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Playing Eggs in EDH

No, my turn isn’t half done yet, and no, you will not get another turn after this one.

sydri, galvanic genius
Playing Eggs in EDH is a pipe-dream for a lot of people. The deck’s pilot can gleefully ignore what their opponents are doing, while shuffling artifacts into the graveyard, back to the battlefield, drawing cards, making mana, living the life. It’s no surprise that this strategy has been translated to EDH.

What is the eggs deck?

Eggs is a combo deck that has been floating around since the printing of Second Sunrise, when it was abused with Skycloud Egg and Darkwater Egg, the namesake cards of the deck. In the long-standing legacy tradition of naming decks after breakfast foods, the name “Eggs” stuck. Although, different versions of this deck has gone by Second Breakfast, Krark-Clan Combo (after Krark-Clan Ironworks), and Trinkets.

Since then, it won a Modern Pro Tour, got banned in Modern, and has seen very little constructed play ever since. Stanislav Cifka’s Pro Tour winning list is below.

Stanislav Cifka’s Eggs

Artifact (21)
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
4 Conjurer’s Bauble
4 Elsewhere Flask
4 Lotus Bloom
1 Pyrite Spellbomb

Instants and Sorceries (22)
4 Reshape
4 Second Sunrise
4 Serum Visions
2 Silence
3 Sleight of Hand
4 Faith’s Reward
1 Gitaxian Probe
Lands (17)
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
7 Island (255)
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains (250)
2 Scalding Tarn

Sideboard (15)
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pithing Needle
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Echoing Truth
2 Silence
1 Grapeshot
The deck wins by cycling “eggs” such as Chromatic Sphere and Chromatic Star to draw cards, bringing them back with Second Sunrise and Faith’s Reward, and repeating the process to draw the entire deck, eventually winning by recurring Pyrite Spellbomb. The deck made the mana to complete the cycle by Ghost Quartering their own lands and recurring Lotus Bloom. You can check out Cifka’s explanation of the deck here, or watch him play the deck here.

Replicating this strategy in EDH isn’t exactly possible, but it is a strong value engine to dig and assemble combos with. There are a handful of commanders who are well suited to eggs deck, chief among them are Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Sydri, Galvanic Genius and Sharuum the Hegemon.

Let’s look at how this strategy can work in EDH.

The Appeal of Eggs

The appeal of eggs is very high: you get absurdly powerful vintage-wrecking cards.

Mishra’s Workshop is one of the most underplayed lands in EDH. It’s so ridiculously powerful: any list that is artifact-centric enough to play it gains a huge advantage any time they draw it. Once-banned all-star Metalworker is another card that gives huge mana advantage at a pretty small cost. Mox Opal is better than the powered-moxes in any deck that can play it.

Not only is the card quality great for artifact decks, they get to run a strategy that most other decks can’t. They can run combo-heavy decks, with tons of interchangeable pieces and alternative routes to combo. Most combo decks fill-out their deck with tutors to get one or two combos reliably. Artifact decks don’t need to rely on this: if you play an artifact deck, you might find a new combo each time you play it. If an unwise opponent were to Jester’s Cap one of these decks, hoping to neuter it’s ability to combo, these decks would still have plenty of live combo draws.

Additionally, eggs are high in protein, and a balanced part of any breakfast.

Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer

This deck was created by reddit user Gersttt. Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer is a fascinating choice for the commander: he protects your artifacts, provides a sacrifice outlet at a very cheap cost, and he’s in the right colors to get cards such as Goblin Welder. The deck is powerful and fast: it can goldfish turn 2 wins, and will win before turn 6 more frequently than not.
Commander (1)
1 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer

Combo (7)
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Goblin Cannon
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Metalworker
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Staff of Domination

Eggs (6)
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Conjurer’s Bauble
1 Ichor Wellspring
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Terrarion

Ramp (11)
1 Chrome Mox
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Opal
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Sol Ring
1 Thought Vessel

