Urza Tyrant Stax (cEDH)

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Control Mono-Blue Stax

Erictheawoken

Artifact (26)

• 1x Aether Spellbomb
• 1x Arcum's Astrolabe
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Grim MonolithGC
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Jeweled Amulet
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Mox DiamondGC
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Proteus Staff
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Trinisphere
• 1x Unwinding Clock
• 1x Winter Orb

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Narset, Parter of VeilsGC
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Creature (1)

• 1x Tidespout Tyrant

Instant (22)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of WillGC
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical TutorGC
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Negate
• 1x Paradoxical Outcome
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Stroke of Genius
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Whir of Invention

Land (30)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Saprazzan Skerry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 21x Snow-Covered Island

Commander (1)

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Polymorph
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Recurring Insight
• 1x Reshape
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Transmute Artifact
• 1x Windfall

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Back to Basics
• 1x Copy Artifact
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Power Artifact
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Trail of Evidence

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Maybeboard

Artifact (2)

• 1x Codex Shredder
• 1x Sorcerous Spyglass

Land (1)

• 1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell ValeGC

Creature (1)

• 1x Shimmer Myr

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Verity Circle

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Karn, the Great Creator

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Introduction Show

Urza Tyrant Stax is a stax-combo deck that utilizes powerful control synergies as well as a handful of tight combo packages in order to keep control of the game and ultimately win. This deck abuses the innate power of Urza to create an abundance of mana as well as the power of stax pieces to disrupt your opponents while still avoiding the negatives of the stax pieces yourself.

Why Urza? Show

When one is choosing what kind of deck that they want to play, they must evaluate the different commanders and thier strengths and weaknesses. In the case of Urza, there are four strengths that make him a viable and powerful commander. The first of these strengths is that Urza is in blue, one of the most powerful colors in cEDH. The second is that Urza acts as a powerful mana producer due to his ability to tap any artifact to produce a colored source. The third is that Urza having the ability to tap artifacts allows the pilot to avoid the downsides to playing with many of the powerful stax pieces such as trinisphere. Lastly, Urza is a mana sink and finisher once the pilot has created some source of infinite mana, allowing the pilot to win the game from the command zone.

Deck Strategy Show

The primary win condition is Urza tidespout combo is to create infinite mana, pump all of the mana into Urza, then either immediately win the game with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, deck your opponents with Blue Sun's Zenith, or through abusing Narset's Reversal and Isochron Scepter to create an infinite number of spells to kill your opponent (usually by creating an infinite number of swans through Swan Song). With an infinite number of spells and Tidespout Tyrant on the board the pilot is also able to bounce all of the opponent's permanents effectively knocking them out of the game even if you cannot produce infinite mana.

Stax Cards Show

Specific Hate Pieces

Grafdigger's Cage: Cage hits many different strategies, but really hurts both Yisan decks, reanimator decks, and storm decks. This is an excellent all around tutor target against most of the higher powered decks.

Pithing Needle: Pithing needle is a powerful card to grab to hurt specific decks at the table. While the card is less general it does allow the pilot to hit the deck that is about to go off (and since there are a lot of Thrasios/Tymna decks, it is just a good catch all). Notable decks to use this against: Godo (name Helm and keep the Hammer of Nazahn off the board/bounce Godo before the trigger resolves if the Godo player grabbed the Hammer first), Najeela, Gitrog (to a limited extent. Name the discard outlet that the Gitrog player looked for. Or the Crown if you are scared the frog player will go off at instant speed), or Yisan. There are many more potential targets, but the pilot must make the judgement call based on the table.

Generalized Stax Pieces

Static Orb: Static Orb is a powerful stax piece to grab during a clogged board. The more permanents on board that are individually weak on power the better this card is. Notable cards that make this card weaker: Gaia's Cradle, Seedborn Muse, Bloom tender, or any other card that allows the player to untap multiple permanents or create a bunch of mana from a single permanent. This card is further pushed because you can tap it to Urza during the end step of the turn before yours in order to untap all of your permanents.

