Marath - Board Control

[ISBPathfinder]

So, this actually started off as an Enchantess list but then I realized that I was sort of forcing that unnecessarily. I culled back on that concept and while I still have a ton of enchantments in the list I just felt better off by running better draw than the enchantresses were giving me. I played the enchantress version only once or twice on trice but I am hoping that this version is better. I added in an equipment package given how good skullclamp is all the time and I found enough other equipment that I went in on some equip tutors as well.

Lots of this deck I designed from the standpoint of: "Does marath plus this card create a good boardstate". It does a lot of mana generation through the tokens that it creates and then a lot of means of being able to stack more counters on marath and then use them. Its sort of an incremental growth style of concept.

The utility lands are really sweet. The fact that Marath is a beast for Contested Cliffs is part of what got me going down this path lol.

Doubling Season - You will notice I kept the Hardened Scales effects but I cut the Parallel Lives versions. I think that the counter doubling allows me to solo with Marath where as the double token effects are a lot harder for me to maintain with just Marath. It involved more of a dispose of Marath concept which I felt required a little more build around and or temporary gain than a long term benefit.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

COMMANDER (1)

1 Marath, Will of the Wild

CREATURES (14)

1 Conclave Mentor

1 Scavenging Ooze

1 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Heliod, Sun-Crowned

1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal

1 Ranging Raptors

1 Academy Rector

1 Oracle of Mul Daya

1 Purphoros, God of the Forge

1 Ripjaw Raptor

1 Cavalier of Thorns

1 Seedborn Muse

1 Ulvenwald Hydra

1 Nyxbloom Ancient

ARTIFACT (7)

1 Basilisk Collar

1 Relic of Progenitus

1 Skullclamp

1 Sol Ring

1 Sword of the Animist

1 Bow of Nylea

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

ENCHANTMENT (19)

1 Exploration

1 Hardened Scales

1 Keen Sense

1 Cryptolith Rite

1 Earthcraft

1 Kenrith's Transformation

1 Sylvan Library

1 Aura of Silence

1 Aura Shards

1 Branching Evolution

1 Ghostly Prison

1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc

1 Pattern of Rebirth

1 Cathars' Crusade

1 Divine Visitation

1 Doubling Season

1 Mirari's Wake

1 Sphere of Safety

1 True Conviction

INSTANT (8)

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Eladamri's Call

1 Heliod's Intervention

1 Starstorm

1 Beast Within

1 Chaos Warp

1 Chord of Calling

1 Settle the Wreckage

SORCERY (13)

1 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Steelshaper's Gift

1 Open the Armory

1 Genesis Wave

1 Harvest Season

1 Natural Order

1 Pir's Whim

1 Reap and Sow

1 Hour of Promise

1 Return of the Wildspeaker

1 Rout

1 Rishkar's Expertise

1 Austere Command

PLANESWALKER

LAND (39)

1 Arid Mesa

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Command Tower

1 Contested Cliffs

1 Field of the Dead

1 Flooded Strand

5 Forest

1 Gaea's Cradle

1 Gavony Township

1 Kessig Wolf Run

1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity

1 Kessig Wolf Run

1 Kor Haven

1 Marsh Flats

1 Misty Rainforest

4 Mountain

5 Plains

1 Plateau

1 Rootbound Crag

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Savannah

1 Stomping Ground

1 Strip Mine

1 Sunpetal Grove

1 Taiga

1 Temple Garden

1 Windswept Heath

1 Wooded Foothills

Approximate Total Cost:

Considerations:

• Comeuppance - Versatile defensive wrath. I plan to play with a good bit of mana up when I pass so defensive wraths can be useful.
• Teferi's Protection - yet another defensive measure I could consider. Its nice in that it can be board protection or a means to stop me from dying.
• Goblin Bombardment - good sac outlet, it works well with tokens and it could be paired with Marath pings usefully.
• Camaraderie / Shamanic Revelation - Wondering if I should try some go wide draw.
• Citanul Hierophants - its like another Cryptolith Rite but for a little more on a stick. Maybe...
• Eldritch Evolution - Even just being able to turn a token into two drops still leaves quite the diversity of targets. That gives me Marath counter support, grave hate, or tutor for draw, ramp, or removal.

[ISBPathfinder]

Ok, well.... I have been fiddling with the list a lot in the last day. Lots of the decisisions I went with came from asking myself a few questions:

• Does this card + Marath represent a meaningful board state?
• Can I get more stable access to my good cards?
• Is there a better way I can do this?

With this, I ended up cutting a lot of the mana doublers. I felt like moving to a Sword of Feast and Famine setup was more stable in a lot of ways due to the equipment tutors I already had in the list and I like that with SoF&F you get faster results with the untap. Between the protections it gives and marath's ability to remove small creatures easily I felt like it should be somewhat reliable to connect and I can even put it on a token reducing spot removal issues. To some degree though the mana doublers were in because originally I was pushing to be an enchantress deck and they were some powerful top end enchantments. I also sort of felt like I can produce a LOT of mana through menas other than these enchantments (cradles / earthcrafts) so I was less keen on the mana expenditure to cast them.

DECK CHANGE:

• Mana Reflection → Chord of Calling - This change can still get me Seedborn Muse or Nyxbloom Ancient for removal but it can do it at instant speed and uses the token resources better.
• Wilderness Reclamation → Sword of Feast and Famine - Similar cost and similar effect except that they trigger at different times and I have equipment tutors so it opens a new avenue of access.
• Smothering Tithe → Open the Armory - Honestly, I freaking hate asking "did you pay for that". Whenever possible I cut these cards because well.... I hate them. I also think that Smothering Tithe is horribly overrated and brings a lot of %$#% attention to the person playing it. It should generate 3-6 mana a turn rotation but honestly..... that isn't even that impressive for this list given the cradle / earthcraft tactics. Its actually likely that I would be better served by having Wilderness Reclamation back in the list but I am cutting it instead to increase the consistency of my equipment. I think that access to Skullclamp is something I want more of. It can also get me mana gen from Sword of the Animist or Sword of Feast and Famine so I think this is a good move.
• Zendikar Resurgent → Settle the Wreckage - I don't actually have that many creatures to draw cards with this and I am cutting back on my mana doublers. I think that Stettle is interesting as it can be used as ramp for me or used as defense. I like both of those options and I want to see if it works out for me.
• Eidolon of Blossoms → Relic of Progenitus - I keep cutting enchantments so its time to make this cut. I also needed more grave hate so in comes that.
• Inspiring Call → Ripjaw Raptor - I have always found Inspiring Call to be cute and while I could protect other creatures with it, I don't really think I need to protect Marath with it. My actual creature count wasn't that high and the number of creatures I would want to protect isn't that many not to mention its ability to draw was going to take more work than I wanted. I think Ripjaw is going to be superior draw.
• Harvest Season → Ranging Raptors - just moving my ramp around a little. Harvest Season can be fun but I think I like the dino more because it comes online faster. I also would need to tap by earthcraft effect or attacking for the season so I think it spreads the ramp out more and gives more upfront.

I considered if I wanted any of the other enrage dinos but offhand I felt like I got the ones I wanted. The others felt like a lot more mana expenditure and I wasn't as fond of what they did.