INTRODUCTION

as of 10/14/18; due to price spikes of Walking Ballista, and trying to keep this deck rather budget, I've taken the card out --> with that being said, if you can afford it, then go for it, fantastic card

Hello, My name that isn't actually my name is Official Starfire. I'm someone who has been playing Magic since Future Sight (2007) and has been in and off for years now. I originally started with standard, but now play EDH, Modern, and Legacy. EDH, however, has been a favorite of mine, as collecting these 100 cards and such a vast pool creates endless options. This particular deck is meant to a budget deck for Nin, The Pain Artist - which I am making for a friend of mine. They wanted to have a commander deck that could win games, perform well, but also is fairly budget (avoiding going above 250$). This is going to be the first option that I create for them and decided to post it online, with an in-depth Primer for those who are beginning and are interested in the deck!

(Sorry for any formatting issues, as I'm new to Tappedout.net)

Win. Seriously though, the objective of this deck is to set up 2 different combos (Might add in stuffy doll, I'll explain issues with stuffy doll later). Both of these combos involve the card Isochron Scepter - hence why the deck is named after said card. Isochron's effect is essentially the ability to exile an instant card from your hand as you play it with a converted mana cost of or less. Then you can put in to cast the spell you exiled with isochron scepter.

This very card sets up a wide array of options and combos to go off with, with multiple sets of cards, which I will explain here:

Paradox Engine + Isochron Scepter with Lightning Bolt + any combination of mana rocks that produce 2 or more mana

This combo is a win condition within the deck and allows you to cast infinite lightning bolts at your opponents' faces. Paradox engine states that whenever you cast a spell, you may untap all nonland permanents you control... This intertwined with Isochron which states you can cast the spell that has been imprinted on it. This means that scepter allows you to cast a spell, therefore triggering paradox engine and allowing you to untap all of your nonland permanents, including scepter. Now, with all of this being said, if you have mana rocks (These are artifacts that tap for mana) on the field, these will untap as well from paradox engine's ability. So say you have Sol Ring, tap it for , use it on scepter to cast lightning bolt and deal 3 damage to an opponent, then causing everything to untap from paradox engine, and allowing you to repeat the process and win the game. yay.

Just a note about this combo: Lightning bolt does win games, but it can be replaced with a lot of cards within the deck. For example, you can stick on Counterspell to scepter, allowing you to counter, essentially, everything your opponents play and truly control the game. Thought Scour allows you to mill out your opponent (Be wary with this, as you will draw and could mill yourself out as well. I will bring up this combo line later with an alternative win condition that you could build into.)

Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal + any combination of mana rocks that produce 3 or more mana

Who doesn't like infinite mana? I know I do! Scepter imprinted with Dramatic Reversal allows you to untap all nonland permanents (Essentially you've built a worse paradox engine - yay), and of course, you know what this would do if you had something like a Sol Ring out. You get to tap sol ring, activate/tap scepter, get to untap all of your nonland permanents. If you have another mana rock, or a combination of mana rocks that make more than 3 mana, you can tap everything you have, then activate scepter and untap everything allowing you to have some mana left over. Keep on doing this for as much mana as you want. But now you're probably thinking "Well, Official Starfire, what do I do with all this mana?!?" and I say... Walking Ballista is a card. and that card is fantastic. Walking Ballista allows you to pour a ton of mana into him, to create a 0/0 with a bunch of +1/+1 counters. You can remove a +1/+1 counter from ballista to deal 1 damage to your opponent, so this allows you to essentially deal lethal to all of your opponents. yay.

But let's not stop here, there's another alternative "yay." you can pull off here, another outlet for all this mana you have. Comet Storm allows you throw a ton of damage onto all your opponents for the game. it also gives you an effective board wipe/burn spell if you ever need it! (NOTE: Jaya's Immolating Inferno also does an extremely similar effect for a cheaper cost - however, you need a legendary creature/planeswalker in play in order to be able to cast. That gives you 3 legal targets within the deck, but it might be worth playing around with)

If you skim through the deck, you have a lot of draw spells, scry, and similar effects to get you to your combo pieces. This is also mixed in with counterspells in order to stop/control your opponents while you try to build up to your combo pieces. You also have Nin, the Pain Artist who can help control your opponent's fields if you want - however you're giving them card advantage so that is something to think of.

When considering this deck though, a majority of the needed pieces are artifacts, forcing us to use some spells that can allow you to tutor for cards in your deck

Whir of Invention allows you to search your library for an artifact equal to the value of X. You can grab anything from Scepter, Paradox Engine, Sol ring, etc.

Fabricate, a fantastic tutor which allows you to grab any of the needed cards, but also Walking Ballista. Most tutors will put out Ballista, which causes him to just die since he'd come in as a 0/0.

Trinket Mage Puts out a creature on board, but also allows you to tutor for something like Walking Ballista, Sol Ring, etc.

Tezzeret the Seeker 's main use is his -x which allows you to grab an artifact from the deck and put it into play. This brings in a lot of legal targets to be brought into the deck, unfortuneatly you can't just simply bring in paradox on casting, but anything else is at your finger tips with him.

Gamble To some, this card might seem extremely risky and not worth the struggle, but you need to realize that on average, your hand will be quite full. This card allows you to potentially get out any of your win-condition pieces, including the instant that might be needed! Also worth noting that if you do end up grabbing an artifact piece and have the unfortunate luck of having to discard it, there are a lot of cards within the deck that allow you to fetch said pieces like Goblin Welder or Trash for Treasure.

Muddle the Mixture is a fantastic card here, as it gives you a counterspell in hand in case you need it, but it also allows you to transmute the spell, grabbing some combo pieces like Scepter and Dramatic Reversal. It also allows you to grab Reshape, which gives you the ability to sacrifice an artifact you currently have and grab something else that you might need for the win

Mystical Tutor is a must-have here. The cards you can grab with this tutor allows you to essentially grab anything that you need. plus with the size of the draw engine here, essentially you can put it in hand instantly.

I do plan on coming back to Nin and creating a non-budget decklist to really see her full potential, however, I imagine that some people won't necessarily be able to afford a very pricey deck. So this is the people who are in between. I'm going to name some cards that are worth bringing into the deck if you have a bit more change in the wallet.

Force of WillFantastic counterpsell, will really help you out in the long run, and is a true essential staple in blue decks for competitive EDH.

Mana Drain Same as above. Just a all around great counterspell

Pact of Negation Same as above

Grim Monolith + Power Artifact: Both of these cards individually are fantastic cards to run in the deck. Power Artifact goes nicely with the Scepter+Dramatic Reversal + Sol Ring Combo since you don't need an extra artifact to go infinite. If both of these cards can be run in the deck, you just added another infinite mana combo in the deck. Grim Monolith taps for and needs to untap. By using power artifact, you reduce its untap cost by , therefore allowing you to tap for , and use to untap (I'm sorry if all these symbols cause confusion)

Staff of Domination is another option to dump all your mana into, with a the Dramatic Reversal + Scepter combo, since it constantly untaps it, allowing you to tap down everything your opponent controls, draw cards, gain life, etc.

Back to Basics is truly ridiculous in this deck. Due to this being a relatively budget deck, you run a ton of basics, it results in there being a minor downside on your behalf. Also considering the fact that the deck runs off of a lot of mana rocks. You can punish those who run multiple colors and fancy lands, just to give yourself a massive edge to get ahead.

Stranglehold is a nightmare. I used to run a Doomsday deck for a while, and currently, my main list is a Captain Sisay deck. This deck says "No" to all of that. I have no idea how big of an impact it has on a casual environment, really depends on who you are against, but in a competitive format, this is definitely a card worth picking up.

Volcanic Island + Scalding Tarn + Ancient Tomb + Other Fetches: One thing that can definitely help out the deck is throwing in some good ol' lands. Lands are the key to any deck, and having just to right mana base will help with your consistency and not leave you stranded. Right now the deck is running 24 basics (This ends up working out really well with Back to Basics, but I regress). Running stuff like Volcanic, Fetch lands (Scalding Tarn, Arid Mesa, Flooded Strand, Etc.) will help out a lot. Ancient Tomb is another land that is worth checking out. It gets you higher up on the curve, and considering this deck uses a lot of artifacts (and once you tune it to be competitive, the amount of artifacts goes upwards)

Mox Diamond + Mox Opal + Chrome Mox are investments, but they do work. All these cards can be used in essentially any commander deck, and just ramp up the pace of your deck. In this particular deck, considering the fact that you can tutor out artifacts, it becomes extremely good. Also worth noting that with Tezzeret the Seeker you can -x for 0 and search out any of these mox.

Dack Fayden just fits perfectly in a niche for this deck. He gives you the ability to draw, which this card would utilize quite heavily. He can steal artifacts, which honestly is just hilarious - but it's also worth noting that more and more decks are using Paradox Engine, so you can steal one of the combo pieces you need, or you can steal some manarocks and get yourself into infinite mana with scepter. Who can say no to 2 artifacts?

Academy Ruins allows you to keep bringing back artifacts, and in a format which has quite a lot of artifact hate, and in a deck that has a lot of draw, no second thoughts on this addition.

Tolaria West has transmute for 0 - Walking Ballista has 0. Good talk.

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Casual

94% Competitive

Date added 6 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

5 - 0 Mythic Rares

21 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

30 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.09
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C
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