“Whilst we draw breath, we stand. Whilst we stand, we fight. Whilst we fight, we prevail. Nothing shall stay our wrath.”
Art:Marneus Calgar
by Slawomir Maniak
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Marneus Calgar is a pretty sweet commander who works quite well in CEDH; while this deck is certainly played, I think a lot of people overlook it and generally just forget about it. Esper is a great color combination to be in within CEDH; you get access to classic combos like Thoracle, strong effects like Silence
, as well as some of the great utility and counterspells that are presented to Esper. I like this deck a lot and think it’s very well positioned within the meta, it’s always great to have a commander who is the best infinite mana outlet in the deck. I am very excited to showcase this one today! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Marneus Calgar Big Mana Infinites!
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Why Marneus Calgar?
Marneus Calgar is a pretty strong card for the deck, Marneus’s most important part in the deck is that they are an infinite mana outlet that allows us to draw our deck, if we have the mana and the game has been slowed down a little bit we are able to cast them when not about to combo off and we can get quite a bit of supplemental card draw which is great. Marneus is almost always a combo piece but can be pretty strong in a card draw role as well.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
Playing white and being in Esper feels pretty good, especially in our creature package with access to cards like Dauntless Dismantler
and Grand Abolisher
as well as access to Dauthi Voidwalker
and Opposition Agent
. All of these cards are great and can do a number against a variety of strategies; another one of my favorites is Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
, which can be a very strong way to get ahead on mana. Talion, the Kindly Lord
is a pretty nasty card as well and can be a great way to draw a ton of extra cards, and more cards means quicker combos, Talion is also quite strong if the game begins to go longer. We have quite a few stax-style creatures like Aven Mindcensor
and Drannith Magistrate
, which can really hurt our opponents, especially the faster decks.
Planeswalkers:
Narset, Parter of Veils
is one of my favorite Planeswalkers in the format and helps an absolute ton against faster decks in the format or really any deck that tries to draw a ton of cards, with the prevalence of The One Ring
in the format I think this card is quite strong, including the ability to find some key spells is awesome as well. We do also have Teferi, Time Raveler
, but we typically hold them until it is time to combo; depending on the situation, it may be right to cast them, and in that situation, they have strong and meaningful abilities as well as a passive that is essentially a Silence effect on our turn.
Instants:
Dark Ritual
is probably one of my favorite enchantments in the deck; not only can we accelerate the gameplan, but in the early game, it is pretty much insane when combined with Beseech the Mirror
. We, of course, have an absolute ton of counterspells, some of which are pretty free, like Mental Misstep
and Force of Will
; all of the counters in our deck are great for protecting ourselves when comboing off and stopping our opponents. Silence is a bomb of a card that can help us get rid of opponents’ counterspells if they try to fight it, and if they let it resolve, we can combo off freely and with no worries. We are also able to run the CEDH classic Thoracle combo, which can be a great no setup required way to end the game.
Sorceries:
Our sorcery package only has four cards in it, but they all do the same thing: tutor and tutor well. We have straight-up staples like Demonic Tutor
and Imperial Seal
, as well as a newer one in Beseech the Mirror. I like Beseech a lot in this deck, and when combined with Dark Ritual, we can easily get a combo piece on the field. Since we are decently heavy on creatures, I like Diabolic Intent
within the deck, as it is essentially a second copy of Demonic Tutor!
Artifacts:
Wishclaw Talisman
is a pretty strong tutor for the deck, and while we really only get one good activation out of it can be perfect if we only need one more combo piece. We also have an absolute abundance of mana rocks within the deck; many of these are part of combos, so sometimes holding them is right, but we typically use them to speed out the gameplan, especially to speed out The One Ring, the protection can be great against some of the fastest decks in the format and being able to draw a ton of cards is awesome as well.
Enchantments:
One of the benefits of being in Esper is we can play Smothering Tithe
, which is quite a strong mana producer for the deck and can be played out pretty early; I have used Tithe to cast my commander early, and get some strong card advantage which can help a ton. Bastion of Remembrance
is nothing more than a piece we use when we have already gone infinite and can be a great way to kill the board. Since we are in blue, we absolutely had to include Mystic Remora
and Rhystic Study
, which are amazing sources of supplemental card draw and can help us win the game even if they are only out for a couple of turns.
Land Base:
We have an extremely strong and efficient landbase for the deck, consisting of the best of the best including Underground Sea
and Tundra
as well as all of the on-color fetches and shocks, which allow us to be quite fast and efficient, notable omission from our landbase is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
I find that this card often helps opponents more than it helps us and since we don’t have a ton of dependency on black within the deck it shouldn’t be in there. We have some strong non-basics within the deck, like Otawara, Soaring City
, which is a great and often discounted way to bounce an opponent’s combo piece or commander. I like this landbase a lot and think it fits the deck very well.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are quite adaptive with our combos and have many ways to go off.
- Almost every one of our combos makes infinite mana, and the best payoff for it is always available in the command zone.
- Because of the adaptiveness of our combos
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Quite weak if a Drannith Magistrate
sticks. - It can be quite weak to artifact hate or Stax effects.
- We can be a little slow in the early game (turn 1 or 2) as we typically commit rocks to the board.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
This is CEDH! So, of course, there are a ton of infinite combos and loops within the deck; almost all of the combos in the deck focus on infinite mana because our commander allows us to make infinite creatures and draw out our deck, setting us up for various combos. Below are all of the combos in the deck explained:
Teferi, Time Raveler + Displacer Kitten
+ Sol Ring
Requires:
Teferi, Time Raveler must be on the battlefield. Displacer Kitten must be on the battlefield. Sol Ring must be in hand. Mana needed: 1
Steps:
- Cast Sol Ring by paying 1.
- Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Teferi.
- Activate Sol Ring by tapping it, adding CC.
- Activate Teferi’s second loyalty ability by removing three loyalty counters from it, returning Sol Ring from the battlefield to your hand and drawing a card.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite colorless mana. Near-infinite storm count.
Teferi, Time Raveler + Displacer Kitten + Mana Crypt
Requires:
Teferi, Time Raveler must be on the battlefield. Displacer Kitten must be on the battlefield. Mana Crypt must be in hand.
Steps:
- Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0.
- Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Teferi.
- Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC.
- Activate Teferi’s second loyalty ability by removing three loyalty counters from it, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand and drawing a card.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite colorless mana. Near-infinite storm count.
Teferi, Time Raveler + Displacer Kitten + Mox Opal
Requires:
Teferi, Time Raveler must be on the battlefield. Displacer Kitten must be on the battlefield. Mox Opal must be in hand. You control at least two artifacts.
Steps:
- Cast Mox Opal by paying 0.
- Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Teferi.
- Activate Mox Opal by tapping it, adding one mana of any color.
- Activate Teferi’s second loyalty ability by removing three loyalty counters from it, returning Mox Opal from the battlefield to your hand and drawing a card.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite colored mana. Near-infinite storm count.
Teferi, Time Raveler + Displacer Kitten + The One Ring
Requires:
The One Ring must be in hand. Displacer Kitten must be on the battlefield. Teferi, Time Raveler must be on the battlefield. Mana needed: 4 each turn
Steps:
- Cast The One Ring by paying 4.
- Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Teferi.
- When The One Ring enters the battlefield, its first ability triggers, causing you to gain protection from everything until your next turn.
- Activate Teferi’s second loyalty ability by removing three loyalty counters from it, returning The One Ring to your hand from the battlefield and causing you to draw a card.
- Repeat during each of your turns.
Results:
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you. You gain protection from everything.
Marneus Calgar + Ashnod's Altar
+ Training Grounds
Requires:
Marneus Calgar must be on the battlefield. Ashnod’s Altar must be on the battlefield. Training Grounds must be on the battlefield. Mana needed: 4
Steps:
- Activate Marneus by paying 4, creating two 2/2 Astartes Warrior creature tokens.
- The tokens enter the battlefield, triggering Marneus, causing you to draw a card.
- Activate Ashnod’s Altar twice by sacrificing both Astartes Warriors, adding CCCC.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers. Near-infinite death triggers. Near-infinite ETB. Near-infinite LTB. Near-infinite sacrifice triggers.
Basalt Monolith
+ Forensic Gadgeteer
Requires:
Basalt Monolith must be on the battlefield. Forensic Gadgeteer must be on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Basalt Monolith’s first activated ability by tapping it, adding CCC.
- Activate Basalt Monolith’s last ability by paying 2, untapping it.
- Repeat.
Results:d
Infinite colorless mana.
Hullbreaker Horror
+ Sol Ring + Mana Crypt
Requires:
Hullbreaker Horror must be on the battlefield. Sol Ring must be on the battlefield. Mana Crypt must be in hand.
Steps:
- Activate Sol Ring by tapping it, adding CC
- Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Sol Ring from the battlefield to your hand.
- Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC.
- Cast Sol Ring by paying 1.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana. Infinite storm count.
Hullbreaker Horror + Mana Vault
+ Mana Crypt
Requires:
Hullbreaker Horror must be on the battlefield. Mana Vault must be on the battlefield. Mana Crypt must be in hand.
Steps:
- Activate Mana Vault by tapping it, adding CCC.
- Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Vault from the battlefield to your hand.
- Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC.
- Cast Mana Vault by paying 1.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana. Infinite storm count.
Hullbreaker Horror + Lotus Petal
+ Mana Crypt
Requires:
Hullbreaker Horror must be on the battlefield. Mana Crypt must be on the battlefield. Lotus Petal must be in hand.
Steps:
- Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC.
- Cast Lotus Petal by paying 0.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand.
- Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Lotus Petal from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana. Infinite storm count.
Conclusion:
Marneus Calgar is a very strong CEDH commander and a card I feel like a lot of people overlook; we are quite adaptive and pervasive with our combos and are able to go off quite early, and with a lot of protection, Esper feels like a great combination to be in as we get access to some of the best tutors, great protection as well as some of the most classic combos in the format. I have been having so much fun with this one, and I hope you enjoyed it! If you have a Marneus list, I’d love to check it out! Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!