Is EDH too expensive for you? Wanna play a fun deck that doesn't cost a fortune? Then allow me to introduce you to....Poor Man's EDH. For under $75 you can own a cool, powerful, and fun EDH deck that isn't too limited. To think, this entire idea began when I wanted to run Necropotence in EDH and needed a mono-black Commander. Funny how it didn't even get put into the deck (mainly budget reasons) yet i still really like this deck. Artifact decks are always boring Esper or oddly enough nowadays mono-red. So, after checking some new Kaladesh cards (finally) I figured, "Why not try Black Artifacts?" Thus, this deck came to be. Enjoy!
The Cursed Golden City, a place lost in the reaches of Nyx, realm of the Gods of Theros. Legend has it that Erebos, God of the Dead, keeps a King trapped in this City to produce Gold for Erebos to craft into the Returned masks. This King was cursed to produce gold with his very touch. Long ago, the old God of the Temple of Abandon visited the mighty King Macar and his lost city, disguised as a beggar seeking shelter. King Macar was infamous for his greed and love of gold, so he demanded the beggar give him all his gold in return for shelter. The beggar stated he had none and Macar attempted to cast him out. The old God revealed himself, and with a sinister grin cursed King Macar for his actions: Now and for all, anything he touched would turn to gold. At first, Macar reveled in this curse. As time when by, he rapidly understand it's extent and in a panic he began trying to find something he couldn't turn to gold. In a single night, everyone that hadn't fled the city was turned to gold, as well as anything that was carried in the panic. Macar knew without his touch he could not eat, and that no one would dare enter his City as long as he was cursed. So, he made a deal with Erebos. If Erebos kept him alive to seek a cure, he would help craft the God's masks. Of course...this is only legend. Surely, none could enter Nyx and seek out this king. Surely, none could find the legendary Cursed Golden City. Only in a myth could one seek the King and promise him a cure....if he would guide their forces into battle. Surely....this couldn't have been you....
King Macar's deck revolves around two aspects: creature control and artifacts. Fortunately, King Macar, the Gold-Cursed gives you both of these powerful assets in one card. Whenever King Macar becomes untapped, he touches a creature with his cursed hands, exiling it and creature a gold artifact token on your side of the field that can be sacrificed for one of any mana color. While many consider Macar to be weak due to a need to untap and tap reliably, you will very rapidly realize that getting him tapped with this deck is incredibly easy. You come prepared with plenty of cards that can tap down your creatures, like Rathi Trapper and Icy Manipulator, as well as a few untap outlets, like Sword of the Paruns and Puppet Strings. Even better, before Macar's City fell to his curse, he was rumored to have great Vehicles, artifacts that allow you to tap any number of creatures whose power add up to the Crew cost to turn them into creatures. Not only are these Vehicles tremendous threats, like Untethered Express, but their Crew cost allows you to tap Macar to turn them into creatures. To make things even better, you don't even need to attack with them, you can just use them to tap down Macar every turn!
Now, with all these Gold artifact tokens you can creature, you must be asking, "Can I do anything other than ramp mana with these?" Why, of course! This deck has a bit of an artifact theme to it! Not only does it run all these love tap artifacts, untap artifacts, and Vehicles, it also runs a few ways to gain even more advantage from all these artifacts and the Gold tokens. Battle at the Bridge and Herald of Anguish both have Improvise, which allows you to tap artifacts as you cast them to make them cost one colorless mana less. The best part about this is that if you use Gold tokens, you can tap them, then sacrifice them to pay for two! To add to this artifact synergy, you can give every nonartifact spells in your deck Improvise with Inspiring Statuary! You also come prepared with Buried Ruin, which can pull an artifact from your graveyard, Inventor's Fair, which can pull an artifact from your deck, and a few Artifact lands to give you a few lands to keep with this theme. Your most powerful artifact synergy comes from one woman hiding in the shadows of your deck. That woman is Marionette Master. At first glance, a six mana 1/3 is considered a joke, but that's what she wants you to think. Marionette Master comes with Fabricate, which lets you add either three 1/1 Servo artifact tokens to the battlefield or three +1/+1 counters to her when she enters the battlefield. Both are absolutely wicked, because whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, each loses life equal to her power. So, either she adds to your Improvise or she quickly levels opponents life totals. Why? Because if someone is stupid enough to Vandalblast when she's out, that means everyone will lose a ton of life. Or....you could just equip her with Lashwrithe when you have six swamps and two other artifacts on the field, then use Nevinyrral's Disk to destroy all artifacts as well as make all opponents lose 40 life......
Outside of your artifacts, Macar brings a nice variety of ways to control the board in addition to some much needed ways to gain card advantage. Cards like Decree of Pain wipe the board clean, cards like Dark Petition like you tutor out some key cards, and cards like Bloodgift Demon let you draw cards. All of these cards give you even better positioning in the game, whether it be by destroying that pesky Sheoldred that is running rampant or giving you the card draw needed to pull off combos like Marionette Master with Nevinyrral's Disk. However, in case Macar can't get the job done alone with all his tapping, he brought two friends. Servant of Tyramet and Night Market Lookout give you drain every time they tap. (with the Servant it's due to untapping and the Lookout due to tapping) If you are looking to try and close a game quickly, you can always throw out some Vehicles and tap artifacts with Macar, the Servant, and the Lookout. This will help produce a huge engine for you, killing off creatures and gathering huge pools of life almost every one of your turns. If it's late game and you just need a quick kill, you can always just Corrupt the other surviving player with a large quantity of Swamps of the battlefield. At the end of it all, the remains of the battle history just witnessed with be made of glimmering gold, and all the legends will add to the tale of King Macar.