BornofBlood, that actually is a very low overall mana cost for a Mayael deck. Most I have seen on here are 4.7 or higher.

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor your comment is true, but I have a Mayael agro deck with fading cards that have high stats and it can beat all my friends.

A Mayael EDH Primer that doesn't run Greater Good??? Screw Heliod, God of the Sun, put that card in. In no way should one choose a Heliod, God of the Sun over a Greater Good.

You'll never hear someone say, "You're not running Heliod? Just take out greater good for it."

Also, when reading your section of why you run certain things over others, I noticed a lot of your reasoning was "personal choice". People tend to read primers to get a better idea on several different methods of playing a commander and find their own similar brew in the process. So I would consider making a section to talk about what cards are missing to make the deck "that much more competitive" since you lack a lot of those cards in your build on purpose.

@Dreno33: No disrespect to Greater Good, it's a good card. But it's not so clear-cut as "I'm running Heliod over Greater Good because TIMMY STOMP STOMP RAWR". I'm running a critically low number of power 5+ creatures already, and I'm not comfortable taking any more out. If you have suggestions for other utility cards I may swap out for GG, feel free, but I can't afford to take out any Mayael targets.

As for my personal choices, that's limited to 2 (almost) universally hated creatures, and tutors. I don't think people need me to tell them that tutors are powerful and competitive. And if you're playing Mayael, I don't think "that much more competitive" is typically your goal. This primer is designed to highlight how the pieces of a good Mayael deck can intricately mesh together. It isn't designed to represent the fastest, most competitive, or most dominating build. This deck builds up synergies over long games, and is supposed to be more of a teaching tool than anything else. You have a fair point that I may not have made this very clear in the primer, and will add a blurb in the intro to better reflect this.

land tax?

@Chargingbadgerrrrrrrr: You know, for a while I had overlooked it because I had a lot more Cultivate style ramp in here and figured it wouldn't trigger very often. But the deck has changed a lot since then, and my ramp mostly comes in the form of Ancient Tomb and the like. I might need to do some playtesting. Thanks for the suggestion!

What about your thoughts on Dictate of the Twin Gods, especially with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed (and your thoughts on him); or Hellkite Charger for lolsmacks; Soul of the Harvest for draw (versus Drumhunter); Surrak, the Hunt Caller (versus, or in addition to, Ogre Battledriver); or Gruul War Chant for the madcap blocking clause?

@thewyzman: Here's the problem I have with Dictate of the Twin Gods. I typically have the biggest dudes on the field, and my opponents running smaller creatures have to scramble to keep up. With damage doubling cards, that dynamic changes; essentially, the size margin between my guys and their guys becomes narrower. Unless a creature I'm swinging with has trample (and many of them don't, as I prefer flying) I'm not seeing the benefits, whereas their tokens and chump blockers can suddenly take on my biggest threats.

Funny enough I was just debating about putting Ruric Thar, the Unbowed in. Ultimately I went with Dragonlord Dromoka. They fill a similar niche, but I felt that the evasion and lifelink were more valuable in most games. Ruric Thar has his place against combo or Talrand decks, but I think he's sideboard material for now.

I've never played with Hellkite Charger, nor played against anyone who used him (my playgroup tends to steer away from infinite combos, which is where he's most useful). Do you have any experience with him in straight up beater builds?

Soul of the Harvest has been in and out. He always seems good on paper, but usually he's just a lightning rod. If I can control when he hits the table, then I have a good chance of setting up a few draws. But usually Mayael pulls him off the top and he just eats a kill spell immediately. If I were running more protection he'd probably be more valuable.

Surrak, the Hunt Caller has flown below my radar for reasons I cannot comprehend, because holy crap he's perfect! Added to my priority acquisition list. Move over Heliod, God of the Sun; haste > vigilance.

