Mono U artifacts

[MeowZeDung]

I'm considering my options for the next deck I brew up, and I'm pretty sure I'd like to scratch the mono u itch and the artifacts matter itch. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

The issue is picking a commander. Urza, Lord High Artificer, Memnarch, and Arcum Dagsson are gonna be a no from me dawg. I've done Sai, Master Thopterist.

That leaves me with the following commanders of interest:

Emry, Lurker of the Loch
Muzzio, Visionary Architect
Padeem, Consul of Innovation
Thada Adel, Acquisitor, but probably a distant #4 if I'm being honest.

Anyone have strong opinions about these? Any experience piloting one or going up against them? Am I missing a sweet commander? I like the built in card advantage on them, but just need a nudge in one direction or another.

[pokken]

Emry seems OK, just depends on how hard you're going at the combo. Muzzio is fine without Paradox Engine god that was awful

I had a really good time playing Golos for Academy Ruins and Inventors' Fair and it was probably my fairest Golos deck, since it never activated him, just got ruins, then sac'd / tapped Golos to do artifact stuff and sometimes reanimated him to get fair or other lands.

Might rebuild that deck at some point since it was my only Golos deck that wasn't over the top nonsense. I even contemplated removing Cascading Cataracts since I literally don't recall ever activating Golos more than once or twice

[MeowZeDung]

I forgot that Emry, Lurker of the Loch could be a combo machine. Hmmm.

I will say that Cosima, God of the Voyage // The Omenkeel is another commander I've been intrigued by. My thoughts were more based on pure landfall/proliferate triggers and getting 1-2 massive hits of draw power a game with her, but if I wanted to take an artifact slant I could build around a vehicle sub-theme. Could be fun and unique...ish.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I play an emry deck with salvaging station as the primary wincon and it's fair fun if you stick to 4+ card combos. Just don't include the spy or the retriever; they're nonbos with most of the deck and they're dull, fragile wincons at best.

[Dragoon]

No love for good ol' Memnarch? Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Muzzio, Visionary Architect look fun as just pure value engines, I don't think you necessarily need to delve into combos if you don't want to.

[MeowZeDung]

No love for good ol' Memnarch? Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Muzzio, Visionary Architect look fun as just pure value engines, I don't think you necessarily need to delve into combos if you don't want to.

I mostly want to avoid Memnarch due to price tag and reputation.

I'm definitely not looking to combo, so value engine is my plan, for sure. Witching Well and Aether Spellbomb.dec if I go Emry, and Sandstone Oracle.dec if I go Muzzio. I'm sure there's ways to break either of them in half, but I like the idea of artifact durdle.

[toctheyounger]

I'm in the early stages of trialling out Emry, Lurker of the Loch myself. There's a lot going on in it right now until I decide which direction I want to lean into; tap/untaps, tokens and turning stuff into other stuff as well as a couple combo possibilities too, although none of them involve using the commander and they're like 3-4 distinct pieces to assemble.

So far it's been pretty solid, I can pretty commonly get my commander in play T1. Things are a little durdly right now, but that's purely because I don't really have a firm direction and I'm missing a couple of critical pieces I'd like. Otherwise she's pretty resilient and I'm enjoying what little play I've got in. If you're wanting to avoid hard combo just avoid Mirran Spy, Chakram Retriever and such.

[ISBPathfinder]

What was your take away from your Sai build and do you have a link for what you did there? Just trying to get more info on what you thought of him and why you went away from him is all.

I have a list for Sai myself. I found him to be really sweet. If anything I don't play it much because its a touch too fast and if someone doesn't shut me down I often kill the table somewhere between turns 5-8 (purely combat with no infinites).

[MeowZeDung]

What was your take away from your Sai build and do you have a link for what you did there? Just trying to get more info on what you thought of him and why you went away from him is all.

I have a list for Sai myself. I found him to be really sweet. If anything I don't play it much because its a touch too fast and if someone doesn't shut me down I often kill the table somewhere between turns 5-8 (purely combat with no infinites).

