Mishra has always been one of those "how the f*** do I make this work in EDH" cards. His ability seems incredibly counterintuitive for a singleton format, but with a couple of cards we can make him a solid commander who can either generate a ton of card advantage, or let you see a large portion of your deck for very little cost.
You might like this deck if:
- You enjoy playing with a unique commander
- You like generating card advantage consistently without abusing draw spells
- You like a bit of controlled chaos
- You like winning without using infinite combos or anything too degenerate
- Your playgroup isn't extremely cutthroat (there are other Mishra lists for that)
You might not like this deck if:
- You hate tutoring
- You like counterspells (play a different blue general)
- You like infinite combos
- You hate RNG
- Your playgroup is a "win at all costs" playgroup (this list doesn't run anything incredibly broken, and would need some changes to be hyper-competitive)
Your overall goal for the deck is to establish early presence with lands and some mana rocks, drop Mishra safely, and then follow up with either Possibility Storm, Blood Funnel, or Ice Cave. These 3 cards allow you to disrupt the tempo and plays of your opponents while giving you gradual card advantage by appropriately stacking the Mishra trigger with one of the enchantments (ex. play Sol Ring with Mishra and Possibility Storm in play: stack Mishra trigger first, followed by possibility storm trigger --> sol ring gets exiled and you get a free artifact from your deck, then Sol Ring goes back into the library, then Mishra resolves and Sol Ring goes into play for free).
The deck does not need those 3 enchantments to function, but it certainly gives the deck the incremental advantages it likes to see. Mishra alone functions as solid protection from counterspells for your artifacts, because the artifact that you are casting does not have to resolve for Mishra to trigger (it just has to be cast).
Apart from these interactions, the deck functions as a Grixis goodstuff deck, with your primary win conditions being planeswalker ultimates and getting to the red zone with solid creatures.
Early game: establish a board presence with some mana rocks and early creatures, searching out what you need for mid game with your tutors. Don't be afraid to trade creatures in combat, as you have a lot of ways to recur artifact creatures for later. You're an awkward target to attack early, but you do have to be weary of your life total early until you can stabilize a board presence.
Mid game: Slap down Mishra and one of his friendly enchantments, preferably Possibility Storm. Start messing with your opponents' game plans and play lots of artifacts.
Late game: Get to the red zone with reanimated artifact creatures, kill people with your planeswalker ultimates, and utilize your spells to give you that extra push to seal the game.
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INDIVIDUAL CARD CHOICES:
Creatures:
Arcum Dagsson: since this version of Mishra is a bit more creature centric, this guy is an all-star. You don't mind seeing your artifact creatures die due to the amount of recursion you run, so being able to search out any non-creature artifact you need at instant speed is insane. From Ensnaring Bridge to Memory Jar, Arcum gives you a lot of versatility.
Baleful Strix: Easy card draw on a flying body with deathtouch. Looks good under a Mimic Vat too.
Burnished Hart: Mana ramp, plain and simple. Can also be reused if needed.
Duplicant: Great creature removal, and gets silly with sacrifice and reanimate abilities.
Goblin Welder: A crazy little goblin who sets you up for so many plays. Multiple uses of Memory Jar? Yes. Instant speed uncountable Ensnaring Bridge from the graveyard? Absolutely. This guy is so versatile and he always gives you options when you have artifacts in the yard.
Junk Diver: Solid artifact recursion, and a body to sac to Blood Funnel.
Master of Etherium: Since we run a good amount of creatures, he's fantastic, and lets you hit the red zone a bit easier. Also works incredibly well with your clone effects (Sculpting Steel, Phyrexian Metamorphic, Copy Artifact).
Master Transmuter: To me, she's like an expensive Goblin Welder that operates from your hand instead. You aren't doing anything too broken with her, but she does give you similar versatility to that of Welder.
Myr Battlesphere: Fantastic at any point you can land it. Provides food for Blood Funnel, gives you a solid attack phase, and is beautiful with clone effects and recursion.
Myr Retriever: A better version of Junk Diver.
Phyrexian Metamorph: Copy any artifact or creature? Hell yes, we want to do that. Easily one of the best cards in the deck and has amazing cards to copy (Master of Etherium, Memory Jar, any mana rock, etc, PLUS anything your opponent might have).
Riddlesmith: Commonly seen in eggs lists, but has a nice home here. He gives us solid card draw, and can be a bit explosive when you drop mana rocks with him out.
Scarecrone: Either draws a card or reanimates your creatures from the yard, does everything we want it to.
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer: Great protection for your toys, and also functions as a great sac outlet.
Solemn Simulacrum: Commander all-star. Find a basic and draw a card. Loves Mimic Vat.
