Budget Magic: $50 (14 tix) Standard WB Fabricate

Tweet by SaffronOlive // Nov 01, 2016

video budget magic standard

Bunâ dzuâ, Budget Magic lovers! It's that time again. Last week on our Instant Deck Tech series, we came across a really sweet WB Fabricate deck for Standard. While there were some card choices I didn't really like, the idea of flooding the board with Servo tokens and then winning with an Aristocrats-esque finish with the help of Marionette Master and Zulaport Cutthroat seemed fun. As I was customizing the deck, I realized that we've had a lot of Budget Magic decks in the $80–$90 range lately, and I figured it was about time we had an ultra-budget list on video. With a few changes, we ended up with a deck that's not only extremely fun, super competitive, and very upgradable, but that only costs $50!

We'll talk more about WB Fabricate after the videos, but first a quick reminder: if you enjoy the Budget Magic series and the other video content on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube Channel to keep up on all of the latest and greatest.

WB Fabricate: Deck Tech

WB Fabricate vs. GB Delirium

WB Fabricate vs. WR Human Vehicles

WB Fabricate vs. UR Colossus

WB Fabricate vs. Temur Energy

WB Fabricate vs. UW Aetherflux

The Deck

WB Fabricate has two plans, both revolving around Servo tokens. In some games, we simply go wide with tokens, use cards like Angel of Invention to pump them up, and win by beating down with creatures, while in other games, we play like a combo deck by flooding the board with Servo and Clue tokens and than sacrificing a bunch of artifacts to Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Syndicate Trafficker, and Westvale Abbey to drain the opponent's life total away with Marionette Master and Zulaport Cutthroat. The cards in the deck break down into five main groups, with some overlap in between: Servo makers, Clue makers, drainers, sacrifice outlets, and removal. Let's break down each one individually.

Servo Makers

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On paper, Weaponcraft Enthusiast and Angel of Invention look underpowered, but they play much better than they look, and this isn't even considering that our deck just wants artifacts of any kind to facilitate the combo kill. Weaponcraft Enthusiast is essentially Hordeling Outburst, with the downside that one of our creatures is missing a point of power but the upside of creating artifacts. Meanwhile, Angel of Invention's ability to pump our team (while also making a couple Servos itself) is very relevant and helps facilitate both parts of our gameplay.

When it comes right down to it, whether our deck is in go-wide beatdown mode or combo-off artifact mode, we generally want to be using Weaponcraft Enthusiast and Angel of Invention to make Servo tokens with the fabricate ability. After playing a bunch of matches with the deck, I'd say that we choose to make Servos about 95% of the time with both of these cards, with the only real exceptions being very obvious (for example, an opponent has a Liliana, the Last Hope that will immediately kill our Angel of Invention if we don't put the +1/+1 counters on it).

Clue Makers

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Thraben Inspector and Bygone Bishop do two things for our deck. First, they allow us to grind with midrange and control decks by generating a steady stream of card advantage in the form of Clue tokens. While Thraben Inspector only makes one Clue, in the late game, it's very possible to make an entire board full of Clues with Bygone Bishop, considering our deck has 22 creatures with a converted mana cost of three of less.

Secondly, by making clue tokens, Thraben Inspector and Bygone Bishop help enable our Aristocrats-esque combo finish. One of the unique things about Marionette Master (who we'll talk more about in a minute) is that her drain ability triggers whenever any artifact goes into our graveyard from the battlefield. As a result, sometimes we simply make a bunch of Clues and cast a Marionette Master (putting the counters on her with fabricate), and when we untap, we can sacrifice the Clue tokens to drain our opponent's life all the way down to zero!

Drainers

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Marionette Master might be one of the most underrated cards in all of Kaladesh. Like the rest of the fabricate cards, she doesn't look all that great on paper but plays amazingly well. The ability to drain our opponent every time an artifact goes into the graveyard is one of the foundations of our deck, allowing us to sacrifice Clue and Servo tokens to kill our opponent without dealing combat damage.

How we play Marionette Master really depends on the situation. While with Weaponcraft Enthusiast and Angel of Invention we almost always choose to make Servos (unless our opponent gives us a really good reason not to), with Marionette Master we use both fabricate options often. If we already have a board full of Servos and Clues, it's usually better to put the counters on Marionette Master, which means every time a Servo or Clue dies, we'll drain our opponent for four (or more, if Angel of Invention is giving everything +1/+1). Plus, putting the counters on Marionette Master can help it survive some removal like Collective Defiance, Grasp of Darkness, and even Harnessed Lightning in some situations. On the other hand, if our board is fairly empty and lacking in artifacts, it's usually better to make the Servo tokens with our first copies of Marionette Master. While this means we drain our opponent much more slowly, it also turns Marionette Master into a good stabilization card, making four blockers for six mana.

