She Likes 'em T H I C C | EDH Primer

Commander / EDH Battlecruiser Casual Ramp RGW (Naya)

RJGiel

Creature (35)

• 1x Apex Altisaur
• 1x Archetype of Endurance
• 1x Archon of Valor's Reach
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Blazing Archon
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Darksteel Colossus
• 1x Dragonlord Atarka
• 1x Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
• 1x Elder Gargaroth
• 1x Elvish Piper
• 1x Etali, Primal Storm
• 1x Fiendish Duo
• 1x Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
• 1x Impervious Greatwurm
• 1x Kogla, the Titan Ape
• 1x Nyxbloom Ancient
• 1x Regal Behemoth
• 1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1x Stonehoof Chieftain
• 1x Terastodon
• 1x Terror of the Peaks
• 1x Utvara Hellkite
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Worldspine Wurm
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine
• 1x Xenagos, God of Revels
• 1x Zacama, Primal Calamity

Land (35)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Fire-Lit Thicket
• 4x Forest
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Kor Haven
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 2x Mountain
• 3x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scattered Groves
• 1x Sheltered Thicket
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Bastion
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Garruk's Uprising
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Mirri's Guile
• 1x Rhythm of the Wild
• 1x Sneak Attack
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Wilderness Reclamation

Commander (1)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Cleansing Nova
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Selvala's Stampede
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Tooth and Nail

Instant (8)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Momentous Fall
• 1x Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Artifact (4)

• 1x Quicksilver Amulet
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring

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Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x It That Betrays
• 1x Marisi, Breaker of the Coil
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Proud Wildbonder

Instant (1)

• 1x Heroic Intervention

Artifact (1)

• 1x Mana Crypt

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She likes 'em T H I C C

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Welcome to my Mayael the Anima deck. I intially created this deck for my girlfriend so we could play EDH together, but it has grown into one of our favorite decks to play, and a project we continiously work on.

Mayael is an incredibily fun commander for both new and experienced players, and a perfect gateway into the Commander format. This primer will describe why and how.

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I. Introduction

I. About Mayael

Mayael the Anima is one of the OG Naya Commanders, way before Gishath, Sun's Avatar, Atla Palani, Nest Tender, and Samut, Voice of Dissent saw print. It's a card that has stood the test of time and still holds up against most of the newer commanders.

You might be thinking "6 mana for 1 random creature? That is bad by today's standards." And while it doesn't seem as strong as newer commanders, there's still a bunch of reasons why this is a still a very powerful ability:

• You can use this ability on instant speed, allowing you to be more reactive, and even activate it at the end of the opponent's turn, making your creature untap without summoning sickness.
• You don't "cast" the creatures, meaning that you can sneak in some big boiis without having to worry about counterspells.
• Once the activation trigger resolves, there's nothing your opponents can do, leaving them at the mercy of whatever creature you brought in.
• The ability requires 6 mana + Mayael, and that's it. No board presence or card in hands required, no other pre-requisites needed to be filled.
• You're cheating in creatures without using any resources in your hand, essentially causing every Mayael activation to create card advantage.
• There are a lot of cards that manipulate the top of your library, removing a large portion of the RNG that might keep you from playing a deck like this.

II. Should I play this deck?

Yes:

• if you like T H I C C creatures.
• If you are sick of having all your big creature spells countered.
• If you like dealing 30+ damage with one creature in a single attack.
• If you are okay with having a small RNG element in your Commander deck.
• If you want to please your inner-Timmy. (we all have one, and this deck is here to tell you that's okay)

No:

• If you like spellslinging and playing combos.
• If you like decks with a high card synergy.
• If you can't stand RNG.

III. Will this deck stay fun and relevant?

Some major questions when considering a new commander deck are always "Is it fun to play?" and "Will it remain relevant as new cards come out?".

To answer the first question, I'm somebody who switches decks very frequent because I get tired of decks fast. This Mayael deck is the only deck that has been with me since I built it over 3 years ago. It's always a blast to play when you're just having fun with friends. The RNG factor and explosiveness also allow it to compete in a variety of playgroups. It can beat a lot of stronger decks (obviously it's no match for cEDH decks, but it can hold its own against powerful non-cEDH decks) and it also possible to tone it down a notch when playing with some less powerful decks.

As for the question if it remains relevant? The answer is yes. There's not a lot of individual synergy, which allows it not care about new strategies, archetypes or releases. It will just do its own thing. One of the advantages is that every new set WOTC releases will have some big ridiclous creature in it, making it always fun to discover new cards for Mayael.

IV. Budget Options

Since the deck has such a low synergy and is literally about "ramping and playing big boiis", there are so many options for budget players. (This deck even started out as a budget deck). There's no shortage of over-costed but over-powered creatures in Magic, and there's no wrong choice when it comes to choosing a creature lineup for Mayael. I will discuss more of this in the budget section of tihs primer.

But in short: It is very possible to make this deck on a small budget.

V. WHERE ARE THE ELDRAZI???

We've deliberately chosen not to include Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, and Blightsteel Colossus.

Yes they are insanely powerful, but also "too generic". They fit in almost any deck and Mayael is all about cheating in creatures that you normally wouldn't play. With the large pool of available creatures you can add to Mayael, the Eldrazi and Blightsteel felt like a boring choice that would become old fast.

II. Playstyle

It may not come as a surprise that this is a ramp deck focussed on big creatures, and the deck will play exactly like that. Most cards serve as either ramp, card draw, removal, big creatures, or ways to cheat big creatures into play.

Most of the creatures in this deck have such a high impact on the board that they need to be dealt with immediately. And they usually come out of nowhere thanks to Mayael's ability.

A mistake that a lot of people will make is that they'll try to focus on removing Mayael as much as possible, hoping that it will stop the creature onslaught from happening. Fortunately, the deck plays enough ramp and other ways to cheat creatures in that they will just "waste" removal that they should've used on one of your haymakers.

III. The THICKNESS (Creature Line-up)

As I mentioned before, there's almost no "wrong" creature to put into this deck. But with the overwhelming amount of options available, I decided to put creatures in based on one or more of the following categories:

Creatures with a very good enter the battlefield ability

These creatures make a splash as soon as they come down. Meaning that they will almost always trade up with the opponent's removal.

• Apex Altisaur will machine gun down most of your opponent's key-creatures, combine with indestructible for even more hilarious effects.
• Dragonlord Atarka is not Bogardan Hellkite in terms of Flexibility, but the 8/8 Flying Trample body hits like a truck.
• Kogla, the Titan Ape is such an underrated card, it kills something on ETB and only gets better the longer it stays alive. Too bad Mayael is not a human.
• Terastodon - "Nasty-Terasty" didn't get that name for no reason. Dealing with multiple annoying lands, planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments in one sweep on a very respectable 9/9 body is nothing to joke about.

Creatures with a powerful attack trigger

Because the creatures will usually enter the battlefield at the end of the opponents' turn, we get to untap and immediately attack with them. This makes creatures that are usually a bit too slow (without haste) very powerful.

• Balefire Dragon can absolutely annihilate and supress token and/or small creature decks. Keep hitting them every turn to completely deny them rebuilding their boardstate before they've dealt with this monster of a card.
• Drakuseth, Maw of Flames made me chuckle when I first read it. It deals a WHOPPING 17 damage on attack. The first 4 is enough to kill most popular commanders, and the other 3 can either take care of other creatures or go straight to the face. This card is an absolute powerhouse.
• Etali, Primal Storm would already be good if it would only hit your own top of the library, but the fact that its ability scales with the amount of players is insane, especially when there's more "Battlecruiser"-like decks at the table.
• Ilharg, the Raze-Boar is a match made in heaven for any Mayael deck. It cheats in creatures that are stuck in your hand, potentially abusing enter-the-battlefield abilities, and even goes back to the top of your library when it dies, making it possible to cheat back in with Mayael herself. This card was a large wink to any Mayael player.
• Stonehoof Chieftain makes it so you can attack with anything, at anytime, without having to worry about making bad trades.
• Utvara Hellkite is the definition of a snowball becoming an avalanche. This card has single-handedly won us games if left unchecked. One dragon makes two dragons, two make four, four make eight, and the rest is history.
• Elder Gargaroth makes for a nice little toolbox that has such a low CMC that you can easily cast it from your hand.

