Tuesday Night Takeover
Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter
EDH June 18, 2026

Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter Combo

17 Views
Article Index

Commander Overview

Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter is a commander that I feel like many players underestimate a lot. It is a value and combo machine that fits extremely well into bracket four. While I don’t think this deck is good for CEDH, it slots very nicely into B4 and has a strong presence there. Jan Jensen is in great colors and is a combo piece in the command zone that we always have access to; it’s quite easy for us to assemble infinite loops and lose cards like Reckless Fireweaver and Disciple of the Vault to ping down all of our opponents. This deck isn’t extremely fast, but it packs a nice suite of removal and a ton of tutors, so in just a few turns, we can set up a combo very easily. While I hadn’t had a ton of experience in bracket 4, I had a ton of success in my testing games and had an absolute blast with this one.


Combo Mardu Bracket 4 Artifacts
Command Zone

Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter

Legendary Creature — Gnome Artificer
$1,323.21

Creature 22

1 Academy Manufactor $6.81
1 Crime Novelist $0.66
1 Disciple of the Vault $0.81
1 Esper Sentinel $59.32
1 Foundry Inspector $0.34
1 Goblin Welder $21.02
1 Grand Abolisher $18.41
1 Hexing Squelcher $21.90
1 Imperial Recruiter $14.35
1 Ingenious Artillerist $0.81
1 Jhoira's Familiar $2.41
1 Marionette Apprentice $0.96
1 Mayhem Devil $0.30
1 Mirkwood Bats $1.71
1 Myr Retriever $3.41
1 Nadier's Nightblade $0.25
1 Orcish Bowmasters $49.36
1 Oswald Fiddlebender $2.00
1 Pitiless Plunderer $6.93
1 Reckless Fireweaver $0.47
1 Voice of Victory $18.57
1 Xorn $7.79

Instant 16

1 Dark Ritual
1 Deadly Dispute
1 Deadly Rollick $28.12
1 Deflecting Swat $67.12
1 Dispatch
1 Enlightened Tutor $37.03
1 Erode $5.37
1 Flashback $4.97
1 Path to Exile
1 Pyroblast $12.52
1 Red Elemental Blast $11.50
1 Silence $10.00
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Teferi's Protection $53.21
1 Untimely Malfunction $7.26
1 Vampiric Tutor $60.87

Sorcery 8

1 Beseech the Mirror $19.41
1 Demonic Tutor $72.10
1 Diabolic Intent $17.73
1 Farewell $6.17
1 Grim Tutor $27.13
1 Imperial Seal $164.05
1 Sevinne's Reclamation $0.32
1 Vandalblast

Artifact 20

1 Arcane Signet $1.10
1 Ashnod's Altar $15.74
1 Bolas's Citadel $17.94
1 Clock of Omens $4.76
1 Defense Grid $6.86
1 Ichor Wellspring $1.67
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks $17.30
1 Liquimetal Coating $1.42
1 Liquimetal Torque $3.42
1 Mephitic Draught $0.20
1 Mycosynth Lattice $34.51
1 Mycosynth Wellspring $0.37
1 Prized Statue $0.38
1 Servo Schematic $0.26
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Conviction
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 The One Ring $108.02
1 Thornbite Staff $22.94

Land 33

1 Arid Mesa $31.39
1 Blood Crypt $10.00
1 Bloodstained Mire $17.33
1 Godless Shrine $9.90
1 Luxury Suite
1 Marsh Flats $31.86
7 Mountain $2.00
7 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry $10.35
1 Savai Triome $20.46
1 Spectator Seating
8 Swamp $2.00
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth $63.55
1 Vault of Champions $17.58

Tokens Used 6

Clue
Food
Orc Army
Servo
Treasure
Warrior

EDH BRACKET

1
Exhibition
2
Core
3
Upgraded
4
Optimized
5
cEDH
Bracket 3 // Upgraded

Beyond the strength of an average precon deck.

  • Late Game 2-Card Infinite Combos
  • No Mass Land Denial
  • Up to 3 Game Changers
  • No Chaining Extra Turns

How to Play the Deck

Playing the deck is pretty simple overall, but can have some complicated turns. Being in Mardu lets us run a ton of tutors in our deck, so we can grab pretty much whatever we want and set up our combos pretty early. Beyond that, committing, committing some strong support artifacts to the board, like Defense Grid or Arcane Signet, can help us a lot in the early game. This is a combo deck through and through, so knowing what you have in the deck and setting up your lines is the most important thing we do.

