So I am currently quite interested in Maralen of the mornsong she seems like a fun and unique kind of general with a lot of buildspace. I want to make a deck that works arounds the not being able to draw cards aspect. however, there are quite a few problems which her that make her clunky. I am looking for advice on how to make the deck smother and more reliable.
Pros:
- Very unique
- "players can't draw cards" f*cks over tons of decks.
- low cmc.
Cons:
- any one can tutor for an awnser for her because of her ability.
- is mono black.
- everyone gets to tutor
ways to fix this:
protect her via politics with dark deal to empty everybody's hand so as to have them depend on her tuttor to make plays.
maybe protect her with cards like darksteel plate that are harder to find an awnser for.
Maralen of the Mornsong was a commander I tried for quite a while, I like playing a silly DoomsdayHellcarver Demon combo, which I wouldn't recommend as it was more convoluted than functional. Unfortunately, Mararlen's biggest issue is the table wide tutors and the influence other player will perceive from letting you and their other enemies tutor anything (also when the red player plays Stranglehold you all cry).
That all being said the best way to protect Maralen would be to make the game hard to play for your opponents. Put thing likes Ob Nixilis, Unshackled within as a relatively fast method for winning (13 life loss on each opponents turn is pretty harsh). Also running continuous discard effects like Necrogen Mists and Bottomless Pit will prevent anyone from building up with your tutor, especially if you also use cards like Mindslicer, Head Games, and Monomania (and Dark Deal).
Costs maybe 20 bucks (Less if you already have some of the cards) You search for Boeseiju and Ad Naseam. You pick almost your entire deck, swamps have CMC of 0. With Culling the Weak, Dark ritual and Neverending torment, you can take a max of 8 damage) You play Culling the Weak and sac Marelen. Boseiju, The mana from Culling the Weak and one swamp to play Neverending Torment. Start exiling decks. (make sure that you do not drop a land before you drop ad nauseum if you do not have reliquary tower out. You NEED that card otherwise your hand is gone.
Step one: Get yourself a full suite of Jester's Cap effects.
Step two: No, I'm not kidding. Get those Sadistic Sacraments like, right now.
Step three: Why are you still not stuffing your deck with Cranial Extractions?
Step four: You think I wasn't serious when I said you need to get Lost Legacy?
Step five: Memoricide, Nightmare Incursion, Stain the Mind, yes, those too.
Step six: Direct each of those effects at target Red player. Make sure they don't pack Stranglehold.
Step seven: Proceed with boring combo win.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Step one: Get yourself a full suite of Jester's Cap effects.
Step two: No, I'm not kidding. Get those Sadistic Sacraments like, right now.
Step three: Why are you still not stuffing your deck with Cranial Extractions?
Step four: You think I wasn't serious when I said you need to get Lost Legacy?
Step five: Memoricide, Nightmare Incursion, Stain the Mind, yes, those too.
Step six: Direct each of those effects at target Red player. Make sure they don't pack Stranglehold.
Step seven: Proceed with boring combo win.
You should have left the S out of sadistic sacraments when tagging it as a card.
Costs maybe 20 bucks (Less if you already have some of the cards) You search for Boeseiju and Ad Naseam. You pick almost your entire deck, swamps have CMC of 0. With Culling the Weak, Dark ritual and Neverending torment, you can take a max of 8 damage) You play Culling the Weak and sac Marelen. Boseiju, The mana from Culling the Weak and one swamp to play Neverending Torment. Start exiling decks. (make sure that you do not drop a land before you drop ad nauseum if you do not have reliquary tower out. You NEED that card otherwise your hand is gone.
Sadly this deck only works once.
Make it easier, and just run Insanguinate, powered out by Skirge Familiar. Discard all your swamps to the familiar then use the mana to kill the table with insanguinate. Ad Naus is of course needed. Then never play it again, because its a glass cannon that is covered with neon lights and a loudspeaker shouting "KILL ME OR COUNTER MY ONE WINCON"
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I ran her in a deck trying to capitalize off of the "players can't draw cards" effect (last recorded decklist). It was a pretty sweet deck, but the opponents all quickly learned to spend early turns tutoring for removal to stop the possible dark deal/teferi's puzzle box/Ob Nixilis, Unshackled plays.
You can actually play in to this common kill-trend, because even if you spend your turn casting her, and the opponents skip their draw to search for removal, you are still bleeding them for 3, and lowering the amount of future removal they can tutor up.
There also wasn't much room for direct interaction to stop a combo player from trying to win the game from underneath you.
In multi-player, she is also a general that almost always survives combat when attacking an opponent to your direct left (sword of the animist being one of the best early-game tutors if she can survive!), even if they could easily chump+kill her, because typically people want to take advantage of her. So hatred and howl from beyond are fantastic surprise-kill cards.
I had considered a 1v1 brew with her, modifying my list to focus on one opponent. It would likely be very similar to the video, with a much lower curve and thoughtseize/hymn to tourach/mind twist/etc pushed in to help wreck asap.
