Have you ever played a Skysovereign, Consul Flagship at instant speed? No? Well, now is your time. Yes, I've cast a Whir of Invention for x=5 turn 4 on my opponent's turn, crewed it, blocked with it, and killed two of my opponents creatures. Yes, I felt bad. No, I didn't have regrets.
Besides the Christmas land scenario described above, the deck has a whole bunch of neat plays and interactions that make the deck a blast to pilot. Have you thought of tapping your own Key to the City with a Pacification Array to draw a free card on your upkeep? What about Maverick Thopterist bringing two thopters into play, the perfect number to leave up Metallic Rebuke with one mana. Have a bunch of "useless" servos lying around from Cogworker's Puzzleknots? Aethersphere Harvester looks pretty good. Need to crew a Skysovereign with a servo? No problem! Crew the Harvester to crew your Boat!
Tournament reports, change-logs, and sideboard guides are in "updates" section below.
Artifacts
4 Inventor's Goggles- Paired with Bastion Inventor can make a 5/6 Hexproof as early as turn 3. Most of the time turn 4. Also pairs well with Maverick Thopterist to create 5/6 in stats over 3 bodies. It's a great 1 mana accelerator in the deck that has synergy with all of our creatures.
4 Pacification Array- Getting extra utility out of our ramping artifacts is a huge plus. Pacification Array doesn't fail to deliver this extreme mid to late game utility.
4 Cogworker's Puzzleknot- Giving us two artifacts from one card is powerful with improvise. In this deck, it's better than Servo Schematic because it offers us the fringe opportunity to sacrifice it with Spire of Industry to get another servo. It also gets us pilots for Aethersphere Harvester.
2 Prophetic Prism- Helps with mana fixing, draws us a card, and gives us something to improvise with. Not a card you want to see in multiples but it does it's job well.
2 Key to the City- A great card to use for improvise (Don't have to discard a card to tap it enabling you to draw a card for "free" (two mana)). Unblockable is a great key word to have access to as well. Really pulls you ahead in card advantage in drawn out games.
1 Aethersphere Harvester- Gives our tokens a way to "level up" and is a large blocker we can tutor up at instant speed with Whir of Invention. Excellent against aggressive strategies.
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship- The biggest and best target for Whir of Invention in the deck. Absolutely takes over the battlefield against B/G Constrictor and Mardu Vehicles decks. Notice that as long as we have an Inventor's Goggles on the battlefield, both Maverick Thopterist and Pia Nalaar get up to 3 power to crew it.
Creatures
4 Bastion Inventor- Turn 3 is rare, turn 4 is common. Free equips with Inventor's Goggles to become a 5/6 hexproof, which is very difficult for a lot of decks to beat. Usually game over for most control decks if it resolves early.
4 Maverick Thopterist- Great card on rate and paired with Inventor's Goggles is way too much value. Also acts as a ramp spell providing two more artifacts for improvising, and creates more pilots for our vehicles. A centerpiece of the deck.
2 Pia Nalaar- A great pilot for our vehicles and another artificer. Provides a mana sink if you flood out and another artifact to improvise with.
Instants/Sorceries
3 Metallic Rebuke- One of the incentives to play the deck. When supported, card is insane. I found that I was tapping out a little too much turns 1-4 to warrant playing 4, so I moved to a 3-3 split with the next, more reactive, card to give us some room to tap out without worrying about a problematic creature sneaking through when our shields are down.
3 Battle at the Bridge- The only black card in the mainboard and it's totally worth it. This card can bring you back from unwinnable game states late game while also allowing you to advance your board state early with artifacts and then, with 1-mana, tap them all to kill a creature and gain some life.
2 Whir of Invention- Basically the deck's namesake. Most of the time you'll be getting Aethersphere Harvester for a surprise 3/5 lifelink blocker. Late game you can get Skysovereign, Consul Flagship to take over the game. Against control Key to the City is a very important artifact to get.
Lands
8 Island- Whir of Invention costs triple blue and our deck is base blue.
2 Swamp- Brings our black source count to 9 and keeps Choked Estuarys coming in untapped.
2 Wandering Fumarole- On it's own, a fantastic card in the format. It's even a hedge against sacrifice effects for Bastion Inventor. Man lands have always been the real deal in magic. It does come in to play tapped however, and this deck really hates early tapped lands, so two is good.
2 Choked Estuary- Brings our black sources count up to 12 (including Prophetic Prism) which is totally fine considering Battle at the Bridge only gets better the longer you take to cast it, and there are only 3 maindeck black cards.
4 Spirebluff Canal- Dual land that comes in untapped early. Great.
4 Spire of Industry- Great fixer in artifact heavy decks.
2 Aether Hub- You want every land to provide blue ideally with all the blue mana requirements in the deck. So mountains aren't really an option. This is the next best fixer available. And while we don't want to draw them too often, it's another instance of lifelink for Aethersphere Harvester and another white source for Cogworker's Puzzleknot.
Sideboard
1 Dispel- Good against any Torrential Gearhulk deck when your goal in the match-up is to resolve a Bastion Inventor.
2 Negate- Better against board wipes and 4-color Saheeli than Dispel.
1 Kozilek's Return- Against Humans, Mardu Vehicles, and anything low to the ground.
1 Key to the City- A third copy for grindy match-ups or where unblockable is really good.
3 Release the Gremlins- Mirror match, Mardu Vehicles, and Metalwork Colossus match-ups.
2 Baral's Expertise- The best thing you can cast against B/G aggro decks, dropping a free Tezzeret the Schemer is also a sweet combo.
1 Aethersphere Harvester- Nice to have a back-up copy against Mardu Vehicles.
2 Implement of Combustion- For Saheeli Combo.
2 Tezzeret the Schemer- Primarily for the G/B match-up. Siding in spot removal isn't going to win the game against them. Tezzeret is more robust and can kill 2 creatures and leave a planeswalker behind.
If you are curious about the sequencing of the play I first described in the intro. Here it is:
Turn 1: Inventor's Goggles
Turn 2: Cogworker's Puzzleknot
Turn 3: Maverick Thopterist, equip Goggles
Turn 4: Pass, Whir of Invention for x=5 after your opponent declares attackers (Goggles, Puzzleknot, servo, two thopters), get Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, ETB kill a creature, crew with Thopterist, block a creature.
