[EDH / Commander] Fifty ways to leave your lover (Merieke Ri Berit / combo)

[WizardSpartan]

Uh-oh, seems like I made a mistake there. I said T7 but I have Consecrated Sphinx looming at T6-T7. How was that supposed to help at all, I have no idea. Do you think sacrificing my pillowfort would be worth a few cantrips? I don't have fetches so Brainstorm isn't that powerful but the others are definitely worth it. Let's see what I can do, one second.

I don't think you should run both Stroke of Genius and Pull from Tomorrow, unless they are specifically necessary for your gameplan. Also, is there a particular reason as to why you run several wheels? You said that the deck isn't designed to be super fast, so you can't really burn through your hand and use the wheel to generate more advantage than your opponents, and Whispering Madness in particular seems odd considering you can't consistently trigger Cipher.

I suggest dropping Consecrated Sphinx, Stroke of Genius, and Whispering Madness, unless I'm missing something about your gameplan.

[Aetherium Slinky]

Uh-oh, seems like I made a mistake there. I said T7 but I have Consecrated Sphinx looming at T6-T7. How was that supposed to help at all, I have no idea. Do you think sacrificing my pillowfort would be worth a few cantrips? I don't have fetches so Brainstorm isn't that powerful but the others are definitely worth it. Let's see what I can do, one second.

I don't think you should run both Stroke of Genius and Pull from Tomorrow, unless they are specifically necessary for your gameplan. Also, is there a particular reason as to why you run several wheels? You said that the deck isn't designed to be super fast, so you can't really burn through your hand and use the wheel to generate more advantage than your opponents, and Whispering Madness in particular seems odd considering you can't consistently trigger Cipher.

I suggest dropping Consecrated Sphinx, Stroke of Genius, and Whispering Madness, unless I'm missing something about your gameplan.

They're both there because they double as "consultations" and are blue instants that Merchant Scroll can hit. Outlets for infinite mana, if you will.

I actually already removed Whispering Madness. I'll keep Windfall. It's sometimes some really good draw. Has saved me a ton of games to be able to wheel from 0-2 cards to a healthy 4-6 cards. It's just a question of timing, mostly.

[WizardSpartan]

The changes look solid! Hope that helps smooth out early turns.

[Aetherium Slinky]

My birthday is nearing so I decided to splurge on some upgrades:
Ancient Tomb, fetches, Forbidden Orchard, Mana Confluence, Volrath's Stronghold
Reanimate, Cyclonic Rift, Enlightened Tutor, Vampiric Tutor

I've had problems with people removing my untappers i.e. combo pieces so I decided it's important to add some "protection" against that in the form of recursion. Tutors are always welcome and Cyclonic Rift is just that good.

Looks like it's no longer a budget deck so... What would be some <100€ upgrades I might have missed? Force of Will? Force of Negation? What else?

[Morganator 2.0]

Force of Will is maybe a good idea. Having to discard another card means that it's more card disadvantage than most counterspells, so use wisely. Mana Drain and Fierce Guardianship are also good counterspells to use.

For mana ramp, get Mana Crypt and Mana Vault if you can.

[Aetherium Slinky]

Force of Will is maybe a good idea. Having to discard another card means that it's more card disadvantage than most counterspells, so use wisely. Mana Drain and Fierce Guardianship are also good counterspells to use.

For mana ramp, get Mana Crypt and Mana Vault if you can.

I don't always have my commander out since she's a removal magnet so Fierce Guardianship is honestly not a very good idea. All the other suggestions seem great, I'll pick those up next!

[Morganator 2.0]

Fierce Guardianship will stop her from getting removed.

If removal is a problem, I know that you use Mother of Runes in your Merieke primer deck. Would including Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes help?

[Aetherium Slinky]

That is a very good point... Then again she's not integral to my plan so I'm often baiting out some removal with her and I don't think I want to spend actual hand cards to protect her. Cheap and dirty way to protect my untappers: just play Merieke and people will target her instead of my precious untapper. I have accepted a long time ago that she is a "kill on sight" commander and that protecting her is going to be really, really difficult. Hence I don't play Intruder Alarm or Thornbite Staff anymore even though they're powerful combos with her. Mother of Runes could work as a protective solution for the untappers, too. I just have a hard time making cuts at this point. Most of the stuff I just bought are direct upgrades to other cards so that was relatively easy.

[Aetherium Slinky]

Two months later: all the upgrades arrived and I'm particularly proud of my Volrath's Stronghold that has already gone up so much in value that it covered postage for the insured letter it arrived in.

Now I'm looking at these four cards in particular:

• Teferi's Isle - it's another combo piece. Combos with Pemmin's Aura and Freed from the Real, potentially with an untapper and Dramatic Scepter, too. Beyond that it's a pretty poor land. I have no idea if it's actively so bad that I should not include it even as a combo piece. However... it's about 10€ and RL so I'm unlikely to lose my "investment" in the long run so trying it out shouldn't hurt me too much.
• Sensei's Divining Top - this is another outlet for my infinite untaps. The way it works is that you untap it somehow in response to it's tap ability. The first time it resolves it draws a card, then goes on top of my library. All subsequent triggers will just draw a card because it's not on the battlefield anymore. Also it lets me look at my top cards which is cool.
• Expedition Map - I have so many important utility lands that I'm starting to think I should add more support for them. My lands provide me haste, recursion, "can't be countered" and they act as combo pieces in the puzzle.
• Chrome Mox - it's just a really good rock. That's all.

I'm looking at the following cards to cut:

• Reanimate - while it's a really good card I figured it's not a card I would tutor for. I would tutor for something else and I want every card to be powerful enough to be tutored for. Plus now I have Volrath's Stronghold so do I really need the redundance?
• Swiftfoot Boots - now that I have Hall of the Bandit Lord I don't think it's that important. It's protection and haste but it also costs one mana to equip and I rarely have the tutors to look for it. I mean I don't regret drawing it except when I need a winning card. Would I prefer Top to Boots? Yes, pretty much any day.
• Smothering Tithe - Chrome Mox instead of this thing? Yeah, I think so.

Opinions?

EDIT: Someone suggested Soldevi Excavations but I feel like I've got way too few Islands (fetches + shocks + basics) to support that. It'd be an interesting outlet for infinite mana and untaps i.e. it would let me scry infinitely and find a card I need on top of my library.

[Morganator 2.0]

I think that you should definitely get Sensei's Top and Chrome Mox. Even if you don't keep them for this deck, you will have another deck for them. If Teferi's Isle is something you're looking at then I think you should get it. It's price is doing nothing but go up. Even if you don't use it now, you might use it in the future. I do not think that you need an Expedition Map. The only real reason you'd need to get a land is for a combo, and you're already using actual tutors like Demonic Tutor. Expedition Map is just sub-par in this case.

Finding cards to remove is really difficult right now. I know in the past you've talked a lot about how Merieke is a vacuum for removal spells, so do you really want to get rid of Swiftfoot Boots? And Smothering Tithe is really good ramp, are you sure you want to lose it.

Now I have no idea what your playgroup is like these days, but think about if you really need Ghostly Prison and Propaganda. If you can combo off faster than you can be dealt combat damage, you don't need these effects.

[Aetherium Slinky]

I've been thinking about my pillowfort, too. They're kind of in the way most of the time. I'd much rather draw a kill spell, a wipe or something else that lets me deal with the problems directly. They may have to go.

Swiftfoot boots are good on an untapper... Maybe you're right.

The thing about Smothering Tithe is that it costs four mana and doesn't pay off immediately. I haven't really had that many mana problems with the deck so having extra mana floating around isn't necessarily going to advance my plan. I'm thinking it has to go but luckily it has a home in another deck so it won't be wasted. So do the two pillowfort pieces.

I love the art on Teferi's Isle. Maybe that's another argument for buying it. I asked reddit if they've played the card and some people said it's not that hard to navigate around the fact that it's here only half of the time. It feels like a tapland, essentially. Now taplands aren't something I'm looking to add to my deck but having redundant combo pieces is always good so I'm on the verge of adding it anyways. The other option is to cut down on black and white, add more Islands and go for Soldevi Excavations.

Top and Chrome Mox are no-brainers at this point.

Thank you for the insights, Morganator!