My concern is the amount of damage you end up dealing yourself early game. 4 Pain lands, 3 Fetches and 4 Thoughtseize leaves in you in pretty bad shape through 4/5 turns, with no real aggro defense other then spells, which again could end up dealing you more damage from the pain lands.

Thats really the "Double Edge" with Mardu, most decks compensate from Butcher of the Horde or multiple Sorin, Solemn Visitor to hit Lifelink and pump them back up to safety. I really dont think that will work here with 0 creatures.....

Really your only answer to this is Sarkhan + Sorin, which is a fantastic option, trust me I have won many games from just that, but with only 1 Sorin you may have trouble hitting the lifelink as well as with no creaturebase to chump block, your walkers become easy targets...

Possibly +1 Sorin?

Or maybe just toss in a Meditation Puzzle for the hell of it. Haha.

Meditation Puzzle is to heavy for what you are trying to do here. Making Sarkhan, Elspeth and Sorin 2of's could be a solution.

Essentially, you either want to get Sarkhan, turn him into a dragon, +1 Sorin for buff and lifelink and swing to recover. or Get Elspeth, make some dudes, +1 Sorin for buff and lifelink and swing to recover.

I also changed up the land base. 3 Wind-Scarred Crag to help gain a little, if any. Don't care for tapped lands, but what else can I do other than completely change the deck (again)?

The only thing I really struggle against so far is the super-aggro RDW floating around (Firedrinker/Frenzied Goblin/Dragon Mantle/Hammerhand/Burn and so forth) and Abzan Midrange. Everything else has either been a fair fight or prey.

I would drop the crypts from the board and run the 3rd and 4th Chandra but other than that looks good :)

Match one might be often a probelm but after Sideboarding with 4 copies Anger 2 circels, perhaps some copies of the Ram. there shoud give ya a better standing against that.Often my Mardu Midrange struggel Game 1 but after Sideboarding it runs very solid against Aggro.

Crypt is actually hilarious against decks that run off delve. But Nyx-Fleece Ram might take its place. Not quite sure.

The only elephant (rhino) in the room now is Abzan midrange. Seriously, who didn't see Siege Rhino in R&D and not go "this is overpowered"?

Not a huge fan of the Crag, or other tapped lands. In my findings, I would rather take the 1 damage or use the colorless then have to wait another turn.

Take a look at my build for some thoughts. Mardu Mayhem! (Final Build)

My thoughts on Mardu have always been that you need to pay the life early to get your mana in line, be that from Sting/pain lands, Fetch lands or Mana Confluence , even though I am not a fan of the last option, I have come to understand that it is a requirement sadly....

I am not a fan of the wedge lands (tapped life lands) as they slow the entire beast down a turn. Same goes for the other tri-lands.

My deck changes gears after turn 4, then it moves to lifegain either from Butcher of the Horde or Sorin, Solemn Visitor to stabilize the game a bit and ensure I can outlast the aggro builds.

I love Mardu, but I think the decks have alot of evolving to do. It will be interesting to see what the pro's do over the next few weeks/months.

+1 for a solid shell, and a different idea. This is one of the better Mardu Walker builds I have seen. Good luck!

xGhostx the tap lands are much more useful than the pain lands in a midrange deck for various reasons. The main reason why is because the deck is trying to last and has stall tactics to go into the later turns tapped mana doesnt slow you down to much. When you need your life to keep going a land that gives it has more merit than a land that takes it. Yes sometimes it's needed for an untapped land which is why fetches are useful.

1. Walker decks are slow naturally. Most of your control and stall is in the 2-4 drop range so you can go turn 3 with 2 mana untapped and the third comming in tap because your not playing to win until turn 5-8 where your mans is needed for the win cons.

To creator of deck

Looks very solid and something to be careful against. Plenty of walker control and draw. This deck is something I like and reminds me of my own walker Mardu deck. If you want to swap ideas check out mineButcher of madness

Jamesfurrow

My issue is at the moment that there are better, more efficient ways of gaining life in Mardu then using lands that hold you back a turn.

Like I said, I think Mardu plays its best when turns 1-4 consist of pain/fetch lands to get your base in order, then focus on stabilizing afterwards. I understand where your coming from but the only time I even remotely like playing a land tapped is when I can scry off it, and even then its more of a necessary evil...... similar to running Mana Confluence .

My thoughts and opinions based on my meta and experiences.

Fair enough xGhostx. But if you wanna look at my deck and see my results in my local fnm you'll notice mardu if not control is very lacking in aggro. I may also just be one of the more expensive decks but I play serious trying to prepare for various competitive decks. Anyways hope I didn't offend you in anyway. And please feel free to look at my deck in the previous comment and give advice

Strangely, 3 Sorin's and 4 Nyx-Fleece main seems to be working. The Nyx were mostly an idle joke to myself, yet they stop some of the early game punches and gain me life JUST enough to slow my opponent down to where I can start dropping walker's and going off.

