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Marvin, Murderous Mimic

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Marvin, Murderous Mimic

At a glance

  • Commander: Marvin, Murderous Mimic
  • Archetype: Colorless activated-ability toolbox / pinger value
  • Power tier: mid

Cards

Commander

Marvin, Murderous Mimic — Legendary Artifact Creature — Toy

“Marvin has all activated abilities of creatures you control that don’t have the same name as this creature.”

Marvin is a Swiss-army engine. Every other (differently-named) creature you control donates its activated abilities to him. Control a creature with : Add and Marvin can tap for mana; control a pinger and Marvin pings; equip a creature with a ”: deal damage” ability and Marvin gains it too. The deck assembles a grid of cheap colorless artifact creatures and equipment whose abilities Marvin amplifies, generating repeatable value and reach.

commander_oracle_ok = true — printed text confirmed via CLI; the donor mechanic is correctly described.

Gameplan

Colorless artifact toolbox / pinger-value control. Flood the board with cheap mana dorks, walls, and utility artifact creatures, then deploy Marvin to copy all their abilities at once. The standout interaction is Viridian Longbow (and Ninja’s Kunai / Blazing Torch): equip any creature with a ”: deal damage” line and Marvin instantly gains a repeatable Tim. Grind the board and opposing life total down while leaning on the interaction suite and evasive colorless beaters to close.

This is a midrange-control inevitability deck: it does not race, it outlasts. No single haymaker — you win by never running out of pings, mana, and removal, then pushing through with flying beaters and evasion equipment.

Key Synergies

  • Marvin + Viridian Longbow — turns Marvin into a repeatable pinger / removal cannon. Longbow’s : deal 1 damage to any target` is the centerpiece engine. Ninja’s Kunai and Blazing Torch give equipped creatures a tap-sacrifice ping for one-shot reach.
  • Marvin + mana dorks (Hedron Crawler, Manakin, Alloy Myr, Ornithopter of Paradise, Opaline Unicorn, Warden of Geometries, Automated Artificer) — each has a printed : Add , so Marvin taps for extra mana, accelerating into the big stuff.
  • Marvin + Walking Atlas — : drop an extra land from hand; copied onto Marvin, that’s two extra land drops a turn.
  • Marvin + Clockwork Gnomes — repeatable regeneration to protect your artifact board.
  • Crashing Drawbridge — gives the whole team haste so Marvin and fresh beaters swing the turn they land. Fleetfeather Sandals and Cloak-style equips back this up.
  • Evasion package — Mechanical Glider, Cliffhaven Kitesail, Aeronaut’s Wings, Fleetfeather Sandals, Bladed Pinions plus the existing Cobbled Wings / Vorrac Battlehorns / Whispersilk Cloak let the vanilla fatties and flying bodies actually close the game instead of stalling behind blockers.

Role Breakdown (with counts)

  • Lands — 36: 26 Wastes + 10 colorless utility lands (Darksteel Citadel, Cloudpost, Glimmerpost, Ash Barrens, Tocasia’s Dig Site, Survivors’ Encampment, Holdout Settlement, Terminal Moraine, Warped Landscape, Crystal Grotto).
  • Ramp — 13: 6 mana rocks (Sol Ring, Mind Stone, Guardian Idol, Prismatic Lens, Thought Vessel, Pristine Talisman) + 7 mana creatures, each with a printed : Add (Hedron Crawler, Manakin, Alloy Myr, Ornithopter of Paradise, Opaline Unicorn, Warden of Geometries, Automated Artificer). The creatures double as genuine Marvin donors. (A touch above the 9-11 band, kept intentionally to power the deck’s - activated abilities.)
  • Card advantage — 11: Filigree Familiar, Ichor Wellspring, Golden Egg, Mechanical Mobster, H.E.R.B.I.E. Scout Unit, Magnifying Glass (investigate), Seer’s Lantern (scry), Alchemist’s Vial, Prophetic Prism, Mind Stone, Chrome Companion. (Several double as ramp/fixing.)
  • Spot removal / interaction — 12: Scrap Compactor, Unstable Obelisk, Thaumaton Torpedo, Lunatic Pandora, Moonglove Extract, Explosive Apparatus, Lightning-Core Excavator, Perilous Myr, Meteorite, Viridian Longbow, Blazing Torch, Ninja’s Kunai. (One above the 8-11 band; the Longbow-on-Marvin engine is the repeatable backbone, the rest are one-shots used to clear blockers and threats.)
  • Mass / pseudo-wipe — 0: colorless commons offer no true board wipes. Compensated per rubric with the 12-piece interaction package + the repeatable Longbow-on-Marvin pinger engine, which mops small boards and grinds out value over time (inevitability).
  • Win conditions / beaters: Pardic Wanderer (), Ebony Rhino, Iron Giant, Shardless Outlander, Bottle Golems, plus flying bodies (Aesthir Glider, Anvilwrought Raptor, Searchlight Companion, News Helicopter, Thaumaturge’s Familiar, Cogwork Spy) and evasion equipment (Whispersilk Cloak, Cobbled Wings, Vorrac Battlehorns, Mechanical Glider, Cliffhaven Kitesail, Aeronaut’s Wings, Fleetfeather Sandals, Bladed Pinions) to push damage through.

Manabase / Fixing Note

Mono-colorless, so “fixing” is trivial — every source produces and that’s all the deck needs; the off-color utility lands (Survivors’ Encampment, Holdout Settlement) just tap for here, their color flexibility is irrelevant in a mono-C list. The base is 26 Wastes plus 10 utility lands that add value: Cloudpost / Glimmerpost are Locus ramp (each Locus taps for extra per other Locus you control, and Glimmerpost gains life on entry — they are not Urza/Tron lands), Ash Barrens / Terminal Moraine / Warped Landscape fetch and thin, Tocasia’s Dig Site surveils, Crystal Grotto scries, and Darksteel Citadel is an indestructible artifact land that also feeds artifact-matters lines. With 13 ramp sources on top of 36 lands the deck reliably hits its higher-cost beaters and its - activated abilities.

Pilot Notes

  • Prioritize landing a mana creature or rock early; Marvin wants a board to copy from before he’s worth deploying.
  • The Longbow line is your bread and butter: equip it to anything, then Marvin pings every turn. Hold it up as removal vs. small creatures and as reach vs. players.
  • Walking Atlas + Marvin = two land drops a turn; lean on it to ramp into the 6-7 drop beaters.
  • Suit up a flier (Aesthir Glider, Anvilwrought Raptor) or slap a wing equip on a fatty to close — the deck now has real evasion instead of relying on Whispersilk Cloak alone.
  • Don’t overcommit into open mana — you have no protection from wraths, so develop just enough to keep the engine going.
  • Clockwork Gnomes (via Marvin) is repeatable regeneration; keep mana up to save your key creatures.

Weaknesses

  • No board wipes. A go-wide opponent can outrace the deck before inevitability kicks in. Spot removal must be spent efficiently.
  • Marvin-dependent. Much of the ceiling lives on the commander; repeated removal on him slows the engine (though donors keep providing standalone value).
  • Top end is still mana-hungry. Most removal carries - activation costs, so the engine wants the extra ramp to keep firing — keep developing mana.
  • Artifact hate hits hard — most of the deck is artifacts, so a Vandalblast-style effect is backbreaking (rare at common, but real).

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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