Eggs: Primer
Hi everyone! My name is Sam, also known as Ashanti on MTGO, and I'm a videogame project producer, but I love to play Magic, especially combo strategies.
There are certain decks that additionally of being a combo deck have a solitaire essence and today I want to share some concepts on an old archetype that is having a comeback!
Thanks to the release of Wild of Eldraine we have finally got the missing piece, to have eggs is back on the menu! Beseech the Mirror acts primarily as four additional copies of Faith's Rewards, as we can basically use the Bargain cost and cast any other spell that we want or need to cast. Back in the days we had Second Sunrise, but this card was banned for a while now, and people tried different things to keep the archetype alive, like Open the Vaults or Bring to Light in order to have access to more “resurrection” effects. Nothing really worked out because the difference between 4 CMC and 5 or even 6 is huge in the Modern format.
The Eggs archetype is a powerful but infamous combo deck that is known for its long final turns. In paper tournaments, Eggs decks have been known to obliterate the round timer by taking very long turns to work towards a kill that may not even be certain. Despite its lack of fame, Eggs is a powerful deck that can be very difficult to beat.
Current list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5897575#online
Short explanation how this deck works:
Basically the combo relies on low-cost artifacts that you can sacrifice and that, when entering or leaving the battlefield, allow you to draw cards.
The strategy is to sacrifice as many artifacts and lands as possible and recover them with Faith’s Reward, repeating the process to draw all the cards from the deck.
The deck has several ways to win, generally using Pyrite Spellbomb, Bolas Citadel, Wish to find a SB wincon but the list of wincons is very long due to the effect that once you created the loop you can go for any wincon you like. With the addition of the LOTR set, players started to use different ways to play around The One Ring effect, too.
The deck requires a lot of practice as there are tons of lines that might look good but aren't optimal but the good thing is that you can play solitaire alone and practice, as we don’t care a lot about what our opponent is doing. The best way to learn how it works is by playing, since what we do will depend largely on the situation of the game. Cards that we have to pay attention to are Orcish Bowmaster, Brotherhood's End, The One Ring, Force of Vigor. Of course, keep in mind your life total and possible counters.
Some tips based on the games I’ve played:
Short recap, the combo is based on playing all the possible artifacts, then sacrificing them all and returning them to the battlefield, in this way we will draw cards, when we have drawn the entire deck (or we are missing one or two cards to draw) we can finish with the opponent repeating these steps:
1. Sack some of Lotus Bloom to add 3 white mana and 3 red mana.
2. Sack Pyrite Spellbomb to deal 2 damage to the opponent.
3. Cast Faith’s Reward
4. Place Faith's Reward at the bottom of the library with Conjurer's Bauble and draw... another Faith's Reward.
Can also make a big board activate Bolas Citadel sacking it to itself and other 9 artifacts, then Faith's Reward bring everything back and do it again.
Another way to win is by using Codex Shredder, it requires a little more mana (which is usually not a problem), but you don't need to draw the entire deck.
1. Sacrifice artifacts and lands to get at least 10 mana.
2. Sacrifice Pyrite Spellbomb to deal 2 damage to the opponent.
3. Cast Faith's Reward
4. Sacrifice Codex Shredder to recover Faith's Reward.
Note that by repeating steps 1, 3 and 4 you can generate infinite mana, which allows you to win in other ways.
Tip: In order to not get stuck in the middle of the combo, every time Lotus Bloom and our lands come back we generate more mana. Important tip, it's worth mentioning that in order to maximize the chance to draw faiths reward each loop. You first bauble back faiths reward, then crack GQ/fetches, then pop the eggs.