Things learned (from mistakes made):

• Do not use Sorin's +1 before Sarkhan is +1'd.

• Do not make Elspeth's 3 1/1 soldiers before dropping your board wipe.

• Stop hitting F6 in MTGO (forces it to pass all phases until your opponents next turn).

• Garruk is fucking scary.

Yeah I like the Sheep, I have em SB'd for now in my Mardu build

you just have the Downfalls to deal with a wise played Garruk atm...( thats speaks for the 2 copies of Utter End )and please trust me you want 4 crackling ;)

Have you thought of adding the 4th Crackling Doom and Anger of the Gods mainboard and remove the 2 Thunder Bolts?

I've juggled them around a bit in play and it works either way. Strikes are nice for the 1 R requirement vs. RWB in the early game.

After some more testing, I'll see which is best.

Because aggro is usually a bit of a problem in my area, I run 3 anger of the gods mainboard. I have come to realize that it is a good answer to just about every deck, because it also wipes caryatids to slow them down a bit. My thoughts only though. If aggro isn't as strong where you are, forget it.

I was running Anger main for a while, but kept running into situations where it either couldn't kill the creatures on board (Abzan fatties) or had no creatures to kill at all (Esper Control/Jeskai Burn).

I mostly play MTGO, so there's a large mix-breed of things to play against. If game 1 I find out I'm up against aggro, game 2 all 4 Angers come in, the 4 Strikes go out, and the 4 Seeker's get replaced with 4 Nyx-Fleece. I end up with 7 board wipes main and 4 big, life-gaining blockers. So far, it's been devastatingly effective.

Anger of the gods is a 3x sideboard for me. Aggro isn't huge in my meta, but like it has been mentioned before, anger screws a lot of decks over. You always have to be prepared, which is exactly what my sideboard is for. If you want to check it out Aww, hell!. I like the build. Empty the pits is kinda nuts in any deck that plays a bunch of removal and fetchlands. I would highly, highly suggest removing the mana confluence in favor of the trilands or more dual lands. I played mana confluence for a long time, and it kills you. I rarely have mana color problems running the trilands and dual lands, and mana confluence has ruined games before. On the topic of taking damage from lands, since you're playing a more controlling version of the deck, I'll also suggest playing 1x Resolute Archangel it may help save you after taking damage for so many turns!

I'm just afraid of my mana coming in too slowly to pull something off that I absolutely need to pull off that very moment, not next turn.

I did run Resolute for a long time, but I continuously ran into a problem where I'd be just short of playing her (typically due to a land coming in tapped, ironically).

The way that it is now, yes, I can end up hurting myself quite a bit. But that's why I have Seeker/3x Sorin to hopefully mitigate that, and often it works.

Honestly, looking at the lifegain capabilities in your deck I'd highly suggest confluence/pain lands like Battlefield Forge /Caves of Koilos . You can so easily gain it back with 4x Butcher, 2x Sorin, and a Whip in the main that I don't understand why you aren't.

You also have 12 turns worth of lands coming in tapped, which is 12 turns where you're inhibited (besides the lands ability when it comes in tapped). Scry is nice, but mana right then and there is nicer. That's the difference between being able to play your Butcher this turn to stop their Rhino from slapping you on their turn. You spent 1 life point to generate the mana to put your Butcher on the field to prevent 4 damage from their Rhino. THAT'S the value of painlands to me.

Have you ever considered Deflecting Palm ? It comes in handy. You have a nice build and I don't see anything worth taking out to add it, but it is an option I'd consider in your position. It's a good side against devotion to green, and jeskai tempo. And monsters.

I love Deflecting Palm but it just isn't worth it when I can wipe the threats away anyway. Just no room for it, sadly.

Currently trying to fit Erase in anyway. No idea where to put it as well.

Sign in Blood on the side to keep up against control decks with blue (a la Dig and Treasure)? Do you really need the two Perilous Vault ? Overall, I like it very much. That Nyx-Fleece really helps the mana base not hurt so darned much.

Perilous vs. decks running aggro control (Banishing light) and lots of enchantments. I will think of a way to get some card draw in if I can, though.

The problem with vualt is you spend 9 mana to wrath. 4 to place 5 to crack. The danger is if you play turn 4 and not have that 5th land drop your aggro player is going to ignore it and simply swing to win before you can crack it.

Deck is definitly looking good but why not main board 2 copies of Read the Bones arguable one of the best draw spells in standard. Ik blue has dig and treasure but this card is blacks strongest draw spell I've seen in standard. 3 mana and 2 life to see what your drawing then deciding if you want them is very important in a walkers deck