Shalin is a planeswalker who wields red, green, and white magic. Her spellcasting primarily consists of summoning magic--rather than risk herself in combat, she calls on the help of great behemoths to fight on her behalf.
Shalin was raised in the Nayan Druidic Circle from a young age when she showed prowess alongside the Gargantuans, titanic beasts revered as forces of nature more than living creatures. As her prowess with the Gargantuans continued to manifest itself, she realized she could form a bond of friendship and trust with them, just like with any other beast of the jungle. She performed in many festivals and displays, impressing humans and elves alike with her talent.
About a week after the Conflux, she had taken her talent too far in the Circle's eyes. That afternoon, a trio of Valley Keepers saw Shalin on the back of a charging, catlike red Gargantuan, a web of vines keeping her aboard. The wardens immediately reported the incident to the Circle. Its members took a vote, and with a nearly unanimous decision, forced Shalin into exile from Naya. The Anima of Naya, Mayael, formed a planar link with Shalin after failing to convince the Circle that exiling her was a mistake. The link the summoner formed with the Anima ignited the Spark within her, and she now searches the Multiverse for a society of druids who are willing to accept her for what she is.
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1. Introduction
1.1. Deck History
1.2. Fundamentals
2. Decklist
2.1. My Decklist
2.2. Modifying the Deck
2.3. Budget and Alternative Decklists
3. Card Choices and Explanations
3.1. Lands
3.2. Fat Creatures
3.3. Mana Acceleration
3.4. Removal
3.5. Cheats
3.6. Other Utility
3.7. Why Isn't Card X in the Build?
4. Playing the Deck
4.1. Phase I: Mana Growth
4.2. Phase II: Threat Development
4.3. Phase III: Stompy Stompy
4.4. A Good Starting Seven
4.5. Sample Hands
4.6. How to Use Sensei's Divining Top
5. Potential Problems
5.1. Dealing with Removal
5.2. Dealing with Counterspells
5.3. Dealing with Pithing Needle/Arrest Variants
8. Other Playgroups
8.1. Cutthroat Playgroups
8.2. Newer or Low-Power Playgroups
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1. INTRODUCTION
Though there are lists for a more 1v1 oriented Mayael deck, this thread is designed with multiplayer in mind. I may touch on 1v1 sometime later, but the majority of the discussion will be for multiplayer matches.
1.1. Deck History
One day, when I was looking through my Standard binder, I found a handful of legendary creatures that knew would never see play in Constructed formats. The first one to catch my eye was Mayael the Anima. I did end up developing decks for Kresh the Bloodbraided and Sedris, the Traitor King, but Mayael was far and away the most powerful, and most fun, deck I had ever built for the format.
Mayael also satisfied the inner Timmy within me--the deck is all about accelerating into fat creatures. Even the most competitive player can still grin gleefully as he smashes face with enormous titans. 5/5, 6/6, 7/7, or bigger. Ever since I've started playing EDH I've kept the deck together in some form or another, and now that I have the ideal list, I am attempting to foil as much of the deck as possible.
1.2. Fundamentals: There are two similar approaches to Mayael, and the difference revolves around a single card: Contested Cliffs.
Those of you who played back when Onslaught block was in Standard know exactly how powerful this card is. A single Beast in play turns into a source of repeatable removal, and it doesn't even require the creature to tap, or even be untapped in the first place! While this card is powerful, it does restrict you on what fatties you can play. I'll go into this in more detail in deck construction, but keep this card in mind.
Whether you play with Contested Cliffs or not, the general idea is the same. The deck is designed so that Mayael flips over a 5-power creature every turn. When every threat you play is a must-answer threat, your opponents can be in big trouble if they let even one of your huge creatures through. Sadly, though, RGW is the worst three color combination when it comes to library manipulation. The best way to offset the lack of that is to play whatever manipulation cards the colors have access to, and just stuff tons of fatties into the deck. Some builds play almost as many fatties as they have lands. This is to offset RGW's ability to tutor like crazy.
One thing I will warn you beforehand, however: Mayael will be a lightning rod for removal of all kinds. Once she is on the table, your opponents will do everything in their power to remove her. This deck is extremely dangerous if Mayael stays on the table, and can quickly overwhelm your opponents.
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2. DECKLIST
2.1. My Decklist
Foil tags for keeping track of what I have foil in the deck. If you have any of this stuff I'm missing, let me know by PM.
If you wish to deviate from my list, this is the number one rule of thumb: Function for function. You almost always take out land for land, fat for fat, and utility for utility. You want to walk the fine line between maximizing threat density and having enough utility to be able to answer your opponents' threats.
When looking for fatties to put into the deck, don't be trapped into throwing in just the biggest things you can find. This is more a general rule of EDH, but look for value in your creatures. What Mayael essentially does is give random creatures from the top of your library flash and maybe makes them cheaper. No matter what the mana cost of your dudes, you're paying 3RGW for them. The above decklist was carefully crafted by selecting fatties that serve a dual purpose. Sure, the creatures themselves are huge, but every single one of them has a secondary effect that can be useful at some point or another. Whether it be an ETB effect, a "Deals combat damage to a player" effect, or even something as simple as cycling or mana flxing, all your fat guys should serve two purposes. Creatures die all the time. Make sure your guys do something as they come in, or if they have an effect upon hitting someone, the effect is really good.
As far as other slots, you'll want to have between five and ten mana accelerators in addition to Sol Ring. As I cover later in this article, the deck's major goal is to get to six mana, where it can start pumping out threats. More important to have than mana acceleration is a way to protect Mayael. You don't auto-tutor for Survival of the Fittest every time. In fact, I'd recommend tutoring for Lightning Greaves over SotF if you don't have a shroud outlet already.
Make sure you have other ways of cheating things out. Redundancy is another great thing to have in EDH. If Mayael is locked down, you can cheat guys in with Quicksilver Amulet, Elvish Piper, and such. If you're playing a heavy Beast theme, you can even consider Belbe's Portal.
2.3. Budget and Alternative Decklists:
Mayael is not a cheap deck to make right, but there are plenty of alternative fatties you can play and the deck will still be good. I'll post ideas for janky tribal decks, too, but for now, here's a budget list (~$200).
I tried to keep each individual card in the list under $5 to make trading or buying easier. Anything over $5 I feel is important to spend the money on. You can play a few more basic lands than me if you don't want to spend on cheap-ish duals, but you need to play enough dual lands for your mana to be consistent. Shocklands are non-negotiable in the manabase and are relatively cheap at the moment. Also, if you are going to spend a lot of money on one card for the deck, spend it on Scroll Rack. I know it's around $20, but that card is so incredibly broken with Mayael and smooths out your draws a ton. It's worth every penny.
You can go tribal with Mayael, too. Beast tribal is probably the best and most flavorful tribe to have her command, but Angel tribal works too. There are plenty of 5-power angels in Magic.
With Alpha duals, filter lands, Ravnica duals, Future Sight duals, bounce lands, and fetch lands, this deck is almost never color screwed. Hideaway lands let you dump fatties onto the table at instant speed. They generally become rattlesnake cards cause they are afraid of attacking into something huge such as Godsire.
Mosswort Bridge: Power 10 or greater is not hard to achieve; it's usually done with two fatties in play.
Spinerock Knoll: Remove this from the deck if you're playing in 1v1; otherwise it's great. You can get someone else to do your dirty work most of the time, but it's not that hard to achieve yourself.
Winding Canyons: Absolutely incredible; you don't have to choose between playing something or waiting for a Mayael activation. You never have to commit mana on your turn again.
Contested Cliffs: One of the reasons for running so many Beasts. Like I said in the introduction, this land is amazing.
Krosan Verge: It's a fetchland to reset the top of your deck, and it gets dual lands.
Yavimaya Hollow: If you can't give Mayael shroud, then regeneration works too.
3.2. Fat Creatures:
25 to 30 is a good number to play. 3RGW is a lot of mana to put into Mayael, and you don't want to spend it all for nothing. 25 fat creatures means we're looking at about a 21% "miss" rate for her, ignoring library manipulation.
Additionally, you can ignore the mana costs of your fat creatures. Realistically, every fat creature in this deck should cost either 3RGW or be cheated into play.
Scourge of Kher Ridges: urzassedatives suggested this in the original Mayael thread, and I am very pleased with how it's turned out. Once this bad boy is out, you can pretty much control everyone's creatures. It especially works well with all the regeneration in this deck.
Gruul Ragebeast: A Beast that fights. Be careful with it, though, as it can make it tough to cast Mayael--the fight is NOT optional.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope: Probably the most powerful defensive fatty in the deck. Pop this out in response to someone's wrath and watch the table cry.
Worldspine Wurm: Biggest fatty legal in EDH. Tramples, AND it leaves three bodies behind. Another really neat trick you can do with this guy is pitch him to Survival and fetch him again to get a shuffle for G.
Angel of Serenity: For a long time, I've been looking for a fatty with graveyard hate built in. This is it.
Spearbreaker Behemoth: This card elicits groans from many, many people in my playgroup. If you land this, your entire team is Wrath-proof until someone has a way to remove this beast from the game. Should be in the deck no matter what.
Yosei, the Morning Star: This deck has problems dealing with flying creatures, and any flying fatty is welcome. Additionally, it serves as a rattlesnake effect. Also this has potential political applications if one person is too far out of control.
Vagrant Plowbeasts: This is the reason I run global destruction that allows for regeneration.
Woodfall Primus: A fatty that blows up a noncreature permanent. Twice. Solves tricky things like Worship.
Nylea, God of the Hunt: I think she's very useful. A lot of our utility fatties don't have evasion, and this gives them evasion. She's a 5-power creature in the library, even if you don't have the devotion to keep her around.
Balefire Dragon: A one-sided Wrath in the air. Evasion is huge for this deck, and it's more removal. This deck gets massive value out of him.
Terastodon: With Emrakul banned, I don't have to pick between Primus and this guy.
Blazing Archon: For multiplayer only. Keeps the pressure of multiple opponents off once you establish a little board position.
Baneslayer Angel: The infamous angelic finisher in Standard past. Thankfully she's come down in price to the point where you don't have to spend an arm and a leg on one. Protection from Dragons is REALLY RELEVANT in this format.
Godsire: The mother of all Nayan beasts, this by itself is a 3-turn clock in EDH. Not even Ulamog can do that. Hope that no one in your group is playing Bribery.
Xenagos, God of Revels: I was a bit skeptical on his inclusion, but indestructible bodies are great to have, and that ability is really strong with how big our guys are.
Karametra, God of Harvests: Though it's true that we don't cast a ton of creature spells, she's still fine even if she fetches just a couple lands. See my notes on why Mana Reflection doesn't make the cut.
Archetype of Endurance: This thing is DUMB. Dumb dumb dumb. Avacyn + this is our new default turtle for TnN or Defense.
3.3. Mana Acceleration:
Because of the large number of expensive spells, it is vital that you are able to ramp into them. 3RGW isn't cheap, whether it's for Rith, Meglonoth, or simply a Mayael activation.
Sylvan Scrying: While not acceleration per say, it does find Contested Cliffs. If you need to use it to fix, find a bounce land unless there's a Strip Mine or Wasteland on the table.
Nature's Lore: Search for a Forest and put it into play untapped is pretty good. Finds dual lands too.
Reap and Sow: Fetches Contested Cliffs and answers Cradle.
Sol Ring: Staple in ANY EDH deck. It's banned in 1v1 for a reason. If in 1v1, play Basalt Monolith instead.
3.4. Removal:
Most of the removal in this deck is in the form of creatures. Sometimes, though, you have to reset the board.
Chaos Warp: A tuck spell that can answer anything. You can even use it on your own thing to try to spike a fatty if need be.
Day of Judgment: Like I said, allowing regeneration is best for this deck.
Austere Command: A Wrath that saves your fat guys and has other useful modes.
3.5. Cheats:
You have all these fat creatures, so naturally there should be some ways of cheating things into play.
