Mishra, Artificer Prodigy
My History with Mishra
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.
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 will NOT 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
My Decklist
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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 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."
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.
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
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How my primary build works:
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.
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!!
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!!
Phases of the game: Mishra's Strategy
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.
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.
How do I win?
Ok, yes, all the above is all well and good, but how do we close out the game?
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!
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!
Mishra's Workshop - Cards to Consider
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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 - 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
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.
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.
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I'm still waiting for enemy filter lands from Odyssey!
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If I were you I would pick one deck you really like, and get that manabase. Your secondary decks will be relegated to mostly decks w/o RL lands (Burn, Fish, D&T, Manaless Dredge, Omnitell, Oops, etc). You have a lot of traders - so try to turn your mish-mash dual land collection into something actually playable:
Best of luck!
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But I do miss:
Yeah, I miss old design.
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'They' was used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun throughout most of the modern English language. It was the late 19th century when a group of English aristocrats created "prescriptive grammar" in attempt to rewrite the rules of the language (and make English more like Latin).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4166805
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Also, make Pauper (Legacy-Lite) a sanctioned and supported format too.
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Printed at expedition rarity, of course.
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All formats become more expensive as they pick up steam. But evidence has shown people will flock to a good non-rotating format even if it costs a bit of money. It's only when the entry cost becomes prohibitively large that growth begins to stagnate.
Pauper is miles away from the cost of Standard or Modern; and has more of an "old school" feel as well, being a true eternal format. This makes it a great alternative for people who don't care for the Modern meta and/or prices. Legacy is reaching a critical mass where buying in is out of reach for the majority. 1-on-1 EDH is similarly expensive, and not even that popular. For most people, Pauper is the only option for competitive eternal MTG. I think it will go far (and I am planning on building a deck or 2 myself).
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https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/land-destruction-weak-2002-04-05
Now red is lacking both LD and rituals. Way to gut the game, WotC.
I'm still sour over this. I would so love to run this in Legacy RUG Lands. But we can't have good utility lands or counter spells; only OP aggro/control creatures.
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That said, quality counter-spells and discard are good against CIP effects (as are creature hosers like Humility or Ghostly Prison). As I said, playable generic answers police formats. Standard needs them desperately.