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nUKe13 Mardu Pyromancer - PRIMER

Modern Burn Competitive Midrange Primer RBW (Mardu) Theme/Gimmick Tokens

nUKe13

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WELCOME TO MARDU PYROMANCER

"A meta where Midrange can exist is a healthy meta" - Anonymous

Over the years, as I've been making and updating this primer, I've heard from various streamers, articles, and players say, that when "fair" decks do well, Modern is in a good spot. I agree, and hope that Modern MTG stays healthy and diverse.

I am part of a Facebook group dedicated to Modern Mardu Pyromancer. The members are great and have been extremely helpful with suggestions and critiques.

https://www.facebook.com/share/nTHyJ9pvJ1eFVSNv/?mibextid=K35XfP

In addition, we have a discord dedicated to Mardu Pyromancer, other Mardu variants, non-Mardu decks, and even different formats.

discord.gg/WZ33Fe5

This discord has the most up-to-date changes and inclusions in the ever changing meta. We are always testing and talking about different ratios, so please come join us!

Lastly, I realize that I have always gravitated around Mardu colors, even with my EDH commanders, Edgar Markov, Trynn, Champion of Freedom/Silvar, Devourer of the Free, and Queen Marchesa (long may She reign). Be sure to check them out on my nUKe13 homepage, if you are interested. I don't claim to be the expert in Mardu compositions, so I am always looking for improvement and suggestions.

Comments and critiques are humbly accepted and greatly appreciated! Also feel free to add or challenge me on MTGO.

Username: nUKe13

To give some history and context, Boros Allies Beatdown was my first ever deck, followed shortly by Orzhov Allies Life gain, with a subtheme of Vampires, all around the Magic Origins and Battle for Zendikar blocks. I committed to the Vampire archetype, built Rakdos Vampires, and settled on mono-black Vampires for a long time. I was working on tribal Mardu Vampires (around the Ixalan block) when I started seeing Mardu Pyromancer come to fruition and gain popularity.

When I first was introduced to the modern format, Mardu Pyromancer didn't necessarily exist, and the Mardu decks themselves weren't particularly competitive, but I enjoyed the play style and ideas that would eventually become Mardu Pyromancer Midrange. Mardu Pyromancer included all the aspects of the game that I love: a combination of aggression from , disruption with , and control in .

When I heard about this collaboration, and saw the potential it had, I fell absolutely in love and I have never wanted to stray from the archetype. I love versatile burn and mass tokens, and I love the transitioning feel of midrange: from a controlling beginning, to a more aggressive game plan when the opponent has exhausted their resources. In general, it always feels like midrange is able to play an aggro gameplan against control, and become the control variant against aggressive strategies, and Mardu Pyromancer is able to adopt that role. Between token generation, burn, spot removal, and board wipes, Mardu Pyromancer has a lot cut out for it, and has game against almost every and any build in the meta. What Mardu lacks in cheap card draw and counter spells, it makes up in versatile synergies and diverse options in order to remain competitive. I’ve always loved these colors and their inherent "fair" approach to the game.

I ended up looking up common inclusions in popular builds then tweaked to make my own. I always feel like it’s a good way to go about builds one may be unfamiliar with. I would like to share the links that made a difference for me as I was constructing my version of this deck and I hope they benefit you too.

https://www.cardknocklife.com/modern-mardu-pyromancer-primer/

https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/established-modern/midrange/796127-mardu-pyromancer

https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/mardu-pyromancer

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cU-Ohjld2YM

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=14403&writer=Riley+Knight&articledate=1-18-2018

https://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=14414&writer=Riley%20Knight&articledate=1-24-2018

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s143/sh/1f659c3b-9fa5-46b3-9d94-64fc95b012b7/baef1b24f1b5d09f1c584765ce0a96e8

https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/mardu-deck-guide/

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1105865#paper

https://www.topdecked.me/decks/5460b945-8efa-41b8-b899-d5e7c0791022

https://strategy.channelfireball.com/mtg/channelmagic-articles/level-one-modern-mardu-pyromancer/ (https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/level-one-modern-mardu-pyromancer/)

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4790920#paper

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4781097#paper

Though many of these sites are a few years (or more) old, they give really good advice about how to play Mardu Pyromancer (and Midrange in general). The lists are outdated, but the knowledge we learn from the past helps form a better foundation in the present so we can spring forward to the future.

Speaking of the past, here are some other articles about the Midrange archetype, in general, that I have found helpful:

https://articles.starcitygames.com/premium/thoughtseize-you/

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/how-build/how-build-midrange-2017-02-07

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/midrange-archetype-2007-03-26

https://blog.cardkingdom.com/how-to-play-a-midrange-deck/

CREATURES

  • Seasoned Pyromancer - the new namesake of the deck, and an absolute godsend, especially after losing Faithless Looting. Use to begin to overwhelm the opponent and filter our hand. Flashback is nice for late game resilience, through blocking and pressure. The “Flashback” effect on Seasoned Pyromancer can be activated at instant speed, so it is nice for surprise tokens to attack or chump block. It's up the match, and personal experience, to know when to discard a non-land card to create a token, or discard needless lands. I like to save Seasoned Pyromancer after initial gas from our opening hand, then cast when our hand is low, or just have lands. We don't necessarily need the elemental tokens, as we are mainly digging for interaction.

  • Dragon's Rage Channeler - a new aggro piece that helps fill our graveyard and filter poor draws. Since we run creatures, artifacts, enchantments, instants, sorceries, and lands, we are able to trigger delirium pretty reliably. Being forced to attack can be problematic, but since we run a hefty amount of removal, we have the ability to make trades in our favor, most of the time. And, even though we are forced to attack, we can choose to attack Planeswalkers, or the player, if we need be.

  • Bonecrusher Giant - I really like the card, and it makes for a great turn 2, which often is our weaker turn, into turn 3. The downside is that it doesn’t add to the instant/sorcery count for reducing Bedlam Reveler’s cost. However, I think Bonecrusher Giant could be considered for a few reasons: 1) Makes our turn 2 more interactive. 2) It’s a decent sized body that also punishes opponent for interacting with it. 3) It can “go on an adventure” and stay safe from interaction, discard (ourselves or by opponent) or destruction. This also allows us to play it later when we might run out of gas. 4) It prevents us from drawing into double Bedlam Reveler in which we might have to get rid of one via the other. Honestly, I dropped 2 Bedlam Reveler for 2 Bonecrusher Giant since grave hate is somewhat prevalent and it diversifies our threats. I like Bonecrusher Giant against Control, or even decks with hand disruption, since a creature “on an adventure” can’t be targeted by any interaction, until it is played. This way, it can be played when opponent is tapped out or they have run out of resources.

  • Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger - new addition that I was testing out. I think this would be nice in long, grindy matches, like Jund or Control. Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger can also be discarded early, if need be, and brought back later in game, when opponent may have forgotten about it, and we have a grave full of useless spells/lands, for the escape cost. After testing Kroxa against those grindy games and Control, the escape cost can conflict too much with Bedlam Reveler when we are trying to keep the cost low, and sometimes we end up exiling our value flashback spells. Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger is not a bad card; the rest of the deck just needs some more tuning, and we might be running strictly rather than with prime sideboard cards.

  • Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer - stupid monkey is stupidly good. Since we play this weird blend of midrange via control/stun/aggro, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer literally does all three; controls (steals opponent’s top deck, stuns their game plan, and provides wary aggression.

ARTIFACTS

SPELLS

  • Faithless Looting - “You are as beautiful as the day I lost you.” Was banned, but no longer! With Looting back, we can consider running more flashback or madness mechanics to keep up and combat the meta. Some considerations for Faithless Looting: it can be more beneficial to cast from graveyard, even if you have 1 in your hand, to ensure you stay even on cards in hand. Using the one in hand may fill the graveyard, but nets you -1. It will all depend on your board state.

