A brief little history on this deck. Daretti was not my first Commander deck. In fact, when I first thought about getting into the format, I found a Kaalia of the Vast list that I liked and built it. I had a fair amount of success with it. However, when people saw what it could do, I was always the target of everyone’s attacks, counters, and removal spells. It made it hard to make a comeback and play anything.
When Commander 2014 came out, I decided I was going to build Nahiri, the Lithomancer until I happened upon a Daretti, Scrap Savant. I thought to myself, “No way can this deck be any good. But, it looks fun, so I’ll try this instead.”
Fast forward to today. Daretti has easily become my best and all-time favorite deck. It doesn’t seem to matter how much hate he receives; he seems to be able to persist through much of it, and can come back and win games out of nowhere. I haven’t had more fun games than I have had with him.
You may ask yourself “Why play Daretti as your commander?” There are many reasons as to why or why not you should play them. Let’s take a look at the card itself:
Daretti is not a Creature: This is important to note because now you have a General that is immune to creature removal of all kinds. Yes, he will be the target of attacks, as with all Planeswalkers, but it will also act as a fog for you.
Relatively low CMC: He has a CMC of 4. Although it is not as low as some other General, it is also not that high. With the kinds of ramp we run, it is possible to get him out on turn 1, or more consistently by turn 2. Getting him out as early is possible means you have a good chance at getting further ahead than any of your opponents.
Mono-Red: Daretti is a mono-colored General. What does that mean? It means a more consistent mana base. You don’t have to run any non-basics to fix your colors. The only non-basics you need are your utility lands. This also makes your entire deck consistent as you only have red spells to play.
His abilities are where he really shines:
+2: Card Filtering- This is a graveyard-based artifact deck. Being able to pitch artifacts and draw into more cards is insane. It is essentially a repeatable Faithless Looting each time. It’s not necessarily card advantage, as you will end up with the same amount of cards in hand, but when you combine it with Alhammarret's Archive, then you gain your card advantage.
-2: Artifact Recursion- Once you have pitched some nice artifacts into the graveyard, you can “weld” artifacts back. Who wouldn’t want to turn a spent Mana Vault into the better Gilded Lotus, at literally no cost to you?
-10: The Ultimate- If you are able to achieve Daretti’s Ultimate, you essentially become a force to be
reckoned with. Opponent’s artifact destruction spells become null and void. Your “weld” effects become so
much better since you will get back what you welded away, gaining you an even better board presence.
Once this is happens, you become harder to kill.
You might like Daretti if:
1) You enjoy the simplicity of playing mono-colored decks.
2) You enjoy artifact and/or graveyard based decks.
3) You enjoy cheating in big, dumb artifacts.
4) You enjoy playing aggro decks, but also like elements of control.
5) You like having a Planeswalker as your General, instead of a boring creature.
6) You like playing some Stax effects to help control the board so you can Ultimate Daretti.
You might dislike Daretti if:
1) You want more colors for more options.
2) You hate artifacts and want to destroy all graveyards.
3) You want the option of using Commander Damage as an alternate win condition (which you can still win that way here; you just have to try. ;))
4) You dislike playing Planeswalkers as a Commander. Since it's inception, the only commander option was Legendary Creatures. Some people like to stick to the original ways of only running Legendary Creature Commanders; there is nothing wrong with that.
5) You dislike any Stax effects.
There are other possible commanders to choose from. Here’s a few possibilities:
Arcum Dagsson: Arcum is probably the most powerful Mono-Blue artifact commander out there. He is a toolbox commander that turns artifact creatures into bigger, more powerful artifacts. Being blue also allows some tutor and counter packages to help protect your pieces. If you’re looking to build mono-artifacts and want the security that blue provides, Arcum is an excellent choice. Bosh, Iron Golem: Another Mono-Red general. This guy is better off in a 1v1 setting as you’re going to want to throw your artifacts at only one person, not spread it throughout 3+ other players, especially with the amount of artifact removal in the format. Karn, Silver Golem: If going colorless is your thing, Karn is the Golem for you. He can run most of the same stuff we can, minus the red spells. Memnarch: Another Mono-Blue deck. Memnarch focuses on building up a good board state and attempts to make infinite mana to steal all other permanents. If you want to play other people’s cards, he’s the perfect general for this. Muzzio, Visionary Architect: Another Mono-Blue deck? Yup. This time it’s Daretti’s student. Can dump artifacts like no one else’s business. Can go from a tiny little rock to a Darksteel Forge with one activation. card]Sharuum the Hegemon/ Sydri, Galvanic Genius: Esper artifact commanders. Runs multiple infinite combos to secure a win. Both can be used in each other’s deck for other combos. Both are viable options and losing red doesn’t hurt the deck very much. Being Esper allows you more tutors and also counter packages to protect combos. Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer: Probably the best choice as alternate commander for a mono-red artifact deck. Built in protection makes all of your important pieces hard to deal with. The deck will more or less play the same, except you won’t have Daretti in the command zone for repeat casts. Daretti is by far the better choice to run as commander as his abilities far outweigh Slobad’s. Breya, Etherium Shaper: The newest artifact commander to hit the scene. She is the best of all artifact worlds. She’s red so you can slot in a lot of stuff from Daretti. She’s white/black so you can have some of the best tutors in the game, and she is also blue to allow for counter packages. If you’re looking for a straight up combo deck, she is who you want to run as you get the best of everything not green.
This deck has changed quite a bit over the years. Straight out of the box, there's quite a bit of non-artifact cards in it. I immediately noticed that as being a problem because if you want to maximize Daretti's effectiveness, you need more artifacts than that.
Next thing I noticed, mono-red doesn't have many forms of disruption. In order to combat full boards of creatures that want to attack Daretti, or decks with lots of counters that want to counter all of your relevant things. That's why I added a bit of Stax effects with the combo of Static Orb and Clock of Omens to slow everyone down. Mass creature removal is also necessary, as a clogged board is difficult to deal with.
What you see here is a culmination of extensive testing and I feel it is at a point where not much else needs to be changed.
While there are many options for cards that could be included in a deck, there are only room for 100. In the spoiler below, I will give a card-by-card explanation as to why I specifically chose to have a certain card in in the deck.
Creatures:
Goblin Welder: The original welder that inspired Daretti’s -2 ability. We can activate his ability at instant speed so we can surprise someone with a blocker or some sort of removal, or just swap something out that we can get good use out of on our turn.
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer: Slobad pulls double duty in the deck. At first glance, you can see that he gives an artifact indestructible at the cost of sacrificing another. This is important, as there is a lot of artifact hate out there. The other thing he does that may not be so obvious is he protects in another way: he sacrifices artifacts to protect against exile effects.
Metalworker: Crazy ramp in an artifact deck. Nets two mana for every artifact you reveal. Can be really explosive in the first few turns, but can be less effective in the later game if you only have a few cards in hand.
Quicksmith Genius: I like to think of this guy as a “mini Daretti.” He essentially does the same thing as Daretti’s +2 ability, except it triggers anytime an artifact enters the battlefield under your control. It doesn’t matter when or how it enters, as long as it does. With Mycosynth Lattice out, he triggers when any permanent enters, and will also trigger many times if you have Daretti’s Emblem.
Scrap Trawler: A much better version of Myr Retriever/Junk Diver. His ability doesn't require him to go the graveyard like the other two. He can remain on the battlefield while you sacrifice another artifact to bring back something else. He is limited in what he brings back, as he can only return something that costs less than the artifact that went to the graveyard.
Squee, Goblin Nabob: One of the all stars of the deck. When you discard him to Daretti, you basically get to draw an extra card next turn. He helps you choose more carefully what artifacts to discard and sort of helps play around graveyard removal. He can also be used as a recurring chump blocker to help protect you and Daretti.
Silent Arbiter: Slows down token/swarm strategies. Allows us to essentially "control" how combat works. Protects Daretti by only letting one creature attacks, and there's a good chance Arbiter can withstand that attack.
Solemn Simulacrum: A commander staple in my opinion. Helps ramp you when he enters, and draws you a card when he dies. Great Daretti/Welder fodder.
Karn, Silver Golem: Really effective blocker. Can be difficult to get past an 8 toughness creature. Can turn your big CMC artifacts into attackers/blockers. Also used in conjunction with Mycosynth Lattice to blow up lands.
Kuldotha Forgemaster: One of the few tutors we run. What sets this apart from other tutors is Forgemaster brings whatever you are tutoring to the battlefield instead of to hand. You can tutor up some kind of removal or try to go for a Blightsteel Colossus win. Works wonders when you have Daretti’s emblem. If you have Rings of Brighthearth out, you can sac three artifacts to activate Forgemaster, then copy to tutor out two artifacts.
Combustible Gearhulk: This guy is a beast! He's a 6/6 with First Strike, which is nothing to scoff at. This card was made for this deck. You'll either get three cards in hand to pitch with Daretti, or you'll get things to recur, and if the opponent chooses to mill, they will get burned.
Duplicant: Exile removal on a body. Tutorable with Imperial Recruiter and Kuldotha Forgemaster. Do note that he only copies P/T and Creature Type and not any abilities. If you go to exile a commander, and they choose to put it into the Command Zone instead, Duplicant will not copy the values as it is a replacement effect.
Steel Hellkite: Flying body with built in removal. Has to connect in order to remove things. Can only remove one CMC per turn, so you'll have to prioritize what you need fine first.
Thopter Assembly: This deck has trouble with flyers, and this guy seems like a pretty good solution. If he survives until your next turn, you'll get five flying bodies in its place and you can then pitch him to Daretti.
Wurmcoil Engine: One of the best artifact creatures ever printed. 6/6 with Deathtouch and Lifelink is really good. What could be better than that? Two bodies when he dies.
Myr Battlesphere: 8 total power spread between 5 bodies seems pretty good. Can use the tokens for Daretti fodder, or to chump block to protect him. When Battlesphere attacks, you can tap the Myr to deal damage to an opponent and redirect to a planeswalker, which is really nice. Not many people see it coming.
Blightsteel Colossus: One of our win conditions of the deck. Most of the time, we will not cast him. He will usually be pitched to Daretti and shuffled away. He is most of the time tutored through Kuldotha Forgemaster and put directly onto the battlefield. Do note: when Blightsteel is discarded to Daretti or any other draw spell that requires a discard as part of the cost, he will be shuffled back in right away before you draw your card. That is due to his replacement effect.
