Ith not about the size of the cage, but how you abuse it.
Eat your heart out Experiment Kraj! One of my favorite cards in the game is Necrotic Ooze due to all the crazy combinations it can create with access to the hundreds of unique activated abilities in Magic. So it should be no surprise that upon seeing Mairsil, the Pretender I jumped straight out my chair and straight onto cockatrice to begin brewing. Mairsil is a commander who opens the door to lots of different styles of decks and even more unique combos of abilities thanks to extending his scope into artifacts. This will be my first draft of the deck and if r/edh is any indication, there should be a whole lot more Mairsil players who will help expand the rage cage.
The main objective here is to play a sort of reanimator/control deck with all manner of activated abilities while also setting up various combos that can help close out games. Prioritizing what to exile with Mairsil will be key for setting up victory and I've tried to include backup lines of play should he be unavailable or simply un-castable.
Protecting Mairsil from the constant dangers of a multiplayer game is going to be tough. The protection package I've selected also doubles as a way to add prisoners to the cage via blink. Argent Sphinx, Aetherling, Essence Flux, and Ghostly Flicker as well as a counter suite will hopefully ensure the deck gets to its end game.
While reanimation and control are cool the real meat and potatoes of this deck are the crazy activated ability based combos at our disposal. Between Mairsil and Necrotic Ooze there is loads of potential options but here are the ones I chose.
Duskcrank Duskmantle Guildmage+Mindcrank. You only need to activate duskmantle once to get this combo started and once it does you can kill/mill a player outright.
Gilded Navigator Deadeye Navigator+Mairsil with a caged gilded lotus+haste outlet.
Tap Mairsil (UUU floating), Blink Mairsil (U floating), Repeat using infinite U to tap for other colors (infinite WUBRG).
Devoured Ballista Phyrexian Devourer+Walking Ballista. Use the exile clause to get to the needed power then shoot them all at somebody with Ballista. This combo is risky but it has worked wonders in my other ooze build although that includes a way to fling (Jarad)
CHANGELOG
Jace Vryn's Prodigy --->Spikeshot Elder
Reason: So I didn't realize Jace doesn't work the way he used pre-SOI and thus he is a lot less helpful in what we are trying to accomplish. Replaced with spikeshot elder who can allow for another way to deal damage with the devourer combo.
There you have it. My newest pride and joy. There are several other cards that I did not go through yet or are pretty self explanatory and there also might be some sub-optimal choices but these will hopefully be fleshed out as I continue to work on the deck alongside others. I look forward to the discussions ahead and I hope this at least gave people ideas for their own builds.
The Jace, Vryn's Prodigy thing was errata'd and rule changed back in Shadows over Innistrad, trying to transform Ooze or Him will just exile them. Also you may have neglected the timing of Aetherling's flicker or Mairsil's once a turn clause in some of the combos you have listed
Mairsil also exiles from your hand to use the ability. So you could just as easily add a lot of drawing capabilities in order to fill your hand, which would also fuel him.
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Rainbow Efreet is an excellent way to protect Mairsil, although it costs UU and doesn't let him cage new cards. I think I'd prefer it over Argent Sphinx because the Metalcraft ability makes the protection pretty shaky.
Have you considered Pack Rat? You can cage the discarded card with the token copy, which you then proceed to sacrifice to the legend rule. However, you can also keep the copy in order to blank spot removal. And if you have training grounds, the activation costs only B (+ a card you're probably going to cage).
It's a bit less comboriffic and more value-y. I included some good recursion/reanimation "value targets" (Wurmcoil Engine, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Noxious Gearhulk, Avatar of Woe, Sphinx of Magosi, Steel Hellkite, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Arcanis the Omnipotent etc.) and ways to get them back (Feldon of the Third Path, Tortured Existence, Havengul Lich, Mimic Vat, Phyrexian Reclamation) so that the deck's plan doesnt hinge on Mairsil sticking 100%. Yes, the cards stay caged forever and if you cage the right cards you can protect him pretty well, but it's never bad to have some kind of backup plan. There's still a decent overlap between cards you may want to cage and cards you may want to reanimat, for example you can cage Feldon to repeatedly reanimate Arcanis for carddraw, but you can also cage Arcanis to have that ability "secured" on your commander. Untappers like Aphetto Alchemist and Vizier of Tumbling Sands are on double duty, untapping artifacts (or lands) for ramp and allowing Mairsil (or the respective artifacts/creatures) to use tap abilities multiple times or on opponents turns. Fatestitcher would be another option here.
