Pushing Mairsil to the absolute limits of his potential.
Primer:
Mairsil, the Pretender EDH - On the Bird in the Cage
What do you have that I cannot obtain?
To preface, this is my favorite EDH deck that I’ve built. I've spent a fair bit of time and effort into the tuning and refining of this list, beginning 3 years ago and still continuing to this day, and I really enjoy pushing the limits of what Mairsil can do as a commander. His gameplan can be slower and his "I Win" buttons cost more than most of the other strong Grixis commanders like Kess, Inalla, or Tevesh/Kraum. Most Mairsil decks have their win conditions stretched across 3-4 card combos, with all of these combos requiring multiple cages with Mairsil, and this lends to a gameplan that has inevitability, but cannot win with speed. Now, an introduction to our general!
The Commander:
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard
When Mairsil, the Pretender enters the battlefield, you may exile an artifact or creature card from your hand or graveyard and put a cage counter on it.
Mairsil, the Pretender has all activated abilities of all cards you own in exile with cage counters on them. You may activate each of those abilities only once each turn.
4/4
Mairsil is a rather unique commander, whose effect mirrors that of the now-aged Experiment Krajj and Mimeoplasm. His ability to copy the abilities of other cards, while in some cases circumventing the original specifications and limitations of the card due to ability wordings, will be the basis of this list, and the goal is to combo Mairsil with the strongest, most explosive "cage" target available: Mirror-Mad Phantasm. Due to the wording on Mirror-Mad, when Mairsil activates its ability for the entire library will be placed directly into the graveyard, acting as a makeshift Hermit Druid in Grixis. This can even be done in a single turn, as it does not require tapping to activate, provided Marsil's casting cost is able to be paid.
While there are other powerful combos - Quicksilver Elemental, Aetherling, Timestream Navigator, Hateflayer/Tree of Perdition, etc. - none of them are able to provide an immediate win, which Mirror-Mad enables with a single activation. Due to this, there are no other cage targets in our deck, save for Fatestitcher - which will absolutely never be caged - and mana rocks, which again, will never be a real consideration for caging. Instead, recursive creatures fill the vacancies left by cards like Pili-Pala and Quicksilver Elemental, which we will use to sacrifice to cast Dread Return from our graveyard. Here's how it's done:
Breakdown of Combos:
Laboratory Maniac + Cantrip/Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation:
Now, THIS is a 2-card combo right here, particularly with Thassa's Oracle in the format. There's a reason that this is currently the strongest shell for combo in the format (with Flash finally making it's departure), and if you have protection/interaction, it should spell a quick end to the game.
Mirror-Mad Phantasm -> Narcomoeba + Gravecrawler/Bloodghast + Fatestitcher -> Dread Return -> Laboratory Maniac -> Deep Analysis/Faithless Looting OR Thassa's Oracle:
-
Faithless Looting + LabMan: - 6 mana, - 10 mana including Mairsil
-
Deep Analysis + LabMan: - 5 mana, - 9 mana including Mairsil
-
Thassa's Oracle: - 3 mana, - 7 mana including Mairsil
*Fatestitcher is mana-neutral due to the Haste from Unearth.
After caging Mirror-Mad Phantasm with Mairsil, activate for , shuffling Mairsil into the library and subsequently putting your entire library into the grave. Narcomoeba enters automatically, and then Fatestitcher is brought back with Unearth for . This makes it possible to cast Gravecrawler for , which Fatestitcher provides through its untap ability, or bring back Bloodghast with a land drop. Between these options, there will be enough creatures on the battlefield to flashback Dread Return, returning Laboratory Maniac from the grave. Fatestitcher can untap a land or Mana Vault if you need it, and from there Flashback Deep Analysis for and 3 Life, or Faithless Looting for , and win. With the printing of Thassa's Oracle, we have redundancy and options based on available mana as well, cutting the cost of the combo in half from what it formerly was.
Combos for consideration:
Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead/Necromancy + Walking Ballista:
A classic combo, Worldgorger creates mana with a reanimate enchantment, and we can funnel this into an infinitely large Walking Ballista, caged or uncaged, that can kill the table.
