The Top 10 Chrome Dome Combos

Chrome Dome | Art by Mathias Kollros

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Time Sieve is the only multicolored artifact known to combo with Chrome Dome Cogwork Assembler?)

The reviews are in, and everyone hates Turtles for some reason.

Even if you don't like the TMNT set, though, I bet you like combos, right?

As I said in my artifact review for the set, Chrome Dome is a near-copy of combo powerhouse, Cogwork Assembler, with a couple of crucial differences.

The biggest difference is the positive one. Chrome Dome costs a mana less to cast than Assembler, and two mana less to activate. That means that whatever it loses by only being able to copy other artifacts you control and not being able to target itself, it more than gains in efficiency.

What combos from Cogwork are even worth playing, though?

Top 10 Cogwork Assembler Combos and How They Work (Or Don't) With Chrome Dome

Criteria: Combos that include the card Cogwork Assembler. Repeat cards will be skipped, even if combined with other cards (otherwise we'd just be looking at Ashnod's Altar and Krark-Clan Ironworks all day, trust me).

As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Su-Chi Cave Guard & Altar of Dementia

(23 Inclusions)

Su-Chi Cave Guard is the expensive version of Antiquities staple Su-Chi, which we'll see in conjunction with another card further down this list. As for whether this combo works with Chrome Dome? Yes, it does. So do a lot of other sac outlets paired with a lot of other less expensive cards, however.

So let's keep going.

9. Mana Echoes

(27 Inclusions)

I first saw Mana Echoes when a guy playing Sliver Queen was explaining to me how I was already dead to it. The numbers here have to count a bit higher to get to seven rather than the Queen's two, but the interaction is much the same: Make a guy of a particular creature persuasion, and Mana Echoes makes mana equal to the amount of said guys. That number goes up by one each time you do so.

This is all a bit easier with Chrome Dome, assuming you have another target besides the Dome itself to copy.

All in all, I'm a fan of this combo, but only in its niche. For this to work, you need to be playing a typal deck that already cares about artifact creatures.

8. Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher & Corridor Monitor

 (42 Inclusions)

Before anyone gets too excited here, the fine print on this combo is that Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher needs a toughness of at least seven for it to work. That gets reduced to five with Chrome Dome, which is still too far a reach for this to be useful in any decks that aren't actually helmed by Vhal.

All that said, if you are playing a Vhal deck and considering this combo, check out the new version of it with Sewer-veillance Cam, the other artifact combo powerhouse out of TMNT!

7. Coretapper & Magistrate's Scepter

 (59 Inclusions)

Coretapper and Magistrate's Scepter are a match made in heaven, currently sporting 77 different combos together. They come in a few varieties, but the basic takeaway is you need to get multiple activations of some combination of Coretapper's abilities to put three counters on Magistrate's Scepter to take an extra turn and do it all over again.

As you would expect, the Cogwork Assember version of this revolves around making copies of Coretapper, and as such, works perfectly fine for cheaper with Chrome Dome. In other words? Combo counter decks rejoice, things just got a bit easier for you!

6. Clock of Omens & The Eternity Elevator

 (73 Inclusions)

Magda fans will be well aware of how broken Clock of Omens is, but honestly, this combo is nothing to write home about. The reason? The 20 counter threshold on The Eternity Elevator is just too big a hurdle.

That said, this is a circumstance where Chrome Dome opens up some new options on top of what Cogwork Assembler can do.

Top 10 Non-Legendary Artifacts That Can Add Three or More Mana (That's Immediately Usable By Chrome Dome and Doesn't Require a Sacrifice)

1. Mana Vault
2. Thran Dynamo
3. Gilded Lotus
4. Basalt Monolith
5. Grim Monolith
6. Coveted Jewel
7. Dreamstone Hedron
8. Cathodion
9. Boommobile
10. Su-Chi

Any of the artifacts on this list can go for infinite artifact enters, leaves, and "dies" triggers when combined with Chrome Dome and Krark-Clan Ironworks (KCI), except Su-Chi, which makes infinite mana as well.

It's close to where you could also do so with the legendary options like The Eternity Elevator and Sceptre of Eternal Glory, but unfortunately, extra copies die to the legend rule before you can either sacrifice them to KCI or tap them for mana. The exception on the legendary front, as it often is, is Chromatic Orrery, which doesn't need KCI to tap for five, and therefore makes for infinite triggers with Chrome Dome.

5. Triplicate Titan & Krark-Clan Ironworks

 (81 Inclusions)

Speaking of KCI combos, it's Triplicate Titan! To be clear, as Titan's tokens are creatures, this also works with Ashnod's Altar, but the major takeaway is that four tokens are made that can be sacrificed for two mana apiece. That adds up to eight, which is enough that you can make infinite colorless with Cogwork Assembler, but that's actually way more mana than we need with Chrome Dome.

So... what's possible for less than nine mana here?

