The Pretender

Commander / EDH* UBR (Grixis)

GuildMcCommunist

Creature (27)

• 1x AEtherling
• 1x Anger
• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Argent Sphinx
• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Civilized Scholar  ^Flip
• 1x Divining Witch
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Empress Galina
• 1x Galecaster Colossus
• 1x Hateflayer
• 1x Lazav, the Multifarious *f-pre*
• 1x Minion of Leshrac
• 1x Mirror-Mad Phantasm
• 1x Morphling
• 1x Myr Propagator
• 1x Pack Rat
• 1x Quicksilver Elemental
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Shauku, Endbringer
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Spikeshot Elder
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Torchling
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Viashino Heretic

Instant (10)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge
• 1x Thought Scour
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Land (35)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 5x Snow-Covered Island
• 4x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 3x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Painful Truths *f-pre*
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Commander (1)

Artifact (18)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mirage Mirror *f-pre*
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Pendant of Prosperity
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Fires of Invention

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render

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I tore it apart and just finally revisited it with some pretty significant changes.

My main issue with the old build of Mairsil was that it was so reliant on Mairsil and it ended up playing a lot of bad cards just to combo. If you weren't able to access Mairsil (say there's a Torpor Orb that's stopping you from assembling a combo), I wanted the deck to still be playable. With this new version I've attempted to make most of your Mairsil targets relatively playable on their own.

Like the old deck, it's still focused on combo and control. Here's some of the combos (current and planned):

Mairsil:

• Tree of Perdition + Hateflayer/Spikeshot Elder: Swap someone's life total to 4 then ping them for 4. Pretty simple. You can also just swing with Mairsil if they have no blockers or use Aetherling's unblockable ability to get through.
• Quicksilver Elemental + Morphling + Gilded Lotus: Infinite mana/abilities. Have all the pieces under Mairsil, then activate Gilded Lotus for UUU. Use a U to untap Mairsil and a U to activate Quicksilver Elemental again. In the end you've netted a blue mana. Repeat this process to make infinite blue, then you can use the infinite blue to use Morphling + Quicksilver Elemental to untap him and make red and black. Now you have infinite mana of all colors and infinite activations or all abilities under Mairsil due to all the Quicksilver Elemental activations.
• Mirror-Mad Phantasm + Pack Rat/Myr Propagator: This is basically just an easy win. Activate the Pack Rat/Propagator, then in response activate the Phantasm. Shuffle the real Mairsil into your library and mill your entire library (since there's no Mirror-Mad Phantasm). Then the Pack Rat/Propagator ability will resolve and give you a new Mairsil with an ETB trigger, grabbing The Scarab God. Then use The Scarab God's ability to get Thassa's Oracle. If you have enough mana, you can also just command zone Mairsil once he's moved from your library to the graveyard, then recast him. Side note: You have to command zone when Mairsil moves to the graveyard from the library, you need Mairsil to shuffle in for the Mirror-Mad Phantasm ability to resolve.
• Divining Witch + Thassa's Oracle: Just activate the Witch (either on its own or under Mairsil) and name a card not in your deck. You'll exile your entire library and once you resolve Thassa's Oracle, you'll win the game.
• Nevinyrral's Disk + Aetherling/Cavern Harpy/Arcanis the Omnipotent: While it doesn't win you the game, it's a pretty harsh lock for your opponents to come through. Activate the Disk's ability and in response either flicker Mairsil or bounce him.

Combos not in the deck but can be considered:

• Heartless Hidetsugu + Pestilent Souleater: Anyone above 20 life dies instantly.
• Anthroplasm + Sage of Hours: Infinite turns.
• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite/Zealous Conscripts: The classic combo. It doesn't work with Mairsil but if your deck has enough Kiki-Jiki value targets I think it's worth running. Just slapping Kiki-Jiki under Mairsil and creating a value engine is pretty exciting. The Pestermite/Deceiver Exarch on their own can untap some of your tapping shenanigans and Zealous Conscripts is a good card on its own. Could be worth consideration.

Top Ranked	Achieved #10 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 56 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.35
Tokens	Copy Clone
Folders	Chech this out, Stuff i wanna try, EDH, Budget-ish EDH, Excellent Primer, look, EDH, Cool Deck Ideas, things to build, EDH Deck ideas