turn-1-sol-ring

[turn-1-sol-ring]

Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Review - Part Two

Hello Elder Dragons, let's end this set review with the rest of our legendary creatures for Lost Caverns of Ixalan + Jurassic Park!

Ian Malcolm, Chaotician is our first Jurassic Park legendary creature, and not the one I'm most excited for. Adding the unique restriction that players cannot cast their own exiled cards does open a lot of interesting space for a group slug/Chaos deck, where any spell you would exile would be detrimental to the whole table, but being punished for drawing cards in Izzet of all colors feels very bad. Playing with cards like Nalfeshnee to get the most value out of spells out of exile is a good place to start!

Saheeli, The Sun's Brilliance is a tried-and-true design, and a very exciting option both in the 99 of decks like Brudiclad and as the leader of a deck. Adding a second color to Feldon of the Third Path is absolutely huge, but the permanents you want to copy must be on the battlefield instead of in the graveyard, which make cheating mana a lot harder. At a very cheap 2 mana to cast and 2 to activate, you will be able to start getting value very early, both from workhorse cards like Solemn Simulacrum and Mulldrifter, or from powerful haymakers like Myr Battlesphere. The fact that the token is sacrificed and not exiled is also a huge upside to get double value from small artifacts like Mycosinth Wellspring or Junk Diver. Fantastic commander, and one I would build if I did not already have multiple artifact decks.

Akawalli, the Seething Tower is the Golgari signpost uncommon of the set, and while it's a straightforward, voltron-focused commander, it's also, for a pretty small investement in self-mill, a 3-mana 7/7 with trample that can't be multi-blocked. There's plenty of ways to grant menace in black, turning it into a straight unblockable creature that will kill your opponents in 3 attacks without any additional pieces of equipment. Akawalli is sneakily very dangerous, and if you play in a low-interaction pod, your opponents will learn pretty fast to pack up a bit more removal.

The Mycotyrant, beside having a truly metal name, also somewhat undermines my previous comments on Akawalli. For 3 mana and self-mill, you get a REAL threat. It requires a bit more set up, but it is undeniably more powerful, allowing you to both go tall with the Mycotyrant, Deep by milling a lot of cards through Dredge and Mulch effects, Wide by creating a very large number of tokens very quickly, which can both be sent into the red zone, or sacrificed for fun and profits. You can also go in a different direction and build a Fungus Typal supported by the likes of Sporecrown Thallid and Slimefoot, the Stowaway. Overall, an exciting, powerful, and versatile option for Golgari. Also, as a clarification, Tokens do not fuel The Mycotyrant's triggered ability, as tokens aren't cards as per the rules.

Caparocti Sunborn is pretty powerful for an uncommon legendary creature. An generically-aggressive Boros commander that provide card and mana advantage with a little setup is nothing to scoff at, as discover is a very powerful mechanic. All that on a 4-mana 4/4 that only requires you to have a few tokens or value creatures laying around. Having to wait a whole turn is not great if your playgroup plays a bit more interaction, but if you have a boros Midrange deck, Caparocti is certainly worth the try in the command zone.

Anim Pakal, Thousandt Moon is a very good aggressive commander, in many ways similar to Krenko, Tin Street Kingping, but different in small, important ways. Gaining a color and generating creatures that are also artifacts, on top of having them enter the battlefield tapped and attacking, are all significant upgrades. However, Krenko only cared about having his power increased, whereas Anim needs +1/+1 counters, making the classic voltron route a lot less appealing. Boros +1/+1 counters in a pretty untapped archetype, but it also doesn't have a lot of support. Obviously, Cathars' Crusade is a must-have, but I wouldn't spit on one-shot effects like Angelfire Ignition either.

Nicanzil, Current Conductor is, unironcally, my favorite commander of the set. I LOVE explore as a mechanic, and a cheap legendary creature that turbocharge the mechanic is awesome. My only complain is that it's Simic and not Sultai, preventing me from running Lurking Chupacabra. Otherwise, load as much Explore as you can, grab some cards that provide evasion, such as Whispersilk Cloak or Herald of the Streams, add a bunch of landfall cards like Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Rampagning Baloth (With Path of Discovery for maximum value) and you got yourself a sweet explore deck.

