I can appreciate the direction that this deck is going, but I have some reservations about it.

Null Rod not being in here, especially since this is a stax deck first, seems to be an oversight in light of what Urza can do with frozen rocks.

Cursed Totem seems to be problematic for this deck, as Urza can't be used if Totem is on the field. How does the deck win if Urza is offline, outside of the obvious Paradox Engine and Dramatic-Scepter combos? (Or to put it another way, how can you win through Cursed Totem, if you're unable to bounce it)?

Also, Legacy's Allure, while cute for stealing Tymna and other vital creatures, seems out of place as it's a one shot effect and hard to tutor for. I'd go with Boomerang in place of it, or something like it, as it can be of benefit here both inside and outside of the combo turn. Boomerang, during Shredder/Twister loops, can hit all targetable permanents, and outside of the combo turn, can put Tymna decks, and other Scepter/Engine decks, on their back foot at the very least. This proposed inclusion also plays well into your Narset/Wheels plan.

Just a few thoughts.

In any event, I'd be curious to see future iterations of the Para-Stax Scepter Archetype. I'm also curious to see it in action on a future Lab Maniacs video.

Mirrodin Besieged new spoiled! Would it make the cut? It has one of sai's ability's to produce a 1/1 myr artifact whenever a artifact spell is cast, costs the same and comes on an enchantment. However it can't sac artifacts to draw you cards.

Any thoughts on Phyrexian Furnace vs Codex Shredder ?

Having proxied and played a few games with this list I've gained some insight. The deck is very fast to either slow everyone down or present lines to win or dig for a win. That being said the deck is very dependent on Urza being in play which can be a problem going into the late game when you need interaction to save yourself but also need to fight to keep Urza alive or to resolve so you can execute your game plan. The deck is resilient but doesn't feel quite as resilient as the PST lists running Thrasios//Tymna. In comparison Urza cant dig quite as effectively as Thrasios for "vaule" on Your opponents turns since timing restrictions still matter with Urza. Also you don't have a second commander to draw you cards in the mid game. The only inclusion I'm not sold on is the allure card. It seemed extremely too slow and was never relevant any game that it was in play. The game usually ended before it could take anything relevant. I feel like another bounce spell such as boomerang or an artifact that has removal on it would be better for the slot. All in all the deck is very fun to pilot and can steal games out of nowhere.

I get that labman is a dead card but i dont really see codex shredder being much better.

Another suggestion for price reduction could be Pendrell Mists for The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

tallman4444 Read description please, Codex Shredder is used to loop timetwister and get infinite casts of every spell in the deck, it is not a dead card. It is our regrowth.

How does the combo with Paradox engine+Sensei+Voltaic work? It does need to have infinte mana already right? Or am i missing something? And is it possible the replace timetwister with Echo of Eons or preferably with stroke of genius?

Step 1: Tap Engine and the Karnstruct to get 2 mana, then activate Top to draw a card, holding priority, untap it with Voltaic Key, then tap it to draw again. Second draw trigger resolves first, drawing you a card and putting Top on the top of your deck, first trigger resolves second, drawing you the Top. Replay it, untapping everything.

You are back where you started, but with a new card in hand. Repeat this ad nauseam until you draw your deck.

can someone explain the inclusion of adding fetch lands in a build like this? it's mono blue...and urza can shuffle your library. seems like a wasted slot for either utility based lands or just islands.

JackBattle i get it but you didnt read my comment. It wins you the game. So does labman. If your not winning its kind of dead. It has a 5 cost one off regrowth ability that outside of your winning turn doesnt help much. Its only slightly less dead than labman. That was my point.

tallman4444 Nah, Shredder actually has been a reasonably useful card IMO. Stopping Vampiric Tutor , Imperial Seal , Worldly Tutor , Mystical Tutor , Sylvan Tutor , etc. as well as shutting down Doomsday combos, some recursive loops with Noxious Revival or Reclaim , as well as hurting Sensei's Divining Top s from opponents or milling dead cards you see on top of your own deck with Top or Future Sight , such as by milling a land that would otherwise stop you from comboing off on a turn. Milling yourself with a Dig Through Time is useful, and occasionally can find other niche uses. I have rarely not found some use for it, even if it is just milling what someone Brainstorm ed to top in response to a Thoughtseize style effect ;)

SynergyBuild Thanks that makes alot more sense to me now. I will have to play around with it more.

