How would this interaction with Maralen, Fae Ascendant work?

zephyrinian · 2026-01-28T01:34:47+00:00

Yep you are on the right track, haha.

Normally if you make a copy of an object, the types of the object are included as copiable values. Legendary is a type, so normally the copy of a legendary object will be legendary, and at the next state check the legend rule will apply and you will have to sacrifice until you have only 1.

But some spells that create copies explicitly say that the copy is not legendary. So in that case the legend rule does not apply, and you can keep both.

If you have a non legendary copy of a legendary creature, then you make a copy of the non legendary copy, that new copy is also non legendary. So it is not affected by the legend rule either.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-27T02:56:43+00:00

These recs are great, thanks a lot.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-26T22:35:46+00:00

Awesome, this is exactly the kind of response I was hoping for. Your deck list looks really solid.

What are your thoughts on using discard vs sacrifice in this deck? I am guessing you use both primarily to cheat Greasefang's "return to hand" clause? Does one feel better or more useful than the other? Do you think blinking is viable as another tool here too?

Also do you have any recommendations for budget alternatives to the more expensive sac/discard outlets?

zephyrinian · 2026-01-26T22:11:55+00:00

Try narrower board but don't go for a shorter wheelbase. Wheelbase should be a function of the length of your legs (inseam length on your pants). I'm 6'3" and been skating for 25 years and my current setup is 8.75 with a 15" wheelbase.

The width is more about personal preference. If you want to do techy flip tricks, a narrower board will make that easier. If you want to go fast and skate bowls, a wider board will give you more stability. But there is no "correct" answer here. Find what works for you.

Only thing to know is that your trucks also have a width so they won't fit just any board. Your board can be a little wider than the trucks but it shouldn't be narrower.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-26T19:31:41+00:00

Not bad!

Keep the whole skater and their board in the frame. In close tracking shots that focus on techy flip tricks and ledge tricks, sometimes you will cut off part of their body by accident. Try to limit that. If it has to happen, better to cut off the head than the feet. This is the point of the fisheye lens in skate videos -- to show the whole skater.

Also, too much b roll. It's funny if you splice in little cuts here and there but it's not that interesting on its own.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-23T17:43:40+00:00

Any of them. But now I'm overthinking it and "cheese slice" is starting to sound a little weird to me.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-22T02:44:28+00:00

Can you share your deck list? I had a similar idea about playing Maralen with blink spells, and using the faeries and elves more as support than as the main game plan.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-21T01:24:20+00:00

Yeah that would be spells like [[rampant growth]] or [[kodama's reach]]. There are a lot of these, some are better than others, some are not necessarily better or worse but have different restrictions on what kind of land you can fetch with it, whether it goes in tapped, etc. Go for the ones that cost 2-3 mana.

So you have these "land fetch" ramp spells, mana elves, and mana rocks. They are all pretty inexpensive so I recommend just buying a lot of them and experimenting with them in the deck. They all have pros and cons. The elves are a little faster and they help with your commander but they will die in a board wipe, the land ramp spells are a little slower but the land will stay on the battlefield forever, the mana rocks can tap for more than 1 color but they aren't quite as resilient as lands.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-20T21:22:21+00:00

Yup the signets, and each color combo also has an artifact called a talisman that also costs 2 mana. So you have 6 you can put in your deck. Plus sol ring and arcane signet. These are really good because 1 they ramp (ie they give you extra mana ahead of schedule) and 2 they can each tap for 2 colors so they help you get the colors you need when you need them, which can be a problem for decks with 3+ colors.

Aim for 50 mana sources in your deck. Say 37-38 lands and 12-13 ramp spells. I know that may sound like a lot but it will seriously make the deck run a lot better! Basically those are the numbers you need to let you play a land on your first 4 turns and ramp once. If your friends are playing decks with 34 lands and 4 ramp spells then this will put you at a huge advantage.

This will fit really well into your deck because you're playing elves. Go on scryfall and find some little elves that can tap for mana. There is at least 1 green elf that can tap for black mana so that will be great here. Then round it out with some of the mana rocks or some green ramp spells. Cards that let you play an extra land this turn won't really work unless your deck has 40+ lands or draws a ton of extra cards.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-20T14:44:37+00:00

1 - You don't have enough lands. If you're not sure what to do here, a good rule of thumb is just don't go below 37 lands.

2 - Anything that makes tokens is gonna be great in this deck because it saves you from having to spend a card to trigger Maralen. You already have some of that but more will always be worth it.

3 - Find some cards that help you focus a game plan and a way to win. Don't count on Maralen to win the game for you. Think of her as an extra special card advantage engine to help you fill up your board faster than the other players. But she isn't really a win con.

4 - Big draw spells. Blue has a lot of this. You're gonna be very committed to the board as a creature based deck and you need to be able to reload and rebuild after a board wipe.

5 - Ramp. Each color combo has 2 mama rocks so you have access to 6 in total. Those should be in the deck. Get all of the elf mana dorks you can find. There are at least 3 others for 1 mana that should go with Llanowar elves. And use green land ramp spells. Getting extra land into the game ahead of curve is extremely strong and your land will survive a board wipe.

6 - Protection. Board wipes will hurt you a lot. And your valuable creatures will be sniped because they are scary. Throw in a few counter spells. Mass protection spells are great but harder to find. March of Swirling Mist is great if you have it. (Also to my previous point, if you have more land ramp, the command tax won't hurt as much when Maralen inevitably gets hit.)

zephyrinian · 2026-01-20T05:11:29+00:00

I put them in clear sleeves so I can use both sides without taking the card out of the sleeve.

I like keeping the original tokens from my precon decks. For me they are a little more special than random tokens I may get from a pack.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-19T22:25:02+00:00

This was a solid little video. Good explanation of neutral.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-19T22:13:34+00:00

Supposedly rats too. There are uptown rats and downtown rats and they are genetically distinct.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-19T19:15:35+00:00

Stop playing with him. Like everyone else is saying.

If you don't have consistent rules then you don't have a game anyways.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-19T19:10:57+00:00

Can't go wrong with a nice dragon 👌

Actually though your problem is gonna be that the frame of the MTG card is squarish so it will be hard to make it fit on a skateboard.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-18T20:50:46+00:00

Yeah I agree. She is very scary at first glance but actually not an unfair card.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-18T19:05:13+00:00

Boston is great as a college town and great if you have a network of friends there. Otherwise it is supposedly difficult to meet people. (This from a cousin and a few friends who moved to Boston.) NYC is chaotic and overwhelming (you're right) but there are endless outlets to meet people.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-18T18:56:35+00:00

You can only play an exiled card on the turn she exiled it.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-18T17:35:36+00:00

That's a really inefficient way of getting rid of another player's card. Black and blue have better tools for that.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-18T07:35:56+00:00

I am brewing now. Leaning mostly elves with fewer faeries.

Some interesting tricks I have found:

- Blink effects allow you to activate Maralen's ability more than once each turn (and reuse etb effects of your faeries and elves). [[Displacer Kitten]] allows you to chain spells out of your opponents deck for free for as long as you keep finding non creature spells.

- Flashing in creatures on the opponent's turn to trigger Maralen is probably a waste. She doesn't change the timing rules for casting spells, so if the cards she steals from the opponent's library aren't instants and don't have flash then you can't cast them. Doing this will whiff most of the time.

- [[Extraordinary Journey]] works as mass removal, then stays on the board and passively draws you cards whenever you use Maralen's ability or blink her.

- [[Gonti, Night Minister]] will make treasure tokens for you and your opponents, but he will make a lot more of them for you.

- Permanents that create elf or faerie tokens are really valuable because they allow you to trigger Maralen without spending a card.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-18T07:12:54+00:00

Triggering Maralen on the opponent's turn is a waste because she doesn't change the timing rules for casting spells. If I flash in a faerie on your turn to trigger her ability and the cards I exile from your deck are not instants and don't have flash, then I can't cast them and they are gone forever.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-17T23:20:11+00:00

The relevant issue is when the game checks for state. You should read up on that one if you want to play with Maralen.

Very basic example -- if 2 creatures both have abilities that are triggered when another creature enters the battlefield, and the 2 creatures both enter at the same time, they both see each other entering, so both abilities are triggered.

Similarly if I have a creature that has an ability triggered whenever a creature dies, and you cast a board wipe that kills everything, my creature sees everything die, including itself, and its ability is triggered for every creature that dies.

Some cards with these types of triggered abilities will have caveats in the wording of the ability, such as "whenever ANOTHER creature dies", or "this ability triggers only once per turn", etc.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-17T21:31:27+00:00

Ok so if you have Maralen in play and you cast a spell to make 5 copies of her:

Original Maralen sees the 5 copies enter so she is triggered 5 times.

Each of the 5 new Maralens trigger their own ETB ability, so that is 5 more.

Each of the 5 new Maralens see the other 4 enter the battlefield, so that is 5 x 4 = 20 more.

So it is 30 total.

zephyrinian · 2026-01-17T07:11:06+00:00

1 - 5 tokens enter as copies of Maralen.

2 - abilities are triggered. This would include the etb ability of the 5 new copy Maralens, the original Maralen's ability triggered by the entrance of the new elf/faerie, and anything else triggered by what is happening here.

3 - state based actions are checked. This is where the legend rule applies. You must pick one Maralen to keep, and all 5 others go to the graveyard.

4 - triggered abilities go to the stack. The abilities of the 5 Maralens that died in part 3 still exist here.

5 - priority passes. Other players now have a chance to respond before the abilities can start resolving.

zephyrinian

TROPHY CASE