I do want to ask, doyou mostly see PE enable the combo plays due to it's controller having excessive artifact mana or do they usually have another enabler?
My expereince with PE has that I've never seen somebody just combo off with like 2-3 mana rocks and it, but I have seen it dominate a game when people were using creatures that enabled excessive mana generation. The ones I've seen were super competative Seton, Krosan Protector druid tribal, which the pilot netdecked so it was probably going to be nutty even without PE.; but the main offenders I see is everyones favorite elf Selvala, Heart of the Wilds or Selvala, Explorer Returned, since she specializes in absurd mana generation and also gives it's owner card draw to keep the PE gassed up.
Usually it's either artifact mana or creature mana, in the form of mana dorks, Selvala (either version)or Cryptolith Rite. I have seen several occasions when someone put Cryptolith Rite into play, then cast an artifact tutor to get Paradox Engine. Last night I saw someone end the game on turn 6 or 7 by casting a few smalls spells (one of them was Beastmaster Ascension) with mana dorks and Paradox Engine in play, holding back the excess mana, doing Genesis Wave for some amount, hitting Eternal Witness, getting back the Genesis Wave, casting it again for a whole lot more, hitting a haste enabler and overrunning the table. Now, in cEDH, turn 6-7 win might be considered slow, but this isn't the first time I've seen it happen in more casual tables. I have also noticed people holding onto artifact removal in case Paradox Engine shows up, because they realize that if Paradox Engine hits the table and isn't dealt with immediately, the game is probably over that turn or the next turn.
I expect with a couple of recently-released cards (Chaos Wand, Tawnos), people are going to be seeing a lot more Paradox Engine shenanigans.
I guess my point is that I think of Paradox Engine as basically a Mirari's Wake or any other mana doubler. If someone plays one you better get rid of it immediately or silly things are about to start happening. Granted, PE has an edge over other doublers because it is colorless, and it is easier to use the same turn it comes down, but I think that ultimately is a reflection of the broken mana rocks that enable such quick plays instead of a problem with PE itself. Like, do we think we'd be having this discussion at all if Sol Ring, Mana Vault and Mana Crypt were banned? I would assume no.
One really shouldn't assume. I do run Mana Crypt and Sol Ring in my Rashmi deck, and certainly they contribute to brokenness, but I've gone off with Paradox Engine with just things like Gilded Lotus, Sky Diamond, Mind Stone and Birds of Paradise. It just plain makes all of those sorts of cards, and things like Cryptolith Rite, and stuff like Captain Sisay and other creatures and artifacts with tap-to-activate abilities, so much better. Not that there aren't other ways to untap things, but there aren't many that do it all at once and over and over again within a turn with so much ease (the Iso-Reverasl combo is the only one I can think of at the moment), and all at the cost of adding just one card to stuff you could (and often would) be running anyhow.
How are you guys drawing your decks so consistently with Paradox Engine?
In Rashmi, it isn't hard at all to effectively draw through most or all of my deck in a single turn. I run Future Sight to cast off the top of my deck, Soothsaying to set up my topdeck or shuffle past lands, and a bunch of draw spells so I can draw my way through lands and keep going, and with all the rocks (and any other non-land permanents) untapping every time I cast something, I have no problem floating a boatload of mana to cast whatever I draw.
With Chaos Wand, it wasn't hard to go all the way through opponents' decks casting whatever instants and sorceries I wished, either, because any time I ran into something I didn't want to cast, or couldn't cast (like a counterspell with no target), I could just put it at the bottom of their deck, cast some small thing from my own deck using some of the floating mana to cast the spell, untap the Wand (along with everything else non-land) and keep going. This was aided by my casting opponents' draw spells to keep my own grip full. I had to be careful to *not* deck myself, really. And unsurprisingly, even when I moved very quickly through repeated castings, other players got real bored watching me play solitaire. I found it as exhausting Axolotl describes as well. At one point I was using 8 or 9 d20s to indicate how much blue, green and colorless mana I had floating.
And again, this isn't even a deck which is anything close to optimized. I run as many mana rocks in some other decks, and similar amounts of card draw in some other decks, and I'm pretty sure that if I tossed Paradox Engine into them, I could pull off something pretty similar, if perhaps a bit less smooth without the benefit of things like Future Sight and Soothsaying which are normally not particularly broken cards. I could probably do something similar in my Gahiji token-swarm deck, which includes things like Captain Sisay, Dragon Throne of Tarkir, a few mana dorks, a few mana rocks, Cryptolith Rite, Kessig Wolf Run, Rhys the Redeemed and spells like Rishkar's Expertise and Shamanic Revelation, using the dorks/rocks to make arbitrarily huge numbers of tokens and make one or more creatures really large and draw and cast most or all of my deck.
It is cheaper CMC wise and the pieces of it are tutorable so it is easy to slot into a lot of decks that run signets and a sol ring and other mana rocks / dorks.
Also the Paradox Engine thing requires spells to make mana where as if you have 3 mana in rocks and the Scepter combo you can make a big storm or a lot of mana without having a hand full of spells.
Agreed here - Iso-reversal is more prevalent, and requires less building around. People play Mystical Tutor anyway, so it's cheap and easy. PE requires building around, and warps the deck it's in. No doubt it's strong if you have the right conditions for it to work well, but that's not a given. It really only responds to the degeneracy you, as a player and deckbuilder, feed it.
What, exactly, is degenerate about running a bunch of mana rocks or mana dorks? Lots of decks run those things anyhow. Same with just about everything else that is broken with Paradox Engine. That's the problem, just tossing Paradox Engine into the mix breaks a lot of things which aren't otherwise broken.
Which isn't to say Iso-Reversal isn't crazy good, too. It is. But, note that Isochron Scepter is another of the cards (like Chaos Wand) that becomes busted with Paradox Engine and a couple mana rocks, since casting the spell imprinted on the Scepter will untap the Scepter and the rocks, allowing one to cast the imprinted spell over and over. That's irrelevant in the case of Iso-Reversal, but it busts a whole lot of other things one might do with the Scepter.
Alone, Chaos Wand is a pretty good card. Sometimes you will hit a dud, but mostly it provides repeated, incremental value while exploiting your opponents' resources. But with Paradox Engine, it is just plain insane.
Just want to add that this is "with PE and 4 mana coming from mana rocks or mana dorks". Most of the time, this is a combo with a minimum of 4 cards, with a real possibility fizzing (counter spells are definitely a problem).
Yes, it is powerful, but there are lots of 4-card combos that are busted.
Is it more busted than Ashnod's Altar + Nim deathmantle + a creature that combos with them (Sun Titan, Grave Titan and every other creature that makes a million tokens, Reveillark, Karmic Guide, ... even Marionette Master makes infinite tokens and drains infinitely)?
I get it that PE combos with a lot of things. But it is almost always a 4 card combo (very rarely 3 card) and you can't ban a card because of 4 card combos.
