This is my Sydri deck. It's one of my favourite decks to play, as it has a lot of cool interactions and it gets to play all the best artifacts in the game (besides moxen, black lotus and time vault, of course). The deck is by no means finished or perfect, but it is very powerful and has lots of good synergies between cards.
The main objective of the deck is simple. Smash people with giant pieces of metal. Sydri can turn otherwise good cards like Akroma's Memorial and Darksteel Forge into huge threats of their own. The idea is to ramp and draw cards in the early game, then start beating people down in the mid-late game, and either win by straight up beats, or by developing a board lock. Most of the cards in the deck can be split up into a few categories, which I will go over below.
BEATERS: Vedalken Orrery, Bident of Thassa, Mind's Eye, Steel Hellkite, Akroma's Memorial, Sun Titan, Unwinding Clock, Whip of Erebos, Master of Etherium, Staff of Nin, Spine of Ish Sah, Darksteel Forge. These are some of the strongest and most efficient beaters in the deck. Some of them are creatures in themselves, other have to be animated by Sydri.
RAMP: Mox Opal, Wayfarer's Bauble, Sol Ring, Etherium Sculptor, Orzhov Signet, Chromatic Lantern, Dimir Cluestone, Solemn Simulacrum, Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus. Since most of the beating down doesn't actually take place until a bit later in the game, the deck needs ramp to get there. All of the ramp in this deck is made up of artifacts, which can also be used as beaters. I specifically chose Orzhov Signet because it gives me the mana for Sydri's second ability, and Dimir Cluestone becaue the draw ability is nice, especially with Sun Titan, and it makes blue mana.
CONTROL: Arcane Denial, Counterspell, Cryptic Command, Dispatch, Path to Exile, Spine of Ish Sah, Duplicant, Tormod's Crypt, Executioner's Capsule, Dispeller's Capsule,
Caltrops
, All Is Dust, Cyclonic Rift, Supreme Verdict. Since we're in esper colours, the deck naturally has a lot of control elements as well, from counterspells to removal to boardwipes.
Caltrops
is really nice in combination with Sydri, since you can give it deathtouch to destroy all attacking creatures.
CARD DRAW: Baleful Strix, Trading Post, Mind's Eye, Consecrated Sphinx, Bident of Thassa, Solemn Simulacrum, Staff of Nin, Sphinx's Revelation. Along with the removal and counterspells comes card draw. The deck is slightly lacking in the card draw department, but the cards it does have are very efficient at it. Staff of Nin can also be given deathtouch by Sydri, making it into a colourless Murder on a stick.
TUTORS: Enlightened Tutor, Arcum Dagsson, Treasure Mage, Fabricate, Demonic Tutor, Tezzeret the Seeker , Trinket Mage, Tolaria West. Every deck needs tutors, and these are some of the best ones available for artifacts.
PROTECTION/RECURSION: Sun Titan, Leonin Abunas, Lightning Greaves, Mimic Vat, Roar of Reclamation, Spellskite, Whip of Erebos,
Metallurgeon
, Academy Ruins, Buried Ruin, Trading Post, Darksteel Forge. My artifacts often get a lot of hate, so I have to have ways to protect them and get them back. Mimic Vat can also imprint an artifact if it was a creature when it died, which is pretty handy.
GOOD CARDS: Phyrexian Metamorph, Copy Artifact, Sculpting Steel, Karn, Silver Golem, Sensei's Divining Top, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. These cards didn't really fit into any other category, but they're just good. Karn, Silver Golem is an awesome backup Sydri, he's a bit less fragile, he's a great blocker and his ability is easier to activate. I'd probably run him as my general if he wasn't colourless.
MEAN CARDS: Mycosynth Lattice + Karn, Silver Golem or Sydri, Mindslaver + Academy Ruins. Yes, I am including these cards. Sometimes winning via beatdowns just isn't feasible, so I have to have other ways to win. Both of these are obviously more effective against less opponents, so often the plan will be to knock out a few players by attacking, then lock the remaining few.
LANDS:
Utility: Darksteel Citadel, Homeward Path, Vault of Whispers, Seat of the Synod, Ancient Den, Ancient Tomb, Academy Ruins, Maze of Ith, Temple of the False God, Buried Ruin, Strip Mine. These lands are all awesome. Artifact lands can be fetched by Trinket Mage or Tezzeret the Seeker , the other lands are just awesome and really useful.
Fixing: Godless Shrine, Watery Grave, Hallowed Fountain, Command Tower, Arcane Sanctum,
Glimmervoid
, Mystic Gate, Orzhov Basilica, Underground River, Adarkar Wastes, Temple of Deceit, Temple of Silence, Evolving Wilds, Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Marsh Flats. Polluted Delta and blue duals were a bit expensive for me, and not really necessary since this deck is usually fine with mostly colourless mana. I included Orzhov Basilica because it gives me colours for Sydri's second ability, and pain-lands since I usually just need the colourless mana.
Basics: 6xIsland, 3xPlains, 2xSwamp. Blue is by far the most important colour in the deck, so I put in more islands than any other basic. There's also barely any black, hence only 2 swamps.
Now that I've gone over all the cards, I'll outline a few of the cool synergies in the deck:
Vedalken Orrery + Unwinding Clock: These cards work together very nicely, almost like a build-your-own Prophet of Kruphix. They're even better in combination with Mycosynth Lattice and Consecrated Sphinx. Take a turn on everyone else's turn!
Trinket Mage + Mox Opal, Sol Ring, Dispeller's Capsule, Executioner's Capsule, Sensei's Divining Top, Tormod's Crypt, Wayfarer's Bauble, artifact lands. This guy is by far the best utility creature in the deck. There are so many 0 and 1 cost artifacts in the deck, he can do just about anything you want. Getting Trinket Mage onto a Mimic Vat just feels so good.
Sun Titan + Buried Ruin, Strip Mine, Dimir Cluestone, Dispeller's Capsule, Executioner's Capsule, Tormod's Crypt, fetchlands. Obviously Sun Titan is great at getting back cards your opponents have killed, but he's even better with cards that put themselves in the graveyard.
Arcum Dagsson + Baleful Strix, Etherium Sculptor,
Metallurgeon
, Spellskite, Solemn Simulacrum. These little utility artifact creatures are great on their own, but with Arcum they become even more useful. Of course, Sydri can just turn any artifact into a creature to be sac'd by Arcum, but it's nice to have these guys available. The usual targets for Arcum (assuming nothing threatening is going on) are: Staff of Nin if I'm behind, Akroma's Memorial if I have a huge board, Mycosynth Lattice if I have lots of mana, Mindslaver if I have lots of mana and Academy Ruins.
SIDEBOARD:
If people aren't cool with the mean cards, I can replace them with cards in my sideboard:
Mycosynth Lattice becomes Colossus of Akros
Mindslaver becomes Brittle Effigy
That about sums up the deck. I hope you like it and I hope this helps you out with your deckbuilding!
