Graveyard Value With Emry

For several years my favorite Commander deck was built around Glissa,
the Traitor.

When the card was in Standard, I played it relentlessly, making big changes
as sets were added, and was sad when it eventually rotated out. So, I
pretty quickly made a version for Commander and had a great time with it.
Grinding value out of my graveyard is something I love to do down to my
core, and Glissa, the Traitor did that superbly. I eventually took it apart
to build a deck for Skullbriar, the Walking Grave.

Not long ago, I was thinking about my current batch of decks and realized
in a lot of ways I had built more Glissa, the Traitor-style decks but in
different colors. Feldon of the Third path is all about grinding value out
of my own graveyard with a heavy artifact theme. Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle
is all about grinding value out of my own graveyard with a heavy historic
theme that often takes the form of lots of artifacts.

So, when I saw Emry, Lurker of the Loch I knew I’d found yet another
mono-color Glissa, the Traitor-style deck.

Emry has a lot going on. First in the text box is the cost reduction, which
will often mean that Emry will just cost two or even one mana early in the
game if you run enough cheap artifacts. Later in the game if you’ve got a
bunch of artifacts on the battlefield it’ll help defer quite a bit of any
commander tax you may have accumulated. This means you can pretty much
count on Emry to impact nearly all stages of any game.

The activated ability is the exciting part of the card: a tap ability with
no mana attached to it that lets you cast a target artifact in your
graveyard this turn. How very Golgari! And the triggered ability when Emry
enters the battlefield helps to ensure you’ll have at least one target to
take advantage of the activated ability. But we’ll want to build our deck
with lots of artifacts that will end up in the graveyard by doing something
useful so we can get them back with Emry.

Let’s not forget that Emry is two very relevant creature types – Merfolk
and Wizards both have tons of tribal support, and there are a bunch of
tribal-themed artifacts there too, so you could easily build a tribal deck
that has a strong artifact component if you wanted to go that route. Today,
I’m just going to lean heavily into artifact shenanigans.

Before I move on, I just wanted to take a moment to talk about the artwork.
The illustration by Livia Prima perfectly evokes the Lady in the Lake
mythology—creepy, mysterious, and intriguing. What’s really spooky is when
you think about tying the art to the mechanics of the card: that may look
like a lake Emry is lurking in, but it’s actually a graveyard!

Okay, let’s get brewing!

Emry Enhancements

Now Emry’s abilities are nice on their own, but we’ll want to leverage them
more. The first thing we’ll want to do is to increase the number of times
you can use Emry. The first card that I thought of was Thousand-Year
Elixir; not only can you use it to untap Emry, but it gives that ability
haste so you can use it when Emry enters the battlefield. Umbral Mantle is
another artifact that can untap Emry, though the cost to untap is very mana
intensive. With enough activations you can potentially make Emry big enough
to be a threatening attacker! Illusionist’s Bracers lets you double up each
activation of Emry. Minamo, School at Water’s Edge untaps a target legend
so that’s another way to get an extra use.

Mirran Spy is the real engine card this deck is looking for, letting you
untap Emry each time you cast an artifact from the graveyard. If the
artifact is cheap enough you can keep doing it over and over again. Don’t
expect Mirran Spy to live very long on the battlefield, so you’ll want to
carefully sculpt the turn you cast it.

Winding Canyons means that you can potentially use Emry’s ability during an
opponent’s turn if the artifact you target is also a creature. Riptide
Laboratory can save Emry from an untimely death, and replaying Emry can let
you jump start your graveyard shenanigans in case someone has exiled all of
the cards.

For flavor reasons I was considering which of the various sword cards I
should put in the deck representing Excalibur, but then I realized there is
really only one choice—Blackblade, Reforged! Being able to equip Emry in
the late game can make quite a threat.

Artifacts Matter

Blue has no end of cards that care about artifacts, and since the plan is
to stuff the deck full of good artifacts, we’ll need to find room for some
good support cards, especially those that are also artifacts. Cards like
Etherium Sculptor, Master of Etherium, and Scrapyard Recombiner are
artifacts that love lots of other artifacts in your deck. Traxos, Scourge
of Kroog is a heavy hitter that will gain virtual vigilance with all the
artifacts we’ll be casting, and makes a great legend to pick up Blackblade,
Reforged too. Shimmer Myr lets us play any artifacts as though it has
flash, unlocking the use of Emry on other turns than our own.

