The 23 Winds of Esper - Sharuum EDH

Commander / EDH Artifact Casual Theme/Gimmick WUB (Esper)

senrade

Land (39)

Sorcery (5)

Enchantment (1)

1x Thopter Spy Network

Artifact (23)

Instant (12)

Commander (1)

Creature (16)

Planeswalker (3)

Introduction

"Esper, like any work of art, can be truly appreciated only from a distance"

This Sharuum deck started off as the first deck I ever built on Magic Online, a brave move in a competitive and faceless community. More than any other deck I've built, this deck is "constricted" heavily by theme and flavour. Powerful (and popular) cards are few and far between in this deck if they do not feel like they fit in the spellbook of an Esper mage. I like to think that every opponent I play against using this deck gets a good feel of the shard of Esper and gets to see interesting new cards they'd never really seen used before.

Esper is one of the shards of the plane Alara after it was split asunder. Esper's connection to green and red mana was severed, whence blue and its allies reigned supreme. Black and Blue pulled White in the direction of order, hierarchy, law and stability. White and Blue bring out Black's philosophy of success at any cost, with an added emphasis on perfection, not just power and control. Blue's drive for perfection was allowed to run free and Esper became a place of unbowed progress, civilisation and control over the natural world. The denizens of Esper's mastery of magic and artifice are unparalleled through the multiverse. The extreme quest for perfection has led to an order known as the Ethersworn, who to try to infuse every living thing in Esper with etherium, banishing the ignoble flesh. They call this their "Noble Work". Etherium is a magical metal alloy that allows for excellent conduction and amplification of magic. The sphinx Crucius created all etherium in the distant past, but he disappeared and only the Seekers of Carnot claim to know how to make more, although they are missing a crucial ingredient, seemingly absent from Esper. Sharuum, once Crucius' friend and lover, has made great strives in new etherium alloys, allowing for much more efficient use and stretching the reserves of etherium much further.

My Commander Philosophy

He scowls at his imperfect creation, then crushes it to scrap. He salvages the etherium and begins anew.

Decks I make are a medium of expression. They follow particular themes and tell particular stories that I like, or even just contain particular cards I like. Because of this I heavily shy away from a deck full of staples and using all the most powerful cards. The more one constructs a deck to win at all costs, the more personality it loses.

Sharuum has a nasty reputation. Her powerful ability can often steal away a game quite easily even in a deck as low powered as this. However, this deck contains exactly one infinite combo, it's pretty hard to assemble, and it doesn't even involve Sharuum herself. The winds of Esper are prevailing in this deck, I've strived to include as many cards from Esper itself as I can. All creatures from Esper in the Shards of Alara block were artifact creatures, and the same is true of this deck. Indeed, all creatures are (flavourwise) from Esper, and around half the nonland permanents in total are too. If you want to suggest a nonartifact creature, or an artifact creature made from an inferior, non-etherium metal, don't even bother. The Sanctum Arcanum will just slam the door in your face - ignoble flesh pollutes our pristine working environment.

So that having been said, if there's a format staple that I seem to have missed, there's a very good chance I am fully aware of it and choose not to run it. There are worse things than losing.

Individual Cards

"I'm one masterpiece away from ruling this pathetic world."

Artifacts, and the cards of Esper, lend themselves to being their strongest when they interact with each other, but of course this deck can't function entirely on combos, and indeed at least one thing can be said of each card without needing to discuss its specific interactions with other cards.

Creatures

Whether mechanical or biological, life finds a way to propagate itself.

Etherium Sculptor, though fragile, can be the best mana acceleration this deck offers. You can get your other mana artifacts off quickly with her, and then you can start casting lots of large things in one turn. The more spells you cast in a turn, the more powerful she becomes.

Ethersworn Canonist is clearly very powerful in faster formats like modern or legacy. Indeed, in commander she can potentially do nothing against decks which just like to curve out, which are common. But most of the time she'll at least somewhat slow your opponent down, meanwhile this deck isn't all that hampered by it. This punishes heavy (particularly green) ramping strategies, which particularly pleases me. Additionally, she makes what few counterspells this deck runs very favourable for you. Whether you're defending an artifact spell of your own or trying to nullify a nonartifact spell of an opponent, your opponent will not have the opportunity to respond in kind.

Metallurgeon doesn't do much more than meets the eye. Destroying artifacts is often fighting a bit of a losing battle against Sharuum, but the extra protection from board wipes and targeted removal is appreciated. His ability to allow continuous chump blocking is often relevant.

Puppet Conjurer can be incredibly useful when paired with other cards, as was the intention behind is design I imagine. On his own, he doesn't do much more than create a chump blocker each turn that doesn't add up, which, to be fair, is still pretty helpful sometimes.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, Tezzeret's rival while he remained on Esper. As a Seeker, I'd probably include him no matter what (this, by the way, is why Sen Triplets don't feature in the deck - lorewise they don't have much to do with the Ethersworn), but he's actually really exciting for me. There has always been one slot in this deck that I didn't quite know how to fill. Nuisance Engine, Torpor Orb, Esper Battlemage and more have all occupied it, but I think Silas is exactly what I've been looking for. Being a Sharuum deck, getting artifacts back is to our advantage and Silas Renn can do it early and repeatedly if you can keep him going. His power obviously depends on targets but this is a nice thematic source of card advantage, it fits with the deck and it really bolsters the flavour. I think he's absolutely perfect.

Sanctum Gargoyle may seem a strange choice in a deck whose commander just does it better. Indeed, there is no instance in this deck (in a vacuum) where one might want to cast an artifact over just putting it on the battlefield from the graveyard (since Enigma Sphinx doesn't stick around in the graveyard for long). However sometimes you want the reanimation effect twice or you need it for cheap. Sanctum Gargoyle also perfectly into the "etherium crisis" theme. Any Esper mage would have their salvage gargoyle handy.

Filigree Sages can inspire some degeneracy but they're very innocent in this deck. Their power comes from being able to activate them more than once per turn - if you have a lot of mana they can completely outshine all other enablers in this deck. The deck didn't initially have much for the sages to go well with, they worked but not that well. However their art and flavour text charmed me so much that I made a very large overhaul to the deck in order to accommodate them, it's now even more single-mindedly focused on artifacts. Etherium Astrolabe has a similar story, my adaptations to make it good were what made the deck like it is today.

Master Transmuter alone is clearly immensely powerful. Were she not from Esper I would very likely not be using her. The only thing to say about her in a vacuum is that she can cheat out artifacts very cheaply and she can save artifacts from removal. You can always put the artifact you just returned to your hand back on the battlefield (and she can target herself.)

