Ok, I love Marath, Will of the Wild, it's so versatile a commander and I love it as a token commander. Because of this, I decided to revisit the old guy and make a new deck, what inspired me to do so, though, was this cool combo: Sadly, it only works best if I have a Phyrexian Altar, which is way too expensive to buy atm, but i don't think my friends will mind if I proxy it.
The combo goes thusly:
Marath, Will of the Wild + Soul Sister + Serene Steward + Doubling Season + Phyrexian Altar + Goblin Bombardment
Marath grows infinitely, you get infinite life, and deal infinite damage, tada
Edit: realized i might need to explain this a little more:
pay 1 to make a 1/1 token using Marath
Doubling makes an additional token
Soul Sister gives you 2 life
pay W to put a +1/+1 counter on Marath using Serene
Doubling Season puts an additional +1/+1 counter on Marath
Altar sacrifices those two tokens to make a white mana and watever other mana you want. Use the generic to start the cycle again and use the white for Serene's trigger.
you get 2 +1/+1 counters for every 1 you spend, endlessly growing Marath, you gain 2 life every time, and that's only if you have 1 soul sister, and with goblin bombardment, you deal 2 damage each turn.
on an alternate way, you could grab Nahiri's Command and Taunting Elf instead of Goblin Bombardment and destroy your enemy with 21 solid commander damage in one hit, or either the creature or Enchantment with the Life Total Alt Win Con and win with that. or grab Parallel lives or the other token clone enchantment and continue to grow your tokens even more and swamp the enemy
You could also try Earthcraft + Mana Flare + Marath.
ooh, that's significantly more cost effective than using phyrexian altar.
and it's not THAT convoluted, lots of these cards have uses outside the combo that function just fine, and their all permanents which mean i can build up and wait with to set it all up
Pay 1 and remove a counter, get a token. Sac token for 2. Pay 1 and remove a counter, get two counters. These payments all break even until you introduce another variable, such as a token doubler, Earthcraft, or Purphoros, God of the Forge (& similar cards).
You could also try Earthcraft + Mana Flare + Marath.
I prefer to use the 1 mana land enchantments (e.g. Wild growth) over mana flare. If nothing else, they let you get Marath out early AND combines well with earthcraft
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"Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he who has understood, delight to they who have listened." - Odin
You could also try Earthcraft + Mana Flare + Marath.
I prefer to use the 1 mana land enchantments (e.g. Wild growth) over mana flare. If nothing else, they let you get Marath out early AND combines well with earthcraft
i need white mana for the combo to work, so i'll need to have a plain in play, though i guess i'll have to have a plain in order to cast marath, unless i'm using earthcraft, which lets me make any color mana
Pay 1 and remove a counter, get a token. Sac token for 2. Pay 1 and remove a counter, get two counters. These payments all break even until you introduce another variable, such as a token doubler, Earthcraft, or Purphoros, God of the Forge (& similar cards).
i need white mana, ashnots altar only makes colorless mana
You could just go with Hardened Scales and Mana Echoes:
Pay 1 and remove a counter from Marath to get a 1/1 Elemental Token, which gives you CC courtesy of Mana Echoes.
Pay 1 to put a counter on Marath, which will become two counters thanks to Hardened Scales.
After that you're back to where you started, except you have one extra Elemental and +1 mana.
Repeat ad infinitum to get an arbitrary amount of colorless mana an an arbitrary number of elemental tokens.
With that it should be trivial to win. ;-)
Ardeyn
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Lauren+enduring renewal+mogg fanatic is the most fun combo to set up in my infinite marath deck. There are lots of combos you can squeeze in there,really is a great general for it
There are a lot of infinites you can make from 2-3 cards on that list. Keep in mind that to go infinite you need to be able to either make colored mana or replenish the counters on Marath. You probably don't want all of the above cards, but go ahead and jam in the ones that are good on their own (I'm running six ATM). Naya colors also allow you to run Kikki-Jikki, Mirror Breaker and Tooth and Nail packages. I run Restoration Angel and Zealous Conscripts for Kikki (there's a treefolk who doubles as an overrun that works too) and Avenger + Craterhoof as a non-kikki T&N pair.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
About half of these need a fourth card to win the game by immediately. You can use Purphoros, God of the Forge for combos that only a lot of tokens or ETB triggers and Valakut Invoker can be used for combos that produce lots of mana.
Don't run Invoker. The combos that produce an arbitrarily large amount of mana involve an arbitrarily large number of tokens hitting the battlefield Purphoros or Impact Tremors will kill your opponents and aren't useless when you're not combo'ing off.
A lot of the cards mentioned ITT are excellent on their own in Marath, which is what you really want. Kikki-Jikki is a more reliable combo piece than Marath even in a Marath list, so don't run bad cards to enable Marath to go infinite. Also keep in mind that running some of these cards will open up commander damage as a wincon (eg: Mana Echoes + Kessig Wolfrun). Marath is a very flexible general that can win in multiple ways and can support multiple wincons out of the 99, which is why I never get tired of playing him.
