In EDH, being able to get ahead on mana is a huge advantage. Thanks to the format’s slow nature, getting ahead of your opponents early can keep you ahead for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, though, elite sources of ramp are hard to come by in non-green decks.
This is a big part of what makes Grand Architect such a unique Commander card. With the right support, this mono-blue creature can pull you super far ahead on mana. There’s even a variety of powerful combos to assemble that make Grand Architect quite a fearful card.
MTG Grand Architect
For just three mana, Grand Architect offers two extra mana by itself. While this ability does restrict what you can spend the extra mana on, any dedicated artifact deck is bound to have a plethora of ways to utilize the mana. This floor isn’t bad already, and it doesn’t take much to get more utility out of Grand Architect.
The simplest way to get your money’s worth is to combine Grand Architect with token producers. Cards like Chasm Skulker or Alela, Artful Provocateur can provide plenty of fuel to feed Grand Architect’s final ability. Notably, Sai, Master Thopterist, Access Denied, and other cards that spit out non-blue tokens can still generate mana with Grand Architect after being converted to a blue creature.
Once you’re able to flood the board with tokens, you’ll want some big bombs to cast. Fortunately, Artifacts strategies typically have no shortage of expensive cards, including Portal to Phyrexia and Darksteel Forge. In case you still have mana left over, Grand Architect pairs especially well with mana sinks like The Cyber-Controller and Hangarback Walker that have no upper limit in casting cost.
It’s important to remember that mana generated by Grand Architect can be funneled into activated abilities, too, making this creature a solid inclusion in Memnarch and Piper Wright, Publick Reporter decks. In a similar vein, you can always use the excess mana Grand Architect creates to pay for hefty equip costs on artifacts like Helm of the Host. Even using Grand Architect to help flood the board with tokens once you assemble the Sword of the Meek and Thopter Foundry combo can be quite powerful. With the help of Forsaken Monument and other mana doublers, Grand Architect can pop off pretty hard.
If these synergies weren’t enough, Grand Architect also enables Commanders like Kilo, Apogee Mind and Unctus, Grand Metatect that pay you off when you tap them. Similarly, this creature does a nice job setting up Arbiter of the Ideal and other cards featuring the Inspired mechanic.
Numerous Combos
As powerful as Grand Architect is in general, it becomes more appealing when you use it as a combo piece. So long as you turn Pili-Pala into a blue creature, for example, you have infinite mana of any color. From there, winning the game is trivial.
As you might imagine, with Grand Architect breaking Pili-Pala so easily, a few other cards also create some gnarly infinite combos. Knacksaw Clique and Mycosynth Lattice, for example, combine with Grand Architect to mill your opponents’ libraries, so long as you override Lattice’s color-change with Grand Architect’s ability. Similarly, animating Staff of Domination with a card like Karn, the Great Creator allows Grand Architect creates infinite mana, thanks to the Staff’s ability to untap itself. Thanks to this, you’ll also unlock infinite Staff of Domination activations, drawing infinite cards, and gaining infinite life.
A Cheap Engine
Between all of these avenues to victory, Grand Architect is a one-of-a-kind ramp machine that deserves more attention. Even though its mana restriction ultimately limits its appeal outside of Artifacts decks, the popularity of these archetypes combined with this creature’s potential to take over a game makes it extremely exciting.
Grand Architect is also very cheap, which only heightens its appeal. With Scars of Mirrodin copies selling for roughly $1, there’s never been a better opportunity to pick up this budget upgrade for your blue Artifacts Commander deck.
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