This is my Mayael the Anima deck. It is my oldest EDH deck and my pride and joy. I may turn this post into a primer at some point if there is sufficient interest.
Gameplan and General Rambling
Mayael is kind of what EDH is all about, playing giant dudes and wrecking people's faces with them. Conveniently, Mayael is really good at this, with her ability to cheat in a never-ending stream of ridiculous huge guys straight from your library. I personally prefer a very straightforward approach to this, with very little mucking about with tutors or card drawing or recursion. Basically, while everyone else is busy durdling around getting value out of their ETB guys or stocking their graveyards or whatever, I'm filling the table with huge dudes and wrecking faces. To facilitate this, I play a pretty high density of Big Dudes (which I will henceforth define as any creature with power 5 or greater) to reduce the chance that I wiff when I activate Mayael, because that's no good. The following table, which I have shamelessly stolen from Raikou Rider, breaks down the probability to see at least one Big Dude when you activate Mayael.
As you can see, you get into diminishing returns once you start getting above 27 or 28 Big Dudes, but to be honest, you really don't want to go below 25 or so. Anything less and you're going to be coming up empty a lot of the time. This is the biggest problem I see with a lot of Mayael lists. People cut down to like 20 fat guys, which is gonna have you spending 6 mana to do absolutely nothing a full 1/3rd of the time, which is [i]terrible[/i]. Sure, some topdeck manipulation will help you with that somewhat, but there's only so much Crystal Ball and Sensei's Divining Top can do when your base odds are that poor. Cut your tops and play more fatties, guys.
Card Selection
BIG DUDES Terastodon: He's huge and he takes care of any problem permanents your opponents might have (or just wrecks their manabases). Plus, giant elephant. Everything I could want in a card. Avenger of Zendikar: Army in a can. Because at the end of the day, you gotta kill a bunch of people. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight: Why yes I would like my own personal [c]Furnace of Rath[/i] strapped to a sweet 5/5 flying, first-striking body that also protects all my other guys. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Big, indestructible, annihilator, comes with a bonus Vindicate. Hard to go wrong with that. Darksteel Colossus: Sometimes you just need a huge dumb indestructible robot. Inferno Titan: I love this guy. He'll clear the board of problem little guys and then start taking 9+ point chunks out of life totals. Firebreathing is surprisingly good, especially if you have any mana-doublers online. Blazing Archon: Beats down and forces people to leave you alone. He's kinda pricy at 9 mana, but it's not like you're gonna be paying full price for him most of the time anyways. Bonus points for grabbing him and Avatar of Slaughter with Tooth and Nail. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: Mana doubler on a big fat body, so you can grab him with Mayael or Green Sun's Zenith, which is sweet. Honestly, I don't even care about the part where he takes away your opponent's mana. Vigor: Make all my guys not only immune to damage, but actually grow bigger when they get hurt? Yeah, I'll take that. Plus he lets you jury-rig Brightflame into a wacky huge Overrun that also gains you like 50 life. Sweet. Primeval Titan: He's big and gets you lands that you can use to play other big guys. I don't think he really needs a lot of explanation. Scourge of Kher Ridges: Big flying dragons that sweep away all the guys I don't want around seem good to me. Spearbreaker Behemoth: This guy is an all-star. I can't remember ever losing a game where I resolved him. Making all your guys indestructible at will lets you assemble a huge army with impunity and then murder everyone else while they look at the Wraths in their hands and cry. Avacyn, Angel of Hope: Like Spearbreaker Behemoth, but even bigger and better. Why choose one or the other, when you can have both? Godsire: This guys is brutal. He's huge and he makes his own equally huge Godsire babies every turn. Frikkin' ridiculous