I first saw Mishra, Artificer Prodigy several years ago, when Time Spiral brought back all the old names that I had almost forgotten about. My copy went into my trade binder and I hadn't thought about him for some time. Hardly usable at a competitive level for any format, and not worth much in trades, he sat in my binder for years. I started playing EDH in the spring of 2012, and since then, I have had an on and off desire to build a deck to make him work; every time halting because the idea of stax seemed un-fun to me. Another flaw with picking up Mishra as my commander was that a fantastic card for him, Nether Void, felt like it'd be forever out of my price range. I was fortunate in early 2015 to finally get my hands on a Nether Void, making my resolve to rock this commander even stronger.
My goal below is to put together a deck that is designed to generate chaotic game altering effects for our opponents, while generating card advantage for ourselves. Currently I like to play a variant that is more casually designed, aiming for a '75%' build, however, I will also go over some key cards below that will really amp up the competitiveness of this general. You will note that I pack some serious power cards in this build, so you may question why I call it 75%. The reason I believe this deck to be 75% is because while I run some fantastic cards, you'll note that there are a lot of ways to really refine what this deck is doing. I don't run a fistful of amazing tutors, I don't run a counter suite to protect my combo. I personally believe this deck could be made more competitive than it currently is; though I'd also probably change grixis generals if that was my intent.
Why should you play Mishra?
You will enjoy this deck if:
You want to be the only person with your commander
You like shiney artifacts
You enjoy a unique commander
You want to play a 75% deck - you wanna win without playing all the best, overplayed cards
You hate mirror matches
You enjoy a dash of chaos
Did I mention, no one else runs this dude!
You will NOT enjoy this deck if:
You want to play heavy amounts countermagic in every blue deck - go pick a control commander
You want to have an answer to everything all the time - people answer to Mishra, he doesnt answer to inferiors
You want to tutor every turn - not my style, but feel free to add it in
You want to play cutthroat, 100% effort all the time - simply put, for every deckstyle, there is a more competitive general than Mishra.
You hate not drawing cards in mass - we will generate our card advantage in other ways
You want to play grixis goodstuff - Mishra is unique, so we will build around him uniquely
1v1 COMPETITIVE BUILD
This deck is a much more consistent combo build variant based around playing Mishra and numerous cost reducing cards, establishing a draw engine so that when you play any artifact or card, you draw a new card, then storm for the win. Something to take note of, is that while I refer to this deck as a '1v1' build, it IS capable of multiplayer victories, but the requirements are far more strict, and success is much more difficult.
Description
This is an artifact storm combo deck that aims to win turn 5-6 consistently. Originally I was deferring to Ombolis's list on tapped out, but I have found it needing a serious update, so here is my latest take on storm combo with Mishra.
Step 3. Play an unreasonable amount of artifacts to dig for Tendrils of Agony, resolve with storm count 20+. You can also play tendrils at a lower storm count (9) and play Snapcaster Mage, Remand (on the original at storm 10), or Yawgmoth's Will and play it again to kill.
Multiplayer Stax build!
A brutal attrition build to crush our opponents will to play as we establish our winning move!
Description
So I have finally put together a list. I still believe you should reference the stax primer and see what you like best as tech for your own stax build, however, this is my take on the classic deck "The 4 Thousand dollar Solution."
This deck doesn't follow a series of steps, instead, it has a goal in mind: Tax and Evade. Much like the 75% main build, our objective is to create symmetrical effects that we mitigate with our own abilities, however, unlike the 75% main build, we don't do this through asymmetry. Instead, we create recursion and redundancy that allow us to survive the oppressive game style we establish.
Using effects like Nether Void, Mana Web, and Tangle Wire we attempt to choke off our opponents lands. We attack their creatures with effects that tax and destroy them, such as The Abyss and Pendrell Mists. Finally, we attack their other permanents through other means, such as Smokestack.
The ultimate goal is to stick our game closing combo using Niv's Disk, Forge, and Lattice; the difference is we aren't riding the storm until we establish it, instead, we are drowning everyone until they cannot resist our finishing move, even if they want to. We take them into deep water, finish them off.
Multiplayer super casual build!
A beer and pretzels variant of the deck that still has potent winning conditions
Description
This design is primarily creature based. The objective is to play a relatively slow paced game, more friendly to newer players or more casual playgroups. The deck still runs many of the core synergies and Mishra flavor; but it has less 'feel bad' moves, such as Arcum tutors and looped destruction of everything via Niv's disk. Please note that if you are using this list that the lands are merely ones I own, and as a deck builder, I prefer to use a landbase I am confident in. You do not need Mishra's Workshop to play beer and pretzels magic
There are a handful of 'winning moves' in this deck. Primarily, it is designed to be a creature beat down deck that moves at a slow to moderate pace; and then has late game options that can single handed close out a game.
Game winning interactions (should robot beats not suffice):
Multiplayer/1v1 Voltron Win Condition
A non-combo win condition variant of the deck that focuses on commander damage or powerful equipment swings.
Description
This deck has been a fun little experiment in building Mishra without a combo close out. The basic premise is that you establish some sort of board through rapid mana rocks and card draw effects, and hopefully start swinging for commander damage no later than turn 5 with a 3 turn win clock. This deck is very unpolished and I expect to have many revisions before I complete it. Not the most robust way of winning a game, but sometimes its more about sending a message.
Honestly, this deck is very straight forward. Play your mana rocks early, establish board while dropping as many draw spells as you can. Draw into equipment and then beat them to death with either handy little replaceable creatures or go for the big win with Mishra himself.
We retain a few chaotic synergies to maintain the decks original flavor - asymmetrical hate that generates our advantage, but we press a more aggressive game than our traditional control playstyle.
I am not the first player to play with Mishra, and if you look at other people's builds, I am sure you will see the same symmetrical effects that Mishra makes asymmetrical. What do I mean by that? The goal of this deck is to play an effect that makes the game harder for our opponent to play and normally would hinder us as well, but Mishra lets us cheat around it or even benefit from it! The key to this deck is abusing the order of our triggered effects on the stack.
Step 1: Cast Sol Ring
Step 2: Two triggers occur; Possibility Storm, and Mishra, Artificer Prodigy's search effect for 'Sol Ring'. Place Mishra's trigger onto the stack first, then Possibility Storm's on top.
Step 3: Resolve Possibility Storm, ultimately putting the next artifact on top your library into play, and then all revealed cards, AND Sol Ring onto the bottom of your library
Step 4: Resolve Mishra's trigger, searching your library for a copy of Sol Ring to put directly into play. Pro-tip: its more than likely on the bottom. Put into play for free. PROFIT!
With this in play, your opponents never get the spell they want, where as you get 100% of your artifacts, AND a free artifact into play with it on EVERY cast. It's like cascade for us, while our opponents struggle with the loss of their hand. Do not underestimate the mind games that this will play on them.
Step 1: Cast Sol Ring
Step 2: Stack Mishra's trigger first, then the triggered counter spell effect on top.
Step 3: Resolve the counter spell, countering Sol Ring, placing it in grave.
Step 4: Resolve Mishra's trigger, search your grave for a copy of Sol Ring, put it into play for free.
Not only does this work well with your own symmetrical counter effects, but cards like blood funnel suddenly make all artifacts 2 less to play! Better still, this aids us against control decks, if the other blue players counter our stuff, it still goes into play! Assuming of course they are careless with the stack...
Example 3, Multiple copies can be found...in your opponents deck:
You know what is great about artifacts? Everyone runs them!
Step 1: Target some unfortunate soul with Praetor's Grasp or a similar deck or hand theft effect
Step 2: Exile any choice artifact that we share with them. Great targets include: Sol Ring, Lightning Greaves, Signets, Gilded Lotus, Sensei's, THE LIST GOES ON!
Step 3: Play their copy, Triggering Mishra to search for our own copy
Step 4: Two artifacts for the price of one!!
Mishra is the man with a plan, but that doesn't mean you can just waltz into every game cocky. Unless your opponent has some idea of whats to come, you are gonna catch people off guard with Mishra as your commander - but after that first victory, they will be wise to you. Your play and politics will have to be tight. Obviously, we cannot count on gimmicks like having a 'worthless commander' carry us to victory; so heres our game plan:
Phase one: Establish some trinkets
Mishra plays some big spells, and to put together our megazords we are going to need to start off strong. We want to open keep a hand with at least 3 lands. You might be wondering, why 3? Well, our opening position is based on getting out fast mana rocks and ramping up quickly. The sweet spot for most of our mana ramp is 3. If you have a sol ring in your opener and a land, keep it, but you need to be able to put down 3 mana fast. If you cannot establish 3 mana with your opener, throw it away, its likely a dud hand. There are of course some exceptions. I don't think I could every throw away a turn 1 Goblin Welder, especially if I've got something beefy I can pitch into the grave paired with a Great Furnace I can weld into it. Ultimately though, your early game goal, and by that I mean the first 5 turns, is to establish a strong mana base, and put Mishra himself down on the board. I know some players hesitate to play their commanders, but hes important to our overall strategy, and the deck cranks out mana, so we dont need to worry about commander tax. We can use him as an early game deterrent against attackers, as a 4/4 for 4cc isn't bad. The more mana rocks and card draw you can establish in the first 5 turns, the easier the rest of the game will be on you.
Phase two: Asymmetrical Ass-kicking
In an ideal world, turn 5 or 6 involves you having Mishra down, and then you can follow up with Possibility Storm; which will confound our opponents long enough for us to establish our game winning board state. Obviously you won't have this frequently, but this is the point of the game where we want to start dropping chaotic cards that Mishra mitigates for us. The soul purpose of our chaos effects is to start leveraging Mishra and hindering our opponents forward movement. The mid game to us doesn't have any goals other than to set ourselves up for our game winning plays. If you are setting up for a combo, start with your less vulnerable pieces. In my build, I try to lead with Darksteel Forge. Normally its the most durable combo piece; and combined with Nevinyrral's Disk its a 2 card game closer. Other key cards to establish during the mid game include Mycosynth Lattice, which can combo with dozens of effects, and Goblin Welder, who is a beast all on his own in a deck loaded with toys for him.
Something to keep in mind, is that this is the phase where the game is won or lost. You will very rarely make it to the end game and lose if you play this phase correctly; but people will also target you if you move too quickly. My build is not riddled with countermagic, so I try to play a controlled pace at this point, and try not to make enemies. I prefer to leverage my massive amount of artifact recursion to make it seem futile to come after me and Mishra. If our opponents buy into that, they will give us plenty of time to assemble our game winning moves. If they don't, I try to set up the red herring which is the chaos effects. Our opponents will spend so much time just trying to break free of our soft lock that they will lose focus as we assemble our game winning board state.
Phase three: End the game
Don't be afraid to make your move. Blow up the board, infect damage people to death, commander damage, March of the Machines, Bludgeon Brawl. There are lots of ways Mishra decks can win, but this part of the game is the same in all decks: play to win and close out the game. If your plan falls through, step back down to phase 2, or in the worst case scenario, treat the game as reset. You will win some, and you will lose more. This is not a deck who can take on 3 players by itself, Mishra simply isn't that strong of a general. Play to win and if you lose, learn from it.
Weaknesses:
Only a fool says that his deck is undefeated or unbeatable. Every deck has flaws and by recognizing them, we can anticipate our opponents moves - possibly even bait them with fake over extensions. This deck relies incredibly heavily on artifact mana sources and non basic lands; running only about a dozen basics. Cards to watch out for include effects similar to Ancient Runes, Vandalblast/Pulverize and blood moon/back to basics. Recently, my playgroup has really taken a shine to Wave of Vitriol, which can really hurt. Another thing to keep an eye out for is pacing yourself. We use unique advantage generators, and this can bite us since this build isn't loaded up on the best card draw options available; allowing you to play out your hand too quickly in a format riddled with board wipe effects. Pace yourself and don't dump your hand until you can refill it.
Game play style, this deck is weak in the early game. Avoid getting on the bad political side of voltron and aggro decks, as they can often critically injure you; often ruining your chances at reaching the late game, where Mishra reigns. Play conservatively early, keep back blockers, and don't be afraid to chump block scary threats like Ruric Thar. Once you get to the mid game you will have the tools to recur all our best cards from the grave, and set yourself up for a win.
Because of your weakness in the early game I would recommend avoiding lands that enter the battlefield tapped as a whole. Painlands work great, since you will rarely use them for color (robots for the win!), and enter the battlefield untapped. You will want to get outta the gates smoothly early, and being effectively a turn behind during the early game can really be crippling. The only tapped lands I would recommend are the vivid lands, since they tend to be very useful since they can provide any of 3 colors.
Be venomous:Blightsteel Colossus tends to work wonders, and we got the mana rocks to throw him down real fast, real early. Bonus points if you steel (see what I did there?) their's, and double down on the infect!
Be awesome: Mana rocks mean who cares about commander tax? start swinging with Mishra early and often, to pimp smack people to death with those purple glow fingers! Once you establish chaos and counter boards, they will have a hard time disrupting you!
In this section I will be trying to explain the bulk of my card choices, but trying to also include several cards that can really take this 75% build the next few steps to really make it an archenemy. You may notice I cut some of these from my build - more than likely that is because they are too powerful for my meta, and simply made games unfun for my friends.
I will be excluding a lot mana fixing, fetch lands, and dual lands - as they will depend entirely on your personal adjustments to the deck and what you budget can accommodate. I do note several mana rock artifacts that should help you with any mana problems.
A very strong way to build Mishra is a stax variant. My meta frowns on stax pretty hard, and those decks get hated out of games before they can do well or they create an 'unfun' play environment, so i didnt go stax with my build. I have since changed my ways, and posted a stax list that I will be playing from time to time, and have it listed above in the variant build section. I still beliece that if you are considering stax that I HIGHLY recommend visiting this page: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/204260-the-stax-primer .
