MTG Salvation

Okay, so I've been working on various decks at a time and one of them has been Daretti, Scrap Savant. Out of all 5 Commander 2014 products, I bought this one strictly for the economic value (this being before Containment Priest became a Legacy/Vintage sideboard staple). I liked the interactions the deck has a precon but I knew there could be much more to be done it - a lot more.

So, I'm gonna go over with what makes this an ideal artifact deck (as if that weren't obvious) but I see a lot of decks that want to do too many things and are all over the place (that happened to me as well in the beginning - new cards tend to do that, especially in EDH). My deck is a control build that's more midrange. I tend to to win by face smashing but being a monoR has its downsides. So I use control via artifacts in order to build the smash smashing army of machines that will soon rise against us all! So, without further ado, on with the decklist!



Now, I know some of you may think "where's Prototype Portal and Ugin's Nexus? They go infinite turns!" or "Strip Mine, Ghost Quarter, and Wasteland but no Crucible of Worlds? What the - !" but I wanted this deck to be as competitive as possible without relying on those two methods. I have used Crucible of Worlds in the past since I can always discard lands with Daretti's ability and then get them back into play, but the second I drop a land exploding land people get scared and target me almost immediately. It's not enough with having a planeswalker commander that everyone and their grandma are trying to kill it, imagine also having instant make-yourself-the-target combos in play? Yeah, I tried to steer clear from those. But if you want to add them to your build then do so! Those combos are broken, lol. Another staple that's missing is Mycosynth Lattice. While it gets obviously comboed with Darksteel Forge, I don't want my opponents to not have problems mana fixing. If anything, I'd rather control what gets to be an artifact thanks to Liquimetal Coating (which I still have to find a slot for).

Now that I've already said what the deck doesn't do, let's see what it does. Some of you may see too many expensive mana rocks in there. That's no problem for Daretti. In any case, Karn, Silver Golem loves expensive artifacts. He is a golem made entirely out of silver, after all. While Karn isn't the heart of the deck, he can make the deck even more abusive. For a mere 1 he can make large, continuous artifacts into heavy hitters. So he's one of the stars of the deck. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is also another star of the deck. You can copy any non-legendary creature in play and it gets sacrificed at end of turn. Not only is that indescribably amazing with cards like Scuttling Doom Engine and Wurmcoil Engine, but copying a Blightsteel Colossus with haste is just pure joy! Feldon of the Third Path is another star. He can do what Kiki-Jiki does but with creatures in the graveyard. This is so broken by turn 4 (if you're lucky enough). Combine these two legendaries with Duplicant and you're in for quite the party!

Another important card in this deck is Mirrorworks. It's purpose is self explanatory but when combined with cards like Strionic Resonator and Rings of Brighthearth (which on their own are amazing with other cards here) it can be downright ridiculous - confusing even! At least confusing in the good sense, not confusing in the Opalescence + Humility sense. And, for bonus points, cast a Sculpting Steel copying Mirrorworks. Lemme tell you a little story thanks to just that:
So I have Mirrorworks in play and enough mana to cast Strionic Resonator and copy it. 2 Strionic Resonators in play. JOY! Cast Sculpting Steel. Copy Mirrorworks. That triggers Mirrorworks which also triggers both Strionic Resonators. So for 9, I just got 3 extra Mirrorworks. So now I have a total of 4 Mirrorworks and 2 Strionic Resonators in play. Meaning that each Strionic Resonator gets triggered by each Mirrorworks. So with enough mana, any non-token artifact that enters the battlefield under my control can get copied a maximum (in this example) of twelve times - that's 12 times (for 24 mana, though). Copying mana rocks damn near guarantees that you can make 12 copies easily of any artifact you want. I did that once in a game and I was a rockstar (no pun intended). Mycosynth Golem made all my artifact creatures free. So for 24 mana I had 12 of everything - even Blightsteel Colossus. With Hammer of Purphoros that's not just game over, that's everybody-go-home-what-else-can-you-do-here-after-that over.

