Marath, Will of the WildMarath, Will of the Wild | Art by Tyler Jacobson

Into the Woods

Greetings, readers! This week, we return to our Precon Remastered series, where old precons get a much needed facelift.

Let's face it, they'll need it to compete with today's releases. This week, we're wrapping up Commander 2013 at last. That said, who's the commander for the week?

Why, if it isn't the Big Moose itself! Marath, Will of the WildMarath, Will of the Wild has (or at least had) a bit of a reputation for decks identical to the infamous Ghave, Guru of SporesGhave, Guru of Spores, who combos with a spatula, making us go "Oops! Game over."

There are two other options to go over once I put out the list, which I will visit in a few moments.

On the Beaten Path

As always, here are our rules for remastering precons:

1. The value of the deck cannot exceed $120. This will apply to the reprints only, which gets to my first personal quirk.
2. Every card unique to the original precon stays in the deck. All those new cards that get released with precons remain in the list.
3. The land package should closely reflect what we get in precons these days (and, in my humble opinion, they're actually pretty good).
4. For at least until 2020, we're not tied to a particular set, so we're free to choose whatever we want. You can be assured I have ideas for 2020 and beyond, though.
5. Universes Beyond cards are not added. No exceptions, unless they have a in-universe variant.

With that out of the way, let's take a good look at what the precon looked like originally.

The Original List

These Woods got Twisted!

When we're expecting some kind of token deck, we instead get a deck focused on Beasts, like Krosan WarchiefKrosan Warchief. This was way back before Slinza, the Spiked StampedeSlinza, the Spiked Stampede existed, and to tell the truth, it's a much better option.

Even our other commander options don't mesh well here. Firstly, Gahiji, Honored OneGahiji, Honored One actually fits better in a Tokens/Politics deck. He'd certainly work with Marath, Will of the WildMarath, Will of the Wild, but as a roleplayer in the 99.

Then, there's Mayael the AnimaMayael the Anima. Nyx above, what on earth is she doing here? There's only about a dozen targets for her to hit, making her dead weight.

Did I mention that the precon itself is very mana hungry? We see this in cards like Tower of FortunesTower of Fortunes, which, let's face it, we're better off selling our kidneys than pay eight mana to draw four cards. Marath itself needs a lot of mana to operate, too.

All this being said, it's easy to see the split identity this precon has: One half wants us to do Beasts, but the other has a more ramp-centric strategy. Sure, they can go hand-in-hand, but you know what? Marath doesn't need either of these!

Total Makeover

I'll be upfront about this, but I don't really like overhauling a precon entirely into something drastically different. It takes away the spirit and feel of the original list. On the other hand, it does allow us to make something that's truly our own.

Personally, it's a grave mistake to take a commander like Marath, Will of the WildMarath, Will of the Wild, and give it themes that don't mesh with it at all, even if we're not relying on our commander.

To this end, I'm going to pull off a (hopefully) rare event in this series: The entire precon gets overhauled!

Yes, we're still abiding by the rules I laid out above, and there'll still be a number of cards from the precon itself, but we're gutting the deck, ripping out the insides, and making it into something entirely new. Something that much better synergizes with Marath. Let's check out that remastered list, shall we?

Nature of the Beast Remastered

Marath's True Nature

This is the true nature of the beast, if you ask me. While we could create tokens with our commander, it's actually better with +1/+1 Counters instead.

Cards like Dusk Legion DuelistDusk Legion Duelist and Evolution WitnessEvolution Witness benefit from having counters put on them via Marath, Will of the WildMarath, Will of the Wild's ability.

The best part about that? We can do it on each of our opponent's turns, accruing as much value as we do mana to pay.

In addition, we have a very minor set of cards that benefit from the pings Marath will dish out. Ripjaw RaptorRipjaw Raptor and Urban DaggertoothUrban Daggertooth are both cards that provide benefits when poked.

There's only a few cards with this ability in the deck, but I'm sure it's a direction that can be taken when upgrading it. That said, if we're doing that, we're better off building Wayta, Trainer ProdigyWayta, Trainer Prodigy instead.

The Path to Greener Pastures

This section isn't really an upgrades section. That said, if you want me to start incorporating those in this series, I certainly can.

This section is, I'm certain, the biggest hole in the remastered list is that a lot of the new cards in the deck don't mesh with it at all.

Honestly, they're easy cuts: The +1/+1 counter theme in March of the Machines is actually one of the best ways to upgrade the deck, and still keep it within Bracket 2 (especially the Call for Backup precon).

I wish I could've added Uncivil UnrestUncivil Unrest in here, but budget was an issue.

However, I'm sure some people would rather take the combo route, and that's very fine. Many different people have many different tastes. However, I'm positive that a lot of the newer cards would the be the first cards cut from this list.

Out of the Woods

For the next couple of weeks, I'll be putting both series on hold. I have a couple of special entries lined up for you in honor of the 15th anniversary of the release of the original five precons (I have very fond memories of those decks, but boy did they age like milk).

First up is something that's been on my mind as of late. Something there needs to be more of. Tune in next week to see what kind of precons we need to see more of.