Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This edition is more Brothers’ War Commander goodness!

Urza, Chief Artificer is the face commander of the Urza’s Iron Alliance preconstructed Commander deck coming alongside the Brothers’ War set. For 3WUB, you get a 4/5 Legendary Human Artificer with a textbox that gets your artifact creatures in the red zone. Check it out:

“Affinity for artifact creatures (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact creature you control.)  

Artifact creatures you control have menace.  

At the beginning of your end step, create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with “This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.””

This deck will need to focus on having artifact creatures and getting them to turn sideways, swinging at your opponents. Each of your end steps gets you another Karn-struct token, which buffs your other ones. Let’s talk the 99.

1. Cost Reduction and Ramp

Foundry Inspector is a classic for artifact decks, reducing your artifacts by one. Cloud Key does the same, but offers some flexibility. Artificer Class does this for your first artifact spell each turn – a thing to note for Shimmer Myr and Vedalken Orrery. Artificer Class also has two other modes that can get out of hand really quickly. Solemn Simulacrum is a given in a deck revolving around artifact creatures. Urza, Lord Protector is a Goblin Electromancer that also reduces artifact costs by one. Not to mention when paired The Mightstone and Weakstone, you get to Meld the two into Urza, Planeswalker which is bonkers for any deck that can have it.

Mycosynth Golem gives your artifact creatures affinity for artifacts as does…

2. Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

One of my favourite planeswalkers and one of the best rewards for an artifact deck. For six mana, you get a 5 loyalty planeswalker that ticks up to 7 with an insane loyalty ability: It deals X damage to each opponent where X is the number of artifacts you control, which will be MANY. Then you gain X life. All while reducing the costs of your creatures and planeswalkers. The -3  ability is great recursion for artifacts. The ultimate ability is pretty nuts, but I can’t get past that cost reduction static ability and the +2. This is a finisher and sets you up. A true all star.

3. Makin’ Copies!

The tokens Urza makes count as artifacts. Anointed Procession is an obvious inclusion to double up all tokens created with Urza or Smothering Tithe or any of these other incredible additions to the deck.

Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant lets you copy the artifacts you cast on each of your turns and turns casting instants, sorceries, and artifacts into a difficult ordeal for your opponents.

Echo Storm is a card I’ve always really loved. In decks where your commander gets cast a bunch, Echo Storm can copy a ton of artifacts. Use Biotransference to turn all your creatures into artifacts and Mycosynth Lattice to turn everything into artifacts for you to copy. It’s never a bummer to cast Echo Storm copied two or three times to get four Seat of the Synods or Gilded Lotuses.

Mirrorworks allows you to pay two mana anytime a nontoken artifact enters under your control. Ancient Den coming into play in the late game? You just paid one mana to ramp. Especially with Mycosynth Golem and Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge, you’ll end up just paying two mana for fully reduced artifact creatures plus a copy.

A new card from the Brothers’ War main set, Drafna, Founder of Lat-Nam, can bounce artifacts back to your hand so you can copy with Mirrorworks or get another Baleful Strix trigger out of the iron bird. Not to mention, when you cast an artifact spell, you have the option to copy it with Drafna’s second ability.

4. More! More! More!

Need more artifacts? Why not play Efficient Construction or cards that do a pretty good impression of it, like Mirrodin Besieged and Sai, Master Thopterist.

Digsite Engineer lets you tack 2 mana onto any artifact spell you cast for another Karn-struct that your commander makes. With all the cost reduction in the deck, you can pay regular price for an artifact and get a bonus Construct that buffs others like it.

5. Bring it Back!

When you’re playing a deck with so many of one particular type, you’re bound to run into a player who has your number. A Vandalblast will mess up your board like nobody’s business. A Bane of Progress will ruin your day.

Triumphant Reckoning and Brilliant Restoration will bring your artifacts and enchantments back from your graveyard to play all in one go. The Reckoning also throws in your planeswalkers for good measure.

Open the Vaults does the same for all players. Roar of Reclamation does the same for all players, but only for artifacts.

If you’ve got enough mana for it, pumping a ton of mana into X on Dance of the Manse will bring back all the artifacts and non-aura enchantments from your graveyard and turn them into 4/4s for a big swing next turn. The flexibility is key with this card. If you pay less than 6 into X, you still get five artifacts/enchantments with mana value five or less back to play, which is pretty nutty value.

Tameshi, Reality Architect is a card I’ve been fascinated with since its release in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (aka a million years ago). I tried my hand at building a Commander deck around Tameshi, but I don’t think I’m ready to lean into stax, which this build practically requires. Not only does it give you a draw once a turn any time noncreature cards are bounced to hand from  play, Tameshi also allows you to play enchantments and (more likely) artifacts from your graveyard for the extra cost of a W mana and returning a land to your hand. Oh, and would you look at that, the land bouncing to your hand just drew you a card! Tameshi provides a lot of interesting decision points that I am excited to see play out in this Esper artifact precon upgrade.

That does it for this one! Let me know which commander you’d like me to cover next time on A Seat at the Table. Message me on Twitter @mikecarrozza and I’ll see you at pre-release!

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