I think one or two more "cage-enablers" would be great, but aside from Argent Sphinx, there aren't many more or less obvious options (Nephalia Smuggler is too expensive). I'm considering Etherium-Horn Sorcerer as a "value provider" (since I'm only running one counterspell anyway atm) that can provide Mairsil with another self-bounce ability.
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Rainbow Efreet is an excellent way to protect Mairsil, although it costs UU and doesn't let him cage new cards. I think I'd prefer it over Argent Sphinx because the Metalcraft ability makes the protection pretty shaky.
Have you considered Pack Rat? You can cage the discarded card with the token copy, which you then proceed to sacrifice to the legend rule. However, you can also keep the copy in order to blank spot removal. And if you have training grounds, the activation costs only B (+ a card you're probably going to cage).
It's a bit less comboriffic and more value-y. I included some good recursion/reanimation "value targets" (Wurmcoil Engine, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Noxious Gearhulk, Avatar of Woe, Sphinx of Magosi, Steel Hellkite, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Arcanis the Omnipotent etc.) and ways to get them back (Feldon of the Third Path, Tortured Existence, Havengul Lich, Mimic Vat, Phyrexian Reclamation) so that the deck's plan doesnt hinge on Mairsil sticking 100%. Yes, the cards stay caged forever and if you cage the right cards you can protect him pretty well, but it's never bad to have some kind of backup plan. There's still a decent overlap between cards you may want to cage and cards you may want to reanimat, for example you can cage Feldon to repeatedly reanimate Arcanis for carddraw, but you can also cage Arcanis to have that ability "secured" on your commander. Untappers like Aphetto Alchemist and Vizier of Tumbling Sands are on double duty, untapping artifacts (or lands) for ramp and allowing Mairsil (or the respective artifacts/creatures) to use tap abilities multiple times or on opponents turns. Fatestitcher would be another option here.
I think one or two more "cage-enablers" would be great, but aside from Argent Sphinx, there aren't many more or less obvious options (Nephalia Smuggler is too expensive). I'm considering Etherium-Horn Sorcerer as a "value provider" (since I'm only running one counterspell anyway atm) that can provide Mairsil with another self-bounce ability.
Thanks for sharing suggestions and yeah dude I love seeing other people's lists! I prefer Argent Sphinx to the efreet as even though the ability is harder to set up, the payoff of being able to exile and return on any turn is pretty big. I can however see situations where waiting until the untap phase could be helpful against multiple opponents.
I can't believe I overlooked pack rat and it will definitely go in for testing. Not only can it help enable Mairsil but I'm drooling at the thought of multiple Necrotic Ooze.
I like that your list has lots of cards that overlap when working towards the overall strategy. I definitely think that Chainer, Dementia Master would fit with what you're trying to accomplish. If Chainer is caged Mairsil can bring back value creatures and you never have to worry about stuff getting exiled.
Honestly I think phasing would be the better protective option if your plan is to get to the late game. Blinking every turn s very powerful obviously, but Metalcraft is relatively easy to interact with. Your opponent just has to fire off a Vandalblast or destroy one of your artifacts with Reclamation Sage to keep you off the effect. I'm probably still going to try out Argent Sphinx though, maybe it's possible to make it work consistently enough.
Speaking of artifacts, I just noticed Mirage Mirror in your list. Looks really nice actually - its ability is cheap and allows Mairsil to either turn into an opponent's fattie or an utility/value permanent and protects him from all kinds of removal by giving him the ability to transform into a land. I'll definitely try to find a spot for it in my list. I could see myself running it over Rainbow Efreet since it also does something on its own, although I've yet to see how desirable the whole "protection until untap step" thing is.
As for Chainer, the ability looks very tempting since you don't have to sac the Nightmares, but I'm a bit apprehensive of the relatively restrictive cost. Requiring something like UUU for Arcanis once is one thing, but I don't know about paying BBB multiple times. I'll test him, but I'm sceptical for now.
Honestly I think phasing would be the better protective option if your plan is to get to the late game. Blinking every turn s very powerful obviously, but Metalcraft is relatively easy to interact with. Your opponent just has to fire off a Vandalblast or destroy one of your artifacts with Reclamation Sage to keep you off the effect. I'm probably still going to try out Argent Sphinx though, maybe it's possible to make it work consistently enough.
