Artifacts, one of the most popular archetypes in Commander, can take on many forms. Some decks will focus on ramping to big haymakers, while others look to beat down with artifact creatures. Of all the options out there, Mm’menon, the Right Hand decks have a strong case for being the most unique. Featuring zero non-artifact spells in the 99, this strategy is all-in from the get-go. especially in cEDH.
Storming Off with Artifacts
At first glance, this Mm’menon, the Right Hand deck may look severely underpowered. After all, a large percentage of the cards are zero-mana artifacts, and some of them, like Bone Saw and Mox Jasper, hold no value on their own. Yet, having this high density of free artifact spells is essential to maximizing Mm’menon’s abilities.
Once Mm’menon is in play, the goal is to chain tons of artifact spells from the top of your deck. Every zero-drop nets you mana thanks to your Commander’s final ability, which can then be used to cast more expensive artifacts from the top of your deck.
With no non-artifact spells in the deck, the only thing stopping you from storming off is seeing lands on the top of your deck. Fortunately, this deck features a boatload of ways to mitigate this problem, like Chromatic Star, Conjurer’s Bauble, and Grinding Station.
Eventually, you’ll be able to chain enough spells together to make Aetherflux Reservoir a lethal win condition. Alternatively, Altar of the Brood and Grinding Station have the potential to Mill your opponents out. You just need to ensure that you don’t lose via decking first, which Feldon’s Cane and Elixir of Immortality make trivial.
A One-Dimensional Gameplan
As a whole, what makes this deck scary to play against is its incredibly consistent game plan. With the help of accelerants such as Mana Vault and Grim Monolith in the mix, this deck threatens to jam Mm’menon quite early in the game. From there, as long as Mm’menon sticks, having access to so much redundancy amongst your artifacts is a blessing.
Unfortunately, though, this one-dimensional path to victory can also be a curse. With such a low land count and a Commander that naturally costs five mana, getting Mm’menon removed or countered multiple times can be problematic. While tools like Defense Grid can provide some recourse, you won’t always have protection in a timely manner.
Things get even worse when facing down problematic hate cards. All it takes is a Null Rod effect to hit the table, and you’re in a world of trouble. Unlike most blue decks, you don’t even get to use free counterspells to stop these disruptive elements from landing without messing up your own game plan.
In this sense, Mm’menon in cEDH is the epitome of a glass cannon. Still, there’s no denying that the deck is capable of powerful things, as this tournament performance ultimately shows. If you aren’t prepared, you may end up on the wrong side of the matchup.
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