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Commander / EDH Artifact Colorless Combo Competitive Eggs UR (Izzet)

stevenckopp

Artifact (35)

• 1x Aether Spellbomb
• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Cloud Key
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Conjurer's Bauble
• 1x Conqueror's Flail
• 1x Crystal Shard
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Ichor Wellspring
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Manifold Key
• 1x Mishra's Bauble
• 1x Mox Amber
• 1x Mystic Forge
• 1x Paradise Mantle
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Soul-Guide Lantern
• 1x Spellbook
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Tormod's Crypt
• 1x Unwinding Clock
• 1x Urza's Bauble
• 1x Vedalken Orrery

Land (30)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Desolate Lighthouse
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 8x Island
• 7x Mountain
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sanctum of Eternity
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents

Creature (13)

• 1x Etherium Sculptor
• 1x Foundry Inspector
• 1x Grand Architect
• 1x Jhoira's Familiar
• 1x Myr Retriever
• 1x Painter's Servant
• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x Reckless Fireweaver
• 1x Scrap Trawler
• 1x Shimmer Myr
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Commander (1)

Instant (13)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Hurkyl's Recall
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Paradoxical Outcome
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Rebuild
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Whir of Invention

Sorcery (3)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Reshape

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Sphinx's Tutelage
• 1x Storm the Vault  ^Flip
• 1x Underworld Breach

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Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain was my fourth commander I built. I had been bouncing around the idea of running SOME kind of U/R something because they were the two most underrepresented colors in my commander wheelhouse. I started with Zedruu the Greathearted, then moved to The Locust God but neither we’re working for me. Zedruu was too painfully slow and mean and Locust God was expensive and easily disrupted. I kept going back to this idea that I really wanted to bring ‘Eggs’ into commander while I was building both though but had no idea how. So I started brewing an idea of eggs using the Breya partner commanders, Akiri, Line-Slinger and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, but I realized that with those 4 colors I might as well just run Breya herself.

Then Wizards released Dominaria and with it Jhoira and it all clicked. You get it. Eggs. Brunch. Jhoira’s making eggs for brunch. Anywho...

Jhoira is a deceptively simple commander with huge potential combo because of the way Wizards ruled what a ‘historic’ card counts as. A card, spell, or permanent is historic if it has the legendary supertype, the artifact card type, or the Saga subtype.

The basic theory behind ‘Eggs’ originally was that you sacrificed a bunch of cheap artifacts and rocks in order to draw a lot of cards and net you a lot of mana, only then to recur them back again and again and again. That strategy works in modern and legacy because you can have multiple copies of the same card (looking at you Lotus Bloom, Chromatic Star, and Reshape). But in commander, the opposite is true. So how do we reformat a deck that relied on recursion and multiple copies of the same cards into a deck and format that doesn’t? Well, Jhoira goes the opposite way around the Eggs strategy by drawing the card when you cast the artifact or historic spell. We get two potential effects here whenever we cast a historic spell:

1. We draw a card on the cast so we can manipulate what happens whenever we draw a card.

2. When the artifact enters the battle, we can trigger different things to happen.

So I don’t want to sac a bunch of artifacts then recur. I want to cast a bunch of artifacts for as little as possible (OR FREE) and then return them all to my hand and recast them. Over and over again.

So how does the deck do this? Let’s start with the eggs:

Eggs or Rocks / Ramp

Commander's Sphere, Etherium Sculptor, Fellwar Stone, Foundry Inspector, Gilded Lotus, Arcane Signet, Izzet Signet, Jhoira's Familiar, Mox Amber, Paradise Mantle, Talisman of Creativity, Sol Ring, Cloud Key, Pili-Pala, Grand Architect

The rocks speak for themselves. There are 10 rocks in here with only 1 costing 5. The rest cost 3 or less. And I’ve also specifically added as many rocks that can produce colored mana. Nothing hurts worse than needing to counter something and only having colorless mana rocks open. The exception to that rule is obviously Sol Ring.

Etherium Sculptor, Foundry Inspector, Jhoira's Familiar, and Cloud Key all reduce your artifacts by 1 colorless. So if you have all four out on the field, 9 of your 10 rocks are going to be free. The decks feeds on this idea of casting rocks for cheap, drawing cards, to cast more rocks, to draw more cards, etc.

