Adding in Horizon of Progress, Archway of Innovation
This is a re-make of an old Sharuum deck I ran in the mid 2010s, which turned into a Breya deck, moving away from artifact and into dedicated combo for an early win. Having since parted that deck out and sold the money cards, I've decided to go back to the Sharuum build. It draws inspiration from previous historical versions of Sharuum, which I will explain below, and new additions from recent sets.
Engine/Control Sharuum Build
The Sharuum deck traditionally combos off a clone effect (Phyrexian Metamorph/Sculpting Steel), looping a copy of Sharuum indefinitely, and a triggered ability with some pay-off (Disciple of the Vault, Extractor Demon, Altar of the Brood). This is the main path to victory with the deck.
It is usually supported by the Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek/Time Sieve combo, and either a suite of control spells and board wipes, or a resilient engine build leveraging artifact recursion engines and interactions. These 2 styles of decks (control and engine) were the main ways to build Sharuum in the earliest days.
The development of early Sharuum builds is well documented (https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/217067-sharuum-everyones-favorite-kitty) , begun by Jack_from_NYC, spearheaded by Jostin123 and various members of the community.
Four Horsemen Build
The next iteration of Sharuum combo came in the form of the 4 Horsemen build, named Mesmeruum, credited to Tetravirulence. Their deck list is linked here. The initial part of the combo originates from a controversial Legacy deck which used Mesmeric Orb and Basalt Monolith to mill a player's own deck, and combo out with Emrakul, Nacromoebia, Blasting Station and Dread Return - an incredible long and time consuming combo that must be played out to completion as it is not a guaranteed win-con. Fortunately, this Sharuum build relied on a more efficient way to combo out.
After milling your own deck with Basalt Monolith and Mesmeric Orb, Sharuum would be cast, targeting Torrential Gearhulk in the graveyard, in turn targeting Ghostly Flicker or Displace. Both Sharuum and Gearhulk would be flickered, with 2 potential variations.
The first variation involves Sharuum targeting Phyrexian Metamorph/Sculpting Steel, and Gearhulk targeting Orzhov Charm, in turn targeting Disciple of the Vault. Sharuum would then loop, triggering Disciple indefinitely.
The second variation involved Sharuum targeting Altar of the Brood, Gearhulk targeting a second flicker effect (Ghostly Flicker, Displace or Cloudshift), flickering Sharuum again, and targeting a clone. This would result in Sharuum looping indefinitely and milling all opponents with Altar of the Brood. Of course, there are other variations, one of which involves Second Sunrise and Faith's Reward, but those are the standard and most easily understood.
My Version
With the recent release of Universes Beyond: Warhammer 4000, 2 key cards - Technomancer and Psychomancer - have found a place in the Sharuum combo. It allows for a more compact combo using the same premise as Mesmuruum, however, requires a lot less cards to combo off. The combo starts the same as Mesmuruum, self milling with Basalt Monolith and Mesmeric Orb. Then, casting Sharuum, and targeting Technomancer, which in turn targets both Phyrexian Metamorph and Psychomancer. Sharuum loops, and Psychomancer triggers indefinitely, draining opponents one at a time and netting us life. Again, same idea as Mesmuruum, less convoluted and more accessible.
This is an engine build of Sharuum. There are no counterspells, and a minimal amount of board wipes. It focuses on resiliency, recursion, and interactions between cards to magnify various effects. Although we aim to combo out with Sharuum, there are a number of ways to trigger out win cons outside of Sharuum herself, and potential to win through combat damage.
Most cards in this deck fall into these categories. Some cards will cross over categories.
- Engines: a card that fulfills multiple roles or converts one resource into another.
- Cogs: slots into Engines while providing beneficial effects. Usually can be recurred easily.
- Threats: must-answer cards with high impact effects.
- Acceleration: whether they be mana rocks, tutors or card draw effects, these cards let us do what we want, earlier, and speed up our game plan.
- Recursion: anything that lets us replay or recur our cards.
Even our individual combo pieces have applications outside of their respective combos, and often are interchangeable with other combo pieces.
Card Selection
These are mostly carry-overs from the engine build of Sharuum, devised by the combined efforts of the community on the Mtgsalvation forums. The key cards were selected due to their ability to advance the board state, deal with threats repeatedly, and interact with a range of other effects in the deck.
Lands
Academy Ruins/ Buried Ruins: allows us to replay our artifacts when they get destroyed.
Fomori Vault: lets us dig through our deck to find a missing combo or engine piece.
Inventor's Fair: lets us tutor for artifacts
Ancient Tomb/ Crystal Vein: mana acceleration
Urza’s Saga: an artifact tutor on a land that most crucially places the artifact into play. We have 12 potential targets, Mox Opal if we need colour fixing, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt and Mana Vault for ramp, Expedition map and Wayfarer's Bauble if we need lands.