Sludge Strider is a good way to spend excess mana that this deck will sometimes be left with. Gaining something in the region of 1 to 4 life each turn cycle can be crucial when on the receiving end of aggression. The most relevant reason, however, for Sludge Strider's inclusion is simply that I love the card's art and ability, no matter how weak it is.

Ethersworn Adjudicator is easily one of the most useful cards in the deck. Like I said about Steel Hellkite in my Isperia the Inscrutable deck, dumping all your mana for a turn into destroying a couple of things is really really good. If this knight is allowed to destroy more than one creature a turn, all creature strategies but the most wide of token armies will lose to him. And let's not forget that he nabs enchantments too. Seriously powerful card. And the flavour text is very appropriate.

Sphinx Summoner, as a tutor, can't really be discussed on its own. Clearly there are creatures in this deck worth searching for. For a given effect (like untapping or token production), it's worth choosing an artifact creature that does it (either as a back-up or a replacement) because of Sphinx Summoner.

Salvage Titan, like Sludge Strider is mainly here as a good representation of Esper. This deck can make lots of spare artifacts to sacrifice for it and some of the smaller mana rocks can often afford to go to cast it for free, and can be freely exiled from the graveyard to get it back.. This thing can present quite the menace for control decks to deal with in long games, particularly in combination with Sharuum. Failing that, it's still a 6/4 that can bring itself back. Getting a little more oomph out of a turn with a free 6/4 can be what the deck needs to keep up. Be careful with the exiling ability since it works against Sharuum, but in long games you should be able to bring the titan back more than once without trouble.

Sharding Sphinx aids or is aided by a large number of cards in this deck, but the ability also works if you're just steamrolling in with artifacts, and of course it triggers on its own, so it can start the squadron without help. This card can most easily take over the game if left untouched, and it does so surprisingly quickly.

Enigma Sphinx holds her own weight very well. She obviously doesn't work with Sharuum, but her own recursion effect is better given the cascade. This deck only has 3 counterspells and a Sphinx's Revelation so the cascade is very rarely awkward. Usually the worst you get from her is a mana acceleration artifact (not to say that they aren't often helpful even at 7+ mana). Beyond that, pretty much every card in the deck is a welcome sight, and using her is a lot of fun too.

Sphinx of the Steel Wind is a monster. There's absolutely nothing bad about this card. This card wins me the most games on its own. Lifelink and vigilance are so important for this card: being able to gain 12 life per turn cycle will steal away games from aggressive decks. Red and green are the most happy to destroy artifacts, and green creatures are often the huge things you need to be blocking with this thing so the protections are very relevant, without making it unkillable by the best removal colours. 6 power with first strike will often be enough for it to deal with nonred, nongreen creatures. Sphinx of the Steel Wind is the ultimatum of this deck, the pinnacle of what Esper creatures offer.

Sphinx Sovereign has a tough act to follow, it's worse than its sister in almost every way. It gains you life more immediately and it gets rid of an opponent's life more quickly, but, like Slude Strider, this is present because I love the card, its art and its flavour text.

Noncreature Artifacts

Soon I will sleep, eyes closing to a world tarnished with flesh, and then wake to a polished vision

Dispeller's Capsule is, of course, a useful effect, the deck cares about artifacts (surprise surprise), it's from Esper and its art is fantastic. Getting it out on turn 1 can offset the fact that it costs 3 to activate. This is true of the next capsule as well: Having them as warnings, though it makes them easier to play around, does discourage your opponent and slow them down a bit, which this deck very much appreciates.

Executioner's Capsule doesn't hit black creatures, which can just blank it completely against some decks, but like Dispeller's Capsule, it's cheap, it's heavily on theme and it's not leaving the deck.

Courier's Capsule can make 2 land opening hands work for you. It can go off at instant speed for a total of 4 mana, making it an Inspiration that you can pay for in parts, meaning holding up mana for removal or counterspells becomes very very enticing with this capsule on the battlefield. Of all the capsules, I think I like this one's artwork the best, but they're all wonderful. The capsules are some of my favourite things about this deck, they're so Esper.

Time Sieve is good for extra turns, even if you don't do it efficiently or go infinite. This deck has lots of artifact mana accelerators and artifact lands, so an extra turn at the expense of 5 artifacts for swinging with your creatures, or to get an extra planeswalker actifaction is something that can and does happen.

Thopter Foundry isn't trivial to make work, and this deck isn't trying particularly hard, I've included it mostly because of art, flavour text and my love for the card. However, sacrifice outlets are good, and the reward is decent. Thopter Foundry will usually be at its best by making all of your (non token) chump blockers last for twice as long, and netting you some value from removal. The thopters have flying, so it can also help you deal with planeswalkers at the expense of your less useful artifacts, or ones targeted with removal.

Etherium Astrolabe, first of all, has some of the best art I've ever seen. Ever. Flash is a nice boon for this thing, it's a bit weird that it has it, but very much appreciated. Like with Thopter Foundry, sacrifice outlets are good, and this can generate you value from removal and chump blocking too. The sacrificed artifact being allowed to be a token, and the fact that drawing a card is usually being better than gaining 1 life and a 1/1 flying artifact make the astrolabe more useful, but its power is (necessarily) hindered by the requirement that it be tapped.

Scepter of Dominance is this deck's answer to a lot of permanents. The deck doesn't run much mass removal so it has to be versatile with its targeted removal, and versatile Scepter of Dominance certainly is. It pains me not to run all members of the cycle, but Scepter of Insight is so pitifully unusable - it's not even that it's bad, it's just so difficult to use. I can't use Scepter of Insight so the whole cycle isn't on the table so I've no obligation to use Scepter of Fugue, which isn't quite what this deck wants to do anyway. This scepter is very heavy on the white mana requirement, bear that in mind when formulating any plans.

Unwinding Clock works best when you have artifacts with tap abilities, and this deck has plenty of that. Neglecting that for now, giving artifact creatures pseudo-vigilance and letting me hold up mana more easily are both appreciated, but this card isn't used for its intrinsic power.

Unbender Tine constitutes a ramp spell as powerful as your highest mana producing permanent, and of course increases the potency of other combos in this deck. In an artifact deck, Voltaic Key might seem a more logical choice, but Unbender Tine much more easily produces mana, not costing mana to activate and being able to target lands, and it's from Esper (or at least Alara.)

Lux Cannon isn't all that impressive on its own usually, however stalling is something this deck does very well, and the more you stall, the more you can destroy, making it easier to stall further. But make no misake, Lux Cannon really shines (heh) with its buddies.

Mirrorworks needs no examples to seem powerful. Any tokens you can generate with this thing are good, and the best place to start is with mana rocks to make future turns with this even more powerful. The only things that don't really get much better with this thing are Ethersworn Canonist, Filigree Sages and Unwinding Clock, only giving you backups, Magister Sphinx in 1v1 (not that another 5/5 is a bad thing) and Salvage Titan and Enigma Sphinx, since their utility is only relevant when they aren't on the battlefield.. Other than that, every artifact in this deck gets a lot more powerful with an unimpeded Mirrorworks on the battlefield.

Scourglass is supposed to be very good in a deck like this. With a grand total of 3 nonartifact permanents (2 of which can't even be on the battlefield at the same time), Scourglass usually amounts to a one sided boardwipe. It's awkward against other artifact decks, of course, largely useless against draw-go control decks, and very powerful against most everything else. That upkeep activation restriction is what's keeping this thing from being completely busted, and the decision to pull the trigger is interesting. Keeping it around when your opponent doesn't have a great board position can force them to either overcommit to their board or to give you too much time to develop your own, like with Perilous Vault and its ilk. Unlike them, however, Scourglass can be completely nullified if your opponent can get rid of it on their turn, so be patient with it at your own risk.

Planeswalkers and Enchantments

Revealing the truth only deepened Tezzeret's curiosity for the secrets still buried.

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is probably the most powerful planeswalker in this deck. With well over a third of the cards in the deck being artifacts, his +1 will almost always find you something, and it's reasonably often a choice of the best out of 2 or 3. He looks at 5 cards at a time, so you can well and truly assemble combos with him if you can repeatedly use his first ability. His second ability is nothing to scoff at, against a lot of decks a 5/5 will get in the way of an awful lot, and you can quite easily take the aggressive route with it too. You'll rarely be missing something you can turn into a creature, and if you are, that's what his first ability is for. It only costs 1 loyalty point to make a 5/5 so you can really become very aggressive with it, and the first ability completely keeps parity with the second. Tezz's ultimate is a genuine win condition, especially with the token generators in this deck. He gets to it quickly and twice the number of artifacts you control can really get very large. Resolving this Tezzeret and keeping him around has been a win condition in standard, modern and legacy, and it works well in commander too. Also look at that amazing art.

Tezzeret the Seeker, I think, is better in my deck than most, since he isn't just relegated to finding and untapping mana rocks. He can do that, of course, but there's so much more he can do when surrounded by the cards of his plane. There's not too much to say for him on his own, but his ultimate is easy to get to, like with his Mirrodin Besieged iteration, and it can often result in a 20+ point life swing in one turn.

Tezzeret the Schemer can put in a lot of work in this deck. The sheer number of artifacts we run means he can come down and -2 twice to kill 2 things. His +1 feeds his kill mode and can set up for big turns or get us to our big spells earlier if needed. Admittedly his ultimate may not be what our deck is about - if Tezzeret is in a position to ult, then we probably don't need to go on the offensive. Realistically you'll be switching between +1 and -2 just to kill as many things as possible. This is something he's very good at and it helps the deck quite a lot.

Thopter Spy Network when it comes down on turn 3 or 4 will very often be joining an artifact, so it can begin its work straight away. Getting it out early will net you plenty of thopters and a few extra cards, and will definitely help you to assemble something to actually win the game. This card is a ton of fun, I recommend that everyone try it in a suitable deck.

Instants and Sorceries

"Thoughts are commodities. Someone will pay a valuable price for them. Even ones as simplistic as yours..."

Our counterspells all serve the same purpose. They protect our artifacts or buy us time. The combos in this deck aren't degenerate and game winning enough to survive on their own, so a fair amount of control is necessary to stay afloat. Counterspell is generic, fair and needs no explanation. The 2 life from Countersquall isn't necessary, but unlike Negate, it's explicitly from Esper, so we use it.

Mortify, Anguished Unmaking, Utter End, Swords to Plowshares and Dismantling Blow again fill the control slots necessary for staying alive. Utter end is quite jarring since it features Zurgo, very out of place in this deck, but I tolerate it. Anguished Unmaking doesn't stray quite as far, but it still embarrasses me a bit. Swords to Plowshares is obviously very powerful and popular, but again it's there because it really helps the deck stick together. Obviously powerful reactive cards aren't nearly as good as the most powerful proactive ones. Dismantling Blow is there for the sweet sweet card advantage. It's a card I don't see many people use, which is a shame.

Esper Charm is obviously a non-negotiable inclusion. As a Divination/Inspiration it smooths out a lot of starting hands and is never dead. That it destroys enchantments makes this deck surprisingly good against them. Making an opponent discard 2 is by far the rarest mode I use, but it's an instant so doing it an opponent's draw step is nonetheless powerful under the right circumstances.

This deck isn't very dependent on boardwipes, but a few are needed. Scourglass is usually the best, but in addition to that, I use Supreme Verdict. We have plenty of instants to deal with noncreature and nonland permanents, but creatures are the thing most likely to swarm you, so it can be good to have an east reset. I value uncounterability over piercing regeneration shields (partly because of the presence of Metallurgeon), which is why I'm running Supreme Verdict over Wrath of God. Notice that neither of these spells exiles, which means we can use our commander to recover from them.

Tidings is good for this deck since it likes to assemble interactions. A cheap spell that draws a lot of cards can be just the thing you need from time to time. The few counterspells this deck runs and the ease with which it can generate a lot of mana means that tapping out on our turn is usually quite permissible, making Tidings largely superior to Opportunity. Same goes with Serenity vs Jace's Ingenuity.

Thirst for Knowledge is an obvious inclusion for an artifact deck, and it's a fun one to use. It digs you reasonably deep for the cost and you'll nearly always be able to discard an artifact (Sharuum may make that quite desirable indeed.) It only costs 3 mana so it is at its most powerful smoothing out opening hands.

Fact or Fiction scales with the power of cards in the deck, but is obviously very powerful on its own. Along with Swords to Plowshares (and the commander, I suppose), it is a powerful card and overused I allow myself, just because assembling combos is important for this deck, but I don't want the consistency of another tutor.

I don't run many tutors, and Fabricate is the only unconditional one (for artifacts). Being able to do the same thing every game blinds you to interactions that you can stumble upon by accident. I always like trying out new things, and indeed, Fabricate is not relegated to getting the same thing every game. Far from it, in fact. The closest things to it would be Master Transmuter and Sphinx of the Steel Wind, but the first is so fragile that unconditionally tutoring for it is stupid, and the second can just cost too much mana to be worth getting with an early Fabricate.

Whir of Invention can usually get 2 mana or more off from improvise. There are artifacts at every converted mana cost that one could conceivably want to tutor, and the instant speed makes this thing really unfair, but also makes it reactive and thus more diverse. Anyway, the combos this deck can set up are cuter than they are powerful, but I am monitoring this card and will remove it should it prove too much of an outlier power-wise.

