EDIT: -2 Lightning Helix -1 IOK +3 Mother of Runes to the main deck and some tweaks to the original article to accommodate the deck change.
I've been play testing and tweaking this deck for weeks with some really good results. Although it needs more testing it holds up well to top tier decks. So far I've tested it against Threshold, Jund, RUG Delver, Death and Taxes, Reanimator and it's weakest match up so far, Belcher. I'll be doing more testing in the future and post results here if anyone is interested. So far:
Mardu vs. Canadian Threshold 3-2
Mardu vs. Jund 2-3
Mardu vs. Reanimator 3-1
Mardu vs. BUG Delver 2-0
Mardu vs. Death and Taxes 2-1
Mardu vs. Belcher 0-2
It behaves a bit like Jund with pro-active disruption rather than blue's counter magic and utilizes card advantage offered from Dark Confidant, Stoneforge Mystic, Grim Lavamancer, Lingering Souls and Sensei's Divining Top.
It also sports a recurable removal combination similar to Jund's Grove of the Burnwillows + Punishing Fire in the form of Basilisk Collar + Grim Lavamancer. This combination can take down Emrakul and gain you two life to boot. However Lavamancer is easier to kill than Grove leaving this combination a bit easier to disrupt.
Much of the deck is self explanatory, disrupt your opponent's hand denying your opponent of key combo pieces and removal, drop creatures for utility and beat down, keep board control with removal and card advantage and grind your way to victory. Sensei's Divining Top is there for filtering bad top decks and synergizes well with Confidant to minimize life loss. Basilisk Collar and Jitte are amazing equipped to Lingering Souls tokens, in particular when backed with Mother of Runes.
It runs a healthy tempo of 23 one drops, 12 two drops and 6 three+ drops. There are 10 maindeck creature removal spells not counting the 4 Grim Lavamancer, the Umezawa's Jitte and the Basilisk Collar. Also 12 maindeck disruption counting Wasteland and 18 creatures for the win condition.
Weaknesses:
Combo appears to be it's biggest weakness and the sideboard is geared against this. I'm not sure whether or not control matches are bad yet. I'm also interested in seeing the Burn matchup. The lack basic lands could also possibly be an issue. I do run Tithe main deck and it helps against tempo strategies created by decks like Threshold. Blood Moon won't totally kill the deck as red is one of the primary colors. Perhaps a lone swamp and a lone Plains might be necessary.
The sideboard might need some work. As it is I have it geared towards it's unfavorable match ups. Graveyard hate for Jund, Reanimator and Dredge. Leyline of Sanctity for most combo. Against Belcher in particular, Leyline of Sanctity and Zealous Persecution for goblin swarms. Zealous Persecution is also there for any token strategies, Death and Taxes and any other weenie decks, Elves, Goblins etc...
Honorable mention: Sword of Fire and Ice I personally feel three maindeck toolbox slots is correct. I might be wrong but with Jitte already maindeck I feel SoFI is a "win more" card and unnecessarily mana intensive.
Young Pyromancer My original idea was to build a deck spouting 4x Confidant, 4x SF Mystic and 4x Young Pyromancer. After much testing I realized there were not enough sorcery/instant slots to feed Pyromancer and Lavamancer in his place equipped with Basilisk Collar is a house. Also I've noticed that pro-active disruption (such as black discard) is NOT great with Young Pyromancer. Blue's counter magic suits Pyromancer the best. With discard typically you want to dump the disruption (discard) from your hand before you cast your creatures. With counter magic you can cast your creatures first and then protect them with counters. In my experience if you really want to exploit Young Pyromancer black disruption is not the way to go.
Vindicate / Oblivion Ring I really want to run two of one of these maindeck, however I really didn't want to screw with the mana curve. The deck already has a healthy tempo where it is. With an intensive mana curve, recurring Lingering Souls and equip costs it is best to limit the number of three drops. There isn't however any way to deal with pesky artifacts and enchantments. Wear / Tear is on the sideboard for Counterbalance, Sensei's Divining Top, Aether Vial and Sylvan Library although I'm not sure something shouldn't be ran main to deal with these threats.
This archetype is generally called Team Italia. Gerard Fabiano wrote a primer on it several years ago, for Starcity Games IIRC. However, I think you'll find that the deck just isn't very competitive by comparison to Esper Deathblade.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
This archetype is generally called Team Italia. Gerard Fabiano wrote a primer on it several years ago, for Starcity Games IIRC. However, I think you'll find that the deck just isn't very competitive by comparison to Esper Deathblade.
It's funny because I just learned the reason why its originally called Team Italia. It's called Team Italia because Dega is a derogatory term for Italians.
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Interesting. I googled Gerard Fabiano's Team Italia. I didn't know it existed. He ran some interesting cards. The initial outward appearance is similar but our builds play different. His deck isn't very competitive because it's not very good. My strategy was to follow Jund's design in that I tried to match (and sometimes out do) it with the same quality and quantity of spells so that I could match it's card advantage, removal, disruption and speed. I'm not sure when Gerrard built his deck but it is possible that he didn't have access to the cards we have now. That and I think he used poor design and card choices. He doesn't run STP, Liliana or Lingering Souls. Tempo wise it appears sluggish. There is a low ratio of one drops to two plus drops. My build packs better removal, disruption, card advantage, tempo and win cons. Again this might be because he didn't have access to cards we have now but there is no excuse for not running STP.
Not tooting my own horn, just being honest, my build is really really strong. There's not a lot of terrible match ups. It beats up on a large amount tier one decks.
Alright, so I made an account just to comment on this. I played this deck back in winter of 2011-fall 2012. So I can give some fair information.
Gerard Fabiano's list was fantastic. You're right, it doesn't have Lingering Souls... because the card didn't exist yet. Neither did Miracles, or Delver. Or Rest in Peace... not even Surgical Extraction. Also notice, no batterskull.
The list comes from right about the time Mirrodin Besieged was released. Spring of 2011 I think. The deck didn't run Swords to Plowshares mainboard because, at it's core, it didn't want to give the opponent life. Notice the 4 Vindicates, those will deal with more things than Swords to Plowshares. Bolt dealt with the small threats, vindicate dealt with everything else. Basilisk Collar on the Grim Lavamancers was a death knell to most creature decks.
So, while this deck wouldn't do very well today, at the time it was fantastic. If memory serves (I could be getting some facts wrong, I only played in my area), UW & UWR stoneblade were the top decks, followed by Grixis Reanimator, ANT/TES and Sneak & Show. (BTW, no Griselbrand yet... Sorry!) Legacy looked very different. Zoo, "Fish" and Goblins were still decent, Maverick & Death and Taxes were still finding their footing.
When printed, the deck would move to include Lingering Souls, Liliana of the Veil & Batterskull.
Also he totally ran Gerrards Verdict because it was his name.. but the card did decently.
* Right as I'm about to hit post, I see this thread is 2 years old... damn. I hope you still play Mardu Stoneblade.
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MARDU
EDIT: -2 Lightning Helix -1 IOK +3 Mother of Runes to the main deck and some tweaks to the original article to accommodate the deck change.
I've been play testing and tweaking this deck for weeks with some really good results. Although it needs more testing it holds up well to top tier decks. So far I've tested it against Threshold, Jund, RUG Delver, Death and Taxes, Reanimator and it's weakest match up so far, Belcher. I'll be doing more testing in the future and post results here if anyone is interested. So far:
Mardu vs. Canadian Threshold 3-2
Mardu vs. Jund 2-3
Mardu vs. Reanimator 3-1
Mardu vs. BUG Delver 2-0
Mardu vs. Death and Taxes 2-1
Mardu vs. Belcher 0-2
Although, I came to this deck on my own it had already been built by Maltron last fall. You can find his list and notes here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mardu-stoneblade/
It behaves a bit like Jund with pro-active disruption rather than blue's counter magic and utilizes card advantage offered from Dark Confidant, Stoneforge Mystic, Grim Lavamancer, Lingering Souls and Sensei's Divining Top.
It also sports a recurable removal combination similar to Jund's Grove of the Burnwillows + Punishing Fire in the form of Basilisk Collar + Grim Lavamancer. This combination can take down Emrakul and gain you two life to boot. However Lavamancer is easier to kill than Grove leaving this combination a bit easier to disrupt.
Much of the deck is self explanatory, disrupt your opponent's hand denying your opponent of key combo pieces and removal, drop creatures for utility and beat down, keep board control with removal and card advantage and grind your way to victory. Sensei's Divining Top is there for filtering bad top decks and synergizes well with Confidant to minimize life loss. Basilisk Collar and Jitte are amazing equipped to Lingering Souls tokens, in particular when backed with Mother of Runes.
It runs a healthy tempo of 23 one drops, 12 two drops and 6 three+ drops. There are 10 maindeck creature removal spells not counting the 4 Grim Lavamancer, the Umezawa's Jitte and the Basilisk Collar. Also 12 maindeck disruption counting Wasteland and 18 creatures for the win condition.
Weaknesses:
Combo appears to be it's biggest weakness and the sideboard is geared against this. I'm not sure whether or not control matches are bad yet. I'm also interested in seeing the Burn matchup. The lack basic lands could also possibly be an issue. I do run Tithe main deck and it helps against tempo strategies created by decks like Threshold. Blood Moon won't totally kill the deck as red is one of the primary colors. Perhaps a lone swamp and a lone Plains might be necessary.
