MTG Salvation

After seeing my friend play this deck, I just had to work with him on making it as good as possible. Being one of the more "underground" competitive decks, at least in my meta, and more often than not by the time someone realizes that you are combo'ing off its far too late. The main focus of this deck is to tutor/draw into Ad Nauseam and then proceed to draw your entire deck and then casting Sickening Dreams (surviving through the use of Glacial Chasm or Dark Sphere).

(Updated:2/12/13)



As always feel free to make suggestions, card price isnt an issue, im just looking to build the best deck possible.

The biggest issue, one this deck will have when facing a skilled player, or someone who has seen this deck in action will the fact you will never get to use her ability.

Your opponents will tutor for removal and just kill her. If I may make a suggestion for this deck. Ditch Maralen completely, and roll with a Black/Blue general. Stock it full of cheap tutors and all this other 0 casting stuff you got. Use Ad Nausem and draw it up. With enough tutors you should be able to pull this off on turn 3-6 and be minus the flaw Maralen brings.

I don't think its a matter of "shame" its more "spirit of EDH", If your only way of having fun is to win with something cheesy, with little or no interaction, play standard.

This does not look fun to me.

Comparing this to something like ISB's Jenara deck, that deck is fun, this one is just boring.

To each his own though...


..

@archdukeofevil
Fair, I will take a look and see if there are any generals worth running in U/B. The upside to Maralen of the Mornsong is that often people either A: Dont care that she is on the field, using her to tutor for their own cards or B: they dont have any spot removal in hand turn 2 or 3, which is when she would be cast. Most of the time however the deck can get there just as easy without her, relying on the 1 or 2 cost tutors available. The downside to this deck is that it can be very hit or miss and your opening hand can make or break you.

@trancer99
Its more of a "know your enemy" kind of thing that I am doing with these deck discussions. What I find interesting about EDH as a whole is how it has turned from "let me throw some cards together" to a very two sided format. On one hand you have people like me, who like long drawn out matches with lots of "Timmy" moves (see my Mayael deck). On the other hand I like building (but not necessarily playing) the best possible edh decks in the growing competitive format (which is huge and only growing bigger in my area). The name "no shame at all" which I use to describe this pseudo-series that I am doing is two fold. 1: It refers to the generals in which they feature. Cards such as Sharuum the Hegemon and Azusa, Lost but Seeking will immediately draw hate the moment they are revealed. 2: It refers to my EDH building style as a whole, meaning that price NEVER comes into consideration when I build a deck. This isnt because I am rich or anything, but my playgroup allows proxies and the most fun I have with EDH is building the best deck possible and I will not let a lack of Imperial Seal slow me down.

However I will fully admit that it is an idea of preference. Unfortunately EDH is no longer a strictly "casual" format with legitimate EDH tournaments being formed and more interest being drawn from the players with the "if im not winning im not having fun" mindset. 60% of my EDH joy comes from the "Timmy" moves that happen in a game (whether im doing it or im losing to it), but the other 40% comes from building the best decks possible and knowing how those "broken" decks work.

Come now, let's not be so harsh about Maralen.dec.

I for one have a Maralen deck myself on MTGO. True to what people are saying, it's not a competitive deck in the same sense that Zur, Sharuum, Arcum, etc. are competitive, because anyone who knows your game will always make better use of their free tutor before you do.

It does work pretty well as a trololol deck, though. People who haven't seen it before will get caught off-guard every time.

Taking a quick glance at your decklist, it's almost exactly the same as mine ('cept I don't even pack goodies like LED). The one thing I throw in that occasionally helps me is Dark Sphere--you can prevent half the self-damage from Sickening Dreams to kill your opponents while staying alive provided you have 21 health after Ad Nauseam-ing. Sometimes it's easier to pull off than the invulnerability from glacial chasm.

lookydat, you already got it.

Wouldn't this be strictly better as a Tendrils of Agony deck? Then you could drop the chasm, freeing up a land/spell slot, and not have to worry about counterspells stopping your wincon? (Only counter that will work will be Mindbreak Trap.

Quote from blackkithkin20

Wouldn't this be strictly better as a Tendrils of Agony deck? Then you could drop the chasm, freeing up a land/spell slot, and not have to worry about counterspells stopping your wincon? (Only counter that will work will be Mindbreak Trap.

