Paradox Engine Combo

[mistercakes]

so i think i've found a way to manage to fit some threats into the card manipulation:

next version of that deck:

// 60 Maindeck
// 31 Artifact
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Opal
4 Voltaic Key
4 Grim Monolith
4 Temple Bell
2 Aetherflux Reservoir
4 Paradox Engine
4 Thran Dynamo
1 Urza’s Blueprints

// 4 Enchantment
4 Future Sight

// 4 Instant
4 Force of Will

// 16 Land
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Saprazzan Skerry
4 Seat of the Synod

// 5 Planeswalker
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

it's still a fragile deck, but it could actually support chalices out of the sb.

[meanee]

Uh I like future sight! Maybe not as a 4-of, but it is a nice addition. Pretty much experimental frenzy with no downside and a way more prohibitive cost... And speaking of prohibitive costs, a single mind over matter or two could be fun. If you have more cards in your library than the opponent, or play at least one emrakul, Mind over Matter+Temple bell is a kill. Otherwise Mind over Matter can sometimes help you get more mana by discarding excess lands to untap monoliths and so on.

In my almost-goldfishing testing 2 tezz, 1 emrakul, 1 reservoir has been enough threats. I appreciate that you need more blue cards to support fow, but I also think fow is a stretch in this deck. Why not just run the defense grids?

I'm testing this pile these days:
Lands (16)
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Island

Kill (4)
1x Aetherflux Reservoir
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2x Tezzeret the Seeker

Mana (14)
2x Basalt Monolith
4x Grim Monolith
4x Lotus Petal
4x Mox Opal

Draw/tutor (13)
2x Fabricate
4x Temple Bell
4x Paradoxical Outcome
3x Thoughtcast

Protection (4)
3x Defense Grid
1x Ratchet Bomb

Tricks (9)
1x Magistrate's Scepter
4x Paradox Engine
4x Voltaic Key

It is a lot of fun, and very often it goes off turn two or three. But it doesn't really have to. I don't think I've ever played a deck where life is a ressource as much as in this.
I will try and swap one paradoxical outcome with one Mind over Matter, but I'm afraid the cost is too prohibitive for the deck, and that the Mind Over Matter will often just be a kill-condition.

[MTGO_Saturn]

I can vouch for Future Sight. I ran it as a singleton before Frenzy was printed. It has the added benefit of pairing well with Temple Bell and Urza's Blueprints. Three is probably better than four.

[FTW]

Looks a lot stronger now with Future Sight instead of Frenzy, walkers, Sol Lands for ramp, and either FoW or Defense Grid for protection! Boarding into Chalice seems strong too.

Any test results?

[Tucane]

I really like the way the blue lists operate:-)

The Antiquities War seems to be better than Tezzeret the Seeker in terms of resiliency and about equal in finding combo parts, as the former doesn't need to protect itself for a turn to find a Paradox Engine and you most likely get to see 10 cards. Also it has the edge in being an alternate wincon that is a must-answer within a couple of turns due to the high artifact count. We do lose the +1 -> untap 2 artifacts though...

[mistercakes]

Good idea. Prob better than seeker. Still like bolas as a threat though.

[mistercakes]

antiquities war was a great find:

// 60 Maindeck
// 33 Artifact
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Opal
4 Voltaic Key
4 Grim Monolith
4 Temple Bell
4 Paradox Engine
4 Thran Dynamo
1 Urza's Blueprints
4 Tangle Wire

// 2 Creature
2 Walking Ballista

// 4 Enchantment
4 The Antiquities War

// 16 Land
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Saprazzan Skerry
4 Seat of the Synod

// 1 Planeswalker
1 Tezzeret the Seeker

// 4 Sorcery
4 Thoughtcast

the reason why i like the ballista as a win con is that it's also an okay turn 1 play with a sol land. additionally, if you have a paradox out, you can cast it for 0 mana to untap your nonlands. it then functions as a combo kill as well.

the tangle wires are in there to help the kind of random draws where you have ancient tomb + grim monolith but not a ton else. sometimes having a turn 1 tangle wire can buy you enough time fo set your hand up better.

[meanee]

Do you really think Antiquities War is a better card in this deck, than Paradoxical outcome?! I think PO is great (I play three).
I get that war can sometimes be castable and great in situations were PO would suck a lot, but it is also very slow and the last effect is pretty much useless (or at least we have better options at killing people than this...)

It seems with tangle wire, War and ballista, were are approaching a different deck.

[mistercakes]

is it better than paradoxical outcome in this deck? i think so.

it provides another win condition, and it digs for 10 cards, which i think starts the combo better than PO. there are times when PO isn't super strong.

sol land -> grim + mox + petal -> PO is a draw 3, but that's not going to really do significant things vs good decks.

PO is obviously great if you are already mid-combo, especially as bouncing a mox or a key more or less untaps your permanents additional times. i think the hard part for this deck is finding the paradox engine.

AW can do some really nice things too.

let's say you have turn 1 tomb + grim + key + tangle wire.
turn 2 you use tomb + key untap grim and tap it. resolve tangle wire. then untap grim. play seat + AW. (or any other land + petal/mox + AW).

you are likely to have a pretty strong turn 3 and 4 as they still being crushed by tangle wire. if the attack goes well, you don't even need to combo. i really like this approach for that reason.

[phxsns]

Hi everyone,
I'd been messing around with this approach a couple weeks back and got kinda psyched to come across this thread.
After goldfishing the lists here I've arrived at this list, it's comboing T1-3 fairly consistently with aggressive mulliganing.
I've opted for Chalice over Voltaic Key, which may be wrong, but Key isn't super needed in this one and I think the deck needs one set of defensive cards.
The Vedalken Archmages could also be any other card engine, I don't think Temple Bell is the one tbh. In a Voltaic Key build, Temporal Aperture may be good enough. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is better than Archmage sometimes; Paradoxical Outcome, Thoughtcast, Thirst for Knowledge or Fabricate seem fine. Tower of Fortunes is definitely fun. But I'm actually hoping one of you has a better, ideally artifact/noncreature suggestion for that slot.
It might need those Saprazzan Skerry s or sth to struggle less with UU
What I do like about this one is that with Chalice, Ballista, and Staff of Domination, the deck somewhat naturally has an answer to spellbased, wide and big opposing strategies respectively.
Looking forward to everyone's input

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
2 Inventor's Fair
4 Seat of The Synod
2 Island
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Opal
4 Basalt Monolith
4 Grim Monolith
4 Power Artifact
4 Paradox Engine
4 Staff of Domination
4 Walking Ballista
4 Chalice of the Void
4 The Antiquities War
4 Vedalken Archmage

edit: upon further testing, as is this might not be 'it' either, but i do believe adding the power artifact combo is a good way to go