Pili-Pala may be able to swing in for one damage flying and then untap to add 1 of any color but that's pretty useless in a 2 color deck. It's a back-up infinite mana combo piece that goes with another card.

That other card is Grand Architect. Pay a U to turn the Pili-Pala blue and then you can tap and untap it for free netting you one mana of any color anytime.

Recursion

Buried Ruin, Underworld Breach, Elixir of Immortality, Myr Retriever, Scrap Trawler

Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever, and Underworld Breach are all here to get back those key pieces that you might in your yard. Underworld Breach can get any of your win-con pieces back if you need them so it's definitely the ace up your sleeve.

Elixir of Immortality is your big red reset button. Combo didn’t go as planned? You’ve been Vandalblasted and couldn’t counter it? Welp, shuffle it all back up and start over.

Buried Ruin is a one time use that should only be reserved for getting back combo pieces like your Isochron Scepter. Let it ride as a land and then when you have to use it, crack it open.

Response & Removal

Aether Spellbomb, Arcane Denial, Counterspell, Cyclonic Rift, Pithing Needle, Swan Song, Tormod's Crypt, Crystal Shard, Muddle the Mixture, Pact of Negation, All Is Dust, Soul-Guide Lantern

Arcane Denial, Pact of Negation, Counterspell, Cyclonic Rift, and Swan Song are all staples for blue commander decks. This is a budget deck and I don’t want to pay more than 2 for a counter. Arcane Denial is useful to keep the draw engine going if you’re run out of steam and see a threat coming your way.

Aether Spellbomb is cheap and can be used for responses or sac’d to keep the draw engine running. Quite versatile.

Tormod's Crypt and Soul-Guide Lantern are recurrable graveyard removal since it cost so cheap and so it’s easily retrieved and replayed with Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever. The lantern also doubles as card draw in case you're stuck.

Pithing Needle is a very tech card here but I mainly use it to shut down planeswalkers, other commanders, or just the biggest, scariest threat to me comboing off.

Crystal Shard can be used offensively or defensively depending on the situation. If your opponent is completely tapped out and they swing at you, bounce a creature. Or if they target your Jhoira, you can self bounce her by opting to not pay the 1 and they waste a removal. Or more importantly and less obvious to your opponent, use the shard to protect your Reckless Fireweaver. They are both seemingly innocent common cards but are a critical combo piece in your win con. More on that later.

Muddle the Mixture is a fine counterspell option if you absolutely have to counter something or else you lose the game. But save it for it’s transmute tutor.

All Is Dust I'm playtesting as a board wipe option in the deck. Previous versions had no board wipes at all and given there's 30+ colorless cards in the deck if may be useful or it may backfire. Only time will tell!

Tutor

Fabricate, Muddle the Mixture, Mystical Tutor, Tezzeret the Seeker, Trinket Mage, Whir of Invention, Reshape

Fabricate, Reshape, and Whir of Invention will find you almost anything in the deck. There’s around 30 artifacts so take your pick but you’re mostly going to use it to find your win-con. Reshape is obviously the best choice since it comes right into play but they all get the job done.

Muddle the Mixture is 75% here for the transmute. Sure it’ll find you most of your blue counterspells and removal but it’s primary job is to find Dramatic Reversal. More on that later. The same can be said for Mystical Tutor too.

Tezzeret the Seeker is used mostly for his minus loyalty to tutor an artifact into play (Isochron Scepter). I’ve occasionally left him on the board to untap artifacts (rocks) for value but mostly you drop him and tutor. Also don’t forget that planeswalkers are legendary so they count as historic.

Trinket Mage is pretty versatile in the deck. There are very few non historic creatures in the deck but being able to find most of your artifacts is extremely useful and therefore it's a necessity.

Draw

Alhammarret's Archive, Ichor Wellspring, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, Mishra's Bauble, Urza's Bauble, Mystic Forge, Scroll Rack, Sensei's Divining Top

These cards all ramp your already crazy amount of draw that’s happening with Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain herself.

Mishra's Bauble and Urza's Bauble are mainly used to sac and add an extra draw onto your upkeep. And being 0 cost makes them great targets for Scrap Trawler.

Ichor Wellspring combined with the recursion cards net you a lot of draw over time. Very techy but versatile.

Alhammarret's Archive kicks the entire deck into overdrive. There are very few cards in the deck that are cmc 5 but this one is a must. Drawing 2 cards everytime you cast a historic spell adds up quickly and helps guarantee you draw into the next historic.

