Thank you for choosing Commander 2017 (Christmas Edition)! Each deck is centered around a three-color Commander creature and comes fully prepared for multiplayer gameplay. The decks each also contain two alternate commanders in the same colors for alternate play-styles.
As A Matter of Artifact
"As A Matter of Artifact" is led by Sydri, Galvanic Genius. Sydri is an Esper (Blue, White, and Black) Human Artificer, and as such cares about artifacts. While she is unlikely to do much in combat herself, the ability to make all of your artifacts into creatures (as well as providing them with Lifelink and Deathtouch) can lead to the rise of threatening armies out of nowhere.
The two alternate commanders are Dromar, the Banisher and Sharuum the Hegemon. Dromar has the ability to return all creatures of a chosen color to their owner's hands upon dealing combat damage to a player, lending itself to a more controlling playstyle. While not directly related to artifacts, Dromar's ability may often leave you with a full board and one or more opponents with very little- most artifact creatures are colorless. Sharuum meanwhile is more often used in a combo-oriented deck, using its ability to recur artifacts from the graveyard to get access to key combo pieces (or to combo off itself- more on that later).
Playing the Deck
Sydri spends the early game ramping and playing defense, using mana rocks such as Azorius Signet and Darksteel Ingot to get to stronger plays. Late game these artifacts can become an army unto themselves thanks to Sydri's abilities. The deck does its best to control the board using wipes such as Planar Outburst and Phyrexian Rebirth, which will often leave most of your own board of artifacts intact. Another strong defensive option is Caltrops + Sydri, Galvanic Genius
. When animated and given Deathtouch, the Caltrops will kill all attacking creatures without indestructible. Similarly, Staff of Nin can kill one creature a turn, as well as netting card advantage through additional draws.
Once you have a strong field of artifacts, the deck aims to win in a few different ways. The first is through combat damage- a horde of animated mana rocks can do serious damage, especially after a board wipe. Cranial Plating + Whirler Rogue
can make one creature large and unblockable, putting your opponents on a short clock.
However, while the deck can win through combat damage, its real strength is in the combos it brings to the table. As A Matter of Artifact runs (at least) three infinite combos. The first and strongest of these consists of Ashnod's Altar + Sword of the Meek + Thopter Foundry
. Start with all three on the board. You first use the Thopter Foundry pay 1 and sacrifice the Sword of the Meek to make a 1/1 Thopter token and gain one life. As you sacrifice the Sword as a part of the cost, it is already in the graveyard by the time you get the Thopter. This means its ability triggers, returning it to play attached to the new Thopter token. You then sacrifice the Thopter token to Ashnod's Altar, netting 2 colorless mana. You then use one of this mana and sacrifice the Sword of the Meek again to repeat the cycle, but now with one more mana and one more life. The end result of the combo is infinite life, infinite colorless mana, and infinite 1/1 Thopters.
A second combo revolves around Phyrexian Metamorph + Sharuum the Hegemon
. You begin by casting Sharuum while the Metamorph is in your graveyard. Use Sharuum's ability to bring the Metamorph back to the battlefield, and choose to have it enter as a copy of Sharuum. This will cause your original Sharuum to die as a state-based action, meaning she will be in the graveyard by the time the Metamorph-Sharuum's ability is put on the stack. This will let you recur the original Sharuum with the ETB (enters the battlefield) ability of the cloned Sharuum. This will cause the cloned copy to die, repeating the cycle indefinitely. This provides you with infinite artifact creatures entering the battlefield and dying. With the addition of a third piece you can either search for any card in your deck (with Contraband Kingpin) or just drain all of your opponents for infinite life (Marionette Master or Disciple of the Vault).
What other infinite combos can you find?
Card Spotlight: Tutor Mages
This deck includes a cycle of three 3-mana creatures that allow you to search for particular artifacts when you enter: Trinket Mage, Trophy Mage, and Treasure Mage. Here are some suggestions for what to find with them.
Trinket Mage: allows you to search for artifacts with CMC 1 or less. Sol Ring is always a solid choice if you are in need of ramp, or Seat of the Synod if you haven't played your land yet for the turn. Hangarback Walker meanwhile can create a large and difficult to remove threat if you topdeck the mage late game.
Trophy Mage: allows you to search for artifacts with CMC 3. As well as finding Ashnod's Altar for the Sword of the Meek combo, the mage can fetch protection in the form of Caltrops or recursion through Scrap Trawler.
Treasure Mage: allows you to search for artifacts with CMC 6 or greater. Sharuum the Hegemon is a powerful 6-drop, while Steel Hellkite can be an incredibly powerful value engine if used properly. Spine of Ish Sah can deal with a troublesome permanent, while fetching Magister Sphynx late game can allow you to simply swing in for the win.
Improving the Deck
The deck in its current form is only a stepping stone to something greater. With the addition of more tutors and Counterspells, it could morph into a pillowfort deck only aiming to win through infinite combo. A small sphinx sub-theme could be expanded with cards like Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign to make a Sphinx tribal deck supported by a host of artifacts. Or you could run a Voltron build, using Dromar, the Banisher and a host of equipment to deal lethal commander damage. The options are only limited by your imagination.