with Cream of the Crop[/i] or Warstorm Surge. Iona, Shield of Emeria: Oh hai, huge flying angels that lock my opponents out of the game. Mossbridge Troll: He's big and hard to kill, with the option to get Really Big. And you can use him to auto-win with Mayael's Aria, which is always funny. Sigarda, Host of Herons: Mmmm, impossible to remove angels that shut down Grave Pact and its ilk. Hamletback Goliath: I don't really like playing guys that don't do anything other then be big, but I will make an exception if they're Really Big, which this guy certainly gets. Elderscale Wurm: It's like Worship, if Worship was also a 7/7 with trample. Novablast Wurm: Play him with Avacyn or Spearbreaker Behemoth and laugh all the way to the bank. Or just play him and repeatedly sweep the table of everything but your 7/7 wurm. He's a little hard to make work, but when he gets online, it's worth it. Sun Titan: Recur your fetchlands and Dauntless Escorts and Eternal Witnesses and all the other little stuff you got blown up, all while you beat for 6 damage a turn. Baneslayer Angel: Super-efficient, super-good. Akroma, Angel of Wrath: Because people gotta die, and Akroma makes that happen. Avatar of Slaughter: If this guys sticks, he'll end the game in like 2 turns flat. Usually for you, because you have the biggest guys. Balefire Dragon: See Scourge of Kher Ridges, but even more one-sided. This guys is a beating. Stalking Vengeance: They wrath, they die. A+
OTHER DUDES Bloom Tender: Taps for 3 mana with Mayael in play, which is sweet. Plus, with Mana Reflection she activates Mayael all by herself. Dauntless Escort: Can never have to much sweeper insurance. Eternal Witness: I consider this an auto-include in any green EDH deck. Get back anything you want, and it's a permanent so you can get it with all the cards in this deck that care about that. Oracle of Mul Daya: Gets your lands out of where you don't want them (your hand and library) and into where you do want them (in play). Seedborn Muse: If you can make Seedborn Muse, she will win you the game. Activating Mayael on every players turn is just insane. If they're smart, people will kill it on sight, but the times they don't (or can't), you'll win every time.
Lurking Predators: What's better then huge dudes? Free huge dudes, obviously. Combo with Cream of the Crop for bonus hilarity. Defense of the Heart: Tutor up and cheat any two creatures into play for only 4 mana. Yeah, that's a winner. Oath of Druids: Sure, it's technically symmetrical, but let's not kid ourselves. Mayael's gonna come out ahead every time because she's got the most and the best creatures around. Mirari's Wake: Double your mana, pump your dudes. Amazing. Mana Reflection: More mana doubling. In a deck full of huge overcosted creatures, you want all the mana you can get. Stick this and just run away with the game. Mayael's Aria: C'mon, you can't play Mayael and not play her aria. Cream of the Crop: This card is bonkers card selection in this deck. Every guy you play lets you set up your topdeck in a way that Top dreams of. Play it with Lurking Predators, play it with Godsire, just play it. Greater Good: People are gonna want to kill your dudes, so you might as well have them grab you some fistfulls of cards on the way out. Where Ancients Tread: Yeah, I'll pay 5 mana to have all my guys take a huge chunk out of someone's face when they come into play. Warstorm Surge: Like Where Ancients Tread, but even better. Bonus points for getting both into play at the same time. Mayael into Godsire, 13 to the face. Aww yeah. Aura Shards: People are gonna play cards that are good. Grind those cards into dust beneath the plus-size boots of your angels and titans and wurms. Privileged Position: Keep people from getting up in your business and killing your stuff.
Rings of Brighthearth: Doubling up on Mayael activations is sweet. Also plays nicely with fetchlands and Godsire. Lightning Greaves: Haste good. Shroud also good. Sol Ring: Duh. Scroll Rack: Trade cards you don't want in your hand for new, better cards. That, and put Big Dudes from your hand on top of your library so you can have Mayael put them into play for you. Paying the full mana cost for your creatures is so overrated.
