Marath - This Commander Made it to Print With a HUGE Mistake!

#mtg #magicthegathering #cardgame
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[@discipleofurza1]

Marath was and still is my favorite Commander. He helms my Naya BloodPod cEdh deck and will forever.

[@bradcallahan3546]

Nice joke

[@demonscarecrow91]

Even with the reprint, the ability to add +1 counters doesn't specify it can't be him. So you can pay 1 to remove a counter from him and put a counter back on him. Throw in some effects like hardened scales and the knowledge that this can be done at instant speed and he can get very scary very quickly 😁

[@adriannaranjo4397]

Yeah that's funny, but the problem was 0 being infinite target, counter, ETB & death triggers Getting to exponentially increase your +1s with something like scales is still limited by your mana

[@1bleachfreak]

Would it not still be infinite for free? You are attempting to place "0" +1/+1 counters on him, scales sees the counter placement effect and adds one to it, it doesnt care how many were supposed to be placed.

[@demonscarecrow91]

@@1bleachfreak sadly not, the cost of activating the ability is 'pay x, remove x' and the new version specifies 'x can't be zero'

[@1bleachfreak]

@@demonscarecrow91 No, know that, I was talking about the original. I'd like to think they'd not just let an infinite like that just be in the command zone anymore. It's a fools hope, but hey.

[@Triskitguru]

​@@1bleachfreakScales type cards have a 'one or more +1/+1 counters' check on them on order to head that sort of thing off.

[@CenJohan]

One of my favorite mass misprints is definitely from commander 2021. Zaffai, Thunder Conductor is written as Thunder Collector on the text box. And that one doesn’t have a reprint correcting the mistake.

[@andrewsparkes6275]

Eh. It doesn't need one; it doesn't affect gameplay at all.

[@TheShockingShane]

Well, this wasn't a misprint. It was an oversight in the ability that they made an errata

[@StarlitWitchy]

No no, you see, if you cast or copy a spell with mana value 10 or higher than his *cousin* Zaffai thunder collector comes over and deals 10 damage to a random opponent

[@andrewsparkes6275]

@@StarlitWitchy ...that sounds like Arena's version of Hearthstone's Patches, and I actually kinda like it!

[@MakeVarahHappen]

The really weird part to me is that in the reprint "X can't be 0" is written once next to "choose one" but in the Oracle text it's listed under each option.

[@Belvayne]

I recently made a Marath budget deck and he's super easy to build around with cards like Cryptic Trilobyte that gives 2 colorless mana whenever you remove a counter from it. Using something like urban daggertooth to ping for damage, proliferate and get as much mana as you want. If you give urban daggertooth a counter before pinging it the thing won't die either. Cards like Arwen, weaver of hope are also absolutely busted with Marath. Any mana dork that generates mana based on power/toughness can also be abused lmao

[@BlackAceKisachi]

My first commander

[@evandurham8908]

At first I thought this was going to be something about how the commander tax becomes a bonus rather than a penalty, since I run Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, and that first line on Marath looked eerily similar. Then I realized Marath doesn't really get a renewable sac outlet to create tons of mana.

[@angelojohnson9441]

Nowadays people are all about Korvold, but Prossh grows with the game, give you a big flier and a bunch of chump blockers. It is a single card recovery after a boardwipe and I’m glad it has seen as many reprints as it has, but argue it could have more.

[@FlareFluff]

Now he's Marth will of the mild

[@alaraplatt8104]

i dont think so! still busted as commander in tiny leaders

[@breakingblackmagic7617]

impact tremors....lol

[@SquelchPanda]

My favorite commander and one of my favorite decks I have. Never gets old to play it as it can be so versitile and fun

[@HubbardiumKing]

I've won with that stock deck so many times it's really strong

[@KevinGarcia-Karatzu]

Has always been my favorite commander from before I even understood how broken it is

[@rustyrowan7068]

Marath was my first commander and still my favorite original print from 2013 lucky for everyone else I had the deck but wasn’t into commander yet so the oracle text change was already something I was aware of when I rebuilt for my play groups power level

[@user-zx5gz1rd1q]

A week after it came out wizards already announced it has errata that x can't be 0

[@AZDfox]

Lol, just last night I almost made a similar issue with a custom card! You could tap and pay any energy to create a robot with x/x equal to the energy spent. But I noticed that exact issue and added a minimum amount.

[@schumerus6786]

Wow I actually didn’t know that one! There is a similar funny situation with 3-Color Minsc, where you can have him be a sorcery speed sac outlet for X=0

[@einsUNDcolt]

So they gave the commander what is effectively an "indicate" effect before being errata'd?!

[@09Dragonite]

Im still sad that they made this errata. Marath was my first ever commander, and I bought a single copy of the original card instead of the entire precon with the initial intention to build an entire deck exclusively out of my existing collection of cards. The deck was absolutely awful, but shortly after I had assembled it, Purphoros, God of the Forge, was released in Theros block. It didn't take very long to figure out what to do with that. I still build new Marath decks every other year or so because he's just so absurdly versatile. I think my favorite one so far had an Enrage sub-theme where you just do a single damage to a creature for more value than it should have. It took a lot of setup, but it was a ton of fun.

