Hello, everyone! It may be a couple years after her release, but I finally came around to making a comprehensive, somewhat competitive
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist
deck (wooo~)! This deck is little different than a being a strictly voltron beater; although there are a few equipment in here, it's not the focus at all. It's using Mirri's strengths as a combat restrictor for opponents that allows her to truly shine, and pull ahead as (in my opinion) one of the best Selesnya generals.
Why Mirri?
If you like control, combat, and controlling combat, Mirri is a great pick! Maybe you also like the original Weatherlight crew members, or maybe you just like badass feline warriors. All of the above are reasons anybody can enjoy playing Mirri! In addition, Mirri being the main focus of enemy hate would typically allow for other things - like infinite combo setup - to go by unabated; she's holding the enemy line for your eventual victory!
The Mana Base
Arguably the most important part of any good deck, the mana base for Mirri is pretty straightforward. As she's in only two colors, there doesn't need to be an excessive investment in fetchlands and shocklands that drive the price to crazy levels; in fact, running a lot of basics works pretty well. There are a few lands that serve a dual purpose, though:
Survivors' Encampment
lets you tap Mirri with the land to make mana of any color, but the real use comes for any situation where you just cast her and aren't able to tap her to attack yet. Similarly,
Maze of Ith
lets you completely nullify the damage from an attacking target of your choice - since there would only be one creature attacking you if Mirri is tapped, it saves you from at least one opponent.
Rogue's Passage
is a card for the later game, when you want Mirri to go completely unblocked, while
Path of Ancestry
gives you a nice scry every time you cast Mirri.
The Creatures
As with most green-aligned decks, we all have our mana dudes as some of the first creatures in the deck.
Llanowar Elves
,
Avacyn's Pilgrim
, yadda yadda.
Devoted Druid
is an odd inclusion, but that fall within our combo section - for now, I'll discuss the non-combo creature choices. The creature that hold down the board while you build up include the classic
Sigarda, Host of Herons
,
Sun Titan
, and
Voice of Resurgence
. Each one acts as a generator for creatures, recursion, and protection, respectively.
Additionally to the end of creature generation, I included a personal favorite card:
Spawnwrithe
. Nobody expects much from this 2/2 with Trample - and with Mirri's ability to only block a single creature, our little elemental will be the one to creep by most of the time. This makes another of them...which can make another...and another. There have been times where I've created over ten Spawnwrithes from a swing, because people never paid much mind to it until they were EVERYWHERE. It's a very fun card in multiplayer, to say the least. As of this moment I placed it on the sideboard to test out some other cards, but it's definitely a good inclusion regardless!
Moving on, other inclusions are
Ravenous Slime
- Scavenging Ooze's big brother - and
Containment Priest
. If you don't want something existing, these cards do a good job of getting rid of it when it dies or enters "wrong."
Trapjaw Tyrant
is also a fun dino with a big appetite, once again the target for hate cards, but something that can take a few bites out of people before he goes - currently he's replaced with
Yasharn, Implacable Earth
, as it functions as a lockdown creature + ramp piggy for just 4 mana.
Not to mention a great other card for EDH:
Drannith Magistrate
. After all, why let opponents cast their commanders at all? Keep them in the command zone permanently (or as long as he's out, at least).
Besides creature control we also have noncreature control with
Manglehorn
,
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
,
Sanctum Prelate
,
Gaddock Teeg
,
Leonin Arbiter
,
Aven Mindcensor
,
Alms Collector
,
Angel of Jubilation
, and
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
. There are plenty others as well, but most are self explanatory, like these are; slowing enemies until you can attack or combo for dangerous amounts of damage.
The Artifacts
Mana rocks aside, the artifacts in the deck serve to add a sub-voltron backup plan, in addition to the controlling aspect of the deck.
Grafdigger's Cage
and
Damping Sphere
both play to that end. For the short equipment list, we include
Skullclamp
for eliminating our weak mana dorks or tokens for cards late game, and
Lightning Greaves
for a quick boost in attack for Mirri
- not a voltron shell, just enough to protect our kitty or sneak in some nice damage.
The final two tie to the combos:
Phyrexian Altar
and
Blasting Station
, which will both be explained below.
The Enchantments
Because we're in white, we have access to a whole host of 'fun' prison and stax effects through white...and most of the 'fun' ones are in here too.
Rest in Peace
,
Grasp of Fate
,
Shapers' Sanctuary
,
Aura Shards
, and
Solemnity
all help to stop opponents do what opponents try to do (win). Solemnity plays into our wincons, which will be at the end.
A fun mention is
Glare of Subdual
which both taps Mirri to restrict attackers, or tap the opponent's biggest attacker (preferably while Mirri's already tapped). Other small enchantments like
Land Tax
are in here too for additional support and ramp, although our biggest protection is actually going to come from our instants and sorceries.
Instants and Sorceries
The bulk of our removal is coming from our instants and sorceries.
Return to Dust
and
Creeping Corrosion
deal with pesky artifacts and enchantments, while my new pet board wipe card,
Winds of Abandon
, is a Path for all opponent's creatures...it's essentially Cyclonic rift but in white, it's nuts. Need to dodge a giant board wipe or game-ending attack?
Teferi's Protection
has got your back.
Ramp is found through the good ol'
Cultivate
,
Kodama's Reach
and
Explosive Vegetation
, and since we already have mana dudes and rocks, we don't need much more than that.
Harmonize
is a wonderful green draw spell not attached to a creature, which is rare for a straight green sorcery; while
Regrowth
and the brand new
Road of Return
play very nicely for getting back things that've been destroyed - even Mirri herself!
Wincons
Now that we have our primary ways of dealing with threats and establishing ourselves out of the way, we can focus on the most important part of any game besides having fun: winning. Mirri herself can make it so combat damage is a reliable way to deal with somebody, but in case you want to win immediately, there's a couple infinite combos in the deck as well - and they revolve around
Devoted Druid
. With
Solemnity
or
Vizier of Remedies
, Druid can make an infinite amount of green mana, which you can use to dump into spells in your hand to play them all - currently looking for an alternative combo line or support cards to replace these, since they're pretty hollow alone.
Alternatively, you can combo Solemnity with
Kitchen Finks
and
Blasting Station
to literally blast your opponents to nothing.
Heliod, Sun-Crowned
and
Walking Ballista
also make their way into the deck, in order to provide a solid backup way of smashing in the opponents - as long as you have enough mana to play them both consecutively if you go off in one turn, which shouldn't be hard for green.
Luminous Broodmoth
comboed with Solemnity also enable a similar combo as the infinite mana ones, but with infinite etb's - it's a nice alternative if you can't grab a vizier of remedies with Kitchen Finks
Thus, there are only a handful of ways to 'go infinite' in the deck so it isn't the main focus - beating down with Mirri or an army of Spawnwrithes is just as satisfying a way to close out a game as any other.
As always, I'm always open to suggestions or edits for the deck, as nothin is ever truly finished. Give it an upvote if you enjoyed the list too, I appreciate it! Thank you for looking!