Creatures
Arcbound Reclaimer - Retrieves artifacts we want back from the grave for no extra mana Arcum Dagsson - God tier card for this deck. Enables your game winning combo within 3 turns and turns your deck into an artifact toolbox. Baleful Strix - In my meta, he serves as a good early game deterrent, but isnt useful enough to see play in edh Blightsteel Colossus - Game winning option via cheating artifacts into play Broodstar - Big dumb flying beater. This is the ONLY vanilla affinity creature worth running in my opinion. EDH is the sort of format that fast cheap 2/2s and 3/2 fliers just arent good enough in. Burnished Hart - Land Ramp, for when mana rocks arent enough Chief Engineer - Convoke on artifacts, definitely enables creature based builds Chromescale Drake - Potential 3/4 flier that enters play with a draw 3 cards effect. Fantastic if you synergize it with ways to abuse ETB effects, such as deadeye navigator Copper Gnomes - Nice 1 sided Show and Tell for artifacts. With recursion, could be abused to cheat cards into play. Consecrated Sphinx - Probably the best card draw creature in edh. Darksteel Colossus - Strictly inferior to Blightsteel, but still a major threat. Disciple of the Vault - Great in creature based builds and standard alike - really deters boardwipes Etched Champion - Often an amazing blocker / attacker in artifact creature oriented builds Duplicant - any creature removal assuming you can target Emry, Lurker of the Loch - Super powerful recursion for our deck since it hits any artifact, plus shes basically a 1 drop for us every game. Epochrasite - seems great, but if it dies, you dont see it for 3 turns, which is an eternity in edh. Frankly, not worth the slot, even in a stax variant. Etherium-Horn Sorcerer - amazing piece in the deck, cascades repeatedly thanks to its self bounce, and can chump block massive critters safely Etherium Sculptor - Reduction of cost is pretty cut and dry Faerie Artisans - A solid goodstuff card that generates artifact tokens and gives us copies of opponents ETB effects. Great overall card, in this deck or others. Feldon of the Third Path - Simply amazing. Weld targets, ETB/ETG effect abuse, generates chump blockers. Nothing not to love Fiend of the Shadows - Nice ability, but will rarely synergize with Mishra, and our opponents will try not to give us good cards. I dont like giving my opponent choices. Filigree Sages - Useful ability if you want to abuse for infinite combos. Goblin Artisans - Retro points. Taps to either draw a card to counter your own artifact spell, which Mishra negates Goblin Welder - All star of the deck. Tons of abuse to be had in reanimating beaters and utility alike. Grand architect - Turns everything in play into a mana rock that ignores summoning sickness, and buffs many creatures in the deck easily. Worth a spot in many builds. Guardian Beast - Pricey, but incredibly protective all all your artifacts, great card for the deck. Guile - Awesome in a Mishra control build loaded with counterspells and counter effects for maximum theft synergy Grand Architect - Can serve as pseudo ramp, pumps other blues, and can alter colors. pretty cool guy. Hangarback Walker - Lots of potential to grow over time, especially with all our ramp. Also feeds fetch cards like arcum or forgemaster nicely Havengul Lich - Synergizes with Mishra, and if not, lets you reanimate creatures for 1 mana + CC, which is amazingly handy Hellkite Tyrant - Combo out game winner type card. Combos brilliantly with Lattice Inkwell Leviathan - Big beater that is hard to remove and an artifact to boot. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - Play Historic permanents, draw cards. Nothing but profit in this deck. Junk Diver - Flying Myr Retriever. Useful chump blocker that recurs artifacts Karn, Silver Golem - March of machines, lets you animate artifacts of your opponents during boardwipes, and expecially mean against lands with Lattice out. Kheru Spellsnatcher - Spelljack on a body Kuldotha Forgemaster - Tutor effect that goes straight into the battlefield. Pairs well with token generators and reanimator effects Lodestone Golem - Fits beautifully in stax builds making it harder for opponents to cast spells Magus of the Abyss - Great in a stax build Marionette Master - expensive to invest into, but really enables some free damage if youve got the curve to fit him in. Master of Etherium - Great for artifact beat down builds like with march of machines Master Transmuter - Cheats artifacts into play and can chump block like its her job. Memnarch - Pairs beautifully with Lattice, all artifacts should be allied with Mishra. Metalworker - Amazing mana generation for this deck Mindleech Mass - Steals opponents cards for pseudo advantage and has potential to synergize with mishra. a bit overpriced though Muzzio, Visionary Architect - value generation at a relatively low cost. flawed in the sense that doesnt net any gain without a solid board, at which point he feels win more Mycosynth Golem - If affinity is your thing, look no further. He is useful in any heavy artifact themed deck. Myr Battlesphere - Has potential for welding an army of myr / myr beatdown builds, but overall not a fan Myr Retriever - 2 drop artifact recursion chump blocker. I like this little dude Nightveil Specter - I dont like 3 colored mana symbols in a deck i want to be mostly colorless; also, i find his ability too inconsistent to recommend. Would be better if it removed mana cost. Nullstone Gargoyle - strong synergy with mishra to lock out opponents Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Protects our stuff and draws us cards. 10/10 auto include Pentavus - Army in a box, pairs great with welding and recursion for generating quick tokens for sacing to better effects Phyrexian Metamorph - best clone for Mishra Platinum Angel - I have always found her ability underwhelming and never actually of much value in a game Priest of Yawgmoth - Turns an artifact into mana, which can be handy, but in this deck isnt completely necessary Ruination Guide - a non artifact combat booster Sai, Master Thopterist - Gives us blockers in the early game, while being beefy himself; and also, provides a draw source for us Sandstone Oracle - Card draw on a body. Scarecrone - Potential Card draw in a pinch, can reanimate your artifact critters for 4 mana Scrap Trawler - Recursion overlord! This guy makes artifacts a LOT harder to deal with in mass, and people do not tend to run a lot of single target spot removal in edh. Sharding Sphinx - Amazing card in creature beatdown artifact builds Shimmer Myr - Poor man's Orrery. Works in a pinch, but im not a huge fan of him, as too many forms of removal can target him Silent-Blade Oni - Adding some combat tricks to your deck, steal cards, and potentially synergize with Mishra. I prefer Oni to Mindleech Mass Sire of Stagnation - One of the best card draw options, and can act a beater role as well. Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer - Very useful for protecting key cards on the board Solemn Simulacrum - Nasty synergy with Feldon, amazing card on its own Soul of New Phyrexia - Protects against a wipe both on the board and from beyond the grave. A solid choice against boardwipe.dec Sphinx Summoner - creature tutor; pretty damn handy Squee, Goblin Nabob - Useful to mitigate hurting yourself when playing stax Steel Hellkite - If dropped early, game winner, if dropped late, serious threat Steel Overseer - If you are going for the artifact army effect, this guy serves as an interesting lord effect; and goes off to the races with untap effects Thada Adel, Acquisitor - Amazing card BEFORE you get to search for copies with Mishra thanks to their synergy together Treasure Mage - Big piece tutor Trinket Mage - little piece tutor Vedalken Archmage - Solid card draw for Mishra if artifact heavy build. Voltaic Construct - Amazing combo enabler. Pairs really well with animated mana rocks / mana dorks like metalworker. Wurmcoil Engine - Amazing beater with a great synergy with welder and Feldon.
Artifacts (non creature)
Aetherflux Reservoir - alternative win condition in life gain or storm variants. Basalt Monolith - Mana rock that can go infinite really easily
Brittle Effigy - Colorless removal in the form of exile, always a solid card to have on hand. Clock of Omens - Useful in combo oriented builds Chalice of the Void - Hateful card against optimized builds, can hate out commanders, and synergizes very well with Mishra Chromatic Lantern - A must have mana rock for any 3+ color deck Cloud Key - versatile price reduction, when in doubt, artifacts. Coalition Relic - manarock and mana fixer. can be abused for 2x mana in a turn Cranial Plating - Great for early aggression / Voltron builds Crucible of Worlds - with fetch lands and stax effects, this card is pretty amazing. Crystal Chimes - A lot of our Mishra Synergy comes from using enchantments, and this is a great way to recover them if they've been tossed into the bin Darksteel Forge - key piece to my build, creates a very frustrating board state to play against Darksteel Ingot - solid mana rock, versatile and hard to remove Darksteel Plate - Another solid 'protection' equipment. Dimir Signet - mana rock Everflowing Chalice - my deck in particular generates a lot of spare mana, this allows us to explode Gilded Lotus - mana rock Grim Monolith - Mana rock that can go infinite really easily Grinning Totem - Synergizes with Mishra allowing us to take any of our cards that they have as well out of their deck and use it, OR simply fetch a useful card from an opponent Ichor Wellspring - Personally not a fan, but can work with welding / recursion effects well Izzet Signet - mana rock Knowledge Pool - Great in theory, but after each opponent realizes what youre up to stealing cards with this, they simply wont play cards you can synergize with mishra anymore Krark-Clan Ironworks - Better than Ashnod's for this deck; can combo well with many cards such as Pentavus with Sadistic Glee Lightning Greaves - protects Mishra / welder, if you are using cards like bludgeon brawl, try swiftfoot boots instead. I prefer 0 cost of greaves to boots Mana crypt - overpriced imo, and not worth it unless you are going REALLY try hard. you simply dont need this early game mana in edh Mana Vault - useable mana rock, not ideal imo. great if you get untap sources out, meh otherwise. Mana Web - Really cripples opponents who play control / effects on other players turns Memory Jar - Hand reload that and also protects your hand from discard. Great card in any deck Mimic Vat - Generates copy tokes, highly versatile artifact Mind's Eye - Card Draw in artifact form, pretty good. Mindslaver - Infinite player control with academy ruins. some circles frown on these effects though. Mirrorworks - Double all our best cards for a measly 2 mana. Definite include Mizzium Transreliquat - Very unique cloning effect. I prefer sculping steel to it, because while its versatile, i dont like the repeated investment Mox Opal - Great mana rock in mishra. tends to be useable as of turn 3 at the latest Muse Vessel - Synergizes with Mishra, but its very hit or miss - you dont get to pick the exiled card, can only exile on your own turn, and you still have to pay its mana cost. very expensive for its effect over all Mycosynth Lattice - Key card to the deck, synergizes with numerous effects and enables a lot of our win conditions Myr Turbine - great token generator to sacrifice to our other effects or serve as chump blocks
Nevinyrral's Disk - Key card, doesnt sacrifice on its destruction ability, can be seriously abused with darksteel forge. Nim Deathmantle - Allows us to sacrifice creatures and bring them back for cheap. also boosts power of creatures and can make them frustratingly durable Oblivion Stone - Not as good as Disk imo, but can be used to board wipe things you want, then welded back into play later Ornate Kanzashi - Synergizes with Mishra, but tends to be more miss than hit. I don't recommend this in anything but the most casual builds Paradox Engine - I cannot list all the potential combos with this card, just that there are an insane amount available. Portcullis - Amazing anti aggro card. Totally shuts down token and creature based strategies. Something to note is that it does not stop enters the battlefield effects Prototype Portal - Good if youve got tons of spare mana and a playing against opponents who lack removal; but in my experience this sort of imprint gets targeted before its actually useful Rakdos Signet - mana rock Rings of Brighthearth - Combos with everything. good god what a beastly edh card. if you are going for infinite combos in your mishra win condition, I recommend rings. Scroll Rack - A fantastic value engine combined with Mishra, who can shuffle away anything we don't want when we put it ontop our library. Thanks to Fiddler for calling this card out. Sculpting Steel - fantastic artifact clone in Mishra Semblance Anvil - Not a fan of remove from hand exile effects as they draw removal, but potent cost reduction spell Sensei's Divining Top - Allows us to control our top decks, which is fantastic in a deck with mana to spare Skeleton Shard - Artifact recursion, fantastic card for Mishra Skullclamp - Great draw; but most builds wont have enough small creatures to benefit from this. Pair with artifact creatures you can weld in and out of play Smokestack - the original stax effect. very powerful in mishra, coupled with artifact recursion effects Sol Ring - THE manarock Sphere of Resistance - Another great stax card, keeping our opponents from playing more permanents Spine of Ish Sah - Removal of any permanent that we can weld into something else then recast. This card is amazing in my experience with it Staff of Domination - a great way to dump tons of spare mana, which this deck generates with its vast amoumt of mana rocks Staff of Nin - card advantage generator with the ability to poke at utility creatures our opponents have Storage Matrix - Great in stax builds Swiftfoot Boots - protect Mishra / other key creatures Sword of Fire and Ice - And all its siblings - all solid and powerful cards, fire and ice being the best imo for Mishra. If you are going Voltron variant, these are great. Tangle Wire - In a stax-ish build, this card is pretty amazing at locking down your opponents Thran Dynamo - mana rock Tormod's Crypt - Targeted grave removal on an artifact is always nice in mishra Torpor Orb - hate card, fantastic if your build doesnt have a mass of ETB effects on your creatures. Makes for great weld swapping with Simulacrum. Trading Post - artifact recursion combined with chump block generation with the ability to draw cards when you need to, very versatile. Trinisphere - fantastic against pesky cheap critter decks like Edric, and abusive in stax Unwinding Clock - untaps everything on every turn. incredibly powerful Vedalken Orrery - instant speed casting for all our cards, which is incredibly powerful Voltaic Key - Very useful card throughout game, pairs well with mana sources and creatures alike, and can combo Winter Orb - A stax decks best friend. Take away their resources and tap the rest
Enchantments
Bitterblossom - Great card in stax builds, for 1 life you can mitigate 1 sacrifice Blood Funnel - Cheaper artifacts and synergizes with Mishra (let the card go into grave, then search for it). Bludgeon Brawl - Enables us to turn our rocks and static effect artifacts into equips to bolster our critters. Counterbalance - Pairs strongly with Sensei's, very good static counter effect. Dissipation Field - A great turn off for pesky voltron commanders. Future Sight - Pairs well with Sensei's and Veldae Goblin Assault - Another stax mitigation card, not quite as useful as Bitterblossom unfortunately. Ice Cave - Enables us to turn our copious mana rocks into counter magic. Add in Lattice and suddenly we can counter all real threats while ignoring the effect via Mishra Land Equilibrium - keeps opponents land count low in stax games Leyline of Anticipation - enabling all our cards to be cast at instant speed is always very handy Leyline of the Void - We want to preserve our own graveyard, but banishing your opponents is always useful, especially when playing stax and you want to prevent them from leveraging their own recursion Mana Vortex - Stax effect for all players lands March of the Machines - Turn your board into an alpha strike Mechanized Production - Create copies of whatever you need! ETB creatures, beaters, mana rocks, artifact lands. If you can protect it for 8 turns, auto win! Very versatile copy card and i love it for this deck. Necropotence - A card advantage king. Nether Void - Incredibly synergy with mishra, we allow this to counter our own effects and mishra retrieves our artifacts from the grave No Mercy - Mishra generates a ton of ramp, but he doesnt flood the board with blockers early. If your meta is full of aggro decks, something to consider Phyrexian Arena - Card Advantage generator Pia's Revolution - Political implications are huge, and a form of recursion for our artifacts. Planar Chaos - Makes our opponents play through 50:50 counter magic, which we ignore because of Mishra Possibility Storm - Amazing synergy with Mishra. Note that you can cast Mishra AFTER storm, since storm doesnt effect cards cast if they didnt come from your hand. Power Artifact - Useful throughout the deck, can also enable infinite combos with Monolith like cards. Rhystic Study - Card advantage. Spreading Plague - Mono color deck's mortal enemy; pairs well with artifact creatures who frequently dont have other types The Abyss - Stax effects are strong in mishra, definitely worth considering...if youve got the money Thopter Spy Network - Useful in stax-y builds in generating sacrifice fodder. Also has potential in artifact army builds for curiosity effect
Planeswalkers
Chandra Ablaze - Solid mini wheel effect that is repeatable twice if unattended. has her uses in the deck Dack Fayden - Cool card, but not really useful unless you are making an artifact theft based build Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast - What a name. Firstly, great mana cost. Creates 1/1 construct tokens on his +1 which are useful. -1 is sac an artifact and you can destroy a creature or artifact, and his -6 is basically game over for our opponents if we get it off. Daretti, Scrap Savant - Card filtering, goblin welding, indestructible generating Darettim - what a beautiful planeswalker. Jace, Architect of Thought - Helps limit attackers to help against aggressive swarm strategies (looking at you Krenko). Ult brings some mishra synergy Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Hard to argue against big Jace. This guy allows brain storm spamming and wins 1v1 games. Karn Liberated - Robowalker goes into any deck well, and this deck is no exception. not perfect, but versatile and useful Karn, the Great Creator - A new combo win with our Mycosynth Lattice. Undeniably powerful. Liliana of the Veil - Valuable in a stax oriented build Saheeli Rai - Cheap planeswalker that if we can protect puts a 3 card combo on the board. Scry, clones artifacts, wins the game. Great at all levels. Sorin Markov - His -3 is pretty dope, but overall not a huge boon to this deck Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas - Generates card advantage almost with every +, can generate blockers, and can recoup life, which is something this build lacks Tezzeret, Artifice Master - Card draw, blockers, and a crazy ultimate that forwards our goals. Replacing Karn with him. Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge - Incidental life gain, card recursion, and also a strong ulti if he gets there. Plus he helps us cheat mana costs which is insanely powerful. Tezzeret the Seeker - Untaps our mana rocks for explosive mana ramp. Fetches artifacts we need when we ned them, and can march of machines our board. I recommend purely off his tutoring and untapping alone.
