Just a good BW 2-drop in general, though admittedly I want specifically that for my other deck.
I'm not really sure what confluence of things they'd have to print to make me want to play mardu with any degree of seriousness again. Maybe something like lingering souls on steroids would be a good start.
Something like: 1BW- create 3 1/1 zombie tokens with lifelink and deathtouch. "Flashback sort of effect" - 1BR - pay 5 life, create 3 2/2 devil tokens with haste and intimidate.
I'm in the same boat. I still love how the deck plays, but it just doesn't seem well suited for the current meta.
Honestly I think our best case scenario is twin getting unbanned. This would reign-in a lot of the degenerate decks and make the meta more interactive (the kind of meta mardu would thrive in).
How did LtLH do for you? It's something I considered, but didn't play for regionals.
Also, how was blood moon? It never felt relevant except against Titan shift, but I didn't draw it lol. Ended up moving them to the side and the rabblemasters to the main to try to solve the slow clock problem.
I'd suggest trying to fit a couple goblin rabblemasters in there. It's actually such a good additional threat that the next time I play mardu I plan on dropping Hazoret and the two mainboard blood moons for them.
That list is interesting for sure, though I've never been much of a fan of the mainboard planeswalkers.
Arclight seems like a good fit for the deck, but I do have one issue with it that has kept me from trying it for now. Post board, people are going to be bringing in whatever graveyard hate they have as it's our main exploitable weakness (granted it isn't so crippling that we can't win anyway, but it does bog us down a bit). Unfortunately, arclight phoenix plays right into that.
Maybe once people aren't loading up on dredge hate I won't be so apprehensive about leaning on the graveyard a bit more, but right now it seems like a ton of sideboards have 3-5 pieces of yard interaction.
21 lands. The additional land has made the mana seem quite a bit more consistent. Hazoret is much more castable as are things like blood moon and Kambal when they matter most.
No molten rains or fulminators in the board. Tron is an awful matchup as you all already know. The only ways I've ever beaten it have been turn 2 pyro turn 3 moon and turn 3 moon turn 4 rabblemaster. Land destruction has only ever delayed the inevitable for me so I figure I should use those slots for other matchups and just hope to draw like a beast if I run into Tron.
I'm liking the mainboard and the sideboard feels solid, but perhaps it could be tuned a little more. Any alterations you all might suggest (other than LD or leylines since I don't own them/think they're kind of a trap)?
When you buy a land, for the sake of competitiveness, then always buy Cliffs first. However, I can understand that you want to skimp on that due to possible reprints in the future.
If you wanna buy other cards, then I would get LtLH, EE and Surgical. Leylines and Bridge are not necessary.
In my opinion, there is nothing wrong in investing in LtLH, EE, Surgical and fetchlands. Those should not drop in price regardless of Mardus playability in the future. Overall I think Mardu gets worse in the meta imo. But its still a very good deck to play.
Out of curiosity, what specifically do you believe will make/is making mardu worse in the meta? Not that I disagree (the last time I played it at fnm I got wrecked and went 1-3 when I usually go 3-1 or 4-0), I just wonder what the cause of mardu's decline might be.
In fairness you should be killing infect creatures on your turn anyway. Getting blown out by a pump spell or blossoming defense in response to removal is pretty awful while they're attacking you.
Even if they do the exact same thing on your turn then they aren't getting any benefit from the pump, they just get to keep the creature, but then they're down a spell.
So it is quite well known that punisher cards are bad, however, if ever there was a playable one this would be it.
The fact that is has what amounts to flashback just might make it good enough to use as maybe a 2-of.
Choosing to be domed for a total of 8 damage between both uses seems pretty rough unless you're playing martyr proc and letting this deck draw 6 cards is just plain incorrect unless taking the damage would kill you.
At a minimum I think it's worth trying out for a bit.
As far as moon vs rabblemaster main I'd honestly say neither or either depending on how spicy you want to be. They are both great cards in the matchups their good in, but absolutely terrible in nearly every other scenario.
At this point I'm considering relegating them both to the sideboard and trying different things in those slots when I pick the deck back up. For now I'm putting it down because, much like you guys, I've been getting pretty bad results with it.
I went 1-3 at the last fnm I played it at so I think I need a break from it for awhile.
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I'm not really sure what confluence of things they'd have to print to make me want to play mardu with any degree of seriousness again. Maybe something like lingering souls on steroids would be a good start.
Something like: 1BW- create 3 1/1 zombie tokens with lifelink and deathtouch. "Flashback sort of effect" - 1BR - pay 5 life, create 3 2/2 devil tokens with haste and intimidate.
What about something like this? Basically become somewhat of a value-burn deck.
Honestly I think our best case scenario is twin getting unbanned. This would reign-in a lot of the degenerate decks and make the meta more interactive (the kind of meta mardu would thrive in).
Also, congrats on your regionals top-8.
How did LtLH do for you? It's something I considered, but didn't play for regionals.
Also, how was blood moon? It never felt relevant except against Titan shift, but I didn't draw it lol. Ended up moving them to the side and the rabblemasters to the main to try to solve the slow clock problem.
My current concoction with a more aggressive slant.
Moon has been pretty poor for me lately while rabblemaster out of the side has been great so they've switched places and amounts.
I'll report back with test results after my next fnm. May be a bit since work has been crazy though.
That list is interesting for sure, though I've never been much of a fan of the mainboard planeswalkers.
Arclight seems like a good fit for the deck, but I do have one issue with it that has kept me from trying it for now. Post board, people are going to be bringing in whatever graveyard hate they have as it's our main exploitable weakness (granted it isn't so crippling that we can't win anyway, but it does bog us down a bit). Unfortunately, arclight phoenix plays right into that.
Maybe once people aren't loading up on dredge hate I won't be so apprehensive about leaning on the graveyard a bit more, but right now it seems like a ton of sideboards have 3-5 pieces of yard interaction.
This is my current list https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1451590#paper
Some oddities:
21 lands. The additional land has made the mana seem quite a bit more consistent. Hazoret is much more castable as are things like blood moon and Kambal when they matter most.
No molten rains or fulminators in the board. Tron is an awful matchup as you all already know. The only ways I've ever beaten it have been turn 2 pyro turn 3 moon and turn 3 moon turn 4 rabblemaster. Land destruction has only ever delayed the inevitable for me so I figure I should use those slots for other matchups and just hope to draw like a beast if I run into Tron.
I'm liking the mainboard and the sideboard feels solid, but perhaps it could be tuned a little more. Any alterations you all might suggest (other than LD or leylines since I don't own them/think they're kind of a trap)?
It might be too cute, but 8 damage or 4 damage and draw 3 cards or draw 6 cards seems pretty powerful especially since it's an instant.
Out of curiosity, what specifically do you believe will make/is making mardu worse in the meta? Not that I disagree (the last time I played it at fnm I got wrecked and went 1-3 when I usually go 3-1 or 4-0), I just wonder what the cause of mardu's decline might be.
Even if they do the exact same thing on your turn then they aren't getting any benefit from the pump, they just get to keep the creature, but then they're down a spell.
The fact that is has what amounts to flashback just might make it good enough to use as maybe a 2-of.
Choosing to be domed for a total of 8 damage between both uses seems pretty rough unless you're playing martyr proc and letting this deck draw 6 cards is just plain incorrect unless taking the damage would kill you.
At a minimum I think it's worth trying out for a bit.
At this point I'm considering relegating them both to the sideboard and trying different things in those slots when I pick the deck back up. For now I'm putting it down because, much like you guys, I've been getting pretty bad results with it.
I went 1-3 at the last fnm I played it at so I think I need a break from it for awhile.