I wrote this up as a supplementary section to my primer. It's not exhaustive, but it does cover a lot of the most common/popular comobos included in a Marath list, because many of the pieces are useful on their own as well as part of the combo, and don't really require you to sacrifice a lot of deck slots for narrow cards:
This is a quick walkthrough of the most common way to go infinite with Marath. Each of the combinations assumes that you have at least 3 +1/+1 counters on Marath. By no means have I covered every combo, but this covers what are probably the most common, what results they produce when you combo off, and how it works.
Earthcraft - All of earthcraft's combos need additional cards to go off on the spot (such as Purphoros, God of the Forge), but will net you infinite tokens at the least. It can go off in the following ways:
Earthcraft + Cathers' Crusade (infinite tokens/infinitely huge creatures): You can either start this off by tapping Marath to untap a basic land, or just using 1 to create a token. The token will trigger Cathars' Crusade, which will add a counter back on to Marath (and everything else). Tap the token to untap a basic land to repeat the process indefinitely for an army of infinitely large tokens.
Earthcraft + Ivy Lane Denizen (infinite tokens): You can either start this off by tapping Marath to untap a basic land, or just using 1 to create a token. The token will trigger Ivy Lane Denizen, which will add a counter back on to Marath. Tap the token to untap a basic land to repeat the process indefinitely for an army of infinitely large tokens.
Earthcraft + Illusionist's Bracers (infinite tokens): With Illusionist's Bracers equipped to Marath either tap Marath for mana, or just use 1 from your mana pool to create a token, which will be copied by the Bracers, and net you two tokens. Tap one to Earthcraft to remove a counter from Marath and add two counters to him, and the second to remove a counter and create two more tokens. Repeat this process indefinitely.
Earthcraft + Doubling Season (infinite tokens): Either tap Marath for mana, or just use 1 from your mana pool to create a token, which will be doubled and net you two tokens. Tap one to Earthcraft to remove a counter from Marath and add two counters to him, and the second to remove a counter and create two more tokens. Repeat this process indefinitely.
Mana Echoes - All of Mana Echoes combos can go off and net you infinite colorless mana, which will usually (but not always) let you end the game on the spot. It can go off in the following ways:
Mana Echoes + Cathars' Crusade (infinite mana/infinite tokens/infinitely huge creatures): You'll need 1 to kick this off. Use it to remove a counter from Marath to make a token. Mana Echoes will trigger and net you 1, and Cathar's Crusade will trigger to put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Use that mana to create another token. When Mana Echoes triggers, you'll gain 2, and so on, and so forth. This will get you infinite colorless mana, and infinite tokens (with infinite counters from Cathars' Crusade), but does not win the game on the spot without another card.
Mana Echoes + Ivy Lane Denizen (infinite mana/infinite tokens): You'll need 1 to kick this off. Use it to remove a counter from Marath to make a token. Mana Echoes will trigger and net you 1, and Ivy Lane Denizen will trigger to let you put a +1/+1 counter on Marath. Use that mana to create another token. When Mana Echoes triggers, you'll gain 2, and so on, and so forth. This will get you infinite colorless mana, and infinite tokens, but does not win the game on the spot without another card.
Mana Echoes + Illusionist's Bracers (infinite mana/infinite tokens/infinite damage): You'll need to have Illusionist's Bracers equipped to Marath, and 1 to kick this off. Use it to remove a counter from Marath to make two tokens, with the Bracer's trigger. Each token will see two elementals and net you 2 each, for a total of 4. Use one mana to remove a counter and place two counters back on Marath, and then another to create more tokens. This will generate you infinite mana. Once you've achieved that, you can indefinitely pump Marath, and then remove counters to deal damage to your opponents for the win.
Mana Echoes + Doubling Season (infinite mana/infinite tokens/infinite damage): You'll need 1 to kick this off. Use it to remove a counter from Marath to make two tokens. Each token will see two elementals and net you 2 each, for a total of 4. Use one mana to remove a counter and place two counters back on Marath, and then another to create more tokens. This will generate you infinite mana. Once you've achieved that, you can indefinitely pump Marath, and then remove counters to deal damage to your opponents for the win.
Ashnod's Altar - All of Ashnod's Altar's combos can go off and net you infinite colorless mana, which will usually (but not always) let you end the game on the spot. It can go off in the following ways:
Ashnod's Altar + Cathars' Crusade (infinite mana/infinite tokens/infinitely huge creatures): You'll need 1 to kick this off. Use it to remove a counter from Marath to make a token. Cathar's Crusade will trigger to put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Sacrifice that token to add 2 to your mana pool. Use that mana to create another token, and repeat indefinitely. You only need one mana each time to continue the chain, so you can use the rest to create tokens at will. This will get you infinite colorless mana, and infinite tokens (with infinite counters from Cathars' Crusade), but does not win the game on the spot without another card.