Top 10 Artifacts That Make Two or More Artifact Tokens Under Your Control Upon Entering, Leaving, "Dying", In Multiples, or All of Them Added Together

1. Myr Battlesphere (guess which combo is next, guys)
2. Threefold Thunderhulk
3. Simulacrum Synthesizer
4. Prized Statue
5. Servo Schematic
6. Breya, Etherium Shaper (this one notably doesn't work, as Breya dies to the legend rule)
7. Nimblewright Schematic
8. Infinite Guideline Station (provided you have two or more other multi-colored permanents)
9. Royal Warden
10. Precursor Golem

I'm fairly certain that this list goes on for a while, and this also appears to be design space that Wizards really enjoys, meaning it will probably continue to expand. Regardless, the basic takeaway here is that three tokens (including the copy of the artifact you make) adds up to six mana with KCI, which therefore makes infinite colorless mana with Chrome Dome.

Do with that information what you will!

4. Myr Battlesphere & Ashnod's Altar

 (221 Inclusions)

As foreshadowed, Myr Battlesphere also makes a bunch of tokens, which can be sacrificed to either Krark-Clan Ironworks or Ashnod's Altar to make infinite mana with either Cogwork Assembler or Chrome Dome. That said, Ashnod's brings up entire new lines, so let's hit that as well, shall we?

In addition to Myr Battlesphere, Threefold Thunderhulk, and Infinite Guideline Station are the other options that work here we've already gone over from the KCI list. There's also a new addition from TMNT, Big Mother Mouser, and two Vehicles that can make tokens to crew themselves and then sacrifice the whole kit and kaboodle for six mana.

Not as impressive as KCI, but good enough for the decks already playing this stuff!

3. Powerstone Shard

(310 Inclusions)

Chrome Dome cuts the amount of mana needed for this two-card combo from seventeen to eight, taking it from untenable to maybe manageable for the right deck.

Luckily, I happened to have written an article on exactly the right deck a few months ago.

Lady has been doing fairly well in cEDH since its release, although there's still nowhere near enough results to really know if it's going to stick around as a deck. That said, both the prominent combo cards from TMNT in Chrome Dome and Sewer-veillance Cam have given the deck more tools, so I'm excited to see where things go in the next few months.

2. Agatha of the Vile Cauldron & Sol Ring

(455 Inclusions)

That said, the deck that gets a new combo tool with their commander is Agatha of the Vile Cauldron, which goes infinite with either Cogwork Assembler or Chrome Dome with not only Sol Ring, but also any mana rock that makes two or more mana (provided, of course, that your reduction from Agatha has gotten the copy ability down to costing one mana).

In other words? Making a high-powered Agatha deck dedicated to getting Cogwork Assembler or Chrome Dome out with an active reduction is fairly trivial.

That said, unlike Lady Octopus, I don't think Agatha has what it takes to make a splash in cEDH. Still, if you're looking for a fun new Bracket 4 deck, Agatha has you covered.

1. Metalworker

(670 Inclusions)

As excited as I've been about what Chrome Dome does for Lady Octopus, the deck I've actually been testing to take to a tournament next month is Iron Man, Titan of Innovation. The deck has come quite a long way from its original version, but had to have more or less a complete makeover in light of the new combo options from TMNT, with Chrome Dome and Metalworker now featuring prominently.

While not the main line for the deck, if you do have a one-drop and a two-drop artifact laying about, it only takes a single activation of Peter Parker's Camera to go get both Chrome Dome and Metalworker with Iron Man. At which point, you can make them go infinite immediately (provided you have three artifacts in hand), despite Metalworker's summoning sickness, by paying five to make a copy of it with haste.

That may sound like so many resources that it would be impossible, but might I introduce you to Rhystic Study games, where having everything is just the norm?

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Honorable Mentions

The list of combos with Cogwork Assembler (and therefore Chrome Dome) continues!

Top 20 Cogwork Assembler Combos

11. Boommobile & Panharmonicon
12. Slobad, Iron Goblin & Thornbite Staff
13. Chromatic Orrery & Nyxbloom Ancient
14. The Stasis Coffin & Mirror Box
15. Composite Golem & Biomancer's Familiar
16. Ugin's Nexus & Minimus Containment
17. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider & Workhorse
18. Great Whale & Mycosynth Lattice
19. Palinchron & Encroaching Mycosynth
20. Thran Dynamo, Training Grounds, & Parallel Lives

Of these last ten that didn't make our primary list, my favorite of the bunch is all the possibilities with Workhorse. With the reduced cost of Chrome Dome, just a Hardened Scales effect will do, which comes stapled to quite a few different commander options these days.

As for the runner-up, Boommobile has some layering you can do with both the Panharmonicon combo and the previously mentioned Krark-Clan Ironworks combo, and also provides its own outlet with its activated ability that you'll have infinite copies of to get around the exhaust restriction. The same is true of the various Urza block untap creatures, from Peregrine Drake all the way up to Palinchron, which just need a means to make them into artifacts to instantly go infinite with Chrome Dome.

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Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! Or in this case, some Commander Spellbook knowledge. For your enjoyment, here is this week's Commander Spellbook search.

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What Do You Think?

Okay, okay, maybe both Turtles and combos aren't everyone's jam. ...Or are they?

And finally, what is your favorite Cogwork Assembler combo? Does it work better or worse with Chrome Dome? Are you putting it in any decks?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the mold that makes all these white plastic tables.