Marath - Naya Fun Police

[ISBPathfinder]

This isn't my first time playing Marath but its been a good long time since I last played her. I generally play her a little bit like a draw go police deck using things like Hardened Scales to allow me to build +/+ counters on her to expend elsewhere. Contested Cliffs is also really cool and can play with Marath.

This particular build I went hard on artifact hate. Treasure is a HUGE freaking issue in my meta and outside of that people are running a lot of mana stones so I went for a Stony Silence / Null Rod build with this one as green / white gets access to more of these effects. People are hitting the ramp hard into annoying crap all the time so I wanted to hit them where it hurts and tell them to F off on the ramp.

Welcoming Vampire / Bennie Bracks, Zoologist / Tocasia's Welcome are all new since last I played Marath but hopefully they can help me maintain some draw a bit better. I wish there were a few more variants of this but I think these will do quite well for me.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

COMMANDER (1)

1 Marath, Will of the Wild

CREATURES (18)

1 Esper Sentinel

1 Collector Ouphe

1 Conclave Mentor

1 Deep Gnome Terramancer

1 Scavenging Ooze

1 Archon of Emeria

1 Generous Patron

1 Heliod, Sun-Crowned

1 Kodama of the West Tree

1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal

1 Welcoming Vampire

1 Bennie Bracks, Zoologist

1 Purphoros, God of the Forge

1 Saryth, the Viper's Fang

1 Toski, Bearer of Secrets

1 Ohran Frostfang

1 Seedborn Muse

1 Ulvenwald Hydra

ARTIFACT (3)

1 Null Rod

1 Sphere of Resistance

1 Ozolith, the Shattered Spire

ENCHANTMENT (19)

1 Deafening Silence

1 Hardened Scales

1 Cryptolith Rite

1 Earthcraft

1 Invasion of Ikoria

1 Kenrith's Transformation

1 Rest in Peace

1 Stony Silence

1 Aura Shards

1 Branching Evolution

1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc

1 Tocasia's Welcome

1 Awakening

1 Titania's Song

1 Wilderness Reclamation

1 All Will Be One

1 Cathars' Crusade

1 Divine Visitation

1 Doubling Season

INSTANT (14)

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Eladamri's Call

1 Grand Crescendo

1 Heliod's Intervention

1 Heroic Intervention

1 Reprieve

1 Unexpectedly Absent

1 Chaos Warp

1 Chord of Calling

1 Delayed Blast Fireball

1 Teferi's Protection

1 Clever Concealment

1 Comeuppance

1 Settle the Wreckage

SORCERY (7)

1 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Vandalblast

1 Explore

1 Finale of Devastation

1 Sylvan Scrying

1 Pir's Whim

1 Farewell

PLANESWALKER

LAND (38)

1 Arid Mesa

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Cavern of Souls

1 Command Tower

1 Contested Cliffs

1 Field of the Dead

1 Flooded Strand

2 Forest

1 Gaea's Cradle

1 Gavony Township

1 Jetmir's Garden

1 Kessig Wolf Run

1 Kor Haven

1 Marsh Flats

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Mountain

2 Plains

1 Plateau

1 Rootbound Crag

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Savannah

1 Scalding Tarn

2 Snow-Covered Forest

1 Snow-Covered Mountain

2 Snow-Covered Plains

1 Stomping Ground

1 Sunpetal Grove

1 Taiga

1 Temple Garden

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Winding Canyons

1 Windswept Heath

1 Wooded Foothills

1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Approximate Total Cost:

CONSIDERING:
Nonbasic Land Search - Just thinking but a lot of my ramp is probably more based on tutoring Gaea's Cradle than it is just putting extra lands in.
Tutors for the draw - I just think I have a few effects that draw me cards better than the others but I don't have that many copies of them. I could run recruiters or more green tutors to go get some of the creature based draw effects.

[ISBPathfinder]

Ok, I had some time to order cards and see some things show up in the mail as well as dig through my collection to put things together. In that time I did see a few things I wanted to change. This change lot comes before having played the deck still but I am optimistic in sitting on some artifact abusing mana decks yet with this deck.

