Dad's Perfect Present

Commander / EDH* Artifact Budget Control Multiplayer WUB (Esper)

DuTogira

Land (37)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Den
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Azorius Chancery
• 1x Bant Panorama
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Esper Panorama
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Grixis Panorama
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 4x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 3x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Watery Grave

Instant (6)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge
• 1x Whir of Invention

Artifact (26)

• 1x Aether Spellbomb
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coercive Portal
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Dispeller's Capsule
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1x Loreseeker's Stone
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Mirrorworks
• 1x Mycosynth Lattice
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Oblivion Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Planar Bridge
• 1x Salvaging Station
• 1x Sculpting Steel
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sunbeam Spellbomb
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Traveler's Amulet
• 1x Unwinding Clock

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Divine Reckoning
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Open the Vaults
• 1x Reshape
• 1x Reverse Engineer
• 1x Supreme Verdict

Commander (1)

Creature (19)

• 1x Arcum Dagsson
• 1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
• 1x Duplicant
• 1x Hangarback Walker
• 1x Indomitable Archangel
• 1x Karn, Silver Golem
• 1x Master Transmuter
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1x Shimmer Myr
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
• 1x Sphinx Summoner
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Treasure Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Vedalken Archmage
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Tezzeret, Master of Metal
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

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What's the Big Idea?

It's Christmas, and you want to get Dad the most incredible present; that perfect gift that will make all other dads jealous. You want to get him "The Perfect Toolkit."

This is an artifact deck built to have a "toolkit" of small artifacts. You know, the high quality yet still inexpensive ones that they used to make back in the good old days of Power9 and Fifth Dawn. As any good dad knows though, tools can break, and this deck -like any good dad- can fix up its tools and use them again and again.

On a more serious note, I built this deck to be an arbiter in four player commander games. What this means is that this deck is capable of taking any player who is starting to run away with the game and putting them back in their place. To reliably do this, it utilizes a toolkit of artifacts which must be recyclable for consistency's sake, and runs a suite of board clears which can hit creatures, enchantments, and yes, even artifacts.

I currently own every card in this deck. The "budget" aspect came from the fact that I purchased this deck with an initial 200$ and upgraded it in 100$ bursts where I could afford. It is similarly ingrained because most of my playgroup play EDH on a budget as well, so this deck isn't meant to go toe-to-toe with T1 commander decks. We're all johnnies, no spikes.

Cards I don't have

1x Oblivion Stone (MRD)
1x Planar Bridge (MPS)
1x Trophy Mage (000)
1x Reverse Engineer (AER)
1x Whir of Invention (AER)
1x Duplicant (EMA)
1x Wurmcoil Engine (000)

How Does the Deck Work?

Value Engines

The deck contains a rather large suite of fetch/transmute spells. It uses these to assemble various engines which keep the deck going throughout the game. They are as follows:

Prototype Portal + Most of our Creatures

Prototype Portal is the definition of a value engine in this deck. It can create a bunch tutors via any of the three mages, removal via gearhulks/duplicant, land production via Solemn Simulacrum, or a ton of life-gain via Noxious Gearhulk, Wurmcoil Engine, or Sphinx of the Steel Wind.

Salvaging Station + Any 1 cmc artifact

Depending on the artifact you combo this with, it can generate removal, land, instant mana, etc.
Note that Salvaging Station triggers whenever a creature is put into a graveyard, not just your graveyard. This means it will trigger when your opponent's non-token creatures die. You know what artifact abuses this fact? Executioner's Capsule. Did someone say "endless supply of Doom Blades?"
You can also add March of the Machines to this combo to allow it to iterate as many times as you would like per turn. The reason this works is that March of the Machines turns your artifacts into creatures. This means that when they are put into the graveyard, they will untap Salvaging Station. Since they do not count as creatures while in the graveyard though, Salvaging Station can now return them to play. Be aware that these "creatures" will have summoning sickness, so this engine will only work with the two spellbombs. March of the Machines will turn off the Executioner's Capsule synergy, which is another thing to keep in mind.

Arcum Dagsson

Arcum Dagsson allows you to swap out low value artifact creatures (like Hex Parasite and thopter tokens) for high value non-creature artifacts like Salvaging Station and Mycosynth Lattice.
Remember that this can also fetch up sweepers at instant speed.

Mycosynth Lattice + Unwinding Clock

This pretty much turns each of your opponent's turns into another one of your turns, especially if you throw Shimmer Myr into the mix.

