Mardu Warrior

Standard Bloodlines39

10 COMMENTS | 747 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS


razelfark says... #1

I like a lot of your choices in this deck. I just don't know why you have Chief of the Edge at 3 and not 4. For warriors this card strength is too good not to have at max I feel.

The card Herald of Dromoka always seemed nice that it granted vigilance but I found myself not caring too often that I drew them when I did, because I always wanted one of the other creatures that are more aggressive. I think you might profit more from having more 1 drops over this card and would suggest Mardu Woe-Reaper since this card helps remove creature threats from enemy graves that could come back or even remove some of your own creatures that can't return for small health boosts. I understand that its counterproductive to do that last part because of Graveblade Marauder but its always nice to have the option when backed into a corner.

As for your side board I would suggest running the Chief of the Scale as this card works as a decent deterrent to burn control and makes common red spells like Wild Slash fall short from being lethal to most of your warriors with just one on board.

Also for the side board or even main board I suggest Valorous Stance as both uses on this card for its low cost can be very useful to your deck.

Made these suggestions based of a warrior deck I run from time to time. Tend to place high at FNM with it. Good luck and hope things workout for you.

November 11, 2015 6:25 a.m.

minorokt says... #2

Hi, name is Minoru, I would like to help you with your deck in any way I can.. I am fond of warriors and in fact I have a mono-white version of a warrior found here Timely Horde, Untimely Demise (FNM 1st place). Even if your deck is different than yours I can assure to you I can still assist.. Here are the stuff I can help you with:

  1. razelfark has a point on Chief of the Edge being a 4 off in the deck.. It'll also be the reason if I ever splash black on my deck as she is the driving force in the deck..

  2. Sorry, I'll just be frank when I point this.. You need a ton of work to do on your land base.. It's too many given your curve and the color distribution is off.. I can write a crapload of explanation here but would opt not to bombard you with it unless you ask hehehe.. For now, try reducing your Evolving Wilds to 2 then having 4:10 in favor of Swamp instead of 7:7.. I'm sure it will fix you color and it will also lessen the mana flood.. Hope this helps improve what I first saw in your list..

  3. I suggest adding a 2-drop disruption card like Ultimate Sacrifice while reducing your 3-drop Ruinous Path to 2.. you may already have felt the said card sitting on your hand or force to play only that for your turn.. having a 2-drop with it just smooths your curve in many ways.. Still keep it though as killing a planeswalker is just amazing..

  4. I am intrigued about your choice of Graveblade Marauder and Touch of Moonglove in the deck.. Please share how often it capitalizes for you.. Was thinking of Mardu Strike Leader and Foul-Tongue Shriek in those slots.. Good job for being unique on this one..

  5. Try Raiders' Spoils. This is yet another card that encourages me to splash black in my deck.. Just 1-2 copies of it is enough to make your deck stronger in many, many ways..

Hope these helps.. Trust me when I say that these suggestions are of the best intentions.. I pray for a better future ahead for you and your deck.. Goodspeed fellow Warrior Commander!

November 11, 2015 8:32 a.m.

minorokt says... #3

oh I mean Ultimate Price not Sacrifice.. Oops hehehe

November 11, 2015 8:34 a.m.

Bloodlines39 says... #4

Ill start with my choice for Graveblade Marauder.He is a 3 drop 1/4 with death touch, hes a pain to kill, and more often than not he is the final creature standing because that 4 toughness is a lot harder to kill than you would think at first. Give him deathtouch and his ability to make him pure profit (imo). I have also gotten 18-25 damage in 1 attack because he was given double strike and allowed to hit a person who was running a mill deck.

Touch of Moonglove Is best used on a Blood-Chin Rager who was just blocked by 2 creatures, it gives him death touch so you can kill the 2 creatures that blocked him. For 1 mana you get 2 dead creatures AND your opponent loses 4 life. But that is the BEST use. Next best use is to just 1 drop kill a creature and make your opponent lose life. The amount of attacks/blocks with this deck give it PLENTY of chances to make your opponent hurt.

