(Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy | Art by Fajareka Setiawan)

Hello again everyone! I’m Bert from the Scrap Trawlers channel, where we do EDH on a budget. Last time we showed off the new Tinker Time deck from March of the Machine, so now we're back to give that deck some upgrades so it can work to its full potential. So that we can go over the upgrades properly let's take a look at the decklist and talk about the areas that we want to improve upon. Here is the list:

Tinker Time Precon

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Commander (1) 1 Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy Creatures (22) 1 Academy Manufactor 1 Cutthroat Negotiator 1 Everquill Phoenix 1 Feldon of the Third Path 1 Gilded Goose 1 Hedron Detonator 1 Hellkite Igniter 1 Junk Winder 1 Master of Etherium 1 Pain Distributor 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar 1 Rashmi and Ragavan 1 Sandsteppe War Riders 1 Schema Thief 1 Sharding Sphinx 1 Shimmer Dragon 1 Thopter Assembly 1 Tireless Provisioner 1 Tireless Tracker 1 Vedalken Humiliator 1 Whirler Rogue 1 Workshop Elders Artifacts (13) 1 Arcane Signet 1 Bloodforged Battle-Axe 1 Combine Chrysalis 1 Fractured Powerstone 1 Gruul Signet 1 Ichor Elixir 1 Inspiring Statuary 1 Izzet Signet 1 Replicating Ring 1 Simic Signet 1 Skyclave Relic 1 Sol Ring 1 Spine of Ish Sah Sorceries (11) 1 Brass's Bounty 1 Crack Open 1 Dance with Calamity 1 Echo Storm 1 Fiery Confluence 1 Path of the Animist 1 Reverse Engineer 1 Rise and Shine 1 Root Out 1 Saheeli's Artistry 1 Thoughtcast Instants (8) 1 Chaos Warp 1 Masterful Replication 1 Perplexing Test 1 Reality Shift 1 Spell Swindle 1 Stroke of Genius 1 Struggle // Survive 1 Vampires' Vengeance Enchantments (6) 1 Aid from the Cowl 1 Curse of Opulence 1 Ghirapur Aether Grid 1 Imprisoned in the Moon 1 Thopter Spy Network 1 Weirding Wood Planeswalkers (1) 1 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer Lands (38) 1 Cinder Glade 1 Command Tower 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Exotic Orchard 7 Forest 1 Frontier Bivouac 1 Frostboil Snarl 1 Game Trail 8 Island 8 Mountain 1 Myriad Landscape 1 Path of Ancestry 1 Simic Growth Chamber 1 Temple of Abandon 1 Temple of Epiphany 1 Temple of Mystery 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Vineglimmer Snarl

Welcome to the Tinker Shop!

Before we get into the upgrades portion of the article, let's first recall our face commander Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy. Gimbal gives us an unique take on both the Temur color group and the artifact strategy. Gimbal is Temur (red, green, blue) and two colorless for a Gremlin Artificer that cares about artifact creatures and artifact tokens with different names. This gives us a few ways we can build the deck. I plan on taking some good value artifact creatures to create a board state where we can be able to create our artifact tokens in peace. Gimbal looks to want to play as a midrange deck, so this fits in the plan that I have made for the deck. Lets get started, shall we?

What's New on Gimbal’s Menu

Just like always, we want to shore up some of the weak sides of our precon. To do that we'll be adding cards to increase our overall card draw and ramp, and increase the overall synergy of the deck.

Let's get started with some ramp, shall we? I only wanted to add a couple of cards, as we already have a few ramp spells and Treasure production. For some additional Treasures, here is a pet card of mine: Rose Room Treasurer. Alliance is a powerful ability that triggers on each creature entering our battlefield, including token creatures. It’s a four mana spell and not true ramp, but we add to the overall mana production of the deck. Some actual mana rocks I'm adding are Liquimetal Torque,Cursed Mirror, and Mind stone. Out of these cards, Liquimetal Torque is my favorite, as it sets up some really good plays with our deck, allowing us to give something trample through Gimbal, or make a copy of something we normally wouldn't be able to. 

Next I have some cards that will add to our overall draw package. Cathartic Pyre, Chart a Course, and Big Score are just some simple card draw options that'll give us value throughout the entire game with Cathartic Pyre and Big Score providing secondary effects. Thought Monitor being an artifact creature means copy it and power it up with some of our other cards we're adding. Idol of Oblivion is another pet card of mine, but it will definitely draw you a bunch of extra cards over the game. 

Lastly we have some cards that will just add to the overall synergies of the deck. To add to our token productions, I've added two cards to get a bit more Blood flowing. Arterial Alchemy and Olivia’s Attendants give us access to Blood, which makes our draws a bit smoother while also increasing our token production for Gimbal’s ability.

I felt the deck could do with a few more cards that make it easier to make copies. March of Progress, Mythos of Illuna, Skitterbeam Battalion, and Sicarian Infiltrator do that and then more! For a spicy pick I even added Fae Offering for some additional token creation.

