Explorer Paradox Engine Combo Deck Guide

Hey everyone! Today I’m going to be covering my best of one (bo1) Paradox Engine combo deck in Explorer which I recently used to go 34-11 across 5 constructed events on Arena. This is a very all-in combo deck that’s trying to string together infinite loops using Paradox Engine to win the game.

I’m going to be explaining all of the card choices as well as breaking down all of the most common combo lines the deck has, discussing why I prefer this deck in best of one, and also how you could build it in best of three if you wanted to.

I’ve had so much fun playing this deck and if you like combo decks with lots of intricate lines then this is definitely the deck for you! I’ve also put up a video on my YouTube channel with a full constructed event’s worth of gameplay if you’re interested in seeing the deck in action.

Paradox Engine:

This is by far the most important card in the deck since every combo loop requires a Paradox Engine in play so being able to find this and also ramp into it before turn 5 is really important. The reason I’m only running 3 copies in the main deck is because I’m running the 4th copy in the sideboard which you can grab off Karn, the Great Creator, essentially giving you 7 copies of Paradox Engine in the main deck.

The way Paradox Engine enables infinite loops is by untapping your non-land mana sources every time you cast a spell – the deck is running 16 non-land mana sources which tap for mana, so if you tap all of your non-land mana sources before casting a spell, Paradox Engine will untap them giving you all of that mana back. The idea then is to use this repeated mana in order to set up an infinite loop to win the game (I’ll be breaking down all of the most common loops later in the article).

The Non-Land Mana Sources:

Mox Amber, Llanowar Elves, Moonsnare Prototype, and Tangled Florahedron are all mana producers that you can use to ramp into your top-end cards like Paradox Engine, Karn, the Great Creator, and Storm the Festival, while also providing repeated mana once you have a Paradox Engine in play.

These are by far the most important cards in the early game so you should typically never keep a hand without at least one of these, as having a fast start with this deck is very important. Courier's Briefcase is also a mana producer you can use to ramp, but it doesn’t produce mana off Paradox Engine since it’s single-use rather than tapping for mana.

Storm the Festival:

Since ramping and finding Paradox Engine are two of the most important parts of the deck, this is a really important card that acts as both an additional payoff for ramping, as well as being able to dig for Paradox Engine and other combo pieces.

Since a fairly big portion of the deck is focused on ramping, I felt like having a higher density of ramp payoffs was really important and Storm the Festival being able to dig for specific combo pieces and put them directly into play is huge and can often set you up to immediately combo off. The flashback is also nice at giving at providing an additional mana sink later in the game, as well as providing additional value if you mill it over with Emry, Lurker of the Loch.

The Combo Enablers:

This is one of the most important creatures in the deck as it essentially doubles up the mana you get from all of your non-land mana sources (including Courier's Briefcase) as well as providing a mana sink for that mana.

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy can enable some insanely fast starts, especially in conjunction with Mox Amber eg. turn 1 Llanowar Elves, turn 2 Mox Amber followed by Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy – both Llanowar Elves and Mox Amber will now produce 2 mana each which then allows you to play Karn, the Great Creator on turn 2 as well.

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy doubling the mana on your non-land sources is also very important at enabling some of the infinite loops, as most of them require a specific amount of repeatable mana to pull off. Additionally, the activated ability on Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy is great as it provides a mana sink if you’re left in a situation with a lot of ramp and not much else going on. This can then help you dig for either Emry, Lurker of the Loch or The Reality Chip which are both great ways to utilise extra mana.

Most of the time we’re hoping to cast this for 1 mana, but casting this for 2 mana on turn 2 or 3 mana on turn 2 off a Llanowar Elves is completely reasonable too.

The biggest weakness of Emry, Lurker of the Loch is that it needs to survive a turn cycle in order to use it’s activated ability, so you’ll typically want to prioritise getting this into play as quickly as possible so you can start using it’s ability.

