Screenshot from Universal Pictures' "Jurassic Park" (1993). Dinosaur token art by Filip Burburan.
Today I'm going to be exploring a new mechanic in the upcoming Ixalan set. The prerelease is this weekend and it's got me excited about building around a commander I've had filed away in a binder for years. That commander is Marath and the mechanic I'm all worked up about is called Enrage.
If a creature has the Enrage keyword it will do something every time it is dealt damage.
For years I've had a fondness for Coalhauler Swine as a way to push damage out to the entire table, though I've never built a deck around it or similar cards until now. Enrage isn't a new idea but this is the first time it has been called by a keyword.
This isn't going to end with a full decklist. Sometimes I wind up with a list but today's writing represents the first stage of a deckbuilding project.
Marath, Will of the Wild
Ever since I opened up the 2013 Nature of the Beast Commander Precon and built a deck around Mayael the Anima, I've owned a regular and an oversized copy of Marath, Will of the Wild.
Marath is a 0/0 legendary elemental whose bread and butter is working with +1/+1 counters. It enters the battlefield with +1/+1 counters equal to the amount of mana used to cast it. Its ability is incredibly powerful and flexible, but the writing on the card is a bit of a "wall of text" and doesn't lend itself to easy reading so let me break it down for you.
Pay X mana and remove X +1/+1 counters from Marath, and you can do one of the following:
Put X +1/+1 counters on target creature
Have Marath deal X damage to target creature or player
Put an X/X green elemental creature token onto the battlefield
This means if you get infinite mana, you can pull all the counters off of Marath to use his ability, send him to the command zone, recast him, and do it again until your opponents are all dead or you have an infinitely wide board of infinitely large creatures.
While going infinite with Marath should lead to a win, we are going to focus on using his ability to ping creatures you control that have Enrage. You may not always want to do that but in the right circumstances there are ways to really abuse this interaction. That's going to be our our first plan out of the gate with Marath. Ramp, play Marath, get Enrage targets on the field and use his ability to abuse them.
My Marath Problem
I build a lot of decks but there's a reason I haven't built Marath yet.
At the LGS I've been playing at for the past few years, one of the store owners plays a very strong Marath deck. He is a judge, has a lifetime of experience playing Magic, and does a great job policing the board until he draws into a win. Sometimes if folks are having fun he won't even win the game until he feels like it, letting everyone enjoy a longer game. The deck and his threat assessment skills are top notch and so far I've only ever beat it one time (with my Narset deck).
I had been considering building Marath but I didn't want to just build the same deck. I prefer to blaze my own trail. Even if I'm not really leaping into uncharted territory, I like to try to figure things out on my own.
That said - it should be noted that I first saw the idea of pairing Enraged mechanics with Marath on Reddit. I didn't follow the thread, as I wanted to see what I could come up with on my own, but the first idea wasn't mine. Once this gets posted I'll probably go read up on what others are doing with their Marath Enraged decks.
My Marath problem was that I always wanted to build the deck but didn't know what spin to give it and I didn't want to just build the same deck someone else at my LGS played. I'd been thinking about building Marath Land Destruction but it's such a hated tactic that I've been holding off on that. With the release of Ixalan and the introduction of the new Enraged mechanic, I think I've finally got my direction. My Marath problem may finally be solved.
Anger Management The enraged mechanic is a simple one. If a creature is dealt damage, something happens.
We're going to want to find ways to be able to ping our creatures a lot to make "something" happen but not have them die. That means cards like Eldrazi Monument and Avacyn, Angel of Hope. It also means running enchantments like Indestructability, effects that just last until end of turn like Withstand Death and Heroic Intervention and equipment like Darksteel Plate.
Eldrazi Monument and Avacyn will both help our creatures survive though none of this keeps our board from being exiled. As usual, we'll always be waiting for the next Cyclonic Rift.
If we can get one of our dudes with Enrage to be able to survive a huge amount of damage, we can get Marath on the field and we can generate infinite mana we should be able to at least threaten to win the game. That's going to be our basic plan, though because damage wears off at end of turn, even if we don't have indestructibility on the board we should still be able to get a lot of value with Marath.
Angry Dinos Ixalan gives us seven creatures with the Enrage ability. Let's look at each of them more closely.
Bellowing Aegisaur is a perfect fit for Marath. You remove a counter to ping him for 1 damage and he puts a +1/+1 counter back onto Marath and onto every other creature you control. This means Marath won't get any smaller and all of your other Enrage target will be able to take more punishment. If he is out, your only limitation is the mana you can pump into using Marath's ability.
Ranging Raptors is great for Marath because he really wants you to ramp. When Ranging Raptors get hit for damage, you put a basic land onto the battlefield. This deck should occasionally be able to dump ridiculous numbers of lands onto the battlefield. They enter tapped so running effects that untap all your lands might be worth looking at.
Raptor Hatchling will put a 3/3 green dinosaur onto the field when it takes damage. It's a 1/1, so we'll need anthem effects or indestructibility to really get a lot out of him, but we may well be running both so getting an infinitely wide board is something we should be able to accomplish at some point with this deck.
Ravenous Daggertooth lets you gain 2 life when it takes damage. In commander, life isn't everything but being able to combo your life total up to an arbitrarily high number removes the threat of normal combat damage. You still have to worry about infect, commander damage and other decks running infinite combo wincons.
Ripjaw Raptor will let you draw a card when it takes damage. Draw is hugely important and the fact that he has a big butt means you should be able to get use out of him whether or not you have any combo pieces in place. This guy is going to eat his share of Swords to Plowshares and if he doesn't, you're probably going to win a lot of games off of him.
Snapping Sailback will get +1/+1 counters each time it takes damage. This means that if you ping him for 1 damage at a time, he's never going to die from those pings. It'd be super sweet if he had any type of evasion, but he does have Flash, so there will be times he'll come in handy to intercept an attacker when you don't seem to have any blockers.
Our last Enrage creature from Ixalan is Sun-Crowned Hunters. When they take damage you get to deal 3 damage to target opponent. It's enough to be annoying to someone, and if you combo off it is a way to kill folks. Not bad but also nothing super exciting. If it could target creatures, it'd be fantastic.
The Pre-Ixalanic Era
There are older creatures that are worth looking at for this build.
Coalhauler Swine is a 4/4 beast that when dealt damage will push that damage out to every player - including yourself. That means you probably won't want to hit it for infinite damage but he's a compelling blocker and can work as a wincon if you've managed to get your life total higher than anyone else's.
Hornet Nest will churn out 1/1 green insects with flying and deathtouch. If you can generate enough of these "hornets" you should be fairly safe for as long as you can keep them alive. If you can combo off, this will work much like Raptor Hatchling, giving you the win if your opponents don't have an answer.
Sekki, Season's Guide is a weird case. If damage would be dealt to it, prevent that damage. You remove that many +1/+1 counters from Sekki. You also put that many 1/1 colorless Spirit creatures into play. Believe it or not, that last part occurs whether or not you were able to remove +1/+1 counters from it. With an anthem effect on the field you can ping Sekki for as much damage as you want, it will never die and you'll get that many 1/1 spirits.
Stuffy Doll is an indestructible artifact creature that lets you choose a player when it enters the battlefield. When it takes damage, that much damage is done to the chosen player. While it seems good, Marath can already ping a player directly. It does make for a compelling blocker, so it may stay in, but it locks onto one player. Giving it an enchantment like Pariah is fun, but in general Stuffy Doll is less of a fit for our game plan than lots of other cards here.
Vigor provides all of your other creatures with something like an Enrage anthem effect. If any of your other creatures takes damage, the damage is prevented and they get a +1/+1 counter. It also shuffles into your library instead of going into the graveyard, making for a nice little bit of mill defense as a side bonus.
