Preamble

Control the board with the wide suite of interaction and removal, play politics until you can win with a Mairsil, the Pretender combo!

Ensure you have protection before you cast your Mairsil, the Pretender. Watch what your opponents are doing and find a window to deploy him with a to bounce him, or with enough for a Counterspell.

When he comes down, try to cage Aetherling. You can bounce Mairsil on the 2nd main phase of your last opponent to cage another card on their end step. (Or in response to removal). Don't wait for your opponent's end step - the Aetherling ability only returns on the next end step, and you want your commander to not be summoning sick on your turn.

Combos

Tree of Perdition + Aetherling

The simplest combo is to have a caged Tree of Perdition.

  1. Tap to make an opponent's life total 4 on the last opponent's end step.
  2. Then activate Aetherling's unblockable to KO them.
  3. Blink Mairsil, the Pretender to reset his toughness to 4.

Tree of Perdition + Hateflayer

A little more work has you caging Tree of Perdition and Hateflayer.

  1. Tree of Perdition turns your opponent's life to 4.
  2. Hateflayer for mana untaps your commander and kills them.
  3. Blink Mairsil, the Pretender to reset his toughness to 4.

If you have a haste enabler, you can kill each opponent on their upkeep!

Endling + Blood Pet + Walking Ballista

  1. Use Endling's Undying for .
  2. Sacrifice Mairsil to Blood Pet's ability to float a .
  3. Mairsil comes back from the undying trigger. (Cage another card if you want)
  4. Fire off your Walking Ballista, removing the +1/+1 counter.
  5. Repeat.

Mana Combo

The other combo is to cage either:

  • 3+ mana producing artifact (Gilded Lotus) and an Untap effect (e.g. Pili-Pala, Morphling, Torchling)
  • Vivi Ornitier

In addition, you will need:

  • Quicksilver Elemental
  • Walking Ballista in hand, or caged.

The combo works as such:

You tap your commander's Gilded Lotus ability for mana (), untap with Pili-Pala ()
OR
Activate Vivi's ability to make ()

Then,

  • Use Quicksilver Elemental to reset Mairsil's abilities for , enabling your commander to use his "Once a turn" abilities again.
  • Repeat.

Each iteration of this will add extra to your mana pool, letting you make infinite mana.

You can then make a massive Walking Ballista that pings your opponents down, or if caged, make your commander massively big and ping your opponents down.

Conclusion

This is a fun deck to play where each game starts off differently.

You are actively politicking and controlling the board, and getting yourself ready to just pop off and explode!

You should be able to set up and win around turn 7-8 with Counterspell backup. If you go balls to the walls completely shields down, you can expect a turn 5-6 combo win.

Notes

If you cage Tree of Perdition early, and an opponent attacks someone else and is able to deal at least 4 damage, you can turn their life to 4 and get a KO.

Cage Match

*SALT ALERT*

The most obnoxious thing you can do is cage Nevinyrral's Disk. Then, for 1 mana, at instant speed, you can blow up the board. If you've caged an Aetherling, also pay a blinking out your commander to keep him safe! If you have a haste enabler, you can do it multiple times in a commander turn cycle. OOF!

*SALT ALERT*

Good Cards to Cage

Oriq Loremage lets you fill your graveyard up with the exact cards you need at the moment to cage.

Arcanis the Omnipotent and Jace's Archivist ensures you have a steady flow of cards incoming.

Dralnu, Lich Lord lets your commander tap to give a spell in your graveyard Flashback - letting you double dip on all your spells.

Shauku, Endbringer turns your commander into targeted removal, which basically says "Tap: Exile a creature, and put a +1/+1 counter on Mairsil, the Pretender".

Backup Cages

If for some reason you can't get to Aetherling, or if it was disrupted and exiled, these three provide some backup.

  • Pack Rat basically adds the ability to your commander "Discard a card that you want to cage: Make a copy of commander that dies to the legend rule, but can cage the card you discarded"
  • Cavern Harpy can be played from hand to bounce your commander back to your hand. You can also cage it to give your commander "Pay 1 life: Bounce commander to hand"
  • Clever Impersonator comes in, copies your commander and dies to the legend rule, letting you cage something. However, his flexibility is insane. I've used him to copy Rhystic Study, and in one case, copied an opponent's Sting, the Glinting Dagger to use as an untapper! The flexibility is great.

Untappers

  • Eater of the Dead is a cute card that provides graveyard hate while untapping your commander for free. This is probably the only deck where he's actually good.
  • Morphling lets you untap for a , and also gives him shroud until end of turn for . The flying for might also be relevant sometimes!
  • Torchling is the weaker of the 'lings, where he gives you untap for , and a Bolt Bend that targets your commander for .
  • Pili-Pala when caged essentially turns your commander untap into a filter land, which turns 2 to 1 mana of any colour. As this is a mana ability, it doesn't take the stack and can't be responded to!
  • Thousand-Year Elixir should always be played, and it has "1, tap: Untap Mairsil the Pretender."

