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The basis of the engine is there, while Eternal Dragon (easily one of the creatures in the recursion category) will be your win. Cycle to fetch lands and at the opportune moment bring it back for the appropriate beatdown.

Lightning Coils have a great interaction with the Myr Servitors and should be able to help you burst out some 3/1 elementals at a pretty constant rate and act as great Blasting Station fodder. Card draw is extremely important to try and quickly setup the pieces of the deck. Too bad Skullclamp is now banned otherwise you could do some fun stuff with the recurring Myr Servitors.

I enjoy decks that can handle multiple situations, that's where the spellbombs can really come in handy. Aether for more of a controllish bounce element, Sunbeam for a little bit of life game or Pyrite for straight damage to the head. Don't forget you can also use the spellbomb to draw a card and then fish the spellbomb back with one of the salvagers.

Why is recursion good?
If you had a genie and one wish what would you ask for?
A never ending pot of gold?
Ever lasting happiness?
A nice MLT (mutton lecture tomato) sandwich?
Unlimited wishes?

If we ignore the MLT (not that there's anything wrong with a MLT) what do the three other wishes have in common? That's right . . recursion! You keep getting it over and over again, the gold, the happiness or the extra wishes.

Although this is still more of a "seriously fun" deck, it does show several key points on how to build a good recursion deck. The first, and easily the most important point, is that recursion is card advantage. Recursion is at its best when it either removes one of their permanents (e.g. Nekrataal) or when it gains you an extra permanenet or card (e.g. Wayfarer's Bauble).

It also makes the opponent have to use resources to deal with the recurring element.

Player A : Wrath of God to kill the Eternal Dragon.

Player B : OK . . return Eternal Dragon during upkeep.

Player B : Cast Eternal Dragon again.

Does the above scene feel too familiar?

Flashback was a mechanic that has built in recursion. Every card could be used twice, once normally and once more when it's in a graveyard.

Different Possible Recursion Build
The concept of recursion is very much present in all levels of the game, from the brokeness of the Type 1 arena, to the current Type 2 Mirrodin Block Constructed decks.

Current T1
Though I will not admit to being a T1 expert (although I am trying to get into that arena), Control Slavery decks take advantage of 3 cards, namely Goblin Welder, Thirst for Knowledge and Mindslaver. Using the Thirst, or some other means, to get the Mindslaver into your graveyard and then recur it (with the help of the Goblin Welder) to continually steal your opponent's turns. Mindslaver is especially nasty as most T1 decks have an auto lose condition.

Current T2
One of the more interesting decks that is starting to find some play in Mirrodin Block Constructed decks is U/G Shard. (Very nearly sweeping all the way through the last MTG Grand Prix) The idea is very simple and helps to show how recursion can be extremely powerful. The win condition of the deck is the Crystal Shard continually bouncing a Triskelion, of course you use the counters to deal damage before bouncing it back to your hand to do it all over again.

An important point to remember is that recursion doesn't have to be from the graveyard. As illustrated from the Type 2 example, the Crystal Shard can bounce creatures to take advantage of their come into play abilities.

Until next time, remember to reuse and recycle.
And when you hear these hallowed words "Not again", you will know you're doing it right.

Stephen Kok

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