Thought Monitor

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Thought Monitor

Artifact Creature — Construct

Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs less to cast for each artifact you control.)

Flying

When this enters the battlefield, draw two cards.

multimedia on Urza's Legacy

3 weeks ago

Hey, some interesting card choices for upgrades to the precon. I can tell your deck is based on the precon because I see Darksteel Juggernaut.

A kink here to work on is the avg. CMC. The mana curve is very high at 4.3 not including Organic Extinction and Mycosynth Golem. The precon mana curve is already high at 3.5 not including Thought Monitor. A higher mana curve would be fine if supported with lots more low mana cost ramp, but you cut most of the low mana cost ramp (Signets, Liquimetal, Vessel) from the precon. There's only 6 ramp sources here 3 CMC or less which is low.

You could have a difficult time casting Urza using artifact creature affinity with only 7 artifact creatures 3 CMC or less. You really can't count on Urza's artifact affinity to first cast him and having not many ramp sources, ramp can't be counted on either. Master Transmuter is a great upgrade, she helps a lot when playing a lower amount of ramp. To improve the mana curve which will help gameplay consider choosing a few of the better high mana cost cards and cutting the others? Most 4 drops here are much better than the 5-7+ drops and that's good for the mana curve.

Research Thief, The Mightstone and Weakstone  Meld, Blightsteel Colossus, Mycosynth Golem, Thopter Assembly, Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge, Organic Extinction, Darksteel Forge, Mycosynth Lattice, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Cyberdrive Awakener these are the better 5-7 CMC cards here. The others could be cut to lower the mana curve because they're simply not as good as these.

  • Thief, it's repeatable draw effect is good when you want to be attacking with Constructs.
  • Weakstone because you have Urza, Lord Protector  Meld.
  • Blightsteel, best secondary attacker and because you have Master Transmuter.
  • Golem because Urza is a consistent way to create artifacts.
  • Assembly because you have Time Sieve.
  • Tezzeret because of Constructs.
  • Extinction because of Constructs.
  • Forge, best protection for all artifacts and because you have Lattice, Transmuter and Padeem.
  • Awakener flying for Constructs.

Some upgrades at your price point to consider:

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on Urza, CEO of Machines

2 months ago

Hey, good upgrades to the precon, what you've done so far.

How do you want to win? Determining the main strategy you want to play can help to keep good cards for that strategy and cut unnecessary cards. If you're wanting to keep precon level budget then doing combat damage with Constructs and Commander damage with Urza are directions to consider. Research Thief and Bident of Thassa are excellent budget cards if you want to be attacking with Constructs. Making Urza an artifact makes him a reliable source of Commander damage, but this means including effects to make Urza an artifact.

You have Urza, Lord High Artificer, he's a combo wincon, but to use him as a wincon you'll want to add other cards and more ways to assemble the combo. Drawing cards from Constructs doing combat damage to opponents is a good alternative to playing expensive price tutors to get combo pieces in your hand.

You have Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge, you don't really need Mycosynth Golem especially not for it's price tag. You don't need this Tezzeret either, but if you have it might as well play it. The first cuts to consider are lands since 41 lands is a lot when the strategy here are artifacts. Consider cutting 6 lands? Lands that always ETB tapped and are worse then others that also do this. If you feel you need more mana then add mana sources (rocks, dorks) not lands.

The Bounce lands and Scry lands are worse always ETB tapped lands then Tri lands, Bridges, etc.


Some advice for more cuts is choose the top 20 creatures here, top 10 artifacts and top 10 other nonland cards. By choosing the best cards then you can cut a huge chunk away of lesser cards.

Creatures:

Artifacts:

Others:

For upgrading it's easier to get an established list that's not 99 cards then have a list that's way over 99 cards. Really any 0-3 drop artifact creature who can make some value to take advantage of Urza artifact creature affinity or any 0-2 drop mana rock for more ramp can fill unfilled deck spots.

