Shadowflame Dictatorship

Standard BR (Rakdos) Control RBW (Mardu) RW (Boros) WB (Orzhov)

Tilwin

Creature (2)

• 2x Stormbreath Dragon

Planeswalker (7)

• 3x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• 2x Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Land (25)

• 4x Bloodstained Mire
• 2x Caves of Koilos
• 4x Mountain
• 4x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Plains
• 3x Swamp
• 2x Temple of Malice
• 2x Temple of Silence
• 2x Temple of Triumph
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Instant (14)

• 4x Crackling Doom
• 3x Hero's Downfall
• 4x Magma Jet
• 1x Silence the Believers
• 2x Utter End

Sorcery (12)

• 2x Anger of the Gods
• 3x End Hostilities
• 3x Sign in Blood
• 4x Thoughtseize

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Sideboard

Creature (4)

• 3x Nyx-Fleece Ram
• 1x Stormbreath Dragon

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Liliana Vess

Instant (4)

• 1x Erase
• 3x Lightning Strike

Sorcery (5)

• 2x Anger of the Gods
• 3x Despise

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Mardu Mardu Mardu... how I love you and hate you at the same time. I've been trying so hard to make you work back when you were known as Chavest/Dega/Oros, and now you decide to come back as an aggressive clan. No fear though, ultimately I will learn how to control the game of fire and shadow and turn you into a docile, yet fearful control monster, a power difficult to reckon with.

Introduction

Welcome to the reincarnation of my old deck Afterlife Glory that had so much success I knew I couldn't let go. With the rotation of RTR, continuation of THS and inclusion of TKT, Mardu gains much more control power and might actually stand a chance to face the new format with success.

Why Mardu?
Indeed, this might be the question most of you might be wondering at this bizzare color combination as a control form.
When it comes to control, people expect some form of blue to surface in the deck. Blue offers great support for disrupting your opponents threats while protecting yours in a reactive way (counterspell), give you card advantage (card draw) and play big fat threats. Unfortunately standard can no longer bask into the power of highly OP spells in the area - by no means am I suggesting such spells are not playable, just that this might be a reason to accept distancing from blue.

• Counterspells have decreased in power with the disappearance of any universal CMC 2 counters (Mana Leak, Rune Snag , Remand, Syncopate ) and existence of only a few good counters ( Dissolve , Dissipate) and the rest highly conditional (Disdainful Stroke, Stubborn Denial , Negate , etc.).
• Card Draw is quite poor as well, missing the staple Sphinx's Revelation . I wouldn't have even minded seeing Blue Sun's Zenith or great "pile" engines like Jace, Architect of Thought or Fact or Fiction . Alas, we don't even have the always supreme 1 CMC draws that arrange your deck such as Ponder , Sleight of Hand, Brainstorm (yeah right) or Serum Visions. What we have left and I feel is highly relevant is Divination, Jace's Ingenuity and Dig Through Time.
• Big fat threats are not necessarily a thing in blue anymore. I can't think of any good finisher like AEtherling arising in standard anytime soon. Sure, Prognostic Sphinx is nice but he dies to sweepers and sacrifice effects, and Pearl Lake Ancient can only be revived a few times before it remains stuck in your hand for a lack of lands to actually play it.

Now let's go to green. Green is another interesting color that has seen play in standard. We cannot rely on it to ramp our decks up via sorceries and instants ( Farseek , Cultivate, etc.) or provide disgustingly good threats that also gain us life and combat removal ( Thragtusk for instance). Sylvan Caryatid, Duneblast, Garruk, Apex Predator and Abzan Charm are simply not good enough for our purpose to justify going control green.

So now we are down to three other colors. Black, red, and white. As we go on I will trim down to each element this control deck aims for and why each card is here. I have aimed for cards that are very good at what they can do, but have backup in the department in case they end up fetched from hand (Thoughtseized) or countered. But first a quick overview of the colors.

• I like to view black as a great substitute for blue, with a little extra something due to its destructive and disruptive capabilities. It can emulate cheap card draw at the cost of life, and although it doesn't have counters, it can proactively fetch your opponent's cards from their hand before they can become a threat. The power of its removal is also undeniable.
• White is a natural addition to control. It provides sweepers, great removal of its own, good finishers, and unlocks some powerful new Mardu cards. I am a white/black player at heart, so naturally I like the flexibility of removal the two colors offer.
• Red is destructive and can output a lot of damage. We are not looking for aggressiveness here, but for smart damage that will help us both handle the field as well as burn our opponents. This is where I feel red can be superior to blue - you may keep delaying the game, but unless you run into that one threat to deal the last 2 points of damage, you might end up waiting a bit too long for it to show up. Red can offer alternative solutions to ending the game quicker once we have put a serious slow down to our opponents. It also allows control decks to act in a reactive (instead of a proactive) manner, which is something every control deck should have prepared if they want an optimal tempo.

Deck Analysis

Win Conditions
We need good win conditions, we need win conditions that really scream power. This is how control wins games. And with AEtherling gone, we rely on what we have left in the format. Threats that can protect themselves and win the game fast... that's what we want!

