Turning a Random Card into an EDH Deck (Maha, its Feathers Night)
“Mahalementals”
Welcome to another edition of a random card being turned into an EDH Deck! Every Friday I create a budget (<$100) EDH Deck based entirely around a random card that I pull from scryfall.com (or that is suggested by someone else, either way it’s still random to me). I would love it if anyone has any suggestions for future random cards/decks or just wants to share their own experiences with any cards or decks discussed, I think this is a ton of fun.
Random Card of the Week (Download Link)
Random Card of the Week (Scryfall Link)
Deck Tech/Gameplay Video: (Archelos, Lagoon Mystic vs Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres vs Maha, its Feathers Night vs Olivia, Opulent Outlaw)
This week’s deck uses [[Maha, its Feathers Night]] as our random card and also as the commander. Maha is one of those commanders that kind of tells you how to build it. Since we’re turning all our opponents’ creatures into creatures with a base toughness of one we can easily run cards like [[Night of Souls’ Betrayal]], [[Pestilence]], and [[Black Sun’s Zenith]]. While we are running those cards, they’re not actually the primary focus of this deck. Instead, we’re leaning into Maha’s creature type: elemental. Fortunately, a lot of mono-black elementals care about the same things Maha does. For example: [[Grief]] makes an opponent discard so they’re less likely to be able to pay for Maha’s ward cost, [[Corrosive Mentor]] gives our creatures wither so they deal damage in the form of -1/-1 counters, and [[Soul Snuffers]] which puts a -1/-1 counter on each creature when it enters. This army of elementals also means we can run payoffs like [[Patriarch’s Bidding]], [[Icon of Ancestry]], and [[Cover of Darkness]] to hopefully win through combat damage.
Once we’ve amassed our board of creatures, we need to have ways to execute our game-plan effectively. To do that we need card draw (which comes from cards like [[Baleful Force]], [[Massacre Girl, Known Killer]], and [[Harvester of Souls]]) as well as synergistic finishers like [[Bloatfly Infestation]], [[Nest of Scarabs]], and [[Massacre Wurm]]. Finally, you may have noticed that most of our cards are very heavy on the black mana cost so we may as well also benefit from our devotion. [[Gray Merchant of Asphodel]], [[Underworld Hermit]], and [[Abhorrent Overlord]] are all great ways to turn our devotion into win conditions. Regardless of how we try to win the game, we should have such a synergistic pile of cards that we’re always able to find a path to victory.
In the end, this deck came in at $96.49 with [[Dread]] being the most expensive card at $6.09. Dread is a phenomenal way to keep our opponents from hitting us because of the threat of destroying their creatures. However, it is a decent chunk of money so if you needed to trim it for another elemental then you definitely could for budget purposes.
On the other hand, if you want an out-of-budget upgrade for the deck, plus a card to take out for it, then I’ve got you covered. That’s why I’d recommend putting in [[Necroskitter]] ($14.03) and taking out [[Crippling Fear]]. Necroskitter is a card that I tried to squeeze into the deck but just couldn’t find a way to do it so if you’re able to include it then I think it’s actually a huge upgrade. It rewards us for just playing our deck by letting us gain control of our opponents’ creatures when they die. Crippling Fear, while not a bad card, is a bit above rate of what we want from a -X/-X spell so it’s not necessary to overall functionality of the deck.
Thanks for checking out the deck and reading about it/watching the video! I hope you all like it and if you think there are improvements to be made, if you have suggestions, or just want to chat about it, then let me know. Also, a quick plug: if you want to guarantee that your suggestions get turned into decks or a variety of other benefits (including access to a discord channel to play in the games, help build the decks, getting the decklists a week early, and one of the random cards shipped to you every month) then check me out on www.patreon.com/dungeonlearnersguide or consider becoming a channel member over on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/dungeonlearnersguide.