CJB: Whip out those mana artifacts, here we go!
Hey everyone! Thanks for joining me again.
This week I'm focusing on two decks that require a lot of mana to cast a lot of crazy stuff. This is the stuff Commander was made for!
Arguably, these decks are also ones that are wiiiiiiiiide open to interpretation. Commanders like Nekusar, Titania or Varolz really have a linear path set before them in terms of deck building, with some wiggle room, but mostly with the same components. Nekusar without Spiteful Visions or Wheel of Fortune? I've never seen it. Titania without Crucible of Worlds or Sylvan Safekeeper? Laughable. Varolz without Phyrexian Dreadnought or Death's Shadow? Never gonna happen.
But Mayael the Anima and Maelstrom Wanderer? These guys can be built a multitude of ways. Heck, I even used Mayeal for one of my Christmas/Winter Holiday themed articles.
Both of these decks are decks I have built, rebuilt, scrapped, rebuilt-from-the-ground-up, rinse, repeat. These are decks that I'm never quite satisfied with, but am satisfied enough, at present, to present them here for you. As always, please use these builds to fuel your own deranged machinations when brewing.
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I'm going to start out this talk about Maelstrom Wanderer by saying I wish I could include Soothsaying. His big mana build has plenty of leftover mana to manipulate the X in the enchantment. Occasionally, since this deck is loaded with other deck-sifting cards, you might need the shuffle. The problem is that, more than the vaunted Divining Top, I've put it out and had opponents concede right away. "This won't be fun," or "I'm not sitting through this," or "This'll take too long" are the paraphrased and passive-aggressive chats I get when I drop it, so I took it out. In paper, this sort of thing doesn't seem as frowned upon-- but paper Commander and the ever-aggressive, spike-fueled Commander found on MTGO are entirely different beasts.
This deck is all about the top cards of your library, though. It shares this theme with Mayael too, but for different-yet-similar reasons, Maelstrom wants to cheat things into play via Cascade, and Mayael through an activated ability that plops things onto the battlefield. Mayael can only do creatures, where Maelstrom can cast all manner of things (which also count as casting, not just plopping into play), so long as said things are CMC7 or less.
Of course, all of the above cards are all better when you can manipulate the top of your library with things like the aforementioned Top. To this end, I have Thassa, (Nissa' Revelation), Sylvan Library, Mirri's Guile, Halimar Depths, the Temples & Jace, the Mind Sculptor's 0 cost ability.
Next up is a lot of card draw. We want a handful of spells and a library full of spells. We want answers, and to grab land to plop out. Urban Evolution, Ugin's Insight, the Chemister, the Ascendancy, the coveted Consecrated Sphinx, Impulse, Plea for Power, Coercive Portal and Kiora.
The rest of this deck is either Batman's Utility Belt-caliber stuff, or fun, Timmy-inspired fun cards in Temur.
Next up, we've got Mayael.
This is a varied group of creatures, mostly with power five or grater, many of which have been included because I want to have fun dammit. Yes I could put in Kozilek or Ulamog or Ulamog, but I decided against it. Old school red Kamahl? He gets called up to the majors. Magmatic Force? Heck yes.
This deck also allows me to indulge in my love of giant wurm creatures, particularly Worldspine Wurm and Novablast Wurm. By the way, the combo of Avacyn and the Novablaster is epic. Go ahead and Tooth and Nail for it.
Besides just Mayael, this deck has a lot of green ways to score creatures onto the battlefield for free. I loaded it to the gills with stuff like Summoning Trap, See the Unwritten, Elvish Piper, Norwood Priestess, and Quicksilver Amulet. Then, I loaded it up with mana resources like Mirari's Wake and (Animist's Awakaning) and Mana Reflection. Next up was card drawing, removal, batman's utility belt. Then I got to choose the creatures:
Mossbridge Troll: When combined with Mayael's Aria it can win you the game right there. Also a fun, underused card in its own right.
Mycoid Shepherd: Rockin' the Power-5 theme.
Drumhunter: Ditto for this, but ya know, card draw and a ton of mana.
Creeperhulk: I always want to use this card, but then it makes the cut. I figured in a deck with Ferocious and Naya's Power-5 matters theme, it's perfect.
Spellbreaker Behemoth: Indestructible stuffs!
Xenagos, God of Revels: He's just a really cool god when your game plan is stomp.
Godsire: What a fun card for making a bigger army.
Iroas, God of Victory: Another great god for a combat deck.
Armada Wurm: Two wurms for the price of one Mayael activation? Sold American.
Elderscale Wurm: Life insurance policy via wurm.
Engulfing Slagwurm: A great, underrated, threat that is fun for Commander, where big things happen.
Kamahl, Pit Fighter: Just old school man. Well not super old school, but old school enough. Hasty six, or do 3 to a problematic situation.
Worldspine Wurm: The mack daddy of big ol' wurms!
Novablast Wurm: Great in a pinch/great in a combo.
Baneslayer Angel: Making Serra Angel question her self-worth.
Gaea's Revenge: A fun card to plop out with Mayael.
Woodfall Primus: Useful fattie creature is useful.
Dromoka, the Eternal: I opted for this one because it's only 5 mana and if its in your hand, easier to cast.
Inferno Titan: More damage. In one game, I stacked it on my library with Mirri's Guile and then a well timed Summoning Trap foiled all my opponent's plans.
Avatar of Slaughter: This can just get downright nutty.
Magmatic Force: More damage!
Wurmcoil Engine: The best wurm happens to be mechanical!
Avacyn, Angel of Hope: How could I not include her?
Void Winnower. Conduit of Ruin, Breaker of Armies: Fun stuff from BFZ, eschewing Annihilatordrazi.
So, my favorite thing is putting Illusionist's Bracers on Mayael. This deck plays decidedly smoothly, and has netted me a higher-than-I-expected amount of wins.