Advantages of colourless:
- Karn enabled shenanigans
- No manafixing is required since everything is colourless
- Lots of great mana ramp at our disposal
- Many cards have great synergy since they share artifact as a type
- Your land base can provide some great utility as it isn't focused on colour production
- There is definitely a cool factor in running a non-eldrazi colourless deck
Challenges of colourless:
- Speed - There are hardly any colourless instants, our answers come from activated abilities of permanents
- Lacks cheap tutoring - Cards like planar portal are often too slow (in general artifacts tend to have high cmc compared to coloured counterparts)
- Card draw is usually quite mana intensive
- Opponents usually pack artifact removal
- Artifact based removal can be hard to control
Below were my goals during construction of the deck:
- Keep CMC under 3.5
- Include adequate card draw and tutoring
- Include multiple combos as a win condition that can kill/disable multiple opponents
- Slow opponents with stax pieces
- Ensure there is adequate removal (spot removal in colourless is very limited)
Combos:
- Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith: Infinite Mana
- Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith + Senseis Divining Top: Go infinite then copy the top's effect. The first top effect will resolve drawing you a card and putting back on library. Second top effect resolves drawing you the top, but you don't put it back on library since it is in your hand and not on battlefield.
- Staff of Domination + Infinite mana: Draw your deck.
- Metalworker + Staff of Domination + 3 artifacts in hand: Infinite Mana
- Metalworker + Umbral Mantle + 2 artifacts in hand: Infinite mana
- Umbral Mantle + Heartstone + 3 mana rock + Karn: Turn the rock into a creature and equip Umbral Mantle. The rock can tap for mana as usual, but can untap using Umbral Mantle (at the reduced cost of 2 mana due to Heartstone). You net 1 mana each tap/untap.
- Mycosynth Lattice + Karn, Silver Golem: Use Karn's ability to make opponent's lands into creatures. They will be 0/0 creatures and thus die immediately. Over the next 2 turns you should be able target most of your opponents lands.
- Mycosynth Lattice + Karn, The Great Creator: All permanents are artifacts and Karn doesn't allow your opponents to activate their artifacts. Opponents can no longer tap land or artifacts for mana, so if they have no creatures to threaten Karn (or you have sufficient blockers) then you pretty much win.
- Voltaic Construct + 3 mana rock + Karn: Generates infinite mana by using Karn to make the 3 mana rock into a creature. You then tap it to generate 3 mana. Voltaic construct then uses 2 of that mana to untap the rock that Karn turned into a creature. You net 1 mana each time you repeat this process. (Note: can be used on a 2 mana rock with Heartstone in play.)
- Voltaic Construct + Metalworker + 2 artifacts in hand: Generates infinite mana by tapping metalworker/revealing 2 artifacts to gain 4 mana. Voltaic construct uses 2 of that mana to untap metal worker. You net 2 mana each time you repeat this process.
Win conditions:
- Use one of the methods above to gain infinite mana and ping the table for lethal using Walking Ballista or Goblin Cannon.
- Use one of the methods above to gain infinite mana and cast Hangerback Walker. Then either use a sac outlet to pop the walker for infinite 1/1 thopters or give Hangerback Walker evasion to kill a player per turn. Similar strategy is possible with Umbral Mantle + 3 mana rock + Karn.
- Draw the deck (you will also have an infinite mana combo if you were able to do this). Play Karn + Mycosynth lattice and make all opponents lands into 0/0 creatures so they sac them. Then cast every artifact in your deck. Have Karn turn every artifact into a creature and akroma's memorial will give them haste. Swing for lethal. (You want your opponents land base to be wiped out so they can't board wipe all your artifacts before you attack)
- non-infinite combo Use Karn's activited ability on opponents lands after you play Mycosynth Lattice. Opponents will have to sac their lands as they will be 0/0 creatures. This combo can be pulled off fairly early with some mana ramp. However, without infinite combos you may only be able to target 2-3 lands the turn mycosynth lattice comes into play - you will need to use judgement and cripple the most threating player first. Should your combo survive until the following turn then your opponents will most likely concede.
