Sharuum's Puzzle Box

Commander / EDH Artifact Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Multiplayer WUB (Esper)

mtgThaen

Combo (10)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Sculpting Steel
• 1x Sword of the Meek
• 1x Thopter Foundry
• 1x Time Sieve
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Interaction (12)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Trickbind
• 1x Vindicate

Land (32)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Den
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Glimmervoid
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mirrorpool
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Other (1)

• 1x Blood Artist

Ramp (13)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lotus Bloom
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress

Utility (31)

• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Artificer's Intuition
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Codex Shredder
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Faith's Reward
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Memory Jar
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Open the Vaults
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Second Sunrise
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Transmute Artifact
• 1x Unburial Rites
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Voltaic Key
• 1x Windfall

Commander (1)

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Introduction

Hi, and welcome to Sharuum's Puzzle Box! This is a deck built for competitive EDH (cEDH) play, based around ruthless synergy, brutal interaction, and clockwork combos. The general strategy this deck seeks to employ is ramping into one of the many game-winning combos while protecting itself and stopping other decks from locking us down or or reaching their combo before we do. When I was constructing this deck, I wanted a list that could battle through dedicated hate, recover from multiple boardwipes in a game, and pull a win out of seemingly nowhere.

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The Primer

Overview

Reading this decklist

Reading this decklist

The decklist above is separated into five categories: Land, Ramp, Interaction, Combo, and Utility.

Land: this one is pretty simple. Each nonbasic land has been chosen for very specific reasons and fill an important role.

Ramp: the cards in this section have the purpose of increasing the rate at which I can produce mana. A deck with no ramp will have one mana on turn one, two mana on turn two, three mana on turn three...you get the point. Playing some of the most broken mana rocks in the game lets this deck speed far and away, leaving everyone behind in the dust.

Interaction: in Interaction cards help me deal with threats delivered by opponents, or simply slow them down. Having an early answer to an opponent's mana rock or Land Tax can severely damage their ability to curve into a win condition.

Combo: there are only a few cards listed here, but that is because many of the other combo pieces act more like Utility cards for the majority of the game, right until it's too late. The Combo pieces here are almost specifically used for Combo purposes, and don't get used until the Critical Turn.

Utility: the Utility cards often function as Combo pieces, but mostly are used either in an Engine or to accrue value on their own. These cards help especially if the game goes longer than four turns, and can help keep the pressure on as well as assist in churning out threats, or else become threats themselves. The tutor suite also is listed in this section.

Deck colors

Deck colors

This deck makes use of possibly the most power color combination in cEDH: Esper. From White, we get the ability to exile threats and pesky problems, as well as wipe the board if we need it, and, inversely, it gives us mass recursion from the graveyard. From Black, we get the most powerful tutor spells the game has to offer, in addition to our best win condition and graveyard manipulation. Finally, Blue gives us access to draw, artifact tutors, control spells, and extra turns. Together, these three colors give us the best cards for an artifact-based combo deck.

Deck strengths

Deck strengths

As this deck has its strengths, so does it have its weaknesses.

Strengths

Speed - this deck can set up and win with blinding speed, with wins on turn three or four not being unseen.

Flexibility: this deck can handle most of the hate thrown its way. It can adapt to a rapidly-changing board state, even when that board state is moving in a less-than-favorable direction. Due to the tutoring suite, various draw cards, and engine pieces, this machine can either power through a clogged board or weave through a tangled mess.

Resiliency - the large amounts of redundancy in the deck lends to a very resilient list, where Vandalblast and Merciless Eviction merely slow it, versus completely killing it. However, multiple board wipes over the course of a game can prove difficult to overcome. The deck can build itself back up after a board wipe, but having one resolve every time it gets situated can be frustrating to slog through. This is especially the case with recursive wipes like Bane of Progress being brought back.

Sustainability - the suite of tutors and draw spells keep the gas coming, mostly. The ability to recur artifacts from the graveyard is essential to keeping pressure on the other players, as well as being able to make meaningful plays every turn. This deck sometimes can run out of gas, especially after a Hurkyl's Recall into a Time Spiral or similar situations destroy my board state and ravage my hand in one go. If it windmills into a good hand then it isn't as bad, but if it gives a slow hand, the game can quickly outpace us. If our card advantage engines are out of commission in the mid to late game, it can be very difficult to keep up.

Consistency - Due to the redundant nature of the win conditions (i.e., most combos having interchangeable parts) and other substrategies (such as using wheel effects, using recursion for grinding advantage, and locking up board states), I feel that this deck can, game after game, repeat similar lines of play and create recurring boardstates that lead to winning positions, even through hate and disruption.

Cohesive - the cards in this list were and are chosen to have maximum synergy with the rest of the cards. If a card does not have a particular synergy, it is for an important reason. The nonartifact Interaction spells mostly fall into this category. Many artifacts can be used in some form of one of the combos, which makes their reason for inclusion twofold.

Deck weaknesses

Deck weaknesses

"DECK WEAKNESSES" TEXT GOES HERE.

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The Strategy

General strategy

General strategy

"GENERAL STRATEGY" TEXT GOES HERE.

Early game

Early game

"EARLY GAME" TEXT GOES HERE.

Mid game

Mid game

"MID GAME" TEXT GOES HERE.

Late game

Late game

"LATE GAME" TEXT GOES HERE.

Contingency plan

Contingency plan

"CONTINGENCY PLAN" TEXT GOES HERE.

Mulligans

Mulligans

"MULLIGANS" TEXT GOES HERE.

Matchups and sideboarding

Matchups and sideboarding

"MATCHUPS AND SIDEBOARDING" TEXT GOES HERE.

Combos and synergies

Combos and synergies

"COMBOS AND SYNERGIES" TEXT GOES HERE.

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Card Choices Explained

Lands

Lands

"LANDS" TEXT GOES HERE.

Creatures

Creatures

"CREATURES" TEXT GOES HERE.

Other cards

Other cards

"OTHER CARDS" TEXT GOES HERE.

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Other Information

Building this deck

Building this deck

"BUILDING THIS DECK" TEXT GOES HERE.

Event record

Event record

"EVENT RECORD" TEXT GOES HERE.

Change log

Change log

"CHANGE LOG" TEXT GOES HERE.

Myr Battlesphere -> Talisman of Dominance

Salvaging Station -> Talisman of Progress

Lowering the curve to support Ad Nauseam's inclusion

Karn, Silver Golem -> Cursed Totem - as much as I love Karn, and as much utility as he provides, I feel he is too slow for this version of the deck. If Engine Sharuum gets good again, he'll find a home there for sure. The totem is in to stop Yisan, the Wanderer Bars and other cards. Stops creature-based ramp for the most part.

Whispering Madness -> Mystical Tutor - I think Windfall, Time Spiral, and Memory Jar are enough, and with another tutor I can more easily toolbox for them or whatever I need at the time, especially since the deck is running more instants and sorcerers than it used to.

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Feedback

"FEEDBACK" TEXT GOES HERE..

The coding for this primer was developed by Epochalyptik here.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 57 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.37
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Thopter 1/1 U
Folders	Commander Ideas