MTG Salvation

Nath of the Gilt-Leaf

Discard, Stax, and a Little Bit of Aggro

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Introduction

Nath of the Gilt-Leaf was not the first EDH deck I built, and it's not even my oldest deck. However, it is my oldest deck that's never had a change of commander and it's one of my more finely-tuned decks. Building this deck was my first attempt at playing stax and my first attempt at consciously getting more competitive with my deck-building. So, I finally decided to make a post about this pet project of mine and hopefully get some more people to add black to their elf decks!

This deck started when I bought the mono-green pre-con in 2014. I had been considering building Nath for some time, and the pre-con had a lot of the Elf staples that I didn't own. I bought the deck, threw in some swamps and some other black cards and sleeved it up. At first the deck was, like most first-draft decks, pretty bad. Between my mediocre collection and my inexperience as a deck-builder and player, my first 99 was a mess. But, despite the deck not being great, I loved my new commander. The discard elements provided the feeling of control I enjoyed when playing Magic and the army of elves I could build satisfied my inner Tammy who just wanted to turn creatures sideways. I knew I had found the deck deserving of my time to refine over time and make into something great.

Over time, I fine-tuned the deck. I focused a lot on the discard effects and the Elf-tribal theme. I had a few sacrifice elements with cards like Attrition, but the early version of the deck was mostly just about building a big army and smashing faces. Eventually, I reached a point where I didn't know how to go any further. Maybe it was just a sign of my limitations as a player, but I felt like I had reached a plateau in the deck's power level. Up until that point, I was still pretty opposed to "net-decking." To me, deck-building was an opportunity to be creative and I was worried that just copying decks online would dilute that. However, I really wanted the deck to get better so I finally gave in and started reading about how other people built their Nath decks. And that's when I was introduced to stax. Stax gave my deck more of a focus and, more importantly, a more competitive edge. This was when the deck began to take the form most like what it is today. I still got to turn creatures sideways, but now I could do so while making my opponents suffer

But Why Nath?

You Might Like Playing Nath If...

...you like playing stax and other resource-denial strategies.
...you like to have a lot of creatures on the board...
...but you don't like your opponents to have any creatures.
...you like the Elf tribe but you want to play more than one color.

You Might Not Like Playing Nath If...

...denying other people resources is not your cup of tea.
...you don't want to put creatures on the battlefield.
...you like to interact with spells on the stack.
...you are playing on a budget.




The Decklist

Deck Stats


Decklist by Card Type



Card Choices

Creatures

• Agent of Erebos: Entirely a meta call for my list, but it's still a card that I think deserves more attention than it gets. Graveyard hate is important for any deck, as recursion strategies run rampant in this format. This card is graveyard hate on a stick that can hit multiple times. It's also tutorable at instant speed with Chord of Calling, a niche use that's actually been helpful in at least one game.
• Creakwood Liege: This card serves two purposes. One, it spits out tokens that we can sacrifice to things like Contamination. Two, it pumps up all of our creatures to get in some extra damage. My only real concern with this card is it's a non-bo with Skullclamp.
• Deathrite Shaman: He's graveyard hate. He's a mana dork. He can gain you a little life and drain your opponents. This card is a heavy hitter across many formats and for good reason. The elf synergy is just icing on the cake.
• Elvish Archdruid: Another mana dork, and one that can provide a ton of mana. He also pumps all of our elves for the aggro kill.
• Elvish Harbinger: One of our tutors. This one is usually grabbing Priest of Titania for some extra mana, or Reclamation Sage for important removal. She's made even better by the fact that she becomes a mana dork once she sticks.
• Eternal Witness: A green staple. Sometimes the things we need end up in the graveyard. The lady helps us get them back.
• Ezuri, Renegade Leader: One of our win-cons. This guy, plus a lot of elves, plus a lot of mana from one of our big dorks or Gaea's Cradle can end games quickly. He can also protect our elves, but if he's hitting the battlefield, we're probably about to win anyway.
• Llanowar Elves/Birds of Paradise: Classic mana dorks. Not much else to say about these.
• Magus of the Abyss: Though he's a lot more vulnerable being a creature, he adds some useful redundancy to our Call to the Grave and The Abyss effects. Unfortunately, unless we have Lightning Greaves to protect him, he only works long term if we have a token source, else he kills himself.
• Merciless Executioner: Pretty basic removal. Granted, he doesn't target, but he can hit solitary indestructible creatures. Even better if we can recur him.
• Priest of Titania: The biggest mana dork. This deck makes a lot of elves, meaning she can make a ton of mana. An important distinction between Priest and Elvish Archdruid is Priest counts ALL the elves on the battlefield, not just the ones on our side.
• Reclamation Sage: Spot removal and elf-tribal synergy rolled into one. Becomes instant-speed removal with Chord of Calling and is tutorable with Elvish Harbinger
• Sadistic Hypnotist: One of the most important cards in the deck, and the first one people usually suggest when Nath is mentioned. And for good reason. With Nath on the field, the Hypnotist's ability becomes "all opponents discard their hands." As lone as you have an initial creature to sacrifice, Nath will make two more tokens when the opponent discards. Rinse and repeat and you end up with a lot of elves and a bunch of opponents in top-deck mode.
• Sheoldred, Whispering One: Currently the only card in the deck with a CMC over five, and I have a feeling it'll stay that way. Of course, she has a huge target on her back, but if she can make it around even once, she clears a lot off your opponents' boards and brings one of your own creatures back. Totally worth the mana investment.
• Wood Elves: Ramp on a stick. Important to note that these elves grab a Forest, not a basic land, so they can tutor Overgrown Tomb or Bayou.

