Marath, Commander of Peasants

Commander / EDH* Cobthecobbler

SCORE: 27 | 102 COMMENTS | 19230 VIEWS | IN 21 FOLDERS


Been playing —Nov. 10, 2013

I've been playing a prototype of this deck, using about 20% of the cards here splashed into the Precon deck. It's actually been winning games. I managed to win every time against a Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge/Nekusar, the Mindrazer EDH deck that splashed great cards into the precon deck (He was switching between generals to find out which one was better).

I have found, more times than not, the best use of Marath's ability is to swarm the board with 1/1's. The burn is great situational removal, especially for generals. The counter distribution is the least important, and I haven't had to use it yet.

crankygranny says... #1

Looks fairly solid. I'm building a Marath deck myself and since he's so new, I don't really have any good advice yet. But you should know that Marath's burn ability doesn't count as commander damage.

November 6, 2013 9:34 a.m.

crankygranny says... #2

Sorry for the double post, but definitely consider [Cathar's Crusade], [Mana Echoes], [Parallel Lives], [Stranglehold], and [Martyr's Bond]. The first three make Marath even more crazy, and the last two are just really really good.

November 6, 2013 9:39 a.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #5

Looks like you're right on the commander damage part. Didn't realize it had to be combat damage. Either way, it doesn't make this any less viable. (I also have no clue where my last comment was so I'll quote it here just in case:

Yes it does, it specifically states that Marath deals the damage.

Also, Parallel Lives doubles tokens, so that would literally only apply to Assemble the Legion and Marath's token ability. Not much synergy anywhere else I'm afriad, it's going to be hard to justify that inclusion.

As for your suggestions. I really like Cathars' Crusade , I forgot it existed. Mana Echoes is considerable. The last two are really good, but I'm still not sure about them. Martyr's Bond feels like a white Grave Pact , and I like that a lot about it, but it's mana cost is huge :/ Stranglehold is good, but I think I'd rather run Aven Mindcensor for that effect.

Thanks for the suggestions.

November 6, 2013 10:30 a.m.

Phyxius says... #6

Hundred-Handed One : When this guy goes monstrous, he becomes the ultimate blocker. Now when I have Bow of Nylea out on the field, he becomes fucking crazy. Killing all 100 creatures he touches.

Doesn't really work that way.

First the bow only provides deathtouch to attacking creatures you control, so when you block there's no deathtouch, seconde you actually have to deal at least 1 damage to kill the creature, so at the very best, if he had deathtouch, you would kill 6 creatures, considering only his base monstrous power.

November 6, 2013 11:32 a.m.

firerunner36 says... #7

Why is Mana Echoes , Warstorm Surge , and Food Chain not in here? Having one elemental or beast on the field says I infinitely cast Marath and kill you all with the Warstorm. If you have a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher deck as well, he only needs the Food Chain to be broken. They may have overlooked that card when they made the new generals in green with those effects.

November 6, 2013 11:32 a.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #8

@Phyxius: I never took that into consideration. At least now I can switch him out for something better, considering that's the only reason I could justify him. Thank you.

@firerunner36: I think I see the combo, but can you explain it a little better? I get how it works with Prossh, now with Marath, bringing in Mana Echoes and Surge, can you explain to me how that would work?

November 6, 2013 11:47 a.m.

firerunner36 says... #9

Wait I think I might have made a mistake and it only works with Prossh (still would put warstorm in both) I'm a bit tired so you'll have to forgive me for any mistakes. How id thought was the echoes would be there if you made a beast or an elemental drop marath giving you one mana, and food chain would get you the rest, forgot that it didn't work like maraths ability does. So you'd need a infinite filterable mana combo for it to work, say with Basalt Monolith , Rings of Brighthearth , and Orochi Leafcaller to keep playing him and dealing damage with his ability, then having him enter to shoot with the Warstorm Surge .

November 6, 2013 12:43 p.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #10

Ah, yeah I thought I was seeing it wrong. Lol it's fine. I clearly made some mistakes on this deck too. Anyway, Warstorm Surge seems pretty fun, I might just need to get one in here.

November 6, 2013 12:50 p.m.

firerunner36 says... #11

The precon came with one I thought?

November 6, 2013 12:54 p.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #12

Yeah, but by "get one in here" I mean make room in the final decklist lol

November 6, 2013 1 p.m.

firerunner36 says... #13

November 6, 2013 1:09 p.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #14

If anything, Adaptation would be the first to go, hands down.

November 6, 2013 1:14 p.m.

Unforgivn_II says... #15

Cathars' Crusade - If you have this and Marath out, it makes for a sweet mana sink. Just pay 1, remove a counter, make a 1/1 creature, put a counter on everything, then repeat.

November 6, 2013 1:20 p.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #16

I never even considered that. Alright, now he's definitely coming in.

November 6, 2013 1:25 p.m.

Unforgivn_II says... #17

Yeah, I got stuck with Marath when my playgroup decided to split a set of the new decks. It's very fun to play with (you may want to bring back Contested Cliffs , its an all-star in games. Marath gets big quick and you can just kill whatever you dislike with him.), but obviously I wanted to add stuff. I had one sitting in my binder and figured, hey, why not?

November 6, 2013 1:30 p.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #18

Honestly, I don't like Marath that much compared to, say, Prossh, Jeleva, or Derevi (Bird wizard is my favorite), but I really wanted to use Marath cause I didn't want it to see no love.

Contested Cliffs seemed nice on paper but I felt it wasn't going to shine as well as Wizards thought it would. Is it really that useful?

November 6, 2013 1:36 p.m.

Unforgivn_II says... #19

Yeah, it was really good for me. With the ability to basically sacrifice Marath for him to ETB with more counters, he can get big quick. With the amount of ramp in the deck, he will almost always be bigger than the curve, allowing him to kill basically anything that looks problematic. Plus, you could probably go for at least one colorless-producing land, most of the deck isn't very mana-intensive.

November 6, 2013 1:56 p.m.

Unforgivn_II says... #20

2 colorless, sorry. Forgot about the High Market

November 6, 2013 1:57 p.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #21

Possibly. It's definitely not a bad idea.

Now, does Strionic Resonator actually work with Marath? Or is his ETB not a triggered ability? It's worded differently than say, Thragtusk .

November 6, 2013 2:18 p.m.

Unforgivn_II says... #22

It does not work. Triggered abilities have to say "when" or "whenever".

November 6, 2013 3:04 p.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #23

It reads "Marath enters the battlefield with +1/+1 counters equal to the amount of mana spent to cast it"

Did you mean doesn't?

November 6, 2013 3:07 p.m.

Nuggettt says... #24

Primal Command can't target creatures

November 6, 2013 3:25 p.m.

Cobthecobbler says... #25

Fffffff----

I guess trying to come up with a decklist at 6am was a bad idea. At least it's still not bad to have.

November 6, 2013 3:33 p.m.