Herald of Dromoka His ability doesn't stack obviously, only have 2 works really well for me. I like him for when I have Graveblade out, or a Moonglove in hand. "Go ahead...attack me..." Having a deathtouch creature untapped makes your opponents hesitate to attack more often than not. and even then they regret attacking the second they realize that Graveblade does indeed have deathtouch.

Ultimate Price would be run if it weren't for the color pool that averages where I FNM. Most decks I face contain mostly multi-colored or just straight colorless. Any time I run this, I catch myself with this in my hand and nothing but uncolored and/or multicolored creatures against me.

Mardu Woe-Reaper has been run a FEW times, but I usually end up wishing I had something else when I get him.

Valorous Stance I will certainly look into getting a few of these.

Chief of the Edge Is kind one of many hard choices. I want to run 4, but I don't have anything else to really switch them out with.

Chief of the Scale I might work some into my sideboard, he has always been very hit and miss for me. He is not bad, but after everything is said and done, my last remaining creatures are always Bloodsoaked Champions and Graveblade Marauders Sure the +0/+1 is nice, but it always seems just short of saving my weaker creatures anyways.

I can assure you from my perspective though, Graveblade Marauder and Touch of Moonglove have dealt the most damage with this deck, no other cards have hit as hard as these 2.

November 12, 2015 3:05 a.m.

Bloodlines39 says... #5

Another thing on Moonglove. Leaving 1 black mana untapped always gives this "Oh Shit" look in my opponents face, especially when I took out his Desolation Twin and its buddy for 1 mana.

Its such a simple card that just makes people so afraid!

November 12, 2015 3:15 a.m.

Bloodlines39 says... #6

Another thing on Moonglove. Leaving 1 black mana untapped always gives this "Oh Shit" look in my opponents face, especially when I took out his Desolation Twin and its buddy for 1 mana.

November 12, 2015 3:17 a.m.

Lurac says... #7

Before Origins vame out, I was running B/W warriors in standard. My deck was extremely low-curve, with 10 one-drop creatures (4 Bloodsoaked, 4 Woe-Reaper, 2 Dragon Hunter) a bunch of 2-drops, some "bomby" three drops (2xMardu Strike Leader, 1xArashin Foremost, 1xBlood-Chin Fanatic) In the late game I relied on getting value from Raiders' Spoils, a card that I absolutely recommend, because you only need a single good attack to make it worth it, Athreos, God of Passage, which of course isn't in standard anymore and Sorin, Solemn Visitor, which actually really felt like a win-more card...

What i think your deck lacks, though, is removal. I think that a deck full of weenies (the largest being 1/4 and 3/3) needs reliable ways to keep the Rhinos, Anglers and Eldrazi away. I liked how removal spells played well with Seeker of the Way in my deck, but if you don't want to commit to the path of prowess, you can use the removal warriors, too.Hidden Dragonslayer and Merciless Executioner are good removals. The former leaves you with an attacker and some life gain, while the latter plays extremely well with Bloodsoaked Champion.

In any case, I strongly recommend Valorous Stance, which, because of its versatility, is never a dead card.

November 12, 2015 3:58 a.m.

Odyssey says... #8

FYI, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death + Blood-Chin Rager doesn't work as a combo. Blood-Chin Rager's trigger occurs when he attacks, but Alesha puts him into play tapped and attacking. "When he attacks" refers to an event, but "tapped and attacking" is just a state. You can still reanimate him as a 2/2, but you won't be able to make use of his ability unless he survives until next turn to attack regularly.

My suggestions:

You won't need 25 lands when you curve out at 3 in an aggressive deck like this. If you keep 25 lands, you should add warriors with bigger payoff like Mardu Strike Leader (you almost always want to dash him) or Brutal Hordechief (who wins games against decks that just clog up the board with fatties). As it is, you're going to get flooded more than you would like.

