Rise of Aintrazi – Master Transmuter in Extended

Haters gonna hate, lovers gonna love — I don’t even want none of the above.

I just want to slaver lock people.

Story time, kids!

There I am, riding to Burlington, North Carolina for the PTQ last weekend. I look to Suarez and ask him what deck he thinks I should play this weekend.
While Suarez is giving me his response, I promptly tune him out and start thinking about infinite mana, turns, and Mindslaver locks.

I’m not kidding! I must have ADD. I literally asked someone a question and then ignored their answer — it can’t be healthy. My train
of thought was, “Hmm…. Master Transmuter or Kuldotha Forgemaster can make for some insane transmute or Tinkers. I could lock them out with
Master Transmuter, Sharuum the Hegemon, and Mindslaver. This can’t be as bad as my last idea: Pili-Pala, Grand Architect, then using Wargate to
fetch a Helix Pinnacle or Oona, Queen of the Fae, right?”

When I arrived in Burlington, I tossed out this idea to a few of my friends. The general consensus was, “LOL, Ali — You so crazy.”
It’s true — all of my friends talk like stereotypical urban women that use partial internet slang. I wasn’t going to let their comments stop
me, though; I was determined to Slaver Lock someone out. I feel kind of like an addict at this point. I used to play conventional decks… and then
I got a taste of beating someone with a rogue deck. Now it’s all I want to do.

Actually, that’s a lie; I used to play Squirrel Mob back in Onslaught Block.

Anyway…

I had some kind individuals come up to me and say, “Ali, your articles are the best evar! You should write twenty per day!” Okay
— maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit. But hearing nice things about my articles from people really makes me giddy inside.

This was the list I originally brewed up:

After 10,000 years I’m free!

This deck can do some crazy things, but it definitely lacked a couple of lands and that hindered me in a couple of matches. I ended up being one win
away from the top 8. There’s always next time, boys!

Playing only a single Kuldotha Forgemaster was a huge mistake. There should’ve been no less than three, since it can just tutor up a Sphinx of
the Steel Wind against Naya or Jund and auto win. Against slower decks like Four-Color Control, you can just Slaver lock them with Master Transmuter,
Mindslaver, and Sharuum the Hegemon. All you have to do is have Master Transmuter out, then transmute a Mindslaver in and crack it. After destroying
their hand, you can Transmute Sharuum the Hegemon in, getting back Slaver and repeatedly juggling Sharuum for a Slaver lock. This is probably overkill,
but it just starts to happen against the slower control decks.

So Suarez and I had tested this format up and down, in and out, front to back, side to side.  We brewed this list up a couple of nights before the
tournament. I really enjoyed the deck and figured it tested well enough for me to give it a shot at the PTQ. Sadly, I punted a match against red, where
I should’ve cast Sharuum for Sphinx Summoner but instead I got greedy and went for the win casting Wurmcoil Engine. He had the Demigod of Revenge
for the win, and that made me a sad panda.

I ended up consulting mister Golem Artisan for some advice on this deck — since, you know, he is the master designer….

Me: Yo! Golem Artisan! I need help with this Transmuter deck. Mind having a look?

Golem Artisan: Of course, girlfriend! Let me see that deck of yours.

*wink*

Me: Okay…

Golem Artisan: Wellllll — just between us, you need to be running more Kuldotha Forgemasters. Have you seen all those arms? He can stoke your deck real nice, like.

Me: Yeah… Ummm, I actually thought about that. He seems pretty intense. I’ll probably end up running four.

Golem Artisan: Yeah, honey, that’s a good idea. You know the Triplets are total skanks, right? They’ve been around the block one too many
times, if you catch my drift.

Me: All righty. So no Sen Triplets? Got it – anything else?

Golem Artisan: Welllll — I would add one or two Faerie Mechanists. That boy’s milkshake brings all the boys to the yard! Damn, what a
sexy beast!

Me: Wow! Yeah, that guy seems pretty good. I never really considered him; I guess I could cut a couple of Sphinx Summoners for him.

Golem Artisan: You do that. You like balls?

Me: What?

Golem Artisan: Better yet, you like balls of steel?

Me: I. Don’t. Know…

Golem Artisan: Oh lawd, girlfriend, loosen up! I’m just talkin’ about the biggest, most perfect, and shiniest round balls that Myr
Battlesphere makes.

Me: Oh! Heh. Yeah, he sounds like a good addition.

Golem Artisan: Well, girlfriend, I need to go get me some skrimp! Later – I’m gettin’ my perm, did you want to tag along?

Me: I’m good — thanks for the invitation and the help! I need to test for Grand Prix: Atlanta.

Golem Artisan: Your loss, toodles.