Here's the thing, though. Most combos - not all, your thing above with Ashnod's Altar, Nim Deathmantle and any of a wide range of creatures is a good example of the exception, as each of those cards are quite solid on its own - include one or more cards that aren't particularly strong on their own. Mike + Trike, for example... on its own Triskelion is a pretty weak card which rarely sees play except to take part in that combo. Most things which get broken with Paradox Engine are things that a deck might already do and which are just fine... but when you throw the Engine in, they get broken. Lots of decks run tons of mana rocks, a smaller but not insignificant number (especially elf decks) run a lot of mana dorks, Cryptolith Rite is a less-reliable but also less vulnerable option for any deck which runs a lot of creatures and would also like to make a lot of mana. None of these are a problem (unless you want to count the perpetual bugbears of Sol Ring and Mana Crypt being part of the suite of mana rocks, but that's pretty much irrelevant here). But when you toss Paradox Engine in with these things which are, on their own, fine, suddenly they become busted all to hell. When one card being added to the mix suddenly busts a bunch of different things that aren't otherwise broken then that card itself should be regarded as pretty suspect.
On its own, Chaos Wand isn't particularly powerful, but most decks that want to run it are probably going to run a lot of mana producers in order to be able to utilize it on a regular basis. That still isn't broken, just more effective than relying on lands alone to keep the Wand going. But once again, add Paradox Engine to the mix and things get insane and someone can take a really, really long turn while the other players just slowly sit by and watch their decks get used against them. Some might call that an undesirable game state. YMMV, of course.
So, when I saw the spoiler for M19, I could tell immediately that Chaos Wand would be insane with Paradox Engine + a handful of mana rocks, since the instant or sorcery spell one hits with the Wand is cast, every time that happens, Paradox Engine untaps the mana rocks and the Wand. Today I played my first game with my Rashmi deck since slotting in the Wand. I used the Wand a couple times on its own, and it was good, as I hit a Cultivate to ramp a bit and also hit some removal (Path to Exile and some green "destroy target artifact" effect). Then I got Paradox Engine into play along with the Wand, and as I had predicted, things got totally nuts.
On the occasion I ran into a sorcery or instant that wasn't advantageous to cast (like, say, a boardwipe that would have messed with my board state), I always had enough extra mana available from the rocks to cast something small, thereby untapping the rocks and the Wand again. Doing this, I drew a pile of extra cards, got most of the lands in my deck onto the battlefield, was able to tutor for things a few times and pretty much devastated my opponents' board states. I would probably have been able to go through three players' decks and cast every instant and sorcery in those decks, except that the three opponents scooped after I hit two extra turn cards partway through the second player's deck.
Alone, Chaos Wand is a pretty good card. Sometimes you will hit a dud, but mostly it provides repeated, incremental value while exploiting your opponents' resources. But with Paradox Engine, it is just plain insane.
So, I played one game tonight with my Rashmi deck, continuing my experiment. I gotta say, it was pretty insane. I was playing against tribal Slivers and Lovisa Coldeyes.
I initially drew a one-land hand, took a free mulligan and drew again, getting a better hand. That opening hand was: Forest, Inventors' Fair, Strip Mine, Birds of Paradise, Mana Crypt, Paradox Engine and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. I decided to keep that hand, since it included the Engine and with Forest, Birds and the other lands I could at least cast both Rashmi and the Engine, plus I had Mana Crypt if I wanted to get Rashmi out really early (and make a worse target of myself). My first turn draw was Brainstorm. I played the Forest, then Birds of Paradise and held onto the Crypt, since I had no follow-up. Pass turn.
Turn 2, I drew Thought Vessel. Rather than playing the Crypt and playing Rashmi turn 2, I decided to get the rock out and use Brainstorm to set up the next couple draws and/or Rashmi triggers. I already had in mind that I could play the Crypt on the same turn I cast Paradox Engine, allowing me to already start me untapping and casting more stuff. I tapped the Birds for U, cast Brainstorm and found Moss Diamond, Fabricate and Island. Seeing another rock and Fabricate made me happy, and I saw this as a set-up for a crazy turn when I played Paradox Engine in a couple turns. I put Island and Thought Vessel (from my hand) atop my library,keeping Fabricate in hand.. Then I played the Strip Mine, tapped both lands and played Moss Diamond
Turn 3, I drew and played the Island. I tapped all three lands and the Moss Diamond to play Rashmi. I then looked back and forth between the Birds and my hand for a moment (pure bluffing, as I had nothing to cast), then ended my turn.
Turn 4, I drew Thought Vessel, played Inventors' Fair, tapped all four lands, Moss Diamond and the Birds to cast Paradox Engine and float U. In response the Lovisa player Lightning Bolted Rashmi, but I still got the cast trigger, revealing Commander's Sphere and casting it for free. Casting the free rock told me things were about to absolutely go bonkers. Next I tapped the Sphere, floating G, cast Mana Crypt for 0, untapping the Birds, the Sphere and the Diamond, then tapped all of them and the Crypt (and floated three more mana) to cast Thought Vessel, which untapped them all again. I then tapped the Birds and rocks to cast Fabricate, finding Gilded Lotus and floating more mana, which again untapped the Birds and the rocks, allowing me to cast the Lotus. Tapping the Birds and all rocks, I used 6 of that mana to recast Rashmi, floating more mana and untapping the Birds and all the rocks. Tapping the rocks yet again and spending a bit of the floating mana gave me more than enough mana to cast Kozilek, drawing me 4 cards - Simic Signet, Mirrorpool, Stormtide Leviathan and Time of Need - while untapping everything yet again. While I was casting the Signet and floating yet more mana, Lovisa's player scooped. I cast Time of Need to tutor for Kruphix, God of Horizons, floating more mana, cast Kruphix, floating even more mana, and ended the turn with Rashmi, Paradox Engine, Kozilek, Kruphix and a bunch of rocks in play and untapped, a couple cards in hand and a bunch of colorless mana still floating in my pool. The sliver player had four lands and two slivers (I don't recall which ones) in play. He drew, saw it wasn't something that would make a difference and scooped rather than face Kozilek's Annihilator trigger, thereby giving me the win before I untapped for turn 5.
Now, some might say that was a god hand, I was really lucky, etc., but I rather dispute that. I had three lands - two colorless - one mana dork and a powerful mana rock, plus Paradox Engine and Kozilek. Keep in mind, the only library manipulation effect I got was Brainstorm. I kept that hand because I was likely going to be able to cast both Rashmi and the Engine by no later than turn 5, and I was confident that combination, along with whatever I drew into, would do me just fine. The fact that I ended up casting both - plus several other things and Kozilek - before turn 5 proved me right, but to a much greater degree than I'd anticipated. I will admit it was sort of funny to pull off that explosive a turn that early in the game, but it didn't really make for a very fun game for the other two players. And sure, Mana Crypt is crazy good, but even though I drew it in my opening hand, it didn't lead me to an explosive start. The enabler of all this broken stuff was Paradox Engine, pure and simple.