Necrotic Ooze + Kiki-Jiki + Mogg Fanatic:
Can be done off of the Mirror-Mad combo as an alternative to LabMan, or you can just Buried Alive for all three pieces and then reanimate Necrotic Ooze with Animate Dead or Reanimate. This has emerged as one of the strongest combos in this deck, as it is a great backup that doesn't directly have to incorporate Mairsil.
Underworld Breach + Wheel of Fortune + Lion's Eye Diamond:
A combo that has made itself well established since its introduction to the format, Breach serves as another way of putting the library into the hand/graveyard, and assembling a win with Thassa's Oracle or Lab Man at some point through the loop. Brain Freeze can serve this purpose as well, as both can ultimately either find a wincon or eliminate each opponent from the game.
Recent changes:
April 2021:
Underworld Breach has been brought into the mainboard as a potential secondary outlet/wincon for the deck - Looking to get some reps in with it and see how it performs. With LED and Wheel already being natural inclusions, and with the express desire of the deck being to draw or otherwise reduce the library to 0 cards, it seems a good fit.
As well, I am experimenting with Gilded Drake as another way of disrupting opponents hate pieces, like Drannith Magistrate, while retaining a body we can then sac for Dread Return. As with Underworld Breach, it will see some testing to see how it performs against prominent stax pieces!
Diabolic Intent and Reanimate have been tentatively removed for these cuts, with Intent being the easier of the cuts and Reanimate being the more difficult. With such low creature density, Diabolic Intent ultimately doesn't feel like it is live often enough to justify the slot. Reanimate is a great backup to Dread Return, and may prove even to be a necessary one, but for now we will see how Gilded Drake and Underworld Breach perform in their stead.
March 2021:
I've moved Kiki/Fanatic/Ooze/Anger to the maybeboard, as it ultimately just feels stretched across too many cards and requires too many tutors/resources to find consistently. In their absence, I have been testing Bloodghast, Spellseeker, Dockside Extortionist, and Ad Nauseam.
Bloodghast is another recursive creature that can stand in if one of the creatures we would normally be looking to bring back after a Mirror-Mad activation is inaccessible, and seemed worth experimenting with, as the fragility of only having exactly 3 creatures for Dread Return was noticeable.
Spellseeker can find Entomb, Dark Ritual, Flusterstorm, Demonic Consultation, Gamble, Demonic Tutor - As it goes with chaining tutors, it's possible to turn a Spellseeker into any card in your deck, if the card you need isn't immediately accessible with Spellseeker.
Dockside produces obscene amounts of mana and justifies rather easily, as it accelerates us into our combos and can happily be sacrificed to a Dread Return. The reliability of the ramp that it provides makes it seem like a strong addition. It also helps ramp us into...
Ad Nauseam. I've considered it for awhile, and the average CMC is low enough to allow me to steer towards a midrange Ad Naus style of play. We'll be looking to find counterspells and a way to get access to Mirror-Mad or Thassa's/Consult, so it won't always be necessary to be at a very high life total, or to push my life total to a precarious point, in order to secure a win.
Cards for consideration:
Hullbreacher: With the Wheels available to us, Hullbreacher could perhaps be a powerful engine that could help accelerate into a wincon. Its impact on the format has been very real since its printing, to say the least. The same could be said for the next card, which is:
Opposition Agent, another fantastic new creature that lends to the midrange style of UB combo that Mairsil is best suited for. It has been phenomenal in every other deck I've had the chance to test it in thus far, so it will potentially be tested out soon in the list.
In Conclusion:
Deploying Mairsil and the combo in the same turn requires 7 mana for winning off of Thassa’s Oracle, 9 mana for Laboratory Maniac + Deep Analysis, or 10 mana for Laboratory Maniac + Faithless Looting, accounting for Fatestitcher’s ability to untap a mana source.
With the addition of a fully tuned mana base, Mana Crypt, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Mox Diamond, and Vamp Tutor/Imperial Seal, the deck is looking to be able to push t3, t4, and reliable t5 combos with protection for interaction. I will be looking at and testing further combo packages as always!
So, that's the primer! Thank you for taking the time to read about my build of Mairsil - any and all comments are welcome, so don't hesitate to ask questions and offer constructive critique on the build.
Cheers~
