Grand Architect decks have popped up every once in a while, making a Top 8 here and there, but haven’t had much widespread success. Nevertheless, the deck has consistently been a great choice for players on a budget. In addition, M12 has given us a couple of cards that make the deck even more consistent.

Here’s the deck I’ll be working with today:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

4 Enclave Cryptologist

4 Grand Architect

4 Thrummingbird

4 Treasure Mage

2 Wurmcoil Engine

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Ponder

4 Preordain

1 Contagion Engine

2 Ratchet Bomb

3 Tumble Magnet

4 Everflowing Chalice

1 Mindslaver

[/Spells]

[Lands]

16 Island

3 Buried Ruin

4 Halimar Depths

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

1 Platinum Emperion

4 Necropede

4 Flashfreeze

4 Mana Leak

1 Ratchet Bomb

1 Tumble Magnet

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

The Lands

Halimar Depths is at the top of its game in this deck. It helps dig for anything you’re missing, whether that’s a Grand Architect, another Blue creature, or a win condition. Any cards you don’t want can be shuffled away with Treasure Mage or Ponder, sent to the bottom with Preordain, or drawn and discarded with Enclave Cryptologist.

Buried Ruin gives you some extra reach when your win condition is dealt with. Since you’re only running one or two copies of each card, Buried Ruin is invaluable for fighting control decks, getting back a card that was previously countered or destroyed.

The Creatures

Grand Architect is the centerpiece of the deck. It enables you to cast all sorts of cool artifact spells very early in the game. A turn-three Wurmcoil Engine is going to be tough for any deck, and the ability to pump it up to survive a tangle with a Titan is just icing on the cake.

Treasure Mage searches up any of your win conditions, and then taps for 2 to help cast them. In a pinch, it’s also big enough to serve as a blocker. This card’s most important function is letting you find whichever big artifact spell you need, ensuring that you always have the best threat against whatever deck you’re facing.

Thrummingbird provides an alternate way to cast your win conditions by proliferating Everflowing Chalice. It also ensures that your Tumble Magnets never run out of charge counters, and helps cast your artifacts when you do have Grand Architect.

Enclave Cryptologist can be played on turn one, enabling you to cast Wurmcoil Engine on turn three under the right circumstances. Of course, you won’t have that perfect hand every game, so its main purpose is to dig for your combo pieces. If the game drags on, you can even level up the Cryptologist further, either by paying more mana or by proliferating the level counters, and start drawing an extra card every turn.

Wurmcoil Engine is going to be your win condition of choice in most games. The Lifelink helps you regain any life you lost while setting up the combo, it’s immune to Dismember and Go for the Throat, and if your opponent destroys it in some other way, it will leave behind two more creatures. With the help of Grand Architect, it can become a 7/7, which should be big enough to take down any creature you might come across.

The Spells

Preordain and Ponder help to make sure you have a Grand Architect every game, and also dig for anything else you might need. Between these, Enclave Cryptologist, and Halimar Depths, you shouldn’t have too much trouble assembling your combo in a timely fashion.

Everflowing Chalice can be proliferated with Thrummingbird in order to cast your win conditions without Grand Architect, and also gives you an extra mana to use digging for your combo pieces.

Tumble Magnet helps you survive the first few turns of the game, and can be proliferated to ensure it never runs out of gas. It’s especially good against Caw-Blade decks, since you can tap down whatever creature they equip a Sword to.

Ratchet Bomb is a catchall that can take care of almost anything, but its main purpose is to shore up your early game against aggressive decks. You might lose a creature in the process, but you’ll often end up destroying three or four of your opponent’s creatures.

Mindslaver is almost always going to give you some sort of advantage, but it really shines against all those decks playing Spellskite. Since you can activate it any number of times targeting any spell or ability, any opponent with an even life total will die immediately, and any opponent with an odd life total will go down to 1, ready to be killed by a Thrummingbird.

Contagion Engine isn’t quite as good as it normally would be, since our budget doesn’t allow Inkmoth Nexus, but it still serves as a board-wipe against any aggressive deck. That alone is enough to make it worth including.

