Off-Brand Midas (EDH / Commander)

Poor King Macar. He has all the troubles of old King Midas, but none of the name recognition. As a potential Commander, he has even less going for him. His monochromatic nature and fairly niche ability doesn’t immediately make him an attractive option. But, as the old saying goes, misery loves company and King Macar can be very potent if we provide for him the appropriate supporting cast.

To begin, what is the point of this build? We want to control the boards of our opponents, eliminating creatures with Macar or members of his motley crew, such as the Royal Assassin or Kiku, Night’s Flower. We have beefy demons that can close out games via combat, or we can dome opponents repeatedly with Marionette Master’s triggered ability when we sacrifice our accumulated Gold tokens. Because we will indulge in a fair amount of ramp and possess the potential for an infinite mana combo, we have a few ‘X’ spells, like Exsanguinate or Profane Command, that can win the game as well.

There are a few combos we can pull off in this deck to win, or at least assert control of the board:

1) King Macar, The Gold Cursed + Silverskin Armor + Clock of Omens

Silverskin Armor makes King Macar an artifact, thus subject to Clock of Omens untap ability. Tap King Macar and any other artifact, including Clock of Omens, and then untap the King with the Clock. This will let you exile a creature and create a gold artifact token which you can use to keep the loop going. Tap Macar and the Gold, untap Macar, exile a creature, get more gold.

2) Umbral Mantle or Sword of the Paruns + Magus of the Coffers + four swamps

You pay two to tap the Magus, making BBBB, then pay three to untap it with either the Mantle or the Sword and net one B per loop. This infinite mana can do many things- it can power Exsanguinate or Profane Command, or if you have a Night Market Lookout in play you can use the infinite mana generated to equip the Sword on the Lookout and tap/untap it to drain out opponents. If you have a vehicle in play, providing a free tap source, then either the Sword or the Mantle can be put on the Lookout to drain everyone out.

The inherent constraints in building around Macar means that many decklists are similar in their construction. Let me discuss some of the choices I made that differ from what I’ve usually seen.

-Creatures-

Deadeye Tracker - a nice one-drop that can come out early and help Macar crew some of our more demanding vehicles, not to mention a Springleaf Drum, plus it acts as a source of repeatable graveyard hate/card advantage/self-buff.

Guul Draz Assassin - yes, it’s a level up creature. But, much like Deadeye Tracker, it is a one-drop that can power an early Springleaf Drum, help with crewing vehicles, etc., all while allowing you the option to pour in mana to upgrade the assassin to a truly terrifying threat. This deck can generate a fair amount of mana early on, so leveling up Guul Draz isn’t out of the question. Macar is going to receive a lot of hate, so we need other elimination options that give us some flexibility in their usage.

Kiku, Night's Flower - Another nice removal option. Won’t work on everything, but many creatures carry symmetrical stats that make them ripe targets for Kiku’s ability.

Rathi Trapper - It’s low CMC means it fits on the curve to support Macar, and its ability can allow us to both tap down Macar or threatening creatures on our opponent’s boards.

Maddening Imp - thanks to robhort in the comments for this suggestion. The Maddening Imp allows us to sow chaos for our opponents and potentially reap the benefits if we have a Royal Assassin or Dread in play. As robhort points out, we can target creatures our opponents summon in their first main phase and force them to be destroyed thanks to their summoning sickness. While this may catch one opponent off guard, others will likely wise up and cast creatures in their second main phase, after combat could be declared. It's a small hiccup, but one that prove to be annoying or helpful if your opponents have attack triggers.

Dread - another robhort suggestion. No Mercy on a body is useful, as it deters attacking into our position, and Dread's Fear ability can make it unblockable in certain matchups.

-Enchantments-

Arguel's Blood Fast - many lists I’ve seen run Greed, a 4 CMC enchantment that only costs B to activate. I like Arguel's Blood Fast over Greed in this build for a few reasons. The first is that it fits on curve in a situation where we cast Macar on turn four. Greed comes down later and it competes for turn attention at the 4-drop slot that Marcar also occupies. Yes, Arguel costs more to activate. But I can cast it on turn two, use it on turn three, and still be able to cast Macar on turn four. The second reason I like Arguel's Blood Fast is that is is a transform card that can bail us out if our life total gets too low. This deck has a fair amount of ramp, so I’m less worried about the increased activation cost of Arguel over Greed in the long term.

-Changelog-

29 May 2018

Removed: Victory Chimes, Hollowsage, Reiver Demon
Added: Star Compass, Maddening Imp, Dread

Reasoning: I like Victory Chimes' ability to untap during each player's turn, but I have few abilities I can activate for 1 and would rather have a ramp option that costs less, hence Star Compass. Maddening Imp and Dread seem far more useful in the longterm than Hollowsage or Reiver Demon. If Hollowsage targeted every opponent, that would be more useful. Reiver Demon would act like a one-sided boardwipe, but my gameplan is to have control of the board, or be in the process of controlling it, by the time he could arrive. The Imp and Dread are useful on their own, but really shine when working together.