Hakbal of the Surging Soul is also an explore commander, but this one cares about being Merkfolk typal first and foremost. Hakbal is very, very powerful, rapidly snowballing your merfolks into lethal threats with effects like Hardned Scales. The fact that it has an attack trigger on top of that really is the cherry on top, providing the classic combo of Ramp or card draw. Any number of merfolk token generation, such as Deeproot Waters, will make put Hakbal into overdrive, and make you the threat very quickly, so be ready to be a bit of an archenemy with this commander.

Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood is first and foremost an adorable axolotl, and secondly, a powerful Simic Flash commander. A sort of DIY Wilderness Reclamation for any permanents, Xolatoyac allows you to spend your turn spending your mana to advance your board while still keeping mana up for responsiveness. Because it works with any counters, you can have fun rmping with Storage lands like Saprazzan Cove, or artifacts like Component Pouch, Coalition Relic, or Empowered Autogenerator. You can also add the Thirteenth Doctor to double up on untapping your creatures with counters.

Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists is a very cool and unique Bant commander, asking that you put creatures in your graveyard to get free value! This works with self-mill like Satyr Wayfinder or Mulch, with creatures with Cycling abilities to fill your graveyard at low rate, and exile those creatures to get free spells on top of the card advantage! I'd also recommend taking a look at Chakram Retriever, Which would allow you to have explosive discovery turns, and Misthollow Gryffin + Eternal Scourge, for cards you can exile multiple times.

Admiral Brass, Unsinkable is a new take on Pirate typal, throwing graveyard synergy in the mix with your evasive and disruptive threats. A free hasty 4/4 every turn, as long as you have a full bin, is no joke, and modt pirates tend to have disruptives ability attached to them, like Warkite Marauder or Hostage Taker, providing even more value. Grixis is probably the best color combo to fill your graveyard, between mill and looting effects such as Faithless Looting and Frantic Search. It's a more explosive pirate deck, compared to her previous incarnation, which wanted to play a more tempo-oriented deck.

Don Andres, the Renegade, is a new grixis Theft commander, in the line of Evelyn, the Covetous. Don Andres, however, is a lot more interested in smashing face with what you stole. +2/+2, Menace and Deathtouch is a serious buff, turning mostly inconsequential creatures into beatsticks. Getting free treasured of your Mind Siphon and Praetor's Grasp is also pretty good deal. Personally, I'd throw the Theft stapled such as Hostage Taker and Control Magic in with a few Threaten effects like Kari Zev's Expertise, and mass threathen like Mob Rule.

Indoraptor, the Perfect Hybrid is a sweet Jund Enrage/Combo commander that takes enough work to setup to avoid feeling oppressive. Starting at 1 toughness forces you to find a way to grant it Indestructible if you want to combo with Pestilence-like effects, but having Bloodthirst also allows you to play in a more fair, combat-oriented deck where the goal is to get a massive Indoraptor and simply trigger your enrage naturally through combat. I suspect Indestructible + Pestilence will be more popular, but a cheap aggressive Bloodthirst commander is also nice.

Huatli, Poet of Unity is a new Dinosaur commander for the set, but not the most exciting one. The front face is fairly lackluster, being simply a buffier Sylvan Ranger, but the Saga backside packs some real punch, with the disadvantage of being telegraphed miles in advance and being open to getting blown out by spot removal upon activation. What you get, however, is Ramp, the best dinosaur out of your deck, and a massive combat buff that should kill at least one player. The upside of being telegraphed is that, if you disrupt the natural progress through proliferate, or protect from mass removal with Teferi's Protection-like effects, you can really take the table by surprise and end the game.

Pantlaza, Sun-Favored is the second Dinosaur commander of the set, and frankly, he is frightening. I have a dislike for commanders that are just a massive pile of value with barely additional input, and slapping "Dinosaur" over it doesn't make it more palatable, but Pantlaza is the most powerful option for Naya Dinosaurs. Discover is an incredibly powerful mechanic, especially in a deck filled with threats and few reactive spells, Pantlaza also is incredibly resilient, as simply casting your commander after a board wipe will probably be enough rebuild thanks to the mana and card advantage of discover. I'm already tired of seeing it in Brawl on MTG Arena, and I don't expect to stop matching against it soon.

Wayta, Trainer Prodigy is a lot more in my wheelhouse. Synergizing with Enrage dinosaurs from original Ixalan like Trapjaw Tyrant and Needletooth Raptor, Wayta also diversify he menagerie by training Brash Taunters and Boros Reckoners. There's a lot of Non-Dinosaur creatures that have enrage-like abilities, and Wayta's 1 lone point of Power if perfect to trigger those without putting your creatures in harm's way. Acting as a repeatable removal spell on a stick, on top of doubling your triggers, is fantastic, and I 100% see myself building this deck.

Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer and Blue, Loyal Raptor are our first Temur Dinosaur commanders, replacing the most expandable color of Dinosaur (White) for blue (The color, not the raptor). There's not a lot of good blue Dinosaurs beside Nezahal, but Owen and Blue don't just want dinos, they want counters, and Simic is more than happy to oblige. Blue has a sizeable body, with a toolbox of abilities granted by Owen Grady that will be transfered to every subsequent dinos. It's not the best Dino commander, but it is on a unique color combination that leverages the additional strengths that Simic provides.

Tetzin, Gnome Champion is such an amazingly cool, but extremely narrow commander. Clearly designed for the Crafting mechanic, l also synergizes with the Transformers cards from Brother's War. The backside is very powerful, going wide with tokens while transforming artifacts like Azor's Gateway or Brass' Tunnel Grinder for a massive power boost, while backing your army of tokens with Intangible Virtue and Tempered Steel. There is a suprisingly high quantity of playable two-sided artifacts to go in that deck, though crafting with 6 artifacts is an hefty challenge of you don't build with tokens and self-mill in mind.

Xavier Sal, Infested Captain is a very exciting design, but suffers from the "Combo-By-Accident" problem, which will push the rest of the table to mercilessly destroy him and you in the process. While that happens, however, be sure to grab an Intruder Alarm and a Scurry Oak . There's some really cute cards like Chronozoa Watcher in the Water and Chitterspitter that work well with both sides, as well as basically any planeswalker that creates tokens like Tezzeret, Master Artificer, Ashiok, Nightmare Muse or Garruk, Cursed Huntsman. There's a lot of ways to build Sal, but be prepared to be seen as the obvious threat.

Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist is such an incredible flavor win that I'd want to build it for that reason alone. Mechanically, there's a lot of very interesting way to go. Human creatures that enter with non-human creatures (Such as Alirios, Enraptured), repeatable nonhuman token generators and Blink effects is an option. Building a fully nonhuman deck and loading up with existing Exploit cards to get double triggers off of your sacrifice is also very good. cards and mana are the most important ressources, and this provides you both on top of benefitting from sacrifice synergies. Very solid commander.

Indominus Rex, Alpha is a voltron commander in the vein of Rayami, First of the Fallen, except it requires only having creatures in hand except of killing creatures already in play, having synergy with Counter mechanics, and potentially refilling your hand instantly when it enters the battlefield as an untargeatable death machine. There's a lot of very powerful keywords that are easy to get in these colors, such as hexproof, flying or trample/deathtouch, as well as non-zero ways of getting Haste through cards like Akuta, Born of Ash of Clackbridge Troll. There is currently no creature in this color combination with Double Strike, but that may change in the future! Cards that make the Indominus Rex enter the battlefield with counters like Master Biomancer are also excellent synergy with the commander, getting a larger body and drawing more cards on ETB. And I have not mentionned how absurd Indominus is as a Dredge commander, both pitching your cards and drawing cards for dredging on a single body. Very versatile commander.

[turn-1-sol-ring]

Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Review - Part One

Hello enjoys of multiplayer kerfuffle, welcome to a fairly simple Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Recap! The goal: Rate all the new legendary creatures of this fine new set, and speculate a bit on ways to build them!

I will be talking over every eligible commanders, because I sincerely every legendary creature will be built by someone, even the weaker ones, as any card can have special value for anyone. I will also include the Jurassic Park legendary creatures, who can also be found within this set. With these caveats, let's begin!

Our first stop in our spelunking is Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation, and we begin with a banger. It's fairly easy to compare this to Mondrak, from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, but I like the additional explosiveness of Tripling over Doubling, and becoming a land when it dies, with the possibility of turning it back, can save a lot of mana in commander tax over the course of a game, and provide a bit of ramp for your trouble. Only working with creature token is a drawback, but for a more classic aggressive strategy of tokens + anthems, this works wonderfully well as a top-end.

