Against the Odds: Maralen and Friends (Modern)

[@MTGGoldfish]

You can vote for next week's deck here: www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/against-the-odds-maralen-and-friends-modern Games start at 10:07

[@TheBodybag81]

MTGGoldfish Seth I notice in your tron matches you are killing the towers are you aware of the logic that it’s better to destroy the others. The math being that if they then need to tap the most mana efficient land for one in order to reassemble leaving them with one less mana

[@snappycaster]

Yikes 4 colours with 6 colourless lands is against the odds by itself.

[@peewee130946]

Nick Penner he’s so lucky too because I play 3 colorless lands in my 4 color deck and it feel like I always draw the colorless in multiples

[@marx_avenger6137]

The Aether Vials and Collected Companies help a bit, but totally.

[@arcarodrigoarca]

I play 5 colourless lands in standard Mono-Red and I get the feeling I'm mana screwed every other game...

[@dingding12321]

Any chance the deck could play Manamorphose? Maybe in place of a land and Dark Confidants?

[@ToxicallyMasculinelol]

well those back to back ghost quarters saved him that game against tron

[@matthewloser7567]

Somewhere out in the internet, the magic the gathering content creating equivalent of Hulk Hogan's acting career, is probably very pleased by this deck.

[@Anynewprovince]

Always pumped to see how you break symmetrical effects! Super cool way to showcase the jank :)

[@megapixzel]

22 land 3 color deck 6 colorless lands i don't see what could possibly go wrong

[@MTGGoldfish]

I mean, we have Aether Vial!

[@brettwilliams7780]

Make that a 4 color deck :p

[@patrickbuerke1390]

Friendship is Magic (the Gathering)! Also, G1 starts around 10:07

[@stickyjim9982]

Patrick Buerke mvp

[@saiyangoomba1244]

I love against the odds, but I find myself frustrated whenever a deck splashes unnecessary colors and loses due to it. This deck, for example, does not need blue. All the 1-ofs in the deck are either easily replaced, (aven mindsensor for mindlock orb, for example) or just not necessary, and the same can be said about the sideboard. You are already doing something cool and janky by playing Maralen, something no one else is doing right now, you don't also need to play Maralen + I. Amnesia, Orb, etc. This random splash makes the deck inconsistent, (match 1 game 2) and lowers the odds of something that is already "Against the Odds." Just something I noticed and wanted to mention. I hope this was helpful in some way or another.

[@obesechicken13]

Agreed. The induced amnesia play was so cool though.

[@alaricpaley6865]

I feel like if he wanted to do something else, he should have played Teferi's Puzzlebox instead of the blue cards. Stack the triggers so your opponent searches a card and puts it immediately to the bottom of their library. Meanwhile, you search a card after putting a card to the bottom.

[@drakeconsumerofsoulsandche5761]

Alaric Paley puzzle box isn't in modern

[@ChrisPhelior]

Err, it is? Printed in 8th and 9th Edition

[@ashra8281]

Ok, but here is a thing mindlock is better than aven mindscensor is several different ways, if anything white is more of the unnecessary colour the blue, induces amnesia is great in this deck too, where is your white replacement

[@jackpabich763]

31:31 Seth- "I know my jank." We know you do Seth... We know. We love your crazy jank. Jank is the best :) Speaking of... want to try a version of the mono black Panharmonicon deck? Looks budget and super sweet!

[@MTGGoldfish]

We've played it on Budget Magic in the past (although I think our opponent's build had some sweet twists.

[@ViralThing]

34:12 The *_Sativus Olea_* mating call.

[@eusouzoom]

DamnDrone came here for this XD

[@robertthompson7698]

Three years later, I finally noticed the guy in the top left of Collected Company. Makes me love the card even more. :)

[@keep7smiling]

That call on monoblack panharmonicon haha, I nearly choked on my omlette when he played it!

[@Bryan-T]

Disappointed to not see a 1 of Ob Nixilis Unshackled.

[@silentwatcher5134]

Damn it! I even told him to add the guy last week!

[@newhampshirenate]

Yup, me too :(

[@alexkeyser7322]

Dude the maralen ob nixilis synergy was in my first commander deck, I thought it was so cool. Then I realized they could just tutor something to kill maralen and/or ob. That was a sad realization

[@PacManTheSoulEater]

That tron game one was brutal!

[@notanetdeck5264]

Seth’s building around and playing one of my favorite cards? FeelsGoodMan

[@DT-ko3wd]

I liked the scope Seth gave to the deck but I've always wanted to play around Maraleen and Archive trap. A man can dream

[@emilysmith3594]

As a Tron player... the land we play first is usually the double-up, if we have one. Disrupt whichever we played most recently, and that will usually be the right one.

