Mercenary Tutor

Legacy* Changeling Creature Cheat Shapeshifter Theme/Gimmick

jhegeman12

Creature (33)

• 1x Archon of Emeria
• 1x Army Ants
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloodline Pretender
• 2x Cateran Kidnappers
• 2x Cateran Persuader
• 1x Combat Celebrant
• 1x Dawnbringer Cleric
• 1x Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1x Gaddock Teeg
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Intrepid Hero
• 1x Judge's Familiar
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Masked Vandal
• 3x Rathi Assassin
• 2x Rathi Intimidator
• 2x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Spiketail Drakeling
• 1x Tarmogoyf
• 1x Taurean Mauler
• 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 2x Unsettled Mariner
• 1x Vexing Devil
• 1x Whirlpool Rider

Land (19)

• 4x Grand Coliseum
• 4x Peat Bog
• 9x Swamp
• 2x Witch's Cottage

Artifact (8)

• 2x Heartstone
• 3x Maskwood Nexus
• 2x Sol Ring
• 1x Teferi's Puzzle Box

---

Sideboard

Creature (3)

• 1x Cateran Enforcer
• 1x Cateran Overlord
• 1x Cateran Slaver

---

Maybeboard

Creature (39)

• 1x Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
• 1x Ammit Eternal
• 1x Avatar of Discord
• 1x Ball Lightning
• 1x Big Game Hunter
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Cateran Slaver
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Copperhorn Scout
• 1x Cosmic Larva
• 1x Death's Shadow
• 1x Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1x Fblthp, the Lost
• 1x Giltspire Avenger
• 1x Keldon Arsonist
• 1x Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1x Legion Loyalist
• 1x Lightning Skelemental
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Ludevic's Test Subject  ^Flip
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Phyrexian Dreadnought
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Realmwalker
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Relic Golem
• 1x Scab-Clan Berserker
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Spiketail Hatchling
• 1x Taurean Mauler
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1x Tireless Provisioner
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Artifact (5)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mystic Skull  ^Flip
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1x Thran Foundry

Instant (2)

• 2x Dramatic Reversal

Land (2)

• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Soldevi Excavations

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Arcane Adaptation
• 1x Conspiracy

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Cateran Summons

---

Found my old magic cards in the attic, and went through them to sell, but the allure of Magic Deckbuilding sucked me back in. I noticed some Mercadian Masque Mercenary cards, and I felt like they had some interesting potential because not many creature cards let you search your deck and put another creature into play as a repeatable ability, no sacrifices or anything, just limited by mana and creature type.

The main idea is to link up the Mercenary Search ability with Arcane Adaptation/Conspiracy/Maskwood Nexus to make a deck where 10 or so of your creatures can tutor as an ability. When you play Arcane Adaptation/Conspiracy/Maskwood Nexus, make all creatures in your deck Mercenary cards. Now your Rathi Assassin, Rathi Intimidator, and Cateran Persuader cards can play any creature card with 1,2, or 3 colorless mana. Add in a Heartstone, a Sol Ring, and a Dramatic Reversal, and you're getting out a lot of whatever creatures you want in your deck. Now your tutoring to the battlefield every creature in your library. To win, just use good old fashioned combat damage.

A few things I noticed as I was putting this together:

1 - Once you're set up, you're basically playing your entire deck and you're not limited by your hand. You don't need to put 8 counterspells in to make sure you'll have a counterspell in your hand. If you have a Mercenary in play, just search for Spiketail Hatchling and sacrifice it. Your creatures are now your instants, sorceries, enchantments, etc. Mana Acceleration? Mercenary tutor for Bird of Paradise. Removal? Mercenary Tutor for a Reflector Mage. Want to get more cards onto the battlefield? Mercenary tutor for more Mercenary Search cards. There are a lot of different directions to go, and it was pretty hard to choose.

2 - The only cards you're paying the mana cost for are swamps (maybe islands if you use Arcane Adaptation and Dramatic Reversal). You'll have 20ish cards that you tutor for colorless mana, so you're not restricted by mana types. You can make red fling, green aggro, multicolor, etc. decks using only swamps. There's a lot of flexibility in terms of how you want the deck to function. What's in here is what came to mind to me, but you can do whatever.

3 - You're not actually casting any spells, just using activated abilities. Basically, once you're set up, all of your creature cards have flash and most counterspells won't prevent you from getting them into play.

4 - Slow down the pace of the game once you're set up. Creatures that put a mana or life cost on casting other spells or drawing cards are a huge benefit to you because you're not casting and you don't want cards in your hand. Plus, with this 1,2,3 search variation, your most expensive card is 4 mana. Keep your opponent restricted with what they can do by destroying their lands. You're fully functioning at 4 (or less) mana, are they?

5 - You can set up the deck for $60. Rathi Assassin, Rathi Intimidator, Cateran Persuader, and Cateran Kidnapper are less than $1 each. Conspiracy, Arcane Adaptation, and Maskwood Nexus are all ~$5. Heartstone, Sol Ring, and Dramatic Reversal are less than $3 each. The rest of the deck is completely up to whatever cards you want. What I have is more of a wishlist, there are pretty easy ways to make it cheaper.

6 - The sideboard is too big, I know. There are so many different ways to take this deck, that I just put anything that seemed useful on the sideboard.

Still getting my feet back into MTG, and there have been a lot of changes to cards in the past 20 years. There are probably a lot of ways to improve this deck, but I thought it was a pretty interesting starting idea. If you want more powerful Mercenary Searches, there are some cards that will let you play creatures with up to 5 mana cost, but because the setup on this is a little intricate I kept it low mana cost. Could probably use upgrades on mana acceleration, getting Arcane Adaptation out faster, late-game finishers, and mostly just a focus on what to do. There are so many different avenues to go down that I couldn't really choose.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is not Legacy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 24 - 2 Rares 10 - 1 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.59
Tokens	Dragon 5/5 R, Shapeshifter 2/2 U