Makeshift Mannequin decks were really popular in Standard couple years ago - I've always admired it as a great deck. This is a casual spin on it, with a little twist, by adding Mask of the Mimic, a card I've always wanted to break.
Card Choices: Puppeteer Clique is crazy card advantage when played correctly with Makeshift Mannequin or Mask of the Mimic. Instant speed reanimation on the Puppeteer means pulling a blocker out of the opponent's graveyard, AND leaving it to the end of YOUR turn to attack/do whatever.
Using it with Mask of the Mimic, you can do it 2 ways:
1) Sacrifice it as the cost of playing the Mask, and trigger the Persist at instant speed.
2) Target it to use the Mask, sacrifice another creature for the additional cost, get the ability again at instant speed.
Glen Elendra Archmage - it's always nice to have counterspell backup. Nice surprise at Instant-speed if your opponent forgot about her in the graveyard.
River Kelpie - card draw, combines nicely with Puppeteer Clique - when Persist triggers on the Clique, it becomes draw 2. Pretty good.
Rotting Rats was in there for the early play, hopefully making the opponent drop a creature to reanimate with Puppeteer Clique. As for us, we can discard a 5CMC creature to reanimate with Makeshift Mannequin. Unearth also works nicely with River Kelpie.
Not sure what to fix - is there anything else that goes really well with Mask of the Mimic that I missed? Sideboard includes some cards that I wanted to include, particularly Agony Warp, which I wanted to replace Soul Manipulation with. I feel like the deck could use some more turn 2 plays (Mana Leak), but Soul Manipulation is a 2-for-1 which is really tempting.
Any comments/suggestions are of course, always appreciated.
10 Swamp
9 Island
4 Underground River
Creatures 22
3 Puppeteer Clique
2 Maelstrom Djinn
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 River Kelpie
1 Dralnu, Lich Lord
4 Rotting Rats
4 Mulldrifter
4 Shriekmaw
4 Mask of the Mimic
4 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Recoil
3 Soul Manipulation
4 Mana Leak
4 Agony Warp
3 Clutch of the Undercity
2 Memory Plunder
2 Brainspoil
Card Choices:
Puppeteer Clique is crazy card advantage when played correctly with Makeshift Mannequin or Mask of the Mimic. Instant speed reanimation on the Puppeteer means pulling a blocker out of the opponent's graveyard, AND leaving it to the end of YOUR turn to attack/do whatever.
Using it with Mask of the Mimic, you can do it 2 ways:
1) Sacrifice it as the cost of playing the Mask, and trigger the Persist at instant speed.
2) Target it to use the Mask, sacrifice another creature for the additional cost, get the ability again at instant speed.
Maelstrom Djinn is a nice reanimator target, and if targeted with Mask of the Mimic, we can get a permanent Djinn.
Glen Elendra Archmage - it's always nice to have counterspell backup. Nice surprise at Instant-speed if your opponent forgot about her in the graveyard.
River Kelpie - card draw, combines nicely with Puppeteer Clique - when Persist triggers on the Clique, it becomes draw 2. Pretty good.
Kelpie also goes insane with Dralnu, Lich Lord. Reusing Makeshift Mannequin and Mask of the Mimic + disruption is always nice.
Rotting Rats was in there for the early play, hopefully making the opponent drop a creature to reanimate with Puppeteer Clique. As for us, we can discard a 5CMC creature to reanimate with Makeshift Mannequin. Unearth also works nicely with River Kelpie.
Lastly, Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw are pretty much must haves.
Deck Fix:
Not sure what to fix - is there anything else that goes really well with Mask of the Mimic that I missed? Sideboard includes some cards that I wanted to include, particularly Agony Warp, which I wanted to replace Soul Manipulation with. I feel like the deck could use some more turn 2 plays (Mana Leak), but Soul Manipulation is a 2-for-1 which is really tempting.
Any comments/suggestions are of course, always appreciated.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus