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To Harness Antiquity [cEDH Primer, Rule 0]

Commander: Rule 0 Artifact Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Primer

EVEN-ELITE


I’ve always thought that brewing up creative decklists that can win the game as early and consistently as possible was very enjoyable. Thanks to the concept of Rule 0, I’ve been blessed with many more opportunities to do just that. First off, I am partnering Breya, Etherium Shaper with Urza, Lord High Artificer, two commanders that can’t actually partner. In addition, I’m using several cards that are normally banned in Commander. These two oddities makes for a casually competitive deck that is a lot of fun to pilot.
Auriok Salvagers + Black Lotus = Infinite mana of all colors

Time Vault + Voltaic Key = Infinite turns

Aetherflux Reservoir + Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top = Cast the whole deck and gain a lot of life.

Breya, Etherium Shaper: Breya is a versatile four-color commander with great stats, given her mana cost. She creates two artifact creatures upon ETB, and she’s also an artifact herself! Her activated ability serves as removal, life gain, and direct damage. Such utility is just what this deck is looking to exploit. With infinite mana, Breya can sacrifice herself and another artifact infinitely (with the help of Auriok Salvagers; see below) and kill each opponent.

Urza, Lord High Artificer: Urza is a powerful commander who can turn artifact creatures and stax pieces into mana dorks. Since this deck runs many artifacts, things can get out of hand very quickly. Also, when this list generates infinite mana, Urza is able to cast the entire deck.

Polymorph: This deck doesn’t always play creatures, but when it does, they are powerful. Polymorph is one way in which the deck can put said creatures onto the battlefield in an unexpected fashion. Polymorph often targets the tokens that the deck makes, but it can target commanders if absolutely necessary.

Reality Scramble: This card exists in this list for the same reason Polymorph does. If I could use Oath of Druids, I would. Alas, the only color that this deck doesn’t use is green. Reality Scramble is an efficient way to produce a similar effect to the Oath, turning a vanilla creature token into a powerful threat.

Transmogrify: Another red incarnation of Polymorph, Transmogrify is a great way to turn a token into a powerful threat.

Auriok Salvagers: This is one of my favorite cards ever. In this deck, Auriok Salvagers has many targets. It favors targeting Black Lotus to make infinite mana, which can then be used to target any other artifacts that can be sacrificed.

Tidespout Tyrant: When an artifact can be cast any number of times, things get pretty spicy with this deck. Tidespout Tyrant can be used to bounce our opponents’ entire boards to their hands. It can also be used to make infinite mana with two “mana positive” artifacts, e.g Sol Ring and Mox Sapphire. If need be, it’s also a solid attacker and blocker.

Black Lotus: Banned in every format except Vintage, Black Lotus is a powerful and iconic 0-cost artifact that combos with Auriok Salvagers to generate infinite mana. WIth that infinite mana, you can activate and recast Breya, Etherium Shaper ad infinitum to kill each opponent.

Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, and Mox Ruby: The Moxen, as free mana rocks, are so much better than lands. Being able to play at least two of them on the first turn of the game is sure to give a huge advantage that will remain until the later stages of the game.

Mana Crypt: As with other 0-cost mana rocks in this deck, Mana Crypt can be cast over and over again with Tidespout Tyrant to generate infinite mana and storm count.

Mana Vault: This artifact tends to damage me less than Mana Crypt, and it’s a powerful artifact that can give us a great start in the game.

Lotus Petal: In a deck with four colors, Lotus Petal is a great artifact for when we’re trying to cast an essential spell, but haven’t drawn the right land to cast it.

Sol Ring: Oh, how could I miss Sol Ring? This classic artifact is mana-positive, meaning that the amount of mana that it adds when tapped is greater than its converted mana cost.

Arcane Signet: Because this deck runs every color except for green, Arcane Signet is one of the more powerful mana rocks listed here.

Mox Amber: This artifact is similar to Arcane Signet, but it costs nothing to cast. It’s better and worse than the Signet, in ways.

Mox Diamond: Having to pitch a land for this artifact is no big deal. After all, in a deck with four colors, having an artifact that can add any color is very useful.

Time Vault: This powerful artifact can enable us to take infinite turns if we have the right gears in place.

Voltaic Key: This card can be used to untap other artifacts, but its primary use is to target Time Vault and take infinite turns.

Isochron Scepter: This doesn’t have very many targets, but recurring an instant is actually quite a powerful action.

Dramatic Reversal: With Isochron Scepter and mana rocks that can produce at least 2 colorless mana, Dramatic Reversal allows us to untap all of our nonland permanents infinitely.

Paradox Engine: Alternatively, you can exile a different instant with Paradox Engine and Isochron Scepter, and still get the same effect as Dramatic Reversal.

