Blood curdling screams. Sharp teeth and a dangerous snarl. Meat hooks and fresh corpses. Where Bloomburrow brought us cute critters and more adorable art than you normally find in a Magic set, Duskmourn: House of Horror is chock full of things that go bump in the night. Today's column is my first dip into this scary new set, and I've decided to start with a classic horror trope - a haunted ventriloquist's puppet.

While my first thought was how I might turn this card into a Looney Tunes Marvin the Martian alter, my second thought was about what kind of combo nonsense I might get up to with this little guy in the command zone.

Marvin, Murderous Mimic is a two-mana legendary artifact creature with a subtype of Toy. He has all activated abilities of creatures I control that don't have the same name as him. The fact that he is colorless means that the variety of combo pieces I can run in this deck is really limited. I'm pretty sure Marvin will be popping up and causing trouble in the 99 of lots of other decks that work around activated abilities and have access to tutors.

Paths Not Traveled

This time around, my Paths Not Traveled section is about paths my commander would only be able to travel if he were in the 99 of another deck. This is my best way to show you the kind of nonsense Marvin could get up to without parading out three or four full decklists.

This first example is commonly found in Experiment Kraj decks. With a counter on Marvin and Incubation Druid under my control, Marvin can tap for 3 mana. If Horseshoe Crab is also in play, I can pay a Blue mana to untap Marvin. Any mana dork that taps for two or more mana and an "untapper" like Horseshoe Crab or Simic Ragworm can work with Marvin to make tons of mana. If you draw into (or tutor up) Arcanis the Omnipotent, you can then draw your deck.

If Marvin were in the 99 of a Blue deck, I might think about turning a mana rock that taps for more than one mana into an artifact creature so Marvin can combo off without even having a traditional mana dork in play.

It was tempting to go down all sorts of rabbit holes when looking at activated abilities, but it's worth remembering that the sweet spot for Marvin is going to be creatures that would give him abilities that combine in a uniquely degenerate way. The cycle of Souleater creatures all have a neat ability to allow you to pay life into an activated ability. That's all well and good, but that ability does not need to be on Marvin in order to be useful. If you were to combine a Souleater on the field with other cards, things can get interesting.

Creatures that let you exchange life totals are few and far between. Magus of the Mirror lets you do that, but he has to be sacrificed as part of the activation. Soul Conduit, on the other hand, just has a hefty activation cost and has to tap. One of the big drawbacks of these creatures is they can't activate on the turn they come down, but with Marvin, Murderous Mimic, you can play Marvin a turn or more in advance, and he'll be able to use that ability as soon as Soul Conduit hits the battlefield.

If you're into convoluted wincons I could imagine a plan where your goal is to get almost all the cards shown above onto the field. You then use a Souleater to lower your life to one or two. You use Soul Conduit to exchange life totals. You then untap Marvin with Horseshoe Crab's ability. Once you've done that, you can pay your life down again, and again exchange life totals. Once you're the only one at a life total of 3 or higher, you pay Black mana into Crypt Rats to kill all of your opponents.

Is this a good plan? Of course not. Crypt Rats and your Souleater are just extraneous and don't need Marvin to have their abilities at all. It's a ridiculous, convoluted wincon, but there are players out there who love this sort of thing. Some days I'm even one of them, though this might be a little too much even for me.

If there is a world of nonsense you can get up to with Marvin in a multicolored deck, the question at hand is what kind of deck you can build with Marvin as your commander, so let's get back to business. What might a colorless Marvin deck look like?

Colorless Basics

The first thing to know about a Marvin deck is that it's going to run lots of cards that are staples for colorless decks. A staple is just a card that is so effective and efficient that you generally will run it over anything else in the absence of a good reason not to. A lot of the time the reason you might not run a staple will be budget-oriented, but decks that lean heavily into a theme might favor cards that play well with that theme.

For Marvin I'm running an assortment of cost reducers like Jhoira's Familiar and Foundry Inspector. I'm running Solemn Simulacrum and Burnished Hart. Stuffy Doll is in the mix and will make for a fantastic blocker for attackers on the ground. There are a few newer cards worth calling out specifically.

Null Elemental Blast is a colorless take on Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental Blast. The former is widely played in high power and cEDH red decks. It lets me counter target multicolored spell or destroy target multicolored permanent, which will usually cover at least one commander at any table I play at.

I'm still not a huge fan of the Universes Beyond sets, but you can't say they haven't given us good cards. I don't know what a Canoptek Spyder is, but if I'm playing a colorless deck with lots of creatures, this flyer will give me card draw whenever another nontoken artifact creature enters the battlefield under my control. It triggers for vehicles too, and should be an auto-include for a lot of decks that focus on artifact creatures.

The Doctor Who sets gave us a bunch of neat cards, and there were a few great ones printed for one of the Doctor's regular foes, the Cybermen. Cyberman Patrol is a 2/2 Cyberman Artifact Creature who gives artifact creatures I control afflict 3. I'm not sure this deck is the best fit for this creature, but I'm running a lot of artifact creatures and that keyword can certainly help me close out a game against a player at a low life total.

Afflict triggers whenever a creature with that keyword is blocked, in this case resulting in the defending player losing 3 life. With enough attackers, and an opponent at a low enough life total, this could be the nail in someone's coffin. Don't block and you die. Block and you die.

Marvin's Machinations

The fun in deckbuilding isn't in choosing which format staples I'm going to run. The fun part is finding weird and unexpected ways to make cards synergize with or combo around your commander. The combo pieces I decided to run may be familiar to you already, but I love that Marvin gives me new and interesting ways to use them that you may not have seen outside of an Experiment Kraj or Necrotic Ooze deck.

Marvin gets all activated abilities of other creatures I control, so if I've got a Palladium Myr in play I'll be able to tap it to make 2 mana. If I've also got Pili-Pala in play, I can then untap Marvin for two mana to generate one mana of any color. Any mana dork that generates two or more mana can let me go infinite. I'm running Forsaken Monument in the list so that any mana dork I tap for colorless mana will generate an additional mana.

I'm also running a few ways to turn my artifacts into artifact creatures. Karn, Silver Golem can do that for 1 mana and Karn, the Great Creator has a +1 loyalty ability that does the same thing. Turning a Sol Ring into a creature will then give Marvin the ability to tap to generate 2 mana, allowing me to combo off with Pili-Pala. Huge amounts of mana doesn't win the game on its own, but it helps to not have to worry about being able to pay for what I want to do. With Walking Ballista on the field I can just kill the table with direct damage. If I can draw into Staff of Domination, I'll be able to draw my deck, gain as much life as I want, and keep my opponents' creatures tapped down.

Myr Kinsmith is a four mana tutor that will let me get any Myr card in my deck. Palladium Myr might be a good target, but I could instead decide to tutor up Myr Galvanizer. It gives other Myr creatures I control +1/+1 and for one mana it can tap and untap each other Myr I control. Marvin will have that activated ability, but won't untap unless I've got Maskwood Nexus on the field to give Marvin all creature types. Once Marvin is a Myr, he and Myr Galvanizer can go back and forth to take turns untapping my creatures, all of which will also be Myr. With enough mana dorks, this can be mana positive, but it's worth noting that this deck can't run any of the five Myr mana dorks that create one mana of a specific color. Those cards have mana color pips on them and can't be run in a colorless deck.

There are a few other cards in this list worth talking about. If I've got Steel Overseer out I can tap it to put +1/+1 counters on each of my artifact creatures. Marvin will get that ability as well, but things get interesting if I've also got Mindless Automaton or Spincrusher in play. Mindless Automaton enters play with two +1/+1 counters and I can remove two of them to draw a card. Spincrusher gets a +1/+1 counter each time it blocks and it lets me remove a +1/+1 counter to become unblockable until end of turn.

If I'm able to get a combo online to untap my board again and again, Steel Overseer will let me load up all my creatures with +1/+1 counters. If Steel Overseer isn't around, Farmstead Gleaner can at least give Marvin the ability to pay 2 mana and untap to get a +1/+1 counter.

As you can see, this deck is going to have a lot of interesting cards that can combine in interesting ways. With Mirage Mirror, I might even be able to turn it into a copy of an opponent's creature. If that creature has a useful activated ability, Marvin will now have that ability as well. The possibilities may not be endless, but there is certainly a lot of fun to be had trying to get the right pieces together to do something powerful with this commander.

