and aggro-based Transmute strategies like Blaine's list?

Serracollector

I like both lists a lot. Very nice Stephen. Im slowly but surely getting my old school built. Tawnos Coffin was an amazing card when I ran it in the 90's. Im just wondering but why does no one run the Basalt Monolith and Power Artifact combo with it, or is that banned? Seems rather good with X spells obv, and could allow for a crazy good Alladins Lamp with 4 Transmute Artifacts.

Aaron Patten

@Serracollector People are doing that elsewhere for sure. No need for Aladdin's Lamp just transmute for Rocket Launcher.

I played Power Monolith for a while, and the deck can be good, but you run 8 dead cards on it which can be really bad. You could run only 1 Monolith with extra Transmutes, but you can't depend on draws or Tutor to find the Power Artifact. So you gotta run 6-8 dead cards in the deck and that can be really bad.
Also I don't like Rocket Launcher because it has summoning sickness and gives your opponent another turn...

Steve, about Transmute, you say people didn't play it because they were probably afraid of it being countered, but Transmute only sacrifices the artifact on resolution, so that fear can't exist. Was that different back in the 90s?

gribdogs

Nice read. Toolbox decks are always a blast!