Grim Manipulation

Commander / EDH Casual Multiplayer RBW (Mardu) Treasure

Myomoto

Land (35)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Escape Tunnel
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Treasure Vault

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Life Insurance
• 1x Rain of Riches
• 1x Share the Spoils

Creature (25)

• 1x Dawnbreak Reclaimer
• 1x Discerning Financier
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge
• 1x Grim Hireling
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Humble Defector
• 1x Juri, Master of the Revue
• 1x Kalain, Reclusive Painter
• 1x Mahadi, Emporium Master
• 1x Master of Ceremonies
• 1x Mathas, Fiend Seeker
• 1x Mayhem Devil
• 1x Menacing Ogre
• 1x Merciless Executioner
• 1x Morbid Opportunist
• 1x Nadier's Nightblade
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Professional Face-Breaker
• 1x Reckless Fireweaver
• 1x Sower of Discord
• 1x Stalking Leonin
• 1x Termination Facilitator
• 1x Xantcha, Sleeper Agent
• 1x Xorn

Instant (11)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Dawn Charm
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Ephemerate
• 1x Kaya's Guile
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Soul Shatter
• 1x Take the Bait
• 1x Tibalt's Trickery

Commander (1)

Sorcery (16)

• 1x Browbeat
• 1x Choice of Damnations
• 1x Council's Judgment
• 1x Cut a Deal
• 1x Infernal Offering
• 1x Make an Example
• 1x Mob Verdict
• 1x Prisoner's Dilemma
• 1x Promise of Loyalty
• 1x Reverse the Sands
• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Secret Rendezvous
• 1x Seize the Spotlight
• 1x Tempt with Vengeance
• 1x Virtus's Maneuver
• 1x Wheel of Misfortune

Artifact (9)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Pendant of Prosperity
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Spectral Searchlight
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Tempting Contract
• 1x Wedding Ring

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Maybeboard

Creature (24)

• 1x Agent of the Fates
• 1x Breena, the Demagogue
• 1x Brutal Hordechief
• 1x Clackbridge Troll
• 1x Cuombajj Witches
• 1x Death Kiss
• 1x Demon's Disciple
• 1x Flumph
• 1x Generous Plunderer
• 1x Gravelighter
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Impulsive Pilferer
• 1x Loran of the Third Path
• 1x Luminous Broodmoth
• 1x Magister of Worth
• 1x Mana-Charged Dragon
• 1x Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
• 1x Prowling Geistcatcher
• 1x Restoration Angel
• 1x Royal Assassin
• 1x Scholarship Sponsor
• 1x Sin Prodder
• 1x Slaughter Specialist
• 1x Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Alliance of Arms
• 1x Allure of the Unknown
• 1x Breaking Point
• 1x Covetous Elegy
• 1x Curse of the Cabal
• 1x Dance with Calamity
• 1x Ill-Gotten Gains
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Struggle for Sanity
• 1x Tempt with Immortality
• 1x Unearth
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Whims of the Fates

Artifact (2)

• 1x Liar's Pendulum
• 1x Skullclamp

Instant (11)

• 1x Benevolent Offering
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Cloudshift
• 1x Deadly Dispute
• 1x Feign Death
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Hellish Rebuke
• 1x Oblation
• 1x Rally the Ancestors
• 1x Rebuff the Wicked
• 1x Undying Malice

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Bitter Feud
• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Captive Audience
• 1x Descent into Avernus
• 1x Measure of Wickedness
• 1x Teleportation Circle
• 1x Turf War
• 1x Wound Reflection

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This is an attempt at making a deck that maximizes the interaction between players, and in which we do not see our opponents as strictly adversaries, but rather players with sometimes mutual interests. As such, the deck runs several cards that requires keen negotiation to get the maximum effects from or prompt table discussions, such as, e.g., Dawnbreak Reclaimer, Council's Judgment, Mob Verdict, etc. The deck is thus focused on the political and metagaming aspects of the multiplayer format and tries to utilize this as a resource, rather than just efficiently executing its own card interactions in a vacuum. As a result, I have not leaned too much into Malik's second ability and just made a hardcore stax deck where you keep the table completely free of creatures with edict effects and cards like Grave Pact - this type of deck is sure to attract too much negative attention at the table, and killing everything is counter to our strategy of manipulating our opponents into killing each other for us.

