EDH Merieke Ri Berit

[bradleyjx]

The first iteration of this deck was made here. This second interation of this deck was similar to how it looks now. I'm slowly moving the deck more into a "big effects/silver bullets" deck more than anything else.

Merieke Ri Berit

General 01 Merieke Ri Berit Land 01 Adarkar Wastes 01 Azorius Chancery 01 Blinkmoth Nexus 01 Bloodstained Mire 01 Calciform Pools 01 Caves of Koilos 01 Dimir Aquaduct 01 Dreadship Reef 01 Faeric Concalve 01 Flagstones of Trokair 01 Flooded Strand 01 Gemstone Mine 01 Ghost Quarter 01 Godless Shrine 01 Hallowed Fountain 02 Island 01 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 01 Mishra's Factory 01 Nimbus Maze 01 Orzhov Basilica 01 Plains 01 Polluted Delta 01 River of Tears 01 Scrubland 01 Seat of the Synod 01 Strip Mine 01 Swamp 01 Tolaria West 01 Tundra 01 Underground River 01 Underground Sea 01 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 01 Urza's Factory 01 Vesuva 01 Wasteland 01 Watery Grave 01 Windswept Heath Creatures 01 Draining Whelk 01 Drift of Phantasms 01 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni 01 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror 01 Nezumi Graverobber 01 Psychatog 01 Shreikmaw 01 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 01 Trinket Mage 01 Vesuvan Shapeshifter

Spells 01 Absorb 01 Acquire 01 Akroma's Vengeance 01 Azorius Signet 01 Brainstorm 01 Bribery 01 Capsize 01 Careful Consideration 01 Chainer's Edict 01 Coalition Relic 01 Compulsive Research 01 Condemn 01 Counterspell 01 Cruel Edict 01 Cryptic Command 01 Damnation 01 Decree of Justice 01 Deep Analysis 01 Demonic Tutor 01 Diabolic Tutor 01 Dimir Signet 01 Fact or Fiction 01 Fellwar Stone 01 Force of Will 01 Gilded Lotus 01 Hinder 01 Impulse 01 Magewright's Stone 01 Mana Drain 01 Mind Stone 01 Misdirection 01 Mortify 01 Muddle the Mixture 01 Mystical Teachings 01 Orzhov Signet 01 Pact of Negation 01 Ponder 01 Prismatic Lens 01 Rewind 01 Rout 01 Sensei's Divining Top 01 Serum Visions 01 Slaughter Pact 01 Sol Ring 01 Spectral Searchlight 01 Swords to Plowshares 01 Thousand-Year Elixir 01 Treachery 01 Vampiric Tutor 01 Vindicate 01 Wrath of God

Things to add:
- Mindslaver/Tolarian Ruins combo (stronger engine-style finisher for a deck that is designed around board control and little agression)
- Mangara of Corondor (Well, Minamo + Thousand-Year Elixer + Magewright's Stone in the deck...)

Possible things to add:
- Decree of Pain / Nevinyrral's Disk / Planar Collapse / Oblivion Stone (more wrath effects)
- Memnarch
- Avatar of Woe / Visara

Considering to remove:
- Shreikmaw (if I move to mass removal as a primary strategy, pinpoint targeted may not be that good...)
- Vesuvan Shapeshifter
- Blinkmoth Nexus / Mishra's Factory (the deck tends to be very mana intensive, and I may want to be testing of it would be better ot have colored mana instead of these abilities which I rarely have the mana to use)

[fdtori]

Hello there...

So many spells... So little creatures...

Why so many counters?

I'm guessing you think that Merieke will be the target of a lot of removal? So you want to protect her? But in EDH where card advantage is king, trading spells one-for-one is never a very good plan; it's even worse if you play multiplayer EDH where flicking counters every 3rd card will make you an early favourite target.

Instead of using counters for protection, why don't you use more bounce spells? That way you can double you fun; save Merieke and kill another creature at the same time.

Capsize is allready there but also add a few of these: Boomerang, Echoing Truth, Recoil, Regress, Repulse, Repeal, Snap, Snapback, Venser's Diffusion, Whirlpool Whelm, Wipe Away, etc, you can also use Familiar's Ruse (hey it's also a counter!), Momentary Blink and some "rescue" creatures like Stonecloaker and Whitemane Lion. All those are key, the more so if you want to include Mangara of Corondor in your deck.

Remember, if you play your general from your hand, you don't have to pay the extra for every time she died; that EDH rule is when you play her from the removed-from-game zone only.

Keep some counters, of course, for non-removal spells.

Speaking of removal, another way that you can deflect it is by playing more creatures, i.e. offering more targets for hate.