Marath Goodstuff
I took apart my Ghave deck in preparation for this build and in it there were a lot of cards that will combo with Marath. Those two legendaries are kindred spirits, though Ghave focuses on sacrificing creatures and Marath lets you deal direct damage. Marath is also more flexible about the size of token creatures he can create, and is generally seen as the more powerful card of the two.
The basic adders and doublers are all going in.
Hardened Scales isn't a doubler but it will help in everything we try to do involving +1/+1 counters. Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives, Doubling Season and Primal Vigor will let us make twice as many tokens and the latter two will double our counters as well. We can't add Corpsejack Menace or Winding Constrictor, as they require black, but this is a pretty good start.
It should be noted that Illusionist's Bracers is also a good fit but each time Marath enters the field you'll have to re-equp the Bracers. That makes it a little bit more challenging to get to the point where you can go infinite.
Going Infinite
There are lots of ways to go infinite with Marath involving the cards I've already shown. I'm going to start off with two, one of which is relatively easy and the other is a 3-card combo that is relatively hard. I'll definitely be researching other options as well, but let's look at these two.
The hard way I thought up involves using Eldrazi Displacer to flicker either Brood Monitor or Emrakul's Hatcher. The cost to do that is 3 and both Monitor and Hatcher make 3 Eldrazi Spawn. The spawn can be sacrificed for 1 mana, so you can infinitely loop these creatures. Infinite ETBs is one thing but with the addition of Parallel Lives, Anointed Procession or Doubling Season, you also now have infinite mana.
Basalt Monolith and Rings of Brighthearth is the easy way to go infinite. Pay 3 to untap Basalt Monolith. Pay 2 from some other source to use Rings to copy the untap ability, so there are two untap triggers on the stack. Let the first resolve. Tap Basalt Monlith in response to gain 3 mana. Let the second resolve. Tap Basalt Monolith in response to gain another 3 mana. Rinse. Repeat. You need 2 extra mana to kick it off but the Monlith costs 3 so you should already be there.
Making More Mana
There are lots of other ways to make more mana to power Marath's shenanigans.
The key to going infinite with Marath with many of these cards is Ashnod's Altar. It probably should have been the first card mentioned for Marath. We make as many 1/1 green elementals as we can by taking +1/+1 counters off of Marath. We sacrifice them for 2 mana each. Because we have to pay to cast Marath and pay to take the +1/+1 counter off of him, We need extra effects to have this process gain us mana. We recast Marath at a larger size, do it again, and eventually we have an infinitely big Marath and an arbitrarily large army of enormous green elementals.
Citanul Hierophants and Cryptolith Rite both pair with any haste enabler to allow you to tap your 1/1 elementals immediately for mana, fueling Marath to create an infinite board of tapped 1/1 green elementals. Earthcraft is even better as it does not require a haste enabler. You'll still have your infinite army tapped, so you may have to wait through your opponents' turns to see if anyone is going to wrath the board before you can swing in for the win.
Removal
We'll want to run the usual list of naya removal cards, including Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and a decent amount of artifact and enchantment destruction. There are a few all-stars for Marath that deserve to be mentioned.
Any way to give Marath deathtouch will allow him to remove creatures just by pinging them for 1 damage so long as they aren't indestructible. Basilisk Collar will do that nicely. If we had room in our build we might add Walking Ballista but our commander provides the ability to ping creatures already, so that might be a waste of a slot. Aura Shards will let us destroy artifacts and enchantments any time a creature enters the battlefield under our control. That could happen a lot with this deck. Bonds of Mortality will let us deal with those pesky hexproof and indestructible creatures, though it won't help with non-creatures.
