Good point griz024 the other option was something like Manic Vandal. Might add kataki to SB. Possibly for Leyline of the Void.

Doesnt kataki only effect artifacts?

Another card to consider is Squadron Hawk. Toss in Mistveil Plains, and along with titan it makes the hawk basically immortal.

Centerpiece of a budget brew from mtg goldfish i love

I feel like you need more ways to get stuff into your graveyard...

Hey griz024. Yeah artifacts only. Basically double up on the affinity (and maybe lantern control) hate.

Squadron hawk I thought about, but maybe not quite the right fit.

MagicalShrek. Thanks, will have to test it. At the minute Lone Missionary feels right, as it's broadly on curve and gives +1 life relative to Cathedral Sanctifier although I have seen some brews where they double them up or add Kitchen Finks.

Legion's Initiative is interesting. May have to give it a test.

Unfathomable. It's not really a graveyard deck like dredgevine. We want a board state of chump blockers and stallers with the focus on recurring ETB effects and then recursion from the graveyard.

I'd play 24 lands, dropping 1 Sun Titan. Glad to hear this list is working out for you.

Lands I'd play:

4 Arid Mesa

4 Marsh Flats

1 Blood Crypt

2 Sacred Foundry

2 Godless Shrine

3 Plains

1 Mountain

1 Swamp

4 Emeria, The Sky Ruin

2 Ghost Quarter

In the last few days, I've been playing a LOT of mardu. Serra Sentinal made a mardu kiki list, and, well, it was so cool I had to try it out and have been chain-playing it for a couple of days now. My version of the deck (still a work in progress) is Ajani, Nahiri and Kiki walk into a bar... copy.

I've been having a ton of fun with it and it's pretty good too. However, I can't quite seem to get it right. Every iteration of the deck has some critical flaw and I can never get the decklist just right. In particular, I'm struggling against Tron, Control, and go-wide strategies. Surprisingly, all 3 of those are decks that mardu, in theory, shouldn't struggle against. Vs Tron, hand disruption, land destruction, and artifact hate should put them in their place. Vs control, hand disruption offsets their hand and Liliana of the Veil and the rest of the planeswalkers should be able to simply run away with the game, but that has not been my experience. And finally, in Mardu there's plenty of go-wide hate between Wrath of God and Anger of the Gods, so it's surprising that I can't consistently beat them. Fortunately, all of those problems feel fixable and shouldn't even be that difficult with some luck.

Hey ToolmasterOfBrainerd. So where this deck is more resilient than the last Mardu brew is the lack of bad draws, and the easy recursion of ETB triggers. Because of Emeria it also sits in that space of being 'inevitable' so you can chump and remove for turns, meaning that Fulminator Mage, Fleshbag Marauder, and Sin Collector all give value against different opponents without having to worry too much about a relatively high curve.

Have you tried Flickerwisp over Restoration Angel. Also dare I say Heartless Summoning as a creature accelerant. Disadvantage is dropping stuff into bolt range.

Maybe drop a kolaghan's. Also goblin dark dwellers, synergies with Nahiri, your high instants and potentially Kiki.

Thanks for the input. Flickerwisp can't go infinite with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Heartless Summoning just doesn't do enough in the deck, which only plays 9 creatures.

Goblin Dark-Dwellers I think is much like Pia and Kiran Nalaar in the version I'm trying. That is, it's great value and superb in the grindy matchups, but it already wins the grindy matchups - it needs to beat counterspells (which GDD doesn't), Karn Liberated, and go-wide decks. My problem I think is that my curve is too high.

I've noticed that when I beat Tron and Control, I'm either resolving Restoration Angel EOT their turn into Kiki-Jiki on my turn for the win, or I'm landing an early Phyrexian Arena and riding that to victory on pure card advantage.

That said, your deck is apparently working great while the deck I'm trying it struggling a bit, so maybe there's something I'm overlooking about why I should be playing GDD and friends. I'll try it out and think over it. Thanks!

Hey ToolmasterOfBrainerd. Yeah, no worries. Will see how this one develops. Early days yet.

The win con thing is interesting. The Sympathy for the Delver build, could be explosive on card advantage but it very much crushed the opponent or had no traction. The Emeria one's interesting because we don't have to care as much for a board state. If we have one great, but to kick us, the opponent needs to waste removal on not obviously great creatures (and if they don't exile them there's not a lot of downside) and then they need to Tormod's Crypt the graveyard. Otherwise it's pretty impossible for any deck to keep up with the card advantage and recurrent value.

Biggest prob are fast clocks that can go through or round the walls and chumps.

GDD is cool, but experience suggests that if its not a Kolaghan's you're getting back, then the casting cost/value is prohibitive. That and if you're landing it anyway you're already way ahead. Heartless was a way of making it a 3cmc, but even then certain decks could weather it.

Gut feel is 9cmcs worth of cards having to land on the table at once is probably a bit high.

This may be stupid, but have you thought about using something like Hero of Bladehold, Pia and Kiran + lingering souls and zealous persecution in a grinder build. Not as fun but could maybe use the same shell.