Recursion (9)
1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Goblin Welder
1 Junk Diver
1 Myr Retriever
1 Past in Flames
1 Recoup
1 Salvaging Station
1 Scrap Mastery
1 Trash for Treasure

Utility (5)
1 Clock of Omens
1 Codex Shredder
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Voltaic Key

Discount (3)
1 Cloud Key
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Semblance Anvil

Hate (5)
1 Blood Moon
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Ruination
1 Torpor Orb
1 Winter Orb

Draw (9)
1 Faithless Looting
1 Magmatic Insight
1 Magus of the Wheel
1 Memory Jar
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Sandstone Oracle
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Wild Guess

Interaction (8)
1 Chaos Warp
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Pyroblast
1 Pyroclasm
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Vandalblast

Ritual (3)
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Treasonous Ogre

Tutor (3)
1 Gamble
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster

Land (30)
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Buried Ruin
1 City of Traitors
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Great Furnace
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Mishra’s Factory
1 Mishra’s Workshop
12 Mountain
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Wooded Foothills
If Second Sunrise is the engine that allowed the modern eggs deck to function, Scrap Mastery is Slobad’s engine. It allows the deck to do crazy things: infinite Scrap Masteries with Codex Shredder, Wheel of Fortune becomes a one-sided Eureka for your artifacts.

Perhaps the deck’s flashiest win is by assembling Mesmeric Orb and Basalt Monlith for infinite self-mill. Once this happens, the deck can Recoup or Past in Flames a Scrap Mastery for every artifact in the deck. Slobad can then make infinite mana, and shoot the entire table with a Goblin Cannon.

The deck typically looks to assemble one or two of the following combos as quickly as possible:

Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith + [m]2[/m] = infinite mana
Metalworker + Staff of Domination + 3 artifacts in hand = infinite mana, infinite life and infinite draw
Salvaging Station + Krark-Clan Ironworks + Voltaic Key = infinite mana
Myr Retriever + Junk Diver + Krark-Clan Ironworks + Helm of Awakening/Cloud Key/Semblance Anvil = infinite mana
Voltaic Key + Rings of Brighthearth + infinite mana = infinite untaps
Clock of Omens + Basalt Monolith + Grim Monolith + infinite mana = infinite untaps
Mesmeric Orb + Basalt Monolith = infinite self-mill
Mesmeric Orb + Grim Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth + [m]3[/m] = infinite self-mill
Sensei’s Divining Top + Rings of Brighthearth + infinite mana = infinite draw
These aren’t all the combos in the deck, many of the pieces are interchangeable, but the above should give you an idea of what the deck is doing.

The problem that any red list has, is that it can be inconsistent. This deck was hurt by the mulligan rule change perhaps more than most other decks: red gets few tutors, and less card selection. This deck, like most competitive combo decks, mulliganed aggressively for fast mana rocks and wheels, but now that isn’t possible. In lieu of that change, more interaction was added to the deck.

Torpor Orb is a criminally underplayed card that this list gets to play. It stops every other commonly played combo victory, and Slobad’s ability protects it from artifact removal. This might as well be a hard-lock against certain decks. Winter Orb might seem like an odd choice in the deck, but it fits pretty perfectly: stax the table until you’re ready to combo, and sacrifice it before your untap phase. Pyroclasm, Galvanic Blast and Lightning Bolt deal with any hate bears that might stop you from comboing, and Blood Moon and Ruination are nearly painless ways to hurt your opponent’s land bases. This deck runs only cheap and highly impactful interactive cards. It’s possible that these other interactive cards would be better off being more stax artifacts.

A primer for the deck written by the deck’s creator can be found here.

Sharuum the Hegemon

This deck was created by reddit user Gersttt too. Being an esper deck solves many of the consistency problems that Slobad had, while giving you an even more powerful general. If you want to play eggs, this deck is on top of the list for being the most powerful.

Commander (1)
1 Sharuum the Hegemon

Combo (6)
1 Blasting Station
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Notion Thief

Ramp (14)
1 Azorius Signet
1 Chrome Mox
1 Dimir Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Opal
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Progress

Cost Reduction (2)
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Etherium Sculptor

Rituals (5)
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Lotus Petal
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Dark Ritual

Eggs (5)
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Darkwater Egg
1 Skycloud Egg

Tutors (13)
1 Dark Petition
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Grim Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Reshape
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Artificer’s Intuition
1 Intuition
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker

Draw (11)
1 Memory Jar
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Windfall
1 Timetwister
1 Brainstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Future Sight
1 Necropotence

Interaction (10)
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Force of Will
1 Mana Drain
1 Pact of Negation
1 Swan Song
1 Flusterstorm
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Silence

Recursion (5)
1 Codex Shredder
1 Open the Vaults
1 Faith’s Reward
1 Pull from Eternity
1 Second Sunrise
Lands (28)
1 Ancient Den
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 City of Traitors
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Mishra’s Workshop
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Scrubland
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Swamp
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
This deck runs fewer two card combos in exchange for more powerful cards, and tutors to make sure you get them. Abusing the mana generated by Krark-Clan Ironworks is one of the primary game plans for the deck. Ad Nauseum can draw many cards in this deck, and although it wasn’t designed to draw 20+ cards, it will win just as often.

Helm of Awakening + Future Sight + Sensei’s Divining Top = infinite draw
Notion Thief + Timewsiter/Windfall = Everyone else discards their hand
Sharuum the Hegemon + Sculpting Steel/Phyrexian Metamorph in the yard + Blasting Station = infinite damage
Intuition for Sculpting Steel, Phyrexian Metamorph and Blasting Station = infinite damage
One of this deck’s most important tutor targets is Krark-Clan Ironworks. Once that card is in play, it’s almost certain that you can combo off, since it generates such an absurd amount of mana. One of the advantages of this deck is that it can win like a typical eggs deck, and it’s very good at it, but it also has the backup plan of a typical Sharuum deck. Unfortunately, both combos are hit by graveyard hate, but so is everything else in commander. It still makes the deck much harder to hate out of the game.

The advantages of playing blue include getting the entire suite of blue artifact tutors. Even the tutors with downsides are often mitigated by the nature of the deck: when you use a Reshape, it is not a cost to sacrifice a Chromatic Star. Artificer’s Intuition makes you discard cards, but it’s also a great way to set up a big Faith’s Reward turn, and make sure you have enough draw and mana to go off. Codex Shredder doesn’t just make infinite loops in this deck, it also disrupts top-of-deck tutors and first turn mulligan scrys, both of which come up quite a bit.

The biggest advantage of this deck over Slobad however, is that the deck can play real interaction that can interact with everything. Slobad may get very powerful situational effects, but red decks can’t always have their situational effects. Pact of Negation doesn’t just stop you from losing, it stops your opponents from stopping your combo too.

This deck can easily compete in the top tiers of EDH, and it will take more than its fair share of wins against decks unprepared to fight against artifacts.

Sydri, Galvanic Genius

Of all the decks in this list, this deck aims to mimic the Modern deck the most. It maximizes the number of eggs, and recursive/draw elements. This deck consistently has more big turns.
Commander (1)
1 Sydri, Galvanic Genius

Eggs (13)
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chromatic Star
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Darkwater Egg
1 Elsewhere Flask
1 Ichor Wellspring
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Prophetic Prism
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Skycloud Egg

Ramp (14)
1 Azorius Signet
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Coalition Relic
1 Dimir Keyrune
1 Dimir Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Grim Monolith
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Opal

Cost Reducers (4)
1 Cloud Key
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Semblance Anvil
1 Etherium Sculptor

Tutors (6)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Transmute Artifact

Draw Engine (6)
1 Memory Jar
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Magus of the Future
1 Riddlesmith
1 Vedalken Archmage
1 Null Profusion

Win Conditions (6)
1 Goblin Cannon
1 Mindslaver
1 Time Sieve
1 Disciple of the Vault
1 Exsanguinate
1 Tendrils of Agony

Combo Pieces (13)
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Archaeomancer
1 Auriok Salvagers
1 Faith's Reward
1 Second Sunrise
1 Open the Vaults
1 Roar of Reclamation
1 Salvaging Station

Other (8)
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Voltaic Key
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Time Spiral
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Codex Shredder
Lands (29)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Den
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Command Tower
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Scrubland
1 Strip Mine
1 Swamp
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
This list was created by Stuart at Limited Magic, another long time eggs player.

