Maular, the Next Evolution Commander Guide: Build It Right

Maular, the Next Evolution is not a five-color commander, and calling it one is the fastest way to build it badly. The Rulebreaker opens exactly two doors: creature cards with mana value 7 or greater of any color identity, and any basic land cards. Your instants, sorceries, ramp, draw and every nonbasic land still have to fit inside green. This is a mono-green deck with a narrow rainbow top end, and the mana base decides whether that top end ever shows up.

The second line is where the power is. Whenever a creature you control with mana value 7 or greater attacks, you double its power and toughness until end of turn. Only the creature's own mana value counts, so cost reductions don't matter and a 12-drop that you cast for two mana still qualifies. Maular itself qualifies too, so it swings as a 20/20. The doubling ends at end of turn and Maular has no trample, so you want haste, trample or a way to dodge chump blockers.

All of the new cards in Mystery Booster Commander Edition (collector numbers 1 to 60) are legal in Commander, and Maular is among them. Compare it to its Rulebreaker siblings. Seluma, Light of Aysen opens Angels, Tolabow, Loch Rascal opens one extra color for instants and sorceries, and Grizzlegom, Hurloon Hero opens any land at all. Maular opens fewer lands than Grizzlegom but more creatures than Seluma, and the slice it does cut is exactly where a Dinosaur commander wants it.

The plan fits on a napkin. Turns one to three, you ramp and fix. Turns four to six, you land Maular or a 7-drop. From there, every attack trigger doubles your biggest creature, and Maular's own hits or trample damage finish the job.

A 20/20 Maular kills in two hits unless the table has blockers or removal ready, since 21 commander damage is all it takes. The faster lines come from stacking. Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus doubles everything at the beginning of combat, and Maular doubles again on attack. Goring Ceratops hands double strike to your other creatures when it attacks, so a doubled Maular swinging next to it hits twice in a single combat. Craterhoof Behemoth gives you the alpha-strike backup.

Be honest about the slow start. With heavy ramp you aim to deploy a 7-drop on turn four or five. You spend the first three turns doing nothing a board wipe or a fast combo deck needs to answer, and the seven-mana turn is the one that exposes you. If your pod kills on turn six, this deck is a spectator.

The answer to "how to build Maular the Next Evolution" starts with lands: play 37, mostly basics, and give each big creature one main splash instead of treating five colors as equals. Basics of every type are the Rulebreaker's gift, so a Mountain or a Plains is just as legal here as a Forest. A sample split is about 20 Forest, 4 Mountain, 4 Plains, one Island and one Swamp, with seven nonbasics filling out the rest.

Check color identity on every nonbasic. Triomes and shock lands carry basic land types and colored mana symbols, so they bring off-color identity and are illegal here. Command Tower is legal but taps for green only, which makes it a Forest that costs you a land slot.

The nonbasics that work are colorless-identity ones. Fabled Passage and Prismatic Vista fetch any basic, and the Vista does it untapped for a life. Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse are slower budget versions, and Myriad Landscape fetches two basics of one type. Mana Confluence and City of Brass tap for any color with a life or damage tax, and both belong in the optimized build because they fix every color without needing a basic to fetch.

Know the trade. Basics dodge effects that punish nonbasic lands, but fetches don't. The more fetches you run, the more you give up that protection, so don't pad the count.

The 18 ramp and fixing slots are separate from the 37 lands, and two-mana ramp is the baseline unit. They split into rainbow creatures and basic-land tutors.

Birds of Paradise is the best one-drop, and Lotus Cobra turns every fetch into rainbow mana. Bloom Tender is the weakest of the group. Vivid counts colors among your permanents, so it taps for green alone until you control a permanent of another color. Any off-color giant adds its color, and a two-color one like Ghalta and Mavren adds both. Delighted Halfling taps for colorless freely, and its colored mana is restricted to legendary spells, which covers Maular and any legendary giant. Ornithopter of Paradise is the budget flier. These creatures die to everything, but they fix faster than any sorcery.

The tutors are where the Rulebreaker pays off. Nature's Lore and Three Visits only fetch Forest cards here, so they ramp but do not fix. Farseek reaches any basic Plains, Island, Swamp or Mountain, so it fixes but can't fetch a Forest. Cultivate and Kodama's Reach fetch two basics of your choice, which makes them your best fixing spells, and Skyshroud Claim speeds up the Forest count.

