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The Iron Giant

Commander / EDH Artifact Bracket 3 Construct Golem Infinite Combo Stax Theme/Gimmick

Andramalech

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Creature (26)

Instant (4)

Sorcery (3)

Land (35)

Planeswalker (7)

Enchantment (1)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Karn, Legacy Reforged

Artifact (23)

Sideboard

Artifact (14)

Creature (1)

Maybeboard

Creature (22)

Artifact (11)

Instant (1)

Land (5)

Sorcery (3)

Enchantment (2)

This build is in honor of the most prolific, impactful character in all of magic (imho)- This is a deck in ode to Karn (), and represent a fascination with his involvement throughout Magic's long history.

"You are who you choose to be." - The Iron Giant (1999)

This is a colorless deck built as a tribute to Karn, one of my favorite Magic Characters. This deck is an artifact focused build with Karn, Legacy Reforgedfoil as commander.

A colorless Commander list, it admittedly includes a significant amount of Stax effects but is hindered by it's status as a No-color list. We've included as much card-power as I would reasonably want to use in any given match-up, after all this deck is meant to be used in casual spaces where I apply very little pressure to the table, I'm more just trying to interact and have fun, maybe knock out one duelist in my 4 pod playing.

Why a Sideboard for Edh?

In previous iterations of short builds (modern, vintage, etc. ) I've used cards like Karn, the Great Creator to fetch cool stuff from my sideboard. For this deck, since it'll be entirely within my playgroup and meter for tournament, I've gotten permission to use this same tactic.

The Sideboard

I intend to sideboard most of the Infinite Combo material items like Krark-Clan Ironworks and general Stax pieces like Winter Orb that have nuanced use.

Other features include fun one-off fetches to prevent other players from doing things, ibid my comment of nuanced usage- Soulless Jailer is here because I super appreciate any kind of flavorful, useful inclusion about the Phyrexian association that Karn will always have.

We're having Defense Grid and Tangle Wire in our roster to once again keep other players from snapping their spell-counts to infinity at the drop of a hat.

Karn's Sylex was a wonderful, near required inclusion because of utility and flavor value.

The Mainboard

In the mainboard I've included some highlighted named individuals like Traxos, Scourge of Kroog and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon to pay homage to this iconic character, whose story touches almost every fiber of Magic: The Gathering's history.

I wanted to include some other nice artifact creatures like Steel Hellkite or large, looming Behemoths like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, but for now the priority remains in synergy to the cast- which means a whole bunch of artifacts.

Karn has been close to my heart for so many different facets in countless storylines; beginning at the heart of Urza's Conquest with Karn, Silver Golem *oversized*. A being made of Silver for its time traveling capabilities.

His time at the Tolarian Academy with Teferi and Jhoira; the displacement of Zhalfir and all the time spent chanting 'Jhoira is my friend.'

The Weatherlight Crew and the fight against Yawgmoth, using the Legacy Weapon after bargaining with the Sliver Queen *oversized*.

His pleas that the beings that make up the Slivers remind him of the components of the Legacy Weapon- how they, the Hive, are just as much a part of the Queen as those artifacts are a part of him.

The tale of the plane he created, Argentum, its subsequent downfall to the Phyrexians and his own part in that nightmare, watching as Mirrodin Besieged.

The Tale of his friend Venser who gave his spark so that he may be Karn Liberated and return to fight the good fight, despite being the most pure of pacifists-now years later after countless slaughters mind you..

Now, a decade later the tale closed with his part in defeating the Praetors of New Phyrexia and how he has Mirrodin Avenged.

The chapters of his greatest failures are closing behind him and now we see Karn desparked once more in order to mend Ajani and Nissa. We see Karn, Legacy Reforgedfoil as a shining testament to his brilliance, his adaptation, and that he has further to go.

Karn has always been so much more than a Golem made of Silver, he is a treasure of a character and arguably my number one most cherished.

I made this list with a lot of passion and to convey my affection to Karn, how I've played with him over the years, and my sincere hope that I continue to see him for some time to come. Magic Storyline can be crazy, but Karn has been dissected no less than two times, thrown his back out and needed a spark, TWO times, and is now still doing his thing post-Aftermath.

To Karn, with Love.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Doctor Who (WHO) 2023 — Oct. 10, 2023
Edit

A few spots have shifted within the mainboard to replace/rework or flat out remove some concepts, in order to make room for some pretty great new cards that are unironically great for a colorless-focused deck.

  • Cybership is a super cool way to create some relevant bodies, while removing threats from your opponents. I'm pretty sure the first thing that came out of this deck was either Temple of the False God by NoobNoob275's recommendation. It simply doesn't hold up a lot of value, and could be filled with some other things I'll detail in a second.

  • Ominous Cemetery was slotted into the deck as well. Don't really remember what came out, but I know we're running 1 less copy of Wastes.

  • River Song's Diary is actually a magnificent way for me to gain an incredible amount of value from what my opposition is doing. The earlier I can get this out, the faster I start accumulating another dimension of spells to cast. Within my own play group, this could gain me access to things like Ramp (Three Visits, Kodama's Reach, Explore) or any number of great counterspells.

  • Cybermat kind of remind me of Skittering Cicada for it's utillity, and just makes sense to eat up another spot in the list.

  • Cybermen Squadron means not only can we cast and hit a Zhulodok, Void Gorger trigger, but we get to Shadow Clone Jutsu our board state.

  • Cyberman Patrol incentivizes our opposition NOT to block our attacks, but the best part is that alongside our roster, it's pretty oppressive. We retain the constant status of reducing our costs (Foundry Inspector) and growing our army (Genesis Chamber), and strangling with stax pieces like Thorn of Amethyst and Lodestone Golem.

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98% Casual

Competitive

Revision 9 See all

(10 months ago)

+1 Ugin, Eye of the Storms main