[@jacquesdespadas]

I’ve been playing Marath in one form or another ever since the deck released. My current build is enchantments, with Herd Baloth and Scurry Oak as a backup plan. 🙌

[@angelovanderstad2264]

this was my first deck oh how the format has changed

[@seanheath4492]

Original printing could have been amusing with Ojer Axonil.

[@arp098]

Damn can't believe they patched marath doing 0 damage

[@itsjaivn]

*Training Grounds has entered the chat*

[@Mcrypt117]

Has always been a sleeper!!! FYI it can go infinite very easily with some pieces such as mana echoes and hardened scale or any additional counters. So you pay 1 generic to make an elemental then get 2 for mana echoes and remove one from marath to have one counter left and put another one on her to make it 3 but with one colorless floating from the mana echoes to repeat this process until you have unlimited counters, creatures and mana. With marath the infinite is actually complete with the remove counters for damage ability on her!!!!!

[@cax1175]

My Commander 2013 of choice is Oloro. Not his precon, it's horrible, but for being a decent commander that you can stax the game with until the heat death of the Universe.

[@PopoTCG]

You are the problem

[@Grieves0001]

or impact tremors or Purphoros, God of the Forge

[@NizzahonMagic]

Yep, there is a very long list.

[@ashemabahumat4173]

I find it funny how it doesn't say minimum(min.) 1, or something like that

[@joshelderkin9592]

I think i still have one lol

[@cakeyeater7392]

Crazy that the rules even allow you to even activate an ability for zero mana to essentially do nothing. I would have assumed that you can't activate the ability unless you spend at least one token, and i would have been a fool

[@glenmoody-elias1040]

X can't be 0, eh. Well, at least removing 1 +1/+1 counter to put 1 +1/+1 on itself wouldn't be to any value, right? Still goes infinitely hard, just requires *slightly* more effort.

[@jacquesdespadas]

Still pretty busted. Maybe not Najeela busted, but he definitely does things.

[@olb3587]

Can the 2nd ability target planeswalkers? The first printing says "target creature or player", but the second printing says "any target"

[@NizzahonMagic]

Yes.

[@seandun7083]

This was printed before the planeswalker damage redirection rule was changed. When planeswalkers first came out, they didn't want to have to errata all the burn spells that currently existed to say "creature or player or planeswalker" so instead they made a rule that Said "If a source would deal noncombat damage to a player, it's controller may instead deal the damage to a planeswalker they control". This did lead to weird interactions where sulphuric vortex could hurt planeswalkers and leyline of sanctity protected your planeswalkers from lightning bolt, but it did work pretty well. Eventually though, they decided it was a bit too unintuitive so they introduced the new wording of "any target" to at the time mean "creature or player or planeswalker" but it also made it easy to add new things like battles. I think this was around Kaladeah block, but I would have to double check. This did also have the downside of requiring them to errata a massive amount of cards, but I think they have mostly stayed away from burn spells that only hit creatures and players these days so it's pretty easy to tell which ones have since been updated. One thing that has always mildly annoyed me about the new wording is that it looks to me like it should let you lightning bolt a lumbering falls in response to turning it into a creature, but I digress.

[@samditto]

So busted. I stopped playing ghave cuz its too strong but this is just as naughty

[@Zauzzie]

Same, I love'd my Ghave deck but it was just too busted

[@toadskinjim4178]

Nothing can defeat the cloud fort of selesnya mirri Weatherlight Duelist. Best fog commander ever. 😅

[@christopherb501]

Tangent: why do people keep saying "+1/+1" in full each time? In the majority of cases, wouldn't just "plus" be sufficient?

[@ThatOneTrumpet]

There are counters in the game, though they havent been used in decades, that add other amounts of Power and Toughness, such as a +2/+2 counter or +0/+1

[@dismasthepenitent569]

Maybe? But it would sound weird and ugly. You're basically asking "why use many word when few do trick."

[@adamtobiasz8793]

Yeah sounds broken.

[@MexicanDre]

No. It's always the original. X can be 0. End of story. 😂

[@bariltrailette]

But he do infinite combo anyway easyli

[@alaraplatt8104]

personally.... i think its "mare-ith"

[@M12GProductions]

Getting big Prossh vibes from this guy. 😅

[@chronographer]

Let x = -1

[@mrtekbunny]

I love that marath is busted without errata yet is almost worthless with it. 😂

[@pbailed8007]

I don’t understand why anybody would be surprised! from now on coming out of Hasbro / wizards is going to be a bunch of shit that makes us want to spend money,that’s it! they don’t care about the health of the game or anything else. They care about their profits and their shareholders Nothing else.

[@dismasthepenitent569]

I'm sorry, what does this have to do with the video?

[@ORiOh4582]

This card came out 11 years ago

[@Fluffkitscripts]

This card is eleven years old, please curb your burning hatred

[@casually_lurking]

Boo; you make the mistake, the meta lives with the consequences. Schenadigans in Naya aren't that viable, right. . .