Mairsil the Pretender - Commander
This Grixis colored combo deck is looking to assemble and execute game-ending combos revolving around activated abilities and graveyard shenanigans, enabled by Mairsil and his Grixis cohorts.
To preface, this is my favorite EDH deck that I’ve built. I've spent a fair bit of time and effort into the tuning and refining of this list, and I really enjoy pushing the limits of what Mairsil can do as a commander, while also being willing to recognize his limitations. His gameplan can be slower and his "I Win" buttons cost more than most of the other strong Grixis commanders like Kess, Inalla, or Tevesh/Kraum. Most Mairsil decks have their win conditions stretched across 3-4 card combos, with all of these combos requiring multiple cages with Mairsil, and this lends to a gameplan that has inevitability, but cannot win with speed.
Bearing this in mind, I've found the wincons that I feel give me the fastest, and most consistent, chance of both interacting and assembling these aforementioned game-ending combos. I've cut the majority of the clunky combos that originally drew me to Mairsil as a more casual commander, and I've honed in on Mirror-Mad Phantasm into Thassa's Oracle/Laboratory Maniac as the preferred wincon, as it stands as the most efficient and compact package that this deck can run. By trimming down superfluous combo pieces that result in dead draws, I can run more interaction and more tutors, providing better consistency and the permission pieces I'll need to go off and win.
Mirror-Mad functions as a makeshift Hermit Druid in this deck, allowing us to flip our deck for + Marsil's casting cost to cage it, guaranteeing that the entire deck will enter the graveyard. Enabling wins with Thassa's Oracle and Laboratory Maniac by way of sacrificing a motley cast of return-from-graveyard creatures, it is as powerful for us as it is for and .
List of Combos:
Laboratory Maniac + Cantrip/Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation:
Now, THIS is a 2-card combo right here, particularly with Thassa's Oracle in the format. There's a reason that this is currently the strongest shell for combo in the format (with Flash finally making it's departure), and if you have protection/interaction, it should spell a quick end to the game.
Mirror-Mad Phantasm -> Narcomoeba + Gravecrawler/Bloodghast + Fatestitcher -> Dread Return -> Laboratory Maniac -> Deep Analysis/Faithless Looting OR Thassa's Oracle:
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Faithless Looting + LabMan: - 6 mana, - 10 mana including Mairsil
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Deep Analysis + LabMan: - 5 mana, - 9 mana including Mairsil
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Thassa's Oracle: - 3 mana, - 7 mana including Mairsil
*Fatestitcher is mana-neutral due to the Haste from Unearth.
After caging Mirror-Mad Phantasm with Mairsil, activate for , shuffling Mairsil into the library and subsequently putting your entire library into the grave. Narcomoeba enters automatically, and then Fatestitcher is brought back with Unearth for . This makes it possible to cast Gravecrawler for , which Fatestitcher provides through its untap ability, or bring back Bloodghast with a land drop. Between these options, there will be enough creatures on the battlefield to flashback Dread Return, returning Laboratory Maniac from the grave. Fatestitcher can untap a land or Mana Vault if you need it, and from there Flashback Deep Analysis for and 3 Life, or Faithless Looting for , and win. With the printing of Thassa's Oracle, we have redundancy and options based on available mana as well, cutting the cost of the combo in half from what it formerly was.
Combos for consideration:
Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead/Necromancy + Walking Ballista:
A classic combo, Worldgorger creates mana with a reanimate enchantment, and we can funnel this into an infinitely large Walking Ballista, caged or uncaged, that can kill the table.
Necrotic Ooze + Kiki-Jiki + Mogg Fanatic: Can be done off of the Mirror-Mad combo as an alternative to LabMan, or you can just Buried Alive for all three pieces and then reanimate Necrotic Ooze with Animate Dead or Reanimate. This has emerged as one of the strongest combos in this deck, as it is a great backup that doesn't directly have to incorporate Mairsil.
Recent changes:
I've moved Kiki/Fanatic/Ooze/Anger to the maybeboard, as it ultimately just feels stretched across too many cards and requires too many tutors/resources to find consistently. In their absence, I have been testing Bloodghast, Spellseeker, Dockside Extortionist, and Ad Nauseam.
Bloodghast is another recursive creature that can stand in if one of the creatures we would normally be looking to bring back after a Mirror-Mad activation is inaccessible, and seemed worth experimenting with, as the fragility of only having exactly 3 creatures for Dread Return was noticeable.
Spellseeker can find Entomb, Dark Ritual, Flusterstorm, Demonic Consultation, Gamble, Demonic Tutor - As it goes with chaining tutors, it's possible to turn a Spellseeker into any card in your deck, if the card you need isn't immediately accessible with Spellseeker.
Dockside produces obscene amounts of mana and justifies rather easily, as it accelerates us into our combos and can happily be sacrificed to a Dread Return. The reliability of the ramp that it provides makes it seem like a strong addition. It also helps ramp us into...
Ad Nauseam. I've considered it for awhile, and the average CMC is low enough to allow me to steer towards a midrange Ad Naus style of play. We'll be looking to find counterspells and a way to get access to Mirror-Mad or Thassa's/Consult, so it won't always be necessary to be at a very high life total, or to push my life total to a precarious point, in order to secure a win.
Counterspell has come out for Cabal Ritual, and Buried Alive has exited in place of Phantasmal Image. Buried Alive lacks sufficient targets to justify it in the build at this point, and Counterspell feels clunky with the number of counters already present and the colored mana demands of the combo. Cabal Ritual is more acceleration that will help to power out Mairsil and Ad Nauseam, and Phantasmal Image is, well, whatever it needs to be at the time, on top of being a body to sac.
Cards for consideration:
Hullbreacher: With the Wheels available to us, Hullbreacher could perhaps be a powerful engine that could help accelerate into a wincon. Its impact on the format has been very real since its printing, to say the least. The same could be said for the next card, which is:
Opposition Agent, another fantastic new creature that lends to the midrange style of UB combo that Mairsil is best suited for. It has been phenomenal in every other deck I've had the chance to test it in thus far, so it will potentially be tested out soon in the list.
In Conclusion:
That's the primer! Thank you for taking the time to read about my build of Mairsil - any and all comments are welcome, so don't hesitate to ask questions about the build. Cheers~
