The Deck:
This is a turn 3 to 4 combo deck that intends to mill the opponent to win. There is no backup win condition but its fast and has lots of combo protection.
Early iterations of this deck used
Metalwork Colossus
as a backup win condition but was sacrificed for consistency.
Organically this deck is very similar to existing KCI 2.0 decks but was built in the spirit of classic eggs; early iterations more closely resembled early 2 CMC drop egg decks.
Based on play stats the probability of going infinite is currently sitting at:
Turn 3: 7%
Turn 4: 28%
Turn 3-5: 67%
Turn 6-8: 31%
Turn 9+: 3%
The Combo:
Semblance Anvil
+
Myr Retriever
+
Myr Retriever
+
Grinding Station
= Infinite Mill
Lands:
Darksteel Citadel
: Sack target for
Goblin Engineer
&
Reshape
, turns on
Spire of Industry
, helps turn on
Mox Opal
. Can't be destroyed; so its good for Ponza or other land destruction.
Inventors' Fair
: If we use this we're probably losing, but will tutor a combo piece. Only good if the game has gone late and we're looking for the last piece of our combo. We can cheat this ability out early with
Mox Opal
. Life gain; don’t forget your triggers!
Prismatic Vista
: Tutors up any of the basics in our deck allowing us to have the colour we need for the situation. This card is crucial for early turn 3-4 wins nearly doubling the odds; because the eggs loop into each other, fetch lands reduce the chance of stumbling by taking two lands out of the deck for every one played.
Spire of Industry
: Colour fixing at the cost of life. Sometimes it doesn't turn on when you'd like but its still usable for colourless.
Basics: Mostly here for the Prismatic Vista but are targets for any spell causing us to search for a basic;
Path to Exile
,
Assassin's Trophy
,
Ghost Quarter
,
Field of Ruin
.
Artifacts:
Grinding Station
: Part of our main combo. Sacks a
Myr Retriever
to mill the opponent, or ourselves to dig for other combo pieces. Duplicates are good targets for our artifact sacking spells or
Semblance Anvil
.
Chromatic Star
: Our best colour fixing artifact. Second best artifact to sack for free card draw. Once
Semblance Anvil
is in play, and with one open mana, you can sack and loop this with other
Chromatic Star
or
Chromatic Sphere
to draw the deck.
Chromatic Sphere
: Our second best colour fixing artifact. Made worse because we have to pay to draw.
Conjurer's Bauble
: Once
Semblance Anvil
is in play it draws our deck at no cost. Also protects combo pieces in our graveyard from cards like
Surgical Extraction
.
Engineered Explosives
: Here for wide decks and hate removal but good for any situation if you can get the mana into it; which is not hard for this deck. Without this its an instant concede to main deck
Leyline of Sanctity
. Works on zero. Counts towards
Mox Opal
&
Spire of Industry
. Missed by
Chalice of the Void
on 1 or 2. Can restart our eggs engine by wiping the board on 2 and hitting
Chromatic Star
,
Ichor Wellspring
, and
Myr Retriever
.
Ichor Wellspring
: Our best sack artifact target. One of the best targets for a dying
Myr Retriever
in the graveyard. See Plays section for some handy card draw and card advantage plays.
Mox Opal
: Colour fixing. Sack artifact target if you have enough mana already. Can be tutored for 2 blue with
Reshape
. Can cheat out cards by stacking multiple Mox Opals: play
Mox Opal
, tap for mana, play
Mox Opal
sacking the first due to the Legendary Rule, tap for mana.
Semblance Anvil
: Part of our main combo. Duplicates are sack artifact fodder. Best played by dumping into the graveyard and returning to play with
Goblin Engineer
. If you manage to do this on turn 3, and hit all your land drops, you should have an extra 2 mana to spend that turn.
Sorceries:
Ancient Stirrings
: Digs deep into the deck for combo pieces, lands, or artifacts.
Reshape
: Best use is to grab one of our 2 CMC combo pieces sacking either a
Myr Retriever
,
Ichor Wellspring
, or
Chromatic Star
in the process. Alternatively grabbing
Semblance Anvil
which can be good if you already have a
Semblance Anvil
in hand but don't have any good artifacts to Imprint. Once in a while used to grab something smaller or to sack an artifact.
Creatures:
Goblin Engineer
: This card is a beast. It can give us card advantage if an opponent targets a combo piece in play, protects artifacts in the graveyard, tutors any artifact in our library to the graveyard, then tutors any artifact in the graveyard back to play, allows us to sack artifacts. Best use is to cheat out
Semblance Anvil
as early as turn 2. Can loop a
Myr Retriever
in play with one in your graveyard to net another graveyard artifact.
Myr Retriever
: Part of our main combo to mill the opponent or ourselves. Great sack target. Digs any artifact out of our graveyard when it dies.
Sideboard:
Assassin's Trophy
: Can target almost any permanent in the game for 2 CMC. I was specifically thinking about Plainswalkers when I put this card in as I wanted something that could have many duties as we're worried about Artifact and Enchantment hate cards as well.
Nihil Spellbomb
: For graveyard decks and some combo decks. Doubles as an egg.
Anger of the Gods
: Board wipe for regenerating creature decks or otherwise (Dredge). Good as long as we don't have any creatures on the board.