Oh, I loved your Sai build. As a matter of fact, I made some tweaks to mine based off of yours. Yours was much lower on the curve whereas I was doing more battlecruiser stuff like Sharding Sphinx. I never posted it online though, and I don't vividly remember all of it. I moved off of him because he was "too good" for what I was looking for, which was a bit more casual. I know that it eventually turned into Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive thopter/servo swarm with stuff like Signal Pest, Sword of the Paruns, Crown of Doom, Ruination Guide, Contested War Zone, etc.

[ISBPathfinder]

What was your take away from your Sai build and do you have a link for what you did there? Just trying to get more info on what you thought of him and why you went away from him is all.

I have a list for Sai myself. I found him to be really sweet. If anything I don't play it much because its a touch too fast and if someone doesn't shut me down I often kill the table somewhere between turns 5-8 (purely combat with no infinites).

Oh, I loved your Sai build. As a matter of fact, I made some tweaks to mine based off of yours. Yours was much lower on the curve whereas I was doing more battlecruiser stuff like Sharding Sphinx. I never posted it online though, and I don't vividly remember all of it. I moved off of him because he was "too good" for what I was looking for, which was a bit more casual. I know that it eventually turned into Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive thopter/servo swarm with stuff like Signal Pest, Sword of the Paruns, Crown of Doom, Ruination Guide, Contested War Zone, etc.

Ahhhh ok that totally makes sense then. I have almost scrapped him for the same reasons but damn the deck is just pure gasoline I can't bring myself to scrap it lol.

[MeowZeDung]

Ahhhh ok that totally makes sense then. I have almost scrapped him for the same reasons but damn the deck is just pure gasoline I can't bring myself to scrap it lol.

Aside from the desire to synergize with artifacts, that's also the reason I'm not looking at Orvar, the All-Form for the time being. I've seen what you and habib did with him and I don't want to subject my playgroup to that yet lol.

[MeowZeDung]

So far it's been pretty solid, I can pretty commonly get my commander in play T1.

Are you going heavy on busted fast mana, or stuff like Mishra's Bauble, Urza's Bauble, etc?

[Treamayne]

if I wanted to take an artifact slant I could build around a vehicle sub-theme. Could be fun and unique...ish.

If it helps, here's a partial list of my Sydri Vehicle deck. It should be adaptable to Cosima, Emry,Pradeem or even Glacian, Powerstone Engineer.

SPOILER

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Sydri Vehicles

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Tezzeret the Seeker

Creatures (10)

1 Chief of the Foundry

1 Cosima, God of the Voyage

1 Deadeye Quartermaster

1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch

1 Etherium Sculptor

1 Jhoira's Familiar

1 Master Transmuter

1 Muzzio, Visionary Architect

1 Skilled Animator

1 Workshop Elders

Vehicles (12)

1 Colossal Plow

1 Cultivator's Caravan

1 Dusk Legion Dreadnought

1 Fleetwheel Cruiser

1 Mobile Garrison

1 Ovalchase Dragster

1 Raiders' Karve

1 Silent Submersible

1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

1 Thundering Chariot

1 Untethered Express

1 Weatherlight

Artifacts (15)

1 Book of Rass

1 Bottled Cloister

1 Cloud Key

1 Elixir of Immortality

1 Expedition Map

1 Forsaken Monument

1 Ghirapur Orrery

1 Golem's Heart

1 Ingenuity Engine

1 Mirrorworks

1 Noetic Scales

1 Powerstone Shard

1 Skyclave Relic

1 Sol Ring

1 Spine of Ish Sah

Enchantment (1)

1 The Antiquities War

Sorceries (3)

1 Echo Storm

1 Stolen Identity

1 Thoughtcast

Land (38)

1 Academy Ruins

1 Buried Ruin

1 Darksteel Citadel

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Guildless Commons

1 Inventors' Fair

1 Thespian's Stage

1 Urza's Mine

1 Urza's Power Plant

1 Urza's Tower

Approximate Total Cost:

Notable Interactions:
Ghirapur Orrery and Bottled Cloister
Master Transmuter or Noetic Scales and Mirrorworks
Thespian's Stage and Urzatron (or any non-legendary tap for >1)
Tezzeret the Seeker's Ultimate with Vehicles

**Edited for typos in the decklist

[toctheyounger]

So far it's been pretty solid, I can pretty commonly get my commander in play T1.

Are you going heavy on busted fast mana, or stuff like Mishra's Bauble, Urza's Bauble, etc?