Darksteel Citadel/ Ancient Den/ Seat of the Synod/ Vault of Whispers/ Treasure Vault: our suite of artifact lands, which can be used as fuel in a pinch. Also interacts with Karn and Salvaging Station to produce infinite death triggers for our win cons. Treasure Vault has the added advantage of being able to trade it in for Treasures in the later game.
Command Tower/ Mana Confluence/ City of Brass/ Spire of Industry: a few rainbow lands to smooth our mana base.
Watery Grave/ Hallowed Fountain/ Godless Shrine: the 2nd best dual lands, an auto-include
Morphic Pool/ Sea of Clouds/ Vault of Champions: in multiplayer games, these will always be untapped. Dual lands would replace these with a higher budget.
Island/ Swamp/ Plains: I include 2 of each basic land as Wayfarer’s Bauble targets, as to not have to depend on mana rocks if artifact destruction is prevalent.
Flood Strand/ Marsh Flats/ Polluted Delta/ Prismatic Vista: fetchlands that play well with Crucible of Worlds.
Strip Mine: to deal with problem lands
Geier Reach Sanitarium/Mikokoro, Centre of the Sea: used to help force trigger Smothering Tithe and Notion Thief, as well as Sanitarium allowing us to pitch recursion targets.
*Card Draw
Fact of Fiction/ Memory Jar/ Thirst for Knowledge/ Windfall/ Whispering Madness: burst draw spells that help us dig deeper into our deck and refuel, with the bonus that it will pitch potential reanimation targets into the graveyard. With a Smothering Tithe or Notion Thief on the board, the Wheel effects can be game changing.
Echo of Eons: its purpose is to also protect our graveyard from exile effects. The Flashback ability makes this a budget Timetwister, as we can pitch it early on and cast it later in the game.
Sensei’s Divining Top: while not strictly card draw, it helps smooth what we draw. Also has some neat interactions with tutors, and Bolas’s Citadel.
Shimmer Dragon: converts tokens and cogs into drawing cards.
Esper Sentinel: great early game drop to net some extra cards, tutorable with Artificer's Intuition. Otherwise, can fuel our many artifact effects.
Tutors
Demonic Tutor/ Vampiric Tutor/ Entomb/ Artificer's Intuition/ Kuldotha Forgemaster: Out of all these, Artificer's Intuition is the most interesting. It allows us to pitch an artifact (usually one we want to recur later) to look for a cheap utility artifact, or mana rock. Kuldotha Forgemaster is also another important piece that places the tutored artifact directly into play. We can fuel Forgemaster with tokens or low cost artifacts that we can recur with Salvaging Station.
Intuition: definitely a card that requires some practise to use. The downside of losing 2 cards isn't really a downside, as Sharuum will be able to recur most choices. Tutoring 2 cards with a similar effect and a way to recur them gives our opponent no good choice. For instance, if we want to blow up a land, tutoring Wasteland, Crucible of Worlds and Strip Mine. Or if we're missing our win con, finding Bitter Ordeal, Psychomancer and Altar of the Brood.
Expedition Map: handy given the amount of utility lands we have. Academy Ruins is a prime target.
Removal
Aether Spellbomb/ Dispeller's Capsule/ Executioner's Capsule/ Soul-Guide Lantern: These are 1 cost artifacts (cogs) that Salvaging Station can recur. Executioner's Capsule can be recured with Station as long as you have mana to use it. Aether Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern can be used to draw cards with Salvaging Station during a board wipe.
Noxious Gearhulk: removal on a stick, which can be flickered by a few sources. We also get a bit of life from this effect, which fuels Bolas's Citadel and pads out against Mana Crypt.
Cyclonic Rift: one of the best, if not the best, removal cards in EDH. It is too powerful not to run.
Recursion/Rebuild
Bolas's Citadel: a powerhouse of a card, allowing us to rebuild our board without paying mana. The tap effect can also be fueled with the tokens we generate. If we have Sensei’s Divining Top out, we can essentially cycle through unwanted cards by paying 1 life - tap Top to draw the unwanted card and replace it with Top, then paying 1 life to cast to Top with Citadel, leaving us with the next card to look at.
Salvaging Station: allows us to recur our cogs. There are a few neat interactions using Karn to animate 0 cost mana-producing artifacts, such as artifact lands, Mana Crypt. Mox Opal, Mox Tantalite and Sol Talisman for infinite death triggers. It can also net a lot of mana with Lotus Bloom over the course of the game. Since we run creature token producers as well, their deaths will also let Station untap - noting that we can respond to each trigger by tapping it again and recurring another cog.
Roar of Reclamation: rebuilds our board after a board wipe.
Sevinne's Reclamation: useful to recur our many permanents. Also part of the Mesmeric Orb/Basalt Monolith combo to recur Thopter Foundry and Time Sieve, leaving Sword of the Meek in the graveyard, provide we have enough mana.
Unburial Rites/Technomancer/Emry: each of these cards interact with several key targets that advance our board state and kickstart various engines in the deck. Emry acts almost as a secondary Salvaging Station.
Codex Shredder: can be recurred with Salvaging Station to in turn return any card to our hand.
Crucible of Worlds: very useful to have as we run fetchlands and many of our utility lands’ effects require them to be sacrificed.
Mana Acceleration
Lotus Bloom/ Mox Opal/ Mox Tantalite/ Sol Ring/ Sol Talisman/ Mana Vault/ Mana Crypt: can be searched by Artificer's Intuition and Urza's Saga. In the mid-game, the ones with Suspend can be pitched then recurred with Salvaging Station to bypass the 3 turn wait. Lotus Bloom in particular is very good in this case. The fact that they slot so beautifully into our recursion engines and loops makes them much more valuable in this deck than most others.
Arcane Signet: good for mana fixing. The best and only 2 drop coloured mana producer we run.
Chromatic Lantern: smooths our mana when we cast colour spells, which are often very demanding.
Thran Dynamo: smooth our mana acceleration for those high cost spells.
Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith: high density rocks that accelerate us ahead. The untap cost is mitigated by the various untap effects in the deck.
Smothering Tithe: gives us more mana to use, as well as additional tokens to fuel various effects. We trigger this with various draw effects.
Flicker Engines and Effects
Myr Battlesphere/ Threefold Thunderhulk: these can be flickered to create an army of tokens which in turn can fuel our other effects, such as Urza. Thunderhulk is particularly powerful with Tawnos's Coffn, as it will enter the battlefield with the default 3 counters plus all counters it had before it was exiled. This means that each time we flicker it with Coffin, it gets an addition 3 counters.
Eldrazi Displacer: a repeatable effect as long as we have the mana for it. Flickering a token producer with Clock of Omens, Urza and an artifact that produces 1 or more colourless mana goes infinite. Flicker either Battlesphere or Thunderhulk, creating at 4 or more tokens. Tap 2 of the tokens to produce UU, tap the mana rock to produce colourless, spending 1 colourless and UU to flicker again. Before it resolves, tap the other 2 tokens to untap the mana rock and repeat.
Tawnos's Coffin: this is an extremely versatile card. Nothing can replicate what it can do. Not only can it flicker our creatures for ETB effects, but it can also protect them, remove enemy commanders, keep a creature tapped down. In conjunction with our untap effects, this is very powerful.
Voyager Staff: also acts as short term removal. Recurrable with Salvaging Station.
Magister Sphinx: prime target for flicker effects, we can very quickly set all opponents to 10, allowing us to win via combat damage.
Untap Effects
Clock of Omens/ Unwinding Clock: used to untap our artifacts so we can carry out more interactions. Clock of Omens gets out of control with tokens fast and is more explosive. Unwinding Clock is slower, but gets better the more opponents we have and resets our mama rocks consistently.
Other Key Pieces
Karn, Silver Golem: used to animate our artifacts to interact with Salvaging Station, and is part of a combo. We can also use Karn to create cheap blockers that we can recur. With the rise of artifact tokens in general, we can also use Karn to get rid of Treasure, Clues, Food, etc.
Urza, Lord High Artificer: serves several roles. First, it is a great target for flicker effects. Second, it turns all our artifacts into Mox Sapphire. Third, with enough mana, lets us extend our board state. Again, another versatile card to have in the deck. Plays well with a number of interactions in the deck.
Cyberdrive Awakener: a repeatable flicker target, and grants our artifact creatures evasion. It also converts all our cogs and Treasure tokens into flying 4/4s for an alpha strike. With a Salvaging Station on the board, we can take advantage of any death triggers and recycle cogs that were destroyed in combat. This has huge potential, turning a non threatening board of trinkets into a massive swing. This has replaced Sphinx of the Steel Wind, as it has a higher threshold for threatening an alpha strike, and doubles as a flying blocker, plus makes all our other artifact creatures fliers too.
Copy
Sculpting Steel/ Phyrexian Metamorph: in addition to being key combo pieces, these are both versatile as copy effects. They can copy a powerful creature, act as a second Salvaging Station, or even a mana rock in a pinch.
Combo Pieces
Sharuum/ Sculpting Steel/ Phrexian Metamorph: used to create infinite ETB and death loops.
Time Sieve/ Thopter Foundry/ Sword of the Meek: used to take extra turns, gain life and build an army of Thopters indefinitely, as long as we have 5 or more mana available.
Basalt Monolith/ Mesmeric Orb: used to self-mill
Technomancer: targeted by Sharuum, with Phyrexian Metamorph and Psychomancer in the grave, to drain as a win con.
Karn, Silver Golem/ Salvaging Station/ any 0 cost artifact that taps for mana: infinite death loops. Sol Talisman and Mana Crypt will net infinite colourless mana.
Altar of the Brood/ Psychomancer: pay-off for death triggers.
