Maybeboard


I'm pretty happy with the state of this deck, but I am open to suggestions if you see an opportunity for improvement. As I see it, there are two ways to build Emry. Pure artifacts build, and artifact creature build (Metalworker/Phyrexian Altar/Intruder Alarm). I found the artifact creature approach to be clunky as it basically requires a Phyrexian Altar on the board, tutoring that out is harder to do, and loading the deck with 0-drop artifact creatures slows down the early game. All the noncreature 0 and 1 drops are functional. Looking for room for everything in the maybeboard.

The Elements

Emry, Lurker of the Loch is a deck-drawing engine if you squint hard enough. This deck is capable of going infinite on turn 2 with a lucky draw (it's happened) and it's not uncommon for it to do so on turn 4-6 even with player interaction.

What does it take?

Our goal is to draw the deck. Once we do that, we have infinite mana, play Aetherflux Reservoir, empty our hand to get infinite life, and blast players out of existence. Let me show you an example.

Opening hand: Seat of the Synod, Mox Opal, Lion's Eye Diamond, Mana Crypt, Mirran Spy.

Land for turn: Seat of the Synod

Cast Mox Opal, Mana Crypt, Lion's Eye Diamond

Tap Seat for {U} and cast Emry, Lurker of the Loch milling 4 cards to graveyard.

Tap Mana Crypt, tap Mox Opal - {U}{C}{C}, cast Mirran Spy.

Turn 2:

Tap Lion's Eye Diamond, discarding 3 cards in hand. Provided a draw element exists in the 7-card graveyard (Mishra's Bauble, Golden Egg, Aether Spellbomb, etc), tap Emry targeting it, cast it.

Mirran Spy triggers and untaps Emry.

Tap Emry, targeting Lion's Eye Diamond, and cast it.

Mirran Spy triggers and untaps Emry. You have infinite {U} and infinite on-demand card draw (no danger of self-mill).

Play Aetherflux Reservoir and proceed to empty your hand until you can blast with it.

This obviously is not a reliable game summary. Just ensure you have a clear path to casting Emry on turn 1 or 2 in your opening hand. Turn 1 is ideal. An opening hand with a land and a usable rock or 2 0-drops is great. An opening hand with repeatable untap and a way to get LED should end by turn 3.

Going infinite

Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter is a nice one to draw into. As long as you have 3 or more mana in artifact ramp alongside it, you have not only infinite mana but infinite Emry untaps. Dramatic Reversal can be tutored with Drift of Phantasms, Mystic Sanctuary, Merchant Scroll, Muddle the Mixture or Mystical Tutor. These tutors and more apply for Isochron Scepter.

The least important combo in the deck is Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact /Grim Monolith + Power Artifact . These are highly situational as it only gives colorless mana.

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth can also get you infinite colorless mana, and Rings of Brighthearth can also accelerate the game by multiplying Emry's utility, both directly and through Thousand-Year Elixir.

Basalt Monolith + Mesmeric Orb loads the graveyard even more efficiently than Traumatize. Mishra's Bauble cycles an untap mechanic back into hand.

Lotus Petal + Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Riddlesmith + Freed From the Real will let you mill for LED and end the game.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Lion's Eye Diamond + Mirran Spy , Chakram Retriever + Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Lion's Eye Diamond , Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Lion's Eye Diamond + Pemmin's Aura (bonus, this protects Emry from removal), Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Freed from the Real + Lion's Eye Diamond - these are easy end the game plays with any draw element in the deck (8 cards) or Sensei's Forge. It doesn't matter if LED gets countered or destroyed, it just goes to the graveyard where you can cast it again.

Relying on LED in hand, even with the gratuitous tutoring in the deck, wouldn't be wise. So that's where cost reduction comes into play. If we can make Golden Egg or Chromatic Star cost 0 mana to cast with Semblance Anvil, Etherium Sculptor, Helm of Awakening, Cloud Key and/or Jhoira's Familiar, we can cycle it infinitely with just 1 mana. This requires Mirran Spy or Chakram Retriever, so if we draw into one of those, we know victory is near. Otherwise, we will draw into a tutor to complete the draw engine. Trinket Mage, Tolaria West, Reshape, and Fabricate can all get LED out.

Mystic Forge + Sensei's Divining Top , combined with any cost reduction element (6 cards, all tutorable), draws the deck.

You may notice Krark-Clan Ironworks missing. It was usually not involved in my endgame play, in spite of its notoriety as a combo piece, but it has obvious acceleration potential and can help get you to the end in a pinch. It was always my top choice for a Semblance Anvil exile target, as most of the cyclable artifacts have built-in sacrifice mechanics, and in particular enabled the Astrolabe play, but it was too diluted, so I have removed both of those cards, and with that, the Snow-Covered Island.

Acceleration

Fetchlands, Mycosynth Wellspring, Frantic Search, Bazaar of Baghdad, Gitaxian Probe, Brainstorm, Intuition, Preordain, and friends... these cards cheaply thin the deck and/or fill the graveyard with useful artifacts for retrieval. Memory Jar and Traumatize are great Hail Mary plays if the early game hasn't been kind for whatever reason.

A generous amount of tutors are present as well, to complete any combo which has been drawn into in any part.

Answers

A limited number of counters have been included. They should be reserved for plays which directly threaten our ability to combo out. Game-winning plays from other players and hard removal of Emry are the only situations they should be used due to their limited numbers. Pemmin's Aura, Aether Spellbomb, Nevinyrral's Disk, and Spellskite discourage interaction, which is what we need to hit the combo. Tormod's Crypt is repeatable graveyard hate. We are the only graveyard casters at the table.

Update. Too lazy to do research on cards released in the last few years, so I asked ChatGPT to level me up :B

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Casual

95% Competitive