Even on its own, the activated ability on Emry, Lurker of the Loch is great as it allows us to cast Paradox Engine from the graveyard if it’s been milled over or destroyed, as well as providing incremental value by bringing back other artifacts repeatedly. If you have an active Emry, Lurker of the Loch on the battlefield alongside Paradox Engine though, things can get crazy as Paradox Engine will untap Emry, Lurker of the Loch every time you cast a spell which is the basis for basically all of the Emry, Lurker of the Loch loops, more on those later!

Even without Paradox Engine, the reconfigure allowing us to play off the top of the library is really strong and produces a ton of card advantage. Since the deck is only running 18 actual lands, the chances of hitting multiple lands in a row is fairly low and the deck is running a lot of cheap cards so you can often get 4/5 cards a turn off The Reality Chip.

It’s also a great way to dig for Paradox Engine if you don’t have it yet and once you do have it, The Reality Chip can often lead to a combo win the same turn (I’ll explain this in the loops section below).

Similar to Paradox Engine, the reason I’m only running 3 The Reality Chip in the maindeck is because I’m running the 4th copy in the sideboard which you can grab off Karn, the Great Creator.

Karn, the Great Creator: This is one of the most important cards in the deck as it essentially acts as copies 4-7 of Paradox Engine as well as being an essential part of the way the deck wins in all but one of the infinite loops.

The -2 ability to tutor up artifacts is what we’re mainly interested in and I’ll be going through all of the sideboard Karn targets later in the article. The passive ability on Karn, the Great Creator is also very useful against commonly played artifacts like Witch's Oven and Oni-Cult Anvil against sacrifice decks, as well as stopping Greasefang, Okiba Boss decks from crewing their vehicles.

The +1 isn’t actively used very often as your artifacts are usually important so you don’t want to expose them to creature removal but having the option to use it in order to defend Karn, the Great Creator has come up in certain spots.

The Combo Loops:

I’m going to explain all of the most common combo loops in this section. Since the deck has so many moving pieces and a lot of the combos are intertwined and lead into one another, I’m not going to be able to list every single possible combo, but I’m going to go over the main ones that come up most frequently – these are ones you should always be looking out for and trying to set up.

Don’t forget that Paradox Engine will always untap your non-land mana sources when you cast a spell, so it’s really important to remember that you should always tap all of your non-land mana sources before you cast a spell when you have Paradox Engine in play.

Just for clarification, what I mean by ‘mana from repeatable non-land mana source’ is mana you’re able to use from cards like Llanowar Elves, Mox Amber, Tangled Florahedron, and Moonsnare Prototype that will get untapped by Paradox Engine – this doesn’t include single-use mana like Courier's Briefcase or mana dorks that have summoning sickness so can’t tap for mana this turn.

Also don’t forget that Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy doubles the mana from your non-land sources so Mox Amber + Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy will count as 2 mana from a repeatable non-land source for example.

The Emry, Lurker of the Loch Loops

Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Courier's Briefcase + Paradox Engine + 1 mana from repeatable non-land mana source = infinite 1/1 tokens:

1. Sacrifice Courier's Briefcase to produce green mana and send it to the graveyard.
2. Tap your other non-land mana source and target Courier's Briefcase with Emry, Lurker of the Loch‘s ability.
3. Cast Courier's Briefcase from the graveyard using the two mana floating – Paradox Engine will now untap Emry, Lurker of the Loch and the non-land mana source and Courier's Briefcase will put a 1/1 token into play.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 for infinite 1/1 tokens.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Courier's Briefcase + Paradox Engine + 2 or more mana from repeatable non-land mana source(s) (none of which produce green) = infinite 1/1 tokens & infinite mana:

Exactly the same as above but tap all of your non-land mana sources before you cast Courier's Briefcase from the graveyard. This will then produce extra mana every time you do the loop. There’s a section on the ways to win with infinite mana below!

Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Courier's Briefcase + Paradox Engine + 2 or more mana from repeatable non-land mana source(s) (one of which can produce green) = infinite 1/1 tokens, infinite man,a & infinite card draw to win the game:

1. Sacrifice Courier's Briefcase to produce red mana and send it to the graveyard.
2. Tap your other non-land mana sources (make sure you tap for green on at least one of them in order to pay for Courier’s Briefcase) and target Courier's Briefcase with Emry, Lurker of the Loch‘s ability.
3. Cast Courier's Briefcase using 2 of the floated mana but don’t use up the red mana – Paradox Engine will now untap Emry, Lurker of the Loch and the non-land mana sources.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 but produce a different colour of mana instead of red on step 1 until you have one mana floating of each colour.
5. Now you can sacrifice Courier's Briefcase to it’s second ability to draw three cards instead of producing mana.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 until you draw Karn, the Great Creator.
7. Play Karn, the Great Creator and -2 to get Aetherflux Reservoir.
8. Play Aetherflux Reservoir and then repeatedly loop Courier's Briefcase with Emry, Lurker of the Loch – each time you cast Courier's Briefcase it will gain you life off Aetherflux Reservoir. Do this repeatedly until you can pay 50 life to deal 50 damage directly to the opponent to win the game.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch + 2 Mox Amber + Paradox Engine = infinite mana:

1. Tap Mox Amber for mana, then go into full control mode.
2. Cast the second Mox Amber, this will trigger Paradox Engine to untap the first one which you can then tap again before the second one enters the battlefield.
3. The legend rule will apply so select the untapped new Mox Amber to keep.
4. Target the Mox Amber in the graveyard with Emry, Lurker of the Loch‘s ability.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 for infinite mana.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch + 2 The Reality Chip + Paradox Engine + 3 or more mana from repeatable non-land mana sources = infinite mana & sets up for The Reality Chip combo:

1. Tap your non-land mana sources and cast The Reality Chip
2. Tap your non-land mana sources and cast the second Reality Chip which will trigger the legend rule, sending one of them to the graveyard.
3. Tap your non-land mana sources and target The Reality Chip in the graveyard with Emry, Lurker of the Loch‘s ability
4. Repeat steps 2-3 for infinite mana as it will produce one extra mana each time you cast The Reality Chip. This can lead into The Reality Chip combo which is explained below.

The Karn, the Great Creator Loop:

This is potentially the most important loop to learn since it’s the one that comes up most often from my experience and is also how you close the game out using The Reality Chip combo too.

What you need for this loop is a Karn, the Great Creator in hand and Paradox Engine on the battlefield alongside 4 mana’s worth of non-land mana sources (don’t forget you can achieve this with Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy alongside 2 non-land mana sources). You’ll also need a single blue mana somewhere (either off Mox Amber or from a blue land) in order to cast Portal of Sanctuary.

Since this loop has more steps, I’m not going to include reminders to tap your non-land mana sources before casting a spell – so just remember to always tap all of your non-land mana sources at each stage before you cast your next spell.

Karn, the Great Creator + Paradox Engine + 4 or more mana from repeatable non-land mana sources (and blue mana from somewhere) = win the game:

1. Cast Karn, the Great Creator and -2 to get Ancestral Statue.
2. Cast Ancestral Statue and use it’s ability to return Karn, the Great Creator to hand.
3. Cast Karn, the Great Creator and -2 to get Portal of Sanctuary.
4. Cast Portal of Sanctuary and activate it to return Ancestral Statue back to your hand.
5. Cast Ancestral Statue and use its ability to return Karn, the Great Creator to hand.

At this point, if you have a single spare mana anywhere (either from an untapped land or if you have more than 4 mana from repeatable non-land sources) then you can do this slightly shorter loop:

6. Cast Karn, the Great Creator and -2 to get Aetherflux Reservoir.
7. Use the spare mana to bounce Ancestral Statue with Portal of Sanctuary.
8. Cast Aetherflux Reservoir.
9. Cast Ancestral Statue and bounce it back to hand using its own ability.
10. Repeat step 9 over and over again until you have enough life from Aetherflux Reservoir to kill them using Aetherflux Reservoir‘s activated ability.

