Mardu Walker Control (KLD Standard)

Standard Burn Competitive Control Midrange RBW (Mardu) Superfriends

Zaueski

Land (25)

• 4x Aether Hub
• 2x Blighted Fen
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 2x Mountain
• 2x Needle Spires
• 4x Shambling Vent
• 4x Smoldering Marsh
• 3x Swamp

Planeswalker (15)

• 4x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 3x Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1x Liliana, the Last Hope
• 3x Nahiri, the Harbinger
• 2x Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 2x Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 2x Authority of the Consuls

Sorcery (7)

• 2x Painful Truths
• 2x Radiant Flames
• 1x Radiant Flames
• 2x Ruinous Path

Creature (5)

• 3x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 2x Noxious Gearhulk

Instant (5)

• 2x Anguished Unmaking
• 3x Blessed Alliance

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Sideboard

Sorcery (11)

• 2x Flaying Tendrils
• 2x Fragmentize
• 2x Fumigate
• 2x Lost Legacy
• 3x Transgress the Mind

Instant (4)

• 2x Immolating Glare
• 2x Warping Wail

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Kaladesh Control deck for upcoming Standard. The deck focuses around shutting down the enemy creatures and permanents and getting to the planeswalkers and the two Gearhulks.

Strengths

Far and away, the thing I notice the most is everyone saying how unusual the deck is. The deck is nowhere near the rest of the meta at the moment and that's probably the best advantage we have. People don't know how to play or how to sideboard against us. Usually what I end up seeing is counterspells which are fairly easy to play around, and either Ruinous Path or Anguished Unmaking. Everything else just has to use creatures the old fashioned way and the deck excels and keeping the Walkers safe.

Planeswalkers are some of the hardest permanent types to deal with in all of Standard and we have a lot of them. They all either shut down some aspect of the opponents deck or draw us more cards usually. Liliana, the Last Hope has already proven her worth in creature control and has shown us that we live in a Standard where Planeswalker Ultimates aren't just pipe dreams. The other femme fatale of the deck is very clearly going to be a driving force in Standard and is a complete powerhouse. Chandra, Torch of Defiance is the most useful card in the deck and her ultimate is not much harder than Lili's to get too.

Weaknesses

The deck can handle midrange easily and while hard blue control is frustrating, we can outlast the counterspells. Just keep playing threats every turn so they can't refresh their hand and we'll be able to land something to steal the game with. Diehard Aggro decks like the vehicles are also difficult as they can often swing under our Walkers and get us too low on life to matter. Once you know that you're playing against them, make sure you have Authority of the Consuls and at least one board wipe in hand.

Cards

Planeswalkers

• Chandra, Torch of Defiance: The main inspiration for building this deck and one of the most powerful cards in it. She draws when we needs it, burns the turn she comes down often, mana ramps when our hand is full, kills just about anything with her -3, and her ultimate is nigh unbeatable.

• Liliana, the Last Hope: Lili is an amazing walker and has more than proven her worth. She can often shut down creatures if she can't outright kill them and her ultimate provides another win condition for us.

• Nahiri, the Harbinger: Nahiri is finally able to step into the lime light in standard as the gearhulks provide excellent targets for her ultimate due to their ETBs instead of all the Eldrazi cast triggers. She helps us cycle our hand, albeit in almost the worst way but her -2 can really shut down a lot of different decks (especially Aetherworks Marvel )

• Ob Nixilis Reignited: Card draw, creature destruction, and a pretty good ultimate. He's nothing special but is a pretty solid card earning him a slot.

• Sorin, Grim Nemesis : Card draw that hurts your opponent and life drain from creatures OR planeswalkers makes Sorin a solid inclusion and a great top end.

Creatures

• Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: We're playing control, its a great card for control. Not much else to it. Lifegain and token generation is always great.

• Noxious Gearhulk : Originally I had Combustible Gearhulk in this slot, but I was drawn to this one over time. It is a better target for Nahiri, the Harbinger's ultimate and can help stabilize when we're behind on life and board presence. It also ends games pretty quickly with its relevant key word.

Enchantments

• Authority of the Consulate : Slows down aggro enough to be easily manageable and pads our life total against the horde decks. Not to mention this card combos really well with Nahiri, the Harbinger allowing you to -2 her on any sort of threat later.

Instants

• Anguished Unmaking: Solid catch-all removal spell, the life drain is unfortunate, but we have a lot of ways to mitigate it. Also it is worth keeping in mind that this dodges death triggers.

• Blessed Alliance: Another good removal spell to help save our walkers and just about the only combat trick in the deck. It is almost exclusively used for the last mode, but in an emergency it can do the other modes as well which is always nice. I have tested the deck with Declaration in Stone in this slot extensively and I can say for sure that I prefer this card, it's the best answer I have to Vehicles like Fleetwheel Cruiser and it can hit everything that scares my deck. It saves my walkers numerous times as well which allows me to turn games around.

• Warping Wail : A rather versatile card, although we're primarily concerned about the middle mode. Mardu is not a color combo that makes people think of counterspells and so It can usually catch people completely by surprise. The limited removal and bad ramp are decent, but never use those unless it's an emergency.

• Immolating Glare: This helps our chances against the hyper-aggressive vehicles immediately. The ability to destroy a Smuggler's Copter on curve with ease is awesome and acts as our 4th and 5th copy of cards that punish attackers. It isn't in the main because of Emrakul, the Promised End and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger both being immune to it, however its still a great inclusion and if your meta isn't Eldrazi-heavy I'd reverse this card and Blessed Alliance.

