Mox Opal is one of the most powerful cards in all of Modern, and after a long stay in Affinity it’s found its way into some other decks, most notably Lantern Control and Ironworks.
Those who read this space often know how much I like a nice combo deck, but today’s list is off the chart in terms of sheer ridiculousness. Historically, Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek is the centerpiece of decks that include it because it doesn’t take up much space and quickly takes over the game, especially against creature decks. But today it’s not the most degenerate combo you can assemble.
Have you figured it out yet? It took me a while too so don’t be too hard on yourself if you haven’t.
Sword of the Meek is the first part of it, but instead of sacrificing it repeatedly to Thopter Foundry, which requires mana, we’re going with the free activation on incredibly well-known Fifth Dawn uncommon Grinding Station. Of course, we need a way to keep the Grinding Station untapped, and that’s where Sly Requisitioner comes in. Not only does it create an artifact to untap Grinding Station, but the 1/1 Servo token is conveniently sized to bring back Sword of the Meek so everything is nicely as it was. Rinse, lather, repeat, and you have yourself a way to mill your opponent’s entire deck in one go.
Oh, and if they happen to be running Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, you can just keep going to make more and more 1/1 Servos and kill them with those.
I particularly like the trick of milling yourself with Grinding Station to find the Sword of the Meek if it’s the last piece of the combo or you have a Thopter Foundry on the battlefield. Decks like these need those extra edges to assemble their combos. You’re not going to draw perfectly every game, although between cantrips, Whir of Invention, and rebuys off of Scrap Trawler it may feel like it.
Much like Ironworks, this deck needs a way to dodge graveyard hate and Stony Silence, so the Ghirapur Aether Grids and The Antiquities Wars in the sideboard are very important here, as either can win a game even if all your artifacts lack relevant game text.
I’m not sure how this compares to Ironworks overall, but the high levels of redundancy and the ability to assemble multiple combos makes this one very intriguing to me.
Creatures (16)
Lands (15)
Spells (29)