[@90kalos1]

I think Aven Mindcensor would be a good consideration. They can still search, but they only get the top four and it doesnt hurt you

[@ashra8281]

Wildstar yes but creature removal is very popular main board how many people run enchantment removal

[@90kalos1]

Ashra __ ...he is running leonin arbiter

[@danielgehring7437]

I mean, I'm all for AtO being jank, but this is just a worse, more expensive version of Death and Taxes so it's not really "against" the odds so much as "I made it harder on myself" the odds.

[@jonathansnow21]

Super excited for this one!

[@omegagaming609]

14:24 that was a mistake,Keeping 6 mana sources against dredge, when you don't have RIP is too slow imo.

[@SilverAlex92]

"I think we might turned the corner here" - Seth, after playing three collected companies in a row against a mind twisted opponent.

[@endermeap6488]

Opponent: *Does anything* Seth: “Ugh, I don’t think we can win anymore” *Concedes*

[@shotgunninja543]

It may be that I've just been out of the game for too long but that azusa+excavator combo is sick. I can think of like 20 decks to build around it.

[@ErroneousClique]

Oohhh, some fwiends :-) Edit: Maralen + Mindlock Orb... ROFL, that would be quite the match. What about Aven Mindcensor instead that way it only affects the opponent? They still get to search but only top 4, but you get to go through your whole library every turn. Dont know if its better but at least you dont lock yourself out as well.

[@baileyrose6459]

ErroneousClique that's still risky. This way shuts both players out but let's Seth win if he is ahead on board

[@ErroneousClique]

IF he is on board that is... That play relies on a lot going right which did not happen in this episode. The way I see it, I would rather mitigate the search than disallow both players from drawing/searching. That just isnt fun, and also note that Seth never even played Mindlock Orb once. At least Mindcensor can get in for damage and is a CoCo target... Just my 2 cents. I can see where you are coming from though. I am just not a zero-sum player, I like to have fun and give the opponent a chance to play at least. :-)

[@Arthur-ux9ez]

I was expecting that someone would say that!

[@keep7smiling]

I also would like to see a mindcensor version of this deck. With some tweaking we might have a real deck (but i guess we just end up cutting maralen and end up with 4c value coco haha)

[@ashra8281]

I think he's run that deck before, I know he's broken Marilen before Also can we just look at the fact mindlock orb is better than mind sensor in this? Like it's harder to remove, a better lock piece, and if your opponent has any cards in hand creature removal is up there, and you would much rather have marilen die than the other lock piece

[@Papaconstantopoulos]

Lmao. Who saw that Eternal Witness turn into Matter Reshaper on the stack? Sweet deck, Goldfish :)

[@kainariylius392]

I use her as my general for commander, and kill turn 1-3 most of the time. That deck was undefeated before I set it aside, she is awesome.

[@fdterritory]

I did the same thing you did...after the Shriekmaw, I was like, "....mono-black Panharmonicon?" My first-ever Modern deck.

[@Atmapalazzo]

what I learned today: Don't run 4 colors with 6 colorless utility lands

[@alaraplatt8104]

not even in edh

[@ethanbrucker9222]

That wonderful noise at 34:12 needs to be soundboarded. Please.

[@Sethsters]

Seth, More often than not it is correct to CoCo with your opponent’s spell still on the stack just in case you hit a spell queller.

[@realbigsquid]

I think the deck should have some number of chord of calling to end step tutor Maralen. It's worked in X coor company decks for a bit, and I'm surprised that it's not in this one. It would add consistency in setting up the combo, even though it's a dead card once maralen is online, it's a hedge against removal, so I think that two or three copies would be worth it.

[@MostlyNotDps]

For anybody interested in making a truly broken version of the deck, if you are a legacy player than you combine Maralen of the Mornsong (my favorite creature) with Stranglehold. It is a brutal, brutal hard-lock on your opponent.

[@drakeconsumerofsoulsandche5761]

Mostlynotgay ouch

[@MTGGoldfish]

Stranglehold is sweet. I wish it was Modern legal!

[@MostlyNotDps]

I know. It happens to me all the time, I'm trying to make some janky brew and I find the perfect card and magiccards.info says "not modern legal." I cry a little bit every time. But i turn it into a game. "Here is an incredibly broken legacy deck. make a modern equivalent."

[@vaschmir]

34:27 that merchant xD Seth: HOLY-

[@ScaredMotion]

"Looking to abuse Maralen in a bunch of different ways" sounds interesting out of context

[@argonnas2]

thank you so much seth. i love maralen.

[@fxyang1989]

I laughed so hard at the match against that mono black dude. So much surprises. And thumbs up for calling it out just by swamp swamp Shriekmaw.

[@Constant_Threat]

Makes me want to play the shriekmaw tribal deck in modern.