The sideboard might need some work. As it is I have it geared towards it's unfavorable match ups. Graveyard hate for Jund, Reanimator and Dredge. Leyline of Sanctity for most combo. Against Belcher in particular, Leyline of Sanctity and Zealous Persecution for goblin swarms. Zealous Persecution is also there for any token strategies, Death and Taxes and any other weenie decks, Elves, Goblins etc...
Honorable mention:
Sword of Fire and Ice I personally feel three maindeck toolbox slots is correct. I might be wrong but with Jitte already maindeck I feel SoFI is a "win more" card and unnecessarily mana intensive.
Young Pyromancer My original idea was to build a deck spouting 4x Confidant, 4x SF Mystic and 4x Young Pyromancer. After much testing I realized there were not enough sorcery/instant slots to feed Pyromancer and Lavamancer in his place equipped with Basilisk Collar is a house. Also I've noticed that pro-active disruption (such as black discard) is NOT great with Young Pyromancer. Blue's counter magic suits Pyromancer the best. With discard typically you want to dump the disruption (discard) from your hand before you cast your creatures. With counter magic you can cast your creatures first and then protect them with counters. In my experience if you really want to exploit Young Pyromancer black disruption is not the way to go.
Vindicate / Oblivion Ring I really want to run two of one of these maindeck, however I really didn't want to screw with the mana curve. The deck already has a healthy tempo where it is. With an intensive mana curve, recurring Lingering Souls and equip costs it is best to limit the number of three drops. There isn't however any way to deal with pesky artifacts and enchantments. Wear / Tear is on the sideboard for Counterbalance, Sensei's Divining Top, Aether Vial and Sylvan Library although I'm not sure something shouldn't be ran main to deal with these threats.
More honorable mention: Lightning Helix, Forked Bolt, Tidehollow Sculler, Serra Avenger, Spirit of the Labyrinth.
I really would like some feedback. Any questions, ideas, compliments and criticisms are welcome.
Here's the deck:
MARDU
60 cards
4x Dark Confidant
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Stoneforge Mystic
3x Lingering Souls
3x Mother of Runes
Toolbox (3)
1x Batterskull
1x Basilisk Collar
1x Umezawa's Jitte
Removal / Disruption: (17)
3x Hymn to Tourach
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Liliana of the Veil
2x Sensei's Divining Top
Land: (20)
4x Wasteland
1x Swamp
2x Badlands
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Marsh Flats
1x Plateau
4x Scrubland
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Extirpate
2x Withered Wretch
4x Wear // Tear
3x Zealous Persecution
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
It's funny because I just learned the reason why its originally called Team Italia. It's called Team Italia because Dega is a derogatory term for Italians.
Thanks for spiderboy4 of High~Light_Studios for the kick ass avatar.
Thanks for DarkNightCavalier of HotPS for the exceptional signature.
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Not tooting my own horn, just being honest, my build is really really strong. There's not a lot of terrible match ups. It beats up on a large amount tier one decks.
Here is Gerard's deck, compare it to mine. I'm guessing he ran a lone Gerrard's Verdict because his name is Gerard. Here also is a link to the thread discussing his deck. http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/legacy-type-1-5/developing-legacy/180897-team-italia-by-gerard-fabiano
Gerard Fabiano's Team Italia:
Artifacts
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
3 Figure of Destiny
4 Grim Lavamancer
1 Ranger of Eos
4 Stoneforge Mystic
Instants
4 Lightning Bolt
Legendary Artifacts
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Sorceries
1 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
4 Vindicate
Lands
3 Arid Mesa
4 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Marsh Flats
1 Plateau
3 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
Sideboard
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Pyroblast
4 Swords to Plowshares
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Gerard Fabiano's list was fantastic. You're right, it doesn't have Lingering Souls... because the card didn't exist yet. Neither did Miracles, or Delver. Or Rest in Peace... not even Surgical Extraction. Also notice, no batterskull.
The list comes from right about the time Mirrodin Besieged was released. Spring of 2011 I think. The deck didn't run Swords to Plowshares mainboard because, at it's core, it didn't want to give the opponent life. Notice the 4 Vindicates, those will deal with more things than Swords to Plowshares. Bolt dealt with the small threats, vindicate dealt with everything else. Basilisk Collar on the Grim Lavamancers was a death knell to most creature decks.
So, while this deck wouldn't do very well today, at the time it was fantastic. If memory serves (I could be getting some facts wrong, I only played in my area), UW & UWR stoneblade were the top decks, followed by Grixis Reanimator, ANT/TES and Sneak & Show. (BTW, no Griselbrand yet... Sorry!) Legacy looked very different. Zoo, "Fish" and Goblins were still decent, Maverick & Death and Taxes were still finding their footing.
When printed, the deck would move to include Lingering Souls, Liliana of the Veil & Batterskull.
Also he totally ran Gerrards Verdict because it was his name.. but the card did decently.
* Right as I'm about to hit post, I see this thread is 2 years old... damn. I hope you still play Mardu Stoneblade.