Cultivate: Ramp your mana. Kodama's Reach: I love that you can play 2 Cultivates in EDH. Skyshroud Claim: More ramp, plus you can grab shocklands. Disaster Radius: Mmmmm, one-sided sweeper. You're pretty much guaranteed to have a big guy in hand when you cast this. Brightflame: Big damage, somewhat targetable sweepers that gain you a huge pile of life are awesome. It's a little unwieldy, but amazing when you can cast it for a bunch. Austere Command: Mass removal, but only of what you want dead. Unbeatable. Green Sun's Zenith: I'm generally not huge on tutors, but I'll make an exception for ones that tutor straight into play and let me grab all my favorite guys. Tooth and Nail: Pay 9 mana, go grab the two dumbest things you can think of. Seedborn Muse and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Spearbreaker Behemoth and Novablast Wurm, and Avatar of Slaughter and Blazing Archon are some of my favorite pairs. Primal Surge: Even if you're not playing some wacky 99 permanant build, this will still vomit your deck onto the table pretty well. Genesis Wave: Drop a mana double, play this, and herp derp your way into a ridiculous board position.
Most of these just, you know, make mana, so I don't think I need to go through those. Krosan Verge: Fetchland that grabs two lands is sweet. Even sweeter to recur with Sun Titan. Winding Canyons: Flash in your dudes whenever you want if Mayael's dead or you've got more mana then you know what to do with. Kessig Wolf Run: Turns anything into a huge threat. Plus you can get major style points by killing someone with general damage from Mayael. Homeward Path: Mayaels' got a big target on her head when people go looking for stuff to steal. Play this and take your stuff back. Dryad Arbor: Let's you use Green Sun's Zenith as ramp. Also handy to sacrifice to random edict effects.
Sylvan Library is an enchantment that I've seen run to great effect in Mayael.
Yeah, I should probably get one and test it out sometime. It's just been a little pricey whenever I consider it.
Top is also excellent as it is yet another card to set up topdecking.
I'm honestly not that big a fan of Top in this deck. It only lets you see the top 3 cards of your deck and Mayael goes through your deck in 5 card chunks, so it won't let you see anything different with her. Also every time I play it, it feels like I spend forever faffing around with it and not actually doing anything. I'd rather have Cream of the Crop and Scroll Rack.
Considering you have Vigor and Gisela, have you thought about Damage based board wipes in case an opponent gets ahead of you?
Yeah, I used to run Starstorm when I had more sweepers in the deck, but I dropped it when I cut back on them. Still it's a sweet card and I may end up dropping Brightflame for it. But yeah, damage-based sweepers are amazing with Gisela and Vigor.
Private Mod Note
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"Never subtle nor cryptic is the reckoning of the mighty."
—Mayael the Anima
The thing with Top is you can combine it with fetch lands and such to get a reshuffle. Thus, if you don't have a fatty in the first three cards you can say "am I feeling lucky?" or you can increase your odds by shuffling. Scroll Rack is awesome too of course but Commander demands duplication of effects.
The problem with Mayeel is she's so fragile - I've had long games where I've only gotten to use her ability once.
The thing with Top is you can combine it with fetch lands and such to get a reshuffle. Thus, if you don't have a fatty in the first three cards you can say "am I feeling lucky?" or you can increase your odds by shuffling. Scroll Rack is awesome too of course but Commander demands duplication of effects.
The problem with Mayeel is she's so fragile - I've had long games where I've only gotten to use her ability once.
Right, but I don't really play that many fetch lands (2 currently, but I need to get a couple more), so I don't really have access to a reliable number of shuffle effects. Basically, there are a lot of cards that I would rather play then Top, and I don't have anything I'd want to cut for it.
Yeah, Mayael is fragile, but she excels at providing lots and lots of big scary alternative targets for people's spot removal. Worst case scenario, she dies and you just play all your awesome dudes. Spending only 6 mana for a Darksteel Colossus is nice, but most of the dudes in the deck don't really cost much more then 6 mana anyways.
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"Never subtle nor cryptic is the reckoning of the mighty."
—Mayael the Anima
...but I don't really play that many fetch lands (2 currently, but I need to get a couple more)....
I was also thinking of cards like Evolving Wild and Terramorphic Expanse, which are cheap. But if you don't want to that's fine there's more than one way to skin a wombat.