Mystic Forge lets you cast cards off the top of your library if they're an artifact. Considering there's 36 artifacts in the deck you've a 1 in 3 chance to be able cast off the top. This is especially useful if you're stuck on card draw and need a way out.

Sensei's Divining Top does some pretty crazy things in Jhoira once you have a one cost reduction creature out (Sculptor, Inspector, Familiar, or Cloud Key mentioned above) which makes the top free. You can almost draw your whole deck if you stack it right. Play the top, draw a card off Jhoira, rearrange the top 3, tap it to draw a card (it’s probably historic since you stacked the top 3 cards), play the historic, draw a card (it’s the top), replay for free. Rinse and repeat. Or if you wanted to actually draw your entire deck, add a Mystic Forge into the mix and there you go!

Scroll Rack lets you get all of those pesky lands off the top of your library and/or set up the top of your deck with more historic cards to draw and cast if necessary. Scroll Rack in this deck is basically a wedge to lever the deck out of a stuck situation.

Protection

Library of Leng, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Crawlspace, Conqueror's Flail

Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots protect Jhoira so the engine doesn’t shut down.

Library of Leng is my answer to heavy discard decks like Nekusar or wheel effects since replaying historics from my hand will only draw more cards so I have no problem wheeling my hand right back to the top of my library only to redraw and recast.

Crawlspace I added to the deck because it has a hard time dealing with go-wide aggro decks. It gets overwhelmed on the board easily as many combo decks tend to do so Crawlspace lets me mitigate that aggro and since I’m rarely if ever attacking it doesn’t actually limit me that much.

Conqueror's Flail is a very tech equipment so that other player's can't cast during my turn in order to stop me comboing off. Slap it on any creature or Jhoira herself. It could be considered under a ‘protection’ category but for now I think of it as not necessary but an added bonus if you have it equipped.

Misc. Eggs & Historic / Tech

Spellbook, Shimmer Myr, Unwinding Clock, Storm the Vault  , Vedalken Orrery, Conjurer's Bauble, Manifold Key, Shadowspear

These are all Misc. to me because they are very techy and specific solutions to problems I’ve found when playing the deck.

Manifold Key lets you untap a large rock like Gilded Lotus or another useful artifact. But it also gives a creature unblockable so if you've got a large Psychosis Crawler or maybe you could use commander damage on Jhoira if you're lucky. The untap is the more important part.

Spellbook because you are going to need infinite hand size. It’s tutorable through multiple means and a zero cost egg. Between Spellbook and Reliquary Tower, you’re gonna need the hand size unlimited.

Shimmer Myr and Vedalken Orrery lets you cast all those eggs at instant speed. So you can play everything you can at your opponent's end step, untap, then either keep going or wait until their next end step.

Unwinding Clock grants you so much mana every single turn, especially in a 4 player game. Combine it with Shimmer Myr and you’ll almost be playing a full turn in between every other players turn with the sheer volume of rocks at your disposal.

Storm the Vault   is in here for sheer volume of mana. The treasures aren’t as important to me as the ability to flip it on the end step you play it considering how many artifacts you’ll already have on the board. Then you can just tap a U and gain 10-15 mana easily.

Conjurer's Bauble is under Misc. Eggs because it’s not quite recursion but it’s not quite card draw. What it does is tuck a key piece of your combos back into the deck to prevent exile from a graveyard. If that Isochron Scepter gets dumped, tuck it back in, re-minus Tezz and tutor it right back out. It’s a very tiny safety measure.

Shadowspear is less about equipping Jhoira with it and going to town although that's an option. It's more about removing that hexproof and indestructible from opponents boards. Whether it's a commander with those keywords or you opponents play a Heroic Intervention or Rootborn Defenses, it's there to make sure that what's trying to happen happens. The deck rarely targets something but also wants to handle those threats in case they ever occur.

Painter's Servant was recently unbanned and I've had one sitting in my binder for years. Time to break it out and turn it into a Win-Con. See below!

Win-Cons

Drawing Cards: Psychosis Crawler, Paradoxical Outcome, Sphinx's Tutelage, Painter's Servant

Casting Historic Cards/Artifacts: Aetherflux Reservoir, Hurkyl's Recall, Reckless Fireweaver, Rebuild

Outlier: Mirrodin Besieged

Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter = infinite mana

The name of the game here is quantity over quality and slowly building / stacking over time:

Psychosis Crawler is going to interact with your draw engine to deal damage.

