Nuts & Bolts (Casual)

Small, inexpensive artifacts have been staples of the Magic game since its earliest days, but the Fifth Dawn expansion boosts their usefulness to another level. Cards like Auriok Salvagers and Leonin Squire bring cheap artifacts back from your graveyard and apply early attacking pressure. With sixteen artifacts that cost {1} or less, the Nuts and Bolts deck takes full advantage of your creatures' scavenging abilities.
The star of the deck is Trinket Mage. When it comes into play, you can search your deck for whatever little artifact you need, even an artifact land. Let the dumb kids play with the big, expensive creatures. Many of the best Magic decks rely on cheap spells, deck manipulation, and utility. Nuts and Bolts has these in spades.

Trinket Mage's partners in crime are Auriok Salvagers and Salvaging Station. They generate great card advantage by getting back the little artifacts you've already used so that you can play them again and again. Just keep your defenses up long enough to get about six lands in play and let these cards do their thing. You can recycle Chromatic Sphere to draw lots of extra cards, Sunbeam Spellbomb to gain tons of life, or Aether Spellbomb - the best artifact to reuse - to repeatedly return all your opponents' creatures to their hands, allowing your creatures to eventually walk in for the win.

Remember to play lots of creatures early and then use Trinket Mage and Steelshaper's Gift to find some devastating Equipment for them. Bonesplitter is always great, but the surprise gem of the deck is Skullclamp — one of the first cards you should search for. Not only does Skullclamp give your creatures an offensive boost, it also converts them into extra cards when they die. As the game progresses, Qumulox and Synod Centurion provide some beefy backup for your army.

If you need an offensive edge, consider adding a few copies of Auriok Steelshaper from the Mirrodin set. Since this creature reduces the cost of equipping a creature by {1}, it allows you to move many of your Equipment for free. It also gives all your Knights and Soldiers +1/+1 if it has Equipment on it. Extra Bonesplitters and Auriok Glaivemasters combine nicely with the Steelshaper, making your small creatures a force to be reckoned with.[1]