Yeah, I used to have both Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse in, but I ended up cutting them in a push to get rid of all the lands that came into play tapped. There are enough good mana fixing lands now, especially in allied colors that you don't really need to use comes-into-play-tapped lands if you don't want to. Unless you're on a budget, in which case go crazy. I find they're not really that bad, most of the time.
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"Never subtle nor cryptic is the reckoning of the mighty."
—Mayael the Anima
Do you feel that your three ramp spells have been enough on a regular basis?
If you wanna get nitpicky, it's more like 5 spells, since you should really count Bloom Tender and Sol Ring. Anyways, I've been reasonably happy with it so far. I probably could play more, but this deck doesn't really need a huge pile of lands to function. It really wants 6 mana (obviously), but anything over that is just icing on the cake, so to speak. I think playing a higher density of ramp spells is better if your game plan is to ramp up to like eldrazi and Tooth and Nail mana as fast as humanly possible, which is not really what this deck does.
Private Mod Note
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"Never subtle nor cryptic is the reckoning of the mighty."
—Mayael the Anima
If you wanna get nitpicky, it's more like 5 spells, since you should really count Bloom Tender and Sol Ring. Anyways, I've been reasonably happy with it so far. I probably could play more, but this deck doesn't really need a huge pile of lands to function. It really wants 6 mana (obviously), but anything over that is just icing on the cake, so to speak. I think playing a higher density of ramp spells is better if your game plan is to ramp up to like eldrazi and Tooth and Nail mana as fast as humanly possible, which is not really what this deck does.
Sol Ring, yes... we'll count that. Bloom Tender having to wait til the next turn (if it survives) to do anything? No, lol... we will not be counting that.
Anyways, I didn't mean to imply that you should dump a whole bunch of ramp into the deck, I meant that maybe it could use one more to help get that early game ramp spell.
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Amazing Avy & Sig by mchief111 @ Rising Studios [4/22/11]
With creatures like Krosan Tusker, Valley Rannet, and Eternal Dragon as solid land cycling plus the 3-5 spells I've found that it is sufficient ramping in Mayael.
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~EDH~ GRWMayael the AnimaGRW RGStonebrow, Krosan HeroRG URTibor & LumiaUR BWRGUKarona, False God "Allies"UGRWB UWLavinia of the Tenth (In progress)WU
Yeah, I should probably get one and test it out sometime. It's just been a little pricey whenever I consider it.
I'm honestly not that big a fan of Top in this deck. It only lets you see the top 3 cards of your deck and Mayael goes through your deck in 5 card chunks, so it won't let you see anything different with her. Also every time I play it, it feels like I spend forever faffing around with it and not actually doing anything. I'd rather have Cream of the Crop and Scroll Rack.
It doesn't really matter that Sylvan Library (or Top or Guile) doesn't let you look at more than the top 3 cards. What matters is that you make sure you're not drawing your fatties and they stay on top of your library for when you activate Mayael.
It doesn't really matter that Sylvan Library (or Top or Guile) doesn't let you look at more than the top 3 cards. What matters is that you make sure you're not drawing your fatties and they stay on top of your library for when you activate Mayael.
Yeah, I used to have both Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse in, but I ended up cutting them in a push to get rid of all the lands that came into play tapped. There are enough good mana fixing lands now, especially in allied colors that you don't really need to use comes-into-play-tapped lands if you don't want to. Unless you're on a budget, in which case go crazy. I find they're not really that bad, most of the time.
I follow pretty much the same philosophy.
I used Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse until I got Windswept Heath and Arid Mesa. I'm still using Naya Panorama until I get Wooded Foothills. I also used Grasslands and Mountain Valley for a while but I took them out so I would have fewer lands that etb tapped.
My Mayael deck has such a high mana curve that I'm usually ramping until I have about 6 mana, so every land I play that etb tapped slows me down a turn. And when you're not casting any threats until turn 4 or 5, being set back a turn by a land that etb tapped makes a big difference.
Out of 40 lands, I only have 4 lands that always etb tapped, Mosswort Bridge, Selesnya Sanctuary, Gruul Turf, and Boros Garrison. However, I do play with 6 other lands that could etb tabbed: Sunpetal Grove, Rootbound Crag, Clifftop Retreat, Temple Garden, Stomping Ground, and Sacred Foundry.
But first, the decklist:
1 Mayael the Anima
Creatures (31)
1 Terastodon
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Inferno Titan
1 Blazing Archon
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Vigor
1 Primeval Titan
1 Scourge of Kher Ridges
1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Godsire
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Mossbridge Troll
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Hamletback Goliath
1 Elderscale Wurm
1 Novablast Wurm
1 Sun Titan
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Avatar of Slaughter
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Stalking Vengeance
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Eternal Witness
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Lurking Predators
1 Defense of the Heart
1 Oath of Druids
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Mana Reflection
1 Mayael's Aria
1 Cream of the Crop
1 Greater Good
1 Where Ancients Tread
1 Warstorm Surge
1 Aura Shards
1 Privileged Position
1 Sylvan Library
Artifacts (4)
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sol Ring
1 Scroll Rack
Sorceries (10)
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Disaster Radius
1 Brightflame
1 Austere Command
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Primal Surge
1 Genesis Wave
Instants (3)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Beast Within
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Raging Ravine
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Windbrisk Heights
1 Arid Mesa
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Windswept Heath
1 Krosan Verge
1 Winding Canyons
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Homeward Path
1 Command Tower
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Dryad Arbor
5 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
Gameplan and General Rambling
Mayael is kind of what EDH is all about, playing giant dudes and wrecking people's faces with them. Conveniently, Mayael is really good at this, with her ability to cheat in a never-ending stream of ridiculous huge guys straight from your library. I personally prefer a very straightforward approach to this, with very little mucking about with tutors or card drawing or recursion. Basically, while everyone else is busy durdling around getting value out of their ETB guys or stocking their graveyards or whatever, I'm filling the table with huge dudes and wrecking faces. To facilitate this, I play a pretty high density of Big Dudes (which I will henceforth define as any creature with power 5 or greater) to reduce the chance that I wiff when I activate Mayael, because that's no good. The following table, which I have shamelessly stolen from Raikou Rider, breaks down the probability to see at least one Big Dude when you activate Mayael.
As you can see, you get into diminishing returns once you start getting above 27 or 28 Big Dudes, but to be honest, you really don't want to go below 25 or so. Anything less and you're going to be coming up empty a lot of the time. This is the biggest problem I see with a lot of Mayael lists. People cut down to like 20 fat guys, which is gonna have you spending 6 mana to do absolutely nothing a full 1/3rd of the time, which is [i]terrible[/i]. Sure, some topdeck manipulation will help you with that somewhat, but there's only so much Crystal Ball and Sensei's Divining Top can do when your base odds are that poor. Cut your tops and play more fatties, guys.
Card Selection
BIG DUDES
Terastodon: He's huge and he takes care of any problem permanents your opponents might have (or just wrecks their manabases). Plus, giant elephant. Everything I could want in a card.
Avenger of Zendikar: Army in a can. Because at the end of the day, you gotta kill a bunch of people.
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight: Why yes I would like my own personal [c]Furnace of Rath[/i] strapped to a sweet 5/5 flying, first-striking body that also protects all my other guys.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Big, indestructible, annihilator, comes with a bonus Vindicate. Hard to go wrong with that.
Darksteel Colossus: Sometimes you just need a huge dumb indestructible robot.
Inferno Titan: I love this guy. He'll clear the board of problem little guys and then start taking 9+ point chunks out of life totals. Firebreathing is surprisingly good, especially if you have any mana-doublers online.
Blazing Archon: Beats down and forces people to leave you alone. He's kinda pricy at 9 mana, but it's not like you're gonna be paying full price for him most of the time anyways. Bonus points for grabbing him and Avatar of Slaughter with Tooth and Nail.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: Mana doubler on a big fat body, so you can grab him with Mayael or Green Sun's Zenith, which is sweet. Honestly, I don't even care about the part where he takes away your opponent's mana.
Vigor: Make all my guys not only immune to damage, but actually grow bigger when they get hurt? Yeah, I'll take that. Plus he lets you jury-rig Brightflame into a wacky huge Overrun that also gains you like 50 life. Sweet.
Primeval Titan: He's big and gets you lands that you can use to play other big guys. I don't think he really needs a lot of explanation.
Scourge of Kher Ridges: Big flying dragons that sweep away all the guys I don't want around seem good to me.
Spearbreaker Behemoth: This guy is an all-star. I can't remember ever losing a game where I resolved him. Making all your guys indestructible at will lets you assemble a huge army with impunity and then murder everyone else while they look at the Wraths in their hands and cry.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope: Like Spearbreaker Behemoth, but even bigger and better. Why choose one or the other, when you can have both?
Godsire: This guys is brutal. He's huge and he makes his own equally huge Godsire babies every turn. Frikkin' ridiculous with Cream of the Crop[/i] or Warstorm Surge.
Iona, Shield of Emeria: Oh hai, huge flying angels that lock my opponents out of the game.
Mossbridge Troll: He's big and hard to kill, with the option to get Really Big. And you can use him to auto-win with Mayael's Aria, which is always funny.
Sigarda, Host of Herons: Mmmm, impossible to remove angels that shut down Grave Pact and its ilk.
Hamletback Goliath: I don't really like playing guys that don't do anything other then be big, but I will make an exception if they're Really Big, which this guy certainly gets.
Elderscale Wurm: It's like Worship, if Worship was also a 7/7 with trample.
Novablast Wurm: Play him with Avacyn or Spearbreaker Behemoth and laugh all the way to the bank. Or just play him and repeatedly sweep the table of everything but your 7/7 wurm. He's a little hard to make work, but when he gets online, it's worth it.
Sun Titan: Recur your fetchlands and Dauntless Escorts and Eternal Witnesses and all the other little stuff you got blown up, all while you beat for 6 damage a turn.
Baneslayer Angel: Super-efficient, super-good.
Akroma, Angel of Wrath: Because people gotta die, and Akroma makes that happen.
Avatar of Slaughter: If this guys sticks, he'll end the game in like 2 turns flat. Usually for you, because you have the biggest guys.
Balefire Dragon: See Scourge of Kher Ridges, but even more one-sided. This guys is a beating.
Stalking Vengeance: They wrath, they die. A+
OTHER DUDES
Bloom Tender: Taps for 3 mana with Mayael in play, which is sweet. Plus, with Mana Reflection she activates Mayael all by herself.
Dauntless Escort: Can never have to much sweeper insurance.
Eternal Witness: I consider this an auto-include in any green EDH deck. Get back anything you want, and it's a permanent so you can get it with all the cards in this deck that care about that.
Oracle of Mul Daya: Gets your lands out of where you don't want them (your hand and library) and into where you do want them (in play).
Seedborn Muse: If you can make Seedborn Muse, she will win you the game. Activating Mayael on every players turn is just insane. If they're smart, people will kill it on sight, but the times they don't (or can't), you'll win every time.
Lurking Predators: What's better then huge dudes? Free huge dudes, obviously. Combo with Cream of the Crop for bonus hilarity.
Defense of the Heart: Tutor up and cheat any two creatures into play for only 4 mana. Yeah, that's a winner.
Oath of Druids: Sure, it's technically symmetrical, but let's not kid ourselves. Mayael's gonna come out ahead every time because she's got the most and the best creatures around.
Mirari's Wake: Double your mana, pump your dudes. Amazing.
Mana Reflection: More mana doubling. In a deck full of huge overcosted creatures, you want all the mana you can get. Stick this and just run away with the game.
Mayael's Aria: C'mon, you can't play Mayael and not play her aria.
Cream of the Crop: This card is bonkers card selection in this deck. Every guy you play lets you set up your topdeck in a way that Top dreams of. Play it with Lurking Predators, play it with Godsire, just play it.
Greater Good: People are gonna want to kill your dudes, so you might as well have them grab you some fistfulls of cards on the way out.
Where Ancients Tread: Yeah, I'll pay 5 mana to have all my guys take a huge chunk out of someone's face when they come into play.
Warstorm Surge: Like Where Ancients Tread, but even better. Bonus points for getting both into play at the same time. Mayael into Godsire, 13 to the face. Aww yeah.
Aura Shards: People are gonna play cards that are good. Grind those cards into dust beneath the plus-size boots of your angels and titans and wurms.
Privileged Position: Keep people from getting up in your business and killing your stuff.
Rings of Brighthearth: Doubling up on Mayael activations is sweet. Also plays nicely with fetchlands and Godsire.
Lightning Greaves: Haste good. Shroud also good.
Sol Ring: Duh.
Scroll Rack: Trade cards you don't want in your hand for new, better cards. That, and put Big Dudes from your hand on top of your library so you can have Mayael put them into play for you. Paying the full mana cost for your creatures is so overrated.
Cultivate: Ramp your mana.
Kodama's Reach: I love that you can play 2 Cultivates in EDH.
Skyshroud Claim: More ramp, plus you can grab shocklands.
Disaster Radius: Mmmmm, one-sided sweeper. You're pretty much guaranteed to have a big guy in hand when you cast this.
Brightflame: Big damage, somewhat targetable sweepers that gain you a huge pile of life are awesome. It's a little unwieldy, but amazing when you can cast it for a bunch.
Austere Command: Mass removal, but only of what you want dead. Unbeatable.
Green Sun's Zenith: I'm generally not huge on tutors, but I'll make an exception for ones that tutor straight into play and let me grab all my favorite guys.
Tooth and Nail: Pay 9 mana, go grab the two dumbest things you can think of. Seedborn Muse and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Spearbreaker Behemoth and Novablast Wurm, and Avatar of Slaughter and Blazing Archon are some of my favorite pairs.
Primal Surge: Even if you're not playing some wacky 99 permanant build, this will still vomit your deck onto the table pretty well.
Genesis Wave: Drop a mana double, play this, and herp derp your way into a ridiculous board position.
Swords to Plowshares: Instant speed spot removal good.
Path to Exile: See above.
Beast Within: Instant speed Vindicate also good.
Most of these just, you know, make mana, so I don't think I need to go through those.
Krosan Verge: Fetchland that grabs two lands is sweet. Even sweeter to recur with Sun Titan.
Winding Canyons: Flash in your dudes whenever you want if Mayael's dead or you've got more mana then you know what to do with.
Kessig Wolf Run: Turns anything into a huge threat. Plus you can get major style points by killing someone with general damage from Mayael.
Homeward Path: Mayaels' got a big target on her head when people go looking for stuff to steal. Play this and take your stuff back.
Dryad Arbor: Let's you use Green Sun's Zenith as ramp. Also handy to sacrifice to random edict effects.
Changes
08/06/2012: Bloom Tender -> Sylvan Library
08/07/2012: Mountain -> Aria Mesa
Plains -> Karplusan Forest
—Mayael the Anima
Top is also excellent as it is yet another card to set up topdecking.
Considering you have Vigor and Gisela, have you thought about Damage based board wipes in case an opponent gets ahead of you?
Yeah, I should probably get one and test it out sometime. It's just been a little pricey whenever I consider it.
I'm honestly not that big a fan of Top in this deck. It only lets you see the top 3 cards of your deck and Mayael goes through your deck in 5 card chunks, so it won't let you see anything different with her. Also every time I play it, it feels like I spend forever faffing around with it and not actually doing anything. I'd rather have Cream of the Crop and Scroll Rack.
Yeah, I used to run Starstorm when I had more sweepers in the deck, but I dropped it when I cut back on them. Still it's a sweet card and I may end up dropping Brightflame for it. But yeah, damage-based sweepers are amazing with Gisela and Vigor.