I picked Malik, Grim Manipulator as a commander for access to Mardu colors (red and black have a lot of mind games/mutual trade cards), and also because his EtB effect is targeted removal on demand (good for stopping snowballing by one opponent). Targeted removal in the command zone is also always something that can be called out around the table when a specific creature gets too worrisome.

The deck has several cards that can be used as bargaining chips in deals or to set up direct alliances with shared resources like Pendant of Prosperity, Wedding Ring, Tempting Contract, Spectral Searchlight, etc., usually intended to used to bring the weakest opponent up to speed (someone who got targeted early or who is manascrewed). I'm not a big fan of 'overt deals', i.e., "if I kill this creature, you won't attack me the next turn". Rather, I want to emphasize spur of the moment exchanges of resources and card interactions that happen during gameplay.

Ultimately, the goal is keep as many players in the game for as long as possible, stopping any opponents from closing out the game suddenly, while using Malik's second ability to accumulate a load of treasures for an explosive turn ourselves to cinch out the win when the game has reduced to 2-3 players. Sower of Discord can be especially useful for this, as he allows us to double our damage.

We run a series of creatures that benefit from sacrificing lots of treasures, such as Mayhem Devil, Juri, Master of the Revue, Nadier's Nightblade to deal damage around the table. Reckless Fireweaver can also ping the whole table when treasures come into play.

Interactions and cards of note:

Malik, Grim Manipulator + Fleshbag Marauder (or any similar cards) is our main treasure engine. With cards like Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge, Mahadi, Emporium Master, and Life Insurance further amplifying the effect.

Tempt with Vengeance + Rakdos Charm. Convince one of your opponents to take the offer to give you more tokens to attack another opponent with, and then burn the first opponent if he chooses to attack you with the tokens (or, just Take the Bait them).

Sower of Discord + Ephemerate can set up some funny switcheroo tricks where an opponent ends up alpha striking themselves out (frankly, I'm considering adding more flicker effects in general).

Sower of Discord can enable a lot of nasty damage multiplication and mind games with cards like Prisoner's Dilemma, Wheel of Misfortune, or Mob Verdict. If your life total is significantly higher than your main opponent (e.g., from Reverse the Sands), it can even be in your interest to link yourself with Sower and just naming a very large number for Wheel of Misfortune to burn out your opponent (although, you can also use this to engage in mind games and get your linked opponent to burn himself).

Discerning Financier + Tempting Contract can let you trade two treasures for a card draw, potentially powering up a 'frenemy' at the table.

Share the Spoils is cheap and can be fairly disruptive. With our expectation of having a lot of mana from treasures, we should be well-equipped to utilize it better than our opponents as well.

Rain of Riches is just here to gain more value from our treasures. With a lot of cards at 3 mana causing opponents to sacrifice creatures, our more expensive spells are relatively likely to chain off and give us a load of treasures back with Malik, Grim Manipulator in play.

Board wipes can be problematic in multiplayer because they're symmetric. Make an Example has a useful hint in its reminder text: "Piles can be empty". You can use this as a player targeted board wipe by simply negotiating with the players you don't want to hit into putting all of their creatures into a pile along with an empty one, thus only asking them to sacrifice the empty pile.

Take the Bait can be used to protect ourselves, but it can equally just be used to let an opponent beat on another opponent twice (perhaps with some convenient tokens from Tempt with Vengeance).

Termination Facilitator and Mathas, Fiend Seeker only half double dibs on bounty counters: only creatures marked directly by Mathas will give card draw (due to how the ability is worded), but with the Facilitator in play, anything marked by Mathas will die to any damage. Ideal for Mayhem Devil to machine gun down several targets in a row by us sacrificing treasures.

Master of Ceremonies can be set up to give your opponents a false choice: with cards like Morbid Opportunist and Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge in play, even going for the lesser evil of the token can quickly result in you gaining more value than just giving you a treasure or card directly.

Professional Face-Breaker + Tempt with Vengeance can gives a huge influx of treasures.

Kalain, Reclusive Painter can be used in general to get value from treasures to pump up a big threat (for example, a heavily commander taxed Malik can suddenly become a massive beater). Giving someone a 8/8 Xantcha, Sleeper Agent can also be very chaotic (remember we can give other players mana with Spectral Searchlight or Tempting Contract help them activate Xantcha's ability). Works really well with Menacing Ogre to launch a potentially massive beater with haste.

Date added	1 month
Last updated	3 days
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 59 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.23
Tokens	Citizen 1/1 GW, Copy Clone, Elemental 1/1 R w/ Haste, Spirit 1/1 WB, Treasure