Magic: the Gathering

Deck Guide

Upgrading the Commander Precon: Tinker Time (Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy)

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Get to know more about March of the Machine's Tinker Time commander deck, with Gimbal, and a guide on how to upgrade it!

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translated by Romeu

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revised by Tabata Marques

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Getting to Know the Deck

March of the Machinelink outside website brought us 5 new Commander deckslink outside website, and their lists are quite distinctive while also being interesting.

In the Temur Magic Symbol gMagic Symbol uMagic Symbol r combination, we have Tinker Time: a deck focused on artifacts. This is new for this color combination, but not entirely strange, as the Izzet colors (red and blue) have several interactions with this theme.

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Here we will see the Tinker Time decklist, the possible upgrades and what to take, in addition to the reason for each choice made here. The intention is to help those who want to buy the deck to make it even cooler to play and, above all, have fun!

Tinker Time decklist and strategy

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Tinker Time is a pretty interesting list, and honestly, even one of the fairest and most complete precons I've seen. Overall harmonious with its interactions, it's ideal for having fun at tables with a lower power level. But it is possible to improve it even more, and that's what we will do!

The base mechanic of the deck is to create artifact tokens to increase the power of the Gremlin tokens that Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy makes. In order for the deck not to be completely dependent on the commander, we have both base list cards and additions to take advantage of what we have on the battlefield and deal with possible situations, even without the commander.

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Among these cards, we have removals, sweepers, protection spells, card draw, another wincondition that goes beyond dealing combat damage, and a little more. All the cards placed here were thought of in the deck as a whole, still keeping the base of the original list, only enhancing it with cards that fit better than the ones that are coming out.

Upgrades Guide

About 30% of the deck has been changed. The newly assembled decklist is designed to retain the essence of Tinker Time, with additions that find synergy with Commander Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy.

We removed cards that were either too heavy or too simple that could easily be dropped and replaced with better pieces that do the same, if not better.

Mana Base

The deck has 38 lands and considering the amount of mana rocks, we will have outside helpers like treasures, we cut that number to 34.

Additionally, Darksteel Citadel, Tanglepool Bridge, Slagwoods Bridge, and Silverbluff Bridge have been added. Great lands that, in addition to being artifacts, are indestructible, and maybe this could be useful in some game that someone casts spells like Armageddon. Treasure Vault can be fragile due to not being indestructible, but it can generate great value in slightly longer games.

Mirrex and Hall of Tagsin will help make tokens to further grow the Gremlin tokens that Gimbal creates. And finally, we have two more utility lands: Buried Ruin and Inventors' Fair, which will grant us recursion, life gain and a possible tutor, looking for something as needed at the time.

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Mana Rocks and Artifacts

The decklist already has the 4 essential signets for the deck: Arcane Signet, Gruul Signet, Simic Signet and Izzet Signet.

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Considering that and other accelerators like Replicating Ring, Skyclave Relic and Sol Ring, the only addition was Chromatic Lantern, as many of the lands only generate colorless mana, and that could turn out to be a problem.

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Idol of Oblivion and Elixir of Immortality come in as an aid in what is called a resource: both for card draw and to simply recover the graveyard in the deck and gain some life.

The artifact creatures that come in are Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer - in addition to providing haste, their copy ability works well in the deck since it's a token. And it specifies tokens, not creature tokens. That is, your treasures, clues, food and the like can become potential attackers, and can even cause lethal damage.

Cyberdrive Awakener is also a possible finisher, turning your noncreature artifact tokens into 4/4 flying. Assuming you have 10 tokens, that's already lethal damage to an opponent.

Canoptek Scarab Swarm greatly hinders opponents who depend on the graveyard, and on top of that, it can create several flying artifact insects. And also to make tokens in quantity, we added Myr Battlesphere.

In this version, cards that interact with Planechase have been removed. It was considered that despite being a very fun alternative game mode, it will not be played at every table. So replacing with other cards that work in more situations seemed more appropriate.

Token Creators and Artifact Interactions

Here a choice was made of cards that interact or work well with tokens, or that make tokens. Some cards were removed that, despite creating them, were very situational, and other removals were placed in their place that can better help in Commander games.

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Sai, Master Thopterist and Third Path Iconoclast are great low-cost token creators that create great short- and long-term value, particularly with Sai's ability to draw cards. And speaking of drawing cards, we can't exclude Curiosity Crafter and Research Thief: both take advantage of the tokens created by the commander.

Svella, Ice Shaper is useful in every way possible: it creates tokens that generate mana, and even offers its second effect as a resource on turns that don't have much to do. Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith has a role similar to Tireless Provisioner and Tireless Tracker in the deck. Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse are wonderful with these three cards, which is why these lands were kept in the deck.

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Mechanized Production is a potential win condition, considering the amount of tokens with the same name the deck makes. Brass's Bounty or Storm the Vault prove this, not to mention the other side Vault of Catlacan, which needs no comment on how strong it is considering the deck's theme.

Planeswalkers and Answers

We added some planeswalkers that interact with both tokens and artifacts.

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Saheeli, Sublime Artificer already works well in the deck, so why not add its other two versions that work just as well? Saheeli, Filigree Master draws value from her three abilities for this Commander. The same can be said for Saheeli, the Gifted, especially in its second ability to lower costs.

Karn, Living Legacy also makes an appearance, either creating tokens that aid in casting artifacts, or filtering the top of the deck to choose something needed at that moment.

Some answers were put here as well, since the deck only had Perplexing Test. So, Aetherize was added, along with Urza's Command, which can save you from a possible strong attack. If not used in this situation, the card still creates two different types of tokens.

Blasphemous Act is the famous necessary evil: after all, you need some sweepers in Commander these days. And finally, the classic Beast Within to deal with a potential threat.

Tinker Time Decklist with Upgrades

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And so, that's the new decklist! Changing about 1/3 of the deck, it was possible to increase the power of the list in general, compensating everything that was removed: cards with similar effects, planeswalkers, answers, card draws, new token makers, a little bit of everything to make it fun to pilot and enjoy this new March of the Machine commander.

Alternate List - Rashmi and Ravagan as Commanders

Within the deck, there is another commander option as well, which is Rashmi and Ragavan, but the updated list was made with Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy as commander. It's worth the test to see if it works, after all, the important thing is to have fun while piloting the deck. But even so, we provide here an authorial list of Rashmi and Ragavan, in case you want to see other possible paths within these same colors and artifact mechanics!

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While Gimbal cares more about counting the number of different names among the artifact tokens you control, Rashmi and Ragavan only care about the number of artifacts you control, whether they are tokens or not, and also don't care about the name.

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This particular list has a shell that interacts with Treasure Tokens, so it's always possible to cast the exiled card with Rashmi and Ragavan without having to pay its mana cost.

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As this is a Midrange decklist that has some similarities in cards with the Gimbal's list, but mechanically speaking it is quite different, so if you want to change the commander from the preconstructed to Rashmi and Ragavan, this list can serve as a base.

Conclusion

It was fascinating and fun to look into how to improve this commander. It's a color combination that I particularly like a lot, so I can say that it helped in my search.

What did you think of the list? What would change? Would you change the commander? Would you go to another line? Share with us!