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel is a new version of everyone's favorite blue pirate partner, and this one is impressive even without a buddy tagging along. Looting is often underrated in Commander, but turning your merfolk looting into a limited Omniscience is a pretty massive upgrade to it. Of course, 4 turns of attacking with impunity with a 2/1 is a lot to ask for, so don't hesitate to pack in a voltron suite that includes Whispersilk Cloak and Trailblazer's Boots, and also a bit of Proliferate action to accelerate this ticking clock, and more easily recovering counters after an untimely removal spell.

Akal Pakal, First Among Equals is a new arrival in the long and noble tradition of Mono-Blue artifact commanders. While long gone are the days of Arcuum Dagson terrorizing kitchen tables, his ilk carries on. This iteration is interested in providing us card advantage and filling up our graveyard for our plight of playing artifacts. That's an interesting proposal, especially with the capabilities we now have to create artifacts during our opponent's turns. It's less flashy than Muzzio, Visionary Architect, but a lot more reliable, and probably a lot less immediatly threatening. Sleeve up your Myr Turbine and Unwinding Cloak!

Ojet Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch is a very cool commander, though his metaphorical toes are stepped on by Taigam, Ojutai Master. What you get in exchange for an entire color and losing on sorcery is a more aggressive body, and ramp upon being destroyed. Ojer is still very powerful, and giving rebound to any instant will always lead to getting insane value out of your Consider and Brainstorms, as well as more substantial hits like Commence the Endgame and Dig Through Time. The land side is a bit worse than the other gods, since you will have to wait a pretty significant time to get it back, but by the time you do, you should have plenty of mana to take advantage of the cards you gathered waiting for Pakpatiq to come back online.

Francisco, Fowl Marauder is a lot of things. A great pun, an adorable bird, and also our first black Pirate partner. I will immediatly admit my bias towards Explore, a mechanic I loved a lot during original Ixalan and now still. If you have enough pirates, this little bird can become a significant problem very fast, or provide enough land cards for you never to worry about missing a land drop again. With the capacity to get up to three +1/+1 counters per turn, favor evasive and sneaky pirates over beefier, more expensive ones. And once you get at least one point of power on this bad boy, he'll be able to help the snowball by itself.

Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal is the long awaited debut of the Bat God, and it's a pretty good one at that. Aclazotz incentivizes aggressive play to go with your discard, unlike other offerings like Tinybones, who'd rather you durdle and sit back while everyone discards everything. Getting incidental value in the form of bodies when your opponents keep their good cards and throw away their lands is very nice, and you getting value despite your opponents being empty-ended, a problem I faced a lot when I thought the coolest thing I could do to my friends was kill them with Megrim and Liliana's Caress, is fantastic. The land is also very easy to transform back into our Bat, as you'll probably have plenty of ways to empty your own hand if your opponents aren't so inclined.

Breeches, Eager Pillar is our second returning pirate, and now he can stand on his own instead of hiding being Glinthorn Buccaneer. a three-mana 3/3 with first strike is already pretty pushed, and getting up to three pretty decent effects by combat is very powerful. Now, you are playing Mono-red Pirate, which might be a bit underwhelming, but that never stopped people from building Skeleton Typal and the likes before.

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun, is a very powerful aggressive card. Being a red Aggro commander that permanently power up your attackers, while turning your excess lands directly into damage and more card advantage, is a very powerful effect. Aggressive, combat-focused decks are gaining more and more popularity in today's commander landscape, which used to be almost exclusively dominated by creature-combo decks or UGx decks generating obscene value. This shift in metagame is mostly a good thing, and the printing of efficient, aggressive commanders is a catalyst for that.

Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might is kind of insane, honestly. I except it to by the most hated commander of this new set, with how fast it can kill the entire table with something as silly as impact tremors and cavalcade of calamity. Cheap, big, and tough to get rid of, I'll be interested to see how many Krenko and Purphoros pilot make the switch. I'm mostly just preparing mentally to endure the many times I'll die to it.

Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant is a very scary and explosive commander for a Ramp deck. The big challenge of this deck will be to keep a loaded hand while still ramping to 8 mana, so get your Toski and Beast Whisperer ready, and maybe go to , which can be a tough balance to achieve,. 8 mana for a 12/12 that throws on your hand on the board is still crazy to me, and it will put a large target on your head when you sit down at your table to play.

Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth feels a bit small with Ghalta right next to it, but make no mistake: Ojer Kaslem is a powerhouse. 6 power on its own is plenty to dig deep enough to get a good creature hit and a land to ramp on top of it, and nothing is stopping you from boosting that power to dig deeper! I'd value creatures with flashy enter-the-battlefield triggers, or near-instantaneous value like Tendershoot Dryad. The land is also pretty easy to flip over when your commander can put two permanents on the board per trigger, so I doubt you'll pay that commander tax too many times.

Abuelo, Ancestral Echo is a very simple and straightforward Blink commander. Pay Mana, get value is a sweet deal, even if it is not the most efficient option, but it's pretty handy to have an Eldrazi Displacer in the command zone. Of course, returning it at the end step has upsides and downsides, trading repeatability for the potential to protect your permanents from mass removal. In any case, enjoy your Cloudblazer and Stonehorn Dignitary! And, if you feel like upgrading the power level of your blink deck, take a look at Brago or Ranar.

Uchbenbak, the Great Mistake, beside its unfortunate epitaph, is a pretty unexciting, but certainly beefy commander. Self-Mill Voltron certainly an unusual strategy, and I doubt The Great Mistake will invite a lot of players to try. But still, how do we build this sucker? You can traumatize yourself, suit up with Bonehoard or Runechanter's Pike to attack for a lot of damage. The descend ability allows you to cheat on your commander tax half the time, but it's still not the greatest plan. Try at your own risk.

The Ancient One is our second Self-Mill Voltron commander in this set, and unlike our loveable Great Mistake, this one's got legs. A very cheap mana cost, and a very lethal body, are a very good mix, and there's no shortage of efficient mill in Magic. A single Glimpse the Unthinkable might be enough to turn The Ancient One into murder mode. You also don't need to give him a lot of additional power, just a bit of evasion will turn this into a real menace. The ability to self-mill by itself is nice, but there are better way.

Zoyowa Lava-Tongue is so cool. It's not great, but I love goblins, I love Rakdos goblins, I love incremental value, and I love punisher mechanics. The art is also phenomenal, but that's beside my analysis. Getting one permanent per turn in your graveyard, as Rakdos, is incredibly easy, and probably quite desirable. Squee, Goblin Nabob and Chainer, Nightmare Adept are slam-dunks in the deck, and you could also build it as a goblin Typal deck, though I'd wager Wort, Boggart Auntie is a better option in those colors. Tergrid would also be very happy to hang out in that deck. Overall, it seems like a fun, lower-power option for a slightly durdly discard/aristocrat deck, and I like that very much.

Itzqunith, Firstborn of Gishath is, that is true, very cute, but so lacklaster when it comes to Dino-Power. getting a 2-powered haste creature as a commander is not great, and you have to pay 2 more and have bigger dinosaurs already on the field for it to provide enough value, it has a hard time justifying itself in the command zone. My personal path would be to build a pretty standard Gruul Ramp deck, and favor dinosaurs over other creature that feel similar roles.

Kutzil, Malamet Examplar is a very straightforward commander, and the Grand Abolisher stapled on it is more than enough to play him in a fair, anthem-filled deck built around swinging lads into the red zone. Having a healthy mix of First Strike, Trample and other combat-relevant keywords on your dude will allow you to more easily gain access to your sweet value. Enjoy Selesnya Stompy, because GW can play creatures without them being tokens.

Kellan, Daring Traveler is a very sweet Selesnya weenie/Hatebear commander! Getting bigger bodies or enough land drops to play comfortably on the adventure side is a small, but appreciated boon, and Kellan himself is a very sweet card advantage engine for a deck that runs a bunch of cheap, disruptive creatures like Knight of Autumn, Gaddock Teeg or Qasali Pridemage.

Sovereign Okinec Ahau, on the other end, doesn't have to be fair. Ever wanted your Giant Growths to be permanent and compound turn after turn? Simply having a Honor of the Pure on the battlefield wield give you tremendous value, and you can go all out and toss in a little Cathar's Crusade too. Doubling the power granted by Overrun and similar effect is also fair game, and even going Voltron by stacking a bunch of equipments on Okinec to double-dip in the bonus power seems very powerful. A surprisingly open-handed commander, that can be built in a number of various ways, all with the end-point of smashing someone's face in.

