Dies to Removal

Diaochan, Artful Beauty - I didn't know this card existed until I saw BackVise brewing a deck for it over on Sally, but the more I consider its potential, the more I want to build the deck.

What I have so far/some general ideas:
- I'm thinking that the deck will want to be creature-lite to minimize the temptation or ability to use Diao against me.
- I want plenty of ways to protect Diao from herself by giving her either Shroud, Indestructable, or Pro: Red
- I don't want to play a lot of cards that will piss everyone else at the table off like Smokestacks, Orbs, or big scary threats. The deck will survive by being resilient and unthreatening instead of by being tough enough to take on the whole table. I don't have a political deck yet, so here's my chance.
- I'm pretty sure I want an Artifact-heavy sub-theme. It's one of Red's strengths and
can be powerful without pissing people off.

And something to keep in mind that may not be obvious: the opponent you allow to choose a creature to die can be any opponent. If you make an ally with someone, you can safely destroy two creatures a turn without worrying about Diao offing herself.

I'm looking for suggestions for card slots and why they would fit in the deck and general strategy.

I've been tempted to build this deck quite a few times. So far it's never happened. The wall I hit is wincons.

You can kill a bunch of stuff, you can draw a lot of cards, but in the end monored needs to get in the red zone. Unfortunately, that goes against your strategy of running creature light. Your only other alternatives as far as I can tell are big mana or combo (to make big mana). I've tried to put together a stupid tap abilities deck, but then why am I not just playing Kiki-Jiki?

The way I'd build it would be something like this (off the top of my head):

[cards]Goblin Welder
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
Goblin Matron
Thousand Year Elixir
Gauntlet of Might
Gauntlet of Power
Caged Sun
Koth of the Hammer
Blinkmoth Urn
Akroma's Memorial
Darksteel Plate
Lightning Greaves
Swiftfoot Boots
Salvaging Station (Chromatic Star, [
card]Conjurer's Bauble[/card], Pyrite Spellbomb, etc.)
Mind's Eye (and other artifact card draw)
Comet Storm
Hellkite Igniter
Earthquake Variants (Starstorm, Earthquake, Fault Line, etc.)
Glacial Chasm
Mana Artifacts (Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo, Sol Ring, Mind Stone, etc)
Vicious Shadows
Repercussion
Burning Sands
Vandalblast (and lots of other artifact hate - Staff of Nin hurts you a lot)
Maze of Ith (and every other card like it - you'll need them since you have so few blockers)
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs (might actually be worthwhile too)
Puppet Strings?
Umbral Mantle?
Magewright's Stone? (plenty of cards like these, but I'
m not sure how much use you'll get out of them)[/cards]

Okay, that's all I've got. You get the idea. Is that sort of what you were thinking? It's easy enough to stay alive, but how are you actually going to finish the game?

Closing out the game is a bit of a problem. My ideas were either:

1. Voltron - I plan of filling the deck with some equipment anyway (that give Pro: Red, Indestructable, and/or Shroud) so I could theoretically pile them on one creature and use that to win. Not the best Commander for this strategy, though.

2. Combo - I'd run Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith anyway so I'm sure I could come up with some way to kill everyone else with that. Still not great.

3. Big-Ass Creatures - Stay alive until I can drop or cheat into play Blightsteel Colossus/Eldrazi. Win with a huge, hard-to-deal-with bruiser. Probably the most viable, but not really amazing.

There are tuned, competitive lists floating around for her already. Lemme try and find a link for you.

1. http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=503225
2. http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=492501
And I think this is the one I first stumbled upon: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=350261

The deck ends up being really oppressive if you build to her strengths. Just fyi.

Thanks Helios. Not sure how much I like the first 2, but the third deck looks right up my alley (though a bit outdated).

That'll be a good guide.

Played around with the ideas a bit and I think this is what I'll be testing:

[deck]Commander: 1
1 Diaochan, Artful Beauty

Creatures: 16
1 Goblin Welder
1 Myr Retriever
1 Junk Diver
1 Etched Champion
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Goblin Matron
1 Scarecrone
1 Masticore
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Hoarding Dragon
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Non Creature Artifacts: 33
1 Mishra’s Bauble
1 Urza’s Bauble
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Opal
1 Chromatic Star
1 Conjurer’s Bauble
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Terrarion
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Anvil of Bogardan
1 Ichor Wellspring
1 Tsabo’s Web
1 Grim Monolith
1 Illusionist’s Bracers
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Forcefield
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Rings of Brighthearth
n1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Trading Post
1 Clock of Omens
1 Mind’s Eye
1 Salvaging Station
1 Staff of Nin
1 Ward of Bones
1 Akroma’s Memorial

Spells: 10
1 Gamble
1 Vandalblast
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Smoke
1 Comet Storm
1 Chaos Warp
1 Trash for Treasure
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Burning Sands
1 Blasphemous Act

Planeswalkers: 1
1 Karn Liberated

Lands: 39
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Buried Ruin
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Temple of the False God
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Great Furnace
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
28 Mountain[/deck]