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Thread: Paradox Engine Combo

  1. #1

    Paradox Engine Combo

    Yo, I had this idea in mind for ages, but I never managed to get a "decent" build (which means that this deck is currently pretty underwhelming), hope to get some help and maybe to spark some interest.


    The idea is to abuse Paradox Engine in combination with artifacts that have busted tap abilities.

    Firstly Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith are busted in this scenario and are able to provide all the mana we need, we could possibly run Metalworker also.

    Then, and this is much harder, we need a decent way to chain our spells, the best options I found are Planar Portal, Temple Bell, Tapestry of the Ages, Hedron Archive, Coveted Jewel and Mind Stone.

    Is important to understand that we don't need much to win if we get the portal running, if we have enough mana (2 monoliths) to activate it freely we can cast our entire deck, also, the downside of temple bell is not that big of a deal during the combo because even if our opponent draws counters we can keep drawing and chaining spells.
    To help getting the portal going I also run at least two free mana sources (Lotus Petal and Mox Opal), this way we can search for them and get the mana to cast a Grim Monolith, then we can cast all the mana rock and then all the deck.

    Given that we won't always have Engine in play we should play more cards able to untap our artifacts, Voltaic Key is great (but then we can't play Chalice) and Clock of Omens is also pretty decent.

    To end the game we can go for a giant Walking Ballista or nuke with Aetherflux Reservoir, we should also run a Spine of Ish Sah because we can play it (get a full untap) to destroy itself, which allows to easily go infinite as long as we have the mana to cast it endlessly.

    To protect the combo we have lock pieces, Defense Grid has to be a 4x, we can also run Trinisphere.

    The best lands we can run are all the sol lands (including Crystal Vein), Inventors' Fair and Blasted Landscape.

    Maybe we could run Serum Powder, we could also make use of it's mana rock ability.

    I'm giving you a sample list:


    4 Grim Monolith
    4 Basalt Monolith
    4 Voltaic Key
    4 Paradox Engine
    4 Temple Bell
    4 Defense Grid
    2 Clock of Omens
    1 Aetherflux Reservoir
    1 Spine of Ish Sah
    1 Mox Opal
    4 Planar Portal
    3 Hedron Archive
    2 Lotus Petal
    3 Trinisphere
    1 Walking Ballista
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 City of Traitors
    4 Crystal Vein
    2 Inventors' Fair
    4 Blasted Landscape


    We could also consider to splash white for Enlightened Tutor, or blue for Thoughtcast, Thirst for Knowledge and more.
    "You either die a Onesto-Player, or live long enough to see yourself become a Dredger"

  2. #2
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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    i like the idea. even though it's a nonbo with trinisphere, i do like temporal aperture with paradox engine.

    i would also run 4 trinisphere over 4 grid, since you don't have chalice it will steal some more games.
    -rob

  3. #3

    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Just throwing out some thoughts here...

    Isochron Scepter with an imprinted card such as Fire//Ice should be GG with Engine and a Monolith ... then again you would need atleast a light blue splash and enough imprintables to make it worthwhile. Staying colorless; Warping Wail would also do the trick in the above scenario, as in creating infinite 1/1 spawns.

    The upside of blue is getting access to Power Artifact + Monolith as another route to infinite mana, but that's UU and a heavy splash... which might be too much for mana consistency.

    Likely, staying colorless and playing Chalice + Trinisphere + Ensnaring Bridge to stall until comboing off is the correct way to go about it. More card draw or filtering is needed... Azor's Gateway is the cheapest one for filtering.

  4. #4
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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Voltaic Key supercharges Ratchet Bomb, so I would likely include that in your 75. I made an underwhelming brown Tron list for modern that used Key, Bomb, Icy Manipulator, Lodestone Golem, and Myr Battlesphere. It was janky as hell and incredibly fun. The most surprising interaction I discovered was Ratchet Bomb + Voltaic Key. Bomb is usually too slow, but Key brings it online very quickly. If you're already committed to a set of Voltaic Key I think Bomb is a serious consideration.
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  5. #5
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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Is Voltaic Key good enough here to not run Chalice of the Void? Chalice just wins games.

    What about running creatures like Metalworker and Kuldotha Forgemaster? Could this combo be fit into a MUD shell?