Sensei's Divining Top: Allows us to look at the top three of our library and rearrange them in order to draw what we want with Daretti. We use the fetch lands to reset the top if none of the three are very good. We can create inifinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith and use it to draw a card with Top and copy it, allowing us to redraw the Top and the rest of our library if need be.
Voltaic Key: Untaps our mana rocks to get more mana out of them, or a creature to use as a surprise blocker. Can be used as a part of the Rings of Brighthearth/Basalt Monolith combo to infinitely untap things.
Winter Orb/Static Orb: We use these to help control other’s board states. Winter Orb slows the casting of spells by choking off mana produced by lands, and Static Orb slows people down from attacking as well as producing mana. Clock of Omens is used in conjunction with these to “turn off” their effects, allowing us to untap our permanents.
Chaos Wand: A nifty new little toy for Daretti. Allows us to cast instants and sorceries for free from any opponent. It can mess up any top of library shenanigans an opponent does, as the rest of the cards go to the bottom. With Paradox Engine and mana rocks that make a total of 4, it can essentially go "infinite," as long as an opponent has any in their library.
Rings of Brighthearth: Copies all activated abilities, including our Planeswalkers. It copies Basalt Monolith’s untap ability to create infinite mana.
Sculpting Steel: A utility artifact that becomes whatever we need it to. This card as slightly better use than Mirage Mirror, as it can utilize ETB effects because it enters as a copy and doesn't trigger when enters to copy.
Staff of Domination: The Swiss army knife of the deck. It gains you life, draws you cards, taps creatures down, or untaps them, and can untap itself. Used in conjunction with the Rings of Brighthearth/Basalt Monolith combo or Metalworker with at least three artifacts in hand in order to go infinite.
Clock of Omens: This card is mainly used to “turn off” our Orbs, but it has plenty of other uses as well. It can give us a surprise blocker on someone else’s turn. It can also let us reuse an artifact with a tap ability, such as Planar Bridge or the Monoliths.
Krark-Clan Ironworks: Another sac outlet that helps protect from exile effects. Can also be used to ramp into a bigger spell, or set up for a Scrap Mastery. Can also be used in conjunction with Scrap Trawler to sac an artifact for mana, bring back another and cast it.
Nevinyrral's Disk: Essentially a reset button. Used when the board is getting to cluttered with things you don’t like. When used with Darksteel Forge, your artifacts will remain unharmed. Add in Mycosynth Lattice, and you wipe everyone’s board but your own.
Oracle's Vault: A fun new toy for Daretti. Not only does it allow us to dig deeper into the deck, but when you get three brick counters on it, we get to play the card for free. When used in conjunction with Sensei's Divining Top, we can guarantee we will hit a spell to cast, or even a land that we need. Combine with Paradox Engine and you can cast a bunch of your deck for free. This can definitely be game changing.
Unwinding Clock: The third untapper of the deck. This one happens automatically during other turns, so there is no activation required.
Alhammarret's Archive: Doubles your extra draws and life gain. Turns Daretti and Bazaar of Baghdad into positive sources of card advantage. This is usually a good target for a Gamble after Daretti is in play as it will gain you a ton of card advantage. Even if you have to discard down to hand size, it's more artifacts in your graveyard for later use.
Memory Jar: This lets us dig deeper into our deck. It's a sort of repeatable Wheel effect, except what we don't use gets discarded and we get our old hand back. Can also double as a mill effect for our opponents.
Paradox Engine: A new card that has taken EDH by storm. While other decks can better utilize this card, and can go infinite, I still think there are some good synergies it can provide, as long as we have the spells and mana rocks to make it worthwhile. Being able to use Planar Bridge or even Oracle's Vault multiple times in a turn can turn the game in our favor.
Mindslaver: One of our other win conditions. Recurrable with Daretti and Goblin Welder. With Daretti’s emblem out, you can sacrifice it to take the next player’s turn and then get Mindslaver back at the end of the turn. Then, if you have enough mana, at the end of the controlled player’s turn, you can activate it again to take the next player’s turn. Keep repeating to control everyone for the rest of the game.
Mycosynth Lattice: This card is always used in conduction with other cards. Use with Darksteel Forge to make all of your permanents indestructible. Use with Nevinyrral’s Disk to blow up the entire board. Use with Vandalblast to blow up everyone else’s permanents. Use with Karn, Silver Golem to blow up lands. Use with Scrap Mastery to reset the board and get some artifacts back in return. If you have Daretti’s emblem, everything that you had to sacrifice will be returned, as the emblem will see them as artifacts when they went to the graveyard.
Planar Bridge: A much better tutor artifact for the deck. While it does have a hefty cost to activate, being able to put any permanent onto the battlefield is game breaking. We can utilize infinite mana plus Rings of Brighthearth/Voltaic Key to bring all of our permanents into play.
Staff of Nin: A little extra card draw each turn. Helps keep little critters and Planeswalkers under control. Can take everyone else out of the game with infinite untaps.
Spine of Ish Sah: Spot removal on an artifact. Can be searched up with Kuldotha Forgemaster to take out a permanent. If it’s already on the battlefield, it can be sacked to Daretti, and then it will be returned to your hand to either be cast again, or pitched to Daretti.
Darksteel Forge: Makes all of our artifacts indestructible and harder to deal with.
Sorceries:
Faithless Looting: Early card filtering. Has flashback so we can get two uses out of it. It's nice that you draw first just in case there is something you want to keep in hand.
Gamble: It definitely is a Gamble to run this, but it is the best early game tutor we run. If it's in my opening hand with no way to get out an early Daretti, I always go for Mana Crypt. Otherwise, Alhammarret’s Archive is my second choice. Later in the game, assess what would benefit you, and go for that.
Vandalblast: Early spot removal for artifacts, usually used to take out a mana rock or annoying artifacts. Overload it take them all out. When used with Mycosynth Lattice, it will take all of your opponents’ permanents. That usually ends the game.
Tormenting Voice: Card draw. Discarding a card is part of the cost, so you will lost out on a card if it gets countered, but having an extra artifact in the graveyard for later use is not a bad thing for us.
Saheeli's Directive: A new addition from Commander 2018: a Genesis Wave for artifacts! While this card is a bit more restrictive than Wave, as it only grabs you artifacts and not any permanent, it has the Improvise ability, so we can tap our artifacts to help pay the cost, essentially netting us more mana and allowing us to dig deeper to put more artifacts onto the battlefield.
Wheel of Fortune: The original Wheel effect. Can either get rid of a junk hand for a new one, or just completely refills your hand.
Pirate's Pillage: Tormenting Voice's bigger brother. Costs twice as much for the same effect as Voice, but it will create 2 Treasures, so it will essentially cost the same. The Treasures will also double as sac fodder, so we get double use out of this card.
Scrap Mastery: The Living Death for our artifacts. One of my favorite cards printed in the Commander 2014 set (behind Daretti of course). Allows you to “exchange” artifacts from the field with artifacts in each other player’s graveyard. This card is the reason why we want to dump all of our artifacts into the graveyard. Combine this with Mycosynth Lattice and you reset the board. With Daretti’s emblem, you get everything back, so it essentially becomes a one-sided wipe;
All Is Dust: Our catch-all removal for anything colored. We don’t have very many colored permanents, so this card slots into the deck nicely. It does have a high CMC, but thanks to all of the mana rocks we run, it should be no problem to cast. It does not work very well with Mycosynth Lattice, however, as Lattice turns everything colorless, rendering this spell useless while it is on the field, so be careful when you play either.
Blasphemous Act: Mass creature removal. Not many things can survive 13 damage. Can be cheap removal if playing against token/creature strategies.
Instants:
Chaos Warp: One of the few pieces of spot removal we have. Use it to get around things with indestructible. I really love using it when my Blightsteel Colossus gets Bribery’d, so then Blightsteel gets shuffled and I get the chance to put something into play.
Planeswalkers:
Chandra, Flamecaller: I was against this card when it was first spoiled, but decided to give it a try. I must say that I am glad I did. It has become a core card in this deck. Her -0 is a one-sided wheel effect that nets us +1 card. Her -X makes for a good board wipe, and is copyable with Rings of Brighthearth to allow her to have remaining loyalty to survive, but also wiping out anything with 6 or less toughness. Her +1 is the least used mode for me, but it can help restock her loyalty for future board wipes.
Karn Liberated: One of the best Planeswalkers ever printed. It’s colorless so it can go into any deck. His +4 takes resources out of a player’s hand. His -3 takes care of any problematic permanent. His ultimate will usually just win you the game as you will most likely be ahead of everyone else.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Another amazing Planeswalker. His +3 is a Ghostfire (which is pretty flavorful). His -X is a catch-all removal. We run mostly coloress stuff, so this won’t hurt us as much as it will others. His ultimate is really awesome. Gaining seven life, drawing seven cards, and putting seven permanents into play is game-changing, especially when you can copy it with Rings of Brighthearth.
Lands:
Ancient Tomb: The first of our “Sol” lands. Two mana in one land is really powerful in any format. In Commander with 40 life, the 2 damage is negligible. Helps power out Daretti or any other spells in the deck.
Bazaar of Baghdad: Card draw and discard on a land with no mana requirements. This land does everything we want it to for the deck. It does become negative card advantage since we discard more than we draw, but with Alhammarret's Archive out, it becomes positive card advantage as we net +1 cards.
Buried Ruin: Artifact recursion on a land for the small cost of two mana. Can use the recurred artifact as more fodder to Daretti.
Command Beacon: We want to keep Daretti out as long as we can, but he tends to get killed a lot. This helps alleviate the big Commander Tax he is capable of getting. Casting him for 4 is better than casting him for 12+.
Forge of Heroes: Another nifty utility land that will enable Daretti to gain an additional loyalty counter upon entering. This will enable us to ultimate Daretti in four turns, instead of the typical five, as long as we can protect him.
Geier Reach Sanitarium: As previously stated with Bazaar of Baghdad, card draw on a land is really good. This land is better than Mikokoro, Center of the Sea in this deck because it also discards a card, which could possibly force an opponent into discarding something they don’t want to.
Inventors' Fair: The life gain on this land isn’t much, but over the course of a long game, it can be the difference between winning and losing. What’s really great about this land is that it is also an artifact tutor that doesn’t take the slot of a valuable spell, making this the perfect inclusion to any artifact-based deck.
Maze of Ith: This is quite possibly the worst land in the deck as it doesn’t make any mana, but it can save you from a lethal attack, or keep Daretti protected long enough to reach his Ultimate. With the right combination of cards, you can prevent attacks from all opponents.
