I recommend checking out the Improvements list at the bottom, since there’s a lot of cool cards I haven’t got available that you’d definitely want to find a spot for if you own them.
Main Gameplan
Early game we start out by playing a bunch of mana rocks, until we get some fancy artifacts into play that will lead us to victory.
For consistency, we’ve also included a couple of cards that can cheat these onto the battlefield, like
Planar Bridge
,
Kuldotha Forgemaster
,
Master Transmuter
,
Tezzeret the Seeker
, and
Arcum Dagsson
.
Wincon:
The deck used to focus on
Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice
+
Paradox Engine
. The Engine has been banned since July 8th 2019, so we have to find a substitute wincon. We're going with
Sands of Time
, a card that was previously mentioned in the 'Improvements' section below, for builders who want to focus on infinite untaps. Only being able to go infinite in your upkeep is definitely a downside, but the combo still works once you have at least UR available from nonland permanents and an untapped
Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice
in your upkeep. Finish the game with either
Comet Storm
(requires an additional RR),
Blue Sun's Zenith
(requires an additional UUU), or
Planar Bridge
(requires an initial additional colorless mana available, which will go infinite, and you'll be able to put all your permanents on the battlefield).
Walking Ballista
cannot be used with
Sands of Time
, but since we've got lots of rocks and other infinite mana options, we'll leave it in. The
Sands of Time
combo is a lot more fragile because it needs a turn cycle to become active, contrary to the
Paradox Engine
combo that could usually be abused immediately after casting. But, even though this deck's got some nasty combo's, it'll never be actually competitive anyway. I don't think it'll matter much in the end, but we'll probably need to be searching to lock our opponents out of the game first before we try to actually win. It could very well be we need to upgrade the deck with the
Isochron Scepter
+
Dramatic Reversal
, just so we've got a combo that finishes the game the turn we play it.
The deck of course also includes the classic
Mycosynth Lattice
+
Darksteel Forge
combo. Abuse this with
Vandalblast
(works without
Darksteel Forge
) or
Nevinyrral's Disk
to destroy all permanents our opponents control.
Since we’re packing a bunch of high casting cost utility artifacts,
Karn, Silver Golem
also works as a wincon, by turning your animated artifacts sideways, OR with
Mycosynth Lattice
out, change all of our opponents' lands into 0/0 creatures.
Other combos worth mentioning
Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice
+
Magistrate's Scepter
: first copy the charge counter being put on Scepter, then copy getting extra turns. Copy these abilities twice with
Rings of Brighthearth
,
Illusionist's Bracers
,
Thousand-Year Elixir
,
Aphetto Alchemist
or
Minamo, School at Water's Edge
to get real nasty real quick.
Basalt Monolith
+
Rings of Brighthearth
: infinite colorless mana.
Protection
Since the deck isn’t fast enough to justify a glass cannon build, we need to protect our most important pieces. We’ve got some reactionary cards like
Swan Song
,
Disallow
, and
Chaos Warp
, but permanents like
Darksteel Forge
(preferably complemented by
Mycosynth Lattice
), and
Padeem, Consul of Innovation
will also prevent our opponents from doing too much about our plan.
Should our opponents get the best of us, we’ve got
Buried Ruin
,
Myr Retriever
,
Goblin Welder
,
Scrap Mastery
, and
Trash for Treasure
as a back up.
Improvements
This deck has proven itself good enough to compete in a higher powered meta. I don’t think there’s real cEDH potential here, but that doesn’t mean the deck still can’t be streamlined.
First upgrade I’d suggest is throwing in a better land base. Get all the Izzet lands that ETB untapped, and all the rainbow lands. Get yourself enough fetches as well, since it thins out the deck. If you've got enough Islands in your deck, you might want to think about adding
High Tide
.
Mishra's Workshop
would be great as well.
Next step is upgrading our mana rocks. It’s important to have a couple of colored mana available to go infinite, but I’d recommend at least adding a
Mana Crypt
and
Grim Monolith
to speed things up. Any moxen would be great too, especially
Mox Opal
.
Our protection package can be improved upon by getting some better counterspells (recommend
Mana Drain
, for example).
Last, but not least, add
Transmute Artifact
if you got it.
Note that this deck is a work in progress. Any suggestions or constructive criticism would be highly appreciated!