The other interactions are basically self explanatory. Jester's Cap, Mindslaver, and Null Brooch are for control. Spine of Ish Sah, All is Dust, Nevinyrral's Disk, and Unstable Obeslisk are the bombs. Myr Retriever, Junk Diver, Codex Shredder, and Goblin Welder are for recovery. The Chain Veil and Contagion Engine are to try and get Daretti to ultimate as quickly as possible. That emblem is so ridiculous that you better win the game - and fast. You have no idea how quickly that makes you a target. Players at other tables in other games will attack you when you get that emblem. So beware! The wheeling elements (Memory Jar, Wheel of Fortune, and Dragon Mage) are very necessary. Lack of U, B, and G means no card drawing apart from artifacts. Not only can wheels disrupt some control players, but most of the time you have an empty hand - or a hand full of fat artifacts that you want in your graveyard. So these give you a fresh hand of 7 cards all the time.

Another card that I would like to mention which is totally splendiferous is Sliversmith. Hands down this card has to be super underrated and overlooked. Let's take a moment to appreciate the Sliversmith: "But it's turn 3 and though I have Goblin Welder in play since turn 1 and Darksteel Forge in my hand and Sliversmith in play since turn 2... what to do!" "Relax, bro, you got this: just pay 1, Sliversmith, then discard Darksteel Forge. Yeah, Sliversmith is a discard outlet. Goes great with discarding fatty arties you want in your graveyard and makes a chump blocker - an artifact chump blocker. Huh? What do you mean 'now what?'? See that Metallic Sliver token that just entered play? The 1/1 artifact creature? Guess what Goblin Welder's gonna turn it into. That's right. Darksteel Forge turn 3."

This deck gets so crazy and so chaotic that it's a fun kind of difficult to pilot. People usually get an idea of what you're gonna do with Daretti but it's only really speculation. I've played so many dozens of games and hardly any of them have turned out quite the same. I love this deck! Oh, and one thing to fear is graveyard hate - obviously. So get rid of that player first. In the mean time all you can do is Jester's Cap that player's graveyard hate if you want to let him live a little bit longer, lol. Or, just find a spot for Witchbane Orb - another card I want to pick a spot for!

CARDS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:

• Mycosynth Lattice - if you like to live dangerously, this one's for you. Has a lot of pros to try and deal with its major con, but nothing is more beautiful than casting Scrap Mastery with Mycosynth Lattice in play. You literally clear the board. Only the artifacts player have in the graveyard is returned (yes, only cards of the artifact type). Bonus points if you pull this off with Daretti's emblem. That's just overkill. Your entire field that was scarp mastered returns at the end of the turn. Also comboes great when having Unwinding Clock in play. JOY!
• Liquimetal Coating - fun card to use. Turn a Mountain into an artifact in a pinch. Turn an opponent's fatty into an artifact and use Goblin Welder on it to return some crappy artifact from their graveyard in exchange. Oops! Make something an artifact in response to Unwinding Clock triggering. That's also awesome.
• Crucible of Worlds - even with running the bomb lands, you can discard lands from your hand to draw with Daretti's first ability and not really lose them to the graveyard because you can play them later.
• Witchbane Orb - getting your graveyard exiled with cards like Bojuka Bog and Tormod's Crypt can really throw a wrench in Daretti's plan - and probably his walker. Witchbane Orb prevents that. It can also be a formidable 4/4 thanks to Karn, Silver Golem.
• Karn Liberated - them graveyard hating enchantments got you down? Karn Liberated will exile them. Shhh! Karn, Silver Golem in play isn't really the same guy! What?! Shhhh...!
• Prototype Portal - the only reason I'm not playing it is because I don't like exiling cards in the commander format - 'specially when you can only have one of anything in the deck. However, this card can become exceedingly broken if you protect it (getting blown up means bye-bye imprint). However, exiling cheap mana rocks accelerates your game immensely. Goes great with Ugin's Nexus too, which I will soon discuss (and discussed the interaction in the beginning of the post).
• Ugin's Nexus - exile for an extra turn. Really a one-use only since you can't use Riftsweeper or Pull from Eternity so you really have to take advantage from it. If anything else, it helps prevent those pesky timewalking player from getting infinite turns.
• Tormod's Crypt - lovely, cheap, graveyard hate. Very easily recurred and copied in this deck.
• Batterskull - because Batterskull almost always singlehandedly wins games.

Well, I think that's enough for now! I will post some more of my findings and battle experience later on! In the mean time, and suggestions, comments, and overall attention is much appreciated!

UPDATE:
Here's my updated list (thanks to Fate Reforged).


The only changes made were trading out Iron Myr and Zealous Conscripts for Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Karn Liberated. Quite the change, I must say!