I like the theme, just one tweak. can you replace Intervene with Turn Aside? I just immediately thought of that.

Yeah that's a good shout thanks! I went through a whole lot of cards to make this deck from scratch so there's bound to be obvious mistakes like that.

Although, correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't I use Intervene to counter something like Counterspell? If I were to say, play Merieke Ri Berit and an opponent countered, the spell would target merieke, a creature, so I think I could use Intervene to stop it. However, since merieke is on the stack at that point, I don't believe that it counts as a permanent I control and I would not be able to counter using Turn Aside.

I am currently trying to put together my own Merieke deck and I have encountered one problem with copying her: the Legend rule. According to my friends at my LGS I would need a Mirror Gallery to get around this. Is this correct? Would copying Merieke copy her legendary status as well?

That is absolutely correct. Copying a card includes copying its legend type, which would result in both cards being removed from the battlefield. I have taken out Masako the Humorless for Mirror Gallery. The way I see it, there are three main strategies you can take:

1. steal an opponent's creature, then copy it before you destroy it using cards like Clever Impersonator and Cryptoplasm.

2. copy the creature after it has been destroyed with cards like Cemetery Puca and Dimir Doppelganger or just abuse their effects with Necrotic Ooze.

3. resurrect the creature with Havengul Lich or Sepulchral Primordial.

Your post also brings up another interesting point; provided you have not already gotten Mirror Gallery out, you could copy an opponent's commander to immediately remove it from the battlefield, sacrificing your clone as well. For instance, you could lay down an early Cryptoplasm and as soon as an opponent played a pesky commander or other legendary, you could copy it on your upkeep with crypto to get rid of it.

Actually, it appears I was mistaken; the legend rule was changed as of M14 so that each player may control one of each legend, letting you copy and opponent's legend without getting rid of them both. This means that Sakashima the Impostor also gets around the legend rule, because her name does not change when she copies, meaning the legend rule isn't violated.

The latest version of the Legends Rule prevents you from using your clones to destroy other players' legendary creatures by simply cloning them. Now the rule only applies to multiple instances of a legend which are controlled by the same player. If a player controls multiple instances of a legend he/she chooses one to keep and all others are put into their owners graveyards.

Vigean Graftmage.

But would Vigean Graftmage really be better than say Aphetto Alchemist or one of the cards like Freed from the Real?

Yes. Better than that alchemist. Freed from the Real is just as good though (maybe slightly better).

I'm not convinced that it is though. For it to even work, I would need to have played it before Merieke Ri Berit which is highly unlikely, as it almost drops on turn three. I understand that you can use its effect immediately and multiple times per turn, but it's also a cmc of 5 just to use his effect once, and that's only if he were out before the creature I wanted to untap. I feel as though his effect would be better suited to a deck that had more spells that gave +1/+1 counters to creatures, like say if I were playing some of the abzan cards.

Mimic Vat With Perplexing Chimera + Gilded Drake + Thalakos Deceiver works wonders with stealing your opponents cards. I currently am running a Dimir version of the deck, and have been thinking about transmuting to Esper with Sen Triplets as commander and Paradox Haze and Strionic Resonator. Though Illusionist's Bracers would work nicely with your commander

If you fancy taking a look at the Dimir Versions here it is: Copyright Infringement

Thanks I'll take a look at your deck. Cards like Perplexing Chimera I think would be really fun to play as it's so disruptive to everyone, but I couldn't quite find space for it. I considered Thalakos Deceiver as well, but decided its ability wasn't quite as good as some of the other creatures I run. I'm still trying to figure out whether or not to run Sen Triplets, and Illusionist's Bracers is already in my deck.

I would say that Geth, Lord of the Vault would make a nice addition.

Sort of similar to Havengul Lich but with the extra mill effects; I will definitely consider it thanks!

I like your take on Merieke Ri Berit, I run the same commander with a bit of different take on it. I took a card or 2 from yours to make mine a bit better, feel free to do the same This all belongs to me.

Thanks will do!

Nephalia Smuggler and Conjurer's Closet help perma keep those creatures you steal

that's a good shout actually; I will definitely have to consider putting those in after I do a bit of playtesting thanks! I especially like Conjurer's Closet.

There are a few other cards that do the same thing, just gotta make sure it says it returns "under your control". Other than that, nice deck! How does it do vs a multiplayer game?

Awesome I'll look into it thanks! So I'm waiting until all my friends come back from summer vacation to be able to test it against their decks, but I'm hopeful that with like a three person game you'll be able to maintain very tight control over the board in most situations. Any more than that and everything always devolves into chaos, but the neat thing about this deck is that the more players and different decks there are, the more versatility you have with merieke. Plus no matter how many players there are, if you get Intruder Alarm out and you can keep it there you just end up wrecking everything

Yea man stealing creatures is fun, and its always different vs different decks. I wanted to build a Rubinia Soulsinger/blink deck so bad but i feel it would get focused hard and its already tough to play my prossh deck.

Nice! I have a deck with her as my general as well. I went with an enchantment/prison-y scheme. I do like your take on her! By My Leave (Merieke Ri Berit)

+1 The name was enough.

hahaha thanks; if you don't have a good name, no one looks at your deck!