Mardu Aggro (BFZ)

Standard*

zandl

Creature (21)

• 4x Bloodsoaked Champion
• 4x Butcher of the Horde
• 2x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 4x Flamewake Phoenix
• 1x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
• 2x Smothering Abomination
• 4x Soulfire Grand Master

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Land (24)

• 4x Battlefield Forge
• 4x Bloodstained Mire
• 4x Caves of Koilos
• 2x Mountain
• 4x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Plains
• 2x Shambling Vent
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 2x Swamp

Instant (11)

• 3x Crackling Doom
• 2x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Murderous Cut
• 1x Utter End
• 4x Wild Slash

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Ruinous Path

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Sideboard

Creature (3)

• 3x Arashin Cleric

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Outpost Siege

Instant (2)

• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Surge of Righteousness

Sorcery (7)

• 2x Arc Lightning
• 1x Crumble to Dust
• 3x Duress
• 1x Ruinous Path

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I initially began the design here with the intention of making a punishing and relentlessly aggressive deck, but what eventually turned out was a highly synergistic and complex midrange/aggro hybrid. For all you fans of more... “dude-based” and complex aggressive strategies, eat your heart out.

If your cursory glance to the left hasn’t yet yielded the information, Flamewake Phoenix and, to a lesser extent, Bloodsoaked Champion are the links holding everything together. Butcher of the Horde + Flamewake Phoenix is already a fantastic combination and one we know and love. I’m more interested in this new card, Smothering Abomination, and its implications with creatures we can recur each turn. With a Phoenix out, the Abomination essentially has “: Draw a card” during your upkeep. Further Phoenix support arrives in the form of both Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker becoming large creatures to turn on Ferocious for no additional mana. The plan, once you’ve got your board up and going, is to turn everything sideways and spot-remove anything that gets in your way.

In keeping with the recursion theme, Soulfire Grand Master can gain us some pretty significant life and start recycling cards if/when the game goes late. Should you get to the point of the game where you have 7 mana, using the Grand Master’s Buyback ability to recycle Kolaghan's Command is a dream come true for midrange players.

Our options for the sideboard are certainly diverse, so I’ve narrowed it down to some choices we already know will work well. Arashin Cleric likely comes in over Bloodsoaked Champion against aggro to net us life (and block a lot better than the Champion can). Duress and Outpost Siege help us stay relevant against control decks and Languish. The newbie Crumble to Dust can wipe away pesky man-lands or any other juicy target. The slew of other one-ofs we have to choose from give us more reach against various strategies that may harm us.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 1 Mythic Rares 37 - 4 Rares 9 - 4 Uncommons 0 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.89
Tokens	Emblem Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Emblem Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Emblem Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Vampire 2/2 B
Folders	Standard