Ashnod's Altar + Ivy Lane Denizen (infinite mana/infinite tokens): You'll need 1 to kick this off. Use it to remove a counter from Marath to make a token. Ivy Lane Denizen will trigger to put a +1/+1 counter on Marath. Sacrifice that token to add 2 to your mana pool. Use that mana to create another token, and repeat indefinitely. You only need one mana each time to continue the chain, so you can use the rest to create tokens at will. This will get you infinite colorless mana, and infinite tokens, but does not win the game on the spot without another card.
Ashnod's Altar + Illusionist's Bracers (infinite mana/infinite tokens/infinite damage): You'll need to have Illusionist's Bracers equipped to Marath, and 1 to kick this off. Use it to remove a counter from Marath to make two tokens, with the Bracer's trigger. Sacrifice both of those tokens for a total of 4. Use one mana to remove a counter and place two counters back on Marath, and then another to create more tokens. This will generate you infinite mana. Once you've achieved that, you can indefinitely pump Marath, and then remove counters to deal damage to your opponents for the win.
Ashnod's Altar + Doubling Season (infinite mana/infinite tokens/infinite damage): You'll need to have Illusionist's Bracers equipped to Marath, and 1 to kick this off. Use it to remove a counter from Marath to make two tokens. Sacrifice both of those tokens for a total of 4. Use one mana to remove a counter and place two counters back on Marath, and then another to create more tokens. This will generate you infinite mana. Once you've achieved that, you can indefinitely pump Marath, and then remove counters to deal damage to your opponents for the win.
I do still need to go through and add a few cards like Phyrexian Altar, but hopefully this helps.
An additional budget option to consider here is that you can replace Earthcraft with Cryptolith Rite and a haste enabler. You can also replace Purphoros with Kyren Negotiations.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I still need a Food Chain/Phyrexian Altar, but my Marath deck contains most of the rest of these combos and it's a blast to play. It's just a big combo engine made of interchangeable parts.
Also, while not really part of an infinite combo, Xenagos, the Reveler is hilarious in the deck. I once got out Marath, Xenagos, and Ivy Lane Denizen while an enemy Norin player had a Pandemonium in play. That game ended shortly thereafter.
Earthcraft + Doubling Season (infinite tokens): Either tap Marath for mana, or just use 1 from your mana pool to create a token, which will be doubled and net you two tokens. Tap one to Earthcraft to remove a counter from Marath and add two counters to him, and the second to remove a counter and create two more tokens. Repeat this process indefinitely.
Isnt this also infinite damage with every basic land?
Start at 2 mana in pool and firstly casted Marath with 6 counters
create 12 tokens - you get 6 mana
cast Marath again with 10 counters
then you can gain 10 extra mana and with every Marath cast your mana only increases
At the end you shoot your enemies to death.
Am I missing something?
Well, this is a necro, but what I never understood is why not just use Cathars' Crusade with Workhorse to get infinite tokens.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
The combo goes thusly:
Marath, Will of the Wild + Soul Sister + Serene Steward + Doubling Season + Phyrexian Altar + Goblin Bombardment
Marath grows infinitely, you get infinite life, and deal infinite damage, tada
Edit: realized i might need to explain this a little more:
pay 1 to make a 1/1 token using Marath
Doubling makes an additional token
Soul Sister gives you 2 life
pay W to put a +1/+1 counter on Marath using Serene
Doubling Season puts an additional +1/+1 counter on Marath
Altar sacrifices those two tokens to make a white mana and watever other mana you want. Use the generic to start the cycle again and use the white for Serene's trigger.
you get 2 +1/+1 counters for every 1 you spend, endlessly growing Marath, you gain 2 life every time, and that's only if you have 1 soul sister, and with goblin bombardment, you deal 2 damage each turn.
on an alternate way, you could grab Nahiri's Command and Taunting Elf instead of Goblin Bombardment and destroy your enemy with 21 solid commander damage in one hit, or either the creature or Enchantment with the Life Total Alt Win Con and win with that. or grab Parallel lives or the other token clone enchantment and continue to grow your tokens even more and swamp the enemy
You could also try Earthcraft + Mana Flare + Marath.
ooh, that's significantly more cost effective than using phyrexian altar.
and it's not THAT convoluted, lots of these cards have uses outside the combo that function just fine, and their all permanents which mean i can build up and wait with to set it all up
Pay 1 and remove a counter, get a token. Sac token for 2. Pay 1 and remove a counter, get two counters. These payments all break even until you introduce another variable, such as a token doubler, Earthcraft, or Purphoros, God of the Forge (& similar cards).