[@BBBr0ny]

I'm an hour late. One of these days I'll catch an upload as soon as it drops. Anyway, love these notifications. :)

[@icantpronounce]

phasing and similar effects might be good because with phasing you could phase out before your opponents draw and phase in before your draw

[@drakeconsumerofsoulsandche5761]

popky101 not in modern

[@thegreenrobby7402]

Yoooo! Was that Arcane Unesh I saw in your deck lists? Yes, please. :P

[@michaelgordon7204]

Maralen needs every staple in the format to stand a chance

[@ChrisPhelior]

Any chance of getting your list for the Zur's Weirding deck? Even if it is currently bugged I would love to see your take on it.

[@Jude3333]

Will we ever have a pauper against the odds? Although idk if that would work, from my experience pauper is a powerful format but you can get away with a lot of stuff. Half the pauper meta looks like against the odds until you see it play :P (5 color tron?? Inside out combo?? What is this beautiful format... also the only fair tron deck)

[@MTGGoldfish]

Hmm, maybe. A lot of the Playing Pauper decks (like Zubera Storm, which is coming soon) are pretty close to Against the Odds decks.

[@ryanskolnick1274]

“They didn’t cast the Gonti card so maybe they just hit lands” had previously killed Bob that they took with Gonti

[@Philippoification]

@36:09 when the eternal Witness trigger turns into a Matter Reshaper trigger :)

[@99fork]

3:29 is that the dominaria set symbol on Aether Vial?

[@99fork]

Nvm

[@99fork]

Lol doesn't even have the new border what was I thinking?

[@davidgoldstein4306]

GREATNESS AT ANY COST

[@drakeconsumerofsoulsandche5761]

David Gold needs more toad

[@13eetle13omber]

I think I would like to see this as a Grixis control list using Leyline if Anticipation instead of CoCo and Vial.

[@matthewjennings7645]

Why does this deck not play Urborg? It would help the fetch lands function through library search restrictions

[@ParaguayMK]

Wasn't the right play in game 3 of the last match 2 strip mine your opponent in response to the Fatal push on your arbiter? You had the mana for both field and pay for arbiter, and opponent only had 1 up bc of the push.

[@bosstsuna114]

Thank you Seth for calling cat Jesus by it's proper name

[@melissagrenier2200]

Love to see that mindlock orb

[@notanetdeck5264]

37:07 can you find the hidden Matter Reshaper

[@OrbitalRose_01]

I think the blue mana is not necessary, and removing the induced amnesia could probably improve the deck, maybe with the addition of some discard effects instead and just let opponents mind twist themselves

[@colgatelampinen2501]

Is Stranglehold not modern legal or just not worth red splash?

[@techoutsider5631]

Not modern legal

[@maxij469]

Can you play red white Dino for standard?

[@alasanof]

Why does Eternal Witness turn into Matter Reshaper every time its ability goes on the stack?

[@lihavnaaman6872]

at 19:10 u couldve blocked with birdies but u scooped

[@MTGGoldfish]

There's a 4/4 flier coming from Giest of Saint Traft too :(

[@lihavnaaman6872]

MTGGoldfish sry didnt see it, btw love yo content!

[@daregamo1455]

I think this list should be Death and Stompy Prison. Because its just those 3 archetypes mashed together to say "Okay you can't do things now gg"

[@philippel.9086]

Why no aven mindcensor?

[@paulmech5138]

Tron players usually play the pieces they have more of in their hands first, so it might be better to use your hate on the later ones

[@kurtgrgelwrx8376]

the mono-b panharmonicon deck looked sweet af, is that some sort of established deck or was it just a fellow janker?

[@MTGGoldfish]

I think it's actually a deck that we played (or close to it) www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-magic-83-40-tix-modern-mono-black-panharmonicon

[@kaszael]

Haven't watched the games yet but just seeing the deck, why wouldn't you play Aven Mindcensor? Opponent can pay for Arbiter.

[@Luteloots]

I feel like you could make this deck somewhat better and more consistent using Chord at the very least as another way to fetch out Maralen on your opponents turn. Also probably could have run just the ghost quarters instead of the full 6 colorless lands considering how many colors you're trying to fit in the deck.

[@MTGGoldfish]

Chord is weird. It's another good way to find Maralen, but it's rough with Leonin Arbiter on the battlefield.

[@ieatemos]

I've been trying to get Maralen (which I say Muh-ray-len lol) to work for years. I love her.

[@flamestunts]

why no shadow of doubt?

[@foxonacouch]

Why does this deck play leonin arbiter instead of aven mindcensor

[@foxonacouch]

Karl Smink But since marlen stops draws the chances are in mindcensors favor that the card the opponents wants to tutor for will most likely not appear. At least i would play 50/50

[@EloquentEulogy]

You should revisit malaren now that the new ashiok stops library search!