Conclusion re: Paradox Engine... seems pretty darn broken to me.
IMO, most cards wouldn't be considered for discussion if the enablers like efficient tutors and fast mana were locked up. I see no different for Paradox Engine.
Experiment 1: Rashmi
Another game in which I was the archenemy from early on. At the time I got Paradox Engine into play, I had only two mana rocks in play, plus Chief Engineer, Rashmi and some other creature but no mana dorks, but with the rocks consisting of Gilded Lotus and Sol Ring, I was able to empty my hand onto the table. My hand at the time included Soothsaying, and I was quickly able to start stacking my deck into more mana rocks and other threats. Paradox Engine got taken out at one point, but I was able to get it back into play a couple turns later, and I won the game shortly after that. Once again, the combination of card advantage offered by Rashmi and the untapping allowed by the Engine made for a pretty potent threat. This was without Cryptolith Rite or any of the flash enablers ever seeing play, and with Future Sight having been countered early on.
Please don't argue that cards banned for casual reasons are as strong as paradox engine. They aren't. They are just too strong when people aren't trying to win as quickly and efficiently as possible, so they are banned for ruining casual games. POK, Reveillark etc are not in the same league as paradox engine when it comes to competitive play.
The question is if paradox engine is also oppressive in casual play. Right now the answer seems to be no, unless the casual player changes their deck to support paradox engine more.
Or possibly if they just build the sort of deck Paradox Engine would already be good in - i.e., one having lots of mana rocks, lots of mana dorks and/or a general or multiple creatuers with a strong tap ability. I think that's really the big question. It can't ruin a deck that doesn't have one or more of those features, but there are a lot of decks which would be built with those features regardless of Paradox Engine. The real question, in my opinion, is whether tossing Paradox Engine into those decks will be broken. I am starting, based on my experiments and observations to date, to suspect that this might be the case, and that in that regard including the Engine in a deck which can most benefit from it, but which would not have to have it or be built around it, just might be too broken in less competitive Commander play.
For my next experiment with Paradox Engine, I'm going to play it in a deck that is less optimized for it than my current Rashmi deck, but in which it could still be incredibly good when the right situation arises. I've decided to put it in my Gahiji token-swarm deck. The only changes I'm going to make are that I'm going to swap in Paradox Engine and Cryptolith Rite for two other cards of similar CMC. I was already planning to put Rite in next time I made some changes to the deck, because it is potentially very strong in a deck that features a fair amount of creatures and makes lots of tokens. The deck currently runs no mana dorks and only three mana rocks, but it does include three creatures with tap abilities: Jazal Goldmane, Rhys the Redeemed and Captain Sisay. Two of these are obviously potentially very good with the Engine, especially since Sisay can also tutor for it, but other than Sisay, the only card in the deck that will be able to get the Engine is Enlightened Tutor, which currently tends to fetch things like Beastmaster Ascension, Doubling Season or Parallel Lives. Since I don't build with a lot of tutors, the deck currently has only one tutor (Eladamri's Call) which can fetch Sisay. It also includes several haste enablers, which makes Cryptolith Rite a lot more dangerous. I figure I probably won't get the Engine into play nearly as often as in my Rashmi deck, but it will be interesting to see how much difference it makes with essentially no building around it, since every other card is perfectly functional in this deck without Paradox Engine, and it won't have any counterspell protection.
Interesting thread and some good reports by JWK indeed. The card has intrigued me ever since it has been spoiled and if anything, it can lead to some really unexpected and broken interactions - although I don't think many people will run it without intending to do so.
Here's the thing... I think it very possible that a lot of people might build around Paradox Engine not intending to really break it, but just intending it to be really good, only to find out it is a lot better than they expected it to be. That's pretty much what's happened so far in my experiment. It didn't surprise the Karn or Nekusar/Leovold players, both of whom are guys who tend to build and play much higher on the competitive curve than me and the people I normally play against. They both included it with the plan to pull off another type of quasi-legacy brokenness in their decks, which were already built more like 100-card singleton vintage/legacy decks in the first place (this was especially true for the guy running the partner deck). But when I dropped Paradox Engine, the Karn player looked at the board state and said something along the lines of "I think you just won," and it turned out he was right.
I suspect Paradox Engine is going to turn out to be so good in decks that are built in a way that allows it to be good that it ends up being too broken, whether or not that's what the people building those decks intended. Sort of how Primeval Titan ended up being just too damn good in decks that included strong lands. I don't think it will be so centralizing at Prime Time was, because copying or stealing a Paradox Engine won't do much of anything in a lot of decks, but I suspect it will turn out to be a lot better in more decks than a lot of people expect.
I played my Rashmi/Paradox Engine deck today, and also played against two other decks which included Paradox Engine. One was a colorless deck headed by Karn, Silver Golem, while the other was a much more competitive deck, a partner deck which was really a pretty obscene combination Nekusar/Leovold deck headed by Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Vial Smasher the Fierce. This is giving me a much more clear sense of just how powerful Paradox Engine can be.
I won one of the two games I played with my Rashmi deck, in a four-person pod. My Rashmi deck was essentially the same as what I previously described, save that I took out Sprout Swarm as too easy a way to go infinite with a couple mana sources and Paradox Engine. The one game I lost, someone really gummed up the works by getting Void Winnower into play very early, and as a result, my deck never really got off the ground until the game was pretty much over. The other one, with two mana dorks, three rocks, Sylvan Library and Rashmi in play, I just completely dominated the game from the moment I got Paradox Engine into play, drawing into it turn 6. By that time, I had enough mana available to cast Paradox Engine with mana rocks, then cast a small spell (Brainstorm, in this case) to untap all the rocks, and then keep casting stuff while holding mana open to for a counterspell. A couple turns later, I cast Soothsaying for free via Rashmi's ability, which allowed me to use a bunch of mana to find Future Sight, cast a couple more things, stack the next 12 or so cards in my library and win the game on the next turn.
I did recognize one thing about my deck which does cause me some caveats re: how applicable my results may (or may) not be. There is no doubt that Paradox Engine is completely nuts in a deck that is designed to utilize it, but another significant factor in my deck's success is that Rashmi herself is a very strong commander even with only modest amounts of library manipulation. The extra cast/draw trigger just provides so much card advantage, and lets you dig so quickly into your deck, that it becomes very easy to find what you need. Combined with Soothsaying, or even just Sylvan Library, that advantage is pretty amazing. I know this isn't exactly a news flash, but it does suggest that the engine might be a bit too good when combined with an already-strong commander.
Karn was also just plain insane while Paradox Engine was in play. It didn't help that by the time he got Paradox Engine, he had both Mana Crypt and Mana Vault in play, along with a couple of other rocks. The same turn the Engine entered play, he cast a pile of things by repeatedly untapping his rocks. The only thing that kept him in check was that he was playing against my Rashmi deck, and he only had his Paradox Engine in play for one turn before I took it out, thanks to Sylvan Library + Rashmi letting me find Reclamation Sage and cast it for free on my way to victory.