Quicksilver Amulet: Again, thanks to urzassedatives for suggesting this one. This thing is completely dumb, and if you can land it, you'll never need to use Mayael again.
Lurking Predators: When I saw this card previewed, I thought, "This thing was MADE for Mayael." With all the library manipulation in this deck, you can practically ensure that you flip up a creature every time your one of your opponents casts a spell. Just put a Scroll Rack or Sensei's Divining Top activation on top of the trigger.
Chord of Calling: This can put any creature in your deck into play AT INSTANT SPEED. It's not really a "cheat" because you're still paying for it with a lot of mana, but it's worth noting cause it can tutor up anything and drop it into play with absolutely no warning whatsoever. This card also serves another purpose; it can grab Mayael if she's put into your library.
Defense of the Heart: The mother of all creature-cheating cards. Wait until an opponent has three creatures in play before dropping this, then cackle maniacally as you watch your opponents struggle to get their creature counts down. You can make your creatures nigh-invincible with certain combinations, such as Sigarda, Host of Herons + Avacyn, Angel of Hope. I could make an entire segment on awesome combinations to fetch with this card. Generally though, if you can resolve this card's ability, you should be in a very dominating position.
Elvish Piper: I said I wasn't a fan of it before, but with so many protection outlets, it's worth running again.
Greater Good:Greater Good is insane in this deck, turning every fatty on its way to the graveyard into card advantage.
Sensei's Divining Top, Worldly Tutor, Scroll Rack: This all falls under library manipulation to make it more likely that Mayael will flip up a 5-power creature. With Mayael active, Worldly Tutor effectively becomes "3RGGW: Search your library for a creature card and put that card onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library." Scroll Rack is particularly sick with Mayael. Not only can you put a fatty in your hand on top of your deck for her to flip up, but you can also get rid of some garbage cards for a brand new hand. Then when Mayael's ability resolves, she'll flush all the trash to the bottom of your library. Then you can do it again next turn if need be.
Rings of Brighthearth: For an extra 2, this allows Mayael to activate twice in one turn. This also has some funny interactions with other cards, such as fetchlands and Strip Mine. Go nuts.
Enlightened Tutor: Find Greater Good, Lightning Greaves, Survival...whatever you want.
Survival of the Fittest: Dump fat to find whatever you want. You can even get stuff out of the graveyard if you dump an Eldrazi, since the reshuffle trigger will resolve first.
3.7. Why isn't Card X in the Build?
Arena: It may seem like a good idea, but you have to remember that they get to choose what creature they throw in the arena. Also it doesn't tap for mana, so it takes up a utility spell slot instead.
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion: Suggested by Evilempire22 Not sold on this yet, but it's worth testing. It is a lot of mana to keep open for both Mayael and this.
Aegis Angel: Upgraded to Avacyn, who does the same thing to your entire board.
Iona, Shield of Emeria: Bribery on her hurts way too much to justify keeping her in the deck.
Mycoid Shepherd, Ravenous Baloth: If Mycoid Shepherd was a Beast or Baloth was a 5/4 they would definitely make the cut. They just don't do enough for the deck.
Razia, Boros Archangel: She's good, but outclassed by things like Baneslayer Angel. The ability to tap and redirect damage is nice, but there are just better creatures.
Woolly Thoctar: It's a very good card, but this deck isn't about three mana 5/4s. This deck is about playing the biggest things possible, and a vanilla 5/4 Beast isn't quite enough.
Oversoul of Dusk/Deus of Calamity: These were incredibly tough cuts for me to make, but the main thing keeping me from leaving them in the deck was that they aren't Beasts. If you're not running Contested Cliffs, I believe these are auto-includes.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: The new legend rule makes multiples of this card too much of a headache to play.
Autochthon Wurm: It's enormous and it has trample. If it was a Beast I'd include it in a heartbeat.
Arashi, the Sky Asunder: Suggested by Epic_Roflsauce This is very good if your playgroup has tons of flying creatures. It's strictly better than Squall Line in this deck. The problem involves it not being a Beast, and I like to have a few flying creatures in the deck. If only Conspiracy was within Mayael's colors...
Hateflayer: Again, not a Beast. The ability is nice, though.
Crucible of Worlds: While it's nice to be able to recur fetchlands, the ability to recur Strip Mine just makes everyone at the table want to kill you.
Fauna Shaman: Though she is another Survival engine, being a creature is a huge liability. She always felt really slow to me.
Sundering Titan: Not a good multiplayer card, it just makes everyone at the table want to kill you.
Paleoloth: Sure, it's a nice recursion engine, but it's just a 5/5 on its own. Not quite good enough.
Myojin of Life's Web: Bombtastic only when hardcast. Otherwise it's just a fatty with no evasion.
Hamletback Goliath/Serra Avatar: Sure, it gets freakin' HUGE, but it's kinda useless without trample. It's just a big dumb fatty. There's better out there.
Uril, the Miststalker: A 5/5 with supershroud is great, but it doesn't QUITE cut it. Very close to making it in the deck.
Angelic Arbiter: I tested her, and she's just not quite good enough.
Tornado Elemental: I really like this guy, but you have a lot of flying creatures yourself. It's a metagame decision, really.
Regal Force: I tried it in here and it just didn't do enough. Again, the lack of the Beast creature type hurts.
Genesis: There just aren't enough utility slots left in here.
Hunting Grounds: This is mainly a personal choice in that my deck has enough shroud outlets to rely on Mayael. If you choose to run less shroud outlets, absolutely play it.
Cream of the Crop: Sure, it sets up your next draw, but it basically forces you to use Mayael at your upkeep. Not what this deck wants to do.
Nostalgic Dreams: This was in the deck for a long time because it made keeping a hand full of fatties easier, but the new mulliganning rules make it a bit weaker. It's still a strong card, but Praetor's Counsel is so much more backbreaking.
Skullclamp: Broken in most creature decks, but not in this one. There really isn't a way to abuse it in this deck.
Umezawa's Jitte: I hate to admit it, but Jitte is kinda win more in here.
Oath of Druids: This card is incredibly risky and will backfire more often than not. Sure I've won games off, say, a turn 3 Avacyn or Vorinclex, but it's very easy to get screwed over by it.
Deep Reconnaissance: One of the problems I have with this card is the low number of basic lands in the deck. Flashback gives it anti-synergy with Hunting Grounds if you choose to run it, and I've had it in hand with all my basics in play more than I'd like.
Momentous Fall, Kavu Lair: If I want to draw cards, I'd rather tutor for Greater Good. Don't get me wrong, Momentous Fall is good. Just not good enough.
EldraziTitans: A bit too unfun for my tastes. The goal of EDH is to promote an interactive game for everyone, and making poor guy trying to make a comeback sacrifice four lands every turn is an awful feeling. Absolutely include them if you're playing in a more cutthroat group.
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4. PLAYING THE DECK
Mayael generally wins through the course of several phases of development.
4.1. PHASE I: Mana Growth
During the first few turns of the game, it is essential to accelerate your mana as quickly as possible. You are aiming to have Mayael active on turn 5, sometimes turn 4. Bloom Tender is your best accelerator. She lets you play Mayael and another 3-mana spell on turn 3, and sets up turn 4 Mayael activations.
Do NOT play anything that would draw attention toward yourself during this phase. Unless you're playing in a 1-on-1 game, do not play Quicksilver Amulet early. Wait until later in the game. People are generally indifferent about your shroud outlets; get those Boots of Haste out there.
4.2. PHASE II: Creature Development
Once you have Mayael active, always hold back 6 mana. Most players will not attack into open mana, for fear of losing creatures to a fatty the deck could put into play at instant speed. This allows you to put three or four big creatures into play. If the rest of the table conspires against you at this point, you may have to sweep the board. Cards like Austere Command are good because they get rid of small creatures while sparing your fatties. If you have to wipe out Mayael, it's no big deal; you probably have enough mana to just re-cast her at this point.
4.3. PHASE III: Stompy Stompy
Once you have 3 or 4 fat creatures in play, it's time to start swinging. Every creature you have in play is a must-answer threat, and your opponents will run out of answers or blockers eventually (assuming your creatures don't have trample.)
4.4. A Good Starting Seven
It can be tough deciding on an opening hand with this deck. After extensive amounts of playing with this deck, I have developed some criteria to make the decision easier.
1) Fatties in your opening hand aren't good. If you don't have a good starting hand, big creatures should be the first things to be put back. You want your fatties in your deck, not your hand.
2) Virtually any hand with three land and castable acceleration is keepable, since much of the acceleration in this deck also fixes.
4) Don't worry if you mulligan into a ton of lands. Early mana flood is perfectly fine with this deck, because you will always have threats to accelerate into in the form of Mayael activations.
5) Though you can draw lucrative hands with Greater Good, or some other ridiculous engine, do not get trapped into keeping a hand just for that. Again, early mana flood isn't a bad thing.
4.5. Sample Hands:
I'm going to present some sample hands, generated with my real (physical) deck. I'll be adding more to this later. Some of these hands are from previous iterations of the build, and cards in here may not be in the deck now.
We don't have any acceleration, but we do have Rings of Brighthearth to go with that fetchland. We can still activate on turn 5, and if all else fails, we have a Baneslayer. This may seem weird, but I'd actually keep this hand.
This hand may look bad, but it has a Top, all its colors, and a broken creature-cheating card. It may not be the best, but it's better than tossing Slayer and a land for a random card. Keep.
Mana is awkward, and we can't play a turn 2 Bloom Tender (Worldly Tutor.) I'd get rid of the Raptor and Chord to see if we can get something more useful.
Drew Path to Exile. Decent, but we're still quite slow. Better than five.
Yuuuuuck. Toss everything but Tender, the land, and Reflection. If we get a couple lands, we're golden.
Drew Tectonic Edge, Plains, and Steely Resolve. We still cannot play Mayael, but a red source makes this a god hand, and we have Mayael protection. Probably worth a try.
It's a start, but we need more land. Toss the fat back.
Drew Selesnya Sanctuary and Crucible of Worlds. Selesnya Sanctuary prevents us from going turn 3 Mayael Crucible, turn 4 activation, but this is still about as good of a 6 card hand as you can ask for.
We can get all our colors, and we have a pretty powerful cheating mechanism. And Sol Ring. Keep.
4.6. How to Use Sensei's Divining Top
One thing players new to EDH don't realize is just how good Sensei's Divining Top is. Some people even go by a rule that Top should be in every single deck. I'm not going to go into too many details on why Top is good in general--just why it's good in this deck and how to make the most use of it. I've been getting a lot of posts and PMs recently asking why Top is so good in this deck. The big argument against it is that it doesn't actually improve your odds of hitting on a Mayael activation. Though that is true, proper use of Top does improve your efficiency with her.
Let's say you have a Quicksilver Amulet and Mayael, but don't have enough mana to use both. Before you commit mana to either of those options, see what your top three cards are. If there's fat in them, it's typically better to activate Mayael. You'll be guaranteed fat, and there might be better options farther down. If there's no fat, there's about a 50/50 shot that there's some in the last two cards. In that case, you're better off using the Amulet.
The above is not a hard and fast rule by any means. By using Top before activating Mayael, you can either get rid of some garbage cards or avoid flushing a really strong card to the bottom. Depending on how important the card is, it may even be correct to not activate Mayael even if there's fat in the top 3. If the top of the deck is complete garbage (such as all land), it can also be correct to activate Mayael just to shove the land to the bottom. Generally you should only do this if you don't have better options, or the table doesn't see you as a threat currently. In most cases, it's best to play as defensively as possible.
Know all the different ways to shuffle your deck. Do not crack your fetchlands without a good reason. If you play landfall creatures, you already know the value of keeping fetchlands untapped. Even if you don't have a target to find with it, you still get to shuffle. Every time you shuffle your deck, you get to see three brand new cards with Top. It's not uncommon for me to go, "Top. Don't like any of them. Crack a fetchland. Top again. Still don't like them. Discard some random creature to Survival. Alright, NOW the top of my deck is good." In my build of Mayael, I have the following ways to shuffle. There are technically more, but they are far too expensive or swingy to count as a reshuffler (Tooth and Nail comes to mind.)