Synergy’s in the deck

The biggest synergies in our deck are with our commander and artifacts, as well as our combos. Our deck is built with the goal of combo’ing off at the front and center. Because of this, our whole deck is built and set up around that. Some of our best combo synergies are our tutors, which let us grab the pieces we need. Some of our best artifact synergies are cards like Academy Manufactor, which can help a ton with our combo stuff and is mostly just a straight value piece for the deck. One of my favorite synergy pieces in the deck is our damage dealers cards like Disciple of the Vault, Mayhem Devil and Ingenious Artillerist are great damage dealers and a way to turn our infinite loops into actual damage and allow us to end the game, there are a ton of different ways to go off in this game and having damage allows us actually to close out the game.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: Early-game is when we try to be as quick as we can, focusing on setting up our combos, playing out any early artifacts we have, and, most importantly, starting to tutor for our combo pieces. We’re not overly concerned about going off in the first few turns, but we want to get them set up as much as we can.

Mid-Game: The mid-game is almost always where we go off. We do want to be careful. Without a damage dealer, we don’t want to make an infinite loop for no reason, as this does nothing and leaves us extremely susceptible to having our combo pieces removed. We don’t have to go off in the midgame, but we always try to be. In case you’re not prepared, you’re not ready to go off.

Late-Game: We don’t always make it to the late game, but if we do, the core game plan does not change. We are always trying to go off. Combo decks are king in bracket 4, but if more heavy creature decks are at the table, we can tank as much damage as we can. We rarely make it to the late game, but if we do, we keep trying to combo off.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

We don’t have a ton of fast mana but have some very strong sources that carry us a lot, cards like Dark Ritual allow us to get out some cards like Jhoira's Familiar or even mana rocks like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet which are also great pieces of fast mana for the deck. We don’t come out of the gate super fast, but getting our tutors out early and grabbing mana rocks can be great for our deck as well. We’re not a ramp deck, but we have many ways to get out early and a very low overall cost.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

Card advantage is a big part of our deck. At the same time, we don’t have a ton of card draw outside of cards like Skullclamp but since we have so many ways to tutor our combo pieces that we almost always have the exact cards we have want, cards like Grim Tutor, Demonic Tutor and Imperial Seal are all great examples of this.

Removal

While we aren’t a control deck, we can address the biggest problems on the board, especially commanders that our opponents bring out. Cards like Deadly Rollick, Erode, and Path to Exile allow us to cheaply and easily deal with our opponents’ threats. Since we aren’t a very removal-heavy deck, I do tend to be pretty choosy about what we remove. Threat assessment is always tough, but commanders or any direct combo-piece creatures you can identify are almost always a good decision.

Protection

We are very much a feast-or-famine deck, so protection isn’t something we are super interested in, but we do have some sources like Deflecting Swat, which is a great way to redirect removal away from Jan Jensen. Untimely Malfunction is a great option for our deck as well. By far the best piece of protection we have in the deck is Teferi's Protection, which is an all-around great way to keep us from dying or losing all our stuff. Protection isn’t a huge part of our deck, but we do have it built in.

Utility / Support

Let’s highlight my favorite cards in the deck. Cards like Sevinne's Reclamation are a very nice way for us to recover if key artifacts are blown up; being able to flash it back and get two artifacts back can easily let us set back up for a combo. Bolas's Citadel is another great card for the deck; it’s pretty easy for us to cast and, more importantly, provides a ton of card advantage for our deck, which is something we are always looking for. Two cards that really stuck out to me were Grand Abolisher and Silence, stopping our opponents from messing with us on our turn when we almost always go off is extremely important, the same is true for cards like Defense Grid, anything we can do to stop our opponents from messing with us is very strong, especially since we have no way to stop opponents outside of cards like Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast.

Mana Base

Nothing super exciting for our landbase. We have all of the shocks, fetches, and triomes, as well as Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. This allows us to get all of our colors established and have no issues with our manabase. Still, there isn’t anything interesting going on here, just more efficient than anything else.

Win Conditions

Our only win condition is our combos (which you can find described below), Jan Jansen is a combo machine and its extremely easy to combo off with them.

Combos Explained

Mycosynth Lattice + Vandalblast

Combo Sequence
Cost
Starting State
Vandalblast in hand.Mycosynth Lattice on the battlefield.
Prerequisites
5 mana available.
1
Hand
1. Cast Vandalblast for its overload cost, paying to destroy all permanents opponents control.

Results

  • Mass Land Denial.
  • Destroy all permanents opponents control.
×

Goblin Welder + Thornbite Staff

Combo Sequence
Starting State
Thornbite Staff attached to Goblin Welder.Goblin Welder does not have summoning sickness.You control at least one nontoken artifact creature.You have at least one artifact creature in your graveyard.
Prerequisites
5 mana available.
1
Battlefield
1. Activate Goblin Welder by tapping it, sacrificing any artifact creature you control and returning any other artifact creature from your graveyard to the battlefield.
2
Stack
2. Goblin Welder triggers, untapping itself.
3
3. Repeat.

Results

  • Infinite death triggers.
  • Infinite ETB.
  • Infinite LTB.
  • Infinite sacrifice triggers.
×

Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter + Clock of Omens + Liquimetal Torque

Combo Sequence
Cost
Starting State
All permanents on the battlefield.
Prerequisites
You control an additional creature.
1
Stack
1. Activate Liquimetal Torque’s second ability by tapping it, causing Jan Jansen to become an artifact creature until end of turn.
2
Stack
2. Activate Jan Jansen’s first ability by tapping it and sacrificing a creature, creating two Treasure tokens.
3
Stack
3. Activate Clock of Omens by tapping the two Treasure tokens, untapping Jan Jansen.
4
Stack
4. Activate Jan Jansen’s second ability by tapping it and sacrificing a Treasure token, creating two 1/1 Construct creature tokens.
5
Stack
5. Activate Clock of Omens by tapping the two Construct tokens, untapping Jan Jansen.
6. Repeat from step 2.

Results

  • Infinite death triggers.
  • Infinite ETB.
  • Infinite LTB.
  • Infinite sacrifice triggers.
  • Infinite tapped creature tokens.
  • Infinite tapped Treasure tokens.
×

Strengths of the Deck

Our commander is a combo piece that we always have access to.

We can be pretty quick with our combos, setting up and winning quickly and easily.

Weaknesses of the Deck

No blue in Bracket 4 can feel a little bad and be quite tough for us to compete against.

Weak to artifact destruction

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Magda, Brazen Outlaw. Matchup Record: 3-0

This is a pretty good matchup for our deck; they are about the same speed as we are, and without their commander, they don’t do a ton. Watch out for their commander,, as they can pop off quickly,. Try your best to hold up as much removal as you can,, and you should be just fine in this matchup.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Erode, Deflecting Swat and Jhoira's Familiar.

Game 2: Vs Brago, King Eternal. Matchup Record: 3-2

I played against a Stax Bravo. If we act quickly and combo off before they establish the Stax pieces, we should be fine, but overall, this can be tough. We need to play very well and dodge all of their counterspells and other problematic things. Keeping their commander off the board can make them feel the wrath of their tax pieces, so that is key in this matchup as well.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Deadly Rollick, Crime Novelist and Liquimetal Torque.

Game 3: Vs Najeela, The Blade Blossom. Matchup Record: 1-3

I struggled quite a bit in this matchup; it was a rough one overall. Their having access to all five colors is quite tough for us, as they have so many ways to stop us. At the same time, Najeela certainly isn’t a control strategy; they have access to the best of the best in everything, which is quite difficult for our deck to handle. Got to be faster in this one, which most of the time is easier said than done.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Pyroblast, Dark Ritual and Sol Ring.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed this one, as someone who doesn’t play a ton of bracket four, this deck took considerable research, and it was an absolute blast, testing, tinkering, and messing around with a side of CEDH that I don’t normally see. Jan Jensen certainly isn’t the best option in the format. Still, it’s a fun one and certainly a unique one. While I don’t think he would work well in Bracket five, I think he has a very nice home in Bracket four and is a great option. Having a toolbox combo piece in the command zone is always awesome.

Go Ad-Free · $3