Mnemonic Wall
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Mnemonic Wall

Creature — Wall

Defender

When Mnemonic Wall enters the battlefield, you may return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

2 days ago

Sometimes when I'm deckbuilding, I focus less on the commander and more on an interesting concept/combo that I want to use or exploit. This is the case with one of my favorite decks in my profile and actually one of the first commander decks I ever built. This deck began years ago when Magic finally started caring about the EDH format. It was a more simple time then, Rhystic study was $1.27 (exactly the price I paid for mine over 10 years ago), Cyclonic Rift was a bulk rare, and demonic tutor could be found for $10.

The combo that I was interested in was Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator. The latter was my favorite card at the time and is still one of my favorites. It was a great tool and with all the ETB effects that were out around then it was an underrated and uber powerful card. In fact, the entire blink mechanic was and is a very powerful strategy.

When I built this deck, I played a few times in shops and was quickly told that edh is a casual format and interaction of any kind is not fair (was told this by a land destruction deck...) So this deck is definitely more on the competitive side, but it would be the distant fringe of cedh. Alright with that let's get into it.

Initial thoughts

So we have a combo that we like Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator, but we don't even have a commander yet and going mono-blue seems not great, so we want to figure out what color(s) to add and what commander to choose. In a combo deck, there are generally three things that I like to make sure I include beyond the normal ramp, and card draw. That is redundancy, the ability to tutor up my combo pieces, and ways to protect my combo. So when thinking about tutoring up my combo pieces, I generally like to have the best tutors. Those are in black. So things like Wishclaw Talisman, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal (if you have money to burn or your playgroup is fine with you proxying the best cards so you can obliterate their precons j/k I proxy all my expensive cards and put them in a binder in case someone has an issue).

So we have Blue and Black and we can certainly add another color if we wanted to, but at the time I liked Dralnu, Lich Lord because Snapcaster Mage was in standard and flashback was cool. So I stuck with it when I revamped it, but decided that I wanted something that could ensure I can protect my combo from any threat and then also use it to win if I wanted to. The answer came in the form of Ertai Resurrected. He can counter basically anything from spells to activated abilities (which will come in handy) or he can take a threat on the field at the cost of letting your opponent draw a card.

So now that we have our commander, how to build the deck?

Redundancy

Combo decks need redundancy. If you don't get your two cards or one of them gets exiled, you need a backup plan, or scooping is your only option. Fortunately, there are some great redundancies here. We have Ghostly Flicker and Displace. Both of these will blink your creatures (ghostly flicker will also blink artifacts). Displacer Kitten can be helpful too, but I don't own it and it is a little more chaotic than I need it to be. Palinchron is great because you can return it to your hand and potentially play it again and create infinite mana through the use of High Tide, but a similar combo that has added benefits is Peregrine Drake, Archaeomancer, and Ghostly Flicker. This bounces both the drake and the archaeomancer untapping 5 lands, and returning ghostly flicker to your hand. Rinse and repeat for infinite mana. Archaeomancer also will help in returning key counterspells and tutors to your hand. Nothing like doing double duty. Mnemonic Wall and Great Whale also fit here. The great thing about this combo is that each component is useful in and of itself. Bring out your Great Whale early untap some lands and do some other stuff or play out the rest of your combo with the untapped lands. Cast Archaeomancer to grab a used tutor for another combo piece.

One note here, if you get Peregrine Drake (or one of the other two) paired with Deadeye Navigator and you generate infinite mana you can now draw your deck with Ertai as commander: Step 1: Bounce Deadeye, when he enters don't soulbond with anyone.
Step 2: Cast Ertai, don't choose anything or if you want kill one of your opponent's creatures. It doesn't matter.
Step 3: Soulbond ertai and deadeye. Step 4: Bounce Deadeye and while that is on the stack bounce Ertai. Step 5: Ertai enters the battlefield counter the Deadeye bounce on the stack Draw a card Step 6: Soulbond ertai and deadeye again rinse and repeat. Draw as many cards as you need. Which means draw until you find your wincon.

Wincon

Since this is an infinite mana combo we need something to use all that mana. Obviously the activated ability on deadeye is great, but we need something to actually win with. I went with Commander's Insight and Blue Sun's Zenith. Both of these cards are useful even when they aren't being used to force your opponents to draw their cards. Blue Sun's Zenith works nicely because once you cast it goes back into your deck, which I showed above you can draw as many cards as you need so you cast it once, put it in your library draw again until you find it, cast it again on the next opponent, then again. You can also tutor them up or bring them back from the graveyard with the tutors or the archaeomancer/mnemonic wall from earlier. I like this more than straight damage, because if you don't have infinite mana these cards will still draw you cards.

Tutors

This is a fairly simple step, we need some good tutors. There are a number of good choices in black so I won't belabor that too much. I don't have some of the standard ones and feel like the deck performs fine with the ones it currently has. I do have a Tribute Mage in the deck because nearly all my mana rocks are 2 mana and so is Wishclaw Talisman. I found that the consistency with the deck is vastly improved by being able to tutor up my ramp. Also with deadeye I can bounce it multiple times and get more rocks or the talisman.

Protecting the combo

So I needed to figure out how to protect my combo and do so in a way that is flexible or can be used as needed. So Counterspell. Honestly, this part was fairly simple, most blue counter magic is here. Only reason Fierce Guardianship isn't here is because I don't have it. Other than that we have the typical cards here Force of Will, Mana Drain, Cyclonic Rift, Force of Negation, Pact of Negation, etc.

I also have a couple other standouts. Venser, Shaper Savant is great here as it can be bounced with Deadeye Navigator to essentially boomerang my opponent's board and all their spells. Ertai Resurrected also protects the combo and with deadeye becomes a nice repeatable counter/removal spell.

glen_elandra_archmage can be bounced when she has her -1/-1 counter allowing her to be used again and again to counter noncreature spells.

Typical stuff

There is a lot of ramp in the deck, so Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, and other mana rocks including some larger ones like Gilded Lotus and Basalt Monolith to really get the ramp going, the sooner you can get to 7-8 mana the sooner you can combo out.

For card draw some key performers here are Rhystic Study, Black Market Connections, Phyrexian Arena, The One Ring. Mystic Remora. In my initial hand I want to have 3 lands, and one of these/tutor to find one or I typically mulligan.

Special notes

A couple other cards deserve mention here. Time Stretch and Time Warp. These are both repeatable with Archaeomancer and Mnemonic Wall and I can honestly say that if I'm able to resolve either of these, it is unlikely that I'm going to lose, especially Time Stretch. With the ramp in the deck or a well timed Dark Ritual/High Tide I can play this fairly early and get a huge advantage.

Lands

Since this deck tends to be fast, you don't want lands that come into play tapped, so this deck uses fetch lands, shock lands, and duals that have the ability to come in untapped. (there are a couple that come into play tapped, but they are fetchable so I fetch them only when I know that I'm not going to be able to use the mana and only on an opponent's turn.)

I've had this deck for a while and it performs far better than any of my other decks. It always presents interesting lines that if followed will lead to surprising victories. As always let me know what you think in the comments and if you have a commander in mind that you want to see me build put it in the chat.

Here is the final decklist: Unlimited Power!

Unlife on Vendilion clique combo

6 months ago

I love railgunning, and it's something I still play in my own monoblue EDH deck. A few recommendations:

Spell Crumple and Hinder both let you remove a problem card, and help enable the combo. Plus, they back up clique if the cost gets too high.

You're always going to want open mana, so I'd recommend a few more rocks. Being able to flash in your commander means you can spend a few turns just casting ramp, and still have mana up for counters or commander.

Snapcaster Mage and Mission Briefing are another pair of cards that can let you reuse things already in your graveyard. Mnemonic Wall acts as both blocker, and lets you return a combo piece to your hand.

multimedia on Defending budget commander deck

1 year ago

You're welcome. You have Brave the Sands and it's a better card. Two 2 drop enchantments that give vigilance is really not needed. Cutting Blessing for a blink effect gives you a strong effect you currently don't have. It's worth mentioning that Eerie Interlude blink combos with Mnemonic Wall to repeatedly blink your defenders.

multimedia on Defending budget commander deck

1 year ago

Hey, good changes so far. Looking nice with a really low avg. CMC.

Some budget defender upgrades to consider.

Orator of Ojutai is another two drop defender who can draw ETB if you control Arcades and it has flying. Sunscape Familiar and Wall of Roots are more defenders who ramp. Shield-Wall Sentinel is a defender tutor. Wall of Stolen Identity is good in multiplayer Commander and it ETB as the creature you choose with defender. Identity and Shield-Wall are some higher mana cost defenders, but their ETB abilities are worth it.

Wall of Junk has been errata to have defender, it can return itself to your hand if it blocks making it bonus good with vigilance. Walking Bulwark and Crashing Drawbridge are low mana cost defenders who can give other creatures you control haste.

Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive makes your defenders unblockable. What makes Tower Defense good here is it gives all creatures you control the instant pump for two mana. Aegis of the Heavens only targets one creature for three mana.

Because Arcades triggers to draw when a defender ETB then blink can be a powerful effect. Blink can also enable an infinite turns combo where attacking Arcades and/or defenders are the wincon.

Eerie Interlude can protect all your creatures from a board wipe since your creatures return to the battlefield at the next end step. If Arcades is exiled along with defenders then when the creatures come back you draw. To price match for a possible cut, Eerie could replace Voidslime? Cutting Voidslime will also clear some budget to add some of the more price defenders I suggested above.

At your end step Soulherder can be repeatable blink of any creature you control. With Arcades blinking a defender is draw, if the blinked defender has an ETB ability it triggers again and gives the defender pseudo vigilance since it will ETB untapped. Blink can also reset Shield Sphere and Wall of Roots.

