The Pretender

Commander / EDH* UBR (Grixis)

sSasquatch

Land (35)

• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crosis's Catacombs
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 2x Snow-Covered Island
• 3x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Creature (27)

• 1x AEtherling
• 1x Anger
• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Avatar of Woe
• 1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Deceiver Exarch
• 1x Eater of the Dead
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Grand Architect
• 1x Hateflayer
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Horseshoe Crab
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Minion of Leshrac
• 1x Mirror-Mad Phantasm
• 1x Morphling
• 1x Myr Propagator
• 1x Narcomoeba
• 1x Pack Rat
• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Quicksilver Elemental
• 1x Shauku, Endbringer
• 1x Torchling
• 1x Tree of Perdition

Instant (5)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Insidious Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Fervor
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Training Grounds

Commander (1)

Artifact (24)

• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Crystal Shard
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Manifold Key
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mycosynth Lattice
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1x Voltaic Key

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Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Anthroplasm
• 1x Necrotic Ooze
• 1x Sage of Hours
• 1x The Scarab God

Instant (1)

• 1x Force of Will

Artifact (3)

• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Heartstone
• 1x Helm of the Host

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Pemmin's Aura
• 1x Storm the Vault  ^Flip

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Like every Mairsil, the Pretender , this deck is based around different combos you can get with Mairsil, the Pretender to assist in winning the game.

Before we get into the combos you can pull off with this deck, lets first go over some of the overall mechanics certain cards are in the deck for. AEtherling + Deadeye Navigator + Myr Propagator + Pack Rat are used for their blink abilities with your first cage counter going on AEtherling if you can.

Arcanis the Omnipotent + Cavern Harpy + Crystal Shard + Riptide Laboratory are similar to the blink abilities but they are used to bump Mairsil, the Pretender back to your hand where you can cast him again.

Now Deceiver Exarch + Eater of the Dead + Fatestitcher + Hateflayer + Horseshoe Crab + Morphling + Pili-Pala + Torchling + Basalt Monolith + Grim Monolith + Manifold Key + Staff of Domination + Thousand-Year Elixir + Minamo, School at Water's Edge are pretty important since you can use or cage them as an untap source.

In my opinion, Anger + Lightning Greaves + Thousand-Year Elixir + Fervor + Hall of the Bandit Lord are crucial to the deck since they give us the ability to use the activate affects as soon as Mairsil, the Pretender comes out to the field.

Training Grounds + Illusionist's Bracers + Panharmonicon + Rings of Brighthearth are also used to aid in the activate abilities.

Now on to the combos (note that most of the combos involve all of the pieces to be caged), Gilded Lotus + Staff of Domination or Pili-Pala + Quicksilver Elemental allow you to create unlimited mana of any color.

For the next combo you only need to cage Mirror-Mad Phantasm + Gilded Lotus . This combo allows you to just win the game that turn if no one has any counter spells. The combo is to use Mirror-Mad Phantasm 's activate ability to discard your entire deck. Narcomoeba is put onto the field because of its ability. Then you play your land for turn which returns Bloodghast to the field and you can tap Mairsil, the Pretender using the activate ability of Gilded Lotus to create three blue mana using one to unearth Fatestitcher . Flashing back Dread Return allows you to put Laboratory Maniac onto your field where all you need is a way to draw a card to win the game.

You can create infinite mana without Mairsil, the Pretender by using Grand Architect + Pili-Pala + one blue mana initially.

In the maybe board, I have an infinite turn combo by using Anthroplasm + Sage of Hours along with the other activate abilities for that turn. I didn't include it since infinite turns doesn't seem like it would make for an enjoyable experience for the rest of the table.

I'm always open for other suggestions so feel free to leave them! I may have missed something so if you have any questions feel free to leave them also! I'm always looking for new cards to add to my decks so keep on a look out when new sets start getting teased/released for changes. I'll always leave the update log!

I also want to shout out Mairsil, the Pretender l JLK, Mairsil Demands, "It Puts the Lotion on the Skin", and the "Breaking Mairsil, the Pretender" article on CoolStuffInc.com for inspiration while creating this list!

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 52 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.28
Tokens	Copy Clone