Copied from here. I'm merely using this to keep track of my list (historically) and edit the primer + notes (and have a revision history of the changes I've actually made to the copy I actually have).
(My community is like this, honestly. During Eldrazi Winter, we ignored the various Eldrazi decks. During the Summer of Oko, we ignored Oko in anything but Commander and Legacy. We just don't like playing Tier 0 decks.)
Sideboard
These are cards that are meta-specific. There are cases where they're better choices than the usual 99. Don't get these without knowing your meta.
Maybeboard
These are budget replacements, except for the case of Chromatic Lantern, which I've not even tried to work with in budget metas.
On art
I've taken great pains to eliminate the work of artists with views I personally find repugnant. You can definitely get a couple cards that are cheaper if you don't care about artists.
Welcome to Urza, an artifact deck based around Magic's baddest yet most successful villain
Are you a self-described asshole? Do you want your playgroup to hate you forever? Do you think that Stax is the best wincon? Do you miss when Baral was good? If so, Urza might be the deck for you. It uses Static Orb, Winter Orb, and Back to Basics to lock your opponents out of the game with a commander that enables symmetry breaking and helps you cast out your deck.
I see this pile of cards, but what does it do?
The ultimate idea is to play artifacts, slow your opponents down with Stax effects (using Urza to break your symmetry), and then get an infinite mana combo on the table so you can exile your library with Urza. To that end, it runs a package capable of countering spells, Staxing your opponents, and generally being a jerk.
Playing the deck
The Early Game: Mulligan Decisions
In this deck, you're looking for the ability to cast Urza early. That means that you're going to want to see at least 2 mana in mana rocks, preferably something that can produce Blue mana, and two mana producing lands. Alternately, you may wish to keep a hand with some solid tutors and a couple lands.
The Midgame: What do?
Ultimately, you're looking to power out one of two combos:
Either way, you have infinite mana. Note well that transmuting Muddle the Mixture can get you any of these pieces, and it cannot be countered with normal counterspells, as Transmute is an activated ability.
The Late Game: Now that I have infinite mana, what do I use it for?
The easy win
This only works on players without mill protection (Ulamog, Kozilek, Gaea's Blessing). But it's simple: Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Mana Vault/Grim Monolith + Codex Shredder is infinite mana + infinite mill.
The hard win
First, exile your deck with Urza. You can cast anything from this deck. You're looking to ensure that you have the following out:
- Grafdigger's Cage
- Winter Orb
- Static Orb
- Back to Basics
- Everflowing Chalice (you can still kick it when you cast it. Put some absurdly large number of counters on it)
- Narset, Parter of Veils
- Tezzeret the Seker
- Trail of Evidence
- Staff of Domination (though Top also works)
- Sai, Master Thopterist
- Codex Shredder
Additionally, you need to get the following into your graveyard or hand:
- Dramatic Reversal if you didn't Dramatic Scepter your way to infinite mana.
- Mana Drain
- Cyclonic Rift
- Whatever cantrips, draw spells, and counterspells you think you may need. Between your hand and graveyard, you'll want to make sure that you have 14-21 cards.
Finally, you will need to ensure that the following are fished out of your deck. You'll be casting them:
- Echo of Eons/Time Spiral(/Timetwister if you've got it)
- Narset's Reversal
- Chain of Vapor
That's right: you're setting up a Twister loop. Thank goodness that Narset is in mono-blue, right? After the second iteration, their hands will be stripped completely.
So here's the Twister loop:
- Chain of Vapor Urza to your hand.
- Cast Urza.
- Cast your Timetwister effect and hold priority
- Cast Narset's Reversal targeting your Timetwister effect.
- Let the stack resolve: Narset's Reversal goes to the graveyard, your Timetwister goes to your hand, and a copy of your Timetwister goes on the stack. Your copy of Timetwister resolves.
- Use Staff of Domination to draw out your deck.
Alternately:
- Cast Codex Shredder.
- Chain of Vapor Urza to your hand.
- Cast Urza.
- Cast Timetwister.
- Crack Codex Shredder to get back Timetwister.
- Draw out your deck.
- Chain of Vapor/Urza/Timetwister.
- Draw out your deck.
- Cast Codex Shredder.
- Chain/Urza
- Crack Codex Shredder for Timetwister
- Cast Timetwister.
- Repeat steps 8-12 ad infinitum.