I run Tendrils in my Maralen deck as a backup plan when both Exsanguinate and Sickening Dreams fail, or when I don't quite have the health to pull off a big enough Sickening Dreams.

Obviously, when you go off with Ad Nauseam, you need to win that very turn, because you've just drawn your deck. ANT (Ad Nauseam + Tendrils) works in Legacy because you have one opponent with 20 life, and storming to 10 isn't all that tough, especially when you're not dealing with singletons. It fails in EDH because you have multiple opponents with 40 life, and storming to >20 is pretty damn tough, especially with singletons.

Deck List Updated:

Removed:
Skirge Familiar

Added:
Thoughtseize

Going to try and run this list without Skirge Familiar. While it is meant to stabilize you mana wise, 90% ive seen it is when it deals the most damage to someone off of Ad Nauseam. Even when you reveal it off of Ad Nauseam your either going to win or loose by that point regardless. Im going to add Thoughtseize in the hopes of using it will not only decrease the potential damage you will take when you draw the deck but also have some utility to get ride of those pesky blue counter spells.

My buddy had a list similar to this planned and I convinced him to run u/b will dralnu Oona is more common but honestly this deck is not nearly as good as an ad naususm list with blue. The general of this deck is pretty bad everyone tutors before you so if they have played you before they get control even if they don't someone kills her with the tutor at least then she's a trade but she's probly early cast anyway. I really recomended using a traditional power artifact / other Brocken combos approach with actual good cards in aware that if you don't have expensive blue cards it's not as optimized but it's still leaps and bounds better than mono black. The only way mono black list like this ever worked were before they banned grisslebrand. I highly recomended just using dralnu and oona and tossing in every broken overplayed card legal from all the vintage decks using all the best cheapest combos and just ad naus for 15-35 cards and always win with mass tutors mama rocks storm package and multiple combos involving all relivant cards. You get a better control suite faster starts counter control cards and you can force your will (lolpun) on your opponents instead of playing a crappy linear deck and praying all Thier hands suck.

I wonder if you've seen this SCG article? Same basic principle. Perhaps there's some things there you haven't tried.

This is the deck I made my buddy 2 weeks ago it's much harder to pilot initially but it's won on turn 4-6 almost every game out of 20 ish games of him playing / me play testing in mtgo where I don't even get to pars its won or list by turn 6 every game but 1 with like a 80% win and that's only low because I played against him in paper and convinced people to team him. I highly recomended looking at this list Jivans and dr zoisbergs. Also google "Bryant's Brocken pile of cards" the list is old but I pulled most my ideals from his 2008 list playing now banned cards. Not that you can't play mono black but if you have no shame at all do it right good sir ( Sidenote the deck is easy as **** to pilot once you learn it but jntially you might make alot of mistakes it's not as brainless as draw whole deck win same way I did last game)

@Dechs Kaison
Thanks for the article link. Im looking through it right now and seeing a few good ideas.

@moxnix
Thanks for the deck list. While I still think that Maralen can still be good (ive seen it successfully piloted on many occasions) I will start testing and working with the list you provided.

Quote from JonnyRuriki

@Dechs Kaison
Thanks for the article link. Im looking through it right now and seeing a few good ideas.

Yeah, it's a solid decklist, you just have to ignore the strong "ban Ad Naus" bias.

@Jivanmukta
To be 100% honest, this deck often goes off so early that most dont have the mana for any reaction (outside of white). Another fact is that their isnt any sort of "shutdown" deck in the local meta (outside of the Teeg deck I just built). But really Maralen of the Mornsong is just a backup way of getting the combo. To be honest, this is really a Tier 1.5 deck (see my EDH Tier Explanation) but its ability to get their so fast so often means that it can easily get a turn 2 or 3 win (with or without Maralen of the Mornsong) and I considered it "worthy" for my "No Shame At All" series. I am currently taking a look through moxnix's and Jivanmukta's deck lists for U/B version of the deck but I still view this Maralen list as really good.

Just curious about how you beat stranglehold. If someone played this general vs me and passed the turn I would tutor stranglehold first. Do people just not play it anymore?

@Elvish Sniper
Not a lot of people play it anymore. However, the main way it gets around it is through sheer speed. Most decks that run this card can not go fast enough to counter and relevant tutors. For example my friend was piloting this deck and he won turn two. No one had any time to respond, nor the mana to do it.

Deck List Updated:
Added:
Candelabra of Tawnos
Cabal Coffers
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth