Want Help Making a Maralen of the Mornsong Deck
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 2, 2015, 7:41 p.m. by Valentine35
As the title says, i need help making a Maralen of the Mornsong EDH deck. I just traded for a foil Maralen and i really wanted to use her as a commander, but i never looked into anything about her she just seemed like an interesting card to me so i picked her up and the foil looked really cool!
After i looked stuff up about her, the only decks i ever see are really stupid Ad Nauseam decks with Sickening Dreams and Glacial Chasm and a bunch of lands. I really don't want to make a combo deck like that because i could only play it once and after that everyone would just hate me, lol.
So i need help trying to make a viable multiplayer EDH deck with her at the helm. I did however really like the combo with her and Ob Nixilis, Unshackled and Wound Reflection, i thought that was pretty cool. Other than that i want a good viable fun deck to use her.
Any Suggestions on where to begin? Any ways i can stop my opponents from benefiting from her tutoring? Or to punish them for tutoring? Or to help keep her on the field so that someone doesn't just kill her with something they tutored from her?
I can see her downside in a multiplayer game, where i play her, then each of my opponents go look for whatever they want and the last person before me will just kill her so that i don't get to tutor from her..
Is she viable? Can she work as a commander? Did i trade my Jace, Vryn's Prodigy Flip for nothing? ( i also got a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and a few other smaller cards out of the trade, but still!) I really want to use her!
someguy5587 says... #3
also, some really good cards that can fit into any mono black edh deck i feel are Sheoldred, Whispering One, Rune-Scarred Demon, Snuff Out, Dismember, Sorin Markov (if you want to be "that" guy), Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence with Reliquary Tower, Black Market, and Phyrexian Obliterator all depending on your budget.
September 2, 2015 8:10 p.m.
Fleetwood-Mat says... #5
check out my deck Cruel Council of Maralen for some ideas. Basically, I found the most effective way to play Maralen is to get fast control cards that don't allow or make it harder to cast spells for opponents. I think the best cards for the deck are Winter Orb, Nether Void (which might be a little pricey to buy unless you play MTGO), you might want to proxy that one and of course there's Teferi's Puzzle Box. Keep in mind, that deck list has changed since I posted it. Mono black decks should have Karn Liberated somewhere in there to take care of artifacts or enchantments that could be troublesome for you.
Just make sure you have your land ramp in there, you will need Cabal Coffers, Lake of the Dead and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Those damage combos are great too actually, they're very powerful in game, and the best part is that Maralen is only 3 cmc, so you can cast her again and again on a stick. You will also want to put in Painful Quandary and Oppression because once they ARE able to start casting their spells, they just eat away their hands to do it, or take more life loss. Then another card that I like to use to ensure that peoples' hands don't get too stacked is Chains of Mephistopheles (another one you might want to proxy). Chains also combos with Puzzlebox to create a hard lock on the game, and they don't get a tutor like they would with Maralen. It's a 2 cmc replacement for the "can't draw" mechanic that makes Maralen so good to begin with.
September 2, 2015 11:08 p.m.
Fleetwood-Mat says... #6
On the above note:
Yes, letting people tutor is dangerous, but that's why it's a good strategy to make it harder for them to cast their stuff. Also, a card that isn't in MTGO (at least I have not been able to find it anywhere) that I like using against white decks is Stench of Evil
someguy5587 says... #2
it is a risky play with her as the commander. people may have seen it before and will expect a combo deck so it might get immediately hated away. also, if an opponent has white they may be able to tutor up Aven Mindcensor and it's kind of gg at that point.
if you wanted to try it out i would recommend never playing her out there without protection (Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, etc) and with black you have other great tutors to find protection pieces like Demonic Tutor, Beseech the Queen, Vampiric Tutor and Diabolic Tutor to name a few. also, with the first tutor you might need to go get spot removal in case Aven Mindcensor is a possibility.
i know it is probably not exactly what you are looking for but if you want a deck that can operate in a similar manner without giving the tutor benefit to everyone at the table my buddy has a Sidisi, Undead Vizier deck that runs lots of recurrable cheap creatures like Gravecrawler, Reassembling Skeleton, and Bloodsoaked Champion for sac fodder or just have sidisi exploit itself. the first couple of tutors are spent on mana enablers like Crypt Ghast and the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/Cabal Coffers pairing so the commander tax stays manageable.
Sorry if this was long but hope that helps! mono black has been one of my favorite commander decks i've built and they can be a lot of fun.
September 2, 2015 8:04 p.m.