Sorcery
All is Dust - A rare sacrifice board wipe; and just perfect for our artifact heavy build. Black Sun's Zenith - One of my favorite board wipes Demonic Tutor - If you want to combo out hard and fast, this is a key card. Fabricate - Artifact tutor at a good CC. Increasing Ambition - A pricey tutor, but with our mana rocks, this card can fetch all the pieces to a 3 card or less combo all by itself. Praetor's Grasp - Synergizes beautifully with Mishra and can be used for utility when you don't need it to. Psychic Intrusion - Learn their hand, psuedo card advantage for us, and can even synergize with mishra if you steal an artifact. Recurring Insight - A solid Consecrated Sphinx substitute. Scrap Mastery - Another great C14 gift from wizards. Recovers us from an overloaded Vandalblast Thoughtcast - I prefer thirst for knowledge to dig 1 deeper, since we dont care if cards go into our grave; but this isnt terrible, potentially 2 cards for 1 mana. Trash for Treasure - One time weld. Not the best card, but handy Transmute Artifact - Into play artifact tutor Vandalblast - Speak of the devil - this card is a game ending spell with Mycosynth Lattice in play. Wheel of Fortune - Hand reload and throw away what your opponents have been saving. also pretty neat vs that guy with 40 cards in hand
Instants
It is very hard to list good black, blue, and red instants for Mishra without just listing all the top 50 cards. Countermagic if you want it, cyclonic rift and other auto includes, just tons of high powered instants. I would recommend fleshing out your decklist first, then adding what you need after a few play tests.
Blinkmoth Infusion - UU to untap our board at instant speed? pretty amazing. Does require a lot of board presence to be worth it though. Kind of a dead draw as a top deck unless you need to set up for it. All in all, good, but underwhelming Hurkyl's Recall - Saves your own stuff from wipes, and can really mess with opponents with Lattice Paradoxical Outcome - Great in storm or 75%. Bounce all your mana rocks, draw a card for each one, then replay them all! Spelljack - Potential synergy with Mishra, if used on an artifact. A bit pricey though. Thirst for Knowledge - We have tons of artifact recursion, which turns this into draw 3, discard 1 that you'll get back soon. Vampiric Tutor - If you're going for 100% effort on winning, this is a must have combo piece retriever Whir of Invention - Instant speed into play tutor that we can use any artifact in play to pay for. Straight amazing.
Lands
Academy Ruins - Get your artifacts back on a land ability? hell yeah Bojuka Bog - Exile a grave on a land. Pretty fantastic Buried Ruin - Academy Ruin's lame cousin, but still worth considering for more recusion Darksteel Citadel, Great Furnace, Seat of the Synod, Vault of Whispers - Artifact lands that can be welded if a pinch. Pretty amazingly useful Glimmervoid - Normally very useful, but can be a dead draw in an opener or at the wrong time in the early game. I prefer basics to this. Inventors' Fair - Land...tutor? Holy crap this one is amazing. Mishra's Factory - artifact creature that can block up to 3/3s for surprise sometimes, can also be welded into more important cards Mishra's Workshop - if you have the money, you should run this card, but its ungodly expensive Phyrexia's Core - in meta's flooded with theft decks, this is pretty great when they try to steal your tech. Sea Gate Wreckage - if you are in top deck mode, this card can get you back into the game. Tolaria West - Always nice to have a land tutoring land. Urza's Factory - Strictly meh, but if you dont have color fixing issues, worth a slot for chump blockers / token generation Urza's Mine - Strictly a cute move, you'll see the full set 1 in 20 games tops. Real Mishra players dont hang with Urza anyways. Urza's Power Plant - See Urza's Mine Urza's Tower - See Urza's Mine Volrath's Stronghold - More recursion makes it hard for your stuff to stay gone
Cards that I have dropped from my build:
Please see the 2nd post for a full change log and history of my build. I change it frequently as I like to experiment, and it keeps my playgroup on their toes.
Why Listen to me?
My name is Erik and I am 30 years old. I have been playing Magic: The Gathering for over 20 years, though there have been off and on periods during that time frame. I have mostly played extended till Legacy came into being; at which point I played strictly legacy for several years. My deck experience (and mostly small events, though a few SCG qualifiers) were Merfolk, Reanimator, and BUG (team america and shardless).
I transitioned over to EDH around 2012; when I joined MTG Salvation. I had recently moved, and none of my new friends played legacy. My first EDH deck was a Dralnu deck that I made out of spare cards that the timmy in me wanted to see played. Time Warp, Time Stretch, etc. I did not do well, but found a love for the format. I then shifted to Azami wizards, and realized that playing some of the best decks wasnt ideal for casual games at the kitchen table. Today, i still enjoy playing power cards and winning games; but I also see the fun in casually playing with friends, and thats where Mishra and I joined forces.
For those coming from reddit, I am u/frotch on reddit, and frequent both the magicTCG and edh subreddits.
Out: Rakdos Signet - Honestly, I don't miss the minor ramp much, and since we are so heavily leaning towards colorless, the color fixing is not necessary any longer. Skeleton Shard - The build simply doesnt rely on creature recursion as much as the early years, and this card's removal is a long time coming. Daretti, Scrap Savant - A great commander in his own right, he simply isnt as necessary in the build any longer. He never gets to emblem size, and his rummage ability doesnt really fuel us well. He is too heavily targeted for too little self preservation.
In: Karn, the Great Creator - A new combo win with our Mycosynth Lattice. Undeniably powerful Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge - Incidental life gain, card recursion, and also a strong ulti if he gets there. Plus he helps us cheat mana costs which is insanely powerful. Emry, Lurker of the Loch - Much better recursion for our deck since it hits any artifact, plus shes basically a 1 drop for us every game.
Out: Karn Liberated - I love this card so much, but he has turned into a 7 drop single target removal. Cutting him because he never seems to get mileage. Phyrexian Arena - Card draw is great, but this is such a slow source of draw that I have found it underwhelming as of late, and have been cutting it from my decks.
In: Tezzeret, Artifice Master - Card draw, blockers, and a crazy ultimate that forwards our goals. Replacing Karn with him. Sai, Master Thopterist - I am hoping he performs better than Arena, gives us blockers in the early game, while being beefy himself; and also, provides a draw source for us
Out: Burnished Hart - Simply put, I wasnt getting the mileage for the investment, this card is too slow for my meta now.
In: Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - With so many historic permanents in this deck, this card is a massive draw engine for us! Thanks DOM!
Wow, almost a year!
Out: Saheeli Rai - Her ultimate is an instant win for us with our 3 card combo, BUT, she never gets that far, and her first 2 abilities are, for the most part, weak.
In: Storm the Vault - Is this a surprise to anyone? if we get it turn 2 or 3 courtesy of a sol ring, it provides early game ramp, if we hit it in the mid game, we get an explosion of mana at the end of our turn.
Its been a while since I've posted a formal change!
75% deck alterations:
basically, my local meta has shifted HARD to tribal decks as of late. lots of elf, zombies, beasts, etc. So my deck has shifted to combat faster early games and creature based strategies.
out reliquary tower - i rarely hold onto a hand over 7 cards, so reliquary tower wasn't accomplishing much. due to a shift to creature decks, replaced with a man land (that also can infect win rarely) - inkmoth nexus thran dynamo - good mana, but arrives too late. replaced with signet that helps my weaker 2 colors. tezzeret the seeker - Slow, doesnt survive long, and is a single target tutor more often than not. replaced with whir, which does the job better in my opinion. arcane denial - counter magic does nothing against tons of critters, and i rarely have the mishra setup on the board to capitalize on countering my own card. myr retriever - a decent little chump blocker, but i think scrap trawler will be superior more often than not. tangle wire - while very good at slowing down opponents early, i have few ways to really capitalize on this card in my 75% build. Usually it just pisses everyone off and gets me a big target on my head. torpor orb - while there are a lot of new creatures, not enough ETB to justify this card slot.
in inkmoth nexus - man land that can win a game as an alternate, hyper late game win condition. rakdos signet - faster mana the abyss - really does work against creature strategies, especially if i can get it early whir of invention - instant speed artifact into play tutor. holy hell this thing is versatile. added bonus that it has Improvise. daretti, ingenious iconoclast - 3 drop planeswalker that has really versatile abilities. i can set up chump blockers, spot remove necessary targets, or basically win the game with him if i manager to -6. scrap trawler - myr retriever on roids. mechanized production - versatility. i can replicate key artifact creatures, i can replicate mana rocks, i can replicate artifact lands. let it sit 8 turns? i win. I don't think i'll ever win with it, but it has crazy usefulness.
mishra storm
- 1 time spiral - 6 mana was steep for this deck, paradoxical outcome actually yields better results
- 1 grapeshot - never enough damage, playtesting aetherflux reservoir as a back up kill condition
- 1 dragonskull summit - enters play tapped, time to go.
- 1 drowned catacomb - enters play tapped, time to go.
+ 1 inventors' fair - this card is amazing, tutor on a land? godly
+ 1 snowcovered swamp - black mana tends to be the most useful in this deck
+ 1 aetherflux reservoir - alternate kill card with storm.
+ 1 paradoxical outcome - tap out rocks, bounce rocks, draw lots of cards, play rocks again for storm count
Out Liliana of the Veil - couldnt protect self well enough in multiplayer. normally was a diabolic edict. Pendrell Mists - too slow at 4 drop, earns hate but doesnt stop threats fast enough Lodestone Golem - too slow
Added Voltron List
IN: Mana Crypt - Mo mana, mo awesome
OUT: Mana Web - Less awesome when we dont face counter magic
IN:
1 Mana Crypt - free mana in a storm deck is always a plus
1 Gamble - one of the cheapest tutors. fun little risky card
OUT:
1 Diabolic Tutor - Simply put? too expensive for use when comboing out
1 Fractured Powerstone - less mana efficient than crypt
IN: Volcanic Island - Mishra's shiney new island fortress of doom! super stoked to get a copy! Karn Liberated - my kick ass little brother got this for me for christmas this year, super happy to add him to my deck!
OUT: Herald of Kozilek - required 2 colored mana, is not an artifact, and this isnt a combo build. All in all, not an ideal fit. Snow-covered Swamp - I think i am down to 6 black cards in the deck, plus Mishra, so for now, gonna drop a little on black basics, since they arent as necessary with all my mana fixing.
OUT: Bojuka Bog - Not a lot of reanimator in my circle right now, not necessary, rather have an untapped land like stronghold Etched Champion - Dont need champion if i can stick bridge Feldon of the Third Path - feldon was great when i was a lot heavier with creatures, but right now hes kinda a dead draw. i love him, but i cant find much use of him right now.
In: Badlands Underground Sea - Moving some legacy lands from decks that are shelved into a deck i play every chance i get
In: Hurkyl's Recall - self protection and board wipe with lattice makes this card versatile and a bomb Ice Cave - my meta needs to be taught a lesson. spammable countermagic
Out: Nullstone Gargoyle - never playable outside of welding, makes him less desirable as a whole Crosis's Charm - amazing versatility, but trying something new
In: Guardian Beast - Another Darksteel forge for my win cond, and a 4 drop one at that Metalworker - mega ramp! Scalding Tarn - Adding fetches package to smooth manabase Bloodstained Mire - Adding fetches package to smooth manabase Polluted Delta - Adding fetches package to smooth manabase Reflecting Pool - more versatile land than the storage lands imo
Out: Dimir Signet - Signets are solid, metalworkers are better Silent-Blade Oni - 'good stuff' card that also synergizes with Mishra. That said, he is too pricey a CC to be useful in my build anymore Evolving Wilds / Terramorphic Expanse - Bad fetches Dreadship Reef / Molten Slagheap - Kept telling myself i'd use these as storage lands, and never end up doing so
Last night's experiments all went well - making them main deck:
In: Nether Void - Got it into play 1x, and it was game changing for me. love at first sight junk diver - recursion flier myr retriever - recursion chump blocker master of etherium - fatty who boosts robot army cloud key - wide spread ramp card Vedalken archmage - creature draw engine, should meet more cards than minds eye crawlspace - to help mitigate attacks from aggro opponents etched champion - super blocker
Out: Mimic Vat - nonbo with etb and torpor orb, never as useful as i want it to be mind's eye - replacing with a creature draw engine black sun's zenith - more creatures means I want less wipes mana web - situational card, temporarily benched grinning totem - telegraphs my moves with mishra out, never works as desired darksteel ingot - meh mana rock. Replaced with cloud key for more distributed ramp karn, silver golem - strong synergy with lattice, but underused, I normally don't abuse him as desired spine of ish sah - great removal paired with welder, but very costly, benched for creature variant
Land Upgrade!
In
4x Snow-Covered Island
4x Snow-Covered Mountain
4x Snow-Covered Swamp
Out
4x Island
4x Mountain
4x Swamp
In mind's eye - potentially more card draw than staff of nin, which it replaces directly recurring insight - significant card advantage; on par with C.Sphinx - but draws less hate normally and less risk for an opponent to steal. thirst for knowledge - long overdue for this deck, this card has performed beautifully mimic vat - spammable creature recursion. This hopefully will aid with chump blocking as well.