Good luck with your deck.

JHall on

3 months ago

Sai, Master Thopterist is good for card draw and getting blockers. Thought Monitor and Thopter Shop for card draw. Spellskite for protection. The The Reality Chip and Lithoform Engine are also good choices for under $10.

lagotripha on Myrtron

3 months ago

I like this idea, but I feel like it needs some draw power and big payoffs - a couple playtests and I was sitting on lands and myr without a big 'this is how I win the game'.

I think the biggest thing would be leaning into green for Winding Way. It would let you grab myrs for the myr gameplan or grab tronlands in the top cards of your library, as well as opening up Ancient Stirrings which finds every card in your deck.

Icon of Ancestry / Brass Herald offers this kind of effect at a higher cmc but colourless.

The difference between 'big mana' tron myr rather than more 'artifacts cost less' myr is that it changes combo options - Myr Retriever loops and Heartless Summoning isn't going to do well. You need some big artifacts that stick and turn your myr into big threats - the myr tribal artifacts only do sorta okay at this, but they're a little light on synergy with each other.

If you want big winning combos, its more likely to be Kuldotha Forgemaster type cards that grab a big artifact threat - most of which would be lore appropriate.

I've had fun with Trading Post in these lists, alongside Myr Sire/Genesis Chamber to create a 'value until your opponent runs out of cards' style, but it does need the myr to be able to trade efficiently.

Trying to stick something like Vanquisher's Banner then play your entire deck, or run things like Thoughtcast, Lead the Stampede or Thought Monitor (with the artifact taplands) are all neat options but would take a lot bigger changes. A slow list built around using myr as mana dorks, artifact lands and Storage Matrix has some potential too, but all these options are getting further away from what the list currently is.

Have fun, and good luck with the playtesting.

multimedia on Breya Budget EDH

4 months ago

Hey, well done version on a budget.

If you like Thopters and want to make your deck more competitive then consider adding the budget Sword + Foundry combo? Sword of the Meek + Thopter Foundry creates Thopters equal to the amount of mana you have available. Foundry sacs Sword, moving Sword to graveyard, Foundry creates a 1/1 Thopter which then returns Sword to the battlefield attached to the Thopter and repeat. Even without Foundry, Sword is a good artifact with Breya for sac fodder because it can return to the battlefield.

If you add Ashnod's Altar to Sword of the Meek + Thopter Foundry then it's a combo to create infinite Thopters. Create infinite Thopters on an opponent's turn and then attack with them on your next turn to win or attack with them you're same turn with Thopter Engineer. Each time you sac a Thopter with Altar you make enough mana to activate Foundry twice. One Thopter is saced to make colorless mana and the other isn't, results in creating infinite Thopters and infinite colorless mana. Altar was just reprinted in the latest set Brothers War (BRO), Retro Artifacts version (BRR), it's down to $5.

Breya and her Thopters can be a wincon with Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle combo. Because Breya can sac herself to do 3 damage to a player then this can enable Deathmantle to repeatedly return her to the battlefield resulting in doing infinite damage to each opponent, 3 damage at a time. Altar sacs a Thopter + Breya which makes 4 mana and when Breya dies it triggers Deathmantle. Pay the 4 to return Breya to the battlefield and repeat. It's great for synergy that all these combo pieces are artifacts making it much easier to assemble them.


Wishclaw Talisman is busted with Breya because it's an artifact, she can sac it along with any other artifact before an opponent gains control of it. When you activate Wishclaw that puts the entire effect on the stack. In response to this, activate Breya and sac Wishclaw. When you resolve the Wishclaw trigger you search for your card, put it into your hand and since Wishclaw is no longer on the battlefield then an opponent doesn't gain control of it, it instead is in your graveyard to be recurred. Wishclaw is great with Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Goblin Welder for a repeatable tutor.

I see Unwinding Clock here which is good with Master Transmuter because it's an artifact and it taps for it's ability. Transmuter has a unique powerful effect because of the way it's worded, it doesn't target, you can return the same artifact you bounce to your hand right back to the battlefield. With Clock + Breya you can create two Thopters on each player's turn equal to the number of players. Transmuter is also great to cheat high CMC artifacts onto the battlefield by bouncing any artifact you control. Especially high CMC artifacts if they have an ETB ability such as Myr Battlesphere to keep creating Myrs, Spine of Ish Sah to keep destroying opponent permanents, Thought Monitor for repeatable draw, etc.


Making some land changes within your budget can make your deck more competitive by cutting some lands that always ETB tapped for lands that don't. The Pain lands and other lands like them are excellent budget lands especially when your Commander can gain life. They ETB untapped to make colorless mana or you take 1 damage to make a colored mana. The Pains have been reprinted in the last two Standard sets making them the least expensive right now. You can also start to find some Pain lands in new Commander precons which is a welcomed manabase upgrade.

Good luck with your deck.

DreadKhan on Indestructible Visions

4 months ago

Master of Etherium is a nice good generic Affinity card, as are Thoughtcast and Thought Monitor. Over Buried Ruin you might look at Treasure Vault, it's an artifact land that can make a bunch of artifacts for something like Nettlecyst or Cranial Plating.

I assume the Sol Rings are for THG, because I'm very sure it's banned in Legacy for being completely busted. There really isn't anything else as good you can substitute other than Ancient Tomb, which can kill you, but people definitely run for it's power. There are also Springleaf Drum and Moonsnare Prototype, which can ramp turn 1.

Not sure if it's truly relevant other than as bad 3 mana ramp, but Mirrormade exists. It's harder to cast than Copy Enchantment, but it can copy an Artifact if you want, which is pretty good value sometimes, copying a Land is funny.

In the event of a mirror match, you might like having access to Ravenform to remove opposing bodies that are indestructible or regenerate, it can also hit pesky artifacts, probably worth a look at for a sideboard.

This is going to sound a bit crazy, but you should consider Vault Skirge in here, making a 5/5 flying lifelink is very good vs some decks, and it also plays nice with Cranial Plating. I usually just cast it for the 2 life on turn 1 and try to get a Cranial Plating on it ASAP in my Affinity deck, it has won me plenty of tough games.

I wonder if the Blinkmoth Urns are too slow? I guess THG they make more sense, but if you want to play 1v1 Legacy, you should keep in mind how fast decks tend to be, as this deck packs essentially nothing to spoke an opponent's wheel. I'm not sure you could really fit in counters, but they are great in Legacy if your not going all-in on speed. Of particular interest, cheap/low mana counters can let you protect your indestructible creatures from Exile effects like Swords to Plowshares or edicts like Innocent Blood or Smallpox, these kinds of effects definitely see play in Legacy. I guess in THG you might have a partner packing the protection? I think you either want more creatures or some protection for your bodies. Some counters that are popular include Spell Pierce, Dispel, Swan Song and Flusterstorm, as well as free ones like Force of Will obviously. Good old Counterspell sounds good in theory, but it can be impossible to hold up UU to protect stuff, because getting out a 5/5 is time sensitive, too late and it won't be big enough, too early and the control player can just remove/counter your stuff and win later on.

Cool deck idea!

shadeslayerx22 on Bluesteel Aggro

4 months ago

List is fun, but it seems like once you run out of gas you don't have a great way to refuel. Thought Monitor is a great card advantage card that you can still run out aggressively with some Etherium Sculptors or Chief Engineers, on top of still fitting into your critical density of artifact creatures.

TheOfficialCreator on Urza, Chief Artificer Precon Upgrade

4 months ago

Phyrexian Walker, Ornithopter, and Memnite are all 0-cost artifact creatures that add to your artifact count and decrease Urza's cost for free. Thoughtcast and Thought Monitor are strong as well, plus Broodstar.

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