List of cards by function:
Tutoring: Expedition Map, Ring of Three Wishes, Planar Bridge, Planar Portal, Skyship Weatherlight, Inventors' Fair, Sanctum of Ugin, Kuldotha Forgemaster
Card draw/quality: Crystal Ball, Hedron Archive, Memory Jar, Mind's Eye, Scroll Rack, Sensei's Divining Top, Skullclamp, Staff of Domination, Sword of Fire and Ice, Mikokoro Center of the Sea, Sea Gate Wreckage, Sunset Pyramid, Treasure Map
Removal: All Is Dust, Blast Zone, Oblivion Stone, Ugin, the Ineffable, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Warping Wail
Mana ramp: Basalt Monolith, Cloud Key, Everflowing Chalice, Fellwar Stone, Gilded Lotus, Grim Monolith, Hedron Archive, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Mind Stone, Mox Opal, Prismatic Lens, Sol Ring, Thought Vessel, Thran Dynamo, Metalworker
Stax package: Defense Grid, Karn, the Great Creator, Meekstone, Static Orb, Tangle Wire, Winter Orb, Lodestone Golem
Inclusions/Exclusions + Explanation:
Inclusions:
- Akroma's Memorial: A win-condition enabler for when we go infinite and can draw out the deck. Protects our artifacts from black/red board wipes and allows us to swing at multiple opponents for lethal without being chump blocked.
- All Is Dust: Arguably the deck's best board wipe as our permanents will remain. Removes coloured permanents with indestructible, shroud, and hexproof.
- Arcbound Reclaimer: Essential for getting back any key combo pieces lost to destruction or discard. Better that scrap diver and myr retriever because they require a sac outlet or waiting a turn for combat (+ an opponent willing to block).
- Basalt Monolith: Enables infinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth or Karn + Voltaic Construct. Also decent mana storage for a big play in mid-late game.
- Clock of Omens: Normally a situational card, it works well in this deck as there are many mana rocks. Clock of Omens can tap itself and one other artifact to untap one of your high value mana rocks or perhaps you want to destroy an additional land with Liquimetal Coating that turn (lots of options).
- Cloud Key: Discounts all of our artifacts - essentially acts as ramp.
- Crystal Ball: There aren't many efficient colourless draw spells so scry is going to be the next best thing. Scry 2 is powerful both early and late game for land management and fast-forwarding to combo pieces.
- Defense Grid: Taxes our opponents for trying to counter or destroy our spells (especially when we are about to combo off). Almost no downside as our only instant speed spells are Shimmer Myr and Warping Wail.
- Everflowing Chalice: Normally mediocre due to producing colourless, this is one of our best ramp pieces due to flexibility. Often the equivalent of a Fellwar Stone or Sisay's Ring, it scales with the pace of the game.
- Expedition Map: A tutor for Mishra's Workshop. If you drew the workshop then you grab Ancient Tomb. On other rare occasions some of the other utility lands may be a good pick.
- Fellwar Stone: Efficient mana ramp for the early game. Unlikely to be destroyed due to low perceived threat.
- Foundry Inspector: Makes more than half of your cards cost 1 less to play.
- Gilded Lotus: Solid mana ramp. I personally would prefer to have a cheaper piece of ramp, but we need rocks that tap for 3 mana so we can go infinite with Voltaic Construct + Karn. You could replace the lotus with a Dreamstone Hedron (big target) or something like a Sisay's Ring/Worn Powerstone if preferred.
- Goblin Cannon: Win condition that kills the table with infinite mana.
- Grim Monolith: Great ramp, net 1 mana on the turn it's played. Our deck has a few ways to untap it without paying the cost and it goes infinite with Voltaic Construct + Karn.
- Hangarback Walker: Flexible card that can net 2 mana on the turn its played if you sac to Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks. You can also sniper players if you have infinite mana by playing a massive walker and then swinging while Akroma's Memorial or Rogue's Passage are in play.
- Heartstone: Combos with Umbral Mantal to enable infinite mana combos as well as allows for 2 mana rocks to go infinite with Voltaic Construct + Karn.
- Hedron Archive: Solid mana ramp with an option for much needed card draw.
- Karn, the Great Creator: Powerful stax piece at his passive disabled opponents artifacts. Combos with lattice to shut down all your opponent's lands. The -2 ability is less powerful in EDH since we don't have a sideboard, but it can still help get combo pieces back that have been exiled. Also similar to our Karn commander his +1 can enable 3 mana rocks to be untapped by voltaic construct.
- Krark-Clan Ironworks: Similar to Ashnod's Altar, this is a key combo piece and allows us to recycle some of our artifacts into mana.
- Kuldotha Forgemaster: A tutor that puts combo pieces directly into play. Works well with Myr Battlesphere, Wurmcoil Engine, and Hangarback Walker
- Lodestone Golem: Tax your opponents with no downside to you.
- Mana Crypt: One of the best pieces of mana ramp in commander.
- Mana Vault: Great ramp, net 2 mana on the turn it's played. Our deck has a few ways to untap it without paying the cost and it goes infinite with Voltaic Construct + Karn.
- Manifold Key: Positively interacts with almost every non-land card in this deck. Use with any mana rock that produces 2 or more mana for a net return. The unblockable ability could come in handy in some scenarios.
- Mazemind Tome: Great colourless card draw.
- Meekstone: A minor stax piece that is easy to cast and generally doesn't impact us (typically we won't be swinging with our creatures).
- Memory Jar: Extremely powerful card draw with an infinite combo enabled. Also reduces the impact of a somewhat dead hand in the mid-late game.
- Metalworker: Overpowered card in this deck. I'd be surprised if your opponents don't kill it immediately (but at least it means one less removal spell to deal with).
- Mind Stone: Great early game mana ramp with a much welcomed card draw option.
- Mox Opal: Free mana ramp.
- Mycosynth Lattice: Combos with Karn to destroy lands. Often all it takes to win a game is to get lucky with some ramp then drop Karn followed by the Lattice.
- Myr Retriever: Adds some recursion for combo pieces (because our spells will get countered eventually). Great target for our sacrifice outlets or Skullclamp.
- Myr Welder: More recursion - I recommend placing Myr Welder on the battlefield proactively since he likely won't have haste. Almost all of our combos use activated abilities and at worst this card can imprint a mana rock.
- Mystic Forge: Essentially great card draw if you have enough ramp or an infinite mana combo.
- Oblivion Stone: In the absence of cheap single target removal - another board wipe.
- Planar Bridge: A very expensive tutor that we can afford since the deck has so much mana ramp and infinite combos. If you have infinite mana just search for Walking Ballista and win.
- Planar Portal: Similar to planar bridge, we can afford these expensive tutors and can often win immediately with them if infinite mana is achieved.
- Prismatic Lens: More cheap mana ramp (you don't want a hand full of cumbersome "cool" artifacts that never get played).
- Ring of Three Wishes: Slightly cheaper Planar Portal, but with limited uses (which is fine because 3 is enough to win). In one game I had out sol ring, gilded lotus, unwinding clock, and played a ring of three wishes. On opponent 1's turn search for basalt monolith, on opponent 2's turn search for rings of brighthearth. On my turn use final wish to search for walking ballista and win.
- Rings of Brighthearth: Key combo piece used to gain infinite mana with Basalt Monolith or draw the deck with Sensei's Divining Top (+ infinite mana).
- Scrap Trawler: Good value card that helps negate the impact of removal and can combo with Kark-Clan Ironworks.
- Scroll Rack: Incredible card filter that turns a dead hand into a win.
- Sculpting Steel: Great for copying an expensive piece of mana ramp (yours or an opponents) or you can copy a key combo piece that you feel an opponent may target.
- Sensei's Divining Top: Cheap card filtering on its own and the ability to potentially combo out and draw our deck.
- Shimmer Myr: Adding a little speed to the predictable artifacts. If you have a game winning combo in hand, but suspect it will be countered then wait until your opponents have tapped out and attempt to flash in all (or some) of the pieces
- Skullclamp: Powerful card draw (but can be tricky to use). Some suggestions are to equip to: Myr Battlesphere tokens, Warping Wail token, thopter tokens, any creature you will sac to Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks. If you are desperate for cards you can get creative and have Karn make your 1 drop artifacts into creatures.
- Skyship Weatherlight: A cheaper tutor than Planar Portal and Ring of Three Wishes. Best used as an 8 mana tutor for a key combo piece (so you don't loose the card to exile if the Skyship is destroyed). You can also load it up with a few ramp pieces or one of the board wipes as a less risky play.
- Sol Ring: Auto-include.
- Solemn Simulacrum: I've been debating on just replacing this with a Sisay's Ring. Putting a Wastes into play helps combat against Back to Basics and lands are less likely to be destroyed then our mana rocks. The card draw aspect of the card is also appealing with our sac outlets.
- Staff of Domination: An outlet for our infinite mana combos. Draw your deck, gain infinite life, win?
- Static Orb: With some of the larger mana rocks on the field you can often play spell unhindered while opponents are locked down for a turn or two.
- Sunset Pyramid: Pay 4 mana to draw a card on the turn it is played and then get to draw an additional card on your next two turns for the bargain price of 2 mana each time. Useful if you have excess mana and a clock to untap it on opponent's turns.
- Sword of Fire and Ice: More of an inclusion due to desperation for card draw and removal. It does neither particularly well, but combined into one card it becomes decent. The blue/red protection also doesn't hurt.
- Tangle Wire: As with all stax this is a situational card that will often benefit us due to playing a large number of mana rocks. Most other competitive decks rely heavily on colour fixing their mana or the ramp spell don't pump out a lot of mana. With only 1 or 2 rocks untapped we can still play some of our spells.
- Thought Vessel: A Fellwar Stone/Prismatic Lens that actually provides an additional bonus. Useful for if we do manage to draw our deck, but for some reason are prevented from winning on that turn (like an Angel's Grace).
- Thran Dynamo: High value mana ramp. Always feels good to resolve one of these and have it last longer than a turn.
- Treasure Map: Decent card filter with powerful card draw potential if it lands early or the game gets slowed by stax.
- Ugin, the ineffable: reduces the cost of all our spells by 2, acts as removal, and can be situational card draw
- Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Competing with All Is Dust for our best removal spell.
- Umbral Mantle: Enabled infinite mana combo with Metalworker or with Karn + 3 mana rock + Heartstone. Can also be used to pump-up a creature and swing for lethal.
- Unwinding Clock: Great utility spell that untaps our mana rocks that normally have to do so at a cost - and much more.
- Voltaic Construct: Enabler for one of the easiest to assemble infinite mana combos. You just need Karn (who you will almost always have available) and a rock that taps for 3 mana. If you want to skip Karn entirely just get out metal worker plus 2 artifacts in hand.
- Voltaic Key: Great utility card to play around stax, net mana off rocks, and plenty of other interactions.
- Walking Ballista: The primary win condition for this deck.
- Warping Wail: Cheap and flexible - exile that Blood Artist that is about to go off, counter the Tendril of Agony the storm player is about to win with, or give yourself that one extra mana needed to pull off your own combo next turn.
- Winter Orb: If you are in a favourable position with enough mana rocks out then we can lock the game for a few turns with a well timed Winter Orb. Classic stax card.
Exclusions:
- Aetherflux reservoir: Amazing card for a "storm" win. Technically we could pull this off if we went infinite and had one of the draw combos out. However, if we are able to draw our entire deck then we may as well win with a card(s) that is already included in the deck anyways (walking ballista or akroma's memorial + Karn)
- Aether Vial: Dead mid-late game draw and there simply aren't enough creatures to get value out of it consistently.
- Blinkmoth Urn: An amazing card if you can drop it turn 2-3. However, after that your opponents are likely to be in a position to remove it or even benefit from it themselves (artifacts are common in all decks at a competitive level). Often you will tap out on turn 4 to play this. Then your opponents will each gain 1-2 mana from it (possibly the mana they need to remove it) all before it does anything for you. Stick to cheaper ramp that produces mana just for you and same turn to the cost.
- Darksteel Forge: Indestructible does not protect from exile, return to hand, or sacrifice mechanics. Most of the time I'd rather have additional ramp or some kind of tutor in my hand.
- Dreamstone Hedron: -3 mana on the turn you play it or 9 mana to draw 3 cards the same turn. In a competitive playgroup this card is unlikely to survive making it to the next turn. It is much safer to stick to ramp that is 4 cmc or less as it is less opportunistic to destroy/counter and it won't be a dead card for the first few turns.
- Platinum Angel: 7 mana (often your entire turn's worth of mana) to stall the game until one of our opponents finds removal. Easily countered or removed so you are basically skipping your turn by playing this. You are better off including cards to help you execute your win condition or casting a proper stax piece.
- Platinum Emperion: Similar to the angel above, too much mana for a weak stax piece. This also doesn't prevent your opponent from winning (think Laboratory Maniac).
- Mox Diamond: Turn 1 ramp in exchange for discarding a land - this card is too situational for our deck and the main appeal (coloured mana) is useless to us. If you fail to draw additional lands, likely due to weak card draw, then your early lead will fizzle out. Past the opening hand this is almost always worse than a land. I'd rather play our safer 2 drop ramp artifacts.
- Myr Battlesphere: Can replace Su-Chi or Cathodion if you prefer as they serve the same purpose when paired with a sac outlet and nim deathmantle. The myrs also work great with skullclamp. However, the battlesphere has a high upfront cost meaning that it is usually a turn slower than su-chi/cathodion.
- Nevinyrral's Disk: This can be included if you find yourself in need of additional board wipes. In a competitive environment this card is often slow/easily countered. I'd rather have an additional tutor/card draw spell in my hand 9 times out 10.
- Swords/Batter Skull/equipment in general: This deck does not win through combat as a Plan A, making most equipment useless to us. This deck also does not rely on creatures needing to be in play over multiple turns so most of the protection is wasted (or just too situational when it is protection from a specific colour). We need efficient card draw and removal (Sword of Fire and Ice). The sword of feast and famine almost made the cut due to the land untap, but I feel as though we have enough ramp/infinite combos to cover that aspect.