Brilliant Ultimatum is pretty much an automatic inclusion in a deck like this. I think the separation into 2 piles part could be entirely removed with the card being too powerful, but I'm not running it for power. There are plenty of expensive cards to get with this, and like with Enigma Sphinx, most of the cards in the deck are good to go if exiled off of this thing. Sad Brilliant Ultimatums do occur, but it is the paragon card of Esper, and it's pretty fun to cast.

Lands

Esper is an expansive canvas painted by precise, controlling hands.

The landbase has little flexibility since the colour requirements of this deck are pretty high - Alara's theme was 3 colours after all, so this we're more picky than most 3 colour decks will be. The artifact lands: Ancient Den, Seat of the Synod and Vault of Whispers occupy basic land slots.

Beyond them, I have a few slots for colourless lands, which I assign as follows:

Sacrifice outlets are good with Sharuum, and this deck recycles artifacts well, so Phyrexia's Core is a nice addition, but certainly not the most powerful.

Darksteel Citadel is my other inclusion, very good with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, but being an artifact in this deck makes it better than a lot of other possibilities.

Interactions

Sharuum

"I pray I am never considered useless or old."

Given that the deck isn't really built around her, Sharuum is very useful. There are no infinite combos involving her in this deck, her power is simply reanimation of things that are countered, milled, destroyed or sacrificed. She is by far your most valuable asset against heavy removal that doesn't exile. Against aggressive decks or other combo decks that aren't really trying to impede upon your strategy, you'll have to work harder to get her to do work for you. Reusing enters-the-battlefield effects, particularly Sphinx Summoner's, is a good use of her ability, if you can get it into the graveyard.

All of the capsules are very pleasing to use with Sharuum. Any one of them is a good use of her ability, including Courier's Capsule. Their activation costs are quite cheap so it's not unreasonable that you could activate them as soon as they're reassembled. Getting a double use out of removal spells (i.e., Executioner's Capsule and Dispeller's Capsule) doesn't sound all that spectacular, but in practice it truly is a great way of using Sharuum, I often pick it over more flashy plays. If you can reanimate and use a capsule more than once then you're doing very well for yourself.

Mirrorworks deserves a mention as a phenomenal mana sink with Sharuum. If you have a global monopoly on mana then you can cast Sharuum, copy her with Mirrorworks, sacrifice either her or the token (usually her, so you can cast her again), bring back 2 different artifacts from your graveyard, and copy both of them. Usually you'll only be able to do one of those two things though, either bringing back 2 artifacts or bringing back an artifact twice. Both options are good and you're free to choose the better. Sharuum also makes it preferable to lose / sacrifice your nontoken artifacts since she can bring those back.

If Sharuum is already on the battlefield then Time Sieve becomes a lot easier to use. You can sacrifice her as one of the artifacts, and recast her, bringing back one of the other things you sacrificed to it. If you have the mana for it, this might net you 2 or even 3 extra turns instead of 1. This becomes even better with Sanctum Gargoyle, sacrifice it, Sharuum and 3 other artifacts, then recast Sharuum, reanimate Sanctum Gargoyle and recast another (ideally cheap) artifact.

Being able to re-use Sharuum's ability is an important part of getting value from her (if bringing back things like Sphinx of the Steel Wind isn't an option). Sac-outlets guarantee that your artifacts will go to the graveyard instead being exiled / put in your library, but they also allow you to re-cast Sharuum. As mentioned, Time Sieve can get her back to the Command Zone. The other sac-outlets in the deck are Thopter Foundry, Etherium Astrolabe and Phyrexia's Core. Both of the artifacts are cheap to cast, cheap to use and easy to get off Tezzeret the Seeker. Thopter Foundry is good if you want to re-use Sphinx Summoner's ability, since you can sacrifice both it and Sharuum in one turn, whereas Etherium Astrolabe can only get one thing per turn. If you're digging for something, and have some time to do it, Sharuum can give you 3 cards out Etherium Astrolabe instead of one. You sacrifice the artifact you don't need, bring it back with Sharuum, then sacrifice it again, then sacrifice her. It's not a very efficient use of mana, however, and it's better if Sharuum and the thing you're sacrificing are blocking creatures for you, or attacking planeswalkers. And, of course, it's repeatable, which makes it better. Ethersworn Adjudicator can target Sharuum so that she can be recast as well, but I've only ever done this once.

Scourglass isn't the sort of thing you want to have to deal with more than once, and Sharuum costs just little enough that she can bring it straight back after using it. After having your whole board wiped once, committing into another Scourglass is a really hard thing to do. This little trick puts you really far ahead most of the time.

Salvage Titan can be a bit anti-synergistic with Sharuum if you're careless. If a game goes on for a long time, though, there will be plenty of things you can exile for free. Sharuum herself is a decent target for its alternate cost, and with Sphinx Summoner out, you'll actively want to sacrifice both to cast the titan for reasons mentioned before.

Master Transmuter is the most efficient way to re-use Sharuum's ability. You return her to your hand with the ability, and then just put her back onto the battlefield. Since this only costs 1 mana per turn cycle to do, this is more viable when you're not out of options and have other things to do.

And the Rest

"Etherium is limited. Innovation is not."

All interactions obviously feature more than one card. The mathematician in me wants to make a multidimensional array to represent them all properly, but what I just said was a lie, so I'll settle for giving all relevant cards a section and state all interactions in each statement. So there will be a lot of double counting. Eat your heart out Gibbs.

Puppet Conjurer

As mentioned in its isolated section, this card shines when it can work with other artifacts. The first interactions I'll mention are those with Unwinding Clock, Unbender Tine and Tezzeret the Seeker, since it lets you use Puppet Conjurer more than once per turn cycle. Since you only need to sacrifice an homunculus on your upkeep, Unwinding Clock will net you 1 (or more, in multiplayer) homunculus per turn cycle, and the other 2 will always net you one more, letting you build up for other things. Sometimes you'll also be spending 5 mana to make 2 homunculi with Filigree Sages, but they'll usually be up to more than that.

Puppet Conjurer provides one "free" candidate for Time Sieve and Salvage Titan (it can actually provide 2 for Time Sieve if you activate both it and Puppet Conjurer with its upkeep trigger on the stack and with a homunculus left over from the last turn cycle). With Unwinding Clock, Unbender Tine or Tezzeret the Seeker, it can be quite a few more, depending on how long you've had both out.

Etherium Astrolabe is enabled by Puppet Conjurer the most. Simply put, once a turn cycle, for UB, you can draw another card. Drawing 2 cards per turn is very good and in Commander in particular reusable draw power is extremely powerful. With Unwinding Clock (especially if you can produce the UB with artifacts) you can draw a card in each player's turn. Tezzeret the Seeker does much the same thing in 1v1, as does Unbender Tine, but more slowly since it only untaps one at a time. Being able to block with the homunculus before sacrificing it is often a relevant detail.

