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I run the deck as a competitive aggro/tempo/combo type... thing.
It plays very fast, very explosive turns and plays combos that some would call 'degenerate'.
The game plan is to amass an enormous field of grey and brown cards until we build a game ending combo.
Play Kozi to restock your hand. Sac him or get him killed. Repeat.
Every commander cast draws us four cards which fuels our board ready for the next Kozilek cast.
Some will argue that colourless can't be competitive with its distinct lack of instant spells but I don't really need them.
Kozilek doesn't care.
I've been running this deck since Fate Reforged (or more accurately since I pulled a foil Ugin) from a shonky, early iteration (which had way too many random Eldrazi because I got completely swept up in annihilator) into the deck I play today.
The deck was geared more toward casual play at that point. Less so now.
What began as a casual annihilator deck has morphed into a streamlined and competitive monstrosity that eats dreams and harvests tears.
Personal Introduction
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Hi, I'm Rasputin101 (not my real name; real name's Liam).
I live in the Hampshire, England... thats the south coast to anyone not native to the UK.
I started playing Magic at the back end of New Phyrexia and got properly hooked on the cardboard crack around the time Return to Ravnica hit the shelves (I played casually until that point and Innistrad didn't really float my boat). Never really having time to play at any Friday Night Magic I never really got into standard. Because I felt that playing decks with 4 up of seven or eight different cards plus land was a bit samey, modern was never my bag either. I was a kitchen table player who preferred to make stupidly large decks that were always a bit clunky.
Then I got my hands on the Heavenly Inferno Kaalia of the Vast commander PreCon and I was hooked on commander.
That's it. That's my history. I only play EDH. I only need EDH.
I live in the Hampshire, England... thats the south coast to anyone not native to the UK.
I started playing Magic at the back end of New Phyrexia and got properly hooked on the cardboard crack around the time Return to Ravnica hit the shelves (I played casually until that point and Innistrad didn't really float my boat). Never really having time to play at any Friday Night Magic I never really got into standard. Because I felt that playing decks with 4 up of seven or eight different cards plus land was a bit samey, modern was never my bag either. I was a kitchen table player who preferred to make stupidly large decks that were always a bit clunky.
Then I got my hands on the Heavenly Inferno Kaalia of the Vast commander PreCon and I was hooked on commander.
That's it. That's my history. I only play EDH. I only need EDH.
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Reasons to play this deck
- Colourless is cool
- You don't want to have to worry about timing on instants
- You like playing fast and explosive turns
- You have a good mind for combo
- You like telling the table that you've blown up all their lands
- You love it when the table hates you for forcing them to sac their stuff
Reasons not to play this deck
- You want a large pool of cards to choose from
- You like to cast in other players turns
- You want lots of creatures and use them to block with
- You like to play inconspicuously
- You're looking to play casual Magic
- You like to play long games
- You build decks on a budget
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Strengths and Weaknesses
This deck is fast and resilient. It can build a board presence faster than most and can recover from board wipes just as quickly.
Kozilek is a tidings|tenth edition attached to one of the biggest, most oppressive bodies ever printed in Magic.
In a single attack phase you can set an opponent so far back they may not be able to recover quickly enough to have an effect on the rest of the game. This method shuts out most spellslinger, combo, aggro, and voltron playstyles.
Due to the graveyard shuffle also attached to Kozilek the deck is almost immune to any mill strategies.
For every upside however, there's a downside. There's no such thing as a perfect deck. Every pile of 99 has an Achilles heel.
This deck runs very few creatures meaning it can struggle with token strategies and theft decks. It can easily be overwhelmed if the token player generates too much speed or if the theft player takes a fancy to a 12/12 death machine (and believe me, they will).
Also, as colourless has the smallest card pool in the game we have very few removal options and rely heavily on Kozilek's annihilator trigger to remove problems.
Due to this reduced card pool we have the least ways to deal with graveyard strategies which can run rampant if you don't draw up the appropriate card.
Artifact hate is our biggest problem but at the same time, that's not an architype. There's no such thing as an artifact hate deck... so we're rosy.... right?!
Kozilek is a tidings|tenth edition attached to one of the biggest, most oppressive bodies ever printed in Magic.
In a single attack phase you can set an opponent so far back they may not be able to recover quickly enough to have an effect on the rest of the game. This method shuts out most spellslinger, combo, aggro, and voltron playstyles.
Due to the graveyard shuffle also attached to Kozilek the deck is almost immune to any mill strategies.
For every upside however, there's a downside. There's no such thing as a perfect deck. Every pile of 99 has an Achilles heel.
This deck runs very few creatures meaning it can struggle with token strategies and theft decks. It can easily be overwhelmed if the token player generates too much speed or if the theft player takes a fancy to a 12/12 death machine (and believe me, they will).
Also, as colourless has the smallest card pool in the game we have very few removal options and rely heavily on Kozilek's annihilator trigger to remove problems.
Due to this reduced card pool we have the least ways to deal with graveyard strategies which can run rampant if you don't draw up the appropriate card.
Artifact hate is our biggest problem but at the same time, that's not an architype. There's no such thing as an artifact hate deck... so we're rosy.... right?!
Who/What is Kozilek?!
Short Answer: Kozilek is a giant spaghetti monster from the weird bit between planes who got trapped with his mates and then started eating everything. Then he got barbecued.
Long Answer: Kozilek is one of the three Eldrazi titans. He is the titan of distortion. A world ender. Or so it was thought.
After being trapped on Zendikar for thousands of years with the other titans, Ulamog, titan of destruction and Emrakul, titan of corruption, they were released and began to devour Zendikar. After being destroyed by the Gatewatch it was later learned that they weren't so much world enders but were saviours of already dying planes.
Ulamog would destroy the plane rendering everything dead and decayed.
Kozilek would change the history of a dying plane and prevent it from collapsing in on itself.
Emrakul would take the decayed land and sew life into it.
Though to do this meant that all current life on the plane would be completely obliterated but then it would have been anyway.
Long Answer: Kozilek is one of the three Eldrazi titans. He is the titan of distortion. A world ender. Or so it was thought.
After being trapped on Zendikar for thousands of years with the other titans, Ulamog, titan of destruction and Emrakul, titan of corruption, they were released and began to devour Zendikar. After being destroyed by the Gatewatch it was later learned that they weren't so much world enders but were saviours of already dying planes.
Ulamog would destroy the plane rendering everything dead and decayed.
Kozilek would change the history of a dying plane and prevent it from collapsing in on itself.
Emrakul would take the decayed land and sew life into it.
Though to do this meant that all current life on the plane would be completely obliterated but then it would have been anyway.
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Other Possible Commanders
Colourless has a few other commanders who have many different play styles. Here's a quick breakdown:
The Colourless Crew
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Karn, Silver Golem
Karn is the poster boy for colourless combo. For Karn to work you need a lot less ramp and a lot more utility.
As he's a combo piece in himself the combos are relatively easy to come by but he's not a commander for this ramp to combo playstyle. Karn builds tend to even more tinkering and puzzle building than what I'm willing to do.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Ulamog is good but look at the size of him. 11 mana for a 10/10 indestructible with annihilator 4. Good stats but you've got to play so much more reservedly. Let's say we take the same play style. You've ramped hard and managed to drop Ulamog on turn 3 or 4, there's one card in hand.... that's it. You've got a big body with annihilator ans now you're top decking the rest of the game. Plus, Kozi takes two hits to kill with commander damage, Ula takes 3.
Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Better in my opinion than Ulamog but doesn't have the same impact on the game in the combat phase. Yes he draws but he can only draw you until you have 7 in hand. So no sacrificing and recasting for more cards over and over. The countering ability is nice but I find the annihilator trigger is better than menace. I would recommend playing this iteration of Kozilek if you're not looking to alienate yourself from the table.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Similar to Ulamog 1.0 we'd be lacking in cards for any follow up after the initial cast. I feel like the Ulamogs want to be in a deck with a lot more draw but there's only so much draw we can get our hands on in colourless without giving our opponents the same level of draw. The best thing about this iteration of Ulamog in my opinion is the 'exile 20 off the top of the library'. It's a death sentance for a combo deck because that's one fifth of their deck that will probably hold valuable combo pieces and tutors.
Emrakul, the Promised End
The only two card types that are realistically going to be in our graveyard to discount Emrakul are artifacts and land so we're really not seeing that discount. She's effectively a Mindslaver on a stick but after you're done with the player, they get a turn to fix up the mess you made. The flying and trample with protection is nice but again, like the Ulamogs, unless we're playing a heavy draw package we'll be out of steam by the time we can cast Emrakul.
Hope of Ghirapur
Needs a completely different deck built around it. I don't see this as a viable commander in any build because in colourless you'd be using equipment. For equipment to be viable you'd either need a lot more draw to keep up the mana cost of re-equiping, or you need access to white which you can't have.
Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
Err... I don't think he really does enough to warrant being down to colourless for a 7/7. Not for a build like this at least. Until someone can prove otherwise I don't think he's that good a commander but I imagine he'd need to a be head of a colourless goodstuff deck.
Karn is the poster boy for colourless combo. For Karn to work you need a lot less ramp and a lot more utility.
As he's a combo piece in himself the combos are relatively easy to come by but he's not a commander for this ramp to combo playstyle. Karn builds tend to even more tinkering and puzzle building than what I'm willing to do.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Ulamog is good but look at the size of him. 11 mana for a 10/10 indestructible with annihilator 4. Good stats but you've got to play so much more reservedly. Let's say we take the same play style. You've ramped hard and managed to drop Ulamog on turn 3 or 4, there's one card in hand.... that's it. You've got a big body with annihilator ans now you're top decking the rest of the game. Plus, Kozi takes two hits to kill with commander damage, Ula takes 3.
Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Better in my opinion than Ulamog but doesn't have the same impact on the game in the combat phase. Yes he draws but he can only draw you until you have 7 in hand. So no sacrificing and recasting for more cards over and over. The countering ability is nice but I find the annihilator trigger is better than menace. I would recommend playing this iteration of Kozilek if you're not looking to alienate yourself from the table.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Similar to Ulamog 1.0 we'd be lacking in cards for any follow up after the initial cast. I feel like the Ulamogs want to be in a deck with a lot more draw but there's only so much draw we can get our hands on in colourless without giving our opponents the same level of draw. The best thing about this iteration of Ulamog in my opinion is the 'exile 20 off the top of the library'. It's a death sentance for a combo deck because that's one fifth of their deck that will probably hold valuable combo pieces and tutors.
Emrakul, the Promised End
The only two card types that are realistically going to be in our graveyard to discount Emrakul are artifacts and land so we're really not seeing that discount. She's effectively a Mindslaver on a stick but after you're done with the player, they get a turn to fix up the mess you made. The flying and trample with protection is nice but again, like the Ulamogs, unless we're playing a heavy draw package we'll be out of steam by the time we can cast Emrakul.
Hope of Ghirapur
Needs a completely different deck built around it. I don't see this as a viable commander in any build because in colourless you'd be using equipment. For equipment to be viable you'd either need a lot more draw to keep up the mana cost of re-equiping, or you need access to white which you can't have.
Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
Err... I don't think he really does enough to warrant being down to colourless for a 7/7. Not for a build like this at least. Until someone can prove otherwise I don't think he's that good a commander but I imagine he'd need to a be head of a colourless goodstuff deck.
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Friendship Annihilator
Approximate Total Cost:
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Changelog
Here is an account of every card that's spent a significant amount of time in the deck since keeping record.For cards that were previously in the build or notable mentions please see the tested section.
Changelog
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OUT>IN
Mindslaver>Wandering Archaic // Explore the Vastlands
This was a tough choice.
The Archaic is better in more situations than Mindslaver is.
Yes I'm dropping the Mindslaver lock combo but to be honest I'd usually have gone to any other finisher before that one and use it as a last resort.
Mindslaver may make a comeback but the weird looking wanderer's time has come.
Mishra's Workshop>Scorched Ruins
I've been playing a 'proxy' Mishra's Workshop for years but with the cost of the card increasing I've faced the fact that I'll likely never get my hands on a real one.
If you have one, run it but I've settled for Scorched ruins in its place.
Mirage Mirror>Forsaken Monument
Mirage mirror was alwasy the card that came out while I was testing new cards.
It was the obvious swap out for the absolute monster, rock enabler that is Forsaken Monument.
Add additional mana when you tap for colourless. Amazing.
For full card analysis see the individual card breakdown
Scrapyard Recombiner>Scrap Trawler
The recombiner was durdley. Tutoring for a tutor or ramp wasn't particularly productive when the recombiner has summoning sickness, as do the things you're searching out.
I don't know what I was thinking.
Scrap Trawler however has promise. Stacking the triggers after resolving a board wipe can see most of your field back in your hand and only losing your high cost permanents.
Emergence Zone>Scrapyard Recombiner
Wanting to test out the recombiner was the driving force behind this change.
Emergence zone was more often than not just being played as a land and I rarely had time for its ability.
Gonna give the recombiner a chance however much I hate cutting lands for nonland.
Thespian's Stage>Sanctum of Eternity
Thespian's stage is a decent land but the sanctum is better.
The stage would be a sink to improve on mana by copying anything that taps for more than one mana and more often than not the ability was passed over for generating a better board state.
The sanctum does far more by retrieving a stolen Kozilek and working like a pseudo sac outlet when you need the extra cast for four cards. Anything that can counteract theft is great in my books.
Paradox Engine>Mystic Forge
Erratic Portal>Manifold Key
They banned the engine.
The engine is banned.
The combo is gone.
The engine is banned.
Mystic Forge is a solid replacement for Paradox Engine. Works as a Future Sight that works just for us in colourless. With infinite untaps and your pool of however much life you have left you can pretty much bore through your deck to find your wincons.
Manifold key works really well as an untapper but is it reads 'another target' (instead of target like voltaic key) you can't go infinite.
Still, using the untap ability will cause a rock that taps for to tap for 5 in total. Decent little ramper which I'm very much a fan of.
Without the engine erratic portal just isn't as good. It would end a game with infinte draw from knocking Kozi back to hand, recast and untap but now it's a one shot effect without a lot of backup.
Azor's Gateway>Ugin, the Ineffable
Azor's gateway serves as a decent way of filtering out the unwanted or unneeded cards in hand but after testing Ugin (who does everything you could ever need in a card) the gateway proved to be the weaker card
Tectonic Edge>Emergence Zone
Tec Edge is a great land removal card but compared with emergence zone's ability to throw out a threat or combo piece at the end of an opponent's turn is too good to pass up.
Wastes>Blast Zone
I can go down to one less basic land to utilise Blast Zone.
Drownyard Temple>Geode Golem
Drownyard temple doesn't synergise with enough cards or have enough going for it's ability to warrant keeping a spot in the deck. Geode golem after play testing has proven a very potent addition and a way of bypassing the cost of Kozilek. As I felt there were a few too many lands for the amount of ramp in the deck it was an easy switch to make.