The Leovold/Nekusar monstrosity made insane use of Paradox Engine while illustrating something which Sisay players already know about the Engine - in addition to its powerful interaction with mana rocks and mana dorks, it is also fantastic when combined with generals or other creatures with powerful tap effects. In this case, the combination of Kydele + wheel effects produced ridiculous amounts of mana. A combination of wheels, a few small draw spells, a couple of rocks, Kydele and the Engine let that player cast/filter through something like 1/2 of his deck in a single turn while killing everyone with Nekusar. Yay for combo, I guess. As I noted, that particular deck was built a lot more competitively than I tend to play, so I wasn't at all surprised to get stomped, but that game did point out another way the Engine could be pretty darn powerful even in less broken builds. Wheels and draw spells are already very good on their own, and in a build featuring a lot of them, Paradox Engine just might be too good.
I'm probably not going to keep playing this version of Rashmi too much longer. Specifically, I'm probably going to take out Paradox Engine. It's just too strong for me to really enjoy it, at least in this deck as it is currently built. When I get it in play in this particular deck, the deck runs much more like the more competitive sorts of decks I don't enjoy playing or playing against. Mind you, it's not truly a competitive deck. After taking out Sprout Swarm, it doesn't appear to have any truly infinite combinations, but with a few rocks, library manipulation and something like Future Sight, I can draw and cast enough of my deck to essentially win on the spot. That's powerful, and it's kind of cool the first time you do it, but it really isn't the sort of thing that I enjoy in EDH.
I'll be honest, this experiment is causing me to shift my opinion re: Paradox Engine. I don't think it is as straight-out broken as a lot of the cards/strategies more competitive players tend to use, but I think it just might be too broken for the more typical EDH game. This wasn't what I thought at the start of the experiment.
Consider this. My deck is built to use Paradox Engine, but it isn't anywhere close to a maximized build. I run more mana rocks than usual for me, i.e., 10, but that isn't really that unusual an amount. I run only a couple of mana dorks + Cryptolith Rite (which wasn't a factor in today's games) in terms of creature mana, but Cryptolith Rite is a pretty good card in decks that have a fair number of creatures, and especially in token decks. What I have there isn't that unusual, and while I have a strong commander, neither my commander nor any of the other creatures have a tap ability, or a super-strong synergy with artifacts, and I don't include a ton of draw spells or any wheels. It's easy for me to imagine a lot of spellslinger decks, or a lot of Breya or Sydri decks (to name just two examples that come immediately to mind), in which the Engine would be a lot more broken. When you throw in what it can do in a Sisay deck, or a Selvala deck, or just in any deck which includes those cards in the 99, or any of a number of other strong creatures with good activated abilities... I dunno.
Paradox Engine is not a card which can break any deck you just randomly toss it into. It would do nothing especially broken in a lot of decks, including the vast majority of my own decks. But... given how easy it is to break even in non-optimized builds, I am starting to think it just might be a bit too easily broken to be a good thing in more typical Commander games.
So, today I finalized the initial draft of my experiment deck, Rashmi's Eternity Engine. The experment was to see how broken Paradox Engine can be in a deck which is built to take advantage of the card, but which is not at all optimized or competitive.
The answer, as Cryogen had suggested would be the case based on his own experience with the card, is "pretty damn broken."
First off, some things about my deck. It runs 10 mana rocks, which is more than usual for me, as well as a couple of mana dorks, a couple ramp spells and Cryptolith Rite. It runs Paradox Engine and several cards which can tutor for it, including Fabricate, Inventors' Fair and Whir of Invention. It runs a very high percentage of instants and sorceries, plus some flash enablers (Leyline of Anticipation, Vedalken Orrery, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir). Because of the high percentage of sorceries and instants, I included Talrand, Sky Summoner, and that gave me the idea to go with a token subtheme, enabled by Metallurgic Summoning and Fable of Wolf and Owl (a card I've always wanted to run, but never found a place for), plus Sprout Swarm, which is obviously insane with Paradox Engine. I also included some library manipulation and play-from-the-library effects, including a few scry cards, Sylvan Library, Brainstorm, Soothsaying, Future Sight and Courser of Kruphix (I didn't have an extra copy of Oracle of Mul Daya). I ran fewer threats than usual, opting instead to use a couple of clones (Clever Impersonator, Phyrexian Metamorph) and some clone spells such as Saheeli's Artistry to copy my opponents' threats. I also played an abnormally low land count (32, mostly basic lands), figuring the high number of rocks and the dorks would make up for it. Rounding out the deck are some blue card draw instants, several counterspells (mostly 3-cmc exile counters), and a selection of removal such as Krosan Grip, Curse of the Swine and Beast Within. The deck's game plan is to win mostly via card advantage, offered by Rashmi and later by combining draw, library manipulation and Paradox Engine to cast enough threats, or make enough tokens, to overwhelm opponents. I included one overrun effect (Overwhelming Stampede) and one haste enabler (Akroma's Memorial). The plan was to get Paradox Engine into play as soon as I could cast it and be reasonably assured of keeping it in play for a few turns.
The results were pretty interesting. Early during the first game, before I did anything too broken, someone commented that this seemed unlike my typical decks, as I played more rocks than usual. One game a very good opening let me play Rashmi on turn 2 due to a turn 1 Sol Ring; every other game she was out on 3 or 4, as I always had 3 lands and a rock or dork out by then. I never had a problem with the low land count, as each game I got at least one mana dork or CMC = 2 rock in my opening hand. Rashmi offers great card advantage from the turn after you play her, and allowed me to almost never miss a land drop, again despite the low count... and when I did miss one, it was not a problem, because I always had a couple of rocks and several lands out by then. Several times I cast a spell and got a rock or dork as my "free" spell, even when I didn't have any repeatable library manipulation in play; once I did get the library manipulation on line, it got a bit silly.
Each game I tried to get Paradox Engine out as soon as I had a couple of rocks and/or dorks, and one or more counters in hand. I sometimes cast it as early as turn 5 via drawing into it or tutoring turn 4. Usually it was a few turns after that, except one game in which someone went infinite on turn 6 or so, as he pulled out a more competitive deck for a spin because he wanted to get one more game in but have it be a short one because he had to leave soon. That particular game, I was flooded with mana - lands, rocks and a couple dorks - but never drew into Paradox Engine or anything else that let me use those resources.
I won the very first game by getting Paradox Engine out while I already had Cryptolith Rite and a couple rocks, plus Future Sight and Soothsaying. Soothsaying, of all things, turned out pretty insane, because I could tap my stuff for a bunch of mana, cast a small spell, untap, etc, then spend several mana to dig 10-12 cards deep, stack the deck then keep playing off my topdeck. A wrath slowed me down briefly, but I managed to keep the Engine in play because I was holding a couple counterspells, and when I finally drew Sprout Swarm, it was game over, as the mana I was able to generate by untapping the rocks let me dig for Akroma's Memorial.