Return to Nature
: For artifact and enchantment hate. Protects our combo pieces in the graveyard. Missed by
Chalice of the Void
on 1 which is why I chose not to run
Nature's Claim
or one of the other 1 CMC artifact/enchantment destruction spells. I would opt to run this over
Assassin's Trophy
because its easier to get out and protects our combo in the graveyard.
Spellskite
: Blocks wenies, a larger creature to buy a turn, steals games from Boggles or Infect, protects our life total and combo pieces from destruction.
Surgical Extraction
: Turns off some combo decks. Disables Tron if you can get a Tron Land in the graveyard (
Assassin's Trophy
). Protects combo pieces in the graveyard. Reduces potency of some deck shenanigans (think about cards like
Creeping Chill
).
Kolaghan's Command
: Spot removal for creatures, artifact removal, can return not just
Myr Retriever
but also a
Goblin Engineer
to hand, and hand disruption is almost always good.
Maybeboard:
Nature's Claim
: One of, if not the best, artifact & enchantment removal spell. Allows us to sack our own artifacts and gain life. Not included because our mana curve is already heavy in the one CMC slot and a
Chalice of the Void
hits this card on one.
Ancient Grudge
: I love the fact that this can Flashback, but it doesn’t hit enchantments so its out. Can target our own stuff.
Fatal Push
: One of the best spot removal in the game but is hit by
Chalice of the Void
on one.
Firespout
: Good for wide creature decks. On my radar as a possible replacement for
Pyrite Spellbomb
.
Opponent Hate Cards:
Damping Sphere
& other Storm hate: Turns off our main win condition by making it too expensive to loop infinitely. Slows the deck down. Most of the time these hate cards are artifacts themselves and easily removed by our sideboard. We can collect the combo in hand, find our own artifact removal, then go off the same turn. We have other ways to search for combo pieces such as
Goblin Engineer
&
Reshape
.
Blood Moon
&
Magus of the Moon
: We don’t really care since we can generate any colour with our cantrips.
Stony Silence
& other Artifact Ability hate: Turns off
Grinding Station
, our only win condition. Slows the deck down, turning off our cantrips,
Mox Opal
,
Conjurer's Bauble
, and a few of our sideboard cards. Blow it up asap.
Eidolon of the Great Revel
: Hurts us bad if it comes out early and we play a lot of cards. An opening hand with spot removal is best.
Artifact destruction: Recur artifacts with
Goblin Engineer
or
Myr Retriever
Graveyard hate: Can turn off our main win condition. Slows us down. Turns off
Goblin Engineer
.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
& other Mill protection:
Surgical Extraction
& hope
Surgical Extraction
: Get graveyard protection online,
Conjurer's Bauble
,
Goblin Engineer
,
Myr Retriever
,
Nihil Spellbomb
,
Return to Nature
, our own
Surgical Extraction
.
Chalice of the Void
: Slows us down on 0 or 1. Turns off the main win condition on 2.
Leyline of Sanctity
& other hexproof: Turns off the main win condition.
Plays:
Card Draw into Anvil:
play
Goblin Engineer
putting a
Semblance Anvil
in the graveyard
next turn, tap
Goblin Engineer
, sack
Ichor Wellspring
or
Chromatic Star
, draw a card, return a
Semblance Anvil
to play
Myr into Anvil + Card Draw:
tap
Goblin Engineer
, sack a
Myr Retriever
in play, return a
Myr Retriever
from your graveyard to your hand, return a
Ichor Wellspring
from the graveyard to play, draw a card
Myr into Anvil + Card Advantage:
play
Goblin Engineer
putting a
Myr Retriever
in the graveyard
next turn, tap
Goblin Engineer
sacking a
Myr Retriever
in play, return a
Myr Retriever
in the graveyard to your hand, return a
Semblance Anvil
from the graveyard to play
Against hand disruption:
Dump as many cards into play as possible to protect the combo.
Against board disruption:
Keep combo pieces in hand and dump them all at once.
Goblin Engineer
can recur our combo pieces. If the opponent kills a combo piece with engineer in play, you can bring it back.
Tips & Tricks:
- best turn 1 is
Darksteel Citadel
, play egg or cantrip, play
Mox Opal
, tap opal for green, play
Ancient Stirrings
- best turn 2 is to play a
Goblin Engineer
, tutor
Semblance Anvil
into the graveyard, to setup for a turn 3 win
- turn 1 always lead on
Chromatic Sphere
or
Chromatic Star
to create mana for an early
Goblin Engineer
or
Ancient Stirrings
- later turns lead on artifacts that draw from sack
Ichor Wellspring
,
Chromatic Star
, and leave them in play as long as possible; you want them in play to be sacked by
Goblin Engineer
or
Reshape
without losing card advantage
- do not keep zero land hands
- the best hands will have two lands, preferably one
Darksteel Citadel
, a way to activate
Mox Opal
turn 1 or 2, a
Goblin Engineer
, or a
Semblance Anvil
-
Goblin Engineer
should almost always tutor
Semblance Anvil
even if you have one in hand
- I would cut
Reshape
,
Ichor Wellspring
, or
Conjurer's Bauble
in any combination that works for the situation
- if you end up with two
Mox Opal
or two
Inventors' Fair
in hand don't forget you can tap either of these then replace it with the Legendary Rule
Early Iterations & Inspiration:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-magic-95-30-tix-modern-mono-blue-colossus
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/31-10-18-metalworks/ https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/metalworks-v2/
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/whir-myr-eggs/
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/804654-eggs
