MTG Salvation

Meren of Clan Nel Toth is another one where the majority of the heavy lifting is done with commons and uncommons

Good morning everyone. I haven't had much time to play as I've been an essential worker for NYC during the pandemic. However, I wanted to exercise a serious discussion in brainstorming unexplored and under-explored ideas for Sharuum. Now that my hours are returning to a somewhat normal schedule as NY tried to reopen slowly,

LGSs are closed and so getting games in at the start of this pandemic has been tough. However, I've been able to find resources to turn my phone into a webcam to play paper MTG games over platforms like Zoom and get real paper games in.

I'm hoping I will have more time to get in games with Sharuum. That said, I'd like to get all your ideas on what new synergies and engines have been successful in your builds, and what concessions to deck building have needed to be made in order to accommodate those new synergies. I'm talking a deconstructive approach to improving Sharuum.

I've been recently fanning out the deck and seeing what engines plug in and how it affects the rest of the 99, and how that inevitably affects gameplay. We haven't gotten an abundance of toys, but we did get some useful printing that I feel have opened up the discussion as to whether they push the engine Sharuum deck into new spaces of gameplay and role assignment, into new strategies not previously explored or possible. For example:

- The printing of Dranith Magistrate makes it possible to lock out a table from playing spells when an Uba Mask is in play. Half of this 2 card combo can be reanimated and both sides of the combo can be protected once in play, albeit with set-up. With God-Pharoah's Statue as a newer printing and we begin to hit the threshold of cards needed for a Sharuum prison strategy.

- Ghirrapur Orrey has been a decent inclusion to the deck. Such a card may make it possible to include Razormane Masticore into the deck, which has been an amazing board control tool in Vintage, and a great discard outlet. Sharuum and Salvaging Station can turn the discard negative into a new benefit, but doing so will nessesitate change for the rest of the 99 to better accommodate it: increase to artifacts count, more (and cheaper) reanimation spells, and more cogs.

- The changes to rules regarding commanders hitting the command zone has naturally made Tawnos's Coffin stronger. Specifically, the change can now make it such that we can stifle the delayed trigger on the Coffin untapping and permanently put an opposing commander in exile. Opponents can also do that to us. How likely are we to need a way to pull Sharuum out of exile, and by extension, is this "commander sniping" option one we should more fully explore as a strategy.

I'd like to know what have your experiences been with your new synergies in your lists, what were the concessions to these accomodations in building and strategy, and what was the overall cost/benefit analysis to the deck as a whole (how much did it improve the deck compared to how much did the deck lose in instituting the changes).

I'd love to hear your responses.

If needed, I could also host a Zoom meeting with to have a forum on Sharuum upgrades if it would be more productive, and post the discussion on this thread.

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I've looked at revisiting Null Brooch myself again. I like how it is an activated artifact effect that gets to say "No" and the fact it pitches your hand can be a bonus. I'm reluctant to use it because
1) It doesn't directly plug into any of the main engines in the deck, and
2) It's a 4 drop, so it sits on an uncomfortable part of the curve that usually has a glut of equal CMC spells.
3) Deckspace is extremely tight

There are a few benefits though, in how an unwinding clock or clock of Omens can untap it to let you counter additional spells of the opportunity presents itself. I also liked how I used to pair it with Ensnaring Bridge to empty my hand against aggressive boards (this was before I began contributing to this thread, tech was scarce back then, had to take what you could get).

Also, Dance of the Manse isn't performing as I hoped it would, and so I will be swapping it back out for Roar of Reclamation for the next few games. The new lantern will definitely help with this transition.

I really miss using my old manabase and there have been times where not having a 5C manabase has come up in corner cases at the tables. With that said, I did so to push more interactions with Emeria Shepperd and Scaretiller and to thin my library as the grindy games can go longer: artifact hate has become that efficient. So far, they have been decent, but if they don't continue to pull their weight, they will get cut.

I'm hoping to get games in this week with all my decks:. Sharuum, Golos and Zedruu, as they have all had updates within the last few weeks.

Good morning everyone,

I wanted to give an update on my play experiences with the new list and give some thoughts on a very unassuming gems we got in Theros.

I noticed when I got more games in that the deck was less explosive than I liked it to be. When the game gets to the endgame, it's even more resilient than before, but there have been much fewer explosive hands than before. I've been tweaking the deck to increase the number of cogs in the list, which has been paying off. I've added Lotus Petal back into the list and made a few other swaps, and it's been paying off. I'm also trying Dance of the Manse. 8ts been okay so far. Recursion at X=4 has not been as explosive as 4WW for all your artifacts, but I still want to play a few more games with it to see if the one-sided aspect of it is still worth it.

Second, I wanted to revisit bringing back an infinite back into the list that we had previously cut.

Soul-Guide Lantern is probably the best upgrade we have to the Tornod's crypt slot in the deck. It exiles all opponents graveyards. The next best option we have is nihil spellbomb because it draws cards, if we get into grindy gamestates.

