Many of the themes of Kaladesh have been prominently represented in Standard over the last couple of years, most prominently energy and vehicles. Despite the high density of cheap artifacts, thopters, and servos, we never really saw improvise put up serious results. Perhaps with the recent round of bannings, it's time to push the artifact theme and see what can be done with a little extra breathing room to set up:
Grixis Improvise - Rivals of Ixalan Standard | Dwagz, 5-0 Standard League
- Creatures (11)
- 3 Walking Ballista
- 4 Herald of Anguish
- 4 Maverick Thopterist
- Planeswalkers (2)
- 2 Tezzeret the Schemer
- Instants (8)
- 4 Fatal Push
- 4 Metallic Rebuke
- Sorceries (3)
- 3 Battle at the Bridge
- Artifacts (15)
- 1 Aethersphere Harvester
- 1 Sorcerous Spyglass
- 1 Treasure Map
- 4 Prophetic Prism
- 4 Renegade Map
- 4 Servo Schematic
- Lands (21)
- 1 Island
- 1 Mountain
- 4 Swamp
- 1 Dragonskull Summit
- 2 Drowned Catacomb
- 3 Fetid Pools
- 4 Spire of Industry
- 4 Spirebluff Canal
- 1 Inventors' Fair
The crux of this deck is the assertion that Maverick Thopterist and Herald of Anguish can be competitive with the rest of the format. If that assertion is true, then this deck is absolutely fantastic, because you get to play with cantripping mana rocks like Prophetic Prism and Servo Schematic basically becomes Worn Powerstone.
Your goal is to leverage Fatal Push and Battle at the Bridge to keep aggressive decks under control while you get Renegade Maps and other artifacts in play to bolster your ability to cast improvise haymakers. You have Metallic Rebuke to counter opposing copies of The Scarab God and other key midrange threats. All the while, you get to build up the number of errant artifacts you have on the board so that you can set up for a big improvise threat. If the first threat is Maverick Thopterist, you might even be able to string together multiple improvise spells in a single turn.
Your endgame primarily revolves around Herald of Anguish, which is generally out of range of cards like Harnessed Lightning and Magma Spray, and allows you to start sacrificing Prophetic Prisms and Servo Schematics to eat smaller creatures while applying pressure to your opponent. If you ever get to untap with a Herald and a reasonable board presence, it's not out of the question to just use Tezzeret the Schemer to attack your opponent for lethal out of nowhere.
This deck seems like a fantastic way to approach Standard from a completely different angle. You're a pseudo ramp deck with lots of early interaction and miscellaneous value effects, which seems like a good place to be. Add to that the fact that Herald of Anguish lines up well against Glorybringer and most of the other removal spells in the format attacks opposing hands, and I think you've got a recipe for success.