Let's Rage Cage Bro! - Mairsil Artifact Combo

Commander / EDH* Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer UBR (Grixis)

atomskprime

Land (35)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 4x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Removal (6)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vandalblast

Tutor (14)

• 1x Artificer's Intuition
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker
• 1x Transmute Artifact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

ComboPiece (11)

• 1x Astral Cornucopia
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Darksteel Forge
• 1x Gemstone Array
• 1x Memnarch
• 1x Mycosynth Lattice
• 1x Power Artifact
• 1x Quicksilver Elemental
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Walking Ballista

Draw (7)

• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge
• 1x Windfall

Recursion (4)

• 1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
• 1x Goblin Welder
• 1x Scrap Mastery
• 1x Trash for Treasure

Commander (1)

Ramp (12)

• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Metalworker
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Utility (10)

• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Dack Fayden
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Karn, Silver Golem *oversized*
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Muzzio, Visionary Architect
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

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What do you have that I cannot obtain?

What About the New Quicksilver Ruling?

Shortly after Mairsil release, the rules manager of Magic: the Gathering clarified an interaction between Quicksilver Elemental and Mairsil, the Pretender . Many players assumed that by caging Quicksilver's ability and using it on Mairsil, Mairsil could bypass his static ability for a single .

Instead, the rules manager stated that any abilities copied by Quicksilver would carry over the once per turn activation. While not outright killing Mairsil's combo potential, the Quicksilver ruling severely limited fast combo situations. Rather than needing a single to combo off, players would need an infinite source of blue mana to generate enough ability sets.

Since the ruling, I've tried brewing several types of Mairsil lists: reanimator, Mirror Mad Phantasm combo (similar to that of Hermit Druid lists), and hybrid lists involving artifacts. At the end of the day, I decided to come back to artifacts. Although artifacts do require infinite blue, artifacts provide us with the many opportunities to do. In addition, Grixis colors offer up several substantive options to support an artifact heavy build.

Mairsil caught my attention due to his incredibly unique ETB trigger and static ability. By absorbing the activated abilities of caged cards, Mairsil can function as a repeatable tutor, recursion, or combo piece. Although not as fast as Jeleva Grixis Storm or other top tier competitive EDH decks, Mairsil does have a fairly interesting playstyle.

As an ETB dependent commander, Mairsil will feel slow to play. In order to build Mairsil into a win condition, players will need to abuse ETB triggers or cast Mairsil without overtaxing their available mana. This process can mean a slow crawl in tutoring pieces, finding moments to cast Mairsil, then caging appropriate targets.

However, once Mairsil cages his target, we permanently receive this effect and have constant access via the Command Zone (or reliably bouncing him).

Regardless of the supporting 99 cards, one thing remains certain: Mairsil offers a playstyle seen rarely (if at all) in Commander games. Whether built as reanimator, combo, or good stuff, I predict Mairsil will have a long lasting impact in EDH's future.

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Change Log

1. 08/16/17 - Added a "Potential Cards for Playtesting" section. Section intended to be an on-going list of cards.
2. 08/24/17 - Complete overhaul of the deck. Counterspells removed in favor of further support for the artifact theme. Most sections have major revisions and new info about how the deck will now work. For example, counterspells have disappeared, a new combo has emerged, and several narrative edits to the deck's overall purpose.

Theorizing Mairsil

A lot of hype surrounding Mairsil has included caging multiple effects via blink, granting haste, and then comboing off. While possible, this line of play requires an intense amount of setup and mana. For example, a popular combo circulating is:

Sage of Hours + Anthroplasm

This combo allows Mairsil to generate infinite turns. In the worst case scenario, a player would cast Mairsil twice to cage both Sage and Anthroplasm. After caging twice, Mairsil would need an additional 5 colorless and a haste enabler.

Casting Mairsil to cage the last combo piece, then proceeding to go off seems like the safest route. Therefore, the entire combo would cost and a haste enabler. This combo also requires Sage and Anthroplasm taking up two spots. Until caged, Sage and Anthroplasm do not synergize and will do nothing to advance the board state or facilitate alternative play lines.

In the best case scenario, a blink effect or Panharmonicon would allow Mairsil to cage both Sage and Anthroplasm. With a haste effect, Mairsil could potentially kill in a single turn. While better, this situation requires the use of more pieces on board or in hand. For the blink effect, players would need something like Essence Flux , Deadeye Navigator, or Panharmonicon. Similar to the first combo situation, Essence Flux and Deadeye alone don't easily synergize with the other 99. Panharmonicon does support Mairsil, but may not necessarily support the 99.

Rage Cage: Mairsil's Combo Potential

Mairsil's combo potential should follow 3 criteria:

1. Lowest number of cage counters necessary
2. Individual combo pieces should synergize with the remaining 99 cards
3. Decklist promotes alternative combos without Mairsil

As such, this deck will utilize these combos:

1. Walking Ballista + infinite colorless mana
2. Infinite colorless + Mycosynth Lattice + Memnarch
3. Infinite colorless + Mycosynth Lattice + Karn, Silver Golem
4. Mycosynth Lattice + Darksteel Forge + Nevinyrral's Disk

The deck can generate infinite colorless by:

1. Power Artifact + Basalt Monolith/Grim Monolith
2. Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth + mana
3. Metalworker + 3 artifacts in hand + Staff of Domination.