Good observations. What you've just said about the emeria version tells me you need to be mainboarding 2 Wrath of God and 3 Lightning Helix. The WoGs are so relevant in this meta with Abzan Company, Affinity, BGx, Zoo, etc.

Crackling Doom is a good way to deal with Emrakul, but that's about it and in a deck with such a high concentration of mono-W cards, I think you can cut it.

How has Fleshbag Marauder been performing for you? You don't have a ton of sac outlets for it, such as Lingering Souls (which I don't think belongs), so I question its usefulness, however that's pure speculation.

I think the better option than the Hero + PiKi shell is the already somewhat popular Mardu Tokens lists playing Young Pyromancer, Monastery Mentor, and Lingering Souls. It dies to well-timed removal, and is overall sorta meh.

EDIT: As an afterthought, are the Emeria, The Sky Ruins necessary? They put a lot of pressure on the manabase to be running a lot of plains and, to be honest, I don't see them as anything other than win-more by the time you get them online. Especially when you could be playing some planeswalkers and Phyrexian Arenas to top off the curve instead. However, they do prevent you from playing manlands and Blackcleave Cliffs, both of which take a lot of pain off of the mana base. Just food for thought.

This is simply awesome!!!

Hey Draw_Wurm, very nice deck idea, I like it, +1 from me :-)

Regarding your questions :

I'd drop to 3 titans. You do not want nor need the titan until turn sevenish so 3 seems enough.

Regarding the manabase, what you try to combine is VERY demanding : 3 colors + 3 Ghost Quarters + 4 Emeria, The Sky Ruin + 7 plains to go along. That's too much at the same time imo.

I would either drop the Quarters or, more probably, follow ToolmasterOfBrainerd's advice and drop the Emerias.

This would relieve your manabase a lot and allow you more flexibility, as well as manlands.

Adding Phyrexian Arena or Painful Truths would help you browse your deck and get the right answer or your titan (thus only 3 needed). I'd also maybe put an additional Kolaghan's Command to get it back if it dies. Therefore, I'd drop the Pilgrim's Eyes and maybe 1 or 2 Flickerwisps.

Hey ToolmasterOfBrainerd, Darkiwi. Yeah, land base needs testing and tweaking UW versions run 4 Emeria, but they don't have as many colours to support. May try some testing where the Emeria's are dropped any see if we can still generate enough advantage.

Fleshbag Marauder is basically a nuisance/disruption. My other thoughts, especially if we drop Emeria and Pilgrim's Eye would be maybe a 3:2 split on Blade Splicer and Vampire Nighthawk. Geralf's messenger's triple black and coming in tapped seems to make it a no. And Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip is cute but maybe too situational. Although may work nicely with the wraths. Can't think of anything else in the 3cmc or less slot we'd particularly want. Sin Collector is a possible swap in for combo decks. I guess you could recur a Bloodghast if you wanted to keep the pilgrims eyes or flicker a Ravenous Rats or similar.

Yeah, the 3-drop spot is really hard to fill in Mardu. Here's the trick: don't play any creatures at cmc=3 unless they actually belong. Mardu also happens to have access to Liliana of the Veil, Kolaghan's Command, and Phyrexian Arena as 3-drops, all of which are better than Vampire Nighthawk or any other 3-drop that doesn't belong. Blade Splicer is a fine 3-drop, especially in Emeria, but just don't force anything.

I have, like, 3/4 of a long comment on Mardu as a whole written (that I'm eventually going to be making into an article for the site in a few days). I just haven't gotten around to finishing it.

On a side note, mind if I reference your decklist in my article?

I love this deck, +1. It's a really cool deck and I would pay a LOT to play it just once. I wish I had the funds to put something like this together but the manabase is so expensive. I like the Pilgrim's Eye and Lone Missionary; they seem like really under-the-radar cards and I think its cool that they're going into a deck like this.

Hey ToolmasterOfBrainerd. Sure, feel free to reference the deck. The 3 drop space is definitely a weakness on the creature front. May be worth trying a few Phyrexian Arenas. Then maybe a few Lilys.

The one thing Vampire Nighthawk does give is a flying blocker. Which can be relevant v infect and affinity. Maybe better relying on removal though.

For flyers, you're better off using removal and Lingering Souls.

Yeah ToolmasterOfBrainerd feels like lingering souls will end up in here at some point. Trying baby Lily and Squadron Hawk at the moment. Then will probably try dropping the Emerias.

Do you really need all 4 Emeria, The Sky Ruins? I would think 3 would be enough, which would allow you to play another plains. I play 2 in my WU ally build, and that is usually enough. With Serum Visions and Remand, though, I have a lot more dig. But I still think 3 would work fine.

Mangara of Corondor and Aven Mindcensor for the consideration pile.

Mangara is pretty jank and Mindcensor is good sideboard tech, but really belongs in a hatebears or toolbox deck, not a midrange deck. However, it is really good against tron, so I think it should remain on the consideration pile.