(Urza, Chief Artificer | Art by Bartlomiej Gawel)

Hello! I’m Bert from the Scrap Trawlers, where we do EDH on a budget. I'm returning to provide you all some insight into the Urza’s Iron Alliance Commander deck. This includes how it plays, its strengths and weaknesses, which new cards are worth looking at, and what reprints we are excited for. Let’s get started!

The Basics

This time around the Urza’s Iron Alliance deck is an Esper deck let by a new iteration of Urza himself. Urza, Chief Artificer lends himself to an artifact creature strategy with a focus on aggro as he gives artifact creatures menace. So with that information the deck is focused around artifact creatures being able to get through your opponents' defenses with a whopping total of 36 creatures and a majority of those falling in the artifact category. The initial shell of the deck does an amazing job of providing you with an army and the resources to back them up. Just take a look at the decklist.

Urza Precon

View on Archidekt

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Commander (1) 1 Urza, Chief Artificer Creatures (36) 1 Alela, Artful Provocateur 1 Angel of the Ruins 1 Armix, Filigree Thrasher 1 Baleful Strix 1 Bronze Guardian 1 Chief of the Foundry 1 Chrome Courier 1 Darksteel Juggernaut 1 Digsite Engineer 1 Etched Champion 1 Etherium Sculptor 1 Ethersworn Adjudicator 1 Filigree Attendant 1 Hexavus 1 Indomitable Archangel 1 Losheel, Clockwork Scholar 1 Marionette Master 1 Master of Etherium 1 Myr Battlesphere 1 Noxious Gearhulk 1 Sai, Master Thopterist 1 Sanwell, Avenger Ace 1 Scholar of New Horizons 1 Sharding Sphinx 1 Sharuum the Hegemon 1 Shimmer Dragon 1 Solemn Simulacrum 1 Steel Hellkite 1 Steel Overseer 1 Tawnos, Solemn Survivor 1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle 1 Thought Monitor 1 Vedalken Humiliator 1 Whirler Rogue 1 Wire Surgeons 1 Wreck Hunter Lands (36) 1 Ancient Den 1 Arcane Sanctum 1 Ash Barrens 1 Azorius Chancery 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Command Tower 1 Darksteel Citadel 1 Dimir Aqueduct 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Exotic Orchard 1 Goldmire Bridge 4 Island 1 Mistvault Bridge 1 Orzhov Basilica 1 Path of Ancestry 4 Plains 1 Prairie Stream 1 Razortide Bridge 1 River of Tears 1 Seat of the Synod 1 Skycloud Expanse 1 Spire of Industry 1 Sunken Hollow 3 Swamp 1 Temple of Deceit 1 Temple of Enlightenment 1 Temple of Silence 1 Vault of Whispers Artifacts (14) 1 Arcane Signet 1 Azorius Signet 1 Bident of Thassa 1 Cranial Plating 1 Dimir Signet 1 Kayla's Music Box 1 Liquimetal Torque 1 Orzhov Signet 1 Relic of Progenitus 1 Skullclamp 1 Sol Ring 1 Swiftfoot Boots 1 Thopter Shop 1 Thought Vessel Sorceries (7) 1 Austere Command 1 March of Progress 1 One with the Machine 1 Phyrexian Rebirth 1 Preordain 1 Urza's Ruinous Blast 1 Vindicate Instants (4) 1 Despark 1 Sphinx's Revelation 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Unbreakable Formation Enchantments (2) 1 Tempered Steel 1 Thopter Spy Network

As you can see from the decklist, we are mainly creature-focused with a plethora of artifact creatures in our arsenal with the support of some really good artifacts and enchantments to ensure our robotic allies are all the way powered up. Let's get down to specifics, shall we!

Workshop Analytics

As we look at our creature section we see 28 artifact creatures, which is a more than generous start to the deck. Even the eight creatures left over have artifact synergies in their design so it really feels like there were no spaces unused to include some awesome effects in this deck. Some of my favorite non-artifacts include Digsite Engineer, Shimmer Dragon, and the newly printed Tawnos, Solemn Survivor. Digsite Engineer has always been one of my favorite includes for artifacts shells since their creation in Commander 2021. In a deck like this where almost fifty percent of the deck is artifacts, we will have a field day creating more constructs for Urza to give menace to. Army-in-a-can has never been a better statement than when it's used here. Next is one of my favorite reprints in the set, Shimmer Dragon. Originally from the Throne of Eldraine Brawl decks, this card has the awesome ability of being both a big beater that protects itself when you have enough artifacts and a source for card draw. Definitely an A-plus in my book. Last but not least, one of the cards that I am waiting to mess with the most is Tawnos, Solemn Survivor. The effect just seems unique in its own right but also just meshes with Urza really well. Whether it's creating copies of Thopters or Constructs, both are just fuel for the second ability where you can create a copy of something scarier. Another honorable mention for the non-artifact creatures is Losheel, Clockwork Scholar, who does an immaculate job of protecting our team on the offensive while also providing some card draw as we have artifact creatures come into play. Sai, Master Thopterist does something similar to Digsite engineer, making flying 1/1s instead. Another newly printed card is Sanwell, Avenger Ace which provides us with some amazing card selection when he attacks!

Next we will take a look at some of the awesome artifact creatures that are included in the deck. Some of the creatures included have abilities that create more tokens to enhance your board state, such as Myr Battlesphere and Sharding Sphinx, while others just have general useful effects that help our game, like Thought Monitor, Angel of the Ruins, Noxious Gearhulk, and Master of Etherium. We have a multitude of effects that increase our creatures' power and toughness, increasing our deck's aggressiveness, such as Chief of the Foundry, Steel Overseer, and the above mentioned Master of Etherium, each helping to sculpt the ideal environment for the Urza Constructs to frolic and cause mayhem.

How well do these gears mesh?

We play as an aggressive deck that wants to flood the board with artifact creatures and tokens so that we can get into the red zone and deal huge amounts of damage to our opponents. I played the deck against three others, including the Mishra deck, and this is how it turned out.

I was able to populate the board with tokens mainly through Urza’s effect. I got down an early Filigree Attendant and it caused a ton of problems for my opponents due to it flying and me making a construct each turn. The deck has so many mana rocks that I never had a mana issue and playing them also increased the power of my constructs and creatures. In no time, I had a powerful board of creatures ready to attack and it made it pretty difficult for my opponents with each of them having menace. There was a board wipe at one point but just to prove how resilient the deck is I kept Digsite Engineer in my hand with a couple of artifacts and it was as if nothing had happened to my board at all. I was then able to get Urza out again for three mana.

Final Thought

The Urza’s Iron Alliance precon is a really powerful deck. It's made up of a cohesive theme that builds upon itself by first creating artifact creatures and then using effects like Urza’s to further expand your board, culminating in fun and threatening gameplay. The reprints in this one are a big A-plus, they all add to the artifact theme and increase the synergy of the deck, with Shimmer Dragon being my favorite. What do you think about the Urza’s Iron Alliance precon? Leave a comment below!

Come back again soon to check out our upgrade articles that will give you a bunch of recommendations on cards you can use to power up your army of choice. Don't forget to check out the Scrap Trawlers on Youtube as well as our Twitch. Hope to see you all again soon!

Scrap Trawlers

Scrap Trawlers is a Magic: The Gathering budget EDH streaming and video group, with gameplay, deck techs, chats, and more. Catch our videos at youtube.com/scraptrawlers. Andy, Lenny, and Bert.