(Primer) Arcum's Infinite Puzzle Box

Commander / EDH Artifact Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Mono-Blue

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Artifact (22)

• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Citanul Flute
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Jeweled Amulet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Torpor Orb

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Personal Tutor
• 1x Reshape
• 1x Transmute Artifact

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Artificer's Intuition
• 1x Back to Basics
• 1x Power Artifact

Creature (19)

• 1x Hangarback Walker
• 1x Heap Doll
• 1x Hedron Crawler
• 1x Hope of Ghirapur
• 1x Manakin
• 1x Memnite
• 1x Millikin
• 1x Myr Mindservant
• 1x Myr Moonvessel
• 1x Myr Retriever
• 1x Ornithopter
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Phyrexian Walker
• 1x Plague Myr
• 1x Shield Sphere
• 1x Silver Myr
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Walking Ballista

Land (33)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blinkmoth Nexus
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 18x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Svyelunite Temple
• 1x Tolaria West

Commander (1)

Instant (16)

• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Delay
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Stoic Rebuttal
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Whir of Invention

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

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Maybeboard

Land (1)

• 1x Saprazzan Skerry

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Please join me at https://discord.gg/fJRx8wW for any questions/discussion on Arcum Dagsson.

Introduction

Welcome to my Arcum Dagsson Primer!

Please join us at https://discord.gg/fJRx8wW for any/all discussion regarding Arcum Dagsson and card choices.

Arcum Dagsson is a fast paced combo deck utilizing Arcum Dagsson’s Tinker ability to allow us to combo off as soon as we can tap him. Not to mention that his ability allows us to play and grab silver bullets almost on demand if for some reason we arnt able to win the turn we can tap him.

Why Arcum Dagsson

Arcum Dagsson is essentially a colorless deck with a splash of blue. Making this deck the prime choice for people who LOVE artifacts!

With Arcum Dagsson being a tutor on a stick, combined with all the tutors available to us. Arcum Dagsson is a deck with very little variance. Meaning we will be consistently playing the cards we want to be playing. Which in short means, we will be consistently winning.

If that isn't enough reassurance for you. Arcum Dagsson has survived meta shifts because of his ability. It allowed him to transition from once being a top tier stax deck back in the day, to be being a top tier combo deck now days. This is due to how flexible his toolbox Tinker ability is, he will be able to continue to adapt going forward. Making him a safe option for those looking to get into cEDH but not being sure what will remain competitive in the years to come.

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Personal Philosophy

I’ve been playing magic for about six years and the first four years. I refused to play EDH. Saying it was to inconsistent. Slowly I started playing with another group, but they all had edh decks. So one day I said okay I’ll build and edh deck, however the commander has to be able to tutor and I want it based around artifacts. Luckily for me wizards had printed a card that did just that. Arcum Dagsson

I also wanted the deck to be as good as it could be. So I built the deck knowing I wanted it to be as streamed lined as possible, as consistent as possible and as fast as possible.

Thinking that EDH decks weren’t that consistent I added an addintional 15 tutor effects to the deck, not including Arcum himself.

This had made they deck very consistent and to my happy surprise. Allowed the deck to function without Arcum.

If you ever played Arcum before you know that he always has a huge target over his head. So being able to win without him is huge!

With that problem being solved I wanted the deck to be as fast as possible. I knew that a lower average mana cost helps add to the consistency of the decks overall speed.

A couple of guidelines were made to achieve that.

• 1.Anything above 3 mana better be winning me the game.
• 2.Anything above 2 mana has to either be a combo piece, or find a combo piece.

Those guidelines helped contribute to the deck being streamlined. But I added another guideline specifically to make sure it was as streamlined as possible.

• 3. If it isn’t apart of the base combo,tutors for the base combo or protects the base combo. It doesn’t have a spot in the deck.

With that guideline draw spells were cut. They didn’t dig deep enough to find me the cards I wanted most of the time anyways.

Instant speed wins were cut. The cards that allow for instant speed wins are 3+mana. Giving a higher average CMC.

They also don’t really do anything besides instant speed. So more often that not it’s a dead 3cmc costing card stuck in your hand or doesn’t contribute to the board state in a meaningful way.

So after two years of Tinkering under those guidelines this is list I’ve come up with.

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Game plan

How to Win

The base combo of the deck is generate infinite mana and use Walking Ballista to kill everyone.

Now there is a few way to generate infinite mana in this deck.

• 1.Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth
• 2.Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact
• 3.Grim Monolith + Power Artifact
• 4.Mana Vault + Power Artifact You can only use this combo on your upkeep so you have to have Walking Ballista on the field as a 1/1 or something prior. (I’ve never had to do this)
• 5.Isnt a two card combination, but a process. So let me go through the steps for you.
  • 1. Tap Arcum Dagsson, sacrifice a creature. Put Paradox Engine into play.
  • 2. Cast another spell. (Probably a second creature) Trigger Paradox Engine, Untap Arcum Dagsson. Tap Arcum Dagsson, sacrifice another creature. Put Citanul Flute into play.<\li>
  • .3 Tap Citanul Flute for a zero drop creature. Ex. Memnite Cast the zero drop creature, trigger Paradox Engine untap everything. Tap Arcum Dagsson sacrificing the new zero drop creature to get any mana rock that taps for 2+ mana. Tap mana rock to float 2+mana.
  • 4. Tap Citanul Flute to get another zero drop creature. Cast it, trigger Paradox Engine untap everything. Tap mana rock to float 2+ more mana. Tap Arcum Dagsson to get Elixir of Immortality. Use Elixir of Immortality to shuffle the zero drop creatures back into the library.
  • .5 Repeat steps 1-4 infinitely. This will put every non creature artifact in the deck into play, until you “fail to find”. Tapping the mana rocks to float mana every time will net you “infinite mana”.

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Alternate Win Conditions

The entire deck is built on the three deck building guidelines I gave myself. So how can there be alternate win cons if the deck is all in on the base combo. It’s a happy coincidence honestly.

• The first Alternate win condition being an infinitely large hangerback Walker either by just killing people with it, or sacrificing it to Arcum Dagsson for infinite 1/1 thopter tokens.
• Second is Back to Basics Stripmine + Crucible of Worlds lock. Sometimes a turn 2-4 Back to Basics just wins you the game. Same goes for Strip Mine + Crucible of Worlds If anyone is missing land drops, you will run them out of lands before they can play enough to win. Not to mention if the game is stalled out for some reason, you will win the long game because they will more than likely concede once they have close to/no lands in play.
• Lastly is Tezzeret the Seeker ’s ultimate ability. This win condition is only relevantly the game goes super long for some reason.
I know you have to use the combat step to beat people down. It’s slow and gross, bear with me I have good news. In the thousand+ games I’ve played with the deck, I’ve never had to use this win condition.

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Playing through Hate

Honesty the short a simple answer is, your mono blue play a bit slower and hold up counter magic if you feel you need to. You play 12 Counterspells main board with a flex spots if you feel you need more. (I'll get more into that during the single card discussion. If you feel like the game is going to go long get Crucible of Worlds out!. Followed by Sensei's Divining Top These two cards will help you tremendously in longer games. Most cEDH decks are not built for long games so even just recurring a fetch land every turn with Crucible of Worlds is often times enough to win. Recurring Inventors' Fair is a bit slow in most cEDH games but in those longer grindier games this will get you the cards you need to stop your opponents or grab the combo pieces without Arcum daggson!. What if they have a card like Stony Silence or aven mindsensor out? Well you are going to have to draw into a bounce spell like Cyclonic Rift. This list has two main board with the option to have 4 maybe 5 if your meta is full of hate cards that just shut the deck off. Once you get a bounce spell you are either going to have to pair it with a Counterspell for when they try to play the hate card again. Or you are going to have to get set up enough that you can just combo off once you've bounced the hate card back to their hand. What if there is multiple hate cards that shut the deck off in play? Play slower and hold up counter magic. More often than not its the 2nd/3rd person to try and combo off is the one that wins anyways.

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Single Card Disccusion

Lands

Test

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Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Key combos	Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth Grim Monolith + Power Artifact Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact Mana Vault + Power Artifact
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.67
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	decks i like, Commander
Based on	Arcum's Asylum of Speed NarejED EDH