Durdling in EDH: A Deck Tech for Mishra, Artificer's Prodigy

DURDLING IN EDH: A SERIES DEVOTED TO WEIRD, COUNTERINTUITIVE, AND HIGHLY INEFFICIENT INTERACTIONS IN THE COMMANDER FORMAT


Deck Tech # 1: Mishra, Artificer's Prodigy

One of the hats I like to wear in my spare time is Magic: the Gathering player and deck builder, most commonly in the form of the EDH/Commander format. The format's slower, more casual nature (no, I do not play cEDH) opens it up to tons of wacky combos and strange interactions, especially with its inclusivity of nearly the entire Magic: the Gathering card pool. In fact, something I personally enjoy probably even more than playing is the deck building process itself! Sifting through thousands and thousands of cards to find the ones that fit the strange, narrow theme of a deck whose archetype doesn't really even exist elsewhere is a little bit like mining for gold, and with the specificity of search criteria available in WotC's official Gatherer database makes it a lot quicker and less frustrating. So, for my first strange, off-kilter deck idea, let's take a look at a commander with a very unusual set of abilities, especially in this particular format - Mishra, Artificer Prodigy. 

Taking a look at the card, it seems like its abilities are a total non-bo in a singleton card format. How can you fetch a card from your graveyard, hand, or library, when the only copy in your deck is currently on the stack? Welcome to the world of Johnny EDH deckbuilding!

The most (and only) famous combo with Mishra in Commander is to play Possibility Storm, allowing you to cast an artifact, replace the cast with the next artifact on top of your library, and subsequently search for the originally cast artifact after shuffling it in following the resolution of the first artifact to resolve (which is the second one cast). Already, my brain hurts! I love that feeling!

So how else can we exploit Mishra's ability to actually...you know...do things? Well, it turns out the options are pretty limited, but there are a few. The first is a set of cards that return spells on the stack to their owner's hand. Venser, Shaper Savant was the first card to do this, from the very odd Time Spiral block, and would eventually be joined by Unsubtantiate and Brutal Expulsion, as well as two cards that go a step further and actually move the spell directly to its owner's library, the Commit half of Commit // Memory and Aether Gust just recently in the Magic 2020 Core Set! The Failure half of Failure // Comply also has this effect, but since the Comply half is white, that unfortunately means that this will not be legal for our Mishra deck.

Whether the artifact spell we cast is put into our hand or our library, we can conveniently put it onto the battlefield once Mishra's triggered ability resolves. However, the question you're probably asking is: "Yes, this is technically a 'combo' that 'works,' but why waste a card to return a spell to our hand or library only to have the same effect we would have gotten if we had just cast it normally?" Well, you, my friend, obviously don't know me very well if you think things like 'card advantage' or 'mana efficiency' or 'not durdling for no good reason' are important in games of EDH!

All kidding aside, the one obvious effect durdling with Mishra's ability has is that it allows us to search, and subsequently shuffle, our library. Are there much, much easier ways to do this? Of course there are! Do we care? Nope! So what are some cards we can use that take advantage of us shuffling and/or searching our libraries?

Well, within our commander's colors, I only know of two cards that care directly about searching and shuffling our own libraries. The first is the EDH staple printed in Commander 2013, Widespread Panic! OK, so maybe it's not a staple, but it was printed specifically for Commander, so that has to be something, right? Widespread Panic allows us to put a card from our hand on top of our library whenever we shuffle our library. Is there a way we can use this as a benefit? Absolutely! In fact, there are quite a few ways, even within our already established artifact theme!

The first one is Bolas's Citadel. This will allow us to take an expensive card from our hand and, instead of paying for it with mana, pay for it with life! Cool, huh? Another is Druidic Satchel, which can let us gain life, make a blocker, or get an extra land onto the battlefield, depending on what we need for the situation. Then there's Etherium-Horn Sorcerer, whose Cascade ability lets us grab the best 5-CMC-or-less spell in our hand and get it for free when we play the Sorcerer! What other artifacts have synergy with this ability, exactly? Well, let's see. Gate to the Aether? Check! Omen Machine? Check! Oracle's Vault? Check!! These cards (although only once it has three counters, in the case of Oracle's Vault) allow us to take the most expensive card from our hand and play it for free! While the first two also apply to our opponents, we should be able to stack the top of our library consistently enough to get more value and break parity here.

