Kaya's guile seems pretty weak even with being very flexible, silent clearing might be good if BW lent itself to more aggressive strategies, nether spirit is fine I guess if you're running a creatureless deck for some reason, ransack would have been great if it were only 1 mana, but at 2 mana it's probably just not good enough, force of despair just doesn't strike me as playable since it only destroys creatures played in the same turn and shatter assumptions is a turn too slow to be good against tron while being perfectly useless against affinity.
They made plenty of cards that were almost good for sure, but they stopped short of making them good enough to actually see anything but casual play in the format they were designed for.
So to me it looks like there isn't a single card in modern horizons that BW midrange wants. Have I missed something or is this just another set with no new tools for us in it?
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.
Been trying this recently. So far I'm very pleased with Serra avenger. Never really feel the drawback of not being able to play it early since the first few turns are spent disrupting the opponent. 3/3 flying vigilance is just straight good for two mana. I understand that there will be skepticism, but just give it a try if you haven't.
The zealous persecution is a new addition I hadn't tried mainboard before. I'm still not exactly sure about it, but it has such a high ceiling that it seems worth the inclusion as a 1-of.
I'm actually really liking this deck for the current meta. The more people move toward linear solitaire-esque decks, the better unrelenting disruption seems.
Edit: after further testing Gifted aetherborn seems better in those slots. I'm also wondering if this deck couldn't use a second copy of path in the main.
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 don't know that you need 3 Gideon AoZ, one or two should be good.
As someone who wasn't sold on the mainboard fulminator I see where you're coming from. I'm not sure that it's the best we can do, but sometimes it lines up perfectly. Opponent is stuck on 2 lands, blow one up. They flipped a search for azcanta, blow it up. They have a celestial collonade, play fulminator and dare them to activate it.
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)?
They made plenty of cards that were almost good for sure, but they stopped short of making them good enough to actually see anything but casual play in the format they were designed for.
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.
Been trying this recently. So far I'm very pleased with Serra avenger. Never really feel the drawback of not being able to play it early since the first few turns are spent disrupting the opponent. 3/3 flying vigilance is just straight good for two mana. I understand that there will be skepticism, but just give it a try if you haven't.
The zealous persecution is a new addition I hadn't tried mainboard before. I'm still not exactly sure about it, but it has such a high ceiling that it seems worth the inclusion as a 1-of.
I'm actually really liking this deck for the current meta. The more people move toward linear solitaire-esque decks, the better unrelenting disruption seems.
Edit: after further testing Gifted aetherborn seems better in those slots. I'm also wondering if this deck couldn't use a second copy of path in the main.
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.
As someone who wasn't sold on the mainboard fulminator I see where you're coming from. I'm not sure that it's the best we can do, but sometimes it lines up perfectly. Opponent is stuck on 2 lands, blow one up. They flipped a search for azcanta, blow it up. They have a celestial collonade, play fulminator and dare them to activate it.
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)?