On the first iteration of the loop, it is wise to cast:
- Cyclonic Rift
- Isochron Scepter (from exile), imprinting Dramatic Reversal on it
- Copy Artifact (from exile) copying Isochron Scepter, imprinting Mana Drain on it.
Do the loop at least twice.
(You can use Echo of Eons/Timetwister + Codex Shredder as a Twister loop as well.)
Now, you have a choice on how you want to win:
Winning by combat
If this is what you're taking, I'm presuming that there are decks at the table that only need the mana they have untapped in basic lands and the activated abilities of something in their graveyards (note that they can't actually cast anything from their graveyard, nor can anything ETB from the 'yard thanks to Grafdigger's Cage).
At this point, repeat the Twister loop above, say, 420,069,000,000 times. Use Dramatic Scepter to make blue mana. Each iteration of the loop will create 3 Clue tokens courtesy of Trail of Evidence. If you need to flicker Tezzeret with Chain of Vapor, do so. Plus Tezzeret so that he has 5 counters on him. Do the Twister loop one last time, leaving yourself with 7 cards in hand. Pass turn.
On each turn, you will do two things:
- Counter whatever it is they draw with a copy of Mana Drain from the copied Isochron Scepter
- Untap the copy of Isochron Scepter with the real Isochron Scepter.
Then, on your turn, plus Tezzeret, turning all of your artifacts into 5/5's and swing out.
Card Choices
Timetwister
Playing in a proxy-friendly environment? Get yourself a copy of Divination and a sharpie, cross out the name and rules text, and replace it with Timetwister. Use that instead.
However, I most frequently play in sanctioned environments (GP's, SCG events, and yes, my store runs a sanctioned Commander night to keep things from getting too out of hand), and Timetwister has severe availability issues. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that it's a card that everybody who wants to play optimized EDH can even obtain: there simply aren't enough copies of the card for that. I am presuming that you're not in the grotesquely inbred meta that is PlayEDH's meta (where you use that Sharpie'd up Divination instead).
Echo of Eons
This is perhaps my personal favorite, as it keeps the general flow of the deck. However, it has a higher CMC, which can hamper its early game use. Basically, it's a reasonable cut in a non-cEDH meta.
One note: Flashback's rules say that whenever the spell would leave the stack, it is exiled. Therefore, you cannot flash back Echo of Eons and Narset's Reversal it back to your hand. If Echo of Eons is in the graveyard, you will HAVE to use Codex Shredder to retrieve it.
Echo of Eons is the worst Twister effect you should be willing to run. Temporal Cascade costs too much, and there are no EDH decks that want Day's Undoing. The best use for Day's Undoing is to use sharpie to strike its name out, write "Timetwister" on it, then strike out the second sentence of its rules text and all of its reminder text. But only do that if you're in a proxy-friendly environment.
Additionally, it actually loops properly with Narset's Reversal. Is it high in mana cost? Yes. Do you care? No: by the time you're probably casting it, you have infinite mana. No, Stream of Thought is not an adequate replacement: you want to be as graveyard neutral as possible to avoid enabling someone else's graveyard shenanigans. Also, as Time Spiral is self-exiling, you definitely want a second proper Timetwister effect.
Stream of Consciousness
Pros: it's cheaper and instant speed. All of your spell tutors can hit it. Cons: it's a bit trickier to use, and it doesn't make your opponents stand back in awe as they realize that they're playing with Power. Here's the loop.
- Codex Shredder is in your graveyard. Chain of Vapor and Stream of Consciousness are in your hand.
- Chain of Vapor Urza to your hand.
- Cast Urza for another token.
- Cast Stream of Consciousness to get back Chain of Vapor, Codex Shredder, and two other cards.
- Cast Codex Shredder.
- Crack Codex Shredder to get back Stream of Consciousness.
- Draw out your library. You are now at step 1 (Chain of Vapor, Stream of Consciousness are in your hand, Codex Shredder is in the graveyard).
Stroke of Genius/Blue Sun's Zenith
They're fine if what you really need is more targeted draw spells. But they're both budget and meta calls, and your meta may change which of them is more relevant.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
Playing in a proxy-friendly environment? Bust out a Plains and a sharpie and make your proxy.
If, however, you're like me, and your playgroup insists on real cards, here are your budget options in order from best to worst:
- Run another Island. There's nothing wrong with that.
