A very, very short introduction: There are three ways to build a
Merieke Ri Berit deck. They are as follows:
- Untap Tribal (this primer) - combo off through untapping
- Flicker / Blink - combo off through blinking and ETB value
- Steal & Copy - the most traditional "everything you own is mine" deck
This Primer discusses the first one and compares & contrasts some aspects of the build with the other two types.
Why Merieke Ri Berit?Merieke Ri Berit - or MRB for short - is a fun commander to play with. Her ability is broken but not overpowered. You get to do lots of stealing, untapping and/or blinking. Your opponents will groan and the deck will make them
think twice about their plays. In theory if you load the deck with a bunch of counters, removal and steal effects you can make this one of the mostest Magic
(tm)-est decks-est ever-est. Esper is a fantastic colour combination for tutoring and interaction but sadly absolutely abysmal at winning so one of the main aspects of this primer is to focus on the winning the game part.
One thing to note is that there are no legendary Esper creatures that would have a suitable tap-ability so as it currently remains MRB is the only option for a deck like this in these colours. There's
Ertai, the Corrupted but you'd need a ton more creatures for that to work.
How is Merieke Ri Berit different from Rubinia Soulsinger?The two creatures look very similar but Rubinia has one disadvantage compared to MRB: she can only hold a single creature at a time. This is due to a single wording choice in her activated ability ("and Rubinia remains tapped") that can, somewhat unintuitively, monitor events happening on the stack.
If Rubinia Soulsinger stops being tapped before its ability resolves — even if it becomes tapped again right away — you won’t gain control of the targeted creature at all. The same is true if you lose control of Rubinia Soulsinger before the ability resolves.
You cannot activate Rubinia in response to her own ability; this is clearly indicated in the rules clarifications in the Oracle text of the card. It's weird but it's mostly because Rubinia must remain tapped for the entire duration of the capturing process. If at any point she is untapped she loses track of the creature-to-be-stolen as a state-based action. There are some exceptions to this; most notably copying her ability with
Illusionist's Bracers or
Rings of Brighthearth.
Rubinia has access to Green but lacks Black so one important distinction is that the ramp and overall synergy shifts from artifact based ramp to land based ramp. Additionally Rubinia's restriction of one creature only makes her like tall things. Hence Rubinia decks try to buff the stolen creatures whereas MRB tries to gain other value from them: mana, cards etc. Black also allows us to use powerful tutors and removal.
But now let's get technical and talk about the basics:
Merieke Ri Berit & rules interactionsMRB is a beast when it comes to text and weird interactions. There are three components to her rules text two of which are clumped together into an activated ability.
- "Merieke Ri Berit doesn't untap during your untap step." This is clear and makes a lot of sense, her ability is powerful so you need some support to use it.
Then the activated ability, in two parts:
- "Gain control of target creature for as long as you control Merieke Ri Berit." This is a continuous effect. It means that the game checks all the time whether MRB is under your control.
- "When Merieke Ri Berit leaves the battlefield or becomes untapped, destroy that creature. It can't be regenerated." This is a rare delayed triggered ability. Remember how it's tacked onto an activated ability? Yeah, it's confusing. The point here is that you need to watch out for two things: MRB untaps or MRB leaves the battlefield.
Let's look at some examples:
- Your MRB has gained control of a creature and is about to untap. One thing happens: "destroy that creature". Ok, so the creature got destroyed and it couldn't be regenerated. Cool.
- Your MRB has gained control of a creature and is about to be hit by a Swords to Plowshares. Two things happen, in this order: as soon as MRB ceases to exist the game checks that she is no longer on the battlefield and you will lose control of the captured creature. Then, after that has happened, the delayed trigger will go off: "destroy that creature". Ok, so the captured creature hit the owner's side of the table first and then got destroyed. There's a short window where they can respond to the delayed trigger by for example sacrificing the creature to Altar of Dementia or Greater Good or whatever.
- Your MRB is about to gain control of a creature and you untap her in response. Nothing happens. You still control MRB, there are no creatures to be destroyed and MRB isn't about to leave he battlefield.
As an extension to the last bit you can chain MRB triggers: in response to her own ability you activate her ability again. Since there are no captured creatures under your control (yet) you can freely tap and untap MRB as many times as you wish. Can we abuse her ability more? Yes we can!
- Stifle, Trickbind, Disallow, Tale's End: counter the (delayed) triggered ability. Pretty clear cut: untap MRB, use counter. Keep the creature (who is still dependent on MRB!) and MRB is ready to capture another creature.
