Ashad, the Lone Cyberman is not a hero, but He is certainly a Legendary villain from Dr. Who. Out of all the characters from this set, this build intrigued me the most because Ashad can ramp hard, with no need to play green, just copying the mana rocks.
We are building Ashad with an artifact shell, but need to support this strategy with Counter Magic to protect against cards that pound artifact strategies. The threats are cards like Vandalblast, Hurkyll's Recall, Filter Out, and Farewell which are game enders.
Sacrifice Fodder/Creatures: the theme here are creatures with Artifact synergy and value. We are also looking for Power 2 or above bodies to trigger the Casualty 2 ability of Ashad.
1) Vraan, Executioner Thane - is a 2/2 but also has a Trigger ability to hurt the table and gain life.
2) Riddlesmith - when you prefer the copy to the loot effect, sac with casualty.
3) Bloodghast - just keeps coming back with Landfall from the grave!
4) Reinforced Ronin - is a rude early game threat who is an artifact too! You can hit and Channel with it. It's a 2/2 for Ashad. Perfect synergy.
5) Tidehollow Strix
6) Weeping Angel
7) Thought Monitor
8) Metallic Mimic
9) Baleful Strix
10) Enthusiastic Mechanaut
11) Cyberman Patrol
12) Third Path Iconoclast
13) Nezumi Prowler
14) Scalding Viper
15) Mirkwood Bats - burns and is Sacrifice-able.
16) Gleaming Geardrake - is an artifact creature who enters with a Clue Artifact token.
17) Solemn Simulacrum
Baddies: cards in this category are game enders and win condition level good.
1) Kappa Cannoneer
2) Wurmcoil Engine - excellent sacrifice target as it creates more tokens and is able to give Lifelink.
3) Necron Monolith - a 7/7 flying, I destructible vehicle that can create 2/2 Artifact creature warriors? Seems fine.
"Armies in a Can" - cards in this category are useful because they can enable "go wide" strategy.
1) Simulacrum Synthesizer - the immediate scry is nice and we have lots of Artifacts that have managed value 3 or greater, so the ability to make Constructs is high.
2) The Cyber-Controller - not only Lords other artifact creatures, but can create a massive 2/2 Cyberman army.
3) Death in Heaven - all creatures exiled in graveyards come back to Ashad as 2/2 Cyberman Artifact Creatures.
4) Third Path Iconoclast - create 1/1 Soldier Artifacts.
5) Chrome Host Seedshark - you create Artifact Tokens that can also become Artifact Creatures. Also is 1/2 the mana cost as Shark Typhoon.
Countermagic: we need to run a lot of Countermagic to protect against the artifact destruction spells in the EDH format. Vandalblast, Filter Out, Farewell, Austere Command, and Hurkyll's Recall all see regular play in EDH.
1) Tibalt's Trickery - a red counterspell?! Let's go!
2) Arcane Denial - bonus ability for card draw.
3) Wash Away - is mostly here for the ability to counter enemy commanders for only 1 Blue mana.
4) Mana Drain - will be a satisfying response to an Overloaded Vandalblast or Farewell.
5) Counterspell - the OG two Blue mana place to be.
Card Draw:
1) Black Market Connections - pay 2 life to draw a card each turn. Also can create "Cybermen" Shapeshifters and Treasure tokens.
2) Riddlesmith - looting effect with cast of Artifact spells.
3) Reinforced Ronin - Channel Him for a card draw.
4) Start the TARDIS - Surveil 2 and Draw. The Jumpstart ability is great and Planeswalk is nice if doing Planechase.
5) Thought Monitor - not going to be casting for 7 mana with the number of artifacts we have.
6) Gleaming Geardrake - the Investigate Token.
7) Solemn Simulacrum - draws a card when sacrificed.
8) Basim Ibn Ishaq - an excellent card draw source because so many spells are artifacts.
9) Thoughtcast - should be a 1 Blue Mana, draw two cards spell.
Mana Rocks:
1) Mox Tantalite - great on Early Turns for Ramp, but not a target for Ashad's Casualty ability.
2) Thran Dynamo
3) Arcane Signet
4) Laser Screwdriver
5) Mind Stone
6) Talisman of Dominance
7) Talisman of Indulgence
8) Talisman of Creativity
9) Misleading Signpost
10) Commander's Sphere
Winning the Game: all the artifacts do not matter if you cannot get to a pathway to victory. We have several ways to Win.
1) Artifact Creature Baddies - Kappa Cannoneer - comes out early with Improvise, protects with Ward, and gets huge and unblockable with no other help. Necron Monolith is a flipping flying/indestructible 7/7 beast of a vehicle which spits out 2/2 Artifact Necron Warriors. Either of these will likely be game winning if they resolve and begin the best down.
2) Myriad Synergy - did you know that Myriad stacks? So if you give Myriad to a creature with Myriad, an exponential explosion of damage occurs (all the copies copy themselves and see the other copies. Cyberman Squadron AND Dalek Squadron both have stock myriad, so copying them with Ashad is a game ender.
3) Big Mana X Spells - because you can ramp so hard with Ashad, X Spells can have ridiculous X values. The Cyber-Controller - can create a freaking army of 2/2 Cybermen and flood the Board. Each 1 mana into X has a chance to create up to 3 tokens. Torment of Hailfire is a huge target because it sets everyone at the table back by a lot when it resolves.
4) Rise and Shine - is a simple Overload of this spell makes ALL artifacts, including artifact lands, into 4/4 creatures. I have won several games with this jank ass trick.
*) Twinning Staff - is an Artifact which doubles up the Trigger from Ashad. Not necessarily game winning, but certainly useful.
Notes:
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Why am I not running Planeswalkers? They are going to be difficult to protect. I had Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God here in early testing, but it was just an expensive kill spell. Another tough cut was Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. I realized that Saheeli is a 3 drop that only spits out 1/1 Servos, which do not help our plans. In addition, the -2 only I pacts a board state for 1 Turn.
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Shark Typhoon is often run with Ashad. The thing is, it is a six cost enchantment which spits out non Artifact creatures. Instead, we will use the Phyrexian Chrome Host Seedshark.
