Welcome, Planeswalker aficionados! Before we get started on this week's unlikely champion, make sure you've read my Planeswalker Deck Project intro, and scoped out our duel deck lineup thus far.
About a hundred years ago, I played in my first Junior Super Series Tournament. This was a Standard Tournament series, but only for kids 18 and younger. Prizes—awarded in the form of college scholarship money—enticed parents to enable their children's degenerate behavior.
I can't remember how I finished, but I recall that my last round was against a goofy Black/Red Affinity deck that got hyper aggressive with Atogs and multiple copies of Disciple of the Vault (unusual at the time). I managed to beat it, but I was struck by how novel and interesting the deck seemed. A few weeks later, Darksteel came out, and that idea was refined into Ravager Affinity, the scourge of Constructed Magic for the next couple years.
The first time I saw Daretti, my mind instantly flashed back to the innocent times of the goofy Atog.
This deck is just itching to pick a fight:
Magic: The Gathering TCG Deck - Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast by Andy Hurst
'Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast' - constructed deck list and prices for the Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game from TCGplayer Infinite!
Created By: Andy Hurst
Event:
Rank:
Freeform (Casual)
Market Price: $41.47
Filigree Familiar
Market Price: $0.03
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/226885_200w.jpg
When Filigree Familiar enters the battlefield, you gain 2 life. When Filigree Familiar dies, draw a card.
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Mountain
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.99
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230467_200w.jpg
({T}: Add {R}.)
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Unlicensed Disintegration
Color Identity:B,R
Market Price: $0.06
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/219586_200w.jpg
Destroy target creature. If you control an artifact, Unlicensed Disintegration deals 3 damage to that creature's controller.
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Mortarpod
Market Price: $0.10
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/98898_200w.jpg
Living weapon (When this Equipment enters the battlefield, create a 0/0 black Germ creature token, then attach this to it.) Equipped creature gets +0/+1 and has "Sacrifice this creature: This creature deals 1 damage to any target." Equip {2}
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Sorcerer's Broom
Market Price: $0.03
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Whenever you sacrifice another permanent, you may pay {3}. If you do, create a token that's a copy of Sorcerer's Broom.
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Skeleton Shard
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.30
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{3}, {T} or {B}, {T}: Return target artifact creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
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Vault of Whispers
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $2.28
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/37453_200w.jpg
(Vault of Whispers isn't a spell.) {T}: Add {B}.
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Mycosynth Wellspring
Market Price: $0.12
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When Mycosynth Wellspring enters the battlefield or is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
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Rocky Tar Pit
Market Price: $0.48
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Rocky Tar Pit enters the battlefield tapped. {T}, Sacrifice Rocky Tar Pit: Search your library for a Swamp or Mountain card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
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Megatog
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.26
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Sacrifice an artifact: Megatog gets +3/+3 and gains trample until end of turn.
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Smoldering Crater
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.11
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Smoldering Crater enters the battlefield tapped. {T}: Add {R}. Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
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Weaponcraft Enthusiast
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.18
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Fabricate 2 (When this creature enters the battlefield, put two +1/+1 counters on it or create two 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens.)
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Swamp
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $1.04
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230466_200w.jpg
({T}: Add {B}.)
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Galvanic Blast
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.16
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Galvanic Blast deals 2 damage to any target. Metalcraft — Galvanic Blast deals 4 damage instead if you control three or more artifacts.
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Atog
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.32
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Sacrifice an artifact: Atog gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
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Myr Servitor
Market Price: $0.11
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At the beginning of your upkeep, if Myr Servitor is on the battlefield, each player returns all cards named Myr Servitor from their graveyard to the battlefield.
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Polluted Mire
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.21
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Polluted Mire enters the battlefield tapped. {T}: Add {B}. Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
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Scuttling Doom Engine
Market Price: $0.14
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Scuttling Doom Engine can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less. When Scuttling Doom Engine dies, it deals 6 damage to target opponent or planeswalker.
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Servo Schematic
Market Price: $0.12
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When Servo Schematic enters the battlefield or is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, create a 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature token.
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Marionette Master
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.40
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/123143_200w.jpg
Fabricate 3 (When this creature enters the battlefield, put three +1/+1 counters on it or create three 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens.) Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, target opponent loses life equal to Marionette Master's power.
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Moriok Rigger
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.27
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Whenever an artifact is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Moriok Rigger.
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Ichor Wellspring
Market Price: $0.08
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When Ichor Wellspring enters the battlefield or is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, draw a card.
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Great Furnace
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.49
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/171209_200w.jpg
{T}: Add {R}.
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Thopter Engineer
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.06
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/219605_200w.jpg
When Thopter Engineer enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying. Artifact creatures you control have haste. (They can attack and {T} as soon as they come under your control.)
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Cinder Barrens
Color Identity:B,R
Market Price: $0.08
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/196737_200w.jpg
Cinder Barrens enters the battlefield tapped. {T}: Add {B} or {R}.
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Sarcatog
Color Identity:B,R
Market Price: $0.14
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/9568_200w.jpg
Exile two cards from your graveyard: Sarcatog gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Sacrifice an artifact: Sarcatog gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
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Executioner's Capsule
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.10
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{1}{B}, {T}, Sacrifice Executioner's Capsule: Destroy target nonblack creature.
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Cranial Plating
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.26
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/218715_200w.jpg
Equipped creature gets +1/+0 for each artifact you control. {B}{B}: Attach Cranial Plating to target creature you control. Equip {1}
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Shrapnel Blast
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.10
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As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice an artifact. Shrapnel Blast deals 5 damage to any target.
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Sequestered Stash
Market Price: $0.15
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{T}: Add {C}. {4}, {T}, Sacrifice Sequestered Stash: Mill five cards. Then you may put an artifact card from your graveyard on top of your library.
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Rakdos Carnarium
Color Identity:B,R
Market Price: $0.21
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Rakdos Carnarium enters the battlefield tapped. When Rakdos Carnarium enters the battlefield, return a land you control to its owner's hand. {T}: Add {B}{R}.
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Retributive Wand
Market Price: $0.03
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{3}, {T}: Retributive Wand deals 1 damage to any target. When Retributive Wand is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, it deals 5 damage to any target.
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Sword of the Meek
Market Price: $2.57
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Equipped creature gets +1/+2. Equip {2} Whenever a 1/1 creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may return Sword of the Meek from your graveyard to the battlefield, then attach it to that creature.
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Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
Color Identity:B,R
Market Price: $15.63
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/121531_200w.jpg
+1: Create a 1/1 colorless Construct artifact creature token with defender. −1: You may sacrifice an artifact. If you do, destroy target artifact or creature. −6: Choose target artifact card in a graveyard or artifact on the battlefield. Create three tokens that are copies of it.
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Vault Skirge
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.36
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({B/P} can be paid with either {B} or 2 life.) Flying Lifelink (Damage dealt by this creature also causes you to gain that much life.)
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Rakdos Guildgate
Color Identity:B,R
Market Price: $0.10
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/196763_200w.jpg
Rakdos Guildgate enters the battlefield tapped. {T}: Add {B} or {R}.
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Bloodfell Caves
Color Identity:B,R
Market Price: $0.11
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215898_200w.jpg
Bloodfell Caves enters the battlefield tapped. When Bloodfell Caves enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life. {T}: Add {B} or {R}.
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Arcbound Crusher
Market Price: $0.95
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Trample Whenever another artifact enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on Arcbound Crusher. Modular 1 (This creature enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. When it dies, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.)
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Glaze Fiend
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.02
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/219549_200w.jpg
Flying Whenever another artifact enters the battlefield under your control, Glaze Fiend gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
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Irradiate
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.11
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/11388_200w.jpg
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each artifact you control.
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Iron League Steed
Market Price: $0.04
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/219617_200w.jpg
Haste Fabricate 1 (When this creature enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on it or create a 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature token.)
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Foundry of the Consuls
Market Price: $0.10
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{T}: Add {C}. {5}, {T}, Sacrifice Foundry of the Consuls: Create two 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying.
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Disciple of the Vault
Color Identity:B
Market Price: $0.19
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/218719_200w.jpg
Whenever an artifact is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may have target opponent lose 1 life.
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Daretti wants to make artifacts, and then sacrifice them in order to kill stuff. Our goal is to use artifacts and synergies that come from sacrificing them to bury the opponent in aggression and accumulated advantages. Glaze Fiend and Cranial Plating allow for some potent aggression, Atog and his cousin Sarcatog provide some free sacrifice outlets, and we've got plenty of food for them with Retributive Wand, Servo Schematic, and the Wellsprings.
Multiple copies of Myr Servitor buy us plenty of time and recursion, working well with our Fiend and Atog plans, and Skeleton Shard can get the whole train going again if they all happen to get got. The removal package is as robust as we'd expect with a Black/Red deck, including 2 copies each of Unlicensed Disintegration and Irradiate, an Executioner's Capsule, and the Blast Bros (Galvanic and Shrapnel) provide reach in addition to the Disciples.
When Fifth Dawn came out, everyone saw this as Arcbound Ravagers 5-8, except that it couldn't be hit with various Shatter effects. It looked like the next big thing. Whoops! Turns out it was superfluous with Ravagers involved, and it was forgotten until I dug it out of the catacombs for this project. With Daretti and Atogs, though, it will grow pretty large. It's a potent, relatively cheap threat that also pulls the nostalgic heartstrings.
Megan Ashley Tog is a mean, mean lady. Did you know she gets Trample? (I'm sure you didn't, since nobody has seen this card since the first Bush Administration.) Let me tell you that adding Trample to an Atog with this many snacks is a spicy recipe for a dead opponent.
This puppet master makes the perfect Rare for this deck. It's either a Disciple that comes with a ton of fodder, or a massive Disciple if you already have enough stuff to eat. It is expensive, that's true, but if it lands, things will be looking up.
Another tailor-made Rare for Daretti. Scuttles hits hard, evades blockers, and provides great reach with the Tog Squad! It's an ideal pairing for Daretti's second and third abilities, not to mention Skeleton Shard.
This deck loves sacrificing artifacts, and the Broom rewards you for that—by making more artifacts for you to sacrifice. It's a vicious cycle (for your opponent). With a relatively low curve in the deck, having a strong option to sink mana into later is ideal. The broom is ready, willing, and able to sweep all comers right out the door.
Once upon a time, the combination of Disciple of the Vault and Ways To Sacrifice Artifacts almost broke Standard forever. But right before that, it was fairly new. Niche, yet potent. One might even say...ingenious.