MTGNexus

This deck started as just an attempt at making a deck that could win with Mirrodin Besieged. I've always thought Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur had some cool art and he's right there in the art of Mirrodin Besieged, so I had my commander decided pretty quickly.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur has a reputation as being a rough card, and rightfully so, but when your opponents know that he is coming instead of being surprised out of nowhere, and can see your boardstate develop it really isn't that bad in practice. Playing this deck you are hard-casting a 10 CMC commander, this isn't the usual scary reanimation plan.

With my commander chosen, I started thinking about including other non-standard win conditions to see how many I could reasonably attempt. With Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur drawing a decent amount of cards, and blue in general being decent at that, I figured surely I could try to kill people with Atemsis, All-Seeing. All of the draw also led me to think there is a chance maybe I could deck myself and win with Laboratory Maniac (this has not been super viable and has been removed). Finally, since I had to lean heavily towards artifacts due to Mirrodin Besieged, I figured Mechanized Production wouldn't be unreasonable to try.

This deck is a bit unfocused, naturally, but in practice it is pretty fun and works fairly well. I am sure there are some cards I have been overlooking in the months I've been playing this, the deck is definitely not in any sort of finalized state.

Psychic Corrosion and Sphinx's Tutelage - These open up mill as a potential other alternative kill condition. They seem to synergize quite well with Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur.

Energy Tap - It seems like this weird old blue ritual could generate a pretty significant amount of mana for just .

Jace's Archivist - Repeatable Windfall seems really good and could also aid in a mill alternative kill.

Rite of Replication - This is a card I really like and it synergizes with Mechanized Production very well.

Narset, Parter of Veils - It has obvious synergy with Teferi's Puzzle Box that basically establishes a lock. Also brutal with Windfall. I don't know if I want to go that direction with this deck though.

Can confirm - energy tap is dope af.

I am most likely going to include it in my next update. I don't know how I missed even knowing the card existed until a few weeks ago despite playing for like 20 years. I've never seen anyone play it. It definitely seems super good.

If you're looking for another wincon I find slapping Worldslayer on Darksteel Colossus to be extremely satisfying.

That one is pretty great. I've played Worldslayer in my Zurgo Helmsmasher deck and it gets rough if he connects.

hi folks, I opened a foil urza from a random three packs I got from my local game store and I Thought to myself. ""this must be a sign from the havens ". so I was hoping to look for pointers as I want the deck to be more casual then cedh tier with around 20 creatures an 16 non-creature artifacts. thanks in advance!

copy from the urza premier thread , since memarch is pretty similar!

nobody wrote: ↑

3 years ago

hi folks, I opened a foil urza from a random three packs I got from my local game store and I Thought to myself. ""this must be a sign from the havens ". so I was hoping to look for pointers as I want the deck to be more casual then cedh tier with around 20 creatures an 16 non-creature artifacts. thanks in advance!

copy from the urza premier thread , since memarch is pretty similar!

I suppose you might be able to use parts of my deck as a base to build on for an Urza deck since my deck is rather artifact heavy but I'd probably make some significant changes. This deck doesn't really do what Urza wants for the most part.

Made a few changes to the deck.

Removed Cards
-1 Laboratory Maniac - I wanted to get a win with this just by sheer brute force card draw but it became obvious that it was going to be rough and too often this was just a chump blocker or dead card.
-1 Darksteel Colossus - I will probably try adding it back in at some point, the nostalgia is strong, but I needed to cut cards to try new things.
-1 Argivian Restoration - It is alright but I had enough games where I wasn't thrilled with it in the context of this deck list.

Added Cards
+1 Chasm Skulker - Seems like it could do some real work with the card draw power in this deck.
+1 Oneirophage - Another card draw payoff.
+1 Time Spiral - A recent acquisition for me and it seemed worthwhile to try in this deck with the card draw payoffs.

I think these changes are going to be a bit of an improvement.

Nothing from Strixhaven really stood out as new toys for this deck but it is possible that I overlooked something.

I haven't messed with this deck in a while and decided to do an update with some newer (and not newer) cards:

Added Cards
+1 Energy Tap: Been meaning to try this for a while, seems solid.
+1 Triskaidekaphile: Seems like a fun alternate win condition to attempt, in keeping with the sort of theme of the deck.
+1 Portal to Phyrexia: With the copy effects in this deck, this could definitely be a win condition and could be pretty brutal. Ramp in the deck makes it seem like this could be put out pretty early.
+1 Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant: Having the commander's other version in the deck just make sense and he has a lot of synergy with the deck. This could easily be an alternate commander for the deck as well.
+1 Cityscape Leveler: Solid artifact based removal card. I have yet to see anyone play it but I think this could get into play fairly easy in this deck.
+1 Machine God's Effigy: It's an artifact and a clone, seems like a decent Phyrexian Metamorph type of inclusion to try out.
+1 The Mycosynth Gardens: Any deck with a decent amount of artifacts can probably use this.

Removed Cards
-1 Torpor Orb
-1 Colossus of Akros
-1 Wurmcoil Engine
-1 Darksteel Juggernaut
-1 Geode Golem
-1 Oneirophage
-1 Snow-Covered Island


It looks like the next set coming out has yet another version of Jin-Gitaxias so I will probably be updating this deck to include him sometime soon.

Quick update, mainly to get the new Jin-Gitaxias into the deck.

Added Cards
+1 Jin-Gitaxias // The Great Synthesis - Seems good, gives card draw power, and now at this point I might be able to just shuffle the three versions of this legend and randomize my commander each game.
+1 Blue Sun's Twilight - Mainly chose to include this because I like the artwork, it fits the commander, and actually with all of the ramp it won't be too hard to pull off the copy function of the card.

Removed Cards
-1 Vedalken Archmage - This does draw a decent amount of cards over time but it kind of fulfills a similar function to the new Jin-Gitaxias in the scope of this deck, and I think that card is quite a bit stronger.
-1 Energy Tap - I actually did like this card when I used it once but I just happened to have an expensive creature in play that I felt safe tapping. I feel like I have enough ramp in the deck as is though.