Mimic Vat

Another one man value engine of a card, it can do many of the same things that Prototype Portal can do, but it can also make use of your opponent's creatures should they prove to be more useful than your own.

Win-cons

Panharmonicon + Mirrorworks

This is a win-con, because you get an un-beatable board, containing three copies of any creature and 2 triggers of their etb effects per creature (when combined with Filigree Angel/Noxious Gearhulk, you win on the spot). Throw in a Prototype Portal, and it gets even more nuts.

Empty the Vaults

Empty the Vaults is a win-con because it allows you to set up any other win-con if all the combo pieces are either in play or in your yard.

Mycosynth Lattice + March of the Machines

Mycosynth Lattice turns all cards, including lands, into artifacts. March of the Machines turns all lands into 0/0's, killing them. Our deck endures because it has plenty of mana rocks, and plenty of ways to fetch them out of the deck. Granted we aren't as rock heavy as many artifact decks, but this "wincon" is not something I built the deck around, is not really all that fun considering you win by stopping your opponents from playing the game at all, and thus should be generally avoided. This deck was built for fun, this wincon isn't fun... but it's here. Go Nuts.

Salvaging Station + Krark-Clan Ironworks + March of the Machines/Karn, Silver Golem

This one is technical, so pay attention! First, note that Salvaging Station untaps whenever a creature is put into a graveyard. Next, note that March of the Machines/Karn, Silver Golem turn a non-creature artifact into an artifact creature. What you do is turn a non-creature artifact into an artifact creature via either karn or march, sac the artifact to Krark-Clan Ironworks to gain colorless. Salvaging Station recognizes that a creature was just put into a graveyard, and untaps (if it was tapped). You then tap it to return the sacrificed non-creature artifact to play. You then turn the artifact back into a creature, sacrifice it to the ironworks, spit rinse repeat, and gain infinite colorless.
This win-con isn't all that bad, because it doesn't win the game on the spot, but is extremely powerful nonetheless. If you have Chromatic Lantern, it becomes infinite colored too!

Ok, So What's the Rest of the Deck Good For?

The majority of this deck consists of spells which allow you to search for artifacts which will be situationally useful. It tries to stop all three other players from doing anything TOO outrageous, or at the very least to slow them down via its artifacts and sweeper effects. This is not a pillow fort deck; it simply waits until someone starts to get out of control, then hits the reset button on the board state bringing all players back to par.
The deck solidifies its position as a sort of arbiter by running eight/nine different wrath effects (do you count Mystic Confluence?), three of which can be recurred using Academy Ruins. Most players have a hard time getting through that, but oddly enough they also seem to like having you around, because it is rather easy with this deck to keep one to two players in check indefinitely, thus keeping the others alive.

What About your Commander?

Sharuum the Hegemon is a sort of safety net for the deck. Sometimes, your opponents will decide they have had enough of your meddling and will team up to try to wipe you out. Sharuum gives you a guaranteed way to recur any one artifact which you might need so that even when one player wipes out your artifacts and another decides its time to start knocking your life down a few bars, you can bring back a gearhulk or some other removal-producing artifact, and put them back in their place. Or perhaps you prefer Sphinx of the Steel Wind, to show them what happens when you mess with sphinx.

Interactions to be Aware of

March of the Machines + Salvaging Station + An Artifact Land

March of the Machines will turn your artifact lands into 0/0 creatures. This will kill them.

Here's how this one DOESN'T work:

Tap Salvaging Station to return an artifact land from your graveyard to play.
In response to the March of the Machines trigger, tap the artifact land for mana. Then let the March trigger resolve, which will not only make the land a creature, but will kill it. March of the Machines is a state based effect, so this is where a user misinterpreting how it works could lead you to believe this would create an infinite mana loop. The land can come into play, but it becomes a creature and dies before you can tap it for mana.
Now that a creature died, Salvaging Station triggers and untaps. Tap it to return an artifact land from your graveyard to play. Spit, Rinse, Repeat. Now you don't have infinite mana, just a do-nothing loop of infinite recursion of an artifact land. Although, with Vedalken Archmage this loop DOES produce infinite card draw.

This interaction is still potent. While it doesn't generate infinite mana, you can use it to recur an artifact with CMC = as many times as you like. Combine this interaction with Vedalken Archmage and you gain the ability to draw as many cards as you would like.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.83
Tokens	Copy Clone, Thopter 1/1 C, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink
Folders	Helpers, cool shit, Decks I play, Things to consider