MTG Salvation

I am a devoted Magic: The Gathering storyline follower and have been for years. My top 3 favorite characters are Urza, Yawgmoth, and Nicol Bolas. After the heartbreaking depiction and resolution of Bolas' storyline, I was almost completely disenchanted with WOTC for good.

But then they print Urza himself.

So while I'm secretly hoping that they print a Yawgmoth creature card (so I can have a mono-Black deck for my favorite character too!), this list is for a cEDH build of Urza as I see it. I like that he can profitably turn Stax and other Hate pieces into mana rocks, so there will be a small package of Stax/HAte pieces aside from the obvious infinite mana shenanigans that are expected from mono-Blue players.



The cards I want to try and find room for, somehow, are Unwinding Clock, Jeweled Amulet, and possibly Mox Amber. Ornithopter for flavor reasons, haha.

Primary Combo/Synergy Lines:

• Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter = infinite mana
• Power Artifact + Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith/Mana Vault (during upkeep) = infinite colorless
• Pili-Pala + Grand Architect = infinite mana
• Isochron Scepter + Paradox Engine + mana rocks = infinite mana and infinite copies of the Scepter'ed spell
• Karn, the Great Creator + Mycosynth Lattice = total lockout of opponents
• Narset, Parter of Veils + Timetwister/Time Spiral/Windfall = massive hand disruption for opponents
• Arcum Dagsson + Urza, Lord High Artificer's Construct token = get Paradox Engine
• While the current list as of 5/21/2019 doesn't play this one, it's still worth mentioning that Sensei's Divining Top + Future Sight + Urza's mana ability = draw your deck
• Skyship Weatherlight tutoring for Mycosynth Lattice+ Karn, the Great Creator = assemble the hard lock

Stax Synergies, beyond the obvious Stax/Hate pieces:

• Turning off Trinisphere for your turn and then turning it back on via Voltaic Key or Unwinding Clock to keep your opponents' spells expensive.
• Similar to the point above, you can turn off Winter Orb and Static Orb before your turn so that you aren't suffering under their effects while the rest of your opponents are.
• Arcum Dagsson + Karn, the Great Creator + random artifact = assemble the hard lock

Drats! You beat me to it.

Here’s what I came up with, which looks fairly similar to yours:

I like your list a lot, Guerte. I think the inclusion of Chaos Wand alongside Engine is spicy. I can't wait until I get my copy in the mail!

Updating the OP to add in Card Descriptions, Stax synergies, Combo descriptions, etc.

I’m wondering if I have way too many various combos. Do I really need the Chaos Wand and the LabMan stuff?

Preach it, Jivan. If they decide to print a Yawgmoth character card, I will be totally fulfilled as a Vorthos geek. WOTC have really, really stepped up their card design game with WAR and now Modern Horizons. And they're printing cards for characters that the Commander community has yearned to play for nearly a decade.

Also, for general information purposes, the list that the LabManiacs have been working on can be found here. They're the cEDH content creators that I most respect on the internet, so I'm happy to showcase their deckbuilding in my forums as well!

I've often thought about analyzing my mono-U cEDH lists and determining what specific cards constitute the core of the deck. The idea behind this is if I can generate a cEDH mono-U template, then I can take all of the cards for the 4 different Commanders I play and put them in one deck box for deckspace efficiency and card collection efficiency as well. So, after some time analyzing the decklists I have, the below list is the Mono-U cEDH "Core", as I see it. Do note that this list is NOT comprehensive, since it was done based on my own limited research, but I feel confident in saying that this core list will give any player a fantastic starting base whenever they decide to build a Mono-U cEDH decklist.

Mono-Blue cEDH Core:



This is the core 95 cards that are represented in 75% of the cEDH Mono-U decks that I’m currently playing and which are represented in a significant number of TappedOut lists that I can find for cEDH Mono-U lists. This leaves 4 slots to customize for each of the respective Commanders that I run, namely Urza, Lord High Artificer; Memnarch; Fblthp, the Lost; and Teferi, Temporal Archmage.