If you don’t have any spare mana (you only have exactly 4 mana from repeatable non-land mana sources and your lands are all tapped), then do the following instead:

6. Cast Karn, the Great Creator and -2 to get Tormod's Crypt.
7. Cast Tormod's Crypt (4 floating mana spare).
8. Use Portal of Sanctuary to return Ancestral Statue to hand (3 floating mana spare).
9. Cast Ancestral Statue and use its ability to return Karn, the Great Creator to hand.
10. Cast Karn, the Great Creator and -2 to get Aetherflux Reservoir.
11. Use Portal of Sanctuary to return Ancestral Statue to hand (2 floating mana spare).
12. Cast Aetherflux Reservoir.
13. Cast Ancestral Statue and bounce it back to hand using its own ability.
14. Repeat step 13 over and over again until you have enough life from Aetherflux Reservoir to kill them using Aetherflux Reservoir‘s activated ability.

The difference in these two lines here is to simply produce some extra mana so that you can afford to bounce Ancestral Statue back to your hand. Tormod's Crypt is generally the best option to tutor since it’s the cheapest but you can also do this with The Reality Chip if you’ve already used Tormod's Crypt.

The Reality Chip Combo:

The Reality Chip is a bit different in that it’s not a deterministic loop, but it can often win the game the same turn. If you have The Reality Chip reconfigured alongside Paradox Engine and some repeatable non-land mana sources, Paradox Engine will untap all of your non-land mana sources whenever you cast a spell from the top of your library.

In most cases, this will mean you can cast everything from the top of your library until you hit a land you can’t play. The Reality Chip combos tend to produce a lot of mana since you can automatically add to your repeatable mana sources by hitting Mox Amber, Moonsnare Prototype, and Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy off the top of the library so potentially bricking on lands is the main reason this isn’t deterministic.

There are a few ways to get rid of a land on top if you can’t play it though: Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy is generally the best way around this, as if you hit a land on top, you can pump floating mana into Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy‘s ability to put a creature in play, or just put the top 5 cards to the bottom if you don’t hit anything. You can also clear a land off the top if you have Emry, Lurker of the Loch or Storm the Festival in hand or Storm the Festival in the graveyard.

The end goal when comboing with The Reality Chip is to find a Karn, the Great Creator and then win using the Karn, the Great Creator loop as outlined above.

Deterministic Ways to Win With Infinite Mana:

The easiest way to win when you’re able to produce infinite mana is with Karn, the Great Creator:

1. Cast Karn, the Great Creator and -2 to get Aetherflux Reservoir.
2. Cast Aetherflux Reservoir.
3. Continue doing your infinite mana loop until you have enough life from Aetherflux Reservoir to kill them using Aetherflux Reservoir‘s activated ability.

You can also deterministically win with infinite mana using Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, assuming you have access to both green and blue mana in your non-land mana sources:

1. Repeatedly pump some of your infinite mana into Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy until you hit The Reality Chip.
2. Reconfigure The Reality Chip.
3. Keep playing cards off the top of your library until you find Karn, the Great Creator (you can pump mana into Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy‘s ability if you ever brick with lands on top of the library).
4. Perform the Karn, the Great Creator loop to win the game.

Karn, the Great Creator Wishboard:

I felt like tutorable graveyard hate was very important and I really like Tormod's Crypt over other options like Unlicensed Hearse for a couple of reasons. First of all, being 0 mana means you can immediately shut off the opponent’s graveyard the turn you play Karn, the Great Creator, even if you have no extra mana available. Having to wait a turn to cast something like Soul-Guide Lantern or Unlicensed Hearse can often be too slow in these scenarios.

Secondly, it being 0 mana also means that you can tutor for this off Karn, the Great Creator in order to trigger Paradox Engine and get your mana back even if you’re completely tapped out, which can often enable you to combo off a turn earlier.

I like having the fourth copy of this in the wishboard as it’s very useful if you have Paradox Engine, but no other combo enablers, or if you’re light on non-land mana sources. If you already have Paradox Engine and some non-land mana sources but no other combo enablers, you can tutor The Reality Chip off Karn, the Great Creator and set up The Reality Chip combo.

Additionally, if you’re in a situation where you’re light on non-land mana sources (so tutoring Paradox Engine won’t do much) then tutoring for The Reality Chip is a great option to have as you can then start digging for non-land mana sources and other combo pieces off the top of your library.

This is an important part of the Karn, the Great Creator loop. It’s not used for anything else, but the Karn, the Great Creator loop is a really important part of the deck so this feels mandatory to me.

This is the card used to kill the opponent in almost all of the infinite loops (outside of making infinite 1/1s with Emry, Lurker of the Loch) so this is mandatory.

Like Portal of Sanctuary, this is an important part of the Karn, the Great Creator loop.

Fourth copy in the wishboard to maximise our chances of finding it.

Meteor Golem: This is what I would consider the flex slot in the wishboard. I like Meteor Golem as a catch all answer to any problematic permanent the opponent might have. Cards like Archon of Emeria or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben etc can make comboing off impossible in certain spots so Meteor Golem provides a flexible answer to any hate cards the opponent might have. If you’d rather run something else then I provide some alternatives in the ‘Best of 3 Sideboard Options’ section below.

Manabase:

18 actual lands plus 4 Tangled Florahedron that we can also play as lands if we need to has felt like a good amount, considering the amount of ramp cards the deck is running. In terms of the actual lands themselves, I’m running the 12 good dual lands (Botanical Sanctum is significantly better than Dreamroot Cascade as having untapped mana to ramp in the few turns is so important), a couple of each basic and also 2 of each of the channel lands.

I like running 2 Otawara, Soaring City and 2 Boseiju, Who Endures as the deck is very light on interaction because it’s so linear, so having lands that can work as interaction is really useful. Since the deck also has a lot of legendary creatures, you can often reduce the channel cost on both of these cards too.

Why Best-of-One (Bo1)?

This is absolutely a deck that can work in best of three but it has a couple of issues that most best of 3 decks don’t have. Firstly, Karn, the Great Creator is such an important part of the deck, and the 7 cards I’m currently running in the wishboard feel like the bare minimum you’d want. This means that if I were to port this deck to best of 3, I’d probably want to be running more wishboard targets which would leave minimal space for actual sideboard cards.

Secondly, even if you were able to find room for a good amount of actual sideboard cards, the main deck is pretty difficult to sideboard with because it’s so linear. Since the deck is so linear and focused on comboing, any changes you make to the main deck will reduce the overall consistency of the deck.

Therefore, almost every other deck is going to get way more value out of their sideboard going into games 2 and 3 where you won’t, which is why I prefer this deck in best of 1. If you wanted to port this to best of 3, I’ve highlighted some good potential options in the next section.

Best-of-Three Sideboard Options

Potential Extra Karn, the Great Creator Wishboard Options:

Having a land you can tutor with Karn, the Great Creator is great and this is probably the first card I’d add to the wishboard if I were porting this to best of 3.

This is a really useful target that can shut off opposing planeswalkers, cards like Witch's Oven against sacrifice, and it can also prevent Greasefang, Okiba Boss decks from crewing their vehicles.

This is a nice option if you wanted access to removal to kill smaller creatures. The fact that this is 5 mana means you can curve Karn, the Great Creator into this on the following turn, and it can provide repeated creature/ planeswalker removal if you’re able to crew it.

The main purpose of this card is to tutor it when you have Paradox Engine and an Emry, Lurker of the Loch in the graveyard.

You can use Dollhouse of Horrors to make a copy of Emry, Lurker of the Loch which has haste – this will allow you to perform the Emry, Lurker of the Loch loops out of nowhere and you can also reanimate other creatures afterwards since Paradox Engine will untap Dollhouse of Horrors. Additionally, you can also use this to reanimate Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy or The Reality Chip if either of those would help you combo off.

