Dr. EggmanDr. Eggman | Art by Nathalie Fourdraine

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) set brought a bevy of goods to a variety of creature types, some more subtle than others, as I noted in my Typal Set Review. Last week, the focus was on Rats, but this week we’re shifting to another unsung creature type that starts with an R: Robots.

Robotics has long been a fascination in science fiction, especially with regards to the works of Isaac Asimov. He created the Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human or allow harm to come to one.
2. A robot must obey human orders unless they conflict with the first law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence unless it conflicts with the first or second laws.

We’ll see just how closely this Dr. EggmanDr. Eggman Commander deck tech follows these laws.

Robot History in Magic

Robots don’t have nearly the pedigree of Rats from last week, but they do tend to pop up when Science siction is invoked. Unfinity brought in Clown Robots, some of which were Legacy-legal without the mark of the acorn. Edge of Eternities brought Robots into a mainline in-universe set, as it was set in space, with the Robots largely acting like Droids in Star Wars.

Spider-Man then brought in Robots as tools of villains like Doctor Octopus. Our commander is also a villain from a non-Magic IP, Dr. EggmanDr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, introduced to Magic via a Secret Lair.

What Does Dr. EggmanDr. Eggman Do?

Dr. Eggman is neither an artifact nor a Robot, but he is the only commander that references Robots and he provides access to Grixis colors. This gives us a wide array of Robots, enabling us to make a proper Typal deck. He's a five-mana 3/6 with flying, which are solid defensive stats. He also draws a card a turn in the end step, so we get the card the first turn he’s out. The most powerful aspect of him, however, is that he gives our opponents a villainous choice every turn, to either discard a card or let us drop a Robot right onto the battlefield.

This ability gives us an interesting problem: Do we go wide with small Robots, or go big with huge ones? Because of the diverse roles Robots can serve, we can actually do both. And there are plenty of cards that offer generic win-cons for an artifact-based deck; Artifacts is one of the more popular themes on EDHREC for a reason.

These give the deck incredible afterburners, blasting opponents out of our way. But how do the little mechanos do different jobs? And what jobs do we need them to do?

Key Cards for Dr. EggmanDr. Eggman

One of the rules of robotics is that Robots are supposed to serve Humans, and they do a great job of that, ironically even better than Servos. In general, the jobs commander decks usually do are:

• Draw cards
• Ramp/fix mana
• Remove threats

Survey MechanSurvey Mechan does a little bit of everything, as it’s a protected evasive defensive creature that can pop itself for a load of cool effects if it can sit around on the battlefield long enough. We get a Lightning BoltLightning Bolt, a Healing SalveHealing Salve, and an Ancestral RecallAncestral Recall, all for the price of 10 mana, albeit reduced for each differently-named land we control.

Voidforged TitanVoidforged Titan draws us a card a turn if a nonland permanent left the battlefield, which we can accommodate pretty easily. Whether sending a small creature to its death in combat or sacrificing a little guy for benefit, we should have ways to trigger it. And in the meantime, it’s still a 5/4 body.

Operating and optimizing apparently both mean making mana for artifacts, because that’s what they both do. They might not fix our mana the way Arcane SignetArcane Signet does, and they can’t help cast our commander, but we have plenty of big creatures to ramp into.

MetalheadMetalhead is one of those big creatures, as a five-mana UnsummonUnsummon attached to a powerful sacrifice ability, scrapping Robots to grow itself and gain haste and menace. Diversion UnitDiversion Unit is a solid trick, being able to pop itself to Spell PierceSpell Pierce. If we can do this with Voidforged TitanVoidforged Titan out, we can even draw cards off of the exchange!

But how do we get our mana’s worth out of our commander’s ability with all these small machines?

What’s better than warping in a 9/9 for three mana? Keeping it around for free! Bygone ColossusBygone Colossus is an absolute beating in a deck like this. Relentless X-ATM092Relentless X-ATM092 is a large, evasive threat with what is effectively super-menace. It can even come back from the grave, albeit only once.

Since we have three colors, we need to be able to cast our spells more than we need value out of our mana base. I generally make this distinction because adding more colors often means adding more options and more power, at the cost of the consistency of the mana base. There are exceptions, of course, but my typical rule is that one- and two-color decks get utility lands while three or more colors get mana-fixing.

How Does This Dr. EggmanDr. Eggman Commander Deck Win?

While not a proper Robot, Cyberdrive AwakenerCyberdrive Awakener is the eminent win condition in Artifacts decks. It gives all artifact creatures we control flying, and it turns noncreature artifacts, like our Arcane SignetArcane Signet and Time SieveTime Sieve into 4/4 creatures, which then get flying. Krang, Utrom WarlordKrang, Utrom Warlord is probably the best card in the deck, as it gives our artifact creatures flying, indestructible, trample, and haste in addition to being a 9/9 and a Robot we can drop into play with our commander!

In short, we’re looking to win by swarming the board with Robots of a range of sizes, using removal to interact with opposing boards and big, splashy board-growing effects to break parity and enable big swings.

Dr. Eggman Commander Deck List

Conclusion

Robots are an interesting and versatile creature type. There are a range of ways to build them, including our big bang shots, sacrificing and recycling them in an Izzet version of Aristocrats, and delving deeper into the ramp aspect.

But how would you build Robots? And who would you have command the other variants?