Mairsil, the Man of Many Faces

Commander / EDH Control Theme/Gimmick UBR (Grixis)

Citridon

Creature (37)

• 1x AEtherling
• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Captivating Crew
• 1x Cavalier of Flame
• 1x Chainer, Dementia Master
• 1x Dark Impostor
• 1x Deadeye Tracker
• 1x Dragon Whisperer
• 1x Eater of the Dead
• 1x Eradicator Valkyrie
• 1x Faerie Formation
• 1x Flamewar, Brash Veteran  ^Flip
• 1x Forge, Neverwinter Charlatan
• 1x Ghostly Pilferer
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Goro-Goro and Satoru
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Hex Parasite
• 1x Hoard-Smelter Dragon
• 1x Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
• 1x Kefnet the Mindful
• 1x Kozilek, the Great Distortion
• 1x Myr Propagator
• 1x Necrotic Ooze
• 1x Nezumi Graverobber  ^Flip
• 1x Olivia Voldaren
• 1x Pack Rat
• 1x Shauku, Endbringer
• 1x Skill Borrower
• 1x Soul of Shandalar
• 1x Sphinx of Magosi
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Trench Behemoth
• 1x Viashino Heretic
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Land (36)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Great Furnace
• 3x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Wastes
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Bontu's Last Reckoning
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Terisiare's Devastation

Battle (2)

• 1x Invasion of Azgol  ^Flip
• 1x Invasion of Fiora  ^Flip

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Chromatic Orrery
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Heartstone
• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Lux Cannon
• 1x Mirror Box *f-pre*
• 1x Mirror Gallery
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Spawning Pit
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x The Enigma Jewel  ^Flip
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1x Vulshok Factory

Instant (6)

• 1x Counterflux
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Rewind
• 1x Silumgar's Command
• 1x Wild Ricochet

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Training Grounds

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Hateflayer
• 1x Pili-Pala

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An activated abilities theme-deck. Training Grounds and Heartstone allow all our creatures to get efficient with their abilities, and Skill Borrower lets us make use of them a turn early.
Then, once they start dieing, Mairsil (and Necrotic Ooze*) come in to start building up tricks. These two led me to run Illusionist's Bracers over Rings of Brighthearth, as the free copying while equipped to either should very quickly outpace Ring's ability, given how many abilities they should accrue.

This should leave me with a lot to do at instant speed, so I favored instants over sorceries for my limited selection of spells, and the deck became a highly interactive control deck as a result.

Lastly, while it's nowhere near a focus for the deck, Mairsil can build up a lot of incidental +1/+1 counters and untap himself for psuedo-vigilance/free attacks. As such, it's very possible for the deck to win through commander damage.

* Necrotic Ooze

My playgroup leans towards fair, with few Combo decks in the midst. That, combined with Mairsil's limited ability to combo, led me to focus on getting a spread of fair abilities to maximize Mairsil and leave Ooze considerably more fair than he might be. I'm not against having combos for him in the deck, but each piece needs to be a solid target for Mairsil as well, so I won't be adding in weak pieces just to make a combo for Ooze.

On the Deck's Curve

The deck's curve is real wonky looking in chart form, and it will always tend to look that way. Because Mairsil can cage xards from hand, I have a certain portion of the deck that isn't intended to be cast (like Phyrexian Devourer). These tend towards the high end of the curve, giving it a lumpy ramp-looking curve in a non-ramp deck. While playing and building the deck, I treat them as 0-mana "auras" that give Mairsil abilities. As such, the deck won't get a nice bell or psuedo-bell curve, but I'm keeping how well it curves in mind as I adjust.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 year
Exclude colors	WG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	19 - 0 Mythic Rares 55 - 0 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.94
Tokens	2/2 C Artifact Creature Spawn, Copy Clone, Dragon 4/4 R, Dragon Spirit 5/5 R, Faerie 1/1 U, Golem X/X C w/ Haste, Powerstone, Treasure, Vampire */* B, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Commander