MTG Salvation

Marath is a commander that struck a lot of people as very versatile and he enables a lot of different strategies that are all very well supported by those colors: Token swarm, +1/+1 counter synergies, toolbox, big creature beatdown, combo and even control.
This deck is all of that rolled together (except for combo, I'm not a big fan of combo) and surprisingly it works out really well. The key to that are the number of different toolboxes this deck employs:

First there's Marath himself. His abilities range from creating token swarms, or building up large threats, to controlling small creatures around the board and there are a number of enchantments and artifacts which let him go from solid enough into overdrive. If cards like Hardened Scales or Cathar’s Crusade stay around for two or three turns they will often be too much to overcome.

Second is the equipment toolbox provided by Stoneforge Mystic. There's of course Skullclamp which is bonkers with 1/1 tokens. I have Lightening Greaves which protect the top of my creature curve (there are some really powerful threats there, that are more than worth to be protected) and enable haste. Basilisk Collar turns Marath into a machine and Sword of Feast and Famine provides large chunks of mana as well as evasion.

The next toolbox is the lands. The enablers are Knight of the Reliquary and Crop Rotation which allow me to get any land at instant speed. I can use Contested Cliffs to make Marath eat up opposing creatures, Kessing Wolf Run to swing in with commander damage (late game Marath can be HUGE) and Strip Mine to shut down opposing utility lands. Spinerock Knoll, Windbrisk Heights and Mosswort Bridge are nice ways to gain CA from lands and potentially cheat something into play on the cheap.

Finally there are the creatures. At the start of the curve I have some utility and ramp most of which can be searched by Woodland Bellower. Higher in the curve are Purphoros and Iroas which both help to enable fast kills. There's Academy Rector which gets the enchantments that are so powerful if combined with Marath. Karametra helps trigger landfall and continuously adds mana to the board which is important because Marath is very mana hungry - that's why I have a number cards that help to continuously provide extra mana (Sword of Feast and Famine, Xenagos, the Reveler, Mirari's Wake, Karametra, etc.). At the top of the curve there are a few creatures that either help me to protect or recur my board as well as some powerful threats that will hopefully end the game soon.

In the early turns I want to develop the mana and grind out some value. The deck has a lot of ways to get ahead on mana very quickly while also creating card advantage. The curve is relatively low and while most commander decks usually do very little other than ramping in the first three turns, this deck wants to start doing relevant stuff consistently on turn three (this means most ramp and acceleration can be deployed on turn one and two). The deck will continue to try hitting it's landdrops, drawing extra cards and manage opposing threats. I have a suite of powerful and versatile spells to back up my creatures. Before long I will start to cast haymakers, all of wich can create huge amounts of damage while providing some added utility.

This is the most fun deck I ever built (at least for me) as it combines durdly elements of a typical GW creature deck but can also close out the games in quick and explosive fashion like an aggressive Gruul or Boros deck, all the while exploiting a plethora of unexpected synergies and interactions.

Dryad Arbor: Enables T3 Marath and overall faster starts with Green Sun's Zenith, can be fetched, Skullclamped, triggers Aura Shards, is great with Titania. It just naturally fits into the deck.

Birds of Paradise: Enables T3 Marath and overall faster starts but also has flying. There are occasions where I put a few counters on it an make it brawl with Angel and Dragons.

Sylvan Safekeeper: He protects my large threats from spot removal and is just great with Titania.

Sakura-Tribe Elder: More or less auto include in green. Enables instant speed landfall and can be easily recurred.

Bloom Tender: Adds GWR most of the time which is insane on a two drop.

Stoneforge Mystic: Enables the versatile equipment suite of this deck. Just an all star.

Scavenging Ooze: This deck wants to be able to grind long games and for that GY hate is just necessary. Can be easily tutored for.

Qasali Pridemage: Super solid removal that is easy to find and recur. I run it over Reclamation Sage because it can be played for two mana and anything I can do with my mana before Marath come down is pretty great in this deck. It is also better with Hushwing Gryff.

Nightshade Peddler: This unassuming common lets Marath control the board in dominating fashion. Nothing that isn't hexproof and/or indestructible survives. What brings this over the top is the fact that, compared to Basilisk Collar, this doesn't require additional mana investment once Marath hits the board.

Eternal Witness: Green all star. Easy to tutor and recur.

Knight of the Reliquary: Maybe my favourite card in all of magic, it enables the land toolbox of this deck as well as multiple instances of landfall per turn. Also grows huge in the lategame.

Tireless Tracker: It isn't super obvious but this card is really strong. It is obviously great when I flood out but also helps to draw out of screws. The initial mana investment is rather low and I can get immediate value by dropping a land just after playing him and even though he eats a up a good amount of mana, the fact that the timing for paying is very flexible and that I get a rapidly growing body, more than makes up for it.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds:The draw ability is okay, as it can manipulated by distributing counters with Marath but what really intrigues me is the insane tap ability which will often double the amount of available mana (or provide even more)!

Nissa, Vastwood Seer: Very solid card that can grind out some serious value. It helps hitting landdrops and will usually flip very fast.

Purphros, God of the Forge: He closes the game out in short order. Once he hit the BF my opponent either get rid of it or die quickly.

Iroas, God of Victory: He is surprisingly storng. The first ability means that even small creatures can attack with impunity and the second means that some will get through. Once I hit devotion he becomes a fearsome attacker himself. Note that he also gets menace

Academy Rector: From Purphoros to Cathar's Crusade, from Mirari's Wake to Karametra there is always an enchantment that will give you just what you need in any given situation and Academy Rector gets it into play quick and easy.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder: If you really think about it, he is somewhat like a mini Titan. Double Strike will help in making some threat lethal very fast (especially combined with the various other effects in the deck that can double combat damage), lifelink will be great in grindy games. That means he fits the deck, which tries to win fast and explosively while still being effective at grinding out value, very well.

Ogre Battledriver: Haste an a powerboost enables explosive combats but also makes the deck work much more smoothly with cards like Cryptolith Rite and other tap-abilities.

Karametra, God of the Harvest: She is very neat in this deck. Generates a lot of land for ramping and landfall, gets Mistveil Plains and it is fairly easy to achive devotion and turn her into a big beatstick.

Xenagos, God of Revels: He can provide lethal attacks very quickly. Haste is also very nice to just grease the deck along and as with Karametra it is not too difficult to achieve devotion.

Titania, Protector of Argoth: I always found this card very intriguing. There is almost always a land to bring back with her and she also genereates big elementals and is best friends with Knight of the Reliquary.

Sun Titan: One of the best recursion cards in this format. He brings back everything from lands and utility creatures to equipments and enchantments like Hardened Scales and Aura Shards.

Woodland Bellower: If there is nothing to destroy with Qasali Pridemage or some graveyard to cripple with Scavenging Ooze this will probably get Knight of the Reliquary. Other noteworthy targets are Eternal Witness and Tireless Tracker. It's also a beast, so you can make it brawl via Contested Cliffs.

Aurelia, the Warleader: She is vastly powerful and synergistic with the deck. She provides huge amount of damage, can check opposing planeswalkers and she untaps ALL creatures I control, making her really great with Selvala or Knight of the Relqiuary (which of makes her a solid value player, instead of just a finisher). The fact that I can pile counters on her with Marath also means that she is much harder to deal with by blocking, than in other decks.

Realm Razer: is something I always wanted to try in a deck. Ideally I can drop him when I'm either ahead on the board and prevent my opponents from catching up or when I have an alternative mana source such as Cryptolith Rite, Xenagos the Reveler or Selvala. He can also reset my hideaway lands. I many ways he is like "real" land destruction (though highly tutorable) without being as unfun for my opponents (at least I hope so).

Avenger of Zendikar: The old instant army. This deck ramps a lot and continues to produce lands throughout the game which means lots of BIG plants. The deck has also some ways to take advantage of having lots of tokens.

Gisela, Blade of the Goldnight: Aside from being essentially a 10/10 flying beater she protects my life total and my creatures, shuts down ping damage and greatly increases my clock. She also boosts Marath's damage ability.

Omanth, Locus of Rage: Ever since I saw him spoilerd, I thought that I just have to play him. He can produce a lot of huge tokens, often two or thee per turn and if any of them dies he deals damage. What's even sweeter is that Marath pumps out 1/1 elemental tokens. They may be small, but with Omnath, they go out with a bang.

Emeria Shepherd: I established that this deck can create multiple instances of landfall per turn. I use non plains to bring back small utility and plains to bring back the big stuff directly into play. This deck runs 10 plains total and more than a few ways to find them. Before she hits the battlefield, I try to ramp with as few plains as possible.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope: She is pretty. She makes everything very hard to deal with and she attacks for big chunks of life while still being able to block. Ideally I try to euip Lightening Greaves to her.

Hardened Scales: This is one of, if not the best card to combine with Marath. The fact that it only costs one mana to cast makes it arguably even better than Cathar's Crusade or Doubling Season. It costs almost nothing to deploy and once it's on the BF you can essentially go 1: Put a +1/+1 counter on Marath. Hardened Scales makes it so that extra mana never goes unused and that my creatures outclass almost any other creatures.

Khalni Heart Expedition: This has already been a point of debate in the thread. Of course it's not as reliable as say Rampant Growth, but it can be much more powerful and is also more interesting. If I'm not in topdeck mode (which rarely happens) it will often go active the turn after I deployed it.

Sylvan Library: Helps greatly in getting the right mix of lands and spells and can turn life into cards. Everything that can be played on turn two and then continues to produce value without further investment is great in this deck.

Cryptolith Rite: Earthcraft just costs too much money, but getting this budget replacement is awesome. It can greatly increase my available mana and even act like a ritual if there is already a number of tokens lying around. Just a great new addition for this deck.

Aura Shards: One of the best cards for GW creature decks, especially if you can produce tokens at instant speed. This is not only removal but shuts some decks down entirely.

Mirari's Wake: It's relatively low casting cost and the attached Anthem makes this the best mana doubler in my opinion. I just have to be carful to keep a counter on Marath so that he can kill himself, otherwise there is the risk that he gets stranded on the board.

Cathar's Crusade: I can win the game very fast with nothing but this, Marath and some lands on the board. After just one or two turns my army will be so wide and so big that only a wipe will save my opponents. Because of the extremely fast clock it generates I think it's even better than Doubling Season.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion: First and foremost this is a boardwipe that will often leave most of my own board intact while clearing the board of every too large. I think this is one of the best Planeswalker for commander because the number of chump blockers she generates makes her very hard to kill through combat damage. And having lots of tokens is really great in this deck

Xenagos, the Reveler: This is just a very powerful mana producer. He will often pay for himself in terms of mana and can even act as a "ritual" while slowly working to a strong ultimate.

Domri Rade: As she can come down very early, she can grind out some serious value and opponents struggle to answer her through my chump blockers, creature removal and Marath's damage ability wich will often create unfavourable combats for my opponents. The second ability can be very good as I usually have the larger creatures and last but not least, she can be returned with Sun Titan and having the ability to just recur a planeswalker over and over is nothing to scoff at.

Sol Ring: An early Sol Ring puts you in the favored position to win the game, I believe that there is not deck where it wouldn't make the cut.

Skullclamp: Stonforge Mystic target #1. Just incredible in a deck that easily produces disposable 1/1s.

Basilisk Collar: The best way to gain life in this deck and if I stick it on Marath, I can machine gun any non-hexproof, non-indestructible creature.

Lightening Greaves: To be honest, there are occassions where this does very little, but the ceiling on this card is also very high. Some creatures like Knight of the Reliquary and Stonehewer Giant just love haste (also great on a very big Marath) and shroud is great to protect high profile threats (especially great on Avacyn).

Sword of Feast and Famine: Besides boosting the power, providing evasion and protection and pressuring opposing hands, the most important aspect of this card is the "untap all lands you control" part. This deck never lacks things to do with its mana and so doubling the amount available is nothing short of awesome. Untaping hideaway lands the turn they come into play is just gravy.

All but Crop Rotation, Chord of Calling and Starstorm are accessible through Sunforger.

Crop Rotation: Lands provide a lot of utility in this deck and so having access to any one land at instant speed for one mana is a strong effect. Also very synergistic with landfall and Titania.

Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares: The two best spot removal spells in the format.

Hallowed Moonlight: A silver bullet against a number of broken effects. A nice pseudo counterspell for a nonblue deck and I can cycle it away if I need something else.

Eladamri's Call: Just a solid tutor that extends the versatility of Sunforger to almost the whole deck.

Naya Charm: Regrow, Fog, Sleep and a Lightening Bolt for good measure, rolled into one very neat package. One of my favourite charms and never a bad draw.

Return to Dust, Sylvan Reclamation: Very good artifact and enchantment removal. Takes care of opposing Skullclamps and Aura Shards just as well as of Darksteel Forges and Blightsteel Colossus.

Chord of Calling: Get any creature (threat or answer) at instant speed on the table. Convoke is obviously also very nifty in this deck.

Search for Tomorrow: There are not many really good t1 ramp options but this is one. The only time it's really worse than Rampant Growth is when it's drawn exactly on turn two. If not turn 2 is freed up to do other stuff but I still have an extra land on turn 3.

Farseek, Nature's Lore: Two mana ramp will probably always be rather powerful and those are the two best besides Sakura-Tribe Elder. Note that Farseek can also get Mistveil Plains.

Green Sun's Zenith: Is a fantastic one-drop (with Dryad Arbor of course) that only gets better as the game progresses.

Eldritch Evolution: Eldritch Evolution allows me to transform a Marath with one counter left into Karametra, Titania and other goodies. It's just a very flexible but still precise card that is efficiently costed.

Tragic Arrogance: The boardwipes in this deck are chosen in a way that they can be set up to be as one sided as possible. This one certainly allows that while also getting around indestructibility.

Austere Command: Arguably the best white boardwipe spell in Commander. Not only can it hit creatures artifacts and lands, there are often situations where it can be (almost) completely one sided.

Terminus: I definitely want another sweeper in this deck and Termins is very powerful in the sense that indestructabilty doesn't help against it. That it can be miracled is also relevant as it means that it doesn't take my whole turn and I can reestablish a board before passing. Sylvan Library can help to set this up.

Command Tower, Fire-Lit Thicket, Wooden Bastion: Straight up solid mana fixing.

Windswept Heath, Arid Mesa, Wooded Foothills, Misty Rainforest, Verdant Catacombs: Fetchlands not only are awesome mana fixers as they grant access to all three colors, they also have some great synergies with the deck, since they can trigger multiple instances of landfall, work great with Titania and can also be recurred by Sun Titan. The "white" ones can also get Mistveil Plains.

Sacred Foundry, Stomping Grounds, Cinder Glade, Temple Garden, Canopy Vista: Mana fixing and easy to find. Not only with fetchlands, also with Farseek and Karametra. They can also be sacced to Knight of the Reliquary.

Krosan Verge, Myriad Landscape: Ramp on lands. I just love those. I either use them to accelerate in the early turns or keep them around to trigger landfall.

Strip Mine: Arguably the best utility land in the format. Deals with opposing utility lands and if I start to recur it, it gets nasty.

High Market: I totally run this for the lifegain... Seriously, the deckbuilding cost to include High Market is really low and the effect can be very important be it to get Academy Rector or Anger into the graveyard, to save key creatures from exile or to fizzle a kicked Rite of Replication.

Contested Cliffs: Repeatable removal? On a land that doesn't ETB tapped? That's crazy! Well, I need to have a big beast in play... but wait my commander is a beast... Basically this does what Marath does by himself but without losing counters and often at a mana discount.

Kessig Wolf-Run: Ends lives very fast. Especially if combined with Xenagod or Boros Charm.

Temple of the False God: With all the equip costs and Maraths ability, this deck is on the market for lots of colorless mana.

Mistveil Plains: Between fetchlands, Farseek, Karametra, Crop Rotation and Knight of the Relqiuary this is easy to find and turns tutors (especially repeatable ones, like Sunforger) into recursion. It also traps people who try to reanimate somthing from my graveyard.

Mosswort Bridge, Windbrisk Heights, Spinerock Knoll: Those hideaway lands are nothing short of awesome. I love the randomness of what I get, but also the power. I get to dig for an answer or threat and cast it for a (most likely for a discount) and at instant speed! And all that on a land!! The requirements, espcially the one on Mosswort Bridge, are surprisingly easy to fullfill and if combined cards like Boros Garrison or Mina and Denn they can turn into their own little card advatage engine. Mosswort Bridge is definitely the best of the bunch as it has no timing restrictions.

Boros Garisson: I don't want to run more bouncelands because it can get clunky with too many ETB tapped lands (and I already have a good number of those) but I love having one around. It can reset hideaway lands and tun Knight of the Reliquary and Crop Roation into and extra landdrop if needed.

The following are some cards that some people see as must play for Marath but are conspiciously missing from my list and here's why:

Earthcraft: Low cmc, but high impact because of it's synergy with Marath. The reason why I don't run it is it's pricetag. If I manage to get a copy in a good trade, yeah I'll stick it in gladly, but it's also okay that I don't own one. Also we now got Cryptolith Rite as an awesome budget option.

Ashnod's Altar: This can open up absurd lines of play. So why isn't it in the deck? One reason is because it does nothing on it's own and it is not always useful and the other is because I think it's an ugly ugly card. Sorry if this sounds ridiuclous but if they ever make a nice reprint, I'll reconsinder.

Mana Echoes: It has similar issues to Ashnod's Altar (except for the art, which I like). Of course it can create absurd quantities of colorless mana but that can either be use to go infinite with Hardened Scales or Cathar's Crusade or not be used all too effectively at all.

Doubling Season: I would definitely run it, if I had a copy but the pricetag is off-puting. I think that many people see this as the be all end all card to combine with Marath and that's how it is perceived at a table and thus incite lots of hate. I also honestly believe that both Hardened Scales and Cathar's Crusade are better.

You may also notice that those are all cards which either require a preexisting board position or something else to be done afterward to really affect the game. I also run some cards like this and I think it's a bit of a trap to run every single available engine piece with a synergy driven commander like Marath. The danger of that is to try to set up engine after engine, getting disrupted time after time and the having invested a lot of resources without having advanced the game in your favour at all.
With my approach I have a little less raw potential power but more cards that don't require any setup which allows for a much more flexible gameplan. I had a Marath list with more engine pieces when he first was released and it didn't run nearly as well as this one.

• Birds of Paradise
  
• Bloom Tender
  
• Knight of the Reliquary
  
• Sol Ring
  
• Sakura-Tribe Elder
  
• Kahlni Heart Expedition
  
• Search for Tomorrow
  
• Farseek
  
• Rampant Growth
  
• Sword of the Animist
  
• Karametra, God of the Harvest
  
• Mirraris Wake
  
• Myriad Landscape
  
• Krosan Verge

• The all colored mana cost makes him awkward to cast sometimes and it always feels, like my mana is better used in another way.
• If your build isn't a dedicated token swarm deck, there are not actually that many creatures entering the BF for the life to really matter that much (and if you are a dedicated token build something like Essence Warden is probably better since most creatures entering the BF will have a toughness of 1)
• His activated ability is very clunky if you only populate small tokens and I almost never make large token with Marath.

Quote from Volango »

That is a good question: I also put Trostani in because I had a copy and he seems to fit, right? But there were a few issues with the card:

• The all colored mana cost makes him awkward to cast sometimes and it always feels, like my mana is better used in another way.
• If your build isn't a dedicated token swarm deck, there are not actually that many creatures entering the BF for the life to really matter that much (and if you are a dedicated token build something like Essence Warden is probably better since most creatures entering the BF will have a toughness of 1)
• His activated ability is very clunky if you only populate small tokens and I almost never make large token with Marath.

Bottomline: Everytime I drew him, it felt like there was seldom a good moment to deploy him and if he gets on the BF he either has too little impact or is too fragile.
If I want more lifegain (besides Basilisk Collar which is great), I'd run something like True Conviction or Soul of Theros and if I'd want to crank up my token production something like Parallel Lives is where I would go.

I am tempted however to build a deck with him at the helm and run him alongside Mimic Vat and Seance

Quote from RivenVII »

Doubling Season should be in here. Never run out of counters on Marath again. Earthcraft is pretty strong too. I understand if there are budget concerns though.

Quote from Manite »

The Wall of Reverence + Cradle of Vitality combo makes it really easy to reload Marath's counters, and they're both easy enough to fetch using Congregation at Dawn and Idyllic Tutor respectively. Then there's Warstorm Surge to combine your token and damage effects into one and True Conviction to grant your creatures lifelink so the damage you deal also heals you. Consider Death's Presence to provide even more counters when your creatures die and Stalking Vengeance to compliment Warstorm Surge. Finally, Mayael's Aria provides an alternate wincon that builds nicely on the deck's themes.

Quote from RivenVII »

Doubling Season should be in here. Never run out of counters on Marath again. Earthcraft is pretty strong too. I understand if there are budget concerns though.

Quote from Volango »

I did a whole lot of changes in the past couple of weeks:
-Reclamation Sage
-Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
-Yeva, Nature's Herald
-Saffi Eriksdotter
-Hour of Reckoning
-Starstorm
-Sword of the Animist
-Blighted Woodland

+Qasali Pridemage
+Nature's Lore
+Survival of the Fittest
+Sunblast Angel
+Strip Mine
+Sylvan Safekeeper
+Intrepid Hero
+Shard Phoenix

Explanations for the more sketchy looking exclusions can be found in the "Currently testing" section of the OP, so be sure to check those out.
Saffi and Yeva did not work out as I would have liked them to. Saffi sat around doing nothing more often than not and while Yeva was sweet at times I often wished her to be something else.
Kamahl was also underperforming for me. While the ceiling on him is pretty high, he often sits around as a 4/3 for 4GG.

Cards I currently am also considering for this deck are Gaddock Teeg and Ardarkar Valkyrie.

Let me know what you think and don't hesitate to ask questions!