If you're drowning in mana, are stuck in a board stall or are playing defensively and need to gain life, Puppet Conjurer provides 2 triggers for Sludge Strider, whether you sacrifice the homunculus or block with it.

The nature of creature toughness means an extra artifact for Tezzeret the Schemer's -2 can easily make the difference, and Puppet Conjurer happily provides in addition to defending him well.

Thopter Foundry

Etherium Astrolabe makes Thopter Foundry quite a bit better, since the astrolabe can cash in the thopters from the foundry for cards. Having both of these out makes the deck quite good at stalling out or recovering from removal.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, if he can connect, can let you sacrifice artifacts for value if the mana required to recast them isn't an impedance. The instances in which you'll be needing the thopters and in which Silas can connect are sparing, so the ability to repeatedly re-use battlefield triggers is most likely why you'll do this.

Pleasingly, Thopter Spy Network appreciates this card. The thopters have flying, so they're good for triggering its second ability. If you have Thopter Foundry out, the spy network will of course be making its own thopters, but the foundry can turn some unneeded mana rocks into draw triggers, particularly if you're using the thopters generated by the spy network for chump blocking.

Even if the thopters themselves don't mean much, they can defend Tezzeret the Schemer and his -2 makes them matter.

Mirrorworks can give you lots of free thopters. As mentioned, Sharuum makes it preferable to sacrifice the nontoken artifacts since she can bring those back. If Mirrorworks does anything it gives you excess, and Thopter Foundry can easily turn that excess into something meaningful.

If you're using Thopter Foundry in response to removal, then you get even more value if you can use it to get a free Salvage Titan.

Enigma Sphinx is obviously best if you can reuse its cascade, and Thopter Foundry lets you do just that, unless your library gets shuffled or the sphinx is exiled with its trigger on the stack.

Time Sieve

The deck runs plenty of mana artifacts for fodder, but Time Sieve is mostly used at least with some form of value, even if it doesn't go infinite.

Puppet Conjurer provides one "free" candidate for Time Sieve (or 2 if you active Time Sieve and Puppet Conjurer with its trigger on the stack and with a homunculus from the last turn cycle on the battlefield. With Unwinding Clock, Tezzeret the Seeker or Unbender Tine out, it can be quite a few more, depending on how long you've had both out. Thopter Spy Network also provides lots of candidates if it's been doing its thing for a while.

Assuming Silas Renn, Seeker Adept can connect in both turns, Time Sieve effectively only needs 3 artifacts to sacrifice since he'll be bringing 2 back. Only 2 if you can bring back Sanctum Gargoyle and use its ability to cast another. (Obviously this doesn't translate to taking multiple turns, you need 5N - 2(N+1) artifacts to take N extra turns with Sanctum Gargoyle, 5N - (N+1) without it).

Sludge Strider will give you a drain for 4 or 5 (depending on whether or not it is also sacrificed) whenever you activate Time Sieve if you have the mana. If you're racing, then 4 or 5 life lost can be enough to make the extra combat step lethal.

Tezzeret the Schemer will eventually get you there with Time Sieve, but his etherium cells will most likely supplement whatever else you're sacrificing, perhaps giving you one or two extra turns (since he can produce them in the extra turns too).

A Mirrorworks will provide you with more free turns with Time Sieve the longer it's been out.

Sharding Sphinx paired with Time Sieve is the one infinite combo in this deck, and both cards are useful without each other. If you can connect with 5 artifact creatures per turn, then you can produce enough thopters to feed Time Sieve every turn. You can start going off before you reach 5 attackers though. For example, if you're at 4 unblocked attackers, you can sacrifice 3 of the newly created thopters and 2 other artifacts, and on the next turn you'll have 5 for the infinite loop. I don't like 2 card instawin combos like Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond or 1 card effective instawin combos like Tooth and Nail. Time Sieve and Sharding Sphinx are far from that though, you need some setup to get it going.

Enigma Sphinx is good with all of the sac-outlets in this deck, so of course it makes a good target for Time Sieve, however the 5 power flyer isn't always something you can afford to give up in situations where you need extra turns.

Etherium Astrolabe

Etherium Astrolabe is enabled by Puppet Conjurer the most. Simply put, once a turn cycle, for UB you can draw another card. Drawing 2 cards per turn is very good, and in Commander in particular reusable draw power is extremely powerful. With Unwinding Clock (especially if you can produce the mana with artifacts) you can draw a card in each player's turn. Tezzeret the Seeker does much the same thing in 1v1. Being able to block with the homunculus before sacrificing it is often a relevant detail.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, if he can connect, can let you sacrifice artifacts for value if the mana required to recast them isn't an impedance. This is a more convoluted way of doing what Puppet Conjurer does above if you're not also using battlefield triggers, but that's still good.

Unbender Tine enables the previous combo like Tezzeret and Unwinding Clock do, but since it only untaps one artifact at a time, you'll have to do it over 2 turns. On its own though, Unbender Tine makes you able to sacrifice 2 artifacts at instant speed, making it better against board wipes, multiple removal spells or big combat steps. Filigree Sages can do the same thing for more mana, but they can also untap it more than once - this can completely negate the card disadvantage you suffer at the hands of mass removal spells if you have the mana for it.

Etherium Astrolabe makes Thopter Foundry quite a bit better, since the astrolabe can cash in the thopters from the foundry for cards. Having both of these out makes the deck really quite good at stalling out or recovering from removal.

As with all the sac-outlets, Etherium Astrolabe feeds Sludge Strider.

An active Thopter Spy Network with Etherium Astrolabe could give you 2 cards per turn if you can connect with the thopters. If you can, it's amazing. If not, it's still very good and you have thopters to defend yourself while you do what needs to be done.

Tezzeret the Schemer and Etherium Astrolabe can get you far ahead in downtime, just like Puppet Conjurer, but Tezzeret must be defended (perhaps by his own -2) to keep this up. It's slightly jarring that the etherium cell can't produce the mana necessary to sacrifice it, but it's still only 1 mana per turn.

Mirrorworks can give you extra copies of things you don't necessarily need more than one of, like Thopter Foundry, Ethersworn Canonist, mana rocks etc. which you can then sacrifice to Etherium Astrolabe.

Sharding Sphinx, if active, will give you an endless supply of thopters to sacrifice for the Astrolabe. Only being able to sacrifice one thing a turn stings the most in this situation.

Enigma Sphinx works best with the astrolabe. This is because the ability drawing you a card brings you a turn closer to being able to recast the sphinx again, getting another cascade (unless your library gets shuffled or the sphinx is exiled with its trigger on the stack). I nearly always sacrifice Enigma Sphinx, whether or not I'm particularly looking for something to draw just to get more cascades.

