OH DEER!!

Commander / EDH Aggro Casual Combo Multiplayer RGW (Naya) Tokens

jball30

Creature (25)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Darien, King of Kjeldor
• 1x Dragonlair Spider
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Ivy Lane Denizen
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Karametra, God of Harvests *f-etch*
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Nightshade Peddler
• 1x Ogre Battledriver
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Woodfall Primus

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Xenagos, the Reveler

Land (36)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 7x Forest
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 4x Mountain
• 6x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Windbrisk Heights
• 1x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Impact Tremors
• 1x Mana Echoes
• 1x Mana Reflection
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Primal Vigor
• 1x Warstorm Surge

Artifact (9)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Bow of Nylea
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Kaldra

Instant (9)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Genesis Wave
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Hull Breach
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Tooth and Nail
• 1x Winds of Rath
• 1x Wrath of God

Commander (1)

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Sideboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Bloodbraid Elf
• 1x Essence of the Wild
• 1x Stonehewer Giant
• 1x Thermopod

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Keen Sense

Artifact (3)

• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of the Animist

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Praetor's Counsel

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Decided it was time to go back through this deck and re-edit and give a proper in-depth explanation into the deck and its mechanics. Sorry in advance if this is really long, I have no idea how to do the coding to make it look nice and shorter, I just wanted to share my thoughts. Hopefully, for those who read it are rewarded with finding cards that they can take and use in their own decks.

Naya colours (red, white and green) as a combination, are often considered 'weaker tri-colour deck' due to the lack of blue and black. However! I believe that this is a total underestimation of these colours combination. Marath as the king of Naya commanders is one of the most versatile commanders that I have found, rivaling the synergistic play of commanders like Ghave or Sharuum. Here's my breakdown of Marath, Will of the Wild.

When I first saw Marath I instantly wanted to make him into a commander deck, because of his utility and synergistic (this word will probably come up a lot, sorry in advance) play style as a commander. Now standing as my 2nd oldest commander the other being Karador, Ghost Chieftan. If you haven't figured it out I prefer to play styles where individual cards typically don't have single uses, work really well together (synergy!!) and always play differently or am able to try/learn different strategies.

I have tried to make my take on Marath a bit less combo heavy, but before anyone says anything, yes there are definitely combos in here, I just try not to rely on them as much, as they aren't preferred in the group I play in. Nevertheless, I will use them if able or if I am feeling mean at the time XD.

MARATH, WILL OF THE WILD

The King himself, looking at Marath on the surface he is a decent commander. He has typical abilities that represent the colours he is

• red - dealing damage

• white - spawning tokens

• green - distribution of +1/+1 counters

However Marath's true strength lies in that all of these abilities are built into a single card, to provide a powerful utility commander when combined with various cards in the deck. Typically this deck is built to revolve around the heavy use of Marath's abilities particularly using them in combination with one another. However the deck can be resilient on its own, and can survive without playing him.

A couple of notes on Maraths abilities. Firstly they can be used at instant speed, they can be used pretty much at any time, and find more times that not I use his abilities in other peoples turns just as much as my own. The +1/+1 ability is good for also buffing creatures at the last minute, that could make the difference between winning and losing but more importantly he can use this ability on himself (this will make sense later). Seeming that Maraths ability costs 'X' to use it can be used in various ways, to create one big creature, or multiple little creatures; or Burn something for a lot of damage (this can be anything, players, creatures and planeswalkers), or ping heaps of things for 1 damage. Note that the ping concept is very good with Marath and will be explained a bit further down. Counters are Maraths best friend, and will also be explained a bit further down.

One thing in particular when playing marath, don't be scared to kill him off a few times early game through using his abilties. Remembering that every time he comes back stronger, you are able to use his abilities more and typically for what you are doing early game the cost late game will pay off. I very rarely ever come across the situation where I can't afford Marath late game even if he costs 13 or 15 mana to play him.

Ok... starting with some basic staples for any deck , land ramp, draw and tutoring power

LAND AND MANA

For Marath there are a few cards in to thin out a few lands, Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Skyshroud Claim and Wood Elves, all decent all effective in with they do. Also there is Oracle of Mul Daya in there to help this along. Currently I am trialing Sword of the Animist and so far it is serving its purpose really well to thin the deck of lands.

The deck is a lot heavier in 'mana ramp' staples like sol ring, gilded lotus and chromatic lantern (in tri-colours its a lifesaver for mana fixing). Some standard cheap and nasties, of high quality (I swear!) Birds of Paradise and Somberwald Sage and Mirari's Wake to greatly boost the amount of mana I have to ultilise; allowing me to abuse Marath's abilities without having to stress about costs. Might as well put Xenagos, the Reveler here too, typically he is only used for his +1 ability or his 0 at times of need.

