Brian Kibler's U/B Artifact Aggro

A lot of you have probably heard of Brian Kibler already. If you haven't, he's a Hall of Fame player that has been playing Magic for over a decade, including several Grand Prix wins, and a Pro Tour win. He's famous for showing up to major tournaments with a deck that isn't anything like the top tier performers. Recently (last weekend) he went to Grand Prix Singapore with a U/B Tezzeret deck, we're going to take a look at it.

Let's start off by looking at the list he registered for the Grand Prix.

Brian Kibler's U/B Artifact Aggro
Lands - 22 1 Creeping Tar Pit 4 Darkslick Shores 2 Drowned Catacomb 4 Inkmoth Nexus 9 Island 2 Swamp Creatures - 27 2 Argent Sphinx 4 Etched Champion 2 Hex Parasite 1 Leaden Myr 3 Phyrexian Metamorph 4 Phyrexian Revoker 3 Spellskite 4 Steel Overseer 4 Vedalken Certarch	Artifacts - 7 4 Ichor Wellspring 3 Mox Opal Planeswalkers - 4 4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas	Sideboard 2 Batterskull 1 Bonehoard 2 Dismember 4 Perilous Myr 1 Spellskite 3 Stoic Rebuttal 2 Torpor Orb

Let's look at the general strategy of this deck. Essentially, you want to get Metalcraft, and then use your powerful Metalcraft abilities, and combine that with Tezzeret making choice Artifacts 5/5.

Kibler has done a very smart thing with this list, and that is include Artifacts that your opponents will not want to destroy. With so many powerful Equipments running around, every top tier deck is playing artifact removal.  But would you really want to waste a Shatter on an Ichor Wellspring?

He's also mimicked one of the best Artifacts in the format, Tumble Magnet, with Vedalken Certarch.

There is one glaring problem with this deck. Brian designed it almost specifically to destroy Caw-Blade. "What's the problem with that?" you ask. Well, what happens when you're playing against a random rogue aggro deck? This deck loses hard, that's what happens.

In a large tournament, where everyone will be playing variations of top tier decks, and where you can earn byes to bypass the early rounds, that isn't such a bad thing.

Now, back to Caw-Blade. In the main list we have 2 big cards that are aimed to stop, or at least slow down, Caw-Blade: Hex Parasite, and Phyrexian Revoker. We also have the sweet "No Jace, you can't bounce me" Argent Sphinx, and the "No Mr. Bird, you can't attack me with that Sword of War and Peace" Vedalken Certarch. Once again, you'll need Metalcraft active to utilize these 2 cards.

Let's see how this deck plays out with a couple quick rounds:
The first game I played against a Deck that I am really starting to like, Machine Red.
Game 1:
I open with a Darkslick Shores, and pass the turn. He drops a Mountain. Turn 2 I play a Spellskite. He plays another Mountain and passes. I play a third land and put out Steel Overseer. He double bolts the Overseer at the end of my turn. and I pay 2 life and 1 mana to redirect both to my Spellskite, killing it. He plays a third Mountain on his turn and passes. I play my 4th land, another Spellskite and a Phyrexian Revoker, naming Koth. He says GG. I thought he was joking so I continue playing, but then he asks if I'm ready to go to Game 2...

I side out my Etched Champions for 1 more Spellskite and 2 Dismembers, maybe I'll get lucky and kill off a land.

Game 2:
This game goes long, I have much the same start, except no Revoker this time. Instead I'm left with a Hex Parasite. He manages to ultimate Koth, despite my best efforts, and there is nothing I can do to recover.

Game 3:
Much the same as Game 3, except this time he also gets out Precursor Golem right after Koth. This deck just can't get out early damage to knock Koth down, especially when he is popping out on Turn 3 with a Chalice.

The next match I played was against Soul Sisters.
Game 1:
My opponent manages to draw 3 Divine Offerings and 2 Journey to Nowheres. This is too much for my deck, and I fold to a Serra Ascendant that is huge.

Game 2:
The match goes for over 26 turns. He Divine Offerings my Inkmoth, so I have to kill him with life. He's gaining tons of life, and I'm matching him point for point with copies of Batterskull using Phyrexian Metamorph. Eventually I get out 2 Etched Champions and equip them each with Batterskull, and now I'm finally winning the race.

Game 3:
My opponent gets out a turn 3 Batterskull, ramps up to 30 life, and then equips kills me with Serra Ascendant. Winning before I can do much of anything.


So I ended up losing both of these matches. Part of it might have been my inexperience with the deck, but there were a lot of times where we would be a few turns into the match, and I would draw something like a Hex Parasite, and I wanted to just scream "I don't want that!"

I think this deck would be fairly strong against Caw-Blade, after all, that's what it was created for. However, in Brian Kibler's own featured match during GP Singapore against a Caw-Blade deck, he lost 2-0. The deck is definitely interesting, but it just doesn't have the upper levels of power that a deck needs these days. Making an Artifact a 5/5 with Tezz pales compared to Jace simply bouncing that Artifact back to your hand. The deck simply needs too much protection for its own good. The cards are strong, but completely unprotected.