Creatures with ridiculous power and toughness

Some creatures don't have to have good abilities if they can just hit like a train. Mayael doesn't discriminate for converted mana costs, so the sky is literally the limit when it comes down to large creatures. The deck has plenty of ways to give these creatures trample if they don't already have it.

• Darksteel Colossus is big, bad, mean, and hard to deal with.
• Ghalta, Primal Hunger is another massive boii that we can also fairly easily hard-cast.
• Impervious Greatwurm has no trample. Which is sad. But it's a 16/16(!!!!!) making it the largest (legal) creature in the entire game. It's indestructibility also makes it stick around long enough for you to find a way to give it trample.
• Worldspine Wurm has 1 power less than its "Impervious" brother, but that "Trample" keyword makes it oh so worth it.

Creatures that shape the game around them

These creatures have such a powerful passive ability that they can steal the game if your opponents are not prepared.

• Archetype of Endurance isn't a very exciting looking card but does so much work against the large amount of spot removal and steal effects in an average EDH game. Giving your board hexproof makes all your creatures a lot more potent and can help you close out games very fast.
• Archon of Valor's Reach locks out players that are comitted to a single strategy (e.g. Planeswalkers, enchantments, artiacts)
• Blazing Archon makes you immune to most win conditions in casual Commander.
• Fiendish Duo does not only make your (already hard-hitting) creatures hit twice as hard, it makes it a lot more appealing for opponents to attack each other instead of you, since they will also do double damage to eachother.
• Gisela, Blade of Goldnight see Fiendish Duo
• Nyxbloom Ancient is a nice example of the power creep that Magic has been experiencing the past years. It allows you to cast any of your creatures wihout effort.
• Regal Behemoth has two benefits. First of all, it brings the Monarch mechanic to the game, making it more interesting to engange in attack-politics. And since you're likely hitting the hardest, it won't be much trouble getting the crown back. In addition to that, making double mana is right up this deck's alley.
• Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is a massive pain for most decks at the table and absolutely devastating in the late game when a couple of players are lingering around low life totals. It also hoses out spellslinger decks and provides a nice body with reach.
• Another hoser is Void Winnower. Making half (often more) of your opponents deck unplayable in addition to stopping half their blockers is back-breaking for most decks. Void Winnower will easily win you the game if not dealt with immediately.
• Terror of the Peaks is a Warstorm Surge that you can cheat in with Mayael. Since our creatures have such high Power, this card can easily help you defeat players without even attacking them. Throw some of the damage doublers like Fiendish Duo in there and the game will be over very fast.
• Out of all the Praetors, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is probably hated the most (Maybe tied with Jin-Gitaxis). It's in no way a fun card, and if you'd rather not play this in your playgroup that's very understandable. It shuts the door on games that are in a stalemate and immediately puts you in a dominating position, but beware of losing friends because of it.
• Wurmcoil Engine isn't necessarily the biggest or baddest creature out there, but it's just so efficient. Great attacker, even better blocker, eats removal, gains you life, and on top of that has a very forgiving mana cost.
• Xenagos, God of Revels makes your already big creatures reach one-shot potential. Combine with Gisela, Blade of Goldnight or Fiendish Duo to kill your opponent while crushing their hopes and dreams.
• Oh, Zacama, Primal Calamity... we don't get to hard-cast it very often (when we do it's amazing), but even without it's untap ability this creature dominates the game. A 9/9 vigilance, reach, trample is already impressive, but add 3 relevant abilities and you get this absolute beast of a card.

IV. Supporting Cards

Now that we've covered our thicc creatures we can take a closer look at our supporting cast. We don't want the deck to depend entirely on just the commander, so there's plenty of other ways to generate mana, cheat creatures into play, and manipulate the top of your library.

