pie chart

[Primer] Marath Hatebears | EDH Combo v. 3.0

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

silversuriv


Maybeboard


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 Primary Combos

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

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

Ways to Assemble The Primary Combo

Birthing Pod Kiki chain:

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:

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

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

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.

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

Cathars' Crusade + any one of the below

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

Loyal Retainers + any binned Legendary creature

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

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

Pinging Ranging Raptors

Sol Ring

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.

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:

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments

Casual

96% Competitive

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
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views