Marvin's Mayhem

While this may aspire to be a combo deck, I won't suggest it's even edging into high power. I chose not to load up on fast mana, but there are a few cards that are on the expensive side. I'm looking at you, Metalworker. For me, the goal of this build is really to do something goofy with Marvin, and if you can find a way to win that's just icing on the cake.

You could definitely add in cards that would help the deck win games through combat. Colorless decks are a natural home for Eldrazi, but when you start looking in other directions you have to ask why you would stay with Marvin as your commander. There will usually be better choices, but there is only one commander who can combo in quite the same ways that Marvin can.

Marvin, Murderous Mimic EDH | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Marvin, Murderous Mimic

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Alloy Myr
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Canoptek Spyder
• 1 Chief of the Foundry
• 1 Cyberman Patrol
• 1 Endbringer
• 1 Farmstead Gleaner
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 Jhoira's Familiar
• 1 Karn, Legacy Reforged
• 1 Karn, Silver Golem
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Metalworker
• 1 Mindless Automaton
• 1 Mycosynth Golem
• 1 Myr Galvanizer
• 1 Myr Kinsmith
• 1 Palladium Myr
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Pili-Pala
• 1 Plague Myr
• 1 Sandstone Oracle
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Skyscanner
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Spincrusher
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Steel Overseer
• 1 Stonecoil Serpent
• 1 Stuffy Doll
• 1 Triskelion
• 1 Voltaic Construct
• 1 Walking Ballista
• 1 Wandering Archaic
• 1 Zenith Chronicler

• Spells (3)
• 1 Desecrate Reality
• 1 Null Elemental Blast
• 1 All is Dust

• Artifacts (21)
• 1 Blinkmoth Urn
• 1 Cloud Key
• 1 Darksteel Forge
• 1 Forsaken Monument
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Manifold Key
• 1 Maskwood Nexus
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mirage Mirror
• 1 Mystic Forge
• 1 Retrofitter Foundry
• 1 Rolling Hamsphere
• 1 Sisay's Ring
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of Domination
• 1 Staff of Nin
• 1 Tamiyo's Journal
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Unwinding Clock

• Lands (38)
• 26 Wastes
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
• 1 Urza's Mine
• 1 Urza's Power Plant
• 1 Urza's Saga
• 1 Urza's Tower
• 1 Urza's Workshop
• 1 War Room

Buy This Deck Export text

I don't think there's a lot of room to power this deck down without losing its core, but you could drop the budget down by losing Metalworker, Darksteel Forge, Mycosynth Golem, and Urza's Saga. A budget build could still have all the potential for silly Marvin nonsense without breaking the bank.

Powering this deck up seems like an odd proposition. You could throw in some better mana rocks, and you could run some Eldrazi Titans to give it some muscle on the battlefield, but I don't know how far you would want to stray from the main goal of doing something silly by having Marvin combine the activated abilities of a number of different creatures.

As always, if you like some of the ideas here, you should absolutely take this deck and make it your own. Do you swear by Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves and run them in every deck you have? By all means toss them in! Do you always run Thopters in your artifact decks because they give you a way to block flyers? Toss in Ornithopter of Paradise as another mana dork, and as many other Thopters as you like. I'd suggest you should still run the combo lines and payoffs, but ultimately as long as you're having fun, that's what matters.

Final Thoughts

It's worth noting that in a few months or even a few weeks after this column goes up, we may be building decks and playing Commander in a radically different environment. Hours after last week's column went up, it was announced that Wizards of the Coast and the Commander Rules Committee announced that WotC was taking over management of the format.

I've seen talk of a four-tiered system being set up with card ratings to determine where a card would be allowed to be played. I sincerely hope that the vast majority of casual commander players will just play what they like and not get too worked up over these kinds of decrees. Tiers make sense in competitive play and organized play in large, untrusted environments. At your kitchen table or LGS I expect these tiers will be a discussion point, but not a showstopper for folks who just want to play games.

The more things change, I expect we'll find that the more they stay the same. Of course, I was wildly wrong about whether or not they would ban Nadu, and I didn't see the WotC takeover coming either. Whatever happens, I expect we'll all adjust and still be able to have fun playing Commander with our friends.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!