The Do Over Project: Merieke Ri Berit

The Do Over Project express pulls into Kaladesh station with a great billow of steam. The mists clear, revealing an Energy-driven marvel of Commander construction. From whence did this marvel come? Let’s find out. (And speaking of trains pulling into stations, if you haven’t started watching HBO’s latest epic, Westworld, run, don’t walk to your cable box or HBO Go account. It’s only two episodes in, but they’re already setting up a stunning show. )

My first look at the body of Energy cards was less than inspiring. I found only two which really excited me Commander-wise: Aetherworks Marvel and Demon of Dark Schemes.

They seemed to be the only cards which generated the big, splashy effects we’ve come to know and love in the format. I set out figuring out how to work with those two cards at the center of a deck. Obviously, due to Demon of Dark Schemes, our commander must be back.

Scrolling down the list of commanders with black in them which I haven’t yet done over reveals Erebos, God of the Dead; Obzedat, Ghost Council; Lazav, Dimir Mastermind; Merieke Ri Berit; Glissa, the Traitor; Kaalia of the Vast; and Child of Alara.

Both Aetherworks Marvel and Demon of Dark Schemes suggest going into a control deck. Since Merieke started out as a control deck and morphed into something more of a beatdown player, it seemed only right to turn her Do Over back into something with an underlying control theme.

Obzedat and Lazav were other reasonable choices, but I ended up picking Merieke because she’s one of my longest-standing commanders; she was somewhere around the fifth deck I ever built, so she got bumped to the top of the list. Getting to have both white and blue to go along with black sealed the deal.

After settling on the colors, I went back over the list of cards which produce or use Energy and found several more which seem like they’ll do quite nicely in Merieke’s hands. Here’s the list of Energy cards (to include the aforementioned two) and how they’ll fit into the deck:

Aethersquall Ancient: My first take on Aethersquall Ancient was jaded by the fact that the second ability can only be used as a sorcery. Upon further review, I decided that it was worth it nonetheless because I could make use of it as an offensive weapon (as opposed to defensive, which using it as an instant would bring). There will be times when I’ll want to bounce all the creatures and start over. Because the ability only costs Energy and no mana, I’ll be able to recast the relevant creatures.

Aetherstorm Roc: The exciting part of Aetherstorm Roc is another creature entering the battlefield. Because Aetherworks Marvel generates Energy when my permanents are put into the graveyard, I’m going to end up with a package of cards which rotates cards in and out. Every time one of them makes a return trip to the battlefield, there’s more Energy for me.

Demon of Dark Schemes: Creatures die in Commander. I might be able to build up enough Energy via the Demon of Dark Schemes even without trying to accelerate the process. The more difficult part will be keeping Merieke alive through all the creature destruction.

Aetherworks Marvel: As mentioned, putting stuff into my graveyard is going to be important. Aetherworks Marvel then insists that I have sacrifice outlets and/or permanents which don’t hang around long—perhaps cumulative upkeep could make an appearance.

Decoction Module: I’m sure I’ll occasionally use the ability to put creature cards back into my hand, but like with Aetherstorm Roc, getting Energy for putting creatures onto the battlefield (something which I’d be doing anyway) is pure gas.

Consulate Surveillance: In a control deck, you sometimes need to prevent damage. Again, not having to pay any mana to do so is a strong upside. I suspect that I’ll always have enough Energy around to do what I need. Of particular note is that the damage prevention ability is not targeted.

Glimmer of Genius: Glimmer of Genius provides a tight package to fuel our engines. It’s Weave Fate, only better.

Aether Hub: I probably wouldn’t play this if it entered the battlefield tapped. Since it doesn’t, there’s no downside. If I occasionally need to spend an Energy to generate mana of a color, I can do so, but honestly, I’m more likely to thing about using the colorless mana to cast or activate Eldrazi cards.

As a reminder, the Do Over Project is about the next 99 cards—so none on the original 99 (listed below in the Deck Without Comment) save for basic lands can appear here. There are a few which I’d love to reuse: Burnished Hart, Massacre Wurm, Suture Priest, and Mycosynth Wellspring top the list. Back at the beginning of the project, I promised that I wouldn’t take cards out of the originals just to be able to put them in the second versions, so we’ll find suitable replacements for those cards (or just live without them). Let’s take a look at the decklist, which I’m calling “Merieke’s Marvel,” and then we’ll talk afterward about the implementation plan.

Merieke Ri Berit

Sheldon Menery

Test deck on 10-13-2016

Commander

Creatures (30)

Planeswalkers (3)

Lands (37)

Like the inventions running around all over Kaladesh, Merieke’s Marvel is a machine with any number of intertwining elements. There aren’t too many parts which simply operate alone. Instead, there are multiple symmetries with many different cards.

Because most of the cards which take advantage of Merieke’s ability are in the original deck, there aren’t too many ways here to leverage it. Unless the Intruder Alarm machine gun comes online, you’ll need to pick your spots in using Merieke to steal other creatures. If you think that this isn’t the way to play Merieke, you could probably substitute Oloro, Ageless Ascetic as the commander and it’ll run just fine. If you go that direction, you’ll want to consider taking out Puppet Strings (although there are a number of other situations in which you could make good use of it).

The deck is very grindy. In addition to having a good number of battlefield wipes, it has a great deal of targeted creature destruction. I can’t wait to cast (or regrow) Noxious Gearhulk into someone else’s Lord of Extinction; I’m not greedy—I’ll even take Consuming Aberration. Sacrificing the tokens which the deck creates, like with Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder and Elspeth, Knight-Errant, will still trigger Aetherworks Marvel.

Storm Herd, a card emblematic of the big swings the format can create, works equally well if you beat down with the tokens or if they die when you have Blood Artist on the battlefield. If Aetherstorm Roc or Decoction Module are on the battlefield when you resolve Storm Herd, you’re set. If you have either of Aetherworks Marvel or Demon of Dark Schemes on the battlefield when your Pegasus tokens die, you’ll have more Energy than you can ever use. Remember that Demon of Dark Schemes’ activated ability doesn’t require it to tap, so with all that Energy and just a little black mana, you can do quite a bit of work.

One of the issues Esper decks tend to run into is mana production. With a few mana rocks, like Fellwar Stone and Commander’s Sphere, you can keep pace. Although having access to Burnished Hart would be nice, as good as it is, it’s not the do-all and end-all to mana ramp. I’m not the biggest fan of playing Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth together, but without the help of other ramp effects, it seems necessary. The Tomb led me to Crypt Ghast, which ends up as much part of the lifegain suite as it does ramp.

There is a sufficient amount of card draw to make sure you hit land drops every turn, which is nearly as important as getting a few extra lands onto the battlefield. Chasm Skulker doesn’t help you draw cards, but it will definitely help you recover from one of those Wrath of God effects. What does draw cards is Vexing Sphinx. It’s a net wash in the number of cards, but you get to put things into the graveyard for later reuse, as well as having a cheap mid-size beater. Just be warned that if someone exiles Vexing Sphinx, it’s a bit of a blowout for you.

I’m reasonably sure that the deck needs at least one sacrifice outlet on the battlefield at all times, which is why there are so many of them in the deck. You’ll want to pay particular attention to Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder; the sacrifice outlets will keep you from having to sacrifice him. The multiplicative effect of Teysa, Orzhov Scion and a sacrifice outlet to go with those tokens is insane. You can also just slam the tokens into opponents’ faces, especially if those opponents have a favorable blocking situation. What are they going to do, take damage they don’t need to? You might also be able to catch someone who has a few three-toughness creatures unaware by attacking, having them block, and then casting (or regrowing) Demon of Dark Schemes (Massacre Wurm would really be a star in this deck—if you’re building a version of it and don’t have the same restrictions which I do, go for it).

A card that you might not be particularly familiar with is Dawn of the Dead. I’ve made great use of it in my Thraximundar deck. You get to reanimate something for effectively no cost (one life is pretty meaningless unless that’s also your life total). So long as you have a sacrifice outlet, you won’t need to worry about exiling the creature. It’s very, very strong; even if you’re not going to put together something like this deck, I suggest you give it a try.

