The Engine Invasion

With Primal Origin legal, we're now seeing a period in the game where engines have become very prominent. The breakout deck of the weekend was Traptrix Hand Artifacts, a deck literally composed of three separate engines working together.

The Hand engine especially has shown up in so many main and side decks immediately following its release that it wouldn't be farfetched to call it a generic staple for many different kinds of decks. They are literally so commonplace at this point that you could say they've changed the way the entire game is played, which basically makes them broken in a sense. Take a quick look at Chris LeBlanc's 1st place Madolche deck from YCS Philadelphia. Even in a heavily themed deck, he still made room for a Hand engine.

At this point in the history of this game, most of the community believes that it's Konami's intention to sell us decks that are essentially pre-made. Archetypes are the concept by which new strategies are most commonly created nowadays, but don't these engines kind of shit on that concept?

I obviously don't work for Konami and, like you, have absolutely no idea what they're thinking most of the time. But, in my opinion, their rampant creation of archetype decks probably means that those are the kinds of decks they prefer to see being prominent and doing well at tournaments. It's basically a game of your house and your family versus my house and my family. But now, the "family" isn't really a family anymore, it's just a group of friends that work well together and share common ground. And I don't think that's the kind of game that Konami is necessarily going for, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they did something about it.

So, long story short: Engines are being played everywhere right now, especially the Hand engine and the Artifact engine. But these methods of deck construction conflict with what we think Konami wants to see in the game, and as a result, they may take action to stop it. So don't be surprised if any of the components of these engines end up on a future banlist.