- Add Reality Shift to your deck. Remember that Tabernacle is not a mana-producing land. Having a second option for removal will help considerably. Additionally, if you put it on the copy of Isochron Scepter, you can use it to exile your opponents' decks, casting Cyclonic Rift for face value in a twister loop to put all of their other nonland permanents into their library, finish exiling their libraries with Reality Shift, then pass turn--they won't actually lose until they attempt to draw from an empty library.
- Pendrell Mists exists and is significantly cheaper--still RL, but you're going from a rare land from an underprinted set to a card that doesn't see much tournament play.
- Add a utility land. Don't buy it, but if you have something you think will fit, and you really don't want to use Reality Shift or a basic, then okay, fine, whatever, just know you're making a dubious choice.
Mox Diamond
Can't afford it? Okay, fine, Arcane Signet isn't so bad.
Grim Monolith
This one is more expensive than I remembered. Basalt Monolith will do if you don't have the money.
Mox Opal
Just buy it. It's a multiformat all star, and I'm not asking you to buy a playset. If you're really not into that expense, and you've gotten your Arcane Signet to replace Mox Diamond, then you can use a number of other options:
Again, none of these are remotely optimal. They're budget considerations.
Mana Crypt
Okay, if you need to cut this, we're really leaving optimized EDH. But again, options!
Don't cut Mana Vault. Ultimate Masters brought its price way down.
The Stax Package
Mostly, we want to stick to things that we can turn off--we're explicitly using Urza to break symmetry. For our one symmetrical Stax piece that Urza doesn't turn off, Back to Basics, we get around it by simply not relying on non-basic lands. So let's have a discussion of the Stax pieces that aren't in the deck:
Trinisphere
This is the king of Vintage and Legacy prison decks, and yet we don't run it. Why? Because Paradox Engine ate a B. It was amazing when we could use it as a mana rock for our spells, then cast our spell for its normal effect and have it untap. But that doesn't work anymore. Blame those players using it as a way of granting pseudo-vigilance or turning their draw spells into rituals in order to Storm off (okay, I did that a couple of times myself, sorry I'm not sorry) for ruining our fun.
Chalice of the Void
This is more likely to cause you problems with your answers than it is to stop their threats. Additionally, a Chalice on 2 makes it very difficult to cast your wincons.
Sphere of Resistance/Thorn of Amethyst
I mean, they're worse than Trinisphere. So there's that.
Stasis
Doesn't really help much: it's going to hit us even harder than the rest of the table. We're not built to exploit Stasis.
Tangle Wire
I see you and your From The Vault version of this card, Cube April. But again, we're not built to take advantage of this card--and it's also fairly slow to get going.
Null Rod
Don't you think that's a bit of a self-own?
Cards that aren't in the deck
Tribute/Trophy/Trinket Mage
We've got plenty of artifact tutors, all of which are more versatile and can get whatever artifact we need. The bodies don't matter, and they're all far too narrow compared with our other tutors.
Thoughtcast
Cute. Very cute. Too cute. It's not like this deck needs much more draw than it has, though.
Basalt Monolith
Fine if you need a budget replacement for Grim Monolith for whatever reason, but there's no need.
BSZ/Stroke
This isn't Baral, and these cards would be unitaskers in this deck.
Walking Ballista/Hangarback Walker/Triskelion
We don't need more wincons. They would interfere with our disruption package.
More expensive mana rocks/Other enchantments that make dudes
Too slow. Keep your mana curve down.
Considerations
Capsize
Capsize can work better than Legacy's Allure in metas where creatures aren't much of a thing and people aren't casting their commander until the turn they win--or aren't really using their commanders for much. It's a meta call, though. It'll be more useful against fringe and highly tuned off-meta decks than against other full power decks.
The Mana Base
We like our basics. We only run the following as non-basics that produce mana:
Sarpazzan Skerry
This card is incredibly dubious, but it does one thing we want: it enables an early Urza. I'm unconvinced about it, though, and if you want to sub out with a basic, do it.
Inventor's Fair
It's an artifact tutor that helps us stabilize. What more could we want?
Academy Ruins
Brings back milled/discarded/destroyed artifacts.
Blast Zone
Having a nearly uncounterable sweeper for things that might cause us problems is definitely a good thing.
Ancient Den (not in the deck)
Back to Basics makes it not great. We want to run very few nonbasics.