Artifacts

• Crucible of Worlds: A multi-purpose card. With a fetch land, this one guarantees we hit out land drop every turn. With an effect like Smokestack, it makes sure we always have something to sacrifice. And with Strip Mine, it makes sure you lose a few friends. Unfortunately, not a very budget-friendly card at the moment.
• Geth's Grimoire: Our opponents will hopefully be discarding a lot of cards, making this a potent source of card draw. Also, this with Words of Waste and a little bit of mana investment can clear all of our opponents' hands at once.
• Golgari Signet/Sol Ring: The two mana rocks in the deck. Most of our ramp is in ramp spells and mana dorks but these help, too.
• Lightning Greaves: This is mainly protection for our big target creatures, especially Nath himself. It's also a nice combo with The Abyss because it allows us to keep a crucial creature on the field since we can't target the equipped creature with the trigger.
• Nevinyrral's Disk: Because sometimes everything needs to die. Granted, this isn't the most efficient boardwipe, nor do we have any way to abuse it, like Darksteel Forge. The big reason it's stuck around this long is I have a German black-boarded printing and I love the old art.
• Sensei's Divining Top: Not much new to say about the top. It's card draw and card filtering and it's a pain to deal with. Since we don't do much at instant speed, this sometimes feels redundant when Sylvan Library is on the field, so I've been considering cutting it.
• Skullclamp: With all of the tokens this deck produces, Skullclamp draws us a ton of cards.
• Smokestack: One of the stax staples. Even if this lasts only a few turn cycles, the effect can be back-breaking. An important nuance to remember if you don't usually play with this card - the triggers are separate, meaning that during your own upkeep, you can have the sacrifice trigger resolve before the "add a counter" trigger so that you're always sacrificing one less than the number of counters that end up on the card.
• Sphere of Resistance: Another stax staple. This card is best when it comes out early to help slow down the game while we set up our board.
• Tangle Wire: And another stax staple. Like Sphere of Resistance, this card slows down our opponents in the early game in order to buy us time to set up. Similar to Smokestack, you can stack the triggers during your upkeep such that a counter is removed and then you tap things. Another important point to remember is you can tap Tangle Wire itself as part of its ability.
• Torpor Orb: One of those cards that's useless against a few decks, but so crucial against others that it's worth running. There are a ton of ETB triggers in this format and the Orb shuts them all down. Often this card is the cement in our lock, cutting off the only chance our opponent had for survival.
• Winter Orb: Yet another brown stax staple. This card slows things down more than all the others. This is best played when we have mana dorks or a big land like Gaea's Cradle to break the symmetry on its tap-down effect.

