Hey, I've been taking a long look at Shivan Wurm lately. I'm wondering what you think of it, it's only a 7/7 beater for 5...but that return to hand ability could be abusable...

Meh, in here not so much. I could only "reuse" 4 creatures. Your deck on the other hand might make more use of it, being able to reuse 6 creatures and reliably choose which ones since you use Wild Pair . Maybe not so much "abusable"

Fair enough. Abusable is a strong word. I think it has too much potential to be inconsistent. It would be at it's best with Wild Pair for tutoring Iona or Novablast Wurm and bouncing another creature to tutor something else out with, but I still don't think it's strong enough.

Oh, I also got a hold of an Enlightened Tutor , what do you think of it in here? Yay, Nay, Try it?

If you have one, I'd definitely put it in. You have some powerful artifacts and enchantments and being able to tutor them helps make your deck more consistent.

I just realized, another card that has been a game ender is Genesis Wave .

And not to solicit my own deck, but take a look at Does this make me look fat? if you want some other possible ideas. Comparing decklists always helps both parties.

Enlightened Tutor is awesome. If you have artifacts (Birthing Pod , Scroll Rack ) or enchantments (Privileged Position , Greater Good etc) that make a difference for your game, play it. You won't be disappointed.

Lol I look at all Mayael decklists that are cycled for that very reason! Like I'm super jealous of your Yosei, the Morning Star btw. As for Genesis Wave , I'll have to toy with it. I used to have a lot less ramp, so it wasn't viable and I never cast it.

Hmmm then shall I swap out Crib Swap or Beast Within ?

• Crib Swap - Exile Creature

• Beast Within - Destroy Permanant

both tokens are irrelevant.

Beast Within hits more things

If your meta has a lotta graveyard shenanigans, I would say take out Beast Within otherwise I agree with jminute

Beast Within was winning in my head too, alright so Crib Swap out, Enlightened Tutor in.

Domri rade seems bad with only 30% chance to draw a card, and you only run a couple pieces of library manipulation to help him.

Sarkhan vol doesn't seem great either, I'd probably rather just have a haste card like Fervor that can't get attacked to death by an opponent's creature.

You are only looking at their first abilities.

Domri Rade is silly when is ult goes off, which is kinda often when I get him out turn 3. His second ability is also powerful, as a source of repeatable removal.

Sarkhan Vol is also not there just for haste. It's actually his second ability that is the most useful. I've used it to steal Glen Elendra Archmage to ensure a spell and take a Zur the Enchanter swing then sac him to Greater Good . The ability really shines with Greater Good and Birthing Pod in play.

Also, Rings of Brighthearth can copy the abilities of these plainswalkers.

I'm not saying they are bad cards, but I am sure you can find much better uses for those slots.

But hey, whatever steams your broccoli.

What would you replace them with?

Sneak Attack , Kodama's Reach /Cultivate , Mirri's Guile , maybe Cream of the Crop . Or just more choice fat. Knollspine Dragon is pretty sweet. Hellkite Tyrant steals things for you every time it swings. A board sweeper or two would probably be a very good idea too. Austere Command is probably the best. Blasphemous Act also tends to be very good because it's usually cheap to cast.

Other cards I'm not sure about: birthing pod and realms uncharted both seem more cute than good. I'm a huge fan of pod, but most of the creatures don't give value when thrown into it. Realms seems worse than one of the cultivates. You get utility lands, but the only time you get what you want is if one of your opponents colludes with you.

Sneak Attack would be in here in a heartbeat if I had the ability to get one, so I agree there. Mirri's Guile is redundant with Sylvan Library or Scroll Rack out, and doesn't give me the "draw" ability of the Library. Cream of the Crop was in here, but I disliked digging soooo deep off of say It That Betrays .

While I agree Knollspine Dragon is sweet, I have come to find I prefer cards in my library with a little card draw for support. Seeing as how Mayael pulls them from the library. Hellkite Tyrant is something I had tried out, but underperformed in my meta. And while I could replace the planeswalkers with board wipes, there is never really a time I want to cast one.