I won two other games, putting my deck at 3/6 for the evening in a four-man pod, despite being the archenemy most of the time due to my showing in game 1. I never went infinite again, but the advantage offered by just Rashmi, Paradox Engine and a few rocks was pretty solid, and let me cast some big threats, clone them, then beat face. One game it was Stormtide Leviathan with Blade of Selves. Another it was a clone of an opponent's Gisela and two cloned Baneslayer Angels, plus a small swarm of bird and wolf tokens. Whenever I drew into Cryptolith Rite, it was insane. Of the games I lost, one time I was never in the game due to drawing into nothing but mana, and the other two times, opponents studiously kept Rashmi off the table as much as possible and went all-out to take out key components of my engines, including (obviously) Paradox Engine but also Cryptolith Rite. I never encountered any significant amount of artifact hate during the evening's games, though I did have to counter an overloaded Vandalblast once. More commonly, my mana dorks didn't last long, and the occasional boardwipe would serve to keep Cryptolith Rite from getting too badly out of hand most games.
I think this deck is a bit more broken than how I tend to play, but that is with me essentially trying to break it. It certainly isn't as broken as a lot of what people who build competitively play, but it was still more than broken enough for my taste. And that's with no tutors to be able to fetch some of the enchantments (Sylvan Library, Future Sight, Cryptolith Rite, Soothsaying) that really made it work well. In a build with enchantment tutors - say, Bant - I think Paradox Engine could be more than what most people who don't like competitive EDH would want to deal with. As is, the card advantage offered by Rashmi allowed me to draw into one or more of those with some regularity.
I don't think I'll keep this deck around for long in its current form. It isn't really a competitive deck, but it is more competitive than I like to play. If nothing else, I will be taking out Sprout Swarm, as it easily goes infinite with a few mana and Paradox Engine, and I don't like infinite combos. I might omit that, then keep my experiment going for a time, but I suspect I'm still going to find this too broken. Maybe I'll take out all of the artifact tutors, replacing them with draw spells. Making Paradox Engine less reliable to get in play will make it less broken, but I suspect that still won't matter much in any game where I can draw into it and keep it around a couple turns.
Initial impression, based on in-play data: Paradox Engine is pretty darn broken when built around, but not to a degree which I feel at this point would warrant banning. It certainly isn't as broken as a lot of other cards which are legal in the format. Further experimentation might help me form an opinion as to how broken it is in a deck which is built to use it but which isn't built around getting it into play.
Usually it's either artifact mana or creature mana, in the form of mana dorks, Selvala (either version)or Cryptolith Rite. I have seen several occasions when someone put Cryptolith Rite into play, then cast an artifact tutor to get Paradox Engine. Last night I saw someone end the game on turn 6 or 7 by casting a few smalls spells (one of them was Beastmaster Ascension) with mana dorks and Paradox Engine in play, holding back the excess mana, doing Genesis Wave for some amount, hitting Eternal Witness, getting back the Genesis Wave, casting it again for a whole lot more, hitting a haste enabler and overrunning the table. Now, in cEDH, turn 6-7 win might be considered slow, but this isn't the first time I've seen it happen in more casual tables. I have also noticed people holding onto artifact removal in case Paradox Engine shows up, because they realize that if Paradox Engine hits the table and isn't dealt with immediately, the game is probably over that turn or the next turn.
I expect with a couple of recently-released cards (Chaos Wand, Tawnos), people are going to be seeing a lot more Paradox Engine shenanigans.
One really shouldn't assume. I do run Mana Crypt and Sol Ring in my Rashmi deck, and certainly they contribute to brokenness, but I've gone off with Paradox Engine with just things like Gilded Lotus, Sky Diamond, Mind Stone and Birds of Paradise. It just plain makes all of those sorts of cards, and things like Cryptolith Rite, and stuff like Captain Sisay and other creatures and artifacts with tap-to-activate abilities, so much better. Not that there aren't other ways to untap things, but there aren't many that do it all at once and over and over again within a turn with so much ease (the Iso-Reverasl combo is the only one I can think of at the moment), and all at the cost of adding just one card to stuff you could (and often would) be running anyhow.
In Rashmi, it isn't hard at all to effectively draw through most or all of my deck in a single turn. I run Future Sight to cast off the top of my deck, Soothsaying to set up my topdeck or shuffle past lands, and a bunch of draw spells so I can draw my way through lands and keep going, and with all the rocks (and any other non-land permanents) untapping every time I cast something, I have no problem floating a boatload of mana to cast whatever I draw.
With Chaos Wand, it wasn't hard to go all the way through opponents' decks casting whatever instants and sorceries I wished, either, because any time I ran into something I didn't want to cast, or couldn't cast (like a counterspell with no target), I could just put it at the bottom of their deck, cast some small thing from my own deck using some of the floating mana to cast the spell, untap the Wand (along with everything else non-land) and keep going. This was aided by my casting opponents' draw spells to keep my own grip full. I had to be careful to *not* deck myself, really. And unsurprisingly, even when I moved very quickly through repeated castings, other players got real bored watching me play solitaire. I found it as exhausting Axolotl describes as well. At one point I was using 8 or 9 d20s to indicate how much blue, green and colorless mana I had floating.
And again, this isn't even a deck which is anything close to optimized. I run as many mana rocks in some other decks, and similar amounts of card draw in some other decks, and I'm pretty sure that if I tossed Paradox Engine into them, I could pull off something pretty similar, if perhaps a bit less smooth without the benefit of things like Future Sight and Soothsaying which are normally not particularly broken cards. I could probably do something similar in my Gahiji token-swarm deck, which includes things like Captain Sisay, Dragon Throne of Tarkir, a few mana dorks, a few mana rocks, Cryptolith Rite, Kessig Wolf Run, Rhys the Redeemed and spells like Rishkar's Expertise and Shamanic Revelation, using the dorks/rocks to make arbitrarily huge numbers of tokens and make one or more creatures really large and draw and cast most or all of my deck.
What, exactly, is degenerate about running a bunch of mana rocks or mana dorks? Lots of decks run those things anyhow. Same with just about everything else that is broken with Paradox Engine. That's the problem, just tossing Paradox Engine into the mix breaks a lot of things which aren't otherwise broken.
Which isn't to say Iso-Reversal isn't crazy good, too. It is. But, note that Isochron Scepter is another of the cards (like Chaos Wand) that becomes busted with Paradox Engine and a couple mana rocks, since casting the spell imprinted on the Scepter will untap the Scepter and the rocks, allowing one to cast the imprinted spell over and over. That's irrelevant in the case of Iso-Reversal, but it busts a whole lot of other things one might do with the Scepter.