Speaking of artifacts, I just noticed Mirage Mirror in your list. Looks really nice actually - its ability is cheap and allows Mairsil to either turn into an opponent's fattie or an utility/value permanent and protects him from all kinds of removal by giving him the ability to transform into a land. I'll definitely try to find a spot for it in my list. I could see myself running it over Rainbow Efreet since it also does something on its own, although I've yet to see how desirable the whole "protection until untap step" thing is.
As for Chainer, the ability looks very tempting since you don't have to sac the Nightmares, but I'm a bit apprehensive of the relatively restrictive cost. Requiring something like UUU for Arcanis once is one thing, but I don't know about paying BBB multiple times. I'll test him, but I'm sceptical for now.
You make a valid case for choosing the efreet over the sphinx and so I will be sure to test both next weekend and report on which one stands out.
Forgot to mention it in the protection section but Mirage Mirror has been an absolute house in some of my other decks so it was a no-brainer here, especially with the ability to transform Mairsil into anything on board.
I hear you on the triple colored costs. This is why I run the filter lands to help make these requirements somewhat easier to manage.
I'm probably never going to run a Mairsil deck but I'm going to love seeing the deck being run. This looks like an awesome deck.
Do you think Hateflayer's ability would be very useful?
Thanks! I’m super pumped to begin testing it and I think that win or lose this deck is going to lead to some crazy games. At first glance Hateflayer is a better Spikeshot Elder, especially when caged. The untap is what is most tempting here and so I might make some swaps to try it out.
I am going to add a test list section for cards that are going to rotate in and out. There is already a long line of cards waiting to get in but what should I cut? Playtesting will help answer this question but do any cards currently stand out for the chopping block?
Some quick swaps I can see are:
Argent Sphinx-->Rainbow Efreet (Metalcraft may prove to be too fragile and if so this is better protection) Spikeshot Elder-->Hateflayer (The flayer costs more to play but the ability to untap and still deal damage is huge) The Scarab God-->Arcanis, the Omnipotent (More card draw/a quick eject button would be nice and I’m worried TSG might exile valuable cage fodder)
Keep the suggestions coming!
I would also add mana dorks. That way you're also able to produce mana and untap for profit. You're already running Morphling. Combine that with something like Magus of the Coffers and things will get pretty intense.
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What about using Sage of Hours and Anthroplasm for infinite turns? Using Buried Alive or Intuition you can put the entire combo into your gy then just cast Mairsil and blink it to finish off the combo.
So I just got home from an initial test run (playgroup let me proxy) and hoo boy are there lots of changes I have in mind. The deck performed alright in its first two games and I guarantee it only gets more fun from here. I'll be updating the above deck heavily tomorrow or Tuesday along with semi detailed game reports.
I would also add mana dorks. That way you're also able to produce mana and untap for profit. You're already running Morphling. Combine that with something like Magus of the Coffers and things will get pretty intense.
I thought about this at first but most of the non-myr mana dorks in these colors either only add 1 colorless or don't really help more than caging a signet would. Magus is interesting however and I'll have to look into testing it.
if you want to fill your graveyard then Mirror-Mad Phantasm let's you mill your entire deck at instant speed with mairsill.
I'm less looking at combo potential and more at building a control deck with big dumb things for mairsil to do. Like Deepfire Elemental
Mirror-Mad Phantasm is definitely an all or nothing type of card and if combo is the desired goal then it's a shoe in. I was trying to combo hard at first but I guess I lightened up a bit on that with the next version of this deck and I'm a little gun shy about emptying a chunk of my library. I'd be very interested to see how it performs for you!
Kind of surprised by lack of Sakashima. Getting all of those activated abilities a second time each turn is incredibly nice.
My problem is that unlike Necrotic Ooze Sakashima requires Mairsil to be on board and if that happens I would rather be focused on dumping mana into his activated abilities. Having two non hasty activated triggers with no mana to abuse them is less than ideal in my opinion. He's a great clone to be sure but I'd probably run Clever Impersonator if I needed a clone (which may happen eventually)
What about using Sage of Hours and Anthroplasm for infinite turns? Using Buried Alive or Intuition you can put the entire combo into your gy then just cast Mairsil and blink it to finish off the combo.
I thought about this combo but beyond space issues I don't this would cost five mana beyond what I would have to spend to set up the combo. Most of the combo pieces here serve dual functions in the deck while Sage of Hours is dead outside of it and Anthroplasm is slower than Phyrexian Devourer at building up counters. If the deck was more +1/+1 counter heavy (I'm sure a version will arise) then this combo is probably an auto include.
