Seeker of the Way is really under-performing, even with Herald of Torment to pick him up and make him part of the Mardu Air Force in the late game. I don't think I want to move away entirely from having a good two drop and am actually considering Nyx-Fleece Ram. Helps with some incremental life gain, is a fantastic blocker and while our dear sheep isn't nearly as good a target to bestow Herald onto, it offsets the Herald life loss so there is some synergy there.
Perhaps it is the fact that I have tested against monsters and aggro a lot, but I feel like a card that can buy us a couple of turns while we get to more removal and starting flying in for the win.
Alternately, I am considering going with a minimal black build that leverages the mana efficiency of Chained to the Rocks. That is probably a bigger rethink than I am willing to commit to at this time but something to keep in mind for the future if I too often find myself playing from behind due to spending a turn's worth of many on a single threat.
From my experience, it's just too good. You usually can proc seeker on t3 with goblins or even a burn to you opponent's face
I do agree that when Seeker is good, he is very good, but it seems like more games than not, he is the worst card in the deck. I guess something has to be the worst card, so...
For me, it seemed Seeker wasn't just a disappointment in terms of usability, but he also ALWAYS ALWAYS died as soon as the opponent could kill it. It usually ate a burn spell or removal the turn it came out or the following turn. Swiftspear presents less of a perceived threat, and seems to be left alone more often.
anyone think about making a mardu/whip of erebos deck. I really like adding doomwake giant to the mainboard to combat jeskai tokens as well as hornet queen decks. Whip of erebos was just an idea. Not sure the mardu colors have anything to really utilize whip like a hornet queen.
i also like mainboarding hushwing gryffs as flyers are really strong and gryffs have decent targets in some decks.
Yeah, I thought many times about playing Chained to the Rocks.
@teamDFL, what cards would you take out for playing Chained?
@GodofConfusion, I will make that change, cutting out some painlands and both Urborg and Temple of Silence
Thoughts on maybe Master of the Feast as a early threat even if to sacrifice him for Butcher later on? Hate to give any sort of card advantage, though.
I have a not insignificant body of experience with Master of the Feast having played mono-black aggro for the better part of 6 months. That deck relies on early pressure and very efficient removal and hand disruption in order to craft a commanding position early in the game. At that point, Master of the Feast is played as a finisher under the assumption that the commanding board position crafted previously with the addition of a 5/5 flier will be able to finish off the game even in the face of card disadvantage. As Master of the Feast dodges nearly all burn, ground blockers and (most importantly for mono-black aggro) the mini sweeper duo of Drown in Sorrow and Anger of the Gods, it plays this role quite effectively.
In the Mardu Skies deck, my impression without any play testing* is that Master of the Feast would be a poor fit. At 3CMC, it is placed just where the deck starts to get going and giving the opponent extra ways to deal with the threats we are looking to play in upcoming turns seems like a very bad idea. I can see how Master would kick start the offensive in some games, but I can foresee more situations where it kick starts the opponent's ability to negate the advantage we get from evasion. The Mardu Skies deck counts on the fact that ground blockers are nearly dead cards. If we give them ways to get past those dead draws, we lose that advantage.
*- IOW ≤2¢
The card draw is irrelevant.
As long as you don't block, there are VERY few ways of dealing with a resolved master without 2for1ing yourself. They will attack with anything and everything and PRAY you block, and when you don't, all they can do is look sad. Letting them draw cards sounds bad, but let me assure you from playing him often in my mardu list, he IS a beating.
Now, g2-3 demands a rethinking depending on what list you're up against, but the damage he does and the resources they NEED to commit to removing him FAR outweigh any perceived advantages the one extra card may seem to give them.
Went 4-2 and got 10th at a 37 man IQ this weekend with an adaptation of the Mardu Skies deck that was featured in the Craig Wescoe article on TCGplayer.com
I was not well prepared on how to play Jeskai properly, and as result was 1-2 with those two losses to that deck. The one win was against Sultai, which, as per the design of the deck, feels like you cannot lose. Round 4, beat another graveyard deck, then faced a very cool red aggro deck that splashed blue for counters and cruise. Honestly, I won that match more because of my opponent's poor draws than my own skill. Final round I faced Jeskai and put to work what I had learned. 1-1, I had tentative control of the deciding game, a couple of good answers in hand and Spirit of the Labyrinth on the board. He had Ascendancy on the board and upon drawing Treasure Cruise he went to cast it, I managed to stop him before he looted and/or drew, but he was visibly disappointed with himself for forgetting about the Spirit. From that point, I drove home my advantage.
Lessons learned:
This deck slaughtered the graveyard based decks I saw. Maybe they didn't draw well, maybe I just got great draws, but whatever the case, based upon this small sample, if you are expecting to see Sidisi and the Whip, this is a great deck to take. Spirit of the Labyrinth is the solid sideboard tech versus Jeskai. Yes, they often have burn to kill it, but if you can deploy your own threats and/or use hand disruption to use up and take away their burn, the deck is seriously hamstrung if you have a Spirit on your side. I plan to cut an Erase and go to 3 Spirits.
Another copy of Drown in Sorrow would really help. It will be swapped for the sole Utter End.
For this deck, Chandra, Pyromaster is better than Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. With zero forms of card draw, Chandra does work. Sarkhan is a mediocre removal spell and a decent flier, which while both useful, aren't standouts for this deck. Plus, her cannot block ability is great if you Bile Blight insect tokens but still have a Queen hanging out.