Scepter of Dominance

The sceptre has a tap ability, but unless you're using it to tap down blockers, Unwinding Clock and Tezzeret the Seeker won't do much for it. Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, and Sharding Sphinx are the only consistent reasons this deck has to go offensive, and tapping down 2 blockers for them can be very advantageous. Unbender Tine and Filigree Sages can do it at instant speed, allowing you to tap down 2 (or more) problem permanents in an opponent's upkeep, beginning of combat, etc.

There are style points to be had with the sceptre and Sphinx Sovereign. It can also let you use its ability if it can't (or really shouldn't) attack, but that's such a fringe case.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Scepter of Dominance is nearly always used defensively in this deck, but Silas makes tapping down blockers worth it. Any one of the many ways to untap it make it much easier to get his trigger.

The deck's sac-outlets, Phyrexia's Core, Thopter Foundry and particularly Etherium Astrolabe get "free" targets if Silas can reliably connect. The astrolabe's benefit is good enough that you'll want to sacrifice anything cheap just to repeatedly draw cards, the other two are less enticing. Sphinx Summoner can be sacrificed to reuse its trigger, so any of the outlets are good (the same is true of Sharuum, but given how similar her trigger is to Silas', you don't get much more out of it). With a Mirrorworks out in addition to a way to sacrifice things (or kill them with Ethersworn Adjudicator), Silas can take you to heaven quickly.

Assuming Silas can connect in both turns, Time Sieve effectively only needs 3 artifacts to sacrifice since he'll be bringing 2 back. In this instance, sacrificing Sharuum and letting her to go the graveyard is a good idea since the extra artifact matters.

Metallurgeon can make Silas quite difficult to deal with. As an infinite death touch blocker, or an attack that will chew through their resources unless they can generate repeated blockers.

Silas appreciates all of the capsules: Dispeller's Capsule, Courier's Capsule and Executioner's Capsule, since they're so cheap. Executioner's Capsule in particular is good since it often clears the way for blockers.

Scourglass with a Silas on the battlefield is pretty gruesome. Sacrifice it in your upkeep, attack into their empty board and bring it straight back. This can be done indefinitely. Sharuum and Silas both make Scourglass a real kick in the teeth.

Filigree Sages

Most of the stuff here is that same as Unbender Tine, but with the added clause: "This is more expensive but can be done more than once."

The sages will give you more to do with Puppet Conjurer, but that really isn't what they're there for.

Filigree Sages make you able to sacrifice 2 or more artifacts at instant speed to Etherium Astrolabe, making it better against board wipes, multiple removal spells or big combat steps if you have the mana ready.

The sages can let you activate Master Transmuter more than once at instant speed, which may let you save her in response to a removal spell in response to her ability, making activating her very safe indeed. Or of course you can just use it twice (or more) in the usual way. Master Transmuter makes it quite viable to hold up mana so this isn't difficult to set up.

Lux Cannon and Filigree Sages are (usually) best friends. If you can get to 6 mana (at least 2 of which is blue), for each of the last 3 turns of every 4 turns, you can destroy a permanent (i.e. you can destroy 3 quarters of a permanent per turn.) At 9 mana, you're at a permanent every turn. If a lot of your mana is coming from artifacts and you have Unwinding Clock too, it'll be largely unstoppable.

Lux Cannon

All it wants or needs is something to untap it.

Unwinding Clock is (usually) the best in multiplayer. But Magic isn't balanced around multiplayer stop clinging to this delusion you peons, so Unbender Tine should be equivalent. So should Tezzeret the Seeker, although you have to defend him (and he does lots of other good things.)

"I actually lost to Lux Cannon" -My opponent once

Master Transmuter

Puppet Conjurer makes easy targets for Master Transmuter's ability if there's not an actively useful target for it. If you can't afford to be returning mana artifacts to your hand or don't have any other artifacts to return, making a homunculus to return can actually be quite important. Thopter Spy Network, Tezzeret the Schemer and Sharding Sphinx fufill the same role, although they do more work on their own.

Master Transmuter makes 2 triggers for Sludge Strider per activation (unless you're returning Sludge Strider). Since you'll be paying just U for the artifacts you get from the transmuter, it's common that you'll have enough mana to take full advantage of this and pay for both triggers each time.

Unbender Tine can let you activate Master Transmuter another time at instant speed, which may let you save her in response to a removal spell in response to her ability, making activating her very safe indeed. Or of course you can just use it twice in the usual way. As usual, Filigree Sages gives you the option to do it even more than once, but at the expense of a lot more mana.

Mirrorworks with Master Transmuter is quite unfair, since all artifacts already on the battlefield (including her) become candidates to be copied, and of course you can copy something again once each turn cycle. Both Mirrorworks and Master Transmuter should be killed on sight, so it's rare that you can assemble this, but boy does it get out of hand if you do.

Sphinx Summoner is a very common playmate of Master Transmuter. You can fetch her with the sphinx, and then continually return him to your hand and then the battlefield, yielding more targets for Master Transmuter to put onto the battlefield, or for you to cast.

Enigma Sphinx is a great thing to return with Master Transmuter. Even if you don't have anything good or anything at all to put onto the battlefield with her, recasting the sphinx for another cascade is often worth it.

With Unwinding Clock out (or Tezzeret the Seeker), you may well run out of things to do with Master Transmuter unless you have reusable cards like Enigma Sphinx, Sphinx Summoner or Sharuum available. Be careful not to overextend in this case.

Sludge Strider

If you have the mana, Sludge Strider is good just by playing Magic, but there are some things that make it better.

If you're stuck in a board stall or are playing defensively and need to gain life, Puppet Conjurer provides 2 triggers for Sludge Strider, whether you sacrifice the homunculus or block with it.

Thopter Foundry provides 2 extra triggers for Sludge Strider, 3 if the thopter then leaves the battlefield. Since the thopter will nearly always be doing that when blocking against aggressive decks, that's 4 life per use of Thopter Foundry, which can stem the bleeding substantially. Sludge Strider gets fewer triggers per activation of Etherium Astrolabe, but the astrolabe can sacrifice tokens, which could add up to more life drained overall depending on the situation.

Whenever you activate Time Sieve, Sludge Strider will give you a drain for 4 or 5 (depending on whether or not it is also sacrificed) if you have the mana. If you're racing, then 4 or 5 life lost can be enough to make the extra combat step lethal.

Tezzeret the Schemer can generate 2 triggers for the price of one with etherium cells, but, as always, since he's a planeswalker you can't do this freely and you'll probably be working towards his ult with this if you're free to do it. But board stalls / burn decks do happen, and this can give you the edge.

If you can afford to pay for Sludge Strider in addition to the triggers of Mirrorworks, then it also provides a good supply of draining opportunities.

Sharding Sphinx provides a lot of triggers for Sludge Strider, too many to pay for if it's left alone. Getting tokens makes using all your mana to pay for the triggers more attractive, since you're less obligated to spend it on advancing your board or dealing with theirs.

Sludge Strider gets a few extra triggers off casting Salvage Titan for its alternative cost. Although if you're casting it for no mana that's probably because you've used all your mana on something else, so you probably can't pay the for the triggers. However, if your opponent is low and losing the 4 life will get you significantly closer to winning, then this is an option worth keeping in mind. If you have an abundance of tokens to sacrifice, however, then this also becomes a good option.

Unwinding Clock

Unwinding Clock lets you use Puppet Conjurer more than once per turn cycle. Since you only need to sacrifice an homunculus on your upkeep, Unwinding Clock will net you 1 (or more, in multiplayer) homunculus per turn cycle, letting you build up for other things.

You won't usually have enough artifacts to want to activate Etherium Astrolabe so many times, but if you have a Puppet Conjurer out too, Unwinding Clock presents a serious powerup to both.

With Unwinding Clock out you may well run out of things to do with Master Transmuter unless you have reusable cards like Enigma Sphinx, Sphinx Summoner or Sharuum available. Be careful not to overextend in this case.

The extra mana provided by mana artifacts untapping can let you pay for Sludge Striders triggers more often. This actually matters pretty much every time these two artifacts are on the battlefield together.

In multiplayer, Unwinding Clock is probably the best powerup to Lux Cannon, letting you destroy a permanent every turn cycle. In 1v1, it's still a big boost, letting you destroy one every 2 turn cycles. That's extremely good. Unwinding Clock + Unbender Tine gives you a cannon you can fire every turn cycle.

Ethersworn Adjudicator untaps itself, but for 3 mana, which is hardly negligible and is also how much it costs to activate its first ability. Colour availability notwithstanding, Unwinding Clock will give you an extra activation of the knight. That isn't the most interesting of things to do but it's seriously good.

Unbender Tine

Unbender Tine lets you use Puppet Conjurer more than once per turn cycle. Since you only need to sacrifice an homunculus on your upkeep, Unbender Tine will net you 1 homunculus per turn cycle, letting you build up for other things.

Unbender Tine makes you able to sacrifice 2 artifacts at instant speed to Etherium Astrolabe, making it better against board wipes, multiple removal spells or big combat steps. It's also the only untapper in the deck that can do the same trick with Phyrexia's Core, if that's the only sac-outlet you have.

Scepter of Dominance is usually best used on an opponent's turn, and Unbender Tine lets you do that twice. This could cut an opponent off a colour, an awful lot of mana, or mostly nullify combat steps unless you're being seriously overwhelmed. Combine with Filigree Sages for a make-your-own Opposition.

Lux Cannon will be twice as fast with Unbender Tine, letting you destroy a permanent every 2 turns. If you get both Unbender Tine and Unwinding Clock, you have a cannon you can fire every turn cycle.

Unbender Tine can untap Ethersworn Adjudicator at instant speed, which can be relevant if you need to "re-kill" something being saved by the first activation targeting it.

Ethersworn Adjudicator

This knight is a real one-gargoyle-army but, although it untaps itself, it does so for 3 mana. That's hardly negligible and it's also how much it costs to activate the first ability. Colour availability notwithstanding, Unwinding Clock will give you an extra activation. That isn't the most interesting of things to do but it's seriously good. Tezzeret the Seeker does the same thing, as usual.

Unbender Tine can untap the knight at instant speed, which can be relevant if you need to "re-kill" something being saved by the first activation targeting it.

I've never done this, but you could repeatedly destroy your own Enigma Sphinx to get more cascade triggers. If you've nothing else to do with the Adjudicator you're probably winning, but it's worth keeping in mind.

Mirrorworks

Is there anything this doesn't combo with? Even things like Ethersworn Canonist and Unwinding Clock can be copied to sacrifice to things like Time Sieve or Etherium Astrolabe. Everything gets better with this so I won't point it all out.

I love the capsules and they're all especially good with Mirrorworks since they cost so little. You can cast one, make a copy and crack open both in the same turn because of this.

Time Sieve is very much faciliated by Mirrorworks

If you've copied lots of mana rocks, you can probably start paying for 2 Sludge Striders.

The silliness with Sharuum is in her section. Read it there if you dare.

Sharding Sphinx will become overwhelming in one attack step if you copy it with Mirrorworks.

In multiplayer, multiple copies of Magister Sphinx become relevant if that's the kind of player you are.

Master Transmuter lets you re-copy artifacts by returning them and replaying them with the same ability. Sac-outlets and Sharuum is a less straightforward way.

Sphinx Summoner

It's a tutor so it's mostly too contextual, but due to the frequency of this interaction I'll mention it: Sphinx Summoner is a very common playmate of Master Transmuter. You can fetch her with the sphinx, and then continually return him to your hand and then the battlefield, yielding more targets for Master Transmuter to put onto the battlefield, or for you to cast.

Salvage Titan

Puppet Conjurer provides one "free" candidate for Salvage Titan. With Unwinding Clock et al. out, it can be quite a few more, depending on how long you've had both out. Tezzeret the Schemer also does this, but it only saves you 3 mana since his fodder produce mana themselves.

If you're using Thopter Foundry in response to removal, then you get even more value if you can use the thopters to get a free Salavage Titan, which can become a thopter if itself targeted removal. Then, depending on what exactly has been removed before, you can exile them from the graveyard to get the titan back, and perhaps cast it again for free. This recycling of etherium is a wonderful evocation of the processes of Esper.

Sludge Strider gets a few extra triggers off casting Salvage Titan for its alternative cost. Although if you're casting it for no mana that's probably because you've used all your mana on something else, so you probably can't pay the for the triggers. However, if your opponent is low and losing the 3 life will get you significantly closer to winning, then this is an option worth keeping in mind.

Mirrorworks makes casting Salvage Titan for its alternate cost a lot easier. You can sacrifice the non-token artifacts to bring it back later if you dare, since sacrificed tokens won't stay in the graveyard. If you have an abundance of tokens to sacrifice, however, then this also become a good option.

Salvage Titan is pretty much guaranteed to be free with Sharding Sphinx active if you can't or don't want to as many thopters around as possible to grow the army.

Sharding Sphinx

Sharding Sphinx paired with Time Sieve is the one infinite combo in this deck, and both cards are useful without each other. If you can connect with 5 artifact creatures per turn, then you can produce enough thopters to feed Time Sieve every turn. You can start going off before you reach 5 attackers though. For example, if you're at 4 unblocked attackers, you can sacrifice 3 of the newly created thopters and 2 other artifacts, and on the next turn you'll have 5 for the infinite loop. I don't like 2 card instawin combos like Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond or 1 card instawin combos like Tooth and Nail. Time Sieve and Sharding Sphinx are far from that though, you need some setup to get it going.

