Pretending to Win

Commander / EDH*

dredsilver

Interaction (24)

• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Delay
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dralnu, Lich Lord
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Into the Roil
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Negate
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Ovinomancer
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Shauku, Endbringer
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vandalblast

Ramp (11)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Tutor (7)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Corpse Connoisseur
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Land (31)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 5x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Cage Targets (10)

• 1x Balthor the Defiled
• 1x Dralnu, Lich Lord
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Mirror-Mad Phantasm
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Ovinomancer
• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Shauku, Endbringer
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Kiki-Combo (4)

• 1x Balthor the Defiled
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Pestermite
• 1x Zealous Conscripts

Commander (1)

Utility (17)

• 1x Anger
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necrotic Ooze
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge
• 1x Windfall

Mirror-Mad Combo (7)

• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Dregscape Zombie
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Mirror-Mad Phantasm
• 1x Narcomoeba *f-pre*

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Sideboard

Infinite Turns (2)

• 1x Anthroplasm
• 1x Sage of Hours

Tree-KO (2)

• 1x Hateflayer
• 1x Tree of Perdition

Utility (1)

• 1x Lazav, the Multifarious

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Maybeboard

Cage Targets (12)

• 1x AEtherling
• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Avatar of Woe
• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Horseshoe Crab
• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Morphling
• 1x Pack Rat
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Staff of Domination

Land (7)

• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Verdant Catacombs

Interaction (12)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Avatar of Woe
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dreadbore
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Incendiary Command
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Remand
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Thought Erasure
• 1x Unsubstantiate

Ramp (3)

• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond

Infinite Mana (2)

• 1x Quicksilver Elemental
• 1x Staff of Domination

Utility (12)

• 1x AEtherling
• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Horseshoe Crab
• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Morphling
• 1x Opt
• 1x Pack Rat
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Reanimation (3)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Reanimate

Utlity (2)

• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Tolarian Winds

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Mairsil EDH

Wincons

• Hermit-druid style combo by caging Mirror-Mad Phantasm . Activate, mill entire library, return Narcomoeba via graveyard trigger, unearth Fatestitcher and Dregscape Zombie , untap a mana source with Fatestitcher, then Dread Return sac'ing your board for Laboratory Maniac , then flashback Deep Analysis for the win. Total mana required after having Mirror-mad Phantasm exiled is if you untap a blue source with Fatesticher.
• Kiki-Conscripts combo by getting Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker , Zealous Conscripts , and Balthor the Defiled into your yard via Buried Alive . Cage Balthor, pay , "exile" Mairsil to win. You can of course get Kiki and Conscripts to the yard and hard cast Balthor or exile him from hand with Mairsil.

Sideboard Wincon Options

• Tree-KO sideboard combo in caging Tree of Perdition and Hateflayer for a literal one-two KO from Mairsil. required per combo.
• Infinite turns combo by caging Sage of Hours and Anthroplasm . Activate with available to win. Not a bad multiplayer wincon but currently sideboarded for combos that don't require exiling multiple targets.
• Lazav, the Multifarious is a good package to sideboard in as he adds redundancy to these sideboard wincons. He only combos off with Balthor the Defiled maindeck (as he will shuffle himself into the library off the Mirror-Mad Phantasm ability unlike Mairsil), but he can also target Necrotic Ooze and win through the Turns or TreeKO combos from the sideboard. Also serves as a replacement commander for if and when Mairsil gets hated out and his tax unreasonably high (as does Ooze from the maindeck).

Notes

The turns, Kiki, and Tree combos require Anger in the graveyard or Thousand-Year Elixir on the battlefield to go off that turn, or you have to spend the rest of the turn keeping Mairsil alive. Pre-testing, I imagine tutoring for Buried Alive , grabbing Anger , Ovinomancer , and Mirror-Mad Phantasm is the deck's best plan of attack. With a counterspell and some mana available, should be able to win turn after.

Buried Alive pitching Balthor the Defiled , Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker , and Zealous Conscripts with access to (probably off a Dark Ritual seems like the fastest way to win if opponents are tapped out and there's no graveyard hate on the battlefield.

Your Buried Alive , Entomb , and Corpse Connoisseur targets are dependent on reading the table to see how fast you can win and what counters/hate your opponents have available to them. Ovinomancer lets Mairsil control the board and bounce himself for protection while you build a combo win and counter protection. Theoretically, countering graveyard hate long enough should allow Mairsil, the Pretender to exile enough wincons to protect a combo if a longer, grindier game presents itself. He can exile from hand with ETB trigger as well, which should be able to grind through resolved Rest in Peace and the likes.

This current iteration is light on reanimation effects with the intention that a full suite of counterspells and interaction/removal should be enough protection to tutor up a wincon to the yard and rely on the Mairsil to the be machine that enables the combo. While not cEDH, per se, the list is aiming to be as efficient and powerful as possible. Some cards will be added as budget allows ( Wheel of Fortune , Mana Drain , etc).

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 3 Mythic Rares 35 - 2 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 25 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.45
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Manifest 2/2 C, Sheep 0/1 G, Spirit 1/1 C
Folders	Commander