Steel Hellkite: An amazing creature for the deck. Blows up pesky permanents and can be tutored up at any point in the game.
Thada Adel, Inquisitor: Steal a Sol Ring from your opponent, and with Mishra out, play yours for free! She's also just amazing on her own, and your opponents will always be running good artifacts for you to steal.
Thopter Assembly: Overall a good creature for us. Gives us food for Blood Funnel, and the tokens can be quite scary with a Master of Etherium out.
Trinket Mage: Finds Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Mox Diamond, etc. This guy is our mana rock tutor at heart.
Vedalken Archmage: Play an artifact, draw a card. What's not to love?
Wurmcoil Engine: An amazing beater that we love to see die over and over again. Also provides some necessary life gain.
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INDIVIDUAL CARD CHOICES:
SORCERIES:
All is Dust: Hurts everyone more than it hurts you, and gives you a big tempo swing when it resolves. Easily the best removal spell the deck can have.
Chain Reaction: Honestly, this can be swapped with Damnation if you want, but with the amount of tokens we make this card functions just fine.
Demonic Tutor: Find any card you want for 2 mana.
Fabricate: Find any artifact you want for 3 mana.
Scrap Mastery: Our version of Living End, and boy this card can do work. In a long game, this card resolving is HUGE for us, and generates a lot of permanent advantage and can outright win the game on its own. You can also try and play this early after doing some self milling with Memory Jar (Early mana rocks into memory jar and copying Memory Jar for multiple uses), but this can make you a target pretty quickly.
Thoughtcast: Some thematic card draw, but honestly is our best cheap draw option.
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INDIVIDUAL CARD CHOICES:
INSTANTS:
Chaos Warp: Holy versatility. Get rid of a problem permanent, or use it in response to removal of one of your permanents; since the majority of our deck is permanents, you're more than likely to hit a target with it should you need to cast it on one of your own permanents.
Cyclonic Rift: Bounce for days, good at any point in the game.
Hurkyl's Recall: A candidate for the best card in the deck. This card saves you from board wipes that kill your artifacts (which need to be judged carefully, as sometimes we want tons of artifacts in the yard (hint hint Scrap Mastery)). This card also combos with Mycosynth Lattice to completely remove an opponent from the game (this is really the only degenerate combo in the deck, but I have a personal philosophy that each deck should have 1 way to just end a game when the games go too long. If you're playing in a casual playgroup, this should be a last resort combo. If you're playing in a cutthroat playgroup, you can go for this combo whenever you want, but you'd also want to be playing a different Mishra list).
Intuition: Busted, plain and simple. We aren't using the card to its full potential here, but it does exactly what we need it to. It's best used to search for 3 artifacts when you have a recursion option available, but can also be used to look for any other things you may need.
Thirst for Knowledge: Draws cards and fuels the yard for recursion. Perfect.
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INDIVIDUAL CARD CHOICES:
PLANESWALKERS:
Dack Fayden: Card draw that fuels the graveyard with artifacts and gives us insurance against anyone who steals an artifact from us. We really only run Dack for those 2 abilities. His ultimate only functions with 2 cards in the deck (Cyclonic Rift and Chaos Warp) so never worry about plussing him too high, and be a bit liberal with stealing mana rocks.
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast: He gives us a token for Blood Funnel and for sac effects, gives us a fantastic removal effect and sac outlet combined, and his ultimate gives you a ton of options for things in the yard. 3 Wurmcoils, 3 Memory Jars, 3 Master of Etheriums, etc. Most of your high value artifacts are even better with multiple copies.
Daretti, Scrap Savant: Draw effect that fuels the yard, a sac outlet and recursion outlet combined, and an ultimate that's pretty nice to have should you get it off.
Jace the Mind Sculptor: If you're playing blue, there's no reason to not run this. He doesn't mesh with our artifacts very well, but his abilities are too good to pass up. Fate seal, Brainstorm, Unsummon, and an ultimate that wins you the game on the spot all in 1 card is nuts.
Saheeli Rai: Library manipulation, a copy artifact effect, and a great tutor effect on her ultimate make Saheeli a fantastic inclusion.
Tezzeret the Seeker: Untapping mana rocks seems good, and he's minus lets you fetch the majority of the artifacts in your deck. His ultimate should it resolve should win you the game, especially under Mycosynth Lattice.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas: Possibly the most deadly planeswalker in the deck. His plus ability lets us see so many cards, and will almost always find a target. His minus ability pumps up a token to swing, but is also pretty versatile apart from that. His ultimate should just flat out kill an opponent, and if you have Mycosynth Lattice out, should be able to kill them 2 or 3 times over. When you drop this guy, you want that ultimate to resolve.
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TO BE CONTINUED, WORK IN PROGRESS!