“Murk ’em dead, send ’em up with the spirits.”
Art:Mercurial Geists
by Lake Hurwitz
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Mercurial Geists is a very sweet commander who is a damage powerhouse and a perfect commander to be cantripping into; while not as powerful as some other commanders like Zada, Mercurial Geists can certainly hold their own and easily one-shot an opponent while being the only creature on our board, this deck feels a lot like storm-style strategies where we are buffing and casting and drawing a ton of cards before it all culminates into a commander damage one-shot. We have a ton of buffs, ways to give creatures unblockable and double strike, and, most importantly, draw a ton of cards so we can keep the casting and damage going. I love these style of decks for Pauper EDH as they are strong and powerful and are just very fun to play, while we may be a glass-cannon strategy we can usually avoid the glass breaking if we operate with speed, I am very excited to showcase this one today, Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Mercurial Geists Cantrips!
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Why Mercurial Geists?
Mercurial Geists are a huge part of our deck; they are the key card for our deck and allow us to one-shot our opponents with ease. Mercurial Geists is naturally evasive and with all of the different ways to give our commander unblockable, they are just an absolute powerhouse. Mercurial Geists are often the target of removal because they are clearly the best card and best damage dealer in our deck; luckily, we can fight back with cards like Dive Down
as well as counterspells like Arcane Denial
. Even after only being out for one or two turns with the right hand and sources of card draw, we can easily one-shot an opponent and close out games quite quickly.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We are quite low on creatures, and this does leave us susceptible to taking damage in the early game, but by turn three or four, we can have our commander or one of our alternate creatures available and start the damage. We also have some great sources of non-combat damage like Thermo-Alchemist
, Erebor Flamesmith
and Kessig Flamebreather
. Guttersnipe
is by far the best of these effects and can deal a ton of damage; in my testing games, I was easily able to do 15-20 per turn with this card. Pyroceratops
and Pyre Hound
are great attackers/blockers and can be amazing backups if our commander keeps getting targeted and taken off of the board.
Instants:
In testing, I found that our opponents love to wait till we make our commander huge and then they try to hit them with removal, we have quite a few ways to counter that, like Dive Down and Shore Up
which help protect our creatures against removal, especially on one-shot turns, one of my favorite effects like this is Fling
when our opponents try to target our huge commander or whatever creature we are using, and we throw all of that power into their face it is not only fun and satisfying, but it can easily end the game, I have ended quite a few games using fling. We are, of course, packing some counterspell of our own like Arcane Denial and Counterspell
, which allow us to protect our creatures or stop our opponents if they start getting too crazy. We have quite a few ways to give our commander double strike which really helps with the one-shot like Temur Battle Rage
and Uncaged Fury
, if we resolve these on an unblocked creature its pretty much over for our opponents.
Sorceries:
At sorcery speed, we have three very cheap sources of unblockable in Slip Through Space
, Distortion Strike
, and Artful Dodge
all of these are extremely cheap and efficient ways to make our commander or any of our creatures unblockable and most importantly they trigger our commander and others like Kiln Fiend
allowing us to hit hard and without any resistance from our opponents. These, of course, are not the only ways we can stop our opponents from blocking as we have both Renegade Tactics
and Ghostform
these are both great and while they arent that strong against creature-based strategies or any kind of aggressive deck that floods the board they absolutely excel against commander focused or Voltron style decks where they are only using one or two creatures, of course, they also trigger our commander and other creatures so they are just overall awesome for the deck.
Artifacts:
A good majority of our early turns before we play our commander focus on committing mana rocks on the board so we have as much as mana as possible when we go off and look for a one-shot on an opponent; there isn’t really anything special within our mana rocks, but I love Izzet Locket
as a great source of card draw on a turn where we aren’t actively going off. We are not only focused on mana rocks as we have [scrytlink]Dueling Rapier[/scrylink] and Javelin of Lightning
which don’t trigger our commander but are great and cheap ways to buff them up and have them hit even harder, these are great on pretty much any of our creatures but in testing I found that they often end up on our commander. Last but certainly not least is Wedding Invitation
which is a cheap source of card draw and helps us to enable a commander one-shot or to finish off an opponent with the unblockable.
Enchantments:
If an opponent has a pesky commander or creature, there aren’t many cards that are better and as cheap as Witness Protection
. Removing all abilities from their creature and turning them into nothing but a 1/1 is an amazing effect and can stop our opponents flat. Aqueous Form
is a great card to put on pretty much any of our creatures that get big but really shines on our commander, who is already evasive but guaranteeing a hit makes us so much stronger and makes our one-shots that much quicker.
Land Base:
Escape Tunnel
is an amazing card since it is an additional source of making our commander unblocked, and then we can increase the power through spellslinging and still hit like an absolute truck. Beyond that, we have a very simple landbase, mostly consisting of basics and sources of card draw, even though we are quite cheap overall, i still find it valuable to run thirty-five lands as we need a decent amount of consistent mana to go off.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are quite fast, and once we get our commander out, we can easily pull off a one-shot in the next couple of turns.
- We have a ton of card draw and there isn’t many turns where we run out of cards to cast.
- We are a deck that focuses on commander damage kills, and since they get a huge buff when we cast spells, we don’t need a ton of buffs from our spills to one-shot an opponent.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Our commander is the heart of our deck, and if they consistently get countered/killed, our game plan can be much slower.
- We do have some creatures, but they are not great blockers, so we can take a ton of damage in the early game from aggressive strategies.
- We need to be extremely aggressive with our mulligans, as a bad hand can leave us far behind our opponents.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops in the deck. We primarily use our commander to deal a ton of damage after cantripping and using buff spells like Antagonize
and finishing off opponents with Temur Battle Rage or Uncaged Fury, if our opponents are constantly taking out our commander we do have additional creatures we can use like Nivix Cyclops
or Kiln Fiend. We also have some strong sources of non-combat damage like Erebor Flamesmith and Guttersnipe.
Conclusion:
Mercurial Geists is very strong and reminds me a ton of of another Pauper EDH powerhouse in Khenra Spellspear // Gitaxian Spellstalker
. While certainly as not as strong, its a great option and a fun and flavorful card to play, this deck is great for new players as it is fast-paced and has a lot of things going on but remains decently simple, its also great for long-time players specifically anyone who loves spellslinging or storm in other formats would likely love this one. I hope you all enjoyed this deck as much as I did. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!