I think it is pretty sweet. +1

I am glad to see that someone finally realized the strength of Mardu skullhunter. I also like the focused nature of your deck construction.

If I may i will give you one suggestion...

Consider adding a few burns. Preferably Lightning Strike .My basis for this suggestion is the following. I know this aggro deck is not for all out speed, and more for have speed and flexibility. But i do think that in the late game you will prefer top decking a burn rather then a Read the Bones .

Pros like Craig Wesco have had some great success with this type of approach. " http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=5383&d=231090&f=ST " PS. I Know this is not standard any more.

But whether you add the burn or not this deck of yours will be really good. Goodluck

I've been treating red as a splash - the few red cards in the deck are gold cards. There are enough red sources to support a few burn spells though. I can see Lightning Strike replacing Mardu Charm or Sign in Blood .

The Charm is almost always used in burn mode, making the Strikes pretty comparable. Lightning Strike is easier to cast and can go to the face, while Mardu Charm has an extra point of damage and a couple other modes of operation.

The fun thing about Sign in Blood is that it can actually target other players. I've actually used it that way to get the last bit of damage in, though it is rare. Most of the time I would prefer drawing two cards myself, but given that sometimes you just want some burn on your opponent I can see putting Lightning Strike here as well.

Adding Lightning Strike to Maybeboard. Also adding Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to main deck, which I'd simply forgotten about.

I've noticed a consistent problem with this deck where I get the opponent to <=5 life and just cannot push the last bit through. The casual tournaments I played this weekend really pushed that point home.

To combat this I am swapping Crackling Doom in place of Mardu Charm and following through on quimas' suggestion to replace Sign in Blood with Lightning Strike . I'll miss the Sign in Blood's, but I believe these changes will give the deck the reach it needs to close out games. It is possible I will have to add a little more red sources, but for now I will try it as-is.

One other change I'm pondering is replacing Bellowing Saddlebrute . Options under consideration are maindecking 2 Athreos, God of Passage , or putting in 2 of either Spiteful Returned or Herald of Torment .

I do like the changes.

Herald of Torment and Spiteful Returned are excellent options.

Two other cards you can consider in my opinion is Mogis's Warhound and Minotaur Skullcleaver . They are cheap and rather good. Maybe they can help you to deliver that last blow.

Goodluck

Nice Brew, here some suggestions from another Marduplayer.

-Why only 3 Butcher ? He is the firstplace Wincon in every Mardudeck, you opp. have to answer him immediately.

• Try the Herald of Torment in some testruns, later in game he morph 2/1 warriors into big nasty 5/4 flyers.

• and last but not least perhaps the Rabbelmaster ? or better why no Rabbelmaster ?

anywaygood luck further+1 ;)Unite the Tribes !!!

All great cards, the problem is finding room and keeping the curve low.

• Butcher sits in the highest slot in maindeck, shared with Sorin and Utter End. This is the most likely to happen though, since 1 card won't disrupt too much.
• Herald of Toment I've considered before. My current 3-drops are staying for sure, and replacing cheaper cards is hard. I'd put in Athreos or a couple more Tymaret's in place of the Skullhunters before I'd go Herald, and I don't want to shift my curve higher than that.
• Rabblemaster runs into all the same issues as Herald. He would fit in extremely well though, if I can find somewhere to put him.

2 questions I'm pondering:

Relative merits of Ashcloud Phoenix vs Highspire Mantis? The Phoenix is good no doubt, but the Mantis is too and nobody seems to think about him. I'd like to run both but don't have the room for that may 4-drops.

Should I make room for 2 Nyx-Fleece Ram in the sideboard?

i really dont like ashcloud phoenix, can u explain why u play him?

@mcpilz I play Ashcloud Phoenix because he is a 4 power flyer for 4 mana. Flying of course gets around a ton of blockers that stop a lot of the rest of the deck. The 4 power means he hits pretty hard or can trade for heavy hitters like Stormbreath, Wingmate, or opposing Butchers. He is relatively hard to get rid of because he comes back as a morph when killed. 4 mana means he comes out earlier than a lot of cards with his power.