Altar of the Brood looks really good right now, becauss we now have a way to exile all graveyards, regardless of how many opponents have eldrazi to shuffle them back in, and regardless of whether they have a graveyard removal spell to pop the Lantern in response to using it. We now have a way to one shot all graveyards at one time. In addition, if we simply recycle it, it will still do its job, albeit a bit slower, and keep dangerous targets out if the yard. I'm really liking this printing.

One of the biggest issues for me with the altar kill is that a well timed removal spell can remove our Crypt effect, essentially screwing one opponent out of the game but possibly setting up dangerously loades graveyards for your other opponents, and deck space is too tight to run 2 of these effects.

The lantern solves this issue.

The benefit to using altar in the kill is that it works much better within the Salvaging Station engine to fuel other artifact synergies, increases the artifact and cog count, and as such works within the other systems of engines and interactions in the deck.

How is everyone else feeling with their lists?

Quote from Paulithan »

Loving these regular updates.

I’m also not entirely sure how I feel about Scaretiller in the list. Seems like it’s a dud without more tap enablers.


Also, never been entirely sold on Unwinding Clock, but I suppose Eldrazi Displacer and Urza give the list some more to do with mana on opponents’ turns. However, I can still foresee some unwanted interactions with Tawnos’s Coffin. Have you experienced that?

I must also say that Emry has felt like a Lieutenant in this deck. The more I play her, the better she gets. Someone pointed out that she sucks with Lotus Bloom and Mox Tantalite, and you are absolutely correct in that, but she feels like the perfect compliment to both Salvaging Station and Sharuum herself.

Going to give Ghirapur Orrery a try. I’ve always avoided it since it can help my opponents, but I find I often have no cards in hand very early in the game, so I can certainly see its value. I also run Bazaar of Baghdad in my list, so I can manage the size of my hand fairly well. The extra land drop will definitely come in handy with citadel on the board, so it’s probably worth a try.

I used to run Eldrazi Displacer, but I ended up cutting it because I had cut back on ETB creatures. However, I added Emry and Urza also, so the value may be there again. May try it again at some point.

Any love for Shimmer Dragon? It seems that it would improve Scaretiller, and provide a source of instant-speed card draw that’s hard to deal with. Plus it can help win through combat if you have to go that direction. Haven’t playtested it myself; just wondering if anyone else has.

Scaretiller really has been growing on me. It's not flashy but it puts in more work than you would think.

As for the untap artifacts and Tawnos's Coffin, the biggest issue would be not keeping a blanket effect creature off the table (think Elesh Norn) with both in play. I don't mind my artifacts coming into play again if the mana rocks are also untapping to be able to reblink if necessary. Also, Tawnos's coffin returns the creature to play tappped, so getting extra uses can set me up to attack past blockers and hit lifetotals or planeswalkers, much like Myr Battlesphere used to before the damage errata. It's very corner case but if it does become a concern, I can just sacrifice or kill that piece myself.

I'm dying to bring back Bazaar into the list but cant find that last cut to do so 1 more cut. With so few rocks, I dont want to cut any more genuine mana sources to do so. The list is super tight.

Lastly, I think Shimmer Dragon is cool, but it's too expensive to not be an artifact. Emeria Shepperd was really tough to accommodate, but it was worth it as it plugs into the recursion engines very well. It's a great card when your ahead or when you're trying to break parity, but it sucks when you're playing from behind. I feel it is a good thought experiment but ultimately the theory wasn't good enough for me to warrant testing.

My apologies for the delayed response. Between the holidays, the kids getting sick one after the other, and the end-of the year project analysis reports that came up, I haven’t had time to answer. My wife also got a new keyboard which I am now growing to loathe. Last night I was typing my response in the dark and was almost done with my whole response at 1:30am, when I went to delete a line of text and my computer cut off. Apparently, there is a power button right on the keyboard one key away from the delete and print screen buttons. I was super pissed. I don’t really understand why it’s there as this is not a wireless keyboard. I was super pissed, but I’m trying this again.

Stefouch asked some great questions, and I’ll try to answer them as best as I can.

(1) Why Fact or Fiction over Time Spiral? (Moreover, why Echo of Eons or Whispering Madness over TS?)

One thing that I needed to wrap my head around is how the changes to the mana producers affected the pacing for lines of play and consistency of plays. In this update, I cut out the 2 cmc mana rocks, and that small change precipitated a few needs:

• And increased reliance on draw spells to hit my mana sources consistently and often.
• Increased reliance on draw spells to further my board progression
• The need to shave down my CMC wherever reasonable possible

Time Spiralis a great card, but one that is very expensive to cast. While it’s insane with a Smothering Tithe in play, the fact that it costs 6 mana, is a huge downside. In addition, when you can cast it, you may not always have the 6 lands when you cast it early for it to be mana neutral or mana positive. FOF and Whispering Madness are just cheaper which is the biggest reason they make the cut. The reason I run Echo of Eons over it is a little more nuanced.
One of the big issues with this deck was consolidating play effects and play lines with an ever shrinking number of utility slots to make space of the engine cards and bombs that feed their synergies. I had cut Elixir of Immortality from the list, but still wanted to keep the ability to restock my library to protect my yard from growing too large. Echo doesn’t exile itself, so I can loop it with Timetwister to continuously restock my library if needed. I can also sacrifice this line in a pinch if I need immediate card draw through Entomb. It’s also a decent card to use to manipulate Intuition piles for your opponent. Those lines have not yet shown up, but it will take more games to test the fringes and see if my concerns are warranted.

