INTRODUCTION:  BROWN BOMBER

So we are at my final deck in my quest to build one around every possible color combination in Commander:  Brown.  Well, I guess technically it is colorless, but Brown seems much better.

I don't remember him looking this good on Fat Albert.

Brown has some difficulties and restrictions when you are building a Commander deck.  First, you have a very limited number of sorceries and instants to play with, and all the ones you do have were introduced in Rise of the Eldrazi.  Next, there is some significant hate you can run up against.  Finally, if you want to keep true to the paper rules of Commander, you have to use lands that don't have any mana symbols on them.  But even with those issues a Brown deck is something that can control the board and put on a good offensive showing.

THE DECK:  RESTRICTIONS AND CREATIVITY

So there are a small number of legal legends to build around in this color.  You used to have all the Eldrazi legends, but Emrakul recently met the banhammer.  Even so, the decks that would run Emrakul basically used just about every mana artifact you can find, to hopefully get him out on turn 7 or so and start smashing.  I can imagine this strategy being employed for both Ulamog and Kozilek, but this was definitely not what I wanted to do.  In addition, I could use the newly legal Memnarch or Bosh, but those are really colored Commanders.  They weren't really what I was going for when I started my quest, so I'm not going to use them.

I decided that I wanted to build around the original Brown commander.  Let's take a look at the guy that we are using as our general today:

Yes, I am using the FTV: Relics version, because it is super cool.  Karn himself is interesting.  First, he isn't very much of an offensive force.  He can occasionally get in for 4 against an open opponent, but he usually doesn't win a combat fight (he usually doesn't lose either though).  However, his ability to animate artifacts is pretty cool and is great in an all artifact deck.  If you have some indestructible artifacts, they are good beatsticks.  And any special abilities are nice to have around as well.  As many artifacts cost in the 4 to 5 range, they should be able to swarm over opponents after getting a few out there.

Karn decks are sort of a known archetype, and the more competitive ones can hurt people with land destruction.  I'm not a huge proponent of LD, and as such, one card you won't be seeing in the deck is Mycosynth Lattice.  With the Lattice in play, you can animate and kill the lands of opposing players using Karn.  This isn't very fun so I just avoided the temptation to do it by not including the Lattice in the deck.  Another card that is typically in Karn decks is Sundering Titan.  Late game, it isn't that bad, but early game it just isn't that fun.  But feel free to add it if you wish.

I will admit that I had a hard time coming up with a theme for the deck.  Originally I started with a bunch of Arcbound creatures and a counter theme, but I didn't really like it.  So I just went through and picked out a bunch of cool stuff that I thought I would enjoy playing.  Scars of Mirrodin also gave us a whole bunch of new toys to play with.  Finally, I wanted to keep the deck as close to paper EDH rules as possible, which means no basic lands.  Here is the deck:

Karn, Silver Golem

A Commander Deck

Creatures 1 Arcbound Crusher 1 Arcbound Reclaimer 1 Darksteel Colossus 1 Darksteel Juggernaut 1 Duplicant 1 Golem Artisan 1 Jhoira's Toolbox 1 Karn, Silver Golem 1 Lodestone Golem 1 Mycosynth Golem 1 Myr Retriever 1 Palladium Myr 1 Pentavus 1 Platinum Angel 1 Scarecrone 1 Steel Hellkite 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre 1 Voltaic Construct 1 Wurmcoil Engine 19 cards Other Spells [Artifacts] 1 Akroma's Memorial 1 Arena of the Ancients 1 Blinkmoth Urn 1 Clock of Omens 1 Cloud Key 1 Coalition Relic 1 Crucible of Worlds 1 Darksteel Forge 1 Darksteel Ingot 1 Dreamstone Hedron 1 Eternity Vessel 1 Everflowing Chalice 1 Forcefield 1 Gilded Lotus 1 Icy Manipulator 1 Mana Crypt 1 Memory Jar 1 Mimic Vat 1 Mind Stone 1 Mind's Eye 1 Myr Matrix 1 Nevinyrral's Disk 1 Oblivion Stone 1 Phyrexian Processor 1 Planar Portal 1 Portcullis 1 Rings of Brighthearth 1 Sculpting Steel 1 Semblance Anvil 1 Serum Tank 1 Sisay's Ring 1 Sol Ring 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 1 Tawnos's Coffin 1 Temporal Aperture 1 Tower of Fortunes 1 Ur-Golem's Eye 1 Vedalken Orrery 1 Voltaic Key 1 Worn Powerstone [Sorceries] 1 All Is Dust 41 cards