If active, Sharding Sphinx will give you an endless supply of thopters to sacrifice for Etherium Astrolabe. Only being able to sacrifice one thing a turn stings the most in this situation.

Sharding Sphinx will become overwhelming in one attack step if you copy it with Mirrorworks.

Salvage Titan is pretty much guaranteed to be free with Sharding Sphinx active if you can't or don't want to as many thopters around as possible to grow the army.

Enigma Sphinx

Enigma Sphinx is best when you can recast it for more cascades, so it goes well with all 3 sac-outlets in the deck. However, you're unlikely to use Time Sieve just for this, and losing a 5 power flyer is often ill-advised when you need extra turns. Salavge Titan can also help you recycle the sphinx if you have other targets. Thopter Foundry is the most convenient way to get Enigma Sphinx back in the library, and Etherium Astrolabe brings you one turn closer to being able to reuse it since it draws a card.

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

There's nothing special about his first ability in the context of this deck, but the other two are worth looking at.

Darksteel Ingot and Darksteel Citadel are both good targets for his second ability for obvious reasons. Since you'll often be putting noncreature artifacts in danger with it, Metallurgeon lowers the risk by providing some protection for them.

His ultimate is easy to come by, and there are lots of cards in this deck that can make it a very big threat, such as: Sharding Sphinx, Thopter Spy Network, Mirrorworks, and a Puppet Conjurer in conjunction with a Unwinding Clock.

Tezzeret the Schemer

Tezzeret makes artifacts and likes artifacts. This makes him combo well with himself but he does in one card what several other things in this deck like to do. He produces artifacts for the sac-outlets, and he kills creatures if you have the artifact production. He's mid-way between the Seeker's versatility and Agent of Bolas' raw power.

Puppet Conjurer defends Tezzeret well, and the nature of creature toughness means an extra artifact for his -2 can easily make the difference.

The thopters from Thopter Foundry often don't mean much, but they can defend Tezzeret and his -2 makes them matter.

Tezzeret will eventually get you there with Time Sieve, but his etherium cells will most likely supplement whatever else you're sacrificing, perhaps giving you one or two extra turns (since he can produce them in the extra turns too).

Tezzeret and Etherium Astrolabe can get you far ahead in downtime, but Tezzeret must be defended (perhaps by his own -2) to keep this up. It's slightly jarring that the etherium cell can't produce the mana necessary to sacrifice it, but it's still only 1 mana per turn.

With Sludge Strider, Tezzeret can generate 2 triggers for the price of one with etherium cells, but, as always, since he's a planeswalker you can't do this freely and you'll probably be working towards his ult with this if you're free to do it. But board stalls / burn decks do happen, and this can give you the edge.

Tezzeret the Seeker

His first ability carries much of the utility of Unwinding Clock, in addition to giving you more mana in one phase. Untapping Puppet Conjurer lets you use it more than once per turn cycle. Since you only need to sacrifice an homunculus on your upkeep, Tezzeret will net you 1 homunculus per turn cycle, letting you build up for other things.

You won't usually have enough artifacts to want to activate Etherium Astrolabe so many times, but if you have a Puppet Conjurer out, Tezzeret presents a serious powerup to both.

With Tezzeret out you may well run out of things to do with Master Transmuter unless you have reusable cards like Enigma Sphinx, Sphinx Summoner or Sharuum available. Be careful not to overextend in this case.

Lux Cannon is twice as fast with Tezz available to untap it, but that makes it more than twice as good. An Unbender Tine along with Lux Cannon and Tezz is very difficult to overcome.

The extra mana provided by mana artifacts untapping can let you pay for Sludge Striders triggers more often.

Ethersworn Adjudicator untaps itself, but for 3 mana, which is hardly negligible and is also how much it costs to activate its first ability. Colour availability notwithstanding, Tezzeret will give you an extra activation of the knight if you have the mana to untap the knight an even number of times. That isn't the most interesting of things to do but it's seriously good.

His second ability has a lot of attractive targets in this deck. All of the capsules, but particularly Dispeller's Capsule and Executioner's Capsule are excellent options to have. Ethersworn Canonist is a nice one to get if there isn't much pressure on you, it will slow your opponent down even more. All the things here apply to Whir of Invention too, albeit with different casting circumstances.

If you have a Puppet Conjurer, get a Etherium Astrolabe. If you have Etherium Astrolabe, get Puppet Conjurer. If you have neither, you can use his first ability in between and get both.

If a Master Transmuter or some other important artifact you want to protect are in your hand, get a Metallurgeon.

The possibilities are endless, and as always you can get mana artifacts with him if that's what you need. The 4 artifact lands: Ancient Den, Seat of the Synod, Vault of Whispers and Darksteel Citadel can all be retrieved at no loyalty cost.

An army of thopters from Thopter Spy Network, Sharding Sphinx, or even an over-sated Thopter Foundry can turn Tezzeret's ultimate into a killing swing, and if you have so many thopters you can probably protect him. Mirrorworks can result in a similar army.

END

"Wasted potential surrounds us. Lend me that bauble, and let me see what it can be made to be."

Thank you for reading. I hope you've discovered and enjoyed some of the themes, cards and combos from the shard of Esper. There are so many wonderful artifacts from Shard of Alara that I never see used, and they go so well together. Esper is a brilliant canvas and a potent machine, and I think I've expressed those aspects well in this deck. Any criticisms, suggestions or comments of relevance are welcome.

""Magister Sphinx is a card I'm reluctant to use. As a sphinx from Esper, I'm not going to take it out, but I have willingly lost games before from refusing to cast it, because I don't want such a lame free win. Against decks that are clearly a lot more powerful than mine, I'm less hesitant. If my battlefield is empty, I'm also more willing to use him. Having him in the deck makes him a liability against cards like Bribery and Acquire, but they're devastating most of the time anyway.

People often don't pay this Tezzeret the respect he deserves. A Magister Sphinx with at least 4 other artifacts and a Tezzeret on 4 will make them think twice about letting him live. This combo is a bit of an "oops, I win" though, so I refrain from using it whenever it's available, I'll only use it if the option of taking down Tezzeret first is possible. ""

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Date added	8 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 25 - 0 Rares 31 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.54
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Tezzeret the Schemer, Etherium Cell, Homunculus 0/1 U, Thopter 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 U
Folders	Commander Primers, Primers - All of them, Commander, Decks to Build, EDH, EDH, EGH, edh stuff, Other Users Decks I Like, Esper
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