[Primer] Marath Hatebears | EDH Combo v. 3.0

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Hatebears Primer RGW (Naya) Toolbox

silversuriv

Creature (32)

• 1x Academy Rector SL
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Loyal Retainers
• 1x Manglehorn
• 1x Nightshade Peddler
• 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
• 1x Sylvan Caryatid
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1x Village Bell-Ringer
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Tooth and Nail

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Brushland
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 4x Forest
• 1x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Mountain
• 4x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Savannah SL
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Taiga MP
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Artifact (8)

• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Impulse

Commander (1)

Instant (11)

• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Red Elemental Blast SL
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Earthcraft
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Splinter Twin
• 1x Stony Silence
• 1x Stranglehold
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library

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Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Magus of the Moon
• 1x Sanctum Prelate

Artifact (1)

• 1x Mana Crypt

Land (4)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Strip Mine

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Living Plane

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This Marath, Will of the Wild variation focuses on optimizing and supporting Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker / Splinter Twin combos while still having strong alternative backup plans. It's also important to note that red is very minimally used, especially since the red cards will be a part of a green combo chain as opposed to being hard cast.

The Gameplan

The Primary Combos

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker / Splinter Twin + any one of the below:

• Village Bell-Ringer : Infinite haste tokens

• Felidar Guardian : Infinite haste tokens only using Kiki

• Combat Celebrant : Infinite combat phases with a haste Combat Celebrant token

Other Win-Cons

Marath, Will of the Wild + Earthcraft & Cathars' Crusade / Doubling Season

Marath, Will of the Wild & Friends Beatdown

• Setting up a strong hate/tax board will naturally let Marath & Co. run free

Combo Chains

Ways to Assemble The Primary Combo

Birthing Pod Kiki chain:

• Pod Marath, Will of the Wild / any 3-Drop to fetch Felidar Guardian

• Target Pod w/ Felidar's ability and Pod Felidar to fetch Karmic Guide

• Return Felidar to blink Pod and Pod Felidar again to fetch Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• Tap Kiki to make a copy of Karmic Guide to return Felidar and blink Kiki

• Assuming Marath is out, this full combo only requires if Pod is already on the field, or if playing pod the same turn. Remember, can be replaced by paying 2 life.

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard chain:

• Verse 1, 2: Quirion Ranger & activate ability -> Sylvan Caryatid

• Verse 3, 4, 5: Village Bell-Ringer -> Felidar Guardian -> Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• Any mana dork can be retrieved instead of Ranger for a slower chain in return for being less mana intensive. Doing so will let Bell-Ringer untap Yisan + the 2 mana dorks. Tap those 2 dorks + 1 mana to activate Yisan and get Felidar which blinks Bell-Ringer. Repeat to get Kiki and combo. The last 3 verses can all be performed in one turn using the you needed to cast Yisan in the first place + the 2 retrieved mana dorks.

Fauna Shaman / Survival of the Fittest Kiki chain:

• Activate and pitch a creature to retrieve Felidar Guardian to your hand

• Activate and pitch the retrieved card to fetch Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• Activate and pitch Kiki to fetch Karmic Guide

• Cast Karmic Guide to return Kiki

• Tap Kiki to make a copy of Karmic Guide to return Felidar and blink/untap Kiki

Fauna Shaman / Survival of the Fittest Avacyn/Elesh Norn chain:

• Activate and pitch a creature to retrieve Avacyn, Angel of Hope / Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite to your hand

• Activate and pitch Avacyn/Norn to fetch Loyal Retainers

• Cast and sac Retainers to animate Avacyn/Norn

Entwine Tooth and Nail and choose any 2 combo pieces

Chord of Calling or Green Sun's Zenith onto field / Worldly Tutor at opponent's EOT

• Most of the time, the target will be Fauna Shaman

Combo Advantages

The combo lines are relatively fast, Goldfishing turn 5 wins on avg. with a few lines of play to combo on turns 2 or 3 (w/ Mana Vault ).

The Yisan, Pod, and Fauna Shaman / Survival of the Fittest chains only require at a minimum to start and finish. Although it may take multiple turns, the ability to power through the combos with minimal mana/casting requirements is very nice under heavy stax or MLD effects.

