The Commander
, 
: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may put a creature card with power 5 or greater from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
Guide
Gameplan
Mayael cheats huge creatures into play for free, turning her activated ability into a repeatable engine that floods the board with fatties faster than you could ever hardcast them. You ramp aggressively to power Mayael's expensive activation, protect her, then activate every turn to drop game-ending beaters and overwhelm the table with raw stats. Win by attacking with an army of giant creatures backed by haste and anthem effects.
Strengths
- Repeatable free cheating of 5+ power bombs sidesteps the high cost of Naya's best creatures
- Naya colors give the best ramp, fatties, and beatdown payoffs in the format
- Top-of-library control with scry/Sylvan Library makes activations far more reliable
- Goes wide and tall simultaneously, hard to grind through with creature removal
Weaknesses
- Mayael's activation costs 5 mana plus the tap, so she's slow and mana-hungry
- Heavily commander-dependent; if Mayael is removed the deck stalls
- Vulnerable to board wipes after committing many creatures
- No built-in evasion or protection, so big creatures can get chump-blocked or stolen
- Lacks card draw and interaction relative to dedicated control decks
Key Cards
- Sylvan Library — Lets you sculpt the top five cards each turn so Mayael always hits a fatty.
- Sensei's Divining Top — Cheaply rearranges the top of your library to guarantee Mayael flips a creature.
- Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger — A massive 5-power body that doubles your mana to fuel repeated activations.
- Avenger of Zendikar — One of the best 5+ power hits, flooding the board with plant tokens off a single activation.
- Mayael's Aria — A flavor-perfect alternate win condition that rewards the giant creatures Mayael drops.
- Cryptolith Rite — Turns your fatties into mana so you can activate Mayael every turn.
Upgrade Path
Prioritize cheap, reliable top-deck manipulation (Sensei's Divining Top, Scroll Rack, Sylvan Library) so every activation finds a creature, and add fast mana like Sol Ring, mana dorks, and Cryptolith Rite to activate Mayael earlier and more often. Curate your creature base toward high-impact 5+ power bombs with built-in value (Avenger of Zendikar, Vorinclex, Hellkite Tyrant) rather than vanilla beaters, and include Craterhoof Behemoth or Triumph of the Hordes as a closer. Round out with protection (Heroic Intervention, Lightning Greaves) and a backup haste enabler so your cheated giants attack immediately.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Attacking with an overwhelming board of cheated-in giant creatures
- ▸Overrun effects like Craterhoof Behemoth or Triumph of the Hordes for one-shot alpha strikes
- ▸Mayael's Aria triggering off a 20-power creature
- ▸Vorinclex/Xenagos-style mana doubling into multiple activations for a backbreaking board
Archetypes
- Big Creature Ramp — Mayael cheats expensive 5+ power threats into play, rewarding heavy mana acceleration.
- Stompy Beatdown — The board of huge creatures naturally pivots into overwhelming combat damage.
- Tokens/Go-Wide — Hits like Avenger of Zendikar and anthem support build a swarming army.
- Reanimator-adjacent Cheat — She plays alongside other reanimation and cheat effects to dodge mana costs on giants.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GRW), by popularity.
