Maybeboard


  1. This deck makes lots of creatures with the help of Anointed Procession and Parallel Lives. Natural Affinity or Insurrection can also up your creature count significantly for one turn.

  2. Cream of the Crop, Congregation at Dawn, Worldly Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, Brainstorm, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Scroll Rack, Sensei's Divining Top, and Volrath's Stronghold can set up game-winning creatures on top of your library.

  3. Deceiver of Form turns all your other creatures into whatever creature you put on top of your library.

  4. Deceiver of Form + Mirror Gallery allows you to multiply the effects of legendary creatures as well.

  5. Win the game. Or have fun. Or both.

Calculations assume 3 opponents without life loss or gain.

In approximate order of winningness:

Deceiver of Form + Pathbreaker Ibex gives trample, +8/+8, +16/+16, and +32/+32 to your army with just 3 creatures, which should be lethal. For some lethal trivia points, you should also inform your opponents that the plural for Ibex can be either Ibexes or Ibices.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight does lethal damage to 3 opponents if you have 3 or more (hitting each opponent with 1), and flies over most creatures.

Biovisionary wins without attacking if you have 4 creatures.

Medomai the Ageless gives an extra turn for each creature you hit with. Drawback of being unable to attack next turn is avoided because your creatures become something else next turn.

Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury allows you to attack for flying damage equal to the number of creatures you have cubed, and kills 3 players if you have 6 or more (only 1 needs to connect per opponent).

Borderland Behemoth potentially deals lethal trampling damage with 6 of them.

Omnath, Locus of Rage burns your opponents to death if you have 7 of them and no Mirror Gallery. Kokusho, the Evening Star does the same if you have 9 of them.

Tidespout Tyrant removes your opponents' permanents if you have a few of them and some spells to cast. Mana Crypt + Sol Ring + Tidespout Tyrant generates infinite mana, and with just 2 Tyrants you can bounce every single permanent your opponents have in the process. Mana Crypt or Sol Ring can also pair in this combo with Everflowing Chalice, Expedition Map, Skullclamp, Sensei's Divining Top, Fellwar Stone, or Thran Dynamo. Mana Crypt will also work with Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Coalition Relic, Scroll Rack, or Conqueror's Flail. Bloom Tender also works with all the above if hasted and you have at least 2 colors of permanents.

Rites of Initiation + Windreader Sphinx draws 25 cards with 5 unblocked sphinxes and deals lethal damage by discarding 18 cards to Rites of Initiation, if one of the sphinxes is your commander (if not, you need 6 unblocked sphinxes). Windreader Sphinx can draw your whole library if you attack with 9 or more of them, which wins the game on the spot if you Flash + Laboratory Maniac with draw triggers remaining.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite should wipe your opponents' creatures if you have 5 or more, 8 of them attack for lethal damage when there are no blockers, and 9 of them allows you to kill someone with commander damage.

Each Enduring Scalelord will get infinitely huge if you have 2 or more, and can fly, but need a way to add +1/+1 counters on them.

Aurelia, the Warleader gives additional attacks for each creature, potentially dealing lethal damage in the air with 7 of them, but they are small and may get blocked. The Deceiver will trigger again before additional combat steps so you can scry and turn the Aurelias into better creatures if the right creature comes up.

Blightsteel Colossus is lethal to one opponent on its own, but in practice there will be blockers so you might need 6 or more to trample through.

Woodvine Elemental draws you cards for each attacking creature and pumps your trampling army, so 6 or more should deal lethal. However, your opponents also get to draw, so instant speed removal can be a problem if you have no Conqueror's Flail, Heroic Intervention, or Pact of Negation.

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger should exile an opponent's entire library if you attack with 4 of them, even if they are blocked.

Gilt-Leaf Archdruid ramps you massively and takes an opponent out if you have 7 creatures.

Etali, Primal Storm casts up to 3 spells for each attacking creature so you should be in a very dominant position.

Krenko, Mob Boss doubles your army for each creature you have. If you started with just 4 creatures you end up with 64. If you have Hammer of Purphoros all those goblins can attack right away.

Utvara Hellkite squares the number of creatures you have by spawning dragons. Sharding Sphinx squares the number of creatures you have by sharding thopters.

Lord of the Void summons a creature from an opponent's library for each creature you hit with.

Mindleech Mass lets you cast spells from your opponents' hands, while getting rid of their nonland cards.

Beguiler of Wills allows you to steal all the best creatures for each non-summoning sick creature, with each theft allowing you to steal bigger creatures.

Keiga, the Tide Star sacrifices your creatures to steal the same number of creatures from your opponents if you don't have Mirror Gallery out.

The Ur-Dragon draws lots of cards and lets you put permanents into play.

It That Betrays steals multiple permanents when you attack.

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre annihilate your opponents' boards.

Angrath's Marauders has the same damage potential as Gisela with 4 or more of them, but does not have evasion or trample.

Grimgrin, Corpse-Born destroys lots of creatures without the drawback of not untapping. Thraximundar makes your opponents sacrifice creatures and grows bigger for each one you have.

Shauku, Endbringer exiles creatures that you want to get rid of, but cannot attack. Avatar of Woe destroys instead of exiles.

Emeria Shepherd returns permanents from your graveyard to the battlefield if you search for Plains with fetches or ramp spells.

Yore-Tiller Nephilim returns creatures from your graveyard attacking.

Dune-Brood Nephilim will generate a large number of tokens if they hit a player.

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger ramps you insanely if you have a few of them, and also swing for 7 trampling damage each. Casting Sliver Queen after and pumping out lots of slivers is one way to use that mana, or casting Biovisionary + Rite of Replication .

Mirrorweave unfortunately isn't that good in this deck. It works well with only two of the wincons, namely Pathbreaker Ibex and Biovisionary, is half-decent with Hero of Bladehold and Dune-Brood Nephilim, but the effects are symmetrical for Windreader Sphinx and Tidespout Tyrant which is dangerous, and it doesn't work on legendary creatures. It can target opponents' creatures to pump the tokens into something bigger, at the cost of also pumping opponents' small creatures, but even turning 20 1/1 tokens into 10/10 creatures doesn't beat the damage output of 3 Pathbreaker Ibexes and a Deceiver. Since the creature choices in this deck are optimized for being copied and having multiplicative effects, it's pretty rare that opponents' creatures present better Mirrorweave targets.

Sliver Queen is the commander because she provides easy access to token generation. Sliver Overlord with Conspiracy or Arcane Adaptation can tutor for Deceiver readily, but doesn't offer much on his own. Those two enchantments also don't offer much on their own, as opposed to playing two more tutor spells.

Razaketh, the Foulblooded is your best friend. He lets you

Conqueror's Flail lets you combo off on your turn with impunity. Pact of Negation is great for combo decks since you win this turn and won't need to pay the cost next turn.

Natural Affinity increases your creature count so you have critical mass before the Deceiver trigger. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Natural Affinity wipes out opponents' lands. Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun or Gaea's Cradle + Natural Affinity ramps you. Finally, Natural Affinity + Razaketh, the Foulblooded gives animated lands to sacrifice for tutoring.

Avenger of Zendikar also increases your creature count by the same amount but with summoning sickness. Dune-Brood Nephilim also provides the same number of creatures but needs to hit a player, although it can be cast much earlier. Tilonalli's Summoner is another early token summoner, which should be able to achieve City's Blessing by turn 4 and keep tokens permanently. These token summoners benefit from token doubling effects which Natural Affinity does not.

Skullclamp provides lots of card draw since most of the tokens we make are 1/1 creatures, and also serves as a combo piece for Tidespout Tyrant.

Wargate can put lands into play if you need it to ramp or find colorless mana to cast Deceiver.

Enlightened Tutor can also find colorless sources such as Mana Crypt.

Windreader Sphinx outdraws Arcanis the Omnipotent once you have 4 or more of them. Attacking with 5 or more Windreaders will be lethal if one of the cards drawn is Rites of Initiation, or Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor with which to find the Rite card. Vampiric Tutor cannot be the final card drawn. You have about 60+% chance of finding at least one of those cards depending on how many cards remain in your library. If you are unlucky and fail to find any, activating Scroll Rack with 25+ cards helps you dig even deeper for the Rites or Demonic Tutor. This gets your total probability to 90+%. If none of the sphinxes are your commander, then you need 6 of them to be lethal. 6 is, of course, the number you'll have after casting Rite of Replication. The Windreaders also draw protection and counterspells to ensure they deal damage. The Windreader adds a bit of a gambling element to this deck, which can be thrilling for some but too uncertain for others, so feel free to replace them.

Search for lands that produce if there are no other missing colors so you can hardcast Razaketh, the Foulblooded.

Try to play Deceiver and Mirror Gallery only the turn you're comboing off to avoid sorcery speed hate.

Tooth and Nail or Defense of the Heart should usually find two of Deceiver of Form, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Avenger of Zendikar, or Tidespout Tyrant.

Sliver Queen still benefits from commander damage even if changed into another creature, so you can defeat players with massive life gain or attacker tax effects by attacking them with just your commander, particularly if she has become a trampling Pathbreaker Ibex or a flying Gisela, Blade of Goldnight or Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury.

Congregation at Dawn before your turn with just Sliver Queen in play wins the game if you have enough mana to cast Deceiver of Form. Congregate Deceiver on top, followed by Medomai the Ageless then Biovisionary. Cast Deceiver on your turn. Leave Medomai on top of your library with the Deceiver trigger. Sliver Queen becomes Medomai and hits someone to give an extra turn. Draw Medomai and make 3 Sliver tokens on the extra turn. Sliver Queen and the 3 tokens become Biovisionary when Deceiver triggers, winning the game at end of turn.

Omnath, Locus of Rage + Rite of Replication is not quite lethal without token doublers, but is still enough damage to take out one or two dangerous opponents.

If you are playing Gaea's Cradle, cast Natural Affinity first so the Cradle doesn't get summoning sickness, unless you have haste from other sources.

Razaketh can sacrifice non-attacking creatures for Rites of Initiation, and sacrifice more creatures to fill your hand up for cards to discard to the Rites, essentially letting you repeatedly pay 2 life and 1 creature to give +1/+0 to all your attackers. Of course, this needs to be done before the Deceiver trigger unless you are transforming all your creatures into Razakeths. Which isn't too bad since they are flying trampling 8/8s.

For style points, you can bounce your own permanents when finishing off the Tidespout Tyrant combo, then discard those cards to Rites of Initiation and attack.

This deck is full of tutors and fetches so Aven Mindcensor and Ob Nixilis, Unshackled are really bad news.

What to put on top of the library to combo if you have Deceiver and

It is possible to take out Mirror Gallery and all the cards reliant on it, namely Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury, Medomai the Ageless, Krenko, Mob Boss, and to some extent Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Refer to the list of Deceiver combos for alternative creatures.

The mana base is an obvious area to tweak for budget, where replacing the duals and fetches makes a big difference. Theros Temples are great for the scry to manipulate the top of your library. Filter lands work well and give easy access to to cast Deceiver. Painlands could work but the life loss might be a problem when using Razaketh.

Polymorphous Rush could win with Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and 2 other creatures (costing 5 mana), Biovisionary and 3 other creatures (costing 7 mana), or Pathbreaker Ibex and 4 other creatures (costing 9 mana).

Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer is the most obvious alternative commander for this archetype.

A version of this deck with Riku of Two Reflections as the commander could be viable, with more reliance on ETB effects and Panharmonicon.

Aminatou, the Fateshifter is a viable commander to allow consistent library manipulation, but loses a lot of strong wincons without access to green or red.

An artifact version with March of the Machines, Titania's Song, Karn, Silver Golem, and Sydri, Galvanic Genius might work as well. Playing all 10 Signets and possibly Talismans would ramp quickly while providing an army later. Sharding Sphinx and Thopter Spy Network would play prominent roles, and Precursor Golem and Myr Battlesphere could feature too.

There's also an enchantress version of this deck reliant on Starfield of Nyx and Opalescence, with heavy card draw from Eidolon of Blossoms and other enchantresses to dig for those enchantment animators, and Silent Sentinel to reanimate enchantments. Ajani's Chosen, Sigil of the Empty Throne, Luminarch Ascension, and maybe even Daxos the Returned would generate lots of bodies as well.

In approximate order of priority:

  • Ways to draw cards.

  • Ways to improve resilience. Thinking of adding Stubborn Denial to the mix since the board states I'm protecting have either Sliver Queen or Deceiver of Form.

  • Ways to remove problematic permanents.

  • Ways to make more creatures, preferably early in the game. An entwined Rude Awakening does seem pretty powerful especially with Gaea's Cradle, and solves the haste issue.

  • Ways to give haste (need to be non-creatures or else haste is lost once Deceiver triggers).

  • Which cards in the maybeboard to include.

  • Which cards to cut for the above. Currently considering cutting the token doublers since this deck doesn't need that many creatures to combo off. Or should I strengthen the backup plan of tokens?

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