Commander
Deck list
View this mono blue Minn, Wily Illusionist permanent deck list in Archidekt
For some time now, I've played a lot of games with my mono red Rionya deck and have been interested in other mono colored decks. Especially blue and black (my favourite colors after red now) have many intriguing commanders. After doing some research and after a game in untap.io, I decided to try my deck building skills in Minn.
About Minn, Wily Illusionist
Minn focuses clearly in two different things: drawing at least 2 cards every turn and permanents. And creates Illusions as a side effect.
Whenever you draw your second card each turn, create a 1/1 blue Illusion creature token with "This creature gets +1/+0 for each other Illusion you control."
Whenever an Illusion you control dies, you may put a permanent card with mana value less than or equal to that creature's power from your hand onto the battlefield.
Minn, Wily Illusionist in EDHREC
In EDHREC Minn, Wily Illusionist has 1134 decks with most themes marked under wheels. This build is definitely a combat build with Illusion tribal team and wincons are clearly combat related.
Strategy
Early game and mulligans, < T3
I hope to get Minn out in a turn, where we can draw a second draw to trigger the ability. So try to choose a starting hand with 2+ lands or 2 and manarock with a way to draw the second card on the same turn as Minn is cast. Good ways to draw are: Endless Atlas, Implement of Examination, Myr Parcel.
Best plays in Early game
Lord of the Unreal to provide synergy to Illusions, Midnight Clock as a pseudo wheel and a ramp and Ominous Seas as way to get big beaters soon.
Mid game, T4 - T6
T4 to T6 are mid game is the part where I continue hitting a land every turn and getting at least one of the sac outlets out to provide pressure on the board. Great engine pieces are the planeswalkers Jace Beleren, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Jace, Cunning Castaway. The most powerful walker in the deck is easily Teferi, Master of Time due to the almost broken ability to loot a card every turn.
Best engine piece after Teferi, Master of Time is Alhammaret's Archive with the draw doubling.
Late game, T6+
In the late game collecting answers in hand with the extra cards drawn and building up the massive Illusion army. Having multiple sac outlets brings great value as a response to a removal or to a wipe spell. Digging through the library is essential to find the massive combat boosters to actually close the game in combat.
Every turn I still tend to hit someone, especially if they lose something else than a token to a 5/1 Illusion.
Winning the game
Winning the game with multiple buffed Illusions is not easy. The deck offers few clear combat wincons like Coat of Arms, Obelisk of Urd, Archetype of Imagination and my favorite, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive. Alternative, and probably stronger wincons are Psychosis Crawler and Altar of Dementia + Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
I've noticed that planeswalkers tend to collect lots of hate, even though their ulti-skills are weak so prepare to defend them or lose them if you play them out!
Who is the deck for
My first game with Minn was super interesting and fun due to the amount of triggers that happened due to having 2 Teferi, Master of Time planeswalkers (one was Spark Double) and just burning the opponents with a Psychosis Crawler. The second game was quite dull due to having a landfall Omnath deck against controlling my every Illusion with a Roil Elemental.
I'd say the Power level with this deck is max 5 due to the low amount of wincons and way too low amount of counterspells (only 2). I'm still confident I'm able to push this deck to a power level of 7 with changes.