    MUD Paradox


    //Lands: 18
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 City of Traitors
    4 Crystal Vein
    4 Darksteel Citadel
    2 Inventors' Fair

    //Creatures: 12
    4 Metalworker
    3 Lodestone Golem
    3 Kuldotha Forgemaster
    1 Walking Ballista
    1 Blightsteel Colossus

    //Artifacts: 30
    2 Lotus Petal
    2 Mox Opal
    2 Lightning Greaves
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Defense Grid
    4 Grim Monolith
    3 Temple Bell
    4 Paradox Engine
    3 Planar Portal
    1 Trading Post
    1 Spine of Ish Sah


    Even if you stick with the original shell instead, I really like Trading Post in this deck. It has so many relevant modes and gets very powerful with repeated untaps! You can discard extra lands into life, make Goat tokens and sacrifice them to return Lotus Petals (to get more untaps), sacrifice extra artifacts to draw, recycle Spine of Ish Sah if you need to blow up multiple lock pieces, recur dead combo pieces, etc. It also combos with Spine of Ish Sah to give you infinite draws if your rocks can generate 8 mana, at which point you can trivially win the game.
    Last edited by FTW; 01-18-2019 at 11:47 AM.

  6. #6
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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Hmm... Trading Post going infinite with Spine of Ish Sah (or any lower CMC recurring artifact) gives me a better idea.

    Instead of running jank like Temple Bell and running 4 Planar Portal (expensive), why not make the main draw engine based around Trading Post recursion?

    Trading Post + 2 Myr Retriever + 3 mana (e.g. 1 Grim Monolith) creates a loop with Paradox Engine where you draw a card each time. As soon as you hit a 2nd Monolith or a Mox Opal, you start generating extra mana to cast spells. You draw your deck and cast whatever you need to win.

    Another appealing card is Scrap Trawler, which also loops with a Myr Retriever (and recycles a Lotus Petal to compensate for the extra mana cost).


    //Lands: 19
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 City of Traitors
    4 Darksteel Citadel
    4 Cavern of Souls
    2 Inventors' Fair
    1 Island

    //Mana Rocks: 12
    3 Mox Opal
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Grim Monolith
    1 Basalt Monolith

    //Engine: 8
    4 Trading Post
    4 Paradox Engine

    //Creatures: 12
    4 Myr Retriever
    4 Scrap Trawler
    4 Trophy Mage

    //Other Artifacts: 9
    4 Chalice of the Void
    1 Ensnaring Bridge
    1 Trinisphere
    1 Temple Bell
    1 Walking Ballista
    1 Spine of Ish Sah

    //Sideboard: 15
    4 Tormod's Crypt
    3 Trinisphere
    1 Caltrops
    1 Ensnaring Bridge
    1 Tangle Wire
    3 Temple Bell
    2 Planar Portal


    You might have to have a transformational sideboard to avoid getting hit by gravehate. Or stuff like Silent Gravestone.

    Ensnaring Bridge answers a lot of creature-based threats and conveniently can be found by Trophy Mage. Caltrops is a jank card nobody plays in any format, but it conveniently kills a lot of pesky weenies that sneak under Ensnaring Bridge and can let your Retrievers suicide in a pinch, so it might be worth a slot?

    Trophy Mage might also be better as Fabricate so it can get Engine/Trading Post instead of just auxiliary stuff. Then -4 Caverns +4 Seat of the Synod.

  7. #7

    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    i actually messed around with this style of deck for a bit. i had a list i ran at my lgs for a few weeks. it ran off the dramatic scepter combo but supported it with paradox engine as well. was much more combo focused though so it had some issues vs heavy disruption(discard or counters). it was definitely not a chalice deck with my build but it was pretty fast. it could win t1, but t2/3 wins were somewhat common and you needed a pretty bad draw to not be able to goldfish into a win t4 or later. im at work atm but i will dig up my list and post it later once i get home. it was blue w/ a splash of red.

    fwiw fire//ice doesn't go under scepter anymore(i'ts a 4 cmc spell for anything that checks cmc now) but i still think scepter is a very potent option especially w/ engine backing it up.

