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Darude-Saistorm

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 Mono-Blue

rangab7

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Artifact (31)

Creature (19)

Instant (10)

Commander (1)

Commander: Sai, Master Thopterist

Land (33)

Enchantment (5)

Sorcery (1)

Welcome all to my weird Sai Deck. While reading this deck primer you might enjoy listening to this song.

The goal is to use sai and abuse his thopter token synergies to combo out or swing with a big army of tokens repeatedly until you win.

This Deck is like doing a puzzle and it's probably the deck I've tested and done the most work in. Other than a very elementary shell, this is completely my own creation. I've gotten help from many but this is like my child and I love this deck a lot. I hope you enjoy reading this and maybe even playing it

- You enjoy combos (there are numerous)

  • You enjoy lots of weird synergies that come together well

  • You like token based decks

  • You enjoy going all in or going bust

  • You enjoy or don't hate being the archenemy if the deck goes off

-You hate taking long turns

-You don't like having a bunch of triggers

-You dislike math to an extreme

-You just aren't a combo man

-You don't like tokens and having a clumped board state

Well it's pretty simple. Your first goal is to bring out Sai, Master Thopterist and use him as a value engine consistently

He is Efficient Construction on a 1/4 body with an ability to sacrifice two artifacts if you need to draw a card.

This deck primarily abuses the token making ability..

You can repeatedly make tokens and use the bodies to serve a greater purpose. It's like a weird cult. The way you use the bodies sorta depends on the game.

Sometimes you can play numerous tap and untap shenanigans which can absolutely make people lose their minds because stuff they never thought to remove becomes a very big threat. Sometimes you sacrifice the tokens for mana. Sometimes you just swing with a bunch of tokens. Ultimately this deck can sneeze and find some obscure combo. I'll show you some and I hope you can find a few more as you play this.

Sai, Master Thopterist + some small low CMC artifacts does that for you. Early game your focus should be ramping, preventing anyone from popping off too much, and developing your board. Small artifacts like Ichor Wellspring, Myr Retriever, Mind Stone, and many others give you tokens that you can use with an outlet.

I don't recommend sacrificing your thopters unless you need the draw

Cards like Mirrodin Besieged and Efficient Construction exist in order to give a Sai, Master Thopterist replacement in the late game if he gets hated out. They also give more tokens early game. Either way it's a win-win

There are many ways to but here are some synergies. The best part of playing this deck is that it feels fresh every game. There are three main ways I play but because artifacts pair together so well, the blend of strategies actually works.

In general just having lots of thopter tokens can explode into something.

Clock of Omens can be use to give lots of mana by untapping rocks. I had this one game where Ornithopter of Paradise became such a threat because no one had target artifact removal but creature removal. Either way it's a degenerate card that leads to a storm win.

Urza, Lord High Artificer is also amazing in this department. Every thopter is now a rock but he also is a mana sink for infinite mana.

By having something that lets them use this untap ability they have they can put in lots of work and it's genuinely just stupid.

Grand Architect can give you four mana for artifacts repeatedly and with a consistent draw outlet you can storm off. Sometimes you don't even need the draw but you can keep recurring stuff from your graveyard and sorta figure out something from there

Grand Architect, Inspiring Statuary, and Chief Engineer can spiral out of control very quickly. Because Sai makes bodies so often, these are really great engines to cheat out your hand. Careful because you are doing lots of things and this will invoke attacks if everything is tapped.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh can end games if left alone

I say sorta because you don't do the whole sac artifacts repeatedly thing until you can get a consistent loop going. There is no Blood Artist effect. It's sometimes incremental value but it also can do a bunch all at once that can fizzle or explode. Either way it's fun and generates lots of value.

For Sacrificing artifacts you have lots of options. Sai, Master Thopterist being the most obvious answer but the rabbit hole goes deeper

We all know how fair Krark-Clan Ironworks and Ashnod's Altar are

Obviously there's Skullclamp

Another Card I think people are sleeping on is Trading Post. It's recursion and sacrifice all in one and I love it

speaking of recursion there's a fair bit of it. Myr Retriever are notable mentions

What you're trying to do is repeatedly get a loop of recursion going with something low cost that can be recurred.

Things to sac and recur are Thought Monitor, Ichor Wellspring, Myr Retriever or anything that can bring value of some sort.

This is typically a bit harder to set up but because this deck has a lot of inherent card draw it's something that can be set up once a game or so till there is some form of removal that hurts it. It's very resilient without graveyard hate and you can keep generating it.

Uh you just kinda take thopters and swing sideways

Patchwork Banner, Nettlecyst, Forsaken Monument among others.

Bident of Thassa, The Indomitable, Reconnaissance: Draw and often my tutor with Whir of Invention

Basically having a big board brings a decent sized threat. It's pretty self explanatory and I don't really think there's much else to say

This is the only time I recommend sacrificing your artifacts. You might run out of gas so it's worthwhile.

Clickbaited sorta because I don't know em all. This deck will find some weird combo and I'll run with it. I implore you to goldfish this deck with the test option. Something will fall into place and it'll be hilarious

For infinite mana there's a bunch Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal

Also just as an aside Isochron Scepter with the instants in the deck is very good. Early game isochron scepter and With a counterspell you have a lot of options.

Basalt Monolith + Forsaken Monument

Oh and my personal favorite

Krark-Clan Ironworks + Mirrodin Besieged/Efficient Construction + Sai, Master Thopterist + Foundry Inspector/Etherium Sculptor + Spine of Ish Sah to remove board and make 0 mana. But enemies have no board so you win

Now you're saying, how often do you get a five card combo. The answer is a lot more often than you think.

There's a lot more smaller synergies I'm not mentioning so a good way to sorta figure a combo out is this formula

You need a sai effect + something that can generate value + something to abuse this piece + an outlet. With this you can go off in many ways I can't show because I don't remember. Just test it and everything will fall in place.

Notable outlets: Spine of Ish Sah, Altar of the Brood, and Aetherflux Reservoir

Is it really a mono blue deck if there isn't a way to deny enemies fun? A fair number of counterspells are there such as: Counterspell, Jwari Disruption  , Muddle the Mixture (use in emergency usually use it to tutor, Stoic Rebuttal, and Swan Song

If the board is threatened with a wipe then use: Paradoxical Outcome

For defense: Aetherize and Banishing Knack are good. Use the latter only if you can repeat usage of it with something that can untap a creature

Curse of the Swine: It's mana intensive for sure but it's exile in blue and it also gets rid of a lot of threats so I run it. Big beatsticks are gone but so are you for a turn so be careful

Also notable is Dramatic Reversal can be used to bait people. Swing out so that they swing into your tapped board. Use the reversal and take out anything important

High Tide is ramp and can be used with Isochron Scepter for fun times if you don't have many ramp pieces on hand. It's also just a good enabler in general for an explosive turn around turn 7ish?

Thought Monitor: One mana to draw two, gotta love it.

Ichor Wellspring: This is more just nostalgia, but when I first got into the game kuldotha red in pauper was a deck I really wanted, and this card was a big value piece. It was fun and can draw you three cards so I love it.

Chief Engineer: At it's worst it makes all of my tokens mana. At its best, I get a powerful storm piece. Combos beautifully with Traxos,cscourge of kroog which will net you mana and untap each time. Probably my favorite card in the entire deck.

Mirrodin Besieged: Either makes tokens or wins you the game. I like it. Art is amazing and is harder to remove than sai.

Spine of Ish Sah: Seems bad but it comes back to your hand when sacrificed so it's repeatable removal and it's a menace.

Forsaken Monument: Everything this card does helps the deck. It makes an artifact on cast, it gives me mana, pumps my board, and gains me life. It overperforms and goes infinite with Basalt Monolith.

Encroaching Mycosynth: makes everything give thopters, what's not to like

Forensic Gadgeteer: This card is an insane enabler and I didn't even realize it till I played a few games with it out. First of all, making more artifacts is always great, reducing clue draw costs is also amazing. However, it also goes insane with Skullclamp making you draw two cards for zero mana. It also goes infinite with basalt manalith. I am always impressed with it and I am very happy I bought it on a whim

Nettlecyst: Does a lot of work. It comes on a body and can be attached to Sai, Master Thopterist for commander damage. Your thopters also have flying and a 6/6 flyer is an offensive threat and defensive weapon.

The deck still needs work so any suggestions are appreciated.

As of now the mana base just isn't as good as it could be. I'm a student and I have a bunch of decks so I don't invest a bunch all at once into one deck.

For mana: Mana Vault, Mox Amber, and the like. Ancient Tomb, The urza lands would also all be nice.

Otherwise I'd want to definitely get a Copy Artifact, Metalworker, Cyclonic Rift, Fierce Guardianship and just more of these kinda cards.

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