Prismatic Omen and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove make every land every basic type. Dryad also gives you an extra land drop, which matters more than people think when you're hunting seven mana on turn four.

Chromatic Lantern splits the room. One camp says it papers over a bad mana base and leaves you dead if you never draw it. The other says it's a cheap, reliable fix that takes mental load off a three-to-five-color build. The second camp is right for this deck, which needs red and white mana on demand, not in theory.

Twenty-two slots go to big creatures, and they pull in three directions. Each one must carry its own weight, because doubling is temporary and every attack needs a reason to end the game.

Ghalta, Primal Hunger is the best card in the deck. It has mana value 12 and gets cheaper with big creatures on board, so with a 10/10 Maular out it costs GG, then attacks as a 24/24 trampler. Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus stacks on top: Progenitus goes from 10 to 20 at beginning of combat and then to 40 on attack. Progenitus is the off-color flagship, since it costs all five colors, so cast it only when your mana can handle it. Craterhoof Behemoth is your burst plan, and its haste solves the summoning-sick problem. Cast it before combat and Maular doubles the boosted power and toughness of every attacker with mana value 7 or greater, Craterhoof included, while smaller attackers just keep the +X/+X and trample.

The cheat-into-play angle covers the clunky turns. Apex Devastator cascades four times, and nearly everything it flips in this deck is ramp or a giant. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant drops creatures from your hand onto the battlefield. They arrive without haste, so they swing next turn and double on attack.

Do not overload on off-color 7-drops. Colorless Eldrazi like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger need no fixing at all. Blightsteel Colossus has infect, so a single hit hands over poison and doubling is overkill. Favor those over the third splash color.

Green has no wraths, so your six draw, four removal and three protection slots do more work than they look like they should. You protect Maular and your biggest creature through the first swing, and you accept that a big-mana deck can't answer everything.

A doubled Maular can overdraw you right out of the game, which is the catch with Greater Good. Sacrifice a creature after the attack trigger resolves and you draw cards equal to its doubled power, then discard three, so removal aimed at your giant becomes a refill. Draw only what you can afford. Vaultborn Tyrant gains you life and draws a card whenever it or another creature you control with power 4 or greater enters, which in this deck means nearly every spell you cast off the top end.

Green lacks a one-sided sweep, and Balefire Dragon fills the hole: when it connects while doubled, it hits each creature that player controls for that much damage. Protection and selection come bundled in Smuggler's Surprise. Your creatures with power 4 or greater gain hexproof and indestructible, and the extra modes dig for more gas or cheat creatures onto the battlefield. Heroic Intervention covers whatever is left, including the sweeper you can't dodge with a single trick.

The four dedicated removal slots are tight, so lean on creatures from the 22 big-creature slots that also pressure the board. Terastodon and Apex Altisaur answer problems while adding bodies. They, Vaultborn Tyrant and Balefire Dragon are big creatures, so they sit in the 22 creature slots and do not count toward the draw or removal totals. Their removal, draw and sweep are a bonus on top of the dedicated slots.

Compare Maular to other commanders that bend deckbuilding. Valko Indorian is one more Rulebreaker, and it opens Phyrexians. Like Seluma, Tolabow and Grizzlegom, it pays for the exception with a narrow opening and a payoff that has to be built around. Maular's door is wider for payoffs than Seluma's Angels but narrower on lands than Grizzlegom, and that trade is correct.

The nine flex slots hold Dinosaur and cheat-in-play extras. Ghalta and Mavren is a 12/12 trampler that makes attackers on its own, and Flaming Tyrannosaurus pings for 3 whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand, such as the command zone, exile or graveyard, then gets a +1/+1 counter. Natural Order fetches green giants for a green creature sacrifice, and Elvish Piper puts creatures in at instant speed. Mana Reflection doubles your mana, and Sword of the Animist keeps the basic count flowing.

For a light reanimation theme, Artisan of Kozilek returns a creature when you cast it, and Monster Manual // Zoological Study mills toward the same plan. It's a bonus, not a pillar.

The primary 99 is 37 lands, 18 ramp and fixing, 6 draw, 4 removal, 3 protection, 22 big-creature win conditions and 9 flex synergy cards. The alternatives below swap inside those counts and do not add cards on top.