  • Blood Moon - great against Tron and other big mana decks, like Amulet Titan or Titanshift. Big Mana is back, and so is control. We need Blood Moon in order to stun and out value opponent. I've been testing between the big 3 Blood Moon main and 2 main and 1 sideboard to combat Tron, Titan, and Control decks. 1 would be in the sideboard just in case we face a myriad of unfavorable match-ups, including Burn, Prowess, Gruul aggro, or Storm. As I predicted, Mardu Pyromancer can suffer to early game aggression, from Burn, to Prowess, to Infect, and to common aggro strategies (including tribal variants). We need to be able to have a fighting chance in game 1, so we don't have to fight back and win game 2 and 3 back to back. Can swap out Blood Moon for Magus of the Moon, if you also run Unearth. The 3 Blood Moon main/side plan has been a pretty great hedge against Big Mana in the past, but it can be useless against more aggro strategies and other strategies that can easily fetch for .

  • Fatal Push - modern meta removal. Essential against basically any creature based deck outside of Tron. I’ve seen different ratios, but with Jund back on the rise, and Burn/Prowess sticking around, at least 2 is necessary. This also allows for optimal side boarding for match-ups where Fatal Push is ineffective (for example, swapping all 3 out against a control deck or a Tron/Titan). I’m debating replacing this (or Dreadbore) with Eliminate, but Fatal Push is just so good and so efficient, that I am hesitant to replace it.

  • Kaya's Guile - lots of text to basically say: "do Orzhov things". In the late game, where we seem to have an excess of lands, we can cast with Entwine to utterly overwhelm opponent. We can bring in as additional graveyard hate or a counter to big creature decks where we can make the opponent sacrifice their only creature. Also, the life gain is nice to hedge against aggressive strategies. I usually bring Kaya's Guile in, along with Leyline of the Void to ensure the opponent is shut off from their graveyard, especially in a meta where Dredge is becoming prevalent.

  • Kolaghan's Command - does everything this build needs: needed for graveyard recursion should we discard any of our creatures, force the opponent to discard (especially on the opponent’s draw step so we can "timewalk" them), artifact hate (especially with Urza, Lord High Artificer and the never ending artifacts they play) and small creature removal (again, against artifact tokens and other token or mana dork strategies). With Stoneforge Mystic off the ban list and changing the meta, Kolaghan's Command has been perfect to 2 for 1 the opponent, taking out the artifact equipment and creature in one swift, instant swoop.

  • Lightning Bolt - number 1 card in modern, played in practically every build with , and obvious burn is obvious and glorious. Mardu Pyromancer is midrange/control, with early disruption and some late game bounce back with Bedlam Reveler, and flashback on Seasoned Pyromancer and Lingering Souls. So Lightning Bolt helps us apply early aggro/burn pressure, while adding to the efficacy of Bedlam Reveler for late game sweeps. Lightning Bolt, like Fatal Push, is also great against mana dorks, like Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise to prevent them from dropping a big creature early in the game.

  • Terminate/Dreadbore/Molten Collapse- Terminate is unconditional, instant, creature Rakdos removal, minus indestructible creatures. 2 cmc is always better than 3, so cards like Hero's Downfall or Slaughter Pact are less valuable, especially with Eliminate just being printed. As for being instant vs sorcery speed, I’ve seen metas where there are more man-lands as threats (which die to Fatal Push anyway), and others which prefer planeswalkers. Some manlands change to artifacts, so Kolaghan's Command or Wear / Tear can help us here too. Basically, I’m always changing the ratio based on expected meta. Dreadbore has been better with the slower meta and a plethora of planeswalkers, and Terminate is great for Primeval Titan or other monstrous, gigantic creatures that Mardu Pyromancer can struggle against. Basically, in any meta, the ratio is always adaptable to whatever the present meta calls for, as well as the overall adapting/changing meta of the game. Dreadbore has recently helped with evolving meta controlled by the diversity of Planeswalkers, especially Tron and UW Control. However, as stated previously, Primeval Titan is still a massive pain to deal with, so Terminate is a great inclusion. Molten Collapse is a new addition that is simply direct power creep of Dreadbore. We can trigger “descend” with all the fetchlands and card:Mishra’s Baulble, but just remember: tokens (creatures or treasure) don’t count as permanent CARDS. So, yes they hit the graveyard, but since they were never a card to begin with, it won’t trigger “descend”.