However I must admit that Butcher is my ideal turn 4 play and I've resisted putting mana costs higher than 4 main deck because this used to be a straight aggro deck and I'm stuck in that mindset. I'm considering replacing him with Highspire Mantis as mentioned earlier, but he doesn't trade up like the Phoenix can. It is also entirely possible that I should go bigger and just play a couple Stormbreaths or Wingmates, or bring in the Sarkhans from the sideboard.

yah, i paly 3x sarkhan for 5 main. Ashcloud has no haste, Sarkhan has, and he can trade with a stormbreath better, cause u can focus him down! he keeps the path open for butcher (as stormbreath counters him, like u already know)

I'll give Sarkhan a try this weekend then, and update the deck if it works out well. Thanks!

Good stuff. Nice to see the deck had a well-deserved good night!

As I said in the last update, I'm considering adding Elspeth, Sun's Champion to the sideboard but can't decide what to take out. I was thinking of replacing an End Hostilities since her -3 kind of overlaps with it and she is a similar mana cost, but I'd like to hear other opinions on that or the deck as a whole.

I say replace Arc Lightning. End Hostilities is too valuable when you're going walkers.

Seem reasonable. I do have plenty of cheapish removal even without Arc Lightning, plus Nyx-Fleece Ram after sideboarding.

Now I just gotta get an Elspeth

Some changes I'm going to trial at FNM tonight:

• -3 Chief of the Edge main
• +3 Raise the Alarm main
• -2 Mardu Charm main
• +2 Murderous Cut main
• -1 Lightning Strike main
• +1 Hero's Downfall main
• -2 Arc Lightning side
• +1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion side
• +1 Liliana Vess side

The Chief has been good to me for a long time, but I want to try something a little different. Raise the Alarm will give me an extra body to use with Butcher or Tymaret, and gets a card in the graveyard for the Murderous Cuts I'm adding.

About Murderous Cut, I get a fair number of things in the graveyard but don't delve at all - That's just wasted resources. Whereas I just can't make up my mind if I like Mardu Charm or not. As a removal spell it doesn't kill Stormbreath or Sarkhan, and making tokens is better done with Raise the Alarm or Hordeling Outburst. But it is still quite versatile, hence why I can't just hate it.

Similarly, Downfall is just a better removal than Lightning Strike. Later on I might even swap the Strikes for Magma Jet, as 2 vs 3 damage doesn't feel very relevant in the current meta, but Scry 2 is definitely relevant.

I've already talked about replacing an Arc Lightning with Elspeth, so I won't go into that much. One remaining Arc Lightning seems like it just won't do much, so I'll replace that with a 2nd Liliana. I could go for another Elspeth or Sarkhan, but Liliana can just tutor for either of those or anything else I need.

If it goes well I'll update the list here.

Tentatively I like the changes, but I'm going to have to give it more time to be sure. Didn't do well this weekend at all. A recurring theme is that Jeskai is a problem - I can kill creatures all day long, but there's not a lot I can do about burn spells killing my creatures and then doing 20 more to my face. I'm also not sure what to do about Temur - Their midrangey play makes me want to go walkers like I do against Abzan, but the counterspells they run completely screw that plan. It also helps considerably when I get enough land to cast my spells - Not usually a problem, but this just wasn't my week I guess.

On the plus side, I had a beautiful match against another Mardu deck. 1-1 on the aggro plan, then after going walkers I had the removal to keep the board mostly clear, then Sorin played defense while Liliana kept the opponent's hand empty and tutored up an Elspeth and End Hostilities to grind out a win.

About the card changes, Raise the Alarm and Elspeth felt great overall. Murderous Cut wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but still better than the Charm. I went ahead and tried out Magma Jet over Lightning Strike, but I'm not completely sold on that yet. Its kind of funny that I say 3 damage isn't super relevant, then suddenly half the decks I face run Mantis Rider. The extra scry is quite nice though.

Sideboard Deflecting Palm!

@orionwinterfire More than likely I will. I tried it on Saturday, though I didn't update the list here. I only had one though, so it didn't really make a difference. Caught a Butcher with it once though, which worked out pretty well for me. I'll try squeezing in a 2nd, maybe in place of a Read the Bones. Maybe even both of them and put Erase back in. I almost never want Erase, but when I do its gold.