Bestowing Herald of Torment on either of the ground creatures is a great play. I am tempted to say that the deck could use more Herald, but I am not sure what the extras would replace. I know that Wingmate Roc seems like a huge omission from a deck named Mardu Air Strike, but I encourage you to try the Herald as it really does allow you to get value from your early creatures. Plus, you can stick him on a Butcher of the Horde in a pinch. I have never had a game where an 8/7 flier was a bad thing. Mardu Charm is great against Courser decks. If you have a ground guy you need to get through, kill the Courser. If you have taken to the skies, end of their draw step, grab that End Hostilities or Whip of Erebos or Elspeth they just drew that you know about because of Courser. The first strike tokens are also great against attacking Rabblemasters, but are a touch slow for that duty, so that is certainly the tertiary mode.
I like the deck and honestly wish I had picked it up earlier in the season. I am still very much on the steep part of the learning curve which is about to happen again with the new cards being added.
Most of all, I had a lot of fun with this deck and that is what is most important to me.
Im considering building up a version of R/W/b....with the focus of black spells only on Crackling Doom, Sorin, and perhaps Cut (and TS out of the SB)..where the nuts and bolts follow closer the the RW decks for something like this (rough sketch):
18 creatures
Seeker
Rabble/Brimaz/Hush
Ashcloud
stormbreath/wingman
Won a PPTQ yesterday with this list. I think it was previously called mardu aggro but I don't know how a deck that has 4 thoughtseize and 4 brain maggots main deck can't be called midrange. Went 5-0 then IDed round 6 into top8 as top rank. Brain maggot performed better than I expected a lot of the time he only takes removal out of their hands but it keeps the rabblemasters alive and sometimes he slows their deck down stealing a sylvan carytid.
Here is my decklist wth Fate Reforged. I'm basing this deck to prey on the expected meta. I assume it will be Jeskai Tokens, Sultai Whip, U/B Control, Abzan Mid/Aggro, and U/W Heroic. R/G Monsters and Mardu would be 6th and 7th which is where my SB comes in.
Ashcloud over Butcher: Phoenix is just more resilient and I'm playing more controlling game No Rabble: Still testing this but it gets blocked by everything and without Stoke isn't as great Anger: For Hornet Queen and Tokens, it does exile Phoenix so I'm still testing that Brimaz: survives Anger and blocks everything Abzan Aggro has except Rhino Mardu Charm: Our control matchup is so bad I play 6 discard between 75 as I think U/B will see a big uptick, plus kills Course and blocks tokens amazingly Executioner: Still not sure but great vs U/W Heroic and Abzan Aggro. Banishing Light: Answer to Whip, Walkers, usually SB out when they bring in hate for it. Doomwake: Helps vs tokens and this decks weakness to Hornet Queen
So, I've been playing this version of the Skies deck and I feel like I've been having some flooding issues. Thinking of dropping from 25 land to maybe 23/24. Thoughts?
I have run a somewhat similar deck with 24 lands. With just two Thoughtseize and 4 Seeker of the Way main, I think you can look at adding more temples, which will help with flood/screw issues. You aren't running Chained to the rocks, so don't need the basic mountain for that reason like many Mardu decks. I would try -2 Plains, -1 Swamp, -1 Mountain, +2 Temple of Silence, +1 Temple of Malice. Yes, there are cases where this can hurt you, but I think it would be a net positive.
For reference, here is what I ran (and I wasn't 100% happy with the mana base):
I put a high priority on early black for Bile Blight because of all the token decks. Went 4-2 with minimal testing at an IQ, and would take out one Mana Confluence for another Temple of Malice and maybe even look at pulling a basic for another temple. Also, I'd go go double Chandra and put Sarkhan in the binder.
With FRF release coming, I have been messing with the new Flamewake Phoenix. The RR on three is a massive PITA if I want to be sure to have reliable access to Bile Blight in the main and Drown in Sorrow out of the sideboard.
I have no idea where I want to go with Mardu, I feel like if I go too Midrange then I just fold to control, If go the token route then Im going to get hated on by all the sweepers. I messed around with Soulfire Grandmaster and found that 90% of the time, she preformed the same as Seeker of the Way. I do not like Monastary Mentor because I usually want a turn 4 Butcher. I tried my best to be as resilient as possible and Sam Black in his recent article gave me a cool idea to use Sultai Emissary.
Mainly just a bunch of hard to kill things, but Anger of the Gods will really hurt. The fliers can get over alot of the midrange stuff save Hornet Queen.
So I took a new mardu list I brewed up to a pptq yesterday and got 3rd/4th. There were 56 players, and I only lost 4 games (yes games, not matches) in the 8 matches I played.
First I'll post the list I played, then I'll go over the matches themselves, and wrap this up with a breakdown of the cards that overperformed, underperformed, and the direction I'd like to take this deck.
The deck I played is quite different from the versions of mardu that have been running around, this is closer to r/w agro than the more controlling versions of mardu that have been seeing success.
Here's what I played:
The big differences in this list from other mardu decks is the lack of a top end, you won't find any elspeths or anything that costs more than 4 here. The reason is that this deck (like r/w agro) takes advantage of double spelling. This is especially important for monastery mentor.
I'm also not playing hordeling outburst, this could be wrong, but I wanted the cheaper card in thoughtseize, because thoughtseize not only clears the way for mentor, but it is also a 1 cmc spell which gives you more chances to play a turn 4 mentor and immediately get value. It isn't necessarily a dead card in the mid-late game either as you can cast thoughtseize an opponent with no hand just to trigger prowess, which did win me a game.
I'm also playing more read the bones in the main than most mardu decks, because it's obviously great to load back up on spells with mentors in the deck.
This setup also capitalizes on people that are used to playing against more controlling mardu decks, because they will board to beat end hostilities, Elspeth, sarkhan, and generally play towards a longer game.
