Against the Odds: Mechanized Panharmonicon (Pioneer)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 232 of Against the Odds. As I'm sure you know, Panharmonicon #237 is my favorite card in all of Magic (don't tell Blood Moon #25122), but normally, when we play a Panharmonicon #237 deck, we don't actually win with Panharmonicon #237—we end by beating down with janky enters the battlefield–triggering creatures. Well, today, we're trying to literally win with Panharmonicon #237s—eight of them, in fact—with the help of last week's Against the Odds poll winner Mechanized Production #178. The idea of the deck is simple: play Panharmonicon #237, copy it eight times with Mechanized Production #178 and other artifact-copying cards, and win the game on our upkeep by having Mechanized Production #178 and eight artifacts named Panharmonicon #237 on the battlefield! What are the odds of literally winning with Panharmonicon #237 in Pioneer, with the help of Mechanized Production #178? Let's get to the video and find out in today's Against the Odds; then, we'll talk more about the deck!
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Against the Odds: Mechanized Panharmonicon
The Deck
When Mechanized Production #178 won the poll, I considered a bunch of possibilities, ranging from Paradox Engine #43 combos to more value-centric artifact plans, but in the end, the opportunity to try to make eight Panharmonicon #237s was just too much to pass up!
Our deck's primary goal is simple: play Panharmonicon #237 and get a Mechanized Production #178 on it to start making copies of Panharmonicon #237 each turn. With the help of additional copying effects, we'll (hopefully) eventually get eight Panharmonicon #237s on the battlefield and win the game on our upkeep thanks to Mechanized Production #178. Of course, even before we win the game, getting multiple Panharmonicon #237s on the battlefield has value since we do have creatures and artifacts with enters-the-battlefield triggers to help us draw through our deck and find more copies of Panharmonicon #237 and Mechanized Production #178 and to slow down our opponent long enough that we can get eight Panharmonicon #237s on the battlefield.
While our main goal is to get eight Panharmonicon #237s on the battlefield, we aren't above winning by getting eight copies of another artifact on the battlefield—Mechanized Production #178 was the card that won last week's poll, after all. Plus, since Mechanized Production #178 can only copy artifacts, we can't just run four Panharmonicon #237s as our only artifacts—the risk of getting stuck with a bunch of Mechanized Production #178s in hand with no targets is too high. For backup artifacts, we have Prophetic Prism #335 and Thraben Inspector #35. Prophetic Prism #335 is an absurd source of card advantage with Panharmonicon #237 and Mechanized Production #178. Panharmonicon #237 turns it into a colorless, two-mana Divination #52, while Mechanized Production #178 turns it into our own personal Howling Mine #83 Schematics, drawing us an extra card each turn while also slowly building toward having eight Prophetic Prism #335s on the battlefield to win the game. Meanwhile, Thraben Inspector #35 is one of our fastest ways to get eight artifacts with the same name on the battlefield thanks to the Clue token it produces when it enters the battlefield. If we can stack up some Panharmonicon #237s with the help of Mechanized Production #178, a single Thraben Inspector #35 can make two, three, or even four Clues for one mana, which means if we can cast two or three (or cast one and blink it two or three times with Charming Prince #568), we can get all the way up to eight Clues in just one or two turns to win the game on our next upkeep with Mechanized Production #178.
Along with Mechanized Production #178, we have a bunch of additional ways to copy Panharmonicon #237 to speed up the process of getting eight on the battlefield. Mirrormade #120 is the most exciting since it can directly copy Panharmonicon #237, or if we have a Mechanized Production #178 on the battlefield, it can copy it, enchanting a Panharmonicon #237 to make an extra copy every turn. Meanwhile, Clever Impersonator #8 and Stolen Identity #2 are just one-ofs, but they do offer some extra upside apart from just copying Mechanized Production #178 or Panharmonicon #237. Clever Impersonator #8 can copy anything, so if we don't have a Mechanized Production #178 or Panharmonicon #237, we can copy a creature to draw some cards and try to find our main combo pieces. As for Stolen Identity #2, it's expensive, but it can technically make a copy of an artifact or creature every turn thanks to cipher. If we can cipher it to an evasive creature like Cloudblazer #653, it can quickly add a bunch of Panharmonicon #237s to the battlefield to help us get up to eight and win the game with Mechanized Production #178.
As for the rest of our creatures, they are designed to draw us cards, slow down our opponent, and gain us life to stay alive until we get eight Panharmonicon #237s, not to win us the game by attacking. Reflector Mage #1473 can do a good one-sided Evacuation #89 impression if we can get enough Panharmonicon #237s on the battlefield, buying us two or three turns of Panharmonicon #237 copying. Cloudblazer #653 draws us a bunch of cards to find more Mechanized Production #178s and Panharmonicon #237s while also giving us some extra life. Meanwhile, Charming Prince #568 does a bit of everything, from flicking our other creatures to gaining us oodles of life to scrying through our deck to find Mechanized Production #178 and Panharmonicon #237.
The Matchups
In all honesty, when it comes to winning matchups, I'm not sure that Mechanized Panharmonicon has any good matchups. The goal isn't so much to win games as it is to win games by getting eight Panharmonicon #237s on the battlefield, which is a pretty big challenge. Against aggro, we have a lot of ways to stay alive but also have a lot of really slow cards (like Panharmonicon #237 and Mechanized Production #178), and it's hard to take off a turn and spend four mana against a fast aggro deck. Meanwhile, control can counter our key pieces (although in general, it's probably a better matchup than aggro thanks to all of our weird card advantage). Our worst matchups—by far—are decks that can incidentally kill Panharmonicon #237 or Mechanized Production #178, which mostly means various GBx decks with Assassin's Trophy #55.
The Odds
Technically, we finished 1-4 with Mechanized Panharmonicon, giving us a very below average 20% match win percentage. On the other hand, the better news is that it only took us five matches to get eight Panharmonicon #237s on the battlefield with Mechanized Production #178. If you had asked me beforehand, I would have put the number closer to 10—getting eight copies of a four-mana artifact that doesn't directly impact the battlefield into play is quite the task, but it's a task we managed to complete!
Vote for Next Week's Deck
Over the last few weeks there have been several cards that came super close to winning our poll, but fell just short. Well, it's time to give these runners-up a second chance at glory! Which one of these cards should be build around next week? Let us know by voting below!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