Blinkmoth Urn>Kozilek, the Great Distortion
The urn has been underperforming for a while. It was a really difficult one to take out because of the sheer amount of mana it can produce but at with no immediate payoff it had to go. Since taking it out I've not lost in consistency or even noticed that it's missing. A good sign I made the correct cut.
Kozi2.0 is one that I've tested off and on. As we have limited access to removal the pseudo counterspell strapped to this 12/12 spaghetti monster is too appealing. The draw up to 7 is not to be ignored as well. Kozi2.0 is a beast and deserves a spot in the deck.
Mindslaver>Wandering Archaic // Explore the Vastlands
This was a tough choice.
The Archaic is better in more situations than Mindslaver is.
Yes I'm dropping the Mindslaver lock combo but to be honest I'd usually have gone to any other finisher before that one and use it as a last resort.
Mindslaver may make a comeback but the weird looking wanderer's time has come.
Mishra's Workshop>Scorched Ruins
I've been playing a 'proxy' Mishra's Workshop for years but with the cost of the card increasing I've faced the fact that I'll likely never get my hands on a real one.
If you have one, run it but I've settled for Scorched ruins in its place.
Mirage Mirror>Forsaken Monument
Mirage mirror was alwasy the card that came out while I was testing new cards.
It was the obvious swap out for the absolute monster, rock enabler that is Forsaken Monument.
Add additional mana when you tap for colourless. Amazing.
For full card analysis see the individual card breakdown
Scrapyard Recombiner>Scrap Trawler
The recombiner was durdley. Tutoring for a tutor or ramp wasn't particularly productive when the recombiner has summoning sickness, as do the things you're searching out.
I don't know what I was thinking.
Scrap Trawler however has promise. Stacking the triggers after resolving a board wipe can see most of your field back in your hand and only losing your high cost permanents.
Emergence Zone>Scrapyard Recombiner
Wanting to test out the recombiner was the driving force behind this change.
Emergence zone was more often than not just being played as a land and I rarely had time for its ability.
Gonna give the recombiner a chance however much I hate cutting lands for nonland.
Thespian's Stage>Sanctum of Eternity
Thespian's stage is a decent land but the sanctum is better.
The stage would be a sink to improve on mana by copying anything that taps for more than one mana and more often than not the ability was passed over for generating a better board state.
The sanctum does far more by retrieving a stolen Kozilek and working like a pseudo sac outlet when you need the extra cast for four cards. Anything that can counteract theft is great in my books.
Paradox Engine>Mystic Forge
Erratic Portal>Manifold Key
They banned the engine.
The engine is banned.
The combo is gone.
The engine is banned.
Mystic Forge is a solid replacement for Paradox Engine. Works as a Future Sight that works just for us in colourless. With infinite untaps and your pool of however much life you have left you can pretty much bore through your deck to find your wincons.
Manifold key works really well as an untapper but is it reads 'another target' (instead of target like voltaic key) you can't go infinite.
Still, using the untap ability will cause a rock that taps for to tap for 5 in total. Decent little ramper which I'm very much a fan of.
Without the engine erratic portal just isn't as good. It would end a game with infinte draw from knocking Kozi back to hand, recast and untap but now it's a one shot effect without a lot of backup.
Azor's Gateway>Ugin, the Ineffable
Azor's gateway serves as a decent way of filtering out the unwanted or unneeded cards in hand but after testing Ugin (who does everything you could ever need in a card) the gateway proved to be the weaker card
Tectonic Edge>Emergence Zone
Tec Edge is a great land removal card but compared with emergence zone's ability to throw out a threat or combo piece at the end of an opponent's turn is too good to pass up.
Wastes>Blast Zone
I can go down to one less basic land to utilise Blast Zone.
Drownyard Temple>Geode Golem
Drownyard temple doesn't synergise with enough cards or have enough going for it's ability to warrant keeping a spot in the deck. Geode golem after play testing has proven a very potent addition and a way of bypassing the cost of Kozilek. As I felt there were a few too many lands for the amount of ramp in the deck it was an easy switch to make.
Blinkmoth Urn>Kozilek, the Great Distortion
The urn has been underperforming for a while. It was a really difficult one to take out because of the sheer amount of mana it can produce but at with no immediate payoff it had to go. Since taking it out I've not lost in consistency or even noticed that it's missing. A good sign I made the correct cut.
Kozi2.0 is one that I've tested off and on. As we have limited access to removal the pseudo counterspell strapped to this 12/12 spaghetti monster is too appealing. The draw up to 7 is not to be ignored as well. Kozi2.0 is a beast and deserves a spot in the deck.
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You want to take Kozilek and slap him down on your battlefield as fast as you possibly can.
This means your opening hands need to contain land and mana rocks.
If you've got a hand of land and utility then mulligan that bad boy off. You want rocks. Lots of rocks.
A high volume of mana rocks means you can be seeing Kozilek dropped as early as turn 3. Sometimes earlier with a God hand.
Usually with most commander decks you don't want to drop your commander without some form of protection otherwise your mana investment has no payoff if your commander gets removed.
Kozilek isn't like most commanders.
The act of casting Kozilek, even if he's countered, will draw you 4 cards. There are precious few cards that can prevent that draw.
The draw is what takes the act of vomiting your opening hand onto the field as fast as possible and rewards it with more cards.
More often than not in those four cards will be a land and a rock. Exactly what you need to recast kozi even if he's removed straight off the bat. You'll be drawing even more cards on your next cast.
Black likes to tutor for the cards it wants. We bore our way through the top of our deck like a mole on cocaine.
A lot of the time Kozilek will see combat. He is built in removal. Don't waste that removal by trying to reduce the token player from 20 tokens to 15 (assuming they block with one). Maximum impact people.
Take Kozilek and jam him down the throat of the most vulnerable player. The annihilator works wonders on the weak.
That's all Kozilek is. Draw power and raw power.
You'll often find yourself in need of more cards so don't be afraid to aim your own removal at Kozilek.
Get the attack in, then sac/destroy him for a recast.
Keeping a sac outlet available is always useful. Not just to put him back in the command zone but it also protects him.
The green player casts Song of the Dryads targeting Kozilek. Sac him. Just sac him in response.
The same thing with theft.
The worst place for Kozilek to be in on someone else's battlefield because he wreaks as much havoc with our board state as he does to our opponents'. High Market and Ashnod's Altar allow you to get him out of harm's way.
He's better in the CZ than locked or stolen.
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Opening Hands
Not all hands a born drawn the same. You need to know what to look for in your opening seven.
If you keep the wrong thing you'll end up sitting out of the opening turns of the game and playing catch up while everyone else has a more developed board state. Not what you want to happen.
Here's what to look for:
If you keep the wrong thing you'll end up sitting out of the opening turns of the game and playing catch up while everyone else has a more developed board state. Not what you want to happen.
Here's what to look for:
The Trinity of mulligans
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The bad hand:
This is a bad hand simply because there's too much utility, not enough rocks. The one rock we do have is out of reach of the mana we can produce and we can't risk not drawing a land or a lower cost rock to get the wheel turning. Mulligan time.
The good hand:
This looks more like something we're likely to stick with.
We have lands that mean we can chain out rocks together, utility we can use toward getting better draw moving forward and something that can guarantee cards a bit later if for some reason a Kozilek doesn't happen.
Turn 1: Wastes, Divining Top.
Turn 2: Urborg, Mind Stone, activate Top (put a land to the top of the library).
Turn 3: Lay the land you drew, Thran Dynamo, Worn Powerstone.
We now go into turn 4 able to produce 8 mana. We can manipulate our next draw with Top or go full blast with Memory Jar to (almost) guarantee our next land drop.
The God hand:
This would be an example of a very good hand. Not the best but still very good.
We have low cost, high output rocks that curve into bigger ones and we have a way to untap what we want to re-use.
Turn 1: Ancient Tomb, Voltaic Key, Mana Vault, tap Vault and untap with Key, Sol Ring, Dreamstone Hedron, Doubling Cube.
Turn 2: Tap Dreamstone and untap it with Key, tap Dreamstone, Sol Ring and Ancient Tomb, activate Doubling Cube, cast Kozilek, cast any card in hand costing 2 or less.
We still have Spine of Ish Sah in hand if an opponent needs slowing down. Or, swing with Kozilek, destroy him with Spine, cast what you drew and recast him next turn for another 4 cards.
This is a bad hand simply because there's too much utility, not enough rocks. The one rock we do have is out of reach of the mana we can produce and we can't risk not drawing a land or a lower cost rock to get the wheel turning. Mulligan time.
The good hand:
This looks more like something we're likely to stick with.
We have lands that mean we can chain out rocks together, utility we can use toward getting better draw moving forward and something that can guarantee cards a bit later if for some reason a Kozilek doesn't happen.
Turn 1: Wastes, Divining Top.
Turn 2: Urborg, Mind Stone, activate Top (put a land to the top of the library).
Turn 3: Lay the land you drew, Thran Dynamo, Worn Powerstone.
We now go into turn 4 able to produce 8 mana. We can manipulate our next draw with Top or go full blast with Memory Jar to (almost) guarantee our next land drop.
The God hand:
This would be an example of a very good hand. Not the best but still very good.
We have low cost, high output rocks that curve into bigger ones and we have a way to untap what we want to re-use.
Turn 1: Ancient Tomb, Voltaic Key, Mana Vault, tap Vault and untap with Key, Sol Ring, Dreamstone Hedron, Doubling Cube.
Turn 2: Tap Dreamstone and untap it with Key, tap Dreamstone, Sol Ring and Ancient Tomb, activate Doubling Cube, cast Kozilek, cast any card in hand costing 2 or less.
We still have Spine of Ish Sah in hand if an opponent needs slowing down. Or, swing with Kozilek, destroy him with Spine, cast what you drew and recast him next turn for another 4 cards.
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Turn Structuring
Turns 1-3
The early turns are a race. You should be looking to get Kozilek down as soon as possible and establish an engine of rocks to keep everything going. This is where you can really force a lead on your opponents because in these stages they have less resources than you do.You're looking to cast your low cost rocks as fast as you can to then pay for your higher cost rocks the following turns.
Sequencing your drops here is very important for momentum. You need to get down the most expensive rock first, then tap that to pay the cost of the next most affordable e.g. Sisay's Ring is played for , tap it for to play Mind Stone. If you were to play Mind Stone first you need to wait a full rotation to the play Sisay's Ring, costing you the all important lead you need.
You generally want to play any rock that enters tapped to be the last thing you cast if possible.
Let's say you have four mana available and have a Worn Powerstone and a Thought Vessel in hand.
If you play the Powerstone it leaves you with one mana still to use. If we were blue of black players that might mean something but to us in grey, that's a waste unless you have a top or rack in play.
Instead, you could use the four to play the Thought Vessel, tap it and add the remaining two to play the Powerstone.
Congratulations, you've just passed Ramp Class.
Turns 4-6
Turn 4 is on average when we'll be dropping Kozilek. It's a lot earlier than your opponents will expect.Casting Kozilek will draw up more fuel for the fire that you can pour on to ramp harder. You want to be using Kozilek's annihilator to take out the player who has the biggest lead regardless of whether they look like they can kill Kozilek in combat. If that player has a massive amount of tokens and it doesn't look like the annihilator will in any way damage their board state, aim for the next target. There's no point swinging in and wasting those valuable triggers.
You need to also assess your opponents as you go. Think about what the other players have in front of them and what they could be holding. Are you playing a spell-slinger player who in only going to have land in front of them? Are you playing a Voltron player who's put all their eggs in one basket? Target the player who is going to be able to do the most damage not to Kozilek, but to the pile of artifacts behind him as that is your weak point.
Cripple that player and you'll keep your board.
Don't be surprised if your opponents remove Kozilek before combat. He's very dangerous and nobody wants to have to be sacrificing four permanents on turn 5, given that they probably only have eight or nine permanents in front of them. This is good. If you've cast him once and drawn 4 for doing it, you'll be able to do it again the very next turn.
At the same time as attacking you want to be building a little machine in the background with utility pieces you will inevitably be drawing. These pieces will be either affecting how much mana you're producing, slowing down the opposition, drawing cards or doubling triggers and abilities. This is where the combo kicks in. All of your draw triggers will be ripping through the top of the deck and hitting the field. Get an infinite while laying down the hate with Kozilek.
Also worth remembering: Kozilek has three triggers.
- Draw when you cast.
- Annihilate when you attack.
- Shuffle graveyard to library when he hits it.
Commander dies "I send him to the graveyard"
Shuffle triggers, resolves: "Replacement effect, he goes to the Command Zone"
Turns 7-10
If you've gotten into these turns you're either close to a win-con, or you've been blown apart by removal and had to recover. Either way the plan remains the same. Get Kozilek firmly in the tapped position and keep up the tempo with the utility until you find your infinite combo. Don't be shy to destroy your opponents lands but be sure you're not wrecking your own foothold on the game by doing so.Let the giant spaghetti monster do the talking.
Keep your opponent's attention on Kozilek up front while you build the death machine at the back
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You've played the tempo, you've played the aggro, time for the combo.
Infinite Mana
We run a few infinite mana combos.
You're likely to hit one of them just with Kozilek's draw trigger, but cards like Planar Bridge, Ring of Three Wishes and Kuldotha Forgemaster can hurry the process along.
The combos are:
Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith.
Forsaken Monument and Basalt Monolith.
Everflowing Chalice, Voltaic Key and Rings of Brighthearth.
This combo has been explained a billion times in a billion different places but I'm going to explain it here too.
Rings can't copy mana abilities but it can copy the untap ability of the Monolith.
For this combo to go infinite you have to be able to generate 2 mana outside of the use of the Basalt Monolith.
Do this over and over and over... or save time and tell the table you have whatever mana figure you decide you have.
Maybe one of the easiest combos to explain in the history of combos.
With both cards on the board:
Everflowing Chalice needs 4 counters on it, meaning you need to have paid the multikicker 4 times (8 mana)
You're likely to hit one of them just with Kozilek's draw trigger, but cards like Planar Bridge, Ring of Three Wishes and Kuldotha Forgemaster can hurry the process along.
The combos are:
Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith.
Forsaken Monument and Basalt Monolith.
Everflowing Chalice, Voltaic Key and Rings of Brighthearth.
Infinite Mana Breakdown
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This combo has been explained a billion times in a billion different places but I'm going to explain it here too.
Rings can't copy mana abilities but it can copy the untap ability of the Monolith.
For this combo to go infinite you have to be able to generate 2 mana outside of the use of the Basalt Monolith.
- Tap Basalt Monolith for .
- Spend 3 to untap the Monolith, maintain priority and use the 2 to copy the untap ability with Rings.
- Let the copy trigger and before the original untap resolves, tap it for .
Do this over and over and over... or save time and tell the table you have whatever mana figure you decide you have.
