MTG Salvation

soo is this our new looting card???

This list is super sweet. What are the more obvious flaws of it? Anything you feel its lacking apart from T1 looting..?

I saw that! Hmm may have to make th switch soon then but im gonna miss blood moon..

Ima gonna try and jam em anyways

Another question ive been pondering is can we afford to play as many 1 and 2 ofs without looting? one of the greatest utilities of looting is that it let us select what spells we needed for the occasion and dump the ones we didnt. So running alot of 1 ofs and 2 ofs was fine. Is that still a viable strategy without looting??

I hope master selfeisek will lead us during this dark time

I like this list but like i said earlier i dont think we can just go back to a regular looting list by subbing in something for looting which in your case is the skelemental’s.

I think the deck needs a complete rework as even the synergy and value of lingering souls has gone out the window without looting. I really believe moving forward seasoned pyro will have to be a staple IF we are looking to unearth, or play lingering souls as efficiently as before.

But i do agree about bedlam reveler being strong again. Less GY hate will make that card great again.

EDIT:
I am really really curious to know what Selfeisek will do. He/she has played this deck so much and so well I actually feel very bad for them tbh. I am really curious to see how and what they will do with mardu and if they will even continue to play the deck and even the game.

I love playing jeskai geist. I would be so so sad if a card got banned that made that deck unplayable. I would probably end up quitting all together and move to commander or just keep my modern deck library and play with friends only.

I have to agree here. Faithless looting was the glue that kept the deck intact. Even when looting was legal the deck felt slow and clunky in the games you never saw it so now that its gone i dont think we can mitigate the loss with SFM. I hesitate to say there is no replacement for faithless looting bc there are cards that are slower but can do the job even if half assed so I dont want to say mardu pyro is dead for sure. But perhaps a complete restart is needed if wer gonna go the SFM route. This is one reason ive been advocating for a combo element like TTB and Nahiri emrakul. Since wer gonna have to reevaluate the deck and its existence we should explore what the mardu colors have to offer again and see what direction we should go.

Im going to try and start testing a mardu SFM + nahiri/emrakul deck with seasoned pyro as a draw engine. I think there is something there that should be explored and could lead to some good results. Maybe we do drop young pyro out completely like spellheart did up top and we go in on another strategy.

the core can look something like

4x SFM
4x Seasoned pyro
2x blood moon
2x batterskull
1x sword of xx
1x sword of xx

4x inquisition of kozilek
3x thoughtseize
2x collective brutality

4x nahiri
1x emrakul

i see. Hmm i am curious to see how she will perform.

I would probably run a 2/1 split of smiting helix and collective brutality. I think dreadbore will be essential with UW control and Jund topping the charts of the meta.

what if you added a scheming symmetry to the deck?

I have a couple of questions about SFM and the future of mardu.

the first is, how many SFM is too much? I feel that 4 is just wayy too many simply because how many times does one need to tutor? and how many artifacts are there to tutor for? What if you draw 1-2 artifacts and draw into your SFM later on? then it just become a durdly two drop that can flash in an equipment after the summoning sickness. I dont have any experience with SFM so I may have a noobish view but I am genuinely curious.

My second question is about smiting helix. I think it is possibly too clunky without a discard outlet. Part of its appeal is the cheap flashback. Running 3-4 sorcery speed 4 mana helix's with no reliable way to pitch them seems like over kill and a way to slow yourself down too much. I agree they are great value but simply too slow without a good way to pitch them away. So lists running smiting helix should also run at least 1 collective brutality in conjunction with the seasoned pyros at least in my opinion especially since the lists run lingering souls now too which is the number 1 pick for pitching away. It would probably be optimal with nahiri too since you can still get the cards value after pitching it to her. so the question is, is 3-4 optimal or is it too much?

This is pretty cool too. We could probably use SFM + unearth combo to come extent too.

Thats what im talking about man. I think mardu could use a nahiri or through the breach emrakul combo. It could be super effective and would give the deck new direction, life and competitive edge.

with the existence of fatal push, assassins trophy, kolaghans command, spell snare, ceremonious rejection, and abrade i just really doubt SFM will make a huge impact. She will probably be the center of a couple of new decks but I dont see her making a new tier 1 deck or pushing an already existing deck into tier 1 status even E&T will most likely be shut down by Tron and Jund and IF she did it wont be anything oppressive or insane it will probably be grixis death shadow level of power.

EDIT: what are the possibilities of a mardu SFM through the breach or nahiri emrakul deck..?

A mardu stoneforge build is a definite possibility and would be pretty dam cool.

Well.. Burning inquiry might be the best bet. If we build a lingering soul's/unearth list we could probably use burning inquiry really effectively bc its extremely disruptive to our opponents and if we build accordingly we can minimize its impact on us and even use it to our advantage. A list made of a playset of smiting helix, unearth, and lingering souls would not be a bad thing. Add in some collective brutalities bring back bedlam revelers, lightning skelemental, monastery mentor and young pyromancer and i think we can work with something and maybe even make THE grindiest list.

i dont think mardu is for sure dead but this is a huge blow.

I predict a fixed faithless looting will come in the future one that does the same but with no flash back and possibly asking to dump 3 cards instead of 2.