Mairsil, the pretender

Commander / EDH Combo UBR (Grixis)

Pass44

Land (33)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Island
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x River of Tears
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sanctum of Eternity
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Mass Hysteria
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Rhystic Study

Sorcery (18)

• 1x Profane Tutor
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Flame Rift
• 1x Rakdos's Return
• 1x Unmarked Grave
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Cut / Ribbons
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Incendiary Command
• 1x Blasphemous Act

Creature (15)

• 1x Bloodlust Inciter
• 1x Spikeshot Elder
• 1x Divining Witch
• 1x Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei
• 1x Orcish Bowmasters
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x Anger
• 1x Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• 1x Necrotic Ooze
• 1x Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Heartless Hidetsugu
• 1x AEtherling
• 1x Archfiend of Despair

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Dack Fayden

Commander (1)

Artifact (16)

• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Instant (12)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Wash Away
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Kazuul's Fury  ^Flip
• 1x Deadly Rollick *f-etch*

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Sideboard

Creature (12)

• 1x Orcish Bowmasters
• 1x Crypt Rats
• 1x Feldon of the Third Path
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Asmodeus the Archfiend
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Red Dragon
• 1x Hateflayer
• 1x Minion of Leshrac

Instant (4)

• 1x Dispel
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Delay
• 1x Delayed Blast Fireball

Artifact (2)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Patriar's Seal

Land (1)

• 1x Flamekin Village

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip
• 1x Intruder Alarm
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Wound Reflection

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render

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Maybeboard

Creature (20)

• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Blood Pet
• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Harmonic Prodigy
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Sage of Hours
• 1x Blood Vassal
• 1x Cephalid Inkshrouder
• 1x Metalworker
• 1x Mischievous Poltergeist
• 1x Ovinomancer
• 1x Anthroplasm
• 1x Endling
• 1x Chainer, Dementia Master
• 1x Eater of the Dead
• 1x Morphling
• 1x Quicksilver Elemental
• 1x Torchling
• 1x Phyrexian Devourer

Instant (4)

• 1x Essence Flux
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Tolarian Winds
• 1x Ghostly Flicker

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Gamble
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Artifact (3)

• 1x Magewright's Stone
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Sorin Markov

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An optimised and resilient Mairsil, the Pretender-deck. Suitable for players who enjoy a combo-oriented, non-mainstream, style of play.

strategy

The main goal is to win the game using the abilities of caged creatures with Mairsil, the Pretender. This deck streamlines the road to victory. This means it forgoes the option of running a wide array of combo-possibilities but instead focuses on achieving a combo-wincon in the most efficient way possible. You'll find a description of the combo-wincons, revolving around the cards Tree of Perdition and Heartless Hidetsugu, in the next panel.

combo-wincon

Combo's

All combo's in this deck revolve around possible gamewinning strategies using the caged abilities of Tree of Perdition or Heartless Hidetsugu. In any of the following combinations an opponent loses all their life points:

Spikeshot Elder + Tree of Perdition : drops an opponents life points to zero, at instant speed, when both creatures are caged and with mana available.

Hateflayer + Tree of Perdition : drops an opponents life points to zero, at instant speed, when both creatures are caged and with mana available.

Mairsil, the Pretender + Rogue's Passage + Tree of Perdition : after using the caged ability of Tree of Perdition with Mairsil, the Pretender during an opponents turn, you can simply attack with an unblockable mairsil to bring their life points to zero.

AEtherling + Mairsil, the Pretender + Tree of Perdition : when both creatures are caged with Mairsil, the Pretender you can use tree's ability to bring your opponents life points to four and finish the job by attacking with an unblockable mairsil.

Kazuul's Fury + Mairsil, the Pretender + Tree of Perdition : after using the caged ability of Tree of Perdition with Mairsil, the Pretender, cast Kazuul's Fury   to bring an opponents life points to zero. Instead of Kazuul's Fury   other burn-spells like Cut / Ribbons, Incendiary Command, Flame Rift, or Rakdos's Return can be used. A wheel-effect while orcish bowmaster is in play, also takes care of the remaining life of your opponent.

Tree of Perdition + Wound Reflection

Archfiend of Despair + Tree of Perdition : bring back Archfiend of Despair with Reanimate to effectively put this combo into play.

Heartless Hidetsugu + Wound Reflection

Archfiend of Despair + Heartless Hidetsugu : bring back Archfiend of Despair with Reanimate to effectively put this combo into play.

Heartless Hidetsugu + Solphim, Mayhem Dominus

Bloodletter of Aclazotz + Heartless Hidetsugu

Bloodletter of Aclazotz + Tree of Perdition

Piloting

The goal with this deck is to apply pressure with caged threats as soon as possible in the game. Mairsil, the Pretender acts as a resilient political commander when cards like Tree of Perdition or Heartless Hidetsugu are caged. It deters opponents from attacking you since you can retaliate and take a big chunk out of their life-totals. Besides discouraging your opponents from attacking you, Mairsil can also put you in the position to aid one of your opponents when the biggest threat at the table needs to be attacked. Since Mairsil is able to let an opponent lose a lot of life-points in one single blow, you can control the action at the table.

Possible Combo's

Other Mairsil, the Pretender-decks use the following combo's. Since this version is streamlined en focuses on achieving a wincon as soon as possible, these combo's aren't in the deck at the moment.

Phyrexian Devourer + Sage of Hours

Anthroplasm + Sage of Hours

Darksteel Plate + Nevinyrral's Disk

Amaranthine Wall + Nevinyrral's Disk

Mischievous Poltergeist + Nevinyrral's Disk

Heartless Hidetsugu + Solphim, Mayhem Dominus is in the deck. Fiery Emancipation or City on Fire can be used instead of Solphim

Filling the graveyard

Targeted graveyard placement

Entomb

Buried Alive: targeting Cut / Ribbons + Tree of Perdition and Anger or Spikeshot Elder.

Intuition

Unmarked Grave

Faithless Looting

Random graveyard placement

Windfall

Tolarian Winds

Mesmeric Orb

Jace's Archivist

Dack Fayden

support options

Haste enablers

Mass Hysteria

Bloodlust Inciter

Swiftfoot Boots

Thousand-Year Elixir

Anger

Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei

Tutors

Vampiric Tutor

Demonic Tutor

Imperial Recruiter

Divining Witch

Profane Tutor

Inventors' Fair

Mystical Tutor

Gamble

Muddle the Mixture: targeting Flame Rift

Possible changes

Options

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse + wheel-effects, boasted by damage doublers.

Intruder Alarm + Spikeshot Goblin

Reanimate + Vilis, Broker of Blood

Cyclonic Rift

Chrome Mox

notable exclusions

Former strategy:

Displacer Kitten + Knight Paladin : draining your opponents by continiously blinking Knight Paladin

Goblin Welder + Mairsil, the Pretender : easy way to get Knight Paladin into play.

Cuts*

Displacer Kitten

Knight Paladin

Treachery

Goblin Welder

Goblin Engineer

Asmodeus the Archfiend

Dismember

Arcanis the Omnipotent

Hateflayer

Narset, Parter of Veils

Notion Thief

Tolarian Winds

Games

1. Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy W Caged Tree of Perdition + Kazuul's Fury  
2. Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy W Caged Heartless Hidetsugu + Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
3. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic W caged Tree of Perdition + Wound Reflection 4.Lord Windgrace L

Date added	1 year
Last updated	3 months
Key combos	Heartless Hidetsugu + Wound Reflection Anthroplasm + Sage of Hours Tree of Perdition + Wound Reflection Darksteel Plate + Nevinyrral's Disk Hateflayer + Tree of Perdition Spikeshot Elder + Tree of Perdition Archfiend of Despair + Tree of Perdition Amaranthine Wall + Nevinyrral's Disk Reanimate + Vilis, Broker of Blood Phyrexian Devourer + Sage of Hours Archfiend of Despair + Heartless Hidetsugu Mischievous Poltergeist + Nevinyrral's Disk Heartless Hidetsugu + Solphim, Mayhem Dominus Mairsil, the Pretender + Rogue's Passage + Tree of Perdition AEtherling + Mairsil, the Pretender + Tree of Perdition Kazuul's Fury + Mairsil, the Pretender + Tree of Perdition Displacer Kitten + Knight Paladin Goblin Welder + Mairsil, the Pretender Intruder Alarm + Spikeshot Goblin Cut / Ribbons + Tree of Perdition Bloodletter of Aclazotz + Heartless Hidetsugu Bloodletter of Aclazotz + Tree of Perdition
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 4 Mythic Rares 53 - 13 Rares 18 - 6 Uncommons 15 - 1 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.55
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Dragon Spirit 5/5 R, Emblem Dack Fayden, Orc Army
Folders	WISH DECKS, Active decks
Based on	Mairsil, the Everyman StinkyDonkus EDH