Let's quickly go over my matches:
r1 w/u heroic: 2-0
This is our easiest matchup, as it has always been. It is worth noting that mentor is far better in this matchup than rabblemaster because a heroic player can keep heliod's pilgrims on defence to block the goblin tokens all day, they can't do that to mentor tokens.
r2 abzan midrange: 2-0
Game 1 he mulled to 5 and we didn't even really play a game. Game 2 I thoughtseized his answers and went to town with butchers and seekers, while answering his creatures. Overall this deck is too fast for them to keep up with. This matchup was always a coin toss for r/w agro because they have situational removal, but this deck has the best removal in the format, as well as a way to reload, while being able to present a very fast clock.
r3 abzan agro: 2-0
After w/u heroic, I'd say this is the next best matchup, they have less removal than their midrange counter part, and a more painful manabase (along with early mana intensive threats), and they have a lot of etb tapped lands which slow them down considerably.
r4 w/r agro: 2-1
This has always been a bad matchup for mardu in my experience. They are just as fast as us, but with an essentially pain-free manabase and less tapped lands. However, soulfire grand master really shined here, especially with the 6 extra burn spells I bring in from the board. There was an interesting moment at the end of game 1 where my opponent was at 2, I was at 6. I had a seeker and a grand master in play, and just a read the bones in hand. He had one card in hand that I thought was a stoke, and a rabblemaster that he played during his 2nd main phase last turn. I attacked with both creatures, he blocked one and stoked the other. So after tanking for a bit, I figured that he had to draw either stormbreath or stoke to kill me next turn (he had used 2 stokes so far) if this read went badly, and I had 7 ways in my deck to kill him right now (I had used a strike already) so I went for it. I bottomed 2 lands, and drew a land and a read, I'm not sure if it's correct or not, but I read again, I figured giving him another draw (lightning strike) to kill me next turn would be okay. I bottomed 2 lands (agh!) and drew a land and a... crackling doom for the win. Without the reads I would have been screwed in that game. The read the bones were incredible the whole tourney.
r5 abzan agro: 2-1
I told this guy that we could double draw into top 8 (it's a 6 round swiss), but he refused to listen.... So I demolished him in the games that I won. His deck was interesting though, I easily won game 1, but game 2 he boarded into nissa's, coursers, and elspeths and basically became abzan midrange, which I wasn't expecting. I do a lot of testing on mtgo, and I've never come across an abzan agro player that did that. So I boarded slightly different than I did in game 2 and he didn't stand a chance.
r6 w/u heroic: ID
I ended the swiss rounds as the only undefeated player in the tournament.
Top8
r1 w/u heroic: 2-0
This is the guy I ID'ed with. Game 1 was easy. Game 2 was actually pretty stressful. He got a seeker down and was able to stunt some of the damage my seeker was doing. I landed a monastery mentor and a soulfire grand master. I ended up buying back a lightning strike (the only time I bought back a spell) and the extra prowess trigger ended up being relevant and I won the game.
r2 r/w agro: 1-2
I am superstitious, I have a very specific way that I shuffle my deck, I like to sit on a certain side of the table, and I have pre match and post match rituals. This time I sat on the wrong side of the table, every other match that day was on the right side except for this one LOL . I'm kidding it probably had nothing to do with my loss. What did have something to do with my loss was the hands I kept. I kept 2 land hands in all 3 games, and in 2 of them I got stuck on 2 mana for a turn. I also couldn't answer a brimaz on time, and the fact that I was playing magma spray instead of wild slash came up when I could have killed a Chandra in 1 turn using acr lightning and wild slash, but since I had spray, I had to take 2 turns to throw 2 arc lightnings at it, and die to a stormbreath dragon, when I could have had the mana to cut it. I think my losses here, where mostly up to bad draws, I had been running hot and started to cool here.
My deck greatly exceeded my expectations. I had literally no testing with this deck going into the tournament, and put it together the night before. I almost didn't play, but this deck is very similar to a deck that I love in modern, and I haven't played that deck in awhile so I was really excited.
Over performers: Monastery Mentor: I don't know if you guys know this, but this dude is REDICULOUSLY good. I was not expecting this to be as good as it was. I was expecting roughly the same power level as young pyromancer but slightly stronger. This guy is way better than pyromancer. If my opponent didn't answer this guy in 2-3 turns, they were dead. Even If I got 2-3 tokens off of it, it was usually good enough. Read the Bones: I wanted a draw-engine of some kind. Chandra dies a lot so I didn't think it was good enough to rely solely on her. I was worried that I was playing too many, but soulfire offset a lot of the lifeloss associated with this and thoughtseize.
It wasn't quite an over performer, but soulfire grand master didn't work out like I thought it would. I thought I'd be able to buyback more spells. I only bought back 1 spell and I was in the position to buy back another but it wasn't the right play.
However this guy is still awesome, and definitely a role-player in this deck. Just like the other mythics with the hybrid ability, you play it for it being a 2/2 lifelinker for 2 that gives your spells lifelink, and the activated ability is gravy. This guy would gain me around 7-12 life each game, and never any lower than 5. This is especially important against decks like mono red and r/w agro, which were bad matchups for us. It's possible that I should be playing a 3rd grand master in the board for those matchups.
Under performers: Chandra, pyromaster and sorin, lord of innistrad:
These guys put a weird strain on the 4 drop slot. They are always the last spells I play because I'm trying to trigger prowess a lot and I'd rather double spell than cast 1 thing. Add to the fact that neither of them straight up wins the game on their own and they become very mediocre here. Chandra was necessary in a deck like r/w agro because their removal isn't as good as ours and they have no card advantage. But we have amazing removal and read the bones, which is better than Chandra's 0 ability. Sorin was better than Chandra, but not by much. I do like that you get a prowess trigger from playing him and then pump your guys. It makes seeker and mentor 4/3's and the monk tokens 3/2's, which is actually pretty solid. I'm still not sure that that buys him a spot in here though.
The change I would like to make in the deck is to find a way to put goblin rabblemaster in here. While it was mostly better to have monastery mentor instead of rabblemaster, there were enough times where it would be the other way around. Like turn 3 if your opponent is tapped out and you are certain that they have a kill spell, or you're low on resources in your hand.