Mishra's Workshop: Another “Sol” land of sorts. Makes three mana, but the downside is that mana can only be used for artifact spells. Works amazing in here, as most of our spells are artifacts. An easy staple for any artifact deck.
Mountain: This is a red deck. This is a land that produces red mana. Seems good.
Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Tower: The Tron Lands. Once Tron is assembled, as in having all three of these lands, we make 7 C between three lands. That is a hard thing to pass up, especially in an artifact deck.
This section is reserved for cards that didn’t make the cut, or will be kept in reserve as a “toolbox” of sorts for things I can swap out when I feel like changing the deck up.
As far as a strategy goes, everyone is going to play their deck differently. The way I play Daretti is to get him out early and rush towards his Emblem. Once the Emblem is achieved, it becomes difficult for our opponents to win. How do we go about doing this? Simple. We do the following:
1) Mulligans: Your opening hand is very important. It'll basically tell you how the game is going to go. You want at the very least one Mountain in your starting hand in order to pay for Daretti's color requirement. After that, you want mana rocks. More specifically, early, cheap mana rocks like Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, or Mana Vault. Even Grim Monolith is good, albeit a bit slower than the others. You want these to pump out a fast Daretti. Finally, you need pitch fodder. Whether that's the big artifacts, extra mana rocks or lands, or utility artifacts. Something to make it worth casting Daretti.
2) Early Game: Get Daretti out as fast as you can. Turn 1 is definitely the best, and there are a few ways of doing this, such as:
Once on board, keep using his +2 ability to rush for that ever so sweet Emblem. Don’t hesitate to use his -2, as sometimes that is going to help you keep Daretti safe and set your board up for later.
3) Mid Game: This is the part of the game when you have been alternating his +2 and -2 abilities to set up your hand, board, and graveyard in order to get to your win conditions. By this time, your opponents should be on to your game plan and what your deck can do (if they didn't know already just by seeing Daretti). You want to be able to protect him as much as you can, so use things like Blasphemous Act to clear the board of creatures so they can't attack him.
4) Late Game: By this time, you should have dug and pitched through your deck to find your road to victory. There are many ways to do this. Straight up attacking down your opponent's life totals from 40 to 0, infect damage through Blightsteel Colossus, or through one of the many combos this deck can do, which will be discussed in another section.
As with any deck, there are going to be some weaknesses. Some of these include:
1) Artifact Hate: Daretti is an artifact-based deck, and in the EDH format, there is TONS of various artifact removal. There is the old-fasioned artifact destruction, such as Aura Shards, Vandalblast, Bane of Progress, among others, but these are the most potent. There is also exiling effects, such as Return to Dust and Merciless Eviction, as well as many others. These are harder to come back from, as we cannot recur them. Stony Silence is also a very bad card for us. If we have Mycosynth Lattice, this card will cause the game to draw out, as no one can cast anything since they can't tap lands for mana.
2) Graveyard Hate: Not only is Daretti an artifact-based deck, it is also graveyard-based. Cards such as Tormod’s Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, etc. put a real damper on our gameplan. Trying to get these out of our way as early as possible will only help us in the long run.
3) Counter Decks: Personally, this is the one I dislike the most. It’s one thing to play your stuff and then get it removed. It’s another to not even get to play them because they get countered. Over. And over. And over again. It can be frustrating, so if you’re playing in a counter-heavy meta, Defense Grid might not be a bad inclusion.
4) Flying Creatures: Flying creatures are definitely a big hindrance. We only have three creatures with Flying in our current build, so unless we use our mass removal spells to get rid of them, Daretti will almost always end up back in the Command Zone.
5) Direct Damage: Much like creatures with Flying, anything that deals direct damage to Planeswalkers will knock loyalty counters off Daretti. We used to have protection from burn with cards such as Witchbane Orb and Orbs of Warding, but when they changed redirection to actually targeting Planeswakers, these cards fell off the radar.
In this section, we will go over the main interactions/combos that this deck has to offer. There may be more hidden in there somewhere, so if someone happens to see what that I did not, feel free to let me know and I will get it added!
Infinite Mana Combos: One of the key cards we run in the deck is Rings of Brighthearth due to its combo potential. The card we pair with Rings the most is Basalt Monolith in order to generate infinite colorless mana. How does this work?
It's simple: Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith + 2 from any source: Tap Monolith for 3. Use the 3 to untap, Rings triggers, use 2 from any other source to copy the untap effect. First untap on stack resolves, tap again for 3. Let second untap resolve and tap again for mana. You now have 6 floating. Use 3 to untap, and 2 to copy untap with Rings. This leaves you with 1 available. Repeat steps for infinite colorless mana.
Pair this infinite mana combo with a few more cards, and you can get some crazy interactions, such as:
Sensei's Divining Top: Use SDT's draw effect and copy with Rings. The copied ability will resolve first, drawing you a card and putting SDT back on top of your deck. The second trigger will resolve, drawing you SDT, and since SDT is no longer on the field when the ability resolves, it doesn’t go back on top. Cast SDT again, and repeat this process to draw your deck and look for an avenue to victory.
Spine of Ish Sah + Krark-Clan Ironworks: Cast Spine and when it enters, you get to destroy any permanent. Sacrifice it to KCI and it will return to your hand. With the infinite mana you have created, you can repeat this process to remove all opposing permanents, and shut people out of the game.
Staff of Domination: With infinite mana, you are able have infinite activation of Staff, which you can use to tap/untap creatures, gain infinite life, or draw your deck, similar to the interaction that SDT has above.
Voltaic Key + Staff of Nin: Tap the Staff to deal one damage to any target, usually an opponent. Use the Key to untap Staff, copy the untap with Rings and target the Key. Key will untap, and then Staff will untap. Repeat for infinite damage. You can also copy the damage ability of Staff, but it really won't make anything faster.
Voltaic Key + Planar Bridge: Tap the Bridge to bring out any permanent of your choosing. Activate Key, targeting Bridge, and then copy the Key's ability with Rings, this time targeting the Key itself. Once both abilities resolve, Bridge and Key are both untapped and you can continue bringing out all of your permanents, if you so choose.
*Alternatively, you can use Metalworker + Staff of Domination to create infinite mana by doing the following: With 3 artifacts in hand, tap Metalworker, revealing the 3 artifacts in hand to generate 6. Use 3 to untap Metalworker with Staff, then use 1 to untap Staff. You are left with 2. Repeat for infinite mana. You can then proceed to go infinite with Staff, or add Rings to use any of the combos above.
Paradox Engine Combos: These combos involve having Paradox Engine on the battlefield in order to untap your permanents and essentially "go infinite.
Spine of Ish Sah + Krark-Clan Ironworks + mana rocks that make 5: Use your mana rocks to cast Spine, which will trigger Engine and untap the rocks. Spine will enter and destroy any permanent. Sacrifice Spine using KCI and it will return to your hand via its effect. Cast it again to remove all opposing permanents.
Miscellaneous Combos/Synergies: These are the other "combos" which are more or less cards with great synergy together.
Darksteel Forge + Nevinyrral's Disk: With Forge on the battlefield, all of our artifacts are now indestructible. Activate Disk to destroy all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. All but five of our creatures are artifacts, and we run no enchantments, so it shouldn't hurt us too much.
Darksteel Forge + Nevinyrral's Disk + Mycosynth Lattice: Same as the combo above, but with Lattice added. Lattice turns all permanents into artifacts so Disk will destroy everything on board, except for our stuff, as Forge grants everything indestructible. Be cautious when using this, as someone could have instant-speed removal such as bounce or exile, and if they target Forge, you will lose permanents as well.
Mycosynth Lattice + Vandalblast: This synergy is just like the one above, but much more safe. Lattice will turn every permanent into an artifact, and then Vandalblast will blow all artifacts to smithereens. Forge isn't needed in this combo, as Vandalblast is only for artifacts we don't control.
Mycosynth Lattice + Karn, Silver Golem: Lattice turns all permanents into artifacts, including lands. Karn will allow us to turn any artifact into a creature with base power/toughness equal to its mana cost for only 1. If you target a land with Karn's ability, it will turn into a creature with power/toughness of 0/0. Due to state-based effects, or SBEs, the land will be put into the graveyard due to having 0 toughness. This will allow you to remove as mana lands as you have mana available.
Mycosynth Lattice + Scrap Mastery + Daretti's Emblem: Lattice will turn all permanents into artifacts. Scrap Mastery will exile all artifacts in all graveyards, put all the artifacts that are on the battlefield, which would be all permanents due to Lattice, into the graveyard, and then return all artifacts that were exile by Mastery onto the battlefield. Daretti's emblem sees them enter the graveyard as artifacts so it will trigger for each, and then return them at beginning of the next end step.
Mindslaver + Daretti's Emblem: This is what I like to call the "SlaverLock." Activate Mindslaver to take over someone's turn, usually whoever's turn it is next. When you sacrifice it as part of its cost, the emblem will trigger and return it at the beginning of the next end step. You will take that person's turn, and as long as you have enough mana, you can activate Mindslaver again to take the next person's turn. As long as you have enough mana, or enough mana rocks to make 4 and an Unwinding Clock out, you can indefinitely take everyone's turn and shape the game how you want until you end it.
Shattering Spree was too mana intensive to be able to remove mass artifacts; Vandalblast does this much better and at a cheaper cost. So I dropped it in favor of a mass boardwipe for creatures, since we have trouble with our opponents having lots of them. Add in the fact that it sometimes will cost only 1 red mana makes this wipe a very good inclusion.
Pithing Needle wasn’t doing too much in the deck, and only being able to stop one thing at a time was kind of a pain. Howling Mine helped out everyone else too, which is something we don’t want to be doing. I prefer Static Orb over Winter Orb, as we can effectively “turn off” Static with Clock of Omens and be able to untap our stuff, while keeping everyone else’s tapped down. Mana Web is out too as it also goes along with Winter Orb. I took our Ruination as I am not a fan of MLD. Added in Mox Diamond as more early ramp, Static Orb/Clock of Omens to lock our opponent’s down, Coffin as a colorless way to get rid of things like Iona on red, and Mind’s Eye for the extra card draw.
Never really got to use the Coffin too much; it just doesn’t seem like the right fit for here. Wasn’t a big fan of Inkmoth in here either; it didn’t put in enough work. Added in Codex Shredder to help recur our non-artifact spells, and Caverns to help us get to Daretti faster (if it’s in our opening hand).
The big addition here is the Archive. This thing was made for Daretti. The card advantage this generates is insane with all of the card draw in here. Once I get a Bazaar, it’ll make that even better as well. Price of Glory is in for people who like to play during other people’s turns and is better than Grid because it sets them back by losing land, and Trading Post is another utility artifact that does good things, even tho I’m not it’s biggest fan. Engine and Nexus just weren’t doing enough for me.
Daretti tends to head to the Command Zone quite frequently, so having Beacon take the place of a Mountain is well worth us only having to pay 4 for him late game. Fellwar Stone is probably the weakest rock here simply because if we happen to play against a colorless deck, we don’t get to add any mana. Thought Vessel is a rock that produces mana every time, and has the added bonus of giving us no maximum hand size.
Dropping a couple Mountains to add in Reliquary Tower to help us better control what we discard since we no longer have a max hand size, and Sanctum to be able to tutor up creatures. If we can draw at least two cards each time Oracle comes into play, it is strictly better than Voice since it is recurrable.
Finally got my hands on a Bazaar. This will allow me to draw additional cards and put more artifacts into the graveyard. It doesn’t produce mana, so I do lose out on a mana source, but it should allow me to draw into more.
Soul wasn’t really doing much other than being a beater, so I replaced him with Chandra Flamecaller as a sort of catch-all. Gives us tiny guys to help get in more damage, a one-sided wheel effect that draws us an additional card, and a board wipe for small critters. Tower isn’t necessary anymore thanks to Thought Vessel, so I added in Haven in its place. Ugin is a very good card in EDH, and having an additional way of reusing him is always good. Caged Sun is ok, but Gauntlet is cheaper and I haven’t need the extra mana Caged produces, so I put back Fellwar Stone as another early mana rock.
Ok, the biggest update I’ve had on here. Staff of Nin over Mind’s eye is because I don’t have to pay anything to get an extra card, and can combo with other things in the deck. Greaves over Hammer because I only usually need one creature to have haste, and has the bonus effect of giving Shroud. Contagion Engine/Chain Veil to help add more counters to all of our planeswalkers. Hellkite as another way to win. Ulamog is in for more colorless removal, and it exiles so even better. Key for more untap shenanigans. Blinkmoth Urn can help generate a ton of mana. Lotus Bloom as a free mana rock; can be a Black Lotus every turn after an emblem; this is still being tested of Thran, but Thran still might replace it as it is guaranteed three mana every turn. Everything else was removed to make room for newer cards.
I haven’t used the tutor effect of Sanctum as much as I had hoped for. With my utility lands, I like to get as much use out of them as I can. Having Dust Bowl in here will allow me to continually remove lands from my opponents when I have enough mana rocks out that I don’t need as many lands.
Lotus Bloom has been my flex spot for quite awhile, floating between that, Thran Dynamo, and Slobad. But because Winter Orb has been errata'd again so we can now "turn it off," I'm going to put it in as another lock piece to hinder opponent's while not hurting us, so long as we have Clock of Omens out.
Phyrexia's Core has been lackluster in this deck. The only function it ever takes on is being another colorless land. Haven't used its sac effect in quite a while, if ever. Geier Reach Sanitarium fills the role of colorless land just as good, but has the added functionality of being able to draw cards and discard things for later recursion, which is a valuable ability to have, especially at instant speed.
I took out High Market and Mirrorpool as I felt they were both underperforming, and with some lands from Kaladesh, were in need of replacing. Decided to drop 2 more Mountains, as the deck can run just fine with only a couple red sources, and Utility lands are at a premium (not exactly sure what that means, but it sounds cool). The rest of the cut cards were essentially removed to make room for the new stuff, and I felt these were safe cuts.
Homeward Path is in here as Bribery insurance. Inventors' Fair is a tutor that doesn't take up a valuable spell slot. Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is another Sol Land that still lets us tap for one in the early game. Sequestered Stash fills our graveyard, and brings back an artifact to the top of our deck. Quicksmith Genius is Daretti 2.0, albeit on a smaller scale, but just as good. Combustible Gearhulk is my new favorite toy! Big beater and either gets us cards in hand or cards in graveyard for future use. Thopter Assembly was added back in to help against flyers. Cathartic Reunion/Tormenting Voice were added for more guaranteed card draw (and also the discard portion).
I decided to try something a little different with these updates. Instead of hiding behind Stax effects to protect Daretti, I wanted to try and make it a little more explosive. So I took out the Orbs/Omens synergy as well as Arbiter in order to make room for some new stuff. Gauntlet was removed as we really don't need the extra mana when we run a bunch of rocks, and can also weld back our bigger stuff. I haven't needed Recoup in a long time, so that was a safe cut. Fire Diamond was a safe cut since we don't really want our rocks to come in tapped and unable to be used until next turn.
Fellwar is back in as it is a rock that comes into play untapped, and can possibly make red if we need (if someone can produce red). Chain Veil is also back in and will hopefully synergize well with Paradox. As far as Paradox goes, I'm not too sure it's a good fit in here yet, as our deck isn't built to abuse it like some other decks, but being able to reuse Veil, Bridge, and other effects may prove to be useful. Planar Bridge is another one I'm not too sure on yet. We can grab any permanent and put it directly into play, which could prove vital for when we are in a pinch, or when we need a combo piece. We can abuse its effect with Paradox and enough rocks/spells to put a bunch of things into play, or infinite mana plus Rings/Key to do the same, but get all of our permanents. Heart of Kiran can make for a decent blocker and can be crewed with Daretti in a pinch. Pia's Revolution is like a mini Combustible so synergizes very well with the deck. Trawler is a better Junk Diver/Myr Retriever as it works with all of our artifacts.
Well, I tried some new cards and had high hopes for them, but unfortunately they didn't work out. Revolution just didn't do what I had hoped it would be good for. Turns out I do care if I want something to stay in the graveyard, so it got the cut. Kiran, for the most part, just sat there on defense, so I wasn't getting very much use out of it, and there are far better defense cards to run. Fellwar is the least impactful rock I run, and I needed to cut something to make room for the third card.
I'm putting pack both Orbs and Omens to help control the board more and slow others down in order to get to Daretti's Ultimate and take over the game. In fact, I really missed running these and am sort of glad the other cards didn't work out.
After playing a few games with Vault, I have decided it has earned it's place in the deck. Not only does it allow us to dig deeper into the deck, but when you get three brick counters on it, we get to play the card for free. When used in conjunction with Sensei's Divining Top, we can guarantee we will hit a spell to cast, or even a land that we need. Combine with Paradox Engine and you can cast a bunch of your deck for free. This can definitely be game changing.
In order to make room for Vault, I have decided to cut Reunion. While red doesn't have very much as far as card draw goes, I feel like this was a safe cut to make. Tormenting Voice is a lot safer to play, as you only have to discard one card instead of two.
Haven't updated in awhile, since Amonkhet to be exact. There really hasn't been much that can make this deck more over the top than it already is, but I did find some cards that can fit well in here. Pirate's Pillage is more card draw that can also create sac fodder for Daretti, or ramp us into another spell. Karn, Scion of Urza is more card draw, but can also create artifact bodies for attacking/blocking/sac fodder. Arch of Orazca just gives us another outlet for card draw, but only when we have the city's blessing.
To make room, I took out Blood Moon mostly because I don't want to shut off our lands, even though it also shuts opponent's off. We can't recur it, so once it's in the graveyard, it's done for anyways. Dust Bowl is expensive for land destruction, so it got cut. Shrine of the Forsaken Gods didn't really do much for the deck, so it was an easy choice to make.
I also removed the Visual Deck List and Pimpage sections. I know longer have a physical copy of the deck and its accessories, so I feel like these are no longer necessary.
Scrap Trawler has been fairly lackluster in recent games. He really doesn't do much of anything until an artifact goes to the graveyard. When one does, he is also limited in what he can bring back.
I decided to bring back Silent Arbiter as a way to slow down token/swarm strategies, and have a better way of controlling combat in order to protect Daretti. Oh, and I like big butts and I cannot lie, and Arbiter has a pretty big one as well!
I've been testing quite a few changes recently, and these are the ones I've come up with. I am going to continue to test these out and see which ones will ultimately stick.
We don't get any mana from Blinkmoth Urn until our following turn, but our opponents do, so this gets the cut. I never used Haven of the Spirit Dragon or Sequestered Stash for their abilities, nor have a ran into the situation where Homeward Path was necessary. Karn, Scion of Urza, while he does find a spot in the deck, and worked really well, often times I found myself getting a land, and the opponent exiling a good card, and then kill him. It's a bit of a risky card, and I don't want to take too many risks. Lightning Greaves was cut as was only really used with Blightsteel Colossus. We usually only tutor Blightsteel at end of an opponent's turn, so we can swing with him on ours, so the Greaves isn't needed. Mirrorworks I have found that I haven't been using it for anything other than pitch fodder, so when a card gets to that point, it needs to go. Lastly, The Chain Veil is better off in a deck that has a bunch of Planeswalkers to fully utilize it, or somewhere it can go infinite such as Teferi, Temporal Archmage.
I have added in the Tron lands in place of the three I took out. While they do absolutely nothing on their own, the ability to make 7 mana with three lands is a hard thing to ignore. I've added in Krark-Clan Ironworks and Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer as mainly sac outlets to avoid exile effects, and to set up a nice Scrap Mastery. KCI also allows us to ramp a little bit, and Slobad provides some protection for our artifacts. Chaos Wand is pretty bonkers. With enough rocks and Paradox Engine, we can churn through our opponent's decks until they run out of instants and sorceries. Scrap Trawler is back as he is too good to pass up, especially since he doesn't have to go to the graveyard to return an artifact, like Myr Retriever and Junk Diver. Sculpting Steel is a nice little utility artifact that can become whatever artifact we need at the time, whether it's a mana rock, or a Spine of Ish Sah.
I've opted to cut all of the fetch lands and Crucible of Worlds, at least for the time being. Being a mono-colored deck means we don't need to worry about color fixing, the fetches aren't necessarily important. Losing Crucible may prove to be a mistake, as we will no longer be able to play lands from our graveyard to ensure hitting our land drops, or reuse our many utility lands.
In their place, I have opted to run four more basic Mountains as well as Forge of Heroes to replace the lands I took out. Forge will hopefully prove to be a worthwhile land, as it should enable us to ultimate Daretti a turn earlier. In place of Crucible, I have chosen to put in Saheeli's Directive. With Directive, we should be able to spam the board with a ton of artifacts, and hopefully get closer to winning the game.
