Hey guys! This is my new and improved Merieke deck!
This is not your typical deck. This deck is built around a concept, a style of play, a specific set of intentions.
Our goal is not to take everyone's creatures and destroy them. This may seem counter intuitive since our commander does that very thing. However, that is very inefficient and just puts a target on your back. That's not our goal.
Our goal with this deck is to politically threaten our opponents and force them to kill each other until we get down to a 1v1 situation. This is the WHEN and WHERE for our win. The HOW is a much more interesting question.
Before I tell you the win condition for this deck, I first have to tell you how we get to that 1v1 situation. There are 3 incredible cards in the deck that will heavily sway the outcome of the game: Tree of Perdition, Sorin Markov, and Magister Sphinx.
Once you set someone's life total to around 10, it becomes very tempting for our opponents to simply take that person out. We will further instill this thought process in them with simple politics. "If you attack me, I'll take your best creature and destroy it" or "If you attack someone else, you can keep your creatures." With our Commander on board, a way to untap her, and mana open for removal, this will be pretty convincing. Get creative with your politics. You'll be surprised what works.
We have several forms of control to answer any problems we might come across. We also have several ways to protect ourselves in case our opponents try to step out of line: Darkness, Comeuppance, Teferi's Protection, Sudden Spoiling, Energy Arc, Dawn Charm, Angelsong, and Batwing Brume.
Now that we've gotten to that 1v1 situation we've been wanting, HOW do we win?
This mostly depends on the board state as a whole. If your opponent has 1 big creature, take it with your commander and beat him with it. If they have lots of creatures, dig for Reins of Power. This deck is incredible in 1v1 because it's so controlling. Even if you're not in an ideal situation to win, you probably have a couple fogs, several forms of removal, and plenty of draw to buy time so that you can dig for what you need.
If you get in a situation where it's you vs a deck with very little to no creatures, it's a little more difficult. That's why this opponent should be the one you reset to 10 and manipulate your opponents into attacking first. Either way, we can still handle them with an interesting combo: Wound Reflection paired with Sorin Markov, Magister Sphinx, or Tree of Perdition will win you the game.
The ruling for when someone's life total changes is that you have to gain or lose life to get there. For example, if your life total is 40, and I played Magister Sphinx to set your life total to 10, you will technically lose 30 life to get there. With that said, after I pass the turn with Wound Reflection on the field, you'll then be drained for another 30 life since that's how much you've lost this turn.
EXTRA TIPS
-Im running several forms of recursion in the deck, but those cards should not typically be used unless they're targeting Magister Sphinx.
-Magister Sphinx will probably be your main route to victory. Especially since we're running Entomb and all the recursion.
-I intentionally decided to run Wishclaw Talisman and Scheming Symmetry over some other tutors. I want this to be a political deck. We can make deals with opponents for them to grab an answer out of their deck to deal with the immediate threat while we grab something that further advances our board state.
-Speaking of politics, you may notice that the deck has a running theme throughout: DEPENDENCE ON MY OPPONENTS. It's a restriction that's makes the deck super fun and kind of gimmicky. Cards like the 2 tutors mentioned above, Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithe, Fact or Fiction,Council's Judgment, and several others have been included. Granted not all of my cards can rely on my opponents interaction, but I've tried to find a lot.
Alright guys I hope you enjoy. I'd love to hear your suggestions. Thanks in advance. If you find this build intriguing, give me an upvote. It's much appreciated!
I know this deck is kind of gimmicky with all of the politics and dependence on my opponents so hears a very fine tuned extremely competitive version:
Competitive Magister Sphinx Reanimate Deck