The Sideboard

Flashfreeze is mainly for Valakut decks. Ideally, you’ll be able to counter your opponent’s Primeval Titan and ensure that you get your combo before he gets his.

Mana Leak helps you not die to Exarch Twin, and also helps you protect your combo and your life total against Caw-Blade, depending on which version your opponent is playing.

Necropede comes down early and can often trade with two creatures against an aggressive deck. If the creatures have more than 1 toughness, Thrummingbird can proliferate the -1/-1 counters to finish them off. In the late game, it can also turn into a win condition. If you manage to get through just once, Contagion Engine and Thrummingbird can proliferate to finish off your opponent.

Platinum Emperion can be nearly impossible to deal with for aggro decks. Mono-Red can only kill it if it gets a Shrine of Burning Rage up to 8 counters, and against Vampires, the usual removal suite of Go for the Throat and Dismember is entirely ineffective. Having this on the board makes you nearly invincible.

The extra Tumble Magnet and Ratchet Bomb can be brought in for the matchups where they really shine, giving you a much better chance of drawing one.

Play-Testing

Tempered Steel

Game 1

I lost the roll and kept a hand of three Islands, Enclave Cryptologist, Thrummingbird, Tumble Magnet, and Ratchet Bomb. My opponent opened with Inkmoth Nexus and Signal Pest. I drew Buried Ruin, then played my land and cast Enclave Cryptologist before passing the turn. My opponent played a second Inkmoth Nexus, then cast Memnite and Porcelain Legionnaire before ending his turn. I drew another Thrummingbird, then played a land, leveled up the Cryptologist, and activated it. I drew Preordain and discarded an Island. I then passed the turn. My opponent played a Plains, cast a Mox Opal, then activated his Inkmoths and attacked with everything. I took 6 damage and 4 poison, and he passed the turn. I drew another Cryptologist, then cast Tumble Magnet and passed the turn. My opponent played a Plains, activated his Inkmoths, and went to his combat phase. I tapped the Signal Pest, and he attacked with everything else. I blocked the Porcelain Legionnaire with my Cryptologist, then activated it, drawing a Buried Ruin and discarding the second Cryptologist. I took 1 damage and 2 poison, and he ended his turn. I drew an Everflowing Chalice, played my land, and cast both Thrummingbirds before ending my turn. My opponent played another Plains, then activated his Inkmoths and went to the combat phase. I tapped his Legionnaire with Tumble Magnet, and he cast Dispatch on one of my Thrummingbirds. He attacked with everything, and my other Bird traded with an Inkmoth Nexus. I went down to 11 life, and up to 8 poison. My opponent then cast a Glint Hawk, bouncing his Mox Opal and casting it again, and passed the turn. I drew an Island, played it, and cast Preordain. I put a land to the bottom, and drew another Tumble Magnet. I cast my Everflowing Chalice for 1, then cast the Magnet and ended my turn. My opponent activated his Inkmoth Nexus and went to combat, and I tapped it down, along with the Porcelain Legionnaire. He attacked with everything else, and I went down to 6. He then cast another Signal Pest and passed the turn. I drew another land and conceded.

Sideboarding:

−4 Thrummingbird

−1 Mindslaver

+4 Necropede

+1 Platinum Emperion

Game 2

I kept a hand of two Islands, two Treasure Mages, Preordain, Enclave Cryptologist, and Tumble Magnet. I opened with an Island and the Cryptologist, and passed the turn. My opponent cast an Ornithopter, bounced it with a Glint Hawk, and cast it again. He then ended his turn. I drew a second Preordain, played a land, and cast both, getting a Necropede and an Island. I then passed the turn. My opponent played a Contested War Zone, then attacked with both creatures and activated it, hitting me for 4. He then passed the turn. I drew an Island, played it, and cast Treasure Mage, searching up a Wurmcoil Engine before passing the turn. My opponent attacked with Glint Hawk and activated Contested War Zone again, and I dropped to 13. He then played a Plains, cast Signal Pest and Mox Opal, and passed the turn. I drew a Grand Architect and played my land. I cast the Grand Architect, tapped my creatures to cast Wurmcoil Engine, and ended my turn, at which point my opponent cast Dispatch on my Wurmcoil Engine. My opponent attacked with his Signal Pest and Glint Hawk, activating the War Zone and dropping me to 8. He then ended his turn. I drew an Enclave Cryptologist, cast it, then cast Treasure Mage, searching up another Wurmcoil Engine. I then tapped all my creatures for mana, casting Wurmcoil Engine and Tumble Magnet before ending my turn. My opponent went to his combat step, and I tapped the Glint Hawk. He attacked with Signal Pest and Ornithopter, activating the War Zone and hitting me for 3. He then cast a Memnite and passed the turn. I drew and played an Island, then attacked with my Wurmcoil Engine and two Treasure Mages. My opponent blocked the Wurmcoil Engine with his Memnite, and I made it Blue to give it +1/+1. The Memnite died, I went up to 12 life, my opponent dropped to 14, and I gained control of Contested War Zone. I then leveled up a Cryptologist twice, drew and discarded another Crytologist, and passed the turn. My opponent cast Tempered Steel, then went to his combat phase. I tapped the Signal Pest, and he attacked with just an Ornithopter. I took 2, and he got the War Zone back. He then passed the turn. I drew a Ratchet Bomb, leveled up the Cryptologist a third time, and drew an Island with it. I then attacked with my Wurmcoil Engine and Treasure Mages again. A Glint Hawk threw itself in front of Wurmcoil Engine, my opponent dropped to 8, and I stole back the Contested War Zone. I cast a Ratchet Bomb, played my land, and leveled up the other Cryptologist. I then activated it, drawing and discarding an Island, and passed the turn. My opponent drew his card and conceded.

Game 3

I kept a hand of two Islands, two Ponders, Buried Ruin, Preordain, and Enclave Cryptologist. My opponent opened with an Inkmoth Nexus and a Memnite and passed the turn. I drew a second Cryptologist, played a land, and cast Ponder, drawing an Everflowing Chalice and putting a Treasure Mage and an Island on top. I then ended my turn. My opponent dropped me to 19, played a land, and cast Glint Hawk Idol before passing the turn. I drew the Treasure Mage, then cast Everflowing Chalice for 1 and passed the turn. My opponent cast an Ornithopter, attacked me for 3, then played a land and cast Steel Overseer before ending his turn. I drew and played an Island, then cast Preordain, putting an Island on the bottom and drawing a Necropede. I cast the Necropede along with an Enclave Cryptologist, and passed the turn. My opponent played a Contested War Zone, then activated Glint Hawk Idol. He put counters on his creatures with Steel Overseer, and attacked with everything, activating the War Zone as well. My Necropede used its -1/-1 counter to trade with the Memnite, and I dropped to 13. My opponent ended his turn. I drew and played an Island, then cast Ponder, drawing a Grand Architect and putting a Ratchet Bomb and an Enclave Cryptologist on top. I cast the Grand Architect, then attacked with my Cryptologist, stealing the Contested War Zone. I then passed the turn. My opponent played an Inkmoth Nexus, then cast and activated another Glint Hawk Idol, and activated the Overseer to put counters on everything. He attacked, dropping me to 7 and stealing the War Zone back before passing the turn. I drew the Ratchet Bomb, then cast Enclave Cryptologist and Treasure Mage, searching up Platinum Emperion. I then passed the turn. My opponent activated both Inkmoths, put counters on them with Steel Overseer, and attacked, activating the War Zone to hit me for 6 poison. I drew a Contagion Engine, leveled up both Cryptologists, activated them to try to find an answer, and conceded when I saw only land.

Aggressive decks are definitely trouble for this deck, particularly Tempered Steel. Dispatch gets rid of Wurmcoil Engine without leaving tokens behind, and since so many of the creatures in the deck fly, it doesn’t deter your opponent from attacking, either. However, if your local environment doesn’t have many Tempered Steel decks, this one is worth a shot. It’s heavily dependent on how quickly you can find a Grand Architect and a win condition, but it can be very hard to beat if you succeed.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze, on Twitter under @Twinblaze2, or simply leave a comment below.