I'm not going to go into too much detail at the moment, as it's sort of late and I'm a bit tired. I've decided to cut some of the "cuter" items to go a little bit more into the Stax aspect for the deck. I still won't be adding in MLD as I am not a fan of that particular strategy. Some of the changes you may question, so if you want specifics, feel free to ask and I will answer.
2 of the funnest cards to use in a blue-heavy meta (which seems to be every meta these days) is pyroblast and red elemental blast. So much value for so little mana.
No new changes to list. Still trying to decide if Winter Orb/Mana Web are necessary. May try to include Ward of Bones sometime soon as another way to try and control the board.
Those facebook guys only used snow covered mountains because of their interaction with scrying sheets, which they were too dumb to put in. Don't make the same mistake.
-1 mountain
+1 scrying sheets
Shattering Spree was too mana intensive to be able to remove mass artifacts; Vandalblast does this much better and at a cheaper cost. So I dropped it in favor of a mass boardwipe for creatures, since we have trouble with our opponents having lots of them. Add in the fact that it sometimes will cost only 1 red mana makes this wipe a very good inclusion.
Haven't gotten the chance to play with Memorial yet cuz I haven't drawn it. Mox Diamond hasn't been very good as I haven't had an extra land to use with it, so I may just cut it.
Currently testing out Static Orb/Clock of Omens in place of Winter Orb/Mana Web. I'm definitely liking it right now.
6/5/15:
OUT:
Pithing Needle
Howling Mine
Winter Orb
Mana Web
Ruination
IN:
Mox Diamond
Static Orb
Clock of Omens
Tawnos's Coffin
Mind's Eye
Pithing Needle wasn’t doing too much in the deck, and only being able to stop one thing at a time was kind of a pain. Howling Mine helped out everyone else too, which is something we don’t want to be doing. I prefer Static Orb over Winter Orb, as we can effectively “turn off” Static with Clock of Omens and be able to untap our stuff, while keeping everyone else’s tapped down. Mana Web is out too as it also goes along with Winter Orb. I took our Ruination as I am not a fan of MLD. Added in Mox Diamond as more early ramp, Static Orb/Clock of Omens to lock our opponent’s down, Coffin as a colorless way to get rid of things like Iona on red, and Mind’s Eye for the extra card draw.
I just checked you list.
It is interesting.
However, I do not have gauntlet of might, imperial recruiter and mishra's workshop. How would you substitute these 3 cards if you had to?
As far as Mishra's Workshop goes, it really isn't a necessary card. Sure, it does accelerates you casting your artifacts, but I wouldn't consider it a core card. Either add another basic or a utility land in its place.
Static Orb and Clock of Omens have been doing some good, so they will be staying for the time being.
Played some games yesterday. Was able to Ult and copy Ugin again, and even got to restart the game with Karn, and I started with a Sylvan Library, Sensei's Divining Top, and Deathbringer Regent. Unfortunately, he scooped on his first turn.
Never really got to use the Coffin too much; it just doesn’t seem like the right fit for here. Wasn’t a big fan of Inkmoth in here either; it didn’t put in enough work. Added in Codex Shredder to help recur our non-artifact spells, and Caverns to help us get to Daretti faster (if it’s in our opening hand).
Archive looks like it is going to be GREAT. I run a very similar deck and I have a few questions --
1.) Why the fetches? Deck thinning just doesn't seem that meaningful in commander. Is it just for crucible? Crucible also doesn't seem worth it, from that perspective.
2.) Recoup seems like an odd choice. What do you find yourself targeting with it?
3.) Chaos Warp, post tuck rule, doesn't seem that powerful. I cut it from mine -- why do you leave it in?
4.) Gilded Lotus -- by the time you have 5 mana, do you really need 3 more? Usually you are already ramping enough at that point...
5.) Why Ugin's Nexus -- just to counter the decks that play extra turns?
6.) Haven of the Spirit Dragon seems odd just to grab Ugin. It seems like there is a more useful colorless land out there.
Archive looks like it is going to be GREAT. I run a very similar deck and I have a few questions --
1.) Why the fetches? Deck thinning just doesn't seem that meaningful in commander. Is it just for crucible? Crucible also doesn't seem worth it, from that perspective.
2.) Recoup seems like an odd choice. What do you find yourself targeting with it?
3.) Chaos Warp, post tuck rule, doesn't seem that powerful. I cut it from mine -- why do you leave it in?
4.) Gilded Lotus -- by the time you have 5 mana, do you really need 3 more? Usually you are already ramping enough at that point...
5.) Why Ugin's Nexus -- just to counter the decks that play extra turns?
6.) Haven of the Spirit Dragon seems odd just to grab Ugin. It seems like there is a more useful colorless land out there.
Thoughts?
Archive is definitely going to be nuts in here; I'm really impatient to get my hands on one. As far as your questions go, here's my input:
1) I don't necessarily use the fetches for thinning. I more so use them for resetting the top of my deck, which works well with Top if there is nothing good there. Crucible is also useful for recurring utility lands.
2) Recoup has been really useful since I included it. It gets me another chance at a big spell that gets countered, or to just use it again. One game I played Scrap Mastery, it got countered, but was able to Recoup into Mastery again to take over the game.
3) Chaos Warp did get a bit worse after the tuck rule change, but it is still of the best red removal spells out there. Can still get rid of other problem cards.
4) In my opinion, you can never have enough mana. Plus, it gives you red. Good enough for me.
5) I mainly use Nexus to gain myself another turn, mainly after setting up for a big play that I don't want interrupted.
6) Ugin can turn the tide of a game single handedly. Why not have multiple chances of playing him, especially with Crucible?
The archive also makes Bazaar of Baghdad quite a bit better. I already ran it and love it, but this will be supercharged!
Regarding the Nexus, I guess I don't see the 'big play next turn' side. I usually win by combo and destroying all of their lands or taking all their permenants or hitting them with a huge burn spell or something along those lines. That all usually happens the same turn.
Regarding Chaos Warp, it doesn't really 'get rid of' in the same way that its usually meant -- it just replaces their problem with card with another card (there is a lot of reanimator here), which may also be a problem card. I just don't see the value over running other cards. I am actually still quite on the fence about even running blasphemous act.
The archive also makes Bazaar of Baghdad quite a bit better. I already ran it and love it, but this will be supercharged!
Regarding the Nexus, I guess I don't see the 'big play next turn' side. I usually win by combo and destroying all of their lands or taking all their permenants or hitting them with a huge burn spell or something along those lines. That all usually happens the same turn.
Regarding Chaos Warp, it doesn't really 'get rid of' in the same way that its usually meant -- it just replaces their problem with card with another card (there is a lot of reanimator here), which may also be a problem card. I just don't see the value over running other cards. I am actually still quite on the fence about even running blasphemous act.
IN:
Trading Post
Price of Glory
Alhammarret's Archive
The big addition here is the Archive. This thing was made for Daretti. The card advantage this generates is insane with all of the card draw in here. Once I get a Bazaar, it’ll make that even better as well. Price of Glory is in for people who like to play during other people’s turns and is better than Grid because it sets them back by losing land, and Trading Post is another utility artifact that does good things, even tho I’m not it’s biggest fan. Engine and Nexus just weren’t doing enough for me.
Ideally, I would LOVE to get a Bazaar of Baghdad in paper for this deck. I've tried it out online and with Archive, it just puts you way over the top. Unfortunately, my budget won't allow it just yet. Here's to hoping for one in the future!
Whats your take on the Orbs? I have been cutting some of the stax-y effects and I am waffling between Static and Winter Orb. Why'd you pick Static?
I like Static because I can turn it off with Clock of Omens but it seems a bit crueler/will paint a bigger target on my back than Winter Orb as it affects all permanents.
Whats your take on the Orbs? I have been cutting some of the stax-y effects and I am waffling between Static and Winter Orb. Why'd you pick Static?
I like Static because I can turn it off with Clock of Omens but it seems a bit crueler/will paint a bigger target on my back than Winter Orb as it affects all permanents.
I chose Static Orb simply because it can be turned off with Clock. It also makes he opponent choose whether to play spells, or attack with creatures. It slows them down enough to let you go off easier.
A brief little history on this deck. Daretti was not my first Commander deck. In fact, when I first thought about getting into the format, I found a Kaalia of the Vast list that I liked and built it. I had a fair amount of success with it. However, when people saw what it could do, I was always the target of everyone’s attacks, counters, and removal spells. It made it hard to make a comeback and play anything.
When Commander 2014 came out, I decided I was going to build Nahiri, the Lithomancer until I happened upon a Daretti, Scrap Savant. I thought to myself, “No way can this deck be any good. But, it looks fun, so I’ll try this instead.”
Fast forward to today. Daretti has easily become my best and all-time favorite deck. It doesn’t seem to matter how much hate he receives; he seems to be able to persist through much of it, and can come back and win games out of nowhere. I haven’t had more fun games than I have had with him.
His abilities are where he really shines:
much better since you will get back what you welded away, gaining you an even better board presence.
Once this is happens, you become harder to kill.
You might like Daretti if:
1) You enjoy the simplicity of playing mono-colored decks.
2) You enjoy artifact and/or graveyard based decks.
3) You enjoy cheating in big, dumb artifacts.
4) You enjoy playing aggro decks, but also like elements of control.
5) You like having a Planeswalker as your General, instead of a boring creature.
6) You like playing some Stax effects to help control the board so you can Ultimate Daretti.
You might dislike Daretti if:
1) You want more colors for more options.
2) You hate artifacts and want to destroy all graveyards.
3) You want the option of using Commander Damage as an alternate win condition (which you can still win that way here; you just have to try. ;))
4) You dislike playing Planeswalkers as a Commander. Since it's inception, the only commander option was Legendary Creatures. Some people like to stick to the original ways of only running Legendary Creature Commanders; there is nothing wrong with that.
5) You dislike any Stax effects.
This deck has changed quite a bit over the years. Straight out of the box, there's quite a bit of non-artifact cards in it. I immediately noticed that as being a problem because if you want to maximize Daretti's effectiveness, you need more artifacts than that.
Next thing I noticed, mono-red doesn't have many forms of disruption. In order to combat full boards of creatures that want to attack Daretti, or decks with lots of counters that want to counter all of your relevant things. That's why I added a bit of Stax effects with the combo of Static Orb and Clock of Omens to slow everyone down. Mass creature removal is also necessary, as a clogged board is difficult to deal with.
What you see here is a culmination of extensive testing and I feel it is at a point where not much else needs to be changed.
4 Daretti, Scrap Savant
//Creatures (12):
1 Goblin Welder
2 Loyal Apprentice
3 Imperial Recruiter
3 Magus of the Moon
3 Metalworker
3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Silent Arbiter
4 Solemn Simulacrum
6 Combustible Gearhulk
6 Duplicant
6 Wurmcoil Engine
7 Myr Battlesphere
//Artifacts (35):
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mox Diamond
0 Mox Opal
1 Mana Vault
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Voltaic Key
2 Grim Monolith
2 Mind Stone
2 Winter Orb
3 Basalt Monolith
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Rings of Brighthearth
3 Sculpting Steel
3 Staff of Domination
3 Static Orb
3 Tangle Wire
4 Clock of Omens
4 Hedron Archive
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
4 Unwinding Clock
5 Alhammarret's Archive
5 Gilded Lotus
5 Memory Jar
5 Paradox Engine
6 Contagion Engine
6 Mindslaver
6 Mycosynth Lattice
6 Planar Bridge
6 Staff of Nin
7 Spine of Ish Sah
9 Darksteel Forge
1 Faithless Looting
1 Gamble
1 Vandalblast
2 Tormenting Voice
3 Saheeli's Directive
3 Wheel of Fortune
4 Pirate's Pillage
5 Scrap Mastery
7 All Is Dust
9 Blasphemous Act
//Instants (1):
3 Chaos Warp
//Enchantments (2):
3 Blood Moon
4 Stranglehold
//Planeswalkers (6):
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Karn, the Great Creator
6 Chandra, Flamecaller
6 Ugin, the Ineffable
7 Karn Liberated
8 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
//Land (33):
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Blast Zone
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Buried Ruin
1 Command Beacon
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Forge of Heroes
1 Great Furnace
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Karn's Bastion
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mishra's Workshop
12 Mountain
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
4 Daretti, Scrap Savant
//Big Creature:
5 Karn, Silver Golem
6 Combustible Gearhulk
6 Thopter Assembly
6 Wurmcoil Engine
7 Myr Battlesphere
12 Blightsteel Colossus
//Card Advantage and Tutor:
1 Faithless Looting
1 Gamble
1 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Tormenting Voice
3 Wheel of Fortune
3 Imperial Recruiter
3 Quicksmith Genius
3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Oracle's Vault
4 Pirate's Pillage
5 Alhammarret's Archive
5 Kuldotha Forgemaster
5 Memory Jar
6 Chandra, Flamecaller
6 Planar Bridge
6 Staff of Nin
//Control:
2 Winter Orb
3 Static Orb
6 Mindslaver
//Mana Acceleration:
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mox Diamond
0 Mox Opal
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
2 Grim Monolith
2 Mind Stone
3 Basalt Monolith
3 Metalworker
4 Hedron Archive
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Solemn Simulacrum
5 Gilded Lotus
1 Goblin Welder
3 Scrap Trawler
5 Scrap Mastery
//Removal:
1 Vandalblast
3 Chaos Warp
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
6 Contagion Engine
6 Duplicant
6 Steel Hellkite
7 All Is Dust
7 Karn Liberated
7 Spine of Ish Sah
8 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
9 Blasphemous Act
//Untap Effect:
1 Voltaic Key
4 Clock of Omens
4 Unwinding Clock
//Utility Cards:
2 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
3 Chaos Wand
3 Rings of Brighthearth
3 Saheeli's Directive
3 Scrap Trawler
3 Sculpting Steel
3 Staff of Domination
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Silent Arbiter
5 Paradox Engine
6 Mycosynth Lattice
9 Darksteel Forge
0 Ancient Tomb
0 Bazaar of Baghdad
0 Buried Ruin
0 Command Beacon
0 Darksteel Citadel
0 Forge of Heroes
0 Geier Reach Sanitarium
0 Great Furnace
0 Inventors' Fair
0 Maze of Ith
0 Mishra's Workshop
18 Mountain
0 Strip Mine
0 Urza's Mine
0 Urza's Power Plant
0 Urza's Tower
0 Wasteland
While there are many options for cards that could be included in a deck, there are only room for 100. In the spoiler below, I will give a card-by-card explanation as to why I specifically chose to have a certain card in in the deck.
Artifacts:
Sorceries:
Instants:
Planeswalkers:
Lands:
This section is reserved for cards that didn’t make the cut, or will be kept in reserve as a “toolbox” of sorts for things I can swap out when I feel like changing the deck up.
As far as a strategy goes, everyone is going to play their deck differently. The way I play Daretti is to get him out early and rush towards his Emblem. Once the Emblem is achieved, it becomes difficult for our opponents to win. How do we go about doing this? Simple. We do the following:
1) Mulligans: Your opening hand is very important. It'll basically tell you how the game is going to go. You want at the very least one Mountain in your starting hand in order to pay for Daretti's color requirement. After that, you want mana rocks. More specifically, early, cheap mana rocks like Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, or Mana Vault. Even Grim Monolith is good, albeit a bit slower than the others. You want these to pump out a fast Daretti. Finally, you need pitch fodder. Whether that's the big artifacts, extra mana rocks or lands, or utility artifacts. Something to make it worth casting Daretti.
2) Early Game: Get Daretti out as fast as you can. Turn 1 is definitely the best, and there are a few ways of doing this, such as:
3) Mid Game: This is the part of the game when you have been alternating his +2 and -2 abilities to set up your hand, board, and graveyard in order to get to your win conditions. By this time, your opponents should be on to your game plan and what your deck can do (if they didn't know already just by seeing Daretti). You want to be able to protect him as much as you can, so use things like Blasphemous Act to clear the board of creatures so they can't attack him.
4) Late Game: By this time, you should have dug and pitched through your deck to find your road to victory. There are many ways to do this. Straight up attacking down your opponent's life totals from 40 to 0, infect damage through Blightsteel Colossus, or through one of the many combos this deck can do, which will be discussed in another section.
As with any deck, there are going to be some weaknesses. Some of these include:
1) Artifact Hate: Daretti is an artifact-based deck, and in the EDH format, there is TONS of various artifact removal. There is the old-fasioned artifact destruction, such as Aura Shards, Vandalblast, Bane of Progress, among others, but these are the most potent. There is also exiling effects, such as Return to Dust and Merciless Eviction, as well as many others. These are harder to come back from, as we cannot recur them. Stony Silence is also a very bad card for us. If we have Mycosynth Lattice, this card will cause the game to draw out, as no one can cast anything since they can't tap lands for mana.
2) Graveyard Hate: Not only is Daretti an artifact-based deck, it is also graveyard-based. Cards such as Tormod’s Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, etc. put a real damper on our gameplan. Trying to get these out of our way as early as possible will only help us in the long run.
3) Counter Decks: Personally, this is the one I dislike the most. It’s one thing to play your stuff and then get it removed. It’s another to not even get to play them because they get countered. Over. And over. And over again. It can be frustrating, so if you’re playing in a counter-heavy meta, Defense Grid might not be a bad inclusion.
4) Flying Creatures: Flying creatures are definitely a big hindrance. We only have three creatures with Flying in our current build, so unless we use our mass removal spells to get rid of them, Daretti will almost always end up back in the Command Zone.
5) Direct Damage: Much like creatures with Flying, anything that deals direct damage to Planeswalkers will knock loyalty counters off Daretti. We used to have protection from burn with cards such as Witchbane Orb and Orbs of Warding, but when they changed redirection to actually targeting Planeswakers, these cards fell off the radar.
In this section, we will go over the main interactions/combos that this deck has to offer. There may be more hidden in there somewhere, so if someone happens to see what that I did not, feel free to let me know and I will get it added!
It's simple: Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith + 2 from any source: Tap Monolith for 3. Use the 3 to untap, Rings triggers, use 2 from any other source to copy the untap effect. First untap on stack resolves, tap again for 3. Let second untap resolve and tap again for mana. You now have 6 floating. Use 3 to untap, and 2 to copy untap with Rings. This leaves you with 1 available. Repeat steps for infinite colorless mana.
Pair this infinite mana combo with a few more cards, and you can get some crazy interactions, such as:
Paradox Engine Combos: These combos involve having Paradox Engine on the battlefield in order to untap your permanents and essentially "go infinite.
Miscellaneous Combos/Synergies: These are the other "combos" which are more or less cards with great synergy together.
5/20/15:
OUT:
Shattering Spree
IN:
Blasphemous Act
Shattering Spree was too mana intensive to be able to remove mass artifacts; Vandalblast does this much better and at a cheaper cost. So I dropped it in favor of a mass boardwipe for creatures, since we have trouble with our opponents having lots of them. Add in the fact that it sometimes will cost only 1 red mana makes this wipe a very good inclusion.
========================================
6/5/15:
OUT:
Pithing Needle
Howling Mine
Winter Orb
Mana Web
Ruination
IN:
Mox Diamond
Static Orb
Clock of Omens
Tawnos's Coffin
Mind's Eye
Pithing Needle wasn’t doing too much in the deck, and only being able to stop one thing at a time was kind of a pain. Howling Mine helped out everyone else too, which is something we don’t want to be doing. I prefer Static Orb over Winter Orb, as we can effectively “turn off” Static with Clock of Omens and be able to untap our stuff, while keeping everyone else’s tapped down. Mana Web is out too as it also goes along with Winter Orb. I took our Ruination as I am not a fan of MLD. Added in Mox Diamond as more early ramp, Static Orb/Clock of Omens to lock our opponent’s down, Coffin as a colorless way to get rid of things like Iona on red, and Mind’s Eye for the extra card draw.
========================================
6/25/15:
OUT:
Tawnos's Coffin
Inkmoth Nexus
IN:
Codex Shredder
Gemstone Caverns
Never really got to use the Coffin too much; it just doesn’t seem like the right fit for here. Wasn’t a big fan of Inkmoth in here either; it didn’t put in enough work. Added in Codex Shredder to help recur our non-artifact spells, and Caverns to help us get to Daretti faster (if it’s in our opening hand).
========================================
8/2/15:
OUT:
Scuttling Doom Engine
Defense Grid
Ugin's Nexus
IN:
Trading Post
Price of Glory
Alhammarret's Archive
The big addition here is the Archive. This thing was made for Daretti. The card advantage this generates is insane with all of the card draw in here. Once I get a Bazaar, it’ll make that even better as well. Price of Glory is in for people who like to play during other people’s turns and is better than Grid because it sets them back by losing land, and Trading Post is another utility artifact that does good things, even tho I’m not it’s biggest fan. Engine and Nexus just weren’t doing enough for me.
========================================
11/18/15:
OUT:
Mountain
Fellwar Stone
IN:
Command Beacon
Thought Vessel
Daretti tends to head to the Command Zone quite frequently, so having Beacon take the place of a Mountain is well worth us only having to pay 4 for him late game. Fellwar Stone is probably the weakest rock here simply because if we happen to play against a colorless deck, we don’t get to add any mana. Thought Vessel is a rock that produces mana every time, and has the added bonus of giving us no maximum hand size.
========================================
12/17/15:
OUT:
Mountain x2
Tormenting Voice
IN:
Reliquary Tower
Sanctum of Ugin
Sandstone Oracle
Dropping a couple Mountains to add in Reliquary Tower to help us better control what we discard since we no longer have a max hand size, and Sanctum to be able to tutor up creatures. If we can draw at least two cards each time Oracle comes into play, it is strictly better than Voice since it is recurrable.
========================================
1/14/16:
OUT:
Mountain
IN:
Bazaar of Baghdad
Finally got my hands on a Bazaar. This will allow me to draw additional cards and put more artifacts into the graveyard. It doesn’t produce mana, so I do lose out on a mana source, but it should allow me to draw into more.
========================================
2/24/16:
OUT:
Soul of New Phyrexia
Caged Sun
Reliquary Tower
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
IN:
Fellwar Stone
Chandra, Flamecaller
Haven of the Spirit Dragon
Mirropool
Soul wasn’t really doing much other than being a beater, so I replaced him with Chandra Flamecaller as a sort of catch-all. Gives us tiny guys to help get in more damage, a one-sided wheel effect that draws us an additional card, and a board wipe for small critters. Tower isn’t necessary anymore thanks to Thought Vessel, so I added in Haven in its place. Ugin is a very good card in EDH, and having an additional way of reusing him is always good. Caged Sun is ok, but Gauntlet is cheaper and I haven’t need the extra mana Caged produces, so I put back Fellwar Stone as another early mana rock.
========================================
3/9/16:
OUT:
Mind’s Eye
Thran Dynamo
Starstorm
Hammer of Purphoros
Fellwar Stone
Trading Post
Comet Storm
Thopter Assembly
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
IN:
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Voltaic Key
Blinkmoth Urn
Lightning Greaves
Contagion Engine
Hellkite Igniter
The Chain Veil
Staff of Nin
Lotus Bloom
Ok, the biggest update I’ve had on here. Staff of Nin over Mind’s eye is because I don’t have to pay anything to get an extra card, and can combo with other things in the deck. Greaves over Hammer because I only usually need one creature to have haste, and has the bonus effect of giving Shroud. Contagion Engine/Chain Veil to help add more counters to all of our planeswalkers. Hellkite as another way to win. Ulamog is in for more colorless removal, and it exiles so even better. Key for more untap shenanigans. Blinkmoth Urn can help generate a ton of mana. Lotus Bloom as a free mana rock; can be a Black Lotus every turn after an emblem; this is still being tested of Thran, but Thran still might replace it as it is guaranteed three mana every turn. Everything else was removed to make room for newer cards.
========================================
3/29/19:
OUT:
Sanctum of Ugin
IN:
Dust Bowl
I haven’t used the tutor effect of Sanctum as much as I had hoped for. With my utility lands, I like to get as much use out of them as I can. Having Dust Bowl in here will allow me to continually remove lands from my opponents when I have enough mana rocks out that I don’t need as many lands.
========================================
6/10/16:
OUT:
Lotus Bloom
IN:
Winter Orb
Lotus Bloom has been my flex spot for quite awhile, floating between that, Thran Dynamo, and Slobad. But because Winter Orb has been errata'd again so we can now "turn it off," I'm going to put it in as another lock piece to hinder opponent's while not hurting us, so long as we have Clock of Omens out.
========================================
8/1/16:
OUT:
Phyrexia's Core
IN:
Geier Reach Sanitarium
Phyrexia's Core has been lackluster in this deck. The only function it ever takes on is being another colorless land. Haven't used its sac effect in quite a while, if ever. Geier Reach Sanitarium fills the role of colorless land just as good, but has the added functionality of being able to draw cards and discard things for later recursion, which is a valuable ability to have, especially at instant speed.
========================================
12/6/16:
OUT:
High Market
Mirrorpool
Mountain x2
Hellkite Igniter
Sandstone Oracle
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Codex Shredder
The Chain Veil
IN:
Homeward Path
Inventors' Fair
Sequestered Stash
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Quicksmith Genius
Combustible Gearhulk
Thopter Assembly
Cathartic Reunion
Tormenting Voice
I took out High Market and Mirrorpool as I felt they were both underperforming, and with some lands from Kaladesh, were in need of replacing. Decided to drop 2 more Mountains, as the deck can run just fine with only a couple red sources, and Utility lands are at a premium (not exactly sure what that means, but it sounds cool). The rest of the cut cards were essentially removed to make room for the new stuff, and I felt these were safe cuts.
Homeward Path is in here as Bribery insurance. Inventors' Fair is a tutor that doesn't take up a valuable spell slot. Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is another Sol Land that still lets us tap for one in the early game. Sequestered Stash fills our graveyard, and brings back an artifact to the top of our deck. Quicksmith Genius is Daretti 2.0, albeit on a smaller scale, but just as good. Combustible Gearhulk is my new favorite toy! Big beater and either gets us cards in hand or cards in graveyard for future use. Thopter Assembly was added back in to help against flyers. Cathartic Reunion/Tormenting Voice were added for more guaranteed card draw (and also the discard portion).
========================================
1/26/17:
OUT:
Clock of Omens
Fire Diamond
Gauntlet of Might
Recoup
Silent Arbiter
Static Orb
Winter Orb
IN:
Fellwar Stone
Heart of Kiran
Paradox Engine
Pia's Revolution
Planar Bridge
Scrap Trawler
The Chain Veil
I decided to try something a little different with these updates. Instead of hiding behind Stax effects to protect Daretti, I wanted to try and make it a little more explosive. So I took out the Orbs/Omens synergy as well as Arbiter in order to make room for some new stuff. Gauntlet was removed as we really don't need the extra mana when we run a bunch of rocks, and can also weld back our bigger stuff. I haven't needed Recoup in a long time, so that was a safe cut. Fire Diamond was a safe cut since we don't really want our rocks to come in tapped and unable to be used until next turn.
Fellwar is back in as it is a rock that comes into play untapped, and can possibly make red if we need (if someone can produce red). Chain Veil is also back in and will hopefully synergize well with Paradox. As far as Paradox goes, I'm not too sure it's a good fit in here yet, as our deck isn't built to abuse it like some other decks, but being able to reuse Veil, Bridge, and other effects may prove to be useful. Planar Bridge is another one I'm not too sure on yet. We can grab any permanent and put it directly into play, which could prove vital for when we are in a pinch, or when we need a combo piece. We can abuse its effect with Paradox and enough rocks/spells to put a bunch of things into play, or infinite mana plus Rings/Key to do the same, but get all of our permanents. Heart of Kiran can make for a decent blocker and can be crewed with Daretti in a pinch. Pia's Revolution is like a mini Combustible so synergizes very well with the deck. Trawler is a better Junk Diver/Myr Retriever as it works with all of our artifacts.
========================================
2/23/17:
OUT:
Fellwar Stone
Heart of Kiran
Pia's Revolution
IN:
Clock of Omens
Static Orb
Winter Orb
Well, I tried some new cards and had high hopes for them, but unfortunately they didn't work out. Revolution just didn't do what I had hoped it would be good for. Turns out I do care if I want something to stay in the graveyard, so it got the cut. Kiran, for the most part, just sat there on defense, so I wasn't getting very much use out of it, and there are far better defense cards to run. Fellwar is the least impactful rock I run, and I needed to cut something to make room for the third card.
I'm putting pack both Orbs and Omens to help control the board more and slow others down in order to get to Daretti's Ultimate and take over the game. In fact, I really missed running these and am sort of glad the other cards didn't work out.
========================================
5/1/17:
OUT:
Cathartic Reunion
IN:
Oracle's Vault
After playing a few games with Vault, I have decided it has earned it's place in the deck. Not only does it allow us to dig deeper into the deck, but when you get three brick counters on it, we get to play the card for free. When used in conjunction with Sensei's Divining Top, we can guarantee we will hit a spell to cast, or even a land that we need. Combine with Paradox Engine and you can cast a bunch of your deck for free. This can definitely be game changing.
In order to make room for Vault, I have decided to cut Reunion. While red doesn't have very much as far as card draw goes, I feel like this was a safe cut to make. Tormenting Voice is a lot safer to play, as you only have to discard one card instead of two.
========================================
5/25/18:
OUT:
Blood Moon
Dust Bowl
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
IN:
Pirate's Pillage
Karn, Scion of Urza
Arch of Orazca
Haven't updated in awhile, since Amonkhet to be exact. There really hasn't been much that can make this deck more over the top than it already is, but I did find some cards that can fit well in here. Pirate's Pillage is more card draw that can also create sac fodder for Daretti, or ramp us into another spell. Karn, Scion of Urza is more card draw, but can also create artifact bodies for attacking/blocking/sac fodder. Arch of Orazca just gives us another outlet for card draw, but only when we have the city's blessing.
To make room, I took out Blood Moon mostly because I don't want to shut off our lands, even though it also shuts opponent's off. We can't recur it, so once it's in the graveyard, it's done for anyways. Dust Bowl is expensive for land destruction, so it got cut. Shrine of the Forsaken Gods didn't really do much for the deck, so it was an easy choice to make.
I also removed the Visual Deck List and Pimpage sections. I know longer have a physical copy of the deck and its accessories, so I feel like these are no longer necessary.
========================================
8/3/18:
OUT:
Scrap Trawler
IN:
Silent Arbiter
Scrap Trawler has been fairly lackluster in recent games. He really doesn't do much of anything until an artifact goes to the graveyard. When one does, he is also limited in what he can bring back.
