At its heart, this is an old-school 4-part combo deck. I've noticed a few other people pick up on this deck (especially with Traxos, Scourge of Kroog as a new addition). The only problem I found with most of the other builds is that people were using cards like Mox Opal and Bauble to go infinite. Not only is that not the best way of making infinite drops, but it also burns a hole in finances. This deck can be bought on the cheap, and does quite well at my local LGS. It will never be an amazingly competitive modern deck, but it's a great buy for anyone looking to learn how to play combo, or just to play for fun.
Best-case scenario goes like this:
Turn 1: Springleaf Drum into either Ornithopter or Memnite. Tap both to cast our title card: Altar of the Brood.
Turn 2: Make your land drop and cast Battered Golem using your Springleaf/ornithopter/memnite mana combo.
Turn 3: Cast either Retraction Helix or Banishing Knack targeting your Battered Golem. You can now tap it to return your Ornithopter to hand, which you can replay, untapping the golem to allow it to bounce the 'thopter again. This means infinite ETB triggers on Altar of the Brood to mill your opponent out on turn 3.
Obviously, this doesn't happen very often, so the rest of our deck is built to tutor and cantrip our way into the full combo.
Maindeck
This combo is incredible because there's just SO MUCH REDUNDANCY. Altar of the Brood could just be a Genesis Chamber. Retraction Helix can be Banishing Knack. Memnite can be Ornithopter, and Battered Golem can beMirran Spy. We play 6 of each combo piece except for Retraction Helix/Banishing Knack, because we can tutor artifacts easily with Whir of Invention and Glint-Nest Crane, effectively increasing the number count to 8, which is how many Retraction Helix/Banishing Knack's we play. In order to sideboard, however, we have to take out some of that redundancy, but NEVER TAKE OUT TUTOR CARDS.
Sideboard
Our sideboard is completely based on disruption. Because we play literally nothing in the mainboard to counter our opponent, we're generally going to board in 4-6 counter spells against each matchup. Dispel is almost always a good card to board in because it protects the combo for cheap. Metallic Rebuke is also pretty nuts in this deck, but we have a backup of Mana Leak for if we need to board out too many artifacts. Padeem, Consul of Innovation is great to protect our combo, but it's really slow, so only board this in against decks like Jeskai.
Suggestions welcome!