(2) Why Prismatic Vista over another fetchland? (A Misty Rainforest looks more attractive to me.)

This change was also precipitated by changes to my mana base along with the inclusion of Emeria Sheppard and Mystic Sanctuary. In the past, being able to run 14-15 mana rocks allowed me to power past and ignore cards like Blood Moon and Back to Basics because I could consistently shift the responsibility of casting my spells and color fixing onto my mana artifacts. Now that the 2 drop artifacts are gone, the list is increasingly vulnerable to such effects. The reason I am using Prismatic Vista over a non-allied blue fetch is to ensure I can hit those basics with more consistency if needed.
I play both storm and Shops in Vintage, and in my UB Park Petition deck, Prismatic Vista has become the second best fetch after Polluted Delta, especially when playing in metas hostile to lands (metagames with tons of Shop decks). I’ve seen its value from both sides of the table, and so I’ve used that experience in making this decision. Sure, Misty Rainforest or Scalding Tarn are better at fetching Mystic Sanctuary but my bigger priority is making sure I avoid getting blown out to land hate cards.

(3) Is Ghirapur Orrery really that safe to play?

No symmetrical effects is ever 100% safe to play. Cards like Static Orb, Anvil of Bogarden and Horn of Greed are not very commonly played cards for that reason. However, the decks that can break the symmetry of these cards can gain huge value from doing so. Ghirrapur Orrey is such a card. In playing games, I have found that this card nets me a free Ancestral Recall on my upkeep roughly every other turn after turn 3 when played fairly (this is a rough average). Some of our draw spells (those which force discards or shuffle the high CMCs back in), Artificer’s Intuition and Crucible of Worlds help get you to that stat (another reason the fetches are awesome for this list). However, when you get an LED onto the table, it becomes rediculous.

(4) How went the tests for Mystic Forge and Wishclaw Talisman? (Two cards you cited previously.)

Mystic Forge is a broken card. It’s not difficult to sculpt a scenario where you draw your library, which is the ceiling for the card. What I find is, for you to want it in your deck, you want it to generate a ton of value (at least 3-4 cards a turn just playing off the top of the library). To do this, you need a ton of colorless cards (at least 50-60%), a ton of cheap artifacts (preferably mana rocks), a low land count and the ability for your cost reducers to matter without Mystic Forge on the table. While Sharuum plays a ton of artifacts, we also play a ton of colored spells. Engine Sharuum doesn’t check off all those boxes, and constructing it to do so really waters down the strengths of the deck. Getting mana for a Magister’s Sphinx after you just cast a Noxious Gearhulk off the top is one example of the issues you can run into when playing Mystic Forge in a 3 color deck. It just plays better in an Arcuum or Eldrazi deck.
Wishclaw Talisman is a good card, and plays well with all the untap effects in the deck. I found that when I played it, I wanted to run Voltaic Keys over the mass untappers, and even considered Homeward Path (for it's inside-out lines with Karn, Silver Golem. We have so many good options for tutors that when making the final cuts, this just didn’t make the list. It was close. The fact that this is an artifact, means we can activate and blink it / sac it for value with the ability on the stack. The single black in the cost and colorless activation works really well for us. It interacts very well with Emry. It justs slants us towards running it in a package with 3 or 4 other cards to ensure the tutoring remains 1 sided, and there wasn’t enough space to do so. People who play K’rrick should really consider playing this card. It doesn’t fit in every deck, but its better positioned for ours than most others.

(5) No more PW? You really dropped Tezzeret the Seeker?

Yes and yes. Tezzeret is a very good card, but it’s slow an increasingly becoming a niche card. It is a 5 mana tutor for 4 drops or less. What gave it a higher ceiling was when Tez able to sit behind an Ensnaring Bridge (with no hand), an army of meekly armed thopters or a fleet ofSphinx of the Steel Winds so you could just accumulate increasingly more value over more and more turns. It is a card that demands a decompressed game from our deck to become better, as there is no 4 > cmc artifact in this deck that ends the game when tutored up. Artifact removal options have never been better or more efficient than they are now, and there are more way to grow wide than ever before. Tezzeret is increasingly becoming too slow to answer the demands of the boardstates I’m seeing games led to, as commanders like Yarok, Urza and K’rrik are putting more pressure, faster, to close games out. I’m finding I’d rather tutor for the right card now than string together synergies over multiple turns. One of the big cuts that diminished his role was the loss of Rings of Brighthearth, as the card demanded other cards be on the table to really extract max value from it. Not having it around makes all the planeswalkers less impactful.

(6) Is only one boardwipe effect (Cyclonic Rift) enough?

So far, yes. Back when I wrote my philosophy on deckbuilding (which can be found at post #117 here. Specifically, I talked about my philosophy of playing threats over answers. Through all these years, I still adhere to that doctrine and it’s served me well. I am currently running a very high density of “must answer” threats which are immediately impactful and cannot all be answered by the same angles. Also, on post #121 on that same page I detailed my analysis of answers. Specifically, I wrote:

Also, when analyzing answers, one needs to take a step back and realize that your deck should be able to answer problematic board cards in the following manner.

1. Attack it
2. Block it
3. Destroy it
4. Remove it
5. Bounce it
6. Steal it
7. Counter it
8. Remove its owner from the game
9. Offer your opponents the opportunity and incentive to take options 1-8

If your deck can't do most (if not all) of the above things in a timely fashion, the problem doesn't lie with the answers you're running, it lies in your list.

I find this still holds true and you have more ways to do this, and with increased efficiency. Urza ensures [Thopter/Sword] combo ends the game for the table if you get to untap, as opposed to picking off a opponents one at a time. You still have Bitter Ordeal as a game ending line. You still have the plan C of the Air Force beatdown plan. The newest kill line involves Magister Sphinx and Bolas’s Citadel. Both cards have incestuous synergies with each other.
Bolas’s Citadel can free-cast Magister’s Sphix.
Magister’s Sphinx can reset your life total to 10 to “gain” life to keep free casting spells with Citadel.
Bolas’s Citadel can drain all opponents for 10 life.
Magister’s Sphinx can reset opoonent life totals to 10.
Bolas’s Citadel can free-cast all the engines that blink Sphinx
Citadel and aforementioned engines quickly enable 10 non-land permanents to hit the table.

It is very possible to flat-out remove players from the game out of no-where with a Citadel, the rest of your turn and 15-25 life in payment with no other board state to assist in doing so. Once you do, you still have the infrastructure to “off” the next player on the table and in your graveyard. The move away from Voltaic Key to more untap engines was purposely done to assist in building, rebuilding your board and blinking the appropriate cards by your next turn to do it again.

(7) Scaretiller... The only tap effect in the list is Clock of Omens. I don't really understand this choice.

Scaretiller is a choice I’ve become increasingly comfortable with playing with and I feel is a severely underrated card. It serves as a more narrowly tailored Solemn Simulacrum, but where it’s ramp is more in line with the needs of the deck, with additional possible lines of play to exploit. While it’s true that the only cards that can tap Scaretiller are Clock and Urza, the card can also just attack. There are many times where it is more than okay to trade Scaretiller in combat to buyback a Strip Mine and color screw your opponent or deal with a Gaea’s Cradle or Cabal Coffers that’s one untap from putting the game out of reach for the table. If the games are going long, chipping in for 1 to buyback an Inventor’s Fair or Buried Ruin activation for the 2nd time in a turn can be very relevant and sometimes game-breaking.

PS: I think you confused multiple times Teferi's Protection and Teferi's Response in your text.

Thanks man. I found one error and fixed it.

Hello everyone,

It's been a while but I am glad to say that I have built an update to my engine-based Sharuum list that feels very cohesive and has been doing better than anticipated.


I was really struggling to shave parts of the engine list to make space for testing of the new toys that the deck could possibly use, which is why instead of tweaking it, I decided to do a complete rebuild of it. There are a lot of changes from the previous build so I am going to go through my decision process for this.



I've gotten about 5 sessions of games in and I have to say the deck feels great. The deck does mulligan differently, as it the curve is different and the lines of play have changed, but it feels very solid.

It's been busy lately, but I just finished a huge personal commitment and so I've freed myself up to devote more time to playing more EDH games. I'm currently working on rebuilding Sharuum, taking advantage of her new potential toys. I'm still working through the micro interactions of the deck. New cards I'm looking to check out are the new black artifact Tutor, Emry, Mystic Forge and a few others.

Hey guys, just wanted to chime in and respond, now that things have calmed down from the summer.

Mox Tantalite – Isn't this rock too slow? It's a bit contradictive with what you said about the speed of the format. I can understand for Lotus Bloom because you are rewarded with 3 manas instead of only 1. Are you totally sold with Mox Tantalite?

I love Mox Tantalite, but I definitely don’t cast it from hand. It is an excellent acceleration piece that works within the Salvaging Station shell. It is tutorable with Artificer’s Intuition, gives you all the benefits of the Lotus Petal loops, but can be used more than once, unlike Lotus Petal. Much better target for the value blink on Sharuum.

Elixir of Immortality – Can still generate lot of life with Clock of Omens by stacking multiple activation on the stack. Good for Citadel. Did you consider this aspect of the Elixir?

I saw the line, but it was never one of the more optimal uses I have seen once Citadel was in the deck. If I found myself going off with Citadel, using those finite untaps to gain life to then burn on Citadel casts was just not an efficient use of those resources in any game I had played.

Teferi's Protection – I see you were playing this card and removed it. Did you removed it because you are playing too many wheel effects? Or was it mediocre at protecting your board and your life?

I wish I could play it, but just didn’t have the space.

Blast Zone – Has Blast Zone proven more useful than any other utility lands? I've the feeling it's too slow. What do you intend to destroy with it?

One of the reasons I love Sharuum is because of the high colorless count, which allows me to squeeze more utility lands into the manabase without affecting my ability to play my spells. Blast Zone looks super good on paper, but I have yet to find a board state that it has wrecked. The idea for its inclusion was that you’d be able to pump more mana into the “XX” ability than most decks, allowing you to squeeze in pinpoint removal without cutting slots. A ratchet bomb is always useful but not really a card you want to cut other cards for. I see it more as an insurance policy. There are times we will have extra mana with no mana sinks, so setting this to the cc’s of other commanders on those turns is a productive use of otherwise wasted mana. Same can be said for pieces you know other kick opponent’s cards & commanders into hyperdrive.

Would you consider the following six cards?

Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge – All his modes are useful to us. His +2 is damn powerful with Smothering Tithe out, and we need life for Bolas's Citadel. He can also protect himself by landing a free artifact creature thanks to his static ability. I am actually testing him with good results.

Urza, Lord High Artificer – He turns our cogs into manarocks, creates a big token, and is a wincon by himself if you manage to generate infinite mana. With him, you can use the treasure tokens without having to sacrifice them. Urza gives the vibe of a Tolarian Academy, but probably the Engine does not interact enough with him.

Mystic Forge – Seems a good backup for the Citadel plan.

Notion Thief/Narset, Parter of Veils – With all these wheel effects, wouldn't these two cards being auto-includes?

All the aforementioned cards are definitely build-arounds that could be incorporated into Sharuum, but don’t necessarily mesh well with each other (some do, others don’t). Here are my thoughts for the 5 you listed…

Tez, Master of the Bridge: I though this one would be an auto-include but it didn’t work out that way, but it’s not because he isn’t good. He is a card that wants to be in a deck that is more artifact-centric than a deck with a ton of wheel effects. He’s a great card, but not for the specific take on Sharuum I’m using, which is heavier on non-artifact spells than my previous lists. I would love to see your list so I could see the micro-interactions with him and other pieces.

Urza, Lord High Artificer: I build my specific list before he was spoiled. He is a beast, and adding him would have required an immediate retool at a time where I’ve been making extensive notes on the wheel list to compare to other divergent Sharuum builds. Inclusion would likely push me to abandon Smothering Tithe for a much more streamlined artifact-centric list, moreso than my previous ones, and possibly abandon parts of the Salvaging Station engine (while possibly creating infinite mana with other parts of that same engine). (Please note that I am creating this post after Paradox Engine was banned from EDH, so my comments reflect what I imagine the deck could look like after the ban, not before.)

Mystic Forge: Another ridiculous printing for the deck, which would require yet another retool to truly abuse the deck in a way that got it restricted in Vintage. I love this card, and it is everything that Mind’s eye wanted to be and more, and at a discounted CMC.

Notion Thief/Narset, Parter of Veils: These 2 cards would be amazing in a wheel list, but if I was going to run them, I’d run them together instead of trying to miser one in the deck, as that would be what the deck would be aiming to do to control the table. As it stands, I think Mystic Forge is more compact and degenerate at its best than this package + wheels, requiring just as many pieces which would be easier to protect, more easily recurrable, and would share more synergy with the rest of the deck.

Other notes:

Voltaic Key/Manifold Key – I'm playing Clock of Omens since the beginning of time I built a Sharuum Engine deck, and I can't resolve myself to remove the key. From a personal point of view, I'm convincing myself to consider it a manarock, since it can generate positive mana in combination with 6 or 7 other manarocks (those adding 2+ manas). It's so needed for Mana Vault and Grim Monolith (and Basalt Monolith, if you play it). It's also fetchable with Artificer's Intuition and reccurrable with Salvaging Station, which Clock isn't.

I understand how you feel and I feel much the same way. However, due to the space constraints of a wheel-centric deck, if you chose to go that route, you don’t have enough slots to accommodate identical effects.

Noxious Gearhulk < Duplicant – According to me, the latter is superior due to the exile effect... but I play both!

I have been going back and forth between running one and both myself.

Artifact Lands – I don't play them because I hate loosing -also- some lands and my manarocks during an artifact boardwipe. What are your experiences with this situation?

Hands down, I love them and when you get Salvaging station on board and the mana to animate S.S., you can very likely kill the table. I find them to be well worth the risk.

Fetchlands – I'm playing 7 of them and removed the Filterlands (and the Signets). They help shuffle the library for Sensei's Divining Top and Bolas's Citadel.

I have been running 3, and it’s not because I don’t have the full set. I run the filterlands, but that’s because I also run the 7 and 8 drop sphinxes, and in my playgroups, the beatdown plan can be relevant. More recently, the ability to reset an opponent to 10 and kill off a Citadel activation, cast a Roar of Rec. and do it again, has been a little too spicy for me to pass up the filterlands just yet. Also, if you find that you’re getting stuck on not casting cards off citadel, find your top and pay 1 life to draw I, clearing it off the top of the deck.

Rings of Brighthearth – Seems to have gained extra value in my list with the extra fetchlands and the new Tezz. But I've the feeling it's winmoOore.

It definitely is more win-more. I like it when the environment is more grindy, as if helps you edge out a ton of value, but it requires time and mana to do so. If you play with very grindy play-groups, definitely play it, but it gets worse as the average power level of your table goes up and the average kill turn goes down.