The advice I originally gave you here still stands, 11 creatures is about 10 too few for EDH in my opinion, even with and Merieke control.

Also why add the Mindslaver/Academy Ruins combo? You are already playing a control/lock deck with Merieke. Yes, getting that combo out is funky (if you can get it in play), but then what? You have a deck full of spells that become useless. Adding more creatures instead adds defense and resilience.

To resume, I would say that with Merieke, you have an ultra-quick general, that doubles as removal. She is a very potent tool, not any run-of-the-mill general, so she begs to be built around. There are literally tons of ways/cards to abuse her (many in creature form), you may want to focus on that (see the link above).

And why do you need so many mass removal, since you are playing Merieke? I could see you running Austere Command and maybe Akroma's Vengeance and the Disk to deal with pesky non-creature permanents, but not Wrath of God, Rout or Decree of Pain. With your general, any creatures you don't like, you kill...

In other words, she is your silver bullet...


Sorry if at times I seemed a bit blunt, I just like EDH and really want to help.

Have fun.

[bradleyjx]

I guess I should answer to some of these

A lot of it has me recently discussing this kind of strategy with some good friends of mine who are more knowledgeable than I am when it comes to control; people around here know me exclusively as a combo player, and this is the only control deck I've built since...ever, I think.

Keep in mind I play this deck from the eyes of a combo player

Another note: I didn't design this deck for multiplayer EDH; where I'm at, this community plays EDH mostly as a one-on-one format.

Originally Posted by fdtori

Hello there...

So many spells... So little creatures...

Why so many counters?

I'm guessing you think that Merieke will be the target of a lot of removal? So you want to protect her? But in EDH where card advantage is king, trading spells one-for-one is never a very good plan; it's even worse if you play multiplayer EDH where flicking counters every 3rd card will make you an early favourite target.

It's 11 first- and second-use counterspells right now in the deck, I plan on taking out Rewind/Absorb once I get some other pieces in via trades. My view is that 11 (9) counterspells isn't really that many anyways, even for this kind of deck.

I'm also not using them in a "control" (achieve advantage through denial) style, I'm using them in a "combo" (protection of personal gain) style.

...and honestly, I couldn't give a damn about protecting Merieke most of the time. (I'll probably be explaining my style with her more as this goes on...)

Instead of using counters for protection, why don't you use more bounce spells? That way you can double you fun; save Merieke and kill another creature at the same time.

Capsize is allready there but also add a few of these: Boomerang, Echoing Truth, Recoil, Regress, Repulse, Repeal, Snap, Snapback, Venser's Diffusion, Whirlpool Whelm, Wipe Away, etc, you can also use Familiar's Ruse (hey it's also a counter!), Momentary Blink and some "rescue" creatures like Stonecloaker and Whitemane Lion. All those are key, the more so if you want to include Mangara of Corondor in your deck.

Remember, if you play your general from your hand, you don't have to pay the extra for every time she died; that EDH rule is when you play her from the removed-from-game zone only.

...or maybe I'll be doing it now.

Over the past couple months I've used this deck, I'd figure Merieke is played in about 50% of them. I'm not saying that she isn't good and that Chromium/Dromar/etc. would be better; what I mean by that is that this deck tends to do well when Merieke is a strategy, but not the strategy.

The issue I come by with her the most is simply is summoning sickness. If Thousand-Year Elixir isn't in play, most of the time one of three things happen:
1 - She is killed before summoning sickness wears off.
2 - I lose control of her before summoning sickness wears off.
3 - My opponent will not play any creatures that make her effective until it leaves play somehow.

Bounce solves none of these, so I opt to play the deck with Merieke as only a strategy. This is part of the reason for my desire to increase the wrath-style effects and add the Mindslaver/Ruins engine. (probably get to that later)

And I'm no longer planning on using Mangara

Keep some counters, of course, for non-removal spells.

Speaking of removal, another way that you can deflect it is by playing more creatures, i.e. offering more targets for hate.

The advice I originally gave you here still stands, 11 creatures is about 10 too few for EDH in my opinion, even with and Merieke control.

You're not going to like that I'm tinkering at 10 creatures IRL right now (-Graverobber, -Shreikmaw, -Ink-Eyes, +Exalted Angel, +Weathered Wayfarer) and thinking about dropping Vesuvan Shapeshifter to drop to 9...

I agree it's small. I've rarely had an issue with it. My side of it is that the greatest threat this deck runs by using such a low creature base is that it will have issues against fast aggro decks, which in my (lesser) experience are few and far-between due to the 40 life.

