Monday, April 13, 2009

Maralen combo in UBW

After careful consideration, I've decided that your 3-card combo (maralen, mindlock orb + colfenor's plans) is the only way maralen is playable in standard. So I'll keep the core of the deck intact. However, instead of focusing on discard, I'm going add white and use draw to get to the combo. And path to exile. Also, as an aside, dedicated life gain + sweepers + maralen + mindlock might work, theoretically...in other words, you don't NEED colfenor's plans if you can afford to take 3 damage every turn...but the extra cards that are effectively cheating maralen's NO DRAWING and in the same card avoiding the 3 damage seems more stable, and just downright better. At least to me.

The thing I'm going to do that is really interesting is have a sideboard that will transform my deck from Maralen combo (which losses to aggro probably 4-of-5 times, in my incarnation of it) and move to lots of sweepers and a few targeted removals, and let oona bring it home for the victory. This strategy may not work in practice, since I might win game 2 and then draw game 3 due to time, unless both my opponent and I are playing fairly quickly. Cause this deck will probably eventually win (vs aggro and post-sideboard), but time will be a consideration. That's why game 1 (which I will almost definitely lose) is so important to not drag on taking a lot of time, and why maybe I should just scoop when I see FoD on turn 1...Otherwise, I hope this maindeck will be a competitive deck vs everything else, ie. cruel ultimadeum in all its incarnations, and the random library attack and/or combo. Which makes me think I could stuff the Maralen-combo pieces in the board to come out for games 2 and 3, but I'll make her the center of the deck.

35 spells
4x Path to Exile
4x Countersquall
1x Scepter of Fugue
4x Esper Charm
4x Cryptic Command
3x Plumeveil
3x Wall of Reverence
4x Mulldrifter
2x Makeshift Mannequin
1x Oona, Queen of the Fae
1x Maralen
2x Mindlock Orb
2x Colfenor's Plans
25 lands
4x Mystic Gate
4x Fetid Heath
4x Arcane Sanctum
4x Reflecting Pool
2x Island
2x Plains
2x Swamp
1x Vivid Meadow
1x Vivid Marsh
1x Vivid Creek

Sideboard
4x Wrath of God
2x Martial Coup
2x Hallowed Burial
4x Oblivion Ring
3x Condemn

So in a worse case scenario, I can play Maralen + Mindlock without having the plans IF I have Wall of Reverence in play (or in hand). I would only do that if I have more cards in hand than my opponent, and I have a Cryptic Command and a Countersquall and hopefully a makeshift mannequin. Obviously, you could also have the two-card combo if you have 20+ life and your opponent had less than ten. But it is a possibility. Also, if you're holding an esper charm and need to dig, you can play the plans, and if you don't dig up the card you needed, you can destroy your own plans after using the good cards RFG from it.

3 comments:

DRokRoss said...

Biggest, thing I like about your decklist is:

Esper Charm! amazing card for the deck, allows you to get to combo with draw, finishes off your opponents hand once Maralen is in play it can even 86 a pesky BB or Goblin Assault if need be. very nice addition.

Sean said...

And since I'm already playing bad cards, I may as well throw in Gwafa Hazid...He is pretty funny in conjunction with Maralen...

DRokRoss said...

lol cute