Now that I've gotten a feel for the ups and downs of a wheel-based list, I will be rebuilding Sharuum again to compare power level. This next iteration will be a Mystic Forge list. I will be doing this to compare optimizations for Sharuum, but to do so is very time consuming, and I don't get to game multiple times a week like I did years ago (more Daddy duties now), so I apologize if I don't get to respond as quickly as I'd like to.

We will be streaming the event. It can be found at

www.twitch.tv/tmdbrassman

I've gone close to 4 years where I have not played Sharuum on a regular basis. Having been turned off by the lack of printings that directly affected the deck while other archetypes were getting exciting new pillars for their respective commanders.

It has been frustrating to see Sharuum's primary engines receive meaningful printing at a glacial pace while other commanders receive printing that felt they were customized specifically for them, and whose impact has taken those decks from a power level of a 4-5 to a power level of 8-9, seemingly overnight.

I have always said that when it comes to broken artifacts, WoTC tends to print them in 4-6 year cycles. It took a while, but there is finally a threshold or artifacts and artifact synergies to seriously revisit and bring meaningful change and improvements for the Sharuum engine-based deck.

In addition, there has been a bigger shift with the format overall. With Commander being the most successful format in Magic, WoTC has been tailoring printings every set specifically for the format, slotting most if those printings in the rare and mythic slot, and now as buy-a-box promos, to help sell packs and boxes along-side the needs of the competitive crowd.

This has created a shift in the format where decks are stronger, faster, and the majority of commanders now have pillars that are independent of one another. While commanders share format pillars, the cards that make one commander strategy tick are often different from ones that make another tick within the same archetype, now that sufficient printings have fine-tuned the specialized needs for most commanders. This means that the needs and pace for our engine-based deck has also changed. This is what has led me to revisit old tech while looking to evaluate newer cards within a wider scope.

I have finally been able to get a string of games together among different play groups, letting me first get a feel of what the deck needed/was missing, and what was underperforming.

I have recognized a few things about the format since I've begun playing commander more consistantly:

1) The pace of the format has sped up. With the constant stream of printings that are constantly breaking commanders, decks are becoming more proactive; game states are becoming more "answer now" and the windows of opportunity to respond to these game states are becoming smaller and smaller over time. I am finding that as a general rule, being proactive is strategically better than being reactionary.

2) I am finding that the prevalence of individual archetype staples has diversified and tapered off while format staples have consolidated across decks. Gone are the days where every deck susceptible to mill ran an Eldrazi legend for the shuffle effect, but conversely almost every deck that can support format staples (such as Cyclonic Rift, Paradox Engine, Protean Hulk and Teferi's protection) runs them. As such, part of winning the game is being able to shape the game to make these format staple cards as harmless as possible. The way you beat these staples is to force your opponent to play them to prevent him/her from losing as opposed to allowing your opponent the opportunity and time to weaponize these cards to solidify a win. This gameplan plays into the proactive tendencies the format is being pushed towards. It also changes the playstyle that the deck was previously built towards, which also changes the application and value of the slots in the deck.

I started by piloting the original list, which took quite a few lumps in those first games (it took a while to get the rust off, no pun intended). If you need to find the original list, it can be found here. After having played a solid number of games, I have finally settled on a direction strong and consistent enough to guide the deck towards.

Bolas's Citadel - I feel that Bolas's Citadel is a build-around card for this deck. As a cog-based deck, the life payment is negligible for almost half of our artifacts which are mana rocks or 0-1 cost artifacts. However, our deck makes the sacrifice ability very relevant. It plays very well with Magister's Sphinx, which resets and opponent's life to 10, where Bolas's Citadel just finishes the opponent from there. Sharuum has multiple ways to gain life, which allows us to get additional mileage out if the Citadel if needed.

Smothering Tithe - I've spoken about this card previously, but I'll reiterate my points:
It generates free artifact permanents for the deck, making it a "must answer". Tithe serves as ramp if played early, easies color requirements and has brutal synergizes with many cards in the deck.

For this update, I will be focusing on the synergies between Magister's Sphinx, Bolas's Citadel and Smothering Tithe as the compass guiding my decisions for the deck, as the synergies that branch between these 3 cards, and independent from these 3 cards, feel like a strong enough base to retune the deck's engines around. That is not to say this is the best course for updating and improving the deck... time will tell whether this is the case. I do feel though, that this is a solid foundation for moving forward with credible ideas for improving the deck.

Here is my latest Sharuum update:

Spells - 65
Creatures (10)
(4) Phyrexian Metamorph
(5) Kudoltha Forgemaster
(5) Karn, Silver Golem
(6) Sharuum the Hegemon
(6) Noxious Gearhulk (new)
(6) Steel Hellkite (revisited)
(6) Marionette Master (new)
(7) Magister Sphinx
(7) Myr Battlephere
(8) Sphinx of the Steel Wind

Mana Rocks - 14
Cog Mana Rocks - 8
(0) Lion's Eye Diamond
(0) Lotus Bloom
(0) Mana Crypt
(0) Mox Diamond
(0) Mox Tantalite (new)
(0) Mox Opal
(0) Mana Vault
(1) Sol Ring

Non- Cog Rocks - 6
(2) Azorius Signet
(2) Dimir Signet
(2) Grim Monolith
(2) Orzhov Signet (revisited)
(3) Coalition Relic (revisited)
(5) Gilded Lotus

Draw Effects - 6
(3) Day's Undoing (new)
(3) Timetwister
(3) Windfall
(4) Whispering Madness
(5) Memory Jar
(6) Time Spiral (revisited)

Tutors - 6
(1) Entomb
(1) Vampiric Tutor
(2) Artificer's Intuition
(2) Demonic Tutor
(2) Transmute Artifact
(3) Intuition

Cog-Based Utility - 10
(0) Tormod's Crypt
(1) Aether Spellbomb
(1) Altar of the Brood (revisited)
(1) Dispeller's Capsule
(1) Executioner's Capsule
(1) Expedition Map
(1) Nihil Spellbomb (revisited)
(1) Sensei's Divining Top
(1) Skullclamp
(1) Voyager's Staff

Additional Utility Artifacts - 3
(2) Sword of The Meek
(3) Crucible of Worlds
(3) Ensnaring Bridge (revisited)

Resource Conversion Engines- 8
(2) Thopter Foundry
(2) Time Sieve
(4) Clock of Omens (revisited)
(4) Smothering Tithe (new)
(4) Tawnos's Coffin
(4) Trading Post
(6) Bolas's Citadel (new)
(6) Salvaging Station

Spell-Based Recursion - 3
(5) Unburial Rites
(6) Open the Vaults
(7) Roar of Reclamation

Spell-Based Removal - 3
(2) Cyclonic Rift (new)
(3) Bitter Ordeal (revisited)
(7) All is Dust

Planeswalkers - 2
(5) Tezerret the Seeker
(7) Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Lands - 35
5-Color Lands- 6
City of Brass
Command Tower
Mana Confluence
Reflecting Pool
Spire of Industry
Tarnished Citadel

Artifact Lands (Cog Lands)- 4
Ancient Den
Darksteel Citadel
Seat of the Synod
Vault of Whispers

Fetch Engine - 9
Flooded Strand
Godless Shrine
Hallowed Fountain
Marsh Flats
Polluted Delta
Scrubland
Tundra
Underground Sea
Watery Grave

Filter Lands - 3
Fetid Heath
Mystic Gate
Sunken Ruins

Utility Lands - 9
Academy Ruins
Buried Ruin
Cavern of Souls
Emergence Zone (new)
Geir-Reach Sanitarium (should be Bazaar)
Blast Zone
Inventor's Fair
Strip Mine
Mirror Pool (revisited)

Ramp Lands - 5
Ancient Tomb -f
City of Traitors
Crystal Vein
Gemstone Cavern -f
Mishra's Workshop

Salvaging the Station Engine: I've needed to reevaluate the engine Components, consolidate what I could and get rid off what was no longer necessary.

Mox Tantalite - Strict upgrade to Lotus Petal, which was the weakest mana rock in the list. Mox Tantalite is now the third mana rock that can combo with Karn, Silver Golem and Salvaging Station to create infinite death triggers for the deck.

Altar of the Brood - With the popularity and revitalization of library based combo strategies (Protean Hulk, Zur, Arcum, Yisan, and now Prime Speaker Vannifar) I chose Altar as an easily tutorable way to threaten an infinite (via mill) while being very serviceable in breaking up opposing infinite combos. As it increased the lethality of graveyard based decks, I've added a second graveyard hate piece in Nihil Spellbomb to compensate.

Elixir of Immortality - Was cut as the deck is no longer looking to prolong games to outgrind the opponent. As such, using Elixir to protect specific combo pieces from timely graveyard hate is a bridge too far and so it's been cut.

Voltaic Key - This one was a tough cut. It's a cog and so it plugs in with the engine, but like Venser, a one time untap doesn't do enough for enough games, and so it has been cut for Clock of Omens, which has been putting in more work.

Recoupling Combo Engines:
Thopter / Sword Combo - Generates life and permanents for Bolas's Citadel, and still can fog combat steps and threaten life totals with enough mana.

Time Sieve - Can generate free turns via Smothering Tithe, plugs into Thopter/Sword combo to end games, great lightning rod for targeted artifact hate.

Clock of Omens - Creates tons of mana with Smothering Tithe without losing the treasure, helps Salvaging Station and Tawnos's coffing blink creatures multiple times in a turn

Tawnos's Coffin - Still amazing at rebuilding your board with your commander, blinkable creature suite has been tweaked to work better with Citadel

Trading Post - Smothering Tithe created the mana and fodder to make TP more efficient, gets better with Clock of Omens

Salvaging Station - Still amazing at generating permanents for the deck, and recycling utility permanents to disrupt opponents. Cogs used for the engine are easy to play via Citadel and Station helps rebuy those permanents.

