Moonsilver Key hype train.
Swapped out Worn Powerstone, might have been a bad choice.
Deck Introduction
Kozilek, the Great Distortion came out and I build colourless EDH as a joke. Turns out it's pretty good.
Game-plan is to dump our hand, drop Kozilek for more hand, do combo stuff/ eldrazi and just generally hang around menacingly.
Lemme know what you think or if you've spotted something I haven't.
Lands = Lands
Ramp = Anything which nets extra mana, be it mana rocks or lands that tap for 2+ mana or cost lowering stuff.
Draw = Any and all Card advantage, big or small
Control = Things which kill my opponents stuff or otherwise disrupt their game
Spice = Things which get people the dead or make Rube Goldberg machines.
Combo = Things which get people infinitely dead.
I feel like a lot of the Eldrazi are kind of bleh for commander, same story with things like Eldrazi Conscription ,which is why the deck isn't full flavor Eldrazi tribal, that being said, All Is Dust is SWEET.
Instead of the high cost Eldrazi, I've included a few more mid-range creatures. Nothing too out of the ordinary but maybe it'll stop the deck getting killed by weenies.
There are a few cards which might not make obvious sense.
Chromatic Lantern makes it so i can use things like Eye of Ugin and Temple of the False God for mana, and makes Ancient Tomb not force me to take damage. Its basically serving the same purpose as Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, as well as being a 3 drop +1 mana rock.
The Urza lands and Locuses might seem unreliable, but they don't have much of a downside if they don't go of. Also the locuses combo with Vesuva and Thespian's Stage, and those can let me copy any of my 2 mana producing lands, urza lands (if i already had all 3 in play) or Scorched Ruins. Its not consistent, but there is often no downside.
I'm using Kozilek, the Great Distortion from Oath of the Gatewatch, i feel like it supports a more midrange deck, rather than being a voltron commander like old Kozilek was.
That being said, Kozilek can just kill with commander damage by itself.
Hope you like the deck, Suggestions welcome. Cheers.
(I own this deck IRL and the list reflects my current build, some cards in the maybe-board i have but can't put in because they're needed in other decks and don't have a great enough effect in this one to warrant switching them over)
The Spice
Spin the wheel:
Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith = Infinite mana, this is pretty much the daddy of infinite mana combos. Pay 3 mana to untap the monolith, pay another 2 to Rings' ability to untap it again, tapping if for mana after each untap to make 6 mana total. Overall it's pay 5 mana, make 6 mana. When starting this combo be aware you'll need two mana from another source to pay for the first trigger of Rings.
The Big One Lander:
Rings of Brighthearth + Deserted Temple + Scorched Ruins = Tap Ruins (4 mana), Spend 1 mana to activate the Temple's ability, targeting the Ruins, and spend 2 mana with the Rings' ability to copy Temple's ability, now targeting itself. Everything Untaps but now you have 1 mana left. The infinite mana can then be used to infinitely activate any abilities of lands you have in play, so you can use Eye of Ugin to get each creature in your deck.
4 is unlucky:
Rings of Brighthearth + Voltaic Key + Everflowing Chalice with 4 counters/ Empowered Autogenerator with some extra mana/ Manascape Refractor with Scorched Ruins/ Chromatic Orrery = Infinite Mana
This is exactly the same as using Deserted Temple and Scorched Ruins with Rings to go infinite.
All you need is an artifact which can tap for 4+ mana. Chalice with 4 counters does this. Autogenerator tapped with no counters needs you to pay 6 mana to untap it enough to get to 4 counters. Refractor needs Ruins in play to tap for 4 mana. Orrery by itself makes 5 mana and is good to go.
Blow it all up:
Scrap Trawler + Krark-Clan Ironworks + Spine of Ish Sah + a load of artifacts = kind of a KCI combo.
To start with, you wan't a chain of artifacts of different CMCs to sacrifice into KCI and trigger Trawler, some of which should be mana rocks which you can tap and sacrifice for equal to or more than their combined mana cost...
For example Mox Opal + Sol Ring
1: Tap the Mox (1 mana) and sacrifice it to KCI (3 mana), then tap the Ring (5 mana) and sacrifice it to KCI
(7 mana) using Trawler's trigger to return the Mox. Replay the Mox, tap it (8 mana) and sacrifice it again (10 mana).