Maybe one of the easiest combos to explain in the history of combos.
With both cards on the board:
- Tap Basalt Monolith for .
- Spend 3 to untap the Monolith and point out that you have generated one mana from this interaction
- Repeat
Everflowing Chalice needs 4 counters on it, meaning you need to have paid the multikicker 4 times (8 mana)
- Tap the Chalice to add 4.
- Pay 1 of that 4 and activate Voltaic Key to untap the Chalice.
- Pay 2 to copy the untap ability with Rings, targeting the Voltaic Key.
- Let everything resolve and you have one mana in your pool.
- Rinse and repeat for whatever quantity of mana you like.
Infinite Mana and Draw
Here are the combos that do more than just generate infinite mana.
They provide an inbuilt way of putting that mana toward drawing up your deck for the finishers.
Metalworker and Staff of Domination.
Clock of Omens, Staff of Domination, Sculpting Steel and Thran Dynamo
This combo requires any 3 artifacts to be in your hand.
This combo is particularly effective because you need no other cards as the staff will draw your library for you with its and tap ability. You just pick up your deck and play what you need.
This combo doesn't specifically require Thran Dynamo. Any rock that taps for three or more will do.
Assuming Thran Dynamo is on the field:
They provide an inbuilt way of putting that mana toward drawing up your deck for the finishers.
Metalworker and Staff of Domination.
Clock of Omens, Staff of Domination, Sculpting Steel and Thran Dynamo
Infinite Mana and Draw Breakdown
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This combo requires any 3 artifacts to be in your hand.
- Tap the Metalworker, revealing the 3 artifacts which generates you 6 mana.
- Pay 3 and tap the Staff to untap Metalworker.
- Pay 1 with the Staff to untap the Staff.
This combo is particularly effective because you need no other cards as the staff will draw your library for you with its and tap ability. You just pick up your deck and play what you need.
This combo doesn't specifically require Thran Dynamo. Any rock that taps for three or more will do.
Assuming Thran Dynamo is on the field:
- Cast Clock of Omens and Staff of Domination.
- Cast Sculpting Steel and have it enter as a copy of Staff of Domination.
- Tap Thran Dynamo for .
- Tap both Staffs to untap the Dynamo with Clock of Omens' ability.
- Pay for each of your Staffs to untap them.
- Tap Thran Dynamo for and repeat.
Infinite Draw
Here's a cheeky way to pick up your library without needing to generate infinite mana. From there just pick an infinite mana combo from the list above and end the game!
Mystic Forge, Sensei's Divining Top and either Cloud Key or Ugin, the Ineffable.
This combo involves abusing all three card abilities at once assuming you have all three on the field (either cloud key or Ugin is fine):
Cast Lion's Eye Diamond adding to your pool and discard you hand which includes Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre who takes all of those discarded cards (LED included) and puts everything back where it started. Demonstrate the loop by drawing your library and declare infinite mana.
Mystic Forge, Sensei's Divining Top and either Cloud Key or Ugin, the Ineffable.
Infinite Draw Breakdown
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This combo involves abusing all three card abilities at once assuming you have all three on the field (either cloud key or Ugin is fine):
- Activate the Divining Top's second ability, draw a card and put Top on the top of your library.
- With Mystic Forge feel free to look at the top card of your library... hey, it's a Divining Top, how did that get there?
- Cast the Top from the top of your library for due to Cloud Key/Ugin's mana cost reduction
Cast Lion's Eye Diamond adding to your pool and discard you hand which includes Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre who takes all of those discarded cards (LED included) and puts everything back where it started. Demonstrate the loop by drawing your library and declare infinite mana.
Infinite Destroy
Using any of the combos above you have yourself an unquantifiable amount of mana.
Here's how to spend it!
Nevinyrral's disk|eternal masters and Darksteel Forge.
Spine of Ish Sah and Krark-Clan Ironworks.
Works particularly well with Voltaic Key on the field as you can activate it right away if you need to.
It also allows you to mop up any fallout from creatures that can explode into more creatures like Hangarback Walker or Elenda, the Dusk Rose
Unwinding Clock or Clock of Omens in the mix will normally cause a table-wide scoop as you can activate it in a every player's end step, rendering their turn pointless.
Here's how to spend it!
Nevinyrral's disk|eternal masters and Darksteel Forge.
Spine of Ish Sah and Krark-Clan Ironworks.
Infinite Destroy Breakdown
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- Activate the Disk with the Forge in play.
Works particularly well with Voltaic Key on the field as you can activate it right away if you need to.
It also allows you to mop up any fallout from creatures that can explode into more creatures like Hangarback Walker or Elenda, the Dusk Rose
Unwinding Clock or Clock of Omens in the mix will normally cause a table-wide scoop as you can activate it in a every player's end step, rendering their turn pointless.
- Cast Spine, destroy something.
- Sac Spine to the Ironworks and it will return from graveyard to your hand.
- Cast and destroy.
There are plenty more combos and potent synergies but I'm not going to include the more convoluted 5 card interactions that happen by accident, it just gets too confusing and likely to lose anyone who doesn't know the deck inside out!
It's also worth noting that once you've generated infinite mana and you have your whole library in hand you can cover your wincon with Kozilek, the Great Distortion. You've got pretty much every CMC card now in your hand so anyone trying to fire off removal spells or counters to stop you ending the game can suck it on Kozi 2's discard ability.
If you have drawn every card in the library and for some reason have been stopped it's no biggy.
Cast Lion's Eye Diamond, then activate it's ability with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre in hand to send every card back to your library to re-draw using whatever method you used to pick up your library in the first place.
You shouldn't really be stopped short of a silence effect being somehow thrown in your face.
Kozilek's Kryptonite
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I always find "I can't risk you playing that card" is a fair enough argument!
But seriously, expect to see cards like these if you play this deck a lot.
Being in colourless we have a very limited card pool which results in a very limited way to remove these hate cards or otherwise deal with them.
When they go off they wreck us. Don't let it get you down, just rebuild the field and carry on playing if you can. There's always more games.
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Land
We never get colour screwed because we don't need colour. This deck was assembled before wastes were a thing and part of the potency of this deck is in the land base. A coloured deck will look at the bulk of these land and have to give them a pass because too many utility lands mean they won't hit colour. That is one of our greatest strengths. Surprise, my land base does stuff.
Land Choices
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Ancient Tomb: One of the better lands to get in an opening hand. Does a great job of pushing you further ahead at the low low cost of 2 life. In a format where we start with 40 life, two life for is a very small price to pay but obviously if you pay it too much you end up vulnerable to the aggro and burn players as you're doing their job for them. Plays beautifully with chromatic lantern and urborg as they give Ancient Tomb ": add (or any colour in lantern's case) to your mana pool", on top of it's existing ability.
Blinkmoth Nexus: I run very few creatures. Of those very few creatures I run only 2 of them are actually designed to trade blows. The rest are important game winning pieces so you absolutely do not want to have to use them to block a 21/21 Animar so as not to die.
That's where this nifty little man land comes in. For the bargain price on this little dude will keep you alive.
Blast Zone: a partial wipe on a land. We're in colourless so short on board wipes. Crank it up and watch it blow. Would be better if it didn't enter with a counter so it could blow tokens apart for . You can copy it up with Thespian's Stage to deal with tokens if you can get them both out at the same time.
Buried Ruin: taps for mana and can throw an artifact back to your hand.
Combos/Synergy with: crucible of worlds
Cavern of Souls: you're only ever going to name one of two creature types with this card. 99% of the time you're going to stand up, hand on heart and declare 'Eldrazi' with a tear in your eye. That other 1% is for when you're more worried about your combo set up and you're going to say 'construct' while glancing left and right, to cover your metalworker.
Great for saying "no" to the blue guy who fears annihilator.
Command Beacon: this one is here for when the worst has happened. You've cast Kozilek five or six times in a game and then the red guy discarded a kiki-jiki into hammer mage out of pure desperation and nuked your field. You've managed to rebuild but Kozi is still 16 mana to cast. Pay the two, sac the beacon and cast him from your hand for 10.
Crystal Vein: simple land that taps for , or can tap for at the cost of itself if you need that extra push.
Darksteel Citadel: an indestructible land is welcome in a world full of ruinations. An artifact land is welcome in a world where we run Metalworker, Blinkmoth Urn and Mox Opal. Doesn't really do much else other than tapping for mana, and being counted toward something.
Dust Bowl: it kills Lands. It kills lands over and over and over. That 5 colour player looking threatening? Machine gun his green mana base until all that's left is tears. Always remember- we don't need lands as much as the players around us. Don't compromise yourself but feel free to fire away when land becomes redundant.
Combos/Synergy with: Rings of Brighthearth
Eldrazi Temple: taps for a mana. What more do you want a land to do? Oh. Tap for for Kozilek, Ulamog and All is Dust? Ok.
Eye of Ugin: makes Kozilek cheaper. The downside of this card is that it won't actually get you anywhere doing anything else in the early turns when you're building a board. It doesn't tap for mana. It's still a great card for us none the less as it makes our commander, Ulamog and Dust cheaper.
Then you have the activated ability. 7 mana to go an get any Metalworker or Kuldotha Forgemaster you like from the deck (or an Ulamog if something needs destroying).
Ghost Quarter: another land destroyer. It's a commander staple. Yeah you give them a basic land in return but if it's that or a Gaedle, you're gonna pick that basic!
High Market: serves two purposes. Sacrificing Kozilek for another cast, and to protect Kozilek from evil. The worst place for Kozilek to be is in the hands of another player. They will blow you apart with him and all you can then do is pray for an answer.
Sac him in response and he'll be kept safe.
Homeward Path: retrieves that which was taken. Not That Which Was Taken, literally for when they steal a Kozilek from you.
Inkmoth Nexus same reason as always. Stops that lethal attack getting through and prevents an untimely geth's verdict from forcing you to sac something you don't want to. Just pop the one mana in response and sac the land instead. Man lands are often forgotten about or overlooked.
Inventors' Fair: when this card was spoiled I was gobsmacked. It's absolutely amazing. 1 life per turn if you control 3 or more artifacts!!! Clearly I'm joking.
Kaladesh brought a plethora of artifacts both good and bad, but in there among the gearhulk cycle and weird little cars and bobsleighs was the Inventors' Fair. An artifact tutor on a land. I used to use Expedition Map to go and find Eye of Ugin but now 9 times out of 10, it's the fair that I go for because whatever combo piece I top deck, I can go find the second part.
Maze of Ith: another commander staple. Acts as a barrier between you and 'death by voltron'. It also keeps Warren Instigators and Brago and the like at bay.
Miren, the Moaning Well: another sac land used to sac our way to victory, or sac our way out of a tight spot.
Mishra's Factory: one of the better manlands. Sac fodder, block fodder yada yada yada...
This little dude usually comes as a surprise to those who've not seen him tap before.
Pay to turn him into a creature, assign him to block. Before damage is dealt, use his tap ability to give himself +1/+1. Squish an incoming 2/2 that your opponent may not have banked on losing. Then... rejoice!
Mutavault: man land that we use again, towards our sac tactic but make sure you look about the board. Mutavault becomes all creature types so check its size if you're playing against zombies, elves, goblins or slivers. There could be other ways to use this land if there was something like a Crypt Sliver on the field. you can pay 1 to make Mutavault a land, assign it to block, then use the sliver tap ability to regenerate itself.
Reliquary Tower: unlimited hand size in a deck where we're very draw happy. Yes please.
Rogue's Passage: a lot of players after you attack them for the first time will let Kozilek connect rather than use their utility creature to block. There's a huge difference between being forced to get rid of 4 things and get rid of 5. This means when you play the Passage, that player is a sitting duck.
Sanctum of Eternity: Returns Kozilek to your hand for a recast when you have no sac outlet or when he's been stolen.
Great way to get around theft and field wipes.
Sanctum of Ugin: quality creature tutor. You can tap it to add it to the cast, then sac the tapped Sanctum to put a colourless creature into your hand. Very good when looking for a combo piece as kuldotha forgemaster can go get you anything you need if you tutor for it.
Scorched Ruins: sac two lands to tap for four. Pretty sweet deal but be mindful that if you're playing a lot of decks in your meta that see a lot of targeted land removal this one may not be for you. I didn't run this for a long time after having it blown up too many times but times have changed and it's time for the return of the ruins.
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods: a land that can tap for later on in the game. Brilliant.
Strip Mine: destroys any land at the cost of itself. no mana cost, sac: destroy. Strip Mine is the ultimate in land destruction efficiency. With a few key pieces in place you can shred opponents' land bases to death.
Combos/Synergy with: Crucible of Worlds, Rings of Brighthearth
Temple of the False God: great land to hit around turn five or six. Terrible in an opening hand unless you also have Urborg in that hand as well to swampify it.
Wastes: Battle for Zendikar brought us a little something we needed in the form of obliterated landscapes, void of any mana colour... or Wastes to everyone else. I've seen decks that run only one Wastes to allow for Path to Exile, but what if you draw that Wastes and then get pathed? And now Assassin's Trophy is a thing! I run three because there's a few other effects knocking around that allow you to go grab a basic. Three for me is the sweet spot.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: the sole purpose of this beautiful little land is to allow Eye of Ugin, Maze of Ith and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale tap for mana. It also allows us to tap Mishra's Factory, Temple of the False God and Ancient Tomb for . Very useful.
Zhalfirin Void: it's a one shot land. It comes in, it scrys, it's done. It also comes in untapped which is why it has a place in the deck. It's a very good card.
Blinkmoth Nexus: I run very few creatures. Of those very few creatures I run only 2 of them are actually designed to trade blows. The rest are important game winning pieces so you absolutely do not want to have to use them to block a 21/21 Animar so as not to die.
That's where this nifty little man land comes in. For the bargain price on this little dude will keep you alive.
Blast Zone: a partial wipe on a land. We're in colourless so short on board wipes. Crank it up and watch it blow. Would be better if it didn't enter with a counter so it could blow tokens apart for . You can copy it up with Thespian's Stage to deal with tokens if you can get them both out at the same time.
Buried Ruin: taps for mana and can throw an artifact back to your hand.
Combos/Synergy with: crucible of worlds
Cavern of Souls: you're only ever going to name one of two creature types with this card. 99% of the time you're going to stand up, hand on heart and declare 'Eldrazi' with a tear in your eye. That other 1% is for when you're more worried about your combo set up and you're going to say 'construct' while glancing left and right, to cover your metalworker.
Great for saying "no" to the blue guy who fears annihilator.
Command Beacon: this one is here for when the worst has happened. You've cast Kozilek five or six times in a game and then the red guy discarded a kiki-jiki into hammer mage out of pure desperation and nuked your field. You've managed to rebuild but Kozi is still 16 mana to cast. Pay the two, sac the beacon and cast him from your hand for 10.
