"Maraxus of Keld EDH: Maraxus Smash!"

"Maraxus of Keld EDH: Hulking Red Menace"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

As I was flipping through a binder of cards in Circle C , a community type mall where one of our friends Kenneth ran his shop. I happened to chance upon this Red Legend , Maraxus of Keld. I honestly never heard of the guy but when I read his ability I knew that I would be able to make a mono red EDH deck around him as a commander soon enough.

Now one of the first things I noticed was that Maraxus kinda looked like Bane , the guy who broke batmans back in the comic series. In the comic Bane would pump himself with the synthetic drug Venom to make him stronger. Maraxus is kind of like that in a way. Only in his case he gets a lot bigger with his friends and the things that you have on the battlefield. The more you have , the stronger he gets.

His power and toughness are equal to all the Untapped Artifacts , Creatures and Lands you control. Now when I read this particular paragraph it got me into thinking. If a creature you control is an artifact or a land you control is an artifact wouldn't that make Maraxus even bigger? And the answer of course if yes ( I like talking to myself you see).

So I set off to put in as much artifacts in my deck that are creatures. Artifact mana producers.Like Solring , Everflowing Chalice and Sphere of the Sun.Caged Sun would be great mana acceleration here as well as the Extraplanar Lens. Geosurge and Seething Song are great mana accelerators as well.

Heck this is a mono red deck anyway and since Artifacts are colorless I would not have a problem casting any of them. Darksteel Citadel and Great Furnace fit perfectly well. Inkmoth  and Blinkmoth Nexus, Mishra's Factory all can be artifact creatures when they need be too so they are a fit here. Plus they give off a +3/+3, since they are lands that are creature artifacts! Creature lands that have red or colorless mana activations could be included too like Stalking Sands.

Since this is a mono red artifact deck, and I do love thing from the Mirrodin Blocks there are things here from all 6 expansions. My favorite Grafted Exoskeleton is here. All the better to make Maraxus more dangerous than he already is. 

It is not a stretch to be able to have a 10/10 Maraxus in no time and with Infect , well things are not looking good for at least one opponent. And Whispersilk Cloak will make sure that he does plunge that nasty looking dagger wherever you put him to. Another favorite of mine is the Genesis Chamber , yes this one does give all of your opponents 1/1 Myr Creatures as well but on the upside , it generates an artifact creature for Maraxus as well , a +2 for him. Yes the myr can block but in this deck constant attacks could eliminate blockers or you could just burn them.

Shrine of Burning Rage is here as another threat especially if there are lulls in the action. A great burn spell could shake things up a bit. Voltcharge is in too! Tumbling Magnet and Contagion clasp are things I can use for defense.Of course my artifact deck needs to have a Darksteel forge to prevent mass removal in the later stages. A good target for Bosh to throw at someone too.  

There are a lot of Artifact creatures to choose from here but my favorites are the Iron Myr , Alloy Myr and Opaline Unicorn (because I have tons of them lying around). The affinity creatures of Frogmite , Myr Enforcer and Oxidda Golem( Affinity for Mountains wooohooo) are in. As well as the modular creatures (except Arcbound Ravager,I hate that guy hahahaha well if I find him in my pile somewhere he will make it here too).Arcbound Slith and Arcbound stinger for example.And for annoying recursion Arcbound reclaimer. There are a lot of artifacts here and the counters on the Arcbounds need to go somewhere when they die.Why not to other artifact creatures right? There are tons of targets. For fattie creatures there is the Steel Hellkite , Kuldotha forge Master( that fetches other fatties like Blightsteel Colossus) and Bosh , Iron Golem. Pre-cursor Golem is a favorite of mine as well. I mean 3 golems for the price of one and a +6/+6 for Maraxus!Myr Battlesphere is even better. It gives +10/+10 to my Red commander.Hellkite Tyrant is here too. Steal from others , make Maraxus stronger. Tasty.

"Tasty!"

The plan is to have as mana things on the battlefield and when you have Maraxus of Keld equip him with a Lightning Greaves to deal some heavy damage. In a playtest I was able to grow him into a 30/30 Monstrosity. I suggest you attack with him first before using any of your mana or tapping your artifacts to maximize the damage he could bring. If he is of enormous size then you could just Fling him to an opponent. A 30/30 Flinged Creature for the win? Pretty awesome in my book. 

These are just some of the highlights of the deck of course and it can be adjusted depending on how you like to play this deck. I do enjoy smashing through with a hulk like Maraxus or just throwing him away at someone's face when they least expect it. Have fun! I did.