DECK CHANGES: - I normally try to do direct swaps but with these changes I haven't played the deck and I more of have specific reasons to cut some cards and reasons to add some cards rather than it being straight exchanges so I will change up my usual format.
CUTS:

• Academy Rector - I think rector is fine and I can poke it off with my commander but even then its sort of a problem just how much setup it is and while there are some enchants that stand out I have a lot of redundancy and felt like it was better to just have more draw instead.
• Nullmage Shepherd → I got to thinking about nullmage and realized that the setup required for it to perform just felt a little more than a lot of my other cards in the deck. I do think it can put in some good work but it also seemed a little more redundant alongside the artifact hate cards and it does a worse job of dealing with problems like tons of artifact mana especially from treasures.
• Sun Titan → I am fine with Sun Titan I just thought I was also fine just largely not really having recursion in this list for now.
• Nyxbloom Ancient → Mana is great, I just think the setup required for it to work for me is sort of high so I want to trim back a bit to things more fundamental.
• Damping Sphere → I think the tax effect is fine but then I remembered the land mana production part of this card and opted to shift this to Archon of Emeria instead. I am not looking to go real deep on hatebear / tax effects but with some tutors I think I can assess when I need this and tutor for it then.
• Angel's Grace → its more of a meta call but I am seeing a bit more commander damage with unblockable commanders and that does hurt this card. I do think this card is great but commander damage isn't stopped with this card.
• Swords to Plowshares → I don't know that I need the mana efficiency of swords so I am going to shift to better targeting over efficiency.
• Natural Order → With cutting Nyxbloom Ancient I just couldn't get behind keeping the order at this point.

ADDS:

• Esper Sentinel - Paired with the commander I can grow sentinel consistently enough that I think I am ok running Sentinel here.
• Deep Gnome Terramancer - I think it plays well with decks that hold up mana and need mana.
• Ohran Frostfang - It can give my commander deathtouch and gives good draw options.
• Invasion of Ikoria - Just some consistency. I feel like I have some toolbox to the deck in part because there are some unique effects here that I can't get enough of them so I went a little into toolboxing with tutors.
• Archon of Emeria - Its not that I don't have draw but I don't think I need to chain spells with this list so having at least one of this sort of card can shut down draw heavy decks sometimes.
• Comeuppance - Another defensive measure to hold up. This is a bit of a meta defense for now it seems like there has been an uptick in sending unblockable threats so I wanted to bolster defenses without just getting big blockers in.
• Chaos Warp - Generic answer. I did consider if I wanted it to be Banishment but I didn't lean into enchantments enough to run enchantresses or enchantment recursion so I guess just keep it cheap.
• Heroic Intervention - Sometimes with these defensive rattlesnake decks its just a matter of time until someone tries to turn and sideswipe you super hard. I think I have some vulnerability in my commander being removed but also being able to defend any of my permanents can be somewhat vital so I like that this card blocks most removal effects.

Well, at this point I guess the concerns I still have with this deck is that it only has a few cards to really go on the offensive with as well as its draw seeming a little low. I am hoping that the tutors get to be used on draw and Hardened Scales as my proactive plays but I do have a few reactive silver bullets in here too.

EDIT: Deflecting Swat might be something I want. I feel like I have a lot of things that people are going to want to swat down so a free redirect seems good. It might be something that comes in if I am missing cards that were ordered as I go to testing and I will be interested to see how much I get targeted by hate given what my deck is doing. Sylvan Safekeeper could be really good as well fitting some of the Mother of Runes kind of setup I have as well depending on if I feel like I need more of that.

[ISBPathfinder]

I did manage to play one game with this deck last night. I did win but its probably worth mentioning that it was a bit slow and clunky. I feel like I could use a bit more ramp and draw in the deck as a whole and I think the number of cards that sort of pre requisite me being set up with the ability to have counters to peel off Marath is a bit high. I will probably look at some of the stuff like Fiery Emancipation, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, and Purphoros, God of the Forge that want me to be set up before executing them and try trimming some of it back a little. I did manage to run away with the game yesterday thanks to Gaea's Cradle and getting set up with Conclave Mentor into Divine Visitation but the assembly of that setup was really slow and lacking draw for most of its setup.

I don't have any changes figured out yet but I just put in my order for Branching Evolution accepting that I probably need a higher density of those effects given how it seems to be a pre requisite to shifting to tokens or damage in a lot of cases. It is entirely possible I might need to look into some sort of Overrun effect as well. I will tinker a bit with things but I wanted to post back some initial feelings after my game yesterday.