For the aforementioned colorless combos, adding Staff of Domination to all methods allow us to draw our deck. Adding Sensei's Divining Top to method 2 also allows us to draw our deck.

Unlike most combos theorized for Mairsil, these combos can exist by themselves and synergize with one another. In addition, Grixis colors provide an easy way to tutor and recur artifacts. Blue grants us access to cards like Fabricate, and Transmute Artifact. Red brings Trash for Treasure , Goblin Welder , Daretti, Scrap Savant, and Scrap Mastery for additional artifact support.

Why Mairsil and Why Quicksilver?

Mairsil still provides noticeable value due to his ability to become any combo piece we'd like. In this case, we'll most likely cage Memnarch, Walking Ballista, Karn, Silver Golem, or Nevinyrral's Disk. Of the aforementioned 4 cards, Memnarch, Karn, and Walking Ballista will require Quicksilver's ability to go off.

As mentioned in the section titled, "What About the New Quicksilver Ruling?", Mairsil will now require infinite blue mana to generate enough ability copies to utilize Memnarch and Ballista's activated abilities. Some people have recommended caging both Staff of Domination and Gilded Lotus (after each activation of Quicksilver). While viable, this forces us to spend an additional two instances of caging to work.

Instead, the deck uses Astral Cornucopia and Gemstone Array. These pieces stand alone and synergize with our multitude of ways to generate infinite mana. In addition, we have several ways to tutor these pieces to hand our field. Artificer's Intuition can easily fetch Astral Cornucopia; cards like Tezzeret the Seeker can bring Gemstone Array out onto the field when needed.

No Counterspells?

As a control player, cutting counterspells didn't feel right. However, with the Quicksilver ruling in place, the deck needed to make room for ways to generate infinite blue. In addition, the prior draft of this deck needed additional cards to either draw into combo pieces or support the overall artifact theme. As such, even great staples like Force of Will and the red counterspells have disappeared.

In their place, the deck will now utilize the following cards:

1. Expedition Map - Fetchable by Artificer's Intuition. Can find either Academy Ruins or Riptide Laboratory.
2. Muzzio, Visionary Architect - Cycles through our deck for key artifacts. Cheats out larger items like Darksteel Forge.
3. Ensnaring Bridge - The deck frequently dumps out our hand. If facing aggro, Bridge serves as a defensive measure.
4. Karn, Silver Golem - Introduces a new combo piece when combined with infinite colorless and Mycosynth Lattice. When combined with these two conditions, Karn can blow up all lands. In a pinch, Karn can turn any of our pieces into a blocker.
5. Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas - Digs for crucial artifacts. If we need bodies, Tezz can turn an artifact into a 5/5 permanently.
6. Scroll Rack - Since the deck plays numerous fetchlands and tutors, we can use Scroll Rack to shuffle away pieces we don't quite need just yet.
7. Artificer's Intuition - Our Artificer's package includes artifact lands, various powerful pieces of ramp, Expedition Map, Sensei's Divining Top, and Astral Cornucopia (one of the two ways we generate infinite blue for Quicksilver.

Cage Priority Targets

In any game of EDH, Mairsil will want to cage Quicksilver Elemental . Without this ability, Mairsil becomes less potent as a combo piece in the Command Zone. If Quicksilver appears in the opening hand, players may want to keep the hand (permitting enough lands and playability).

If Quicksilver doesn't appear right away, players will want to keep an eye out for the following cards:

1. Cavern Harpy
2. Walking Ballista
3. Basalt Monolith
4. Staff of Domination
5. Goblin Welder
6. Nevinyrral's Disk
7. Metalworker
8. Memnarch
9. Karn, Silver Golem

If caged, any of these 7 cards allow us to move towards a winning strategy.

1. Cavern Harpy - Provides a bounce effect that doesn't require mana.
2. Walking Ballista - Win condition.
3. Basalt Monolith - Infinite colorless with Rings of Brighthearth
4. Staff of Domination - Can draw entire deck with infinite colorless. Can generate infinite colorless if Mairsil has something like Sol Ring caged and Staff of Domination caged. By itself, Staff gives Mairsil some additional utility.
5. Goblin Welder - Mairsil now becomes a repeatable effect in the Command Zone.
6. Nevinyrral's Disk - Repeatable wipe. If Mairsil has caged Cavern Harpy, we can activate the bounce trigger in response to Nevin's ability placed on the stack.
7. Metalworker - Infinite colorless with Staff of Domination.
8. Memnarch - Win condition. Memnarch's first ability also can turn Mairsil into an artifact. This allows Mairsil to synergize with Power Artifact (if Mairsil has Basalt/Grim Monolith caged), Trash for Treasure , Daretti's minus ability, and Goblin Welder .
9. Karn, Silver Golem - Win condition by animating opponent's lands.

This leaves everything else as lesser priority for caging.

Potential Cards for Playtesting

1. Gilded Lotus - Recommended by several people. Lotus can go infinite if Mairsil has caged Quicksilver Elemental and Staff of Domination. 5 CMC does put Lotus as one of the higher costing cards of the deck. With most mana rocks costing no more than 3, seeing Lotus in the opening hand doesn't sound great. However, the ability to generate infinite colorless does warrant some attention.

Top Ranked	Achieved #46 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.58
Tokens	Emblem Dack Fayden, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Folders	EDH, Decks I like, Commander Decks to Try, Mairsil, Deck Ideas, decks, grixis, Mairsil, Mairsil, Mairsil decks