For some reason I was inspired the other night to brew a weird tribal deck with Melek, Izzet Paragon as the commander. Well, it turns out there are only 7 weirds, including Melek, in all of Magic and this significantly complicates building a 100 card highlander tribal weird deck. One way to inflate the numbers would be to include all the UR changelings, but then the deck looks more like draft leftovers tribal instead of weird tribal. Another option, the one I'm going with, is to take advantage of Melek being the commander and run instants and sorceries which can copy weirds. The drawback to this approach is that we effectively can't run Petrahydrox because most of the cards that copy also target, so we're down to just 5 weirds in the 99. Fortunately, URMelek decks have been known to look at a few extra cards over the course of the game; hopefully enough to offset the weird shortage.
While brewing this deck I've come up with a rule: No creatures allowed which would be the obvious best target for a copy spell, e.g.Adaptive Automaton, Mulldrifter, Solemn Simulacrum and Scrivener. Imperial Recruiter doesn't break the rule because each copy corresponds to another weird. I really wanted Retraced Image and Mitotic Manipulation to reliably be ramp spells in this deck and that led me to not include any fetchlands and use a high basic-land count. This in turn led to the Scrying Sheets engine which can still clear lands from the top of the deck, even if not as efficiently as a fetchland. Smash was an impulse inclusion when I realized what a beating Grafdigger's Cage is against this deck. It may not be necessary. There are also a bunch of cards that could have, but didn't quite, make the list:
Cathartic Reunion only missed the cut because I'm afraid of countermagic. That might not be an especially rational fear and this card would have to go back in.
I mean, copied tokens from Thunderheads will stick around, so I guess there's the play of replicating out a bunch of 3/3 defender weirds at end of turn then untapping and radiating a Fated Infatuation. Still, what am I going to do with a bunch of 3/3 defenders? I'll keep thinking on it.
Mirror Match may save you from an all out assault.
I would take out Cloud Key to put in Purphoros, God of the Forge. Cloud key never works when you want it to but Purphoros would work amazingly well with Mirror Gallery and a number of clones.
I am pretty sure that there is a counterspell that allows you to make a copy of the creature or artifact you countered.
Mirror Match may save you from an all out assault.
Sure, but aside from the fact that it makes tokens it's a bit random for this deck. I guess copies of those tokens would persist past the end of turn, but whatever because they're probably not weird tokens.
I would take out Cloud Key to put in Purphoros, God of the Forge. Cloud key never works when you want it to but Purphoros would work amazingly well with Mirror Gallery and a number of clones.
I am pretty sure that there is a counterspell that allows you to make a copy of the creature or artifact you countered.
You might be thinking of Desertion, which doesn't do quite what you're saying.
Edit: The only really expensive card on this list that I'm missing is Imperial Recruiter so I'm trying to build it. Bit irritating, though, since there are a lot of $5-10 cards that I don't own. I feel like goldfishing this deck would answer a lot of questions about how to build it right.
1 Melek, Izzet Paragon
Weirds
1 Blistercoil Weird
1 Frostburn Weird
1 Gelectrode
1 Fluxcharger
1 Steamcore Weird
Spellslinging
1 Mind's Desire
1 Past in Flames
1 Mizzix's Mastery
1 Epic Experiment
1 Radiate
1 Zada, Hedron Grinder
1 Mirrorwing Dragon
Clone Spells
1 Twinflame
1 Cackling Counterpart
1 Fated Infatuation
1 Heat Shimmer
1 Rite of Replication
1 Stolen Identity
1 Saheeli's Artistry
1 Clone Legion
1 Sakashima the Impostor
1 Mirror Gallery
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Brainstorm
1 Magmatic Insight
1 Ponder
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Frantic Search
1 Compulsive Research
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Deep Analysis
1 Distant Melody
1 Plea for Power
1 Time Spiral
Interaction
1 Force of Will
1 Arcane Denial
1 Into the Roil
1 Mana Drain
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Smash
1 Chaos Warp
1 Cryptic Command
1 Baral's Expertise
Ramp & Reduction
1 Mana Crypt
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Retraced Image
1 Grim Monolith
1 Baral, Chief of Compliance
1 Goblin Electromancer
1 Sapphire Medallion
1 Curious Homunculus
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Cloud Key
1 Mitotic Manipulation
1 Jace's Sanctum
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Command Tower
1 Volcanic Island
1 Steam Vents
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Deserted Temple
1 Tolaria West
1 Terrain Generator
1 Scrying Sheets
6 Snow-Covered Mountain
20 Snow-Covered Island
While brewing this deck I've come up with a rule: No creatures allowed which would be the obvious best target for a copy spell, e.g. Adaptive Automaton, Mulldrifter, Solemn Simulacrum and Scrivener. Imperial Recruiter doesn't break the rule because each copy corresponds to another weird. I really wanted Retraced Image and Mitotic Manipulation to reliably be ramp spells in this deck and that led me to not include any fetchlands and use a high basic-land count. This in turn led to the Scrying Sheets engine which can still clear lands from the top of the deck, even if not as efficiently as a fetchland. Smash was an impulse inclusion when I realized what a beating Grafdigger's Cage is against this deck. It may not be necessary. There are also a bunch of cards that could have, but didn't quite, make the list:
So, what do you think? This is obviously a silly deck but I'd like to see how good I can make it be at what it does.
It occurs to me that with a mass haste provider Blistercoil Weird, Gelectrode and Fluxcharger are all reasonable win conditions, when copied a bazillion times. Anger is probably best since it can find its way into the graveyard in any number of ways (and Imperial Recruiter finds it), and with Anger involved Intuition should probably also come in. I'm thinking about cutting the other weirds for Anger and Intuition, as well as making room for Paradise Mantle, Dizzy Spell and Drift of Phantasms. But what to cut?
I would take out Cloud Key to put in Purphoros, God of the Forge. Cloud key never works when you want it to but Purphoros would work amazingly well with Mirror Gallery and a number of clones.
I am pretty sure that there is a counterspell that allows you to make a copy of the creature or artifact you countered.
BURWGSliver Hivelord's alt wincon deck at Maze's EndBURWG
GWBSidar Kondo and Ikra Shidiq likes big butts
RUMizzix of the Izmagnus Super ThiefRU
BURWGGeneral Tazri, The Megazord AllyBURWG
BURJeleva Mill and Kill BUR
BRGrenzo's get out from under that deck!BR
WUG Roon's Enchanted Evening (enchantment deck) WUG
BUG The Undersea World of Tasigur CousteauBUG
BWGAnafenza, Counter QueenBWG
Sure, but aside from the fact that it makes tokens it's a bit random for this deck. I guess copies of those tokens would persist past the end of turn, but whatever because they're probably not weird tokens.
How does Cloud Key not work when I want it to? Purphoros would only really do a good amount of damage when I make a Cackling Counterpart to Zada.
You might be thinking of Desertion, which doesn't do quite what you're saying.
Edit: The only really expensive card on this list that I'm missing is Imperial Recruiter so I'm trying to build it. Bit irritating, though, since there are a lot of $5-10 cards that I don't own. I feel like goldfishing this deck would answer a lot of questions about how to build it right.