The "how to win" description has "ult teferi" instead of tezzeret :P might wanna fix that

I'm gonna second the comment from earlier talking about the lack of 2 mana rocks. On paper, for a 4 cmc general, that seems bad, so I'd love an explanation for it. I'd also appreciate an explanation on Recurring Insight.

Kcucullen Hope this helps (Sigi did the math for this and it checks out, but I don't want to misquote him so I'm putting the results of what he said here in my own words):

Assuming:

1. You see 10 cards by turn 3.
2. 11 ramp spells that can be played turn 1 or 2.

67% chance to get Urza out turn 3.

If you add the following variables that number goes up:

• You can play a mana positive rock by turn 3: 71%
• The above + you include Sapprazan Skerry (up to 12 ramp spells): 74.3%
• The above + you include copy artifact as a ramp spell (up to 13 ramp spells): 77.3%
• The above + you include mana drain as a ramp spell (up to 14 ramp spells): 79.9%
• The above + seeing up to 3 extra cards from cantrips: 83.5%/85.9%/88%

Quoting Sigi:

so in half of our games, we have a 3/4 chance to ramp into urza, and in the other half, it goes up to ~17/20
and that's just if we keep our first hand
once you add in mulligans, it goes up even more

On Recurring Insight, it's the spell that gets you the most cards for the cost (on average it should be 8-10 cards). There's nothing even close to that in mono U. Yes, it's a sorcery for 6 mana, but given the amount of mana you can produce with Urza in play, it shouldn't be too much of an issue when the payoff is refilling your hand (and there's a big chance you'll still have mana up to interact).

Thoughts?

Would strongly advise revisiting Basalt Monolith , Rings of Brighthearth & Power Artifact , especially since you're already including Grim Monolith

Muddle the Mixture + Rings of Brighthearth : Copy Muddle the Mixture 's transmute ability and search for Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter or Grim Monolith + Power Artifact .

Jace, Wielder of Mysteries , feels like an auto include. Truly don't see why you wouldn't be running it.

Very easily you could free up the space for these combos/synergy's.

3 Cards that you can swap and make the deck more competitive & faster:

• Recurring Insight - Just a bad line here.

• Jeweled Amulet - Waste of a slot, too slow

• Future Sight - I would drop Future Sight as there's no easy way to get it and it takes 10 CMC to get that Win Line going. You'd have to draw into Future sight or get it through using Urza's ability...

I've got a very similar build, feel free to check out the cEDH Primer: Urza Feeling Lucky - cEDH Primer #1 Mono Blue

P.S. Also consider Rapid Hybridization for removal. Maybe don't need it in your meta but certain creatures are problem cards.

I understand the reasoning behind the lack of 2 cmc rocks, but I also really like not having to worry as much about recasting Urza if he gets countered/destroyed. I haven't tested it, but on paper it seems a bit more safe.

I also really dislike Recurring Insight. Why not just use Urza's last ability more times with that mana? I've playtested this build multiple times now and tbh I've never drawn more than 4-5 cards (and that's casting the card in two different games). It just seems really bad.

Additionally, I think that Rings+Basalt+Power Artifact should be added in. There's a lot of synergy to be found in the cards and easy wins pop out when you cast them. I can understand the reasoning behind inclusions like Future Sight and Jeweled Amulet (especially after playtesting them), but the deck feels weird without those strong cards.

My CEDH for the last 3-4 years was Arcum, and the builds of the decks, in my eyes, were going to be quite similar. Obviously, different wincons, but ramping into a 4 cmc general that, if left unanswered, would win. It feels strange to be playing a Mono-U artifact-based deck that doesn't run some of these cards.

Lastly, your primer mentions winning with a Teferi ult but no teferi is found in the deck. Also, another budget option for timetwister (at least based on my playtesting) is Echo of Eons . I kinda understand your reasoning for replacing twister with Stroke of Genius , but the cards seem to fill different purposes, hitting it off an uzra activation seems really bad, and why not just run Blue Sun's Zenith ? Time Spiral may also be worth looking into. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale needs a) a budget replacement or b) to just be cut in general. It's not the worst thing in the list at all but has some major issues that others have mentioned in the comments. Also, Trinisphere is obviously really good, but don't you have to tap it during your turn to not be affected by it? And if so, wouldn't that make it not work on your opponents' turn? (Without unwinding clock, of course.) You also have Impulse and Copy Artifact in the main and maybeboards.

I think there's still some work to be done with this list. After playtesting, I wish I had a bit more creature removal and less instances when I just durdle out. I hope to see some changes!

Last thing: snow-covered lands are for people who run Extraplanar Lens or what?

This was definitely an outlier game but I was able to steal a game that had gone to such a point that I had 21 cards in my library and all of my infinite combos were disabled. The game had been a blue fest in where every win condition was countered or milled by a wheel until I was able to draw a treasure cruise which drew me into jace and some other card draw where I was able to churn through all 20 cards in 2 turns after the 2 other decks with lots of interaction where killed. Jace/lab man are a pretty good backup incase some cards become unaccessible through whatever means.

Kcucullen cannot agree more with your comment. Hopefully people read through the comments and make the smart decision. Future Sight such a bust on this list.

Telepathy is another card to consider playing with. There's 100% room to get it in there, knowledge is power.

Howling Mine ? Truly surprised to not see that on the list either. At least in the sideboard.

Everyone has a different way to play and a different meta, but this is how I see it (not in any way related to the authors of this list and I actually think that the all combo approach is the wrong one, but if you're gonna go that way, do it right):

ToffMcSoft Basalt Monolith doesn't help us cast our general any faster (unlike Grim Monolith) so why play it? Even though power artifact is being considered by the authors, I think it's the wrong move. It's only good if you draw naturally into it, otherwise you need to also draw or get Muddle to tutor for it. Rings is just plain dead. LabJace or Labman are both dead cards, drawing into them is just bad 99.9% of the time. Insight is the best draw in mono blue. Future Sight is the next best engine we have after Remora and Study, and it actually lets us draw our deck without Urza in case Totem/Linvala is out. Amulet is a slow dork that actually helps cast Urza early and usable after that happens. You're taking out two cards that either get you card advantage, a winning line and/or a good rock for 3 cards that are dead almost all the time. You do you, but it doesn't add up. On Rapid, it's good but I would run Reality Shift before it since it actually lets us mill opponents with shufflers in their deck.

Kcucullen Paying 5 mana to maybe cast a spell that's gonna help is 900% worst than casting Insight. You have an incredible high chance of failing since over 40% of the deck is lands and/or counters. It's Tezzeret ult not Teferi ult, they do need to fix that. Islands are either for style points or for Arcum's Astrolabe (in case you want to play that). Arcum and Urza are very different decks. Eons was not spoiled by the time the wrote the description, good suggestion (although I don't think it will get much traction, may Spiral).

Trinisphere is being considered as a cut but this is 100% a bad decision (in my eyes). It's one of the, if not the most, powerful artifact stax piece in the game and we can actually have some control over it.

Final note to anyone reading this: This list is not gonna run a dedicated wincon unless it has some above average utility in the list (again, I'm not related to the authors, I just know that's the idea they want to stick to). If you can win with the cards you already play because they are useful, why waste slots on cards that you'll just be holding on until you can actually win? I agree with this part (even thought some of the choices they made are questionable, in my opinion).

I would encourage people to join the Discord server for more joyful discussion.

And Howling Mine is terrible. If Urza is not in play you're giving out 3 cards and getting 1. With the Orbs out you at least are not giving people cards until you can re-cast Urza.

Isn't Arcum just a faster, more consistent version of Urza?