Mistform Ultimus Tribal Tribal: The Skeleton Key

Commander / EDH Casual Combo Merfolk Mono-Blue Primer Tribal

FenIsABasicSwamp

Land (37)

• 1x City of Shadows
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 2x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 2x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 3x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 2x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Mishra's Factory
• 1x Mutavault
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Seraph Sanctuary
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Swarmyard
• 1x Tolaria West

Instant (4)

• 1x Artificial Evolution
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Paradoxical Outcome
• 1x Reality Shift

Creature (27)

• 1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1x Callous Oppressor
• 1x Docent of Perfection  ^Flip
• 1x Faerie Artisans
• 1x Grand Architect
• 1x Higure, the Still Wind
• 1x Lord of the Unreal
• 1x Magus of the Future
• 1x Master of Waves
• 1x Merrow Reejerey
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Patron Wizard
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x River Kelpie
• 1x Sage of Epityr
• 1x Sage of Fables
• 1x Sakashima's Student
• 1x Seahunter
• 1x Shadow Sliver
• 1x Shapesharer
• 1x Sigil Tracer
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1x Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1x Tidespout Tyrant
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Day's Undoing
• 1x Distant Melody
• 1x Knowledge Exploitation
• 1x Mystic Speculation
• 1x Notorious Throng
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Whelming Wave

Commander (1)

Artifact (17)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Diviner's Wand
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Infiltration Lens
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Vedalken Shackles

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Dismiss into Dream
• 1x Equilibrium
• 1x Kindred Discovery
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Rooftop Storm
• 1x Unnatural Selection

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Maybeboard

Artifact (4)

• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Inspiring Statuary
• 1x Stoneforge Masterwork
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice

Instant (2)

• 1x Polymorphist's Jest
• 1x Standardize

Creature (4)

• 1x Amoeboid Changeling
• 1x Mistform Wakecaster
• 1x Walker of Secret Ways
• 1x Wanderwine Prophets

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Cultural Exchange
• 1x Peer Pressure

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Arcane Adaptation
• 1x Call to the Kindred
• 1x Faces of the Past

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I have settled on a final name for this deck after playing it 20+ times and realizing that Mistform Ultimus is a sort of tribal skeleton key. By that I mean in the mid- to late-game the general can be used to execute some potentially infinite and extremely convoluted combos based on his being a wizard, zombie, merfolk, samurai, shapeshifter and other creature types. So he really unlocks the deck's potential in the endgame.

I created this deck simultaneously while completing my Masters thesis in Electrical Engineering for stealth materials. One of the primary qualities that such materials are electromagnetically characterized by is their magnetic permeability, represented by the Greek letter mu, so I affectionately refer to this deck as MU for Mistform Ultimus. The image above is kind of the perfect representation in my mind of what MU would look like as an amorphous sword-wielding badass who's constantly changing his form and beating down his enemies, leaving their bodies strewn around the battlefield.

Best combo in the deck :

Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho+Mistform Ultimus+Ashnod's Altar creates an infinite deaths and ETBs cycle. With River Kelpie you can draw the whole deck, or Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign will let you dig through it for whatever you want. Azami, Lady of Scrolls also lets you draw the entire deck as MU re-enters the battlefield untapped each time.

Other situational combos, not all of which are in the deck currently:

Mass Polymorph is a card I've wanted to play since I started playing EDH in 2010 and it's great in this deck because you can make a ton of tokens with Master of the Waves or Docent of Perfection   or just steal an opponent's creatures with Reins of Power or Cultural Exchange and then Mass Polymorph them all to get all your creatures on the field. Better have Akroma's Memorial to win that turn though! I took Mass Polymorph out for now because it's always tough to justify since it's a dead card in so many situations.

Another cool infinite draw combo is with (surprise, surprise) Cloudstone Curio+Rooftop Storm+Mistform Ultimus+Shapesharer. You can recast the two creatures infinitely by bouncing them with the Curio and then once you get Sire of the Storm out, since they are zombies and spirits, you draw infinite cards (and get infinite storm, but there's no room for Mind's Desire in the deck atm).

All of the Islands have different arts from each other to go along with the theme of MU having every creature type, so it's like it's from every plane.

This deck is a bit tricky to get running smoothly, but hopefully some of the new cards I've added to manipulate creature types should smooth it out. Currently, it's still a bit of a

Artificial Evolution

Artificial Evolution is a really random little card that I wish I could use over and over via Isochron Scepter but there's no guarantee of getting both in the same game. Some of the coolest combos are changing "zombie" spells on Rooftop Storm to any other creature type, such as "merfolk" or "wizards" since there's a lot of both in the deck. Rooftop always let's you cast your general for free, but now you can cast whatever else is in your hand for free!

Another cool one is changing the text on Seahunter from "merfolk" to tutor for whatever creature type you want. I'm trying to add in Mnemonic Wall so I can get Artificial Evolution back and reuse it to abuse this stuff even more.

Artificial Evolution cool trick accomplished list:

1. Used Whelming Wave to bounce all non-ninjas, used Mistform Wakecaster to make all my creatures ninjas
2. Changed Rooftop Storm to wizards

Win Conditions :

There are a number of ways to win in this deck, potentially infinite iterations, which leads to Infinite Reflection. The idea is to generate a ton of mana in the late game via the mana doublers and Sword of Feast and Famine or Time Spiral and then cast Tidespout Tyrant and enchant him with Infinite Reflection. Now all your non-token creatures are Tyrants and every spell you cast bounces a ton of permanents to their owners' hands. I did this a couple times and it was fun, but I found that losing the abilities on my other creatures was really frustrating and IR was a dead card for every turn I had it in my hand until I was ready to copy a bomb. So, while it's a cute interaction, I've removed it for more stable and consistent lines.

The real allstar of this deck now, and always, is Merrow Reejerey. There are a good number of merfolk in the deck and Seahunter is an incredible tutor to just go search them up at instant speed straight into the battlefield. One great combo with MR is to have Rooftop Storm, Cloudstone Curio, and Shapesharer in play and then cast MU. This will allow for an infinite loop of bouncing Mistform and Shapesharer in and out of play because they are both zombies, and untapping all of your permanents and tapping all of your opponents' permanents. This makes infinite mana, draws infinite cards with Mulldrifter or Azami in play, gets every basic into play with Solemn Simulacrum or just wins with Tidespout Tyrant. If MR could be the general I'd probably play him.

Top Ranked	Achieved #6 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	WBRG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.68
Tokens	Copy Clone, Elemental 1/0 U, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Human Wizard 1/1 U, Manifest 2/2 C
Folders	Fun Commander decks, Cool Decks to Look at, other people's decks, Other People's fun looking EDH decks, Ideas, Mono Color Decks, Unconventional EDH Decks, Mono Blue, Interesting Commander Decks, Banter