Out Ornate Kanzashi - meant to synergize with mishra; too hit or miss for dependable useage. staff of nin - im hoping that mind's eye trumps this Nim Deathmantle - meant to work well with arcum and other sac outlets, but too expensive for the cute synergy Izzet Signet - slowly cutting back on rocks as they seem less and less necessary
Added another board wipe to help vs critter based decks
OUT Rakdos Signet - I have plenty of mana most games; this has the least useful forms of mana to me. Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer - I rarely use his ability, so im benching him for the time being Vedalken Orrery - Really, i dont get much mileage out of this so far; no need for now
IN Arcum Dagsson - Gotta up that power level Black Sun's Zenith - Boardwipe Mana Web - lock down mana for people playing on my turn. in multiplayer, this will make people take their time before countering your stuff
Deck is too slow out of gates; mostly due to lands entering play tapped. Increased basics count for fetch land usage, dropped guildgate equivolent lands
I cannot afford Nether Void or The Abyss, what do I do?
I love these cards. They are a blast. They are strong and do serious work for this deck. THEY. ARE. NOT. NECESSARY. In my build, you can easily substitute these cards with any creature hate effects, Mishra synergy, or even more lands to help balance your mana base. Some ideas I would recommend include Blood Funnel, Spine of Ish Sah, Crosis's Charm, Pendrell Mists, and Feldon of the Third Path.
Why'd you remove Arcum Dagsson?!?!?
-Simply put, he was stupidly game ending. The deck has several ways of protecting him, and once he resolved, it was pretty much game over, as he is able to search for whatever i need to protect my board state, as well as lead myself to a win. Simply put, too powerful for a what i wanted in my build. That said...he does live in the deck box incase i need to power up a little bit
hes back in...
Why no countermagic?
-Because I run 2 other decks feature a strong countermagic suite, and I wanted to go out of my comfort zone. This deck is intended to be able to win, but not get there by relying on countering our opponents key spells. Countermagic simply isnt needed in my build.
Why not stax?
-Cuz I dont find it fun to not play the whole game. Solitaire isn't my thing, i play edh to be social. This isnt a cutthroat build and i want to play the game with my opponents. Stax is effective with Mishra, but make sure you are ready for a target on your back. Most playgroups dont take kindly to stax decks.
Edit - My list has evolved, and while my primary list isnt purely stax oriented, you will see lots of deliciously evil stax effects throughout my build.
No Sphinx? No Necropotence?
-I run both, in both my other decks. I am trying to play something different. If you want a more serious version of the deck, i would drop some weaker artifacts and pick both of those up. Simply the best card draw UB can ask for.
Where are all the great black tutors?
-75% build. I really dont want them; I feel the key to a more tame, casual build is the lack of tutors, removal, and countermagic. This deck has big sweeping plays, and I feel having cards like Arcum Dagsson already make it too consistent. I dont want to play the same strategy as fast as i can every game; thats what my damia build is for. Its not that im pulling punches, as much as I am trying to play a less consistent deck that requires me to play a tighter game.
In light of the new Tuck rules - what about Chaos Warp?
Even though Warp no longer hits commanders as hard, it is still removal for any type of permanent - in a color that struggles to do so. It was the primary form of tucking for this deck, and with the loss of tuck, that is unfortunate, but it allows us to still interact with enchantments easily, hits any permanent type, ignores indestructible. In my opinion, its still fantastic spot removal, and for the time being shall remain in my build.
How do we salvage Possibility Storm or our other enchantments when they end up in the graveyard?
As I mention in the cards to consider section, Crystal Chimes is a fine way to retrieve these tools from the bin. In my build, I run numerous effects, possibility storm, nether void, chaos warp, etc. In my experience, these cards don't win the game - which means I am disappointed to have my opponents remove them, but I am unlikely to invest effort in bringing them back. They do 3 things.
They earn hate - our opponents are gonna kill these asap
They buy time - the most important part of our strategy is to give our opponents hurdles to climb over as we construct our devices of global destruction. I dont want to waste resources bringing old hurdles back to life, I want to spend resources crafting my game winning combo.
When I play these cards, I know they won't last for long. I try to get as much mileage out of them as possible, set up my strategies, and plan my next move. Our opponents will stare at these cards and plan how to remove them, meanwhile, we are off thinking about closing the game, which are 2 very different mindsets, and that gives us an edge - because we are thinking ahead while they are trapped in the present. Something important I feel to mention with these cards - do not stack them up. It may be really tempting to play Nether Void alongside Chaos Warp, but you are setting yourself up for failure when oneofthemanyglobalwipesdrop and these cards fail to protect themselves. Play one at a time - that way when they think they have broken free of your evil plot, they will find themselves still steps behind your plan, meaning they will again be searching for solutions and struggling with the morale blows of falling behind.
How do you win constantly?
As I say early in the primer, playing Mishra isnt about winning game constantly. He isnt my play-to-crush-my-opponents commander. Mishra is my, i've-put-effort-into-building-this-guy commmander. If I wanted to be more competitive, I'd be loaded up on tutors and countermagic to protect my combo, and drop it earlier and more consistently. My current Mishra build is designed to be 75%. My current meta is full of growing and learning players, and while there are a few true terrors in my circles (a gnarly prossh deck, an athreos-stax deck, and a few others), when I want to win I switch to a competitive commander. I would say my win rate with mishra is under 50%, above 30%.
You may be asking - why build a commander, why put the effort into writing a primer, if you aren't going to play a list that makes him as strong as possible? Mishra isn't the kind of commander that will be able to arch-enemy, or win every game constantly. If that is what you want, look elsewhere. With Mishra I wanted to build a deck that would give me unique experiences each game; and while I may try to control my opponents, I don't believe in completely locking my friends out of playing in a kitchen table format. This is just MY philosophy, and I am currently working on additional Mishra builds in the main thread to cover much more competitive builds than my current 75% build (if i go to more events with Mishra, I'll go spike and make him a terror, but for now, I play him kitchen table).
Is can there be a Hybrid between the storm list and the Primary list you have already put together? I like the idea of soft locks, but with the price of some of these cards (Lattice and Blightsteel) I think storming might be a fun way to include an alternate way to win. Let me know your thoughts.
I have never actually tried mixing and matching the soft lock with a storm win condition. I think if that was my objective, I would look into an artifact combo that perhaps abused mixing Future Sight, a card like Divining Top, and cost reducers for the win condition mixed into the primary list in place of the current win conditions. Something that is a combo that generates infinite casts and a card draw engine to produce the storm count and draw into the win card I want.
If that was the case, I'd likely cut Blightsteel, Niv's Disk, and Mycosynth Lattice (forge i'd likely keep, since its so strong), and add in Future Sight, Mind's Eye, and Tendrils of Agony.
You should at least consider running arcane denial - it can be a counterspell in a pinch, but mostly you can just target your own artifacts with it and draw 3 cards for 1U.
not a bad suggestion; though i'd be tempted to use it, since its one of the best splash color hard counters in the game. I would sooner run recurring insight as a draw card, since the cost isnt 1U, but 1U+artifact cost
I run a very similar list but am more focused on creatures and manipulating manarocks into advantage. My deck seems like it plays a tad faster than yours does. I am curious to find what is your most valuable card in the deck? Sorry I am typing on my phone so I can't really see anything. But feel free to look at my list and I'd love to chat on how to impolrove both of our lists
@Rewind: You opted for a much more all-in abuse of Misrha's ability than I did, which might be better overall. I actually dismantled Mishra because my build didn't do anything but earn hate. Turns out that when you have five gilded lotuses, all of which are real and only one of which is yours, people get upset. If you want to throw down big bucks, there's nether void. I couldn't justify the purchase to myself, but it's awesome. I love that card.
There's also Knacksaw Clique, which is a worse version of Ornate Kanzashi but if you're looking for that sort of effect, there it is.
No sculpting steel? I can only hope it's because you just didn't have one.
Grabbed a Sculpting Steel out of my trade binder. It will now live in my deckbox until i find a card that it will replace. Any suggestions from anyone?
I agree, i cannot justify Nether Void - odds are i will disassemble this deck within a year or two, and i dont wanna drop almost 200 bucks on a card that i dont need in anything else.
I play a very similar Mishra deck and have a small suggestion: run another planeswalker. If you have Possibility Storm in play and Tezzeret in hand, you won't be able to cast him. Maybe the other Tezzeret or Daretti.
I recently acquired a copy of the 2014 precons. As inferenz mentioned, Daretti is amust include. i plan on pulling several cards out of the red deck once i play a few games with the default decks just for fun.
without possiblity storm in play, this deck ramps up incredibly quickly, and goes to set up a superior creature base of critters that dont stay dead.
Made several changes - reduced my tutoring as it made the deck too consistent (lead to forge + disk too quickly too often).
reduced coutering effects - dropped ice cave and chalice - synergize well with mishra, but they make the game unfun for opponents more so than enable opponents to be political which was their intent.
added new C14 planeswalker Daretti, scrap mastery, wurmcoil etc. see change log for full details (second post)
Feldon slipped through the cracks; totally meant to add him - fixed my list to have him in it. thanks for the observation. not sure how i missed the best freaking card in the new red deck, hahaha!
Well, this deck looks like a lot of fun. When I have some more time, I plan to look it over harder and maybe try it out.
Thanks man! i am currently in the process of tweaking, and please remember, its a 75% build - so in your playtests you wont win every game if you are playing against opponents of equal skill. also, my lands need a lot of tweaking - i just grabbed what i had laying around for this color suite and didnt bother getting the better variants of my lands.
I think im going to start making a more cutthroat version and post both here in the top post; so people can play with a more casual variant (and more economical of course) or a more cutthroat no holds barred version; then maybe apply for primer status.
After a long holiday break and a few dozen games played, I have come to the conclusion this deck requires more board wipe to prevent overrun style decks from winning before i get to my end game, needs a slightly faster clock, and needs to be more resilient against counter magic decks who can take apart my combo via removing a lynchpin.
Indeed, all the above options are great. I decided to go with black sun due to the amount of god cards / indestructible generals in my local metas. That said, i will probably acquire a copy of oblivion stone in the near future and give it some play tests.
Ashes to Ashes would be good for the Gods. Nothing beats Exile~
I prefer to just Spell Crumple and tick them, though.
good old tuck effects. As for ashes to ashes, not a bad option; though i wish it wasnt 2 targets specifically. I think im going to lean more on board wipes though - my issues lately have been an elf deck (precon modified) and stuff running indestructibles. BSZ solves both those problems for me.
I am thinking about experimenting with the following cards:
Bosh is vastly overpriced mana wise for what he brings to the deck - and i dont want to invest in potentially stealing stuff from others to use with him. I find him mediocre in a deck build that isnt based around abusing him; at which point i'd make him my commander
I would avoid both Mind's Eye and Howling Mine. I ran both in my list a while back and they were weak in comparison to fact or fiction, tezzert, agent of bolas, and Thirst for Knowledge. Ive started to take out permanent based sources of draw for spells to draw. you might want to look into this but then again this is juts my opinion on it
I would avoid both Mind's Eye and Howling Mine. I ran both in my list a while back and they were weak in comparison to fact or fiction, tezzert, agent of bolas, and Thirst for Knowledge. Ive started to take out permanent based sources of draw for spells to draw. you might want to look into this but then again this is juts my opinion on it
My goal below is to put together a deck that is designed to generate chaotic game altering effects for our opponents, while generating card advantage for ourselves. Currently I like to play a variant that is more casually designed, aiming for a '75%' build, however, I will also go over some key cards below that will really amp up the competitiveness of this general. You will note that I pack some serious power cards in this build, so you may question why I call it 75%. The reason I believe this deck to be 75% is because while I run some fantastic cards, you'll note that there are a lot of ways to really refine what this deck is doing. I don't run a fistful of amazing tutors, I don't run a counter suite to protect my combo. I personally believe this deck could be made more competitive than it currently is; though I'd also probably change grixis generals if that was my intent.
Why should you play Mishra?
You will NOT enjoy this deck if:
1 Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
-=Land (38)=-
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Badlands
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Great Furnace
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Seat of the Synod
4 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Steam Vents
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Underground River
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Volcanic Island
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Watery Grave
1x Arcum Dagsson
1x Blightsteel Colossus
1x Duplicant
1x Emry, Lurker of the Loch
1x Etherium Sculptor
1x Goblin Welder
1x Guardian Beast
1x Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
1x Junk Diver
1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
1x Master Transmuter
1x Metalworker
1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Sai, Master Thopterist
1x Scarecrone
1x Scrap Trawler
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1x Vedalken Archmage
1x Wurmcoil Engine
-=Enchantment (8)=-
1 Mechanized Production
1 Nether Void
1 Planar Chaos
1 Possibility Storm
1 Rhystic Study
1 Spreading Plague
1 Storm the Vault
1 The Abyss
-=Instant (5)=-
1 Chaos Warp
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Whir of Invention
1 Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
1 Karn, the Great Creator
1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
1 Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
-=Artifact (17)=-
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Cloud Key
1 Coalition Relic
1 Crawlspace
1 Darksteel Forge
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mirrorworks
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Portcullis
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Trading Post
1 Unwinding Clock
-=Sorcery (6)=-
1 All Is Dust
1 Chain Reaction
1 Praetor's Grasp
1 Recurring Insight
1 Scrap Mastery
1 Vandalblast
This deck is a much more consistent combo build variant based around playing Mishra and numerous cost reducing cards, establishing a draw engine so that when you play any artifact or card, you draw a new card, then storm for the win. Something to take note of, is that while I refer to this deck as a '1v1' build, it IS capable of multiplayer victories, but the requirements are far more strict, and success is much more difficult.
Description
This is an artifact storm combo deck that aims to win turn 5-6 consistently. Originally I was deferring to Ombolis's list on tapped out, but I have found it needing a serious update, so here is my latest take on storm combo with Mishra.
1 Mishra, Arificer Prodigy
Artifact (39)
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Chrome Mox
1 Cloud Key
1 Coalition Relic
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Darkwater Egg
1 Dimir Signet
1 Elsewhere Flask
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Flight Spellbomb
1 Grim Monolith
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Ichor Wellspring
1 Izzet Signet
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Mox Opal
1 Necrogen Spellbomb
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Prophetic Prism
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Semblance Anvil
1 Shadowblood Egg
1 Sol Ring
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Voltaic Key
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Badlands
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cavern of Souls
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Island
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Mountain
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Sulfurous Springs
2 Swamp
1 Underground River
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Volcanic Island
1 Watery Grave
Instant (11)
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Brainstorm
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Dark Ritual
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Paradoxical Outcome
1 Remand
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Gamble
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Mind's Desire
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Creature (12)
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Drift of Phantasms
1 Ethereal Usher
1 Etherium Sculptor
1 Frogmite
1 Memnite
1 Ornithopter
1 Phyrexian Walker
1 Riddlesmith
1 Shield Sphere
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vedalken Archmage
Enchantment (2)
1 Blood Funnel
1 Null Profusion
The deck's engine works like this:
Step 1. Play a cost reducer such as Helm of Awakening, Semblance Anvil, Blood Funnel + Mishra, or Etherium Sculptor
Step 2. Use artifacts including ones that cantrip (and Riddlesmith) to dig for Null Profusion or Vedalken Archmage. Play said draw engine.