  • Inquisition of Kozilek - in modern, the turn 3-5 format, this card hits basically everything that it needs to in the first few turns, or if we can rip a card draw the opponent may have in the late game. Optimal for turn 1 plays since most players keep a hand with 1-3 cmc drops for the first few turns. Anything else is taken care of by Thoughtseize. Practically essential since it doesn't have to compete with Faithless Looting for a turn 1 play after its ban.

  • Lingering Souls - in Modern, if you’re playing , you’re almost always playing this. Lingering Souls has always been one of my favorite cards in Modern, and is a nice added bonus to an already grind-game based deck. However, since we play Mardu, hard casting may be not as viable as discarding to Ransack the Lab or Collective Brutality (or any other discard outlet) and flashback for a cheaper cost. Just think ahead in turn sequences. Lingering Souls is great for always providing chump blockers and fliers when we need to turn the game around. There is an important note about discarding cards that have Flashback. Think about it this way: if we were to discard a card without Flashback, and we don’t run Snapcaster Mage, Underworld Breach, or Past in Flames, we wouldn’t be able to play them any more. It’s important to use every part of the card, including Flashback. Think and plan ahead in order to maintain VALUE and advantage against opponent. I’ve recently cut some copies, in order to diversify our main deck threats, but it is still one of my favorite cards to cast in all of MtG.

  • Thoughtseize - see Inquisition of Kozilek. Same idea: take away threats before they hurt us. Great for board wipes and big planeswalkers and, mainly, Big Mana (like Tron or Titan). Just be extremely careful about life total. With all the shocks, fetches, and this, life can go down really fast. Definitely side out in burn match-ups, or aggro builds, like Humans. Since Mardu Pyromancer suffers against big creatures or mana, I’ve been testing a higher count of Thoughtseize over Inquisition of Kozilek.

  • Unearth - my personal tech that most don't seem to play. I like the idea of being able to cycle if I don't have anything in the graveyard that I want to bring back, since this card brings back every creature in the current list, except Hazoret the Fervent. Optimally, Unearth would bring back Seasoned Pyromancer for a ton of value, but we could settle for Bonecrusher Giant for some big damage on the following turn.

LANDS

  • Bloodstained Mire/Marsh Flats/Arid Mesa/Prismatic Vista/Fabled Passage - perfect, flavor, thematic fetchlands. Gets basic for hand disruption or both of the main basic lands if we are conserving life. Basically, we generally want to cast a discard spell our 1st turn, since we don’t have to compete with Faithless Looting anymore. This makes Marsh Flats trump Arid Mesa, but having access to both and makes Bloodstained Mire better than both. Many other lists are playing 4 Marsh Flats and 0 Arid Mesa to ensure there is a way to fetch basic Swamp. You can run the split 2:2 between them, but, as others have shown me, it is critical to be able to play basic Swamp in preparation for Blood Moon, since our deck relies so heavily on Blood Moon to slow the game down so we can take over. Prismatic Vista is a more recent inclusion that often acts as a 9th fetch (usually in the line up of 4 Bloodstained Mire and 4 Marsh Flats). It only fetches basics, along with Fabled Passage, but since they come in untapped, it makes a good versatile 9th fetchland. Fabled Passage is a great budget fetchland option.

