March of the Machine: Standard Jeskai Assemble

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Before We Start

In Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Mechtitan Core lets you combine artifact creatures or Vehicles into a super robot. The flavor-packed design hits right at the heart of the generation raised on robot anime. By coincidence, The Brothers’ War introduced the first-ever black-bordered meld planeswalker, Urza, Planeswalker, which likewise tugs at the nostalgia of veteran players. How do we get these two combos to actually work in Standard? Let’s assemble them and find out!

Rise of the Constructs: Theme Analysis

First, let’s look at the prerequisites of these two combos.

Mechtitan Core

{5}, Exile Mechtitan Core and four other artifact creatures and/or Vehicles you control: Create Mechtitan, a legendary 10/10 Construct artifact creature token that’s all colors with flying, vigilance, trample, lifelink, and haste. When that token leaves the battlefield, return each card exiled with Mechtitan Core to the battlefield tapped under its owner’s control, except for Mechtitan Core.
Crew 2

Urza, Lord Protector

Artifact, instant, and sorcery spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
{7}: If you both own and control Urza, Lord Protector and an artifact named The Mightstone and Weakstone, exile them, then meld them into Urza, Planeswalker. Activate only as a sorcery.

The Mightstone and Weakstone

When The Mightstone and Weakstone enters the battlefield, choose one ~
‧ Draw two cards.
‧ Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn. {T}: Add {C}{C}. This mana can’t be spent to cast nonartifact spells.
(Melds with Urza, Lord Protector.)

First, to combine Mechtitan Core we need four other artifact creatures/Vehicles. There are basically two routes to accumulate that many:

Vehicles that are hard to remove.
Artifact creature tokens that are easy to produce.

If Reckoner Bankbuster hadn’t been banned, Vehicles might have been a good route, but at this point the only incentive left is Surgehacker Mech, which honestly is not enough, so we build toward tokens, a job Urza, Planeswalker can also do. However, for Urza to meld efficiently we need plenty of mana, and since Mechtitan Core is both an artifact theme and also needs mana to combine, the Powerstone route is the logical direction.

Repair and Recharge: Deck Building

Since we are going down the Urza and Powerstone route, we need to expand our mana quickly to slam down The Mightstone and Weakstone, and the first choice for that is Thran Spider. A 2/4 with reach that comes with a Powerstone is a solid three-mana mainstay creature, and it has an activated ability to spend excess mana, so of course we run four. However, four Spiders alone are not a stable enough source of acceleration. Although Urza, Lord Protector can share the acceleration work, he is fragile and he is a win condition that is hard to recover, so casting him carelessly and getting him removed is a loss. So from the Powerstone-related cards we picked Excavation Explosion, which also doubles as removal. It accelerates while hindering the opponent’s development, and being able to point it straight at the opponent’s face is something the author likes.

With the backbone of the deck settled, let’s decide on the big plays. Given the needs of Mechtitan Core, Skitterbeam Battalion, which can create a copy token, is the natural first choice, and depending on the situation you can prototype-cast it to combine right away. In addition, this deck lacks ways to deal with large creatures, artifacts, and enchantments, and we need Cityscape Leveler to make up for that. The clone effect of Hulking Metamorph interacts neatly with Skitterbeam Battalion: when you cast it normally and choose to copy Skitterbeam Battalion, not only is the creature itself a 7/7, but since it meets the condition to trigger the enters ability it creates a copy token, and that token is also a 7/7. Twenty-one points of haste and trample damage can end the game on the spot, and depending on the situation you can also copy The Mightstone and Weakstone to gain card resources.

Next up are the low-cost creatures and removal. Although Gold-Forged Thopteryx and Enthusiastic Mechanaut look like decent two-drop options, modern two-drops are routinely 3/2s and they simply can’t block them, to say nothing of Monastery Swiftspear backed by Kumano Faces Kakkazan. After some testing we went with Mandible Justiciar, which comes with lifelink. For one, on defense it can trade with Tenacious Underdog and Bloodtithe Harvester and restore life, and when paired with Thran Spider and Excavation Explosion it can attack proactively and put considerable pressure on the opponent, while also giving you more breathing room on life. In addition, as a replacement for Reckoner Bankbuster, we use The Reality Chip to block early three-power creatures, and once attached in the mid to late game it can keep earning resources from the top of the library. Twinshot Sniper uses channel as a two-mana removal curve: early on it can get around the interference of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to kill a creature with toughness 2, and hard-cast for four it is a 2/3 reach with a Shock attached to shoot down small creatures and planeswalkers, with even a chance to finish the game. As the theme card, Mechtitan Core is not much on its own, but its 2/4 body can still hold off plenty of small and mid-sized creatures.

For the remaining five slots we put in Saheeli, Filigree Master, Loran, Disciple of History, and Invasion of Kaladesh. Saheeli, Filigree Master’s kit fits the needs of an artifact deck perfectly, and the Thopter tokens she creates can also serve as combine material for Mechtitan Core. Loran, Disciple of History handles artifact recursion, interacting well not only with The Reality Chip and Urza, Lord Protector, but also letting you play an artifact recursion loop combo with Hulking Metamorph. Although the enters effect of Invasion of Kaladesh is nothing special, the transformed Aetherwing, Golden-Scale Flagship is a godlike presence in this deck, casually delivering 6 or more flying artifact damage, and sometimes it can beat the opponent all by itself.

Suit Up: Gameplay Demo

Anyway, that’s the decklist.
Decklist link

The sideboard is configured freely, so I won’t go into detail here. For how to pilot the deck, please refer to the demo videos below.

Saheeli, Filigree Master+Mechtitan

Skitterbeam Battalion+Hulking Metamorph+Mechtitan

Aetherwing, Golden-Scale Flagship+Cityscape Leveler+Skitterbeam Battalion

Urza, Planeswalker

Conclusion

As the videos show, the deck works like this: early on, pressure the opponent with Mandible Justiciar while making Powerstone tokens; Excavation Explosion, Thran Spider, and The Mightstone and Weakstone disrupt the opponent’s development while accelerating you. Once you’ve gathered the components, you can treat your opponent to a combine combo, and after beating them down to low life, another Excavation Explosion or Twinshot Sniper usually ends the game. Readers who think this play style is cool and love super robots can build it and give it a try. Its power level may be a matter of opinion, but the fun will certainly not be lacking.