- Sundial of the Infinite: untap MRB, let the untap resolve and as a response to the (delayed) triggered ability on the stack activate the Sundial of the Infinite. This way all the abilities are exiled from the stack and you get to keep the creature (who is still dependent on MRB!) and MRB is ready to capture another creature.
- Ghostly Flicker, Cloudshift, Conjurer's Closet, Deadeye Navigator, Synod Sanctum, Cold Storage, Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, Nephalia Smuggler: these spells and devices let you exile a captured creature and bring it back under your control. These creatures are now truly free of MRB's influence and won't be affected by her in any way. Most cards like the card Flicker return the creature under their owner's control so they won't work. Likewise Aminatou, the Fateshifter won't work because she can only blink creatures that you own, not just control.
These were the different ways to use MRB to gain control of multiple creatures and some ways to protect those creatures.
The Primer DeckOoo we got to the deck part! Here:
https://deckstats.net/decks/93006/1584321-merieke-ri-berit-untap-primer/enWhat's the win condition?We'll discuss all combos later but essentially we're going to use pillowfort, counters and protection spells to stay alive. Winning happens through a combo. One of the biggest reasons we're going for (untapping) combos is because we don't have to rely on others casting big things that we could steal. It's true that in a game someone wins through some card and if we're going to be able to steal that thing we should theoretically be in winning position. However, waiting for someone else to do something is ultimately unrealiable and risky so it only makes sense that we also have our own plan to win. I'm not saying a full on stealing deck wouldn't be possible, just prepare to do a lot of stuff and soon realise you're like a few things short here and there and someone else is going to win anyway. The problem is that other people will know you'll steal things and they won't play things if they know you'll steal them. Also MRB gets removed and very quickly so it's naive to believe that you could copy and steal your way to victory in a realiable fashion.
LandsYou could go much more expensive with fetches, shocks and duals. Instead we run filters, shocks and pain lands. One notable inclusion are the bounce lands and the two lotus lands. We'll come back to those later but they're basically components in some infinite combos. This mana base is a compromise between requiring tough colour combinations (UUUU for
Mind over Matter and WW for wraths) and it's definitely vulnerable to
Back to Basics and
Blood Moon. Luckily we run a lot of artifact ramp and untappers so it's not that bad.
RampAll Signets and all Talismans +
Gilded Lotus which is also a combo piece. Nothing interesting there. What is interesting, though, are the untappers. They're in their own category but they're not just for untapping MRB or the draw engines. They also double as ramp because you can untap lands and rocks with them. This is why we're running the bounce lands as well. You'd be surprised how much mana this deck can produce by T4 or T5 with all the untappers, lands and rocks. Ramp and fixing aren't the big weaknesses of this deck.
Card advantageWe're running a couple of small spells like
Ponder or
Preordain but we're mostly relying on
Archivist,
Jace's Archivist,
Azami, Lady of Scrolls and
Rhystic Study for our card advantage. A notable exlusion is
Arcanis the Omnipotent who is a
huge target and gets removed as fast as MRB herself does. Our untappers should double the effects of our card draw for the most part. Luckily our versatile tutor package gets us everything we want. Here's where being in Esper really pays off: you get all the black tutors (you should definitely include
Vampiric Tutor and
Imperial Seal if you have the cash for them), all the blue tutors and all the white tutors. We're lacking in the creature department but this deck isn't really known for casting its creatures anyway. One untapper is more than enough whereas you can never have too many ways to fetch the artifact/enchantment combo pieces.
With infinite untaps and infinite mana this deck can immediately draw the entire deck and win with
Thassa's Oracle or
Laboratory Maniac (who is a special case for when we're using
Jace's Archivist for the combos because we don't need to worry about hitting enough devotion).
ProtectionPillowfort, pillowfort, a couple of counterspells and
Mother of Runes. That's about it. We also run
Swiftfoot Boots and their function is not only to give us hexproof but also haste as well.
Rest in Peace is also a card that we need for preventing graveyard strategies. You could go full stax here with
Winter Orb,
Static Orb,
Stasis but I warn you: while it might make the deck more consistent at stopping others from winning it might also make your opponents groan more consistently. Focus on winning yourself. Pillowfort stops them from trying to hit you because they either can't pay or they simply choose another target.
RemovalWe're running a lot of wraths and flexible (expensive) removal. We're not going to touch the board unless it gets too crowded or some individual item is going to hurt us badly.
Darksteel Mutation is a cool option but probably a little narrow since it can't hit any other permanents besides creatures. MRB is a huge part of our removal suite: she not only can steal things but she also psychologically makes it so that people don't want to cast their big valuable things when she's castable from the command zone or on the battlefield. As such your only task is to stop others from winning while you're assembling your combo.
