I really feel like in this current meta Mardu Mid really shines. Between the creature removal and being able to search up Platniums and Emas we are position so well. Here is a list that I've been working on as of late. I'd love to hear your take on it:
I really feel like in this current meta Mardu Mid really shines. Between the creature removal and being able to search up Platniums and Emas we are position so well. Here is a list that I've been working on as of late. I'd love to hear your take on it:
Only 2 bolts?
Platinum doesn't seems to be a good finisher or reliable enough.
I really feel like in this current meta Mardu Mid really shines. Between the creature removal and being able to search up Platniums and Emas we are position so well. Here is a list that I've been working on as of late. I'd love to hear your take on it:
Only 2 bolts?
Platinum doesn't seems to be a good finisher or reliable enough.
Well there's 8 1-mana removal spells. I feel given the current creature meta Push/Path are just better. I suppose it could be 4 Bolts and 0 Helixes, but the life gain does matter imo.
I'd also argue that Platinum is pretty well positioned right now. Some decks just flat out fold to or only have 1 or 2 outs for a T4 Emperion (Burn, Zoo, Affinity, Merfolk, Death Shadow (their Lils), Eldrazi Tron (their Karn if they run it)), and against other's its still a good staller. It's also fairly difficult to dispatch given how Fatal Push's arrival. The real finishers are Souls and Ema.
I feel that the Nahiri package is the strongest way to build Mardu. If left unchecked it has an inevitable win condition, but the strategy severely lacks in means to provide any pressure in the early game. This is where I think that Bitterblossom could be quite good. While not an immediate threat, Bitterblossom provides an endless stream of flying Fae that like Nahiri, if left alone will take over the game. The strength of having these two threats is that they really require different answers from our opponent. Dreadbore/Hero's Downfall isn't widely played in modern so opponents will be digging to their Bolts to hit Nahiri. While a bolt will take out a faerie,it does so at negative tempo, as It will be replaced for 1 life on the next turn. Bitterblossom really requires either a board-wipe(after which it just keeps making dudes) or a naturalize effect, that will do nothing against nahiri.
Knowing that we will always have a blocker on duty we can tick up nahiri with relative safety, and while supplementing these Faerie tokens with Lingering Souls we can further tax our opponents removal. Taking some inspiration from BU Faeries, we can also run Smugglers copter to increase the beat down clock and loot away some of our poorer draws. With Copter + Nahiri we can churn through our deck pretty quickly to dig down to the answers we need.
Tack on the best removal, and discard suite that modern can offer and I think we have a gameplan.
I feel that the Nahiri package is the strongest way to build Mardu. If left unchecked it has an inevitable win condition, but the strategy severely lacks in means to provide any pressure in the early game. This is where I think that Bitterblossom could be quite good. While not an immediate threat, Bitterblossom provides an endless stream of flying Fae that like Nahiri, if left alone will take over the game. The strength of having these two threats is that they really require different answers from our opponent. Dreadbore/Hero's Downfall isn't widely played in modern so opponents will be digging to their Bolts to hit Nahiri. While a bolt will take out a faerie,it does so at negative tempo, as It will be replaced for 1 life on the next turn. Bitterblossom really requires either a board-wipe(after which it just keeps making dudes) or a naturalize effect, that will do nothing against nahiri.
Knowing that we will always have a blocker on duty we can tick up nahiri with relative safety, and while supplementing these Faerie tokens with Lingering Souls we can further tax our opponents removal. Taking some inspiration from BU Faeries, we can also run Smugglers copter to increase the beat down clock and loot away some of our poorer draws. With Copter + Nahiri we can churn through our deck pretty quickly to dig down to the answers we need.
Tack on the best removal, and discard suite that modern can offer and I think we have a gameplan.
Hi mds, I have been messing around with the Bitterblossom/Butcher of the Horde Mardu build and I just got my emrakul and playset of Nahiri in the mail so I will probably be testing out this list. I had one question though, is Kolaghan's Command very good in the main deck since you won't be using it to pull any creatures out of the graveyard? I think I would put it in the sideboard for affinity, but that's it.
Oops that was me trying to make edits on my phone. I had a Curse of Deaths Hold in the SB that I wanted to replace with KCommand, I guess im sticking to my desktop for making edits from now on .
I didn't mean for there to be any KCommand in the main at all.
Im excited to hear your thoughts on the deck once youve put it together !!
To be honest, the butcher build seems more reliable than the Nahiri package.
Thanks for the feed-back. I'm curious as to your thoughts on why butcher is more reliable.
I understand butcher is a 5 power flyer, and that represents a ~3-4 turn clock when he lands, but I feel that he is much easier to stop than Nahiri/Emrakul. With Shadow Jund/Sultai/Esper running around more lists are running Fatal Push, Paths and Blessed Alliance to deal with Death Shadows. My thoughts would be to move away from threats that also get tagged by these removal spells.
To be honest, the butcher build seems more reliable than the Nahiri package.
Thanks for the feed-back. I'm curious as to your thoughts on why butcher is more reliable.
I understand butcher is a 5 power flyer, and that represents a ~3-4 turn clock when he lands, but I feel that he is much easier to stop than Nahiri/Emrakul. With Shadow Jund/Sultai/Esper running around more lists are running Fatal Push, Paths and Blessed Alliance to deal with Death Shadows. My thoughts would be to move away from threats that also get tagged by these removal spells.
I haven't done a crazy amount of testing with her yet (8 rounds so far) but so far I've had some success with baneslayer angel in the main and a blood baron of vizkopa in the side
To be honest, the butcher build seems more reliable than the Nahiri package.
Thanks for the feed-back. I'm curious as to your thoughts on why butcher is more reliable.
I understand butcher is a 5 power flyer, and that represents a ~3-4 turn clock when he lands, but I feel that he is much easier to stop than Nahiri/Emrakul. With Shadow Jund/Sultai/Esper running around more lists are running Fatal Push, Paths and Blessed Alliance to deal with Death Shadows. My thoughts would be to move away from threats that also get tagged by these removal spells.
I am trying the Nahiri Package for at least a year (definitely more). It`s a fun way to end the game. But, bear with me:
In the best case scenario you will drop Nahiri on turn 4, without threats. The clock is huge. IF you cast without threat. In the current meta this not realistic but it happens sometimes. Your opponent have 2 turns to answer her.
In most matches you will be controlled by your opponent and will never cast her on turn 4,5, 6...
The best way is to be more aggressive. 4 Dark Confidant, 4 Liliana, 4 Nahiri and 1 Emrakul and s bit of luck.
I am using Wall of Omens, Lingering Souls, Pia and Kiran Naalar with Butcher. It seems so huge most of the time. 3 turns clock (like Emrakul, without the annihilator of course) that can impact the field as early as turn 4 (sac token/wall). I even think that a Bitterblossom + Lingering + Pia Kiran + Butcher is even more powerful.
I'm not testing this deck (butcher) right know because I am very excited about a Mardu Pox Stax deck that I am brewing. It's seems very promising for now. As a backup plan I have the Butcher build. As plan C I'll use the Indomitable Creativity build.
What do we think about a blue splash for permission/ maybe Geist of saint graft or ancestral visions or spell queller etc
I wouldn't play 4 colors personally and definitely not for blue cards. most of the time, we want to lead with T1 discard. Also, we have more than enough 3 cmc cards actually. Spell queller is good when you play stuff at instant speed, we play planeswalker, discard or lingering during our turn, we don't draw/go.
As soon as possible the deck tries to abuse the Land Destruction spells targeting your own fetches, flagstones and darksteel. Bloodghast is a recurrent threat.
With fewer lands, Magus can hurt your opponent. Walls will give you blocks and creatures to be saced with Smallpox. The Dark Dwellers allows you to recycle most of your spells and cast boom/bust for mass LD.
A few observations:
1) Didn't liked lingering souls in the deck. Could be really good but I do not have this feeling right now.
2) World Queller could be a nice addition. Worth the test.
3) Decks that heavily rely on mana rocks could be very hard.
4) Though matchups: Burn, Bant Eldrazi, Knight LandFall, Elves (ish)
5) This deck lacks cantrips or draw engines (aside the Wall)
Right now I am experimenting with the mana base. More precisely the number of Flagstones, Urborgs and darksteel to increase the probability of disrupting the opponent mana base as early as turn 2.
Most of the times the deck is so absurdly good that you feel "bad", the exception been the decks previously mentioned on item 4.
The combination of land destruction + Magus and/or Ghostly Prison is really nice. We lack a fast clock to close the matchup but without lands and with Ghostly + Magus we can handle the game just fine.
The main new feature that I'm excited to test is 4x MD Pack Rat. Whether it's good, I guess I'll find out and let you all know, but I think it has merit. In the past I've tried it out as a 1-2 of, but never as a 4-of primary threat; I think it lines up against increased amounts of spot removal / Fatal Pushes from other decks trying to beat Death's Shadow, and alongside Nahiri and Liliana gives a nice way to pitch cards that aren't relevant in a particular matchup G1 (a common situation for a control deck to run into).
I'm curious what some of you here think about the removal suite though. At this point Mardu has an embarrassment of riches, literally holding all of the best removal in the format, but we obviously can't run all of it. Do you think that Fatal Push is a card that's particularly important to run, or do you think that it's unnecessary in a deck with access to Paths and Bolts (or do you think that, in this deck, Push is just better than Bolt?).
Also, any general feedback is welcome as well. I'll be testing something similar to this list and letting you know how it goes.
Thank you for the thorough post. I think there are some nice ideas behind this deck. Maybe I can give my two cents, although bear in mind that I have never played or build any such deck, so take it with a pinch of salt.
I'm not sure if I like Ajani, have you considered any of the Lilis?
I'm also not entirely bought on the Magus, tapping out T4 for a semi ghost prison doesn't sound like the best idea. Instead of him I would try to exploit what you have going on with Boom // Bust, maybe with Yahenni's expertise and/or Kari Zev's Expertise? Ultimately, if you want a creature instead, I would even prefer a Percy on his place to pressure the board.
About the card advantage, you could always run Confidants, although I can see how revealing the Dwellers would hurt...
Either way, I am looking forward to hearing how your deck works in a given meta.
Thanks for the feedback.
I am considering Lili although the discard plan isn't that good if your opponent does not have enough lands to cast anything. She's wonderful but I don't know.... Ajani can keep threats (and lands!) tapped, denying, even more, resources and represents a second LD threat.
The idea behind the Magus is to force the opponent to sac his/her creatures. And to be honest I was surprised by how powerful the card can be!
Yahenni could be a good addition but if I cast Yahenni expertise to destroy all lands and possible a lot of creatures which threats I 'll leave on the field? Just wondering (I liked the idea). Perhaps Sram Expertise? Leaving 3 tokens (not that powerful) and destroying all lands?
About the confidants: Not only Dark-Dwellers but also the boom/bust...hitting me for 8.
I've been playing this deck with some success. I like Lingering Souls = Smuggler's Copter with Shambling Vent and Damnation. My big threats survive the sweepers and my tokens, they never run out.
Have you thought of just ceding the Scapeshift match-up?
How sure are you on your removal package numbers?
2x Lightning Bolt
2x Lightning Helix
1x Blessed Alliance
3x Fatal Push
3x Path to Exile
3x Thought Sieze
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Liliana of the Veil
4x Nahiri, the Harbinger
Threats
4x Madcap Experiment
2x Platinum Emperion
4x Lingering Souls
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Mountain
3x Ghost Quarter
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Concealed Courtyard
4x Marsh Flats
1x Arid Mesa
1x Bloodstained Mire
2x Blood Crypt
1x Godless Shrine
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Shambling Vent
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Anguished Unmaking
2x Crumble to Dust
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Slaughter Games
1x Rakdos Charm
1x Damnation
Only 2 bolts?
Platinum doesn't seems to be a good finisher or reliable enough.
Well there's 8 1-mana removal spells. I feel given the current creature meta Push/Path are just better. I suppose it could be 4 Bolts and 0 Helixes, but the life gain does matter imo.
I'd also argue that Platinum is pretty well positioned right now. Some decks just flat out fold to or only have 1 or 2 outs for a T4 Emperion (Burn, Zoo, Affinity, Merfolk, Death Shadow (their Lils), Eldrazi Tron (their Karn if they run it)), and against other's its still a good staller. It's also fairly difficult to dispatch given how Fatal Push's arrival. The real finishers are Souls and Ema.
A few of us have also been building around Smuggler's Copter in lists that range from quasi-tempo to Midrange.
3x Arid Mesa
3x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Blood Crypt
2x Bloodstained Mire
1x Concealed Courtyard
1x Godless Shrine
4x Marsh Flats
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
1x Vault of the Archangel
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
2x Lightning Helix
2x Terminate
Creature (13)
4x Dark Confidant
3x Veteran Motorist
4x Young Pyromancer
2x Butcher of the Horde
Sorcery (10)
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Thoughtseize
4x Lingering Souls
Artifact (4)
4x Smuggler's Copter
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Collective Brutality
1x Dreadbore
2x Rest in Peace
1x Zealous Persecution
2x Anger of the Gods
3x Blood Moon
1x Kolaghan's Command
2x Hide/Seek
I feel that the Nahiri package is the strongest way to build Mardu. If left unchecked it has an inevitable win condition, but the strategy severely lacks in means to provide any pressure in the early game. This is where I think that Bitterblossom could be quite good. While not an immediate threat, Bitterblossom provides an endless stream of flying Fae that like Nahiri, if left alone will take over the game. The strength of having these two threats is that they really require different answers from our opponent. Dreadbore/Hero's Downfall isn't widely played in modern so opponents will be digging to their Bolts to hit Nahiri. While a bolt will take out a faerie,it does so at negative tempo, as It will be replaced for 1 life on the next turn. Bitterblossom really requires either a board-wipe(after which it just keeps making dudes) or a naturalize effect, that will do nothing against nahiri.
Knowing that we will always have a blocker on duty we can tick up nahiri with relative safety, and while supplementing these Faerie tokens with Lingering Souls we can further tax our opponents removal. Taking some inspiration from BU Faeries, we can also run Smugglers copter to increase the beat down clock and loot away some of our poorer draws. With Copter + Nahiri we can churn through our deck pretty quickly to dig down to the answers we need.
Tack on the best removal, and discard suite that modern can offer and I think we have a gameplan.
Hi mds, I have been messing around with the Bitterblossom/Butcher of the Horde Mardu build and I just got my emrakul and playset of Nahiri in the mail so I will probably be testing out this list. I had one question though, is Kolaghan's Command very good in the main deck since you won't be using it to pull any creatures out of the graveyard? I think I would put it in the sideboard for affinity, but that's it.
Modern:
BRBightning RackBR
RGoblinsR
WBDeath and TaxesWB
Legacy:
BPoxB
I didn't mean for there to be any KCommand in the main at all.
Im excited to hear your thoughts on the deck once youve put it together !!
Thanks for the feed-back. I'm curious as to your thoughts on why butcher is more reliable.
I understand butcher is a 5 power flyer, and that represents a ~3-4 turn clock when he lands, but I feel that he is much easier to stop than Nahiri/Emrakul. With Shadow Jund/Sultai/Esper running around more lists are running Fatal Push, Paths and Blessed Alliance to deal with Death Shadows. My thoughts would be to move away from threats that also get tagged by these removal spells.
I haven't done a crazy amount of testing with her yet (8 rounds so far) but so far I've had some success with baneslayer angel in the main and a blood baron of vizkopa in the side
I am trying the Nahiri Package for at least a year (definitely more). It`s a fun way to end the game. But, bear with me:
In the best case scenario you will drop Nahiri on turn 4, without threats. The clock is huge. IF you cast without threat. In the current meta this not realistic but it happens sometimes. Your opponent have 2 turns to answer her.
In most matches you will be controlled by your opponent and will never cast her on turn 4,5, 6...
The best way is to be more aggressive. 4 Dark Confidant, 4 Liliana, 4 Nahiri and 1 Emrakul and s bit of luck.
I am using Wall of Omens, Lingering Souls, Pia and Kiran Naalar with Butcher. It seems so huge most of the time. 3 turns clock (like Emrakul, without the annihilator of course) that can impact the field as early as turn 4 (sac token/wall). I even think that a Bitterblossom + Lingering + Pia Kiran + Butcher is even more powerful.
I'm not testing this deck (butcher) right know because I am very excited about a Mardu Pox Stax deck that I am brewing. It's seems very promising for now. As a backup plan I have the Butcher build. As plan C I'll use the Indomitable Creativity build.