So, this means that I have 4 slots I can dedicate to each respective Commander without technically altering ANY of the other 95 cards. This will allow me to carry one deck box for any of the 4 Mono-Blue decks that I have Primers/decklists for on MTGSal, allowing me deck portability and card collection compactness. But, for completeness’ sake, I’ll list the actual changes I would make to each deck so that each list runs optimally.

Unique Cards for Urza Paradox Scepter Combo:



Unique Cards for Memnarch Paradox Scepter Combo:



Unique Cards for Fblthp Proteus Scepter Combo:



Unique Cards for Teferi Chain Veil:

Quote from Guerte »

I’m wondering if I have way too many various combos. Do I really need the Chaos Wand and the LabMan stuff?

I think you do need some way to actually close out the game, so including Laboratory Maniac and/or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries seems fine. I personally think that playing Reservoir and USZ is sufficient, but having a third option isn't a bad idea. I think you can freely cut the Wand and add in a different card.

Why the inclusion of the Planeswalkers?

Of course. How could I forget? Thanks for keeping me honest

Unique Cards for Oona Paradox Scepter (new Acronym of OOPS lol!)



Any cards you think I should add in my analysis for Oona?

EDIT: I'll be updating the OP to reflect the basic decklist for the Core 95 idea.

You know, I’m not 100% sure why I added them. lol. Narset and Tezz are pretty obvious inclusions. New Jace for the win con, but the rest I could definitely see cutting.

I also looked at the LabManiacs list. I don’t think I like that their only win con is DramaticScepter/Engine/Codex Shredder.

Me neither. Particularly with how prevalent Shuffle Hulk and Gitrog lists are (which include the Shuffle Eldrazi titans), I think their decklist has a fairly large hole in actually winning the game via the Shredder. The lack of USZ seems like an oversight, since you can use it to keep yourself alive with X=0 so that you can kill people via Construct damage or something. Diversifying your actual win conditions is important, particularly since interaction and exile effects are also common.

I am in doubt with one thing about Urza plus Paradox Engine: Urza's third ability says "you may play that card", while Paradox Engine triggered ability reads "when you cast a spell". Shouldn't that mean that Paradox Engine does not trigger with a nonland card being played with Urza's third ability?

No. When they use the word “play” it just means you can also play lands. A spell will always be cast.

EDIT: I also updated my list above.

The updated list looks a lot better, Guerte. I'm really curious as to how Trail of Evidence performs.

I think a question I would ask is whether or not Etherium Sculptor is necessary. With Urza in play, Future Sight + Sensei's Divining Top draws your deck already, so the Sculptor seems redundant. I think having an Artifact count over 25 makes him at least worthwhile, but I'd personally prefer to cut the Sculptor and try and get Trinisphere/Unwinding Clock into the decklist. Both of those cards synergize much better with the deck. Can you imagine a T1 or T2 Trinisphere against a cEDH pod? The sheer amount of tempo that your opponents would lose will probably translate into 3-4 extra turns for you, and then you can turn it off during your turn to flood the board with mana rocks.

Maybe I'm a little tired and not seeing something, but how does Urza, Future, and Top draw your deck? You have to tap Top in order to draw, so you can't tap it for mana. Eventually, I'd think you'd run out of rocks/mana before getting to draw your deck?

I'm not 100% certain on Trail right now, as I don't think there are enough instants/sorceries to reliably trigger it. But with Scepter, you can make quite a few tokens to turn them into Mox Sapphires. Lol.

I will see about trying to squeeze in Trini/Clock as well.

Nope, you're right. For some reason I forgot that you have to tap the Top in order to draw. Duh. I is good Magic player!

Lol. That's why I wanted to check; sometimes I miss something that should be obvious.

That's the reason for me running Sculptor. It was Helm of Awakening, but I don't want to give everyone discounts.

Quote from Guerte »

Lol. That's why I wanted to check; sometimes I miss something that should be obvious.

That's the reason for me running Sculptor. It was Helm of Awakening, but I don't want to give everyone discounts.