In all my time playing edh, it is hard to find a commander that stands out. Ever since playing with her she has become one of my three favorite mono-black legends to run as a commander (the others being Kuon, Ogre Ascendant and the no-longer-legal Braids, Cabal Minion).
Costs maybe 20 bucks (Less if you already have some of the cards) You search for Boeseiju and Ad Naseam. You pick almost your entire deck, swamps have CMC of 0. With Culling the Weak, Dark ritual and Neverending torment, you can take a max of 8 damage) You play Culling the Weak and sac Marelen. Boseiju, The mana from Culling the Weak and one swamp to play Neverending Torment. Start exiling decks. (make sure that you do not drop a land before you drop ad nauseum if you do not have reliquary tower out. You NEED that card otherwise your hand is gone.
Sadly this deck only works once.
Make it easier, and just run Insanguinate, powered out by Skirge Familiar. Discard all your swamps to the familiar then use the mana to kill the table with insanguinate. Ad Naus is of course needed. Then never play it again, because its a glass cannon that is covered with neon lights and a loudspeaker shouting "KILL ME OR COUNTER MY ONE WINCON"
I have already heard of this build. however I don't really enjoy glass cannon combo decks very much since they make for rather boring gameplay. thanks for replying anyway though <3
Just a headsup, it's generally better to put your replies to everyone in one big post. The multi-quote button will help with that.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Pros:
- Very unique
- "players can't draw cards" f*cks over tons of decks.
- low cmc.
Cons:
- any one can tutor for an awnser for her because of her ability.
- is mono black.
- everyone gets to tutor
ways to fix this:
protect her via politics with dark deal to empty everybody's hand so as to have them depend on her tuttor to make plays.
maybe protect her with cards like darksteel plate that are harder to find an awnser for.
work around her "can't draw cards" clause with cards like necropotence, ad nauseamor moonlight bargain
Any advice you might have is more than welcome.
PS: I am currently laking a solid win con aswell
That all being said the best way to protect Maralen would be to make the game hard to play for your opponents. Put thing likes Ob Nixilis, Unshackled within as a relatively fast method for winning (13 life loss on each opponents turn is pretty harsh). Also running continuous discard effects like Necrogen Mists and Bottomless Pit will prevent anyone from building up with your tutor, especially if you also use cards like Mindslicer, Head Games, and Monomania (and Dark Deal).
As for wincon you may find that pretty hard, without board wide protection, things like Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and Blightsteel Colossus may be your best bet, because slower instant wins like Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond can be more easily countered by a quick naturalize tutor.
-Ad Nauseam
-Culling the Weak
-Dark Ritual (Aiming to get Merelen out turn 1 or 2)
-Reliquary Tower
-Boseiju, Who Shelters All
-Neverending Torment
-The rest are Swamps
Costs maybe 20 bucks (Less if you already have some of the cards) You search for Boeseiju and Ad Naseam. You pick almost your entire deck, swamps have CMC of 0. With Culling the Weak, Dark ritual and Neverending torment, you can take a max of 8 damage) You play Culling the Weak and sac Marelen. Boseiju, The mana from Culling the Weak and one swamp to play Neverending Torment. Start exiling decks. (make sure that you do not drop a land before you drop ad nauseum if you do not have reliquary tower out. You NEED that card otherwise your hand is gone.
Sadly this deck only works once.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Step two: No, I'm not kidding. Get those Sadistic Sacraments like, right now.
Step three: Why are you still not stuffing your deck with Cranial Extractions?
Step four: You think I wasn't serious when I said you need to get Lost Legacy?
Step five: Memoricide, Nightmare Incursion, Stain the Mind, yes, those too.
Step six: Direct each of those effects at target Red player. Make sure they don't pack Stranglehold.
Step seven: Proceed with boring combo win.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
You should have left the S out of sadistic sacraments when tagging it as a card.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Make it easier, and just run Insanguinate, powered out by Skirge Familiar. Discard all your swamps to the familiar then use the mana to kill the table with insanguinate. Ad Naus is of course needed. Then never play it again, because its a glass cannon that is covered with neon lights and a loudspeaker shouting "KILL ME OR COUNTER MY ONE WINCON"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
You can actually play in to this common kill-trend, because even if you spend your turn casting her, and the opponents skip their draw to search for removal, you are still bleeding them for 3, and lowering the amount of future removal they can tutor up.
There also wasn't much room for direct interaction to stop a combo player from trying to win the game from underneath you.
In multi-player, she is also a general that almost always survives combat when attacking an opponent to your direct left (sword of the animist being one of the best early-game tutors if she can survive!), even if they could easily chump+kill her, because typically people want to take advantage of her. So hatred and howl from beyond are fantastic surprise-kill cards.
I had considered a 1v1 brew with her, modifying my list to focus on one opponent. It would likely be very similar to the video, with a much lower curve and thoughtseize/hymn to tourach/mind twist/etc pushed in to help wreck asap.
In all my time playing edh, it is hard to find a commander that stands out. Ever since playing with her she has become one of my three favorite mono-black legends to run as a commander (the others being Kuon, Ogre Ascendant and the no-longer-legal Braids, Cabal Minion).
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
yep, many ways to abuse Maralen
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek