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_ Strategy _

This deck uses the best disruptions in Modern to set up a powerful board-state of planeswalkers & flying tokens on steroids.

Tokens is a central part of the strategy. First, tokens renders our opponents' spot removals poor. Second, tokens provide extensive protection to our planeswalkers allowing us to generate endless value. Third, their sheer number and evasion means you get maximum value from lifelink and vigilance, as well as having better late-game insurance against grounded creature decks.

There are four parts to Mardu Creature-less: tokens + anthems + disruption + removal. All your planeswalkers are versatile and synergizes with 2/4 parts.

Mardu vs Jund This deck is fairly similar to Jund.

Mardu: Far better against the X/1 decks (Affinity and Infect). More resilient when Path to Exile is irreplacable (Eldrazi, Death Shadow, Tron, etc.). Good against decks heavy on spot removal. Has more life gain. Has a better mana-base than Jund. Most importantly, its end-game is much more powerful due to Gideon, Sorin, and tokens being able to fly.

Jund: Main threats being at 3 cmc vs 2 cmc is a big deal. Jund is usually better against combo decks due to Abrupt Decay and Tarmogoyf being better at disrupting and racing. It also punishes decks light on removal with cards like Dark Confidant. The deck often has relevant utilities with Scavenging Ooze and can run better man-lands.

Since this deck is not as synergy based, this deck is difficult to hate out. Rest in Peace however destroys Jund.

Why Mardu?

Mardu always offered the best removals in its colors: Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Thoughtseize. Unlike Legacy, Modern is a format dominated by creatures, and as a result, removal.

So why isn't Mardu more popular? Well consider the three routes possible with Mardu: aggro or midrange or control.

Mardu Burn is a valid aggro deck but it's debatable whether it's better than Naya or Jund Burn. With the midrange route, you are doomed to be a second-rate Junk/ Jund deck because you lack the pressure of very efficient beaters like Tarmogoyf and Scavenging Ooze. And with the control route, you want blue for card advantage, as well as reliable finishers like Celestial Colonnade. It is difficult to find a niche for Mardu.

Every creature variant of Mardu - Mentor, Aristocrats, Pyromancer, Butcher, etc. - has too many weaknesses.

It eventually dawned on me: the tokens build is the most low-risk build, with the best endgame pressure. Furthermore, token generators did not take too many spots of the deck, allowing more wiggle room for removals.

This deck is almost like BW Tokens. The changes are:

  • Creature decks are extremely favorable in this variant. Exceptions are combo-based creature decks like Dredge and Abzan Company which are roughly 50/50 or slightly unfavorable. I run Anger of the Gods solely for these, in addition to other grave hate.

  • Control and Combo match-ups get better, as the deck is faster with burn spells and superior sideboard options.

Improving BW Tokens

BW tokens has never been seen as a tier 1 deck. Two major reasons for this:

(a) slow clock --> weak against combo and tron

(b) lack of resilience -> weak against zoo, merfolk, burn, etc.

My first step was to splash red for more efficient removal. Lightning Bolt is far better than Path to Exile in the early games (usually) and Lightning Helix mitigates thoughtseize and bitterblossom. BW Tokens does literally nothing the first three turns. We have some proactive discard (bad on the draw against aggro) and we have some bad early game removal (path to exile). On turn 2, we cast Bitterblossom or an anthem, which do not affect the board immediately. On turn 3, we get a few tokens onto the field but we do not want to block with them against most decks. Having lightning bolt and lightning helix gives the deck a way to interact with the board early!

_Questions Answered _

1. What about Mentor and Pyromancer? Lack of blue leads to inefficient fuel for Monastery Mentor and Young Pyromancer. It's a very high-risk strategy with unreliable payoff.

2. What about Mardu midrange? Lack of big cheap beaters like Tarmogoyf would make Mardu a worse midrange attrition deck than Jund or Junk. We have card advantage in dark confidant but no way to abuse this using snapcaster mage or powerful creatures. Despite having the best planeswalkers, our inevitability is worse than combo decks like Scapeshift and control decks like Tron.

3. Why splash a color to an already proven archetype?BW Tokens has a bad match-up against fast aggro decks due to inefficient removal. The deck often loses because it cannot achieve stability within the first five turns; running efficient removals like bolt and lightning helix greatly tilt the match-ups in our favor. Also, burn spells are considerably more powerful as removal in a deck full of instant speed chump blockers.

The reason why BW Tokens isn't considered tier 1 is because while it can be powerful, it can take many turns to generate that power. Decks will beat you down while you slowly set up your board state and have to chump block if they put a fast clock on you. Splashing red gives you access to powerful early-game reactive spells, which will inevitably

4. What's the weakness of the deck? No deck is flawless obviously. Mardu Creatureless suffers from a lack of hand manipulation. Sometimes it draws all tokens or all removals. I am experimenting on the ideal proportion between removal, token generator, planeswalker, and land.

How does this compare to Mardu control?Mardu creatureless control is exactly as stated: creatureless. We don't particuarly care about landing a dark confidant or abbot. We generate card advantage by utilizing token generation. The reason why I think this is a superior deck is because tokens make the opponent's removal bad. Losing a dark confidant on turn 2 - if you ideally drew one - result in a significant loss of tempo. In addition, tokens provide a fairly fast clock compared to a traditional control build, which is important against combo and control decks like Tron.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Hey y'all. There are some key things I wanted to update with the deck:

1) Liliana of the Veil gives the deck so much versatility: removal or hand pressure. My favorite play is to dump extra Bitterblossoms, land or Lingering Souls. This is the best card to have against the unfavorable matches and isn't too shabby in the favorable ones either!

I used to run 2 Gideon and 2 Sorin. The problem with running 4 planeswalker was that you'd see multiples in your opening hand. This ruins your early game hands. I wanted more anthem effects but that came at a cost. Even cards like Intangible Virtues are not the best cards to open with. With Liliana of the Veil, you can afford to run more because the difference between 3-mana and 4-mana is substantial. In the end, I can only support 3 four-mana planeswalker: 2 Sorin and 1 Gideon.

2) Ever since the new fastlands were printed, I decided to cut down each fetchland. I very much like this result. Although the conventional wisdom is to run as many fetches possible, I just find this unnecessary. Even when I fetched a basic, I felt like I was losing way too much life throughout the course of the game.

Although I love the Shambling Vents, I wanted to play my threats as quickly as possible in this new build. I cut it down to 3.

3) Since I'm playing 3 Fetid Heaths, I figured Spectral Procession is worth trying out over Midnight Haunting.

Comments

Date added 9 years
Last updated 7 years
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

14 - 1 Mythic Rares

21 - 10 Rares

19 - 3 Uncommons

4 - 1 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.24
Tokens Emblem Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 W, Vampire 2/2 B
Folders B/W Tokens, deck ideas, Modern Tokens
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