Commander Deck Tech: Maralen, Fae Ascendant

Do you think Elves and Faeries can work together? Maralen, Fae Ascendant shows that yes, they can, and they're often very powerful when they join forces.

After we returned to Lorwyn - Shadowmoor, we met a new Sultai legendary creature that combines two of the most popular creature types in MTG!

In this article, you'll find two lists: the first one centers around Faeries and interacts with spells that don't belong to you. The second one interacts with Elves and tokens so that you can trigger your commander's ability several times.

Let's start with our commander.

[quote]{This is my domain, and I am its Queen.}

Maralen is recognized as the new Queen of the Fae now, but she used to be an avatar of Oona. She somehow gained self-awareness, and rebelled against the previous monarch. Unlike her creator, Maralen respects the natural cycle that rules over Lorwyn - Shadowmoor, turning night into day and day into night.

The first time we saw Maralen was as a Mono Black Elf, Maralen of the Mornsong. Now that she is the Queen of the Fae, she showed up in two new colors.

As a commander, Maralen is a 4/5 with flying. Her ability triggers when Elves and Faeries enter play under your control, whether they're tokens or not. It then lets you force a target opponent to exile the top two cards in their own deck.

Once every turn (yes, in your opponents' turns as well!), you may cast one of these exiled spells for free as long as it costs less than the number of Elves and Faeries under your control.

Because this Maralen is both a Faerie and an Elf, two of the most popular creature types in MTG, you can build decks for her in several different ways. You may focus on removing resources from the opponent or using these resources in your favor.

Our first list focuses on interacting with cards that don't belong to you and Dimir Faeries .

There are many Faeries you can put in play through flash. The idea behind this is list is to cast them in your opponents' turns instead of yours so that you can use Maralen's ability when they least expect it.

Luckily, in MTG there are many creatures with abilities that trigger precisely when you cast something in the opponents' turns, like Nymris, Oona's Trickster.

Casting Cards Through Flash

To make sure all your spells have flash, you'll play:

Here are some creatures with flash themselves:

The small Brazen Borrower often shows up in Commander decks. You can cast it as a creature or as an instant, and it lets you return a permanent to its owner's hand. As for Faerie Harbinger, it is a tutor and a great way to get cards like Alela, Cunning Conqueror and Scion of Oona.

Besides Faeries, Lorwyn Eclipsed also gave us Selfless Safewright, an Elf with flash that will protect your creatures.

Speaking of Elves, Galadhrim Ambush is an instant that creates 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens for each attacking creature. It also prevents non-Elf creatures from dealing combat damage that turn.

Keep in mind that Maralen's ability triggers when each Elf token you create enters play.

Effects That Trigger When You Play Stolen Cards

Dimir decks that use the opponents' decks in their favor are nothing new. They often play a few cards that let you create even more value when you cast the spells you exiled, in this case with Maralen.

Tasha, the Witch Queen will put several 3/3 Demon creature tokens on your board.

Brainstealer Dragon costs a lot of mana, but also exiles the top cards in the opponents' decks at the beginning of your end step. Its second ability triggers even when you cast enemy spells this Dragon didn't exile. It deals damage to the original owner of the card you cast equal to its mana value.

Mana

Your commander allows you to cast exiled spells for free, but you'll still need support to create mana consistently.

This way, you'll always have mana and will be able to cast Maralen even after she is removed.

If there is something Elves are known for, it is their ability to create extra mana for very little in return.

Because this list can play green ramp, we simply had to consider cards that bring lands directly into play.

Besides these cards, we also added Ashnod's Altar to this list so that we can feed the creatures we'll steal from enemy decks to it.

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, our alternative list centers around creature tokens, which Elves excel at.

Our main list plays cards that do something when we use stolen spells, but this one centers around using Maralen, Fae Ascendant's ability to remove resources from the opponents. You'll exile them for the most part and only use them if you really need to.

This list also does more in your own turn, unlike the one above, which was designed to play spells in the opponents' turns.

You'll use green spells to finish the game with attacks that will scare your opponents to death.

Tyvar the Bellicose is great in Elf lists. It is also a sub-commander in the High Perfect Morcant list we showcased here a while ago (if you'd like to see more about it, click here!). By the way, Morcant is also in this list so that you can take advantage of blight.

Finally, we added some cards that create Elf tokens so that you can fill your board and trigger your commander's ability more times, often without even casting new spells.

Maralen, Fae Ascendant will unite Faeries and Elves just like Voja, Jaws of the Conclave united Elves and Wolves.

Both of these creatures types are very popular and there is great support for both of them in the game. All of this variety makes it really easy to build decks for Maralen in different ways and with different restrictions (according to your preferred number of game changers and favored power-level bracket, for instance). You can adapt it to your particular pod however you want.

The most fun part about Maralen? You can build her in any way you want. Try a Changeling list or even a blink deck. Maralen will give you access to cards that you can usually only play in your wildest dreams.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!