Birthing Pod is a powerhouse when out. Saccing Woodfall Primus to fetch Iona, Shield of Emeria is backbreaking 9/10 times. While I would generally agree about Kodama's Reach /Cultivate vs Realms Uncharted , a lot of my lands aren't basic. So besides utility lands, if I'm color starved I can go find a bunch of colored lands. and more often then not I will see Sun Titan and get them back.

Like you said, the Planeswalkers "steam my broccoli" more so than these other choices, which have all come up before :). Thanks for stopping bye, and if you have a Sneak Attack I gladly try to get it from you haha.

I dunno man, your comments about knollspine and cream of the crop don't make any sense to me. What does it mean, you prefer cards in your library? Knollspine takes a bunch of cards and puts them in your hand. It's not like it changes the threat density of your library. (If anything, that's an argument against birthing pod! It pulls a fatty out of your deck, then shuffles.) And I think most magic players realize by now that drawing about 10 cards with 1 spell usually means you're going to win.

Not that the above is an actual reason not to play pod. The actual reason is that I'm seeing about four creatures here that I would feel good about saccing with pod (restoration angel, terastodon, primus, sylvan primordial.) The rest is just paying ~5 mana and a card to turn one random fatty into another. Which is fun, but not the most competitive use of the slot.

And why would you not want to dig 12 cards into your library for free? That just sounds amazing to me!

blah blah blah words

Oh yeah, and if you're just using realms uncharted to hit land drops and/or fix colors, the cultivates are just so much better in every way.

I understand how card advantage can put people way ahead of others, but drawing cards is not what Mayael the Anima is about. She is all about efficiency and card advantage through her ability. Along with that, things like Birthing Pod or Tooth and Nail which do reduce threat density like you pointed out are acceptable since they bring out creatures for way less than their CMC, and I choose what I'm getting with the "Toolbox" action going on there.

Mayael is all about utilizing the top 5. With Cream of the Crop I found that digging so deep forced me to make tougher decisions about what to leave on top, unless I was already winning and just chained creatures. Even if I did want to put it back in it wouldn't make it over either PW in my mind.

You mistake what I said. I totally agree that Kodama's Reach /Cultivate are usually better than Realms Uncharted , but I have 24 non-basic lands. If for some reason I'm forced to use Realms in such a way that I need to find colors sure I'd love to have Cultivate instead, but it's primary use is to grab utility or legendary lands. Also, it's pretty easy to get people to collude with you, this is EDH.

Just throwing this out there my LGS uses a point system, so certain actions net you points. Which is why I have certain cards in here like so many legendary lands etc.

I took cream of the crop out of my mayael for that same reason. It is nowhere as good a scry in a mayael deck as it seems. You only get to leave one card on the top and if you drop It That Betrays you have to put ten cards on the bottom that could be better used out on the field.

I do personnaly think the card draw is useful to clear out the lands and noncreature spells however most of the deck is designed to bring creatures from the library not your hand so card draw can leave you too many creatures in hand, without an elvish piper effect, this is a bad thing.

Otoh: illusionist's bracers and rings of brighthearth on elvish piper will net you out three creatures, then moving bracers to mayael will net you three creatures from the library, not a bad set up

@Staizer I was contemplating Illusionist's Bracers , but without Elvish Piper I felt it wasn't the best use of a slot.

@metalevolence What do you think of Dragon Mage ? I like his refill a little more than Knollspine Dragon since it's more repeatable, and I can pitch an Eldrazi to reshuffle my GY.

Generally giving your opponents cards is very bad; personally I would never play dragon mage, and knollspine is a very strong card, but of course you'll play whichever one you have more fun with.

I think metalevolence is spot on with that. Dragon Mage seems good because it's so much more controllable as far as timing goes but giving each of your opponents a fresh hand is just waiting for pain.