[scryfall]Meloku, the Clouded Mirror[/scryfall] is one of my favorite commanders.

I do have a certain affection for quite a few blue commanders, but with Meloku, the pull between wanting to play lands and having to bounce them, is quite interesting. This being said, I don’t want to play her too much, since she has a tendency to be a bit too consistent for my tastes. Despite this, I went to EDHREC (a great site, btw) to see if other people were doing something interesting with her. Apparently not really. However, I always found her very powerful in one specific regard, which didn’t seem to get any press on the page…

Sure, playing [scryfall]Lord of the Unreal[/scryfall] with Meloku is pretty good, but it doesn’t really appeal to me. Or [scryfall]Favorable Winds[/scryfall]. Or [scryfall]Winter Orb[/scryfall], which just seems like an asshole move in EDH. (Not that people are even using the last one, but its just an idea that came to me.)

Commanders, who provide one half of a combo are always powerful. In this regard, Meloku is very good. I’ve often thought about how to use certain cards, like [scryfall]Jalira, Master Polymorphist[/scryfall] effectively, but Meloku is the answer.

This is actually a pretty fun combo, but again, too consistent for my tastes or for EDH. The point is, of course, that you have some limited number of great, powerful creatures in the deck and when you polymorph them, the chances of hitting one is therefore very good. What could such creatures be?

Of course, you should have your own selection of creatures based on what you like to play and what fits your playgroup, but these are the ones I’m using. I also have a [scryfall]Lighthouse Chronologist[/scryfall] in the deck and probably should have something like [scryfall]Archaeomancer[/scryfall], but I don’t.

I used to play [scryfall]Ixidron[/scryfall] as well, but that didn’t work quite as well as I had hoped it might. [scryfall]Scourge of Fleets[/scryfall] is a much better choice.

One problem is that due to the nature of the deck, I can’t really play all the ramp creatures ([scryfall]Pilgrim’s Eye[/scryfall], [scryfall]Solemn Simulacrum[/scryfall], [scryfall]Burnished Hart[/scryfall]) I would normally play in a monoblue deck. I do however need ways to play more lands, so I do play [scryfall]Walking Atlas[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Patron of the Moon[/scryfall].

I also play quite a few other ways to ramp through artifacts and [scryfall]Zoetic Cavern[/scryfall] is a pretty good way to get extra lands into play, despite the cost in mana.

Actually, I don’t usually play [scryfall]Sol Ring[/scryfall] because of its power level, but here I need the mana pretty badly, so I’m willing to do it.

So, what else do we need? Since you don’t really want to draw the fatties in the deck, you want to manipulate the top of your deck. At least a bit. I’m generally not a huge fan of [scryfall]Sensei’s Divining Top[/scryfall], but here it works. Another good tool is [scryfall]Scroll Rack[/scryfall] and, of course, the [scryfall]Brainstorm[/scryfall]. With [scryfall]Blightsteel Colossus[/scryfall] looting would work as well, but I haven’t gone that route. However, [scryfall]Day’s Undoing[/scryfall] and its ilk could work, but I haven’t done that either, because I tend to have more cards in hand then my opponents, so those cards would be a net lose to me, unless I can play [scryfall]Cyclonic Rift[/scryfall] beforehand.

[scryfall]Preordain[/scryfall] is just something you can sometimes use to push cards to the bottom, so you don’t have to draw them.

After that, you just need some ways to defend yourself and some random fun stuff.

Bouncing with blue is always fun:

Countering isn’t as effective in EDH as its elsewhere, but you can still interrupt all sorts of important things.

I do like to draw cards, so here’s the usual suspects for that…

Sometimes we need to get rid of some stuff, but blue can’t do it, so I have to rely on colorless here:

[scryfall]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/scryfall] wouldn’t be bad here either, especially as the illusions provided by Meloku are colorless, but I haven’t gone that route.

What else? I don’t know why, but I decided to put this little package in:

As well, as the following:

The average CMC here is way too high for my tastes in general, but that’s why we play plenty of lands.

Also, finally, [scryfall]Quicken[/scryfall], because [scryfall]Mass Polymorph[/scryfall]ing at the end of opponents turn is just great.

… and lands…

Leaving us room for 34 Islands (total of 45 lands). Some additional fetches would be nice as well, but I think this is quite enough.

I decided I wouldn’t play [scryfall]Mind Over Matter[/scryfall] either, because its not fun. There are similar cards out there, but the deck already has a very high powerlevel and can already just get out a very oppressive board, which it can also protect, so that’s quite enough.

The list:

[deck]
[commander]
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
[/commander]
[creatures]
Jalira, Master Polymorphist
Blightsteel Colossus
Consecrated Sphinx
Djinn of Infinite Deceits
Inkwell Leviathan
It That Betrays
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
Platinum Emperion
Scourge of Fleets
Stormtide Leviathan
Walking Atlas
Patron of the Moon
[/creatures]
[spells]
Quicken
Mass Polymorph
Polymorphous Rush
Day of the Dragons
Dream Halls
Enter the Infinite
Omniscience
Batterskull
Cast Through Time
Clone Legion
Armillary Sphere
Explorer’s Scope
Journeyer’s Kite
Sol Ring
Sword of the Animist
Wayfarer’s Bauble
Counterspell
Disdainful Stroke
Dissipate
Dissolve
Dream Fracture
Exclude
Hinder
Spell Crumple
Recurring Insight
Flow of Ideas
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Future Sight
Dig Through Time
Karn Liberated
Eye of Doom
Scroll Rack
Brainstorm
Preordain
Sensei’s Divining Top
Crystal Ball
Capsize
Cyclonic Rift
Aetherspouts
Inundate
Aetherize
Devastation Tide
[/spells]
[lands]
Zoetic Cavern
Evolving Wilds
Terramorphic Expanse
Terrain Generator
Reliquary Tower
Temple of the False God
Foundry of the Consuls
Spawning Bed
Halimar Depths
Myriad Landscape
Mage-Ring Network
34 Island
[/lands]
[/deck]