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
I prefer to use the 1 mana land enchantments (e.g. Wild growth) over mana flare. If nothing else, they let you get Marath out early AND combines well with earthcraft
i need white mana for the combo to work, so i'll need to have a plain in play, though i guess i'll have to have a plain in order to cast marath, unless i'm using earthcraft, which lets me make any color mana
i need white mana, ashnots altar only makes colorless mana
Pay 1 and remove a counter from Marath to get a 1/1 Elemental Token, which gives you CC courtesy of Mana Echoes.
Pay 1 to put a counter on Marath, which will become two counters thanks to Hardened Scales.
After that you're back to where you started, except you have one extra Elemental and +1 mana.
Repeat ad infinitum to get an arbitrary amount of colorless mana an an arbitrary number of elemental tokens.
With that it should be trivial to win. ;-)
Ardeyn
There are a lot of infinites you can make from 2-3 cards on that list. Keep in mind that to go infinite you need to be able to either make colored mana or replenish the counters on Marath. You probably don't want all of the above cards, but go ahead and jam in the ones that are good on their own (I'm running six ATM). Naya colors also allow you to run Kikki-Jikki, Mirror Breaker and Tooth and Nail packages. I run Restoration Angel and Zealous Conscripts for Kikki (there's a treefolk who doubles as an overrun that works too) and Avenger + Craterhoof as a non-kikki T&N pair.
You can make it infinite mana with Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, Illusionist's Bracers, Ashnod's Altar, Primal Vigor, Mana Echoes.
You can make it a wincon all its own with Purphoros, God of the Forge.
On phasing:
Marath + Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth
Marath + Food Chain + Mana Echoes
Marath + Food Chain + Ashnod's Altar
Marath + Earthcraft + Primal Vigor
Marath + Earthcraft + Doubling Season
Marath + Earthcraft + Cathars' Crusade
Marath + Earthcraft + Ivy Lane Denizen
Marath + Mana Echoes + Primal Vigor
Marath + Mana Echoes + Doubling Season
Marath + Mana Echoes + Cathars' Crusade
Marath + Mana Echoes + Ivy Lane Denizen
Marath + Mana Echoes + Hardened Scales
Marath + Phyrexian Altar + Primal Vigor
Marath + Phyrexian Altar + Doubling Season
Marath + Phyrexian Altar + Cathars' Crusade
Marath + Phyrexian Altar + Ivy Lane Denizen
Marath + Ashnod's Altar + Primal Vigor
Marath + Ashnod's Altar + Doubling Season
Marath + Ashnod's Altar + Cathars' Crusade
Marath + Ashnod's Altar + Ivy Lane Denizen
Marath + Ashnod's Altar + Hardened Scales
About half of these need a fourth card to win the game by immediately. You can use Purphoros, God of the Forge for combos that only a lot of tokens or ETB triggers and Valakut Invoker can be used for combos that produce lots of mana.
A lot of the cards mentioned ITT are excellent on their own in Marath, which is what you really want. Kikki-Jikki is a more reliable combo piece than Marath even in a Marath list, so don't run bad cards to enable Marath to go infinite. Also keep in mind that running some of these cards will open up commander damage as a wincon (eg: Mana Echoes + Kessig Wolfrun). Marath is a very flexible general that can win in multiple ways and can support multiple wincons out of the 99, which is why I never get tired of playing him.
Pauper: Burn
Modern: Burn
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Marath, Will of the Wild - Ramp/Combo | Anafenza the Foremost - French | Uril, the Miststalker - Voltron | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - Goodstuff
Ghost Council of Orzhov - Tokens | Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Control | Isamaru, Hound of Konda - Tiny Leaders
I do still need to go through and add a few cards like Phyrexian Altar, but hopefully this helps.
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[Pr] Marath | [Pr] Lovisa | Jodah | Saskia | Najeela | Yisan | Lord Windgrace | Atraxa | Meren | Gisa and Geralf
On phasing:
As added effect, they also hit creatures.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Also, while not really part of an infinite combo, Xenagos, the Reveler is hilarious in the deck. I once got out Marath, Xenagos, and Ivy Lane Denizen while an enemy Norin player had a Pandemonium in play. That game ended shortly thereafter.
,
- UG Ezuri, Claw of Progress The Artist Formerly Known as Kraj,
- R Heartless Hidetsugu Burn it all down .
- G Kamahl, Fist of Krosa/Jolrael, Empress of Beasts Nacatl War-Pride shenanigans.
- WBR Zurgo Helmsmasher Wrath.dec
Isnt this also infinite damage with every basic land?
Start at 2 mana in pool and firstly casted Marath with 6 counters
create 12 tokens - you get 6 mana
cast Marath again with 10 counters
then you can gain 10 extra mana and with every Marath cast your mana only increases
At the end you shoot your enemies to death.
Am I missing something?
On phasing: