Dies to Removal

Welcome to the Modern Mardu Tokens Primer!

Mardu Tokens was originally designed by Adria Romero, aka MTGO grinder Dead_Style. He placed in the Top 4 at the Catalionan Modern Open with the list below. From there, MTGO grinder aytor_92 made some slight changes to the list and finished 15th in the Magic Online Championship Series Finals with a record of 6-2 (list also provided below). Flank Lepore wrote an article about the deck on TCGplayer.com (found here, with videos from a daily: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=12227). The deck seems reasonably well positioned in the meta and is a welcome innovation for those wanting to represent the horde in Modern.

Example Decklists:
Card Choices:



The finisher in the deck. The originals played Batterskull as a hard to deal with, vigilant, lifegaining fatty. I tested Blood Baron of Vitzkopa at Frank Lepore's suggestion and found it to be very, very good. None of the removal that is widely played in modern hits it and unless they have Flameslash, red has to 2 for 1 themselves to remove it.



Probably the worst card in the deck, but it does seem much better in Modern than in Standard, since many of the format's defining creatures are one or four toughness. The instant speed duress acts like a quasi-Vendillion Clique in a pinch too.



One of the main reasons to play red, period.



With Delver being the consensus best deck, gaining three life is often the difference between winning and losing.



Efficient removal with no drawbacks.



One of the ways to generate card advantage in this deck. If it weren't for the five drop in the deck, we could possibly get away with Dark Confidant, but with all the Forked Bolts and Electrolyses floating around thanks to Delver, he seems poorly positioned.



One of, if not the best cards in the deck. 4 bodies from one card gives you lots of fodder to either chump with, or lay the beatdown.



Ways to pull your opponent's hand apart and control the game. Inquisition is slightly better in the current meta.



Because chances are they care about their creatures more than we do. Anger in particular is very important in the Pod Matchup.



A way to gain life and a way to deny lands, particularly useful post board when Molten Rain comes in. If he ultimates it's GG.



Card advantage engine / way to kill X/1's. If she ultimates, it's generally for 9 damage.



These are both good in different ways. I prefer Visitor, as his tokens are more effective and his anthem ability gives lifelink. I've won games on stalled board states off 8/2 lifelink Lavaclaw Reaches more times than I should have thanks to Visitor.




I feel strongly that having access to a man land and a mana dump is worth cipt.



Consistently over-performs in matches where your opponent relies on lands.



Ruins single card strategies by grabbing Scapeshift or Fatestitcher or Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.



Possible 2 for 1, good efficient disenchant effect.



The best sideboard card we have. This card is stupid good right now.



Look forward to developing this deck in the future. All contributions welcome and appreciated!

Played in the modern side event after scrubbing out of the PPTQ. Finished 4th.

Played GR Tron (1-1), Storm (2-1), Ascendancy (1-1) and Delver (2-0).

I still feel that this deck is very good. Hope other people will give it a go at some point.

Wish I had more time, because I think those game 3's were very winnable. Tron Matchup feels very favourable after slaughter games naming Karn. Dat Emerakul is a bitch though. Barely lost vs Ascendancy (lethal on board, he has 2 cards in library).

LD:

I'll build this and start testing in the practice room and report back. Any thoughts on weak areas?

It's pretty well rounded and is pretty much right where I want it for my personal preferences. The main is pretty much aiming for Delver, so you have a lot of dead cards VS combo decks and the like. Wouldn't mind having more for ascendancy, since it seems like the worst matchup.

All thought Molten Rain > Slaughter Games is pretty good against them.

Played Burn in Standard for a quite a long time, than Burn in Modern for several month. It doesn't make fun for me anymore, so I want to switch to a deck, where I don't have to buy/trade a lot of new cards. Tested several decks, also this Mardu Token Deck and I like it a lot. It makes fun and have some option and answers to different decks. But I have a feeling, that there is missing a small piece. I'm not quite sure, what I would add or switch. Have to do some more testing. But looking forward for more content here


Edit:
Just saw, that a Mardu Token made place 4 in a 36Player Tournament: http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=15617&iddeck=116213

Now that Modern has completely shifted, we're going to need a new plan.

Cards that might work in this deck now:

Dark Confidant?
Goblin Rabblemaster?
Liliana of the Veil?

Potential test deck:

[deck]Creatures (8)
4 Dark Confidant
4 Goblin Rabblemaster

Instants (14)
3 Mardu Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
3 Terminate

Sorceries (10)
4 Lingering Souls
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize


Planeswalkers (6)
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Lands (23)
3 Arid Mesa
2 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
3 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Marsh Flats
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Graven Cairns
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel

Sideboard (15)
4 Molter Rain
3 Slaughter Games
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Wear // Tear
3 Timely Reinforcements
1 Chandra, Pyromaster[/deck]

I'm considering moving into Mardu myself. Here's my first draft:

[deck]
Creatures (11)
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Monastery Mentor

Spells (26)
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Terminate
2 Dismember
4 Lingering Souls
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Lands (23)
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Arid Mesa
1 Marsh Flats
3 Blood Crypt
3 Sacred Foundry
1 Godless Shrine
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Mountain
[/deck]

Haven't figured out a sideboard yet, but Wear/Tear and Kor Firewalker are auto includes for me. This deck could also easily support Blood Moon.

Doesn't this deck kinda get wrecked by bloodmoon? I always was cautious to fetch a basic so I could wear / tear because I feared blood moon.

Slaughter pack seems sexy with YP$ / Mentor though. Would like to see Bob up in there. Not sure if persecution is still good post banlist.

Doesn't this deck kinda get wrecked by bloodmoon? I always was cautious to fetch a basic so I could wear / tear because I feared blood moon.

Slaughter pack seems sexy with YP$ / Mentor though. Would like to see Bob up in there. Not sure if persecution is still good post banlist.

In game one, sure, but the mana is pretty good in this deck so it's pretty easy to play around it. There are no RR, BB, or WW spells in the 60 (Dismember doesn't count obviously).

Before having Mentor I would have played Bob, but it has a couple of things going against it now:

1) It doesn't attack well.
2) The life loss can be pretty devastating in a deck playing Thoughtseize, 8 fetches, 7 shocks, and Dismember.

I like having access to Dismember in a YP$/Mentor deck. Slaughter Pact is also just amazing. Getting Twin pilots with that card must feel amazing.

Definitely. I look forward to hearing about your testing / working on this.

So Junk Tokens is poised to take over as the premier Midrange deck of Modern (and already 4-0s dailies w/ Pod, Cruise, and Dig still legal on MODO).

I notice many parallels between Junk Tokens and Mardu Tokens.

My first question is, what makes this deck not a worse version of Junk Tokens?

My second question is, why rely on 4-cc Planeswalkers when Bitterblossom is legal? Addendum (since Sorin offers emblems/team pump), why not both?

My final question is, how does Monastery Mentor play in this deck in others' experience? It seems the quality of Mentor hinges on throwing out spells as often as possible, but the spells in this deck aren't the chain of cantrips you'd find in your typical UR Delver, so I would imagine that making a board of tokens is less likely or imposing than it would be w/ UR without sandbagging a bunch of burn and trying to combo your opponent out (which seems awkward since I imagine the burn's primary role is removal).

Interesting deck and idea. Apologies that the first question is awkward and sounds more aggressive than its meant to be.

So Junk Tokens is poised to take over as the premier Midrange deck of Modern (and already 4-0s dailies w/ Pod, Cruise, and Dig still legal on MODO).

I notice many parallels between Junk Tokens and Mardu Tokens.

My first question is, what makes this deck not a worse version of Junk Tokens?

My second question is, why rely on 4-cc Planeswalkers when Bitterblossom is legal? Addendum (since Sorin offers emblems/team pump), why not both?

My final question is, how does Monastery Mentor play in this deck in others' experience? It seems the quality of Mentor hinges on throwing out spells as often as possible, but the spells in this deck aren't the chain of cantrips you'd find in your typical UR Delver, so I would imagine that making a board of tokens is less likely or imposing than it would be w/ UR without sandbagging a bunch of burn and trying to combo your opponent out (which seems awkward since I imagine the burn's primary role is removal).

Interesting deck and idea. Apologies that the first question is awkward and sounds more aggressive than its meant to be.

Not at all. I think they are good questions to ask. I have yet to test this deck or even play Modern since the bannings, so take my responses at that value.

My first question is, what makes this deck not a worse version of Junk Tokens?

I haven't seen the Junk Tokens list you're mentioning, unless you're talking about the builds with maindeck Lingering Souls. The key differences between Mardu and Junk are:

1) The removal suite. Jund gets Maelstrom Pulse and Abrupt Decay. Mardu gets Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, and Terminate. Abrupt Decay will arguably be the best removal spell in the format now, but the reach from Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix in a deck running so many token producers cannot be overstated. Bolt and Helix get even better the more Thoughtseize and three- or four-color decks we see in the format.

2) Power vs finesse. Junk gets Anafenza, Goyf, Ooze, and Rhino, while we play value creatures that tax decks with one-for-one removal. In a head-to-head matchup, I see Mardu pulling ahead since it tends to be favored in matchups of attrition.

3) Tempo. By playing cheaper creatures and spells, Mardu can more easily dictate the pace of the game. Junk is more about playing the most powerful card on curve.