There's some bigger payoff rocks in the deck because I had them, most notably Memory Jar, Vedalken Orrery and Rings of Brighthearth (which is a possible combo piece alongside Basalt Monolith, also in the deck), but mostly the latter - I don't have the collection nor the money to go full on fast mana. Besides, there's a lot of incremental value low enough to the ground that at least the first time around you can totally get her into play for u, and moving forward it's very easy to negate commander tax. Helps having stuff like Seat of the Synod and Darksteel Citadel in the deck too of course.

[Mookie]

I'll give a shout to Thada Adel, Acquisitor, but she's more of a ramp commander with an artifact subtheme than a dedicated artifact commander. She grants access to a ton of artifact mana (assuming your opponents are running Sol Rings), but there isn't an inherent reason to run more artifacts in your own deck, opposed to nonartifact ramp payoffs.

Every time I've played against an Emry, Lurker of the Loch deck, it's been some sort of needlessly complicated combo build. You get plenty of card draw from recurring trinkets, but she mostly just durdles. Muzzio, Visionary Architect is pretty cool though, and lets you run expensive artifacts like Darksteel Forge and Akroma's Memorial.

If you haven't done a Salvaging Station deck before, I'll highly recommend it. Salvaging Station is sweet, as is Artificer's Intuition.

[MeowZeDung]

Helps having stuff like Seat of the Synod and Darksteel Citadel in the deck too of course.

Ah, of course. Duh. Forgot all about those.

I imagine something like Voyager Staff can go a long way with Emry.

Hmmm... I really like the avenues Emry could lead down. But I really like where Muzzio or Cosima could go too. I might just have to sketch out a core for each deck and see which tickles my fancy the most.

@Mookie Yeah, I could see having to temper the tables expectations with Emry as not a degenerate combo build. I like the idea of durdle.dec, but it can be excessive for sure. I can get behind a list looking to go all in on a Trinket Mage package with stuff like Salvaging Station and Artificer's Intuition, but I fear that road inevitably leads to combo or at least a value engine so silly that it might as well be a combo finish. Muzzio at least has a pretty clear path to victory - smash, bash, crash!

Another way of looking at this might be: which of these plays best into an Unwinding Clock and mana rock heavy build? I'm thinking that might just be Padeem, Consul of Innovation. But could I resist dramatic scepter or ghostly lotus under such circumstances?

[Vessiliana]

I have had a lot of fun with Emry, building her as a theme deck. She is the Lady of the Lake, giving out swords to worthy knights. Or since she can never seem to find any knights, handing them out to random ornithopters or myr.

It doesn't do anything busted, mostly since the Great Machine is in another deck, but it's fun to durdle with.

The list is here.

[toctheyounger]

which of these plays best into an Unwinding Clock and mana rock heavy build?

Honestly I think this could be any of them. One of the avenues I've thought of taking Emry into is Clock of Omens %$#%$#%. It plays nicely with stuff like Myr Galvanizer and Genesis Chamber, Emry is really just there to provide some resilience.

Definitely get that you'd really need to give a prior warning with Emry, my vote is still there. She's fun without having to go combo, and there's scope for weird builds too.

[MeowZeDung]

Emry tap/untap does indeed sounds fun, and would go great with saccing and recurring baubles and the like. Inspiring Statuary could also lead to some silliness.

[toctheyounger]

Emry tap/untap does indeed sounds fun, and would go great with saccing and recurring baubles and the like. Inspiring Statuary could also lead to some silliness.

It's in my list, along with Chief Engineer and soon-to-add Shimmer Dragon. I guess the only question is to what end you're tapping your stuff down. There's always Mesmeric Orb, but you could probably make it harder for yourself than that.

[MeowZeDung]

If I wanted to make lots of friends I could build a myr untap deck featuring Opposition.

As for the broader subject of this post: I'm still torn on Emry vs. Muzzio because I think both are really cool. I guess the question is durdle vs. big splashy things.

I'm off Thada and Padeem for now.

Cosima, however, is a special case. I'm definitely building her eventually, but it might not be the next mono U deck since I've got the artifact hankering specifically. Unless someone knows of something particularly sweet that lies in the intersection of Mono U, Artifacts, Proliferate, and Landfall?