I also didn't like the utter end in the board, I was playing it as another erase that can kill a walker, but thoughtseize beats that, and butcher is really good at killing walkers. I'm considering making that a 3rd soulfire grand master. It also lets me board more cleanly since I can -4 thoughtseize, -3 read the bones, +3 magma spray, +3 arc lightning, +1 grand master.
So I think I'm going to take out Chandra and sorin for 3 rabblemasters. I'd be interested in fitting in the 4th, but 3 seems fine too.
There's a ptq in my area this Saturday, and I plan on taking this list or a list very similar. I would love to hear your thought/criticisms on my list. I think this might be one of the best decks moving forward.
Private Mod Note
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Thoughts on a 4x of Wild Slash for cheap Prowess triggers? I'm digging the list and think that having both Mentor and Rabble is key. There's only so much removal and I think they both provide win elements.
Thoughts on a 4x of Wild Slash for cheap Prowess triggers? I'm digging the list and think that having both Mentor and Rabble is key. There's only so much removal and I think they both provide win elements.
I do like the fact that it costs 1 mana to cast, and like I said having magma spray instead did cost me 1 game.
That said, I don't like it in the main since it's really narrow. It does nothing against abzan, sultai, or control, unless those decks run elvish mystic. I like magma spray more in the board as well, because it can exile flamewake phoenix, ashcloud phoenix, and bloodsoaked champions if that becomes a thing. I just think magma spray covers more bases. It is nice that it can go to the face, but each kill spell is in here to kill specific threats, and lightning strike, which is probably what gets cut, kills more things such as lions, prowess guys (since any spell could counter the slash), and heroic guys (same reason).
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Seems like a sweet anti-control card. As far as ugin goes, it won't actually kill the manifested guys right, so ugin just dies on the next attack.
One card I am looking to use against control is Zurgo Helmsmasher. Sure he can get countered, but between thoughtseizes and your opponent countering your other creatures, my thought is he might be an easy 7 damage.
What do you think about Mastery of the Unseen as a sideboard card against control and attrition-oriented matchups (Abzan Midrange turning control after sideboard, etc.). It is a cheap and hard to remove threat that provides constant CA through the game. Noone will side-in enchantment hate against Mardu and Control deck will not be able to counter it if we get it in our opener. The only things that are commonly played and deal with it are: Utter End, Banishing Light, Perilous Vault and Ugin. We aren't beating Ugin with anything (unless we have kind-of a transformational sideboard that will let us either play like burn or be very aggressive to go under). Other than that I gotta imagine that in most cases cards other than Perilous Vault will be X-for-1. What are your thoughts?
I thought that it would be great when it was spoiled, but after playing the new format, I think this format is too fast for something like this to be effective. I mean you're investing 6 mana into essentially a vanilla 2/2, since we don't run a lot of creatures. It looks promising but I wouldn't play it, and I'd certainly max out on Chandra's and read the bones before considering this.
-----------------------
I have an update on my deck, if you guys are interested.
As I said before I want to cut the planeswalkers to lower the curve. I tried out putting rabblemasters in the deck, and found that I got a lot of creature heavy draws. Rabblemaster also isn't amazing against almost everything but controlling midrange decks or control decks in general. I don't think he's what the deck wants since it swaps roles multiple times in the game from beatdown to control and vice-versa, I always felt he was out of place in the pre-frf mardu decks and now we have better options.
I tried out hordling outburst just as a value play. It was nicer than rabblemaster, but it's just not as flexible as I'd like that slot to be. If I'm paying 3 mana in here I want it to be a strong play like crackling doom or mentor, and outburst just isn't that powerful. Mardu charm was another consideration, but I have found it lacking in the past, the 4 damage part is the best part of it, and the other 2 modes are really low in power-level.
So then I tried out tormenting voice, this card is interesting because it fills a few holes in the deck. It gives us more 2 mana plays, so more opportunity to double spell, it lets us cut lands to fit in more spells, it lets us filter our hand so we have less dead-cards (like lightning strike against midrange g1 or chained to the rocks with no mountain), it's also a filter spell that we can play against burn-heavy decks, and it fuels delve so we can play another murderous cut. This also has the benefit of allowing us to run less mountains and still be able to support chained to the rocks. I'm currently at 6 mountains (2 mountains, 4 mires) and I have had only one game out of 7 where I couldn't find a mountain. Between read the bones and tormenting voice we see a lot of cards, and this seems to work.
The sideboard is still the same. I do want to try out drown in sorrow over arc lightning, but I'm pretty sure double black is going to be too hard to get on turn 3, it would be nice though since seeker and mentor would live through it.
The deck has a lot more velocity now, and I can tear through it quickly.
What are your thoughts on this build?
Private Mod Note
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Well I went 1-2 drop at the ptq today. I dropped 1 voice for a mountain before the event.
I beat mono red devotion, then lost to abzan agro (1-2 one the draw in the 2 games I lost), and lost to r/w agro (1-2 on the draw in the games I lost).
This deck is a lot worse on the draw, had I been on the play in the games where I wasn't I probably would have won.
I had no testing prior to the event and instead just goldfished a lot. The tormenting voice was very good while goldfishing, but it was pretty bad in practice. It's certainly not what you want to do turn 2 on the draw against a deck like r/w or abzan agro.
So I'm going to cut them and the 2nd murderous cut, since I can't support 2 of them now and play 2 valorous stance, and either a sorin and a land or 2 sorin. I started boarding out tormenting voice and I had mana issues in one game, so I probably need to add in the 24th land. It's possible I should playing wild slash in some number, but I'm still on the fence about it, it would be nice to have another maindeck one cmc removal spell, but it would do next to nothing in a lot of matchups. It's also possible that my previous configuration that I got 3rd/4th with is better than anything else and I should just run that.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
From my experience, it's just too good. You usually can proc seeker on t3 with goblins or even a burn to you opponent's face
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
This is my first time posting here, and I wanted to share with you my Mardu list.