This can be used to give Emry, Lurker of the Loch haste in order to pull off an Emry, Lurker of the Loch loop the turn that you play it.

This is definitely quite a niche card but there have been a number of matches where I could have won immediately if I’d had this in my wishboard but wasn’t able to since I didn’t have it, so if you wanted to go heavier on the wishboard, then this is definitely a consideration.

This is a card that is mainly run as a way to punish control decks for tapping out. Resolving this against control or a slower deck is brutal so this can be useful if you wanted to get more of an edge against the slower decks.

Even though Tormod's Crypt is generally better in this deck, you could potentially run Unlicensed Hearse in addition if you wanted more variety in the graveyard hate you have access to.

The big advantages of Unlicensed Hearse is that it’s not single-use (so is much more effective against decks that repeatedly interact with the graveyard) and you can use it to block and attack with too.

You’re mainly running this for the Restorative Burst side which can allow you to rebuy important cards from the graveyard. If you feel like you wanted access to more value or card advantage then this seems like a good option.

You could also run Mazemind Tome or Reckoner Bankbuster for a similar spot but I’m not really sure they’re much better (apart from maybe in the control matchup).

Actual Sideboard Card Options:

Since the deck is so linear, I think the only matchups I’d want to alter the main deck for are the worst matchups which from my experience are very fast aggro decks, and decks with a lot of varied interaction like control.

I’ve always like Elder Gargaroth as a way to pivot against aggressive decks when playing Paradox Engine since the deck is already running a lot of ramp, so bringing in 3/4 copies of Elder Gargaroth can go a long way to stabilising against aggro decks, especially red-based aggro decks where their removal is unlikely to be able to kill it.

Another way to help stabilise against aggro decks could be to run cheap creature interaction instead. The matchup against aggro is a pure race so bounce spells can often buy you enough time to set up the combo. I think I would personally prefer Elder Gargaroth since it’s much more reliable at stabilising and gives you another avenue of attack.

Against control, I think I would probably go for cheap ways to protect the combo. Tamiyo's Safekeeping seems the better of the two as it scales better into the late game, but Spell Pierce is also nice at stopping the opponent’s proactive plays like Planeswalkers too.

Another way you could try and help against the control decks is to bring in uncounterable creatures that are hard for them to deal with.

I think I prefer cards like Tamiyo's Safekeeping out of the two overall, as you’re more likely to win by protecting your combo than by trying to ride a single threat to victory against a deck with a lot of interaction. Additionally, Tamiyo's Safekeeping and Spell Pierce are also better against a wider section of interactive decks such as RB Midrange.

Tips & Tricks:

• Think twice before playing cheap cards like Mox Amber if you don’t need to play them. If you can hold onto them to play after Paradox Engine in order to untap all of your non-land mana sources, it can often enable you to combo off a turn sooner which can make a huge difference in certain spots.
• The Reality Chip no longer counts as a legendary creature once it’s reconfigured, so make sure to tap your Mox Amber before you reconfigure The Reality Chip if it’s your only legendary creature in play.
• Always play Mox Amber before Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy. If you play them the other way around, the opponent can kill Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy with Mox Amber on the stack which will prevent you from using the extra mana.
• You can press QQ in order to tap Mox Amber and all of your lands – unfortunately this doesn’t tap Moonsnare Prototype, Llanowar Elves, or Tangled Florahedron which means you’ll have to manually click them each time you’re going through a loop. Because of this, learning how to click through these quickly is very important, especially during longer loops as there’s a hard time limit on each turn so you can time out even if you’re playing quickly.
• Don’t forget about the channel ability on Moonsnare Prototype as a way to temporarily deal with any problematic permanent.

Conclusion:

I absolutely loved playing Paradox Engine decks during the brief time they were viable in Historic, so I’ve been having so much fun playing them again in Explorer where it feels really strong! If you like trying to weave together intricate combos then you should definitely give this a try. Thanks a lot for reading!