Special Mention

Viashino Heretic has a special mention as a utility card that can be played on turn 3 naked. Its ability to blow up artifacts is a great political tool, and if dealt with, can be caged. An interesting thing is that if you try to blow up an indestructible artifact (like a Blightsteel Colossus), its controller still gets hit for the mana value damage! If you have Viashino Heretic caged and an untapper or a haste enabler and enough mana, you could do this on every player's turn. Nice!

Other Cards

Haste Enablers

  • Have Anger in your graveyard, and a Mountain in play.
  • Cage Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, and you can haste your commander for .
  • Play Thousand-Year Elixir.

Good Cards

Orcish Bowmasters being flashed in, in response to a Jace's Archivist activation is absolutely VILE.

Faerie Mastermind is a meta call. We don't have many 2 drops, people like to draw cards and this is our weaker Trouble in Pairs.

Kolaghan's Command is always a 2 for 1. I usually fire it off on turn 3, taking down a mana dork and a mana rock, slowing down our opponents. If I have this in my hand, and I fail to protect my commander, I let him go to the graveyard, and use its first mode to get him back. (It also rebuys Clever Impersonator). Of course, if this is countered, you'll need to find / tutor up graveyard hate.

Tolaria West exists to be transmuted into whatever utility land you need:

  • Arcane Lighthouse if you're having trouble with shroud or hexproof.
  • Bojuka Bog for graveyard hate.
  • Strip Mine for land hate.

Tutor Piles

Gamble or Entomb

  • Early? Aetherling
  • Developing? Oriq Loremage
  • Mid game? Anger
  • Late game? Whatever you need for the combo win.

Buried Alive

  • Aetherling
  • Anger
  • Oriq Loremage

Gifts Ungiven

Pick Me First

  • Aetherling
  • Oriq Loremage

Don't have many cards in hand?

  • Arcanis the Omnipotent / Jace's Archivist
  • Torchling / Morphling (depending on your land situation)

Want to combo kill?

  • Tree of Perdition
  • Hateflayer

OR

  • Vivi Ornitier
  • Walking Ballista

Minion of Leshrac basically gives your commander "Tap: Destroy target land" -- which is great; but instead of durdling, wouldn't you rather be trying to set up your combo victory?

You can always run Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle but that's boooooring.

  • This is a bracket 4 deck.
  • There are other bracket 5 commanders that do this better.
  • Don't you want to win with your commander instead?

There is a Mirror-Mad Phantasm caged + Thassa's Oracle combo as well, which needs you to have 4 mana to win (plus extra for protection). If you want to do this, you need to go DEEP into rituals and fast mana.

  1. When you activate Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability while its caged, you shuffle Mairsil in, and then you mill your whole library looking for a "Mirror-Mad Phantasm" (which has been caged). ()
  2. You get a Narcomoeba from milling.
  3. You unearth a milled Fatestitcher and Combat Courier ().
  4. You then flashback Dread Return targeting Thassa's Oracle and win.

Lore

The Dark

Mairsil, the Pretender trapped Ith, High Arcanist in Barl's Cage that drained his power and turned him mad, and usurped his position in the Conclave of Mages.

Unfortunately, Ith summoned a Rag Man to warn Jodah, Archmage Eternal about his treachery.

Mairsil was then attacked by a Church of Tal army led by Delphine (Inquisition). Mairsil drained her magical defenses with the Wand of Ith and killed her.

Jodah used the cover of the assault to free Ith, who was almost completely mad by that point. Ith destroyed Mairsil before Jodah cured his mind.

Ice Age

Mairsil had imbued his life into a small ruby ring, and his essence survived into the Ice Age.

The ring was found by Lim-Dûl the Necromancer, who became a powerful necromancer thanks to the power of the ring.

While under Leshrac's command (Leshrac's Rite), Lim-Dul's undead hordes (Lim-Dûl's Cohort) terrorized everyone until being defeated by an alliance between Kjeldor and Balduvia.

Jodah was magically still alive, the spirit of Mairsil attempted to take control of Lim-Dul so that he could use the necromancer's powers against his archenemy.

Leshrac, seeking extra power himself, cut off the necromancer's hand with the ring.

The ring's next wearer was Jaya Ballard, Task Mage - Jodah's trusted confidant.

Mairsil spent the next decade poisoning her mind, eventually convincing her to betray her master and slit his throat.

Jodah fought back and Jaya's planeswalker spark ignited when he used Reflecting Mirror on her.

Jaya's ascension, and the energies it released, eradicated all traces of Mairsil's soul within her.

Magic Origins

The ring found its way to an ancestor of Liliana Vess who buried it under the family estate. Lim-Dul's soul lived on in the ring and it corrupted Liliana disguised as The Raven Man.

Her planeswalker spark ignited when the Raven Man tricked her into using a Tainted Remedy on her brother. (Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer)

Dominaria United

By the time the events of Dominaria United came around, Liliana had become a master necromancer, and she figured out the origins of the Raven Man. Her will subsumed to the remnants of his, and of all the necromancers who wore the ring prior, going back all the way to Mairsil, the Pretender, erasing his final vestige.

Read Homecoming on Wizards' Site

Also see: Fellwar Stone, Inferno, Stone Calendar.