Step 3. Play an unreasonable amount of artifacts to dig for Tendrils of Agony, resolve with storm count 20+. You can also play tendrils at a lower storm count (9) and play Snapcaster Mage, Remand (on the original at storm 10), or Yawgmoth's Will and play it again to kill.
A brutal attrition build to crush our opponents will to play as we establish our winning move!
Description
So I have finally put together a list. I still believe you should reference the stax primer and see what you like best as tech for your own stax build, however, this is my take on the classic deck "The 4 Thousand dollar Solution."
1x Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Land (35)
1x Academy Ruins
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Badlands
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Command Tower
1x Great Furnace
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Mishra's Workshop
1x Polluted Delta
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Seat of the Synod
3x Snow-Covered Island
3x Snow-Covered Mountain
3x Snow-Covered Swamp
1x Steam Vents
1x Sulfurous Springs
1x Underground River
1x Underground Sea
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of Whispers
1x Volcanic Island
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Watery Grave
Instant (3)
1x Chaos Warp
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Coalition Relic
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Darksteel Forge
1x Dimir Signet
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Izzet Signet
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mycosynth Lattice
1x Myr Turbine
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Pithing Needle
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Skeleton Shard
1x Smokestack
1x Sol Ring
1x Static Orb
1x Tangle Wire
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Torpor Orb
1x Trading Post
1x Trinisphere
1x Unwinding Clock
1x Winter Orb
Enchantment (8)
1x Mana Vortex
1x Nether Void
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Planar Chaos
1x Possibility Storm
1x Rhystic Study
1x Spreading Plague
1x The Abyss
1x Bloodghast
1x Burnished Hart
1x Etherium Sculptor
1x Goblin Welder
1x Junk Diver
1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
1x Master Transmuter
1x Metalworker
1x Myr Retriever
1x Nether Traitor
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Scarecrone
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Vedalken Archmage
1x Wurmcoil Engine
Sorcery (5)
1x All Is Dust
1x Chain Reaction
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Scrap Mastery
1x Vandalblast
Planeswalker (3)
1x Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
The deck's engine works like this:
This deck doesn't follow a series of steps, instead, it has a goal in mind: Tax and Evade. Much like the 75% main build, our objective is to create symmetrical effects that we mitigate with our own abilities, however, unlike the 75% main build, we don't do this through asymmetry. Instead, we create recursion and redundancy that allow us to survive the oppressive game style we establish.
Using effects like Nether Void, Mana Web, and Tangle Wire we attempt to choke off our opponents lands. We attack their creatures with effects that tax and destroy them, such as The Abyss and Pendrell Mists. Finally, we attack their other permanents through other means, such as Smokestack.
The ultimate goal is to stick our game closing combo using Niv's Disk, Forge, and Lattice; the difference is we aren't riding the storm until we establish it, instead, we are drowning everyone until they cannot resist our finishing move, even if they want to. We take them into deep water, finish them off.
A beer and pretzels variant of the deck that still has potent winning conditions
Description
This design is primarily creature based. The objective is to play a relatively slow paced game, more friendly to newer players or more casual playgroups. The deck still runs many of the core synergies and Mishra flavor; but it has less 'feel bad' moves, such as Arcum tutors and looped destruction of everything via Niv's disk. Please note that if you are using this list that the lands are merely ones I own, and as a deck builder, I prefer to use a landbase I am confident in. You do not need Mishra's Workshop to play beer and pretzels magic
1x Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Creature (34)
1x Arcbound Crusher
1x Baleful Strix
1x Blightsteel Colossus
1x Burnished Hart
1x Chief of the Foundry
1x Duplicant
1x Etched Champion
1x Etherium Sculptor
1x Feldon of the Third Path
1x Goblin Welder
1x Junk Diver
1x Karn, Silver Golem
1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
1x Master of Etherium
1x Master Transmuter
1x Metalworker
1x Myr Retriever
1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Sandstone Oracle
1x Scarecrone
1x Sharding Sphinx
1x Shimmer Myr
1x Soul of New Phyrexia
1x Sphinx Summoner
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Steel Overseer
1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1x Thopter Engineer
1x Vedalken Archmage
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Academy Ruins
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Badlands
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Command Tower
1x Great Furnace
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Mishra's Workshop
1x Polluted Delta
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Seat of the Synod
3x Snow-Covered Island
3x Snow-Covered Mountain
4x Snow-Covered Swamp
1x Steam Vents
1x Sulfurous Springs
1x Underground River
1x Underground Sea
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of Whispers
1x Volcanic Island
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Watery Grave
Planeswalker (3)
1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
1x Karn Liberated
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Coalition Relic
1x Cranial Plating
1x Darksteel Forge
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mycosynth Lattice
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Skeleton Shard
1x Sol Ring
1x Sword of Body and Mind
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Trading Post
Enchantment (6)
1x March of the Machines
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Planar Chaos
1x Possibility Storm
1x Rhystic Study
1x Thopter Spy Network
Sorcery (5)
1x All is Dust
1x Praetor's Grasp
1x Recurring Insight
1x Scrap Mastery
1x Vandalblast
Instant (2)
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Hurkyl's Recall
The deck's works like this:
There are a handful of 'winning moves' in this deck. Primarily, it is designed to be a creature beat down deck that moves at a slow to moderate pace; and then has late game options that can single handed close out a game.
Game winning interactions (should robot beats not suffice):
March of the Machines + Mycosynth Lattice + Chief of the Foundry/Master of Etherium = Everything in play is an artifact creature. All our opponents lands 'die'
Mycosynth Lattice + Vandalblast / Hurkyl's Recall = we keep our stuff, one or more players lose theirs.
A non-combo win condition variant of the deck that focuses on commander damage or powerful equipment swings.
Description
This deck has been a fun little experiment in building Mishra without a combo close out. The basic premise is that you establish some sort of board through rapid mana rocks and card draw effects, and hopefully start swinging for commander damage no later than turn 5 with a 3 turn win clock. This deck is very unpolished and I expect to have many revisions before I complete it. Not the most robust way of winning a game, but sometimes its more about sending a message.
1x Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Land (38)
1x Academy Ruins
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Badlands
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Command Tower
1x Flamekin Village
1x Great Furnace
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Mishra's Factory
1x Mishra's Workshop
1x Polluted Delta
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Seat of the Synod
4x Snow-Covered Island
3x Snow-Covered Mountain
4x Snow-Covered Swamp
1x Steam Vents
1x Sulfurous Springs
1x Underground River
1x Underground Sea
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of Whispers
1x Volcanic Island
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Watery Grave
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Planar Chaos
1x Possibility Storm
1x Rhystic Study
Artifact (25)
1x Assault Suit
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Coalition Relic
1x Cranial Plating
1x Darksteel Plate
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Kitesail
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Loxodon Warhammer
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mox Opal
1x Neurok Hoversail
1x Prismatic Lens
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Sword of Body and Mind
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Whispersilk Cloak
Instant (5)
1x Chaos Warp
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Paradoxical Outcome
1x Thirst for Knowledge
1x All Is Dust
1x Chain Reaction
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Recurring Insight
1x Scrap Mastery
1x Wheel of Fortune
Creature (21)
1x Arcbound Crusher
1x Baleful Strix
1x Burnished Hart
1x Duplicant
1x Etched Champion
1x Etherium Sculptor
1x Goblin Welder
1x Guardian Beast
1x Junk Diver
1x Metalworker
1x Myr Retriever
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Sandstone Oracle
1x Scarecrone
1x Shimmer Myr
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Sphinx Summoner
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1x Vedalken Archmage
1x Wurmcoil Engine
Planeswalker (1)
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
The deck's works like this:
Honestly, this deck is very straight forward. Play your mana rocks early, establish board while dropping as many draw spells as you can. Draw into equipment and then beat them to death with either handy little replaceable creatures or go for the big win with Mishra himself.
We retain a few chaotic synergies to maintain the decks original flavor - asymmetrical hate that generates our advantage, but we press a more aggressive game than our traditional control playstyle.
Example 1, One-way Chaos:
In play: Mishra, Artificer Prodigy and Possibility Storm.
In hand: ANY ARTIFACT, for this example, lets say everyone's favorite, Sol Ring
Step 1: Cast Sol Ring
Step 2: Two triggers occur; Possibility Storm, and Mishra, Artificer Prodigy's search effect for 'Sol Ring'. Place Mishra's trigger onto the stack first, then Possibility Storm's on top.
Step 3: Resolve Possibility Storm, ultimately putting the next artifact on top your library into play, and then all revealed cards, AND Sol Ring onto the bottom of your library
Step 4: Resolve Mishra's trigger, searching your library for a copy of Sol Ring to put directly into play. Pro-tip: its more than likely on the bottom. Put into play for free. PROFIT!
With this in play, your opponents never get the spell they want, where as you get 100% of your artifacts, AND a free artifact into play with it on EVERY cast. It's like cascade for us, while our opponents struggle with the loss of their hand. Do not underestimate the mind games that this will play on them.
Example 2, Counter me not:
In play: Mishra, Artificer Prodigy and any counter spell effect, lets say Nullstone Gargoyle or Planar Chaos
In hand: Sol Ring
Step 1: Cast Sol Ring
Step 2: Stack Mishra's trigger first, then the triggered counter spell effect on top.
Step 3: Resolve the counter spell, countering Sol Ring, placing it in grave.
Step 4: Resolve Mishra's trigger, search your grave for a copy of Sol Ring, put it into play for free.
Not only does this work well with your own symmetrical counter effects, but cards like blood funnel suddenly make all artifacts 2 less to play! Better still, this aids us against control decks, if the other blue players counter our stuff, it still goes into play! Assuming of course they are careless with the stack...
Example 3, Multiple copies can be found...in your opponents deck:
In play: Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
In hand: Praetor's Grasp
You know what is great about artifacts? Everyone runs them!
Step 1: Target some unfortunate soul with Praetor's Grasp or a similar deck or hand theft effect
Step 2: Exile any choice artifact that we share with them. Great targets include: Sol Ring, Lightning Greaves, Signets, Gilded Lotus, Sensei's, THE LIST GOES ON!
Step 3: Play their copy, Triggering Mishra to search for our own copy
Step 4: Two artifacts for the price of one!!
Phase one: Establish some trinkets
Mishra plays some big spells, and to put together our megazords we are going to need to start off strong. We want to open keep a hand with at least 3 lands. You might be wondering, why 3? Well, our opening position is based on getting out fast mana rocks and ramping up quickly. The sweet spot for most of our mana ramp is 3. If you have a sol ring in your opener and a land, keep it, but you need to be able to put down 3 mana fast. If you cannot establish 3 mana with your opener, throw it away, its likely a dud hand. There are of course some exceptions. I don't think I could every throw away a turn 1 Goblin Welder, especially if I've got something beefy I can pitch into the grave paired with a Great Furnace I can weld into it. Ultimately though, your early game goal, and by that I mean the first 5 turns, is to establish a strong mana base, and put Mishra himself down on the board. I know some players hesitate to play their commanders, but hes important to our overall strategy, and the deck cranks out mana, so we dont need to worry about commander tax. We can use him as an early game deterrent against attackers, as a 4/4 for 4cc isn't bad. The more mana rocks and card draw you can establish in the first 5 turns, the easier the rest of the game will be on you.
Phase two: Asymmetrical Ass-kicking
In an ideal world, turn 5 or 6 involves you having Mishra down, and then you can follow up with Possibility Storm; which will confound our opponents long enough for us to establish our game winning board state. Obviously you won't have this frequently, but this is the point of the game where we want to start dropping chaotic cards that Mishra mitigates for us. The soul purpose of our chaos effects is to start leveraging Mishra and hindering our opponents forward movement. The mid game to us doesn't have any goals other than to set ourselves up for our game winning plays. If you are setting up for a combo, start with your less vulnerable pieces. In my build, I try to lead with Darksteel Forge. Normally its the most durable combo piece; and combined with Nevinyrral's Disk its a 2 card game closer. Other key cards to establish during the mid game include Mycosynth Lattice, which can combo with dozens of effects, and Goblin Welder, who is a beast all on his own in a deck loaded with toys for him.
Something to keep in mind, is that this is the phase where the game is won or lost. You will very rarely make it to the end game and lose if you play this phase correctly; but people will also target you if you move too quickly. My build is not riddled with countermagic, so I try to play a controlled pace at this point, and try not to make enemies. I prefer to leverage my massive amount of artifact recursion to make it seem futile to come after me and Mishra. If our opponents buy into that, they will give us plenty of time to assemble our game winning moves. If they don't, I try to set up the red herring which is the chaos effects. Our opponents will spend so much time just trying to break free of our soft lock that they will lose focus as we assemble our game winning board state.
Phase three: End the game
Don't be afraid to make your move. Blow up the board, infect damage people to death, commander damage, March of the Machines, Bludgeon Brawl. There are lots of ways Mishra decks can win, but this part of the game is the same in all decks: play to win and close out the game. If your plan falls through, step back down to phase 2, or in the worst case scenario, treat the game as reset. You will win some, and you will lose more. This is not a deck who can take on 3 players by itself, Mishra simply isn't that strong of a general. Play to win and if you lose, learn from it.
Weaknesses:
Only a fool says that his deck is undefeated or unbeatable. Every deck has flaws and by recognizing them, we can anticipate our opponents moves - possibly even bait them with fake over extensions. This deck relies incredibly heavily on artifact mana sources and non basic lands; running only about a dozen basics. Cards to watch out for include effects similar to Ancient Runes, Vandalblast/Pulverize and blood moon/back to basics. Recently, my playgroup has really taken a shine to Wave of Vitriol, which can really hurt. Another thing to keep an eye out for is pacing yourself. We use unique advantage generators, and this can bite us since this build isn't loaded up on the best card draw options available; allowing you to play out your hand too quickly in a format riddled with board wipe effects. Pace yourself and don't dump your hand until you can refill it.
Game play style, this deck is weak in the early game. Avoid getting on the bad political side of voltron and aggro decks, as they can often critically injure you; often ruining your chances at reaching the late game, where Mishra reigns. Play conservatively early, keep back blockers, and don't be afraid to chump block scary threats like Ruric Thar. Once you get to the mid game you will have the tools to recur all our best cards from the grave, and set yourself up for a win.
Because of your weakness in the early game I would recommend avoiding lands that enter the battlefield tapped as a whole. Painlands work great, since you will rarely use them for color (robots for the win!), and enter the battlefield untapped. You will want to get outta the gates smoothly early, and being effectively a turn behind during the early game can really be crippling. The only tapped lands I would recommend are the vivid lands, since they tend to be very useful since they can provide any of 3 colors.
With my build, we have a few great options:
Be cruel: Mycosynth Lattice + Darksteel Forge + Nevinyrral's Disk/Vandalblast - Blow up all the things. Go home kids, you got beat by the emo king of edh artifact decks. Karn also can start popping lands like a mox monkey!
Be venomous: Blightsteel Colossus tends to work wonders, and we got the mana rocks to throw him down real fast, real early. Bonus points if you steel (see what I did there?) their's, and double down on the infect!
Be awesome: Mana rocks mean who cares about commander tax? start swinging with Mishra early and often, to pimp smack people to death with those purple glow fingers! Once you establish chaos and counter boards, they will have a hard time disrupting you!
In this section I will be trying to explain the bulk of my card choices, but trying to also include several cards that can really take this 75% build the next few steps to really make it an archenemy. You may notice I cut some of these from my build - more than likely that is because they are too powerful for my meta, and simply made games unfun for my friends.
I will be excluding a lot mana fixing, fetch lands, and dual lands - as they will depend entirely on your personal adjustments to the deck and what you budget can accommodate. I do note several mana rock artifacts that should help you with any mana problems.
A very strong way to build Mishra is a stax variant. My meta frowns on stax pretty hard, and those decks get hated out of games before they can do well or they create an 'unfun' play environment, so i didnt go stax with my build.I have since changed my ways, and posted a stax list that I will be playing from time to time, and have it listed above in the variant build section. I still beliece that if you are considering stax that I HIGHLY recommend visiting this page: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/204260-the-stax-primer .Creatures
Arcum Dagsson - God tier card for this deck. Enables your game winning combo within 3 turns and turns your deck into an artifact toolbox.
Baleful Strix - In my meta, he serves as a good early game deterrent, but isnt useful enough to see play in edh
Blightsteel Colossus - Game winning option via cheating artifacts into play
Broodstar - Big dumb flying beater. This is the ONLY vanilla affinity creature worth running in my opinion. EDH is the sort of format that fast cheap 2/2s and 3/2 fliers just arent good enough in.
Burnished Hart - Land Ramp, for when mana rocks arent enough
Chief Engineer - Convoke on artifacts, definitely enables creature based builds
Chromescale Drake - Potential 3/4 flier that enters play with a draw 3 cards effect. Fantastic if you synergize it with ways to abuse ETB effects, such as deadeye navigator
Copper Gnomes - Nice 1 sided Show and Tell for artifacts. With recursion, could be abused to cheat cards into play.
Consecrated Sphinx - Probably the best card draw creature in edh.
Darksteel Colossus - Strictly inferior to Blightsteel, but still a major threat.
Disciple of the Vault - Great in creature based builds and standard alike - really deters boardwipes
Etched Champion - Often an amazing blocker / attacker in artifact creature oriented builds
Duplicant - any creature removal assuming you can target
Emry, Lurker of the Loch - Super powerful recursion for our deck since it hits any artifact, plus shes basically a 1 drop for us every game.
Epochrasite - seems great, but if it dies, you dont see it for 3 turns, which is an eternity in edh. Frankly, not worth the slot, even in a stax variant.
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer - amazing piece in the deck, cascades repeatedly thanks to its self bounce, and can chump block massive critters safely
Etherium Sculptor - Reduction of cost is pretty cut and dry
Faerie Artisans - A solid goodstuff card that generates artifact tokens and gives us copies of opponents ETB effects. Great overall card, in this deck or others.
Feldon of the Third Path - Simply amazing. Weld targets, ETB/ETG effect abuse, generates chump blockers. Nothing not to love
Fiend of the Shadows - Nice ability, but will rarely synergize with Mishra, and our opponents will try not to give us good cards. I dont like giving my opponent choices.
Filigree Sages - Useful ability if you want to abuse for infinite combos.
Goblin Artisans - Retro points. Taps to either draw a card to counter your own artifact spell, which Mishra negates
Goblin Welder - All star of the deck. Tons of abuse to be had in reanimating beaters and utility alike.
Grand architect - Turns everything in play into a mana rock that ignores summoning sickness, and buffs many creatures in the deck easily. Worth a spot in many builds.
Guardian Beast - Pricey, but incredibly protective all all your artifacts, great card for the deck.
Guile - Awesome in a Mishra control build loaded with counterspells and counter effects for maximum theft synergy
Grand Architect - Can serve as pseudo ramp, pumps other blues, and can alter colors. pretty cool guy.
Hangarback Walker - Lots of potential to grow over time, especially with all our ramp. Also feeds fetch cards like arcum or forgemaster nicely
Havengul Lich - Synergizes with Mishra, and if not, lets you reanimate creatures for 1 mana + CC, which is amazingly handy
Hellkite Tyrant - Combo out game winner type card. Combos brilliantly with Lattice
Inkwell Leviathan - Big beater that is hard to remove and an artifact to boot.
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - Play Historic permanents, draw cards. Nothing but profit in this deck.
Junk Diver - Flying Myr Retriever. Useful chump blocker that recurs artifacts
Karn, Silver Golem - March of machines, lets you animate artifacts of your opponents during boardwipes, and expecially mean against lands with Lattice out.
Kheru Spellsnatcher - Spelljack on a body
Kuldotha Forgemaster - Tutor effect that goes straight into the battlefield. Pairs well with token generators and reanimator effects
Lodestone Golem - Fits beautifully in stax builds making it harder for opponents to cast spells
Magus of the Abyss - Great in a stax build
Marionette Master - expensive to invest into, but really enables some free damage if youve got the curve to fit him in.
Master of Etherium - Great for artifact beat down builds like with march of machines
Master Transmuter - Cheats artifacts into play and can chump block like its her job.
Memnarch - Pairs beautifully with Lattice, all artifacts should be allied with Mishra.
Metalworker - Amazing mana generation for this deck
Mindleech Mass - Steals opponents cards for pseudo advantage and has potential to synergize with mishra. a bit overpriced though
Muzzio, Visionary Architect - value generation at a relatively low cost. flawed in the sense that doesnt net any gain without a solid board, at which point he feels win more
Mycosynth Golem - If affinity is your thing, look no further. He is useful in any heavy artifact themed deck.
Myr Battlesphere - Has potential for welding an army of myr / myr beatdown builds, but overall not a fan
Myr Retriever - 2 drop artifact recursion chump blocker. I like this little dude
Nightveil Specter - I dont like 3 colored mana symbols in a deck i want to be mostly colorless; also, i find his ability too inconsistent to recommend. Would be better if it removed mana cost.
Nullstone Gargoyle - strong synergy with mishra to lock out opponents
Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Protects our stuff and draws us cards. 10/10 auto include
Pentavus - Army in a box, pairs great with welding and recursion for generating quick tokens for sacing to better effects
Phyrexian Metamorph - best clone for Mishra
Platinum Angel - I have always found her ability underwhelming and never actually of much value in a game
Priest of Yawgmoth - Turns an artifact into mana, which can be handy, but in this deck isnt completely necessary
Ruination Guide - a non artifact combat booster
Sai, Master Thopterist - Gives us blockers in the early game, while being beefy himself; and also, provides a draw source for us
Sandstone Oracle - Card draw on a body.
Scarecrone - Potential Card draw in a pinch, can reanimate your artifact critters for 4 mana
Scrap Trawler - Recursion overlord! This guy makes artifacts a LOT harder to deal with in mass, and people do not tend to run a lot of single target spot removal in edh.
Sharding Sphinx - Amazing card in creature beatdown artifact builds
Shimmer Myr - Poor man's Orrery. Works in a pinch, but im not a huge fan of him, as too many forms of removal can target him
Silent-Blade Oni - Adding some combat tricks to your deck, steal cards, and potentially synergize with Mishra. I prefer Oni to Mindleech Mass
Sire of Stagnation - One of the best card draw options, and can act a beater role as well.
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer - Very useful for protecting key cards on the board
Solemn Simulacrum - Nasty synergy with Feldon, amazing card on its own
Soul of New Phyrexia - Protects against a wipe both on the board and from beyond the grave. A solid choice against boardwipe.dec
Sphinx Summoner - creature tutor; pretty damn handy
Squee, Goblin Nabob - Useful to mitigate hurting yourself when playing stax
Steel Hellkite - If dropped early, game winner, if dropped late, serious threat
Steel Overseer - If you are going for the artifact army effect, this guy serves as an interesting lord effect; and goes off to the races with untap effects
Thada Adel, Acquisitor - Amazing card BEFORE you get to search for copies with Mishra thanks to their synergy together
Treasure Mage - Big piece tutor
Trinket Mage - little piece tutor
Vedalken Archmage - Solid card draw for Mishra if artifact heavy build.
Voltaic Construct - Amazing combo enabler. Pairs really well with animated mana rocks / mana dorks like metalworker.
Wurmcoil Engine - Amazing beater with a great synergy with welder and Feldon.
Artifacts (non creature)
Basalt Monolith - Mana rock that can go infinite really easily
Brittle Effigy - Colorless removal in the form of exile, always a solid card to have on hand.
Clock of Omens - Useful in combo oriented builds
Chalice of the Void - Hateful card against optimized builds, can hate out commanders, and synergizes very well with Mishra
Chromatic Lantern - A must have mana rock for any 3+ color deck
Cloud Key - versatile price reduction, when in doubt, artifacts.
Coalition Relic - manarock and mana fixer. can be abused for 2x mana in a turn
Cranial Plating - Great for early aggression / Voltron builds
Crucible of Worlds - with fetch lands and stax effects, this card is pretty amazing.
Crystal Chimes - A lot of our Mishra Synergy comes from using enchantments, and this is a great way to recover them if they've been tossed into the bin
Darksteel Forge - key piece to my build, creates a very frustrating board state to play against
Darksteel Ingot - solid mana rock, versatile and hard to remove
Darksteel Plate - Another solid 'protection' equipment.
Dimir Signet - mana rock
Everflowing Chalice - my deck in particular generates a lot of spare mana, this allows us to explode
Gilded Lotus - mana rock
Grim Monolith - Mana rock that can go infinite really easily
Grinning Totem - Synergizes with Mishra allowing us to take any of our cards that they have as well out of their deck and use it, OR simply fetch a useful card from an opponent
Ichor Wellspring - Personally not a fan, but can work with welding / recursion effects well
Izzet Signet - mana rock
Knowledge Pool - Great in theory, but after each opponent realizes what youre up to stealing cards with this, they simply wont play cards you can synergize with mishra anymore
Krark-Clan Ironworks - Better than Ashnod's for this deck; can combo well with many cards such as Pentavus with Sadistic Glee
Lightning Greaves - protects Mishra / welder, if you are using cards like bludgeon brawl, try swiftfoot boots instead. I prefer 0 cost of greaves to boots
Mana crypt - overpriced imo, and not worth it unless you are going REALLY try hard. you simply dont need this early game mana in edh
Mana Vault - useable mana rock, not ideal imo. great if you get untap sources out, meh otherwise.
Mana Web - Really cripples opponents who play control / effects on other players turns
Memory Jar - Hand reload that and also protects your hand from discard. Great card in any deck
Mimic Vat - Generates copy tokes, highly versatile artifact
Mind's Eye - Card Draw in artifact form, pretty good.
Mindslaver - Infinite player control with academy ruins. some circles frown on these effects though.
Mirrorworks - Double all our best cards for a measly 2 mana. Definite include
Mizzium Transreliquat - Very unique cloning effect. I prefer sculping steel to it, because while its versatile, i dont like the repeated investment
Mox Opal - Great mana rock in mishra. tends to be useable as of turn 3 at the latest
Muse Vessel - Synergizes with Mishra, but its very hit or miss - you dont get to pick the exiled card, can only exile on your own turn, and you still have to pay its mana cost. very expensive for its effect over all
Mycosynth Lattice - Key card to the deck, synergizes with numerous effects and enables a lot of our win conditions
Myr Turbine - great token generator to sacrifice to our other effects or serve as chump blocks
Nevinyrral's Disk - Key card, doesnt sacrifice on its destruction ability, can be seriously abused with darksteel forge.
Nim Deathmantle - Allows us to sacrifice creatures and bring them back for cheap. also boosts power of creatures and can make them frustratingly durable
Oblivion Stone - Not as good as Disk imo, but can be used to board wipe things you want, then welded back into play later
Ornate Kanzashi - Synergizes with Mishra, but tends to be more miss than hit. I don't recommend this in anything but the most casual builds
Paradox Engine - I cannot list all the potential combos with this card, just that there are an insane amount available.
Portcullis - Amazing anti aggro card. Totally shuts down token and creature based strategies. Something to note is that it does not stop enters the battlefield effects
Prototype Portal - Good if youve got tons of spare mana and a playing against opponents who lack removal; but in my experience this sort of imprint gets targeted before its actually useful
Rakdos Signet - mana rock
Rings of Brighthearth - Combos with everything. good god what a beastly edh card. if you are going for infinite combos in your mishra win condition, I recommend rings.
Scroll Rack - A fantastic value engine combined with Mishra, who can shuffle away anything we don't want when we put it ontop our library. Thanks to Fiddler for calling this card out.
Sculpting Steel - fantastic artifact clone in Mishra
Semblance Anvil - Not a fan of remove from hand exile effects as they draw removal, but potent cost reduction spell
Sensei's Divining Top - Allows us to control our top decks, which is fantastic in a deck with mana to spare
Skeleton Shard - Artifact recursion, fantastic card for Mishra
Skullclamp - Great draw; but most builds wont have enough small creatures to benefit from this. Pair with artifact creatures you can weld in and out of play
Smokestack - the original stax effect. very powerful in mishra, coupled with artifact recursion effects
Sol Ring - THE manarock
Sphere of Resistance - Another great stax card, keeping our opponents from playing more permanents
Spine of Ish Sah - Removal of any permanent that we can weld into something else then recast. This card is amazing in my experience with it
Staff of Domination - a great way to dump tons of spare mana, which this deck generates with its vast amoumt of mana rocks
Staff of Nin - card advantage generator with the ability to poke at utility creatures our opponents have
Storage Matrix - Great in stax builds
Swiftfoot Boots - protect Mishra / other key creatures
Sword of Fire and Ice - And all its siblings - all solid and powerful cards, fire and ice being the best imo for Mishra. If you are going Voltron variant, these are great.
Tangle Wire - In a stax-ish build, this card is pretty amazing at locking down your opponents
Thran Dynamo - mana rock
Tormod's Crypt - Targeted grave removal on an artifact is always nice in mishra
Torpor Orb - hate card, fantastic if your build doesnt have a mass of ETB effects on your creatures. Makes for great weld swapping with Simulacrum.
Trading Post - artifact recursion combined with chump block generation with the ability to draw cards when you need to, very versatile.
Trinisphere - fantastic against pesky cheap critter decks like Edric, and abusive in stax
Unwinding Clock - untaps everything on every turn. incredibly powerful
Vedalken Orrery - instant speed casting for all our cards, which is incredibly powerful
Voltaic Key - Very useful card throughout game, pairs well with mana sources and creatures alike, and can combo
Winter Orb - A stax decks best friend. Take away their resources and tap the rest
Enchantments
Blood Funnel - Cheaper artifacts and synergizes with Mishra (let the card go into grave, then search for it).
Bludgeon Brawl - Enables us to turn our rocks and static effect artifacts into equips to bolster our critters.
Counterbalance - Pairs strongly with Sensei's, very good static counter effect.
Dissipation Field - A great turn off for pesky voltron commanders.
Future Sight - Pairs well with Sensei's and Veldae
Goblin Assault - Another stax mitigation card, not quite as useful as Bitterblossom unfortunately.
Ice Cave - Enables us to turn our copious mana rocks into counter magic. Add in Lattice and suddenly we can counter all real threats while ignoring the effect via Mishra
Land Equilibrium - keeps opponents land count low in stax games
Leyline of Anticipation - enabling all our cards to be cast at instant speed is always very handy
Leyline of the Void - We want to preserve our own graveyard, but banishing your opponents is always useful, especially when playing stax and you want to prevent them from leveraging their own recursion
Mana Vortex - Stax effect for all players lands
March of the Machines - Turn your board into an alpha strike
Mechanized Production - Create copies of whatever you need! ETB creatures, beaters, mana rocks, artifact lands. If you can protect it for 8 turns, auto win! Very versatile copy card and i love it for this deck.
Necropotence - A card advantage king.
Nether Void - Incredibly synergy with mishra, we allow this to counter our own effects and mishra retrieves our artifacts from the grave
No Mercy - Mishra generates a ton of ramp, but he doesnt flood the board with blockers early. If your meta is full of aggro decks, something to consider
Phyrexian Arena - Card Advantage generator
Pia's Revolution - Political implications are huge, and a form of recursion for our artifacts.
Planar Chaos - Makes our opponents play through 50:50 counter magic, which we ignore because of Mishra
Possibility Storm - Amazing synergy with Mishra. Note that you can cast Mishra AFTER storm, since storm doesnt effect cards cast if they didnt come from your hand.
Power Artifact - Useful throughout the deck, can also enable infinite combos with Monolith like cards.
Rhystic Study - Card advantage.
Spreading Plague - Mono color deck's mortal enemy; pairs well with artifact creatures who frequently dont have other types
The Abyss - Stax effects are strong in mishra, definitely worth considering...if youve got the money
Thopter Spy Network - Useful in stax-y builds in generating sacrifice fodder. Also has potential in artifact army builds for curiosity effect
Planeswalkers
Dack Fayden - Cool card, but not really useful unless you are making an artifact theft based build
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast - What a name. Firstly, great mana cost. Creates 1/1 construct tokens on his +1 which are useful. -1 is sac an artifact and you can destroy a creature or artifact, and his -6 is basically game over for our opponents if we get it off.
Daretti, Scrap Savant - Card filtering, goblin welding, indestructible generating Darettim - what a beautiful planeswalker.
Jace, Architect of Thought - Helps limit attackers to help against aggressive swarm strategies (looking at you Krenko). Ult brings some mishra synergy
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Hard to argue against big Jace. This guy allows brain storm spamming and wins 1v1 games.
Karn Liberated - Robowalker goes into any deck well, and this deck is no exception. not perfect, but versatile and useful
Karn, the Great Creator - A new combo win with our Mycosynth Lattice. Undeniably powerful.
Liliana of the Veil - Valuable in a stax oriented build
Saheeli Rai - Cheap planeswalker that if we can protect puts a 3 card combo on the board. Scry, clones artifacts, wins the game. Great at all levels.
Sorin Markov - His -3 is pretty dope, but overall not a huge boon to this deck
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas - Generates card advantage almost with every +, can generate blockers, and can recoup life, which is something this build lacks
Tezzeret, Artifice Master - Card draw, blockers, and a crazy ultimate that forwards our goals. Replacing Karn with him.
Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge - Incidental life gain, card recursion, and also a strong ulti if he gets there. Plus he helps us cheat mana costs which is insanely powerful.
Tezzeret the Seeker - Untaps our mana rocks for explosive mana ramp. Fetches artifacts we need when we ned them, and can march of machines our board. I recommend purely off his tutoring and untapping alone.
Sorcery
Black Sun's Zenith - One of my favorite board wipes
Demonic Tutor - If you want to combo out hard and fast, this is a key card.
Fabricate - Artifact tutor at a good CC.
Increasing Ambition - A pricey tutor, but with our mana rocks, this card can fetch all the pieces to a 3 card or less combo all by itself.
Praetor's Grasp - Synergizes beautifully with Mishra and can be used for utility when you don't need it to.
Psychic Intrusion - Learn their hand, psuedo card advantage for us, and can even synergize with mishra if you steal an artifact.
Recurring Insight - A solid Consecrated Sphinx substitute.
Scrap Mastery - Another great C14 gift from wizards. Recovers us from an overloaded Vandalblast
Thoughtcast - I prefer thirst for knowledge to dig 1 deeper, since we dont care if cards go into our grave; but this isnt terrible, potentially 2 cards for 1 mana.
Trash for Treasure - One time weld. Not the best card, but handy
Transmute Artifact - Into play artifact tutor
Vandalblast - Speak of the devil - this card is a game ending spell with Mycosynth Lattice in play.
Wheel of Fortune - Hand reload and throw away what your opponents have been saving. also pretty neat vs that guy with 40 cards in hand
Instants
It is very hard to list good black, blue, and red instants for Mishra without just listing all the top 50 cards. Countermagic if you want it, cyclonic rift and other auto includes, just tons of high powered instants. I would recommend fleshing out your decklist first, then adding what you need after a few play tests.
Blinkmoth Infusion - UU to untap our board at instant speed? pretty amazing. Does require a lot of board presence to be worth it though. Kind of a dead draw as a top deck unless you need to set up for it. All in all, good, but underwhelming
Hurkyl's Recall - Saves your own stuff from wipes, and can really mess with opponents with Lattice
Paradoxical Outcome - Great in storm or 75%. Bounce all your mana rocks, draw a card for each one, then replay them all!
Spelljack - Potential synergy with Mishra, if used on an artifact. A bit pricey though.
Thirst for Knowledge - We have tons of artifact recursion, which turns this into draw 3, discard 1 that you'll get back soon.
Vampiric Tutor - If you're going for 100% effort on winning, this is a must have combo piece retriever
Whir of Invention - Instant speed into play tutor that we can use any artifact in play to pay for. Straight amazing.
Lands
Bojuka Bog - Exile a grave on a land. Pretty fantastic
Buried Ruin - Academy Ruin's lame cousin, but still worth considering for more recusion
Darksteel Citadel, Great Furnace, Seat of the Synod, Vault of Whispers - Artifact lands that can be welded if a pinch. Pretty amazingly useful
Glimmervoid - Normally very useful, but can be a dead draw in an opener or at the wrong time in the early game. I prefer basics to this.
Inventors' Fair - Land...tutor? Holy crap this one is amazing.
Mishra's Factory - artifact creature that can block up to 3/3s for surprise sometimes, can also be welded into more important cards
Mishra's Workshop - if you have the money, you should run this card, but its ungodly expensive
Phyrexia's Core - in meta's flooded with theft decks, this is pretty great when they try to steal your tech.
Sea Gate Wreckage - if you are in top deck mode, this card can get you back into the game.
Tolaria West - Always nice to have a land tutoring land.
Urza's Factory - Strictly meh, but if you dont have color fixing issues, worth a slot for chump blockers / token generation
Urza's Mine - Strictly a cute move, you'll see the full set 1 in 20 games tops. Real Mishra players dont hang with Urza anyways.
Urza's Power Plant - See Urza's Mine
Urza's Tower - See Urza's Mine
Volrath's Stronghold - More recursion makes it hard for your stuff to stay gone
Cards that I have dropped from my build:
Please see the 2nd post for a full change log and history of my build. I change it frequently as I like to experiment, and it keeps my playgroup on their toes.
Why Listen to me?
I transitioned over to EDH around 2012; when I joined MTG Salvation. I had recently moved, and none of my new friends played legacy. My first EDH deck was a Dralnu deck that I made out of spare cards that the timmy in me wanted to see played. Time Warp, Time Stretch, etc. I did not do well, but found a love for the format. I then shifted to Azami wizards, and realized that playing some of the best decks wasnt ideal for casual games at the kitchen table. Today, i still enjoy playing power cards and winning games; but I also see the fun in casually playing with friends, and thats where Mishra and I joined forces.
For those coming from reddit, I am u/frotch on reddit, and frequent both the magicTCG and edh subreddits.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Out:
Rakdos Signet - Honestly, I don't miss the minor ramp much, and since we are so heavily leaning towards colorless, the color fixing is not necessary any longer.
Skeleton Shard - The build simply doesnt rely on creature recursion as much as the early years, and this card's removal is a long time coming.
Daretti, Scrap Savant - A great commander in his own right, he simply isnt as necessary in the build any longer. He never gets to emblem size, and his rummage ability doesnt really fuel us well. He is too heavily targeted for too little self preservation.
In:
Karn, the Great Creator - A new combo win with our Mycosynth Lattice. Undeniably powerful
Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge - Incidental life gain, card recursion, and also a strong ulti if he gets there. Plus he helps us cheat mana costs which is insanely powerful.
Emry, Lurker of the Loch - Much better recursion for our deck since it hits any artifact, plus shes basically a 1 drop for us every game.
Karn Liberated - I love this card so much, but he has turned into a 7 drop single target removal. Cutting him because he never seems to get mileage.
Phyrexian Arena - Card draw is great, but this is such a slow source of draw that I have found it underwhelming as of late, and have been cutting it from my decks.
In:
Tezzeret, Artifice Master - Card draw, blockers, and a crazy ultimate that forwards our goals. Replacing Karn with him.
Sai, Master Thopterist - I am hoping he performs better than Arena, gives us blockers in the early game, while being beefy himself; and also, provides a draw source for us
Burnished Hart - Simply put, I wasnt getting the mileage for the investment, this card is too slow for my meta now.
In:
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - With so many historic permanents in this deck, this card is a massive draw engine for us! Thanks DOM!
Out:
Saheeli Rai - Her ultimate is an instant win for us with our 3 card combo, BUT, she never gets that far, and her first 2 abilities are, for the most part, weak.
In:
Storm the Vault - Is this a surprise to anyone? if we get it turn 2 or 3 courtesy of a sol ring, it provides early game ramp, if we hit it in the mid game, we get an explosion of mana at the end of our turn.
75% deck alterations:
basically, my local meta has shifted HARD to tribal decks as of late. lots of elf, zombies, beasts, etc. So my deck has shifted to combat faster early games and creature based strategies.
out
reliquary tower - i rarely hold onto a hand over 7 cards, so reliquary tower wasn't accomplishing much. due to a shift to creature decks, replaced with a man land (that also can infect win rarely) - inkmoth nexus
thran dynamo - good mana, but arrives too late. replaced with signet that helps my weaker 2 colors.
tezzeret the seeker - Slow, doesnt survive long, and is a single target tutor more often than not. replaced with whir, which does the job better in my opinion.
arcane denial - counter magic does nothing against tons of critters, and i rarely have the mishra setup on the board to capitalize on countering my own card.
myr retriever - a decent little chump blocker, but i think scrap trawler will be superior more often than not.
tangle wire - while very good at slowing down opponents early, i have few ways to really capitalize on this card in my 75% build. Usually it just pisses everyone off and gets me a big target on my head.
torpor orb - while there are a lot of new creatures, not enough ETB to justify this card slot.
in
inkmoth nexus - man land that can win a game as an alternate, hyper late game win condition.
rakdos signet - faster mana
the abyss - really does work against creature strategies, especially if i can get it early
whir of invention - instant speed artifact into play tutor. holy hell this thing is versatile. added bonus that it has Improvise.
daretti, ingenious iconoclast - 3 drop planeswalker that has really versatile abilities. i can set up chump blockers, spot remove necessary targets, or basically win the game with him if i manager to -6.
scrap trawler - myr retriever on roids.
mechanized production - versatility. i can replicate key artifact creatures, i can replicate mana rocks, i can replicate artifact lands. let it sit 8 turns? i win. I don't think i'll ever win with it, but it has crazy usefulness.
- 1 time spiral - 6 mana was steep for this deck, paradoxical outcome actually yields better results
- 1 grapeshot - never enough damage, playtesting aetherflux reservoir as a back up kill condition
- 1 dragonskull summit - enters play tapped, time to go.
- 1 drowned catacomb - enters play tapped, time to go.
+ 1 inventors' fair - this card is amazing, tutor on a land? godly
+ 1 snowcovered swamp - black mana tends to be the most useful in this deck
+ 1 aetherflux reservoir - alternate kill card with storm.
+ 1 paradoxical outcome - tap out rocks, bounce rocks, draw lots of cards, play rocks again for storm count
mishra voltron
- 1 time spiral - as with storm, want to try paradoxical here
- 1 dragonskull summit
- 1 drowned catacomb
- 1 solemn simulacrum - underperforms for 4 mana, want to try padeem instead
+ 1 inventors' fair
+ 1 snowcovered swamp
+ 1 paradoxical outcome
+ 1 padeem, consul of innovation - Padeem has amazing potential as a card draw engine AND protection for our artifacts
Mishra stacks
- 1 magus of the abyss - Slow and kills himself often
- 1 squee goblin nabob - i run less discard now, so squee is less useful
- 1 dragonskull summit
- 1 drowned catacomb
+ 1 inventors' fair
+ 1 snowcovered swamp
+ 1 static orb - amazing stax lockdown card at any stage of the game
+ 1 daretti, ingenious iconoclast - makes fodder, kills creature, 3cc - amazing for stax
Mishra robot army
- 1 dragonskull summit
- 1 drowned catacomb
- 1 solemn simulacrum
+ 1 inventors' fair
+ 1 snowcovered swamp
+ 1 padeem, consul of innovation
Mishra 75
- 1 dragonskull summit
- 1 drowned catacomb
- 1 blood funnel - Under performing as of late. I only really get mileage out of it in storm, so i am dropping it from the 75%
- 1 solemn simulacrum
+ 1 inventors' fair
+ 1 snowcovered swamp
+ 1 Saheeli Rai
+ 1 padeem, consul of innovation
In:
Demonic Tutor - consistency boost
Vampiric Tutor
Pithing Needle - shuts down obnoxious generals
Out
Liliana of the Veil - couldnt protect self well enough in multiplayer. normally was a diabolic edict.
Pendrell Mists - too slow at 4 drop, earns hate but doesnt stop threats fast enough
Lodestone Golem - too slow
Mana Crypt - Mo mana, mo awesome
OUT:
Mana Web - Less awesome when we dont face counter magic
1 Mana Crypt - free mana in a storm deck is always a plus
1 Gamble - one of the cheapest tutors. fun little risky card
OUT:
1 Diabolic Tutor - Simply put? too expensive for use when comboing out
1 Fractured Powerstone - less mana efficient than crypt
1 sword of fire and ice - the swords of x and y make our creatures a lot scarier
1 sword of light and shadow
1 sword of body and mind
OUT:
1 Havengul Lich - Too pricy, too valuable to put in redzone
1 Chief Engineer - convoke means im not swinging
1 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer - great in theory, never useful when i have him
Volcanic Island - Mishra's shiney new island fortress of doom! super stoked to get a copy!
Karn Liberated - my kick ass little brother got this for me for christmas this year, super happy to add him to my deck!
OUT:
Herald of Kozilek - required 2 colored mana, is not an artifact, and this isnt a combo build. All in all, not an ideal fit.
Snow-covered Swamp - I think i am down to 6 black cards in the deck, plus Mishra, so for now, gonna drop a little on black basics, since they arent as necessary with all my mana fixing.
Volrath's Stronghold - Recursion is your friend
Herald of Kozilek - Cheaper stuff is better stuff
Ensnaring Bridge - Tired of voltrons messing up my day, so i want to be immune to them.
OUT:
Bojuka Bog - Not a lot of reanimator in my circle right now, not necessary, rather have an untapped land like stronghold
Etched Champion - Dont need champion if i can stick bridge
Feldon of the Third Path - feldon was great when i was a lot heavier with creatures, but right now hes kinda a dead draw. i love him, but i cant find much use of him right now.
Badlands
Underground Sea - Moving some legacy lands from decks that are shelved into a deck i play every chance i get
Out:
Snow-Covered Mountain
Snow-Covered Island
Mishra's Workshop - One step closer to artificer perfection
Out:
Snow-Covered Swamp
Arcane Denial
Portcullis
Spreading Plague
Tangle Wire
3x Snow Basics - Snow-Covered Island Snow-Covered Swamp Snow-Covered Mountain
Out:
Master of Etherium - Waste of space
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer - Not as good without loads of ramp
ice cave - less ramp, less value
arcbound retriever - top of library wasnt as useful as in hand
Crumbling Necropolis - etb tapped
Lonely Sandbar - etb tapped
Grixis Panorama - slow mana is slow
Ancient Tomb
Blood Crypt
Steam Vents
Watery Grave
Out:
Temple of the False God
Vivid Crag
Vivid Creek
Vivid Marsh
In:
Hurkyl's Recall - self protection and board wipe with lattice makes this card versatile and a bomb
Ice Cave - my meta needs to be taught a lesson. spammable countermagic
Out:
Nullstone Gargoyle - never playable outside of welding, makes him less desirable as a whole
Crosis's Charm - amazing versatility, but trying something new
In:
Guardian Beast - Another Darksteel forge for my win cond, and a 4 drop one at that
Metalworker - mega ramp!
Scalding Tarn - Adding fetches package to smooth manabase
Bloodstained Mire - Adding fetches package to smooth manabase
Polluted Delta - Adding fetches package to smooth manabase
Reflecting Pool - more versatile land than the storage lands imo
Out:
Dimir Signet - Signets are solid, metalworkers are better
Silent-Blade Oni - 'good stuff' card that also synergizes with Mishra. That said, he is too pricey a CC to be useful in my build anymore
Evolving Wilds / Terramorphic Expanse - Bad fetches
Dreadship Reef / Molten Slagheap - Kept telling myself i'd use these as storage lands, and never end up doing so
Cavern of Souls
Out:
Arcane Lighthouse
Last night's experiments all went well - making them main deck:
In:
Nether Void - Got it into play 1x, and it was game changing for me. love at first sight
junk diver - recursion flier
myr retriever - recursion chump blocker
master of etherium - fatty who boosts robot army
cloud key - wide spread ramp card
Vedalken archmage - creature draw engine, should meet more cards than minds eye
crawlspace - to help mitigate attacks from aggro opponents
etched champion - super blocker
Out:
Mimic Vat - nonbo with etb and torpor orb, never as useful as i want it to be
mind's eye - replacing with a creature draw engine
black sun's zenith - more creatures means I want less wipes
mana web - situational card, temporarily benched
grinning totem - telegraphs my moves with mishra out, never works as desired
darksteel ingot - meh mana rock. Replaced with cloud key for more distributed ramp
karn, silver golem - strong synergy with lattice, but underused, I normally don't abuse him as desired
spine of ish sah - great removal paired with welder, but very costly, benched for creature variant
Land Upgrade!
In
4x Snow-Covered Island
4x Snow-Covered Mountain
4x Snow-Covered Swamp
Out
4x Island
4x Mountain
4x Swamp
In
mind's eye - potentially more card draw than staff of nin, which it replaces directly
recurring insight - significant card advantage; on par with C.Sphinx - but draws less hate normally and less risk for an opponent to steal.
thirst for knowledge - long overdue for this deck, this card has performed beautifully
mimic vat - spammable creature recursion. This hopefully will aid with chump blocking as well.
Out
Ornate Kanzashi - meant to synergize with mishra; too hit or miss for dependable useage.
staff of nin - im hoping that mind's eye trumps this
Nim Deathmantle - meant to work well with arcum and other sac outlets, but too expensive for the cute synergy
Izzet Signet - slowly cutting back on rocks as they seem less and less necessary
Added another board wipe to help vs critter based decks
OUT
Rakdos Signet - I have plenty of mana most games; this has the least useful forms of mana to me.
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer - I rarely use his ability, so im benching him for the time being
Vedalken Orrery - Really, i dont get much mileage out of this so far; no need for now
IN
Arcum Dagsson - Gotta up that power level
Black Sun's Zenith - Boardwipe
Mana Web - lock down mana for people playing on my turn. in multiplayer, this will make people take their time before countering your stuff
Deck is too slow out of gates; mostly due to lands entering play tapped. Increased basics count for fetch land usage, dropped guildgate equivolent lands
OUT
IN
Deck proved to consistently lock people out via ice cave and had much too consistent of a search engine in Dagsson.
OUT
IN
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Nether Void- Received 2/28/15Metalworker- received 4/16/15Guardian Beast- received 4/16/15Steam Vents- received 6/29/15Blood Crypt- received 6/29/15Watery Grave- received 6/29/15Karn Liberated- received 12/25/15 thanks Chris!Mishra's Workshop- received 8/10/15 (traded 4x tarmogoyf, currently my largest trade in history)Badlands- Received 8/20/15Volcanic Island- received 1/7/16Mox Opal- received 3/12/16The Abyss- received 3/12/16Maze of Ith- Received 6/21/16Mana Crypt- Received 6/21/16Ugin, the Spirit Dragon- received 6/14/2017I cannot afford Nether Void or The Abyss, what do I do?
I love these cards. They are a blast. They are strong and do serious work for this deck. THEY. ARE. NOT. NECESSARY. In my build, you can easily substitute these cards with any creature hate effects, Mishra synergy, or even more lands to help balance your mana base. Some ideas I would recommend include Blood Funnel, Spine of Ish Sah, Crosis's Charm, Pendrell Mists, and Feldon of the Third Path.
Why'd you remove Arcum Dagsson?!?!?-Simply put, he was stupidly game ending. The deck has several ways of protecting him, and once he resolved, it was pretty much game over, as he is able to search for whatever i need to protect my board state, as well as lead myself to a win. Simply put, too powerful for a what i wanted in my build. That said...he does live in the deck box incase i need to power up a little bit
hes back in...
Why no countermagic?
-Because I run 2 other decks feature a strong countermagic suite, and I wanted to go out of my comfort zone. This deck is intended to be able to win, but not get there by relying on countering our opponents key spells. Countermagic simply isnt needed in my build.
Why not stax?
-Cuz I dont find it fun to not play the whole game. Solitaire isn't my thing, i play edh to be social. This isnt a cutthroat build and i want to play the game with my opponents. Stax is effective with Mishra, but make sure you are ready for a target on your back. Most playgroups dont take kindly to stax decks.
Edit - My list has evolved, and while my primary list isnt purely stax oriented, you will see lots of deliciously evil stax effects throughout my build.
No Sphinx? No Necropotence?
-I run both, in both my other decks. I am trying to play something different. If you want a more serious version of the deck, i would drop some weaker artifacts and pick both of those up. Simply the best card draw UB can ask for.
Where are all the great black tutors?
-75% build. I really dont want them; I feel the key to a more tame, casual build is the lack of tutors, removal, and countermagic. This deck has big sweeping plays, and I feel having cards like Arcum Dagsson already make it too consistent. I dont want to play the same strategy as fast as i can every game; thats what my damia build is for. Its not that im pulling punches, as much as I am trying to play a less consistent deck that requires me to play a tighter game.
In light of the new Tuck rules - what about Chaos Warp?
Even though Warp no longer hits commanders as hard, it is still removal for any type of permanent - in a color that struggles to do so. It was the primary form of tucking for this deck, and with the loss of tuck, that is unfortunate, but it allows us to still interact with enchantments easily, hits any permanent type, ignores indestructible. In my opinion, its still fantastic spot removal, and for the time being shall remain in my build.
How do we salvage Possibility Storm or our other enchantments when they end up in the graveyard?
As I mention in the cards to consider section, Crystal Chimes is a fine way to retrieve these tools from the bin. In my build, I run numerous effects, possibility storm, nether void, chaos warp, etc. In my experience, these cards don't win the game - which means I am disappointed to have my opponents remove them, but I am unlikely to invest effort in bringing them back. They do 3 things.
How do you win constantly?
As I say early in the primer, playing Mishra isnt about winning game constantly. He isnt my play-to-crush-my-opponents commander. Mishra is my, i've-put-effort-into-building-this-guy commmander. If I wanted to be more competitive, I'd be loaded up on tutors and countermagic to protect my combo, and drop it earlier and more consistently. My current Mishra build is designed to be 75%. My current meta is full of growing and learning players, and while there are a few true terrors in my circles (a gnarly prossh deck, an athreos-stax deck, and a few others), when I want to win I switch to a competitive commander. I would say my win rate with mishra is under 50%, above 30%.
You may be asking - why build a commander, why put the effort into writing a primer, if you aren't going to play a list that makes him as strong as possible? Mishra isn't the kind of commander that will be able to arch-enemy, or win every game constantly. If that is what you want, look elsewhere. With Mishra I wanted to build a deck that would give me unique experiences each game; and while I may try to control my opponents, I don't believe in completely locking my friends out of playing in a kitchen table format. This is just MY philosophy, and I am currently working on additional Mishra builds in the main thread to cover much more competitive builds than my current 75% build (if i go to more events with Mishra, I'll go spike and make him a terror, but for now, I play him kitchen table).
Is can there be a Hybrid between the storm list and the Primary list you have already put together? I like the idea of soft locks, but with the price of some of these cards (Lattice and Blightsteel) I think storming might be a fun way to include an alternate way to win. Let me know your thoughts.
I have never actually tried mixing and matching the soft lock with a storm win condition. I think if that was my objective, I would look into an artifact combo that perhaps abused mixing Future Sight, a card like Divining Top, and cost reducers for the win condition mixed into the primary list in place of the current win conditions. Something that is a combo that generates infinite casts and a card draw engine to produce the storm count and draw into the win card I want.
If that was the case, I'd likely cut Blightsteel, Niv's Disk, and Mycosynth Lattice (forge i'd likely keep, since its so strong), and add in Future Sight, Mind's Eye, and Tendrils of Agony.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Grabbed a Sculpting Steel out of my trade binder. It will now live in my deckbox until i find a card that it will replace. Any suggestions from anyone?
I agree, i cannot justify Nether Void - odds are i will disassemble this deck within a year or two, and i dont wanna drop almost 200 bucks on a card that i dont need in anything else.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
without possiblity storm in play, this deck ramps up incredibly quickly, and goes to set up a superior creature base of critters that dont stay dead.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
reduced coutering effects - dropped ice cave and chalice - synergize well with mishra, but they make the game unfun for opponents more so than enable opponents to be political which was their intent.
added new C14 planeswalker Daretti, scrap mastery, wurmcoil etc. see change log for full details (second post)
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Marath, Will of the Wild Tokens!! / Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund Dragons! / Muzzio, Visionary Architect / Brago, King Eternal / Daretti, Scrap Savant / Narset, Enlightened Master / Alesha, Who Smiles at Death / Bruna, Light of Alabaster / Marchesa, the Black Rose / Iroas, God of Victory / Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury / Omnath, Locus of rage / Titania, Protector of Argoth / Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Modern
Elves / Titanshift / Merfolk
I think im going to start making a more cutthroat version and post both here in the top post; so people can play with a more casual variant (and more economical of course) or a more cutthroat no holds barred version; then maybe apply for primer status.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Adding into the deck:
Not sure what to remove yet; in the process of tweaking then experimenting.
I am open to other board wipe ideas, currently going with BSZ because i have one on hand. I contemplated Oblivion Stone, but have yet to acquire it.
Mana Web to limit others from playing counter magic / instant speed effects and also slow down their turns.
Arcum cuz hes a boss.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Damnation, Blasphemous Act, Oblivion Stone, Jokulhaups (rather cruel..) just to list a few.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
I prefer to just Spell Crumple and tick them, though.
good old tuck effects. As for ashes to ashes, not a bad option; though i wish it wasnt 2 targets specifically. I think im going to lean more on board wipes though - my issues lately have been an elf deck (precon modified) and stuff running indestructibles. BSZ solves both those problems for me.
I am thinking about experimenting with the following cards:
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Also, if you steal someone else's artifacts out of their decks, just throw those at them instead.
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Currently experimenting with:
Mind's Eye
Howling Mine (cute combo with mind's eye)
Thirst for Knowledge
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
very solid advice. I shall put recurring insight and thirst for knowledge into my testing rotation
Primer - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
Thor, Ragnar Röks!
Hela, and the Enemies of Asgard
Teferi, Temporal Archmage