My second question is, why rely on 4-cc Planeswalkers when Bitterblossom is legal? Addendum (since Sorin offers emblems/team pump), why not both?

Bitterblossom may be too greedy in a three-color deck playing Thoughtseize and Dismember, but it may be worth testing. Sorin on his own is immune to Abrupt Decay and allows for large lifeswings the turn he comes into play. Bitterblossom on the other hand is quite slow in developing an advantage.

My final question is, how does Monastery Mentor play in this deck in others' experience? It seems the quality of Mentor hinges on throwing out spells as often as possible, but the spells in this deck aren't the chain of cantrips you'd find in your typical UR Delver, so I would imagine that making a board of tokens is less likely or imposing than it would be w/ UR without sandbagging a bunch of burn and trying to combo your opponent out (which seems awkward since I imagine the burn's primary role is removal).

This deck will be more about clearing the way with Thoughtseize and Inquisition in order to protect a threat, unlike UR Delver which backed up threats with countermagic. Playing Pyromancer, Mentor, and Rabblemaster all together provides a sufficient amount of threats that must be answered immediately before they create an overwhelming advantage.

I'm normally on top of all competitive decks in all formats and I have no idea what junk tokens is.

until I hear otherwise I'm assuming it's just the normal junk midrange deck with 3-4 MD lingering souls.

[deck]
Creatures (11)
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Pack Rat
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Monastery Mentor

Spells (26)
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Disfigure
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Dismember
1 Crackling Doom
4 Lingering Souls
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Lands (23)
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Arid Mesa
1 Marsh Flats
3 Blood Crypt
3 Sacred Foundry
2 Godless Shrine
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Isolated Chapel
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
1 Darkblast
2 Wear / Tear
1 Celestial Purge
1 Combust
1 Rakdos Charm
2 Spellskite
1 Zealous Persecution
3 Kor Firewalker
1 Crackling Doom
2 Shatterstorm
[/deck]

Now complete with sideboard! My only hangup is whether or not I should be running Liliana.

I'm going to play this list at my LGS Friday with a few adaptations:

1) No Mentors or Rat. Bring in two Brimaz and a single Batterskull.
2) Two Liliana maindeck, no Crackling Doom or Slaughter Pact.

FWIW, I think Blood Baron is a fair bit better than batterskull. Brimaz is alright. Why are you playing Disfigure? I'd encourage you to try Mardu Charm.

Blood Baron is quite good, but certainly better or worse than BSkull in certain matchups. As a creature that dodges Abrupt Decay, Path, a single Bolt and any Terror, BB is great value. BSkull survives all those too, but is vulnerable to artifact removal which will be omnipresent once Affinity rises again.

I like BB and Stormbreath in my big Dega deck ATM.

Blood Baron only dies to Liliana (if unaccompanied) and Flame Slash. There's a lot more artifact hate coming.

He also sails right through Junk if you can kill their green shit.

FWIW, I think Blood Baron is a fair bit better than batterskull. Brimaz is alright. Why are you playing Disfigure? I'd encourage you to try Mardu Charm.

I needed more 1 cmc interaction and Disfigure was my answer. I'm just testing a lot of different cards to see what I like.

I really don't like Mardu Charm considering the flexibility of all my other spells, particularly postboard. I feel like efficiency is the key for this deck and Mardu Charm does not perform in that area.

I'd play Darkblast in the Disfigure spot, but I'm nuts.

Darkblast is in the board. I think the -2/-2 will be relevant, but I'll await testing to confirm.

I think token strategies will take off, and a Darkblast can be used many times or repeated once for a 2 toughness dude.

I see ZP there so you're probably hedged enough against tokens.

You're convincing me. Frees up room for another card like Crackling Doom for rouge builds.

I love my Crackling Dooms

It's a surprisingly good card in Modern. Makes Boggles players cry.

Then again, so does Deflecting Palm

Yes but Doom is better.

Definitely more versatile.

[deck]
Creatures (9)
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Pack Rat
4 Goblin Rabblemaster

Spells (28)
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Darkblast
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Dismember
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Batterskull

Lands (23)
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Arid Mesa
1 Marsh Flats
3 Blood Crypt
3 Sacred Foundry
2 Godless Shrine
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Isolated Chapel
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
2 Wear / Tear
1 Celestial Purge
1 Combust
1 Rakdos Charm
2 Spellskite
1 Zealous Persecution
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Crackling Doom
2 Shatterstorm
[/deck]

Final list for tomorrow's Modern tournament.

I'm normally on top of all competitive decks in all formats and I have no idea what junk tokens is.