I wouldn't play 4 colors personally and definitely not for blue cards. most of the time, we want to lead with T1 discard. Also, we have more than enough 3 cmc cards actually. Spell queller is good when you play stuff at instant speed, we play planeswalker, discard or lingering during our turn, we don't draw/go.
Sure thing.
I am trying a build like this one:
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Mountain
1 Arid Mesa
1 Plains
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Godless Shrine
1 Darksteel Citadel
3 Blood Crypt
3 Marsh Flats
2 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Swamp
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Ajani Vengeant
// Enchantment
2 Ghostly Prison
// Spells
3 Terminate
1 Kolaghan's Command
3 Fatal Push
4 Smallpox
4 Stone Rain
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Boom // Bust
// Creatures
3 Bloodghast
2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Magus of the Tabernacle
3 Wall of Omens
1 Damnation
1 Stony Silence
2 Crackling Doom
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Wear // Tear
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Hallowed Moonlight
1 Blasphemous Act
As soon as possible the deck tries to abuse the Land Destruction spells targeting your own fetches, flagstones and darksteel. Bloodghast is a recurrent threat.
With fewer lands, Magus can hurt your opponent. Walls will give you blocks and creatures to be saced with Smallpox. The Dark Dwellers allows you to recycle most of your spells and cast boom/bust for mass LD.
A few observations:
1) Didn't liked lingering souls in the deck. Could be really good but I do not have this feeling right now.
2) World Queller could be a nice addition. Worth the test.
3) Decks that heavily rely on mana rocks could be very hard.
4) Though matchups: Burn, Bant Eldrazi, Knight LandFall, Elves (ish)
5) This deck lacks cantrips or draw engines (aside the Wall)
Right now I am experimenting with the mana base. More precisely the number of Flagstones, Urborgs and darksteel to increase the probability of disrupting the opponent mana base as early as turn 2.
Most of the times the deck is so absurdly good that you feel "bad", the exception been the decks previously mentioned on item 4.
The combination of land destruction + Magus and/or Ghostly Prison is really nice. We lack a fast clock to close the matchup but without lands and with Ghostly + Magus we can handle the game just fine.
I'm trying something slightly different based off of my old Nahiri control lists, here's where I'm at currently:
1x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Godless Shrine
4x Marsh Flats
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
4x Shambling Vent
2x Swamp
4x Pack Rat
4x Lingering Souls
3x Liliana of the Veil
4x Nahiri, the Harbinger
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1x Collective Brutality
1x Dreadbore
1x Engineered Explosives
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Kolaghan's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Painful Truths
3x Path to Exile
1x Slaughter Pact
2x Thoughtseize
2x Anger of the Gods
1x Blessed Alliance
1x Duress
1x Engineered Explosives
3x Fulminator Mage
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Timely Reinforcements
I'm curious what some of you here think about the removal suite though. At this point Mardu has an embarrassment of riches, literally holding all of the best removal in the format, but we obviously can't run all of it. Do you think that Fatal Push is a card that's particularly important to run, or do you think that it's unnecessary in a deck with access to Paths and Bolts (or do you think that, in this deck, Push is just better than Bolt?).
Also, any general feedback is welcome as well. I'll be testing something similar to this list and letting you know how it goes.
Thanks for the feedback.
I am considering Lili although the discard plan isn't that good if your opponent does not have enough lands to cast anything. She's wonderful but I don't know.... Ajani can keep threats (and lands!) tapped, denying, even more, resources and represents a second LD threat.
The idea behind the Magus is to force the opponent to sac his/her creatures. And to be honest I was surprised by how powerful the card can be!
Yahenni could be a good addition but if I cast Yahenni expertise to destroy all lands and possible a lot of creatures which threats I 'll leave on the field? Just wondering (I liked the idea). Perhaps Sram Expertise? Leaving 3 tokens (not that powerful) and destroying all lands?
About the confidants: Not only Dark-Dwellers but also the boom/bust...hitting me for 8.
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Surgical Extraction
4 Lightning Helix
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
1 Crackling Doom
1 Damnation
1 Yahenni's Expertise
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Lingering Souls
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Smuggler's Copter
2 Shambling Vent
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Concealed Courtyard
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
2 Arid Mesa
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Blood Crypt
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
4 Blackcleave Cliffs