Primer being updated... as usual.

Nǐ hǎo, everyone. Welcome to my Sydri primer. Just a little background on this deck in particular... I've ran Sydri since late 2015, so she's been with me for quite some time, despite being sold once, and turned into multiple other decks over the last five years, but I finally decided to stop letting metas define me, so now she's here to stay.

Now, what's the reason for this primer? Aren't there better Sydri decks and other Sydri primers out there? So, I will admit that there are many, many better Sydri list out there, but I guess in truth, I wanted to make a primer for fun and hopefully give some newer Sydri players some ideas. The preferred power level of this list is meant to be 7-8, but I have yet to confirm it.

Sydri, Galvanic Genius is a perfect Commander for me. For starters, she's a 2/2 for . Her first ability offers many possibilities in regards to controlling the board or just old-fashioned beatdown. When most people think of Sydri, they think of Caltrops, but when I think about Sydri, not only do I think about Caltrops, but I always consider Staff of Nin, Liquimetal Coating, and Mycosynth Lattice. Earlier, what I meant about controlling the board is that when it comes to creature-only boardwipes, Sydri's first ability can turn our opponents' troublesome artifacts into creatures, so in the process, they get blown-up. With Liquimetal Coating/Mycosynth Lattice, more possibilities open, especially when trying to get rid of enchantments. Her second ability in combination with her first ability also allows a ZAP! with Staff of Nin, or just a wide attacking creatures wipeout with Caltrops.
This particular list is designed to win in multiple ways. It's purposely not designed to be similar to Shimmer Zur or any other cEDH deck, but it's meant to be a fully-functioning Sydri deck that retains her identity, but is able to (possibly, need confirmation) survive in a cEDH meta.
As previously mentioned, this deck is designed to win in multiple ways:

Sydri, Galvanic Genius/Karn, the Great Creator + Thran Dynamo/Gilded Lotus/Basalt Monolith/Chromatic Orrery + Voltaic Construct = Infinite colorless/colored mana. Chromatic Orrery allows you to draw many cards, so it could find other infinite mana outlets.

Metalworker (with two or more artifacts in hand) + Voltaic Construct = Infinite colorless mana

Sydri, Galvanic Genius + Aetherflux Reservoir = Literal Death Star, as everyone, including myself, refers to it.

Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal = Infinite colored/colorless mana, depending on the amount/combination of mana rocks.

Karn, the Great Creator + Mycosynth Lattice = Lockdown... I believe you all know where this is going.

Sensei's Divining Top + Bolas's Citadel + Etherium Sculptor = Draw your entire deck. Seems useless without Laboratory Manic/Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, but it allows us to dig for other combo pieces.

Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Urza, Lord High Artificer = Infinite and Urza activations.

Darksteel Forge + Nevinryrral's Disk + Mycosynth Lattice = Destroy ALL permanents except yours.

With infinite mana, pour it into:

Torment of Hailfire: Torment your opponents to death.

Sphinx's Revelation: Draw your library to find combo pieces/outlets or use it to draw and gain life to fuel the Death Star.

Blue Sun's Zenith: Force your opponents to draw their deck or draw your deck to find combo pieces.

Walking Ballista: Shoot your opponents to death.

Urza, Lord High Artificer: Dig through your entire library to find a wincon.

Truthfully, out of these five infinite mana outlets, only three seem to be worth using, and those are Torment of Hailfire, Blue Sun's Zenith, and Walking Ballista, simply because you can actually win with these, while the other two are mainly just used to dig for more pieces/outlets.

Planeswalkers: Tezzeret the Seeker: Tezzeret's first ability allows us to untap two artifacts, which can be crucial in certain moments. The second ability is the best part about this Tezzeret because it lets us tutor an artifact CMC 4 or less once it enters the battlefield, and with this, we can grab a crucial combo piece. The last ability is good, but I usually never use it, but it could be useful if we're not able to combo.

