MTG Salvation

Naya was always my favourite shard but it also lacked a commander I was interested to build...until Commander2013 came around.

While most people saw in him a new broken token commander, a Naya Ghave if you will, I thought he would make a great control commander. He comes out early, provides lots of blockers as well as removal. And with only one support card like Doubling Season, Cathar's Crusade or even Basilisk Collar he becomes a threat that must be dealt with.
Even without any cards in hand he lets you do relevant stuff with your mana, provided you have enough of it. That's why I included a good amount of ramp, altough it can also be alright if I just hit my landdrop every turn since Marath often comes down on turn three and provides a strong enough board position without any more help from my hand.
The deck is complemented with a powerful spotremoval suite compiled around Sunforger, a nice recursion package, a good meassure of boardwipes and of course some powerful carddraw effects to keep the answers coming.
A minor indestructible theme and the fact that I run many different permanent types makes this deck very resilient to boardwipes and the number of instants and the nature of Maraths abilities gives the deck the capability to do a lot of stuff at instant speed.





Unfortunately I haven't done a whole lot of testing yet. In the first few games the deck did really well though. Still there will be some tweaks necessary as I get to know the deck better.

Let me know what you would add or remove, any advice is very welcome

Definitely your deck needs to move to the player's thread...

As for your deck and like Ghave, Humility is a card that you want to include. Doesn't matter if they're 1/1 vanilla... Marath is going to be a 4/4, a 6/6 and etc...

And works well with Cathar...

I definitely want to see how people can improve this deck. I would like to make my second edh deck with this commander but I have no idea where to go with it.

Sry about posting in the wrong forum, seems like I didn't pay enough attention where I was when I made this post.
Thanks for moving!

Humility could be nice but it doesn't get played much in my meta and since all my other decks get really screwed by it I don't want to put stupid ideas in their head

Twilight Shepherd looks nice tech with Marath. Personally I've been pondering if I should include Basilisk Collar or not. Sure it's cute with Marath, but that's pretty much it.

I wanted to try out Twilight Shepherd because she's a big vigilant flyer, that will be hard to kill. The ETB ability is a perk that might come in handy. I still have to get a High Market for this deck because it lacks sac outlets...
As I said I just put this deck together and I will test it over the next few weeks. Basilisk Collar is just very easily tutorable and cheap to get online and when it is, my opponents have to deal with it or their creatures won't survive. In that way it can also draw removal from other, higher profile artifacts/enchantments and the lifegain is also nice

I really like this list, actually; specifically, Bow of Nylea, which I didn't even think of, and I'm really grateful for you bringing to light. One of the biggest problems I've run into while playing my Sunforger list is when my Mistveil Plains gets destroyed; I completely neglected a nonland Mistveil Plains. Thank you for that.

Moving on, there are a lot of things I can advise you on, the first being Sunforger. Chaos Warp, Ghostway and Orim's Thunder are absolute musts; the Warp is your Sunforger's Beast Within, the Ghostway deals with sweepers and recycles your ETB's, and Orim's Thunder is just a fantastic 2-for-1.

I personally prefer Condemn over Path to Exile, as opponents wary of your strategy will see your Sunforger as a rattlesnake just as much as a pillowfort. Alternatively, there's also Unexpectedly Absent.

If you're running Karmic Guide, there's no reason not to run Reveillark alongside it. It's cheap to pick up these days with the MM reprint, and it synergizes with every creature in your deck below CMC 5.

If you're concerned about your Equipment package, Leonin Abunas is fantastic protection, and Leonin Shikari and Puresteel Paladin are a deadly combination with Sunforger.

If you're running Mistveil Plains, consider Thespian's Stage also. A Stage lets you 1-up graveyard hate, though Bow of Nylea also helps this. (Seriously, thank you so much for showing me how good that card is here.)

I very much like both Birthing Pod and Keen Sense in this deck - some interesting innovation you've got going on here. Perhaps Birds of Paradise?

Regardless, I love this list. There are a few cards I don't agree with (Illusionist's Bracers, 6 sweepers when 4 is enough, etc.), but honestly, I really enjoy what you're doing here. My list is in my signature if you want to see another angle of constructing the deck.

Also noteworthy - your manabase has a Scrubland in it. Not sure if that's supposed to be a Savannah or not, but I digress, I figured I'd point it out for you.

Death's Presence and Blade of the Bloodchief can add redundancy to loading up on counters. You will need a sac outlet or a Skullclamp for max value.

Quote from DonRoyale

I really like this list, actually; specifically, Bow of Nylea, which I didn't even think of, and I'm really grateful for you bringing to light. One of the biggest problems I've run into while playing my Sunforger list is when my Mistveil Plains gets destroyed; I completely neglected a nonland Mistveil Plains. Thank you for that.

Moving on, there are a lot of things I can advise you on, the first being Sunforger. Chaos Warp, Ghostway and Orim's Thunder are absolute musts; the Warp is your Sunforger's Beast Within, the Ghostway deals with sweepers and recycles your ETB's, and Orim's Thunder is just a fantastic 2-for-1.

I personally prefer Condemn over Path to Exile, as opponents wary of your strategy will see your Sunforger as a rattlesnake just as much as a pillowfort. Alternatively, there's also Unexpectedly Absent.

If you're running Karmic Guide, there's no reason not to run Reveillark alongside it. It's cheap to pick up these days with the MM reprint, and it synergizes with every creature in your deck below CMC 5.

