This is a multiplayer list i made for Merieke
Originally I tried to build her as a control deck abusing Blink/ETB effects, and while Esper definately has lots of tools for that type of play,looking at the deck I kept thinking "Why dont I just ditch the black and play Brago instead?"So I decided to instead try and play to what I feel is Merieke's greatest strength which is that she is really efficient at stealing/control/manipulation. I mean look at her, oracle says she is a human, which means that this kleptomaniac bitch stole her pointy ears off of some unfortunate elf. Anyways , in a nutshell, this decks goal is to try and use your opponent's strengths against them and constantly try and gain advantage through psychology/politics.
Synergy with your commander:
First of all, Merieke stealing ability has two clauses that we need to play around. Not untapping normally and destroying the stolen creature if Merieke leaves or untaps.
To abuse this, we have untap effects: Magewright stone Thousand-Year Elixir
Freed from the Real
and Pemmin's Aura
I did not want to include too many as the deck should be able to function even if the commander gets removed. Merieke has a tendency of attracting hate.
Flicker: While the overall theme was ditched, some flicker cards still play very well into your strategy.
Cloudshift
Ghostly Flicker Conjurer's Closet Return the cards to the battlefield under YOUR control, meaning you can flicker the stolen creatures and as they are now "new" permanents, steal another one.
Mistmeadow Witch
Flickerform
are instant speed and repeatable, so they can be used as untap, protection, ETB, anything you want! Extremely flexible.
Steal and Repurpose
Merieke does plenty of stealing by herself, but redundancy is needed to make the strategy work.
Telemin Performance
Aquire Praetor's Grasp
Grinning Totem
Blatant Thievery
Body Double Rite of Replication Mimic Vat
Gather Specimens
Desertion
Sepulchral Primordial
Daxos of Meletis
Gonti, Lord of Luxury Thada adel, aquisitor
Mostly standard stuff. Praetor's grasp, grinning totem and acquire can be used as a tutor to fetch for a wincon as well as a jester's cap effect to disable your opponent's combos. Telemin preformance wrecks creatureless decks and Dimir doppleganger is graveyard-hate. If your meta runs a lot of weenies, cut Daxos.
Unusual stuff
Here are reasonings for some of the weirder card-choices:
Perplexing Chimera I have always wanted to make this card work and it does some serious work here. Steal a valuable spell, steal chimera back with Merieke, repeat. Hilarious with flickerform and mistmeadow witch.
Head Games
and
Jester's Mask
You might ask yourself "Why would I waste five mana for hating the hand of a single player instead of playing answers like wraths?" But these cards are way more than that. Use them politically to tutor exactly the needed answer for a common threat as well as a bargaining chip. "If I give you X, will you do Y?" You can also put an opponent with a bad board-state intoo a position where they have a hand full of lands+ a wrath or an answer and they will be forced to use it just to defend themselves.
Divine Reckoning
Your commander turns this into an essentially one sided wrath+ the flashback is nice.
Reins of Power Domineering Will Use your opponent's creatures to attack or defend yourself 2 for 1 every single time.
Cold Storage
Sack the stolen creatures if they try to remove them or Merieke. The instant-speed activation makes this, as you can save your board-state from wipes as well as slowly gain more advantage and return them at the right time to win the game.
Pariah play on indestructible threats for fun and profit
Soul Snare
seems weak, but in most cases you dont want to be removing creatus that aren't attacking you. This is an exellent rettlesnake-card because no one wants to attack you if it means losing a creature, so they just swing at someone else.
Comeuppance Sudden Spoiling
Energy Arc
Fogs on steroids, you want people to be afraid to attack you at all times. Comeuppance turns around any attempted victory through combat damage. Spoiling neutralises any creature threat including combos like kiki-jiki etc. and arc stops combat damage, allows reusing tap-abilites and can be used politically to screw over one player while slightly helping another.
The rest of the deck is your standard card-advantage counters and recursion, nothing really worth writing about.Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