This deck is focused on making loops, using cards like Archaeomancer or Codex Shredder to rebuy Second Sunrise, which hopefully nets enough mana to do the loop over again. Other combos in the deck are below. Above all else, prioritize making this loop, because it’s the deck’s fastest win condition. Other incidental combos may come up too.

Auriok Salvagers + Lion’s Eye Diamond = infinite mana
Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek = lots of tokens and life
salvaging Station + Sydri, Galvanic Genius + Seat of the Synod + Disciple of the Vault = infinite damage
Academy Ruins + Mindslaver = take all of someone’s turns
Mycosynth Lattice + Sydri, Galvanic Genius = land destruction
Once you have Sydri out, Ashnod’s Altar can make all of your artifacts into little rituals, like a build your own Krark-Clan Ironworks. The Ironworks is still very important in this deck, and perhaps essential: there are few other way to generate a net gain of mana in this deck while comboing.

The deck can even do crazy things, such as taking everyone’s turns with a Mindslaver as their win condition after they go off. Faith’s Reward recurrs artifacts of all costs, which people can forget. Most of the time, however, Time Seive or Exsanguinate will be the win-cons of choice.

This deck is difficult to play, since it plays so many cantripping eggs, it’s difficult to find a hand that does something. While I do think Sydri is the best commander for playing such an all in eggs deck, I don’t know if I believe that playing an all-in eggs deck is a good idea.

Other Potential Commanders

Mishra, Artificer Prodigy

Talk of a Mishra, Artificer Prodigy eggs deck circled the EDH community more than an actual list did. The list abuses Blood Funnel with Mishra as an extra cost-reducer to help combo off. However, a six mana cost reducer (the cost of your general and the funnel), isn’t an exciting prospect. On top of that, creature removal blanks all your spells until you cast Mishra again. This combo isn’t good enough. However, his colors are appealing, but Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge is a more appealing option.

Daretti, Scrap Savant

Daretti lends himself to a Scrap Mastery deck very well, but his ability wants to cheat big artifacts into play, not abuse a value engine. An artifact combo deck would be very possible with him, but it would very likely play very differently than an eggs deck and struggle to take advantage of the same mechanics.

Thada Adel, Acquisitor

Thada Adel, Acquisitor solves one of the big problems facing eggs decks. They need fast artifact mana to combo off, and Thada can find it. Mono blue isn’t the worst color to play eggs in, but it certainly isn’t the best either. The color lacks any sort of mass artifact return, like Scrap Mastery or Open the Vaults, but Hurkyl’s Recall and Retract could do something similar (at the cost of losing any artifacts that you stolen), but the deck would need to need to lean pretty hard on High Tide to generate mana, since Retract only nets mana with a few cards.

Narset, Enlightened Master

The jeskai colors are great for this strategy, and Narset is simply the best option. She digs deeper for artifacts and let’s you rebuild very quickly. As far as I can tell, no one has brewed this, or at least been willing to share it online, but it seems very powerful.

Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest

He would be interesting as a win condition, but it can only kill off one opponent after you go off. Still, it’s potentially the best engine he could go off with since artifacts give you both mana and draw cards when you go off, and are far less all-in than rituals tend to be.

Conclusion

In general, eggs is a competitive strategy, but it’s likely less competitive than a pure Sharuum list might be. However, these decks are a blast to play. While they might not be as fun to play against, that’s just how life is sometimes.

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Gethal Van Nox
What do you think about using the new commander to combine red and esper for an eggs deck?

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© 2015 Jake Frondorf

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