Not your average Johnny-combo deck.
This deck has obviously become rather popular lately, what with the printing of
Sram, Senior Edificer
, and all, but I maintain that my own precursor brew of it is still the best, if not the most consistent.
This deck is a Critical Mass style combo deck with the centerpieces being
Puresteel Paladin
and
Sram, Senior Edificer
. Why critical mass? Because with these centerpieces, we make an engine by casting a ton of 0-drop equipments to draw cards, hopefully into more equipment so we can keep going. The trick is to cast the lot of them, and should you run out of gas, cast
Retract to refill, then go again. But don't lose track of how many spells have been cast this turn - the kill spell is
Grapeshot, so you either cast around 19 spells, then
Grapeshot for lethal, or cast 9, then double
Grapeshot, or get creative. By the way, this can all happen as early as Turn 1, thanks to
Gemstone Caverns
! You always want to go second.
Salvage Titan
is mostly for funny matchups where it doesn't really matter what you board in, normally, because there's not much you can do. Sometimes, though, a lot of decks can not handle the Turn 1
Craw Wurm
, so take advantage of that as best you can!
Much like the long-dead archetype, Eggs (may it rest in peace!), this deck wants a nonzero number of Silence, just in case of trickery on behalf of control decks, or a stray Mindbreak Trap, or anything else that's going to ruin your fun.
Grafdigger's Cage serves a number of purposes - just don't leave them at home and you'll have a fun time against Dredge, Snapcaster Mage, Storm, and a bunch of other niche decks.
I truly don't know exactly what I would bring in Academy Ruins for, but I was compelled to put it in. Maybe it'll be good? Who knows. I may change this for something else if I find a problem that I can't resolve.
Last but not least - the anti-Leyline combo kill. Obviously this deck plays lots and lots of equipments. So what good does the deck do us if we can't effectively use Grapeshot? Well, as it turns out, instead you can load up a
Goblin Gaveleer
with all of the equipment handy and a pair of Lightning Greaves and just attack for up to 55 trample damage!
So what makes this different from the other Puresteel decks floating around out there? If we cross-reference with
Caleb Durward's build (one of the best examples I can find), there are some remarkable differences. First of all, the mana base is utterly different, because we started from different playstyles: mine being that a combo deck should generally be accelerated if at all possible, and his that they should be tweaked for more maindeck stability.
Gemstone Caverns
is not a card added without great sacrifice, and it is one I'm willing to make in order to kill you right now immediately. Furthermore, I still use
Cavern of Souls, which fell off with the advent of Dwarves returning to the Multiverse. It's still good, what can I say? Mr Durward also uses shocks and fetches, which I abstain from doing; the amount of deck-thinning is usually not trivial in critical mass decks, but in this case it is literally the difference of a card or two. In the long run, I would prefer not to spend life to accomplish a minimal effect.
Serum Powder is a super controversial combo staple that sees little to no play in any format, but I wholeheartedly believe that this card can be the difference between winning and losing about half of the games that it's in your opener - plus it helps find the post-board Leylines, which is incredibly important.
I also do not include any cantrips (like Serum Visions) or maindeck protection (in the case of Mr Durward, Swan Song is the best example). As far as I'm concerned, preboard, your deck should be as streamlined and efficient as possible. Dilute it as needed after the first game.
Noxious Revival
, also, does not make an appearance in my list, partly because it just runs more equipments, and I can just jam. Caleb runs 21 equipments, where I run 23 (and yes, that is a significant difference in a deck in which you will get to see most or all of your deck in your hand in a single game). Granted, his deck probably sees a few more keepable 7s than mine, but the ability to easily mulligan with Serum Powder improves my deck's ability to withstand a mulligan - also relevant in a combo deck.
Ultimately, I do like both decks, but obviously they were designed to do the same thing in a different way.
I hope you enjoyed my deck - if you like it, give it an upvote, and if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to drop me a comment! Thanks!