I guess my question for you is if you could elaborate further on why a larger creature base would help in this deck. I understand some of your points in your earlier post in the other thread, but what would be given up for the creature advantage? (I'm guessing you'll say the counter count...)

[/quote]Also why add the Mindslaver/Academy Ruins combo? You are already playing a control/lock deck with Merieke. Yes, getting that combo out is funky (if you can get it in play), but then what? You have a deck full of spells that become useless. Adding more creatures instead adds defense and resilience.[/quote]

Another strategy. Again, though, as the deck stands right now, I don't consider myself to have a lock in the deck. This addition would be the lock. Merieke can only do so much, and being a creature the summoning sickness takes a lot out of any strategy I would use with her.

To resume, I would say that with Merieke, you have an ultra-quick general, that doubles as removal. She is a very potent tool, not any run-of-the-mill general, so she begs to be built around. There are literally tons of ways/cards to abuse her (many in creature form), you may want to focus on that (see the link above).

I agree that Merieke can be a fast general, but my point here would be "when would I want to play her fast?" This deck will never take advantage of the 21-general damage rule. To abuse her readily, I'd need a way to untap her and/or a way to give her haste. There are cards to do that, but then I also need a route to use her, otherwise she's just a card on the field.

Maybe I'm missing something here.

And why do you need so many mass removal, since you are playing Merieke? I could see you running Austere Command and maybe Akroma's Vengeance and the Disk to deal with pesky non-creature permanents, but not Wrath of God, Rout or Decree of Pain. With your general, any creatures you don't like, you kill...

In other words, she is your silver bullet...

...that's just it, though. I don't player her as a silver bullet. [not getting into more explanation right now because it's late and I'm not thinking straight...]

Sorry if at times I seemed a bit blunt, I just like EDH and really want to help.

Have fun.

I may have an idea on the form of deck you're thinking of with your comments. I'll post again later when I've given some thought to that style.

[Shoe]

Karakas is good with this general if you can target your own general.....i know it wont hit your opponents....als Minamo, School at Water's Edge

EDIT: i see now taht you already have Minamo in

[bradleyjx]

Where I play at, we play under slight variations of the "official" EDH rules (we modify the General rules so that there is no need to reserve generals pre-event), but we still play with the "official"'s errata'd wording of Karakas which would make Karakas unable to bounce Merieke.

I'll have an update list posted sometime soon; counters are down to 7, I believe, creatures down to 9+general, drawing is up by 3 or 4 cards, and the Mindslaver/Ruins combo is added. (and has won me a few games already)

[bradleyjx]

Updated decklist:

Merieke Ri Berit

General 01 Merieke Ri Berit Land 01 Academy Ruins 01 Adarkar Wastes 01 Azorius Chancery 01 Bloodstained Mire 01 Calciform Pools 01 Caves of Koilos 01 Dimir Aquaduct 01 Dreadship Reef 01 Flooded Strand 01 Godless Shrine 01 Hallowed Fountain 04 Island 01 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 01 Nimbus Maze 01 Orzhov Basilica 03 Plains 01 Polluted Delta 01 River of Tears 01 Scrubland 01 Seat of the Synod 01 Strip Mine 02 Swamp 01 Tolaria West 01 Tundra 01 Underground River 01 Underground Sea 01 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 01 Urza's Factory 01 Vesuva 01 Wasteland 01 Watery Grave 01 Windswept Heath Creatures 01 Angel of Despair 01 Drift of Phantasms 01 Exalted Angel 01 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror 01 Psychatog 01 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 01 Trinket Mage 01 Vesuvan Shapeshifter 01 Weathered Wayfarer

Spells 01 Acquire 01 Akroma's Vengeance 01 Azorius Signet 01 Brainstorm 01 Bribery 01 Capsize 01 Careful Consideration 01 Chainer's Edict 01 Coalition Relic 01 Compulsive Research 01 Condemn 01 Counterspell 01 Cruel Edict 01 Cryptic Command 01 Damnation 01 Decree of Justice 01 Deep Analysis 01 Demonic Tutor 01 Diabolic Tutor 01 Dimir Signet 01 Dromar's Charm 01 Fact or Fiction 01 Fellwar Stone 01 Force of Will 01 Gilded Lotus 01 Hinder 01 Impulse 01 Magewright's Stone 01 Mana Drain 01 Mind Stone 01 Mindslaver 01 Misdirection 01 Momentary Blink 01 Mortify 01 Muddle the Mixture 01 Mystical Teachings 01 Opportunity 01 Orzhov Signet 01 Pact of Negation 01 Rout 01 Sensei's Divining Top 01 Serum Visions 01 Slaughter Pact 01 Sol Ring 01 Stroke of Genius 01 Swords to Plowshares 01 Thousand-Year Elixir 01 Tidings 01 Treachery 01 Vampiric Tutor 01 Vindicate 01 Wrath of God