Brick counters sound fun but overall I just don't think there's space against my playgroup for slower effects such as these. I do really love the charge counter route and I hope someone builds that version as it's something I might do after I refine this one.
Entomb is definitely in the updated list. Now forgive me if I missed it but wouldn't Shorecrasher Elemental return Mairsil to the battlefield face down with no way to morph back?
Thanks everyone for the replies and suggestions! I'll try and get the main post updated tomorrow evening!
Entomb is definitely in the updated list. Now forgive me if I missed it but wouldn't Shorecrasher Elemental return Mairsil to the battlefield face down with no way to morph back?
Thanks everyone for the replies and suggestions! I'll try and get the main post updated tomorrow evening!
Yeah, I overlooked the face down portion of the Shorecrasher. My bad.
Entomb is definitely in the updated list. Now forgive me if I missed it but wouldn't Shorecrasher Elemental return Mairsil to the battlefield face down with no way to morph back?
Thanks everyone for the replies and suggestions! I'll try and get the main post updated tomorrow evening!
Yeah, I overlooked the face down portion of the Shorecrasher. My bad.
If Shorecrasher Elemental is exiled with Mairsil, wouldn't the morph ability also be copied? Wouldn't it be able to morph back up?
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Eat your heart out Experiment Kraj! One of my favorite cards in the game is Necrotic Ooze due to all the crazy combinations it can create with access to the hundreds of unique activated abilities in Magic. So it should be no surprise that upon seeing Mairsil, the Pretender I jumped straight out my chair and straight onto cockatrice to begin brewing. Mairsil is a commander who opens the door to lots of different styles of decks and even more unique combos of abilities thanks to extending his scope into artifacts. This will be my first draft of the deck and if r/edh is any indication, there should be a whole lot more Mairsil players who will help expand the rage cage.
Mairsil, the Pretender
1x Academy Ruins
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Cascade Bluffs
1x Command Beacon
1x Command Tower
1x Crumbling Necropolis
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Graven Cairns
1x Great Furnace
6x Island
1x Mana Confluence
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
2x Mountain
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Steam Vents
1x Strip Mine
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Sunken Hollow
1x Sunken Ruins
3x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Vault of Whispers
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Watery Grave
Enchantment (6)
1x Animate Dead
1x Dance of the Dead
1x Fervor
1x Monastery Siege
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Training Grounds
1x AEtherling
1x Anger
1x Argent Sphinx
1x Baleful Strix
1x Blighted Bat
1x Bloodline Keeper
1x Burnished Hart
1x Chainer, Dementia Master
1x Clever Impersonator
1x Deadeye Navigator
1x Duskmantle Guildmage
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1x Spikeshot Elder
1x Jodah's Avenger
1x Memnarch
1x Morphling
1x Necrotic Ooze
1x Phyrexian Devourer
1x Quicksilver Elemental
1x The Scarab God
1x Tree of Perdition
1x Trinket Mage
1x Walking Ballista
Sorcery (6)
1x Buried Alive
1x Damnation
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Reanimate
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Vandalblast
1x Dimir Signet
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Izzet Signet
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mindcrank
1x Mirage Mirror
1x Oblivion Stone
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Sol Ring
1x Staff of Domination
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Thousand-Year Elixir
1x Gilded Lotus
Instant (11)
1x Arcane Denial
1x Brainstorm
1x Chaos Warp
1x Counterspell
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Disallow
1x Essence Flux
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Ghostly Flicker
1x Intuition
1x Swan Song
Avg. CMC: 3.02
The main objective here is to play a sort of reanimator/control deck with all manner of activated abilities while also setting up various combos that can help close out games. Prioritizing what to exile with Mairsil will be key for setting up victory and I've tried to include backup lines of play should he be unavailable or simply un-castable.
While reanimation and control are cool the real meat and potatoes of this deck are the crazy activated ability based combos at our disposal. Between Mairsil and Necrotic Ooze there is loads of potential options but here are the ones I chose.
Duskcrank
Duskmantle Guildmage+Mindcrank. You only need to activate duskmantle once to get this combo started and once it does you can kill/mill a player outright.
Grimgrin's Bloodline
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born+Bloodline Keeper+Aetherling/Jodah's Avenger. Generate a vampire and then devour until Mairsil or his pet Ooze reach the desired power then swing away.
Gilded Navigator
Deadeye Navigator+Mairsil with a caged gilded lotus+haste outlet.