- 7 Fetchlands
- Pitching Worldspine Wurm or an Eldrazi to Survival
- 3 Tutors
- 5 Land Search spells
If you have mana left over after activating Mayael, use Top. You'll get to see three brand new cards, and you'll have a good direction for your next turn. When you arrange the top of your deck at end of turn, make sure to put the fat creature second from the top. This way you will draw the card you want and set up the top of your deck for an activation. Use Top often. If you have the mana to spare, Top every time a new card enters the top three positions in your deck. Contrary to popular belief, Top shouldn't slow down the game. 99% of the time, you should be able to make a decision within five seconds.
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5. POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
5.1. Dealing with Removal
Because the deck is so heavily reliant on Mayael, it really slows the efficiency and threat density of the deck down if she is removed. Because she is a cheap general, it's not a big deal if she's killed once. However, if it gets to the point where she's costing 6RGW, 8RGW, or more, you're better off just hardcasting your fatties rather than relying on Mayael. The same applies if Mayael is put into your deck.
The quickest way to deal with removal is to just give Mayael shroud as fast as possible. Frankly, you won't normally care if a fatty dies; she'll just replace it with another one.
5.2. Dealing with Counterspells
Smart blue players know what spells serve as the core of the deck. They will bounce Mayael then never let her resolve again. If they don't have a threat in play, just keep casting fatties; they will run out of counters eventually. If you play it, try to tutor up Spellbreaker Behemoth to make all your fatties uncounterable. Akroma, Angel of Fury is also extremely useful in such a situation.
5.3. Dealing with Pithing Needle and Arrest Variants
Because the deck depends on Mayael so much, Pithing Needle is a very effective card against it. There aren't a lot of ways for Mayael to destroy an artifact with the recommended build, but it has plenty of ways to tutor them up. If you can't tutor up a solve to Needle, just start hardcasting your creatures; you have plenty of mana to do it anyway.
For Arrest and friends, a decent solve is to just sacrifice Mayael to Greater Good or some other sacrifice outlet, then replay her. Quite simple really.
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6. POPULAR MULTIPLAYER GENERALS
Your mileage may vary, but these are popular generals played in my area, and how they're dealt with.
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade/Maga, Traitor to Mortals (MBC): Monoblack is a tough matchup just due to the massive amounts of spot removal they run. If you keep a low profile in the early game (don't run Mayael out there too early) you can sometimes keep under the radar long enough to get set up. In 1v1 though, monoblack wrecks Mayael hard. If you play against this deck a ton, consider putting more shroud outlets in.
Captain Sisay (toolbox): This can be a pain in the ass simply because the entire deck is a toolbox. Removal won't be an issue, so you should be able to get Mayael online fairly easily. The problems arise when you're trying to develop board position. In a way, the Sisay deck plays much like Mayael; it turns on around turn 4 or 5 and starts doing broken things at about the same time you do. The Sisay deck around here revolves around tutoring for Mangara of Corondor and a way to blink him every turn, making even the most dangerous fatties you play useless.
Rakdos the Defiler (voltron): Get a flying fatty out fast. With a single ritual this guy comes out on turn 4, and starts wrecking you right after that.
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf (elves): The discard isn't so bad. Even if they empty your hand quickly, you still have Mayael to go back to for card advantage. The only potential issue is the elf swarm, but any damage-based sweeper is normally a one-sided Wrath of God. If you don't have it, though, your life total will drop in a hurry.
Wort, the Raidmother (ramp): This deck will give you a ton of mana to play your fatties with, but they also give themselves a ton of mana to cast huge, damage-based sweepers like Molten Disaster, Starstorm, Savage Twister, &c. Because of all the mana doubling effects, hating out the general will not work. If you get a draw engine you usually beat them, but if you don't, this deck will kill everyone at the table with one massive Fireball.
Tolsimir Wolfblood, Rhys the Redeemed (GWx Tokens): Wrath, Wrath, Wrath. You need to keep their field clean--this deck craps out tokens so quickly that your army won't be able to keep up. They'll just replace any tokens you destroy by blocking. Even after a Wrath, they can rebuild so fast. The best card against this deck, by far, is Balefire Dragon--if they can't make flying tokens, they won't ever be able to assemble an army.
Sharuum the Hegemon (artifacts): You're faster than they are but they have more inevitability than you do, so make use of the normal game plan. If they start tutoring a bunch, see if you can convince the rest of the table to attack him, cause he probably grabbed the Traumatize/Open the Vaults combo that basically wins him the game...especially if said Traumatize dumps ROFLThopter into the 'yard.
Rafiq of the Many/Jenara, Asura of War (voltron): These decks are FAST. Again, don't draw attention if you're playing with a group, because both of them can kill with general damage on turn 5 or 6, maybe earlier. Most of Rafiq's exalted guys are small, so if you can plop down an early Wrath, that normally wipes the field and they run out of cards. Especially be careful if the game goes long and you see a Vanish into Memory or Soul's Majesty, as that refills their hand fully.
Doran, the Siege Tower/Teneb, the Harvester (rock): Rock is hard for this deck, as well. It's like Nath except they have fatty flying creatures--a huge problem for this deck.
Child of Alara (5cc): Spearbreaker Behemoth destroys the control aspect of the deck, and you're way faster than they are to get set up. IF HE CASTS CONFLUX, DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO KILL HIM. Most likely he tutored up some sort of crazy kill with all the mana he has at this point.
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7. ARCHENEMY
7.1. Overview
When playing the Archenemy, Mayael is much more difficult to protect. All the heroes have to do to defeat Mayael as archenemy is keep her off the board. This makes it particularly important to have a way to protect her. She loses the strength of being able to run and hide in the confusion of a FFA multiplayer game. When being ganged up on, Mayael has the following weaknesses to address:
1) Spot removal. I already explained this at length.
2) General lockout. Early Pithing Needle is pretty much game over unless you hit the right scheme.
3) Gas. Mayael is not meant to fend off multiple opponents all gunning for her at once. You can fend off maybe two before you start to run out of gas.
The following scheme deck addresses all of these issues while strengthening the deck to be able to withstand assaults from multiple players:
My Genius Knows No Bounds: More life to survive the onslaught is always nice, and late game you can refill your hand instantly with the amount of ramping you've done.
All Shall Smolder In My Wake: Removal for annoying noncreatures your deck can have issues with.
The Very Soil Shall Shake: Your guys can no longer be chump blocked. It won't last long, but generally all you need is for it to be active a turn or two.
Tooth, Claw, and Tail: Gets rid of nasty enchantments your deck normally has trouble dealing with.
Realms Befitting My Majesty: Ramping is a good thing. You need as much of it as you can.
I Know All, I See All: One of the best schemes in the list, as it lets you activate Mayael multiple times per turn cycle.
Introductions Are In Order: THE BEST SCHEME IN THE DECK. It's a free Quicksilver Amulet activation, or if you have nothing in your hand, tutor for a utility creature.
Look Skyward and Despair: Free 5-power dude that flies.
Every Last Vestige Shall Rot: It's a toss-up between this and Which of You Burns Brightest?, but I went with this cause I find the extra damage to the player is hardly ever relevant. Stripping someone of their general is a plus.
Your Fate Is Thrice Sealed: More mana ramp and card draw. I can't stress how much you need to be able to ramp.
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8. OTHER PLAYGROUPS
Before I go into specific suggestions, I'd like to present a great idea not only for this deck, but for EDH decks in general: carry two sideboards with you--one for cutthroat playgroups, and one for weaker playgroups. It will enhance not only your experience, but that of your opponents as well. This will make the games closer and allow everyone to have more fun.
8.1. Cutthroat Playgroups
Some groups insist on dirty fighting, and build decks with blatant disregard to flavor or fun. Personally I don't understand the fun in cutthroat EDH. We're talking things like prison locks, infinite combos, stax, recurrable/mass land destruction, etc. The "spirit of EDH" that Sheldon strives to carry with the format is about long, epic struggles that you'll remember for weeks or even months. Heck, I still remember coming back from Day of Judgment + Armageddon + Liliana Vess' ultimate, my only permanents being Scroll Rack and Defense of the Heart. I don't see the fun in playing a 10-minute, five-person game when someone goes from no board position to "I win".
Some groups just like doing the most broken things possible in the game. To do that, you'll need to set flavor aside and play the most powerful things available to you. Here are some suggestions:
Armageddon: Normally mass land destruction is frowned upon, but when you're sitting on a board of dangerous creatures, this can seal the game.
Krosan Grip: You're decreasing the threat density of your deck, but you absolutely have to be able to disrupt combos.
EldraziTitans: Too unfun for most groups, but you need the meanest threats in the game here.
8.2. Newer or Low-Power Playgroups
Then there's the opposite extreme. Your playgroup may consist primarily of newer players, or people who just haven't been playing the game long enough to have access to the best cards out there. In this case, you may want to go even further in leaving out some of the lesser offenders in the "dirty cards" category. Some suggestions on cards to leave out:
Leave your Eldrazi at home. These things are extremely hard for uneducated or budget players to answer. You pretty much need exiling spot removal, and a shrouded Eldrazi is almost impossible for even veterans to deal with.
Iona, Shield of Emeria: This card pretty much says "One person doesn't get to play Magic." It's really unfun for the table as a whole, because you tend to target the person that's the biggest threat to you.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: This guy doubles your mana and halves your opponents' mana, effectively letting them play only every other turn and putting you ridiculously far ahead. I've had a lot of lower-power tables scoop to this on the spot because no one had an answer in hand.
Survival of the Fittest: Replace this card with Fauna Shaman. The effects are the same, yes, but Survival is just on a completely different level of power.
As far as cards to replace these, or just retooling the deck for weaker groups in general, there are a lot of themes you can consider. Tribal themes are a great way to make the deck more fun to both play with and play against. Beasts are the easiest creatures to go tribal with, but there are enough angels to do it. There are 20 angels with power 5 or greater in Mayael's color identity, for instance. Be creative--don't just put the absolute best creatures in. You're trying to make Magic a fun experience for these newer players.
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Well, that about covers everything. If you guys have any suggestions, just let me know and I'll take them into consideration. However I have done an extensive amount of testing with this deck, so don't be surprised if I don't add your suggestion to the primer.
One thing I have in my Mayael deck that might be of interest is Eye of Ugin. I run more eldrazi, but The Big 3 that we both run are definitely the main draw here. Basically, it gives you a backup wincon. If the game goes long. you should be able to ramp enough that you can use the Eye to tutor and hardcast an eldrazi. It doesn't come up often, but I've definitely had games where my only out was to tutor up Emrakul for an extra turn to use the extra combat phase, or Ulamog to destroy the one permanent keeping me from winning. I generally find that the Eye isn't too problematic in the mana base, since there's more than enough fixing to offset a single land that doesn't provide mana. It can get absurd when you drop a Mana Reflection and tutor and play eldrazi in the same turn for several straight turns.
The problem with Eye of Ugin is you have to treat it like a utility spell instead of a land. I thought about it though, and Captain Sisay actually does the job better. We have enough legends to tutor for that she could serve that same function. She gets better if you throw legendary lands into your deck too.
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The problem with Captain Sisay is that she's a fragile 2/2 for 4 mana. The moment you drop her, people sense shenanigans and will probably kill it. Once she dies, I don't think there's any way to get her back.
Eye of Ugin, on the other hand, will just sit there doing nothing, and people will leave it alone because it's obviously not going to be a problem for a long time, given how mana-intensive it is. There's usually less LD than creature kill in the game, and peoples' Strip Mines tend to be going after things like Academy Ruins and Cabal Coffers anyway.