Sorceries

• Radiant Flames: This card is amazingly valuable and definitely allows the deck to function. Everyone has relaxed the eye on the toughness counts now that Languish has rotated and this can be an amazing sweeper. Not to mention the fact that we can control the amount of damage dealt, I've had a horde of 2/2 zombies out from Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Liliana, the Last Hope's emblem and being able to sweep all of their X/1's is insanely strong.

• Ruinous Path: Still a good removal spell and gives us quite a few ways to deal with enemy Planeswalkers or big creatures that Radiant Flames can't hit.

• Painful Truths : The walkers are all very potent threats that have even 3 or 4 for 1ed opponents before and so that gives us a huge edge against long grindy matchups leading to an ultimate. This helps us both find the Walkers we need to win or draw us into more protection. Also being able to manipulate the amount of life lost is super relevant late game when we're low on health.

• Fragmentize: Artifact and Enchantment hate, every deck needs at least a little.

• Fumigate : Extra sweepers against decks that are good at recovering their hordes. It also helps to pad my life against aggro.

• Lost Legacy: All-Star sideboard card. Being able to remove the biggest threat of the deck is great and saves us against their best disruption as well. While it can't hit artifacts, being able to get what makes the artifacts good is still very strong and worth the slots.

• Transgress the Mind: Hand disruption is still very good, the exile clause is relevant against delirium and madness and it saves me a lot from the long games against other control decks.

• Flaying Tendrils: Aggro is a bad matchup game one and this is basically Radiant Flames #4 & #5.

Matchups

Here are some of the most common matchups you'll face in the current meta.

R/W Vehicles

This is probably the toughest matchup and mulliganning for a good draw is crucial. In the opening hand we want to see Radiant Flames or Flaying Tendrils and our two mana kill spells either Immolating Glare or Blessed Alliance. Turn 1 Authority of the Consuls is also a huge power play here. We definitely win in the late game, so just make sure you have the cards to get there.

Sideboard:

• In: 2x Immolating Glare, 2x Fragmentize, 2x Flaying Tendrils and 2x Fumigate

• Out: 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 2x Ob Nixilis Reignited, 2x Painful Truths , 2x Ruinous Path and 1x Nahiri, the Harbinger

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• Temur Aetherworks

This matchup is actually deceptively easy for us, we have a lot of ways to deal with both Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Emrakul, the Promised End. Not to mention how inconsistent that deck can be. Using Nahiri, the Harbinger to keep them clear of Aetherworks Marvel is useful but we don't actually care about the artifact, especially post side-board.

Sideboard:

• In: 2x Lost Legacy and 3x Transgress the Mind

• Out: 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 1x Liliana, the Last Hope, and 3x Radiant Flames

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• Mardu Reanimate

This is a decently tough deck, however we have a silver bullet in the sideboard. Cataclysmic Gearhulk is our worst nightmare, so whenever possible try to exile that one. Other than that the only thing that is bad is Combustible Gearhulk can kill walkers on entry so I usually let them draw since they want their cards in the graveyard anyways. A sustainable Nahiri, the Harbinger and Authority of the Consuls can be amazingly powerful in this matchup.

Sideboard:

• In: 2x Lost Legacy (for Refurbish ), 2x Warping Wail , and 3x Transgress the Mind

• Out: 3x Radiant Flames, 2x Liliana, the Last Hope, 1x Painful Truths and 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance

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• U/R Spells

This matchup can be a bit iffy as we can't interact in game one and they can't really hurt our walkers unless they counter them. Dynavolt Tower can be really annoying if they get it online so keep a Nahiri, the Harbinger in hand so once they tap it you can remove it. After sideboard you can expect them to bring in a couple creatures so keep the straight kill spells in as they either have other modes or are in low enough quantity that it's worth it.

Sideboard:

• In: 2x Fragmentize and 3x Transgress the Mind

• Out: 2x Authority of the Consuls and 3x Radiant Flames

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• U/x/x Control

This matchup in its various forms is easier than you think. Negate and Void Shatter are the only two spells they have that we care about. Chandra, Torch of Defiance really shines in this matchup because once she lands her mana ramp allows you to play more spells and planeswalkers per turn than they can counter usually. A key trick here is to bait out the counters, play the spell you really want last and then run away with what ever manages to stick. Also remember, most of our walkers beat Torrential Gearhulk so even if they take a hit it isn't horrible.

Sideboard:

• In: 3x Transgress the Mind and 2x Immolating Glare

• Out: 3x Radiant Flames and 2x Authority of the Consuls

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• Other

Most of the rest of the decks either aren't good enough to mention or aren't big enough. Temur Colossuss is shut down by our kill spells and Authority of the Consuls. Electrostatic Pummeler on turn 3 is beat by a Liliana, the Last Hope on turn 3 every time, not to mention Blessed Alliance doesn't care about their hexproof trampler. U/W Flash may see a resurgence because of the guy in the top 8 but I actually haven't played against it because no one is playing it currently.

Hope you like the deck, don't be afraid to question, comment, or suggest anything else and definitely don't be afraid to hit that upvote button.

Top Ranked	Achieved #6 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	20 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 4 Rares 9 - 9 Uncommons 0 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.49
Tokens	Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Emblem Liliana, the Last Hope, Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited, Energy Reserve, Vampire Knight 1/1 B, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Cool decks, ideas, DECKS, superfriends, On My Mind, kaladesh, KLD standard, standard, Interesting Standard Decks
Based on	Jeskai Walker Control Zaueski STD