So after tweaking some numbers thanks to Mr. Artisan’s help, this is what I came up with.

We wound up with twenty lands now — which is fine with four Everflowing Chalices, a Mox Opal, and four Preordains. Forgemaster allows you to
go straight for Sphinx of the Steel Wind against Naya and Jund. Against slower decks you can get Myr Battlesphere, which will give you more Tinker
fodder so you can keep pumping out threats with the master. Thousand-Year Elixir allows you to activate Master Transmuter and Forgemaster as soon as
they hit play. If you have Master Transmuter out along with Thousand-Year Elixir, it becomes almost impossible for your opponent to destroy any of your
artifacts.

Here is how I sideboard with the deck.

Faeries

+3 Thoughtseize

+1 Path to Exile

+1 Inkwell Leviathan

-1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind

-1 Sharuum the Hegemon

-2 Master Transmuter

-1 Thousand-Year Elixir

In game one against Fae, you will most likely tutor up a Myr Battlesphere first with the Kuldotha Forgemaster, since he can Flame Javelin them every
turn… But you can’t really afford to have mana-expensive cards in your hand in games 2 and 3. We cut a Master Transmuter (since she is so
fragile in this matchup) to bring in disruption. The plan in games 2 and 3 is to try and stick a Kuldotha Forgemaster to tutor up a Inkwell Leviathan,
which will put them on the ropes.

Red Deck Wins

– 1 Myr Battlesphere

-1 Thousand-Year Elixir

– 2 Sharuum the Hegemon

+ 1 Platinum Emperion

+1 Wurmcoil Engine

+ 1 Path to Exile

+ 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind

In game one, your plan is to live as long as possible until you can drop a Wurmcoil Engine or Forge up a Sphinx of the Steel Wind. It’s the same
plan in games two and three, but you can tutor Platinum Emperion if your life is too low to risk a Sphinx of the Steel Wind.

Jund

-1 Myr Battlesphere

-2 Sharuum the Hegemon

+2 Wurmcoil Engine

+1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind 

Jund has a hard time dealing with Wurmcoil Engines, and especially Sphinx of the Steel Wind… So we just bring in more to the party.

4-Color Control / U/W Control

-3 Path to Exile

-1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind

-1 Wurmcoil Engine

-1 Etherium Sculptor

-1 Thousand-Year Elixir

+3 Thoughtseize

+1 Mindslaver

+1 Scourglass

+2 Open the Vaults

Against the slower control decks, I just try to Mindslaver them by cheating it into play so they can’t counter it. Then the following turn I try
to setup a Mindslaver lock with Sharuum the Hegemon and Master Transmuter. These decks are slow enough that Scourglass is good against them, killing
either planeswalkers or Leyline of Sanctities.

Save your Thoughtseizes for when you need to resolve a spell — or around turn 5 or 6, when you need to make sure they don’t have a
game-winning creature or spell.

Mythic

-2 Thousand-Year Elixir

-1 Myr Battlesphere

-1 Sharuum the Hegemon

+1 Path to Exile

+2 Day of Judgment

This matchup isn’t too good for you — but it gets better in games two and three when you bring in more removal.

Your best target in game one is Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Luckily for you, they can’t really disrupt you, so three Elixirs isn’t necessary.
I like Mindslaver here, because you are slowing them down and can make them attack with their mana dorks, have their Knight of the Reliquary destroy
lands and fail to find, and you can just sacrifice Dauntless Escorts after it’s all done.

Naya

– 1 Myr Battlesphere

-1 Master Transmuter

-1 Thousand-Year Elixir

-2 Sharuum the Hegemon

+2 Day of Judgment

+1 Wurmcoil Engine

+1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind

+1 Path to Exile

This matchup is a lot like Jund — except the lists are running some number of Path to Exiles, which lets them get lucky and deal with your
Sphinx of the Steel Wind. You bring in another Path to Exile in case they have multiple Linvala, Keeper of Silence — or if you want to kill
get rid of a pesky Qasali Pridemage before you drop a Master Transmuter or Kuldotha Forgemaster.

Overall, this format is developing as I had hoped. A lot of neat and interesting deck ideas are out there and it’s a wide open format still.
Until next time, I hope to see you all at some StarCityGames.com Open series!

Hope you enjoyed the read,

Ali Artisan

P.S. – I’d like to thank Harry Frank at Blue Ox Games, and Lucky Cao at Lucky’s Card Shop for lending me the cards I needed to make this
deck. Let me not forgot Golem Artisan for helping me tune my deck — thank you, Mr. Artisan!

But my biggest thanks goes out to you guys — the readers!

P.P.S. – Yes, I got married to Golem Artisan.