Hello everyone! I'm Levi from The Thought Vessel Show, and today we're looking at another Marvel superhero making their Magic debut in the November 4th Secret Lair. Last time, we explored a no-holds-barred version of Captain America. This time, we're diving into Iron Man, Titan of Innovation. But before we get into the decklist, let's take a moment to see what Iron Man does.

Breaking Down Iron Man, Titan of Innovation

There are a couple of things to note right off the bat with this card. First, it triggers on attack, meaning we need a safe opponent to swing at without risking our commander. Luckily, Iron Man has both Flying and Haste, giving him evasion and allowing us to activate his ability immediately.

His effect functions similarly to Birthing Pod--but for artifacts. In fact, we already have a comparable mono-White commander, Oswald Fiddlebender. The advantage of Oswald is his low cost, letting you activate him earlier. However, Iron Man brings the power of Red and Blue, two of the strongest colors for artifact synergy. While White excels with stax effects, Red and Blue dominate artifact strategies with explosiveness and combo potential. To make the most of Iron Man, we'll want to be proactive and fully leverage this strength.

Deck Stats at a Glance

• Ramp: 15 (excluding 5 reduction effects)
• Card Advantage: 13
• Spot/Stack Removal: 10
• Artifact Recursion: 7
• Tutors: 5
• Board Wipes: 4
• Infinite Combos: 2

Ramp

• Urza, Lord High Artificer - One of the most powerful cards ever printed, Urza shines in this deck, turning artifacts into mana sources.
• Krark-Clan Ironworks - We'll talk more about this later, but sacrificing Treasure tokens for two mana is incredibly efficient.
• Storm the Vault - This card alone justifies playing Izzet artifacts. Once flipped, it transforms into Tolarian Academy, a card banned for its power. The synergy here is amazing.

Card Advantage

• Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - With 37 artifacts in the deck, this card will draw us plenty of cards by triggering off historic spells.
• Ichor Wellspring - It draws a card on entry and loves being sacrificed. When Iron Man cashes it in for a three-mana artifact, you'll still net card draw.
• Mystic Forge - A key piece that acts as an extension of your hand by letting you play cards from the top of your library.

Spot/Stack Removal

• Stoic Rebuttal - With metalcraft active, this is essentially a two-mana counterspell.
• Resculpt - Combined with Liquimetal Torque, you can exile any permanent by turning it into an artifact.
• Galvanic Blast - Four damage is enough to kill most creatures in modern EDH, and in some cases, it might even take out a player. An underrated gem.

Artifact Recursion

• Daretti, Scrap Savant - One of our four planeswalkers, Daretti lets us sacrifice artifacts and bring others back from the graveyard.
• Academy Ruins - Puts artifacts on top of the library, which synergizes perfectly with Iron Man's ability to cheat them into play out of the library.
• Emry, Lurker of the Loch - Like Tony Stark's "lady of the lake," Emry lets us cast an artifact from the graveyard each turn, complementing our sacrifice-heavy strategy.

Tutors

• Tezzeret the Seeker - Perfect for assembling combo pieces and grabbing key artifacts when needed, not to mention that untapping artifacts as a backup can still be strong. If you can keep him safe however, Tezzeret can grab multiple combo pieces for you.

Board Wipes

• Steel Hellkite - While not a traditional board wipe, it can devastate token-heavy decks like Selesnya, giving us breathing room to combo off.
• Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - With so many colorless artifacts, Ugin's abilities hardly hurt us. The -10 ability can also be a massive momentum swing by drawing seven cards and putting seven permanents into play.

Infinite Combos

There are two primary approaches to building Iron Man: equipment-focused or artifact synergy/combo-oriented. Like Tony Stark, we'll spend most of our game "in the lab," building a deadly machine.

1. Combo #1: Sensei's Divining Top + Mystic Forge + Cost Reducers

With a cost reducer like Etherium Sculptor in play, you can cast Sensei's Divining Top for free repeatedly, drawing your entire deck. Using Aetherflux Reservoir, you can blast your opponents for 50 life each to end the game.

2. Combo #2: Krark-Clan Ironworks + Junk Diver + Myr Retriever

With either Urza or a cost reducer in play, you can sacrifice and recur Junk Diver and Myr Retriever infinitely. This loop can generate infinite mana, infinite 1/1 Thopters, or pump Kappa Cannoneer to absurd levels depending on what outlets you might have in play.

Other Notable Cards

• Elixir of Immortality - Now, this card may seem counterintuitive since we have so many ways to bring things back from the grave. However, we use this card more as an insurance policy if we need life or someone tries to exile our graveyard so we can hold on to the cards for later use. It can also help if we try to combo and draw out and there are still players around.
• Treasure Nabber - You know what is better than sacrificing our artifacts to toolbox our way to better artifacts? Using someone else's artifacts instead. This is going to force your opponents to either sacrifice their mana rocks or neglect them altogether. Either way for us is an absolute win.
• Academy Manufactor - This card turns Iron Man's single treasure every turn into a treasure, clue, and food. This can really help the deck to get going.
• Esoteric Duplicator - This card will let us keep a copy of any artifact we sacrifice for 2 mana. This can be especially good on a card like Solemn Simulacrum, Wurmcoil Engine, or Ichor Wellspring to continue to get consistent value as the tokens also would keep the mana value of the copied artifact.

Upgrades and Extra Power

If you want to take the deck to the next level, here are a few upgrades:

• Rhystic Study, Cyclonic Rift, and The One Ring are powerhouse cards that could fit in any Blue-Red deck.
• Mox Amber and Mox Opal offer fast mana to help accelerate Iron Man's game plan.
• Fierce Guardianship or similar counterspells can protect your key combos and prevent interruptions.

You can find the full list here!

Overall, Iron Man is a midrange combo deck with plenty of fun interactions. Iron Man, Titan of Innovation, is both versatile and explosive, capable of tutoring for its win conditions and will keep you opponents on edge. If you are looking for a more laid back version of the deck, I would recommend going with some equipment instead. Until next time, happy gaming!