(Welder Automaton | Art by Victor Adame Minguez)

To Infinity and A Win

Hello, fellow brewer, and welcome back to Brew for your Buck, where we swap out the top 10 most expensive cards in a deck with 10 budget cards that add a unique twist. If you've been following the series so far, you'll know that we haven't yet delved into the wonderful world of red mana, so today we're going to change that. I don't have more than a basic understanding of the lore, so I won't try to tell you much about Mishra. I do know that he likes artifacts and graveyards, though, and that's right up my alley!

Looking at the average list on EDHREC, the deck clocks in at $240.98, with some big artifacts to reanimate, some dual lands, and a random Demonic Tutor comprising the top end. As usual, we'll start by removing the most expensive cards in the deck then take a look at our budget package, noting that all prices listed below were current at time of writing. Listening to your feedback, the ten removed cards are now linked so you can see the card images!

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Demonic Tutor ($35.64)
            2. Blood Crypt ($18.08)
            3. Portal to Phyrexia ($17.51)
            4. Goblin Welder ($17.13)
            5. Wurmcoil Engine ($13.43)
            6. Haunted Ridge ($10.27)
            7. Biotransference ($9.75)
            8. Cityscape Leveler ($9.70)
            9. Sundial of the Infinite ($9.41)
            10. Conjurer's Closet ($6.65)

Total: $147.57

Additions

For the budget packages of the last few decks, we focused our substitutes on specific mechanics that fit our commanders' respective advantages and abilities. Today, we're going to swap in a budget package that adds a full-on infinite combo to the deck. We'll need a few pieces for this to work, so let's get started.

Combo Pieces...

Trazyn the Infinite ($0.75) is the primary piece we need for our combo to work, being a Necrotic Ooze ($0.98) for artifacts. You might be asking, "Why not just build the deck with Trayzn in the command zone?" Well, not only is this deck already built around getting artifacts (including Trayzn) into the graveyard, but Unearth will allow us to cheat him into play with haste, enabling an immediate combo win. Oh, and guess what, we are also going to throw in the Ooze, too! As you'll see, all of the other combo pieces are creatures, so while we can't reanimate the Ooze with Mishra, it does offer us some redundancy.

We need to put the right combination of cards into our graveyard. Palladium Myr ($0.51) is an artifact (for Trazyn) and a creature (for Ooze) that taps for the critical two mana needed to go infinite. You can also use Sol Ring in conjunction with Trazyn as a backup. Next, we use two creatures with untap abilities: Pili-Pala ($2.49) and Farmstead Gleaner ($0.11).

With Palladium Myr and Pili-Pala in the 'yard, Trazyn and Ooze can now generate infinite mana which can turned into infinite damage via Welder Automaton ($0.07). Replace Pili-Pala with Farmstead Gleaner and Welder Automaton with Triskelion ($0.17), and you'll also have infinite damage.

...and How to Find Them

We already have two great direct-to-graveyard tutors in Buried Alive and Goblin Engineer, plus we get to keep both in the deck since they aren't in the list of cuts. Unmarked Grave ($1.14), Vile Entomber ($0.23), and Disciples of Gix ($0.03) simply increase the density of these effects so we can grab a combo piece or another one of the sweet artifacts in the list to Unearth with Mishra.

Wrap Up and Savings

Before we take a look at the savings, let's recap the two combo scenarios. We need one set of these in the graveyard:

1. Palladium Myr + Pili-Pala + Welder Automaton
2. Palladium Myr + Farmstead Gleaner + Triskelion

Then we need to have a hasty Trazyn or Ooze to begin the fun.

Okay, onto the savings!

We did it! Our new list is (just barely) under $100 and now includes a combo finish as another way to win. What will you do with your $141 worth of savings? Subscribe to the EDHRECast patreon perhaps? One more note: yet again, these average lists seem to have too few lands for my taste. Lands are cool! Play more of them! Especially in decks like this where you'll likely be discarding them a lot. In this case we also removed two of them as part of our budget swap, so pay extra attention if you seem to be mana screwed a lot.

So what do you think? Are you a fan of infinite combos? What about the tutors? Do you want to see more combo packages in the future? Let me know in the comments, and I'll see you next time when we brew for your buck!

Brian Cain

Brian played Magic intermittently between 2003 and 2017 when he fully embraced his love for Commander. Finding ways to maximize the value of each piece of cardboard in the deck is one of his favorite things to explore, especially if it involves putting lands in the graveyard! Outside of Magic, Brian works as a consultant in the marine industry, turning his passion for boats and ships into a career.