Also, the combos don't fold to a single counter spell. Fauna Shaman / Survival of the Fittest is very versatile, so having graveyard recursion in the form of Loyal Retainers, Karmic Guide, and Eternal Witness is extremely helpful. It is also possible to ignore the graveyard entirely by using other combo chains.

Combo Weaknesses

The combos hinge on tutoring, cheating into play, or recurring from the graveyard. Grafdigger's Cage and Stranglehold is a thing in addition to mirror hatebear matchups. Fortunately Naya colors have access to the best removal for these situations, but if you can't get rid of them, it's time to start swinging with mama Marath.

Major Synergies

Marath, Will of the Wild + any one of the below

• Ranging Raptors : Enrage for extra 2 land drops/turn dependent upon the number of Marath's counters available

• Skullclamp : Make 1/1 Elementals as clamp fodder

• Hardened Scales : Removing Marath's counters one at a time to add a +1/+1 counter back to it will net an additional counter for each activation - Tap X to put X +1/+1 counters on Marath

• Nightshade Peddler : Marath's pings will now destroy enemy creatures

• Doubling Season : Act as a Hardened Scales or major token maker

Cathars' Crusade + any one of the below

• Marath, Will of the Wild : Pay X to make X 1/1 tokens and put X +1/+1 counters on all creatures you control

Combat Celebrant / Rings of Brighthearth : Helps speed up multi-turn combo chains or preserve Marath's counters

Loyal Retainers + any binned Legendary creature

Hate & Tax Package

Many of these cards are heavily meta-dependent and are flex spots for personal preference. Although most of the hate/tax cards affect only opponents, some are board-wide. Fortunately, with Marath's abilities, it is simple to remove a board-wide hate cards on a creature if needed.

Grand Abolisher : Clears the way to attempt a combo

Aven Mindcensor : Flash in on any tutor or fetch land activation

Containment Priest : Flash in for a fair game until you decide otherwise

Eidolon of Rhetoric / Ethersworn Canonist : No funky storms & slows down opponents

Spirit of the Labyrinth : No digging for answers/combos

Aura of Silence : Tax artifacts & enchantments while having a free removal effect ready

Linvala, Keeper of Silence / Harsh Mentor : Don't even think about it

Pyroblast : No to many cEDH win-cons

Plenty of creature, artifact, and enchantment removal / board wipes

Ramp Package

Having a plethora of mana dorks/rocks allow Turn 2 Marath, Will of the Wild plays and provides lots of fixing/mana to continually cast Marath, Will of the Wild or keep mana available as a pinging response

• These dorks can be used as Skullclamp fodder

Pinging Ranging Raptors

Sol Ring

Notable Exclusions

The common Marath token combos are neatly explained by Airithne here. Any missing pieces not found in this deck is merely due to personal preference. To make the Marath token combo plan resilient, there would have to be too many cuts in this list which I would not be fond of, especially due to meta concerns. I also tend to use Marath very liberally in order to remove any problematic commander/combo/hate/tax creatures leaving very little counters left to support a token plan.

Ripjaw Raptor : A very good card in this deck, would not mind it going in but I prefer Sylvan Library much more to preserve Marath's counters.

Carpet of Flowers is a fantastic, must-have cEDH card but definitely depends on your playgroup.

No mass land destruction (MLD) effects are included, though siding in Boros Charm and using it along with Teferi's Protection and the plethora of mana dorks/creature cheating makes MLD a possible strategy; just not one I'm interested in. Fun cards to throw in this package would include Living Plane , Armageddon , Boil , and Choke .

Tax effects are good substitutes for any missing cards on this list (ex. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben ), but it mostly depends on your meta and playgroup. Root Maze can be fun at times.

Planned Upgrades

There are still several more expensive cards I would like to add that I am working on acquiring for Kiki combo streamlining, additional combo routes, and resilience to disruption. Cards in the Maybeboard are listed there instead of Sideboard to not have them affect the Deck price.

To finish tuning this deck, excluding lands, the final goals are:

• Basic Land -> Mana Vault

• Basic Land -> Mana Crypt

• Talisman of Unity -> Sanctum Prelate

• Sylvan Caryatid -> Bloom Tender

Date added	7 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.48
Tokens	Copy Clone, Elemental X/X G
Folders	Saved Decks, cEDH