  • Blackcleave Cliffs/Dragonskull Summit - basically, Blackcleave Cliffs are better for consistency, and Dragonskull Summit for budget. On average, we will most likely fetch our first turn for several reasons: first, get a shock land for diversity and land duality. Second, thin the library. Last, keep our opponent guessing in game 1 about what we are playing. After turn 1, Dragonskull Summit actually becomes better than Blackcleave Cliffs. The only issue is that low probability that we draw a hand with only Dragonskull Summit, in which case, we might mulligan away anyway. Blackcleave Cliffs makes the build run much more smoothly, but if they are outside of budget, I would run 2 Dragonskull Summit and 1 more Mountain and 1 more Swamp.

  • Blood Crypt/Sacred Foundry/Godless Shrine - Blood Crypt is best shock to fetch, which is why we run 2, since primary colors are and . Almost always fetch this first. What’s next is up to opening hand. If we are conserving life, we can always grab Swamp or Mountain. Diversity of lands and nice to even out mana necessity, according to the pie chart here on TappedOut. Sacred Foundry is usually the next best shock for us, staying with mana. I used to hate drawing basic Plains, but it’s better to have the basic option, especially under Blood Moon. I’ve thought 2 Sacred Foundry and 1 Plains seem like a good ratio. I used to play the 1-1 split between Sacred Foundry and Godless Shrine, but I always felt off fetching for Godless Shrine, or having it in my opening hand with a basic Swamp. So 1 Plains and 2 Sacred Foundry have insured that is in our lands before Blood Moon, and 4 Bloodstained Mire and 4 Marsh Flats ensure the best chance of turn 1 Swamp.

  • Savai Triome - since it carries the Mardu land types, it can be fetched, and causes Castle Embereth to enter the field untapped. Can be fetched early to fix the diversity of cards we can cast post board in game 2. Or we can cycle for extra card draw in a late game situation. I keep forgetting this, as I'm playing, but you can cycle at instant speed, which is nice if you don't need Savai Triome as a land, and you can hold up mana to disrupt the opponent's play.

  • Sunbaked Canyon/Silent Clearing - both of these lands can be used, and each has its merits. Sunbaked Canyon helps in casting our plethora of creatures and Lightning Bolt on turn 1, whereas Silent Clearing helps us with a turn 1 or 2 discard spell. I have thought about it, and, hypothetically, if I were to add another shock land, instead of these canopy lands, I would add another Sacred Foundry, instead of another Godless Shrine. We should be able to fetch for a mana source turn 1 or 2, with how many fetch lands we have available to us. It is better, I think, to ensure that we have available, rather than a turn 1 Silent Clearing. Besides, if Silent Clearing or Sunbaked Canyon were the only lands in our opening hands, that hand would most likely end up as a mulligan. All of this is to say, I would be inclined to opt for Sunbaked Canyon over Silent Clearing in the current configuration.

  • Den of the Bugbear/Castle Embereth - currently, Den of the Bugbear replaced Castle Embereth for more utility, acting as our quasi-Raging Ravine in the late game. It's definitely not the greatest manland, but in a pinch, it can be used effectively to create more pressure. AND we get to keep the goblin token that is generated, so that's a nice touch. Castle Embereth acts as a pseudo spell/land that can pump our tokens in late game scenarios. It can be activated instantly, which is nice when an opponent thinks they will only take 2 or 3 and end up taking 4 or 6.

  • Takenuma, Abandoned Mire - another grave recursion piece. A bit on the pricier side of the new Kamigawa lands, but a good top deck in the late game.

  • Mountain/Swamp/Plains - since most of our lands are based, it’s nice to have some basic Mountain to fetch after a Path to Exile, Ghost Quarter, or Field of Ruin. Also nice to conserve life. I’m using basic Plains as a split with Sacred Foundry and Godless Shrine to help our land base with more mana necessity. Also, since we can run mainboard Blood Moon, we need Plains/Swamp to cast some spells under its effect. 22 lands is the new ratio. I personally wouldn’t go lower, especially since we have a multitude of 3 cmc spells after side boarding. I’ve gone down to 1 Mountain and added Sunbaked Canyon for late game card draw and mana diversity. I’ve also considered adding more Swamp, but I’m staying at 2 Swamp since I would hate to consistently draw into basic Swamp when I don’t need it or I’m looking for a fetch land or dual land. This requires more testing.