Nope, you're totally right. However, something else that allows Top to fuel itself alongside Future Sight and Urza is Sai, Master Thopterist. That will draw your deck definitively, since Sai will create a new mana rock each time you cast Top.

Quote from Jivanmukta »

Quote from benjameenbear »

Of course. How could I forget? Thanks for keeping me honest

Unique Cards for Oona Paradox Scepter (new Acronym of OOPS lol!)

Oona's Unique CardsMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Unique Inclusions (6) 1 Skullclamp 1 Power Artifact 1 Dire Undercurrents 1 Ashiok, Dream Render 1 Talisman of Dominance 1 Dimir Signet	Cards to Cut (2) 1 Coldsteel Heart 1 Mind Stone

Any cards you think I should add in my analysis for Oona?

Nope because she's terrible in cEDH with both UB so why would she be good as U lol

It's ok, Jiv. I don't see how Oona is terrible in the cEDH meta, whether Dimir colors or Mono-Blue. In fact, at this point she would probably do well since she's perceived as being "less-good" than other Commanders, so people might ignore or discount your deck from the cEDH game. Nothing like sucker-punching the table with Queen of the Fae!

In other news, I've been seriously thinking about whether or not Power Artifact is worth the deckspace. It's only good with the Monoliths, and I'm inclined to add in Future Sight to the deck to make Top a winning line instead of the Monoliths. I'll keep pondering on it and see what other peeps of the cEDH community think.

I decided to cut Power Artifact in favor of Future Sight. I'm updating the OP list accordingly.

This deck looks like everything I'd ever want. Great flavor (playing Urza is super cool), and a great mix of stax, combo, and aggro all rolled into one.

What do you guys think of mycosynth wellspring as a ramp spell? Paying 2 colorless for 2 blue mana is a pretty sweet deal. Ichor wellspring isn't terrible in this deck either.
Lots of love in here for winter orb, static orb and trinisphere but why is there no love for storage matrix? Plus it gives more reason to put in unwinding clock, although I think it should be in there already.

Note: Urza + deadeye navigator essentially equals= U You can't target Urza, plus I'm putting a big artifact creature token into play.
Essence flux is a nice cheap spell that protects urza and creates a token as well.

I didn't know that Storage Matrix was a card, so that's why it hasn't been considered. I think it has some really cool applications though, so I think you could easily slot it in, particularly since it hits all the mana generating permanents most commonly played in a cEDH game.

Yeah, still trying to find room for Unwinding Clock. Not sure what I should cut, although Skyship Weatherlight is a likely candidate, even as sad of a flavor loss that is.

I'd rather play Spell Pierce or Flusterstorm over Essence Flux, if you're trying to protect Urza. They have a larger range of uses than simply protecting Urza from spot removal effects.

Quote from benjameenbear »

I didn't know that Storage Matrix was a card, so that's why it hasn't been considered. I think it has some really cool applications though, so I think you could easily slot it in, particularly since it hits all the mana generating permanents most commonly played in a cEDH game.

Yeah, still trying to find room for Unwinding Clock. Not sure what I should cut, although Skyship Weatherlight is a likely candidate, even as sad of a flavor loss that is.

I'd rather play Spell Pierce or Flusterstorm over Essence Flux, if you're trying to protect Urza. They have a larger range of uses than simply protecting Urza from spot removal effects.

In playtesting I love storage matrix, I have mixed feelings about unwinding clock and might cut it, and I included essence flux and voyager staff because Urza creates another creature token as he re-enters the battlefield which adds mana and aggro creatures. I love having an aggro option in my combo decks. It's fun to smash face with big creatures because my opponents used up their removal on combo pieces.

I don't use your 2 win condition cards - blue sun's zenith isn't bad but the reservoir is useless imo. As soon as you have infinite mana and can play your entire deck, your opponents will shuffle up and get ready for the next game. If they didn't, I'd be happy to capsize all their stuff as well as Urza, recasting him over and over to create a million million/million creature tokens and then I'll see if my opponents would like to keep playing.