Why do you run Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded and no Sneak Attack ?

@bankrupt_on_selling Sneak Attack is a card I have always been interested in, and have tested many times. Unfortunately, I find it hard to justify a slot in the deck. It can generate some big plays, but it's not a part of our core strategy, so sometimes it just doesn't have the opportunity to do much. Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded, on the other hand does advance our core strategy. He's a power 5+ creature for Mayael to find, and he gives all our other creatures haste which is probably the most important keyword for this deck. The Sneak Attack ability on him is just gravy. He's so new I haven't had the opportunity to test him much yet, but so far he seems like a very promising inclusion.

Still really love this deck, I come back to check on it at least once a week or two. My Mayael has taken on a more control aggro build, I'm currently running Teferi's Protection and it's (less great) variants. How bad do field wipes tend to set you back in your build? Blightsteel is still one of the meanest cards in mine but I need something to finish off control players if they get me in a corner.

@TheMaggotPrince Glad you enjoy the deck! I've thought about your question a lot, and I hope you're prepared for a lengthy reply. We are a midrange deck, which means control is consistently our nemesis. You have basically two options: kill them quickly, or play threats that they can't respond to effectively.

To address the first strategy, it really comes down to fine-tuning your ramp and your mana curve. All the action in our deck starts at 4-5 CMC. That means our ramp ideally needs to come down on turns 2 and 3, getting us up to 4+ mana a turn or two early. I get a lot of questions like "why no Commander's Sphere?", "why no Pir's Whim?". They're too slow! Farseek and Nature's Lore get us up to our critical mana threshold earlier, and more reliably. Which brings me to my next point: average CMC. Most Mayael decks are way too top heavy. If you can't impact the board before turn 6, you're in big trouble. I know the cheaper Mayael targets aren't as exciting, but they pull a lot of weight in the early game. I also put a big emphasis on haste, and pack a lot of redundancy for granting it. Being able to swing even once significantly devalues control's sorcery-speed answers. If your non-hasty Soul of the Harvest gets hit with a Vindicate, you essentially just paid 6 mana for them to discard a card - not a good rate. But if Soul gets in once? 6 mana for 6 damage and a discard is doing ok.

Next, we need to pack some resilient threats. This is far more open-ended, and will likely ebb and flow with your meta. Keywords like indestructible and hexproof are obvious good choices in most situations. ETB effects, like haste, will help you generate some value even if things get removed. I've also leaned harder into recursion lately, or at least creatures that have good death triggers. Cavalier of Thorns has become a frequent target of and sacrifice for Birthing Pod. Also, Mayael's ability becomes significantly more useful. It's instant speed, and also dodges most counterspells. Use this to your advantage.

The last bit of advice I can give you is don't over-commit to the board. As you mentioned, board wipes can be back-breaking for our game plan. Always assume they have one in hand (same goes for counterspells). Learn how to play around those answers, learn how and when to hedge your bets, learn how to apply pressure. Don't get discouraged, it takes practice. Best of luck, I hope that helps!

@KindredDiscovery I absolutely love this response. When I first built my deck I played it like everyone else, huge creatures and lots of Mayael misses. After reading your tutorial and playtesting your deck it really clicked with how much this deck can act like a dance rather than just casting heavy hitters and hoping for the best. I've taken out competitive decks well out of Mayael' s punching range just from some well timed removal and quicker ramp. Decks like this tend to be slow and clunky but I'm nearly always the first one to impact the board and close out the game when no one expects it. Really appreciate the tips and tricks, thank you very much. She's definitely my go to when I grab a deck, nothing feels better than a Mayael trigger into an Ulamog at someone's endstep turn 4-5.

What are your thoughts on the new Vivien?

@Sandilini Oh, she's definitely strong. I keep comparing her to Garruk, Primal Hunter, who is a proven asset to the deck. They have the same CMC, same starting loyalty, and +1 to make a 3/3 token. I think the card advantage Garruk offers is usually stronger - he hits the board and usually nets ~5 cards, whereas Vivien, Monsters' Advocate would have to stick around for several turns to generate the same value with her static ability. However, her -2 is full of combo potential. Cast Avenger of Zendikar and grab Purphoros, God of the Forge. Etali, Primal Storm and Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded. Sun Titan and Sakura-Tribe Elder. There are tons of possibilities, some that could just end the game on the spot. I will need to do some playtesting, but my first impressions are very favorable.

Adding on to the Vivien question, are there any ot her stand out new cards from Ikoria you're thinking of adding?

@Ataraxey Oh yes, Bonders' Enclave was a perfect inclusion, and very easy to slot in. A staple in the deck until the end of time. Other than that though, I didn't see much that really grabbed me. Don't get me wrong, the set is great for Commander in general. It has opened up a huge variety of interesting new decks. But at this point, for a well-established strategy, I'm honestly pretty happy for a new set to deliver one or two new cards for the deck.

What about the cards Xenagos, God of Revels, See the Unwritten, Selvala's Stampede or Scroll Rack?

@bankrupt_on_selling I've used Xenagos, God of Revels in the past, and it was always a good card. I swapped it out for Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded recently and I've been liking that better. Haste is so important that it could be correct to run both.

I'm much more tepid on See the Unwritten and Selvala's Stampede. They seem awfully high variance, and I think I'd rather run tutors in their place. I'm sure they're fun when they work though - just not my style.

