Whats your thoughts on an optimal land base that only runs 3 fetches instead of 9? As a personal choice I find it unflavorful to have fetches of colors not in my commander identity. So if you were to replace the 6 non-naya fetches what would they be? Painlands? Whats your thoughts on the "temple" duals? Thanks for all your input btw!

And with your thoughts on Steel Hellkite how come Balefire Dragon doesn't get the same treatment?

How is Temple of the False God? Not as good as Ancient Tomb but still worth playing? And how about Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger?

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is just mean. I almost want to say he was banned once, but if you want to play just to win, he's fine. As a typically casual format, he's dirty, and you'll find him a target faster than Heartless Hidetsugu.

@bankrupt_on_selling: If you're only running Naya fetches I'd sub in the pain lands for sure, and then some 5-color lands (City of Brass and friends). Temple duals would be fine too, but I wouldn't run them over pain lands.

Balefire Dragon gets a pass because his ability is just so damn powerful and I'm a damn hypocrite. If you connect once, odds are good you'll be getting a free board wipe every turn thereafter. That's potentially many-fold more permanents removed than Steel Hellkite. He's just as much of a hate magnet as Steel Hellkite, of course, but the temptation was so great that I felt compelled to bend my rule this once.

Temple of the False God is awesome. If I have the opportunity to pull any land from my deck, it's often my number one choice (yup, even over Ancient Tomb!). Putting four other lands onto the battlefield is not a very high bar to get over.

As thewyzman said, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is a little too mean for my taste. He's really, really good though! If your play group is comfortable with playing against him, then don't hesitate to open a deck slot for him.

In a deck like this it seems all the creatures are bordering the "too mean" zone HaHa it's hard to see how vorinclex is too mean but Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre aren't. And perhaps Void Winnower too. And with your approach on tutors how come you still run Enlightened Tutor? I'm liking all this talk about the Nayan Fatties!

@bankrupt_on_selling: The Eldrazi titans give your opponents a full turn to supply an answer, which does not even necessarily need to be a kill spell. Something like Darksteel Mutation or Island Sanctuary will do the trick. Does the game warp around them? Of course. But play remains fairly interactive. The same can't be said for Vorinclex, who hamstrings your opponents as soon as he hits the board. Nobody has fun playing a game where they don't get to cast their spells - which brings us to Void Winnower. What makes him acceptable in my mind is that he's unpredictable. I'm not really choosing which spells my opponents can't cast. I've found him to be more of a "puzzle I have to work around" kind of threat rather than a table-flipper.

When it comes to tutoring, here's my one test: will it find a win-con? Tutors that do that lead to stale, repetitive game play. I understand that they're necessary for competitive play, but Mayael isn't exactly a tier 1 commander. In this deck Enlightened Tutor finds utility engines - stuff like Rings of Brighthearth and Scroll Rack. I'm pretty OK with that.

How do you feel about alternate ways to cheat creatures into play (like Sneak Attack and Lurking Predators)? With Mayael being a constant target and so mana intensive, you may need a backup plan. My Mayael build has this idea in mind but I am facing issues of my own that put me off the deck altogether (they are in the deck's description).

While the last sentence is besides the point, relying on Mayael alone can be troublesome in longer games as she will eventually become too expensive to cast. Having Sneak Attack and its ilk wouldn't be a bad idea. Up to you but I wouldn't mind hearing your input on them.

EDIT: I only just noticed that you already considered them. My apologies if I brought back an old topic.

@Phaetion: Those cards work fine (great, in fact) in certain builds. They'd probably be decent here too. I have deliberately substituted them for topdeck filters though because I believe that better exemplifies the fundamentals of a good Mayael deck - this is a primer, after all. That said, they're a really solid back-up strategy that I wouldn't explicitly discourage. If I had to choose one, I'd use Sneak Attack.

Great description! I am in the process of changing my Mayael deck, because it is a little outdated, so some of your points made are quite helpful, even though i am building it to be a token deck.Since you pointed out that haste is the most powerful keyword to give in this deck, why not run Cyclops of Eternal Fury? it can also be fetched with Mayael.In terms of pushing damage through Siege Behemoth can be a finisher if you have a few other fatties on board.

What about Mana Crypt?

Any new ideas for this deck?

