Looking for advice for a Mairsil deck

[NotARooster]

I've always wanted to build a deck around Mairsil, the Pretender and I've finally begun the process, but I'm not sure how I want to build it. I've identified several different options, including a control deck with combo finishers, a weird Voltron deck using abilities to give him keywords and increase his power, charge counter artifacts, or even an all legendary deck. If anyone here has played with Mairsil, I'd appreciate some pointers on how you built your deck and what worked well for you. Cheers!

[kirkusjones]

Hateflayer is pretty good with Mairsil and Quicksilver Elemental lets you cheat the "once per turn" clause.

[RxPhantom]

Well, I have a Merieke Ri Berit deck that revolves around abusing tap abilities. Regardless of direction, I think Illusionist's Bracers, Freed from the Real, and Magewright's Stone will be awesome here, among others. Here's my Merieke list. I imagine there will be quite a bit of overlap.

I also second the Quicksilver Elemental recommendation.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I would go charge counters, personally. I've never seen a Mairsil deck actually pull off the weird voltron angle, even with all the goodies.

[Jemolk]

No matter what route you ultimately go, I recommend embracing the Quicksilver Elemental combo. I tried building non-combo control Mairsil. The first time it actually did its thing, I realized I had accidentally built nondeterministic stax with a very slow wincon. Speed things up for your victims opponents and do the responsible thing; run Quicksilver Elemental.

[Crazy Monkey]

I have a combo-control Mairsil which is intended to set up some value engine with Pack Rat or Aetherling to cage cards, then Pendant of Prosperity to draw cards and set up. You can use Oblivion Stone, Nevinyrral's Disk, and even Perilous Vault for board control. I also play a relatively heavy focus on charge counters, with Empowered Autogenerator and Magistrate's Scepter as large payoffs. Tawnos's Coffin is a great way to retain charge counters while resetting Mairsil, but it is a bit pricy.

Quicksilver elemental is just an all-around solid inclusion even if you're using it to value instead of combo, and including a lot of untap effects is great for keeping mana costs down.

[NotARooster]

Hateflayer is pretty good with Mairsil and Quicksilver Elemental lets you cheat the "once per turn" clause.

I also second the Quicksilver Elemental recommendation.

No matter what route you ultimately go, I recommend embracing the Quicksilver Elemental combo

Quicksilver Elemental was the first card I added to the deck lol, and Hateflayer is in as a combo with Tree of Perdition

I would go charge counters, personally. I've never seen a Mairsil deck actually pull off the weird voltron angle, even with all the goodies.

That's a shame, Mairsil Voltron looks like a fun take on the archetype. I might try it out if I start playing with some lower power level decks.

sil. The first time it actually did its thing, I realized I had accidentally built nondeterministic stax with a very slow wincon

Stax Mairsil might be a cool deck idea, but definitely not for my current playgroup lol

I have a combo-control Mairsil which is intended to set up some value engine with Pack Rat or Aetherling to cage cards, then Pendant of Prosperity to draw cards and set up. You can use Oblivion Stone, Nevinyrral's Disk, and even Perilous Vault for board control. I also play a relatively heavy focus on charge counters, with Empowered Autogenerator and Magistrate's Scepter as large payoffs. Tawnos's Coffin is a great way to retain charge counters while resetting Mairsil, but it is a bit pricy.

I checked out your list, and it looks like a lot of fun! I had no idea Aetherling synergizes with Perilous Vault, that's a good way to keep everyone in check. I don't mind the price on Tawnos's Coffin, my group is fine with proxies.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, gonna go with a control/combo build for now.

[Treamayne]

a weird Voltron deck using abilities to give him keywords and increase his power, charge counter artifacts, or even an all legendary deck. If anyone here has played with Mairsil, the Pretender.

Just keep in mind that Mairsil only gains activated abilities, so keywords would have to be an activated Wildborn-style "keyword until end of turn" ability. Otherwise, you will probably want to focus on an environment that gives the keywords, so that Mairsil's abilities get them to a P/T that can effectively use those abilities.

The problem is that Grixis is the wrong colors for this style of deck. Most double strike granting abilities are W, and most trample granting abilities are G; while most P/T doubling abilities are also G. Most "additional combat step" abilities are R; but they are triggered abilities (not activated) and the one that is activated is WUBRG.

I'm sure it can be done, but it will be a deck-building challenge. Goblin Goliath has potential, especially if you can get vigilance. Monstrosity could be an interesting way to gain counters. [Evasion] until end of turn seems easy to come by (especially flying - GBB style). Spark Double and other ways to capitalize on the Tap abilities while still allowing your General to attack could also be good.

JFFT