Obviously either card could work, this is just why I prefer the Eye.
Edit: As for it counting as a spell, I agree. I notice that we're both running the same amount of mana-producing lands, and I have the Eye as my 37th "land".
I would consider adding Congregation at Dawn to the deck. The trick with congregation and worldly tutor is you can grab huge overly costly creatures, put them on top and activate your general pulling them into play. Its nasty when you do this with like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as you can cheat him into play for 7 mana with the worldy tutor and your general at the end of your opponents turn. Its quite deadly.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
What about Sabertooth Nishoba? It's a 5/5 for 4GW that compares to the Oversoul of Dusk, except it trades pro-black and the Avatar type for trample and the Beast type (among others). Sure, it'll die to Doom Blades and the like as long as the day is, but at least it doesn't get chumped by an Elspeth token every turn.
The two Elspeths are a great thesis on women in general. When you first meet one, she costs a decent amount to attract, makes you stronger and gives you the feeling that you're flying. She also goes to great lengths to protect her loved ones from harm. After a while, she gets more expensive to maintain, gives birth like a sow, becomes less loyal after doing so, and tops it all off by wrecking crap around the house. Except hers, of course.
here's some things in my mayel deck that are not in your list and a little blurb about em. I don't to limit my creature base by structuring for contested cliffs so I'm not saying these are better choices, they are just different and very good in my particular deck.
stalking vengeance: please wrath. pretty please? hellkite charger: another attack phase. conquering manticore: correct me if I'm wrong, but swinging at someone with their general still counts as general damage, right? bogarden hellkite: flash, flying, 5 damage. it's perfect. invincible hymn: buy me time = I win game. firespout: token/utility creature sweep colfenor's urn: good by itself. insane with where ancients tread scroll rack: because sometimes I want it that betrays back on top of my library so mayel can get him. vedalken orrery: a better winding canyons insurrection: because it's hilarious maze of ith: sorry jenara, you're princess is in another castle. artifact mutation: everyone plays artifacts. killing one for 2 and geting tokens to boot is awesome. living hive: give this shroud and see if you don't win the game. awakening zone: I am very sold that this is the perfect card for a mayael deck. it's chump blockers for early game or when mayael gets removed. also, it's a sac outlet. if there's one thing that mayael decks hate, it's forced sacing. also bribery and creature stealing effects.
2 mana for artifact destruction is good anyway. you're looking to much at the bonus like that's the whole point. the whole point is I get to kill your artifact. then you get we'll say.. 5 tokens. tokens are great in this deck if you can pull off using cards that have a dual purpose like artifact mutation, living hive, awakening zone. they all benefit this deck beyond just generating tokens. having tokens means I don't have to sacrifice my fattie. it also deals with deathtouch and the case where you don't have the biggest fattie, which does happen from time to time.
what do you do against savra/tokens/attrition? die?
EDH:
Currently Piloting:
Dama, Sage of Stone | Karador, Ghost Chieftan | Sigarda, Host of Herons | Elbrus, the Binding Blade / Withengar Unbound | Grand Arbiter Augustin IV | Genju of the Realm | Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
I was looking on the dragonhighlander.net forums and I found an interesting gem: Magus of the Arena. It's 5 power with Arena strapped to it. Think it's worth running?
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I don't think BSA is good enough to be used in Mayael (BSA is tiny), Mossbridge Troll is like a bad Serra Avatar. I also cut all the card draw in my deck. You really just need to ramp and get Mayael going. Kavu Lair is cute, but you don't care much for drawing cards.
BHK has always been really underwhelming for me, and tusker was one of the first fatties to go since getting him in play is not impressive and if i would cycle him...well there is much better fixing to use.
I guess BHK depends on what other people are running. I've found that sometimes you just need to take down stuff like Lighthouse Chronologist or an annoying general. It's part of the worldly tutor package.
Getting a random 6/5 into play with tusker isnt a completely worthless and the cycling is pretty cute too.
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Shalin, Animalist Exile
Shalin is a planeswalker who wields red, green, and white magic. Her spellcasting primarily consists of summoning magic--rather than risk herself in combat, she calls on the help of great behemoths to fight on her behalf.
Shalin was raised in the Nayan Druidic Circle from a young age when she showed prowess alongside the Gargantuans, titanic beasts revered as forces of nature more than living creatures. As her prowess with the Gargantuans continued to manifest itself, she realized she could form a bond of friendship and trust with them, just like with any other beast of the jungle. She performed in many festivals and displays, impressing humans and elves alike with her talent.
About a week after the Conflux, she had taken her talent too far in the Circle's eyes. That afternoon, a trio of Valley Keepers saw Shalin on the back of a charging, catlike red Gargantuan, a web of vines keeping her aboard. The wardens immediately reported the incident to the Circle. Its members took a vote, and with a nearly unanimous decision, forced Shalin into exile from Naya. The Anima of Naya, Mayael, formed a planar link with Shalin after failing to convince the Circle that exiling her was a mistake. The link the summoner formed with the Anima ignited the Spark within her, and she now searches the Multiverse for a society of druids who are willing to accept her for what she is.
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1.1. Deck History
1.2. Fundamentals
2. Decklist
2.1. My Decklist
2.2. Modifying the Deck
2.3. Budget and Alternative Decklists
3. Card Choices and Explanations
3.1. Lands
3.2. Fat Creatures
3.3. Mana Acceleration
3.4. Removal
3.5. Cheats
3.6. Other Utility
3.7. Why Isn't Card X in the Build?
4. Playing the Deck
4.1. Phase I: Mana Growth
4.2. Phase II: Threat Development
4.3. Phase III: Stompy Stompy
4.4. A Good Starting Seven
4.5. Sample Hands
4.6. How to Use Sensei's Divining Top
5. Potential Problems
5.1. Dealing with Removal
5.2. Dealing with Counterspells
5.3. Dealing with Pithing Needle/Arrest Variants
6. Popular Multiplayer Generals
7. Archenemy
7.1. Overview
7.2. Decklist
7.3. Card Explanations
8. Other Playgroups
8.1. Cutthroat Playgroups
8.2. Newer or Low-Power Playgroups
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1. INTRODUCTION
Though there are lists for a more 1v1 oriented Mayael deck, this thread is designed with multiplayer in mind. I may touch on 1v1 sometime later, but the majority of the discussion will be for multiplayer matches.
1.1. Deck History
One day, when I was looking through my Standard binder, I found a handful of legendary creatures that knew would never see play in Constructed formats. The first one to catch my eye was Mayael the Anima. I did end up developing decks for Kresh the Bloodbraided and Sedris, the Traitor King, but Mayael was far and away the most powerful, and most fun, deck I had ever built for the format.
Mayael also satisfied the inner Timmy within me--the deck is all about accelerating into fat creatures. Even the most competitive player can still grin gleefully as he smashes face with enormous titans. 5/5, 6/6, 7/7, or bigger. Ever since I've started playing EDH I've kept the deck together in some form or another, and now that I have the ideal list, I am attempting to foil as much of the deck as possible.
1.2. Fundamentals: There are two similar approaches to Mayael, and the difference revolves around a single card: Contested Cliffs.
Those of you who played back when Onslaught block was in Standard know exactly how powerful this card is. A single Beast in play turns into a source of repeatable removal, and it doesn't even require the creature to tap, or even be untapped in the first place! While this card is powerful, it does restrict you on what fatties you can play. I'll go into this in more detail in deck construction, but keep this card in mind.
Whether you play with Contested Cliffs or not, the general idea is the same. The deck is designed so that Mayael flips over a 5-power creature every turn. When every threat you play is a must-answer threat, your opponents can be in big trouble if they let even one of your huge creatures through. Sadly, though, RGW is the worst three color combination when it comes to library manipulation. The best way to offset the lack of that is to play whatever manipulation cards the colors have access to, and just stuff tons of fatties into the deck. Some builds play almost as many fatties as they have lands. This is to offset RGW's ability to tutor like crazy.
One thing I will warn you beforehand, however: Mayael will be a lightning rod for removal of all kinds. Once she is on the table, your opponents will do everything in their power to remove her. This deck is extremely dangerous if Mayael stays on the table, and can quickly overwhelm your opponents.
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2. DECKLIST
2.1. My Decklist
Foil tags for keeping track of what I have foil in the deck. If you have any of this stuff I'm missing, let me know by PM.
2 Forest (foil)
1 Mountain (foil)
1 Madblind Mountain (foil)
1 Dryad Arbor (foil)
1 Plains (foil)
1 Mosswort Bridge (foil)
1 Spinerock Knoll (foil)
1 Windswept Heath (foil)
1 Wooded Foothills (foil)
1 Arid Mesa (foil)
1 Krosan Verge
1 Terramorphic Expanse (foil)
1 Temple Garden (foil)
1 Stomping Ground (foil)
1 Sacred Foundry (foil)
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Wooded Bastion (foil)
1 Fire-Lit Thicket (foil)
1 Rugged Prairie (foil)
1 Selesnya Sanctuary (foil)
1 Gruul Turf (foil)
1 Horizon Canopy (foil)
1 Grove of the Burnwillows (foil)
1 Command Tower (foil)
1 Cavern of Souls (foil)
1 Jungle Shrine (foil)
1 Contested Cliffs (foil)
1 Kessig Wolf Run (foil)
1 Naya Panorama (foil)
1 Reliquary Tower (foil)
1 Strip Mine (foil)
1 Tectonic Edge (foil)
1 Winding Canyons
1 Yavimaya Hollow (foil)
1 Angel of Serenity (foil)
1 Archetype of Endurance (foil)
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope (foil)
1 Avenger of Zendikar (foil)
1 Balefire Dragon (foil)
1 Blazing Archon (foil)
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (foil)
1 Godsire (foil)
1 Gruul Ragebeast (foil)
1 Heliod, God of the Sun (foil)
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon (foil)
1 Karametra, God of Harvests (foil)
1 Krosan Tusker (foil)
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt (foil)
1 Razia, Boros Archangel (foil)
1 Scourge of Kher Ridges (foil)
1 Scourge of the Throne (foil)
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons (foil)
1 Soul of Theros (foil)
1 Spearbreaker Behemoth (foil)
1 Spellbreaker Behemoth (foil)
1 Terastodon (foil)
1 Woodfall Primus (foil)
1 Worldspine Wurm (foil)
1 Xenagos, God of Revels (foil)
1 Yosei, the Morning Star (foil)
Ramp: 8
1 Bloom Tender (foil)
1 Cultivate (foil)
1 Farseek (foil)
1 Green Sun's Zenith (foil)
1 Mirari's Wake (foil)
1 Nature's Lore
1 Reap and Sow (foil)
1 Sol Ring (foil)
1 Chaos Warp (foil)
1 Krosan Grip (foil)
1 Path to Exile (foil)
1 Swords to Plowshares (foil)
1 Austere Command (foil)
1 Terminus (foil)
1 Ulvenwald Tracker (foil)
1 Wrath of God (foil)
Cheats: 6
1 Chord of Calling (foil)
1 Elvish Piper (foil)
1 Lurking Predators (foil)
1 Quicksilver Amulet (foil)
1 See the Unwritten (foil)
1 Tooth and Nail (foil)
Protection: 4
1 Privileged Position (foil)
1 Lightning Greaves (foil)
1 Steely Resolve (foil)
1 Swiftfoot Boots (foil)
Topdeck Manip: 5
1 Domri Rade (foil)
1 Greater Good (foil)
1 Scroll Rack (foil)
1 Sensei's Divining Top (foil)
1 Sylvan Library (foil)
The Rest: 5
1 Enlightened Tutor (foil)
1 Eternal Witness (foil)
1 Rings of Brighthearth (foil)
1 Seedborn Muse (foil)
1 Survival of the Fittest (foil)
2.2. Modifying the Deck
If you wish to deviate from my list, this is the number one rule of thumb: Function for function. You almost always take out land for land, fat for fat, and utility for utility. You want to walk the fine line between maximizing threat density and having enough utility to be able to answer your opponents' threats.