Cultivating the Draw Engine:
With the focus on Smothering Tithe, I am choosing to use Draw 7s as my defacto card advantage spells. Smothering Tithe will grow me free lotus petals, while Clock of Omens allows me to empty my hand if I have a few mana rocks at my disposal. Additionally, overlapping multiple twister effects will help in protecting my graveyard from incidental hate. The spellbombs go a long way with the draw 7s as they will tuck whatever they hit back into that player's library, where it is harder for most decks to access, and the synergy between them and Cyclonic Rift is too good to pass up. So far, these options have been mostly better: there have been times where I've missed the binning effect of cards like Thirst for Knowledge and Fact or Fiction, but the benefits have been very good.

Toy Soldiers: The creature suite in the deck has also been modified to plug into the value engines and game plan of the deck. I have now gone to 10 creatures in the deck.

Phyrexian Metamorph - The all-star if the deck, metamorph plays star roles in multiple engines, while also doubling as my opponent's best artifact ir creature, Magister Sphinx #2 or another jet in the airforce plan.

Kudoltha Forgemaster - Smothering Tithe makes free sac fodder for him, and he helps Tutor for the other half of many of your engine pieces. Super strong.

Karn, Silver Golem - Everything discussed in the Karn clinic is still relevant today. We can now include "efficiently destroys treasure" to that section.

Noxious Gearhulk - Replaces duplicant in this slot. The life gain is helpful in a pinch. Menace can also close out close games

Steel Hellkite - Helps contain boards which has become increasingly important now that treasure is so easy to come by.

Marionette Master - Older card that's gotten a new look. Marionette Master creates free permanents for Bolas's Citadel, but the counters can also drain opposing life totals with Citadel. Citadel sacrificing 10 artifacts with a Marionette Master on the table with 3 +1/+1 counters will drain a player for 40. Also remember, Tawnos's coffing can not only create more servos, it can also force Marionette Master to accumulate additional +1/+1 counters.

Myr Battlephere - Efficiently makes artifact permanents for Citadel and can threaten to kill anyone Magister Sphinx has sneezed at. Due to updated damage rules, you can no longer swing at a player/planeswalker and burn out a second planeswalker with the triggered damage: it all goes to the attacked player / permenant.

Sphinx of the Steel Wind - For those times when a games devolves into a dragged-knuckle, no-holds barred, on-board fist fight, accept no substitutes.

What's been cut:
Mind's Eye - Because the faster pace of the format and the increased number of "must answer" cards, it is dangerous to sit back and rely on stalling out your opponent's turns to refill your hand. As such, I've pulled Mind's Eye from the list for more effective cards.

Venser, the Sojourner - Venser's main use was to blink permanents, which worked great with Sharuum, but more commonly, allowed you to untap your tapped mana rocks, especially those that dont untap as usual. The minus ability was also great when you've has the time to create an army of thopters to kill a player. We don't have the time to make the second ability useful, and a one-time blink ability isnt impactful enough, so it's also cheering the deck on from the sidelines.

Karn Liberated - Has since been replaced by Ugin, which is a much better sweeper, and has a more relevant ultimate.

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas - Due to the changes in deck construction, this Tez doesn't hit enough of your bombs consistently enough to warrant the slot. Also, since we run fewer planeswalkers, it's less relevant to make the 5/5 body to protect them. It's still a solid card, and I can definately see it making it's way back into the deck if some new printings allow us to make a multiple minor tweaks to the deck.

Rings of Brighthearth - Rings is a card that allowed our loop engines to be kicked into overdrive. For that to happen, we needed time to pair it with those engines and abilities. It gave additional value to our value engines. With the amount of efficient artifact hate available, we dont have the time to sit back and milk Rings for value. As such, it's taking a back seat to better utility cards for now.

Hey guys...

I've been gone for a few weeks as things have gotten busy, but I've gotten some good testing in. It's been difficult in the beginning to jam games with my work schedule, but I've made progress with testing. What I'm seeing is that the engines in the deck are diverging from one another, and as such, I've revisited old tech to reenter the deck to then test new slots. This has proven to be far more effective in providing adequate card testing and evaluating. Since tomorrow is a major day off, I'm going to try to put my thoughts down on paper to give you all my thoughts on what I've been seeing.

With that said, I still haven't 5ested everything, as some of the newer cards have made me look to older tech in ways that are either new, or have been underutilized in the past.

I look forward to sharing that with you soon.

I wanted to chime in since it's been a few days and I've had a few more games. Smothering Tithe is still very strong but I've scaled back the number of changes from.the original list. I will be posting the new updates soon, when I get a chance. So far, the changes are solid. I'm really trying to get a solid number of games in in 2 different areas so I get a better cross-section of commander games. I'm hoping the upcomming holiday will let me do just that.

I've seen the spoilers for it, and I think its going to be insane in vintage as a tinker target. It can go kill a table in an artifact shell with Aetherflux Reservoir, especially with Top managing life totals to start.

I had mixed results with Sharuum during the last meet-up. In one game, I drew only 8 artifacts during the hour long game, missing all my engine pieces after having to burn a vamp Tutor to get my 3rd land and having drawn no other tutors. The next game, Sharuum did what she needed to do. I need more games to test the changes and see if the removal of Thirst and FoF is stalling the deck out more that is acceptable. I need more games under the belt.

Have more commander games this evening. I'll take more notices to give feedback on any issues and possible improvements.