Memnarch moderately competitive

Commander / EDH* Mono-Blue

jeffishwong

Artifact (26)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Clock of Omens
• 1x Darksteel Forge
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mycosynth Lattice
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sculpting Steel
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Unwinding Clock
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Voltaic Key

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Mind Over Matter
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Training Grounds

Creature (20)

• 1x Aphetto Alchemist
• 1x Drift of Phantasms
• 1x Emry, Lurker of the Loch
• 1x Etherium Sculptor
• 1x Foundry Inspector
• 1x Grand Architect
• 1x Master Transmuter
• 1x Palinchron
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Shimmer Myr
• 1x Silver Myr
• 1x Treasure Mage
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Vedalken Engineer
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant

Land (31)

• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 25x Island
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Temple of the False God

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Commander (1)

Instant (14)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Whir of Invention

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Ponder

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Sideboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Lodestone Golem
• 1x Myr Retriever
• 1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation

Artifact (1)

• 1x Expedition Map

Land (4)

• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Urza's Mine
• 1x Urza's Power Plant
• 1x Urza's Tower

Instant (1)

• 1x Fact or Fiction

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Rite of Replication

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Maybeboard

Creature (9)

• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Arcum Dagsson
• 1x Great Whale
• 1x Karn, Silver Golem
• 1x Myr Battlesphere
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Renowned Weaponsmith
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Voltaic Construct

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x One with the Machine
• 1x Thoughtcast

Artifact (8)

• 1x Doubling Cube
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Gemstone Array
• 1x Liquimetal Coating
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Temple Bell

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Karn, the Great Creator
• 1x Tezzeret, Artifice Master

Land (2)

• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Tolaria West

Instant (6)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Hinder
• 1x Negate
• 1x Swan Song

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Copy Artifact
• 1x Freed from the Real
• 1x Future Sight
• 1x March of the Machines
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Pemmin's Aura

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Hi please give me feedback on my moderately competitive memnarch. The deck can get some really good hands and win around turn 3-5, however, expect to win by turn 6-7 for most hands. I cannot afford some of the blue artifact staples and my playgroup prefers to not use proxies, so that is why there aren't some highly competitive cards and combos (like Metalworker).

Disclaimer: Budgetary restrictions

I am a broke student and also feel somewhat morally opposed to spending over 40$ on a single piece of cardboard so I haven't included the following cards in my memnarch deck. If these cards ever get reprinted for under 40$, I will add them to my deck: Urza, Lord High Artificer, Staff of Domination, Mana Crypt, Metalworker, Transmute Artifact, Power Artifact, Blightsteel Colossus, Mana Drain, Grim Monolith, Mox Opal, Extraplanar Lens, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Ancient Tomb, Force of Will Fetch lands

Also, again, I am broke so some $15-20 cards aren't included and are on my maybeboard.

Why Memnarch

As a competitive mono-blue artifact commander, memnarch is not as fast or consistent as Urza, Lord High Artificer or Emry, Lurker of the Loch, however he is one of the rare Commanders that IS our win-con (steal everything), so we do not need to run many alternative win cons in the rest of the 99 cards.

Mulligan

Normally I liked starting with a mana ramp, a combo piece and 2-3 lands.

Infinite combos

1. Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator = Infinite blue mana

2. Palinchron + Phantasmal Image+ 7 lands = Infinite blue mana

3. Palinchron + Caged Sun/High Tide + 6 islands = infinite blue mana

4. Grand Architect + Pili-Pala+ 1 blue mana = infinite colored mana

5. Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith=infinite colorless mana (add Gemstone Array to get infinite colored mana or add Mycosynth Lattice for the colorless mana to not matter

6. Rings of Brighthearth + Voltaic Key + Everflowing Chalice + 4 kicks = infinite colorless mana

7. Aphetto Alchemist + Illusionist's Bracers + any many rock = infinite mana (we can use Rings of Brighthearth but we would need a mana rock that taps for 3+ mana)
8. Mind Over Matter + Arcanis the Omnipotent = infinite draws
9. Mind Over Matter + Temple Bell =infinite draws and deck opponents out (I need to add Blightsteel Colossus so I don't deck out)
10. Infinite mana (with at least 3 blue) + Blue Sun's Zenith = draw your deck and deck opponents out (we draw out deck and then use temple bell to deck our opponents out)
11. Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + 3+ mana rocks = infinite mana
12. Karn, Silver Golem/March of the Machines + Voltaic Construct + Gilded Lotus/Basalt Monolith/Mana Vault/Thran Dynamo = infinite mana

