Commander blueprint · Lorwyn Eclipsed

How to build Maralen, Fae Ascendant

Maralen, Fae Ascendant can cast a free spell out of an opponent's library once on every turn, theirs as well as yours. This build is the flash Elf and Faerie deck that puts an Elf or Faerie onto the battlefield on each of those turns.

Art by Steve Prescott

Her free spell comes back on every player's turn

Read “once each turn” the way the rules do. It is not once a round. A turn ends, the limit resets, and the next player's turn is a new chance. Four players hand her four of those in every round, and a spell taken on an opponent's turn costs you nothing on your own.

The limit on what she can see is tighter than the limit on how often. She casts only from cards exiled with her this turn, and nothing on the card brings back one that sat there unused. Two cards exiled on your turn and left alone are out of that opponent's library for the rest of the game. So each of those four chances needs its own trigger, on the turn it is spent, and on three turns out of four that trigger has to come from a card you can play while someone else is the active player.

On someone else's turn, a stolen creature needs flash

Maralen says what you may cast, not when. A card cast this way keeps its normal timing, so in your own main phase anything she exiles is fair game, and on an opponent's turn only an instant or a card with flash is. Most of a Commander library is lands, creatures, sorceries, artifacts and enchantments, so without help an off-turn trigger usually exiles two cards she cannot touch.

Four cards fix that. High Fae Trickster, Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery each let you cast spells as though they had flash for as long as they stay out, and Alchemist's Refuge does it for a single turn for . Yeva, Nature's Herald covers green creature spells only, which is still 22 creatures in this deck and a fair share of anyone else's. With one of them out, a trigger on an opponent's end step can hand you a creature or a sorcery the same way your main phase would. High Fae Trickster is the one to find first. It is a Faerie with flash, so it brings its own trigger on the turn you cast it, and Faerie Harbinger can put it on top of your library at instant speed.

The Faeries carry the flash and the Elves carry the count

The two types do different jobs, and the list splits evenly between them on purpose: 19 Faeries, 19 Elves and six changelings. Thirteen of the Faeries have flash. Two of the Elves do. The Faeries are how a trigger happens on another player's turn, and the best of them are spells you would cast at that moment anyway. Spellstutter Sprite counters something, Pestermite taps a blocker or an attacker, Vendilion Clique takes a card out of a hand, and each of them exiles two cards on the way in. The Elves are the mana and the bodies. One-mana Elves like Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic get a five-mana commander out a turn or two early, and every cheap Elf left on the table raises the mana value she is allowed to cast.

That second number is the one to watch. A spell's mana value has to be no higher than the Elves and Faeries you control when you cast it, Maralen included, so with her and three mana Elves out the ceiling is four. A permanent that is both types counts once, which means the six changelings are not worth double on the count. They are here because they are worth double everywhere else. Spellstutter Sprite counts them as Faeries, Elven Ambush counts them as Elves, and Scion of Oona and Elvish Archdruid both pump them.

Realmwalker asks for a creature type, and the answer is Faerie. It lets you cast creature spells of that type from the top of your library, and with 14 of the other 24 Faerie creatures in the deck carrying flash, the one on top is more often than not a card you can cast on someone else's turn. Eclipsed Realms gets the same answer, because its coloured mana then goes to the blue and black spells that need it most.

Bitterblossom is a Faerie, and so are three other noncreatures in this list

Maralen's trigger reads “Elf or Faerie”, not “creature”, and her count reads the same way. A Kindred permanent carries a creature type without being a creature, so it counts for both. Four of them are in the 99. Bitterblossom and Faerie Tauntings are Faeries, Prowess of the Fair is an Elf, and Firdoch Core is a changeling mana rock, so it is every type at once. Each one triggers her as it enters, each one adds one to the ceiling for as long as it stays, and none of them dies to a creature sweeper.

Bitterblossom and Bitterbloom Bearer make their Faerie at the beginning of your upkeep, which is early enough to matter. The two cards that token exiles are still from this turn when your main phase starts, so an upkeep trigger can hand you a sorcery with no flash help at all. Prowess of the Fair turns every nontoken Elf that dies into a 1/1 Elf token, which is a trigger in its own right. Faerie Tauntings makes each opponent lose 1 life whenever you cast a spell on an opponent's turn, and the free spell counts.

Surviving a sweeper is the part that matters most. A creature wipe takes Maralen with everything else, but the four Kindred permanents are still there when she comes back, so her ceiling starts at five instead of one on the turn you recast her. Bitterblossom is also a trigger the next time your upkeep comes round, whether or not a single creature survived.

Wolverine Riders makes an Elf on every player's upkeep

Wolverine Riders makes a 1/1 Elf at the beginning of each upkeep, every player's, so at a full table it is a trigger on every turn. A flash creature is one trigger. This card and the ones below keep producing them. Elvish Warmaster makes a token the first time each turn other Elves enter, which turns each of those into two. Alela, Cunning Conqueror makes a Faerie the first time you cast a spell during each opponent's turn, so the Spellstutter Sprite you were holding up anyway arrives with a second trigger behind it. Faerie Formation makes a flying 1/1 and draws a card for at instant speed. Glen Elendra Archmage sacrifices itself for to counter a noncreature spell, and persist brings it straight back, which is another trigger. Wydwen, the Biting Gale returns to your hand for and 1 life and has flash, so for six mana a turn she can enter again and again.

Imperious Perfect makes an Elf for at instant speed, but it untaps once a round, so the token arrives on whichever single turn you pick. Seedborn Muse is what changes that. With it out, your permanents untap in every opponent's untap step as well as yours, which means the Perfect makes a token on every turn, and the lands that paid for your own turn are ready again for Faerie Formation, Wydwen and whatever flash Faerie is in your hand. It is the card that puts this list in bracket 3, and the budget rung is built without it.

Elven Ambush is the turn the ceiling jumps

Elven Ambush makes a 1/1 Elf for each Elf you control, at instant speed. With Maralen and four other Elves out, that is five tokens, five triggers and ten exiled cards at once, and the ceiling goes up by five on the spot. You still cast only one of those ten, so the burst buys choice and a bigger ceiling rather than extra spells. The tokens stay, and that is the real payoff: your next free spell is drawn from a ceiling five higher. Elvish Promenade is the same effect as a sorcery for your own turn, and Gilt-Leaf Ambush is two tokens for three mana.

The best time to cast it is an opponent's end step. The free spell from those ten cards has to be cast in that same step, so it needs to be an instant or a card with flash unless High Fae Trickster or one of the others is out. The tokens are what you are really buying. They arrive in time to attack on your turn, they still count for your own free spell, and Elvish Warmaster sees them enter and makes one more, which is a sixth trigger.

Ghostly Flicker is the other instant that does this. Exiling Maralen and an Elf or Faerie and bringing both back is two triggers, and done in response to a removal spell it saves her as well. The catch is that the Maralen who returns did not exile the cards the old one did, so anything exiled earlier that turn is out of reach, and the two new triggers are what you cast from.

The core list

Maralen and the 99 behind her. Hover over any name to see the card, and use the buttons below to send the list to the deck builder or copy it as text.

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What the free cast pays for, and what it does not

Casting a spell without paying its mana cost is an alternative cost, and that settles most of the edge cases. A card with in its cost counts as X equals 0 for the ceiling, and you have to choose 0 when you cast it, so X spells are worth nothing to her. A second alternative cost cannot go on top, so a stolen Cyclonic Rift is the one-target version and never the overload. Additional costs are a different matter. Kicker can still be paid, and a mandatory extra cost has to be.

Colour is not a cost at all here. With no mana spent, a white or red spell out of an opponent's library is as castable as a green one, because colour identity only limits the cards you put in your own deck. Lands cannot be cast, so a land among the two cards is simply gone from that player's library. Nor does the cast have to happen as the trigger resolves. Any time later in the same turn that you could cast that card, you can, so on your turn the two cards from an upkeep Faerie can wait until after combat. Each trigger names one opponent, which lets you spread a busy turn across several libraries or keep digging through the one with the spells worth taking.

Thirty-one green sources, and a double blue the deck can wait for

The list runs 34 lands and 12 ramp cards behind an average mana value of 2.78, with 31 green sources, 25 blue and 25 black. Green is high because the one-drop Elves are where the early mana comes from. One black pip by turn two arrives 91.2% of the time on the play, and so does one blue. Two blue by turn three is 71.8%, which is low, and it is a number I let stand: none of the six cards that want it, from Counterspell to Sower of Temptation, has to be cast on turn three. Path of Ancestry, Opulent Palace and Zagoth Triome are the three lands that always enter tapped, and all three fix the colours this commander needs at once.

The budget rung keeps every off-turn trigger, and the top rung taxes the other players' turns

Both rungs leave the engine alone. Wolverine Riders, Faerie Formation, Glen Elendra Archmage, Wydwen and Alela are in all three lists, and so is High Fae Trickster. What moves is how much mana the deck has on other players' turns, and what it does to them while it waits.

Down to bracket 2 is 13 swaps, and the price falls from $317.18 to $155.69. Seedborn Muse is the one Game Changer and it goes first, so Imperious Perfect is back to one token a round and the mana for Faerie Formation and Wydwen has to come out of the same lands that paid for your own turn. Bitterblossom goes and Bitterbloom Bearer stays, which keeps one Faerie every upkeep. Vedalken Orrery becomes Borne Upon a Wind, flash for one turn plus a card, and Leyline of Anticipation, Alchemist's Refuge and Yeva, Nature's Herald stay beside High Fae Trickster. The rest are cheaper cards doing the same job: Tome Raider for Faerie Mastermind, Glen Elendra Liege for Scion of Oona, Faerie Trickery for Swan Song, and gain lands and Terramorphic Expanse for the shock lands and the triome. Five lands now enter tapped instead of three, which is the cost a reader of this rung will feel most.

Up to bracket 4 is eight swaps and $610.48, with eight Game Changers. Three of them are flash creatures that punish what opponents do on their own turns. Opposition Agent takes whatever they search for, Notion Thief takes their extra draws, and Orcish Bowmasters deals 1 damage every time they draw one. None of the three is an Elf or a Faerie, and the rung cuts five small Elf and Faerie bodies to make room, so it has five fewer triggers in it and a lower ceiling on an ordinary board. That is the trade it makes. Force of Will and Fierce Guardianship stand in for Counterspell and Go for the Throat, so the deck can stop a spell with every land already tapped for Faeries. Worldly Tutor and Vampiric Tutor find High Fae Trickster or Seedborn Muse at instant speed, and Cavern of Souls named Faerie makes any Faerie cast with its mana impossible to counter.

The bracket 2 list plays like the core list with less mana on other players' turns and a one-turn flash spell where the core list has Vedalken Orrery. The core list, once Seedborn Muse lands, takes a spell from someone on most turns of the round. The bracket 4 list does that and also makes every search and every extra draw at the table cost its owner something, and that is the version to describe to the table before the game starts.

FAQ

Can Maralen, Fae Ascendant cast spells on an opponent's turn?

Yes, once on each opponent's turn, but only from cards exiled during that turn, so an Elf or Faerie has to enter on it. The card also has to be castable at that moment, which means an instant or a card with flash unless something lets you cast spells as though they had flash. This list runs High Fae Trickster, Leyline of Anticipation, Vedalken Orrery and Alchemist's Refuge for that, and Yeva, Nature's Herald for green creatures.

Does a changeling count twice for Maralen, Fae Ascendant?

No. Maralen counts the Elves and Faeries you control, and a permanent that is both is counted once. That is how the official rulings read for older cards with the same wording, such as Runebound Wolf with its Wolves and Werewolves. Maralen counts herself once for the same reason.

What bracket is this Maralen, Fae Ascendant deck?

Bracket 3. Seedborn Muse is the single Game Changer among the 99, and any Game Changer at all rules out bracket 2. The budget rung swaps it for Glamermite and has no floor. The top rung runs eight Game Changers and is a bracket 4 deck.

How much does a Maralen, Fae Ascendant deck cost?

$155.69 for the budget rung, $317.18 for the core list and $610.48 for the bracket 4 rung. Each total adds up the cheapest paper copy of all 100 cards, and every card in all three lists has a price.

What happens to the cards Maralen, Fae Ascendant exiles if you don't cast them?

They stay in exile. Maralen only lets you cast from cards exiled with her this turn, so once the turn ends the rest are out of that player's library for the game. Lands can never be cast, so a land she exiles goes the same way.

Can you pay kicker or X when Maralen, Fae Ascendant casts a spell?

Kicker, yes. Any additional cost can still be paid, and a mandatory one has to be. X is always 0, both for the mana value she checks and for the spell you cast. Alternative costs are out, because casting without paying the mana cost already is one, so a stolen Cyclonic Rift can only be cast without overload.

Can Maralen, Fae Ascendant cast spells outside her colours?

Yes. No mana is spent, so the spell's colours do not matter, and colour identity only limits the cards in your own deck. A white removal spell or a red burn spell from an opponent's library is as castable as a green one, as long as its mana value is no higher than the number of Elves and Faeries you control.