Enchantments

• Attrition: Removal and a sac outlet. With a token producer, this card helps to keep the field pretty empty. A weird rules note that trips some up some people: unfortunately you can't hit two creatures for one opponent with this and Grave Pact. You will make everyone sacrifice a creature, but the controller of the creature targeted by Attrition's ability can just sac that creature before Attrition resolves.
• Awakening Zone: This card serves two purposes: ramp and fodder. It's a token-producer when we need tokens, and it's ramp when we need ramp. What's not to love. Side note: it was a very conscious decision to run this over From Beyond. Though FB gives us 1/1s over 0/1s, because this serves as ramp, it's really important for it to come down a turn earlier.
• Beastmaster Ascension: One of our win-cons. With the number of tokens this deck can spit out, this card often becomes active in one or two swings.
• Bitterblossom: More token production. The fairies also have some evasion, meaning they're better than other tokens for getting in the small, incremental damamge over time.
• Bottomless Pit: One of the more back-breaking discard effects in the deck. The random discard really hurts and this strips our opponents of resources very quickly. When playing this card though, you just have to be careful that you don't have anything in your hand that you absolutely cannot lose, since the effect is symmetric.
• Call to the Grave: Another card to make sure our opponents can't keep creatures on the board. Sure, it doesn't hit zombies, but that's basically never relevant. This is another place where token producers become important because a constant stream of tokens means this enchantment isn't going away.
• Contamination: In the right match-up, this is just a one-card lock. You'd be surprised how few people run colorless removal. The perfect set-up for this card is a token producer to make sure it sticks around, and a mana dork or rock to make sure you can still have access to G. Unfortunately, this is a non-bo with Gaea's Cradle, since it changes the color AND amount of mana produced by all lands but that's a small price to pay for an effect like this.
• Cryptolith Rite: A relatively new addition to the deck but it's already proved its worth. By turning all of the tokens we make into mana dorks, this card can ramp us far ahead of our opponents.
• Doublin Season: A little pricey at 5 mana but more than worth it. This card takes our token production and pushes it up to eleven. We also run a few planeswalkers, which have great synergy with this card (ulting Vraska and making 6 assassins the turn she comes down, any one?) It also has synergy with Tangle Wire, making the card come in with 8 counters and really slowing the game to a halt.
• Grave Pact: Another way to keep creatures off the field. We run quite a few sac outlets and this helps them double as removal. It also synergizes with Call to the Grave-like effects, effectively doubling the number of creatures our opponents lose.
• Mind Slash: This card combines a sac outlet with a potent discard effect. Targeted discard effects are woefully inefficient in multiplayer, and this and Sadisitic Hypnotist are really the only single discard effects worth running. Not only do we get to see our opponents hand, we can also remove the best card in there. And, if you have Nath on the board, how many cards our opponents discard is only limited to how much black mana you can produce.
• Necorgen Mists: Not as good as Bottomless Pit but worth the redundancy.
• Pernicious Deed: It's like Nevinyrral's Disk, just arguably more efficient. Yes, this can be a little mana-intensive, but sometimes the board needs a reset, and this is your reset button.
• Phyrexian Arena: Card draw. Not much else to say there.
• Song of the Dryads: Unique and potent removal. This card helps neutralize whatever the biggest threat is on the board regardless of card type or indestructibility. Does one of your friends run a troublesome commander like Purphoros, God of the Forge? Poof! Now he's a tree.
• Sylvan Library: Card filtering and, at the cost of some life, extra card draw.
• The Abyss: Yet another card to clear our opponents' boards. Yet another card to feed our tokens to. I feel the need to point out that this effect is NOT sacrifice. It is targeted destruction where the creature's controller chooses the target but the enchantment does the targetting. This means your opponents can't choose creatures with hexproof and no one can choose creatures with protection from black or shroud. Anyone can, however, choose a creature with indestructible. It just means nothing will happen.
• Waste Not: A huge value card with all of the discarding your opponents will be doing. Of the three effects, the mana isn't super important, since we don't do a lot at instant speed. However the other two effects are more than worth it, even on their own. Important to note that, unlike Geth's Grimoire, this card's draw effect does not say "may," so if it's relevant, you cannot choose not to draw.
• Words of Waste: Another discard effect. As I mentioned in the artifact section, this can be used with Geth's Grimoire to clear all of our opponents' hands. It can also turn Geier Reach Sanitarium into "we discard one, everyone else draws one, discards two."

Sorceries

• Barter in Blood: Psedu-mass removal. If there aren't a ton of creatures on the board (and with this deck, there often aren't), this gets them all. I run this over Innocent Blood just because it goes wider. IB is better if you want to tighten the mana curve even more.
• Damnation: It's Damnation. Not much to say except sometimes everything needs to die.
• Death Cloud: This card wipes creatures from the board while also slashing your opponents' resources. Even with X = 1 or 2, this card can really hurt. Just a note: unfortunately, if you have Nath on the field, you can't sac the elves that Nath makes from the discard to Death Cloud's sac effect.
• Demonic Tutor: It's one of the best tutors out there.
• Dimir Machinations: This card is left over from when I was still building on a budget. There are so many crucial cards at CMC 3 in this deck, that this just becomes a 3-mana Demonic Tutor. There's also the niche-use of getting rid of something an opponent put on top of their deck, but I think I've maybe used that card for that purpose once since I added it to the list. This could (and probably should) be replaced by a more efficient tutor.
• Farseek/Nature's Lore: RAMP! Neither of these specify basic, so they can grab Overgrown Tomb or Bayou.
• Pox: It's like Death Cloud but even more efficient. Everything I said about the cloud applies here. Pay close attention to the "rounded up" part, as there's a big difference between playing this with 9 lands as there is with playing it with 10 lands (33% of your lands vs. 40% of your lands.)

Instants

• Chord of Calling: There are quite a few strong targets for this, and since we make a lot of tokens, we never have to pay a ton for it. Sadistic Hypnotist is the most obvious target, but Sheoldred, Whispering One and Ezuri, Renegade Leader are common choices, as well.
• Crop Rotation: It doesn't look like ramp, since it just trades one land for another, but when you can trade a Forest for Gaea's Cradle, it feels like ramp.
• Krosan Grip: Sometimes you need something removed and you don't want anyone stopping you. That's why the MtG gods gave us Split Second.
• Putrefy: I don't care what anyone says, sometimes you just need spot removal, even in this format. Unfortunately, we can't be as efficient as Vindicate, so hitting creatures or artifacts will have to suffice.
• Warping Wail: I'm still sort of testing this card out and I'm not totally sold on it. Obviously, I never see me using the create a token node. Mostly, it's there for the surprise factor of countering an important sorcery, but exiling a creature could have its use, too.

Planeswalkers

• Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury: This card acts as both removal and token generation, meaning it can generate a lot of value.
• Liliana Vess: Mostly, this is just another tutor. However if she sticks around, the discard effect can be nice, too. I don't think I've ever pulled off her ult.
• Vraska the Unseen: Another planeswalker around for her removal. And, if you can protect her (or if you have Doubling Season) she acts as a win-con as well.

Strategy


Change Log and Cards to Test

I really like the deck and the way it plays. Very well done. What cards would you suggest for a budget replacement in things like the abyss?

Glad you liked the deck! I should probably add a "budget replacements" to the main post. Here are my thoughts on the most expensive cards:

• The Abyss: These "sac a creature during your upkeep" variants are important to the deck and you want some redundancy. Thankfully cards like Call to the Grave and Magus of the Abyss are pretty cheap. Your best bet instead of The Abyss would probably be Anowon, the Ruin Sage. I actually ran him in the past and he works pretty well. I cut him because he costs 5 and being a creature means he's easier to remove, but for a budget alternative, you don't lose much.
• Gaea's Cradle: Unfortunately, there isn't a good replacement for this. The deck can function without it, it is just much more efficient with the Cradle. I guess Cabal Coffers is the next best thing as far as big mana lands go. It's not exactly a budget card, but it's significantly cheaper than the Cradle
• Bayou: Another dual. Llanowar Wastes is probably your best bet.
• Crucible of Worlds: Honestly, the deck can function pretty well without this. It's a unique effect, so I don't really have a budget replacement, but you won't lose a ton by cutting it. I'm just so glad I picked one up when they were $20...
• Damnation: Pick your favorite black board wipe.

I think those are all the really expensive cards.

The principle of stax is resource denial, grinding the game to a stalemate in which you can get just barely ahead. Cards that hurt your stax permanents, or don't cripple opponents enough aren't worth the slot in my opinion.
I'm actually OK with Ezuri because he's flexible, but Beastmaster Ascension and Joraga Warcaller should be cut for the above reason.

Staff of Domination - What is this card doing here? This card belongs in infinite mana blue decks like Arcum Dagsson. Without your precious mana elves this card does nothing, and you don't want dead draws in stax because every card matters.

Pernicious Deed only destroys your cards that are important to you. Since you won't have mana to activate it for say 6 you won't get rid of big scary fatties, and you don't have enough vital planeswalkers for it to leave behind once all your stax locks are destroyed - so if an opponent has Garruk Wildspeaker you are pretty much screwed. I would rather include Oblivion Stone to just wreck everything, or better yet Toxic Deluge for a cheap board wipe that also deals with Indestructible.
Still insist on X? Try switching to Black Sun's Zenith.
Speaking of which, Garruk Wildspeaker is an amazing card, especially for a deck looking to lock down lands. Nissa, Worldwaker less so, but still.