Bolas's Citadel: Although this artifact has a converted mana cost of 6, it is well worth the investment. Bolas's Citadel enables the deck to cast many spells without spending mana, and, in conjunction with Necropotence and Sensei's Divining Top, can cast the entire deck. The activated ability on Bolas's Citadel is not meant to be used very often, but if the deck could be put in a winning position after activating it, then I suppose that there’s no reason not to.

Sensei's Divining Top: If the rest of the combo pieces here aren’t on the battlefield, Sensei's Divining Top allows us to change the fate of our library.

Aetherflux Reservoir: This deck doesn’t have very many ways to gain life, but Aetherflux Reservoir is very useful when casting many uncostly artifacts. Speaking of which...

Pyrite Spellbomb: For its mana cost, Pyrite Spellbomb is versatile. It can either be used to remove a pesky creature, damage an opponent, or it can be cracked to draw a card. With Auriok Salvagers and infinite mana, Pyrite Spellbomb can kill each opponent. If an opponent casts something like Teferi's Protection before Pyrite Spellbomb’s activated ability resolves, then the card can just be used to draw an indefinite amount of cards instead.

Welding Jar: This 0-cost artifact can make all of our artifacts impervious to removal on our turn if we have infinite mana.

Tormod's Crypt: With the help of graveyard recursion, Tormod's Crypt can shut down decks that rely on their owner’s graveyard, such as Oath of Druids-focused decks, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and especially Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. Don’t underestimate this artifact.

Urza's Bauble: Urza's Bauble, when sacrificed, allows us to get a peek at cards in opponents’ hands. If we were feeling cocky, we could sacrifice and recast the bauble with infinite mana and Auriok Salvagers, but you’d run the risk of dying on the next upkeep.

Bloodtallow Candle: This card, in conjunction with infinite mana, forces our opponents to discard their hands.

Codex Shredder: Arguably one of the more useful low-cost artifacts in the deck, Codex Shredder can effectively put our entire graveyard back into our hand, and, with infinite mana, can allow us to cast any instants and sorceries from our graveyard any number of times.

Universal Solvent: Blow up every permanent your opponents control with infinite mana.

Winter Orb: Winter Orb is quite an annoying card, potentially for all players. However, this deck doesn’t mind if the few creatures it has don’t untap. The table may hate you, but the play is worth it.

Static Orb: Along with Winter Orb, the inclusion of Static Orb would mean that players can only untap one land and one nonland permanent on each of their untap steps. That sounds really painful to me. And painful is just what cEDH is looking for.

Ensnaring Bridge: None of the creatures in this deck are looking to actively attack opponents, and so Ensaring Bridge is included for the sake of shutting down battlecruiser strategies.

Narset, Parter of Veils: As a means of preventing oppponents from drawing cards, Narset, Parter of Veils is pretty powerful on her own. Her loyalty ability can be used to sift through our deck and find the right noncreature, nonland cards to help us win.

Counterspell: What a classic card! Counterspell, although the most vanilla among those included in the deck, isn’t actually that bad.

Force of Will: Force of Will is a great counterspell if you want to take your opponents by surprise. In addition, if an opponent were to cast Imp's Mischief, they’d end up losing more life than if they were to target a Counterspell. Seems good.

Pact of Negation: As another free counterspell, Pact of Negation has remained a cEDH staple for quite a long time.

Mana Drain: Mana Drain is easily one of the best counterspells in the game. If an opponent casts a big spell and is looking to win the game, Mana Drain can provide us with a lot of mana for activating Urza.

Swan Song: With a CMC of 1, Swan Song is one of the most popular counterspells in cEDH, and for good reason. Its versatility and low mana cost form a high-power card that is sure to slow opponents down.

Force of Negation: With an alternative cost that spends no mana, Force of Negation is put to good use against tutors and artifact spells.

Fierce Guardianship: Fierce Guardianship can potentially be cast for free, and although it can’t counter creature spells, it, like Force of Negation, has a wide variety of applications that have favorable impacts on the game.

Mental Misstep: Best used in the early game (but also usable against cheap counterspells), Mental Misstep has been commonly used in cEDH for a long time. If we have no blue mana left to spend, we can simply pay 2 life.

Rebuff the Wicked: White counterspells are an underappreciated set of cards, and Rebuff the Wicked is one of their best. It’s a cheap, effective answer to removal spells that threaten a winning position.

Deflecting Swat: This spell is not like the others in its section, but it’s an often free, more applicable, and red version of Imp's Mischief that doesn’t force us to lose life. Who wouldn’t want that?

Artifact Blast: Another unexpected counterspell, Artifact Blast can target a wide variety of artifacts, from combo pieces to mana rocks. It’s a great card for its cost and color.

Silence: Silence can be cast on any player’s turn, so there is quite a bit of range to be found there. The card can either stop an opponent from performing an infinite combo, or can ensure that you do.

Wishclaw Talisman: As a tutor that can also be used for politics, Wishclaw Talisman is one of the best artifacts that can search for cards. The best part is that it allows us to search our library for any card, so if we have a win set up, we’re just one search away.

Gamble: Although the card searched for could end up discarded, Gamble is often worth the risk, for its low CMC.

Mystical Tutor: This deck focuses mainly on artifacts, but its use of instants and sorceries also certifiably lead it to victory. By using this cEDH staple to search up any instant or sorcery we want, the game is much easier to win.

Personal Tutor: Personal Tutor is a card that, in my experience, is not used very often in cEDH. Don’t sleep on it! If we can’t use Mystical Tutor, then Personal Tutor is nonetheless a fine card for finding effective spells to lead us to victory.

Vampiric Tutor: It can tutor any card from our deck and put it on top of our library at instant speed. Enough said.

Demonic Tutor: One of the most powerful cards ever printed, Demonic Tutor can lead us to early wins via infinite combo.

Fabricate: It’s no Tinker, but Fabricate can search the deck for any artifact, and is therefore a great card to include in the list.

Tinker: This is the best artifact tutor in the game. By inconsequentially sacrificing a mana rock, Tinker most often searches for a Time Vault or Bolas's Citadel.

Wheel of Fortune: For three mana, each player gets a new hand. Wheel of Fortune can put multiple sacrificable artifacts into our graveyard, and for only three mana.

Timetwister: Auriok Salvagers won’t be provided with any more targets when this is cast, but Timetwister can be a better Wheel of Fortune when the situation calls for it.

Ancestral Recall: As the only banned card-draw spell here, Ancestral Recall provides insane value for what it’s worth.

Swords to Plowshares: As far as removal goes, Swords to Plowshares is a highly effective card. If a non-commander creature is targeted, then it’s gone from the game forever. Unless you target a Misthollow Griffin, Eternal Scourge, or Squee, the Immortal. But why would you do that to begin with?

Pongify: The card is cheap removal that turns opponents’ creatures into apes. And I think that’s just funny.

Lightning Bolt: Easy to cast, easy to use. Lightning Bolt deals with smaller early threats, but it’s great at what it does.

Path to Exile: cEDH decks don’t use basic lands quite as often, and so the opportunity provided to opponents when this spell hits a creature of their is not that significant. As with Swords to Plowshares, the targeted creature is exiled. Seems good!

Academy Ruins: This land can take our destroyed artifacts and bring them back to the top of our library. It, being a land, is less prone to removal.

Badlands/Plateau/Scrubland/Tundra/Underground Sea/Volcanic Island: Running four colors means that we get to use six juicy dual lands. I love the cycle so much.

Great Furnace/Vault of Whispers/Seat of the Synod/Ancient Den: As both lands and artifacts, this cycle provides the deck with mana, but it can also be used as fodder for Breya if necessary.

Mana Confluence/City of Brass/Spire of Industry: These lands can add mana of any color. Given Breya’s life-gain ability, the life loss is essentially inconsequential.

Library of Alexandria: This card is obviously banned from EDH because it provides value with no downside. That power is so very useful.

Inventors' Fair: The life-gain isn’t as important, but Inventors' Fair is a good way to tutor for artifacts.

Urza's Saga: Urza's Saga has many targets, including Black Lotus and the Moxen. The Construct that it provides can also become quite buff.

Hallowed Fountain/Watery Grave/Blood Crypt/Godless Shrine/Steam Vents/Sacred Foundry: The shock lands from the Ravnica blocks are worse than the dual lands, but at the worst, they are only delayed by one turn.

Vesuva: Vesuva is capable of turning itself into any land on the battlefield, including those of your opponents. That versatility is precisely what a four-color cEDH deck is looking for.

Silent Clearing/Sunbaked Canyon/Fiery Islet: These three canopy lands can provide us with cards if we need them. Hopefully, with the many mana rocks (thanks to Urza), these lands can be cracked more often than not.

Cascade Bluffs/Fetid Heath/Graven Cairns/Mystic Gate/Rugged Prairie/Sunken Ruins: These six filter lands help the deck get its mana just right. After all, there are four colors.

Maze of Ith: Maze of Ith fends off voltron strategies, but it can save our creatures if an opponent buffs their blocking creature.

Command Tower: Command Tower can add four different colors. That’s pretty powerful!

If you have any suggestions for the decklist or primer itself, I would greatly appreciate it. Please leave a +1 if you like the deck!

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Casual

91% Competitive

Date added 3 years
Last updated 3 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander: Rule 0 legal.

Rarity (main - side)

11 - 0 Mythic Rares

60 - 0 Rares

17 - 0 Uncommons

12 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 1.88
Tokens Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Construct 0/0 C, Thopter 1/1 U
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