Herald of Dromoka is a defensive card in an otherwise aggressive deck, and therefore seems very out of place. It's a warrior, yes, but you have no way to take advantage of your creatures being untapped except blocking. Mono-red and Atarka red are faster decks than yours, so it's an ok card against those decks, but you have BW colors available, so lifegain options (e.g. Surge of Righteousness, Brutal Hordechief, Mardu Woe-Reaper, etc) would be preferable to vigilance if you are worried about other aggro decks, and most appropriate in the sideboard. Lifegain options also help with your manabase, since you're playing 8 painlands.

Touch of Moonglove is a cute card when you can kill two creatures using Blood-Chin Rager, but that doesn't stop it from being a bad card. Many players overrate cards like these because they seem SO good when they're good, but easily forget all the times cards like this just sit in their hand doing nothing. In the case of Blood-Chin Rager + Touch of Moonglove that you describe, you spend two cards and 3 mana to deal with two of your opponents creatures (likely two cards, but sometimes 1). This is a fairly even trade since it's two-for-two in terms of cards, but could be worse if your opponent has tokens (e.g. Hangarback Walker thopters). The risk you run with combat tricks like this is that if your opponent responds by casting a removal spell on the creature you target, Touch of Moonglove fizzles and your creatures just die. In 99% of the cases, Touch of Moonglove can just be replaced by a removal spell (e.g. Valorous Stance does double duty protecting your guys and killing their fatties). Touch of Moonglove and company are bad topdecks if you have an empty board, whereas another creature or a removal spell is not.

For a combat trick to be worth including in a Standard deck, it has to be good enough to win you the game on the spot (e.g. Monastery Swiftspear + Temur Battle Rage + Become Immense ) or have enough flexibility to be used for other purposes (Abzan Charm + Den Protector to make a pseudo-unblockable Den Protector). If you are just using a combat trick to act as removal, you should probably just replace it with actual removal.

Sideboard:

Mardu Woe-Reaper is strictly better than Dragon Hunter unless you actually want to block a dragon (which you won't, 99.999% of the time).

Infinite Obliteration is only really good against ramp decks that want to cast Ulamog or Atarka. You should be much faster than these decks and have no trouble beating them. I would side in haste creatures against these decks (e.g. Mardu Strike Leader) or burn to finish them off just in case they do manage to wipe your board with Atarka. Deflecting Palm is also a possibility against ramp decks.

Otherwise, I like what you're doing. Especially the inclusion of Alesha. I have a similar deck that may give you some ideas: Mardu Warriors.

November 25, 2015 6:19 p.m.

Bloodlines39 says... #9

Dragon Hunter Is in for the amount of dragons I see at the shop I FNM. Mardu Woe-Reaper usually doesn't pose as much help when compared to the amount of dragon usage I see.

Herald of Dromoka Lately stops people from wanting to attack when they have seen use of Touch of Moonglove or a Graveblade Marauder is in play. When my army consists of a bunch of 2/2s, every chance my opponent skips an attack can easily become a boon.

Im going to go out and say I fucked up, I didnt realise I had my land set on 25 on here, will fix that and use the new space for some Brutal Hordechief

Ive won more games than lost because of Touch of Moonglove maybe if it starts to wain in helpfulness, but 4 life and 2 creatures my opponent so desperately needed becomes useful more often than not.

On a final note, the Alesha+Blood chin wasnt exactly an ability trigger reference. It was a reference to the immidiate target Arashin Foremost and Blood-Chin Rager painted on themselves. Its surprisingly common for someone to drop a Ruinous Path on either of these without ANY hesitation.

November 27, 2015 4:16 a.m.

Odyssey says... #10

Dragon Hunter + Touch of Moonglove still requires two cards to deal with one of their dragons. With 4x Crackling Doom and 4x Valorous Stance in the sideboard you should be able to deal with dragons easily in games 2 and 3 (in game 1 you should just be faster than them). A competent opponent is going to side in board wipes against you in games 2 and 3, so giving him or her more targets to hit with those spells (like Dragon Hunter) is not a great idea. If you do want a way to deal with dragons that also has a body, Hidden Dragonslayer is an option that only requires one card.

I don't know what your local meta is like but any kind of instant speed removal is going to be good against Touch of Moonglove.

November 29, 2015 3:26 p.m.

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