Makeshift Mannequin? Makeshift Mannequin was a breakout deck at States ’07 with the release of Lorwyn. It has a powerful tempo engine of Evoke elementals and Makeshift Mannequin, and can fluidly assume either Control or Aggro roles in any given matchup.
Mannequin is an Aggro-Control deck with its game centred on tempo. You spend the early game playing bleed-stemming drops like Epochrasite, evoked Shriekmaws or Phyrexian Ironfoot, and start preparing for the midgame with suspended Riftwing Elementals,evoked Mulldrifters and [card=Shadowmage Infiltrator]Jon Finkels[/card].
After about turn 5, you start establishing your board presence with hardcast elementals, recurring your comes-into-play effects like bounce and kill, and start chipping away with your evasive 2/2s, before ending the game with a big swing or a Profane Command.
The important thing about this deck is that is doesn’t need a big finisher to win; it ekes out a win with games of attrition and cumulative tempo off innocuous plays. It’s not about the power of the individual cards, more about the engine as a whole.
Makeshift Mannequin – The namesake, and the card that makes the deck hum. By bringing in instant-speed comes-into-play effects for only , you can reap mana advantage in spades, and card advantage out of your deceased or evoked early game plays in midcombat or at end of turn. Because you’re not reanimating big heavy hitters you rely upon, the ‘frailness’ drawback is negated, since the CIPEs are what make the creatures cost-efficient anyway. Shriekmaw – The card of the format. Deals with most things in the format, although it is shifting to a place where ‘target nonblack nonartifact’ is an uncommon moniker, and Morningtide looks like it may do more for that. Mulldrifter – An increasingly popular card, an evasive cantrip bear for two and a Counsel of the Soratami. The centrepiece of the deck’s ridiculous CA engine.
Riftwing Cloudskate – An early game play that starts the midgame tempo attacks well. Evasive bear like the Mulldrifters, a curve aid, and a general five-mana catchall answer and question in one. Epochrasite – A cheap chump blocker in the early game, but after trading with an X/1, it comes back as a 4/4 haste monster. Nigh-invincible to all but Crib Swap and Disintegrate, Shriekmaw-proof, and cheap. Oona’s Prowler – An uncommon inclusion, but certainly not a bad one at 2CC for a 3/1 evasion. The ability is mostly irrelevant, but can set up the occasional back-breaking play, dropping beastie into the ‘yard at EOT to hit it with a Mannequin. Phyrexian Ironfoot – A nice 3CC, Shriekmaw-proof Troll-wall. Epitomises the fluid nature of the deck, as it can be both an early game defender for Aggro matchups, or a quick, efficient threat for Control. Shadowmage Infiltrator – A great evasive creature for chipping away at an opponent’s lifetotal while establishing your huge grip for overwhelming the midgame. It’s 3 toughness is slightly problematic, given the Sulfurous Blasts, Incinerates, and Nameless Inversions around the place, but not bad. AEthersnipe – Like Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter, but with a bigger body and no evasion. Often acts in place of or alongside Riftwings, but in a different slot in the curve. Bottle Gnomes – Typically a SB option to help stem the bleeding against Aggro, these little men are popular with users of Grim Harvest, to create an infinite 3-life a turn plus Pacifism for 8 mana. Venser, Shaper Savant – Not quite a ‘No’, but a 4-mana ‘Not now’ to anything. Comes on a nice 2/2 body for chipping away. Mournwhelk – The closest thing to Persecute in the metagame. Can be devastating when brought into play repetitively over a short period of time, especially against Control or Dragonstorm. Sower of Temptation – A nice anti-Aggro card, stealing tempo and giving you a faster clock.
Thoughtseize – A solid black disruption spell. Not a must-have, but never a bad inclusion. Ponder – Generally, this deck wants to be playing a Faerie Conclave or CIPT land on the first-turn, but if you cut back on those, a healthy one-drop to fix your hands and dig for lands. Grim Harvest – A useful addition to Mannequin itself, this can allow you to “go indefinite” once you hit 8 mana or so, recurring Mulldrifters, Bottle Gnomes, and Shriekmaws every turn. Mind Stone – Not an auto-include, but can be useful in some builds. Trickbind – SB fodder for DStorm. I hear they lose to it. Damnation – A stem-off for the fast Aggro decks, which is typically one-sided or timed for a large advantage, like unsuspending a Riftwing or two on the following turn. MD or SB is fine. Cryptic Command – A problematic casting cost, but otherwise it’s gold tempo. Tap out to fog and alpha strike, counter and bounce, so many options. Profane Command – The best kill spell around, recurs your tempo creatures, removes, wins.
There are only two options here, Jace and Liliana. Liliana is not really worth the effort, as she comes down too late for her discard to mean anything, there’s no real broken spells that you can tutor up and trump with, and the reanimation effect is decidedly win-more.
Jace is usable for a CA engine, but it’s best against Control, and Finkel does much the same job.
There are a lot of various choices you can make here. The duals are all obvious includables, but some other nonbasic considerations include: Mouth of Ronom – Cleans out bigger creatures like Teferi, Goyfs, etc., but requires an investment of snow basics. Scrying Sheets – Not a common choice due to the colourless nature of the mana it makes, but it’s still includable if you run the snow lands. Desert – Deals with Faeries, a very problematic matchup for us, and isn’t bad against Goblins either. Almost a must-have. Urza’s Factory – Not commonly used, but a one-of Factory can win the drawn out Control games when you hit as much mana as this deck does. Faerie Conclave – A good first turn play for a deck with no first turn plays like this, it plays late game evasive beater, chump blocker, and generally all-round good. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth – Fixes your mana, but also fixes the ever-common black-playing opponents’ too.
This deck uses Mannequin and evoke to synergize with Deathrender and planned Damnations. It uses Mournwhelks and Augurs for discard vs control decks. Augurs and Damnations help to stave off aggro and make Ironfoots and Epochrasites unecessary. It begins to gain control and win much quicker than the traditional build, but has more difficulty recovering from a bad early game. Unlike conventional Mannequin decks, this deck plays more with big single-card effects and fast recovery, rather than an attrition engine.
This thread is to replace the old one in the DtB subforum, which has reached more than a thousand posts. Let me know if there's anything missing/broken coding.
look at the creatures section, the font might be too large, which I think is what you don't want. Also, the spells section, you have [ size 1] next to thoughtseize. Check those out.
There we go, fixed the font size and the Riftwing tag.
I kept the formatting simple, so that when the thread gets updated more frequently, the OP of the new iteration can just copy-paste the majority of it, and just substitute decklists, add card choices, etc.
rune snag should be in the spells selection. i dont particularly run them, however it was said in a major (starcity i believe?) article to replace epochrasites with them.
ill link you later. its 6:30am and i cant sleep for some reason and im to lazy to look it up at the moment...
A LOT of / Mannequin (sometimes 1/3 to 1/4 of the decks per night) Dragonstorm (it may take a break due to hate recently) Faeries The Rock (/:b Doran Doran Blink (mostly Blinkequinn) RDW w/ 'goyf splash / snow Mono Zombies Elves weenie / aggro
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/:b
snow
weenie