Here's the thing, though. Most combos - not all, your thing above with Ashnod's Altar, Nim Deathmantle and any of a wide range of creatures is a good example of the exception, as each of those cards are quite solid on its own - include one or more cards that aren't particularly strong on their own. Mike + Trike, for example... on its own Triskelion is a pretty weak card which rarely sees play except to take part in that combo. Most things which get broken with Paradox Engine are things that a deck might already do and which are just fine... but when you throw the Engine in, they get broken. Lots of decks run tons of mana rocks, a smaller but not insignificant number (especially elf decks) run a lot of mana dorks, Cryptolith Rite is a less-reliable but also less vulnerable option for any deck which runs a lot of creatures and would also like to make a lot of mana. None of these are a problem (unless you want to count the perpetual bugbears of Sol Ring and Mana Crypt being part of the suite of mana rocks, but that's pretty much irrelevant here). But when you toss Paradox Engine in with these things which are, on their own, fine, suddenly they become busted all to hell. When one card being added to the mix suddenly busts a bunch of different things that aren't otherwise broken then that card itself should be regarded as pretty suspect.
On its own, Chaos Wand isn't particularly powerful, but most decks that want to run it are probably going to run a lot of mana producers in order to be able to utilize it on a regular basis. That still isn't broken, just more effective than relying on lands alone to keep the Wand going. But once again, add Paradox Engine to the mix and things get insane and someone can take a really, really long turn while the other players just slowly sit by and watch their decks get used against them. Some might call that an undesirable game state. YMMV, of course.
On the occasion I ran into a sorcery or instant that wasn't advantageous to cast (like, say, a boardwipe that would have messed with my board state), I always had enough extra mana available from the rocks to cast something small, thereby untapping the rocks and the Wand again. Doing this, I drew a pile of extra cards, got most of the lands in my deck onto the battlefield, was able to tutor for things a few times and pretty much devastated my opponents' board states. I would probably have been able to go through three players' decks and cast every instant and sorcery in those decks, except that the three opponents scooped after I hit two extra turn cards partway through the second player's deck.
Alone, Chaos Wand is a pretty good card. Sometimes you will hit a dud, but mostly it provides repeated, incremental value while exploiting your opponents' resources. But with Paradox Engine, it is just plain insane.
I initially drew a one-land hand, took a free mulligan and drew again, getting a better hand. That opening hand was: Forest, Inventors' Fair, Strip Mine, Birds of Paradise, Mana Crypt, Paradox Engine and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. I decided to keep that hand, since it included the Engine and with Forest, Birds and the other lands I could at least cast both Rashmi and the Engine, plus I had Mana Crypt if I wanted to get Rashmi out really early (and make a worse target of myself). My first turn draw was Brainstorm. I played the Forest, then Birds of Paradise and held onto the Crypt, since I had no follow-up. Pass turn.
Turn 2, I drew Thought Vessel. Rather than playing the Crypt and playing Rashmi turn 2, I decided to get the rock out and use Brainstorm to set up the next couple draws and/or Rashmi triggers. I already had in mind that I could play the Crypt on the same turn I cast Paradox Engine, allowing me to already start me untapping and casting more stuff. I tapped the Birds for U, cast Brainstorm and found Moss Diamond, Fabricate and Island. Seeing another rock and Fabricate made me happy, and I saw this as a set-up for a crazy turn when I played Paradox Engine in a couple turns. I put Island and Thought Vessel (from my hand) atop my library,keeping Fabricate in hand.. Then I played the Strip Mine, tapped both lands and played Moss Diamond
Turn 3, I drew and played the Island. I tapped all three lands and the Moss Diamond to play Rashmi. I then looked back and forth between the Birds and my hand for a moment (pure bluffing, as I had nothing to cast), then ended my turn.
Turn 4, I drew Thought Vessel, played Inventors' Fair, tapped all four lands, Moss Diamond and the Birds to cast Paradox Engine and float U. In response the Lovisa player Lightning Bolted Rashmi, but I still got the cast trigger, revealing Commander's Sphere and casting it for free. Casting the free rock told me things were about to absolutely go bonkers. Next I tapped the Sphere, floating G, cast Mana Crypt for 0, untapping the Birds, the Sphere and the Diamond, then tapped all of them and the Crypt (and floated three more mana) to cast Thought Vessel, which untapped them all again. I then tapped the Birds and rocks to cast Fabricate, finding Gilded Lotus and floating more mana, which again untapped the Birds and the rocks, allowing me to cast the Lotus. Tapping the Birds and all rocks, I used 6 of that mana to recast Rashmi, floating more mana and untapping the Birds and all the rocks. Tapping the rocks yet again and spending a bit of the floating mana gave me more than enough mana to cast Kozilek, drawing me 4 cards - Simic Signet, Mirrorpool, Stormtide Leviathan and Time of Need - while untapping everything yet again. While I was casting the Signet and floating yet more mana, Lovisa's player scooped. I cast Time of Need to tutor for Kruphix, God of Horizons, floating more mana, cast Kruphix, floating even more mana, and ended the turn with Rashmi, Paradox Engine, Kozilek, Kruphix and a bunch of rocks in play and untapped, a couple cards in hand and a bunch of colorless mana still floating in my pool. The sliver player had four lands and two slivers (I don't recall which ones) in play. He drew, saw it wasn't something that would make a difference and scooped rather than face Kozilek's Annihilator trigger, thereby giving me the win before I untapped for turn 5.
Now, some might say that was a god hand, I was really lucky, etc., but I rather dispute that. I had three lands - two colorless - one mana dork and a powerful mana rock, plus Paradox Engine and Kozilek. Keep in mind, the only library manipulation effect I got was Brainstorm. I kept that hand because I was likely going to be able to cast both Rashmi and the Engine by no later than turn 5, and I was confident that combination, along with whatever I drew into, would do me just fine. The fact that I ended up casting both - plus several other things and Kozilek - before turn 5 proved me right, but to a much greater degree than I'd anticipated. I will admit it was sort of funny to pull off that explosive a turn that early in the game, but it didn't really make for a very fun game for the other two players. And sure, Mana Crypt is crazy good, but even though I drew it in my opening hand, it didn't lead me to an explosive start. The enabler of all this broken stuff was Paradox Engine, pure and simple.
Conclusion re: Paradox Engine... seems pretty darn broken to me.
My Rashmi deck's best tutors for Paradox Engine would be Fabricate and Inventors' Fair. Would you consider either of those to be broken? I run Sol Ring and Mana Crypt in the deck, but even if I just get things lime Mind Stone, Simic Signet and Gilded Lotus, or a few token creatures with Cryptolith Rite, the Engine turns out to be pretty broken.
Another game in which I was the archenemy from early on. At the time I got Paradox Engine into play, I had only two mana rocks in play, plus Chief Engineer, Rashmi and some other creature but no mana dorks, but with the rocks consisting of Gilded Lotus and Sol Ring, I was able to empty my hand onto the table. My hand at the time included Soothsaying, and I was quickly able to start stacking my deck into more mana rocks and other threats. Paradox Engine got taken out at one point, but I was able to get it back into play a couple turns later, and I won the game shortly after that. Once again, the combination of card advantage offered by Rashmi and the untapping allowed by the Engine made for a pretty potent threat. This was without Cryptolith Rite or any of the flash enablers ever seeing play, and with Future Sight having been countered early on.
Experiment 2: Gahiji
I didn't ever get Paradox Engine into play, and it wouldn't have been of any help in this particular game. Some early ramp via Wood Elves and Oracle of Mul Daya got me a bunch of tokens early on, and the combination of Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Cathars' Crusade, Champion of Lambholt and Gahiji ended things pretty quickly after that.
Or possibly if they just build the sort of deck Paradox Engine would already be good in - i.e., one having lots of mana rocks, lots of mana dorks and/or a general or multiple creatuers with a strong tap ability. I think that's really the big question. It can't ruin a deck that doesn't have one or more of those features, but there are a lot of decks which would be built with those features regardless of Paradox Engine. The real question, in my opinion, is whether tossing Paradox Engine into those decks will be broken. I am starting, based on my experiments and observations to date, to suspect that this might be the case, and that in that regard including the Engine in a deck which can most benefit from it, but which would not have to have it or be built around it, just might be too broken in less competitive Commander play.
Here's the thing... I think it very possible that a lot of people might build around Paradox Engine not intending to really break it, but just intending it to be really good, only to find out it is a lot better than they expected it to be. That's pretty much what's happened so far in my experiment. It didn't surprise the Karn or Nekusar/Leovold players, both of whom are guys who tend to build and play much higher on the competitive curve than me and the people I normally play against. They both included it with the plan to pull off another type of quasi-legacy brokenness in their decks, which were already built more like 100-card singleton vintage/legacy decks in the first place (this was especially true for the guy running the partner deck). But when I dropped Paradox Engine, the Karn player looked at the board state and said something along the lines of "I think you just won," and it turned out he was right.
I suspect Paradox Engine is going to turn out to be so good in decks that are built in a way that allows it to be good that it ends up being too broken, whether or not that's what the people building those decks intended. Sort of how Primeval Titan ended up being just too damn good in decks that included strong lands. I don't think it will be so centralizing at Prime Time was, because copying or stealing a Paradox Engine won't do much of anything in a lot of decks, but I suspect it will turn out to be a lot better in more decks than a lot of people expect.
I played my Rashmi/Paradox Engine deck today, and also played against two other decks which included Paradox Engine. One was a colorless deck headed by Karn, Silver Golem, while the other was a much more competitive deck, a partner deck which was really a pretty obscene combination Nekusar/Leovold deck headed by Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Vial Smasher the Fierce. This is giving me a much more clear sense of just how powerful Paradox Engine can be.
I won one of the two games I played with my Rashmi deck, in a four-person pod. My Rashmi deck was essentially the same as what I previously described, save that I took out Sprout Swarm as too easy a way to go infinite with a couple mana sources and Paradox Engine. The one game I lost, someone really gummed up the works by getting Void Winnower into play very early, and as a result, my deck never really got off the ground until the game was pretty much over. The other one, with two mana dorks, three rocks, Sylvan Library and Rashmi in play, I just completely dominated the game from the moment I got Paradox Engine into play, drawing into it turn 6. By that time, I had enough mana available to cast Paradox Engine with mana rocks, then cast a small spell (Brainstorm, in this case) to untap all the rocks, and then keep casting stuff while holding mana open to for a counterspell. A couple turns later, I cast Soothsaying for free via Rashmi's ability, which allowed me to use a bunch of mana to find Future Sight, cast a couple more things, stack the next 12 or so cards in my library and win the game on the next turn.
I did recognize one thing about my deck which does cause me some caveats re: how applicable my results may (or may) not be. There is no doubt that Paradox Engine is completely nuts in a deck that is designed to utilize it, but another significant factor in my deck's success is that Rashmi herself is a very strong commander even with only modest amounts of library manipulation. The extra cast/draw trigger just provides so much card advantage, and lets you dig so quickly into your deck, that it becomes very easy to find what you need. Combined with Soothsaying, or even just Sylvan Library, that advantage is pretty amazing. I know this isn't exactly a news flash, but it does suggest that the engine might be a bit too good when combined with an already-strong commander.
Karn was also just plain insane while Paradox Engine was in play. It didn't help that by the time he got Paradox Engine, he had both Mana Crypt and Mana Vault in play, along with a couple of other rocks. The same turn the Engine entered play, he cast a pile of things by repeatedly untapping his rocks. The only thing that kept him in check was that he was playing against my Rashmi deck, and he only had his Paradox Engine in play for one turn before I took it out, thanks to Sylvan Library + Rashmi letting me find Reclamation Sage and cast it for free on my way to victory.
The Leovold/Nekusar monstrosity made insane use of Paradox Engine while illustrating something which Sisay players already know about the Engine - in addition to its powerful interaction with mana rocks and mana dorks, it is also fantastic when combined with generals or other creatures with powerful tap effects. In this case, the combination of Kydele + wheel effects produced ridiculous amounts of mana. A combination of wheels, a few small draw spells, a couple of rocks, Kydele and the Engine let that player cast/filter through something like 1/2 of his deck in a single turn while killing everyone with Nekusar. Yay for combo, I guess. As I noted, that particular deck was built a lot more competitively than I tend to play, so I wasn't at all surprised to get stomped, but that game did point out another way the Engine could be pretty darn powerful even in less broken builds. Wheels and draw spells are already very good on their own, and in a build featuring a lot of them, Paradox Engine just might be too good.
I'm probably not going to keep playing this version of Rashmi too much longer. Specifically, I'm probably going to take out Paradox Engine. It's just too strong for me to really enjoy it, at least in this deck as it is currently built. When I get it in play in this particular deck, the deck runs much more like the more competitive sorts of decks I don't enjoy playing or playing against. Mind you, it's not truly a competitive deck. After taking out Sprout Swarm, it doesn't appear to have any truly infinite combinations, but with a few rocks, library manipulation and something like Future Sight, I can draw and cast enough of my deck to essentially win on the spot. That's powerful, and it's kind of cool the first time you do it, but it really isn't the sort of thing that I enjoy in EDH.
I'll be honest, this experiment is causing me to shift my opinion re: Paradox Engine. I don't think it is as straight-out broken as a lot of the cards/strategies more competitive players tend to use, but I think it just might be too broken for the more typical EDH game. This wasn't what I thought at the start of the experiment.
Consider this. My deck is built to use Paradox Engine, but it isn't anywhere close to a maximized build. I run more mana rocks than usual for me, i.e., 10, but that isn't really that unusual an amount. I run only a couple of mana dorks + Cryptolith Rite (which wasn't a factor in today's games) in terms of creature mana, but Cryptolith Rite is a pretty good card in decks that have a fair number of creatures, and especially in token decks. What I have there isn't that unusual, and while I have a strong commander, neither my commander nor any of the other creatures have a tap ability, or a super-strong synergy with artifacts, and I don't include a ton of draw spells or any wheels. It's easy for me to imagine a lot of spellslinger decks, or a lot of Breya or Sydri decks (to name just two examples that come immediately to mind), in which the Engine would be a lot more broken. When you throw in what it can do in a Sisay deck, or a Selvala deck, or just in any deck which includes those cards in the 99, or any of a number of other strong creatures with good activated abilities... I dunno.