—Mayael the Anima
The problem with Mayeel is she's so fragile - I've had long games where I've only gotten to use her ability once.
Right, but I don't really play that many fetch lands (2 currently, but I need to get a couple more), so I don't really have access to a reliable number of shuffle effects. Basically, there are a lot of cards that I would rather play then Top, and I don't have anything I'd want to cut for it.
Yeah, Mayael is fragile, but she excels at providing lots and lots of big scary alternative targets for people's spot removal. Worst case scenario, she dies and you just play all your awesome dudes. Spending only 6 mana for a Darksteel Colossus is nice, but most of the dudes in the deck don't really cost much more then 6 mana anyways.
—Mayael the Anima
I was also thinking of cards like Evolving Wild and Terramorphic Expanse, which are cheap. But if you don't want to that's fine there's more than one way to skin a wombat.
:symu::symr::symw::symb::symg: Dream Halls :symu::symr::symw::symb::symg:
:symu::symw: U/W/x Landstill (now Miracles) :symu::symw:
:symu::symu: Merfolk :symu::symu:
contact me!
—Mayael the Anima
They can be the difference between winning and losing, casting the removal or scooping the cards. As previously stated, the devil.
If you wanna get nitpicky, it's more like 5 spells, since you should really count Bloom Tender and Sol Ring. Anyways, I've been reasonably happy with it so far. I probably could play more, but this deck doesn't really need a huge pile of lands to function. It really wants 6 mana (obviously), but anything over that is just icing on the cake, so to speak. I think playing a higher density of ramp spells is better if your game plan is to ramp up to like eldrazi and Tooth and Nail mana as fast as humanly possible, which is not really what this deck does.
—Mayael the Anima
Sol Ring, yes... we'll count that. Bloom Tender having to wait til the next turn (if it survives) to do anything? No, lol... we will not be counting that.
Anyways, I didn't mean to imply that you should dump a whole bunch of ramp into the deck, I meant that maybe it could use one more to help get that early game ramp spell.
~EDH~
GRWMayael the AnimaGRW
RGStonebrow, Krosan HeroRG
URTibor & LumiaUR
BWRGUKarona, False God "Allies"UGRWB
UWLavinia of the Tenth (In progress)WU
A cheaper alternative to Sylvan Library is Mirri's Guile. I run both in my Mayael deck, as well as Scroll Rack.
It doesn't really matter that Sylvan Library (or Top or Guile) doesn't let you look at more than the top 3 cards. What matters is that you make sure you're not drawing your fatties and they stay on top of your library for when you activate Mayael.
They also work great with Lurking Predators.
Bruse Tarl & Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
Mayael the Anima
Oh man, I never thought of that somehow. I will have to get one of those two and test it out.
—Mayael the Anima
I follow pretty much the same philosophy.
I used Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse until I got Windswept Heath and Arid Mesa. I'm still using Naya Panorama until I get Wooded Foothills. I also used Grasslands and Mountain Valley for a while but I took them out so I would have fewer lands that etb tapped.
My Mayael deck has such a high mana curve that I'm usually ramping until I have about 6 mana, so every land I play that etb tapped slows me down a turn. And when you're not casting any threats until turn 4 or 5, being set back a turn by a land that etb tapped makes a big difference.
Out of 40 lands, I only have 4 lands that always etb tapped, Mosswort Bridge, Selesnya Sanctuary, Gruul Turf, and Boros Garrison. However, I do play with 6 other lands that could etb tabbed: Sunpetal Grove, Rootbound Crag, Clifftop Retreat, Temple Garden, Stomping Ground, and Sacred Foundry.
Bruse Tarl & Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
Mayael the Anima
I got my hands on a Sylvan Library, so that's going in. Bloom Tender comes out for it, cuz something's gotta. If I end up liking Sylvan Library, it'll probably stay and Bloom Tender and Oracle of Mul Daya can fight it out for a spot in the list.
—Mayael the Anima