Some of the basic interactions and combos come from cards like Ashnod's Altar, and Phyrexian Altar, which by sacrificing creatures allows one to pool mana. With Marath this works really well when using his ability to spam 1/1 elementals which you can in turn sacrifice for needed mana. Another card that work similarly is Thermopod (this guy is a little hidden gem I was shown) which can be used as a sac outlet as well as producing red mana, and is a creature. BONUS! The final mana ramp car is Mana Echoes, which in some ways is better than all of these due to the interaction it has with spamming tokens of Marath, and the mana gained can become out of hand very quickly.

all of these 4 cards have very good interactions with Marath and particularly staples in combos. Typically these only require a card that produces a +1/+1 counter production/ doubling card to easily scale out of control and become game ending strategies unless countered.

DRAW POWER

Draw power in Naya can be a struggle, but in Marath not so much. All of the draw related cards rely on Maraths presence; Mentor of the Meek and Skullclamp work amazing with Maraths token spam. Keen Sense compliments Maraths Burn and pinging power to draw multiple cards. Finally when there are tokens involved it is always good to have Fecundity to get bonus benefits when sacrificing or losing your tokens or creatures. Just remember Fecundity also affects your opponents! but you have to be nice sometimes right?

TUTORS AND FILTERS

Unfortunately for all somewhat of searching capabilities that green offers, I only have a few tutors, mainly for play making, with things like Tooth and Nail, searching for game ending cards, or Green Sun's Zenith, which as sad as it sounds I will normally search for something like birds. Bloodbraid Elf offers cascade into some nice cards. Another card I am trialing is Evolutionary Leap; which works as a sac outlet but also lets me filter the deck for creatures. With Marath, it is a lot more beneficial as there is no net loss of creatures as I can just sacrifice little weenies and then am not losing creatures. The last tutor is Stonehewer Giant, as I only figured out recently that I have a fair bit of equipment spells that are all beneficial to Maraths board state.

RECURSION

One thing I want to make clear is that the deck doesn't have a lot of things to recur things from the graveyard. I have the Karmic Guide and Reveillark standard, but NO Saffi (even though I probably should), and Sun Titan. However the focus of the deck is not on recurrsion, and it never will be. I play with the mindset of once it's gone, it's gone so find some other route to win and for that reason I have Praetor's Counsel in the deck, so I get a second chance if needed. I should probably find something to take out for eternal witness. But currently see no need for it, or Saffi.

REMOVAL AND PROTECTION

As any deck that runs white this deck has the standard removal tools, Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares. Council's Judgement is also nice to get rid of pesky cards that have shroud and hexproof. I only run 1 boardwipe as Marath has his own board wipe mechanic with the use of other cards (Pingers of death section below). I also run Krosan Grip, Beast Within, Woodfall Primus and Hull Breach for non-creature spot removal stuff. And Funnily enough Woodfall Primus can be easily respawned through maraths ability to trade +1/+1 ability, abusing Woodfalls persist ability.

Protection wise the aim of the game is to help prevent things from being countered (cough... cough... blue players hate) or sacrificed (cough... cough... black players hate, especially Sheoldred). For those reasons, and those reasons only I run Grand Abolisher and Sigarda, Host of Herons. 2 other cards that I am gonna also include here are Boros Charm, for I mainly use if for its indestructible (but its double strike is just as helpful!) and Deflecting Palm. If used right Deflecting Palm can kill the attacker, I have seen someone Kill themselves with their own Commander through commander damage through the use of Deflecting Palm, and would highly recommend it to any deck running white red.

+1/+1 COUNTERS EVERYWHERE

Now comes the time where things begin to get complicated and I have been dreading writing this part. Maraths biggest benefit is ultimately his biggest downfall, +1/+1 counters. In order to use marath effectively you need to be able to move counters around and restock marath while he is on the field. As everything costs +1/+1 counters you need to be able to ensure that he has a steady inflow to match the outflow of counters, as even though before I said that it is okay to blow him up a few times, late game it DOES become more difficult to play marath. So with that in mind there are a few creatures and enchantments that I include in the deck.

first off creatures, Forgotten Ancient, pretty awesome card, it's one of those cards you play, people forget then bam you have like a 15/15. Amazing in multiplayer formats gains +1/+1 counters when anyone yes ANYONE plays a spell and in your upkeep you can distribute these counters to any other creature, 99% of the time to marath, or i just use him as a beat down. Kaloanian Hydra TARGET #1 as soon as it hits the field, and for good reason too, as when it attacks you get too double the number of +1/+1 counters on all creatures you control. No need to say anything else with this I think you get the picture. Ivy lane Denizen, yes ok people say its mediocre, but so far I have seen nothing but success with this card. It works amazing with the +1/+1 counters mechanic, as when you remove a counter to create a weenie Ivy Lane lets you instantly restock maraths counter. So essentially marath should always retain the number of counters he has. Note Ivy Lane is also apart of a typical combo with marath with a counter doubler which goes onto the next bit I was going to cover.

As I was saying before, +1/+1 counters are essential for marath and the best way to get counters is to exploit cards that double counters such as doubling season and primal vigor. these are essential to creating the combos and infinite combos, that are in the deck. another way about creating these combos is to create multiples of tokens produced for the mana spent. ie parallel lives, spending one mana on marath to create 2 tokens. This is also a way to create a loop with your sac outlet and then provides greater use for your other sac outlets abilities ie damage or draw power etc. the final card is cathars' crusade which although a really good card is painful to use when you have heaps of creatures entering the field at once but also creates the counter loop with marath. As Ive now said a number of times, the cards in this section are pretty much the essentials for all of your combos that are in the deck (particularly those that go infinite)

PINGERS OF DEATH

So if you have started a marath deck but haven't come across the synergy marath has with deathtouch then, stop what you are doing and read on. YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR DECK! It is one of the most effective ways to deal with creatures, and one of the more strategic concepts of the deck as you can become the political powerhouse of the board based on what you do with this combo. I find this to be the winning concept in the deck (and one of the main reasons why I love playing this deck), a lot of people don't realise the power this has and opponents don't often know how to respond to it before it gets out of control. Pretty much the concept is you ping something for 1 damage, if marath has deathtouch when it pings something, it dies if it isn't indestructible. Nightshade Peddler is good as it is a soulbond creature to use whenever on martah. Another way, that I like as it is more sneaky is with Bow of Nylea, as you can declare attacks and ping things, in multiplayer it is even better as you can attack one person with marath while destroying another players creatures. Taking this one step futher there is Sword of Kaldra which instead of destroying things it exiles them instead! Its an awesome card to stop things like Avacyn, or indestructible or recurring creatures from graveyards like Kokusho by permanently getting rid of them.

BURNS AND BOMBS

As an opposite to the above section, these cards are long term burns, dealing direct damage to players through abusing maraths token spam, with Purphoros, God of the Forge, Warstorm Surge both of which work with any other creatures you play. Purphoros is ideal for hitting players as it hits everyone, while warstorm is more verstile as it can hit both players and creatures. Goblin Bombardment, works well like Warstorm, but is also a sac outlet, so you can sac your tokens to ping creatures or people. Typically these cards can easily rack up the damage as you should be able to spam tokens, and these will be targeted especially Purphorus. NOTE* More times that not you will create heaps of little 1/1 tokens than larger tokens as they are more beneficial for your combos, unless you are trying beat down where it 'may' be more beneficial. For when you just wanna explode someone Fling is also a go to. Some good synergies with these are when someone uses a boardwipe to spam the field with tokens to deal as much damage as possible before losing marath. Remember he is the lifeblood of this deck!

OTHER HELPFUL SYNERGIES

The last few cards are utilities to the deck that just stretch it a bit further, Champion of Lambholt, spam the field to buff her, everything becomes unblockable if they are weaker than her. Requiem Angel, to double the use of all creatures including tokens created by marath to use all of your sac outlet abilities again and to retain a strong board presence. Swiftfoot Boots, because the other ones which i cant think of the name are too mainstream. Ogre Battledriver, to be aggressive and have savage 1/1s become 3/1s! and Illusionit's Bracers, which doubles any ability of maraths that you use (Remember the +1/+1 concept!) create 2 tokens instead of 1 or blow someone up easier.

By now if you haven't managed to kill them, yes I have put in the generic every green deck end game go too of Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof behemoth. With tooth and nail pretty much is an insta-win. Craterhoof also works really well with Marath spam ability (similar to avenger).

COOL COMBOS

ill get to this part very soon!! work in progress

ONE LAST THING

Remember that its always a learning game. I may not have covered all of the combos and synergies that exist, as some of them I may not have found out (or remember) for myself, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy playing Marath so much, as I find and learn new ways to do things every game. Remember! it's a game, so have fun with it! This is just my take on Marath, and is definitely not the best take on how to play him either. Hopefully it provides a little insight to some of you who are beginning or interested to make Marath your commander, and a different look for those who do use him as a commander. If you've managed to read this far I applaud you for sticking it out! If you found this helpful or interesting give us a +1 so I know to keep working on this and other decks! And finally if you've found some cool and funny synergies or have any constructive comments about my deck or spill I just gave, let me know!

Date added	10 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	19 - 2 Mythic Rares 39 - 4 Rares 16 - 4 Uncommons 9 - 2 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.81
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Elemental X/X G, Insect 1/1 G, Plant 0/1 G, Satyr 2/2 GR, Soldier 1/1 W
Folders	Things I wanna try, Commander Folder, EDH (TOKEN), main