I'm starting off with this card because it's simply the most common win condition in this deck. When this was initially released I wanted to try it simply because of all the hype since the initial reveal. I thought it would be fun, but it has since made me remove most other win conditions simply because of slot efficiency.
In order to prevent diluting any deck you want your win conditions to preferably synergize with your commander or with the cards naturally in your deck. In our case Paradox Engine does both, being able to be cheated into play to avoid the biggest downside to this card (it's mana cost) and interacting with the tons of artifact mana and activated abilities such as Deal Broker and Goblin Welder, which becomes completely broken with the Engine.
This deck generally quickly makes insane amounts of mana with Paradox Engine, then tries to use wheel effects or Sandstone Oracle to refill your hand, play the rest of your fast mana and use cards such as Myr Retriever to replay the card draw effects. The actual lines in game are so vastly different that it's impossible to narrow down, I'll be mentioning a few infinite combos further on, most of which use Paradox Engine in some way.
Vintage playable cards are usually busted in some way, and this deck happens to be able to abuse Welder. Even after playing this deck for the length I have, I still get baited into keeping unreasonable hands simply because I can drop Welder turn 1.
Besides the obvious synergy with our commander, Welder doubles as interaction for opponents, such as removing an Isochron Scepter or Aetherflux Reservoirs on combo turns (provided your opponent has an artifact in their graveyard). Provides protection for stax pieces, or switches them out just before your turn. In the worst case scenario it simply upgrades your mana rocks for better one in your yard, or allows you to gain a surge of mana by using it to switch a tapped rock for an untapped one during your turn.
Generally if I have a chance to get a turn with an active Welder and a Paradox Engine you should try to win. Worst case scenario I end up with a ton of stax pieces in play, an untapped Welder and possible instant speed plays to gain multiple Welder activations during my opponents turns. Welder coincidentally makes it very hard to interact with anything else on your board during your combo turn, since you can simply bring back any artifacts your opponent might want to remove.
What? Yea I know. Hear me out, first I'll list the possible cards this can target in my deck:
Great Furnace
Darksteel Citadel
Chrome Mox
Mox Diamond
Mox Opal
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Tormod's Crypt
Codex Shredder
Grafdigger's Cage
Mana Vault
Pyrite Spellbomb
Sensei's Divining Top
Sol Ring
Voltaic Key
The mana rocks are mostly useful for early game value (using a Mana Vault to bring out Daretti turn 1/2, discarding the Salvaging Station and swapping it for the Mana vault the next turn, to bring back Mana Vault and still have 3 mana + lands available). Or for bringing back during combo turns (simply to generate mana with a sac outlet, or returning artifacts for Daretti to sacrifice to bring back important pieces). It gives great protection / reusability to Grafdigger's Cage and Tormod's Crypt should you face decks that these cards are effective against. Sensei's Divining Top allows for extra card draw in combination with a sacrifice outlet. Pyrite Spellbomb allows you extra draws even without a sacrifice outlet, or to simply pay R to shock, being reusable as long as you kill a creature with the 2 damage. Voltaic Key can untap either a mana rock such as Mana Vault or untap Salvaging Station (allowing for some loops with Scrap Trawler).
I'm going to give Codex Shredder it's own section because this is actually one of my most common win conditions. Firstly what Codex Shredder does on it's own is inhibit the use of top deck tutors such as Mystical or Vampiric Tutor, in general you will have it in play and should no one have done anything with the top of their deck you will use it to mill yourself before the start of your turn to dig through your deck faster. Should the game stall out you can pay the 5 mana end of turn to return an important spell to play in your next turn. This also gives mono red a way to replay every possible card in our deck.
Paradox Engine, Salvaging Station, Codex Shredder and 6+ mana on rocks gives you the possibility of looping a 0 or 1 mana spell in your graveyard for infinite mana or infinite damage. The way this works is simple; assume you have Salvaging Station and Paradox Engine together with the necessary mana rocks in play. You either return Codex Shredder from your graveyard to play using station, play it from your hand or have it in play already. Activate Codex Shredder for 5 mana to return for example Lotus Petal from your graveyard to your hand. Playing Lotus Petal untaps your mana rocks and untaps Salvaging Station from the Paradox Engine trigger. Use the Salvaging Station to grab the Codex Shredder from our yard, sacrifice the lotus petal to end up with +1 or +2 positive mana (depending on if you had 5 or 6 mana from rocks). If you have a Lightning Bolt/Pyrite Spellbomb in your yard you can replay this infinitely to kill all our opponents. If you have a sacrifice outlet Sensei's Divining Top allows you to draw your whole deck and finish your opponents any way you please.
- Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever, Krark-Clan Ironworks
I'm lumping these cards together because it's another possible win condition, the same one the modern KCI deck uses, for a detailed write up of this combo I'd like to refer you here:
https://blogs.magicjudges.org/ftw/2018/03/19/how-does-the-krark-clan-ironworks-combo-work/
Besides this combo, these cards provide a lot of value in our deck, from being able to generate more Engine triggers on your combo turns, to simply backing up your stax pieces, or sacrificing them before the start of your turn in the case of KCI.
Another possible win condition, if combined with Paradox Engine, to provide infinite Chain Veil activations (using Ugin to kill the entire table). Mostly used in combo turns to allow Daretti to return a draw effect to play another time. Although it is very mana inefficient, mana is often not the problem on combo turns, and even if it only allows you to use Daretti's + ability that still gives you the extra possible draws you might need to find a combo. An alternative for this slot could be Past in Flames, which allows you to flashback Wheel, Trash for Treasure or Scrap Mastery on your combo turn.
One of the only win conditions that survived the coming of Paradox Engine. Generally you try to use this on opponents who are obviously intending to win on their next turn, and most often you can do it for them, or at least have them kill themselves (through Ad Nauseum for example). Can also be used to force your opponents interactions on another player then yourself. Most often using this means effectively skipping your turn, which makes this very dangerous to use should you target the wrong player, but most competitive EDH decks at least tend to be able to shut themselves down completely or kill themselves outright.
The final win condition. Early game this can be a valuable play to remove all your opponents mana rocks and return 1 or a few carefully selected artifacts discarded to Daretti's + ability. Late game this can either bring back every stax piece your opponents got rid of throughout the game in one go, or outright win the game with everything brought back.
Probably the only truly good tutor in red, so we're all over that. I mentioned earlier that I hate random discard, and I do, but this is too good. Early game it's often best to simply get a Mana Crypt, and late game it luckily has value in our deck even if it acts as an Entomb.
This searches up a ton of creatures:
Goblin Welder should you go for a win
Slobad if you need a sacrifice outlet
Magus of the Moon if you need a stax effect
Myr Retriever should you need to round out the combo
Gorilla Shaman can provide artifact removal in a pinch
Anger if you need to provide the haste (possibly during a combo turn)
Squee, Goblin Nabob if the board stalls and you need something to break parity
It has a bunch of other possible targets, such as Shimmer Myr, Loyal Apprentice, Dire Fleet Daredevil, Squee Goblin Nabob and Deal Broker which are all very situational. The versatility of this tutor is a godsend.
Brings a stax piece back in a pinch, most often used during a combo turn to bring back Memory Jar.
- Crucible of Worlds, Squee Goblin Nabob
Both mostly used to break parity on Daretti's + should the game stall out. Honestly cards I always consider cutting when adding anything new.
Sacrifice outlet for artifacts, we definitely don't need one every game, but this one has a decent effect and can be sought up through Imperial Recruiter.
Bad card draw, but we have to take what we can get.
Breaks the color pie, allowing you to use an opponent's Yawgs Will, Transmute Artifact or Demonic Tutor to set up your own win, or use a possible Nature's Claim or Abrupt Decay to remove a problematic enchantment. Worst case scenario it atleast exiles the card from your opponent's graveyard so they won't be able to use it.
Provides blockers and artifact fodder, easily kills enemy Dack Fayden or Liliana, or simply pressure Ad Naus life totals.
Can catch opponents off guard, I've had games where I stopped a combo because my opponent wheeled me into Shimmer Myr and Grafdigger's Cage. Allows for more protection during Paradox turns in case someone wants to respond to the cast trigger.
Mostly provides haste to Welder or Deal Broker, should we draw into them during a combo turn. Always a good card to throw away to Daretti's +.
