Karn’s Historic Beatdown (Standard)

Started with thinking about the 3-4-5 curve of Sai, Master Thopterist, Karn, Scion of Urza, and Tezzeret, Artifice Master. Initially played with combos to make the most of the thopters for value, but in the absence of a combo piece like Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek, I switched to a beat down build focused around Traxos, Scourge of Kroog.

• Previous Versions *
  I played around with using bad cards like Skilled Reanimator and Voltaic Servant to make the cruddy artifacts and have Traxos untap every turn. In a nutshell, it was too fragile. Any simple removal spell made the engine come to a halt.

I had used things like Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive and Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp as well. They just didn't cut it.

This had formerly led to the goal of using Karn's Temporal Sundering, but this was also too idealistic.

• The Current Deck *
  The current iteration is more about having a higher saturation of cards that are just good on their own.

Karn, Scion of Urza is just our value 4-drop. He’s in here mostly because he helps fuel us through when we are running low on cards with his +1 and -1 abilities. His -2 ability synergy is quite marked in this deck due to the artifacts already in play. The constructs can get quite big after Treasure Map flips.

Tezzeret, Artifice Master offers some additional value, popping out some thopters to keep our strategy going with his +1 but mostly being capable of making what would be a Divination with his 0 ability become a sorcery-speed Jace’s Ingenuity in most cases. I don’t expect we’ll ever activate his ultimate, but I would assume we would be slamming Traxos and Karn if we did.

Sai, Master Thopterist is easy to underestimate. It does die to Lava Coil, but I don't think many opponents will use that spell on him. It stumps the aggression from smaller ground creatures (exceptions being a large Jadelight Ranger and pumped Benalia knights). Notably it stops Adanto Vanguard in its tracks.

The early plays with Fountain of Renewal and Navigator's Compass give us life gain to let us survive aggro decks. The Syncopate also helps us slow down aggressive opponents. Even on the draw, the Syncopate will let us trap History of Benalia, mid-game Rekindling Phoenix, and other threats.

Urza's Ruinous Blast is a risky play. It does nothing against Lyra Dawnbringer, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice, and the planeswalkers. Selective Snare gets the tribal angels out of the way from the sideboard. None of the angels have vigilance, so Seal Away is also a viable option. The important thing to remember is the value of Traxos, Scourge of Kroog having trample to knock planeswalkers off their perch. It's also very easy to overlook the evasion of flying tokens to kill Vivien Reid and the Vraska pair, especially when they're equipped.

Jace, Cunning Castaway is kind of a curve-filler, but he does some serious work. 2/2 illusions gum up the board against aggro and buy us time at the very least. He untaps Traxos as a historic spell and is a nightmare for control decks if he hits his ultimate duplication thing. The looting +1 effect is also great when we've got a thopter around or when Traxos tramples through.

Forebear's Blade gives Traxos vigilance. Blackblade Reforged can quickly turn Sai into a beefy boi by Turn 4.

The number of The Antiquities War is something I always struggle with. I hate having 2 in my opening hand. I tend to think of it more as 'draw 2 artifacts over 2 turns' and ignore the Ensoul Artifact effect. That said, it can just slam through a bunch of 5/5 Treasure tokens and big thopters to steal games.

• My Local Meta *
  Mono U Djinn
  RG Sarkhan's Unsealing Dinos
  Boros Midrange
  Golgari Midrange
  Jeskai Control (permission)
  Izzet Arclight
  Mono R Wizards
  Mono R Midrange