Zabaz (EDH / Commander)

This deck is a 'budget deck', intended as a christmas gift for Wolfos. The commander was chosen since he hits the theme of artifacts and metal things really well, and enables colors that are needed.

The main theme of the deck are the modular creatures, which Zabaz directly supports with his first ability. This makes the modular creatures a lot better then they would be. Combined with the second theme, it allows to quickly increase gain a lot of value. The second theme is a graveyard focused strategy, were artifacts in the yard are either 'recycled' and put back into the hand, battlefield or used otherwise.

Also i would like to add, that the inclusion of Arcbound Slasher (Ares) and Arcbound Tracker (Sadie) is quite fitting here :) Both cards are not only fitting very well into the deck, they are also very fitting here. And of course, Osgir may have been chosen as a representation of you :P

Lands
The lands are very basic, the deck in total requires more than 80% generic mana to cast the spells, which means we can get away with a super easy mana base. There are a few utility lands, mainly Karn's Bastion, which is probably the most powerful land in the deck. Other important lands are Slayers Stronghold and Sunhome, which both can make combat very much one-sided. Rogue's Passage is also great if you need to get around blockers.

Ramp
The most important part of any magic deck is ramp, this deck has a good amount of it. Despite the mana curve being fairly low (you rarely will cast the cards which cost more than 5 mana), the ramp cards will provide a lot of quick mana to really get going by turn 4 at least. Most of them are fairly easy, with Liquimetal Torque being a standout since you can also use it to change non-artifacts your opponents control, or give your own non-artifacts the artifact type and thus granting them boni they previously wouldnt have gotten. Skyclave Relic is great since it scales so good into the late game, and Blinkmoth Urn can generate like 20 mana without any issues. Its the real bomb to make everything go explosive.

Draw
The category is split between recurring effects like Skullclamp, Mask of Memory or Teshar, which are just very powerful tools to get consistent card advantage. The other cards are mostly there to either just fill a gap (Cathartic Reunion and Thrill of Possibility) or to get recurred from the graveyard. Chromatic Star, Ichor Wellspring and the Prophetic Prism are awesome cards to just exchange with other cards, drawing in the process for basically free.

Control
There isnt much to say here, the cards will control the situation on the board and can remove threats.

Synergy
This category has many of the most important cards in the deck. Goblin Welder is an all-star for graveyard decks and can be awesome to turn a simple Chromatic star into a Parhelion II or Arcbound Lancer. Its a great card that should be missing. It also allows to swap opponent cards around, which can be fun. The Goblin Engineer works a bit different, but is still a great card. Oswald is another tutor that can work wonders. Osgir creates value from artifacts in the yard, but be careful since you have to exile them and cant access them after that. Cathars' Crusade is probably the strongest card in the deck, making the small creatures in just a few casts into giant monsters. Felidar Retreat serves a similar purpose, but is a bit weaker in this deck since it cant be abused many times per turn. The cards Reckless Fireweaver, Unbreakable Formation and Rebbec, Architect of Ascension are powerful game ending threats when deployed.

Artifacts
This is a giant mix out of cards that you want to play and either use for attacking or recurring them from the graveyard. A simple swap with Goblin Welder between Arcbound Slasher and Arcbound Lancer will generate a lot of increases in power for creatures.

Which cards to search for in what situation
The deck features a few way to search for specific cards. Its an important tool to add more consistency and react to whatever is going on at the opponents.

The best ramp cards are Sol Ring, Liquimetal Torque, Palladium Myr, Solemn Simulacrum and Blinkmoth Urn. Depending on the board state and what sort of graveyard interaction is present, one target is better then the other. But these are usually the stars here. Having mana is really important, but its important to not over-commit everything at once.

Best card draw effects: Skullclamp is a true allstar in this deck if there is a loop of creatures present which can be swapped into and out of the yard, this can draw so many cards. Ichor Wellspring follows very closely as its a great card to get into and out of the yard by itself. It draws less, but also requires no extra setup. Its a very powerful tool that should often be tutored for.

Cards that can get things out of the graveyard again: Goblin Welder, Goblin Engineer, Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, Junk Diver, Scrap Trawler, Workshop Assistant, Arcbound Reclaimer, Sanctum Gargoyle - This list is very long and should guarantee that you always have access to at least 1-2 effects. They are especially powerful when combined, like a Junk Diver that swaps places with another artifact (like Ichor Wellspring) via a Goblin Welder. These sort of loops make it very easy to just acquire a lot of value.

Weaknesses
Of course, every deck has weaknesses and this is no exception. While there are some cards that can protect your artifacts, they can get easily removed by the right cards. Thankfully, not too many players play a lot of boardwipes such as Vandalblast, but they do exist. Since its a graveyard deck, it can be quite resilient against normal removal and will only be slowed down a little bit. But its important to never over-commit everything to the board if its not needed.

The other major weakness is the way to close out games. While there is a Reckless Fireweaver, its not enough to actually kill the opponents completely at once. You can zap their health a bit, but thats all. Thankfully its not needed. The deck features quite a lot of ways to reach the opponents, with Rebbec serving as the most powerful tool. She enables attacks and protects basically against anything. Other great cards are Unbreakable Formation and all the ways to increase +1 counter via Proliferate, Felidars Retreat, Cathars Crusade and so on. They are immensely powerful in this deck, that already has a lot of natural synergy. But you still have to attack to actually finish the opponents.