Crystal Vein: simple land that taps for , or can tap for at the cost of itself if you need that extra push.
Darksteel Citadel: an indestructible land is welcome in a world full of ruinations. An artifact land is welcome in a world where we run Metalworker, Blinkmoth Urn and Mox Opal. Doesn't really do much else other than tapping for mana, and being counted toward something.
Dust Bowl: it kills Lands. It kills lands over and over and over. That 5 colour player looking threatening? Machine gun his green mana base until all that's left is tears. Always remember- we don't need lands as much as the players around us. Don't compromise yourself but feel free to fire away when land becomes redundant.
Combos/Synergy with: Rings of Brighthearth
Eldrazi Temple: taps for a mana. What more do you want a land to do? Oh. Tap for for Kozilek, Ulamog and All is Dust? Ok.
Eye of Ugin: makes Kozilek cheaper. The downside of this card is that it won't actually get you anywhere doing anything else in the early turns when you're building a board. It doesn't tap for mana. It's still a great card for us none the less as it makes our commander, Ulamog and Dust cheaper.
Then you have the activated ability. 7 mana to go an get any Metalworker or Kuldotha Forgemaster you like from the deck (or an Ulamog if something needs destroying).
Ghost Quarter: another land destroyer. It's a commander staple. Yeah you give them a basic land in return but if it's that or a Gaedle, you're gonna pick that basic!
High Market: serves two purposes. Sacrificing Kozilek for another cast, and to protect Kozilek from evil. The worst place for Kozilek to be is in the hands of another player. They will blow you apart with him and all you can then do is pray for an answer.
Sac him in response and he'll be kept safe.
Homeward Path: retrieves that which was taken. Not That Which Was Taken, literally for when they steal a Kozilek from you.
Inkmoth Nexus same reason as always. Stops that lethal attack getting through and prevents an untimely geth's verdict from forcing you to sac something you don't want to. Just pop the one mana in response and sac the land instead. Man lands are often forgotten about or overlooked.
Inventors' Fair: when this card was spoiled I was gobsmacked. It's absolutely amazing. 1 life per turn if you control 3 or more artifacts!!! Clearly I'm joking.
Kaladesh brought a plethora of artifacts both good and bad, but in there among the gearhulk cycle and weird little cars and bobsleighs was the Inventors' Fair. An artifact tutor on a land. I used to use Expedition Map to go and find Eye of Ugin but now 9 times out of 10, it's the fair that I go for because whatever combo piece I top deck, I can go find the second part.
Maze of Ith: another commander staple. Acts as a barrier between you and 'death by voltron'. It also keeps Warren Instigators and Brago and the like at bay.
Miren, the Moaning Well: another sac land used to sac our way to victory, or sac our way out of a tight spot.
Mishra's Factory: one of the better manlands. Sac fodder, block fodder yada yada yada...
This little dude usually comes as a surprise to those who've not seen him tap before.
Pay to turn him into a creature, assign him to block. Before damage is dealt, use his tap ability to give himself +1/+1. Squish an incoming 2/2 that your opponent may not have banked on losing. Then... rejoice!
Mutavault: man land that we use again, towards our sac tactic but make sure you look about the board. Mutavault becomes all creature types so check its size if you're playing against zombies, elves, goblins or slivers. There could be other ways to use this land if there was something like a Crypt Sliver on the field. you can pay 1 to make Mutavault a land, assign it to block, then use the sliver tap ability to regenerate itself.
Reliquary Tower: unlimited hand size in a deck where we're very draw happy. Yes please.
Rogue's Passage: a lot of players after you attack them for the first time will let Kozilek connect rather than use their utility creature to block. There's a huge difference between being forced to get rid of 4 things and get rid of 5. This means when you play the Passage, that player is a sitting duck.
Sanctum of Eternity: Returns Kozilek to your hand for a recast when you have no sac outlet or when he's been stolen.
Great way to get around theft and field wipes.
Sanctum of Ugin: quality creature tutor. You can tap it to add it to the cast, then sac the tapped Sanctum to put a colourless creature into your hand. Very good when looking for a combo piece as kuldotha forgemaster can go get you anything you need if you tutor for it.
Scorched Ruins: sac two lands to tap for four. Pretty sweet deal but be mindful that if you're playing a lot of decks in your meta that see a lot of targeted land removal this one may not be for you. I didn't run this for a long time after having it blown up too many times but times have changed and it's time for the return of the ruins.
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods: a land that can tap for later on in the game. Brilliant.
Strip Mine: destroys any land at the cost of itself. no mana cost, sac: destroy. Strip Mine is the ultimate in land destruction efficiency. With a few key pieces in place you can shred opponents' land bases to death.
Combos/Synergy with: Crucible of Worlds, Rings of Brighthearth
Temple of the False God: great land to hit around turn five or six. Terrible in an opening hand unless you also have Urborg in that hand as well to swampify it.
Wastes: Battle for Zendikar brought us a little something we needed in the form of obliterated landscapes, void of any mana colour... or Wastes to everyone else. I've seen decks that run only one Wastes to allow for Path to Exile, but what if you draw that Wastes and then get pathed? And now Assassin's Trophy is a thing! I run three because there's a few other effects knocking around that allow you to go grab a basic. Three for me is the sweet spot.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: the sole purpose of this beautiful little land is to allow Eye of Ugin, Maze of Ith and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale tap for mana. It also allows us to tap Mishra's Factory, Temple of the False God and Ancient Tomb for . Very useful.
Zhalfirin Void: it's a one shot land. It comes in, it scrys, it's done. It also comes in untapped which is why it has a place in the deck. It's a very good card.
Rocks
Back in the day they would print whatever they wanted on a mana rock. You could pay and get in your mana pool (oh how I wish I could run a Black Lotus). Nowadays a good mana rock follows the ' for rule' (that I made up so not really a rule). This means that you're paying 2 mana and tapping it for 1. Unless the upside is very good, for rocks (like Manalith) aren't welcome in the deck because they aren't worth the extra 1 mana. They just lose too much tempo. The upside of that extra mana has to be mighty powerful to have a home here.
Rock Choices
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Basalt Monolith: it's basically the opposite of a typical mana storage card. Rather than paying mana into it to spend later, you spend now to pay it back later. Storage cards are like banks, Basalt Monolith is like a 0% interest credit card.
Particularly good with our untapping suite that I've mentioned over and over because they negate the lack of untapping during our upkeep.
Combos/Synergy with: Rings of Brighthearth
Chromatic Lantern: this is one of my only for mana rocks but this isn't like a manalith or a darksteel ingot (neither of which I run). *goes to urborg, tomb of yawgmoth, highlight, copy, paste* The sole purpose of this beautiful little land rock is to allow Eye of Ugin, Maze of Ith and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale tap for mana. It also allows us to tap Mishra's Factory, Temple of the False God and Ancient Tomb tap for . Very useful.
Coalition Relic: yes it only taps for , BUT, it can bank one for next turn. The best way to utilise this is: cast the Relic and tap for a charge counter. Next turn spend the from last turn's charge counter and tap for the counter again. That way you have the ability for this to generate 2 mana on the turn you need it. Potent with unwinding clock as in a 4 player game this can generate 5 mana in the first main phase the turn after you played it, if you 'tap to charge' in everyone else's turn.
Dreamstone Hedron: Mind Stone's eldest brother. Follows the for rule and can draw you 3 cards when you run dry. Very useful late game to keep the tempo up.
Everflowing Chalice: drop rock with a multi kicker of for charge counters. This rock is actually one of the most functional rocks we have. You can pay and basically have a Prismatic Lens. You can pay and have a Sisay's Ring. gets you a Dreamstone Hedron without the draw. The great thing about this rock is that it can be played at any point in the game and reflect your current board state.
Gilded Lotus: another staple commander card. The colour it produces is completely obsolete. The fact it can tap for and costs is really good when you're able to drop it, then use the 3 (which you can do a lot with in this build) to then cast something else, or use one of the many abilities on our utility pieces.
Grim Monolith: for . What I call a 'greater rock' because it produces more than its casting cost.
The untap downside is acceptable given the reach this card can give you. Play it early and tap into a Kozi cast. Very abusable with Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens and Unwinding Clock because they negate the Monolith's downside.
Hedron Archive: If Mind Stone is the smallest and Dreamstone Hedron is the biggest, Hedron Archive is the awkward middle sibling. 4 mana for a rock that taps for which lets you draw 2 when you need the cards.
Kyren Toy: a for bank. You can tap it straight away for or you can pay and tap to add counters to use later. The reason I run this is literally to abuse and store mana with Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens and Unwinding clock. Even just storing 1 mana to spend next turn can be massively beneficial.
Lion's Eye Diamond (AKA:LED): the gamble card. A potent mana source with a brutal downside. LED is something you use for a Kozilek cast only because more often than not you're chucking a hand that may be 2 or 3 cards and picking up 4.
Your opponents should try to take this rock out before you can take advantage so hold it in your hand unless you're getting extra use out of it (Clock of Omens, Inspiring Statuary etc.). If you leave it the field for too long you're pretty much asking your opponents to take it out. If they use targeted removal when you can't cast a spell (like in your combat phase) then LED will go unused.
Cast LED, resolve - sac LED and discard hand - cast Kozilek.
Mana Crypt: a card so powerful they had to house it in a book because a booster pack would have melted! OK not really, you got a voucher in the book and then after sending off the voucher they might have sent you this card.
This tasty little 0 drop is amazing. for . What more could you ask for?! Yes it might slice you to death but we use our life total as a resource just to run this card. It's worth it I promise!
Mana Vault: for that can't untap itself. The life it cuts you for is nothing compared to the massive boost 3 mana will give the game plan. If you can find a way to untap it (with our untap suite) you can go into a seriously fast Kozilek cast. It's a very potent card.
Mind Stone: A for that will grab you a card later when you're swimming in colourless mana. Good early nudge forward and a reasonable late game draw.
Metalworker: often this guy won't actually see any real use if you drop him turn 1 or 2. He'll get destroyed if your opponents know what's good for them. If they don't he leads to some very high mana counts. Because of our commander he'll tap, add maybe 6 to 8 mana, cast Kozi, draw 4 cards. The beauty is you can still play spells without seriously damaging the mana he can produce because you restock your hand to go again. Lethal.
Combos/Synergy with: Staff of Domination
Mox Opal: 0 mana cost with metalcraft. A simple target to hit for us given that our deck is artifacts. Keep an eye on your Darksteel Citadel. Being an artifact land it counts! Nice little early game piece that is basically a fragile land.
Paladium Myr: for that can block or be sacrificed instead of Kozilek if needed. For all intents and purposes it's a worn powerstone with legs. Costs , taps for but can't be used on the first turn it sees play. However, if you've got cheaty feet on the board then you can!
Prismatic Lens: you're almost never going to use the second ability. This like our other for rocks is just nice and affordable to progress.
Sisay's Ring: follows our mana rule for an acceptable rock. You pay , you get . Doesn't have any cool extras going on like Hedron Archive but it's a good enough rock to run.
Sol Ring: because it's Sol Ring. Every deck should be running a Sol Ring. Ours is no different but Sol Ring is better for us weirdo colourless players than any other deck. How often do you see a player on turn one go: land, Sol Ring, pass turn? Or: land, Sol Ring, signet?
Well I go: land, Sol Ring, Pristine Talisman, Sensei's Divining Top!
Or: land, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Voltaic Key, Thran Dynamo, Hedron Archive! (that's a turn 2 Kozilek btw.)
Because we don't need colour, all of our sources are as good, if not better than our lands. Sol Ring is good.
Thought Vessel: 2 drop rocks are necessary to get our rock engine online. You won't always get the low cost/high output rocks, so affordable, incremental progression is needed otherwise in the early turns all you'll be doing is dropping lands. The unlimited hand size is very nice too.
Thran Dynamo : quality rock because it's better than our for 's at the same mana cost. For 4 mana you can tap for . It makes a big difference when you're running as tight a build as this.
Ur-Golem's Eye: by this point I'm sick of explaining why mana rocks that cost 2/4/6 mana and tap for half that amount respectively, are good. Instead I'll entertain you with a fun fact about my country: Did you know that every swan in England belongs to the Queen? Now you do.
Worn Powerstone: I don't run any lands that enter tapped. They're no good for tempo. We've all been there, you need to to draw a land, you get the land and it comes in tapped. No good to me and for the most part mana rocks that enter tapped can be as bad... but... Worn powerstone is really good because it's reachable in very early turns to be the last card you play in a line so the entering tapped is accepatable. And at for it's really good value.
Particularly good with our untapping suite that I've mentioned over and over because they negate the lack of untapping during our upkeep.
Combos/Synergy with: Rings of Brighthearth
Chromatic Lantern: this is one of my only for mana rocks but this isn't like a manalith or a darksteel ingot (neither of which I run). *goes to urborg, tomb of yawgmoth, highlight, copy, paste* The sole purpose of this beautiful little land rock is to allow Eye of Ugin, Maze of Ith and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale tap for mana. It also allows us to tap Mishra's Factory, Temple of the False God and Ancient Tomb tap for . Very useful.
Coalition Relic: yes it only taps for , BUT, it can bank one for next turn. The best way to utilise this is: cast the Relic and tap for a charge counter. Next turn spend the from last turn's charge counter and tap for the counter again. That way you have the ability for this to generate 2 mana on the turn you need it. Potent with unwinding clock as in a 4 player game this can generate 5 mana in the first main phase the turn after you played it, if you 'tap to charge' in everyone else's turn.
Dreamstone Hedron: Mind Stone's eldest brother. Follows the for rule and can draw you 3 cards when you run dry. Very useful late game to keep the tempo up.
Everflowing Chalice: drop rock with a multi kicker of for charge counters. This rock is actually one of the most functional rocks we have. You can pay and basically have a Prismatic Lens. You can pay and have a Sisay's Ring. gets you a Dreamstone Hedron without the draw. The great thing about this rock is that it can be played at any point in the game and reflect your current board state.
Gilded Lotus: another staple commander card. The colour it produces is completely obsolete. The fact it can tap for and costs is really good when you're able to drop it, then use the 3 (which you can do a lot with in this build) to then cast something else, or use one of the many abilities on our utility pieces.
Grim Monolith: for . What I call a 'greater rock' because it produces more than its casting cost.
The untap downside is acceptable given the reach this card can give you. Play it early and tap into a Kozi cast. Very abusable with Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens and Unwinding Clock because they negate the Monolith's downside.
Hedron Archive: If Mind Stone is the smallest and Dreamstone Hedron is the biggest, Hedron Archive is the awkward middle sibling. 4 mana for a rock that taps for which lets you draw 2 when you need the cards.
Kyren Toy: a for bank. You can tap it straight away for or you can pay and tap to add counters to use later. The reason I run this is literally to abuse and store mana with Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens and Unwinding clock. Even just storing 1 mana to spend next turn can be massively beneficial.
Lion's Eye Diamond (AKA:LED): the gamble card. A potent mana source with a brutal downside. LED is something you use for a Kozilek cast only because more often than not you're chucking a hand that may be 2 or 3 cards and picking up 4.
Your opponents should try to take this rock out before you can take advantage so hold it in your hand unless you're getting extra use out of it (Clock of Omens, Inspiring Statuary etc.). If you leave it the field for too long you're pretty much asking your opponents to take it out. If they use targeted removal when you can't cast a spell (like in your combat phase) then LED will go unused.
Cast LED, resolve - sac LED and discard hand - cast Kozilek.
Mana Crypt: a card so powerful they had to house it in a book because a booster pack would have melted! OK not really, you got a voucher in the book and then after sending off the voucher they might have sent you this card.
This tasty little 0 drop is amazing. for . What more could you ask for?! Yes it might slice you to death but we use our life total as a resource just to run this card. It's worth it I promise!
Mana Vault: for that can't untap itself. The life it cuts you for is nothing compared to the massive boost 3 mana will give the game plan. If you can find a way to untap it (with our untap suite) you can go into a seriously fast Kozilek cast. It's a very potent card.
Mind Stone: A for that will grab you a card later when you're swimming in colourless mana. Good early nudge forward and a reasonable late game draw.
Metalworker: often this guy won't actually see any real use if you drop him turn 1 or 2. He'll get destroyed if your opponents know what's good for them. If they don't he leads to some very high mana counts. Because of our commander he'll tap, add maybe 6 to 8 mana, cast Kozi, draw 4 cards. The beauty is you can still play spells without seriously damaging the mana he can produce because you restock your hand to go again. Lethal.
Combos/Synergy with: Staff of Domination
Mox Opal: 0 mana cost with metalcraft. A simple target to hit for us given that our deck is artifacts. Keep an eye on your Darksteel Citadel. Being an artifact land it counts! Nice little early game piece that is basically a fragile land.
Paladium Myr: for that can block or be sacrificed instead of Kozilek if needed. For all intents and purposes it's a worn powerstone with legs. Costs , taps for but can't be used on the first turn it sees play. However, if you've got cheaty feet on the board then you can!
Prismatic Lens: you're almost never going to use the second ability. This like our other for rocks is just nice and affordable to progress.
Sisay's Ring: follows our mana rule for an acceptable rock. You pay , you get . Doesn't have any cool extras going on like Hedron Archive but it's a good enough rock to run.
Sol Ring: because it's Sol Ring. Every deck should be running a Sol Ring. Ours is no different but Sol Ring is better for us weirdo colourless players than any other deck. How often do you see a player on turn one go: land, Sol Ring, pass turn? Or: land, Sol Ring, signet?
Well I go: land, Sol Ring, Pristine Talisman, Sensei's Divining Top!
Or: land, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Voltaic Key, Thran Dynamo, Hedron Archive! (that's a turn 2 Kozilek btw.)
Because we don't need colour, all of our sources are as good, if not better than our lands. Sol Ring is good.
Thought Vessel: 2 drop rocks are necessary to get our rock engine online. You won't always get the low cost/high output rocks, so affordable, incremental progression is needed otherwise in the early turns all you'll be doing is dropping lands. The unlimited hand size is very nice too.
Thran Dynamo : quality rock because it's better than our for 's at the same mana cost. For 4 mana you can tap for . It makes a big difference when you're running as tight a build as this.
Ur-Golem's Eye: by this point I'm sick of explaining why mana rocks that cost 2/4/6 mana and tap for half that amount respectively, are good. Instead I'll entertain you with a fun fact about my country: Did you know that every swan in England belongs to the Queen? Now you do.
Worn Powerstone: I don't run any lands that enter tapped. They're no good for tempo. We've all been there, you need to to draw a land, you get the land and it comes in tapped. No good to me and for the most part mana rocks that enter tapped can be as bad... but... Worn powerstone is really good because it's reachable in very early turns to be the last card you play in a line so the entering tapped is accepatable. And at for it's really good value.
Utility
So we've played lands and created a nice amount of colourless mana with the rocks. What to do with all of that excess mana? Here's the utility suite that help keep the wheel turning and allow us all of our crazy plays.
Utility choices
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Ashnod's Altar: One of the most efficient creature sac outlets because it doesn't tap. This performs the same job for a few purposes. It acts as a way to get Kozilek back into the command zone for a recast. Pretty obvious.
The other reason we run it is because it's unstoppable protection for Kozi. When he's targeted by something that would shut down our game plan (cards like Imprisoned in the Moon and Lignify) just sac him in response. Because the sacrifice is the payment to add to your mana pool it can't be stifled.
Clock of Omens: A crazy strong card for us. Use your utility artifacts to untap your mana rocks. Torpor Orb is just as effective tapped as it is untapped, so use it to untap Hedron Archive to get the extra . With the sheer volume of artifacts we have on the board it can produce a serious amount of mana. Obviously, you can get double use out of your tappable utility rocks too.
Cloud Key: Step 1. Cast it. Step 2. Say "artifacts". Step 3. Profit.
Can be used to reduce the cost of creatures if you feel that way inclined but it's really not worth doing. Artifacts all the way. The longer this card is on the field the better value it is. It makes casting our low cost rocks tap for the amount it cost to cast them so you can chain together a serious pile of artifacts.
Crucible of Worlds: you're going to overdraw. It's going to happen when you're chucking Kozi a few times in a turn and drawing 4-12 cards. You can discard down the lands and play them from your graveyard.
Works brilliantly with cards like Strip Mine. You can every turn chew up your opponents land base.
Doubling Cube: Not strictly a mana rock. With untappers you can push your mana count up into the low hundreds. With Rings of Brighthearth and Voltaic Key you're in infinite territory.
Expedition Map: Commander staple. Goes and gets us either Eye of Ugin or Inventor's Fair. I usually go for the latter. Obviously you can get whet ever you need. Problem land? Go get Strip Mine[/card. Getting smacked about? [card]Maze of Ith.
Forsaken Monument: Adds an additional when we tap something for . Absolute powerhouse in this deck and as close to an 'auto-include' as we get. What more is there to say. For in depth analysis on the monument, see below.
Combos/Synergy with: Basalt Monolith
Geode Golem: Can grant us a very early Kozilek drop and then leaves us all the mana to play with after our draw. Like metalworker he's a bit of a sitting duck and at a higher mana cost, more of a gamble. The fact that this little dude has trample is a major asset to him and being able to drop him as early as turn 3 means you can get him through before your opponents shields are up. Remember that he doesn't negate commander tax so although he foots most of the bill for Kozilek, you still need to pay some of it!
Also worth mentioning the ability is triggered. So if you have a sac outlet you can sac Kozilek with the Golem ability on the stack and recast for a sneaky four more cards. I find that once Kozilek's on the field people stop worrying about the Golem!
b]Combos/Synergy with[/b]: Ashnod's Altar, High Market
Inspiring Statuary: this is a funny little card for us in colourless. It makes itself and all those utility artifacts tap for 1 towards any non artifact spell. More often than not, kozilek. It can however end up a bit useless as that mana (if that's what you want to call it) doesn't really go anywhere if you're trying to develop a board state as it can't help amass our chain of mana rocks. Its not exactly a double edged sword, but can sometimes be 3 mana not very well spent.
Krark-Clan Ironworks: sort of works like a mana rock but not quite as you need to sac into it. Can be nice if you have a bit of fodder to feed into it but for the most part this is in the deck because if you're sitting on infinite mana you can end the game with spine. But even with its ability it makes for a good inclusion as you can get the boost of when you need it.
Combos/Synergy with: Spine of Ish Sah
Kuldotha Forgemaster: , sac 3 artifacts to field an artifact from your library. Not to hand. To field.
He's very useful and if you've got rings already out becasue you've pretty much ended the game as you can pay to field two artifacts. Also works well with Voltaic Key, Unwinding Clock and Clock of Omens but you've got to have the sac fodder there (which isn't hard at the rate we drop artifacts). With any of the three out you can get multiple activations either in your turn, or over the course of your opponent's turns.
Manifold Key: Like Voltaic Key but worse as it can't target itself for combo with rings.
Still, that aside it can untap mana rocks for extra value, double our tutors and also give Kozi a way through defenders for the kill.
Memory Jar: solid card draw best activated when your opponents are tapped out. Be careful of the blue player. They have those seven cards until end of turn so will look to spend any spare mana on instants and more often than not it'll be a counter. However, it can work the other way. If blue had held two mana open for a counterspell then you've forced that card into exile.
This one is all about timing. Make sure you have as much as possible open to play what you've drawn because nothing's worse than not having the mana to cast that combo piece you just picked up.
It's also worth saying to remember that your cards in hand are temporary after a memory jar activation. I have, once (and only once) gotten into a Kozilek loop and just fallen short of winning with a Metalworker on the field. I had some 35 cards in my hand and passed the turn to win in my next turn, forgetting that I would discard everything and be left with my original hand of two lands. I didn't win.
Mystic Forge: Colourless Future Sight with a way to scrap the lands you can't play. Differs from future sight though because your opponents can't see what's coming.
With Sensei's Divining Top you can literally pay to draw a card by continually using Top's tap ability to send it to the top of your library and recasting it. Possibly the best draw engine in the deck without being infinite.
Also worth noting are topdeck manipulators like Scroll Rack and even Ugin, the Ineffable. Scroll rack can switch your top cards for ones in your hand that you were going to play anyway and can scoop the unplayable lands up into your HAND. Ugin does what the forge is already doing; taking that top card and moving it aside for the next card.the more I use the forge the better it seems to be.
Combos/Synergy with: Sensei's Divining Top
Nevinyrral's Disk: One of our very few board wipes. Be aware it doesn't hit planeswalkers. The reason this wipe is so good is that it can be used at instant speed in the end step before your next turn, or when attacks are declared against you that would otherwise finish you off.
Combos/Synergy with: Darksteel Forge
Planar Bridge: awesome card as it put a permenant directly into play. 14 mana for a card is a lot to most decks but 14 mana is what we're seeing at T5 and T6 provided you've got a half decent draw 4 from Kozilek. Usually used to find a second combo piece or for and end of opponent's turn Eugene for maximum impact.
Relic of Progenitus: One of the few pieces of graveyard hate I'm running. Great because it draws a card and the low cost is handy to get it onto the field and start using the tap ability to keep the graveyard abusers at bay.
Rings of Brighthearth: possibly the most useful artifact ever printed. It is the best 3 mana you'll ever spend. It can do things as small as drawing an extra card from Mind Stone to getting an extra card on the field from Planar Bridge. It can create infinite mana with Basalt Monolith to then draw your entire deck with Sensei's Divining Top. I could go on for pages about the billions of interactions it has but what I want to focus on is what it does with Strionic Resonator .
Rings' ability is a triggered ability that cares about activated abilities.
Resonator's ability is an activated ability that cares about triggered abilities.
This means you can activate an ability, copy it with Rings, copy the copy with Resonator (as that one is triggered), and then copy Resonator's ability with Rings (as it was activated). This gives you four copies. It's a powerful card which has a golden seat in the deck.
Combos/Synergy with: Basalt Monolith, Voltaic Key, Sensei's Divining Top, anything else that has an activated ability!
Ring of Three Wishes: gets compared against Planar Portal quite a bit. I find Planar Portal, which is 1 extra to cast and 1 extra to activate, to not be as good as this awesome piece of jewellery. I've played both extensively and found that I've never used all of my three wishes. I usually go for Rings of Brighthearth and then double up on my next wish by doubling the next activation, usually going for Basalt Monolith and either Sensei's Divining Top to draw my deck, or Ashnod's Altar to.... draw my deck.
Scrap Trawler: Helps recover from board wipes by stacking its triggers.
Wrath goes off and you have to put your field in the graveyard. Scrap trawler sees triggers from every one. Use your one drops to return your 0 drops, then your two drops to return your one drops, threes for twos, fours for threes and so on until you've turned a Creeping Corrosion into a pseudo Cyclonic Rift.
Scroll Rack: gives you a major advantage of giving you a hand size effectively double what it is. If I draw this card plus a few good rocks in my opening hand with some questionable additions to that, the Scroll Rack will mean I can flip the less decent ones to the top of my library and let me play with what's there. Doesn't strictly give you card advantage but does give you more options.
Sculpting Steel: copies an artifact. With so many quality artifacts to pick from you're spoilt for choice.
Sensei's Divining Top: brilliant top deck management. Use it to hold off those high mana cost until you're ready to cast them. Can create and infinite draw loop with Rings of Brighthearth. Activate Top's tap ability and copy it with rings. The copy resolves first causing you to draw a card and put Divining Top on the top of your library. Then the original resolves drawing you a card and putting nothing on top of your library (as the Divining Top's ability doesn't target it doesn't matter). Cast the Top you just drew and start over. 3 mana per card isn't too bad a deal!
Staff of Domination: staff is infamous for it's ability to draw your deck with nothing but itself and a bucket load of mana. It just taps and untap all day long.
Combos/Synergy with: metalworker
Strionic Resonator: copies triggered abilities. Most noteworthy are Kozi's draw trigger and annihiltor trigger. Nobody wants to hear during the declare attackers phase "sacrifice eight permanents please".
Again, following on from the above about Rings of Brighthearth that would be annihilator 12. If you have one of our famous untappers, that can be a lot higher.
Combos/Synergy with: Rings of Brighthearth
Transmogrifying Wand: repeatable Pongify style effect at sorcery speed. Having a much more limited pool to pick from we don't get a wide range of removal options. This wand is pretty good as it's low cost unlike most others.
Unwinding Clock: removes the downside of some of our best rocks (Grim Monolith, Mana Vault and Basalt Monolith), allows our tutors (Kuldotha Forgemaster, Ring of Three Wishes and Planar Bridge) to have a complete combo ready to go by our next turn, pumps our charge counter cards (Coalition Relic and Kyren Toy) and pretty much let's us get away with anything we want during our opponent's turns. Awesome addition.
Voltaic Key: another highly versatile card. You can use it to generate 5 mana off of a Gilded Lotus or you can double the output of a Doubling Cube. Another one when paired with Rings of Brighthearth produces an infinite loop. Activate Voltaic Key targeting whatever you want to untap, copy the ability with Rings targeting Voltaic Key. The Key untaps, then the original target untaps leaving you back at where you began to go all over again.
Wandering Archaic // Explore the Vastlands: Great bit of extra value or a great way to slow your opponents down. We have very little removal and land ramp in colourless and being able to piggyback off other players spells is awesome. Worst case scenario we get no extra spells and they're paying the extra each time they cast an instant or sorcery... Still good.
Obligitory mention of Strionic Resonator and we can move on!
Welding Jar: this seemingly obvious little jar has a few purposes. It's first job is pretty obvious- it regenerates an artifact. It's really handy to have this on the board if you intend on trying any kind of Metalworker play. It gives him an extra life. It's also a cheap rock to sac into a Kuldotha Forgemaster. Handy little jar.
The other reason we run it is because it's unstoppable protection for Kozi. When he's targeted by something that would shut down our game plan (cards like Imprisoned in the Moon and Lignify) just sac him in response. Because the sacrifice is the payment to add to your mana pool it can't be stifled.
Clock of Omens: A crazy strong card for us. Use your utility artifacts to untap your mana rocks. Torpor Orb is just as effective tapped as it is untapped, so use it to untap Hedron Archive to get the extra . With the sheer volume of artifacts we have on the board it can produce a serious amount of mana. Obviously, you can get double use out of your tappable utility rocks too.
Cloud Key: Step 1. Cast it. Step 2. Say "artifacts". Step 3. Profit.
Can be used to reduce the cost of creatures if you feel that way inclined but it's really not worth doing. Artifacts all the way. The longer this card is on the field the better value it is. It makes casting our low cost rocks tap for the amount it cost to cast them so you can chain together a serious pile of artifacts.
Crucible of Worlds: you're going to overdraw. It's going to happen when you're chucking Kozi a few times in a turn and drawing 4-12 cards. You can discard down the lands and play them from your graveyard.
Works brilliantly with cards like Strip Mine. You can every turn chew up your opponents land base.
Doubling Cube: Not strictly a mana rock. With untappers you can push your mana count up into the low hundreds. With Rings of Brighthearth and Voltaic Key you're in infinite territory.
Expedition Map: Commander staple. Goes and gets us either Eye of Ugin or Inventor's Fair. I usually go for the latter. Obviously you can get whet ever you need. Problem land? Go get Strip Mine[/card. Getting smacked about? [card]Maze of Ith.
Forsaken Monument: Adds an additional when we tap something for . Absolute powerhouse in this deck and as close to an 'auto-include' as we get. What more is there to say. For in depth analysis on the monument, see below.
Combos/Synergy with: Basalt Monolith
Getting the most out of your monument
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Let's talk about the most efficient way to cast the monument.
First let's get our head around productivity. I'm going to use wastes as the example so it's easier to wrap your head around.
So with monument on the board:
Wastes: taps for 1, will produce 2 = 200% efficient.
Sisay's ring: taps for 2, will produce 3 =150% efficient.
Thran dynamo: taps for 3, will produce 4, 133% efficient.
Basically the more mana the permanent taps for the less extra you get per mana produced.
Let's say we have a board of 5 wastes, Sisay's ring and a thran dynamo.
The lands will total 5 mana and the rocks will total 5 mana.
If you tap out the lands to produce 5, cast monument, the mana you can then produce from the rocks totals 7.
Flip it the other way and tap the rocks for 5 and cast monument you can then tap the lands for 10 total.
In conclusion, cast monument with the highest mana producing things you have!
Also, its worth being aware that there are some rocks and lands that don't fall into the monunent's line of sight and won't produce the additional mana.
Here's how to not get caught out!
Similarly Blood Moon (and similar) will wreck the monument too! Mountains tap for .
First let's get our head around productivity. I'm going to use wastes as the example so it's easier to wrap your head around.
So with monument on the board:
Wastes: taps for 1, will produce 2 = 200% efficient.
Sisay's ring: taps for 2, will produce 3 =150% efficient.
Thran dynamo: taps for 3, will produce 4, 133% efficient.
Basically the more mana the permanent taps for the less extra you get per mana produced.
Let's say we have a board of 5 wastes, Sisay's ring and a thran dynamo.
The lands will total 5 mana and the rocks will total 5 mana.
If you tap out the lands to produce 5, cast monument, the mana you can then produce from the rocks totals 7.
Flip it the other way and tap the rocks for 5 and cast monument you can then tap the lands for 10 total.
In conclusion, cast monument with the highest mana producing things you have!
Also, its worth being aware that there are some rocks and lands that don't fall into the monunent's line of sight and won't produce the additional mana.
Here's how to not get caught out!
- Mox Opal: taps for any colour. Colourless is not a colour so can't be named. The opal stays tapping for one.
- Gilded Lotus: Same as the Opal, taps for coloured, not colourless
- Coalition Relic: as above
- Lion's Eye Diamond: not only does this not produce colourless, it doesnt even tap!
- Ashnod's Altar: Doesn't tap, doesn't count.
Krark-Clan Ironworks: Also doesn't tap, also doesn't count. - Chromatic Lantern: again, coloured mana out of this one but it will also mean that if you have this out and tap an Eye of Ugin for mana, that mana is also coloured and won't produce the extra.
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: as with the lantern this bad boy taps for , and means lands can also tap for . isn't !
- Cavern of Souls: will generate the mana with the first ability BUT, if you named Eldrazi when you played it that spell can be countered. The second ability generates coloured mana and can't be countered, but you can't claim that extra mana as you're tapping for colour.
Similarly Blood Moon (and similar) will wreck the monument too! Mountains tap for .
Also worth mentioning the ability is triggered. So if you have a sac outlet you can sac Kozilek with the Golem ability on the stack and recast for a sneaky four more cards. I find that once Kozilek's on the field people stop worrying about the Golem!
b]Combos/Synergy with[/b]: Ashnod's Altar, High Market
Inspiring Statuary: this is a funny little card for us in colourless. It makes itself and all those utility artifacts tap for 1 towards any non artifact spell. More often than not, kozilek. It can however end up a bit useless as that mana (if that's what you want to call it) doesn't really go anywhere if you're trying to develop a board state as it can't help amass our chain of mana rocks. Its not exactly a double edged sword, but can sometimes be 3 mana not very well spent.
Krark-Clan Ironworks: sort of works like a mana rock but not quite as you need to sac into it. Can be nice if you have a bit of fodder to feed into it but for the most part this is in the deck because if you're sitting on infinite mana you can end the game with spine. But even with its ability it makes for a good inclusion as you can get the boost of when you need it.
Combos/Synergy with: Spine of Ish Sah
Kuldotha Forgemaster: , sac 3 artifacts to field an artifact from your library. Not to hand. To field.
He's very useful and if you've got rings already out becasue you've pretty much ended the game as you can pay to field two artifacts. Also works well with Voltaic Key, Unwinding Clock and Clock of Omens but you've got to have the sac fodder there (which isn't hard at the rate we drop artifacts). With any of the three out you can get multiple activations either in your turn, or over the course of your opponent's turns.
Manifold Key: Like Voltaic Key but worse as it can't target itself for combo with rings.
Still, that aside it can untap mana rocks for extra value, double our tutors and also give Kozi a way through defenders for the kill.
Memory Jar: solid card draw best activated when your opponents are tapped out. Be careful of the blue player. They have those seven cards until end of turn so will look to spend any spare mana on instants and more often than not it'll be a counter. However, it can work the other way. If blue had held two mana open for a counterspell then you've forced that card into exile.
This one is all about timing. Make sure you have as much as possible open to play what you've drawn because nothing's worse than not having the mana to cast that combo piece you just picked up.
It's also worth saying to remember that your cards in hand are temporary after a memory jar activation. I have, once (and only once) gotten into a Kozilek loop and just fallen short of winning with a Metalworker on the field. I had some 35 cards in my hand and passed the turn to win in my next turn, forgetting that I would discard everything and be left with my original hand of two lands. I didn't win.
Mystic Forge: Colourless Future Sight with a way to scrap the lands you can't play. Differs from future sight though because your opponents can't see what's coming.
With Sensei's Divining Top you can literally pay to draw a card by continually using Top's tap ability to send it to the top of your library and recasting it. Possibly the best draw engine in the deck without being infinite.
Also worth noting are topdeck manipulators like Scroll Rack and even Ugin, the Ineffable. Scroll rack can switch your top cards for ones in your hand that you were going to play anyway and can scoop the unplayable lands up into your HAND. Ugin does what the forge is already doing; taking that top card and moving it aside for the next card.the more I use the forge the better it seems to be.
Combos/Synergy with: Sensei's Divining Top
Nevinyrral's Disk: One of our very few board wipes. Be aware it doesn't hit planeswalkers. The reason this wipe is so good is that it can be used at instant speed in the end step before your next turn, or when attacks are declared against you that would otherwise finish you off.
Combos/Synergy with: Darksteel Forge
Planar Bridge: awesome card as it put a permenant directly into play. 14 mana for a card is a lot to most decks but 14 mana is what we're seeing at T5 and T6 provided you've got a half decent draw 4 from Kozilek. Usually used to find a second combo piece or for and end of opponent's turn Eugene for maximum impact.
Relic of Progenitus: One of the few pieces of graveyard hate I'm running. Great because it draws a card and the low cost is handy to get it onto the field and start using the tap ability to keep the graveyard abusers at bay.
Rings of Brighthearth: possibly the most useful artifact ever printed. It is the best 3 mana you'll ever spend. It can do things as small as drawing an extra card from Mind Stone to getting an extra card on the field from Planar Bridge. It can create infinite mana with Basalt Monolith to then draw your entire deck with Sensei's Divining Top. I could go on for pages about the billions of interactions it has but what I want to focus on is what it does with Strionic Resonator .
Rings' ability is a triggered ability that cares about activated abilities.
Resonator's ability is an activated ability that cares about triggered abilities.
This means you can activate an ability, copy it with Rings, copy the copy with Resonator (as that one is triggered), and then copy Resonator's ability with Rings (as it was activated). This gives you four copies. It's a powerful card which has a golden seat in the deck.
Combos/Synergy with: Basalt Monolith, Voltaic Key, Sensei's Divining Top, anything else that has an activated ability!
Ring of Three Wishes: gets compared against Planar Portal quite a bit. I find Planar Portal, which is 1 extra to cast and 1 extra to activate, to not be as good as this awesome piece of jewellery. I've played both extensively and found that I've never used all of my three wishes. I usually go for Rings of Brighthearth and then double up on my next wish by doubling the next activation, usually going for Basalt Monolith and either Sensei's Divining Top to draw my deck, or Ashnod's Altar to.... draw my deck.
Scrap Trawler: Helps recover from board wipes by stacking its triggers.
Wrath goes off and you have to put your field in the graveyard. Scrap trawler sees triggers from every one. Use your one drops to return your 0 drops, then your two drops to return your one drops, threes for twos, fours for threes and so on until you've turned a Creeping Corrosion into a pseudo Cyclonic Rift.
Scroll Rack: gives you a major advantage of giving you a hand size effectively double what it is. If I draw this card plus a few good rocks in my opening hand with some questionable additions to that, the Scroll Rack will mean I can flip the less decent ones to the top of my library and let me play with what's there. Doesn't strictly give you card advantage but does give you more options.
Sculpting Steel: copies an artifact. With so many quality artifacts to pick from you're spoilt for choice.
Sensei's Divining Top: brilliant top deck management. Use it to hold off those high mana cost until you're ready to cast them. Can create and infinite draw loop with Rings of Brighthearth. Activate Top's tap ability and copy it with rings. The copy resolves first causing you to draw a card and put Divining Top on the top of your library. Then the original resolves drawing you a card and putting nothing on top of your library (as the Divining Top's ability doesn't target it doesn't matter). Cast the Top you just drew and start over. 3 mana per card isn't too bad a deal!
Staff of Domination: staff is infamous for it's ability to draw your deck with nothing but itself and a bucket load of mana. It just taps and untap all day long.
Combos/Synergy with: metalworker
Strionic Resonator: copies triggered abilities. Most noteworthy are Kozi's draw trigger and annihiltor trigger. Nobody wants to hear during the declare attackers phase "sacrifice eight permanents please".
Again, following on from the above about Rings of Brighthearth that would be annihilator 12. If you have one of our famous untappers, that can be a lot higher.
Combos/Synergy with: Rings of Brighthearth
Transmogrifying Wand: repeatable Pongify style effect at sorcery speed. Having a much more limited pool to pick from we don't get a wide range of removal options. This wand is pretty good as it's low cost unlike most others.
Unwinding Clock: removes the downside of some of our best rocks (Grim Monolith, Mana Vault and Basalt Monolith), allows our tutors (Kuldotha Forgemaster, Ring of Three Wishes and Planar Bridge) to have a complete combo ready to go by our next turn, pumps our charge counter cards (Coalition Relic and Kyren Toy) and pretty much let's us get away with anything we want during our opponent's turns. Awesome addition.
Voltaic Key: another highly versatile card. You can use it to generate 5 mana off of a Gilded Lotus or you can double the output of a Doubling Cube. Another one when paired with Rings of Brighthearth produces an infinite loop. Activate Voltaic Key targeting whatever you want to untap, copy the ability with Rings targeting Voltaic Key. The Key untaps, then the original target untaps leaving you back at where you began to go all over again.
Wandering Archaic // Explore the Vastlands: Great bit of extra value or a great way to slow your opponents down. We have very little removal and land ramp in colourless and being able to piggyback off other players spells is awesome. Worst case scenario we get no extra spells and they're paying the extra each time they cast an instant or sorcery... Still good.
Obligitory mention of Strionic Resonator and we can move on!
Welding Jar: this seemingly obvious little jar has a few purposes. It's first job is pretty obvious- it regenerates an artifact. It's really handy to have this on the board if you intend on trying any kind of Metalworker play. It gives him an extra life. It's also a cheap rock to sac into a Kuldotha Forgemaster. Handy little jar.
Everything Else
... and the last bits that I don't count as utility. Stax effects, spot removal and our glorious sweepers
Everything else
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All is Dust: a merciless, almost one sided wipe. Gets around protection, indestructible, hexproof and shroud. Serious all star in this deck. Remember that with Eye of Ugin it also costs less to cast.
Darksteel Forge: Indestructible artifacts? Yes please. I find that tricking it out with Forgemaster or PlanarBbridge in response to a board wipe is the most effective way of getting the Forge into play. Pairs with Nevinyrral's Disk as it prevents the Disk from destroying itself allowing multiple activations. High cost but worth it for the effect. Once it hits the field it's quite difficult to remove as there's less 'exile artifact' cards that there are 'destroy artifact'.
Combos/Synergy with: Nevinyrral's Disk
Duplicant: targeted creature removal. Takes on the power and toughness of its victim rather than copying it which is a shame. If it was a direct copy it would be outstanding. I often use this as a way to get Kozilek back to the CZ rather than removing my opponent's creatures. It depends on the situation obviously.
Karn Liberated: another targeted removal piece that you can use twice. I've only ever used Karns first ability one time. My last standing opponent had cast Dark Petition to combo out on his next turn. Last card in hand. Drop Karn, exile his tutored card. Bye. Mostly this removes Kozilek unless there's a big threat on the field.
Kozilek, the Great Distortion: A later iteration of the Butcher. Not as powerful or oppressive when attacking but can be very useful when needing to counter out opponent's board wipes and wincons. Don't go splashing the counters out at every opportunity but think, is that spell going to cost you your board state or the game? If so, pitch a card to remove it.
The draw ability is very useful when you're low on cards and can't squeeze out a Butcher cast but you have to watch your timing. If you have a full grasp of cards from multiple Butcher casts you're going to see no additional cards from the Great Distortion.
Lightning Greaves: what's better than a 12/12 that draws you four cards and causes your opponents to sac their stuff? The same thing but with haste. The reason the greaves are so good is because the equip cost is . Some people prefer Swiftfoot Boots but the equip cost means you can't flip it from creature to creature as you like. That equip cost is brilliant!
Spine of Ish Sah: another targeted removal piece that's repeatable if you can destroy, sacrifice or bounce the Spine. Bouncing is tricky but sacking it to Krark-Clan Ironworks means you can continually cast spine if you have the mana to do so. Spine sees any permanent so is amazing removal!
Combos/Synergy with: Krark-clan Ironworks
Tangle Wire: Plays havoc on your opponents board state if you can get this off early and can give you an unbelievable lead. Because we can still generate mana with the artifacts we're casting it has a less detrimental effect on us. Remember to stack your triggers in the right order too. Make sure on your upkeep the 'tap your stuff' ability resolves after 'remove a counter'. That way you're only having to tap 3 things after removing the first counter. And remember to tap Tangle Wire to itself!
Torpor Orb: this beautiful little ball shuts down many decks that put us colourless players at a direct disadvantage. Tokens and ETB artifact removal. There are many many EDH staple creatures that enter the battlefield (or look at other creatures entering) and remove permanents, generate tokens or deal direct damage. Torpor Orb is a blanket NO. Been killed by a certain red god, swarmed by plant tokens or been handed free elephant tokens? These are all plays that although cause a lot of decks to worry, cause us the most harm. This card originally went in the deck to shut down Aura Shards but has proven its worth hundreds of times over.
Warping Wail: I run this card for a few very specific reasons.
- It exiles goblin welder. The grief I get from that little goblin is unreal. Obviously it'll make short work of any annoying utility creature but I really hate that welder.
- It counters cards like Ruination. I run 3 basic lands. Ruination huuuuurts. It also stops most artifact board wipes so I'm happy for this card to sit in my hand for the entire game.
- It can drop a chump blocker in a pinch, keeps Kozi alive against Fleshbag Marauder effects and at the very least, can EOT an extra mana for a turn when I may need the 1 off of the Scion.
Winter Orb: one of the few stax pieces in the deck. It shuts a lot of decks down pretty hard and the only ones who can carry on a decent game and progress are those who can generate mana outside of their land base. A lot of EDH decks run Sol Ring and Gilded Lotus but because such an enormous amount of our mana is generated from nonland permanents, we can have the Orb in play and it only be a minor hinderance while it cripples the rest of the table. If it's available, you can use Clock of Omens to tap it after the player to your right finishes their upkeep so you won't even suffer the same fate as your opponents.
Combos/Synergy with: Clock of Omens
Ugin, the Ineffable: ok. Let's break this dude down. Firstly his static ability. This dude is ramp like semblance anvil but without the downside. That ability can allow you to vomit all the utility you were holding back to prioritise your mana rocks. Awesome.
Then there's the +1. He creates a blocker at the temporary cost of a card from the top of your library with the promise to give it back to you... except to your hand. That's right, he draws cards in a roundabout kind of way.
Then you have that beautiful, beautiful -3.
He takes out a coloured permanent. I've included him for this ability alone as it's the only one you can solidly count on.
There's no guarantees on how long the other abilities will pay off before he's removed but with this one, you get to destroy something.
This walker is the whole package. Ramp, draw, removal. Awesome.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Oh Ugin. How I love you.
This dude is insane for us. More often than not, like Dust, he's a one sided wipe that again, avoids indestructible. He exiles. Meaning any graveyard plays can't happen with what he takes out. And the fact he comes in at a loyalty of 7 means you can remove some very high value pieces. If you don't need to max out the minus ability then you have a repeatable Ghostfire on a walker. Because we lack any real defense, don't pin your hopes on him making a full rotation.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Kozilek's bro. Ulamog is a staple in our format. He's inbuilt mill prevention, destroy on cast, a huge body and has the same annihilator stats as our commander. The only downside to Ulamog is that he can turn up in an opening hand. Exactly where you don't want him. He's most welcome in the draw 4 from casting Kozilek as we're already into the groove of high casting.
Darksteel Forge: Indestructible artifacts? Yes please. I find that tricking it out with Forgemaster or PlanarBbridge in response to a board wipe is the most effective way of getting the Forge into play. Pairs with Nevinyrral's Disk as it prevents the Disk from destroying itself allowing multiple activations. High cost but worth it for the effect. Once it hits the field it's quite difficult to remove as there's less 'exile artifact' cards that there are 'destroy artifact'.
Combos/Synergy with: Nevinyrral's Disk
Duplicant: targeted creature removal. Takes on the power and toughness of its victim rather than copying it which is a shame. If it was a direct copy it would be outstanding. I often use this as a way to get Kozilek back to the CZ rather than removing my opponent's creatures. It depends on the situation obviously.
Karn Liberated: another targeted removal piece that you can use twice. I've only ever used Karns first ability one time. My last standing opponent had cast Dark Petition to combo out on his next turn. Last card in hand. Drop Karn, exile his tutored card. Bye. Mostly this removes Kozilek unless there's a big threat on the field.
Kozilek, the Great Distortion: A later iteration of the Butcher. Not as powerful or oppressive when attacking but can be very useful when needing to counter out opponent's board wipes and wincons. Don't go splashing the counters out at every opportunity but think, is that spell going to cost you your board state or the game? If so, pitch a card to remove it.
The draw ability is very useful when you're low on cards and can't squeeze out a Butcher cast but you have to watch your timing. If you have a full grasp of cards from multiple Butcher casts you're going to see no additional cards from the Great Distortion.
Lightning Greaves: what's better than a 12/12 that draws you four cards and causes your opponents to sac their stuff? The same thing but with haste. The reason the greaves are so good is because the equip cost is . Some people prefer Swiftfoot Boots but the equip cost means you can't flip it from creature to creature as you like. That equip cost is brilliant!
Spine of Ish Sah: another targeted removal piece that's repeatable if you can destroy, sacrifice or bounce the Spine. Bouncing is tricky but sacking it to Krark-Clan Ironworks means you can continually cast spine if you have the mana to do so. Spine sees any permanent so is amazing removal!
Combos/Synergy with: Krark-clan Ironworks
Tangle Wire: Plays havoc on your opponents board state if you can get this off early and can give you an unbelievable lead. Because we can still generate mana with the artifacts we're casting it has a less detrimental effect on us. Remember to stack your triggers in the right order too. Make sure on your upkeep the 'tap your stuff' ability resolves after 'remove a counter'. That way you're only having to tap 3 things after removing the first counter. And remember to tap Tangle Wire to itself!
Torpor Orb: this beautiful little ball shuts down many decks that put us colourless players at a direct disadvantage. Tokens and ETB artifact removal. There are many many EDH staple creatures that enter the battlefield (or look at other creatures entering) and remove permanents, generate tokens or deal direct damage. Torpor Orb is a blanket NO. Been killed by a certain red god, swarmed by plant tokens or been handed free elephant tokens? These are all plays that although cause a lot of decks to worry, cause us the most harm. This card originally went in the deck to shut down Aura Shards but has proven its worth hundreds of times over.
Warping Wail: I run this card for a few very specific reasons.
- It exiles goblin welder. The grief I get from that little goblin is unreal. Obviously it'll make short work of any annoying utility creature but I really hate that welder.
- It counters cards like Ruination. I run 3 basic lands. Ruination huuuuurts. It also stops most artifact board wipes so I'm happy for this card to sit in my hand for the entire game.
- It can drop a chump blocker in a pinch, keeps Kozi alive against Fleshbag Marauder effects and at the very least, can EOT an extra mana for a turn when I may need the 1 off of the Scion.
Winter Orb: one of the few stax pieces in the deck. It shuts a lot of decks down pretty hard and the only ones who can carry on a decent game and progress are those who can generate mana outside of their land base. A lot of EDH decks run Sol Ring and Gilded Lotus but because such an enormous amount of our mana is generated from nonland permanents, we can have the Orb in play and it only be a minor hinderance while it cripples the rest of the table. If it's available, you can use Clock of Omens to tap it after the player to your right finishes their upkeep so you won't even suffer the same fate as your opponents.
Combos/Synergy with: Clock of Omens
Ugin, the Ineffable: ok. Let's break this dude down. Firstly his static ability. This dude is ramp like semblance anvil but without the downside. That ability can allow you to vomit all the utility you were holding back to prioritise your mana rocks. Awesome.
Then there's the +1. He creates a blocker at the temporary cost of a card from the top of your library with the promise to give it back to you... except to your hand. That's right, he draws cards in a roundabout kind of way.
Then you have that beautiful, beautiful -3.
He takes out a coloured permanent. I've included him for this ability alone as it's the only one you can solidly count on.
There's no guarantees on how long the other abilities will pay off before he's removed but with this one, you get to destroy something.
This walker is the whole package. Ramp, draw, removal. Awesome.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Oh Ugin. How I love you.
This dude is insane for us. More often than not, like Dust, he's a one sided wipe that again, avoids indestructible. He exiles. Meaning any graveyard plays can't happen with what he takes out. And the fact he comes in at a loyalty of 7 means you can remove some very high value pieces. If you don't need to max out the minus ability then you have a repeatable Ghostfire on a walker. Because we lack any real defense, don't pin your hopes on him making a full rotation.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Kozilek's bro. Ulamog is a staple in our format. He's inbuilt mill prevention, destroy on cast, a huge body and has the same annihilator stats as our commander. The only downside to Ulamog is that he can turn up in an opening hand. Exactly where you don't want him. He's most welcome in the draw 4 from casting Kozilek as we're already into the groove of high casting.
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Here's some ways to play to our strengths while at the same time shutting down certain plays that could beat us to the win.
Token strategies can be a pain. They can overrun us incredibly quickly if not kept in check and because of our low creature count they can become difficult to block.
Ratchet Bomb and Powder Keg are basically token sweepers.
You activate their destroy abilities with zero counters on them which makes them destroy all creatures and other permanents with mana cost . Tokens. Sit with them on the field as a deterant.
If they declare an attack at you, blow up the tokens.
Graveyard and reanimator decks can be pretty strong. We've all seen it. There's an opponent getting tons of value from dropping creatures into their graveyard and pulling them onto the battlefield for a fraction of the cost. That can't be allowed.
Grafdigger's Cage, Tormod's Crypt, Scavenger Grounds and Silent Gravestone, along with our already sleeved up Relic of Progenitus can shut down those kinds of strategies fairly easily. In the case of Grafdigger's cage it also shuts down game ending cards like Tooth and Nail and Defense of the Heart as creatures can't enter the battlefield from the library either. Bonus!
Tappy Tappy creatures that all chain together to win games through activated abilities really don't like Cursed Totem.
There are so many generals out there that rely on their activated abilities to win the game.
What's a Sliver Queen if she can't birth slivers?
What's Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord if he can't sac a creature?
What's Grenzo, Dungeon Warden if he can't... do that weird thing that Grenzo does?
Grim totem can buy you time to deal with threats but bear in mind you won't get any use out of Kuldotha Forgemaster, Metalworker or Palladium Myr with it on the field.
Highly responsive decks that run a high number of counters and removal spells can hurt if they take a disliking to you.
In the end step before their turn they're firing off a natural state targeting and important mana rock can really put a dampener on the day.
Defense Grid forces them to reconsider how and when they play their removal. They also have to make the decision of whether they trade their removal spell for your Defense Grid or maybe your Sol Ring.
It also hurts end of turn tutors. Mystical Tutor is much worse if the casting cost is
Trinisphere can provide a similar effect to an extent but it hits your spells as well. Although, we have a lot more mana to play with than most of our opponents will so it's a lesser effect by far.
These cards can be put into sideboards (if your group allows sideboards obviously) and can be switched in and out depending who's at the table and can in the right circumstances increase your win rate massively.
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To Test
Brittle EffigyMyr Welder: considering trying out the combo with staff of domination and any rock that taps for .
Portcullis: dirty little prison to stop the board getting saturated with creatures we can't stomp through. How good is annihilator 4 when your opponents can't build a board state to get the numbers up. Works well with just drawing four cards and exiking kozi back to the command zone over and over
Tested
Tested
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Azor's Gateway: good way of filtering out those excess cards in hand that you could have done without drawing. I use this do syphon lands out of my hand. Everyone's been there. You're needing to top deck a certain type of card and you just hit a land, or something with a high CMC. I've only ever flipped it to the land side once. There was an Unwinding Clock involved so I could sufficiently swap out 4 cards to create a semi-ideal hand for my next turn by exiling excess utility that wasnt needed. Good filterer.
Removed because: it was simply the weakest card at the time and the stronger card (in this case Ugin, the Ineffable) took the slot. Still a great filterer!
Blinkmoth Urn: I don't feel I need to spell out why this card is good. It can net a massive amount of mana just by being on the board while you play the game. Even more with Strionic Resonator. Just be careful with your timing and watch the kind of deck you're playing it against. White equipment builds, blue artifact decks and red Daretti style builds can do a lot with the mana you give them as well. Remember that you'll be the last player to take advantage of this 'free' mana and I've had this go south on me. Best played before anyone has the chance to get their artifacts out in the early stages of the game or after you've ripped specific players to pieces with the annihilator trigger.
Removed because: The urn has been underperforming for a while. It was a really difficult one to take out because of the sheer amount of mana it can produce but at with no immediate payoff it had to go.
Since taking it out I've not lost in consistency or even noticed that it's missing. A good sign I made the correct cut.
Conduit of Ruin: a six drop that finds Ulamog, top decks him and then goes on to reduce the costs of creatures. Plus he's pretty good in a fight.
It's best to think of this one as a pseudo mana rock that casts and generates a non-repeatable .
Removed because: in a more creature oriented build he'd be a lot better but in mine, he only hits one creature and puts him on top of your deck. His cost reduction can't chain our artifact casts together so if he's cast early game he doesn't progress our board and makes our next card we draw dead. He's ramp... but he isn't. If he put the creature he searched for into our hand it would be a different story.
Alas, he is not.
Drownyard Temple: not a particularly thrilling land but we are sometimes prone to overdraw and discard. Or get milled.
I have, after not loving a 9 card deep scroll racking, quartered my own drownyard temple just for a shuffle. I got my wastes and then threw my temple back onto the field.
Removed because: it often didn't really do much. 3 mana to return it to battle field tapped and only really had synergy with one other land, neither of which I would ever tutor for to put together.
Erratic Portal: pay and tap to bounce a creature. Works very well at protecting your creature because with you being the owner, you just don't pay to counter the ability. Keep an eye on your opponents and how much they have untapped. If someone's managed to get their commander out and have nothing spare, bounce it to have them waste mana going again.
Removed because: Paradox Engine got hit with the ban hammer so we lost the infinite combo of casting Kozilek. Although the portal still has its uses it seems almost like a dead draw in most instances as it get pushed back and back while prioritising other spells.
Emergence Zone: slip out Kozi on your opponent's end step before your turn to give him pseudo haste.
Do the same with a metalworker or another key piece to reduce the amount of time your opponents have to deal with the problem. The less reaction time they have, the longer you can keep your toys.
Works really well with removal spells like duplicant because you basically get to cast it out of sequence giving you the most information about what to take out.
Removed because: It was the weakest card at the time and being able to fire out a one turn flash spell wasn't as amazing as I hoped it would be. If it didn't sac and cost more to activate it would be a different story.
Hall of the Bandit Lord: Brilliant way of making Kozilek hit the ground running but aside from the obvious Metalworker/Geode Golem synergy it's not worth running a land that comes in tapped. It threw off the casting chains too badly by being inaccessible when it enters. For the very same reason you'll notice that I don't run Vesuva!
Plus, 3 life for one mana hurts when you want that mana available every turn without fail. You can lose Almere a quart of your life total to this card by turn 4 and not benefitted from the haste aspect.
Mana Web Errata- When a land an opponent controls is tapped for mana...: Great card. Shuts down all those opponents who want to EOT remove or counter a wincon.
There in lies the problem:
Opponent A is a blue deck full of counters.
Opponent B is comboing off.
Opponent A has no open mana because you have Mana Web in play.
Opponent B combos off.
Shutting out your opponents is great but being colourless we have a limited number of removal and response cards. If we take away our opponent's ability to remove each others threats, we all die to those threats.
Mirage Mirror: it's a strange one. I used this as a mix of sac outlet and combo piece.
If an opponent was to target Kozilek with theft or lock down I'd use the mirror's ability to copy Kozilek. The legend rule kicks in and I sac my commander. Great little piece for that.
It acts as a combo piece because you can chain the activations. I've used this card to copy a Dark Depths and in response, copied a Necropotence. After the mirror turned into the Necropotence I paid 20 life and exiled 20 cards, then allowed the original activation to resolve and turn into dark depths. I sacrificed my copy and created a Marit Lage token which then swung for lethal. Took out to test other cards and I just couldn't find space for it to go back in,
Mindslaver: Activate when a player looks like they're about to go off. Target them, use them to wreck the other players on the board and leave them tapped down, as much as humanly possible. If they were stupid enough to leave a sac outlet on the field then use it to sac as much you can in their end phase.
Removed because: although it's a very strong card, often went unused.
Paradox Engine: I'd been waiting for this card to get banned ever since I saw it spoiled and alas, on the 8th of July 2019 the engine was taken from us
It was utterly broken in a lot of decks and this one is no different. Because at least 80% of our mana is generated by artifacts the act of casting a cheap utility piece like Scroll Rack or Relic of Progenitus can net us another 6/8 mana by tapping out, casting, then tapping out. It's one of those cards that is so easy to find yourself in an infinite loop with. Most EDH players worth their salt knows this card is a 'remove on sight' card, especially if there's a sac outlet on our field for Kozilek as you restock your hand on cast, then tap out, cast small cards while tapping out between casts for another Kozi cast and draw. Often ended games there and then.
Removed because: THEY BANNED IT!!!
Phyrexian Dreadnought: a one drop sac for Kozilek which gets you a 12/12 trampler.
Works really well and is a really good beater but it's no good until you have Kozilek on the field.
It's a dead card in hand until your first commander cast and if you've been stalled it's literal dead weight in your hand.
Scrapyard Recombiner: Can tutor up Kuldotha Forgemaster and Metalworker. Both very strong cards.
Put into the deck for testing mostly
Removed because: It was too slow and it was a big mana investment go use this guy to tutor for a tutor. Speed held this one back so I didn't test it for long.
Semblance Anvil: it doesn't take a genius to work out that if this card stays around for too long we'll abuse it so much that it'll end the game.
If you can imprint something like Palladium Myr you'll reduce the cost of Kozilek as well. Awesome!
Removed because: This card is often one of those 'kill on sight' cards. You can't even argue to your opponents that it's 'not going to do that much' because that's a lie. It is. It's the number one card on the board to remove at times, especially early game when that reduction of is most impactful.
The problem is that when it's removed you're two cards down. In the early turns that is a huge setback until you can cast Kozilek. That's a risk I can't afford so I just can't justify playing this wonderful little anvil.
Swiftfoot Boots: haste and hexproof, what more could you want? Well now that I've asked, I'd like to not have to pay the to equip.
I can't fault anyone for running the boots but from where I'm often standing, having to pay the is sometimes a bit of a big ask after dropping Kozi. If I can't play Kozi then equip on the same turn, what did I play the boots for?
Tectonic Edge: probably the least efficient in the world of land destruction lands but I've got a soft spot for it as I love the art on the promo foil. I would switch this for Wasteland if I had one. Does it's job well but the constraints can be a tad annoying when your opponent starts enchanting their basics.
Removed because: I rarely used the land destruction. Make way for a utility land I'll use!
The Immortal Sun: Draws cards, has a cloud key effect but in shuts down the two walkers in the deck.
Removed because: I found it quite slow in the games I played it in.
It's a tough one to prioritise when constantly restocking my hand with better options. The cost reduction is good and the draw is nice but games aren't usually long enough to see a decent return on that 6 mana.
Great of up against some kind of super friends deck but just too slow for my meta.
Thespian's Stage: can copy up your double lands for extra value when you have a little mana left over to sink into it. Also keeps your opponents' Dark Depths in their hands if they're looking to go for that combo. I don't run Depths because the odds of getting these two cards together are slim and I'd rather be using my tutors for things that can be used outside of being lands.
Removed because: I rarely ever used the copy ability.
It was good when it was good but a lot of the decent targets for utility lands require coloured mana to activate. Good for copying a bounce land but mostly that was as far as it went.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: This dude eats combo decks. Literally eats them.
Swing in and exile 20 cards and watch captain combo grimace as his pieces disappear into nothingness.
The removal is no joke either. And he's indestructible. Awesome!
Removed because: I run too many high mana cost cards and the choice came down to this guy and his predecessor Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. My curve was off so something had to budge.
I find the annihilator version to be more oppressive so the Hunger got the cut.
I still keep him close by if needed though.
Removed because: it was simply the weakest card at the time and the stronger card (in this case Ugin, the Ineffable) took the slot. Still a great filterer!
Blinkmoth Urn: I don't feel I need to spell out why this card is good. It can net a massive amount of mana just by being on the board while you play the game. Even more with Strionic Resonator. Just be careful with your timing and watch the kind of deck you're playing it against. White equipment builds, blue artifact decks and red Daretti style builds can do a lot with the mana you give them as well. Remember that you'll be the last player to take advantage of this 'free' mana and I've had this go south on me. Best played before anyone has the chance to get their artifacts out in the early stages of the game or after you've ripped specific players to pieces with the annihilator trigger.
Removed because: The urn has been underperforming for a while. It was a really difficult one to take out because of the sheer amount of mana it can produce but at with no immediate payoff it had to go.
Since taking it out I've not lost in consistency or even noticed that it's missing. A good sign I made the correct cut.
Conduit of Ruin: a six drop that finds Ulamog, top decks him and then goes on to reduce the costs of creatures. Plus he's pretty good in a fight.
It's best to think of this one as a pseudo mana rock that casts and generates a non-repeatable .
Removed because: in a more creature oriented build he'd be a lot better but in mine, he only hits one creature and puts him on top of your deck. His cost reduction can't chain our artifact casts together so if he's cast early game he doesn't progress our board and makes our next card we draw dead. He's ramp... but he isn't. If he put the creature he searched for into our hand it would be a different story.
Alas, he is not.
Drownyard Temple: not a particularly thrilling land but we are sometimes prone to overdraw and discard. Or get milled.
I have, after not loving a 9 card deep scroll racking, quartered my own drownyard temple just for a shuffle. I got my wastes and then threw my temple back onto the field.
Removed because: it often didn't really do much. 3 mana to return it to battle field tapped and only really had synergy with one other land, neither of which I would ever tutor for to put together.
Erratic Portal: pay and tap to bounce a creature. Works very well at protecting your creature because with you being the owner, you just don't pay to counter the ability. Keep an eye on your opponents and how much they have untapped. If someone's managed to get their commander out and have nothing spare, bounce it to have them waste mana going again.
Removed because: Paradox Engine got hit with the ban hammer so we lost the infinite combo of casting Kozilek. Although the portal still has its uses it seems almost like a dead draw in most instances as it get pushed back and back while prioritising other spells.
Emergence Zone: slip out Kozi on your opponent's end step before your turn to give him pseudo haste.
Do the same with a metalworker or another key piece to reduce the amount of time your opponents have to deal with the problem. The less reaction time they have, the longer you can keep your toys.
Works really well with removal spells like duplicant because you basically get to cast it out of sequence giving you the most information about what to take out.
Removed because: It was the weakest card at the time and being able to fire out a one turn flash spell wasn't as amazing as I hoped it would be. If it didn't sac and cost more to activate it would be a different story.
Hall of the Bandit Lord: Brilliant way of making Kozilek hit the ground running but aside from the obvious Metalworker/Geode Golem synergy it's not worth running a land that comes in tapped. It threw off the casting chains too badly by being inaccessible when it enters. For the very same reason you'll notice that I don't run Vesuva!
Plus, 3 life for one mana hurts when you want that mana available every turn without fail. You can lose Almere a quart of your life total to this card by turn 4 and not benefitted from the haste aspect.
Mana Web Errata- When a land an opponent controls is tapped for mana...: Great card. Shuts down all those opponents who want to EOT remove or counter a wincon.
There in lies the problem:
Opponent A is a blue deck full of counters.
Opponent B is comboing off.
Opponent A has no open mana because you have Mana Web in play.
Opponent B combos off.
Shutting out your opponents is great but being colourless we have a limited number of removal and response cards. If we take away our opponent's ability to remove each others threats, we all die to those threats.
Mirage Mirror: it's a strange one. I used this as a mix of sac outlet and combo piece.
If an opponent was to target Kozilek with theft or lock down I'd use the mirror's ability to copy Kozilek. The legend rule kicks in and I sac my commander. Great little piece for that.
It acts as a combo piece because you can chain the activations. I've used this card to copy a Dark Depths and in response, copied a Necropotence. After the mirror turned into the Necropotence I paid 20 life and exiled 20 cards, then allowed the original activation to resolve and turn into dark depths. I sacrificed my copy and created a Marit Lage token which then swung for lethal. Took out to test other cards and I just couldn't find space for it to go back in,
Mindslaver: Activate when a player looks like they're about to go off. Target them, use them to wreck the other players on the board and leave them tapped down, as much as humanly possible. If they were stupid enough to leave a sac outlet on the field then use it to sac as much you can in their end phase.
Removed because: although it's a very strong card, often went unused.
Paradox Engine: I'd been waiting for this card to get banned ever since I saw it spoiled and alas, on the 8th of July 2019 the engine was taken from us
It was utterly broken in a lot of decks and this one is no different. Because at least 80% of our mana is generated by artifacts the act of casting a cheap utility piece like Scroll Rack or Relic of Progenitus can net us another 6/8 mana by tapping out, casting, then tapping out. It's one of those cards that is so easy to find yourself in an infinite loop with. Most EDH players worth their salt knows this card is a 'remove on sight' card, especially if there's a sac outlet on our field for Kozilek as you restock your hand on cast, then tap out, cast small cards while tapping out between casts for another Kozi cast and draw. Often ended games there and then.
Removed because: THEY BANNED IT!!!
Phyrexian Dreadnought: a one drop sac for Kozilek which gets you a 12/12 trampler.
Works really well and is a really good beater but it's no good until you have Kozilek on the field.
It's a dead card in hand until your first commander cast and if you've been stalled it's literal dead weight in your hand.
Scrapyard Recombiner: Can tutor up Kuldotha Forgemaster and Metalworker. Both very strong cards.
Put into the deck for testing mostly
Removed because: It was too slow and it was a big mana investment go use this guy to tutor for a tutor. Speed held this one back so I didn't test it for long.
Semblance Anvil: it doesn't take a genius to work out that if this card stays around for too long we'll abuse it so much that it'll end the game.
If you can imprint something like Palladium Myr you'll reduce the cost of Kozilek as well. Awesome!
Removed because: This card is often one of those 'kill on sight' cards. You can't even argue to your opponents that it's 'not going to do that much' because that's a lie. It is. It's the number one card on the board to remove at times, especially early game when that reduction of is most impactful.
The problem is that when it's removed you're two cards down. In the early turns that is a huge setback until you can cast Kozilek. That's a risk I can't afford so I just can't justify playing this wonderful little anvil.
Swiftfoot Boots: haste and hexproof, what more could you want? Well now that I've asked, I'd like to not have to pay the to equip.
I can't fault anyone for running the boots but from where I'm often standing, having to pay the is sometimes a bit of a big ask after dropping Kozi. If I can't play Kozi then equip on the same turn, what did I play the boots for?
Tectonic Edge: probably the least efficient in the world of land destruction lands but I've got a soft spot for it as I love the art on the promo foil. I would switch this for Wasteland if I had one. Does it's job well but the constraints can be a tad annoying when your opponent starts enchanting their basics.
Removed because: I rarely used the land destruction. Make way for a utility land I'll use!
The Immortal Sun: Draws cards, has a cloud key effect but in shuts down the two walkers in the deck.
Removed because: I found it quite slow in the games I played it in.
It's a tough one to prioritise when constantly restocking my hand with better options. The cost reduction is good and the draw is nice but games aren't usually long enough to see a decent return on that 6 mana.
Great of up against some kind of super friends deck but just too slow for my meta.
Thespian's Stage: can copy up your double lands for extra value when you have a little mana left over to sink into it. Also keeps your opponents' Dark Depths in their hands if they're looking to go for that combo. I don't run Depths because the odds of getting these two cards together are slim and I'd rather be using my tutors for things that can be used outside of being lands.
Removed because: I rarely ever used the copy ability.
It was good when it was good but a lot of the decent targets for utility lands require coloured mana to activate. Good for copying a bounce land but mostly that was as far as it went.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: This dude eats combo decks. Literally eats them.
Swing in and exile 20 cards and watch captain combo grimace as his pieces disappear into nothingness.
The removal is no joke either. And he's indestructible. Awesome!
Removed because: I run too many high mana cost cards and the choice came down to this guy and his predecessor Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. My curve was off so something had to budge.
I find the annihilator version to be more oppressive so the Hunger got the cut.
I still keep him close by if needed though.
Zacama