Hungry Hungry Marath
Marath really wants to ramp and ramp hard. He will benefit a lot from having oodles of mana to both play out permanents and to use his abilities which sadly, do cost mana. We'll want to run the usual suspects like Rampant Growth, Kodama's Reach, Explosive Vegetation, and the decision of whether or not to run mana rocks will probably be a meta call. If we see a lot of Cyclonic Rifts we might be better off focusing on lands.
Fertilid is a particularly good fit for Marath, as he can put counters on other creatures. We should be able to get a bunch of lands out pretty easily if we have the right pieces in play when Fertilid is out.
If we can generate ridiculous amounts of mana, Animist's Awakening is a great way to dump a bunch of lands on the field. One might argue that this is a "win more" card but given how much Marath wants you to have lots of mana, I think it's worth including.
Braid of Fire might seem like a bad card but if it comes out early and sticks around, you can have a lot of free mana available for Marath's ability. It produces red mana equal to the number of age counters on it, but you get that mana during your upkeep so you won't be able to use it during your first main phase.
Tempt with Discovery is a tricky because other players can get really good lands. Experienced playgroups go by the adage "never be tempted" so if you're playing with players who will never go for it, this might be worth leaving out. Four mana for a land is terrible, but if there's a chance you'll get some benefit out of it, Marath will give you something to do with all that mana.
Keeping Focus & Closing Out the Game
I had been thinking it would be worth it to add some additional "Pingers" to the deck. The problem is that Marath already does that and does that really, really well. That means that while we should add in Staff of Nin because it both helps with pinging and gives us card draw, we probably won't be adding in stuff like Goblin Sharpshooter. We're going to be adding in Basilisk Collar so that Marath can keep opponents' boards under control but we won't bother with much else in the way of equipment.
My current mindset is that this deck wants to keep its focus on Marath. If we go overboard adding cute stuff that isn't mission-critical we'll have less room for removal. The things that are probably going to lose us the most games are problem enchantments and artifacts. Loading the deck up with ways to clear out those problems, staying in the game until we've ramped a bunch and have some of our combo pieces available, and then locking other players out whlie we combo off will probably be the best way to approach playing this deck.
The way to lock other players out when we're ready to win is by playing either of these two creatures.
If either of these resolve we should be able to combo off if that's what we're going for. The Marath player at our LGS uses Grand Abolisher as the lockdown piece when he's going to close out the game and it works like a charm.
Final Thoughts
As I mentioned at the outset, I don't have a decklist yet but it is coming together. Much like my article about Wasitora, those of you who expect a full decklist with every piece of writing about EDH may be disappointed. I honestly prefer to encourage players to build their own lists and while I will sometimes post links to my decks on TappedOut.net, that isn't going to happen every time.
I was able to do a prerelease yesterday at my LGS. I did terribly and dropped after the second round. I may not be the worst sealed deckbulder out there, but I'm definitely not good at it. I followed two miserable rounds of sealed games up with two relatively miserable games of Commander. I was playing my new Nazahn and both games happened to have opponents with markedly better, faster, more expensive decks.
I happen to be in the middle of a run of pretty bad games stretching back to last Saturday, but there was one bright moment. I had a Ramos game in which everything went badly until the very end. Earlier that day I had picked up a copy of Fate Transfer and I was able to use it to move 24 +1/+1 counters from an opponent's Managorger Hydra onto one of my creatures, give it infect with Phyresis and hit it with Chandra's Ignition. It won the game but the game wasn't much fun, as I never had much of a boardstate and variance has been having its way with me for over 2 weeks now. I've confirmed that I'm running lands in my decks, and I shuffle them plenty. Sometimes that's how it goes.
Today's header artwork was not a medieval or renaissance painting with MTG art added into it. Unsurprisingly, there aren't a lot of classic paintings with dinosaurs and I've decided to look at more recent sources for the next few weeks. A screenshot from Jurassic Park seemed appropriate, and there's more interesting ones lined up for upcoming weeks - I really think you'll like them!
I hope if you're considering building around Enraged, maybe there's something in here that will be helpful. As always, thanks for reading!