If your game plan is to attack with defenders thanks to Arcades then how about extra attacks from extra turns? Adding this combo and Eerie Interlude are some reasons to keep Mnemonic Wall.

Cast Aeons and at your end step Soulherder blinks Mnemonic returning Aeons to your hand. On your extra turn cast Aeons and repeat. If you control Arcades then you also draw at your end step, but you only get extra turns equal to the number of cards in your library.

legendofa on Defending budget commander deck

1 year ago

With only 14 total instants and sorceries, I'm not sure Mnemonic Wall is pulling its weight here, especially as a five-mana 0/4. It can probably go.

This is more of a meta call, but Aegis of the Gods is more vulnerable than Teyo, the Shieldmage, Leyline of Sanctity, or Ivory Mask. Unless you expect to see a lot of targeted effects, Aegis would be my next cut.

Hover Barrier doesn't really do anything that other cards can't do better. There's a third cut.

After this, play through a few hands and see which cards sit in your hand for a long time being used, what might be under-producing, and what just might not be working.

andyboyjack on Four color maze's end, in COMMANDER?

1 year ago

FURTHER NOTES: Some bank busting upgrades.

Dream Cache cut for Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

The deck LOVES brainstorm effects, and Jace (while being one of the most powerful cards in the game) is infinitely better at brainstorming.

Mnemonic Wall cut for Snapcaster Mage.

Snapcaster mage does everything Mnemonic wall does but better, cheaper and enters at instant speed.

Forest cut for Urza's Saga.

I don't know what to say, Urza's saga is offers redundancy in being able to fetch up Amulet of Vigor or other utility artifacts, while also being fetchable itself with the myriad of land tutors in the deck. The deck would be great with it, but who could afford it?

Negate cut for Force of Negation.

This is self explanatory.

Conjurer's Closet cut for Sylvan Library.

Closet is actually quite slow due to its mana cost, and sylvan library is a once a turn brainstorm. A must include.

Llanowar Scout cut for Burgeoning.

despite llanowar scout being a good target for Retreat to Coralhelm, that's about the only utility you'll be able to get from it. Burgeoning does everything else better and cheaper while also being less vulnerable to removal. Else you could add Prophet of Kruphix and go absolutely hog wild with maze's end triggers, then the scout can stay and I'd cut something else for burgeoning.

You can also add some other commander staples too like smothering tithe and rhystic study, don't know what you'd cut, probably some of the blinks and the wall. Realistically the deck could stand to have all the basics replaced with fetches, fast dual lands and triomes, given it's extremely color hungry even with all the gates, but that's not 100% necessary. Your wallet will be absolutely crying by the time you're finished.

BOXES_O_MOXES on Ardenn-Esior Caw Blade [Pauper EDH] "Contest Deck"

2 years ago

MillerBrewing,

Thanks for the reply. I'm confused though. There is quite a bit of card draw and tutoring in the deck. Granted, this is an older build that hasn't underwent any changes since Commander Legends. This was a contest deck built solely for that purpose with what I believed to be at the time the best cards for this deck in specific.

When you note, "I don't see a lot of draw in this". I'm wondering if you really looked the deck over. I noted in early playtesting that it was lacking draw so I added as much as I could without concentrating solely on drawing cards. Examples below.

Bonder's Ornament

Cartouche of Knowledge

Fall from Favor

Ophidian Eye

Pentarch Ward

Anticipate

Dizzy Spell

Impulse

Muddle the Mixture

Merchant Scroll

Ponder

Preordain

Azure Fleet Admiral

Drift of Phantasms

Mulldrifter

Pondering Mage

Sea Gate Oracle

Staunch Throneguard

And on top of these, Flicker effects can blink Archaeomancer or Mnemonic Wall to get you back your Ghostly Flicker plus an Anticipate, Impulse, Ponder, Preordain etc over and over.

So I mean, There's plenty of draw and pseudo "draw" with transmute and tutor effects. There have been some other cards printed since that should probably be reviewed but I didn't intend on this being a deck I would really spend a lot of my time on. It was built primarily to showcase partner commanders. Especially those being newly released.

I'd be more than happy to hear out any changes that you think should be made. As far as I can tell the best pauper draw spells that are in this deck's color pie are already included in the deck. (Providing they were available for use when CMDR Legends was released).

king-saproling on Bounce n draw with a special lil falcon

2 years ago

Cool deck! You might like these: Drift of Phantasms, Merchant Scroll, Step Through, Vedalken AEthermage, Apprentice Wizard, Springleaf Drum, Sea Gate Oracle, Augur of Bolas, Repulse, Drag Under, Capsize, Salvager of Secrets, Mnemonic Wall, Scrivener, Rush of Knowledge.

Also I noticed you're running Treasure Cruise, which is banned in pauper. If your group doesn't care about the banlist, you might also consider running Peregrine Drake as it combos with things like Displace + Archaeomancer.

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