Over the past few years, many powerful Universes Beyond legends have been printed. For better or for worse, the massive influx of new legends has drastically shaken the Commander ecosystem. This extends beyond just casual play, as a multitude of Universes Beyond Commanders have already made waves in the Duel Commander and cEDH spheres.
The good news is that players now have more fun build-arounds than ever. With how dominant generic Partner decks are in cEDH, it’s cool to see Commanders like Iron Man, Titan of Innovation make a splash in a competitive environment. Iron Man takes some work to maximize, but the payoff is huge if you can get your engine rolling.
Iron Man, Titan of Innovation in cEDH
At a baseline, what makes Iron Man, Titan of Innovation such a sweet Commander is its versatility. Right away, the turn you resolve Iron Man, you’re able to attack and at minimum sacrifice the Treasure he generates to tutor up a one-mana artifact. On top of that, though, if you already have other noncreature artifacts in play, you have the luxury of upgrading them to something more powerful. In this sense, Iron Man functions as a strong toolbox option.
The key to ensuring Iron Man pulls its weight in cEDH is to have a healthy mix of strong tutor targets and artifacts to sacrifice up the curve. Unsurprisingly, many of your cheaper artifacts are ramp elements that help you get Iron Man into play quicker. Mana Vault and Prized Statue are among the strongest options in an Iron Man shell because they provide an initial burst of mana, then can be converted into more impactful artifacts after fulfilling their purposes. If you’re lucky, you can even set up a window where you steal an opposing artifact with Treasure Nabber, then sacrifice it to Iron Man before your opponent gets it back.
From there, this deck features a wealth of different options to search for that help in various situations. Having consistent access to hate pieces such as Cursed Totem, Damping Sphere, and Grafdigger’s Cage that excel in different matchups is extremely powerful. In grindy games, grabbing The One Ring or Mystic Forge can pull you far ahead on cards. Even grabbing protective equipment like Hammer of Nazahn has value, making it more likely you untap with your Commander.
Closing Games
Beyond being a strong value engine, Iron Man also helps you assemble artifact-based combo kills. There are a handful of different avenues that you can take to close games, and one of the simplest kills revolves around Sensei’s Divining Top. All you need to do is find a cost reduction effect like Etherium Sculptor, as well as a card like Mystic Forge that lets you play artifacts from the top of your library. From there, you get to repeatedly tap Sensei’s Diving Top, and then recast it from the top of your deck. As you draw through your whole library, Aetherflux Reservoir should end the game. Notably, there’s plenty of redundancy available for both roles, with Enthusiastic Mechanaut, Foundry Inspector, Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass, and The Reality Chip all present.
Another simple way to churn through your deck is to use the powers of Grinding Station, Underworld Breach, and Mox Opal. Each time you sacrifice Mox Opal to Grinding Station, you Mill three cards. This conveniently enables you to cast Mox Opal again and keep the chain going. Eventually, you’ll find a win condition and have plenty of mana to cast it.
Even outside of infinite combos, pairing Iron Man with beefy equipment like Excalibur, Sword of Eden and Grafted Exoskeleton allows you to threaten one-shot kills. Being able to win in a variety of ways is powerful, and Iron Man does a great job finding any missing pieces of the puzzle.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Thanks to his tutoring ability, Iron Man gives Artifacts decks a unique identity in cEDH. Even though he isn’t the most efficient Commander out there, Iron Man has Haste, and sometimes it only takes one attack to get your money’s worth.
That being said, things can get awkward if Iron Man bites the dust prior to getting an attack in. Other tutor effects are present in the deck, but the speed of your combo plan goes down significantly if Iron Man is kept off the table. Plus, as a deck heavily centered around artifacts and their activated abilities, facing down opposing hate cards like Collector Ouphe can be problematic.
While these weaknesses do hurt Iron Man’s chances of emerging as a top tier cEDH choice, this Hero does have the potential to run away with the game if you catch your opponents off-guard. So, don’t be surprised if Iron Man continues to pop up in cEDH tournaments in the future.
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