"Duty does not care what weapon it has. If not bolts, blades. If not blades, fists. Duty is a weapon that does not break."

-Marneus Calgar


"Marneus Augustus Calgar, also known as The Notorious M.A.C, The MAC Daddy, Big MAC, Manliest Cattleguard, Pimp Daddy Calgar, and Big Daddy Calgar. Recently demoted from Papa Smurf to Brainy Smurf due to the return of tha notorious RbG, though some still call him Papa Smurf and Big Bobby G. as Grandpa Smurf. And as of his latest incarnation, Primarneus Goodcards."

"Marneus Calgarfoil is the current Chapter Master of the Ultramarines Chapter of Space Marines, and titled Lord Macragge. He's also now a Primaris Marine."

Codex Approved Midranging

This is a rather typical Marneus Calgarfoil cEDH, cruising in midrange hell with good value engines making use of his triggered and activated abilities. It's pretty important to play Marneus Calgarfoil himself, but not mandatory with the right engines on field. Overall, we're looking to play cards like Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora for good draw, Smothering Tithe and Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff for some treasure to accelerate our game, and some token generators with Charismatic Conqueror and Stridehangar Automaton, not to mention Marneus Calgarfoil himself, that we can sacrifice later with Warren Soultrader for a ton of Treasure tokens and even card draw if Marneus Calgarfoil is on field.

It's worth noting that this is not a turbo deck in any regard. This deck is pretty consistent to present it's win around Turn 5 or 6 at the earliest, though Turn 4 is possible with some lucky draws. That means any cEDH deck that goes turbo and presents a win at Turn 2 or 3 on average is going to beat you to the finish line. This is why we run a little heavy in the instant category. This decklist runs less non-permanents than other decklists out there, but I found myself pretty attached to the creatures in the deck. You're going to want to get a hand with a Mana Drain or Silencefoil pretty early into a match if you know one of your opponents can go turbo. But, if you can hold them off without putting yourself in last place, you'll be in a good position to go for your own win.

WinCons

1.) Tivit, Seller of Secretsfoil and Time Sieve is infinite turns with very little effort, whether if you want to do it via Combat or Displacer Kitten. This is typically enough to make the other players concede, but if not, just keep going until they do anyways.

2.) It takes quite a few pieces to set up, but Marneus Calgarfoil + Stridehangar Automaton + Warren Soultrader + Kambal, Profiteering Mayor presents a line where you can draw your entire deck, create 1 Treasure per draw, and deal 1 damage to each opponent per draw.

3.) Finally, Tainted Pact to find and cast Thassa's Oracle then casting Demonic Consultation does exactly what you expect it to do. Not flashy or super interesting, but a bunch of players run it for a reason.

Midranging Marneus Guide

1.) Casting Marneus Calgarfoil is not my top priority, having value in my hand Turn 1 is. He makes value better, but doesn't generate a ton of value by himself. Get a token generator and draw engine on field first.

2.) Pretty consistent tutor targets for me are Stridehangar Automaton and Warren Soultrader. Goldsabertooth wasn't joking, these cards together, even without Marneus Calgarfoil, are amazing, and he makes it even better.

3.) I don't really tutor my way to Tainted Pact or Demonic Consultation unless I already have one or the other. You don't want to put all your eggs in the Thoracle basket until you've got good mana and a hand of interaction for when people try to stop you from winning.

4.) To be honest, most of the clone spells are to make copies of my cards, not my opponents. I could theoretically be in a pod where my opponents play the type of value engines I'm looking for, but I already run all the ones I want, so I just want more of the same.

5.) The deck has some really solid cards in it (hence the "Primarneus Goodcards" bit), but the perceived power level of this deck comes from cEDH being a multiplayer game. The less opponents you have, the less value you're going to generate, so I don't really recommend playing this in a French scenario. Additionally, if your opponents aren't really playing anything powerful, your perceived value is going to go way down. We do want our opponents to do well, just not so well they win.

6.) In theory, you could swap about a dozen pieces of cardboard, quadruple the value of this deck, and bring this deck exactly up to cEDH standards and staples, but only a select few players out there have that kind of money to blow on Magic. Don't get me wrong, I love the format, but the price of entry for legit cards is completely unreasonable and I've already got my Top-Decking Major Arcana | Flubs Storm cEDH deck that seems to get more and more proxies, and it's just nice to have a Marneus Calgarfoil deck with legit cards.

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Casual

99% Competitive