What to replace Paradox Engine With
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on July 15, 2019, 11:48 p.m. by vasarto77
I have a locust god deck and I just found out today that my Paradox Engine has not only been banned, but it's price has...well, been crippled. Anyway. I am thinking of replacing it with Omniscience or Tidespout Tyrant since I can use tidespout tyrant to spam infinite mana with some mana rocks.
Having paradox engine ripped out feels like my heart being ripped out.
I personally love Tidespout Tyrant . I run it in Animar, Soul of Elements and also Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
8cmc is daunting, I know, and your deck has about a dozen mana ramp options which is decent. Only a handful will combo with it, but gets better with Etherium Sculptor . Hopefully you can get your Grim Monolith and Mana Crypt eventually.
It can also be a control piece, removing troublesome permanents or blockers every time you cast another spell
I also really like the idea Mystic Forge that jaymc1130 mentioned. About 20% of your deck is relevant. It combos with Sensei's Divining Top and the Etherium Sculptor for infinite draws
Here's my Izzet list if you want to check it out for ideas. Have fun!
July 16, 2019 11:23 a.m.
CastleSiege says... #4
I'd say Intruder Alarm or Candelabra of Tawnos if you can afford one.
July 16, 2019 4:38 p.m.
CastleSiege - I forgot Candelabra even existed. Yikes that is expensive. I haven't seen one in about 5 years.
Love the idea about mystic forge. I think I might go with that.
July 24, 2019 6:33 p.m.
@ vasarto77 Nifty tid bit about the Mystic Top combo lines: there are a number of easy ways to generate infinite mana with them after drawing the whole deck that are relatively compact and/or include other cards that can be independently useful.
After assembling the Mystic Forge, Top, Random Cost Reducer part of the engine and drawing the whole deck, for example. Elixir of Immortality + Dark Ritual + Lotus Petal generates infinite mana of any color when looping the Elixir with those cards and using the Mystic Top engine to redraw them. Provided the cost reduction card actually is Helm of Awakening the red Rituals can also manage the same loop. If you can get to artifact cost reduction totaling at least 3 then the Ramos mana rocks ( Eye of Ramos , etc) can also manage the same infinite mana loop. Any of these types of methods are usually able to begin from a very small amount of available mana or even without any mana available aside from what those pieces themselves can provide. The engine, when constructed in that type of way, also offers an easy win condition as the engine loops to generate infinite mana and draw also infinitely replenish the deck allowing infinite castings of any particular card that might be able to kill opponents, such as an unassuming Lightning Bolt .
July 24, 2019 7 p.m.
I really need to know a good replacement that fits Rakdos colors, because I am running Xantcha, Sleeper Agent, and I need an infinite mana combo, requiring something that will Untap every time I cast a spell. The infinite combo is... Isochron Scepter, Dark Ritual, and Paradox Engine, but I need a legal replacement.
April 23, 2020 10:27 a.m.
Infinite colored mana:
Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead
Infinite colorless mana:
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts + Mana Echoes
Splinter Twin + Zealous Conscripts + Mana Echoes
Metalworker + Staff of Domination + three artifacts in hand
April 23, 2020 3:15 p.m.
Please comment, share, upvote, and do anything else you want to do.
jaymc1130 says... #2
Tidespout is interesting but generally a heavy resource investment that also comes with deck building constraints devoted to it to reliably employ it as a plan that tend not to function with other plans or lines. I've been experimenting with it a little bit but I generally think there are often better options for many decks.
If you were already running Sensei's Divining Top to go with Paradox Engine and possibly a Voltaic Key as well as artifact tutors related to these pieces then a pretty easy swap is Mystic Forge for Paradox Engine and maybe Helm of Awakening or some other artifact cost reducer added or in place of Voltaic Key if it's not really needed. Same number of pieces and similar mana cost investment as the PE, Top, Key combo to draw the whole deck but it won't generate infinite mana along the way. Of course with the whole deck in hand it should be pretty trivial to generate infinite mana in some way.
Omniscience feels really hard to get into play without cheating it in via Academy Rector or something.
July 16, 2019 4:51 a.m. Edited.