Insane Elf Faerie is Lorwyn Eclipsed’s Breakout Commander

Last updated on January 22, 2026

Maralen, Fae Ascendant | Illustration by Steve Prescott

Rewind about a month and I would've thought High Perfect Morcant was a shoe-in for most popular commander from Lorwyn Eclipsed. Popular creature type, proliferate, cool new ability, feet. It has everything you'd expect from an EDHREC Top 100 contender. But not only has it not completely taken off (about 4,000 decklists is still respectable), but it's been usurped by another elf commander who was revealed much later in ECL's preview cycle.

Maralen, Fae Ascendant has indeed ascended to the #1 spot in Lorwyn Eclipsed proper, putting it just behind Ashling, the Limitless if you're counting the precons.

Two Types, One Stone

High Perfect Morcant | Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez

It's no secret that typal decks are some of the most popular in Commander. Seven of EDHREC's Top 10 Commanders demand to be built with one or more creature types in mind, and the rest of the Top 100 is littered with popular typal commanders. Lorwyn‘s top two commanders fit the bill, but Maralen does something that Ashling and Morcant doesn't: It pays you off for two creature types at the same time.

There's precedent for this being a great way to draw players in, with Voja, Jaws of the Conclave, Rin and Seri, Inseparable, and Kaalia of the Vast all occupying high spots in the Top 100. These sorts of commanders produce one-of-a-kind archetypes that combine the strengths of multiple creature types, and allow for some flexible deckbuilding options. For example, you might build Kaalia with a split of all three creature types, but there are people who have bias towards just one of the three. Maralen, Fae Ascendant is similar, in that you could build it as a dual faerie–elf hybrid commander, or focus just on elves or faeries. That's essentially three different decks using one commander.

Maralen has another descriptor working in its favor: It's a theft commander, and a good one at that. There are people out there (it's me, I'm talking about me) whose whole personality is “playing with my opponents' cards”, and Maralen does that quite well. With the right set-up, this noble can free-cast an opponent's card once per turn, including on the opponents' turns, which equates to four extra free spells per turn cycle if all your engines are firing. Meanwhile, you're leaning into faerie and elf synergies, which themselves produce powerful engines.

Maralen: The 99

So what are people putting in their Maralen, Fae Ascendant decks? Well, you can spot a lot of the ECL newcomers that you'd expect, given their proximity to Maralen's printing. Bitterbloom Bearer, Formidable Speaker, and Glen Elendra's Answer are new staples that slot in perfectly, and Voracious Tome-Skimmer‘s showing up a lot, too.

Outside of Lorwyn, the top five cards currently popping up in Maralen lists are:

• High Fae Trickster: The perfect card for this deck. Flash enablers let you trigger Maralen more times per turn cycle, and this one happens to have a relevant creature type.
• Bitterblossom: Classic faerie card, makes perfect sense.
• Llanowar Elves: Easy ramp on an elvish mana dork (Elvish Mystic is sitting at #6).
• Alela, Cunning Conqueror: Really leans into the faeries side of things, but not mandatory to play. The more you're playing at instant speed, the more you want Alela.
• Faerie Mastermind: Just a great staple blue card that happens to be a faerie.

Go further down the list and you'll notice a lot of the same: green for mana elves and an emphasis on instant-speed faerie shenanigans. The only real downside here is that the two individual creature types don't actually play that well together, though faeries don't mind a bit of ramp.

Maralen's currently sitting at 4,285 decks on EDHREC, with an overall ranking of #544. That's pretty high considering how recently it was spoiled, though it's not as explosive as some of the standout commanders from Avatar, like Toph, the First Metalbender and Fire Lord Azula. Still, the elf players have spoken, and the faerie lovers get to join in on the fun, too. Which is great, considering faeries got a little bit shafted in Lorwyn Eclipsed Limited.