Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Mairsil, the Pretender
Mairsil, the Pretender
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard · {1}{U}{B}{R} · Black/Red/Blue commander
When Mairsil enters, you may exile an artifact or creature card from your hand or graveyard and put a cage counter on it.
Mairsil has all activated abilities of all cards you own in exile with cage counters on them. You may activate each of those abilities only once each turn.
Build a Mairsil, the Pretender deck →
What Mairsil, the Pretender actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · etbWhen Mairsil enters, you may exile an artifact or creature card from your hand or graveyard and put a cage counter on it.
- Static ability · ability_shareMairsil has all activated abilities of all cards you own in exile with cage counters on them. You may activate each of those abilities only once each turn.
What a Mairsil, the Pretender deck needs
Plays as copy engine. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- blink and recursion aimed at the commander itself (its value is its own enter trigger)
- cards that exile from your own library and play from exile (its payoff fires on every card played from exile)
- high-value creatures and activated-ability creatures worth copying or borrowing
The Mairsil, the Pretender deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 12× A creature with an activated ability worth copying or borrowing
- 12× Exiles from your own library and lets you play it — the card flow of an exile-matters commander
- 7× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 8× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 2× Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
- 7× Refill your hand
Best cards for Mairsil, the Pretender
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
A creature with an activated ability worth copying or borrowing
- Ornithopter of Paradise2 mana
- Hangarback Walker0 mana
- Westvale Abbey // Ormendahl, Profane Prince0 mana
- Crashing Drawbridge2 mana
- Steel Overseer2 mana
- Cryptbreaker1 mana
- Master of Dark Rites1 mana
- Ayara, First of Locthwain3 mana
Exiles from your own library and lets you play it — the card flow of an exile-matters commander
- Ugin's Labyrinth0 mana
- Party Thrasher2 mana
- Passionate Archaeologist2 mana
- Tinybones, Bauble Burglar2 mana
- Endless Sands0 mana
- Mimic Vat3 mana
- Squee, the Immortal3 mana
- Valakut Exploration3 mana
Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- Displacer Kitten4 mana
- Norin the Wary1 mana
- Conjurer's Closet5 mana
- Gossip's Talent2 mana
- Thassa, Deep-Dwelling4 mana
- Nephalia Smuggler1 mana
- Voyager Staff1 mana
- Jill, Shiva's Dominant // Shiva, Warden of Ice3 mana
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Orcish Bowmasters2 mana
- Accursed Marauder2 mana
- Baleful Strix2 mana
- Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
- Cauldron Familiar1 mana
- Thousand-Faced Shadow1 mana
- Dualcaster Mage3 mana
- Fleshbag Marauder3 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Reality Shift2 mana
- Wild Magic Surge2 mana
- Pongify1 mana
- Rapid Hybridization1 mana
- Resculpt2 mana
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Grim Tutor3 mana
- Tainted Pact2 mana
- Scheming Symmetry1 mana
Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- Mindbreak Trap4 mana
- Fierce Guardianship3 mana
- Force of Negation3 mana
- Force of Will5 mana
- Flare of Denial3 mana
- Pact of Negation0 mana
- An Offer You Can't Refuse1 mana
- Arcane Denial2 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Toxic Deluge3 mana
- Damnation4 mana
- Blasphemous Act9 mana
- Chain Reaction4 mana
- Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
- Street Spasm1 mana
- Sickening Dreams2 mana
- Crypt Rats3 mana
Refill your hand
- Mystic Remora1 mana
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer1 mana
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Curiosity1 mana
- Wizard Class1 mana
- Black Market Connections3 mana
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
- Morbid Opportunist3 mana
Combos with Mairsil, the Pretender
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Mairsil, the Pretender is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Mairsil, the Pretender + Aetherling + Anger + Nevinyrral's Disk1,188 decks
- Mairsil, the Pretender + Hateflayer + Tree Of Perdition1,007 decks
- Mairsil, the Pretender + Quicksilver Elemental + Gilded Lotus + Staff Of Domination803 decks
- Mairsil, the Pretender + Morphling + Gilded Lotus + Quicksilver Elemental718 decks
- Mairsil, the Pretender + Quicksilver Elemental + Gilded Lotus + Horseshoe Crab707 decks
- Mairsil, the Pretender + Mirror-Mad Phantasm542 decks
Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →
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