Sai, Master Thopterist should be able to churn out a whole host of 1/1
Thopters we can use as chump blockers if need be, though hopefully there
will be enough around when the last chapter of The Antiquities War is read
and we can have a sudden army of 5/5 fliers.

Vedalken Archmage should let us draw a ton of cards, and Vedalken
Humiliator will make it much easier to attack our opponents when we want to
punch some damage through.

Both sides of Mirrodin Besieged do a lot of work, churning out chump
blockers if you need them or potentially ending the game in a few turns if
things have gone long.

Mana Ramp

We’ve got ways to shave the mana costs for Emry and for artifacts, but
we’ll still want a fair number of other ways to accelerate our mana. Mind
Stone and Burnished Hart are particularly nice because they can be
sacrificed for value and then replayed from the graveyard with Emry.

Card Drawing/Selection

Mishra’s Bauble and Urza’s Bauble do a lot of work in this deck. Played
early one can shave a mana from Emry’s mana cost, then turn into a draw
engine by sacrificing it and replaying with Emry. I like the new Throne of Eldraine card Witching Well as something you can play
early to help with Emry’s cost, smooth out some draws, and then you can
cash it in for cards and cheaply play it from the graveyard with Emry.

Kuldotha Forgemaster has a normally high cost of sacrificing three
artifacts to tutor out an artifact from your library to the battlefield,
but Emry’s ability means that sacrifice can often be a benefit. Sure,
you’ll most likely still go find some giant artifact threat, but offsetting
the sacrifice with Emry means that sometimes you can just go get some
utility artifact you need.

Ugin, the Ineffable doesn’t say anything about artifacts, but since most
artifacts are also colorless spells you will often be able to get a hefty
discount to your artifact spells. Meanwhile, you can use it to make chump
blockers that can eventually net you cards, or use it to destroy
problematic permanents.

Interaction

One of the advantages of playing a monoblue deck is you have access to
permission spells like Swan Song, Arcane Denial and Force of Will. I’ve
included Spell Swindle too since it can potentially give you a whole bunch
of artifacts on the battlefield that can take advantage of various artifact
synergies. Pongify and Reality Shift provide some pinpoint interaction, and
Fumble can provide some temporary relief from a problem creature that can
sometimes get you an extra artifact or two out of the deal!

I did want to include some artifact-based interaction that we can get back
with Emry like Tormod’s Crypt, Ratchet Bomb, Walking Ballista and Oblivion
Stone. Hope of Ghirapur is spicy tech here since you can attack with it,
sacrifice it to lock someone out of playing non-creature spells and then
replay it with Emry.

Spellskite offers nice protection for Emry from pinpoint removal, and if
it’s a destroy effect you can replay Spellskite from the graveyard with
Emry.

Good Stuff

I’m going to round the deck out with some spicy artifacts that go well with
what we’re trying to do. Elixir of Immortality can shuffle our graveyard
back into our deck in response to someone trying to exile our graveyard.
Manifold Key can untap artifacts like Thousand-Year Elixir so you can get
another use from Emry, or make something huge unblockable this turn. If we
can chain together any big turn casting lots of artifacts with some sort of
engine, Aetherflux Reservoir becomes quite a threat. Blightsteel Colossus
is the perfect threat to search out with Kuldotha Forgemaster and is
another way to end a long game.

And of course, if you have any sort of artifact presence, you just have to
play Trading Post!

Sweet deck! Let’s see how close we are to 100 cards.

0-1 mana: 16 (including lands that don’t produce mana)

2 mana: 18

3 mana: 12+commander

4 mana: 11

5 mana: 5

6 mana: 4

7+ mana/X-spells: 5

72 total cards plus 37 mana-producing lands equal 9 cards too many, so we
need to make some cuts! Let’s see what we can trim.