  8. #8
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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Quote Originally Posted by Jkibbs View Post
    i actually messed around with this style of deck for a bit. i had a list i ran at my lgs for a few weeks. it ran off the dramatic scepter combo but supported it with paradox engine as well. was much more combo focused though so it had some issues vs heavy disruption(discard or counters). it was definitely not a chalice deck with my build but it was pretty fast. it could win t1, but t2/3 wins were somewhat common and you needed a pretty bad draw to not be able to goldfish into a win t4 or later.
    Cool. What did the deck look like?

    How did it win turn 1? Ancient Tomb, Grim Monolith, Voltaic Key (or Mox Opal), Isochron Scepter imprinting Dramatic Reversal, activate and then generate unlimited mana? Then you need some draw engine or win condition right?

  9. #9

    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Saturn from MTGO here.

    I built the deck originally to combat Workshop Aggro and Combo in Vintage. I wanted a deck that packed as many turn one wins as possible. I've put up multiple Top 8 finishes in the Vintage Weekly Challenge. You can find my results here. I've lost about half of my losses to risky keeps on the draw, half were to my opponents, and the remainder were to whiffs.

    Vintage has Mishra's Workshop, Moxen, Black Lotus, Sensei's Divining Top, Tolarian Academy, and a slew of draw sevens like Timetwister, Wheel of Fortune, and Memory Jar. Legacy lacks each of these important pieces. You also lack the explosive cantrips like Ancestral Recall and Gitaxian Probe (Pay 2 life, draw a card, and untap), and you can't abuse Brainstorm without Fetches, which you shouldn't be running.

    Lion's Eye Diamond and Experimental Frenzy are the closest you get to Black Lotuses and draw sevens, so you might as well abuse both. All of your Mox Opals are effectively Lotus Petals with an upside, so you should have no problem running a handful of colored spells that require only one colored mana. The three best spells for you are Paradoxical Outcome, Ancient Stirrings, and Experimental Frenzy. For a first run, I'd any pick two that a Talisman can support.

    I'd probably start with something like the following list to really abuse the potential of Paradox Engine.

    Main:
    4 City of Traitors
    4 Ancient Tomb
    1 Inventor's Fair
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Mox Opal
    4 Ancient Stirrings
    4 Voltaic Key
    4 Helm of Awakening
    4 Grim Monolith
    4 Temporal Aperture
    1 Staff of Domination
    4 Temple Bell
    4 Aetherflux Reservoir
    4 Experimental Frenzy
    3 Paradox Engine
    2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    1 [FLEX]

    Sideboard:
    4 Defense Grid
    3 Dismember
    4 Ghirapur Aether Grid
    4 Krosan Grip


    Temple Bell is the probably the premier card draw engine in this deck in Legacy now that Sensei's Divining Top is banned. Azor's Gateway is the cheapest, but it costs mana to activate. Urza's Blueprints is actually insane, but Legacy doesn't allow Mishra's Workshop, so it costs three lands instead of two. That's a big deal.

    Aetherflux Reservoir doubles as damage mitigation and a kill condition. And Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is a great finisher. You can even pass the turn and discard it to shuffle your graveyard back. You could consider running Jalum Tomes over Temple Bells if you're worried about Emrakul getting stuck in your hand. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it because you have Staff of Domination to fill your hand to eight and discard at end of turn, if, for some reason, you can't generate 15 mana and just cast it. Or you can just crack Lion's Eye Diamond.

    Chrome Mox is a weird card choice, but you don't really care if it adds mana or not as long as you untap and continue your combo.

    You also have one flex spot. I'm not sure what I would consider here. I played Legacy competitively many years ago, but now I stick to Vintage. I suggest a single copy of Walking Ballista.


    To address specific points raised:
    I wouldn't consider Ensnaring Bridge. You should be going off faster than creature decks.
    I wouldn't consider Metalworker. If you need an untap to win, you're probably going to lose.
    Neither Chalice of the Void nor Ratchet Bomb help you win. They help you not lose. Play to win.
    I wouldn't consider Myr Retriever. You don't care what's in your graveyard.
    Crystal Vein, Clock of Omens, and Serum Powder might be good.
    Just stay away from not-lose combos like Trading Post/Spine of Ish Sah combo. You don't care about killing anything on the table game one. You just want to win as quickly as possible and be able to do so through countermagic and/or sphere effects. They're going to bring all their hate in game two, and your combos are going to lose their effectiveness.


    As always though, let the empirical data guide you. I look forward to your innovation and results.