Im not too convinced about the mana base and also the Sideboard.
Thank you in advance
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Temple Of Triumph
4x Battlefield Forge
3x Caves Of Koilos
1x Temple Of Silence
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Swamp
2x Mountain
4x Thoughtseize
4x Crackling Doom
4x Hordeling Outburst
3x Lightning Strike
2x Magma Jet
4x Butcher Of The Horde
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
3x Brimaz, King Of Oreskos
3x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2x Stormbreath Dragon
3x Arc Lightning
2x Anger Of The Gods
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2x Erase
3x Glare Of Heresy
2x Utter End
i also like mainboarding hushwing gryffs as flyers are really strong and gryffs have decent targets in some decks.
Yeah, I thought many times about playing Chained to the Rocks.
@teamDFL, what cards would you take out for playing Chained?
@GodofConfusion, I will make that change, cutting out some painlands and both Urborg and Temple of Silence
The card draw is irrelevant.
As long as you don't block, there are VERY few ways of dealing with a resolved master without 2for1ing yourself. They will attack with anything and everything and PRAY you block, and when you don't, all they can do is look sad. Letting them draw cards sounds bad, but let me assure you from playing him often in my mardu list, he IS a beating.
Now, g2-3 demands a rethinking depending on what list you're up against, but the damage he does and the resources they NEED to commit to removing him FAR outweigh any perceived advantages the one extra card may seem to give them.
1 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Caves of Koilos
2 Mana Confluence
3 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
3 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Creatures: 20
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Butcher of the Horde
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Herald of Torment
4 Hushwing Gryff
4 Seeker of the Way
2 Bile Blight
4 Crackling Doom
2 Mardu Charm
4 Thoughtseize
Planeswalkers: 4
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Bile Blight
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Hero's Downfall
4 Erase
3 Glare of Heresy
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Utter End
I was not well prepared on how to play Jeskai properly, and as result was 1-2 with those two losses to that deck. The one win was against Sultai, which, as per the design of the deck, feels like you cannot lose. Round 4, beat another graveyard deck, then faced a very cool red aggro deck that splashed blue for counters and cruise. Honestly, I won that match more because of my opponent's poor draws than my own skill. Final round I faced Jeskai and put to work what I had learned. 1-1, I had tentative control of the deciding game, a couple of good answers in hand and Spirit of the Labyrinth on the board. He had Ascendancy on the board and upon drawing Treasure Cruise he went to cast it, I managed to stop him before he looted and/or drew, but he was visibly disappointed with himself for forgetting about the Spirit. From that point, I drove home my advantage.
Lessons learned:
This deck slaughtered the graveyard based decks I saw. Maybe they didn't draw well, maybe I just got great draws, but whatever the case, based upon this small sample, if you are expecting to see Sidisi and the Whip, this is a great deck to take.
Spirit of the Labyrinth is the solid sideboard tech versus Jeskai. Yes, they often have burn to kill it, but if you can deploy your own threats and/or use hand disruption to use up and take away their burn, the deck is seriously hamstrung if you have a Spirit on your side. I plan to cut an Erase and go to 3 Spirits.
Another copy of Drown in Sorrow would really help. It will be swapped for the sole Utter End.
For this deck, Chandra, Pyromaster is better than Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. With zero forms of card draw, Chandra does work. Sarkhan is a mediocre removal spell and a decent flier, which while both useful, aren't standouts for this deck. Plus, her cannot block ability is great if you Bile Blight insect tokens but still have a Queen hanging out.
Bestowing Herald of Torment on either of the ground creatures is a great play. I am tempted to say that the deck could use more Herald, but I am not sure what the extras would replace. I know that Wingmate Roc seems like a huge omission from a deck named Mardu Air Strike, but I encourage you to try the Herald as it really does allow you to get value from your early creatures. Plus, you can stick him on a Butcher of the Horde in a pinch. I have never had a game where an 8/7 flier was a bad thing.
Mardu Charm is great against Courser decks. If you have a ground guy you need to get through, kill the Courser. If you have taken to the skies, end of their draw step, grab that End Hostilities or Whip of Erebos or Elspeth they just drew that you know about because of Courser. The first strike tokens are also great against attacking Rabblemasters, but are a touch slow for that duty, so that is certainly the tertiary mode.
I like the deck and honestly wish I had picked it up earlier in the season. I am still very much on the steep part of the learning curve which is about to happen again with the new cards being added.
Most of all, I had a lot of fun with this deck and that is what is most important to me.
18 creatures
Seeker
Rabble/Brimaz/Hush
Ashcloud
stormbreath/wingman
4 walkers
sorin/chandra
Elspeth
14 noncreature
Horderling outburst
Chain
Doom
Stoke
Jet/strike
Cut
3 Chained to the Rocks
sorceries
4 Hordeling Outburst
2 Arc Lightning
planeswalkers
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
lands
3 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Triumph
2 Caves of Koilos
6 Mountain
1 Swamp
4 Nomad Outpost
4 Crackling Doom
4 Lightning Strike
1 Murderous Cut
creatures
3 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Wingmate Roc
4 Butcher of the Horde
2 Utter End
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Arc Lightning
1 Erase
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Liliana Vess
3 Hushwing Gryff
1 End Hostilities
1 Ashcloud Phoenix
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Caves of Koilos
2 Temple of Silence
6 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Seeker of the Way
2 Merciless Executioner
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Wingmate Roc
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonpeaker
3 Crackling Doom
3 Lightning Strike
2 Mardu Charm
1 Murderous Cut
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Erase
2 Magma Spray
1 Mardu Charm
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Read the Bones
3 Thoughtseize
Thoughts on some cards:
Ashcloud over Butcher: Phoenix is just more resilient and I'm playing more controlling game
No Rabble: Still testing this but it gets blocked by everything and without Stoke isn't as great
Anger: For Hornet Queen and Tokens, it does exile Phoenix so I'm still testing that
Brimaz: survives Anger and blocks everything Abzan Aggro has except Rhino
Mardu Charm: Our control matchup is so bad I play 6 discard between 75 as I think U/B will see a big uptick, plus kills Course and blocks tokens amazingly
Executioner: Still not sure but great vs U/W Heroic and Abzan Aggro.
