Yes, 16.10, 17.04, 17.10 releases are end of life, but they should still be accessible via http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu (16.10, 17.04) or regular archive mirrors (17.10, but it will at some point move to old-releases).
So you could deploy 16.04 and dist-upgrade via old-releases.ubuntu.com to yakkety, zesty and via regular mirror to artful. Obviously for testing / bisecting purposes only.
Yes, 16.10, 17.04, 17.10 releases are end of life, but they should still be accessible via http:// old-releases. ubuntu. com/ubuntu (16.10, 17.04) or regular archive mirrors (17.10, but it will at some point move to old-releases).
So you could deploy 16.04 and dist-upgrade via old-releases. ubuntu. com to yakkety, zesty and via regular mirror to artful. Obviously for testing / bisecting purposes only.