This is a budget build and can be a bit slow to get going (and is a glasscannon). But once it finds one of the ways to draw more than 1 card off of Sram's ability and a mana cost reducer, it's off to the races and can usually deck out. It almost always has enough mana floating to then use Cogwork Assembler to spit out a hasted copy of
Darksteel Juggernaut
to wallop each opponent with. Each is up to about +65/+65 with all the artifacts. Equip O-Naginata to anything and Odric, Lunarch Marshal gives each one the necessary trample. And a bunch of unnecessary stuff like deathtouch, flying, lifelink and etc. if you want.
Phase 1
Mulligan until you have a hand that will let you play Sram. Usually this means 1 plains and 1 other land. But some other things are workable too, like 1 plains and Sol Ring or 2 non-plains lands and Marble Diamond. Without this, you can end up durdling for a very long time and have no realistic way to win.
Phase 2
You'll mostly just be playing rocks and equip
Phase 3
You're looking for 2 pieces: extra draw and mana cost reduction
Phase 4
Win! I went with a beatdown goal with the simplest bookkeping I could find, but there are several options here.
Warning: some of what follows is a lot of my own notes and mentions cards not in the decklist above.
Extra draw
Extra Draw is important because we won't always draw a card that can be immediately played to draw another one. We need ways to get over these humps. Auras that also draw a card like Angelic Gift can be handy to get over a hump, but end up using too much mana.
- 1) Puresteel Paladin is the best option
- 2) Alhammarret's Archive is my second choice. The cmc is a bit high, but tollerable
- 3) Temple Bell + Paradox Engine is 2 cards, so harder to get up and going. Paradox Engine does synergize with ways to make more mana too though. Has the downside of drawing cards for your opponents too.
- 4) Flickering Ward is nice since it's a reusable trigger, but costs 2 white mana per use. It can be covered if you also have Paradox Engine and rocks that tap for two white mana also though.
Conviction
is a cheaper options but costs 1 more mana to cycle.
- 5) Diviner's Wand is a bit higher than our goal for equipment cmc, but it's cheap $ and provides an outlet to turn surplus mana into draw if we get a good mana engine online before a drawing one. Needs testing though.
- 6)
Illuminated Folio
is cheap $ and with Paradox Engine down could do work.
- 7) Memory Jar. If budget isn't an issue, probably moves up to #3.
- 8) Panharmonicon only works with Puresteel Paladin and not Sram's ability, so isn't as useful as it might seem. If Puresteel is down, that should be enough draw, so Panharmonicon is kind of a waste.
Extra Mana or Mana Cost Reduction
There aren't enough 0 cmc equipment cards, but there are a bunch of 1 cmc ones. If we can get they're cost down to 0 or generate mana as they're played, we can keep things going.
- 1)
Semblance Anvil
reduces by 2 cmc.
- 2) Foundry Inspector
- 3) Helm of Awakening has the downside of reducing spell costs for your opponents too, but works on our handful of non artifacts that need a generic mana at least.
- 4) Paradox Engine untapping all our rocks on every cast is so good.
- 5) Clock of Omens actually works quite well too since you can tap your plethora of equipment to untap your best rock many times. With Paradox Engine down too, all the equipment untaps too, quickly floating a ton of mana. It's kind of a pita to track. White mana can sometimes be a bottleneck, so I often just start tracking that at this point and not worry about getting every colorless mana I could since 50+ generic is plenty.
- 5) Krark-Clan Ironworks is powerful too. I have it in now, but I think I'll replace it since it doesn't really go with the win-condition I'm aiming for.
Stone Haven Outfitter
+
Myrsmith
is pretty cheap and combined with Ironworks, could be another way to get a draw doubler. Seems like too many pieces though.
Other options:
- 6) Cloud Key is an another option for a mana reduction card. Mainly cut to keep the budget down.
- 7) There's an infinite white mana combo with 2 cards, but one is an expensive Lion's Eye Diamond and is way out of the budget for this deck.
- 8) Use Isochron Sceptor on a card like Shelter. Needs mana and an untap for each use, but wanted to make a note since Isochron Sceptor + Silence + Paradox Engine + rocks that tap for 2 I think is a pretty good lockdown being able to cast Silence on every turn. Seems way too hard to pull off, but would be so sweet.
Tutors
The two engine pieces above are so important, that some tutors are a good option. I'm going to try subbing some in when I get a chance.
1) Inventors' Fair - I got this one first because it's one of the cheaper options
More options:2) Enlightened Tutor can fetch most of the important pieces other than Puresteel Paladin. It's a staple card so I probably should just get one. Since it can find both draw and mana pieces, it'd probably be better to get this first than adding more draw / mana pieces.
3) Thalia's Lancers I want to try. The CMC is high, but is <$1 and can find either Paradox Engine or Alhammarret's Archive.
4) Recruiter of the Guard is a bit pricey but can find Puresteel Paladin,
Foundary Inspector
, Sram if you let him be tucked,
Darksteel Juggernaut
, Monastery Mentor,
Gold Myr
, etc. If budget isn't an issue, this is the one to get after befor Thalia's Lancers.
5)
Tamiyo's Journal
is slow, but cheap, and can eventually find anything. Probably too slow to be playable, needs testing.
I found equipment tutors like Open the Armory to not be very helpful since it's the engine pieces that are most important to find and it can't find non-equipment artifacts.
Other options for win conditions
There are a lot of different win conditions you can put into this deck engine. Aetherflux Reservoir and Monastery Mentor are probably two of the strongest, but I kind of like the beat-down method and with Darksteel Juggernaught, I can just count up the artifacts I have on the board when I attack rather than needing to do a lot of bookkeping while playing through my deck like you do with other options like
Arcbound Crusher
, Myth Realized, and of course Aetherflux Reservoir and Monastery Mentor.
Militant Inquisitor
isn't great since he doesn't have indestructible like Darksteel Jugassgernaught and can't be copied with Cogwork Assembler, but he has a similar mechanic with easy bookkeeping. Arcbound Automaton also avoids bookeeping while going off too, but is a little more work to add up his power/toughness/keywords for the attack.
I already have a Myth Realized and he has some attractive qualities -- he's normally an enchantment and not a creature, so avoids creature-only wrath effects. And if someone plays a destroy all artifacts effect, he dodges that too. Still, if he's charged up he'll be a target. If I want to put more $ into this, I'll probably get the Monastery Mentor since Skullclamp and Ashnod's Altar have synergies, and he scales much faster than Myth Realized.
Myrsmith
could pump out 50+ 1/1 creatures if you want to try going that route.
As tempting as it is, it's important to not cram too many win condition cards in since taking out low CMC equipment makes it clunkier. I mostly looked at things that would synergize specifically with something the engine was doing, but there isn't any reason you couldn't drop whatever mono-white infinite combo win condition you want since you'll be drawing so much.
VoltronGoing Voltron with Sram can be an alternate option especially if Puresteel is down to give free equips. Sigarda's Aid is another option and isn't too much. Also,
Surestrike Trident
lets Sram do damage without putting him in combat. If Paradox Engine is going, you could potentially hit every opponent for 21+ commander damage on the same turn. Empyrial Armor is another option since it's quite common to build up a large hand.
Misc
Rocks
Gold Myr
, Darksteel Ingot, and Marble Diamond normally aren't great, but once Paradox Engine is down, all our rocks/dorks will easily untap and getting some white mana is helpful. Cultivator's Caravan makes white too and is the best one since it draws us a card with Sram too. This seems like enough, but
Thunder Totem
or
Manalith
are a couple other options.
ProtectionThis deck is easy to disrupt in multiple ways and the best options I can think of ones that prevent oponents from casting on your turn. Conqueror's Flail is best since it cantrips and can have its cost lowered to 0, but does have a bit of a heafy equip cost if we don't have Puresteel Paladin out. Silence is probably the next best option at 1 mana, but only lasts one turn. Grand Abolisher is the other option, but will probably easily set of alarms when you drop him. He does fit in a lot of different decks though, so that flexibility is something to consider on a budget. You could try to pull of a semi-lockdown with Isochron Scepter + Silence + Unwinding Clock/Paradox Engine + a couple rocks to cast Silence on everyone's turn.
If a couple Silence effects aren't enough, I'll try adding some low cmc protection auras like Hyena Umbara,
Guildscorn Ward
,
Mask of Law and Grace
,
Shield of Duty and Reason
,
White Ward
,
Inviolability
, etc. They still trigger Sram, but can't be mana cost reduced to 0 is the problem.
Pentarch Ward
and Unquestioned Authority cost more mana but at least draw 2 cards. Heliod's Pilgrim might be helpful too to find specific ones. Other downside is they won't trigger Puresteel Paladin.
Some instants might be helpful too like Rebuff the Wicked. Main trouble is if the 0 and 1 cmc equipment count starts going down, the deck gets too clunky fast.
Recovery
I probably need more recovery than just Elixir of Immortality. I'm not really sure what else to put though.
Infinite ManaI tried avoiding inifite mana, but there is a way: - Sac a bunch of equipment with Krark-Clan Ironworks
- Put the equipment back into deck with Elixir of Immortality
- Play something to trigger Sram, which draws an equipment and triggers Paradox Engine
- Paradox Engine untaps all rocks
- play the next equipment sram drew to repeat until decked out
- (optional) tap all equipment with Clock of Omens to untap a rock
- Go back to step 1
There is a simpler infinite mana loop, but it only works if Sram is not on the battlefield. If he is, you mill yourself. It's Paradox Engine + Flickering Ward + rocks that produce 2 white mana = inf untaps for other rocks. Just thought I'd make a note of them in case I switch out win conditions for something that needs inf mana.
Another infinite mana engine is possible by sacrificing equipment with Krark-Clan Ironworks, then playing Faith's Reward or Second Sunrise, then using Codex Shredder to get back Faith's Reward/Second Sunrise, repeat.
Another infinite recursion engine is (2 of Myr Retriever, Junk Diver, and
Workshop Assistant
) combined with (1 of Krark-Clan Ironworks, Ashnod's Altar, or Phyrexian Altar). Doesn't trigger Sram, but powers up Aetherflux Resorvoir or Monastary Monk. Scrap Trawler fits in nicely too. Nice thing is this also gives more recovery options to get back key pieces that may have been destroyed.
