The story of two evil friends begins...
This deck is a funny tempo deck, with lots of synergies and surprise, and some ultimate cards (Kozilek, Butcher of Truth,Kozilek, the Great Distortion) for longer games. It is built on to utilize Armix, Filigree Thrasher’s ability as much as it is possible. So there are tons of artifacts in the deck, graveyard recursion, and some discard combos. However if his power is not enough, he can call his little pet from the command zone to achieve victory together!
Let's sharpen those nails!
Armix, Filigree Thrasher can kill a creature if there are numerous artifacts on the battlefield or in our graveyard, hence there are 40 other artifacts in the deck to support his ability. Summoning Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar means Armix gets two really important abilities (Menace and Deaththouch), so he can be blocked only if there are at least 2 blocking creatures, - but the sad news for the opponent, both of them will die if they try to face our fearsome Thrasher. So our commander combination can eliminate 3 creatures, which is not bad from two Uncommons. :-) But this is just the beginning…
There are some Voltron artifacts in the deck that can make Armix a bit bigger: Blackblade Reforged, Cranial Plating, Hero's Blade, etc. I think it worth to mention the lands that can support his attack Opal Palace,Rogue's Passage,Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Hall of the Bandit Lord. As I mentioned Armix can kill a single creature with a simple attack, but actually he is able to do some nastier things. Send him to battle and discard Big Game Hunter, Dark Withering to elminiate more creatures. Or if you could kill somebody with Armix’s ability play Malicious Affliction to destroy extra creatures. If you have Archfiend of Ifnir on the battlefield your discard action will eliminate all of the annoying 1/1 tokens as well.
Garbage in, treasure out!
The deck has serious amount of graveyard recursion, so there is good chance that we do not have to re-cast Armix from the Command Zone, but we can get back him from the graveyard and put to play from our hand. Buried Ruin, Junk Diver, Witch's Cottage, Trading Post, Tortured Existence, Skeleton Shard, Memorial to Folly etc. serve this purpose. Since it is mainly an artifact deck, there are some cards that can reduce the cost of your artifacts Semblance Anvil, Ugin, the Ineffable, Jhoira's Familiar, Foundry Inspector – with them you can cheat Armix to play easily.
Kill'em all!
I mentioned graveyard recursion above, - it is especially useful when there are some powerful creatures in your graveyard, like Meteor Golem or Noxious Gearhulk. Casting them once a turn with Skeleton Shard can be devastating. It also can help to fill up our hand with cards (that can be discarded to utilize Armix’s ability.)
However if spot removel does not help, we still can find a solution by using board wipes. I like Reiver Demon and Phyrexian Scriptures since they do not touch our artifact creatures. However if there is no other way out to clean the board, we can use Toxic Deluge, Nevinyrral's Disk or Oblivion Stone. Put Darksteel Forge to play first, and your artifacts will survive the strike of Nevinyrral's Disk or Oblivion Stone. (By using Darksteel Forge and Nevinyrral's Disk you can wipe the board once per round.)
Trick or treat? Let's trick!
Now it’s time to talk about the hidden gems! These are combos that can provide some surprise and immediate solutions when there is a need to find out something. I already mentioned Darksteel Forge and Nevinyrral's Disk but let’s see some others:
Ugin, the Ineffable+Painsmith: If you have enough cards in hand, you can pump up Armix’s Power to the skies without paying mana.
Archfiend of Ifnir+Insidious Dreams: Discard your hand with Insidious Dreams to wipe the board and search for the cards that help you to win the game. The best is to put a card drawer on the top of your deck, since with it you can draw the rest of the pile.
Bone Miser+Tortured Existence: Discard a creature card for Tortured Existence and take back a creature from the graveyard. Do it again and again to create as many zombies as many black mana you have. Repeat it each turn.
Demonic Collusion+Bone Miser: Discard 2 noncreature / nonland cards for the buyback cost of Demonic Collusion, to draw 2 cards. So actually you can search in your library in each of your turns.
Painsmith+Shimmer Myr: If you have these creatures on the battlefield, you can give Deathtouch to any of your creatures in instant speed, by casting an artifact. It can be a shocking surprise.
Blackblade Reforged+Skeleton Shard+Burnished Hart: Sac Burnished Hart to put out two Swamps, then take it back with Skeleton Shard. Sac again and continue the process to put out all of your basic lands, and to increase the stats of your commanders with Blackblade Reforged.
Geier Reach Sanitarium+Big Game Hunter/Dark Withering: Draw a card with the land, and discard one of these Madness hammers, to kill a creature instantly.
Executioner's Capsule+Scrap Trawler: In this deck there are dozens of ways to sac artifacts (Herald of Anguish, Trading Post, etc.). This means if Scrap Trawler is on the battlefield you can take back Executioner's Capsule from your graveyard (since it has only 1 cmc) to destroy your opponents’ creatures continuously.
Honorable mentions
Bone Miser, Faith of the Devoted – since we have many discard abilities in the deck (including Armix’s ability), these cards can be used frequently. Inspiring Statuary is also awesome due to the high number of artifacts in the deck. Mask of Memory - brilliant card, since it fills up our hand, but also activates discard abilities, and put cards to the graveyard. Cranial Plating - it's funny to attach it in instand speed to an unblocked creature, and we will surely have one, since there are many creatures with evasive abilities in the deck, - like our old friend, Falthis. :-)
I hope that you will enjoy the game with these guys! :-)