Banishing Light: Answer to Whip, Walkers, usually SB out when they bring in hate for it.
Doomwake: Helps vs tokens and this decks weakness to Hornet Queen
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
4 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
//Spells
4 Crackling Doom
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Mardu Charm
2 Murderous Cut
2 Thoughtseize
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
//Creatures
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Butcher of the Horde
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Hushwing Gryff
4 Seeker of the Way
1 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Arc Lightning
3 Bile Blight
2 Drown in Sorrow
3 Erase
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Banishing Light
2 Thoughtseize
GWUBAtraxa and Her Superfriends
WUB Oloro, the Life Drain Train
URG Animar, Soul of Elements
WBR Kaalia of the Vast
BWTeysa Karlov, Scion of Orzhov
R Purphoros, Goblins of Pain ($100 Budget Challenge)
U Talrand, Fun Police (Needs updating)
For reference, here is what I ran (and I wasn't 100% happy with the mana base):
1 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Caves of Koilos
2 Mana Confluence
3 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
3 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Creatures: 20
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Butcher of the Horde
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Herald of Torment
4 Hushwing Gryff
4 Seeker of the Way
2 Bile Blight
4 Crackling Doom
2 Mardu Charm
4 Thoughtseize
Planeswalkers: 4
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Bile Blight
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Hero's Downfall
4 Erase
3 Glare of Heresy
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Utter End
I put a high priority on early black for Bile Blight because of all the token decks. Went 4-2 with minimal testing at an IQ, and would take out one Mana Confluence for another Temple of Malice and maybe even look at pulling a basic for another temple. Also, I'd go go double Chandra and put Sarkhan in the binder.
With FRF release coming, I have been messing with the new Flamewake Phoenix. The RR on three is a massive PITA if I want to be sure to have reliable access to Bile Blight in the main and Drown in Sorrow out of the sideboard.
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Butcher of the Horde
4 Flamewake Phoenix
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Sultai Emmissary
4 Crackling Doom
1 Valarious Stance
1 Murderous Cut
1 Sorin Solemn Visitor
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Caves of Koilos
5 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
1 Swamp
3 Temple of Silence
2 Temple of Triumph
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
So I took a new mardu list I brewed up to a pptq yesterday and got 3rd/4th. There were 56 players, and I only lost 4 games (yes games, not matches) in the 8 matches I played.
First I'll post the list I played, then I'll go over the matches themselves, and wrap this up with a breakdown of the cards that overperformed, underperformed, and the direction I'd like to take this deck.
The deck I played is quite different from the versions of mardu that have been running around, this is closer to r/w agro than the more controlling versions of mardu that have been seeing success.
Here's what I played:
4 nomad outpost
4 bloodstained mire
2 temple of silence
2 temple of triumph
3 battlefield forge
2 caves of koilos
6 mountain
1 swamp
Creatures: 14
2 soulfire grand master
4 seeker of the way
4 monastery mentor
4 butcher of the horde
4 thoughtseize
3 chained to the rocks
4 lightning strike
4 crackling doom
3 read the bones
2 chandra, pyromaster
1 sorin, solemn visitor
1 murderous cut
2 erase
3 magma spray
2 glare of heresy
2 valorous stance
3 arc lightning
2 hushwing gryff
1 utter end
The big differences in this list from other mardu decks is the lack of a top end, you won't find any elspeths or anything that costs more than 4 here. The reason is that this deck (like r/w agro) takes advantage of double spelling. This is especially important for monastery mentor.
I'm also not playing hordeling outburst, this could be wrong, but I wanted the cheaper card in thoughtseize, because thoughtseize not only clears the way for mentor, but it is also a 1 cmc spell which gives you more chances to play a turn 4 mentor and immediately get value. It isn't necessarily a dead card in the mid-late game either as you can cast thoughtseize an opponent with no hand just to trigger prowess, which did win me a game.
I'm also playing more read the bones in the main than most mardu decks, because it's obviously great to load back up on spells with mentors in the deck.
This setup also capitalizes on people that are used to playing against more controlling mardu decks, because they will board to beat end hostilities, Elspeth, sarkhan, and generally play towards a longer game.
Let's quickly go over my matches:
r1 w/u heroic: 2-0
This is our easiest matchup, as it has always been. It is worth noting that mentor is far better in this matchup than rabblemaster because a heroic player can keep heliod's pilgrims on defence to block the goblin tokens all day, they can't do that to mentor tokens.
r2 abzan midrange: 2-0
Game 1 he mulled to 5 and we didn't even really play a game. Game 2 I thoughtseized his answers and went to town with butchers and seekers, while answering his creatures. Overall this deck is too fast for them to keep up with. This matchup was always a coin toss for r/w agro because they have situational removal, but this deck has the best removal in the format, as well as a way to reload, while being able to present a very fast clock.
r3 abzan agro: 2-0
After w/u heroic, I'd say this is the next best matchup, they have less removal than their midrange counter part, and a more painful manabase (along with early mana intensive threats), and they have a lot of etb tapped lands which slow them down considerably.