Paradox Engine is not a card which can break any deck you just randomly toss it into. It would do nothing especially broken in a lot of decks, including the vast majority of my own decks. But... given how easy it is to break even in non-optimized builds, I am starting to think it just might be a bit too easily broken to be a good thing in more typical Commander games.
The answer, as Cryogen had suggested would be the case based on his own experience with the card, is "pretty damn broken."
First off, some things about my deck. It runs 10 mana rocks, which is more than usual for me, as well as a couple of mana dorks, a couple ramp spells and Cryptolith Rite. It runs Paradox Engine and several cards which can tutor for it, including Fabricate, Inventors' Fair and Whir of Invention. It runs a very high percentage of instants and sorceries, plus some flash enablers (Leyline of Anticipation, Vedalken Orrery, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir). Because of the high percentage of sorceries and instants, I included Talrand, Sky Summoner, and that gave me the idea to go with a token subtheme, enabled by Metallurgic Summoning and Fable of Wolf and Owl (a card I've always wanted to run, but never found a place for), plus Sprout Swarm, which is obviously insane with Paradox Engine. I also included some library manipulation and play-from-the-library effects, including a few scry cards, Sylvan Library, Brainstorm, Soothsaying, Future Sight and Courser of Kruphix (I didn't have an extra copy of Oracle of Mul Daya). I ran fewer threats than usual, opting instead to use a couple of clones (Clever Impersonator, Phyrexian Metamorph) and some clone spells such as Saheeli's Artistry to copy my opponents' threats. I also played an abnormally low land count (32, mostly basic lands), figuring the high number of rocks and the dorks would make up for it. Rounding out the deck are some blue card draw instants, several counterspells (mostly 3-cmc exile counters), and a selection of removal such as Krosan Grip, Curse of the Swine and Beast Within. The deck's game plan is to win mostly via card advantage, offered by Rashmi and later by combining draw, library manipulation and Paradox Engine to cast enough threats, or make enough tokens, to overwhelm opponents. I included one overrun effect (Overwhelming Stampede) and one haste enabler (Akroma's Memorial). The plan was to get Paradox Engine into play as soon as I could cast it and be reasonably assured of keeping it in play for a few turns.
The results were pretty interesting. Early during the first game, before I did anything too broken, someone commented that this seemed unlike my typical decks, as I played more rocks than usual. One game a very good opening let me play Rashmi on turn 2 due to a turn 1 Sol Ring; every other game she was out on 3 or 4, as I always had 3 lands and a rock or dork out by then. I never had a problem with the low land count, as each game I got at least one mana dork or CMC = 2 rock in my opening hand. Rashmi offers great card advantage from the turn after you play her, and allowed me to almost never miss a land drop, again despite the low count... and when I did miss one, it was not a problem, because I always had a couple of rocks and several lands out by then. Several times I cast a spell and got a rock or dork as my "free" spell, even when I didn't have any repeatable library manipulation in play; once I did get the library manipulation on line, it got a bit silly.
Each game I tried to get Paradox Engine out as soon as I had a couple of rocks and/or dorks, and one or more counters in hand. I sometimes cast it as early as turn 5 via drawing into it or tutoring turn 4. Usually it was a few turns after that, except one game in which someone went infinite on turn 6 or so, as he pulled out a more competitive deck for a spin because he wanted to get one more game in but have it be a short one because he had to leave soon. That particular game, I was flooded with mana - lands, rocks and a couple dorks - but never drew into Paradox Engine or anything else that let me use those resources.
I won the very first game by getting Paradox Engine out while I already had Cryptolith Rite and a couple rocks, plus Future Sight and Soothsaying. Soothsaying, of all things, turned out pretty insane, because I could tap my stuff for a bunch of mana, cast a small spell, untap, etc, then spend several mana to dig 10-12 cards deep, stack the deck then keep playing off my topdeck. A wrath slowed me down briefly, but I managed to keep the Engine in play because I was holding a couple counterspells, and when I finally drew Sprout Swarm, it was game over, as the mana I was able to generate by untapping the rocks let me dig for Akroma's Memorial.
I won two other games, putting my deck at 3/6 for the evening in a four-man pod, despite being the archenemy most of the time due to my showing in game 1. I never went infinite again, but the advantage offered by just Rashmi, Paradox Engine and a few rocks was pretty solid, and let me cast some big threats, clone them, then beat face. One game it was Stormtide Leviathan with Blade of Selves. Another it was a clone of an opponent's Gisela and two cloned Baneslayer Angels, plus a small swarm of bird and wolf tokens. Whenever I drew into Cryptolith Rite, it was insane. Of the games I lost, one time I was never in the game due to drawing into nothing but mana, and the other two times, opponents studiously kept Rashmi off the table as much as possible and went all-out to take out key components of my engines, including (obviously) Paradox Engine but also Cryptolith Rite. I never encountered any significant amount of artifact hate during the evening's games, though I did have to counter an overloaded Vandalblast once. More commonly, my mana dorks didn't last long, and the occasional boardwipe would serve to keep Cryptolith Rite from getting too badly out of hand most games.
I think this deck is a bit more broken than how I tend to play, but that is with me essentially trying to break it. It certainly isn't as broken as a lot of what people who build competitively play, but it was still more than broken enough for my taste. And that's with no tutors to be able to fetch some of the enchantments (Sylvan Library, Future Sight, Cryptolith Rite, Soothsaying) that really made it work well. In a build with enchantment tutors - say, Bant - I think Paradox Engine could be more than what most people who don't like competitive EDH would want to deal with. As is, the card advantage offered by Rashmi allowed me to draw into one or more of those with some regularity.
I don't think I'll keep this deck around for long in its current form. It isn't really a competitive deck, but it is more competitive than I like to play. If nothing else, I will be taking out Sprout Swarm, as it easily goes infinite with a few mana and Paradox Engine, and I don't like infinite combos. I might omit that, then keep my experiment going for a time, but I suspect I'm still going to find this too broken. Maybe I'll take out all of the artifact tutors, replacing them with draw spells. Making Paradox Engine less reliable to get in play will make it less broken, but I suspect that still won't matter much in any game where I can draw into it and keep it around a couple turns.
Initial impression, based on in-play data: Paradox Engine is pretty darn broken when built around, but not to a degree which I feel at this point would warrant banning. It certainly isn't as broken as a lot of other cards which are legal in the format. Further experimentation might help me form an opinion as to how broken it is in a deck which is built to use it but which isn't built around getting it into play.