One Jank to rule them all, one Janky Card to find them
This is one I built out of cards I had plus a six dollar budget, but that being said, this weird list of cards can steal games from meta modern decks in a pretty unconventional way.
The idea of this deck is to race to a life lead through evasive creatures, pump effects, giving evasion to things like Adanto Vanguard and also to draw a lot of cards in the early game in order to set up Maralen of the Mornsong with no lock effects.
An ideal play would probably be to flash Maralen in with Emergence Zone to get the first tutor, but even if you don't have that play, by being able to tutor removal and evasive creatures, plus the life loss of Maralen, and with specific answers that you can tutor like Tocatli Honor Guard or Shelter or even Adarkar Valkyrie which becomes a big threat with pump effects, what this deck is really looking to do is to create a race under Maralen that my opponent is not prepared for.
How does it attack the meta?
This deck loves going against certain meta decks. Maralen of the Mornsong absolutely shuts down The One Ring and dredge, and I am specifically not running fetch and shock lands because if your opponent is losing more life, you are winning the Maralen game. And Maralen also just shuts off most cantrip decks or anything that relies on drawing and casting spells.
This deck will really struggle against combo, things like HammerTime absolutely wreck me : ) But if you are up against murktide or something, you will be doing awesome. Even aggro is a pretty good matchup because you have a good amount of lifegain and evasive creatures.
Early plays
The first thing I want to do with this deck is get some creatures down, draw cards, and gain life. Adanto Vanguard is always a great start, along with Healer's Hawk or Faerie Guidemother, and then if I have an early Cast Out or Unearth I will absolutely cycle them away, and if you can be casting Revitalize or Shelter for value and cards, by all means just play it out. That early life lead is really what this deck is going for, so in the first few turns it is often best to not save things for later.
Then out pace them with perfect jank
What makes Maralen of the Mornsong so good in this deck is that this one is designed to tutor for answers where most of the time your opponent won't be. If they are running 3-5 colors, they might need to tutor for mana fixing, and if that happens you should basically win. If they have one big threat, I just grab Cast Out which is maybe slightly inefficient, but it's amazing in versatility and curves perfectly after Maralen. If they have something I can't block, I can tutor kjeloran royal guard. If they want to use etbs and incarnations, tolatli honor guard.
The thing is, if you establish an early game life lead, all Maralen of the Mornsong has to do is drain life while you hold to the end.
And, as much as the draw effects seem odd with Maralen of the Mornsong, when you are tutoring with her you are usually not tutoring cards that draw, so it actually works out so good.
Why some random cards?
I mean, I built this out of bulk, but still, there is some method to the madness : )
Adarkar Valkyrie is a good evasive threat that can protect Maralen, but also works great with pump effects because of vigilance. It's a little overcosted sure, but most modern meta decks that I'm seeing don't have a big mana endgame threat, and Valk is just free damage and blocks.
Amalia Benavides Aguirre does a few fun things but is maybe cutable really. I like the ability to get card advantage under Maralen of the Mornsong with explore.
Cast Out I really love this card anywhere, but here it is at it's best. Cycling it early is just bonus value, and then tutoring for it to remove any threat can really help keep things controlled once you are Maralening.
Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis does everything this deck wants to do, and in testing it's been one of best cards in the deck. Making bodies, great. Pumping creatures, yes I'd love to add 4 more damage per turn. Gain life, yep sometimes you just really need that : )
Emergence Zone is mostly here to get the first tutor on Maralen, and I use Inscribed Tablet to filter for this effect.
Hand of Vecna Now this is a weird one! I put this in to test and it has been insanely good. Being able to pay life to attach will almost always break even on life, and being able to reattach for 0 mana is wonderful with your evasive creatures and targets you want to pump.
Kels, Fight Fixer such a great card here but can be cut if you want to go modern legal. She's not essential, but very good value, and indestructible is just amazing in this deck.
Kjeldoran Royal Guard when Maralen is in play this is a great card to put up a defense. Pumping royal guard with Hand of Vecna or something can shut down so many threats, and then Maralen and evasive creatures drain them every turn.
Oona's Prowler could probably be Dauthi Voidwalker but I'm sure not buying them : )
Shelter protecting Maralen, giving evasion, drawing cards, it so does everything
Soul Collector I mean, I thought maybe Hand of Vecna was the oddest pick, but this might actually be : ) The thing is, with pump effects, this card puts your opponent in a really weird situation. Soul Collector with a Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis buff will most often make them choose between 5 damage or giving you creatures that you can then pump more.
So? How good is it?
It's going to depend on how the meta is when you play it, but right now this might just be my strongest deck into high power modern decks, and that feels weird : ) I kind of made it as a joke, or a thought experiment maybe on how to use Maralen of the Mornsong without locks like Winter Orb or Opposition Agent but it's actually been wildly successful so far.
The main bad matchups are combo, I really am struggling vs HammerTime, and Tron. Cascade is maybe 50-50, but anything control, tempo, aggro, they're all great, and I have yet to lose to Yawgmoth, and that seems crazy.
I don't know if I recommend building this deck, but can absolutely recommend playing around with Maralen of the Mornsong if you are looking for an anti-meta engine.
The thing about this deck is that it's like two players running a race but your meta deck friend showed up in a suit and loafers.
What it could be
I do think that maybe a more competitive build would be a GB deck that uses both elves and wizards to Pyre of Heroes Maralen into play to give you the first tutor. Personally, I like it better with white because of pump and protection, but without testing it, I do think that golgari might be in theory the better Maralen deck.