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Zulaport Cutthroat is our back-updrainer. While it doesn't offer the one-turn kill potential of Marionette Master, it does stack well, and gaining some incidental life here or there helps us stay alive against the aggressive decks in the format. It also offers the upside of triggering whenever any creature dies, instead of just artifacts, which can be important throughout the course of the game, since we often use creatures like Weaponcraft Enthusiast and Thraben Inspector to chump block our opponent's biggest threat, and having a Zulaport Cutthroat around makes chump blocking even more beneficial.

Sacrifice Outlets

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It might seem strange to start our discussion of sacrifice outlets with a land, but Westvale Abbey is the most common way that we win the game. Here's the scenario: we get five Servo tokens on the battlefield with the help of Weaponcraft Enthusiast, Angel of Invention, and Marionette Master. Then, on Turn 6, we cast a Marionette Master and use the fabricate ability to load it up with counters. Finally, on Turn 7, we flip our Westvale Abbey by sacrificing five Servos, which drains our opponent for 20 with Marionette Master—exactly enough to kill our opponent from their starting life total! Plus, even if we don't manage to drain for the full 20 life, we end up with a 9/7 flying, lifelink, indestructible Ormandahl, which is usually enough to finish the job.

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Speaking of underrated Kaladesh cards, Syndicate Trafficker is absurd in our deck for several reasons. First and most importantly, it's a one-mana sacrifice outlet for artifacts, which means when we aren't winning with Westvale Abbey, we can play a Marionette Master, then play a Syndicate Trafficker, and us it to sacrifice all of our Clues and Servos to drain our opponent to death with Marionette Master. Second, Syndicate Trafficker is a huge offensive threat when we are going on the beatdown plan, since it is incredibly hard to block. Between our Servos and Clues, we usually have something sitting around to sacrifice to make Syndicate Trafficker indestructible, which means our opponent is often stuck choosing between trading a "real" creature for a Servo or Clue token (which usually isn't ideal) or letting through the damage, both of which are beneficial to us. Finally, thanks to becoming indestructible, Syndicate Trafficker is also great on defense while we are looking to set up the combo kill with Marionette Master.

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Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim is our backup sacrifice outlet, with the upside of being able to sacrifice non-artifact creatures, which Syndicate Trafficker cannot do. She's also just a solid two-drop, being able to block most other two-drops in the early game and take down a big creature in the late game thanks to deathtouch. Last and least, Vampiric Rites is just a one-of, and after playing a bunch of matches with the deck, I'm not sure it's really needed. In fact, I ended up sideboarding it out in a lot of matchups. While I think it's fine as a one-of, when I play the deck again, I will probably just add in another removal spell.

Removal

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There really isn't too much to say about the removal in the deck. Grasp of Darkness is the best early-game removal in the format, and while our deck can occasionally struggle to cast it on Turn 2 thanks to our ultra-budget mana base, it's still solid in our deck. Stasis Snare lets us deal with stuff like Emrakul, the Promised End at instant speed. Meanwhile, Anguished Unmaking is insane in our deck. There are very few cards in Standard that deal with Smuggler's Copter, Dynavolt Tower, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar for only three mana, and since our deck tends to gain a meaningful amount of life with Zulaport Cutthroat and Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, losing three here and there isn't really a problem.

Ultra-Budget WB Fabricate

No ultra-budget list this week, since the list we played in the videos is already ultra budget!

Non-Budget WB Fabricate

I'm pretty happy with the non-land main deck cards from the version of WB Fabricate we played in the videos, but the mana base is severely lacking. Evolving Wilds really doesn't have a home in two-colored decks, and not only are we lacking in duals, but the ones we do have come into play tapped far too often. As a result, the biggest upgrade to the deck is adding a playset of Concealed Courtyards and a playset of Shambling Vents. We also get the fourth copy of Westvale Abbey, which I think is worthwhile because it feels like one of the best cards in our entire deck and we really want access to a copy every single game (plus, as a land, the opportunity cost is pretty low). We also get to upgrade the sideboard with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and a copy of Archangel Avacyn. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar can help speed up our clock in aggressive matchups thanks to the anthem ultimate while also giving us more resilience against control, while Archangel Avacyn is an interesting option for hosing wraths that also pressures planeswalkers. All in all, I think this version is a meaningful upgrade, not so much because of the sideboard cards (which are good, but not essential) but because we get rid of the clunky, horrible mana. If you do decide to upgrade, start with the lands. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Archangel Avacyn can wait.

If you want to see the non-Budget version in action, come checkout our twitch live stream Tuesday November 1 at 7 PM ET: http://www.twitch.tv/mtggoldfish

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today! All in all, we went 5-0 in our video matches and 5-2 overall, losing duplicate matches to GB Delirium and Temur Energy thanks to some clunky draws. The deck is super fun to play, easy to upgrade, and incredibly cheap—everything we want from a Budget Magic deck. Give it a shot; I don't think you'll be disappointed. It certainly has the ability to compete at FNM, and with upgrades, I wouldn't be surprised to find that WB Fabricate is a GP / SCG worthy archetype! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffonOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.