Finite combos

1. Deadeye Navigator + Venser, Shaper Savant = a lot of bounces, giving us board control

2. Deadeye Navigator + mage tutors= many searches.

3. Unwinding Clock +Vedalken Orrery + Mycosynth Lattice = we turn our opponents turns into our own.

4. Darksteel Forge + Nevinyrral's Disk + Mycosynth Lattice = board wipes every turn

5. Mycosynth Lattice + March of the Machines / Karn, Silver Golem = destroy all lands (do this with some ramp on board so we don't kill ourselves)

Current problems:

1. Lack of consistency: We run a decent amount of tutors (Fabricate, Drift of Phantasms, Mystical Tutor, Whir of Invention, Muddle the Mixture, Trinket Mage, Trophy Mage, Treasure Mage, Tezzeret the Seeker, Tolaria West, Inventors' Fair and some draw power, however I still don't always see what I want to see. The easy fixes to this are expensive (urza or card: trasnmute artifact).

2. High CMC. My biggest problem is that the CMC of our cards is relatively high on average and maybe I need more ramp or more cards that cheat them out (like Arcum Dagsson, Omniscience, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Planar Bridge, Thran Temporal Gateway, OR Mycosynth Golem, Muzzio, Visionary Architect, Kuldotha Forgemaster

3. Too many combos! Most combos in the deck interact with each other but some don't and with my luck, I brick and draw incompatible combo pieces

Potential additions

1. I might want to add Static Orb and Winter Orb to the deck, however I am waiting until Urza, Lord High Artificer becomes cheaper as my only way to really tap them is with Clock of Omens.

2. Gauntlet of Power, Capsize, Doubling Cube, Peregrine Drake, Great Whale add a plethora of options and consistency to the palinchron infinite loops, however our deck already runs cards that have higher CMCs and I worry about adding a lot more 5+ mana cards (the exceptions are Gauntlet of Power and Doubling Cube which are more for the pricetags rather than for the CMCs). Capsize doesn't really synergize well by itself with palinchron since palinchron bounces itself

3. Future Sight. This card adds one extra infinite loop with Etherium Sculptor + Sensei's Divining Top, which lets us draw our deck. Its CMC is relatively high and it doesn't synergize with that many other cards so I am a bit cold on this one

4. Arcum Dagsson + Myr Battlesphere. I want to run dagsson since I think he is able to tutor out big artifacts for cheap sacrifices. I just don't feel like I run enough cheap artifact creatures to really warrant running him. If I did run him, I feel like battelsphere would be a solid card to use for sacrifices that works well with the rest of the deck, but he has a high CMC.

5. Freed from the Real/ Pemmin's Aura (and maybe Liquimetal Coating. These add more infinite combos. They synergize with March of the Machines and Karn, Silver Golem really well and are good replacements for Voltaic Construct. We can use Mycosynth Lattice or Memnarch (or card: liqumetal coating if we add it) to turn Freed from the Real/ Pemmin's Aura into artifacts and then use them on several of our artifact creatures that tap for mana (or Aphetto Alchemist)

6. More counterspells. I only run 3, which is kind of low for a blue combo deck. I just don't know what to cut to maybe add cards like Dispel or Arcane Denial

7. More draw/tutor cards: Maybe Preordain, Reshape, One with the Machine, Thirst for Knowledge, Gitaxian Probe

My side deck cards are cards that I used to run when I built this more casually but took out. I found that the Urza lands were just not as good as islands since the chance of getting all 3 is relatively low and once I got 2 out, players started targetting me for fear of the sudden mana ramp. Since I took out the urza lands and I don't play any oppressively powerful lands in this deck, I took out Expedition Map. Darksteel Citadel was removed since it just gives colorless mana and I found janky hands that I couldn't use. Lodestone Golem and Padeem, Consul of Innovation were removed since I was finding 4 mana to be relatively expensive. I do like padeem giving me draws and hexproof so I may add him back.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	10 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 3 Rares 21 - 4 Uncommons 21 - 4 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.77
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Morph 2/2 C