• Elspeth, Sun's Champion - no point in denying that she is a beast. She makes tokens, she wipes the board, and she boosts your mini-army once she sticks on the board long enough. Undeniable raw power! two copies will do though.
• Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker - feels like a reverted Elspeth. His +1 allows you to bang the opponent in the face, his minus ability acts as removal for one fat creature. His ultimate gets you insane card advantage. My only concern with Sarkhan killing the opponent is the amount of removal at disposal to remove him, but hopefully we should be able to protect him with Thoughtseize.
• Stormbreath Dragon - is a very good alternative to Sarkhan, Alone he can really destroy our opponents in a couple of turns... the monstrous clause is nothing to scoff at either. And the protection for white... well, it's the reason why we have an extra one in sideboard to substitute Sarkhan.

Removal
Mardu has tons of removal at its disposal. Its colors all have removal of some sort, and it's the reason why control works so well for it. The real difficult thing about the removal in mardu is deciding when to trade (1-for-1) or be greedy and wait for a (1-for-2)... not to mention the way we can diversify the removal to answer a wide range of threats.

• Crackling Doom - is just plain amazing. We needed some replacement for Devour Flesh and here it is. It is slower of course, and that is highly relevant, but it comes with two great advantages. First, it burns the opponent, and that can be relevant for our strategy. Secondly, because our opponents can no longer be picky about what they remove. This will be highly relevant for monsters as well as hexproof-pump decks.
• Hero's Downfall - remains our bread and butter against both creatures and planeswalkers. The istant speed makes it worth the 3 copies, and why we run fewer Banishing Lights.
• Banishing Light - support Hero's Downfall by removing permanents it cannot, at the same cost. Of course with enchantment removal ubiquitous it will last less, and it is sorcery speed, but 2 copies seem the right way to go.
• Utter End - is a better, yet more expensive Banishing Light. Misses all disadvantages of the light, but comes at a greater cost... and that can be relevant!
• Silence the Believers - I left silence last, because I love the way it scales. Most often it is just a bad Hero's Downfall that targets creatures only. Topdeck this lategame with enough mana, and you might even be able to eliminate the advantage your opponent tried so hard to achieve (with all the removals at your disposal). 2 copies are enough though.

Hand Quality
What the eff is hand quality? We know control decks like to have full hands... or at least that's what Sphinx's Revelation taught us. It digs deep, it draws cards, you draw some good stuff, you draw some lands, you have advantage. Unfortunately Mardu can't afford that much card advantage. So instead what we're looking for is means of improving our draws (that is if we can't draw tons of cards).

• Magma Jet - is an excellent scry card that digs 2 cards deep. The fact that it can act as both removal and burn is a nice extra. Usually if I have nothing to cast on turn 2 and I need card quality, I'll just slap my opponent's face with it and prepare my next draws. That way I use it tempo-effective. Doesn't always work like that of course.
• Bloodstained Mire - I initially doubted the power of fetchlands. Yep, sounds stupid for experienced players, but I needed to realize how good the deck thinning is. And with Urborg in standard, they are even better (you don't have to crack them if you don't want to). Temples also scry of course, but the thinning is what truly improves the draws here.
• Sign in Blood - I left the card draw for last. Of course we need card draw and playing black enables just that. Why not Read the Bones ? Again, because of tempo. The scry 2, draw 2 is better indeed, but it also costs 3 and it's still a sorcery. Sign on the other hand can also target your opponent for those 2 last points of damage. I would never sign my opponent if it doesn't immediately kill them though.

Support
Support is where we include pretty much cards that did not necessarily fit somewhere worth a category of their own. Disruption, sweepers and other support cards come to mind here. Let's take them one at a time and see what's happening here...

• End Hostilities - is one of the main reasons I'm playing control. Sweepers are known for being card advantage, though hostilities is a bit tricky to play since turn 5 they can be a bit late. Especially against aggro... however, I noticed that combined with the rest of the removal it can be quite powerful. Not as powerful as Supreme Verdict was, but still good.
• Anger of the Gods - is the second reason I am playing control in these colors. I think right now it's the best sweeper in the format, in spite of not removing all creatures. 3 tougness or less? Unless you're indestructible or have protection from red, you're dead! D-E-A-D! This is great not only against aggro, but also against monster-ramp (that relies in Elvish Mystic, Rattleclaw Mystic and Sylvan Caryatid for ramp). Only 2 copies in because lategame I'd rather draw an End Hostilities.
• Thoughtseize - hand disruption, one of the only ways to protect our threats. Throw Thoughtseize, disrupt removal, drop threat! Simple and effective. I also love turn 1 thoughtseize, and with the amount of swamps in the deck, it's not that difficult to pull. Four copies are a must!
• Sorin, Solemn Visitor - I left him last because I expect people are not very excited to see him here. I wasn't either until I played a bit with him. The vampire token he generates delays, so it earns you time. The +1 in combination with any of our threats is money in the bank. It's our own way to gain life, and with an Elspeth, Sarkhan or Stormbreath around you can gain a minimum of 5 life. Not to mention that it works both on offense and defense. The ultimate is simply insane, once you've stalled the game enough. Our removal is not that much 2 for 1, so we might end up with the game stalling for such a long time that you actually have the freedom to reach the ultimate and activate it.

Date added	10 years
Last updated	10 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 3 Mythic Rares 25 - 2 Rares 11 - 6 Uncommons 3 - 4 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.37
Tokens	Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Emblem Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Soldier 1/1 W, Vampire 2/2 B
Folders	GOOD IDEAS, decks, post rotation, Stuff I want to make