Sharuum Plays Nice

Commander / EDH Artifact Combo Infinite Combo WUB (Esper)

StevenPJobs

Land (37)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Ancient Den
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Demolition Field
• 1x Deserted Beach
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Glimmervoid
• 1x Gloomlake Verge
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 5x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Shipwreck Marsh
• 1x Spire of Industry
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Blasphemous Edict
• 1x All is Dust

Artifact (26)

• 1x Dispeller's Capsule
• 1x Executioner's Capsule
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Sword of the Meek
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Thopter Foundry
• 1x Time Sieve
• 1x Cloud Key
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1x Mystic Forge
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Unwinding Clock
• 1x Batterskull
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Memory Jar

Instant (9)

• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge
• 1x Fact or Fiction

Commander (1)

Creature (19)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Etherium Sculptor
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x The Reality Chip
• 1x Emry, Lurker of the Loch
• 1x Foundry Inspector
• 1x Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1x Scrap Trawler
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Master Transmuter
• 1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Thopter Assembly
• 1x Angel of the Ruins
• 1x Thought Monitor
• 1x Blightsteel Colossus

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Mirrodin Besieged
• 1x Rhystic Study

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

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Sideboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Myr Retriever
• 1x Peacekeeper

Artifact (2)

• 1x Sculpting Steel
• 1x Mindslaver

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Damn

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Combos

Main Combos (2–3 cards)

• Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek gains 1 life and makes a thopter for {1}, and goes infinite with Krark-Clan Ironworks (infinite life, {C}, and thopters) or Time Sieve + {5}. Keep in mind that the Krark-Clan route doesn't immediately end the game when playing against other decks that can go infinite or win without depleting life totals.

• Time Sieve + Thopter Assembly for infinite turns. Time Sieve can provide some clutch extra turns even outside the combo, and becomes fairly efficient when Scrap Trawler is in play. Thopter Assembly is also a decent body that generates blockers and fodder.

• The Reality Chip / Mystic Forge + Sensei's Divining Top + Cloud Key / Etherium Sculptor / Foundry Inspector infinitely draws the deck. As you're drawing the deck, you can play the other two cost-reducing artifacts to cast every colorless artifact with cmc 3 or less for free, generating a finite but very large amount of mana with mana rocks and Krark-Clan Ironworks. Then using this mana (and all your cards) you can win with one of the other combos.

Backup Combos (4+ cards)

• Scrap Trawler + Myr Retriever + Krark-Clan Ironworks + Sai, Master Thopterist / Mirrodin Besieged is another combo that makes infinite creature tokens and {C}. It's less reliable than the combos above, but if you notice you have two or three pieces already it can be worth searching for the rest.

• Sensei's Divining Top + Krark-Clan Ironworks + Sai, Master Thopterist / Mirrodin Besieged + The Reality Chip / Mystic Forge is an alternate way to draw the deck, similar to the main Top combo with the added upside of making tons of {C} and tokens.

Notable Cards & Other Wincons

Sensei's Divining Top is a great card. Many know this. It would be great in the deck even if it were not part of its main combo: difficult to remove, great synergy with shuffle effects, and sometimes a free artifact cast per turn with a cost reducer on the field. As it is, it's a combo piece that helps find other combo pieces, or whatever else you may need. Just try to use it quickly and decisively, as you'll be spinning a lot.

Steel Hellkite offers flexible and powerful removal if it connects, getting around hexproof and keeping tokens in check. Dealing combat damage against some decks can be a big ask, though. In practice, it often serves as a must-answer threat that eats a removal spell that might otherwise target a combo or engine piece. I'm experimenting with other options in this slot, but I think it's an underrated card.

Batterskull has two of the most relevant creature keywords for this deck: lifelink and vigilance, to buy time and remain on defense. Attaching to Sharuum (or something else large) can create good pressure and a potential backup wincon through commander damage. Like with Steel Hellkite, I'm considering other options for this slot, but fills a pretty important role even if not the strongest card ever. Scavenged Brawler is a similar option, but I think Batterskull slightly beats it out.