  • Boil - against any deck running , this is a complete blowout, if we can resolve it. It's out-of-this-world amazing that it can be cast at Instant speed.

  • Collective Brutality - just like Kolaghan's Command, this card provides us with versatile situations that help us deal with the match-up. This card does everything we need to outlast an Aggro opponent: discard, damage, and life gain. Against Combo, Prowess, or Burn, this is gold. It is exactly the hedge needed to remove problematic cards and preserve life total. Also, against early aggro, this puts us ahead of the curve, with anti-indestructible removal and life gain. It’s nice to discard our flashback cards, like Lingering Souls, in order to out value the opponent. I’m debating to main Collective Brutality, which might compete (or compliment) with Cling to Dust. There are a few reasons as to why I would make this change: 1) our game 1 needs to be more favored, to the general meta game, and going all in on Blood Moon, coupled with the high front cost of Smiting Helix, made aggro games frustratingly difficult to win game 1. 2) Collective Brutality provides us with more diversity of interaction on turn 2, that we previously didn't have access to. Our turn 2 plays were either Dreadbore, Ransack the Lab, or use 1-2 removal/hand disruption spells. Collective Brutality gives us more options to interact with our opponent, sometimes providing both the hand disruption AND the removal in 1 card. 3) Collective Brutality helps us to discard Lingering Souls or needless creatures or spells that may clog up our hand. Doing this opens up a play where we can Flashback Lingering Souls AND play another 1cmc spell on turn 3. Or just using another spell. Also, discarding spells will allow Magmatic Channeler to get the stat buff more easily. The point is: with Collective Brutality we have more options than before, at the cost of not having a more consistent turn 3 Blood Moon against Big Mana decks. However, the key, I have found, to beating Big Mana, is hand disruption, THEN Blood Moon, because our deck is slower and Big Mana will eventually have enough mana to cast their threats through Blood Moon.

  • Hallowed Moonlight - anti-Crashing Footfalls/Ad Nauseam/Dredge/infinite grave recursion combo decks. Also stops Cascade effects. Card draw on top is just *chef’s kiss.

  • Hazoret the Fervent - Mardu Pyromancer generally has a hard time closing out games, since most of the creatures are small and our deck goes wide, rather than tall. Hazoret the Fervent provides a great, hasty, indestructible beat-stick. Amazing to close out games with some of these more modern Control decks, including Tron, that can't really do anything about her, with the exception of Dismember, in which they have to take a ton of damage anyways, or Path to Exile, which just ramps us. Jund also has a hard time, since they usually don't have anything that gives their huge creatures trample, so we can chump block for days. We can also burn late game to close out a close match, via discarding needless top decks, like hand disruption or lands.

  • Hidetsugu Consumes All   - nice variety tool box card, with removal, grave hate, and a clock. Also adds another enchantment for Dragon's Rage Channeler delirium.

  • Magus of the Moon - if we run Unearth, playing this helps recur the creature if it gets destroyed or discarded. If it gets exiled from Path to Exile, then it took the removal rather than any of our other valuable creatures. Being a creature avoids some counter spells from UW Control since their spells usually only target noncreature spells. The downside is that it is easier to remove against non- interaction, rather than Blood Moon, since it is a creature.

  • Prismatic Ending - additional spot removal that in some cases is simply a better Path to Exile. Hitting nonland permanents and not just creatures is super nice.

  • Unlicensed Hearse - nice grave hate and a potential clock. Plus, I get to sing Dragula by Rob Zombie every time I play it.