[@shawndiaz7528]

Aether Vial seems way worse than Savage Summoning when you're not Vial-ing in Arbiters in response to fetching. Feel like a more controlling/reactive shell with Savage Summoning and Leyline of Anticipation might have been less GW Taxes with 'a beautiful machine' sideplan and more a 'functional pile of cards that does Maralen things.'

[@hwago123]

Savage summoning is a bad card though, and he can most certainly vial in arbiter in response to fetching. Leyline of Anticipation is also a meme card, not a real modern playable.

[@RustySeatbelt]

Caught me a marlin! Seriously, though, thanks for another awesome brew!

[@lilymelodie7128]

you can play teferi, mage of zhalfir, it might be more consistant than aether vile

[@Lucifer0the0morning]

No way to build the manabase without them. Looks at City of Brass, Mana Confluence, Aether Hub and Tendo Ice Bridge

[@turnipy88]

No Aven Mindcensor?

[@GoronRob]

I want to see you play out a game with karn on the battlefield. Just to see what it looks like to restart the game on MTGO

[@brianpraamsma2607]

Why no puzzle box? Stack the triggers so your opponent searches and puzzles. You can do the opposite for yourself so you keep the maralen effect.

[@MTGGoldfish]

I considered Puzzlebox, but it still lets opponents play instants, so they can still tutor up something like Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile to kill Maralen.

[@brianpraamsma2607]

I was under the impressions that you could hold priority after the search.

[@Crazymachin3gun]

Watcha think about a living death panhormonicon deck?

[@MTGGoldfish]

Sounds fun!

[@hydestreet251]

So we need to stuff our deck with three drops for coco value... aw, that was the brutalest of dark confidants flipping a three drop to lose

[@karfsma778]

31:30 Seth "Saffron "Knows his Jank" Olive"

[@ToxicallyMasculinelol]

god damn new ashiok makes this deck way more awesome

[@captainsolace9161]

i feel like adding one copy of ob nixillis the one that deals 10 damage if they tutor would have been good

[@Drake-qx3me]

Can you do some me talk about competitive modern side boarding key cards and history FYI I love modern

[@noofdavy]

Need to find one more spell that cheats into play to play 2 of, that combos with either vial or company.

[@Grumpollion]

I'd like to see this tried again now that Opposition Agent is a thing.

[@autdelux]

ah sweet i thought of this a while ago because a new guy in my lgs always played budget elfs with that thing and i always laughed at him because normally ur opponent just get a sweeper or removal and marlen was useless he never untapped with it. but thenwe thought putting it in a cat jesus deck and here u are doin the same. nice thing

[@maxnathe4862]

Blue feels wrong in this deck. Some cool stuff, but it doesn’t seem worth it in the already 3-color list with multiple colorless lands

[@paulm2163]

Ha, I made a deck like this a while ago. It was really bad. It was more budget though and used more Mindlocks, more Arbiter/Mind Censor effects, and then Shadow of Doubt to try and lock out opponent's draw s for a few turns.

[@rike889]

Cutting the blue cards and adding Chord of Calling seems like the first thing you do. Why have silver bullets if you cant count on them? After that you can fix the mana to be more consistent, and get better sideboard cards. The deck is strange because Maralen would get your bullets but you don't want to play Maralen without your Arbiter, so you sit back and fall behind on board.

[@Darkneszora]

Cat jesus! Kenobi gets his memes in

[@cameronkent2739]

Have been wrecked by a version on this deck with just aether vial and Ramunap Excavators + Ghost quaters

[@spacekrill]

Wow, no Aven Mindcensor?!

[@Vesdus]

Turns out Leonin Arbiter is a good card. And Maralen is redundant.

[@michaelturiano9340]

Why not add vedalken orrey instead of aether vial and add worldly tutor

[@theovertyrant2620]

I experienced pain every time he played another tron land

[@decrabtra]

HOW DID YOU NOT CALL IT MARALEN AND ME?!?!

[@MTGGoldfish]

This is the real question.

[@luliby2309]

Wow Maralen requires a lot of building around.

[@MrJerichoPumpkin]

Come on Seth, if you want to play induced Amnesia, do it in a Parallax deck!

[@the_snakelicious]

For someone who hates Tron so much, you really should learn how to play better against it, Seth. You don't Ghost Quarter in their upkeep, you wait for the draw step to give them a chance to draw the basic land. You also shouldn't blow up the Oblivion Stone before they spend the mana to put a counter on Karn, if they choose to blow it up before they do that you get rid of the Karn, and if they spend the turn putting the counter you get an extra attack with Pridemage.

[@ComradeArthur]

"We can't play more than 4 Maralens..." You're playing blue. you *can* play some blue library management cantrips.

[@gareth4348]

This deck looks like a pile, the abzan value shell was the best part of the deck :D

[@EmberLuna13]

"Marlin" of the Mornsong.