Karn, the Great Creator: Karn is an excellent Planeswalker. His static ability shuts down our opponent's artifacts and in combination with Mycosynth Lattice, we essentially lock our opponents out of the game. While Karn, Silver Golem is the original Sydri and can be used as a backup, I much prefer this version of Karn because of his versatility, so basically, Karn can act as another Sydri in certain situations.

Creatures:

Arcum Dagsson: One of the best cards in the deck. Arcum works in tandum with Sydri because of her first ability, which fuels Arcum's ability to search for something useful.

Etherium Sculptor: Cost reducer that works with Sensei's Divining Top and Bolas's Citadel

Ethersworn Canonist: Slows down our opponents, but very beneficial for us since we're an artifact deck.

Master Transmuter: Allows for possible protection if needed and cheats in artifacts without the worry of a counterspell.

Metalworker: Produces 2 x X Artifacts in Hand. Great in combination with Voltaic Construct as long as we have 2+ artifacts in hand for infinite colorless mana.

Muzzio, Visionary Architect: Seems clunky, but his ability is great to use at the end of an opponent's turn because it allows use to cheat in artifacts from our library.

Padeem, Consul of Innovation: Hexproof for our artifacts and a source of card draw.

Shimmer Myr: Still a debatable card, but since this list runs so many artifacts, I thought it would be worth keeping in.

Urza, Lord High Artificer: Allows our non-mana rocks to produce . Great with infinite mana.

Vedalken Archmage: Source of reliable card draw.

Voltaic Construct: Important combo piece with Metalworker and artifacts that produce 3+ mana.

Walking Ballista: While it is mainly just a combo piece for infinite damage, it's actually very synergistic with Sydri. Because it's already a creature, all we need to do is pay and shoot down any troublesome creature.

Instants:

Anguished Unmaking, Swords to Plowshares: Regular removal.

Cyclonic Rift: When overloaded, sets your opponents back, can possibly pave the way to a win.

Blue Sun's Zenith, Sphinx's Revelation: Card draw. USZ is a much better card, however, since it's repeatable because it shuffles into our library and can target other players, but both cards are great win conditions.

Whir of Invention: Instant speed tutor that's essentially Chord of Calling, but for artifacts.

Brainstorm: Cantrip that allows digging.

Dramatic Reversal: Combo piece with Isochron Scepter, but can be useful when certain circumstances arise.

Counterspell, Dovin's Veto, Fiece Guardianship: Simple counter magic to protect us or stop our opponents from doing anything... rude.

Sorceries:

Dance of the Manse: The only source of recursion in the deck. Much more versatile than Open the Vaults. Allows us to turn our recurred artifacts into creatures for beatdown or possible combos.

Fabricate, Demonic Tutor: Regular tutors to search for a needed card or combo piece.

Ponder, Preordain: Cantrips that allow digging.

Windfall: Source of card draw for us, helps a lot if one of our opponents has more cards in hand than us.

Supreme Verdict: Boardwipe that can't be countered.

Torment of Hailfire: Wincon with infinite mana, but considering the amount of mana rocks ran in the deck, this can be useful even without infinite mana.

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Revision 5 See all

(2 years ago)

+1 Adarkar Wastes main
-1 Arcane Sanctum main
-1 Authority of the Consuls main
-1 Blind Obedience main
-1 Caltrops main
+1 Castle Vantress main
-1 Chromatic Lantern main
+1 Cloud Key main
+1 Council's Judgment main
+1 Cyberdrive Awakener main
-1 Darksteel Forge main
-1 Darksteel Ingot main
+1 Enlightened Tutor main
+1 Esper Sentinel main
+1 Exotic Orchard main
+1 Fabled Passage main
-1 Fellwar Stone main
-2 Island main
+1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries main
-1 Lightning Greaves main
and 46 other change(s)
Date added 4 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

11 - 0 Mythic Rares

49 - 0 Rares

17 - 0 Uncommons

9 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.87
Tokens Construct 0/0 C, Emblem Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh, Pilot 1/1 C, Treasure
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