For these, I'd like to go RW humans and U or UB artifacts. The theme is that the humans made the machines, but they developed a mind of their own. The humans have red for stuff like shatter and manic vandal . I don't want to include any artifacts in the man deck, but make that the focus of machines. Lots of artifact creatures, too. I have most of the man deck finished; thoughts? Also, I'm incliuding AVR stuff
I didn't include phyrexian mana stuff (even though Porcelain Legionnaire and Thundering Tanadon work deliciously as "evil robots") because I don't know if creatures with such an obvious world-specific flavor make sense here. Myr were excluded too because they're too adorable to be believable menaces. I'm torn about Memnarch
Ratchet Bomb is unfair to the humans? I mean, sure, the DC takes to play, but if and once it does hit the field the humans have no means of countering it.
MARCH. OF. THE. MACHINES. Might also want to consider Mycosynth Lattice . But those two make a dangerous combo. There's also Kuldotha Forgemaster and Golem Artisan . Memnite makes a good metal minion, especially if you use Memnarch. Memnarch is a little too world-specific if you ask me though, plus he's been dead for years and is a Legendary, at which point it would only seem fair to give the humans a Legendary to rally behind as well.
Cool idea, GG. Now I have my own ideas for duel decks.
To match the flavor of your development (and the criteria you're desiring) you've pretty much limited your options to Tezzeret alone. You've yet to complete your Man's Revolt side of the development. You don't have to go with a planeswalker for the lead role, but if you put one on either side, you could put one on both sides. Defense Grid and Crawlspace would be nice to see for the human's side.
Just do some research and go all the way back to the beginning of time, that way you can provide a decent range for both sides. That kind of content is also appealing to player's, both nostalgic one's who love old content, and newborn one's who never got a chance to experience old content.
If you want a graphic example, they had a contest a long time ago (2009) for duel decks here on the forum. Here are two links to the decks I submitted: Boros Vs. Rakdos. I'm not even really a Ravinca fan, but I had good alternate artwork for both the characters. Also, I was able to think up a theme for both sides almost instantly. Boros is red-white aggro with a splash of anti-black/red and Rakdos is black-red hand, board, and land destruction.
I forgot to mention Ashnod's Transmogrant . I've always thought of it as a very solid design, specially in limited. It can work wonders making artifacts out of splashed non-artifact creatures.
Here are some rough attempts at these decks, trying to steer clear of ground covered by previous R/W aggro and U/X artifact theme decks. They make them pretty frequently. I put equipment in with Man because they seem to need it to get there, and equipment isn't really "the machine" (which here is mostly giant robots and things with "engine" or "machine" or "station" in their name.)
Mycosynth Golemn is a BRILLIANT choice for the "foil top card display" for the machines! Much more fair than my choice of darksteel collossus! I really like Darksteel Sentinel in there as well! Amass the Components is also brilliant!
Your deckslist is definitely better than mine, but, I do really, really want the machines to have Go for the Throat -- with new art, of course! :-)
Here are some rough attempts at these decks, trying to steer clear of ground covered by previous R/W aggro and U/X artifact theme decks. They make them pretty frequently. I put equipment in with Man because they seem to need it to get there, and equipment isn't really "the machine" (which here is mostly giant robots and things with "engine" or "machine" or "station" in their name.)
Mycosynth Golemn is a BRILLIANT choice for the "foil top card display" for the machines! Much more fair than my choice of darksteel collossus! I really like Darksteel Sentinnel in there as well! Amass the Components is also brilliant!
Your deckslist is definitely better than mine, but, I do really, really want the machines to have Go for the Throat -- with new art, of course! :-)
Perhaps a golem holding a human by the throat at arm's length?