So I've recently played with my Marath Commander Deck against the Prossh Commander deck ( only a bit of tweaks and alterations made, not really much that changed the deck), and the latest match was certainly an eyeopener. Not only was I surprised at the result, but the path taken to that result was really, really, amazing.
Here's what went down.
I should mention first though, that both players muliganed their hands down to six. Marath's hand showed a Krosan Warchief and a Sol Ring, the ring alone enough to keep the hand. Prossh meanwhile drew a Shattergang Brothers and enough lands to get to Prossh one-land each turn, until the sixth. Both were looking good so far. Marath goes first, drops a forest then taps for a sol ring.
The plays were pretty much normal until the fourth turn. By then Marath has already spent his first three counters for three 1/1's, and a Krosan Warchief was on the field. Prossh on the other hand had Han Tuo on his side and a Sakura Tribe Elder ( quite slow, I know!). Due to some forgotten circumstances, the three 1/1's were wiped from the board.. By the fifth turn, Marath drew Omnath, Locus of Rage, and that's where all hell broke loose.
Thanks to the Sol Ring, Marath summoned Omnath at turn 5, and by Prossh's turn, he summons his commander, along with the six tokens. By the sixth, I was supposed to summon Marath, if I hadn't drawn such a great card: the Conquering Manticore. With Omnath at the field, another land in my hand, and the Conquering Manticore, the path was set. First, play the Mountain, triggering Omnath's landfall, generating a 5/5 Elemental. Next, summon the Manticore, then take control of Prossh. Using Prossh's ability, sacrifice the new 5/5 Elemental, triggering Omnath's Bolt ability and pumping Prossh at the same time! Since all that was on Prossh's field were tokens, Han Tuo and the Tribe Elder, Omnath bolts the opponent to the face, dealing 3 damage. Prossh attacks for 6 damage, dealing 9 damage for the first combat of the match. 9 damage!
What was more brutal was that Marath had enough mana left to cast Darksteel Mutation on Prossh, turning him into a 0/1 indestructible, rendering him unable to utilize his sacrifice-pump ability. To counter this, he summons the Shattergang Brothers on his turn, and uses that to sac Prossh. Marath sacrifices the Krosan Warchief, raising his mana cost back to 5.
By turn seven, Marath began the onslaught. I couldn't exactly remember the details but the Omnath-Marath combo was unstoppable. Stand-alone, Marath distributed counters and just kept sending damage to Prossh's face. Omnath generated 5/5's like wildfire. The fun part was, Marath will often generate small tokens, 2/2's or 1/1's, then will either use those to block or burn them with Marath himself, triggering Omnath's Bolt ability, as the tokens created are elementals too. Before he knew it, Prossh was at a dangerous 21 life, while Marath stood firm at 40. Prossh was unable to attack because he was the only one on the field capable of defending his territory.
As the game went on, Marath kept returning from the Command Zone, but with each return his cost rose up, so he was not able to do the burns and tokens on the same turn. Desperate for defense, Prossh casts a Vile Requiem (hoping to target Marath and or Omnath, or both), then alter a Blood Rites, to be able to use the excess 0/1 tokens. To do that successfully he needed two more turns. First for the mana to be available to sac the tokens to Blood Rites, the second to gather enough counters to take out Marath and Omnath with the Requiem. But alas, this was not to be.
In those two turns Marath lowered Prossh's life to a very low 12 life, with the threat of 4 5/5 elementals and Omnath itself. By the second turn, Prossh had a very huge problem. Taking out Marath and Omnath would still deal 3 damage due to Omnath's self-triggered Bolt, and that would also make Marath stronger with the next return, and fighting at 6 life would be useless, as Marath could easily burn him to the face. So instead, the Vile Requiem skips Omnath and targets one elemental and Marath instead ( sadly this brings him down to 6) , so now Marath's cost was at 11.
The Blood Rites could have been triggered twice, but there were no good targets at all, as all creatures on Marath's field had 5 toughness and higher. By my ninth turn, Prossh was basically good as dead. I could cast Marath and wait an additional turn to kill Prossh, or I could cast Xenagos, God of Revels. And that's what I did. Remember the Manticore? Well, that's still alive, and was given a +1/+1 counter by Marath early in the game. By Xenagos, it got boosted to a 12/12. With Prossh in the Command Zone, the tokens couldn't block, and so couldn't the poor Sakura Tribe Elder.
Marath won 40-0 (Life totals, not number of games).
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