Painter's Servant and Sphinx's Tutelage will usually let you mill out one player if you target only them and draw a few cards in one turn. Painter's Servant is also tutorable so if you've got the Tutelage you can find the other piece.

Reckless Fireweaver is a great early play that seems innocent until you start drawing and playing 10-20 artifact cards. Pair it with Psychosis Crawler and you’ll be dealing 2-3 damage with every historic spell you draw and then cast.

Aetherflux Reservoir over time will get you up to the 100’s in life total if you’re smart about it and is a good way to take out the last remaining one or two players. I would only recommend playing it once you know you can Hurkyl's Recall or Paradoxical Outcome to replay everything again. I’ll lay out the math later to explain why this is such a dangerous card once it hits the board.

Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter give you infinite mana which usually lets you storm off into a win that turn. Dramatic Reversal untaps the scepter so as long as you have enough rocks to tap the Scepter again and net then you can play everything in your deck for free.

So here’s some simple math involving a scenario that isn’t too hard to pull off given the pieces:

Say I have a Reckless Fireweaver, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, and Sphinx's Tutelage on the board with 10 artifact reducers/rocks laying around for mana. I play 5 additional artifact spells in that turn all for very cheap to free: I’ve drawn 5 cards, milled maybe 10-15 cards from one of my opponents decks, and dealt 5 damage to everyone. But I’ve drawn into an Aetherflux Reservoir and a Paradoxical Outcome. Well I play the Aetherflux, draw another card, mill another 2-3 cards, and deal another 1 damage so:

6 damage to everyone 15-18 cards milled from one player / 6 cards drawn 6 spells played

Then I paradoxical outcome everything that isn’t a win-con back to my hand (let’s say its my 10 rocks/reducers). So I gain 7 life since it’s the seventh spell I’ve played that turn, I mill another 20-30 cards, and deal another 1 damage. And then I replay the 10 cards I just outcomed back to the field for cheap to free. So I gain another 125 life, I deal another 10 damage to everyone, and mill another 20-30 cards. So:

17 damage to everyone 26 cards drawn 132 life gained (you can now flux two opponents not counting whatever your life was before this) 70 cards milled from one player roughly 17 spells played

You get the idea.

If all of this fails and you've lost all your combo pieces, the hail mary is Mirrodin Besieged. If you've got the artifacts in the graveyard, start ending the game for each opponent left based on threat level and cross your fingers you can make it out alive.

Lands

Darksteel Citadel, Great Furnace, Inventors' Fair, Reliquary Tower, Seat of the Synod, Emergence Zone, Desolate Lighthouse, Sanctum of Eternity, Academy Ruins

Seat of the Synod, Darksteel Citadel, and Great Furnace are also fetchable via Fabricate or Tezzeret the Seeker if you need some land fixing.

Reliquary Tower because you’re gonna draw all the cards.

Inventors' Fair is for the easy tutor since you'll have 3 artifacts pretty quickly. The life gain is less important but nice to have.

Emergence Zone gives me one final option to combo off on someone else's turn if they're trying to stop me or about to win the game. Between the Orrery, the Shimmer Myr, and the Emergence Zone, you're gonna have multiple options to play on other peoples turns.

Desolate Lighthouse is there as a possible engine stall resolution. Played all your historics and need to draw another card to possibly keep the engine moving. Use it.

Sanctum of Eternity is useful in case anyone tries to target Jhoira will you're comboing off. She's such a lightning rod for targeted removal that being able to quickly bounce her back to your hand in case you need to is useful to keep your engine safe.

Academy Ruins lets you recur any artifact you need back to the top of the deck so you can quickly draw it back off a cast with Jhoira. This is especially useful for things like Elixir of Immortality if it hits your yard. It basically allows you to never mill out.

Thanks for reading! Upvote, comment, and message me if you like!

Update:

Cut - Narset's Reversal, Crawlspace, Arcane Denial, Mirrodin Besieged

Added - Dispel, Jace WoM, Pyroblast, Tribute Mage

Date added	5 years
Last updated	3 years
Exclude colors	WBG
Splash colors	R
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 34 - 0 Rares 31 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.37
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Treasure
Folders	Current Commanders, good stoof