Throne of Eldraine as a main set doesn't seem especially optimized for Commander. That's not really a problem because Throne of Eldraine also gave us the Brawl decks with a lot of cards that ARE optimized for Commander by virtue of being optimized for Brawl and if future sets not being optimized for Commander means we get fewer lazy, high-impact, low-supply cards like Arcane Signet (which you can't splice onto and doesn't have a one mana activation to produce two mana, making it neither Arcane nor a Signet), I'm OK with that. Brawl cards impacting Commander makes sense, but there is a card in Throne of Eldraine that seems like it was made for Modern Urza decks but which is pretty fantastic for us and I am going to make a 75% deck with it. "Is it Blue?" I'm pretending you ask. Yep. Good cards usually are.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch is no basis for a system of government, that's for sure, but she is absolutely the basis for a deck that's going to make a lot of mana and steal a lot of their permanents with Memnarch. The best part is, Emry is basically a Reanimator commander and therefore Chamber of Manipulation and Overtaker, cards I want to be better than they are, are very good here because they are a solid discard outlet.

The "stock" or "obvious" way to build Emry is to mill ourselves to dredge our combo pieces into the 'yard where we can replay them. While that's going to be a factor in how we build here today, I want to focus on being able to steal a lot of their stuff and use it. My strategy will be mana-hungry and having some extra mana rocks will not only slow them down but it will give us the fuel we need to do degenerate things. We'll have infinite mana loops and my goal is to use Memnarch and infinite mana to steal every permanent on the board and end the game. That is not going to happen often and it's going to be seen coming a mile off but when it does happen, it's going to be glorious. Let's look a bit at the cards and combos my build will include that aren't standard.

Their mana rocks are very important, so Thada Adel, Acquisitor, Acquire, Steal Artifact, Master Thief and cards like Phyrexian Metamorph and Echo Storm will get us the rocks we want. Copying their stuff isn't quite as good as stealing it, but since we plan to cast Emry a lot to mill more cards, Echo Storm is going to do a ton of work in this deck. I want to be careful not to play Mycosynth Lattice, though, so someone doesn't lock everyone down and make the game boring. In a 75% deck, you also don't want the possibility of someone Shatterstorming whether or not you have a Darksteel Forge out because either of those outcomes are pretty boring. We'll have to focus on their stuff that is already an artifact or use Memnarch or Liquimetal Coating in a pinch. Stealing their rocks and mana producers in a mid-game strategy and being able to pivot to the late-game and start taking their creatures with the exact same cards is key so we're including a lot of flexible cards.

I mentioned infinite loops and while I will have a few, they'll be incidental rather than central to my strategy. I will lean on a few ways to untap Emry because I don't want to play fair and Intruder Alarm is a good, manaless way to reward yourself for fishing a dead Artifact Creatures out of the bin. Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks with Katamari Damacy (Myr Battlesphere for those of you under 30) with Emry and Intruder Alarm makes all the mana you need. That SEEMS like a complicated thing to assemble, but you have multiple ways to get that setup. Intruder Alarm, Umbral Mantle, Mirran Spy, and Thornbite Staff all fill in for the untap effect, Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar and Krark-Clan Ironworks all work as mana outlets and multiple creatures can help you generate the mana. Not only that, you don't even need Intruder Alarm if you have Mirran Spy which can generate infinite mana with Lotus Petal and doesn't need KCI either. There are quite a few ways to get a combo going and it SHOULD be kind of hard to get infinite mana, by the way. We aren't aiming to do it every game which is why I won't run common stock cards like Fabricate, Drift of Phantasms, and Muddle the Mixture. We should see enough of our deck to get the cards we need, anyway.

That's a lot of ideas but a finite amount of deck real estate. What does our extra stealy edition of this deck end up looking like?

Farcical Aquatic Ceremonies | Commander | Jason At

• Commander (1)
• 1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Chakram Retriever
• 1 Diligent Excavator
• 1 Etherium Sculptor
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 Jhoira's Familiar
• 1 Master Thief
• 1 Memnarch
• 1 Metalworker
• 1 Mirran Spy
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Ornithopter
• 1 Overtaker
• 1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1 Riddlesmith
• 1 Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1 Scrap Trawler
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 Urza, Lord High Artificer
• 1 Vedalken Archmage
• 1 Walking Ballista

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker
• 1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master

• Instants (5)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Frantic Search
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Acquire
• 1 Echo Storm
• 1 Thoughtcast

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Efficient Construction
• 1 Intruder Alarm
• 1 Mechanized Production
• 1 Mirrodin Besieged
• 1 Steal Artifact
• 1 The Antiquities War

• Artifacts (28)
• 1 Aether Spellbomb
• 1 Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Basalt Monolith
• 1 Blasting Station
• 1 Chromatic Sphere
• 1 Codex Shredder
• 1 Darksteel Forge
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Grinding Station
• 1 Helm of Possession
• 1 Ichor Wellspring
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Liquimetal Coating
• 1 Lotus Petal
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mishra's Bauble
• 1 Mox Amber
• 1 Mystic Forge
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1 Umbral Mantle
• 1 Urza's Bauble
• 1 Vedalken Shackles
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Lands (33)
• 26 Island
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Seat of the Synod

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If you want more ways to win, consider adding Laboratory Maniac and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries as another way to win. It felt cheesy to me, but also kind of linear. In my experience, if a deck can win with Lab Maniac, that's basically all it tries to do. If you are someone who can try to win one way and quickly pivot to a Lab Man strategy when all else fails, you're not me, and you may want to add those two cards to the deck.

The deck doesn't function as much like a Reanimator deck as I wanted. I couldn't find the slots for big creatures. If you can, cards like Overtaker and Chamber of Manipulation are perfect. Right now they are ways to borrow creatures before you sac them for mana or to Blasting Station if they survive combat. If you want to dump a few big artifact creatures into the bin and bring them back later, that's something the deck is set up for even better than a stock Emry list. You could cut some of the cutesy stuff. In fact, cards that aren't artifacts are a bit of a liability so Steal Artifact could be the first to go. If you have your own fat creatures, stealing theirs is less of a priority.

Since we aren't on a lab man plan, I don't want to use Emry as aggressively as other builds. Emry is very useful in that her ability to reduce her own cost applies to Commander tax which means if you have a lot of artifacts, you can continue to sac and replay Emry (or watch her eat removal) and play her a bunch to mill yourself fairly greedily in search of the cards you want to win. I included quite a few non-Artifact creatures and some Enchantments I don't want to see milled and I know I'm going to have to play Emry carefully - far more carefully than in a build where milling my Mechanized Production means I can shift to a self-mill plan.

What do we think? Is the Memnarch + infinite mana idea a pipe dream or does this deck have the juice to make it happen? Would you pick a different way to win? Does stealing their stuff not go over where you play? Did anything overperform at the prerelease that you want me to talk about? Leave it for me in the comments section. As always, thanks for reading. Until next time!