Lands 1 Blasted Landscape 1 Blinkmoth Nexus 1 Blinkmoth Well 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Cloudpost 1 Crystal Vein 1 Darksteel Citadel 1 Desert 1 Deserted Temple 1 Dread Statuary 1 Eldrazi Temple 1 Eye of Ugin 1 Gargoyle Castle 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Ghost Town 1 Glimmerpost 1 Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai 1 Ice Floe 1 Island of Wak-Wak 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1 Miren, the Moaning Well 1 Mishra's Factory 1 Mystifying Maze 1 Petrified Field 1 Quicksand 1 Reliquary Tower 1 Scorched Ruins 1 Springjack Pasture 1 Stalking Stones 1 Strip Mine 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Temple of the False God 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Urza's Factory 1 Urza's Mine 1 Urza's Power Plant 1 Urza's Tower 1 Vesuva 1 Winding Canyons 1 Zoetic Cavern  40 cards

The one card that doesn't fit is Bojuka Bog, as it has a Black mana symbol on it.  But I figured it wouldn't be that horrible, as the deck could use some graveyard hate.  Breaking down the cards by category is a little tough, since a lot of these cards have singular effects.  But I am going to try.

Card Draw

Mind's Eye, Tower of Fortunes, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Dreamstone Hedron, Mind Stone, Sword of Fire and Ice, Serum Tank, Temporal Aperture, Memory Jar:  There are actually some pretty decent ways to draw cards here, and they just get better with Rings of Brighthearth out as well.  I never ran out of counters on Serum Tank, and with enough mana you can dump your entire hand after cracking Memory Jar. Temporal Aperture is a fun card that works well with this deck.  Just keep in mind to use it during your main phase, and not to play a land before you do so.  There are times with the untapping effects and extra mana you make that you can use it twice in a turn.

Mana Help

Worn Powerstone, Ur-Golem's Eye, Sol Ring, Sisay's Ring, Semblance Anvil, Mind Stone, Mana Crypt, Gilded Lotus, Everflowing Chalice, Dreamstone Hedron, Darksteel Ingot, Coalition Relic, Cloud Key, Blinkmoth Urn, Palladium Myr:  This deck is the most mana hungry deck I have ever put together.  There are a ton of activated abilities, including the ones on the lands.  Not only do you want to be able to play Darksteel Forge, you want to be able to search up your Duplicant using Eye of Ugin and play it.  All on the same turn sometimes.  Blinkmoth Urn helps you out a ton in these situations, as you are usually the one that can abuse it the most.  Finally, you can turn most of these into creatures and beatdown.

Destruction

Duplicant, All is Dust, Nevinyrral's Disk, Oblivion Stone, Steel Hellkite, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre:  There aren't that many ways of destroying things with this deck, but the few cards here are pretty powerful.  Darksteel Forge combos nicely with the Disk.  Steel Hellkite is a nice, effective way of getting rid of problem enchantments and artifacts.  Ulamog also does a nice job of hurting players.  Keep in mind that if someone targets you with Bribery and takes Ulamog, your only out to him is Duplicant.

Tokens

Myr Matrix, Pentavus, Phyrexian Processor, Springjack Pasture, Mimic Vat:  This deck doesn't have a whole lot of ways to make tokens, but they are significant.  I've won a few games with the Processor and untap abilities.  And having Pentavus out with Rings of Brighthearth means you are making more tokens than you started with.  Mimic Vat is just good, period. Someone pointed out that there is an infinite mana combo in here, by using Karn to animate something that taps for 3 or more mana, like Gilded Lotus, and using Voltaic Construct to keep untapping it after you tap it for mana.  Myr Matrix is the only way I can think of to actually abuse this interaction in the deck.  I'm fine with keeping a 4 card infinite combo in here.

I will be honest, there are a lot of decisions to make when playing this deck.  Especially when you have something like Clock of Omens out and you are trying to figure out what to tap and untap.  In addition, each of the lands comes with a special ability of some sort, so you have to keep in mind what you want untapped.  There are also plenty of interactions in the deck that you will find as you play it if you look for them.

A lot of your lands sacrifice themselves for a useful ability, so Crucible of Worlds is helpful, especially after dropping something like Scorched Ruins.  Keep in mind that when people see you play Eye of Ugin or Eldrazi Temple they are going to automatically assume that you are playing with Eldrazi.  I'm usually up front with people and tell them that I use Ulamog, and that calms them down, especially as I was playing this deck while Emrakul was still legal.  Keep in mind that Eye of Ugin can search up any colorless creature, which can be helpful when you have a ton of mana.  In addition, there are a couple of lands that don't tap for mana in here.  Fortunately, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth helps out with that problem.  There are also plenty of times when someone else plays Urborg as well, making the lands that don't produce mana not as bad in the long run.

So the plan is to get out a bunch of artifacts, then once you have a good board position, start beating down.  There are some nice defensive artifacts in here, such as Forcefield, Arena of the Ancients, Eternity Vessel and Portcullis.  Portcullis is especially nice after the board has been cleared of creatures.  If you can drop Karn right after, each of your non-creature artifacts gets around the Portcullis restriction.

Finally, Rings of Brighthearth is a house in this deck.  Almost every card in the deck has some sort of activated ability, and getting an extra use of them for 2 mana is awesome.  The other all-star of the deck is Golem Artisan, which can give any of your animated artifacts extra abilities.  Plus, sometimes this deck can make a ton of mana, and pumping your offense is fun too.

Saying all that, let's take a look at the deck in action.

THE GAME:  FIGHT!

Here are my opponents for this game: 

 

 

CONCLUSION

Venser's Journal has been a very good card each time I have seen it played.  Combine it with something like Myojin of Seeing Winds, and you can gain a crap ton of life.  It definitely helped the Nicol Bolas player in this game, even though he didn't end up winning.  The game also showed that there are times when this deck can go on the offensive and push out large amounts of damage.  And that is my favorite part of this deck.

So this was a long game where I made a couple of mistakes, but I guess that's not unusual.  I will be honest, playing this deck made my brain hurt.  There were a lot of decisions to be made, and I'm not the kind of player that likes to sit and think about all the possible options.  Even the lands all having abilities lead to tough decisions.  I'd rather sit back and bash.  But if you are a controlling player that likes having a ton of options, this may be a deck for you.

Most of the deck can be downloaded or purchased HERE.  Unfortunately the upload didn't include anything from Scars of Mirrodin or FTV:  Relics.  The deck comes out to about $150, which isn't horrible.  The expensive cards are Standard playable, like All is Dust, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Wurmcoil Engine.  Sol Ring and Strip Mine are both expensive as well, but those should be cheaper once MED4 comes online.  I guess Sword of Fire and Ice is pricey too, so you should get another form of card draw in there as well if you don't own one of those. 

There are a couple of cards out there that completely hose you.  I was playing against a guy using Captain Sisay as their commander who searched up Kataki, War's Wage, and that shut me down pretty fast.  Energy Flux is a similar card that will be available soon with MED4 coming out.  Aura of Silence is a pain and slows you down a ton.  Molder Slug is another card that is annoying.  I never ran into Shatterstorm, but I'm sure that one really hurts when it is cast.  And of course, even if you have Darksteel Forge out, White has a bunch of ways of removing your artifacts from the game.  So just keep these cards in mind when you play, as being an all artifact deck leaves you vulnerable to these cards.

Although you are pretty much limited to artifacts, there are a few different options you can use when changing the deck up.  I know that Prototype Portal can lead to some shenanigans as well.  Like I said, this is a pretty thought intensive deck, for a player like me, anyways.  I'm not sure I will be busting this deck out much in the future, because it is a little too click intensive for my liking.  But I hope you guys enjoyed it.  Until next time!

Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale32 at yahoo dot com
 

CONQUEROR AND COMMANDER ARCHIVE