Let's discuss some of that sweet comboHere are the major combos:
Outlets for infinite untaps:
Sensei's Divining Top,
Jace's Archivist,
Azami, Lady of Scrolls,
Archivist,
Mangara of Corondor"Keep" handsYou're looking to start off with plays from T2-T4. The semi-god hand is three lands in three colours, one rock, one untapper, one pillowfort and one draw engine or a tutor. If you take two lands you need two rocks, otherwise you won't be able to cast much with the deck sitting at average CMC 3.
Don't take a hand with
Mind over Matter even though it's tempting. Take a hand with
Isochron Scepter and
Dramatic Reversal and figure out the rest later. Don't take hands with weird mana compositions unless your follow-ups are in the same colours.
Notable inclusions- Illusionist's Bracers: so many things in this deck rely on tapping that it's funny how these can turn a draw into two or a bounce land into six mana.
- Rings of Brighthearth: kind of the same as the Bracers, works in similar combos.
- Mind over Matter: usually wins the game but can provide value by exchanging cards for mana and utility, a flexible card overall.
- Thousand-Year Elixir: gives MRB, Mangara of Corondor and the draw engines haste speeding up the win to the turn they come out.
- Teferi's Isle: the only legitimate use case for the poor unloved land that I've ever found is as a part of a combo in this deck. (It's a bit of a meme so feel free to drop it.)
- Mangara of Corondor: usually trades one-for-one but with Illusionist's Bracers and Rings of Brighthearth it's a two-for-one. With infinite untaps it's actually a single sided board wipe. And when I say "board" I mean every permanent, even the lands are not safe.
Notable exlusions- Intruder Alarm: perfect synergy with MRB: any entering creature will be immediately captured by MRB. However, if you lose MRB (which is just bound to happen) you're already committed to having her on the board. In almost every other case letting your opponents freely untap their things with a single creature cast is dangerous so you're forced to recast MRB. And then you're not in control of the board anymore.
- Arcanis the Omnipotent: too big of a target. Like theoretically, yes, with Lightning Greaves and Mother of Runes you could support him but it's just too much work and commitment. You're better off playing an Archivist who isn't a threat to anyone.
- Conjurer's Closet: we could blink the captured creatures to keep them around... but since we have no targets of our own why would we? Chances are you capture a blocker for yourself, a dork and a utility creature that you mostly want to keep your opponents from having. They're not that useful to you, better sac to Skullclamp. If you're planning on making this a blink deck then the Closet will be your best friend along with Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, Soulherder, and Panharmonicon.
- Ashnod's Altar: on the subject of sac'ing things; we don't really need more colourless mana for anything. The crucial mana costs are coloured and by the time you could steal and sac a creature to get CC you have a way of generating more mana than that and it's going to be in the correct colours.
- Prodigal Sorcerer: this and all creatures that ping for one are just wasted slots. They're slow (i.e. don't have haste) and you already have a way of generating infinities and for the most part they're dead cards since one damage isn't really enough to kill anything impactful. If you just have to you should go for Codex Shredder or Staff of Nin since those produce some value outside of being able to combo. I prefer drawing the entire deck and going for Thassa's Oracle because at that point you have access to infinite mana and can cast any old counterspell from the deck.
- Magister Sphinx: we're not playing for combat damage, really. The blink version of this deck would abuse the Sphinx, Mulldrifter and Cloudblazer.
- Lightning Greaves: while great for all kinds of haste enabling the shroud protection they offer really hurts. It's better to run Swiftfoot Boots over them because you might need to target your own creatures; not just give them haste.
- Thornbite Staff: you need a single untap with the Staff equipped and MRB becomes a machine gun that captures, untaps and destroys creatures in a chain. Combos really well with MRB and would work in a control build but with so many wraths in the deck it doesn't make sense to run a clunky mass destruction device. The main argument for not running it is its cost: MRB + Thornbite Staff are 9 mana to use and there are lots of things one could do with 9 mana (like win the game). There could be an argument made for it if you're absolutely sure you can keep MRB on the board. Otherwise regular wraths are independent of her and much, much cheaper.
- Magewright's Stone, Puppet Strings, Jandor's Saddlebags: these are good untappers but their activation cost is prohibitively high. They don't combo well and are somewhat clunky to use because they cannot untap themselves and cost quite a lot of mana to use. Thousand-Year Elixir is different because it grants haste and can lead to sorcery speed wins.
- Vedalken Shackles: there aren't enough islands for this to work. Otherwise a very good and flavourful option!
- Skullclamp: testing has showed that Merieke is unlikely to stick to the board so there might not be that many creatures to "clamp" rendering this card almost useless.
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