If you're concerned about your Equipment package, Leonin Abunas is fantastic protection, and Leonin Shikari and Puresteel Paladin are a deadly combination with Sunforger.

If you're running Mistveil Plains, consider Thespian's Stage also. A Stage lets you 1-up graveyard hate, though Bow of Nylea also helps this. (Seriously, thank you so much for showing me how good that card is here.)

I very much like both Birthing Pod and Keen Sense in this deck - some interesting innovation you've got going on here. Perhaps Birds of Paradise?

Regardless, I love this list. There are a few cards I don't agree with (Illusionist's Bracers, 6 sweepers when 4 is enough, etc.), but honestly, I really enjoy what you're doing here. My list is in my signature if you want to see another angle of constructing the deck.

Also noteworthy - your manabase has a Scrubland in it. Not sure if that's supposed to be a Savannah or not, but I digress, I figured I'd point it out for you.

Thanks for your long reply
Yep, Bow of Nylea is pretty much made for this deck...
Ghostway is a nice card but it doesn't work at all with Marath or tokens so I didn't include it. I also decided against Reveillark because with the latest changes I only have 9 creatures left that can be targeted so I will almost never get the full value out of it.
Birthing Pod is a great card that can win you the game if it isn't dealt with, I love it and I have it in all my other decks. This deck however has a rather low creature density (as intended because all my other decks are creature based) on an rather unbalanced curve so I had to cut it again. After a quick glance over your list however, you should definitely try it.

I consciously included more removal than I normally would because with this deck I basically want to have each (nonland) permanent at my mercy at all times. I admit that I might have gone a little overboard though

And Scrubland was of course supposed to be Brushland, I always get those two confused, thanks for catching that!

Quote from nathones

Death's Presence and Blade of the Bloodchief can add redundancy to loading up on counters. You will need a sac outlet or a Skullclamp for max value.

I considered both but Death's Presence is two expensive. I might still try out Blade of the Bloodchief though. I just wasn't able to pick one up yet and I also wouldn't know what to cut.


Anyway, after a bit of testing here are the first changes:

-Lightening Greaves
-Stonehewer Giant
-Solemn Simulacrum
-Birthing Pod
-Seedborn Muse
-Magmaquake

+Sigarda, Host of Herons
+Oblation
+Steelshapers Gift
+Explosive Vegetation
+Terminus
+Starstorm

I decided to cut Birthing Pod and with that I exchanged Solemn Simulacrum for Explosive Vegetation.
Since there is a lot of removal in my meta Stonehewer Giant was just too slow, so I exchanged it for Steelshapers Gift. Lightening Greaves weren't too great in here. I already have tons of cards that need support to be amazing so I cut Seedborn Muse because it also was very fragile.
With the now free slots I decided to add some more removal in Oblation and Terminus (which I might go back on), as well as Sigarda, Host of Herons. I always liked Sigarda and I guess in combination with Sword of Feast and Famine or some +1/+1 counters from Marath she can become a really dangerous threat.
And Magmaquake got kicked for Starstorm because I realized that it doesn't get creatures with flying...

Please let me know what you think of the deck. Which cards would you cut and which cards are a must for this deck in your opinion.

Ivy Lane Denizen maken Marath read: 1: Put a 1/1 creature token into play.

I had a bit of a hiatus from magic for a few weeks but now I finally got around to update my decklist.
The most significant changes are the inclusion of Purphoros and Nylea as well as some more Planeswalkers. I intend to push that theme further and so Xenagos, the Reveller and Sarkhan Vol are the next items on my wants-list.

Let me know what you think of my current list!!

-Red Elemental Blast
-Eldrazi Monument
-Warstorm Surge
-Explosive Vegetation
-Sigarda, Host of Herons
-Brushland
-Naya Panorama

+Gyre Sage
+Karametra, God of the Harvest
+Spearbreaker Behemoth
+Aurealias Fury
+Acidic Slime
+Plains
+Gruul Turf

Here is the latest batch of changes. I tried to add a few more creatures to accommodate the inclusion of Katametra and also because I sometimes felt like I needed other bodies than Marath.
I now have quite a few cards that either are indestructible or grant indestructability which is a nice subtheme.
I'm pondering the inclusion of Heliod but I don't know how relevant his abilities are.

I think the deck is now close to what I want it to be. I'm still very interested what other people, especially other Marath players have to say about my list!

I would look at maybe including Kamahl, Fist of Krosa over Nyla. He's more mana to cast and one more mana to use, but his pump ability is much stronger. He also has a really strong synergy with Marath, but letting you animate and ping any problem lands for on demand spot removal and discourages board wipes.

Gavony Township is also pretty good in a list like this, as it's on demand fuel for Marath.

Assemble the Legion and Luminarch Ascension are good ways to dodge board wipes outside of indestructibility as well, though if you don't play it early enough Luminarch makes you a target. There's also Fresh Meat, but it's hard to say if you consistently have enough creatures to really use it with having played your deck myself, it also can't be tutored for with Sunforger.

Nightshade Peddler is another good source of deathtouch for Marath, and it's a body that can attack, adding to it's uses. Deathtouch is more than a cute trick, as you can surprise someone in an attack by removing all of their threats.

Other than that, maybe look at upgrading to either filter lands or the scry temples when you get the chance? It's not urgent, your mana base seems pretty solid, but it will help with color fixing (especially the filters, although I know they can be expensive). Chromatic Lantern could also be really good for you.

I hope your enjoying Marath.