It is a stock Junk list that includes token generating cards like Lingering Souls and Bitterblossom. One recently 4-0d a pre-ban Modern Daily and none of the cards in the deck are affected by the ban. Some lists opt out of Lingering Souls, few play Bitterblossom. That both are in the deck is of note.

Thank you again for your valuable contributions to the discussion.

[deck]
Creatures (9)
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Pack Rat
4 Goblin Rabblemaster

Spells (28)
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Darkblast
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Dismember
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Batterskull

Lands (23)
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Arid Mesa
1 Marsh Flats
3 Blood Crypt
3 Sacred Foundry
2 Godless Shrine
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Isolated Chapel
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
2 Wear / Tear
1 Celestial Purge
1 Combust
1 Rakdos Charm
2 Spellskite
1 Zealous Persecution
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Crackling Doom
2 Shatterstorm
[/deck]

Final list for tomorrow's Modern tournament.

Ran this list with -1 Pack Rat, +1 Brimaz to a 5-0 record at Modern FNM tonight. Beat UB Mill 2-0, 5-color Slivers 2-1, RW Burn 2-1, UWR Control 2-1, and UW Tempo 2-0. The deck was humming and I got a feel for what I liked and what I didn't. Let's just say there was very little I didn't like.

Overperformers:

1) Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - the all-star of the night. He won me the first game against the Slivers deck when I was at 3 life. I was stuck on three lands most of the game but was stingy in blocking with my tokens. He had out the lifegain, flanking, deathtouch, and first strike Slivers and had been swinging out with them to widdle me down. I had basically resolved to hitting my fourth land to play him, and I finally did it which allowed me to crack back for a ton with lifelink and basically secure the game as I had a couple of blockers to leave back and a removal spell in hand. He was also amazing against UWR control and UW Tempo as expected. I never got to see him against Burn but I imagine he'd be pretty good there too.

2) Dismember - this card was money, and sometimes I wondered if I should have been running three. Kills everything.

3) Slaughter Pact - also money. I like the one-of.

4) Goblin Rabblemaster - if you thought this card would be good with Thoughtseize and Inquisition backup, try playing it alongside Spellskite postboard. It's just not fair. Despite Bolt being such a common piece of removal, I was able to play around it enough to make this guy do a lot of work. I do think four is too many and would like to go down to three in place of a second Brimaz.

5) Brimaz, King of Oreskos - as above, I should have been playing two.

6) Liliana of the Veil - I made this switch the day before the FNM and I'm glad I did. She was even better than I thought she'd be. You all know how good she is so I'll just leave it at that.

Underperformers:

1) Darkblast - let Ham talk me into playing it instead of Disfigure. That was wrong. There were so many times where this card was in my hand and I wished it was Disfigure. I think the correct course of action is moving this back to the board for Disfigure and taking out the Zealous Persecution in the board. Alternatively I could play a third Dismember, but that seems like overkill.

2) Zealous Persecution - a lot of this had to do with the decks I played against, so I won't be too harsh on the rating. Unlike Darkblast, it actually put in some good work for a couple of games, but it's effectiveness was so swingy. It ranged from an overpriced Darkblast to a 4-damage burn spell to a total blowout. I'm okay with keeping one in the maindeck, but I think one in the 75 is sufficient.

3) The fourth Thoughtseize - I think I should be running a 3-3 split of Thoughtseize to Inquisition. There was exactly one point where I cast Thoughtseize that it actually nabbed a 4-cmc spell, but otherwise I felt like the fourth one was a little greedy and reduced my percentages against aggro and burn decks.

The underperformer list is quite small as you can see. I think the deck is REALLY good and I'm surprised I got the list hammered so closely before testing. I do think I could afford to try to slide in more powerful cards though. I should also think about other sideboard options to broaden the deck against the field. The Kor Firewalkers won me my match against Burn (had one in opener both games) and that matchup seems so abysmal I feel like I should either be running four of them or another card that they cannot beat that isn't named Leyline of Sanctity. Also, after being paired up against a Living End player in the top 4 before we decided to split, I realized I had absolutely nothing for him beyond the Rakdos Charm, so I should probably consider Relic of Progenitus as an answer to it as well as Dredge and Snapcaster decks. I don't think it's actually necessary vs Goyf decks, but I could be wrong. Maybe I should try a second Rakdos Charm first?

I also need to playtest the Affinity matchup to see if the Shatterstorms are even necessary. They may be overkill as I feel this match is already very favorable for me. It was more of a local meta consideration than anything since there are so many Affinity players here.

Nice job on the 5-0 finish, despite my terrible Darkblast recommendation

It wasn't necessarily terrible, there were just far more times where Disfigure was more relevant, like hitting an early Goblin Guide or shrinking down a creature more significantly during combat.

I just had a realization this morning that the Shatterstorms should be Wrath of Gods.