[pokken]

This feels like a really good Garruk Wildspeaker deck tbh. Incidental overrun option, mega ramp with Gaea's Cradle, makes tokens too. Oh, and the synergy with Doubling Season to get an immediate overrun too sometimes Kinda cool.

[ISBPathfinder]

This feels like a really good Garruk Wildspeaker deck tbh. Incidental overrun option, mega ramp with Gaea's Cradle, makes tokens too. Oh, and the synergy with Doubling Season to get an immediate overrun too sometimes Kinda cool.

Its something to consider. I think for now I am going to keep watching it but not focus too much on wincons. I prefer to make my deck run smoothly and in a lot of cases dedicated wincons aren't going to be all that smooth. I want to test the deck out a bit more before I dedicate myself to more dedicated wincons but I don't feel like I have none and in my change I feel like I am adding another. I had initially somewhat expected myself to do some sort of lightning bolt finisher thing which is probably not that practical but its just totally my style of play and building to do it that way than to use something like Craterhoof or lesser overrun. In the below changes I am adding Gavony Township which paired with Hardened Scales effects should actually make for a decent anthem option.

I also think that Garruk Wildspeaker has a somewhat low immediate impact and I tend to prefer higher immediate impact walkers than ones I plan to defend turn after turn.

---

So, my goal with these changes was somewhat to increase my Hardened Scales type card count and reduce some of the ping and token based support as I felt like I needed to be set up with the +/+ counter support before I can pivot.

DECK CHANGES:

• Giver of Runes → Clever Concealment I am shifting away from single protect and trying to pick up a little more team defense vs interaction.
• Mother of Runes → Generous Patron Shifting away from individual protection and I wanted to work a little more draw in. I like that I could use my commander to gift +1/+1 counters and draw cards with the patron.
• Mondrak, Glory Dominus → Ozolith, the Shattered Spire I wanted to shift to more Hardened Scales effects as it seems like a fundamental need for my commander. I didn't think it was horrible having double token gen but it just needed a bunch of other things set up for it to feel useful.
• Torbran, Thane of Red Fell → Pir's Whim I wanted a little more ramp and access to my utility lands.
• Stone of Erech → Branching Evolution I wanted more of the Hardened Scales effect and something had to go.
• Fiery Emancipation → Awakening I thought about this change a bit more and I think Awakening just gives me more options. Its true that the pings for 3 are really nice but just having more mana flow should make my deck more efficient at all of my commander's abilities.
• Clifftop Retreat → Gavony Township I was hesitant to add township to my deck but two things got me to do it. I realized how hard I was pushing on the Hardened Scales effects and realized that these effects work with township to put more than one counter on each which actually adds up crazy fast. The other thing is thinking of it paired with All Will Be One seemed really fun. I am a little hesitant to cut colored mana lands for more colorless ones but I couldn't bring myself to cut any of my utility lands for it.
• Strip Mine → Winding Canyons I wanted the option to cast my commander at instant speed for the purpose of my untap effects. I did a little more thought on my inclusion of Strip Mine and while I value having options to answer I think I am more of a deck that pushes opponents to answer my utility lands than one that cares to answer opponents utility lands.

I am looking forward to playtesting with some of these updates. I am still waiting on a few of the cards from before these changes and I had to put in some more orders for these new cards. Hopefully I can get my hands on them and get to testing.

[ISBPathfinder]

Ok, I got Null Rod starts both games I played with this deck this week and I got run down early both games as well lol. The first game I was land screwed and just playing the cards I could and the guy doing well didn't get interacted with and just ran me down. The second game it hit my opponents a lot harder but there was this mono red deck that was really aggressive and it ran me down by turn 5 killing my commander both times I played it while swinging through on me.

I am not really going to change anything yet but I will say I wanted a little more mana both games. Dying by being focused by a fast aggro deck though is a bit out of the usual for me though so I am not going to chalk too much up to having 3 burn spells used on my commander to run me down that fast lol.

I need to test more before I jump to conclusions because I think the first game I shouldn't have kept the hand I did and the second game.... well it was a guy that more or less killed himself to kill me.