    Best of luck.

    -Saturn, MTGO

    Edit:
    Decklist accidentally included Chrome Mox and Talisman. Apologies.

  10. #10

    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    I’m doing this from work so this won’t be formatted correctly but it gives the jist of the deck. I can’t find my sb anywhere but it was a bit all over the place. Pretty sure it had some forces and some abrades but not sure after that.

    Yeah for t1 win u need win con in hand along with the mana/storm generation too. Only pulled t1 off once but it was a pretty cool feeling winning t1 with a rogue home brew 😎

    Anyway the list:

    Scepter combo

    17 land
    4 tomb
    3 city
    5 fetch
    1 volcanic
    4 island

    43 spells
    2 scepter
    3 reversal
    2 paradox engine
    3 ballista
    1 goblin cannon
    1 grape shot
    3 transmute artifact
    4 brainstorm
    2 opt
    1 impulse
    3 thoughtcast
    1 pull from tomorrow
    1 repeal

    4 grim monolith
    2 basalt monolith
    4 ur signet
    4 Opal
    2 mox diamond


    One thing to remember is that scepter combo also generates infi storm along with mana if u have a loop making 3+ mana, it can just make infi storm on a 2 mana loop which means if your loop makes red mana u can just win with grape shot and infi strom. If u win with ballista or grape shot the entire combo can be played under a resolves teeg which is a nice bonus. The cannon is so u can transmute into win. Ballista died to state based and obviously I can’t go get grape shot easily. My original list actually ran a spell seeker package as it finds something to go under scepter, grapeshot or transmute. It also finds pull which can also go under scepter if u have win on board and just need a way to loop to make mana. U can loop a mox opal with an imprinted repeal with engine in play and I think 1 more mana but I’d have to go back through the steps to be sure. This loop does draw your deck which allows u to win however u would like. Reversal can also be used “fair” to make a bunch of mana and cast a fair large ballista. With engine u get 2 untaps with reversal which can make a lot of mana pretty quickly.

  11. #11
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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Scepter combo looks really good, maybe more consistent and easier to set up.

    Quote Originally Posted by MTGO_Saturn View Post
    Saturn from MTGO here.

    To address specific points raised:
    I wouldn't consider Ensnaring Bridge. You should be going off faster than creature decks.

    Neither Chalice of the Void nor Ratchet Bomb help you win. They help you not lose. Play to win.

    I wouldn't consider Myr Retriever. You don't care what's in your graveyard.

    Just stay away from not-lose combos like Trading Post/Spine of Ish Sah combo. You don't care about killing anything on the table game one. You just want to win as quickly as possible and be able to do so through countermagic and/or sphere effects. They're going to bring all their hate in game two, and your combos are going to lose their effectiveness.
    Thanks for your expert advice from the Vintage version! Paradoxical Outcome, Ancient Stirrings, LED, and Experimental Frenzy all look very explosive.

    Just some clarifications for the Legacy meta, which is different than Vintage:

    - Legacy is 50% blue. The most common cards in Top 8 decks are Brainstorm and Force of Will. Temple Bell will feed opponent multiple FoWs. How do you beat that game 1?

    -Ensnaring Bridge isn't just for random dumb aggro racing for Turn 5 wins. It's also for stuff like Turn 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn/Griselbrand, which will outrace you. And aggro-control decks that will counter your engine and beatdown with Delver or Gurmag Angler. Creatures are a much bigger presence in Legacy.

    -Legacy aggro-control, the biggest roadblock for glass cannon combo decks, is highly dependent on 1 cmc spells. That's where Chalice comes in. Otherwise they Thoughtseize you, cantrip into countermagic, etc... Ratchet Bomb could also answer things like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that make it impossible to go off. You could try to race around disruption instead, but will this really be a better goldfish deck than Belcher or OopsAllSpells?

    - Trading Post is a winning engine, not just a not-lose combo. Paradox Engine + Post + Myr Retrievers = unlimited draws and unlimited untaps. Draw your deck, play wincon. Post + Spine does the same thing (Spine target itself, in response sac to draw) but costs more mana. I suggest Trading Post+recursion as a way to "go off". The recursion is a side benefit, in case something got countered. It's mainly a draw/untap engine.

