General focus of the deck: This is a fairly straightforward combo deck looking to abuse
Emry, Lurker of the Loch
's activated ability in order to win the game relatively fast. This deck is fairly weak to stax, so I wouldn't recommend playing this deck into a staxy meta. Now that we have that out the way, let's get into the main wincons of the deck.
Win-cons: So, to start off this section, we'll revisit the iconic duo of
Isochron Scepter
and
Dramatic Reversal
. This combo requires the ability to produce 3 mana in mana rocks and any of the multiple "eggs" available to you either on the hand, battlefield, and/ or graveyard. An egg is any artifact that sacrifices itself to produce mana and cantripping, often replacing itself in both mana and a card. Activate Iscochron Scepter to create an infinite amount of mana, then proceed to cast an egg. If the egg is in your graveyard, tap Emry, cast said egg, and crack it for 1 card (The mana here is irrelevant since you have an infinite amount already, although it can often filter your colorless into blue mana were you not able to do so with your existing mana rocks). Now, you have a board state that consists of a tapped
Emry, Lurker of the Loch
, and extra card and an egg in your graveyard. Then, activate your isochron scepter again, this time the purpose being to not only to untap your mana but to also untap Emry. Now that you've done this, you can reactivate her as many times as is neccessary until you draw into a win condition in the form of
Laboratory Maniac
,
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
,
Aetherflux Reservoir
,
Blue Sun's Zenith
. etc. Now that you've drawn your deck, you also have access to all of your counterspells in addition to your wincons and can safely win.
Now, there are a few alternate means to winning. The main one would be to have either a
Mirran Spy
or a
Chakram Retriever
in addition to any bauble effect. This win doesn't require you to have infinite mana, but 3 colorless mana is required if you have only one of the 2 baubles in the form of
Mishra's Bauble
and
Urza's Bauble
, as you won't be able to draw your deck until the next turn's upkeep and will need enough mana to cast a
Shimmer Myr
in order to cast your
Isochron Scepter
or just manually storm off with
Aetherflux Reservoir
at instant speed. The eggs will only break even on mana with these 2 creatures if you have an
Etherium Sculptor
out to reduce the initial mana cost so that the eggs are essentially free, but they go positive on card advantage. This same trick can be used with
Lotus Petal
and Miram Spy. This creates an infinite amount of blue mana to use however you see fit. If you have an egg, you can subsequently draw your deck. The way this works is that when you cast these spells, they untap
Emry, Lurker of the Loch
, which in turn allows you to recast the egg/ bauble, which subsequently untaps
Emry, Lurker of the Loch
again. This creates an infinite amount of card draw which you can use to win in the form of whatever wincons you've put into the deck.
Another option is a little trickier. This involves
Sensei's Divining Top
, a cost reducer in the form of Etehrium Sculptor or
Cloud Key
, and a "cast from top of library" permanent in the form of either
Mystic Forge
or
Future Sight
. This wincon gets around any type of cursed totem effects in the fact that you don't need to activate
Emry, Lurker of the Loch
for this one. The way this works is to first cast the spells and tap Sensei's Diving Top, netting you a card and putting it on top of your library. With the
Future Sight
effect, you can now cast it from the top of your library, and with the help of the cost reducer, it now costs 0. So you can repeatedly cast the
Sensei's Divining Top
, tap it to draw a card, and repeat until you result in a similar scenario as the aforementioned combos, where you use no mana but draw cards nevertheless.
A lot of the combo pieces are generally really nice cards to just play by themselves as card advantage pieces and the eggs cycle into new cards while still giving access to consistent card draw in the form of your commander, so the likelihood of you drawing dead cards is very low. As you can see, there are several tutors, so finding the pieces for any of these combos isn't very difficult. The main issue is finding Miram Spy, as it is untutorable. If you find that you just have a hand that is a bunch of artifact tutors but no way to find dramatic reversal or either of the creatures, keep in mind that the
Mystic Forge
+
Sensei's Divining Top
+
Etherium Sculptor
/
Cloud Key
is a triple artifact combo, so don't be afraid to go for that if you find that you can't find any of the other pieces and have the available tutors.
The rest of the deck really just boils down to relevant interaction (in the form of counterspellls and bounce spells), card draw, fast mana, and the bread and butter (the eggs), which easily cycle into cards you're likely wanting to see, while filling your graveyard with the neccessary parts to fuel your win conditions. While the deck is fragile to most forms of stax, that does not mean it can't play a longer game. With the ability to essentially tap and draw an extra card a turn if you have any egg or bauble, the deck can easily grind with the best of them. While this deck is focused more on a faster, more consistent win, there are sure to be other variants with other takes on the deck. If you have any recommendations, don't be afraid to give me feedback and leave an upvote if you can!
Cheers :)
