Maralen's Combo Factory

Commander / EDH Casual Combo Control Discard Mono-Black Suicide Black

TubbyWanKenobi

Land (36)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 1x High Market
• 1x Howltooth Hollow
• 1x Leechridden Swamp
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 19x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Enchantment (13)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Bottomless Pit
• 1x Contamination
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Gibbering Descent
• 1x Infernal Darkness
• 1x Lethal Vapors
• 1x Necrogen Mists
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Painful Quandary
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x Shrieking Affliction
• 1x Wound Reflection

Creature (17)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Archfiend of Despair
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Loyal Subordinate
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Sangromancer
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Thief of Blood
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Vampire Hexmage

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Behold the Beyond
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x In Garruk's Wake
• 1x Praetor's Grasp
• 1x Remorseless Punishment
• 1x Sadistic Sacrament
• 1x Temporal Extortion
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

Instant (4)

• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Malicious Affliction
• 1x Vraska's Contempt

Commander (1)

Artifact (17)

• 1x Anvil of Bogardan
• 1x Bontu's Monument
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Eldrazi Monument
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Noetic Scales
• 1x Null Brooch
• 1x Reito Lantern
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms

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Sideboard

Artifact (3)

• 1x Elbrus, the Binding Blade  ^Flip
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Winter Orb

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Gild

Creature (2)

• 1x Dread
• 1x Herald of Leshrac

Instant (1)

• 1x Sudden Spoiling

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Dauthi Embrace
• 1x Tainted Remedy

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Maybeboard

Creature (5)

• 1x Cunning Lethemancer
• 1x Magus of the Abyss
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Platinum Emperion
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Cruel Entertainment

Artifact (5)

• 1x Blood Clock
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Eon Hub
• 1x Journeyer's Kite
• 1x Umbilicus

Land (2)

• 1x Scrying Sheets
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Enchantment (1)

• 1x No Mercy

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This deck is for when you want your friends to hate you. It's a black control deck made to make sure nobody has fun but you. Be ready to have the whole table trying to stop you though. Maralen lets everyone get the cards they want, so the key to winning is making sure to stay one step ahead of everyone. But winning isn't really the goal of the deck, watching people struggle to play their decks is the real goal. Winning is just a bonus if you can pull it off.

The deck is stuffed with as many combos as I could fit while also throwing in a couple of my personal favorite mono black cards just for fun. I usually play the deck by looking at my starting hand and deciding what combo I can put together the fastest. Once that is done, I play based on what my opponents are doing and try to keep them responding to me.

Much of the deck is built to make sure everyone has no hand. They have to use the card they tutor for the turn they get it.

Discard

• Anvil of Bogardan: Can force opponents to use only instants if their hand is empty at the beginning of their turn.
• Bottomless Pit
• Dark Deal: With Maralen out, this reads "Everyone discard their hand".
• Gibbering Descent: More on this later.
• Library of Leng: Our discarded cards stay in our library.
• Necrogen Mists
• Painful Quandary
• Remorseless Punishment
• Sangromancer: Hurt your opponents more for discarding.
• Teferi's Puzzle Box: This is pretty much discard for our purposes. And with Maralen out you can stack the abilities in the right order causing your opponents to have to use their spells after they search for a card, but before they put it on the bottom of their library.
• Torment of Hailfire: Discard, removal, or life loss all tied into one card. That's value!

Gibbering Descent Combos

Once you have no cards in your hand, you wont have an upkeep. This helps with many different cards.

• Contamination: Don't pay the upkeep cost.
• Eldrazi Monument Protection for your creatures without the sacrifice cost.
• Glacial Chasm: You can't attack, but you also don't take damage. And you also don't have to pay life to keep it out.
• Infernal Darkness: Don't pay the cumulative upkeep.
• Noetic Scales: Keep your opponents creatures off the board.

Basic Combos

• Dark Depths + Vampire Hexmage or Thespian's Stage or Mirage Mirror: Easy 20/20 Avatar.
• Dark Depths + Thief of Blood: Easy 20/20 Avatar and another 11/11 Flyer (Maybe even bigger).
• Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond or Defiant Bloodlord: Insta-win as soon as you gain life or someone loses life.
• Maralen + Ob Nixilis, Unshackled: 13 Damage to your opponents each turn. Double it with Wound Reflection or Archfiend of Despair.
• Mindcrank + Bloodchief Ascension: Once all the counters are on Bloodchief, you can completely mill people by having them lose life or discard a card.

Other Helpful Things

• Caged Sun, Crypt Ghast, and Nirkana Revenant: Mana acceleration.
• Contamination + Ophiomancer: Another easy way to keep Contamination out.
• Eldrazi Temple +Ophiomancer: Another way to keep the Monument out.
• Liliana of the Dark Realms and Thaumatic Compass  : Search for swamps without wasting Maralen's tutor.
• Lethal Vapors: Somebody will eventually break down and destroy it. Even if they do use a spell, it still makes them use some removal that could be used on one of your better combos. Just make sure to protect Maralen while it's out so you aren't the one needing to play a creature.
• Necropotence: You can get three cards a turn for three life instead of just one, or as many cards as you want. If you have a good lockdown, you can just use it to avoid the life loss from Maralen.
• Null Brooch: You can still discard your hand even if you don't have any cards in it. That means you can counter spells for two mana!
• Reito Lantern: Get your lost combo pieces back into your deck!
• Sadistic Sacrament: Get rid of a pesky player's answers to your deck.
• Shrieking Affliction: Kill people faster when nobody has any cards.

There are lots of other things you could do with Maralen, but I found this a fun way to build her. Getting Teferi's Puzzle Box out early is usually a good way to start locking things down. Any things you think might work well or would be fun are welcome. I'd love to hear any suggestions.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 2 Mythic Rares 44 - 7 Rares 22 - 1 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.81
Tokens	City's Blessing, Demon 5/5 B, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Emblem Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, Gold, Marit Lage, Snake 1/1 B
Folders	Fun Decks, Maralen Research, Keep in mind, Fun decks, Eye Dee Ah Machine