Cheating in creatures

As great as the deck's strategy is, there are two major flaws. First, Mayael the Anima will get removed, either by targetted or mass removal. Second, you can (and will) end up with big creatures in your hand and not enough mana to hard-cast them. Fortunately, there are other ways to get these creatures in play:

• Elvish Piper and Quicksilver Amulet are the most direct form of cheating in creatures. They allow you to avoid paying the mana cost and even put them in at instant speed.
• Selvala's Stampede was made for Mayael. Putting in multiple creatures at the same time will almost always result in completely reshaping te game. Most of your opponents will force you to put cards from your hand into play (Voting "Free)", so I would always start with voting for "Wild". The upside of "Free" is that you can put any permanent in play, not just creatures.
• Ilharg, the Raze-Boar is another card just made for this deck. The fact that the creatures return to your hand in the end-step isn't even a downside, as you can just keep abusing one of your many Enter-the-Battlefield abilities.
• Sneak Attack is the most swingy of the cards that cheat creatures into play. It has a very low activation cost and will give your creatures haste, but you will lose them in the end step. Use this card only when you need to push damage to defeat another player or win the game.
• Tooth and Nail is just a nasty card, but too powerful not to play. Some of the creature combinations you can go for include Avacyn, Angel of Hope + Archetype of Endurance to make your board state indestructible + hexproof, Xenagos, God of Revels + Worldspine Wurm to attack somebody for 30 damage out of nowhere, or Gisela, Blade of Goldnight + Fiendish Duo to quadruple all damage dealt to your opponents.

Manipulating the top of your library

Another big aspect of playing this deck is the ability to manipulate your draws. Since you want to draw your ramp, supporting creatures and utility cards, but don't always want to draw big creatures, controlling what is on top of your library is an important tool for this deck. Mirri's Guile, Sensei's Divining Top, Scroll Rack, and Sylvan Library all help you get there..

Other Support and Utility

This section will highlight the other card choices in the deck.

• Even creature-focussed decks need some board wipes to allow you to pull back when behind. Austere Command and Cleansing Nova are the boad wipes of choice here, simply because of their felxibility. They are essentially always relevant, even if you're winning.
• The draw spells in this deck all (not surprisingly) check for the power of your creatures. Usually this is a bit tricky, as your opponents can just remove your creature in response to your draw spell, making it fizzle. Momentous Fall and Return of the Wildspeaker can be played at instant speed, allowing you to draw cards in response to a removal spell or at the end of your opponent's turn. Rishkar's Expertise is a sorcery, but has an upside that's relevant enough for it to be included.
• Crop Rotation isn't a very obvious card in a deck like this but does a lot of work. It can help you to push extra damage to an (unblocked) creature by surprise by finding Kessig Wolf Run, it can answer steal effects and mass-reanimation spells such as Rise of the Dark Realms with Homeward Path completely unexpected and can even find a draw effect with Bonders' Enclave.
• Enlightened Tutor and Worldly Tutor can find creatures even after activating Mayael's ability, allowing you to essentially cheat in any creature from your deck with Worldly Tutor, while Enlightened Tutor also finds Darksteel Colossus, Xenagos, God of Revels, and Nyxbloom Ancient to just name a few.
• Seedborn Muse is the single best card in the deck as it allows you to keep activating Mayael the Anima every turn-cycle.
• Wilderniss Reclamation is a Seedborn Muse Lite, allowing you to keep stuff in your own turn and leave mana for Mayael.

V. Budget Options

While this list isn't super high-end, it certainly isn't a budget list. Fortunately, Mayael allows you to easily play on a budget.

You can save money on the land base by playing slower cards like the guildgates and Jungle Shrine. This also allows you to play cards like Circuitous Route and Migration Path.

In terms of creatures, there's no shortage of cheap, dumb, big creatures in MTG, so any search on ScryFall or the Gatherer will let you find some nice creatures to play.

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Thanks for reading! If you liked this primer please consider giving an UPVOTE

Any comments are greatly appreciated, I will try and reply to everyone individually!

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	23 - 0 Mythic Rares 51 - 0 Rares 10 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	5.23
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Dragon 6/6 R, Elephant 3-3 G, Monarch Emblem, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink, Wurm 5/5 G w/ Trample
Folders	3. Girlfriend's Decks, Naya