KCI

[Maraxus of Keld]

This is the closest thing to a competitive deck I've ever built. Feel free to offer up opinions, as well as suggestions for a sideboard if ever I should find myself taking it into a Type 2 tourney.

2x Ancient Den
4x Great Furnace
4x Seat of the Synod
2x Tree of Tales
4x Vault of Whispers

4x Frogmite
4x Disciple of the Vault

4x Krark-Clan Ironworks
4x Myr Incubator
4x Goblin Charbelcher
4x Pentad Prism
2x Talisman of Indulgence
1x Talisman of Dominance
2x Pyrite Spellbomb
2x Conjurer's Bauble

4x Fabricate
4x Thoughtcast
2x Night's Whisper
3x Condescend

Basically the way the deck works is by using KCI to cast Myr Incubator and activate it as quickly as possible. Then I fish out all the lands from the deck, make a bunch of Myr tokens, and sacrifice them to play and activate Charbelcher for the win.
Disciple is in there for several reasons. First, the deck is very creature-light and I need blockers for things like Raffinity. Second, I have lost several games when the opponent played their own Disciple and I lost life for every artifact I sacrificed. By putting them back in the deck I can take my opponent down with me. The Froggies are in there as pure blockers. The rest of the deck is designed to get my my Ironworks, Incubator, and Belcher as quickly as possible through card drawing with Thoughtcast and Night's Whisper, or Fabricating for the last artifact if needed. The Conjurer's Baubles are in there because they replace themselves in my hand and effectively shrink the size of my deck, letting me find what I need that much quicker. The Spellbombs, in addition to providing a hand replacement effect, also let me take out threats like enemy Disciples or the odd Frogmite or whatever.

So yeah, any opinions would be most welcome.

[Volrath, the Fallen]

This is a very good deck. One of the fastest decks in our group i think (if not the fastest). Once it gets moving, its near impossible to win, unless of course you have some massive life gain early on.

[Maraxus of Keld]

It's not so tough if you know how to beat it. It requires certain things to go off.

[Volrath, the Fallen]

thats true. A well timed artifact destruction card would screw you. any mass damage thing wouldn't be good either. coughPestilencecough

[Maraxus of Keld]

Basically this deck needs to have KCI, Belcher, and Incubator to go off. If necessary, it can usually go without the Belcher and either swarm with the tokens created by Incubator or possibly sac them and kill the opponent with Disciples. However, countering/bouncing/destroying the Ironworks will stop the deck cold, as well as knocking out the Incubator before I have the mana to activate it, although if I'm smart I won't play it until I can activate it the same turn.

[Maraxus of Keld]

If you guys want to see the Type 1 version of this deck, it's much nastier:

Land:
4x Vault of Whispers
2x Ancient Den
2x Tree of Tales
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Great Furnace
1x Tolarian Academy

Artifacts:

4x Pentad Prism
1x Mana Vault
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
1x Memory Jar
4x Myr Incubator
4x Goblin Charbelcher
4x Krark-Clan Ironworks
1x Conjurer's Bauble
1x Mox Sapphire (proxy)
1x Mox Jet (proxy)

Other:

4x Dark Ritual
1x Demonic Tutor
4x Thoughtcast
1x Ancestral Recall (proxy)
1x Tinker
4x Fabricate
4x Force of Will

Sideboard:

4x Duress
3x Disciple of the Vault
4x Mana Leak
2x Wing Shards
1x Disenchant
1x Naturalize

If I'm playing somewhere I'm not allowed proxies (or if I'm playing casual, where I don't like to proxy) then I have maindecked the Disciples in place of the 2 mox and the Ancestral Recall. And I don't actually have the 4 Duress yet.

Any recommendations? Specifically, I'm wondering if I should keep Academy in there. It provides a great boost if I draw it (it usually accelerates my win by at least one turn) but if I don't get it into my hand then it makes the Belcher stop, because I can't pull it out with the Incubator.

As for my SB choices, here's my reasoning:

DotV vs. Ravager affinity because if I don't, their Disciples kill me before I pull off the combo. This has been proven through testing, but if I have my own Disciples, then I can give as good as I get.

Duress and Mana Leak are in there to break up combo decks. Sometimes FoW just isn't enough.

Wing Shards is specifically in there for Tooth and Nail. If I can't counter the T&N for whatever reason, then I can kill off the attackers this way. It was a toss-up between this and Chainer's Edict, which is more splashable but only takes out one creature.

Disenchant and its green cousin are in there simply for artifact-heavy decks, or anything with a key enchantment that it needs (like Food Chain).

Overall, whatcha think?

[Randomn]

You should consider myr retriever because with the KCI and a Diciscple of the Vault you jsut do infinate damage so, any life gain wont do anything.

[Volrath, the Fallen]

but he'd also burn for infinitely

[Randomn]

no because he uses the 2 mana to play the other one, and you dont burn untill the end of the phase, which by then they are already dead.

[Maraxus of Keld]

I've seen the 2 Retriever idea, and I think if I were still running the original build of the deck that I had (kill with a big Fireball instead of Incubator and Belcher). However, the Disciples themselves are barely even useful in the Type 2 build of this deck anymore. They either get used to chump block, or they help give Raffinity as good as it gives with its own Disciples. And in the Type 1 version, DotV isn't even used.

Also, in order to get the infinite combo, it requires KCI, 2 Retrievers, and a Disciple. That's 4 cards, and it's actually much harder to pull off than the combo I currently have in there.

[Volrath, the Fallen]

This deck is perfectly fine how it is. There really isn't much room for improvement if you want to keep it in a type 1 form. (although sideboarding some artifact destruction for Null Rod and Damping Matrix would be a good idea)

[Maraxus of Keld]

I am considering throwing in a single Goblin Cannon, but only for the Type 1 version of the deck. Tolarian Academy too often provides a premature stopping point for the Belcher, so Cannon might be more effective.
I maintain, however, that it's unnecessary in the Standard version of the deck.

[Maraxus of Keld]

Well, this deck is no longer Standard legal, since WotC banned the artifact lands because of the completely unfounded fear that KCI would dominate after Ravager was taken out. Therefore, I am keeping this deck in the Type 1 build.

And I now have 2 Goblin Cannons and 2 Charbelchers as the win conditions. Which one I use is determined by whether or not I draw Academy.

[Volrath, the Fallen]

this deck is scary fast. it has like an 85% win percentage against my tooth and nail deck. not too many people can say they have decks with that record. (except for Don. he has 100% but that was a fluke and he only played me once)

[Maraxus of Keld]

I deleted the entire conversation between me and Prick because it's no longer relevant, and because rereading them I got annoyed all over again. Also, one post by Chris chiming into the discussion on my side. Hope nobody minds.

Anyway, I just learned that Crop Rotation was taken off the restricted list at some point, so I can now run 4 of them if I want to. I need to consider whether this is worth doing for this deck or not. At first glance the answer seems obvious since that would significantly improve my ability to get the Academy, but I might need to adjust my mana base as well, and I'm not sure how much change would be needed there.