Bartolomé del Presidio is an incredibly powerful option for an Orzhov Aristocrat deck, which is made more impressive by the fact that it's an uncommon 2-mana option. Orzhov's only other legendary free sacrifice outlets are Teysa, Orzhov Scion, for white creatures only, and Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter, which cost a whopping seven mana. For only 2 mana, you can also sacrifice food and clue tokens to pump Bartolomé to lethal heights, while still accruing aristocrat value.

Amalia Benavides Aguirre is another Orzhov lifegain commander, but this one explores, so i'll give her a pass due to my love of the Explore mechanic. Getting her to 20 power is not trivial, but also not that challenging either. You can use cards like Sunbound or Archangel of Thune to double up on +1/+1 counters and accelerate the clock, and you gain, for your trouble, a Day of Judgement that will help make way for a sing of your now-lethal commander. Did I mention that this card is only 2 mana? Overall, I likr her more than her most direct comparison, Karlov of the Ghost Council.

Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz is also an aristocrat commander, but this one looks to pair attrition and flyers to close out the game in an aggressive fashion, instead of winning through a massive Bastion of Remembrance/Zulaport Cutthroat turn. By staggering your sacrifices over the entire turn cycle, you can drain up to 8 life and create 12 power of flyers per turn, which will surely help closing out a game in a timely fashion. Vito also doesn't just care about creatures, but any permanent, so treasures, clues and foods (Or blood, for flavor) will provide a ton of value for you over the course of the game.

Clavileño, First of the Blessed is a very interesting Vampire typal commander, and the (underrated) face of the Orzhov commander tie-in deck. Clavileño seek to have cheap, aggressive vampire that can be upgraded to flying threats later down the road, either through sacrificing them yourself, or as a way to very quickly rebuild after an opponent wraths the board, all while providing card advantage, quickly coming out at 3 mana, and its ability being usable the turn it comes out. A solid option for Orzhov vampire.

Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher is the alternate commander of the vampire preconstructed deck, and the option that hyped players the most, with good reasons. Carmen is an incredibly powerful option, being able to reanimate any permanent if you get its power high enough, which is very easily done, as Mazirek showed us in the past. Having a supercharged flying Sun Titan in the command zone is no joke, but you will probably need a healthy dose of self-mill and discard synergy to get your really big stuff in the graveyard to get it out at a discount. Worst case, you can reanimate lands to ramp, something Orzhov always had a bit of a challenge to do. But, by all means, reanimate your Overwhelming Splendor and Ugin, The Spirit Dragon.

Captain Storm, Cosmium Raider wants to shower your pirates in treasure and swords before assaulting your enemies. With original Ixalan printing a lot of pirayes that also bring treasures, and Dockside Extortionist being born to be in that deck, treasure is a pretty obvious path to get big pirates. However, playing an Equipment deck to both empower your pirates on the way in and after being equipped is a perfectly valid strategy too.

[turn-1-sol-ring]

First Contact: My DeckTechs

Hello Reader (Presumably, anyway). If you got here, you most likely enjoy Magic: The Gathering, and specifically EDH/Commander.

I love talking about Magic. I love playing Magic (Less these days, but any parent of young children will understand, I'm sure). I have a Magic-shaped hole in my life. And, as I'm sure someone once said: If you can't do something, might as well write about it.

Today, I want to talk about my Commander decks, but there is a lot of them. In the Spirit of the 32 Challenge, I'll start at the beginning: White.

The genesis of my White EDH deck starts, funnily enough, with a Red deck. The 2014 Red Preconstructed, Daretti-led Built From Scratch deck. My first introduction to Artifact decks, I quickly, despite the power of the commander, changed the helm with something I was more familliar with: Burn, through the power of Pia and Kiraan Nalaar.

This created a deck where Goblin Wielder, Mycosynth Lattice and Furnace of Rath all worked in harmony to either generate overwhelming value, or dome your opponents to death. I kept that deck for many years, until the release of the Adventure in the Forgotten Realms Set. See, far too often did I suffer the commonplace issue of "Drawing the wrong half of the deck", and mixing the artifact Sacrifice Fodder with the aggressive robots and burn caused too many non-competitive games. Then I saw him, with his Mutton Chops, low Mana cost, and type line not unlike some of my own DnD characters. It was time to split my Pia and Kiraan Nalaar deck in half, one going to the world of Boros, which we'll talk about another day, and the Value-generating, Sacrifice-worthy half landing in White, under the guidance of Oswald Fiddlebender.

Story time over, let's jump into the deck.

Oswald Fiddlebender is, essentially, a Birthing Pod for Artifacts. It means that, for our deck, our curve is essential to ensure we get plenty of value to go up our artifact ladder (Something I failed because there is way too many cool artifacts at MV 4). Let's discuss the play patterns of the deck, the paths to victory, and what might make you enjoy this type of decks.

First of all, Oswald is an Enabler-type commander. You will often play him on turn 2 (Maybe on turn 1 if you have that kind of budget) except in Removal-Heavy pods, and many of your cards are heavily enhanced by having him around. A lot of the low-MV artifacts generate value when coming or going, such as Ichor Wellspring and Prized Treasure, so we can get some things out of going up the chain.

From MV 3 to 5, we're mostly looking at value engines and combo pieces, and over that, we're going for either haymakers and win-conditions, or just Value if we don't find an artifact in that MV slot that fulfills that purpose.

For our Win Conditions, this deck primarily functions as a Combo deck. We have a few ways to get there, so let's look at those.

One of the most straightforward, and least likely to happen, is Darksteel Reactor.

Just wait 20 turns and win. Easy, obviously. In all seriousness, we have a few options that plan on stalling the game as long as possible, and Contagion Engine as our main way to proliferate. It's expensive and clunky, but that's kind of the point of the deck, in a sense.

Most of our other win conditions are tied to Krark-Clan Ironworks, a staple of artifact-centric combo decks.

One of the easiest combo to achieve is, using our Commander'a ability, Myr Retriever > Junk Diver > Krark-Clan Ironworks. While this, by itself, is not a combo yet, this sets up multitude of way to achieve infinite mana with cards like Cloud Key, Semblance Anvil or Slagstone Refinery. You can then use that infinite mana to win in a couple ways, like blowing up the board with infinite castings of Spine of Ish Sah, Darksteel Forge + Nevinyrral's Disk + Mycosynth Lattice, or using your infinite sacrifice loop for a infinite tokens with Summoner's Station or infinitely big dork with Daring Archeologist.

Another Combo-y path is Untappers and Ability doublers for our Fiddlebender. While I don't have Rings of Brightheart in the deck, it would feel right at home here. Using cards like Illusionist's Bracers to double our artifact yield, and untappers like Umbral Mantle and Thousand-Year Elixir to more rapidly progress through our artifact ladder will provide more explosive turns and faster combos. Knoe, however, that the deck can struggle to produce the colored mana necessary for those explosive turns, so focus on Mana Rocks that produce colored mana

Now, my version of the deck is not optimal. There is plenty of cards that would work great in that deck, so let's list a few of my favorite ones.

Mishra's Self-Replicator is another win condition for when we reach infinite mana, and by providing expendable copies of a 5-mana artifact, it allows us to easily reach the top of oir artifact curve through Oswald.

Rings of Brighthearth is a powerful combo enabler, is easily tutorable by our wide selection of 2-drop artifacts, and allows us to spend more colorless mana for more artifacts.

Portal to Phyrexia is a pretty hot addition to our top line, currently dominated by Darksteel Forge.

Since we already have Summoner's Station in the deck, we could go full theme and grab Grinding Station, Salvaging Station, and Blasting Station to have the full combo and win with style.

Altar of the Brood is an innocious addition that would provide us with possibly the cheapest path to victory, mana wise.

If you hate everyone at your table, Possessed Portal is a card that will make that abundantly clear (Fun Fact: It is my understanding that you can still Dredge with this card in play. Do with that information what you will).

That's mostly it for my little tour of my Mono-white Artifact Sacrifice deck, helmed by Oswald Fiddlebender. Hopefully, this will make you interested in trying the deck! I will return with another installement with my next deck in WUBRG order, skipping Blue, and going to monoblack from a Universe Beyond, thanks to The Mind Flayer.