Ogre Battledriver and Gruul War Chant have two problems: they cost 4 mana, and they're not Mayael targets. My 4-drop utility slots are super competitive, and it's a really high bar to make the cut. Are these cards better than Captain Sisay or Garruk Wildspeaker? Doubtful (but Ogre Battledriver is close).

I've used Ogre Battledriver with Xenagos, God of Revels to make opponents cry (and you said you liked haste, right?

I stuck Surrak, the Hunt Caller in my deck, but felt that other than the conditional haste clause he wasn't really a threat, and much like Soul of the Harvest, didn't win the contest of hitting multiple creatures with Mayael's ability.

Honestly, since getting a job, I'm playing a lot less MTG and have really only recently given up Standard for EDH, and I'm playing in a completely-multiplayer EDH meta... and my Sacs to the Thrax deck gets more play than my For The Nayan Horde! (until just recently when I acquired some major Mayael components).

I've never gone infinite with Hellkite Charger, oddly enough, but I have used him in conjunction with Utvara Hellkite and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice in one of the most decisive games I've ever had, lol.

I just recently stuck in my own Mayael's Aria after throwing in Colossus of Akros as an alternate win-con (and I actually got my Hamletback Goliath up to a 153/153 the other day, with NO Nylea, God of the Hunt on board! /cry) The turn right before I could swing with Windbrisk Raptor out, my opponent went ham and killed everyone.

Back on topic, Ruric Thar, the Unbowed has done okay in my deck as I literally did play a Talrand deck a couple weeks ago, and he cost that player over 20 life (and I was only a few turns away from Dictate of the Twin Gods!), then he went combo, took a dozen extra turns, then drew his deck ftw.

I have experience with it Hellkite Charger as a beater. I've found Scourge of the Throne to be miles better, as you're usually using that 7~ mana on mayael.

Oh and MaelstromHobo. Since most of my recent deck changes have been based off what i like in your list, I recently ran into something...I get why Wrath of God is in the list. Every deck its its wipes, but isnt Day of Judgment just better since you also run Yavimaya Hollow? or is regeneration that prevelant in your meta?

Good point about Scourge of the Throne _SeriosSkies_ I'll have to give him a try.

I run Wrath of God because the negative interaction between it and Yavimaya Hollow comes up very infrequently. I do tutor for Hollow a lot, but I've got no means by which to tutor WoG so the problem just deosn't arise all that often. And yea, I guess I do have a lot of regen in my meta too. It's pretty much all one player who exclusively plays , and oh man does he love himself some regen.

Weathered Wayfarer would be nice here, seeing as you have a ton of non-basic lands.

If you have a good top deck package already Call of the Wild is great. Lurking Predators is also fun in 3+ player matches.

I tried out Defense of the Heart this past weekend, and it was pretty fun since the board can take quite a while to warm up, especially after a wrath.

@samman271 & thewyzman: I've played with all of those cards, and they're great. I don't have them in the deck right now because I've chosen to use Mayael as the sole means to cheat big creatures into play. Call it a flavor handicap I've elected to give myself.

Gaea's Cradle anyone? Cool Deck +1

Woodland Bellower Can also be a really sweet utility card.

@Birdsturnone: The $160+ price is kind of a road block. If you've got one, I'd gladly trade you an Adventurers' Guildhouse :)

Woodland Bellower, while totally sweet in other builds, only grabs me a Wall of Blossoms or Courser of Kruphix. There are better 6-drops to consider.

Mother of runes

Do you consider land filters to be better than mana rocks? I really like Animist's Awakening but I'm using the signets and Gilded Lotus and Chromatic Lantern. Should I swap these out and expand?

@BantBitch: I do, for two reasons: it helps free up deck slots, and it's less fragile. That said, rocks can be nice for ramp. If you find that you want to play a faster game then I wouldn't necessarily swap them out.

There's a primer hub now if you want to add it to your deck.

Nice, thanks enpc!

It's probably a stupid question since everything else has been fleshed out, but why no Godsire? I didn't see it in the "why not this" section.