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Mayael the Anima

Commander / EDH RGW (Naya)

Fleda

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Creature (42)

Land (40)

Artifact (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: Mayael the Anima

Sorcery (9)

Instant (4)

Enchantment (1)

Join Mayael the Anima in blindly following your faith, hoping a god, angel, or eldritch-horror-from-beyond-the-pale will come to rescue you when you need it most. This deck puts lands in play, then uses Mayael's ability to put creatures in play, then uses those creature to put your opponents in the graveyard. If you would like to know about the various lords and saviors that Mayael has at her beck and call, please read the deck explanation below.

As with probably every other Mayael the Anima deck, this deck is looking to get a bunch of mana, and then spend its turns putting creatures into play from its library until its opponents are no longer standing.

And as with most builds of this deck, Mayael the Anima is the main route to getting creatures in play, at least for a while. We are going to want to get to six mana as soon as possible, and then more or less activate Mayael every turn until we hit around twelve mana, at which point we can probably start activating Mayael and casting a spell every turn.

The lands in this deck are nothing special, they just make mana in the various colors required by the deck. I have included as many of the typed non-basics as I can, for the interactions with Karametra, God of Harvests, Skyshroud Claim, and Ranger's Path.

Aside from the color fixing lands, there are some lands that do semi-interesting things. Hanweir Battlements   and Hall of the Bandit Lord can help our scary monsters attack quickly, Winding Canyons can get our creatures into play at instant speed (provided we drew something we really need in play), and High Market keeps our opponents' grubby hands off or powerful creatures.

As previously mentioned, we are running a couple ramp spells. There are the aforementioned Forest/Plains tutors as well as the standard suite of Cultivate/Kodama's Reach/Explosive Vegetation/other stuff.

I do want to mention my favorite ramp spell in the deck, the criminally underplayed Recross the Paths. This card is pretty sweet for a number of reasons, most notably is that it puts the land into play untapped (it the land allows for that). If you win the clash (something you never get to say in Commander), you can cast the spell again and again, which is where being in this deck helps the card. We have a bunch of high converted mana cost cards in the deck, and this can help ensure we get to ramp to our heart's content. There is also a small interaction with Mayael here. If we have the mana to Recross the Paths and activate Mayael in the same turn, we get a chance to look at the top card of our deck before Mayael-ing, which may help us avoid a land or a spell when we look for creatures.

Since we want to activate Mayael a lot, and since we want those activations to put strong creatures into play, there are some cards in the deck to help mitigate or remove random chance.

Anything that lets you manipulate the top of your library is good to play before you activate Mayael. Mirri's Guile lets you rearrange the top three cards of your library every turn, which can turn that bomb creature you were going to draw into a land you would rather play. Mirri's Guile does all this in a much less annoying fashion that Sensei's Divining Top, which often leads to players ignoring it turn after turn.

Of course the most powerful ways to manipulate the top of your deck are the tutor spells. Worldly Tutor and Congregation at Dawn let you pick which card you get with Mayael, which makes them two of the strongest cards in the deck.

Jumping the gun on creatures a bit, Kodama of the East Tree works with Mayael's ability to put any large creatures that have ended up in your hand onto the battlefield without eating up mana for Mayael.

Through much trial and error, I have whittled this category down to two creature, so let's talk about why they get to be in the deck.

Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer is simply another copy of Chord of Calling. That's it.

Aurelia, the Warleader is an absurdly powerful card, and is pretty good off of Tooth and Nail or any other search effect. The on-demand combat step is strong enough to warrant the card's inclusion even though Mayael cannot put it into play.

Aurelia and Rocco, like any other creatures, aren;t crucial to the deck and can be replaced with any similar effect, or just any other card. The cards are in this build solely due to my preference.

With so many different creatures in the deck that Mayael can hit, I feel it is important to differentiate between why cards are in the deck. It should be mentioned that all the creatures in this deck are more or less threats, and even if a card is included in the "Utility" section, it might still be a 9/9 and thus still quite good at attacking. Being discussed here means the primary reason I have included it in the deck over other cards is because of the utility it brings to the table in addition to being large.

The gods are a good place to start, as their on/off nature means they are in for a few different reasons. Being indestructible means they will always be around to provide whatever utility they offer, being it land ramp (Karametra, God of Harvests), evasion (Iroas, God of Victory), or a power increase (Nylea, God of the Hunt).

A number of creatures are in the deck because of their removal abilities. Angel of the Ruins can exile two problem permanents. Woodfall Primus hits one problem card and is fairly removal resistant. Angel of Serenity can take three creatures off the board, or some cards out of graveyards at instant speed in response to a spell or ability. The Tarrasque can generally kill a creature when it attacks, and while it's best when cast it's still pretty good if it comes down for free. And Yosei, the Morning Star can tap down problem blockers, which I am considering a pseudo-removal effect.

Some creatures draw cards or otherwise put cards in places beneficial to us. In this deck, Combustible Gearhulk pretty much always says draw three cards, which can do a lot in the later stages of the game. Cavalier of Thorns is a ramp spell in front and a single regrowth after it dies. Velomachus Lorehold can find any of the spells in the deck for free, which can sometimes miss with things like Chord of Calling but can often grab a ramp spell of one or the nifty tutors (providing the dragon has been buffed in some capacity).

A bit of a black sheep in the deck is Bruna, the Fading Light   which can return one of the many angels the deck runs to the battlefield, but only when cast. This can be quite the bummer if it is the only creature in your top five, but I have found that the reanimation potential coupled with the ability to be a 5/7 off the top in a pinch has made it worth the inclusion.

Other creatures protect us and our board very well. Avacyn, Angel of Hope is the clearest example of this, as she and everything else become indestructible. Sephara, Sky's Blade does an impression of Avacyn, protecting the many fliers in the deck. Sigarda, Host of Herons protects you from Cruel Edict-esque effects, or potentially more relevant annihilator. Again, Iroas, God of Victory belongs in this category.

And some cards are just annoying for our opponents while benefiting us. Angelic Arbiter constricts what your opponents can do and also flies. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger gives us mana while making everyone else at the table audibly groan. Dragonlord Dromoka turns our turn into safe place and forces our opponents to make hard choices before they even know what will happen at our combat step. Illharg the raze boar works well with all the creatures in the deck, and makes drawing our expensive threats less of a pain to deal with.

Creatures in this category are in the deck for how well they can make opponents lose the game.

Every eldrazi in the deck is included for how annoying they are to deal with. Annihilator is one of the more aggravating abilities, and I subscribe to the belief that if it annoys your opponents, it's probably good. Cards like Artisan of Kozilek and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth may do other things as well, but it's the annihilating that lets them stay.

Zacama, Primal Calamity is a powerful threat that is hard to block, kills most blockers before they can, kills cards that would restrict how it acts, and keeps you from dying. The card is so backbreaking that I would be remiss to not include it.

Archon of Valor's Reach is in the deck to do its best Iona, Shield of Emeria impression. Iona was in the deck to come down and the promptly kill one to all opponents, and while locking out all the options that blue provides is so powerful it was decided we couldn't play with that toy, taking away instants hopefully fills the same role.

Doing things kinda similar to Archon of Valor's Reach and kinda like a bunch of other effects in the deck, Serra's Emissary can both protect you and your board from your opponent's spells and can also make it so your creatures can't be block by giving them protection from creatures, allowing you to swing with impunity.

Both Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Akroma, Angel of Fury are just good attackers that are tricky to answer.

Worldspine Wurm is a fat creatures and is in the deck because if/when the connect your opponent feels it.

Blightsteel Colossus is Blightsteel Colossus.

What I feel are the most powerful creatures in the deck are Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Xenagos, God of Revels. These cards are not going to kill you on their own, but what they do to your other creatures makes them the power draws of the deck. Gisela can make whatever army you've assembled into a threat the table must take notice of, and if you've never faced down a Tooth and Nail grabbing Xenagos, God of Revels and Blightsteel Colossus you haven't felt true panic.

There are a few cards in the deck to help your creatures do their thing. They all generally fall into the removal, recursion, tutor, or protection categories. Akroma's Memorial and Lightning Greaves help your big creatures attack as often and as easily as possible as well as giving Mayael haste, which Battlemage's Bracers while also doubling up on Mayael's ability. Naya Charm can return something to your hand or tap down your opponent for an alpha strike.

This deck loves the mid game, as that is where everything it is trying to do is easiest to do. Six or more mana ensures you can Mayael each turn, and if Mayael is killed you should be able to cast her again or any of the creatures that may or may not have ended up in your hand. If Mayael is on the board, you are typically doing nothing with your turn but playing lands and attacking. Activating Mayael at the end of an opponent's turn or in response to something is generally a better use of your mana than casting a spell and hoping it resolves.

Keep the potential outs in your deck in mind when playing. If your opponent is casting a Wrath of God, think about where Avacyn, Angel of Hope is: did you draw her, did you recently put her on the bottom of your library, or is she somewhere yet to be seen. Keeping track of what is on the bottom of your deck and what you haven't seen yet can be pretty important when facing a scary spell or ability.

This deck is running some expensive cards, from the lands to the creatures in the deck, but a lot of them have pretty easy replacements: Taiga and friends can become any dual land I'm not running. There are tons of big creatures that could replace any of the creatures I'm running, so much so that it doesn't make sense to mention them. I went with a pretty vague "Angels, God, and things that are worshiped" theme with a lot of the creatures, but you could just as easily include dragons, beasts, whatever you want.

My playgroup is typically on the slower play style side, so if you and yours like a game to be over at turn five, this deck probably isn't for you. I enjoy games that go on for hours, and this deck is at home in that time frame.

I've had this deck together for a long time, so I am fairly comfortable with the build. However, you might want something different out of Mayael. Let me know in the comments below if you like my build, want to discuss different card choices, or if I should burn this deck in an offering to the higher power of my choice.

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