Trinisphere: Trinisphere is one of the most powerful stax cards in the deck, in that it makes the low cost spells of cEDH into 3 mana cards. Often this card can force your opponents to either use removal more sparingly in order to keep up disruption or it will make it even harder for your opponents to combo off. While this card is powerful at most points of the game, it is completely backbreaking in the first early turns, often giving the pilot plenty of time to set up a value engine that will push them further. Trinisphere is powerful against most decks, but is backbreaking against most versions of storm and Gitrog decks and very strong against scepter decks (forcing your opponent to pay five mana for their two mana spell can give you enough time for find another interaction piece). One of the best cards to tutor for throughout the game. There is also the synergy with Urza and tidespout where you can either bounce or tap the sphere during your combo turns, which negates the negative aspects of the card whenever you decide that is important.

Winter Orb: Winter orb is similar to Static Orb except it only hits the lands. So in specific circumstances this is better to grab. Often the better times to grab this card is when you have plenty of mana rocks to cast your spells but Urza is dead or otherwise unable to activate his ability (by cursed totem or a phyrexian revoker most namely). Winter Orb can also be tutored by a Muddle the Mixture in a pinch.

Back to Basics: Back to Basics is powerful due to the greedy mana bases of cEDH. Often by playing Back to Basics against a two or three color deck you are able to lock down your opponent for several turns while they try to regain a mana advantage to deal with the card. While it does not stop mana rocks or mana dorks it does help against keep the mana advantage and since you only run four non basics that do not tutor for a basic often the negatives are negligible.

Card Advantage Show

Blue Sun's Zenith/Pull From Tomorrow/Stroke of Genius: All three of these cards function similarly, they are often used at the end of turn before yours in order to reset your hand and have enough cards to either win the game on the spot or reload to keep your opponents from winning the game. Blue Sun's Zenith and Stroke can also be used to kill opponents if necessary, but the primary use of the cards is to refill your hand. While three is useful in my particular meta, the Stroke of Genius can be replaced by a card in the maybeboard for metas that are more specialized.

Paradoxical Outcome: This card seems like an odd choice at first glance, but it allows the Urza player to do two things, the first is gain an even larger mana advantage with cards that produce more than one mana (mana vault, crypt, and any of the zero mana artifacts to name a few), and the second is that the card will often allow you to draw several cards and dig deeper to find your win cons or more interaction.

Mystic Remora: One of the best blue cards in cEDH for a reason. It does one of two things for the pilot when cast, both of which you are okay with. The first is that it draws you a bunch of cards, which just slowly puts you farther into the game. The second is that no one casts spells into it which gives you more time to find your stax pieces or establish your board.

Rhystic Study: Rhystic Study is similar to Mystic Remora except that it does not require an upkeep cost and the tax is more limited. While you are less likely to draw cards off of the Rhystic Study versus the Mystic Remora you are more likely to have people cast spells and pay the tax, thus limiting their mana and making them less likely to interact with your interaction.

Trail of Evidence: This card serves double duty. The first is that each instant and sorcery spell comes with a free mox sapphire attached. The second is when you have more mana than you are able to deal with but not enough cards you can pay two mana to draw a card. Overall a very powerful card.

Recurring Insight: Between the stax pieces, people holding interaction, and the popularity of Ad naus, most pods will have at least one other player with between four and six cards in hand. Six mana for a draw eight or twelve over two turns is very powerful. While this card seems weak often by the time you are casting it you either have enough mana to protect it or it is the early game and you played out your hand, thus allowing you to quickly get a card advantage without having to rely on individual draws.

Time Spiral: A consistent theme for Urza is having more mana and cards in hand to keep up with your opponents while you set up for a win condition. Since every artifact acts as a mana ramp effect and stays on your board often Time Spiral will reset a nearly empty hand with combo pieces or interaction while also giving you the six mana you just spent on the spell.