Scroll Rack is absolutely great, and it was with great reluctance that I took it out of the deck a while back. I was lacking in card advantage engines, and Lifecrafter's Bestiary offered both card advantage and filtering. It may well find its way back in, but it waits on the sidelines for now.

how come no engulfing slagwurm ?

@mikeb388 I think Engulfing Slagwurm is a fine budget option, but for this deck it just doesn't have enough impact when it hits the board. If a creature doesn't generate value when it enters the battlefield, your run the risk of a removal spell robbing you of the opportunity to do anything with it. That could potentially be a huge tempo swing.

Blows my mind how many cards are still coming out that are great for Mayael. I see you already added Elder Gargaroth. Garruk's Uprising also looks like a strict upgrade to Elemental Bond in this deck, or do you think running both will be best?

@deviousx I know, right? It probably helps that 'big creatures' is a deep well to draw from. I'm definitely going to run Garruk's Uprising, but I haven't decided what to take out yet. Probably Lifecrafter's Bestiary? I think it's weaker in this deck than Elemental Bond. Obviously Uprising outclasses them both.

Ever thought of putting the Great Henge in? Feels like an easy card to cheat out and generate value.

@Bubblegum The reason I don't run The Great Henge is because it hardly ever ramps us at a point in the game where doing so is meaningful. To get it out at a discount means we already have enough mana to cast our big creatures. I think it really shines in midrange decks that can get a discount of 3-4 mana, and cast it on turn 4 or 5 to propel themselves into the late game. This deck will rarely be able to play it earlier than turn 5 or 6. Such are the drawbacks of running so many expensive creatures. But who knows, as they keep printing new 5+ power cards at 3-4 mana, it might become a feasible inclusion.

The real argument to running it, in my mind, is the fact that it provides a solid draw engine. But Elemental Bond and Garruk's Uprising do that job just as well, and will always come down earlier. This deck is tuned such that you should be spending your mana on utility engines in the early-mid game, and profiting off them with your large creatures late game. Henge, unfortunately, encourages the opposite play pattern. It's an awkward fit.

Hello KindredDiscovery,

I must say that your decklist is by far the best I've seen. And your explanation on how to build a deck around Mayael the Anima is greatly appreciated. Made me think long and hard about the one that I just made. I recently watched a Star City Games video with Danny West's Mayael deck and he kept talking about a card named Impromptu Raid. I was wondering if that would be an ideal addition to a Mayael Deck?

If you could take a look at my deck and maybe give some feedback on it; I would greatly appreciate it! Mayael the Anima Creature Showdown

@Klapmeyer94 Thanks for the kind words! This deck has been a labor of love, and I'm glad to see someone else enjoy it as well. This is the first time I've ever even seen Impromptu Raid. I think I like it, though it's a bit difficult to evaluate. Left up to chance, you'd have to pump 9-12 mana into the ability to grab a creature. But of course, we have plenty of ways to manipulate the top of our library. If you set it up right, this could even create a huge blowout turn. Overall, I think that if I were going to run this card I would want to tweak the build to support it a bit more. As is, I'd be too reliant on random chance to make it work.

Lots of changes for ZNR! Are there any other cards you're considering like the green mythic flip land?

@Ataraxey I'm finding the flip cards to be rather hard to evaluate. Once I have the chance to play them them a bit, some of them may find a home here. One thing I will note: this deck is already so mana-hungry, it's hard to justify putting in spells that are (generally) overcosted. Maybe I need to think of them as replacements for my lands, but I'm already very content with the deck's mana base. I dunno, there's lots to mull over. The pathway lands are pretty solid though, and I dropped a few underperforming lands to try them out.

Ancient Greenwarden is obviously very good here with all the fetch lands. There was a time where I ran crucible of worlds, and it performed admirably. I was over the moon to see them slap that ability on a relevant creature!

How do you feel about Bloom Tender? I have found that a turn 3 Mayael after a t2 tender immediately gives you access to all 3 colors from Bloom, which can ramp significantly. Obviously it’s a removal target though. Have you played with it before? If so, how did you find it performed?

@Erikschmerik Honestly I've never owned one, and haven't had a chance to test it. It looks very strong though, and could easily substitute for one of our weaker ramp spells. I'll go out on a limb and say that it should probably be included in the deck over something like Rampant Growth.

Have you ever considered adding a few landfall creatures into the deck? The new Moraug, Fury of Akoum looks cool and some more interactive ones like Omnath, Locus of Rage and Admonition Angel could maybe find a home. I've had a lot of success with Admonition Angel in my Mayael with the fetch lands and Sun Titan.

@Nice_Guy_Topher There are definitely a lot of landfall synergies built into the deck, especially given that there are a few ways to recur fetchlands. The problem I've found is that the power-5 landfall creatures don't have enough impact when they hit the field. There are so many competing creatures with stellar ETB effects that it's hard to justify cutting them. Omnath, Locus of Rage is the most appealing to me though, because if it eats removal you get at least a little value from it.

Another angle to consider is the token synergies that are becoming available for this deck. If they keep printing cards like Purphoros, God of the Forge and Terror of the Peaks then having token-generating engines will become a viable subtheme. The landfall token makers are some of the best, and I could easily see them finding a slot in some future iteration.