

A new year and a new graphic.

Oh my science! I am so incredibly stoked to participate in robot week. Robots are amazing. Who doesn't love robots? Answer: no one I want to know.

My own personal love of robots, while monumental, is still (red) dwarfed by my wife's love of robots. Personal Anecdote: When my wife was slated to turn the big three-zero, she was obviously, as most are around then, a little disconcerted to say goodbye to the roarin' twenties and say hello to the dirty thirties. In order to offset her small sense of maudlin, I went ALL OUT. Now I go all out for her birthday parties every year (well, every year prior to having a son), but this was quintessentially ALL OUT.

I secretly created a Robot costume in my art studio during the month prior to her 30th birthday. I even included a speaker I installed which was connected to an ipod under the costume so I could play Beastie Boys' Intergalatic while coming out of the studio in it. I donned the costume in order to come out and cut her robot cake.



Pictured: An adorable wife turning 30 and the Ignoble, Magnanimous Intergalatic Funk-bot

Clearly, I am well-versed in robots. Here's an obscure robot reference! Anyone play Shining Force and Shining Force II for Genesis?

Shining Force, a fantasy RPG set in a setting that's, you know, medieval fantasy, brought with it a robot, aptly named Adam:

Shining Force II brought us Zynk:

So clearly, I have a love of all things robot, both obscure and famous.

I've dedicated my commander deck for Robot theme week here on PureMTGO to three types of mechanical men: Cyborgs, Androids, and Robots.

Cyborgs are not entirely robots. A cyborg, short for "cybernetic organism", is a being with both organic and mechanical parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. Notable Sci-fi cyborgs are Cyborg from DC Comics and Robocop (pictured), as well as the Borg from Star Trek, Darth Vader from Star Wars, Will Smith in the non-Boosh-approved I, Robot film, Metallo from DC Comics (he's all robot but still has a human brain), Dr. Julius No from James Bond film Dr. No (1962), Inspector Gadget, Taurus Bulba from Darkwing Duck, Master Billy Quizboy and Jonas Venture Jr. from Venture Brothers, Mr. Freeze in the later adventures of Batman the Animated Series and Batman Beyond, General Grievous, and many others. Best represented on Tsabo Tavoc, and Geth, Lord of the Vault. An android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human, especially one with a body having a flesh-like resemblance. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the earliest use (as "Androides") to Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia, in reference to an automaton that St. Albertus Magnus allegedly created. The term "android" appears in US patents as early as 1863 in reference to miniature human-like toy automatons. The term android was used in a more modern sense by the French author Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam in his work Tomorrow's Eve (1886). Wikipedia calls the T-800 & T-1000 from the Terminator series cyborgs, but they are clearly androids. Others include: Data (Star Trek) and Roy Batty (Blade Runner) as pictured, Lore, B-4, Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man, David from A.I., Bishop from Aliens, A. Bettik from Dan Simmons' awesome Hyperion novels, Marvel's the Vision & Original Human Torch & R. Dorothy Wayneright from The Big "O". In MtG: Duplicant (original art) & Solemn Simulacrum (original art). A robot is a mechanical or virtual agent, usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by a computer program or electronic circuitry. Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous and range from humanoids such as Honda's Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO) to industrial robots, collectively programmed 'swarm' robots, and even microscopic nano robots. The term 'robot' was first used to denote fictional automata in a 1921 play R.U.R. Rossum's Universal Robots by the Czech writer, Karel Čapek. Famous Robots: too numerous to list in entirety. Seriously, there are a ton. I'll shoot off a bunch: Bender and a ton of others in Futurama, Wall-E and all the others in his film, Johnny 5, Sentinels, Matrix films' robots, HAL 9000, Terminators without flesh, R2D2 and C3PO and all the other Star Wars droids, Gort, Tik-Tok, Lost in Space's "Robot," The Iron Giant, Transformers, Gobots, B.R.A.I.N. the malevolent fabricating robot from 9, Marvin the Paranoid Android. In MtG: Constructs, Golems, Myr

I don't really know where else to list this, So I'll just say that robotic versions of things, like a robot dragon (Steel Hellkite), are also represented in the deck.

Gigantic 'Mechs,' that require a human pilot and aren't autonomous, like the ones in Big "O," Eureka 7, Gundam Wing, Iron Man, and so on-- don't really factor here, except for Voltron: the three Kaldra artifacts.



Phyrexian Walker : Creeeeeeepy. Looks like a Matrix inspired horror.

Bosh, Iron Golem: Looks like a Sentinel from Marvel.

Karn, Silver Golem: Looks like a Sentinel from Marvel.

Karn Liberated: Looks like a Sentinel from Marvel, Maybe Box from Logan's Run.

Metalworker: The quintessential Magic the Gathering robot; also quite useful in the deck.

Brass Secretary: The closest approximation to C3PO you'll find.

Steel Overseer: Another MTGO card that screams 01001001001000000110000101101101001000000101001001101111011000100110111101110100 (which, according to the internet text to binary convertor I found, means "I am Robot"). Also, incredibly useful in this deck. So useful.

Triskelion: Pairs so nicely with Overseer; in its original artwork incarnation it looks way robotically cooler than its modern version:



Sort of look like that giant probe robot from Monsters Vs. Aliens (the movie).

Memnite: Reminds me of servile droids as found in Star Wars, Star Trek, Wall-E and Dan Simmons' Olympus and Illium novels.

Kuldotha Forgemaster: A robot that tutors up other robots. Reminds me of B.R.A.I.N. the malevolent fabricating robot from 9.

Myr BattleSphere: Bender in Benderama.

Mycosynth Golem: A cost-reducing Golem. Maybe Master Mold?

Platinum Emperion : An epic giant robot. LOVE the artwork. The Iron Giant, Gort, or Nimrod.

Colossus of Akros: Reminds me of the Guardian of the Sacred Craft-Bin of Olee Janeema, from the Venture Brothers' Trial of the Monarch.



Behold, Colossus of Akros..... also known as the Guardian of the Sacred Craft-Bin of Olee Janeema.



Moltensteel Dragon : Mecha-Godzilla.

Steel Hellkite: Mecha-King Ghidorah.

Chronomaton: Tik-Tok, from Return to Oz.

Scarecrone : She couldn't make the cut as La Befana but she's incredibly useful in this deck. I can't think of any famous robotic witches, but she's too useful not to go in the deck.

Lodestone Golem: Certainly has its uses here in this deck.

Myr Retriever: More of a Matrix-y look.

Junk Diver: Remember the robotic owl from Clash of the Titans?

Copper Gnomes: These guys are adorable and amazing; the card is underrated.

The Kaldra artifacts : These three = Voltron.



Duplicant: Original artwork. Like the replicants from Blade Runner.

Solemn Simulacrum: Original artwork, like Andrew from Bicentennial Man.

Goblin Replica: So a Goblin is a humanoid being in magic. Androids are humanoid robots, and the replica is an android version of a goblin.



Geth, Lord of the Vault: Geth's head was severed from his body during the first Mirrodin arc in Magic. Originally his head was placed on a Memnite, but when Phyrexia came to Mirrodin they offered him a Phyrexian body. Sounds pretty durned cyborgy. Sort of looks like General Grievous, Doctor Octopus, and Darth Maul wound up trapped in the transporter from The Fly.

Tsabo Tavoc: You look at that picture and tell me that she isn't a cyborg. She's the Borg Queen combined with Queen Lolth. She's the Borg Queen Lolth. She's also our commander, and she's great at hosing and blocking opposing commanders.

A lot of the Splicers seen in the White, Blue, Green colors from New Phyrexia seem cyborgy, but they don't fit in this deck.





So most of the rest of the deck falls here. In order to win with our robots, cyborgs and androids we need a stable base of support cards to answer problems, ramp the deck's mana, draw cards, and so on.

Imperial Recruiter + Imperial Seal: Whenever I read 'Imperial' anything I hear the Imperial March from Star Wars, and we all know Vader and Luke are cyborgs.

Goblin Welder: Robots need engineers who can repair them.

Elixir of Immortality: Robots are nigh immortal.

Howling Mine: Card Draw!

Staff of Nin: Card Draw + pinging.

Wayfarer's Bauble: Ramp.

Expedition Map: Ramp.

Beseech the Queen: Tutor.

Buried Alive: Tutor.

Entomb: Tutor.

Mizzium Mortars: Damage/Removal. Robots can murder if they need to.

Damnation: Removal. Robots can murder if they need to.

Banefire: Robot murder.

Dreadbore: Murderdeathkill.

Terminate: I'll Be Back!

Animate Dead: I'll be back, in a different sense of the sentiment.

Skullclamp: Card Draw!

Victimize: Robot murdertrons.

Trash for Treasure: Recursion.

Beacon of Unrest: Recursion.

Sneak Attack: One minute a robot is chilling alongside you, the next minute protocol A113 is activated and it tries to get you.

Bituminous Blast: Vaporize you with my Robo-blast!

Mana Flare: Ramp to cast robots. Also, kinda looks like a Transformer overloading with power.

Sol Ring: Ramp.

Phyrexian Arena: Card Draw!

Magma Mine: A fun, underused burnydoom spell.

Thran Dynamo: Colorless mana is clearly on the menu for this deck!

Ur-Golem's Eye: Again, ramp.

Quicksilver Amulet: Sneak your robots into play like sneaking C3PO into Jabba's employ.

Hammer of Purphoros: Hammer-factory makes robots in exchange for lands in a pinch.

Gilded Lotus: A metal flower is ever-so-slightly harder to crush with robot hands.

Demonic Tutor: Tutor. King of all Tutors.

The strategy here is to ramp your mana until you can plop a field full of robots onto the battlefield. You can then proceed to unleash any number of robotic references-- from Matrix lines to Asimov quotes to looking up creepy Japanese androids on youtube and then hurl them at your opponent, while Karn and his ilk punch in your opponent's face.

Commander began very casual but you will find some diehard addicts who want to make you concede on turn three or live to win. They spike up the works and you can't be content with a deck that is just sort of funsy-- so the robots in this deck are backed up by a very powerful Batman's Utility Belt in order to give the edge to allow your robots to destroy all humans.

It's a fun deck with a lot of fun robots so look up your Cykill or Gir or Megaman or Johnny 5 references now.

Until next time, ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.

~ BOOSH

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