Timetwister/Windfall: Both of these cards are similar, they reset your hand and give you a fresh grip to continue digging for win conditions. While Timetwister is the more powerful of the two since it gets cards back from your graveyard and always gives you seven cards, windfall can be used to stop a tutored target in a player's hand while also giving you a fair number of cards to work with. And on the first (sometimes second) turn of the game playing out your artifacts and then casting one of these spells can often completely throw off your opponent's strategies.

Tidespout Tyrant Package Show

Why Tidespout Tyrant?

Tidespout Tyrant became my personal go to after the banning of Paradox Engine due to its small package, powerful synergy, and ability to win almost out of nowhere. In addition to this there is only one card in the package that is bad to draw if you already have the Tyrant (Polymorph). The package is small enough to allow the Urza player to customize the rest of the deck while also having an easy effective combo by playing the cards that you would already want to be playing.

How to Get Tidespout Tyrant

While it is possible to cast the Tidespout Tyrant if drawn off the top of your deck, that is not the primary plan of the deck. Rather you will often use the spells Polymorph or Proteus Staff to kill your own construct token (or Urza in a pinch) and pull the Tyrant out of your deck.

Polymorph: Polymorph is a single target spell that kills your construct or Urza and flips into the next creature off the top of your library. Since there is no creature on your deck excluding the Tyrant the card is guaranteed to flip into the Tyrant. While I find this card to be the weaker of the two polymorph effects, it does come with the benefit of being relatively easy to tutor for due to mystical tutor (and the many effects that find the mystical tutor).

Proteus Staff: The staff is by far the more powerful of the two polymorph effects. Not only are there more ways to tutor for the artifact than there are to find the Polymorph (at least without using tutor chains) you can tutor it directly into play with Whir of Invention at the end of an opponents turn. This card does have the problem of costing two more mana to both cost and activate which could be problematic if you are trying to combo quickly, but that flaw is balanced out by not being a completely dead draw if the Tyrant has been killed, is in your hand, or has been otherwise removed. Due to the wording on Protean Staff, if there are no creatures in your deck you are allowed to stack the deck as you please, often this means you put a big draw spell on top of your deck (such as Windfall) and a two card combo with some disruption to push through your combo (and usually a twister or another way to refill at the end of the cards you draw).

How does Tidespount Tyrant Work?

Tidespout Tyrant is a relatively simple combo, as long as you are able to produce more mana from two artifact cards than the cost of the two cards you can go infinite (and if both are on board you have the ability to bounce one with a card in hand)

Example 1 (With Urza and no artifact that produces more than 1 mana): Starting hand: You have Tidespout Tyrant, Urza and an untapped Lotus Petal on board and a Pithing Needle in hand. No mana in pool.

Step 1. You tap the Lotus petal to Urza (Producing 1 mana into your mana pool).

Step 2. Cast Pithing Needle (0 mana in pool) triggering the Tidespout Tyrant.

Step 3. Target the Lotus Petal with the bounce ability from Tidespout Tyrant.

Step 4. Lotus Petal is bounced, Pithing needle resolves.

Step 5. Tap Pithing Needle to produce a mana (1 mana in pool).

Step 6. Cast Lotus Petal and trigger the Tidespout Tyrant.

Step 7. Target the Pithing Needle with the bounce ability from Tidespout Tyrant.

Step 8. Pithing Needle is bounced and the Lotus Petal resolves (1 mana still in pool).

Since you started with zero mana and ended up with the same board and hand as you started with you have shown that you can produce a loop with these cards to continue making mana. This will give you an infinite amount of colored mana that you can use into Urza to proceed to get to the win conditions. This cycle works by having at least one zero cost artifact and an artifact that costs no more than 1 mana (You create two mana but have to use one to cast the spell. With two zero cost artifacts you produce two mana).

Example 2 (No Urza, but have artifacts that produce mana). Starting hand: You have a Tidespout Tyrant and an untapped Mana Vault on Board with a Grafdigger's Cage in hand. No mana in mana pool.

Step 1. Tap the Mana Vault to produce 3 mana (3 mana in pool).

Step 2. Cast Grafdigger's Cage (2 mana in pool) triggering the Tidespout Tyrant.

Step 3. Target the Mana Vault with Tidespout Tyrant's ability.

Step 4. Bounce the Mana Vault and Grafdigger's Cage resolves.

Step 5. Cast Mana Vault (1 mana in pool) triggering the Tidespout Tyrant.

Step 6. Target the Grafdigger's Cage with the Tidespout Tyrant's ability.

Step 7. Grafdigger's Cage is Bounced and the Mana Vault resolves (1 mana in pool).

At the end of the example you have demonstrated a loop where you are able to gain a single mana per iteration, giving you infinite colorless mana. Providing you are able to cast Urza you are able to win the game from this point (and if you have another mana rock that can produce a colored mana you can make infinite mana then start bouncing the colored mana rock and the Vault to produce the necessary colored mana). You can also do this combo with a Sol Ring/Mana Crypt and a zero mana artifact, or a Grim Monolith and a zero mana artifact (or the Sol Ring with the Mana Crypt or Grim Monolith). Providing the net gain of the loop exceeds the net loss you will produce infinite mana.

Notable Exclusions Show

Creatures: In general, most of the creatures that Urza would play (Spellseeker, Sai, and Guilded Drake) are powerful but they do not have enough individual power to compensate for the fact that the Tidespout Tyrant can win on the spot. With the inclusion of the Tidespout Tyrant combo there is no room to play additional creatures, and the power that the Tyrant gives is higher by itself (and the package isn't too burdensome) is more important to this deck than the addition of powerful but not potentially game winning cards.

High Tide: While this deck is able to produce a lot of mana and is able to act similarly to a storm deck (especially with the inclusion of Paradoxical Outcome), it is not a storm deck. The single card by itself is powerful but often doesn't do enough by itself to be included in this particular list.

Codex Shredder: With the loss of Paradox Engine this card loses a lot of it's inherent power. While it is able to still win the game with the Dramatic Reversal/Isochron Scepter combo it loses its ability to just win the game without having exactly that combo (and since Dramatic Reversal often ends up in exile when comboing so you have to go through Timetwister to get it back into your graveyard to get it into your hand) the card is not powerful enough as a win con to make it in. Codex Shredder is still a powerful card that could see play (it does act as a recursion card to get back the Twister), but is currently cut.

Legacy's Allure: While I can see the power of this card, it has not been strong enough in my games. Often it feels too slow to properly interact with my opponents. If your meta has a lot of Thrasios/Tymna decks I can see the appeal, but I personally do not think the card does enough.

Notable Inclusions Show

Buried Ruins: Buried Ruins acts as an additional recursion card (along with Academy Ruins) that puts the card directly into your hand rather than on the top of your library. While there is some anti-synergy with Back to Basics the card is often useful enough that the downside is acceptable.

Unwinding Clock: Unwinding Clock is one of the stranger cards in the list, in that sometimes it is very powerful and other times it is not. Often this card is used to let you tap out on your turn and play your artifacts then untap and have the ability to interact with your opponents. One powerful aspect of the card I have found is using the ability to untap as a way to play a big draw spell (Blue Sun Zenith/Stroke of Genius/Pull from Tomorrow) during an opponent's turn after they have used their disruption to stop another player from comboing or affecting the board. After the big draw spell if you are able to untap due to the Unwinding Clock you often have enough answers to interact with your opponents.

AEther Spellbomb: While this card looks a bit weird, it is surprisingly strong. When you have Urza on board it can tap itself to activate its abilities. This card is currently in place over the Legacy's Allure that is seen in other lists, and I have thought it was much better in most cases. Often just having the ability to bounce something at instant speed (or the threat of it) will keep most people from playing into the card. And during games where bouncing a commander isn't very good the card either acts as a protection piece (better Urza costs four rather than six or more), draws you a card, or acts as a one mana rock.

Scroll Rack: Lastly there is Scroll Rack. This card is one of my personal favorite cards in this deck. It allows you to dig deep into your library to find the correct interaction, stax pieces, or combo pieces. Since this deck is willing and able to slow the game down the consistent card selection is a useful tool. In addition to the digging there are several ways to shuffle which continues to give the card value. In addition there is a strong synergy with Unwinding Clock which allows you to sculpt the best hand based on the cards in hand and top of library.

How to Make Infinite Mana Show

Power artifact + Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith makes infinite colorless mana

Tidespout Tyrant Combos

Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter and at least 3 mana producing artifacts makes infinite colored mana with Urza

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth (and at least 2 mana to jumpstart the combo) creates infinite colorless.

How to Win Show

There are three main ways to win the game. All of these ways involve gaining infinite mana via one of the above methods and activating Urza until your library is gone.

Method 1: Cast Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and drawing a card from an empty library.

Method 2: Cast Blue Sun's Zenith and shuffle it into your library. Draw it with one of the draw spells (or cast trail of evidence to make a clue you can use to draw) in the deck then targeting an opponent to draw their entire library plus one card.

Method 3: If you can produce infinite storm through dramatic-scepter or Isochron scepter plus Narset's Reversal (often from a copy artifact on the Isochron and imprinting the Reversal after having Isochron Scepter) you can create an infinite number of birds with Swan song. If you have Tidespout Tyrant on board you are also able to bounce all permanents your opponent's control to their hands. Proceed to beat them with birds over the next few turns (make sure to use Blue Sun's Zenith to shuffle back into your library so you do not deck yourself).

Maybeboard Options Show

Karn, the Great Creator: Some people want to put Null Rod into their deck in order to stop their opponents from using their artifacts and since Urza gets around the restriction due to him being the mana producer. I have found that that strategy often causes more trouble than it is worth, and makes a deck that already wants its commander even more reliant on it. Instead if you are looking for a Null Rod effect just Play Karn, the Great Creator. This card also has the upside of being able to plus some of your artifacts and pushing damage against decks that are reliant on their life total (Ad Nauseam/Necropotence decks most namely. Also Godo decks due to their use of Treasonous Ogre).

Sourcerous Spyglass: I have been back and forth on this card. Sometimes I feel that this card is better than Pithing Needle, sometimes I think that it should be played along side Pithing Needle, and sometimes I think that the card is not worth the price of two mana. If you value the information of knowing your opponent's hand I would play it over the Pithing Needle. If your meta has a lot of activated abilities you need to lock down I would play it along side Pithing Needle. This one comes down to personal preference. I feel the single mana investment is better and the card is easier to combo with the Tidespout when pinched on artifacts.

Verity Circle: This card is entirely a meta card. If your meta has many mana dorks and plenty of ways for your opponents to tap their creatures than I would play this over Stroke of Genius. Otherwise I prefer the stroke.

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale: Another meta call. Currently I am not in a meta where creatures are a popular, but I would definitely play this if your meta calls for it. Since the banning of Paradox Engine has brought more Food Chain decks out I would definitely find a spot for it. Most likely I would bring it in over one of the cantrips in most metas, as the cantrip usually searches for an asnwer and this would be the answer.

Codex Shredder: See notable exclusions. Still on the fence with this card.

Shimmer Myr: This card is an interesting idea with Urza, especially when combined with the Unwinding Clock. It would allow you to get multiple activations of Urza during your opponents turn and get to play the cards you reveal off of the Urza ability. This is currently not in testing but is an interesting idea.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.30
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Clue, Construct 0/0 C, Frog Lizard 3/3 G
Folders	decks to try