2: Now play Spine of Ish Sah and explode something (3 mana floating), the sac spine to KCI (5 mana). Spine will return itself to your hand and Scrap Trawler will return Sol Ring to your hand.
3: Play the Ring (4 mana), tap and sac it (8 mana), Trawler will return the Mox to your hand. Play, tap and sac the Mox (11 mana). We're now back at the start of step 2 except we have one more mana than before and our opponents have one less permanent. Repeat for the win.
This is a "best case" scenario, as chances are you'll need a chain of artifacts that's got three or more cards in it, use Trawler to get back the highest costed part of the chain to start over (or whatever artifact works at the time)
7 mana Vindicates:
Spine of Ish Sah + Phyrexia's Core + Manascape Refractor = Spine plus Core lets you recur spine to keep blowing something up every turn, Refractor picks up Core's ability but it's on an artifact which can be untapped when you have infinite mana already.
The Headache:
This combo is based on the Modern KCI deck, which uses the timing rules around mana abilities to go infinite. Look it up if you wan't to understand this combo better.
Krark-Clan Ironworks + Scrap Trawler + Myr Retriever + (an artifact that costs less than 2 mana)
+ Either Grim Monolith or Basalt Monolith (there are others which I will mention later).
1: Tap your Monolith for mana (3 mana) then activate mana abilities to untap it, sacrificing Trawler, Retriever and for example Everflowing Chalice to KCI to make the mana for this (makes 6 mana, putting you to 9 mana, 3-4 of which goes into untapping the Monolith).
2: Trawler now triggers twice (for itself and the Retriever) and the Retriever triggers too. Retriever's trigger gets back scrap trawler to your hand, Trawler's triggers returns the Retriever and the Chalice to your hand.
3: Monolith untaps. Pay 5 mana to replay the three cards you returned (0-1 mana remaining depending on which Monolith you used).
You're back where you started but with one mana left if you used Basalt or none if you used Grim. However if you replaced Chalice with a mana rock which can produce mana each time you play it you can net mana even when using Grim Monolith.
Either Monolith can be replaced by any Artifact with an activated ability which requires mana and either ends up resetting itself (Voltaic Key targeting itself) or ends up in the graveyard to be returned and replayed (Expedition Map or Mind Stone), although you may need to alter the other artifacts you are sacrificing to make this work, adding more mana rocks helps.
With Mind Stone instead of a Monolith the above combo becomes "Pay 1 mana: Draw a card" overall, if you kick the chalice once (so it taps for 1 mana) you can net an extra mana overall.
You can also replace the artifact that you're paying the mana to activate by casting a spell (that costs mana) instead of using the activated ability (the casting/activating rules are the same), how much mana you gain depends on what artifacts you're sacrificing in addition to Scrap Trawler and Myr Retriever.
Writing this gave me a headache. The TL;DR is you need to be able to sacrifice Trawler and Retriver + others at the exact same time to get them to all return. Only way to do this is to sac to KCI to pay for a cost, since you can sacrifice over the cost you need to pay (i.e. sac for 10 mana to pay for a 1 mana ability or spell).
Ohh yeah that's a thing:
It That Betrays + All Is Dust = Steal all coloured permanents.
All is dust makes everyone "Sacrifice" all their permanents which have a colour, whenever anyone sacrifices anything, It that Betrays returns the sacrificed permanent to play under your control. If you have It that betrays out when you cast All is dust, everything sacrificed to all is dust comes back under your control. Its not really a "combo" but it's a cool interaction.
Sensei sees everything:
Sensei's Divining Top + Rings of Brighthearth = Tap Top to draw, pay 2 to draw the Top that just put itself on top of your deck, pay 1 for the Top. = 3 mana draw a card.
Beyond the gate:
Planar Bridge / Planar Portal + Voltaic Key/ Manifold Key/ Unwinding Clock = Some nonsense of using the Bridge/Portal multiples times on everyone's turns. Can be used to tutor a whole combo or control the board.
Hope these make sense, enjoy your turn 3 wins.
Can we get an F in the chat for Paradox Engine