When looking for fatties to put into the deck, don't be trapped into throwing in just the biggest things you can find. This is more a general rule of EDH, but look for value in your creatures. What Mayael essentially does is give random creatures from the top of your library flash and maybe makes them cheaper. No matter what the mana cost of your dudes, you're paying 3RGW for them. The above decklist was carefully crafted by selecting fatties that serve a dual purpose. Sure, the creatures themselves are huge, but every single one of them has a secondary effect that can be useful at some point or another. Whether it be an ETB effect, a "Deals combat damage to a player" effect, or even something as simple as cycling or mana flxing, all your fat guys should serve two purposes. Creatures die all the time. Make sure your guys do something as they come in, or if they have an effect upon hitting someone, the effect is really good.
As far as other slots, you'll want to have between five and ten mana accelerators in addition to Sol Ring. As I cover later in this article, the deck's major goal is to get to six mana, where it can start pumping out threats. More important to have than mana acceleration is a way to protect Mayael. You don't auto-tutor for Survival of the Fittest every time. In fact, I'd recommend tutoring for Lightning Greaves over SotF if you don't have a shroud outlet already.
Make sure you have other ways of cheating things out. Redundancy is another great thing to have in EDH. If Mayael is locked down, you can cheat guys in with Quicksilver Amulet, Elvish Piper, and such. If you're playing a heavy Beast theme, you can even consider Belbe's Portal.
2.3. Budget and Alternative Decklists:
Mayael is not a cheap deck to make right, but there are plenty of alternative fatties you can play and the deck will still be good. I'll post ideas for janky tribal decks, too, but for now, here's a budget list (~$200).
1 Mayael the Anima - 1.00
Land: 37 - 51.09
1 Temple Garden - 9.30
1 Stomping Ground - 8.99
1 Sacred Foundry - 11.17
1 Krosan Verge - 0.45
1 Grasslands - 0.26
1 Mountain Valley - 0.42
1 Brushland - 2.12
1 Karplusan Forest - 2.24
1 Battlefield Forge - 5.50
1 Command Tower - 1.25
1 Jungle Shrine - 0.99
1 Blossoming Sands - 0.25
1 Rugged Highlands - 0.25
1 Wind-Scarred Crag - 0.25
1 Selesnya Sanctuary - 0.32
1 Gruul Turf - 0.29
1 Boros Garrison - 0.44
1 Arctic Flats - 0.83
1 Highland Weald - 0.52
1 Saltcrusted Steppe - 0.23
1 Fungal Reaches - 0.28
1 Terramorphic Expanse - 0.20
1 Contested Cliffs - 0.30
1 Strip Mine - 3.99
1 Ghost Quarter - 0.25
6 Forest - Free
2 Mountain - Free
4 Plains - Free
Fat: 28 - 38.28
1 Aegis Angel - 0.90
1 Angelic Arbiter - 0.95
1 Archetype of Endurance - 0.23
1 Avacyn, Guardian Angel - 0.66
1 Balefire Dragon - 4.99
1 Blazing Archon - 1.49
1 Bogardan Hellkite - 1.89
1 Giant Adephage - 1.18
1 Greater Gargadon - 1.22
1 Gruul Ragebeast - 0.25
1 Hellkite Tyrant - 1.25
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon - 0.32
1 Krosan Tusker - 0.16
1 Moldgraf Monstrosity - 0.26
1 Razia, Boros Archangel - 1.77
1 Scourge of Kher Ridges - 3.40
1 Scourge of the Throne - 5.03
1 Skarrg Goliath - 0.25
1 Spearbreaker Behemoth - 1.57
1 Spellbreaker Behemoth - 0.30
1 Stalking Vengeance - 0.32
1 Terastodon - 0.40
1 Utvara Hellkite - 2.00
1 Vagrant Plowbeasts - 0.17
1 Vengeful Archon - 0.32
1 Verdant Force - 0.61
1 Woodfall Primus - 3.33
1 Worldspine Wurm - 3.06
1 Cultivate - 1.09
1 Farseek - 0.23
1 Into the North - 0.16
1 Mirari's Wake - 7.00
1 Nature's Lore - 1.79
1 Reap and Sow - 0.20
1 Skyshroud Claim - 1.36
1 Sol Ring - 3.89
Removal: 7 - 13.64
1 Oblation - 0.99
1 Krosan Grip - 0.57
1 Where Ancients Tread - 0.28
1 Austere Command - 6.64
1 Brightflame - 0.46
1 Day of Judgment - 1.42
1 Terminus - 3.28
Cheats: 5 - 20.89
1 Call of the Wild - 0.37
1 Dramatic Entrance - 0.67
1 Lurking Predators - 3.88
1 Oath of Druids - 5.41
1 Quicksilver Amulet - 6.61
1 See the Unwritten - 3.95
Protection: 3 - 8.49
1 Lightning Greaves - 5.53
1 Steely Resolve - 2.48
1 Swiftfoot Boots - 0.48
Topdeck Manip: 6 - 38.54
1 Momentous Fall - 0.85
1 Life's Legacy - 0.79
1 Cream of the Crop - 0.87
1 Mirri's Guile - 12.06
1 Scroll Rack - 18.53
1 Worldly Tutor - 5.44
1 Eternal Witness - 2.45
1 Illusionist's Bracers - 0.40
1 Awakening - 0.75
1 Fauna Shaman - 7.34
1 True Conviction - 2.26
I tried to keep each individual card in the list under $5 to make trading or buying easier. Anything over $5 I feel is important to spend the money on. You can play a few more basic lands than me if you don't want to spend on cheap-ish duals, but you need to play enough dual lands for your mana to be consistent. Shocklands are non-negotiable in the manabase and are relatively cheap at the moment. Also, if you are going to spend a lot of money on one card for the deck, spend it on Scroll Rack. I know it's around $20, but that card is so incredibly broken with Mayael and smooths out your draws a ton. It's worth every penny.
You can go tribal with Mayael, too. Beast tribal is probably the best and most flavorful tribe to have her command, but Angel tribal works too. There are plenty of 5-power angels in Magic.
1 Mayael the Anima
Land: 38
3 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid Mesa
1 Krosan Verge
1 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Gruul Turf
1 Command Tower
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Contested Cliffs
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mutavault
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Strip Mine
1 Winding Canyons
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Driting Meadow
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Slippery Karst
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Bull Cerodon
1 Chancellor of the Tangle
1 Cliffrunner Behemoth
1 Garruk's Horde
1 Godsire
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Gruul Ragebeast
1 Krosan Cloudscraper
1 Krosan Groundshaker
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Meglonoth
1 Paleoloth
1 Rakeclaw Gargantuan
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Rhox
1 Sabertooth Nishoba
1 Skarrg Goliath
1 Skyshroud War Beast
1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
1 Spellbreaker Behemoth
1 Thragtusk
1 Vagrant Plowbeasts
1 Valley Rannet
1 Woolly Thoctar
Non-Beast Fat: 1
1 Terastodon
Non-Fat Beasts: 9
1 Beast Attack
1 Feral Hydra
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Garruk's Packleader
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Krosan Warchief
1 Mold Shambler
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Crop Rotation
1 Farseek
1 Sol Ring
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Urza's Incubator
Removal: 5
1 Austere Command
1 Savage Twister
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Terminus
1 Where Ancients Tread
Protection: 3
1 Asceticism
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Swiftfoot Boots
Cheats: 3
1 Descendants' Path
1 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Tooth and Nail
Others: 11
1 AEther Charge
1 Beast Within
1 Chord of Calling
1 Enlightned Tutor
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Life from the Loam
1 Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
1 Scroll Rack
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Wirewood Savage
1 Worldly Tutor
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3. CARD CHOICES AND EXPLANATIONS:
3.1. Lands:
With Alpha duals, filter lands, Ravnica duals, Future Sight duals, bounce lands, and fetch lands, this deck is almost never color screwed. Hideaway lands let you dump fatties onto the table at instant speed. They generally become rattlesnake cards cause they are afraid of attacking into something huge such as Godsire.
Mosswort Bridge: Power 10 or greater is not hard to achieve; it's usually done with two fatties in play.
Spinerock Knoll: Remove this from the deck if you're playing in 1v1; otherwise it's great. You can get someone else to do your dirty work most of the time, but it's not that hard to achieve yourself.
Winding Canyons: Absolutely incredible; you don't have to choose between playing something or waiting for a Mayael activation. You never have to commit mana on your turn again.
Strip Mine, Wasteland: We need a little LD to get rid of nasty lands like Kor Haven.
Contested Cliffs: One of the reasons for running so many Beasts. Like I said in the introduction, this land is amazing.
Krosan Verge: It's a fetchland to reset the top of your deck, and it gets dual lands.
Yavimaya Hollow: If you can't give Mayael shroud, then regeneration works too.
3.2. Fat Creatures:
25 to 30 is a good number to play. 3RGW is a lot of mana to put into Mayael, and you don't want to spend it all for nothing. 25 fat creatures means we're looking at about a 21% "miss" rate for her, ignoring library manipulation.
Additionally, you can ignore the mana costs of your fat creatures. Realistically, every fat creature in this deck should cost either 3RGW or be cheated into play.
Scourge of Kher Ridges: urzassedatives suggested this in the original Mayael thread, and I am very pleased with how it's turned out. Once this bad boy is out, you can pretty much control everyone's creatures. It especially works well with all the regeneration in this deck.
Gruul Ragebeast: A Beast that fights. Be careful with it, though, as it can make it tough to cast Mayael--the fight is NOT optional.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope: Probably the most powerful defensive fatty in the deck. Pop this out in response to someone's wrath and watch the table cry.
Worldspine Wurm: Biggest fatty legal in EDH. Tramples, AND it leaves three bodies behind. Another really neat trick you can do with this guy is pitch him to Survival and fetch him again to get a shuffle for G.
Angel of Serenity: For a long time, I've been looking for a fatty with graveyard hate built in. This is it.
Spearbreaker Behemoth: This card elicits groans from many, many people in my playgroup. If you land this, your entire team is Wrath-proof until someone has a way to remove this beast from the game. Should be in the deck no matter what.
Yosei, the Morning Star: This deck has problems dealing with flying creatures, and any flying fatty is welcome. Additionally, it serves as a rattlesnake effect. Also this has potential political applications if one person is too far out of control.
Angel of Serenity: Just stupid good.
Krosan Tusker: This could fall under mana fixing as well. If this is in your hand, you cycle it. Otherwise it's just a Mayael target.
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight: The good half of Furnace of Rath and the good half of Ghosts of the Innocent. Awesome angel.
Stalking Vengeance: He says "Don't Wrath", and can actually kill someone if you have a big enough board.
Sigarda, Host of Herons: Hexproof flying angel that stops edicts cold.
Vagrant Plowbeasts: This is the reason I run global destruction that allows for regeneration.
Woodfall Primus: A fatty that blows up a noncreature permanent. Twice. Solves tricky things like Worship.
Nylea, God of the Hunt: I think she's very useful. A lot of our utility fatties don't have evasion, and this gives them evasion. She's a 5-power creature in the library, even if you don't have the devotion to keep her around.
Balefire Dragon: A one-sided Wrath in the air. Evasion is huge for this deck, and it's more removal. This deck gets massive value out of him.
Terastodon: With Emrakul banned, I don't have to pick between Primus and this guy.
Blazing Archon: For multiplayer only. Keeps the pressure of multiple opponents off once you establish a little board position.
Baneslayer Angel: The infamous angelic finisher in Standard past. Thankfully she's come down in price to the point where you don't have to spend an arm and a leg on one. Protection from Dragons is REALLY RELEVANT in this format.
Godsire: The mother of all Nayan beasts, this by itself is a 3-turn clock in EDH. Not even Ulamog can do that. Hope that no one in your group is playing Bribery.
Xenagos, God of Revels: I was a bit skeptical on his inclusion, but indestructible bodies are great to have, and that ability is really strong with how big our guys are.
Karametra, God of Harvests: Though it's true that we don't cast a ton of creature spells, she's still fine even if she fetches just a couple lands. See my notes on why Mana Reflection doesn't make the cut.
Archetype of Endurance: This thing is DUMB. Dumb dumb dumb. Avacyn + this is our new default turtle for TnN or Defense.
3.3. Mana Acceleration:
Because of the large number of expensive spells, it is vital that you are able to ramp into them. 3RGW isn't cheap, whether it's for Rith, Meglonoth, or simply a Mayael activation.
Sylvan Scrying: While not acceleration per say, it does find Contested Cliffs. If you need to use it to fix, find a bounce land unless there's a Strip Mine or Wasteland on the table.
Bloom Tender: Should always tap for 3 mana.
Nature's Lore: Search for a Forest and put it into play untapped is pretty good. Finds dual lands too.
Reap and Sow: Fetches Contested Cliffs and answers Cradle.
Sol Ring: Staple in ANY EDH deck. It's banned in 1v1 for a reason. If in 1v1, play Basalt Monolith instead.
3.4. Removal:
Most of the removal in this deck is in the form of creatures. Sometimes, though, you have to reset the board.
Chaos Warp: A tuck spell that can answer anything. You can even use it on your own thing to try to spike a fatty if need be.
Day of Judgment: Like I said, allowing regeneration is best for this deck.
Austere Command: A Wrath that saves your fat guys and has other useful modes.
3.5. Cheats:
You have all these fat creatures, so naturally there should be some ways of cheating things into play.
Quicksilver Amulet: Again, thanks to urzassedatives for suggesting this one. This thing is completely dumb, and if you can land it, you'll never need to use Mayael again.
Lurking Predators: When I saw this card previewed, I thought, "This thing was MADE for Mayael." With all the library manipulation in this deck, you can practically ensure that you flip up a creature every time your one of your opponents casts a spell. Just put a Scroll Rack or Sensei's Divining Top activation on top of the trigger.
Chord of Calling: This can put any creature in your deck into play AT INSTANT SPEED. It's not really a "cheat" because you're still paying for it with a lot of mana, but it's worth noting cause it can tutor up anything and drop it into play with absolutely no warning whatsoever. This card also serves another purpose; it can grab Mayael if she's put into your library.
Defense of the Heart: The mother of all creature-cheating cards. Wait until an opponent has three creatures in play before dropping this, then cackle maniacally as you watch your opponents struggle to get their creature counts down. You can make your creatures nigh-invincible with certain combinations, such as Sigarda, Host of Herons + Avacyn, Angel of Hope. I could make an entire segment on awesome combinations to fetch with this card. Generally though, if you can resolve this card's ability, you should be in a very dominating position.
Elvish Piper: I said I wasn't a fan of it before, but with so many protection outlets, it's worth running again.
Tooth and Nail: See Defense of the Heart.
3.6. Other Utility:
These cards are sorted by purpose, and all serve important roles despite being lumped up into one category.
Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Steely Resolve, Privileged Position, Asceticism: Because Mayael has such an enormous target on her poor head, it is imperative that you give her shroud as quickly as possible.
Eternal Witness: Should be self-explanatory.
Greater Good:Greater Good is insane in this deck, turning every fatty on its way to the graveyard into card advantage.
Sensei's Divining Top, Worldly Tutor, Scroll Rack: This all falls under library manipulation to make it more likely that Mayael will flip up a 5-power creature. With Mayael active, Worldly Tutor effectively becomes "3RGGW: Search your library for a creature card and put that card onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library." Scroll Rack is particularly sick with Mayael. Not only can you put a fatty in your hand on top of your deck for her to flip up, but you can also get rid of some garbage cards for a brand new hand. Then when Mayael's ability resolves, she'll flush all the trash to the bottom of your library. Then you can do it again next turn if need be.
Rings of Brighthearth: For an extra 2, this allows Mayael to activate twice in one turn. This also has some funny interactions with other cards, such as fetchlands and Strip Mine. Go nuts.
Enlightened Tutor: Find Greater Good, Lightning Greaves, Survival...whatever you want.
Survival of the Fittest: Dump fat to find whatever you want. You can even get stuff out of the graveyard if you dump an Eldrazi, since the reshuffle trigger will resolve first.
3.7. Why isn't Card X in the Build?
Arena: It may seem like a good idea, but you have to remember that they get to choose what creature they throw in the arena. Also it doesn't tap for mana, so it takes up a utility spell slot instead.
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion: Suggested by Evilempire22 Not sold on this yet, but it's worth testing. It is a lot of mana to keep open for both Mayael and this.
Spellbreaker Behemoth: This is more of a sideboard card in blue-heavy environments.
Akroma, Angel of Fury: Not quite powerful enough for a general build, but you can consider her in a blue-heavy meta.
Giant Adephage: A little too cute, I think.
Windbrisk Raptor: Since upgraded to some really strong angels.
Aegis Angel: Upgraded to Avacyn, who does the same thing to your entire board.
Iona, Shield of Emeria: Bribery on her hurts way too much to justify keeping her in the deck.
Mycoid Shepherd, Ravenous Baloth: If Mycoid Shepherd was a Beast or Baloth was a 5/4 they would definitely make the cut. They just don't do enough for the deck.
Razia, Boros Archangel: She's good, but outclassed by things like Baneslayer Angel. The ability to tap and redirect damage is nice, but there are just better creatures.
Woolly Thoctar: It's a very good card, but this deck isn't about three mana 5/4s. This deck is about playing the biggest things possible, and a vanilla 5/4 Beast isn't quite enough.
Oversoul of Dusk/Deus of Calamity: These were incredibly tough cuts for me to make, but the main thing keeping me from leaving them in the deck was that they aren't Beasts. If you're not running Contested Cliffs, I believe these are auto-includes.
Twilight Shepherd: She's the after Wrath card, but I think her slot is better filled by Vagrant Plowbeasts or Spearbreaker Behemoth.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: The new legend rule makes multiples of this card too much of a headache to play.
Autochthon Wurm: It's enormous and it has trample. If it was a Beast I'd include it in a heartbeat.
Arashi, the Sky Asunder: Suggested by Epic_Roflsauce This is very good if your playgroup has tons of flying creatures. It's strictly better than Squall Line in this deck. The problem involves it not being a Beast, and I like to have a few flying creatures in the deck. If only Conspiracy was within Mayael's colors...
Hateflayer: Again, not a Beast. The ability is nice, though.
Kalonian Behemoth: It's enormous and it's a Beast. Problem? Can't interact with Contested Cliffs due to shroud.
Crucible of Worlds: While it's nice to be able to recur fetchlands, the ability to recur Strip Mine just makes everyone at the table want to kill you.
Fauna Shaman: Though she is another Survival engine, being a creature is a huge liability. She always felt really slow to me.
Sundering Titan: Not a good multiplayer card, it just makes everyone at the table want to kill you.
Paleoloth: Sure, it's a nice recursion engine, but it's just a 5/5 on its own. Not quite good enough.
Myojin of Life's Web: Bombtastic only when hardcast. Otherwise it's just a fatty with no evasion.
Hamletback Goliath/Serra Avatar: Sure, it gets freakin' HUGE, but it's kinda useless without trample. It's just a big dumb fatty. There's better out there.
Uril, the Miststalker: A 5/5 with supershroud is great, but it doesn't QUITE cut it. Very close to making it in the deck.
Angelic Arbiter: I tested her, and she's just not quite good enough.
Tornado Elemental: I really like this guy, but you have a lot of flying creatures yourself. It's a metagame decision, really.
Valley Rannet: Krosan Tusker is simply better, though Rannet can fetch dual lands.
Regal Force: I tried it in here and it just didn't do enough. Again, the lack of the Beast creature type hurts.
Genesis: There just aren't enough utility slots left in here.
Hunting Grounds: This is mainly a personal choice in that my deck has enough shroud outlets to rely on Mayael. If you choose to run less shroud outlets, absolutely play it.
Cream of the Crop: Sure, it sets up your next draw, but it basically forces you to use Mayael at your upkeep. Not what this deck wants to do.
Mayael's Aria: Doesn't do enough outside the "I win" combo with Mossbridge Troll, and it's too hard to fetch.
Mighty Emergence: Honestly, it's win more.
Crop Rotation: With the build not so dependent on Contested Cliffs, hard mana accel is better.
Nostalgic Dreams: This was in the deck for a long time because it made keeping a hand full of fatties easier, but the new mulliganning rules make it a bit weaker. It's still a strong card, but Praetor's Counsel is so much more backbreaking.
Skullclamp: Broken in most creature decks, but not in this one. There really isn't a way to abuse it in this deck.
Titanic Ultimatum: It's win more.
Umezawa's Jitte: I hate to admit it, but Jitte is kinda win more in here.
Oath of Druids: This card is incredibly risky and will backfire more often than not. Sure I've won games off, say, a turn 3 Avacyn or Vorinclex, but it's very easy to get screwed over by it.
Deep Reconnaissance: One of the problems I have with this card is the low number of basic lands in the deck. Flashback gives it anti-synergy with Hunting Grounds if you choose to run it, and I've had it in hand with all my basics in play more than I'd like.
Momentous Fall, Kavu Lair: If I want to draw cards, I'd rather tutor for Greater Good. Don't get me wrong, Momentous Fall is good. Just not good enough.
Eldrazi Titans: A bit too unfun for my tastes. The goal of EDH is to promote an interactive game for everyone, and making poor guy trying to make a comeback sacrifice four lands every turn is an awful feeling. Absolutely include them if you're playing in a more cutthroat group.
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4. PLAYING THE DECK
Mayael generally wins through the course of several phases of development.
4.1. PHASE I: Mana Growth
During the first few turns of the game, it is essential to accelerate your mana as quickly as possible. You are aiming to have Mayael active on turn 5, sometimes turn 4. Bloom Tender is your best accelerator. She lets you play Mayael and another 3-mana spell on turn 3, and sets up turn 4 Mayael activations.
Do NOT play anything that would draw attention toward yourself during this phase. Unless you're playing in a 1-on-1 game, do not play Quicksilver Amulet early. Wait until later in the game. People are generally indifferent about your shroud outlets; get those Boots of Haste out there.
4.2. PHASE II: Creature Development
Once you have Mayael active, always hold back 6 mana. Most players will not attack into open mana, for fear of losing creatures to a fatty the deck could put into play at instant speed. This allows you to put three or four big creatures into play. If the rest of the table conspires against you at this point, you may have to sweep the board. Cards like Austere Command are good because they get rid of small creatures while sparing your fatties. If you have to wipe out Mayael, it's no big deal; you probably have enough mana to just re-cast her at this point.
4.3. PHASE III: Stompy Stompy
Once you have 3 or 4 fat creatures in play, it's time to start swinging. Every creature you have in play is a must-answer threat, and your opponents will run out of answers or blockers eventually (assuming your creatures don't have trample.)
4.4. A Good Starting Seven
It can be tough deciding on an opening hand with this deck. After extensive amounts of playing with this deck, I have developed some criteria to make the decision easier.
1) Fatties in your opening hand aren't good. If you don't have a good starting hand, big creatures should be the first things to be put back. You want your fatties in your deck, not your hand.
2) Virtually any hand with three land and castable acceleration is keepable, since much of the acceleration in this deck also fixes.
3) Sensei's Divining Top, Scroll Rack, Sol Ring, Bloom Tender, Steely Resolve, and Lightning Greaves should never be thrown back. Those are the cards that make the deck go. Even if you don't have any business spells, these kinds of cards either make it easy to ramp into Mayael or help ensures she hits on her reveal.
4) Don't worry if you mulligan into a ton of lands. Early mana flood is perfectly fine with this deck, because you will always have threats to accelerate into in the form of Mayael activations.
5) Though you can draw lucrative hands with Greater Good, or some other ridiculous engine, do not get trapped into keeping a hand just for that. Again, early mana flood isn't a bad thing.
4.5. Sample Hands:
I'm going to present some sample hands, generated with my real (physical) deck. I'll be adding more to this later. Some of these hands are from previous iterations of the build, and cards in here may not be in the deck now.
HAND 1: Forest, Forest, Wooded Bastion, Windbrisk Heights, Baneslayer Angel, Mountain Valley, Rings of Brighthearth
HAND 2: Gruul Turf, Plains, Windbrisk Heights, Sensei's Divining Top, Defense of the Heart, Day of Judgment, Baneslayer Angel
HAND 3: Horizon Canopy, Terramorphic Expanse, Windbrisk Heights, Greater Good, Chord of Calling, Windbrisk Raptor, Worldly Tutor
HAND 4: Savannah, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Bloom Tender, Mana Reflection, Godsire , Akroma, Angel of Fury
HAND 5: Wooded Bastion, Sacred Foundry, Rampaging Baloths, Bloom Tender, Path to Exile, Blazing Archon, Vagrant Plowbeasts
HAND 6: Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Greater Gargadon, Greater Good, Plains, Grasslands, Arid Mesa, Forest
HAND 7: Mosswort Bridge, Grove of the Burnwillows, Mountain, Stomping Ground, Scourge of Kher Ridges, Eternal Dragon, Krosan Tusker
HAND 8: Fire-Lit Thicket, Strip Mine, Scourge of Kher Ridges, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Greater Gargadon, Chord of Calling, Divine Reckoning
HAND 9: Eternal Witness, Sol Ring, Seedborn Muse, Reliquary Tower, Lurking Predators, Wooded Foothills, Command Tower
4.6. How to Use Sensei's Divining Top
One thing players new to EDH don't realize is just how good Sensei's Divining Top is. Some people even go by a rule that Top should be in every single deck. I'm not going to go into too many details on why Top is good in general--just why it's good in this deck and how to make the most use of it. I've been getting a lot of posts and PMs recently asking why Top is so good in this deck. The big argument against it is that it doesn't actually improve your odds of hitting on a Mayael activation. Though that is true, proper use of Top does improve your efficiency with her.
Let's say you have a Quicksilver Amulet and Mayael, but don't have enough mana to use both. Before you commit mana to either of those options, see what your top three cards are. If there's fat in them, it's typically better to activate Mayael. You'll be guaranteed fat, and there might be better options farther down. If there's no fat, there's about a 50/50 shot that there's some in the last two cards. In that case, you're better off using the Amulet.
The above is not a hard and fast rule by any means. By using Top before activating Mayael, you can either get rid of some garbage cards or avoid flushing a really strong card to the bottom. Depending on how important the card is, it may even be correct to not activate Mayael even if there's fat in the top 3. If the top of the deck is complete garbage (such as all land), it can also be correct to activate Mayael just to shove the land to the bottom. Generally you should only do this if you don't have better options, or the table doesn't see you as a threat currently. In most cases, it's best to play as defensively as possible.
Know all the different ways to shuffle your deck. Do not crack your fetchlands without a good reason. If you play landfall creatures, you already know the value of keeping fetchlands untapped. Even if you don't have a target to find with it, you still get to shuffle. Every time you shuffle your deck, you get to see three brand new cards with Top. It's not uncommon for me to go, "Top. Don't like any of them. Crack a fetchland. Top again. Still don't like them. Discard some random creature to Survival. Alright, NOW the top of my deck is good." In my build of Mayael, I have the following ways to shuffle. There are technically more, but they are far too expensive or swingy to count as a reshuffler (Tooth and Nail comes to mind.)
- 7 Fetchlands
- Pitching Worldspine Wurm or an Eldrazi to Survival
- 3 Tutors
- 5 Land Search spells
If you have mana left over after activating Mayael, use Top. You'll get to see three brand new cards, and you'll have a good direction for your next turn. When you arrange the top of your deck at end of turn, make sure to put the fat creature second from the top. This way you will draw the card you want and set up the top of your deck for an activation. Use Top often. If you have the mana to spare, Top every time a new card enters the top three positions in your deck. Contrary to popular belief, Top shouldn't slow down the game. 99% of the time, you should be able to make a decision within five seconds.
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5. POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
5.1. Dealing with Removal
Because the deck is so heavily reliant on Mayael, it really slows the efficiency and threat density of the deck down if she is removed. Because she is a cheap general, it's not a big deal if she's killed once. However, if it gets to the point where she's costing 6RGW, 8RGW, or more, you're better off just hardcasting your fatties rather than relying on Mayael. The same applies if Mayael is put into your deck.
The quickest way to deal with removal is to just give Mayael shroud as fast as possible. Frankly, you won't normally care if a fatty dies; she'll just replace it with another one.
5.2. Dealing with Counterspells
Smart blue players know what spells serve as the core of the deck. They will bounce Mayael then never let her resolve again. If they don't have a threat in play, just keep casting fatties; they will run out of counters eventually. If you play it, try to tutor up Spellbreaker Behemoth to make all your fatties uncounterable. Akroma, Angel of Fury is also extremely useful in such a situation.
5.3. Dealing with Pithing Needle and Arrest Variants
Because the deck depends on Mayael so much, Pithing Needle is a very effective card against it. There aren't a lot of ways for Mayael to destroy an artifact with the recommended build, but it has plenty of ways to tutor them up. If you can't tutor up a solve to Needle, just start hardcasting your creatures; you have plenty of mana to do it anyway.
For Arrest and friends, a decent solve is to just sacrifice Mayael to Greater Good or some other sacrifice outlet, then replay her. Quite simple really.
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6. POPULAR MULTIPLAYER GENERALS
Your mileage may vary, but these are popular generals played in my area, and how they're dealt with.
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade/Maga, Traitor to Mortals (MBC): Monoblack is a tough matchup just due to the massive amounts of spot removal they run. If you keep a low profile in the early game (don't run Mayael out there too early) you can sometimes keep under the radar long enough to get set up. In 1v1 though, monoblack wrecks Mayael hard. If you play against this deck a ton, consider putting more shroud outlets in.
Captain Sisay (toolbox): This can be a pain in the ass simply because the entire deck is a toolbox. Removal won't be an issue, so you should be able to get Mayael online fairly easily. The problems arise when you're trying to develop board position. In a way, the Sisay deck plays much like Mayael; it turns on around turn 4 or 5 and starts doing broken things at about the same time you do. The Sisay deck around here revolves around tutoring for Mangara of Corondor and a way to blink him every turn, making even the most dangerous fatties you play useless.
Rakdos the Defiler (voltron): Get a flying fatty out fast. With a single ritual this guy comes out on turn 4, and starts wrecking you right after that.
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf (elves): The discard isn't so bad. Even if they empty your hand quickly, you still have Mayael to go back to for card advantage. The only potential issue is the elf swarm, but any damage-based sweeper is normally a one-sided Wrath of God. If you don't have it, though, your life total will drop in a hurry.
Wort, the Raidmother (ramp): This deck will give you a ton of mana to play your fatties with, but they also give themselves a ton of mana to cast huge, damage-based sweepers like Molten Disaster, Starstorm, Savage Twister, &c. Because of all the mana doubling effects, hating out the general will not work. If you get a draw engine you usually beat them, but if you don't, this deck will kill everyone at the table with one massive Fireball.
Tolsimir Wolfblood, Rhys the Redeemed (GWx Tokens): Wrath, Wrath, Wrath. You need to keep their field clean--this deck craps out tokens so quickly that your army won't be able to keep up. They'll just replace any tokens you destroy by blocking. Even after a Wrath, they can rebuild so fast. The best card against this deck, by far, is Balefire Dragon--if they can't make flying tokens, they won't ever be able to assemble an army.
Sharuum the Hegemon (artifacts): You're faster than they are but they have more inevitability than you do, so make use of the normal game plan. If they start tutoring a bunch, see if you can convince the rest of the table to attack him, cause he probably grabbed the Traumatize/Open the Vaults combo that basically wins him the game...especially if said Traumatize dumps ROFLThopter into the 'yard.
Rafiq of the Many/Jenara, Asura of War (voltron): These decks are FAST. Again, don't draw attention if you're playing with a group, because both of them can kill with general damage on turn 5 or 6, maybe earlier. Most of Rafiq's exalted guys are small, so if you can plop down an early Wrath, that normally wipes the field and they run out of cards. Especially be careful if the game goes long and you see a Vanish into Memory or Soul's Majesty, as that refills their hand fully.
Doran, the Siege Tower/Teneb, the Harvester (rock): Rock is hard for this deck, as well. It's like Nath except they have fatty flying creatures--a huge problem for this deck.
Sedris, the Traitor King (reanimator): The Sedris deck around here plays a similar combo to Sharuum: Traumatize or Morality Shift to dump the deck into the 'yard, then plays Living Death, Twilight's Call, or any sort of mass reanimation.
Child of Alara (5cc): Spearbreaker Behemoth destroys the control aspect of the deck, and you're way faster than they are to get set up. IF HE CASTS CONFLUX, DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO KILL HIM. Most likely he tutored up some sort of crazy kill with all the mana he has at this point.
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7. ARCHENEMY
7.1. Overview
When playing the Archenemy, Mayael is much more difficult to protect. All the heroes have to do to defeat Mayael as archenemy is keep her off the board. This makes it particularly important to have a way to protect her. She loses the strength of being able to run and hide in the confusion of a FFA multiplayer game. When being ganged up on, Mayael has the following weaknesses to address:
1) Spot removal. I already explained this at length.
2) General lockout. Early Pithing Needle is pretty much game over unless you hit the right scheme.
3) Gas. Mayael is not meant to fend off multiple opponents all gunning for her at once. You can fend off maybe two before you start to run out of gas.
The following scheme deck addresses all of these issues while strengthening the deck to be able to withstand assaults from multiple players:
7.2. Scheme Decklist
2 All Shall Smolder in My Wake
2 The Very Soil Shall Shake
2 Tooth, Claw, and Tail
2 Realms Befitting My Majesty
2 I Know All, I See All
2 Introductions Are In Order
2 Look Skyward and Despair
2 Every Last Vestige Shall Rot
2 Your Fate Is Thrice Sealed
7.3. Card Explanations
My Genius Knows No Bounds: More life to survive the onslaught is always nice, and late game you can refill your hand instantly with the amount of ramping you've done.
All Shall Smolder In My Wake: Removal for annoying noncreatures your deck can have issues with.
The Very Soil Shall Shake: Your guys can no longer be chump blocked. It won't last long, but generally all you need is for it to be active a turn or two.
Tooth, Claw, and Tail: Gets rid of nasty enchantments your deck normally has trouble dealing with.
Realms Befitting My Majesty: Ramping is a good thing. You need as much of it as you can.
I Know All, I See All: One of the best schemes in the list, as it lets you activate Mayael multiple times per turn cycle.
Introductions Are In Order: THE BEST SCHEME IN THE DECK. It's a free Quicksilver Amulet activation, or if you have nothing in your hand, tutor for a utility creature.
Look Skyward and Despair: Free 5-power dude that flies.
Every Last Vestige Shall Rot: It's a toss-up between this and Which of You Burns Brightest?, but I went with this cause I find the extra damage to the player is hardly ever relevant. Stripping someone of their general is a plus.
Your Fate Is Thrice Sealed: More mana ramp and card draw. I can't stress how much you need to be able to ramp.
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8. OTHER PLAYGROUPS
Before I go into specific suggestions, I'd like to present a great idea not only for this deck, but for EDH decks in general: carry two sideboards with you--one for cutthroat playgroups, and one for weaker playgroups. It will enhance not only your experience, but that of your opponents as well. This will make the games closer and allow everyone to have more fun.
8.1. Cutthroat Playgroups
Some groups insist on dirty fighting, and build decks with blatant disregard to flavor or fun. Personally I don't understand the fun in cutthroat EDH. We're talking things like prison locks, infinite combos, stax, recurrable/mass land destruction, etc. The "spirit of EDH" that Sheldon strives to carry with the format is about long, epic struggles that you'll remember for weeks or even months. Heck, I still remember coming back from Day of Judgment + Armageddon + Liliana Vess' ultimate, my only permanents being Scroll Rack and Defense of the Heart. I don't see the fun in playing a 10-minute, five-person game when someone goes from no board position to "I win".
Some groups just like doing the most broken things possible in the game. To do that, you'll need to set flavor aside and play the most powerful things available to you. Here are some suggestions:
Crucible of Worlds, Life from the Loam: In a metagame like this, Strip locks are just another way to win.
Wurmcoil Engine: Wrath resistance.
Darksteel Colossus, Blightsteel Colossus: They're huge and indestructible, and the latter is a one-shot if it hits.
Steel Hellkite: This was more a flavor omission than anything, but more noncreature removal is really nice.
Platinum Emperion: Again, a flavor omission. "Your life total can't change" is really powerful against anything other than heavy combo.
Spellbreaker Behemoth: Mainly for fighting blue.
Armageddon: Normally mass land destruction is frowned upon, but when you're sitting on a board of dangerous creatures, this can seal the game.
Krosan Grip: You're decreasing the threat density of your deck, but you absolutely have to be able to disrupt combos.
Eldrazi Titans: Too unfun for most groups, but you need the meanest threats in the game here.
8.2. Newer or Low-Power Playgroups
Then there's the opposite extreme. Your playgroup may consist primarily of newer players, or people who just haven't been playing the game long enough to have access to the best cards out there. In this case, you may want to go even further in leaving out some of the lesser offenders in the "dirty cards" category. Some suggestions on cards to leave out:
Leave your Eldrazi at home. These things are extremely hard for uneducated or budget players to answer. You pretty much need exiling spot removal, and a shrouded Eldrazi is almost impossible for even veterans to deal with.
Iona, Shield of Emeria: This card pretty much says "One person doesn't get to play Magic." It's really unfun for the table as a whole, because you tend to target the person that's the biggest threat to you.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: This guy doubles your mana and halves your opponents' mana, effectively letting them play only every other turn and putting you ridiculously far ahead. I've had a lot of lower-power tables scoop to this on the spot because no one had an answer in hand.
Survival of the Fittest: Replace this card with Fauna Shaman. The effects are the same, yes, but Survival is just on a completely different level of power.
As far as cards to replace these, or just retooling the deck for weaker groups in general, there are a lot of themes you can consider. Tribal themes are a great way to make the deck more fun to both play with and play against. Beasts are the easiest creatures to go tribal with, but there are enough angels to do it. There are 20 angels with power 5 or greater in Mayael's color identity, for instance. Be creative--don't just put the absolute best creatures in. You're trying to make Magic a fun experience for these newer players.
---
Well, that about covers everything. If you guys have any suggestions, just let me know and I'll take them into consideration. However I have done an extensive amount of testing with this deck, so don't be surprised if I don't add your suggestion to the primer.
Have fun smashing face with huge creatures!
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CHANGELOG
1-2-11
- Emrakul (banned) + Terastrodon
- Kavu Lair + Fauna Shaman
2-26-11
- Momentous Fall + Praetor's Counsel
6-28-11
- Reflecting Pool + Command Tower
- It That Betrays + Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
- Mossbridge Troll + Stalking Vengeance
- Crop Rotation + Farseek
- Pure//Simple + Asceticism
- Hunting Grounds + Elvish Piper
11-6-11:
- Spellbreaker Behemoth + Aegis Angel
- Fauna Shaman + Balefire Dragon
- Crucible of Worlds + Swiftfoot Boots
- Starstorm + Divine Reckoning
- Windbrisk Heights + Forest
- Brightflame + Seedborn Muse
5-23-12:
- Aegis Angel + Avacyn, Angel of Hope
- Akroma, Angel of Fury + Sigarda, Host of Herons
- Iona, Shield of Emeria + Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
- Deathless Angel + Avenger of Zendikar
- Windbrisk Raptor + Moldgraf Monstrosity
+ Genesis Wave (list was 99 cards for some reason)
8-26-12:
- Moldgraf Monstrosity + Roughshod Mentor
- Brawn + Ulvenwald Tracker
10-2-12:
- Primeval Titan (banned) + Worldspine Wurm
- Vigor + Angel of Serenity
10-25-12:
Added a section about Sensei's Divining Top.
1-27-13:
- Dragonlair Spider + Giant Adephage
- Rampaging Baloths + Gruul Ragebeast
- Bogardan Hellkite + Hellkite Tyrant
- Akroma, Angel of Wrath + Sylvan Primordial
- Vagrant Plowbeasts + Skarrg Goliath
- Ulvenwald Tracker + Illusionist's Bracers
- Genesis Wave + Domri Rade
1-30-13:
Added a budget section.
2-2-13:
Added a Beast tribal list.
5-9-13:
- Giant Adephage + Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
9-24-13:
- Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger + Nylea, God of the Hunt
9-28-13:
- Worldly Tutor + Green Sun's Zenith
- Illusionist's Bracers + Heliod, God of the Sun
3-2-14:
- Mana Reflection + Karametra, God of Harvests
- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre + Xenagos, God of Revels
- Kozilek, Butcher of Truth + Archetype of Endurance
- Sylvan Primordial (banned) + Woodfall Primus
9-28-14:
- Forest
- Baneslayer Angel
- Hellkite Tyrant
- Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
- Skarrg Goliath
- Utvara Hellkite
- Where Ancients Tread
- Day of Judgment
- Defense of the Heart
- Asceticism
- True Conviction
+ Dryad Arbor
+ Madblind Mountain
+ Razia, Boros Archangel
+ Scourge of the Throne
+ Soul of Theros
+ Spellbreaker Behemoth
+ Green Sun's Zenith
+ See the Unwritten
+ Path to Exile
+ Swords to Plowshares
+ Wrath of God
+ Ulvenwald Tracker
+ Scroll Rack
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Eye of Ugin, on the other hand, will just sit there doing nothing, and people will leave it alone because it's obviously not going to be a problem for a long time, given how mana-intensive it is. There's usually less LD than creature kill in the game, and peoples' Strip Mines tend to be going after things like Academy Ruins and Cabal Coffers anyway.
Obviously either card could work, this is just why I prefer the Eye.
Edit: As for it counting as a spell, I agree. I notice that we're both running the same amount of mana-producing lands, and I have the Eye as my 37th "land".
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
stalking vengeance: please wrath. pretty please?
hellkite charger: another attack phase.
conquering manticore: correct me if I'm wrong, but swinging at someone with their general still counts as general damage, right?
bogarden hellkite: flash, flying, 5 damage. it's perfect.
invincible hymn: buy me time = I win game.
firespout: token/utility creature sweep
colfenor's urn: good by itself. insane with where ancients tread
scroll rack: because sometimes I want it that betrays back on top of my library so mayel can get him.
vedalken orrery: a better winding canyons
insurrection: because it's hilarious
maze of ith: sorry jenara, you're princess is in another castle.
artifact mutation: everyone plays artifacts. killing one for 2 and geting tokens to boot is awesome.
living hive: give this shroud and see if you don't win the game.
awakening zone: I am very sold that this is the perfect card for a mayael deck. it's chump blockers for early game or when mayael gets removed. also, it's a sac outlet. if there's one thing that mayael decks hate, it's forced sacing. also bribery and creature stealing effects.
Hellkite Charger is way too weak for this deck.
Conquering Manticore: About all it does is take their guy during attack phase or at the end step? Doesn't seem too useful.
Bogardan Hellkite: Used to be in here.
Invincible Hymn: Good card, and I happen to have a foil one, but there really isn't room.
Firespout: Volcanic Fallout is way better.
Scroll Rack is already in the deck.
Vedalken Orrery: Winding Canyons is a land. That's why it's in here.
Maze of Ith: Problem is you have to treat this as a utility slot, not a land.
The rest of the stuff honestly is better in a token deck.
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
what do you do against savra/tokens/attrition? die?
Sharuum the Hegemon
Mayael the Anima
Wort, Boggart Auntie
Sliver Overlord
Drana Kalastria Bloodchief
99 mountain Ashling
Hellkite Charger: I'll give it a try. It looks really weak on paper though.
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Have you thought about thousand-year elixir?
Sharuum the Hegemon
Mayael the Anima
Wort, Boggart Auntie
Sliver Overlord
Drana Kalastria Bloodchief
99 mountain Ashling
I like seeing mayael play with library stacking, Mirri's Guile, Sylvan Lybrary, Top. This helps out your general, and it helps things like Timesifter above, Lurking Predators, and Gate to the Aether .
EDH:
Currently Piloting:
Dama, Sage of Stone | Karador, Ghost Chieftan | Sigarda, Host of Herons | Elbrus, the Binding Blade / Withengar Unbound | Grand Arbiter Augustin IV | Genju of the Realm | Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
Seedborn Muse is a wrecking.
Oh, ya sounds terrible. lol
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Sharuum the Hegemon
Mayael the Anima
Wort, Boggart Auntie
Sliver Overlord
Drana Kalastria Bloodchief
99 mountain Ashling
Also plan on testing Sacellum Godspeaker myself, seems like decent enough mana acceleration.
Also got
Knollspine Dragon Allows you to refill your hand late game or trade it out for better early.
Ryusei, the Fallen Star 5 dmg to each non flyer sweeper.
Rorix Bladewing 6/5 flying/haste
Eternal Dragon reuseable land fetch, can also pitch to SotF and Fauna over and over for 3WWG
As possible includeds.
Sharuum the Hegemon
Mayael the Anima
Wort, Boggart Auntie
Sliver Overlord
Drana Kalastria Bloodchief
99 mountain Ashling
Novablast Wurm - Blows up creatures nicely.
Woodfall Primus - Really good non-creature permanent removal. Great with Oran-Rief
Hamletback Goliath - A weaker card, but can get really ridiculous quickly, even without Warp World.
It That Betrays, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - Nice fat
Sun Titan - Recurs Fetches, Mayael, Eternal Witness
Angelic Arbiter - It's actually really good at beating combos that need to attack, like Kikki/Pestermite
Avenger of Zendikar - A new addition. Makes many bodies and can really clog up the board.
Flameblast Dragon - Extra reach/removal. Can attack one player to kill another player('s stuff).
Admonition Angel - Awesome
Krosan Tusker - Fixing
Stalking Vengeance - Who needs wrath-proof creatures?
Godsire - This card is a beating.
Primeval Titan - More mana!
Terastodon - Woodfall Primus' partner in crime
Iona, Shield of Emeria - Great for stopping those pesky blue mages
Sundering Titan - Probably on the mean side, but I'm not abusing it with Kikki/clone
Vengeful Archon - You're gonna be leaving mana open for Mayael anyway. This card deters people from attacking you.
Steel Hellkite - Nice removal
Spellbreaker Behemoth - Nice early beatstick that annoys Blue Mages
Speakbreaker Behemoth - Much better than Deathless Angel.
Serra Avatar - EOT mayael into this is something my playgroup fears, even with the Aria. This is nice when suited up with Behemoth Sledge or with Naya Charm backup.
Bogardan Hellkite - A great cip ability to use
I don't think BSA is good enough to be used in Mayael (BSA is tiny), Mossbridge Troll is like a bad Serra Avatar. I also cut all the card draw in my deck. You really just need to ramp and get Mayael going. Kavu Lair is cute, but you don't care much for drawing cards.
Sharuum the Hegemon
Mayael the Anima
Wort, Boggart Auntie
Sliver Overlord
Drana Kalastria Bloodchief
99 mountain Ashling
Getting a random 6/5 into play with tusker isnt a completely worthless and the cycling is pretty cute too.