Hey man,

I'm playing exactly the same type of deck, so first : LET'S HAVE FIVE !

I pretty much agree with everything you are doing here, but i have a few comments that might help you improving this decklist !

First, as we play control/midrange and without any ramp (no green) you should maybe think about running 26-27 lands.

Besides, i don't really understand why you are running brimaz. He is good, but he is not really useful here. Let me explain myself : attacking with it in "early game" is pretty useless as we are midrange. furthermore, he is not even such a good blocker (a wall of essence or a Nyx-Fleece will sustain your life, what you really need btw, and block the same....and for one mana less) The only purpose i can see for it is to be able to attack a planeswalker when you have no more removal... but your sarkhans and stormbreath usually do the job just fine + a magma jet or lightning strike for an annoying Garruk (this guy is actually our worst ennemy) that doesn't want to die.

Finally, i would probably put some crackling doom main board for those annoying hexproof things OR, even better, get some SOLDIER OF THE PANTHEON. An overpowered card, 1 drop, protect you from everything multicolored without evasion and sustain your life. EXACTLY, WHAT, WE, NEED X)

Annnnd, maybe get rid of those Sorin as we have not enough creatures.

Good luck !!! Hope that was helpful ;)

ps : HIGH FIVE* I'm a french guy with a poor understanding of english hahaha

I agree with Quentin. Brimaz, King of Oreskos just doesn't do much later in the game against a lot of decks. One card i'm really excited about is Butcher of the Horde for even more big evasive damage. I also really like the new Mardu Charm because his first ability is good at killing Courser of Kruphix , his second ability is good at flashing in blockers against aggro with all the x/1's in the format and the instant speed duress is super powerful against most midrange and later decks. I'm also trying midrange mardu too and ready for the baus!

Butcher of the Horde runs much better in a Goblin Rabblemaster deck as a curve-topper.

So far, it seems what Mardu Charm can do, other spells just do it better and usually not as restrictive of a cost.

I am definitely considering a different version without Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Sorin, Solemn Visitor (or more creatures with this guy). I am currently trying to make a list of possible substitutes that would still synergizes with the rest of the list and still serve the purposes of the cards that are coming out, which are:

1. Reliable Lifegain outlet that can still apply some amount of pressure to force removals.

2. Doesn't die to Anger of the Gods since these cards will usually stay in against aggro.

Among other things.

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions so far! They really help!

where are the trains?

Asking the important questions.

You showed up late. Trains left the station a while ago. Sorry.

The thing with Mardu Charm , is it's all in one card.

• Do we always want to discard on turn 1 ? Not sure. Iknow Idon't always. Instant speed Duress is very powerful. So it's a Duress and not a Thoughtseize , ok, right. Duress is good enough for me, especially as Duress is out of standard now.

• Do we want Raise the Alarm ? Well, maybe, but we then lose the first strike. I had the opportunity to use this option, it is awesome against aggro.

• Do we want to burn players ? Ok, yes, I don't see why we wouldn't, but that's still a removal with two other abilities.

And basically, if the argument of the cost could be brought, yes it's heavy on mana, and somehow expansive, but really what we pay is the versatility. Other cards do it better, but it would require three different cards. Khans charms are just nasty. The one Ilike the least is Temur Charm , and it still has a built-in Mana Leak .

I really like what you are doing here, and I am also a major Mardu supporter. Just from a quick look though, how do you deal with the current very Aggro meta in Standard? Mono-Black Aggro, Jeskai Tempo, Mardu Aggro Token, New Red Deck Wins?

I have built kinda the "Anti-Train" to this in the form of Mardu Aggro Tokens. Take a look and let me know your thoughts. Mardu (Mayhem Edition)

I fully understand your "pain" with fixing the mana in these beasts. I think I spent roughly double if not triple the time fixing the mana without stinging myself to death then I did building the creature and spell base lol.

So yeah, I really think this build has tonne of potential, so +1 for sure! I just think its a little ahead of its time. We all know that Standard IS going to slow down, people will eventually stop running the Aggro builds, but we are still so early into Khans no one has really found where they want to be yet. Hence the massive amount of Aggro decks as they are fairly easy to compile and when done well run strong.

Thanks for the comment!

Like every previous rotations, the dominant decks will generally be either really aggro decks or decks that do really well against aggro (like Abzan Midrange) early in the format. Once it matures, people figure out exactly how to deal with the meta and the format slows down (good example would be the Innistrad format when it was about to roll into Theros. So many American controls decks it was annoying).

I have seen one of those Mardu aggro lists running around and it seems super fun to play.

This list is still under heavy testing especially since I haven't gotten a chance to playtest it against a person yet (I've been out of town).

You need more card draw. Perhaps Chandra, Pyromaster Sign in Blood or Read the Bones would benefit the control theme.

There's a Chandra, Pyromaster in the sideboard for grindy matchups where I do need the cards. Otherwise, I have Magma Jet to fix my draws. I already take a decent amount of self-damage with fetches and pains that I can't really afford to run many of those draw spells.

Nice work, +1 from me fellow Mardu clansmen. I love this color wedge as well, Mardu is a great color combination. Dragons and goblins go together like peanut butter and jelly, it just works. My only suggestion would be to work in a little protection for your Goblin Rabblemaster since that is the main source of your token generation. a few Gods Willing is a cheap and effective addition. It's a nice deck that looks like fun to play. Anything with dragons is always a plus. I also run a mardu deck, and if you get the chance I'd love to hear your opinion. Butcher of Mardu

Sorin and wingmate take care of that. Besides u dont need mana confluence since u have time to get your mana fix without it. 2 battlefield forge should work. Thoughtseize turn 2 is just fine. U could fit in nyx fleece ram for more lifegain aggro stop and 2 drops if life is really an issue. But card adv is what control decks thrive on, thats why 2 for 1 removals and draw spells are crucial. If nothing else maybe mainboard 2 pyromaster.

Wingmate Roc is not in the deck. It's a card I am considering running but I don't think I can since I don't have enough other attackers to reliably activate the raid ability compared to Abzan Midrange. Also, I don't own the card just yet so I am holding off on running it until I can secure at least 1-2 copies. Mainboard Chandra, Pyromaster might not be a bad idea.

Gods Willing is a good spell, but the problem with running it in this deck is that I don't have enough creatures to justify opening up slots for it since it runs much better in a more creature-heavy deck with more chances for targets.

Pretty sexy well built staple stuffed awesomeness... xD Though the title is what got me here. +1

Seems solid sir.

+1 for me and the deck looks awesome. I also went the spell heavy on my mardu deck. Please check it out, make suggestions, and like if its deserved.

Only question for you is... What will board out/in against Control decks? Did you see that B/U and W/U control decks out there? I have a feeling we might see Esper soon because I'm working on my already!

Hey, Mrd671

the sideboarding against Ux control for this deck depends largely on what kind of threat they run and what you anticipate they will run. Most UBx control will run Empty the Pits and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver as their primary along with things like Pearl Lake Ancient and Prognostic Sphinx in some versions. In this case, you want at least:

+2 Despise +1 Chandra, Pyromaster +1 Empty the Pits

the rest of the sideboard is very dependent on what else they run. If they run white, be ready for Elspeth, Sun's Champion and side in a Bile Blight or two to help deal with soldier tokens if you have enough to take out of main.

TL;DR you really need to be able to see what kind of threats and answers they run.

For example, if they rely on things like Banishing Light and Suspension Field , then side in Erase . Erase also comes in against URx that will very likely run Keranos, God of Storms . If they run Prognostic Sphinx , make sure you keep some (or all) Crackling Doom in the main.

Most of the mainboard is already pretty good against control, just take out some removals and throw in threats and answers to their threats.

