The Pretender's Cage

Commander / EDH Combo Infinite Combo Multiplayer UBR (Grixis)

SoleRing

Land (33)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Frostboil Snarl
• 1x Grixis Panorama
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Training Center
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Training Grounds

Instant (19)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterflux
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Evacuation
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Terminate

Artifact (15)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Commander (1)

Creature (16)

• 1x AEtherling
• 1x Anger
• 1x Dralnu, Lich Lord
• 1x Dregscape Zombie
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Knacksaw Clique
• 1x Mirror-Mad Phantasm
• 1x Morphling
• 1x Narcomoeba
• 1x Necrotic Ooze
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Quicksilver Elemental
• 1x Thassa's OracleGC
• 1x Walking Ballista

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x By Force
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Mystic Retrieval
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Windfall

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Mairsil combo deck. Main game plan is basically Hermit Druid but in Grixis. Further combo details below. Most important is the Mirror-Mad Phantasm combo.

Mirror-Mad Phantasm

Mairsil, the Pretender will cage Mirror-Mad Phantasm. Then, when you activate the ability on Mirror-Mad Phantasm, you will shuffle Mairsil, the Pretender back into your deck. However, when you do so, there will be no copies of Mirror-Mad Phantasm to reveal. Thus, you will reveal your entire deck and put it into your graveyard.

Dread Return

First you perform the Mirror-Mad Phantasm combo. This will cause Narcomoeba to enter the battlefield when it is milled. Then, Fatestitcher can be unearthed and used to untap a land or other mana source. This will be used to unearth Dregscape Zombie. Then all three creatures can be sacrificed to Dread Return to reanimate any creature.

Thassa's Oracle

Thassa's Oracle is one of the best targets for the Dread Return combo listed above.

If the library is empty (likely from Mirror-Mad Phantasm) then the ETB trigger of Thassa's Oracle wins the game unless an opponent has a Stifle effect.

Necrotic Ooze

This combo begins with the Dread Return combo listed above. The reanimation target of Dread Return will be Necrotic Ooze.

Anger will be in the graveyard thanks to Mirror-Mad Phantasm caged under Mairsil, the Pretender milling our entire deck. Necrotic Ooze will thus have haste.

Necrotic Ooze can be tapped for two colourless mana using the ability from Palladium Myr. Necrotic Ooze can then be untapped using said mana with the ability from Pili-Pala. Each iteration of this loop gives us one mana of any colour. Thus we obtain infinite mana. Note that this is at mana ability speed and cannot be interrupted.

This is most likely to be used with Walking Balista to deal infinite damage to our opponent's faces. However, it is perfectly valid to use Knacksaw Clique to exile every card from our opponents' libraries.

Any kind of interaction can be stopped by using the ability of Dralnu, Lich Lord to give any countermagic or other interaction in your graveyard flashback. With your previously obtained infinite mana, it should not be difficult to then interact.

Mairsil

This section contains multiple combos involving Mairsil, the Pretender directly. It is not likely that you will end up using him for the combo, but in the rare case that you do, this section is of relevance. There are many similarities to the Necrotic Ooze combo, but extra steps must be used to get around the "once-per-turn" clause on the abilities Mairsil, the Pretender gains.

The most important step is caging Quicksilver Elemental. If Mairsil, the Pretender targets himself with this ability, he gets another use of each of his abilities. More accurately, the n^th use of the Quicksilver Elemental ability grants Mairsil, the Pretender 2^n additional ability activations.

Further combo-ing requires multiple other pieces caged. This level of setup is why this method of combo is rarer. Ways to get more pieces caged easily will involve flickering Mairsil, the Pretender. The ability of AEtherling is the most likely way to do this. Note that this ability doubles as protection for Mairsil, the Pretender so caution should be exercised when using it in case someone is holding up spot removal.

The most likely first step is obtaining infinite mana. Luckily this has more methods than doing so with the Necrotic Ooze combo. The methods are listed below:

• Gilded Lotus with any untapper (Morphling, Pili-Pala, Knacksaw Clique) easily allows you to get infinite mana. You get three coloured mana and use some of it to untap Mairsil and get another use of his abilities.
• Basalt Monolith/Palladium Myr and Pili-Pala allow you to obtain infinite mana. Basalt Monolith/Palladium Myr let's you tap for three/two colourless mana. Pili-Pala let's you untap turning two of your colourless mana into one blue mana. Then you can get additional activations of each of Mairsil's abilities off of Quicksilver Elemental to obtain infinite mana.

Outlets for infinite mana and ability activations are as follows:

• Knacksaw Clique let's you exile every opponents' libraries
• Walking Balista allows for infinite pinging to your opponents' faces
• Arcanis the Omnipotent allows you to draw most if not all of your deck

Other notable interactions listed below:

• Nevinyrral's Disk can allow for Mairsil to board wipe while he survives by flickering himself with AEtherling ability until end of turn
• Training Grounds can cheapen many abilities. While not 100% necessary, can be useful to generate value or open additional lines.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	WG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.88
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Manifest 2/2 C
Folders	Paper Decks Built and Owned, Commander Decks, Decks I'm Looking At