Budget Commander: Sydri, Galvanic Genius

budget commander sydri galvanic genius combos for days

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Gears In Motion

The poll results are in and Sydri, Galvanic Genius is the clear winner. Thanks to everyone who voted! I'm very pleased with the results as the more I researched this new project, the more excited I became to playtest this amazing artificer.

I absolutely love Artifact decks and Sydri is no exception. Artifact decks are like a big pile of cogs and gears that you can assemble together in limitless ways, mixing and matching the pieces to assemble tons of killer machines. There's so much synergy, cool interactions, and game-winning combos to play with! Every hand, every board state feels like there's a bunch of cool new tricks to discover, making each game feel different than the last.

One of the most important puzzle pieces in the deck is Sydri, Galvanic Genius herself. This gorgeously illustrated commander synergizes with all the artifacts in your deck. Her most basic utility is to turn any random artifact on your board into a scary lifelink and deathtouch threat, allowing you to defend from attacks with your animated Clock of Omens or swing in with a 7/7 lifegain Spine of Ish Sah. But that's just the tip of the iceberg with this fascinating commander.

Version A: Combos For Days

Sydri works best as a multilayered combo deck and that is how I recommend building her. Instead of breaking the deck down into my usual Ramp, Disruption, Card Advantage, etc. I will instead showcase two budget lists and the combos you can assemble within them: that way you have a much better idea of what Sydri is all about and cool interactions to look out for.

First up is my cheapest budget list, something I feel works great as a first step into the wonders of Esper Artifacts:

Here is Version A, a starter deck under $60. Most of the cards have straightforward applications; Return to Dust is incredible removal, Dimir Signet is mana-fixing and ramp. But hidden in this list are layers upon layers of sweet interactions and combos that may not be easy to spot.

Let's start with Sydri, Galvanic Genius herself. Some sweet interactions are:

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We've got a few combos without Sydri, too! Here's two that I've noticed:

Grand Architect + Pili-Pala = turn Pili into a blue creature, tap it for mana using Architect, untap it for mana with Pili's ability, rinse repeat for infinite mana that you can use to wipe the board with Capsize or other silliness.

Time Sieve + Thopter Assembly = sacrifice all the thopters to take an extra turn, recast Foundry, rinse repeat for infinite turns.

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Version B: More Combos!

If you're digging the feel of the deck and are looking for more sweet combos to play with, here's the next upgrade in the budget deck:

This version has upgrades in the manabase, ramp, disruption, blahblah... and more combos! Sweet, delicious combos! Let's see what new things we can do:

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Further Upgrades:

Those are pretty much all the combos I can think of with Sydri — the pieces aren't all that expensive. The price tag really skyrockets once you start upgrading the manabase, ramp, tutors, disruption, basically the rest of the deck.

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Vote For The Next Budget Commander!

Pick which commander will be the next topic by voting here! Since a lot of people voted for Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and Marchesa, the Black Rose last poll, I'm adding them again to this one.

Follow me on Twitter @BudgetCommander for notifications on when the next article is up, updates on future decks, and input for what to work on next. Thanks for reading!