As for siding out, you generally do:

-2-4 Crackling Doom -0-3 Seeker of the Way

Goblin Rabblemaster is still a very real threat and they have to spend at least one card to deal with it. Keep them in if at all possible. Seeker of the Way is a tad too slow for this matchup and the lifegain isn't as relevant so you want better spells in its place. Crackling Doom becomes a poopy burn spell in a deck that doesn't run a whole lot of creatures (or one that runs on tokens strategy as win-con).

Sorry I can't be more specific. Sideboarding is super situational. If you need anymore specifics, feel free to ask!

GO MARDU!! Check out my Deck (Sorin Mardu) so we can share some mardu ideas.

I love the potential of crackling doom! I feel like Mardu has almost all the components needed to make it really good in Standard and it's almost great that it doesn't yet because basically everything in this list is still pretty cheap except for the Rabblemasters (because of Jeskai). I feel like you should get your hands on as many crackling dooms as possible. The amount of Sarkhans I have eaten with the thing in playtesting is incredible. It also plays really well against Siege Rhino because it negates some of the lifegain.

Like I said, however, the deck is really lacking in solid 1-3 drops against other decks in the meta. Do you not feel like your curve is too high with all the 5 drops?

83cheshire, to answer your question: Not really. Our early drops are in the form of removals much of the time. We are here to gain tempo advantage early so that they have a hard time dealing with whatever comes next. Goblin Rabblemaster is a great creature to start the ball rolling with as he is an absolute must-answer threat. If they have no answer for them, they are in for a 2-3 turn clock along with whatever else we have in our hand. If they do have an answer for it, you gladly trade a 3-drop for normally a 3-mana or more spell and move on.

This deck almost only plays aggressively either against a particularly bad start by an opponent or against a pure control deck. Against everything else, you play the role of control and try to remove as many threats as possible on their turn so that you can eventually untap and present a threat of your own. You notice that there are 17 removals (not counting planeswalkers that can also do so) in the mainboard and even more in the sideboard. This is here to clear the board of any threats so that you can swing back unanswered once they run out of gas. Not to mention that all of our 5-drops require relatively specific cards to cleanly remove and they all have evasion, which are both very crucial to our success.

The only bad matchup according to my experience is post-board games against Abzan Midrange where they have much better top-end draws than we do and also that they have more access to draw engines in the form of Liliana Vess , Ajani, Mentor of Heroes , and Abzan Charm . Their threat density is very high and sometimes we are left with zero answer right as they slam an Elspeth, Sun's Champion .

I have experimented with Seeker of the Way as an early drop since the card proved its power in Mardu decks in many recent events. However, I am not a big fan of running him at least at my local meta since he ends up being sided out almost every match and so he isn't as good as he normally is. It's a love-hate relationship with this guy.

I do agree with your assessment on Crackling Doom 's power and potential to rise in cost. I did mention that Crackling Doom is my sole reason to play Mardu since I believe it's the best card in the clan.

Thanks for the comment!

I'm not sure how good chained to the rocks is in here. Do you have enough Mountains to sustain it? Since you lack early-game threats you're going to need it online to survive to the midrange a lot of the time. I knoe you have Bloodstained Mire to fetch them but, as a tricolor deck, I can see you prioritizing mana fixing and going for a Swamp over a Mountain a lot of the time. So I'd say you have about 7 Mountains in your deck. Is that enough?

83cheshire, I have yet to not find a mountain to turn on Chained to the Rocks when I do have it (but that could be variance being on my side). If I don't, it's usually within the next 1-2 turns that I find one. Fetchlands help a lot in this situation. I don't prioritize fetching swamps as much anymore since I took that into account and made sure I do have black sources when I need them (running only 3 copies of Hero's Downfall helps as it is the only double black spell I run). I obviously have to prioritize which double color I need at the moment and within the next few turns so it's very situational. I do have access to 9 copies of mountains in this deck which is around 40% of my lands and that means that I have a pretty decent chance of having access to a mountain when I have Chained to the Rocks in hand.

Thanks again!

this deck is pure ca$h

@nutellaisgreaterthanlife: But that is okay because this deck is awesome!