Tap Mairsil (UUU floating), Blink Mairsil (U floating), Repeat using infinite U to tap for other colors (infinite WUBRG).
Devoured Ballista
Phyrexian Devourer+Walking Ballista. Use the exile clause to get to the needed power then shoot them all at somebody with Ballista. This combo is risky but it has worked wonders in my other ooze build although that includes a way to fling (Jarad)
Jace Vryn's Prodigy --->Spikeshot Elder
Reason: So I didn't realize Jace doesn't work the way he used pre-SOI and thus he is a lot less helpful in what we are trying to accomplish. Replaced with spikeshot elder who can allow for another way to deal damage with the devourer combo.
There you have it. My newest pride and joy. There are several other cards that I did not go through yet or are pretty self explanatory and there also might be some sub-optimal choices but these will hopefully be fleshed out as I continue to work on the deck alongside others. I look forward to the discussions ahead and I hope this at least gave people ideas for their own builds.
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My YouTube Channel:
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Have you considered Pack Rat? You can cage the discarded card with the token copy, which you then proceed to sacrifice to the legend rule. However, you can also keep the copy in order to blank spot removal. And if you have training grounds, the activation costs only B (+ a card you're probably going to cage).
Here's my own list so far if you're interested:
1 Mairsil, the Pretender
// 14 Artifact
1 Expedition Map
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Dimir Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Izzet Signet
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Mimic Vat
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
// 28 Creature
1 Apprentice Necromancer
1 Havengul Lich
1 Aetherling
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Aphetto Alchemist
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Bonded Fetch
1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1 Feldon of the Third Path
1 Tree of Perdition
1 Rainbow Efreet
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 The Scarab God
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Sphinx of Magosi
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Baleful Strix
1 Mulldrifter
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Royal Assassin
1 Vizier of Tumbling Sands
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Kefnet the Mindful
1 Pack Rat
1 Walking Ballista
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Tortured Existence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Fervor
1 Training Grounds
// 11 Instant
1 Entomb
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Careful Consideration
1 Disallow
1 Curtains' Call
1 Mystic Confluence
1 Pull from Tomorrow
1 Reality Shift
1 Evacuation
1 Ghostly Flicker
// 37 Land
1 Command Tower
1 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Canyon Slough
1 Fetid Pools
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Graven Cairns
5 Swamp
5 Island
4 Mountain
1 High Market
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Temple of Malice
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Buried Alive
1 Fabricate
1 Vandalblast
1 Sever the Bloodline
It's a bit less comboriffic and more value-y. I included some good recursion/reanimation "value targets" (Wurmcoil Engine, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Noxious Gearhulk, Avatar of Woe, Sphinx of Magosi, Steel Hellkite, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Arcanis the Omnipotent etc.) and ways to get them back (Feldon of the Third Path, Tortured Existence, Havengul Lich, Mimic Vat, Phyrexian Reclamation) so that the deck's plan doesnt hinge on Mairsil sticking 100%. Yes, the cards stay caged forever and if you cage the right cards you can protect him pretty well, but it's never bad to have some kind of backup plan. There's still a decent overlap between cards you may want to cage and cards you may want to reanimat, for example you can cage Feldon to repeatedly reanimate Arcanis for carddraw, but you can also cage Arcanis to have that ability "secured" on your commander. Untappers like Aphetto Alchemist and Vizier of Tumbling Sands are on double duty, untapping artifacts (or lands) for ramp and allowing Mairsil (or the respective artifacts/creatures) to use tap abilities multiple times or on opponents turns. Fatestitcher would be another option here.
I think one or two more "cage-enablers" would be great, but aside from Argent Sphinx, there aren't many more or less obvious options (Nephalia Smuggler is too expensive). I'm considering Etherium-Horn Sorcerer as a "value provider" (since I'm only running one counterspell anyway atm) that can provide Mairsil with another self-bounce ability.
Yeah, something along that vein. That way you can fill your hand all while finding things for Mairsil to cage.
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Thanks for sharing suggestions and yeah dude I love seeing other people's lists! I prefer Argent Sphinx to the efreet as even though the ability is harder to set up, the payoff of being able to exile and return on any turn is pretty big. I can however see situations where waiting until the untap phase could be helpful against multiple opponents.
I can't believe I overlooked pack rat and it will definitely go in for testing. Not only can it help enable Mairsil but I'm drooling at the thought of multiple Necrotic Ooze.
I like that your list has lots of cards that overlap when working towards the overall strategy. I definitely think that Chainer, Dementia Master would fit with what you're trying to accomplish. If Chainer is caged Mairsil can bring back value creatures and you never have to worry about stuff getting exiled.
Speaking of artifacts, I just noticed Mirage Mirror in your list. Looks really nice actually - its ability is cheap and allows Mairsil to either turn into an opponent's fattie or an utility/value permanent and protects him from all kinds of removal by giving him the ability to transform into a land. I'll definitely try to find a spot for it in my list. I could see myself running it over Rainbow Efreet since it also does something on its own, although I've yet to see how desirable the whole "protection until untap step" thing is.
As for Chainer, the ability looks very tempting since you don't have to sac the Nightmares, but I'm a bit apprehensive of the relatively restrictive cost. Requiring something like UUU for Arcanis once is one thing, but I don't know about paying BBB multiple times. I'll test him, but I'm sceptical for now.
Do you think Hateflayer's ability would be very useful?
You make a valid case for choosing the efreet over the sphinx and so I will be sure to test both next weekend and report on which one stands out.
Forgot to mention it in the protection section but Mirage Mirror has been an absolute house in some of my other decks so it was a no-brainer here, especially with the ability to transform Mairsil into anything on board.
I hear you on the triple colored costs. This is why I run the filter lands to help make these requirements somewhat easier to manage.
Thanks! I’m super pumped to begin testing it and I think that win or lose this deck is going to lead to some crazy games. At first glance Hateflayer is a better Spikeshot Elder, especially when caged. The untap is what is most tempting here and so I might make some swaps to try it out.
I am going to add a test list section for cards that are going to rotate in and out. There is already a long line of cards waiting to get in but what should I cut? Playtesting will help answer this question but do any cards currently stand out for the chopping block?
Some quick swaps I can see are:
Argent Sphinx-->Rainbow Efreet (Metalcraft may prove to be too fragile and if so this is better protection)
Spikeshot Elder-->Hateflayer (The flayer costs more to play but the ability to untap and still deal damage is huge)
The Scarab God-->Arcanis, the Omnipotent (More card draw/a quick eject button would be nice and I’m worried TSG might exile valuable cage fodder)
Keep the suggestions coming!
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My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
You could play both Oracle's Vault and Pyramid of the Pantheon here and both their abilities will charge brick counters and enable both their second abilities. This grows stronger with untap effects.
Same for charge counters. Charge counters with Coalition Relic, use them for Astral Cornucopia or Everflowing Chalice, remove them with Gemstone Array.
Rings of Brighthearth is a must.
EDIT: I noticed you don't have Entomb.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
I thought about this at first but most of the non-myr mana dorks in these colors either only add 1 colorless or don't really help more than caging a signet would. Magus is interesting however and I'll have to look into testing it.
Mirror-Mad Phantasm is definitely an all or nothing type of card and if combo is the desired goal then it's a shoe in. I was trying to combo hard at first but I guess I lightened up a bit on that with the next version of this deck and I'm a little gun shy about emptying a chunk of my library. I'd be very interested to see how it performs for you!
My problem is that unlike Necrotic Ooze Sakashima requires Mairsil to be on board and if that happens I would rather be focused on dumping mana into his activated abilities. Having two non hasty activated triggers with no mana to abuse them is less than ideal in my opinion. He's a great clone to be sure but I'd probably run Clever Impersonator if I needed a clone (which may happen eventually)
I thought about this combo but beyond space issues I don't this would cost five mana beyond what I would have to spend to set up the combo. Most of the combo pieces here serve dual functions in the deck while Sage of Hours is dead outside of it and Anthroplasm is slower than Phyrexian Devourer at building up counters. If the deck was more +1/+1 counter heavy (I'm sure a version will arise) then this combo is probably an auto include.
Brick counters sound fun but overall I just don't think there's space against my playgroup for slower effects such as these. I do really love the charge counter route and I hope someone builds that version as it's something I might do after I refine this one.
Entomb is definitely in the updated list. Now forgive me if I missed it but wouldn't Shorecrasher Elemental return Mairsil to the battlefield face down with no way to morph back?
Thanks everyone for the replies and suggestions! I'll try and get the main post updated tomorrow evening!
Yeah, I overlooked the face down portion of the Shorecrasher. My bad.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
If Shorecrasher Elemental is exiled with Mairsil, wouldn't the morph ability also be copied? Wouldn't it be able to morph back up?
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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