The deck’s three planeswalkers (four if you count Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, which you can get off Liliana, Heretical Healer) go along with the control theme. There is a reasonably good chance (assuming no one is playing direct damage or a bunch of creatures with haste) that you’ll be able to resolve the ultimate ability of one of them. Elspeth, Knight-Errant’s would be particularly sweet, because then you could be bombs away with all your mass removal and not have to worry about your own creatures.

As I was building, the deck took on more of a lifegain theme than I had intended, which is what led to the inclusion of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. His second ability will trigger frequently, so keep some mana up. The lifegain makes me wish there was room for Well of Lost Dreams. Then I started thinking about maybe yanking Aetherflux Reservoir out of the original Merieke (seems like it wouldn’t be a violation of the pact, since I just put it in) and heading further down that path, but I fortunately caught myself and stayed on track.

All things considered, you’ll like playing this deck if you like using the cards you have to adapt to the battlefield state and what your opponents are doing. If your style is to have a specific thing which the deck does the same all the time, you might consider this as a change of pace. There will be a great number of choices to make in any game; few will be straightforward and you’ll sometimes have to go through a forest of decision trees. Here’s to taking that path less traveled.

Rotisserie Draft League Kaladesh Update

Just the other day we got around to drafting Kaladesh cards for our Rotisserie Draft decks. We made an eleventh-hour decision to not do a full draft of five rounds (ten cards) because we all realized that, just having done Eldritch Moon and Conspiracy: Take the Crown, we didn’t have that many slots in our decks we wanted to move on. We decided to simply do two rounds of picks without dropping cards in between (the drops will come later, before the next weekly waiver wire update).

After discussing a few methods of implementing the draft (since we had rules for the full five rounds, but not for this), but in the end, we went the simple way. We drafted two rounds the same as we would off the waiver wire—in reverse order of League standings. It would seem like Todd, who is in first place, would be the one most blown out, but the loudest groans came from Shea, who, picking third in the first round, ended up with his third choice.

Round 1

Keith: Kambal, Consul of Allocation

Michael: Combustible Gearhulk

Shea: Authority of the Consuls

Me: Rashmi, Eternities Crafter

Todd: Verdurous Gearhulk

Round 2

Keith: Angel of Invention

Michael: Noxious Gearhulk

Shea: Demon of Dark Schemes

Me: Panharmonicon

Todd: Nissa, Vital Force

I briefly considered Cataclysmic Gearhulk for my second pick but decided that, without being set up for it, the card would just as often hurt me as help. Keith was happy that no one picked up Aetherflux Reservoir and announced that’s what he’ll get with the next waiver wire pick. I’ll let you know in a future League update what everyone took out.

This Week’s Deck Without Comment is Merieke’s Esper Dragons, so that you can compare the two decks.

Merieke Ri Berit

Sheldon Menery

0th Place at Test deck on 07-24-2014

Commander

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (2)

Lands (37)

Check out our comprehensive Deck List Database for lists of all my decks:

SIGNATURE DECKS

Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers; Kresh Into the Red Zone; Halloween with Karador; Dreaming of Intet; You Did This to Yourself;

THE CHROMATIC PROJECT

Mono-Color

Heliod, God of Enchantments; Thassa, God of Merfolk; Erebos and the Halls Of The Dead; Forge of Purphoros; Nylea of the Woodland Realm; Karn, Beatdown Golem

Guilds

Lavinia Blinks; Obzedat, Ghost Killer; Aurelia Goes to War; Trostani and Her Angels; Lazav, Shapeshifting Mastermind; Zegana and a Dice Bag; Rakdos Reimagined; Glissa, Glissa; Ruric Thar and His Beastly Fight Club; You Take the Crown, I’ll Take Leovold; Gisa and Geralf Together Forever;

Shards and Wedges

Adun’s Toolbox; Animar’s Swarm; Karrthus, Who Rains Fire From The Sky; Demons of Kaalia; Merieke’s Esper Dragons; Nath of the Value Leaf; Rith’s Tokens; The Mill-Meoplasm; The Altar of Thraximundar; The Threat of Yasova; Zombies of Tresserhorn

Five-Color

Children of a Greater God