-
01 Draining Whelk
01 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
01 Nezumi Graverobber
01 Shreikmaw
01 Blinkmoth Nexus
01 Faerie Concalve
01 Flagstones of Trokair
01 Gemstone Mine
01 Ghost Quarter
01 Mishra's Factory
01 Absorb
01 Ponder
01 Prismatic Lens
01 Rewind
01 Spectral Searchlight

+
01 Exalted Angel
01 Weathered Wayfarer
01 Academy Ruins
02 Island
02 Plains
01 Swamp
01 Dromar's Charm
01 Mindslaver
01 Momentary Blink
01 Opportunity
01 Tidings
01 Stroke of Genius
01 Angel of Despair

More soon...

[CormacV]

If you want another reusable untap effect Puppet Strings is always a good one.

[bradleyjx]

I belive this is iteration #5 of the deck. The only change I'm waiting on right now is taking out Angel of Despair for Memnarch. Other than that, I'm getting to a pretty stable point with this deck, and I'm shifting focus over to a Gwendlyn Di Corci deck, mostly as a more pronounced "abuse tap-effects" deck instead of a control deck with that as an aspect.

MRBC (Merieke Ri Berit Control)

General 01 Merieke Ri Berit Lands 01 Academy Ruins 01 Adarkar Wastes 01 Azorius Chancery 01 Bloodstained Mire 01 Calciform Pools 01 Caves of Koilos 01 Dimir Aquaduct 01 Dreadship Reef 01 Flooded Strand 01 Godless Shrine 01 Hallowed Fountain 04 Island 01 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 01 Mystic Gate 01 Orzhov Basilica 02 Plains 01 Polluted Delta 01 Reflecting Pool 01 River of Tears 01 Scrubland 01 Strip Mine 01 Sunken Ruins 02 Swamp 01 Tolaria West 01 Tundra 01 Underground River 01 Underground Sea 01 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 01 Urza's Factory 01 Wasteland 01 Watery Grave 01 Windswept Heath Creatures 01 Angel of Despair 01 Arcanis the Omnipotent 01 Drift of Phantasm 01 Exalted Angel 01 Oona, Queen of the Fae 01 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 01 Trinket Mage 01 Vesuvan Shapeshifter Spells 01 Acquire 01 Akroma's Vengeance 01 Azorius Signet 01 Brainstorm 01 Bribery 01 Capsize 01 Chainer's Edict 01 Coalition Relic 01 Compulsive Research 01 Condemn 01 Counterspell 01 Cryptic Command 01 Damnation 01 Decree of Justice 01 Deep Analysis 01 Demonic Tutor 01 Dimir Signet 01 Disenchant 01 Engineered Explosives 01 Fact or Fiction 01 Fellwar Stone 01 Force of Will 01 Gifts Ungiven 01 Gilded Lotus 01 Hinder 01 Impulse 01 Mana Drain 01 Mind's Eye 01 Mindslaver 01 Misdirection 01 Mortify 01 Mystical Teachings 01 Mystical Tutor 01 Negate 01 Opportunity 01 Orzhov Signet 01 Pact of Negation 01 Phyrexian Processor 01 Rout 01 Sensei's Divining Top 01 Serum Visions 01 Slaughter Pact 01 Sol Ring 01 Stifle 01 Stroke of Genius 01 Swords to Plowshares 01 Take Possession 01 Thousand-Year Elixir 01 Tidings 01 Treachery 01 Vampiric Tutor 01 Vindicate 01 Wrath of God

[shoeboxtony]

i personally run bout 18 creatures, but also run mannequin and yawg will. also 4 man lands.

sower of temptation
mulldrifter
draining whelk
oona, queen of the fae
skeletal vampire
puppeteer clique
shriekmaw
angel of dispair
archon of justice
shadowmage infiltraitor
divinity of pride
azorius guildmage
aeon chronicler
mistmeadow witch
teferi
venser
morphling
meddling mage

hope these help, cheers.

[Plainswalker92]

Freed from the Reel, need i say more

[blondbearde]

Originally Posted by Plainswalker92

Freed from the Reel, need i say more

do you mean freed from the Real? nice spelling, Al
also, you can use Pemmin's Aura or Aura of Dominion if you want to use colorless mana, you can use the creatures that you keep taking control of
i'm currently building merieke edh because i'm sick of losing multiplayer with my awesome zur deck because everyone hates zur