r4 w/r agro: 2-1
This has always been a bad matchup for mardu in my experience. They are just as fast as us, but with an essentially pain-free manabase and less tapped lands. However, soulfire grand master really shined here, especially with the 6 extra burn spells I bring in from the board. There was an interesting moment at the end of game 1 where my opponent was at 2, I was at 6. I had a seeker and a grand master in play, and just a read the bones in hand. He had one card in hand that I thought was a stoke, and a rabblemaster that he played during his 2nd main phase last turn. I attacked with both creatures, he blocked one and stoked the other. So after tanking for a bit, I figured that he had to draw either stormbreath or stoke to kill me next turn (he had used 2 stokes so far) if this read went badly, and I had 7 ways in my deck to kill him right now (I had used a strike already) so I went for it. I bottomed 2 lands, and drew a land and a read, I'm not sure if it's correct or not, but I read again, I figured giving him another draw (lightning strike) to kill me next turn would be okay. I bottomed 2 lands (agh!) and drew a land and a... crackling doom for the win. Without the reads I would have been screwed in that game. The read the bones were incredible the whole tourney.
r5 abzan agro: 2-1
I told this guy that we could double draw into top 8 (it's a 6 round swiss), but he refused to listen.... So I demolished him in the games that I won. His deck was interesting though, I easily won game 1, but game 2 he boarded into nissa's, coursers, and elspeths and basically became abzan midrange, which I wasn't expecting. I do a lot of testing on mtgo, and I've never come across an abzan agro player that did that. So I boarded slightly different than I did in game 2 and he didn't stand a chance.
r6 w/u heroic: ID
I ended the swiss rounds as the only undefeated player in the tournament.
Top8
r1 w/u heroic: 2-0
This is the guy I ID'ed with. Game 1 was easy. Game 2 was actually pretty stressful. He got a seeker down and was able to stunt some of the damage my seeker was doing. I landed a monastery mentor and a soulfire grand master. I ended up buying back a lightning strike (the only time I bought back a spell) and the extra prowess trigger ended up being relevant and I won the game.
r2 r/w agro: 1-2
I am superstitious, I have a very specific way that I shuffle my deck, I like to sit on a certain side of the table, and I have pre match and post match rituals. This time I sat on the wrong side of the table, every other match that day was on the right side except for this one LOL . I'm kidding it probably had nothing to do with my loss. What did have something to do with my loss was the hands I kept. I kept 2 land hands in all 3 games, and in 2 of them I got stuck on 2 mana for a turn. I also couldn't answer a brimaz on time, and the fact that I was playing magma spray instead of wild slash came up when I could have killed a Chandra in 1 turn using acr lightning and wild slash, but since I had spray, I had to take 2 turns to throw 2 arc lightnings at it, and die to a stormbreath dragon, when I could have had the mana to cut it. I think my losses here, where mostly up to bad draws, I had been running hot and started to cool here.
My deck greatly exceeded my expectations. I had literally no testing with this deck going into the tournament, and put it together the night before. I almost didn't play, but this deck is very similar to a deck that I love in modern, and I haven't played that deck in awhile so I was really excited.
Over performers:
Monastery Mentor: I don't know if you guys know this, but this dude is REDICULOUSLY good. I was not expecting this to be as good as it was. I was expecting roughly the same power level as young pyromancer but slightly stronger. This guy is way better than pyromancer. If my opponent didn't answer this guy in 2-3 turns, they were dead. Even If I got 2-3 tokens off of it, it was usually good enough.
Read the Bones: I wanted a draw-engine of some kind. Chandra dies a lot so I didn't think it was good enough to rely solely on her. I was worried that I was playing too many, but soulfire offset a lot of the lifeloss associated with this and thoughtseize.
It wasn't quite an over performer, but soulfire grand master didn't work out like I thought it would. I thought I'd be able to buyback more spells. I only bought back 1 spell and I was in the position to buy back another but it wasn't the right play.
However this guy is still awesome, and definitely a role-player in this deck. Just like the other mythics with the hybrid ability, you play it for it being a 2/2 lifelinker for 2 that gives your spells lifelink, and the activated ability is gravy. This guy would gain me around 7-12 life each game, and never any lower than 5. This is especially important against decks like mono red and r/w agro, which were bad matchups for us. It's possible that I should be playing a 3rd grand master in the board for those matchups.
Under performers:
Chandra, pyromaster and sorin, lord of innistrad:
These guys put a weird strain on the 4 drop slot. They are always the last spells I play because I'm trying to trigger prowess a lot and I'd rather double spell than cast 1 thing. Add to the fact that neither of them straight up wins the game on their own and they become very mediocre here. Chandra was necessary in a deck like r/w agro because their removal isn't as good as ours and they have no card advantage. But we have amazing removal and read the bones, which is better than Chandra's 0 ability. Sorin was better than Chandra, but not by much. I do like that you get a prowess trigger from playing him and then pump your guys. It makes seeker and mentor 4/3's and the monk tokens 3/2's, which is actually pretty solid. I'm still not sure that that buys him a spot in here though.
The change I would like to make in the deck is to find a way to put goblin rabblemaster in here. While it was mostly better to have monastery mentor instead of rabblemaster, there were enough times where it would be the other way around. Like turn 3 if your opponent is tapped out and you are certain that they have a kill spell, or you're low on resources in your hand.
I also didn't like the utter end in the board, I was playing it as another erase that can kill a walker, but thoughtseize beats that, and butcher is really good at killing walkers. I'm considering making that a 3rd soulfire grand master. It also lets me board more cleanly since I can -4 thoughtseize, -3 read the bones, +3 magma spray, +3 arc lightning, +1 grand master.
So I think I'm going to take out Chandra and sorin for 3 rabblemasters. I'd be interested in fitting in the 4th, but 3 seems fine too.
Here's the new deck:
4 nomad outpost
4 bloodstained mire
2 temple of silence
2 temple of triumph
3 battlefield forge
2 caves of koilos
6 mountain
1 swamp
Creatures: 17
2 soulfire grand master
4 seeker of the way
3 goblin rabblemaster
4 monastery mentor
4 butcher of the horde
4 thoughtseize
3 chained to the rocks
4 lightning strike
4 crackling doom
3 read the bones
1 murderous cut
2 erase
3 magma spray
2 glare of heresy
1 soulfire grand master
2 valorous stance
3 arc lightning
2 hushwing gryff
There's a ptq in my area this Saturday, and I plan on taking this list or a list very similar. I would love to hear your thought/criticisms on my list. I think this might be one of the best decks moving forward.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
GWUBAtraxa and Her Superfriends
WUB Oloro, the Life Drain Train
URG Animar, Soul of Elements
WBR Kaalia of the Vast
BWTeysa Karlov, Scion of Orzhov
R Purphoros, Goblins of Pain ($100 Budget Challenge)
U Talrand, Fun Police (Needs updating)
I do like the fact that it costs 1 mana to cast, and like I said having magma spray instead did cost me 1 game.
That said, I don't like it in the main since it's really narrow. It does nothing against abzan, sultai, or control, unless those decks run elvish mystic. I like magma spray more in the board as well, because it can exile flamewake phoenix, ashcloud phoenix, and bloodsoaked champions if that becomes a thing. I just think magma spray covers more bases. It is nice that it can go to the face, but each kill spell is in here to kill specific threats, and lightning strike, which is probably what gets cut, kills more things such as lions, prowess guys (since any spell could counter the slash), and heroic guys (same reason).
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
One card I am looking to use against control is Zurgo Helmsmasher. Sure he can get countered, but between thoughtseizes and your opponent countering your other creatures, my thought is he might be an easy 7 damage.
I thought that it would be great when it was spoiled, but after playing the new format, I think this format is too fast for something like this to be effective. I mean you're investing 6 mana into essentially a vanilla 2/2, since we don't run a lot of creatures. It looks promising but I wouldn't play it, and I'd certainly max out on Chandra's and read the bones before considering this.
-----------------------
I have an update on my deck, if you guys are interested.
As I said before I want to cut the planeswalkers to lower the curve. I tried out putting rabblemasters in the deck, and found that I got a lot of creature heavy draws. Rabblemaster also isn't amazing against almost everything but controlling midrange decks or control decks in general. I don't think he's what the deck wants since it swaps roles multiple times in the game from beatdown to control and vice-versa, I always felt he was out of place in the pre-frf mardu decks and now we have better options.
I tried out hordling outburst just as a value play. It was nicer than rabblemaster, but it's just not as flexible as I'd like that slot to be. If I'm paying 3 mana in here I want it to be a strong play like crackling doom or mentor, and outburst just isn't that powerful. Mardu charm was another consideration, but I have found it lacking in the past, the 4 damage part is the best part of it, and the other 2 modes are really low in power-level.
So then I tried out tormenting voice, this card is interesting because it fills a few holes in the deck. It gives us more 2 mana plays, so more opportunity to double spell, it lets us cut lands to fit in more spells, it lets us filter our hand so we have less dead-cards (like lightning strike against midrange g1 or chained to the rocks with no mountain), it's also a filter spell that we can play against burn-heavy decks, and it fuels delve so we can play another murderous cut. This also has the benefit of allowing us to run less mountains and still be able to support chained to the rocks. I'm currently at 6 mountains (2 mountains, 4 mires) and I have had only one game out of 7 where I couldn't find a mountain. Between read the bones and tormenting voice we see a lot of cards, and this seems to work.
So here's where I'm at right now:
4 nomad outpost
2 temple of triumph
2 temple of silence
4 bloodstained mire
3 caves of koilos
3 battlefield forge
2 mountain
2 swamp
Creatures: 14
2 soulfire grand master
4 seeker of the way
4 monastery mentor
4 butcher of the horde
3 chained to the rocks
4 thoughtseize
4 lightning strike
4 tormenting voice
4 crackling doom
3 read the bones
2 murderous cut
2 erase
3 magma spray
2 glare of heresy
2 valorous stance
1 soulfire grand master
3 arc lightning
2 hushwing gryff
The sideboard is still the same. I do want to try out drown in sorrow over arc lightning, but I'm pretty sure double black is going to be too hard to get on turn 3, it would be nice though since seeker and mentor would live through it.
The deck has a lot more velocity now, and I can tear through it quickly.
What are your thoughts on this build?
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I beat mono red devotion, then lost to abzan agro (1-2 one the draw in the 2 games I lost), and lost to r/w agro (1-2 on the draw in the games I lost).
This deck is a lot worse on the draw, had I been on the play in the games where I wasn't I probably would have won.
I had no testing prior to the event and instead just goldfished a lot. The tormenting voice was very good while goldfishing, but it was pretty bad in practice. It's certainly not what you want to do turn 2 on the draw against a deck like r/w or abzan agro.
So I'm going to cut them and the 2nd murderous cut, since I can't support 2 of them now and play 2 valorous stance, and either a sorin and a land or 2 sorin. I started boarding out tormenting voice and I had mana issues in one game, so I probably need to add in the 24th land. It's possible I should playing wild slash in some number, but I'm still on the fence about it, it would be nice to have another maindeck one cmc removal spell, but it would do next to nothing in a lot of matchups. It's also possible that my previous configuration that I got 3rd/4th with is better than anything else and I should just run that.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Here is the deck I am looking at right now. Any recommendations?
2 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Butcher of the Horde
3 Chained to the Rocks
2 Magma Jet
2 Lightning Strike
4 Crackling Doom
2 Stoke the Flames
1 Utter End
1 Valorous Stance
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Mountain
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Cave of Koilos
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Plains
2 Temple of Silence
2 Temple of Triumph
1 Swamp
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Hushwing Gryff
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Read the Bones
1 End Hostilities
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Agent of Erebos
1 Erase
1 Utter End
2 Thoughtseize