Can't help but notice you've got quite a bit of draw in there. Isn't that counterproductive in Mayael, where you want cards in your deck?

Rikeus, With Courser of Kruphix and Oracle of Mul Daya, he's allowed to see the top card, and through a couple draw effects he's able to draw, if he needs. Otherwise, cards like Sensei's Divining Top and Sylvan Library are deck manipulators, allowing him to order his next draw, or see if he'll be able to hit a Mayael trigger at all. A little draw never hurts, to keep your hand stocked, or find lands to make sure we're not missing drops and falling off tempo. Greater Good is basically a hand filter, and a potential deterrent from opponents destroying our dudes; mostly reactionary. (I use Deathrender in my own deck, as an engine combo, occasionally, to basically cycle my hands as many times as I need to looking for dudes.)

How'd I do, Hobo?

Rikeus, there's a couple important things to remember here. First and foremost, drawing a card does not affect the probability of Mayael finding a target. I like to think of it this way: every time we activate Mayael, we are sampling a population. Currently, 23% of individuals within that population are creatures with 5+ power. When we draw cards we reduce the size of the population, but we DO NOT change the fact that 23% of those individuals are valid targets. (okay, if you get into the math each draw does change things a little bit, but it averages out over time) You must also consider--as thewyzman mentioned--the effect of topdeck manipulators. They allow us to skew the odds in our favor, limiting how often we'll end up with a fatty in our hand. Does it still happen? Of course. But that doesn't mean it's a dead card; the average cost of our fatties is ~7, which is easily castable over the course of a normal game.

@Genaroc22: Stay tuned. I definitely have some new ideas, but they are largely contingent on ZEN fetches coming down in price. Arid Mesa currently costs as much as a Plateau, which is absurd.

Thank goodness love seeing new cards tried out in these great decks I am trying to mirror these deck as much as i can to see how it does i love mayael also working on a maelstrom and got an omnath rage built

With Angry omnath out, why use titania over him? (Havent come back to your list in forever, Hiya!)

WOW KOOL ALT ART

First of all love the deck, modeled my own mayael after this one. She has since gone through so many changes I stopped updating it on here. Still stop by to compare what I have every so often. Anyway, was wondering if you ever considered using Lotus Cobra and Sword of Feast and Famine? For me I've found the little snake to be super helpful in getting those deck filters/protections onto the field without sacrificing a mayael use. Especially great with the fetched and courser and Oracle. The sword I like cuz being able to cast a fattie and then be able to use mayael is very nice. And having pro black is handy. Having to attack is a draw back for sure, one I know you don't like. And mana dorks ain't your thing either but I found them so gosh darn useful I figured I'd ask!

Yay someome commented love me some mayael

What do you think about Skyline Despot or Dragonlair Spider from the new conspiracy set?

Use Natural Order and sacrifice birds of paradise, get your Craterhoof Behemoth and win the game.

Eh. This list is so awkward. No Worldly Tutor? It just lets you decide what you whant to board. Aka someone sweeps the board and you response to that and tutor Avacyn, Angel of Hope to top of your library and then use mayael's ability. and the ther thing is that you dont realy have ramp in this deck. No one mana elf/bird ramps? You play fetchlands no Lotus Cobra? Also Bloom Tender is just absolute madness with 3 color 3 mana commanders. I run 15 under 2 mana ramps to get mayael to board on turn 2 and use its ability on turn 3 or 4.

Id cut Crop Rotation its sick card if you have large toolbox of lands in your deck, but now there is only Homeward Path good enough to tutor. Ancient Tomb is other one but you need colorfull mana for mayael, so i would not ramp into it on early game. If you meny mana dorks and Gaea's Cradle on deck, then that card could win you the game. But now you should ad in lands like Maze of Ith, Rogue's Passage, Hall of the Bandit Lord or Kessig Wolf Run so it could realy give you what you need, or otherwise it will just take you one card from hand to colorfix. Same goes for Sylvan Scrying. And the third one id cut is Nature's Lore if you realy cant use that untapped land, there is faster and better two mana ramps, if you had those Birds of Paradises that you could playwith that untapland it would be worth it.

What is your opinion of adding 'Regal Behemoth' from the new Conspiracy set to the deck? It can be tutored by Mayael, and provides mana fixing and card draw once you become the monarch.