So, besides Widespread Panic, the other card that cares if we shuffle our library also happens to be an artifact itself! How cool is that? So what is this awesome, awesome card? Why, Psychogenic Probe, of course!

What? You're not excited anymore? Hey, I never said it gave us something good when we shuffle our library, I just said it cared about it! I'm not a miracle worker here! Luckily, there's another weird, borderline-nonplayable artifact card that actually has a pretty cool interaction with the Probe! After we shock ourselves six or seven times with the Probe, we can pay the low, low cost of twelve generic mana to play Soul Conduit and tap it to trade life totals with one of our opponents! Hah, take that, Oloro! But wait, it gets better! For only six mana, we can play the totally-unheard-of, $300 artifact from Legends, Mirror Universe! Okay, well, in reality, I don't have remotely close to the budget required to acquire that card, and most of you probably don't, either, but if we did, it would be even better than Soul Conduit in our deck! Same effect, half the mana cost, and the fact that we can only do it during our upkeep is irrelevant when our opponents have ceased seeing us as a threat due to our ludicrously inefficient durdling, thus nearly guaranteeing it'll survive until our next upkeep, when we can actually activate it! (There's also the way less cool, Actual EDH Card Platinum Emperion to keep us from actually worrying about Probe's damage, if you want to go down that route. I won't be.)

Another major strategy for our deck is, rather than return our artifact spells to our hand or library, simply countering them! Since we can search our graveyard for the artifact as well, it's just as effective! Plus, having our spells countered is a situation we're prepared to take full advantage of! Unfortunately, we don't have access to the green Multani's Presence, which would draw us tons of cards to put on top of our library with Widespread Panic. So what else can we do? I guess we'll have to go with the much, much worse card, Baral, Chief of Compliance, which only allows us to loot rather than draw, and doesn't work if our opponents counter our spells. Well, I guess we'll take what we can get.

Next, we need to make sure our artifact spells are countered as often as possible! Let's see what cards we can use to best achieve this. Blood Funnel makes our noncreature artifacts cost 2 mana less while still putting them on the battlefield with Mishra's ability, Chalice of the Void counters everyone's spells of a given CMC while also being an artifact, Nullstone Gargoyle counters everyone's first noncreature spell of the turn, and Nether Void ensures all spells are countered unless their controller pays 3 mana! (Ooh, that one's $350, so maybe not.)

So what is the deck missing? More really, really weird artifacts, of course! Like Lich's Mirror, which combos with Rain of Gore to make our deck try to gain, then lose 20 life in an infinite loop, creating a draw which our opponents are probably relieved for by now after the hilariously non-impactful shenanigans we've spent well over an hour pulling at this point! But wait! Before continuing, there's another card that benefits from us countering our own artifacts, albeit nondirectly! It's the beloved River Kelpie! This will let us draw all those cards without having to discard afterward! Fantastic!

The rest of the deck is devoted to artifacts that have strange interactions with other pieces of our deck's engine. Not sure what some of these interactions are? That's why you'll need to play the deck a few dozen times to eventually find out! Good luck, though, as it certainly requires the presence of a Level 1 Judge at all times and will make your opponents absolutely miserable while you figure out what in the hell you were trying to achieve with your combos in the first place! Happy durdling!

Decklist:

Commander
Mishra, Artificer’s Prodigy

Artifacts

Soul Conduit

Psychogenic Probe

Painter’s Servant

Lich’s Mirror

Gate to the Aether

Omen Machine

Oracle’s Vault

Chalice of the Void

Bolas’s Citadel

Etherium-Horn Sorcerer

Druidic Satchel

Sensei’s Divining Top

Scroll Rack

Solemn Simulacrum

Strionic Resonator

Shimmer Myr

Golem Foundry

Nullstone Gargoyle

Skill Borrower

Cryptolith Fragment

Wayfarer’s Bauble

Burnished Hart

Gem of Becoming

Myr Mindservant

Charmed Pendant

Explorer’s Scope

Mystic Forge

Timesifter

Wand of Denial

Clock of Omens

Mishra’s Self-Replicator

Vantress Gargoyle

Blinkmoth Urn

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Millikin

Creatures:

Baral, Chief of Compliance

Venser, Shaper Savant

Magus of the Mirror

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

Vedalken Archmage

Sai, Master Thopterist

Emry, Lurker of the Loch

River Kelpie

Urza, Lord High Artificer

Trinket Mage

Contraband Kingpin

Quicksmith Genius

Enchantments

Possibility Storm

Widespread Panic

Rain of Gore

Blood Funnel

Mirrodin Besieged

Instants

Unsubstantiate

Commit // Memory

Brutal Expulsion

Aether Gust

Fold into Aether

Sorceries

Repay in Kind

Molten Psyche

Planeswalkers

Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Lands

Academy Ruins

Command Tower

Path of Ancestry

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Great Furnace

Vault of Whispers

Seat of the Synod

Crumbling Necropolis

Evolving Wilds

Terramorphic Expanse

Dimir Aqueduct

Rakdos Carnarium

Izzet Boilerworks

Duskmantle, House of Shadows

Field of Ruin

Fiery Islet

Glimmervoid

Spire of Industry

Grand Coliseum

Myriad Landscape

Minamo, School at Water’s Edge

Madblind Mountain

Rocky Tar Pit

Bad River

Temple of Malice

Temple of Deceit

Temple of Epiphany

Bojuka Bog

Cephalid Coliseum

Witch’s Cottage

Swamp x3

Island x3

Mountain x3

To recap, let's go over our primary lines of play in the deck and break the cards down into what strategies they help enable (some cards may play a part in more than one strategy).

Putting our own artifact spells into our hand or on top of our library:

Unsubtantiate

Commit // Memory

Venser, Shaper Savant

Aether Gust

Brutal Expulsion

Possibility Storm (sort of)

Countering our own spells:

Chalice of the Void

Blood Funnel

Nullstone Gargoyle

Fold into Aether

"Benefiting" from our shuffle triggers:

Widespread Panic

Psychogenic Probe

Manipulating the top of our library:

Sensei's Divining Top

Scroll Rack

Wand of Denial

Millikin

Contraband Kingpin

Charmed Pendant

Utilizing the top card of our library:

Gate to the Aether

Omen Machine

Oracle's Vault

Bolas's Citadel

Etherium-Horn Sorcerer

Druidic Satchel

Skill Borrower

Charmed Pendant (does both!)

Explorer's Scope

Mystic Forge

Timesifter

Extra deck shuffling:

Myr Mindservant

Trinket Mage

Molten Psyche

Gem of Becoming

Wayfarer's Bauble

Burnished Hart

Solemn Simulacrum

"Benefiting" from Psychogenic Probe's damage (as well as other life loss):

Soul Conduit

Mirror Universe

Lich's Mirror

Magus of the Mirror

Repay in Kind

"Artifacts matter" cards:

Clock of Omens

Mirrodin Besieged

Quicksmith Genius

Molten Psyche

Mystic Forge

Shimmer Myr

Golem Foundry

Contraband Kingpin

Vedalken Archmage

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Sai, Master Thopterist

Blinkmoth Urn

Emry, Lurker of the Loch

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Urza, Lord High Artificer

Trinket Mage

Cards that have specific interactions or simply provide value:

Baral, Chief of Compliance

Painter's Servant

Rain of Gore

Strionic Resonator

Vantress Gargoyle

River Kelpie

Of course, this is by no means a budget deck, especially with the grossly overpriced Mirror Universe, but I tried to find relatively "budget" alternatives to some cards when they were available. In the case of cards like Mirror Universe, Chalice of the Void, or Urza, they provide abilities that are unique or very uncommon elsewhere in Magic. The majority of the cards in the deck, however, aren't terribly expensive, and while I didn't price check every card, I think that, barring those three aforementioned cards (and maybe Painter's Servant?) the total deck price is on the low end of most player's EDH deck costs. Plus, some of the pricier lands like Urborg, Glimmervoid, Fiery Islet, and Path of Ancestry can easily be subbed out for cheaper options.

If you enjoyed this deck tech, keep your eyes peeled for the next in the series, where I'll be building around another classically bad/unplayable commander! Which one? You'll have to wait and see! And please let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas on improvements or the direction of the column moving forward!