Thespians stage is a slow clunky land, especially for a deck that wants to be incredibly mana efficient, and should be swapped out for Wasteland to combo with Crucible of Worlds, as well as Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds. I'm amazed you have mana for Blighted Fen.

I don't think the counters on Doubling Season are so vital for you to pay one extra mana for instead of Parallel Lives, since you mostly only care about the tokens. I would slot in Lives here instead.

I don't like Vraska the Unseen here, but that's more of a matter of preference. I would keep her only if I could lock down the board hard enough to keep her safe, or if her ult was reached quickly enough and subsequently ended the game.

More suggestions:
More stax. Oppression is awesome. Mindslicer since you like to sac so much creatures. Chains of Mephistopheles is so famous for a reason. Null Rod doesn't do almost anything to you yet cripple enemies that rely on mana rocks.

Green Sun's Zenith. You're running more expensive cards that do less.

Card draw. Dark Prophecy, Fecundity, Evolutionary Leap, etc. Diving Top is card filter, which is good but not alone, and Waste Not can't quite be relied on.

Cheap, flexible spot removal. Song of the Dryads is often your saving grace as a green player, but you also have black, so you can be even more deadly. Abrupt Decay is a must have in my opinion, and Maelstrom Pulse is very strong. You could also test the new Sparta Kick. Innocent Blood nets a stupid amount of value in 4-player for a 1 mana card. Reclamation Sage is a green staple. Krosan Grip is anti-combo. Profane Command seems adequate.
I would slot them in instead of Warping Wail - I know this is a colorless counter, but I find it to be too specific to be substantial.

Hall of Gemstone - another psuedo Contamination effect. Players today are getting more and more dependent on multicolor, and you have mostly monocolor, artifacts and mana dorks, so you should be able to do fine.
Speaking of which, Elves of deep shadow are excellent on-theme fixing, and the 1 damage is negligible. Birds of Paradise and Sakura-tribe elder are also great fixing, Bloom Tender might be worth a shot since it's an elf and can be easily made to produce GB here, and more mana elves like Elvish Mystic and Fyndhorn Elves are also considerable.

If you do see yourself adding more creatures, and with all of the saccing you're doing, I would definitely consider running Meren of Clan Nel Toth. She's amazingly easy to activate, and never goes a round without doing anything as long as you have creatures in the yard.

If not, I would get rid of Sheoldred, Whispering One. She's expensive, does hardly enough when she enters the battlefield, and her recursion doesn't net you enough value. As a finisher, even Vulturous Zombie might be better for you.

Lili vess needs to be Lili veil.

Harrow should definitely be Crop Rotation.

Sweet deck tech - Madness is pure card advantage for you. Big game hunter can be cast while discarded to your various effects. Dark withering is almost free removal. Gibbering Descent is a stax engine more easily cast through stax. Voldaren Pariah can be an easily cast finisher. Asylum Visitor can be stupid in this deck, both when cast during discard and when drawing cards because your opponents have no hands.


Hope I helped! I love Nath as a stax commander, but it's tough to make him competitive ever since Braids, Cabal Minion was banned.

A lot of great suggestions, thanks! First off, some of the omissions you noted (mostly LotV and Chains) were budget considerations. That might sound silly when I've got Cradle, The Abyss, and Bayou, but I'm limited on the number of big purchases I can make at any one time. The next time I'm ready to drop big $$ will probably be Chains.

I think you have good points on some of the cuts. Joraga Warcaller can probably go, though I don't see me cutting Beastmaster Ascension. It's a bit of a pet card and has really helped close out games in the past. Staff of Domination was really just there for the combo with the big mana elves, but you're right that it should probably go. Cutting that also means Exsanguinate can leave.

Vraska is definitely a preference thing and I don't see me cutting her. Because of that I'll probably hold onto Doubling Season as well. I'm gonna try cutting Sheoldred, so that will help my curve a bit. You mention Reclamation Sage, but that's already on the list. I agree I could use a Krosan Grip. You also have a good point on Harrow vs. Crop Rotation.

Of the madness cards, I've been thinking about trying Asylum Visitor, so I might add that as some more card draw. I'd like Gibbering Descent if it weren't for the Hellbent ability. I really need my upkeep.

Some other suggestions I'm going to try: Oppression, Mindslicer, Null Rod

These are the changes I'm comfortable doing now without any testing:

IN
+ Birds of Paradise
+ Crop Rotation
+ Asylum Visitor
+ Krosan Grip

OUT
- Joraga Warcaller
- Harrow
- Staff of Domination
- Exsanguinate