[Sinis]

Anyone have strong opinions about these? Any experience piloting one or going up against them? Am I missing a sweet commander? I like the built in card advantage on them, but just need a nudge in one direction or another.

I have a pretty decent Emry pile. She doesn't have to be hard-I-win-the-game-combo; mine is just... buckets of artifacts that work together to make something bigger, usually involving Clock of Omens. I just posted it into the decklists forum if you're interested: http://nxs.wf/np143632

[ISBPathfinder]

When I built my Sai deck I actually started with looking at an Emry untap concept. Its a concept that tends to be combining a bunch of things together to make something happen but my actual issue was I just didn't see much of a means of winning. Even if you resort to some sort of thopter generation on cast plan it requires a lot of work to make Emry spin plus thopters plus having the time to connect and for reasonable damage. My fear was always just that it looked like the spin up time was questionable and the board state required to threaten players without combo looked daunting to me.

Most of my concepts of actually threatening people seemed to involve the Sai like effects to the point that I just shifted to Sai and simplified the engine by drawing cards rather than an overly complicated engine to simulate draw. I think that Emry looks challenging if you are not going combo is I guess what I am saying.

[MeowZeDung]

Yeah, that passes my sniff test. Emry winning without combo is the sticking point. As much as I love to durdle, gotta end the game eventually.

Edit: Ya know, while I'd like to avoid Isochron Scepter, Aetherflux Reservoir, and other egregious combo stuff, I think wurmcoil/battlesphere/Whirler rogue + Nim Deathmantle + altar would be fine.

[boer0829]

I also have a Mono U artifact deck. At the moment Sai is at the helmet. I had a number of different Mono U buildings. Urza, Lord High Artificer [/card] was way to strong and Memnarch [/card] drew to much hate, nobody likes their permanents to be stolen. At some point I had Padeem, Consul of Innovation [/card]. The guy protected my artifacts, which was suprisingly relevant, and drew an extra card. Most of the time I was the one with the highest cmc, so guaranteed I draw a card. Padeem also doesn't draw alot of hate which is nice. Swapped Padeem for Sai, because Sai is more fun to play imho.

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Padeem

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Artifact (21)

1 Basalt Monolith

1 Darksteel Forge

1 Fellwar Stone

1 Gilded Lotus

1 Grim Monolith

1 Isochron Scepter

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mana Vault

1 Mind Stone

1 Mycosynth Lattice

1 Paradox Engine

1 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Skullclamp

1 Sky Diamond

1 Sol Ring

1 Thought Vessel

1 Thran Dynamo

1 Trading Post

1 Unwinding Clock

1 Vedalken Shackles

1 Voltaic Key

Creature (20)

1 Burnished Hart

1 Colossus of Akros

1 Darksteel Colossus

1 Foundry Inspector

1 Memnarch

1 Metalwork Colossus

1 Metalworker

1 Scrap Trawler

1 Solemn Simulacrum

1 Soul of New Phyrexia

1 Steel Hellkite

1 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Aphetto Alchemist

1 Arcum Dagsson

1 Azami, Lady of Scrolls

1 Etherium Sculptor

1 Grand Architect

1 Master Transmuter

1 Sharding Sphinx

1 Trinket Mage

Planeswalker (1)

1 Tezzeret the Seeker

Enchantment (3)

1 Efficient Construction

1 Rhystic Study

1 Thopter Spy Network

Sorcery (3)

1 All Is Dust

1 Fabricate

1 Reshape

Instant (18)

1 Anticipate

1 Arcane Denial

1 Brainstorm

1 Capsize

1 Counterspell

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Dispel

1 Dramatic Reversal

1 Fact or Fiction

1 Force of Will

1 Mystic Confluence

1 Negate

1 Pull from Tomorrow

1 Stroke of Genius

1 Swan Song

1 Thirst for Knowledge

1 Turn Aside

1 Whir of Invention

Land (33)

1 Academy Ruins

1 Blighted Cataract

1 Buried Ruin

1 Darksteel Citadel

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Inventors' Fair

22 Island

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Riptide Laboratory

1 Seat of the Synod

1 Thespian's Stage

Sideboard (1)

1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation

Approximate Total Cost: