Admiring the Architect-er

As promised! A Builder!

I've seen a couple lists around the internets with this guy. I'm sure you've all seen it too. The deck that powers out a turn 3 Wurmcoil Engine or Myr Battlesphere or whatever. These will not be those decks. Nothing against them, but you can find those anywhere. I want to show you something new.

So: Grand Architect. The most prominent of these is the ability for ridiculous ramping, but only into artifacts. Oh wait, did I say only? I meant mainly.

Mana Laundering
Creatures:
4 Grand Architect
4 Necrotic Ooze
4 Trinket Mage
4 Enclave Cryptologist
3 Spawnsire of Ulamog
2 Steel Hellkite
3 Soliton

Artifacts:
4 Liquimetal Coating
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Voltaic Key

Lands:
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Darkslick Shores
10 Island
4 Swamp
2 Mystifying Maze

Sideboard:
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
3 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
4 Stoic Rebuttal
4 Kraken Hatchling

You can ramp with the architect into Chalices to generate a bunch of mana, and Voltaic Key lets you boost your Chalices further and also to untap anything you want to if you've got a Liquimetal Coating up. Otherwise? Well, I guess I'll settle for just untapping Hellkites.

Necrotic Ooze is a bit of an MVP here; Grand Architect? Oh hey, it's got activated abilities. Spawnsire? Again, so many activations. Steel Hellkite? Yeah, you can blow up the world. And Cryptologist? Well, I guess you can't win them all. If you miss it, you can run out Reckless Scholar.

The main thrust is to use Liquimetal Coating to allow you to use your Architect mana for anything. Yes, anything. Even...

Yes, I would like to take some extra turns out of my sideboard.

This deck doesn't really make good use of Grand Architect's other ability: the Lord ability. For that, we need a more pointed strategy. Something that can make use of a lord... or three.

Trident!
Creatures:
4 Grand Architect
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Cosi's Trickster
4 Enclave Cryptologist
3 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
4 Molten-Tail Masticore

Spells:
4 Unified Will
3 Deprive

Artifacts:
2 Contagion Engine

Land:
4 Mystifying Maze
4 Tectonic Edge
16 Island

A neo-fish deck, it's pretty straightforward. Cosi's Trickster is a one-drop that hasn't seen play but has some untapped potential (no pun intended). And with Thada Adel lying around, you can force a shuffle with every attack, while giving Architect something else to do if your opponent is playing anything nice like, say, Argentum Armor or Wurmcoil Engine.

Then again, with Masticore running around, maybe Architect doesn't need to do much else.

And with that, I'm heading out to parts unknown. If parts unknown include upstate New York or the Mid-Atlantic. I'll see you after Thanksgiving.

If you're lucky, maybe I'll have time to show off some new ideas for Extended.