    The weakest thing I think is the draw engine. Trading Post isn't great, but what else is there? Legacy doesn't have draw 7s, Top, or good tutors like Vintage. Even with Paradox Engine + mana rocks out, it's hard to win the game. Temple Bell sort of works, but every time you hit a land you brick, so you need other sources of untaps to save you when you hit bricks. It also feeds the opponent FoWs. Is there any other good engine? Temporal Aperture looks great but also requires more mana before you can go off. It also requires a lot of decisions to not fizzle, while Post loops you can shortcut. Experimental Frenzy looks cool but is there enough mana to make it work fast enough?

    Maybe cantrip artifacts like Eggs?

  12. #12

    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Quote Originally Posted by Jkibbs View Post
    fwiw fire//ice doesn't go under scepter anymore(i'ts a 4 cmc spell for anything that checks cmc now) but i still think scepter is a very potent option especially w/ engine backing it up.
    This made me sad aswell:-( Maybe we should imprint Dimir Charm/Warping Wail instead... I like cards that are good when not comboing, also, killing hatebears and countering sorceries should cover about half of all the hate we face pre/postboard. Both Charm and Wail end the game (soon enough) with Scepter+Engine.

  13. #13

    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Quote Originally Posted by FTW View Post
    Scepter combo looks really good, maybe more consistent and easier to set up.



    Thanks for your expert advice from the Vintage version! Paradoxical Outcome, Ancient Stirrings, LED, and Experimental Frenzy all look very explosive.

    Just some clarifications for the Legacy meta, which is different than Vintage:

    - Legacy is 50% blue. The most common cards in Top 8 decks are Brainstorm and Force of Will. Temple Bell will feed opponent multiple FoWs. How do you beat that game 1?

    -Ensnaring Bridge isn't just for random dumb aggro racing for Turn 5 wins. It's also for stuff like Turn 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn/Griselbrand, which will outrace you. And aggro-control decks that will counter your engine and beatdown with Delver or Gurmag Angler. Creatures are a much bigger presence in Legacy.

    -Legacy aggro-control, the biggest roadblock for glass cannon combo decks, is highly dependent on 1 cmc spells. That's where Chalice comes in. Otherwise they Thoughtseize you, cantrip into countermagic, etc... Ratchet Bomb could also answer things like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that make it impossible to go off. You could try to race around disruption instead, but will this really be a better goldfish deck than Belcher or OopsAllSpells?

    - Trading Post is a winning engine, not just a not-lose combo. Paradox Engine + Post + Myr Retrievers = unlimited draws and unlimited untaps. Draw your deck, play wincon. Post + Spine does the same thing (Spine target itself, in response sac to draw) but costs more mana. I suggest Trading Post+recursion as a way to "go off". The recursion is a side benefit, in case something got countered. It's mainly a draw/untap engine.

    The weakest thing I think is the draw engine. Trading Post isn't great, but what else is there? Legacy doesn't have draw 7s, Top, or good tutors like Vintage. Even with Paradox Engine + mana rocks out, it's hard to win the game. Temple Bell sort of works, but every time you hit a land you brick, so you need other sources of untaps to save you when you hit bricks. It also feeds the opponent FoWs. Is there any other good engine? Temporal Aperture looks great but also requires more mana.
    This deck can flawlessy combo facing 2/3 sphere of resistance, thalia is not a big deal by itself, having mana is not a big deal once you go off (double monolith can cast basicly every single spell we play with thalia on board)

    Once you get running, temple bell can literally feed your opponent 10 hard counters and you would still win, every spell you cast gets you a full untap, so you can keep casting free spells as long as you don't brick drawing too many (non blasted landscape) lands.

    Talking about myrs, then we could just try KCI in legacy (maybe it is good, who knows), but its kinda hard to run a 3/4 piece combo in a deck that can't manipulate.


    It is possible to run more disruption by playing chalice/bridge, but this deck clearly needs a critical mass of "spells that help you win" so we can't really play too many cards that are useless during the combo
    "You either die a Onesto-Player, or live long enough to see yourself become a Dredger"

  14. #14
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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Quote Originally Posted by Noctalor View Post
    This deck can flawlessy combo facing 2/3 sphere of resistance, thalia is not a big deal by itself, having mana is not a big deal once you go off (double monolith can cast basicly every single spell we play with thalia on board)
    Yeah OK I can see that.

    How's it performing?

    How consistently can you assemble multiple Monoliths, Paradox Engine and a Temple Bell (i.e. enough gas to go off) through game 1 disruption without any maindeck protection. If they Force or Spell Pierce the first Paradox Engine, do you just lose?

    Would Defense Grid help, either maindeck or board?

  15. #15

    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    originally when i sat down and decided to write this type of list i focused very heavily on scepter/reversal thinking it was my strongest option. as i played the list though i found that i was getting engine into play and just can-tripping into wins when i really had no business doing so. while i do think being conscious of the decks interactions with scepter, i think it can play a bit of a back up plan to engine(or at least let them share the lead role).

    if i was to sleeve the deck up today it would probably be similar to the list i posted before but with some slight changes.


    17 land
    4 tomb
    3 city
    5 fetch
    1 volcanic
    4 island

    43 spells
    3 scepter
    2 reversal
    3 paradox engine
    3 ballista
    1 goblin cannon
    1 grape shot
    2 transmute artifact
    4 brainstorm
    4 opt
    3 thoughtcast
    1 pull from tomorrow
    1 repeal

    4 grim monolith
    2 basalt monolith
    4 ur signet
    4 Opal
    1 mox diamond

    one of the really nice things about playing can-trips and scepter is that you have the reasonably strong play of sol land into scepter t1 imprinting a can-trip. this lets us get non combo value out of our combo pieces and can still lead to slamming an engine a few turns later and comboing out. this also means we don't have to run as many dead combo pieces as we have multiple avenues to combo out. reversal just doesn't quite do enough on its own so i think keeping copies of it to a minimum is a good idea, especially when we don't absolutely need it to combo. another option we could take would be to swap the red splash for black and run better rocks(talismans) and have tendrils as our new combo finisher. face laser could be an option too but i think i still like cannon atm, at least in my build. i could see running 2+ lasers but i'd like to see some testing before just slamming it in. with a different build i could see it being pretty interesting.

    another card that i really thought about is mission briefing. you can have a pretty hilarious 2 mana win with it. set up infi cast loop off rocks/engine and imprinted briefing on scepter, then mill the deck multiple times with an eldrazi titan, and kill via crippling chill you could also set up interesting lines with rituals and imprinted briefing. start a 2 mana loop that makes black mana and mill until you start hitting rituals and then either cast more spells from hand or just mill the deck, cast all you rituals from yard and then tendrils(from hand or yard) behind it for the win. a combination of briefing and experimental frenzy could be interesting too, but then you are in 3 colors which i'm not sure is doable tbh.

  16. #16
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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo



    // 60 Maindeck
    // 36 Artifact
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Mox Opal
    4 Voltaic Key
    4 Grim Monolith
    4 Temporal Aperture
    4 Temple Bell
    2 Aetherflux Reservoir
    4 Paradox Engine
    4 Thran Dynamo
    2 Urza's Blueprints

    // 4 Enchantment
    4 Experimental Frenzy

    // 16 Land
    4 City of Traitors
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Saprazzan Skerry
    4 Svyelunite Temple

    // 4 Planeswalker
    4 Tezzeret the Seeker


    there is a good chance there's room for thoughtcast in here too, and maybe thirst for knowledge. Jkibbs is also probably correct about some non-zero number of transmute artifact. i'd cut 1 blueprints and 1 frenzy from that list for 2 transmute artifact.
    Last edited by mistercakes; 01-22-2019 at 05:00 AM.
    -rob

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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Hi mistercakes and all the rest of you

    I love playing around with this deck - it does some crazy hilarious things.

    Just a couple of suggestions and wonderings?
    1. Magistrate's scepter kan sometimes buy you enough time(/extra rounds) to win. It may be to win-more, but it's got me out of some otherwise non-winnable situations
    2. A single Emrakul, the aons torn is really great in the deck. Especially when you bounce him with your paradoxical outcome, just to play him again...
    3. The deck really needs som protection - be it sphere of resistance, lodestone golem or defense grid. A list of 16 lands and all combo-juice is not gonna make it far. I think you have to dedicate 4 maindeck slots for something (I really like defense grid)
    4. Chain of vapor kan do amazing things - it should at least be in the sideboard
    5. Why are some of you playing transmute artifact over a simple fabricate? The double U cost is very prohibitive, and you even have to sac one of your artifacts


    To mistercakes list...
    6. Why temporal aperture? It seems way to expensive to use, and is it really necessary? I would always play paradoxical outcome before aperture.
    7. Why comes into play tapped-lands? I would rather play islands (and at least a single seat of the synod). I know they can make to mana the turn they untap, but it seems very slowing to me.
    8. 4 Tezz seem too many. I wouldn't play more than 2. But having said that, it is an amazing card!

  18. #18
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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    Quote Originally Posted by meanee View Post
    Hi mistercakes and all the rest of you

    I love playing around with this deck - it does some crazy hilarious things.

    Just a couple of suggestions and wonderings?
    1. Magistrate's scepter kan sometimes buy you enough time(/extra rounds) to win. It may be to win-more, but it's got me out of some otherwise non-winnable situations
    2. A single Emrakul, the aons torn is really great in the deck. Especially when you bounce him with your paradoxical outcome, just to play him again...
    3. The deck really needs som protection - be it sphere of resistance, lodestone golem or defense grid. A list of 16 lands and all combo-juice is not gonna make it far. I think you have to dedicate 4 maindeck slots for something (I really like defense grid)
    4. Chain of vapor kan do amazing things - it should at least be in the sideboard
    5. Why are some of you playing transmute artifact over a simple fabricate? The double U cost is very prohibitive, and you even have to sac one of your artifacts


    To mistercakes list...
    6. Why temporal aperture? It seems way to expensive to use, and is it really necessary? I would always play paradoxical outcome before aperture.
    7. Why comes into play tapped-lands? I would rather play islands (and at least a single seat of the synod). I know they can make to mana the turn they untap, but it seems very slowing to me.
    8. 4 Tezz seem too many. I wouldn't play more than 2. But having said that, it is an amazing card!
    just testing for now, no list is absolutely necessary. aperture is not necessary, but i do enjoy it. i guess if i were more serious with aperture i'd probably run 2 emrakul, the aeon's torn for stealing games randomly.

    it does allow for something like this though. turn 1 tomb + grim. turn 2 CoT -> paradox, tap grim for 3, cast aperture, (then have any 0 drop in hand or key in hand, and you can activate aperture. if you hit a non-land, you have a good chance of winning that turn. they kind of function like the draw effect.

    seat of the synod is probably better than the fallen empires land, especially if you want to run thoughtcast, which is probably correct. synod also works very well with transmute artifact. AND it's good for mox opal. def run seat.

    2 or 3 tezz is probably fine. i like that it's an additional win condition as well.
    -rob

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    -rob

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    Re: Paradox Engine Combo

    been goldfishing a bunch and i think this is leaning more towards a game 1 deck that i'm happy with


    // 60 Maindeck
    // 32 Artifact
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Mox Opal
    4 Voltaic Key
    4 Grim Monolith
    1 Temporal Aperture
    4 Temple Bell
    2 Aetherflux Reservoir
    4 Paradox Engine
    4 Thran Dynamo
    1 Urza's Blueprints

    // 6 Instant
    2 Paradoxical Outcome
    4 Thirst for Knowledge

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

    // 3 Planeswalker
    3 Tezzeret the Seeker

    // 3 Sorcery
    3 Thoughtcast


    of course it doesn't have any way of defending itself right now, so it's possible there should be maybe a singleton trinisphere and a singleton ensnaring bridge in the maindeck. i also like the idea of 1 magistrate's scepter instead of 1 reservoir.

    could also cut the thoughtcasts for 2 transmute and 1 bridge, or 1 transmute, 1 bridge, 1 trin:

    // 60 Maindeck
    // 33 Artifact
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Mox Opal
    4 Voltaic Key
    4 Grim Monolith
    1 Temporal Aperture
    4 Temple Bell
    1 Aetherflux Reservoir
    4 Paradox Engine
    4 Thran Dynamo
    1 Urza's Blueprints
    1 Magistrate's Scepter
    1 Ensnaring Bridge

    // 6 Instant
    2 Paradoxical Outcome
    4 Thirst for Knowledge

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

    // 3 Planeswalker
    3 Tezzeret the Seeker

    // 2 Sorcery
    2 Transmute Artifact
    -rob

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