Picky Eater

Gimbal’s menu needs a bit of refinement, so we have a few cards to cut. Ichor Elixir and Fractured Powerstone have been cut for some of the ramp that was mentioned earlier. However, if you and your friends have an inkling to play Planechase, keep them in so you can get those rolls.

Also cut from the deck are the super expensive cards like Workshop Elders, Dance with Calamity, and Brass’s Bounty, just to make our curve a bit smoother. Super niche cards like Path of the Animist, Weirding Wood, Aid from the Cowl, and Everquill Phoenix have also been cut to add space for some synergistic cards that will give us a bit more staying power. Path of the Animist does a great impression of Explosive Vegetation, but since the focus of the card is mainly Planechase, we can cut it. Both Weirding Wood and Everquill Phoenix are present in the deck so that they can create their unique tokens, but they seem like a bit of a deep dive and can be replaced with something that meshes with the deck more. Aid from the Cowl seems a bit random to me, so I went ahead and cut it so that we can make space for more goodness.

When we make cuts like these, it's important to keep in mind that you can keep cards that you like and find another cut somewhere else. 

Exquisite Taste

Here we'll go over some cards that aren't included in my modified list due to their price points, but will power up your Gimbal deck to new heights. The first and by far one of my favorites is going to be Faerie Artisans. This little gem will create an artifact token copy of whatever creature last entered the battlefield under our opponents' control. Faerie Artisans not only makes our opponent sequence their plays so that we end up with a weaker creature, but also gives us another artifact token for Gimbal to count.

Another awesome card that we can include is going to be Wurmcoil Engine. A solid six mana 6/6 that has deathtouch and lifelink that will make two Wurm artifact creature tokens on death, this is just more of what we want. Adrix and Nev, Twincasters will also take us to new heights being a hard to remove token doubler that helps us create a stronger board state. Last but certainly not least we have Old Gnawbone which is just absurd in a deck like this. We care about the number of different tokens that get created but we also need mana to cast spells, and we have the creatures to get through to our opponents. Having this monstrous Dragon on our side is going to make a huge difference in our token creation, and I am here for every bit of it.

Finished Product

Well here is our modified list:

Tinker Time Precon Upgrade

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Commander (1) 1 Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy Creatures (22) 1 Academy Manufactor 1 Cutthroat Negotiator 1 Feldon of the Third Path 1 Gilded Goose 1 Junk Winder 1 Master of Etherium 1 Olivia's Attendants 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar 1 Rashmi and Ragavan 1 Rose Room Treasurer 1 Sandsteppe War Riders 1 Schema Thief 1 Sharding Sphinx 1 Shimmer Dragon 1 Sicarian Infiltrator 1 Skitterbeam Battalion 1 Thopter Assembly 1 Thought Monitor 1 Tireless Provisioner 1 Tireless Tracker 1 Vedalken Humiliator 1 Whirler Rogue Artifacts (15) 1 Arcane Signet 1 Bloodforged Battle-Axe 1 Combine Chrysalis 1 Cursed Mirror 1 Gruul Signet 1 Idol of Oblivion 1 Inspiring Statuary 1 Izzet Signet 1 Liquimetal Torque 1 Mind Stone 1 Replicating Ring 1 Simic Signet 1 Skyclave Relic 1 Sol Ring 1 Spine of Ish Sah Instants (6) 1 Big Score 1 Cathartic Pyre 1 Chaos Warp 1 Perplexing Test 1 Reality Shift 1 Vampires' Vengeance Sorceries (11) 1 Chart a Course 1 Crack Open 1 Echo Storm 1 Fiery Confluence 1 March of Progress 1 Mythos of Illuna 1 Reverse Engineer 1 Rise and Shine 1 Root Out 1 Saheeli's Artistry 1 Thoughtcast Enchantments (6) 1 Arterial Alchemy 1 Curse of Opulence 1 Fae Offering 1 Ghirapur Aether Grid 1 Imprisoned in the Moon 1 Thopter Spy Network Planeswalkers (1) 1 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer Lands (38) 1 Cinder Glade 1 Command Tower 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Exotic Orchard 7 Forest 1 Frontier Bivouac 1 Frostboil Snarl 1 Game Trail 8 Island 8 Mountain 1 Myriad Landscape 1 Path of Ancestry 1 Simic Growth Chamber 1 Temple of Abandon 1 Temple of Epiphany 1 Temple of Mystery 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Vineglimmer Snarl

We've increased the functionality of the deck a bit, so I hope that you take these changes out in the wild and show your friends how strong precons, Gimbal specifically, can be. 

Make sure to check back for more precon guides from us Scrap Trawlers. You can also check out our budget content over on Twitch and YouTube and follow us on Twitter. Don’t forget to upgrade your precon on a budget!

Scrap Trawlers

Scrap Trawlers is a Magic: The Gathering budget EDH streaming and video group, with gameplay, deck techs, chats, and more. Catch our videos at youtube.com/scraptrawlers. Andy, Lenny, and Bert.