Where possible I’d like to trim non-artifact cards since if they get milled
into my graveyard from Emry’s triggered ability it’s a bit of a waste. Whir
of Invention is one of those cards, and even though it’s nice to have an
instant-speed tutor for artifacts, I’m happier with an artifact-based one
like Kuldotha Forgemaster. Ancient Stone Idol is fun, but I don’t know how
often I’ll be able to count on the cost reduction, especially if it’s
lurking in my graveyard. Myr Battlesphere is a solid card but I have to
make some tough cuts and I like the other higher-cost spells better.

I chose Staff of Nin because I liked the idea of pinging off an opponent’s
threat when it’s been turned into a 1/1 with no abilities thanks to
Vedalken Humiliator. But Walking Ballista can serve that role and is much
more flexible and potentially game ending, so Staff of Nin gets the boot. I
do like Padeem giving my artifacts hexproof, but honestly Emry’s ability is
going to negate a lot of artifact removal people play in Commander outside
of exile effects so I feel it’s a safe cut. Of all the cards that shave
mana from the cost of artifacts, Foundry Inspector is probably the worst of
the bunch so I’m shaving that as well.

Since Emry is a Merfolk I thought Merrow Commerce might be a fun way to
untap during other player’s turn, but unless I can give the cards flash
it’s really not going to do all that much. I think it’s a safe cut.
Corridor Monitor is mediocre as a one-shot untap for Emry and needs a red
combo piece like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to really warrant a slot.

Last was the hardest cut, Expedition Map. It hits all the right notes—cheap
artifact to shave a mana off Emry’s mana cost, sacrifice for value and easy
to replay from the graveyard. There are certainly special lands I’d like to
search up. But one more card needed to be cut and I couldn’t think of
anything else I’d want less than this.

Okay, so here’s how the deck ended up:

Emry, Lurker of the Loch

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 09-16-2019

Commander

Creatures (27)

• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Vedalken Archmage
• 1 Vedalken Engineer
• 1 Etherium Sculptor
• 1 Master of Etherium
• 1 Master Transmuter
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Mirran Spy
• 1 Blightsteel Colossus
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Chief Engineer
• 1 Hangarback Walker
• 1 Metalwork Colossus
• 1 Merchant's Dockhand
• 1 Hope of Ghirapur
• 1 Walking Ballista
• 1 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
• 1 Artificer's Assistant
• 1 Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1 Vedalken Humiliator
• 1 Scrapyard Recombiner
• 1 Shimmer Dragon
• 1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch

Planeswalkers (1)

• 1 Ugin, the Ineffable

Lands (37)

• 24 Island
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1 Riptide Laboratory
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Winding Canyons
• 1 Dust Bowl
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Desert of the Mindful
• 1 Field of Ruin

Spells (35)

• 1 Force of Will
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Urza's Bauble
• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Mishra's Bauble
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1 Negate
• 1 Umbral Mantle
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Ratchet Bomb
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Trading Post
• 1 Illusionist's Bracers
• 1 Bident of Thassa
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Reality Shift
• 1 Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1 Spell Swindle
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Mox Amber
• 1 The Antiquities War
• 1 Fumble
• 1 Echo Storm
• 1 Force of Negation
• 1 Mirrodin Besieged
• 1 Manifold Key
• 1 Witching Well

What do you think? Are there any cards I’ve overlooked? If you see any new
cards from Throne of Eldraine that should find a home here, let me
know!

Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter! I run polls and get conversations
started about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun!

Also, come play Commander with me! Coming up November 8 is Magic Fest Richmond
right here in my hometown, and I’m planning on hitting the Command Zone
there at least one of the days. The following weekend

November 14-17 is the always spectacular SCGCON

! Their

Commander Celebration

has set the standard for incredible Commander experiences and I’ll be
returning as a special guest so I’ll be in the Command Zone all weekend
playing Commander!

But that’s not all—recently Gavin Verhey from Wizards of the Coast
announced that Wizards is teaming up with tournament organizers to put on
entire weekends of Magic events to cater to multiplayer Magic!

Star City Games will be putting on #CommandFestDC December 13-15 and I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be one of the special guests there. Stay tuned for more details as they become available!