I decided to bring back Silent Arbiter as a way to slow down token/swarm strategies, and have a better way of controlling combat in order to protect Daretti. Oh, and I like big butts and I cannot lie, and Arbiter has a pretty big one as well!
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9/15/18:
OUT:
Blinkmoth Urn
Haven of the Spirit Dragon
Homeward Path
Karn, Scion of Urza
Lightning Greaves
Mirrorworks
Sequestered Stash
The Chain Veil
IN:
Chaos Wand
Krark-Clan Ironworks
Scrap Trawler
Sculpting Steel
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
Urza's Mine
Urza's Power Plant
Urza's Tower
I've been testing quite a few changes recently, and these are the ones I've come up with. I am going to continue to test these out and see which ones will ultimately stick.
We don't get any mana from Blinkmoth Urn until our following turn, but our opponents do, so this gets the cut. I never used Haven of the Spirit Dragon or Sequestered Stash for their abilities, nor have a ran into the situation where Homeward Path was necessary. Karn, Scion of Urza, while he does find a spot in the deck, and worked really well, often times I found myself getting a land, and the opponent exiling a good card, and then kill him. It's a bit of a risky card, and I don't want to take too many risks. Lightning Greaves was cut as was only really used with Blightsteel Colossus. We usually only tutor Blightsteel at end of an opponent's turn, so we can swing with him on ours, so the Greaves isn't needed. Mirrorworks I have found that I haven't been using it for anything other than pitch fodder, so when a card gets to that point, it needs to go. Lastly, The Chain Veil is better off in a deck that has a bunch of Planeswalkers to fully utilize it, or somewhere it can go infinite such as Teferi, Temporal Archmage.
I have added in the Tron lands in place of the three I took out. While they do absolutely nothing on their own, the ability to make 7 mana with three lands is a hard thing to ignore. I've added in Krark-Clan Ironworks and Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer as mainly sac outlets to avoid exile effects, and to set up a nice Scrap Mastery. KCI also allows us to ramp a little bit, and Slobad provides some protection for our artifacts. Chaos Wand is pretty bonkers. With enough rocks and Paradox Engine, we can churn through our opponent's decks until they run out of instants and sorceries. Scrap Trawler is back as he is too good to pass up, especially since he doesn't have to go to the graveyard to return an artifact, like Myr Retriever and Junk Diver. Sculpting Steel is a nice little utility artifact that can become whatever artifact we need at the time, whether it's a mana rock, or a Spine of Ish Sah.
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12/15/18:
OUT:
Arid Mesa
Bloodstained Mire
Crucible of Worlds
Scalding Tarn
Wooded Foothills
IN:
Forge of Heroes
Mountain x4
Saheeli's Directive
I've opted to cut all of the fetch lands and Crucible of Worlds, at least for the time being. Being a mono-colored deck means we don't need to worry about color fixing, the fetches aren't necessarily important. Losing Crucible may prove to be a mistake, as we will no longer be able to play lands from our graveyard to ensure hitting our land drops, or reuse our many utility lands.
In their place, I have opted to run four more basic Mountains as well as Forge of Heroes to replace the lands I took out. Forge will hopefully prove to be a worthwhile land, as it should enable us to ultimate Daretti a turn earlier. In place of Crucible, I have chosen to put in Saheeli's Directive. With Directive, we should be able to spam the board with a ton of artifacts, and hopefully get closer to winning the game.
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3/15/19:
OUT:
Blightsteel Colossus
Chaos Wand
Kuldotha Forgemaster
Mountain x5
Oracle's Vault
Quicksmith Genius
Scrap Trawler
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
Thopter Assembly
Urza's Mine
Urza's Power Plant
Urza's Tower
IN:
Arid Mesa
Blinkmoth Nexus
Blood Moon
Bloodstained Mire
Crucible of Worlds
Ensnaring Bridge
Inkmoth Nexus
Lion's Eye Diamond
Magus of the Moon
Mishra's Factory
Oblivion Stone
Scalding Tarn
Stranglehold
Tangle Wire
Ward of Bones
Wooded Foothills
I'm not going to go into too much detail at the moment, as it's sort of late and I'm a bit tired. I've decided to cut some of the "cuter" items to go a little bit more into the Stax aspect for the deck. I still won't be adding in MLD as I am not a fan of that particular strategy. Some of the changes you may question, so if you want specifics, feel free to ask and I will answer.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
Judging from some of your card choices, I'm guessing your meta has a lot of blue players.
My G Yisan, the Bard of Death G deck.
My BUGWR Hermit druid BUGWR deck.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
My G Yisan, the Bard of Death G deck.
My BUGWR Hermit druid BUGWR deck.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
No new changes to list. Still trying to decide if Winter Orb/Mana Web are necessary. May try to include Ward of Bones sometime soon as another way to try and control the board.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
-1 mountain
+1 scrying sheets
My G Yisan, the Bard of Death G deck.
My BUGWR Hermit druid BUGWR deck.
I am also testing out Ward of Bones in place of Shattering Spree.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
OUT:
Shattering Spree
IN:
Blasphemous Act
Shattering Spree was too mana intensive to be able to remove mass artifacts; Vandalblast does this much better and at a cheaper cost. So I dropped it in favor of a mass boardwipe for creatures, since we have trouble with our opponents having lots of them. Add in the fact that it sometimes will cost only 1 red mana makes this wipe a very good inclusion.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
Currently testing out Static Orb/Clock of Omens in place of Winter Orb/Mana Web. I'm definitely liking it right now.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
OUT:
Pithing Needle
Howling Mine
Winter Orb
Mana Web
Ruination
IN:
Mox Diamond
Static Orb
Clock of Omens
Tawnos's Coffin
Mind's Eye
Pithing Needle wasn’t doing too much in the deck, and only being able to stop one thing at a time was kind of a pain. Howling Mine helped out everyone else too, which is something we don’t want to be doing. I prefer Static Orb over Winter Orb, as we can effectively “turn off” Static with Clock of Omens and be able to untap our stuff, while keeping everyone else’s tapped down. Mana Web is out too as it also goes along with Winter Orb. I took our Ruination as I am not a fan of MLD. Added in Mox Diamond as more early ramp, Static Orb/Clock of Omens to lock our opponent’s down, Coffin as a colorless way to get rid of things like Iona on red, and Mind’s Eye for the extra card draw.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
It is interesting.
However, I do not have gauntlet of might, imperial recruiter and mishra's workshop. How would you substitute these 3 cards if you had to?
For Imperial Recruiter, it can't fetch as many creatures, but it can fetch Welder/Squee, and that is Goblin Matron.
As far as Mishra's Workshop goes, it really isn't a necessary card. Sure, it does accelerates you casting your artifacts, but I wouldn't consider it a core card. Either add another basic or a utility land in its place.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
Uploaded a banner.
Static Orb and Clock of Omens have been doing some good, so they will be staying for the time being.
Played some games yesterday. Was able to Ult and copy Ugin again, and even got to restart the game with Karn, and I started with a Sylvan Library, Sensei's Divining Top, and Deathbringer Regent. Unfortunately, he scooped on his first turn.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
OUT:
Tawnos's Coffin
Inkmoth Nexus
IN:
Codex Shredder
Gemstone Caverns
Never really got to use the Coffin too much; it just doesn’t seem like the right fit for here. Wasn’t a big fan of Inkmoth in here either; it didn’t put in enough work. Added in Codex Shredder to help recur our non-artifact spells, and Caverns to help us get to Daretti faster (if it’s in our opening hand).
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
1.) Why the fetches? Deck thinning just doesn't seem that meaningful in commander. Is it just for crucible? Crucible also doesn't seem worth it, from that perspective.
2.) Recoup seems like an odd choice. What do you find yourself targeting with it?
3.) Chaos Warp, post tuck rule, doesn't seem that powerful. I cut it from mine -- why do you leave it in?
4.) Gilded Lotus -- by the time you have 5 mana, do you really need 3 more? Usually you are already ramping enough at that point...
5.) Why Ugin's Nexus -- just to counter the decks that play extra turns?
6.) Haven of the Spirit Dragon seems odd just to grab Ugin. It seems like there is a more useful colorless land out there.
Thoughts?
Archive is definitely going to be nuts in here; I'm really impatient to get my hands on one. As far as your questions go, here's my input:
1) I don't necessarily use the fetches for thinning. I more so use them for resetting the top of my deck, which works well with Top if there is nothing good there. Crucible is also useful for recurring utility lands.
2) Recoup has been really useful since I included it. It gets me another chance at a big spell that gets countered, or to just use it again. One game I played Scrap Mastery, it got countered, but was able to Recoup into Mastery again to take over the game.
3) Chaos Warp did get a bit worse after the tuck rule change, but it is still of the best red removal spells out there. Can still get rid of other problem cards.
4) In my opinion, you can never have enough mana. Plus, it gives you red. Good enough for me.
5) I mainly use Nexus to gain myself another turn, mainly after setting up for a big play that I don't want interrupted.
6) Ugin can turn the tide of a game single handedly. Why not have multiple chances of playing him, especially with Crucible?
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
Regarding the Nexus, I guess I don't see the 'big play next turn' side. I usually win by combo and destroying all of their lands or taking all their permenants or hitting them with a huge burn spell or something along those lines. That all usually happens the same turn.
Regarding Chaos Warp, it doesn't really 'get rid of' in the same way that its usually meant -- it just replaces their problem with card with another card (there is a lot of reanimator here), which may also be a problem card. I just don't see the value over running other cards. I am actually still quite on the fence about even running blasphemous act.
Mind sharing your list for reference?
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
OUT:
Scuttling Doom Engine
Defense Grid
Ugin's Nexus
IN:
Trading Post
Price of Glory
Alhammarret's Archive
The big addition here is the Archive. This thing was made for Daretti. The card advantage this generates is insane with all of the card draw in here. Once I get a Bazaar, it’ll make that even better as well. Price of Glory is in for people who like to play during other people’s turns and is better than Grid because it sets them back by losing land, and Trading Post is another utility artifact that does good things, even tho I’m not it’s biggest fan. Engine and Nexus just weren’t doing enough for me.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
I like Static because I can turn it off with Clock of Omens but it seems a bit crueler/will paint a bigger target on my back than Winter Orb as it affects all permanents.
I chose Static Orb simply because it can be turned off with Clock. It also makes he opponent choose whether to play spells, or attack with creatures. It slows them down enough to let you go off easier.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya
Updated deck list to reflect current build. Added visual deck list.
[EDH Non-Primers] Newzuri | Breya