Primer: Mardu Midrange

[Lightning_Dolt]

Thoughts on the version in Craig's article?

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=12266

[LP, of the Fires]

It's hideous but it harkens back to my previous point; the deck had to fundamentally change to compete with tokens as others cracking doom and changed to the rocks are just aids. He chose doomwake giant and arc trail which serve double duty of fighting jeskai builds and hornet queen.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Glad I got a foil set of Arc Lighting signed at GP Ottawa. Knew it would be good eventually.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Kind of partial to this list:

http://www.mtgo-stats.com/decks/128974

[Pedrobear]

I'm currently 7-2 on our Saturday tournaments. Only lost to Abzan aggro and Jeskai Tokens.

My meta is too fluctuent to be able to call something and add Doomwake Giants or Hushwing Gryph so I'm sticking to the base 75. I only added 3 Thoughtseize in SB against some bizarre Control decks I've seen last 2 weeks.

But globaly the deck is really good for me because it totally wrecks all the homemade decks we found there.

I'll stick to it and some PPTQ are in Standard, I'll try to predict the meta.

[Aodh]

Played Mardu Flash at a Tuesday 16-man tournament yesterday. Went 3-1.

2-1 vs. Gb Devotion
0-2 vs. Naya Walkers
2-0 vs. Mardu Midrange
2-1 vs. MBA

[deck]4 Raise the Alarm
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
3 Deflecting Palm
3 Searing Blood
3 Mardu Charm
4 Hushwing Gryff
4 Crackling Doom
1 Devouring Light
4 Stoke the Flames
2 Utter End
1 Murderous Cut
23 lands (7 temples, 4 outpost, 12 pain/basics)

Sideboard

2 Utter End
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Devouring Light
1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Erase[/deck]

[Lightning_Dolt]

Why aren't you playing Butcher?

[Aodh]

It doesn't play on the opponent's turn primarily.

[Valdarith]

Looks like a very bad Jeskai deck.

[Lightning_Dolt]

It doesn't play on the opponent's turn primarily.

With all those tokens, I think Butcher would shine.

[Aodh]

Looks like a very bad Jeskai deck.

I understand this sentiment. I don't run blue or green, in general, so I didn't have the lands to support U (whether as a fourth color or as one of the three). I don't know if it is "very bad" compared to Jeskai, though. What list? Maybe I can pick out the additions from each color and actually compare them in this metagame.

With all those tokens, I think Butcher would shine.

This might be the case, though there are only 7 token producers compared with the 8-12 in usual Mardu builds, so I don't know if this is actually true. Also, in traditional Mardu, Goblin Rabblemaster serves as both fodder for butcher and a threat on his own. I think this would be a better setting for butcher since they both die to most of the premier removal of this format, but at least it's more likely that one stays alive. In this list, I'd EOT dudes, sac a dude, get 1.5-for-1'd, and then have a 1/1 for the rest of the game. At least with Rabblemaster, you might go Rabble -> token -> mainphase removal from the opponent -> hasty butcher or Rabble -> die -> naked butcher.

The deck played very smoothly and has clean answers in HWG and Utter End/Devouring Light to the rhino that plagues this metagame and really takes advantage from playing on the opponents turn. Perhaps being so narrow-minded is poor, but I wanted to build a deck that can combat rhinos, opposing butchers, and whips, while not being control nor rolling over to aggro. I think this deck appropriately attacks these issues while maintaining the durability and speed that I like.

I will probably be running it again in the next few days. If it fails, I'll run something more traditional at the PPTQ next Saturday, but otherwise I think it is fairly well positioned.

[Valdarith]

Looks like a very bad Jeskai deck.

What list? Maybe I can pick out the additions from each color and actually compare them in this metagame.

Any list that concentrates on acting on opponent's turn. Blue has the best options for swinging tempo and you're choosing not to play them. In particular, you have nothing with haste, no counterspells, and you're playing bad cards like Deflecting Palm. There's literally no reason for you to be playing a "flash" list when Mardu has all of the best cards to be slamming at sorcery speed.

[Toblakai]

Soulfire Grandmaster is going to be taking Seeker's place for a bit in my build. Any black-leaning builds give Herald of Torment a spin in place of Seeker?

[Lightning_Dolt]

Bad call.

[Lightning_Dolt]

This list is pretty spicy:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdat ... ckID=77681

[Christen]

Taking my list to the GP tomorrow. Anger x3 or Erase x3 on the sideboard?

[Lightning_Dolt]

Both? You should have both.

[Christen]

I have both, only with a 2/3 split.

[Christen]

Got eaten alive by Abzan Whip decks. 4 losses from a UB control deck and 3 Abzan Whip decks.

[zemanjaski]

Mardu is unplayable.

[Christen]

On a better note though, GP Manila was won by Mardu. List is stock with Utter End mainboard.

[zemanjaski]

By a good friend of mine, hence the comment.

[Christen]

I was wondering if you somehow knew him.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Mardu is still playable, but the consensus is that RW is better atm.

[zemanjaski]

Both are bad.

[Valdarith]

Terrible.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Win / top 8 GPs a day ago, must be bad

[Valdarith]

Be quiet. We're too busy making thinly veiled sarcastic comments.

[zemanjaski]

Win / top 8 GPs a day ago, must be bad

I really hope that's not how you evaluate decks; that's some sick confirmation bias.

[Lightning_Dolt]

It's the closest thing we have to demonstrable evidence

I think it's fair to say both are good / competitive decks.

[LP, of the Fires]

I'd say mardu's pretty mediocre insofar as positioning in the meta goes.

The RW agro and token decks however are both excellent. Sam Black was 9-2 before punting left and right vs. Heroic Builds and Sam Pardee was running a clinic on people for the most part. I'd attest his loss in top 8 to a bad judgement call in his game 1 loss to Sperling, but overall both versions are phenomenal, almost solely based off of them being 2 color and having such a large tempo advantage against the rest of the format due to clean mana and the most efficient questions and answers.

[Lightning_Dolt]

I like you LP.

[Valdarith]

I'd say mardu's pretty mediocre insofar as positioning in the meta goes.

The RW agro and token decks however are both excellent. Sam Black was 9-2 before punting left and right vs. Heroic Builds and Sam Pardee was running a clinic on people for the most part. I'd attest his loss in top 8 to a bad judgement call in his game 1 loss to Sperling, but overall both versions are phenomenal, almost solely based off of them being 2 color and having such a large tempo advantage against the rest of the format due to clean mana and the most efficient questions and answers.

I'm a big fan of Pardee's list. Stormbreath Dragon is just so good right now.

[jsilv]

The Boros deck is pretty good right now. Pardee time tends not to pick unplayable garbage decks and his record with the deck irl tournaments is like 22-5. Basically every deck Partytime or Holiday play can be guaranteed to have a pretty good Forests match.

[Valdarith]

Hopefully I can reproduce his success this weekend. I'm playing his deck with only two cards difference.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Why not run his 75?

[Valdarith]

Because I feel like in matchups where I want three Hushwing Gryff, I really want four. Holliday agrees. I also swapped the single Ashcloud out for a third Brimaz for local meta expectations.

It's not like I'm just blindly making changes without putting any thought into them.

[LP, of the Fires]

For the GP, Pardee actually updated his deck to have 4 Hushwyngs. He cut the land from his sideboard to make room then swapped a gryff and a Chandra between main and board.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Check out the updated list here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/cove ... 8decklists

[Valdarith]

Seems like we're on a similar page then.