Mirrodin Besieged and Sai, Master Thopterist are so good in this list that it's a shame that the other token generators in our colors are so inferior. You're unlikely to win by going wide with tokens, but they provide excellent fodder for Skullclamp, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Time Sieve, and for blocking. Thopter Assembly provides similar utility outside its combo.

Tezzeret the Seeker, slept on for many years in favor of his other versions, is by far the best artifact synergy planeswalker for this deck. His -X can search for most combo pieces since they're low cmc. Sensei's Divining Top, Baleful Strix, and Sol Ring are common targets, but utility eggs like Nihil Spellbomb, the capsules, or even Expedition Map can provide answers to a variety of problems.

Maze of Ith, Crawlspace, and Baleful Strix are our ways to try to mitigate the inevitable mid- to late-game combat nightmares, offering some support against both tall and wide strategies. Maze of Ith can be particularly good at discouraging attacks from opponents who are looking to trigger combat damage effects. Neither provides the complete safety that a card like Peacekeeper (taken out for thematic and table fun reasons) does, but life should be lived on the edge!

Memory Jar deserves a mention for how often it facilitates game wins. Drawing 7 is good, but artifact recursion means it can often draw 14–28 cards before you find what you need to close out the game.

And Blightsteel Colossus ᕦ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕤ

Deck Philosophy, aka: Why Not the Obvious Combo?

So, why not Sharuum the Hegemon + Phyrexian Metamorph / Sculpting Steel / Machine God's Effigy? Mostly personal preference. It sometimes felt like an anticlimactic end to games when deployed, and I didn't always enjoy having to explain the interaction to players who were unfamiliar with it. While the feeling is subjective, and some players just don't like infinite combos of any kind, the combos that made it into this version feel a lot flashier and/or are easier to see coming, which allows for more interaction from opponents and equates to more fun, without sacrificing much power.

There's also the issue of the third piece of the combo. Traditionally, this role is filled by popular cards like Disciple of the Vault, Altar of the Brood, Bitter Ordeal, or the recent Marionette Apprentice, all of which show up on Sharuum's EDHREC page. There are, however, many other potential payoffs for the Sharuum graveyard loop, with more being printed every year, so I won't address them individually, but each tends to have a weakness in one or more areas, such as lack of recursion/protection, out-of-combo uselessness, or inability to win immediately. A card may one day come along that's too enticing to not include, but for now I've found the deck more enjoyable to play without the combo it's best known for.

So why Sharuum the Hegemon at all? It is, admittedly, a bit of a relic, from when it was much easier to permanently take a commander out of the game and build-around commanders were somewhat discouraged. There have been some good Esper legendary creatures printed since then, but I don't think any of them provide the same simple and flexible utility that bringing back any artifact from the graveyard can. I won't list all of the potential contenders, but most of them are build-around commanders in a way that Sharuum is not. (Well, except for Tivit, Seller of Secrets, which two-card combos with Time Sieve and decidedly outclasses her at the same mana cost. But an artifact deck without an artifact general don't sit right with me.) She can sit in the command zone for most of the game, then cast when there's something juicy to get back, with an extra 5/5 flyer on top. Opponents are discouraged from removing her since that means another artifact can be brought back later. I keep waiting for the day that Wizards prints a better commander for this deck, but maybe you just can't beat the original.

One of the deck's biggest strengths, in my opinion, is that it aims to minimize the number of combo pieces that are unimpactful until ready for their "intended" use—a problem that plagues jankier combo decks. Most of the pieces mentioned above can provide meaningful utility or flexibility while playing the setup/control game until ready to combo off, while redundant recursion like Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever, and Academy Ruins provide resilience and late-game power. It's also entirely possible to win without comboing off through sheer card and mana advantage once the parts are up and running.

Exile effects/graveyard hate and general artifact hate are the deck's greatest and most obvious weaknesses. Exile can be circumvented by sacrificing to Krark-Clan Ironworks or Thopter Foundry in response, but there's not much counter to artifact hate besides your own counterspells. It's just something to embrace when leaning so heavily into a single card type.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	1 week
Exclude colors	RG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 1 Mythic Rares 51 - 3 Rares 21 - 1 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.16
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Myr 1/1 C, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Thopter 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 U, Treasure
Folders	Tapped Out - User Decks, Favorite Decks