  • Wear / Tear/Revoke Existence - Wear / Tear is good against graveyard hate in the form of Leyline of the Void, while also providing extra artifact hate, and also takes out enchantments like Leyline of Sanctity in hexproof builds. I have contemplated Revoke Existence in place of Wear / Tear since Theros Beyond Death brought in some Indestructible Gods that prove problematic. Specifically, Jund has started sideboarding 1 Klothys, God of Destiny, which has really started to rub me the wrong way. I had a Jund opponent on MTGO call it: "the mirror breaker" and I couldn't agree more. Celestial Purge and Prismatic Ending hit Klothys, God of Destiny, and many other threats deployed by Jund decks (Liliana of the Veil, Bloodbraid Elf, and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger), so I’m ok with not using Revoke Existence. I’ve found that Wear / Tear still has a home in Mardu Pyromancer, since 1) Klothys, God of Destiny doesn’t see much play in stock Jund lists, 2) Wear / Tear hits both Amulet of Vigor and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove in one of our worst match ups, and 3) our basic removal suite keeps Heliod, Sun-Crowned from being effective simply because our suite of spells assist by removing all the other creatures that are required to combo off with Heliod, Sun-Crowned.

  • Cleansing Wildfire/Pillage/Molten Rain - play one or the either of these. Depending on your meta, the "burn" clause might be more beneficial, and "artifacts" may be more of a problem in another community. Personally, Pillage has been more useful with targeting artifacts and lands against Tron and general artifacts against some artifact decks, especially since we can also target the manlands as well. Tron is probably the worst match-up for this build, seeing as how our threats stay at the 1/1 power/toughness level, with the occasional 4/5 or 5/6 Bedlam Reveler. Keeping Tron from assembling is the only hope, besides Thoughtseize, of making a dent in Tron’s plans. However, with Stony Silence, and removal, we may not need Molten Rain anymore. Also, no point in sideboarding just for Tron, at the expense of a more diverse meta. Pillage replaces Molten Rain for being more versatile and hitting artifacts, especially against Tron, or some found in Amulet Titan. If life gain becomes more common, and artifacts fall out of the meta, I would sub these back in. Cleansing Wildfire is the new land destruction that helps us against Big Mana, in place of Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon. It does give the opponent a land, but, since it replaces itself, it helps us tax the opponent’s land count and lets us keep pressure on with the card we drew. This doesn’t play nice with Blood Moon effects, so we have excluded Blood Moon, for now. It’s possible to consider including Path to Exile, Ghost Quarter, and Field of Ruin to our deck in order to REALLY tax our opponent’s mana. Worth considering, but it would require the deck to build around it, since Mardu Pyromancer, like Jund, can be very picky about mana.

  • Ashiok, Dream Render - another form of grave hate and search hate. Also mills opponent, but since we don’t really go for milling it’s whatever.

  • Leyline of the Void - hit and miss with this monstrosity. Some games you draw the perfect hand, with this as your starting pressure against the opponent. Other times you can’t seem to mulligan to it or you don’t draw it until turn 5/6 and you only have 3 mana. Mardu Pyromancer lost a lot of speed against other grave based decks, with Faithless Looting banned. I feel Leyline of the Void gives us the edge against these decks now. The London Mulligan also helps us set our hand up well to combat grave decks. Right now, Surgical Extraction has helped with decks that are running enchantment hate, which has been prevalent with Blood Moon seeing play in a lot of decks.

  • Nihil Spellbomb - nice for grave hate and as a can trip. Somewhat helpful in combination with Surgical Extraction since it 1) adds instants to the grave for Bedlam Reveler, 2) triggers Young Pyromancer and Seasoned Pyromancer, and 3) Kaya's Guile exiles the grave while giving us other options.

  • Surgical Extraction/The Stone Brain - most match-ups are favorable since we can go wide with tokens, bounce back with Kolaghan's Command, and discard threats via 4 sources (Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality, and Kolaghan's Command). This being said, I feel Tron and other Big Mana are our worst math-ups and I believe Surgical Extraction is absolutely needed in order to remove specific combo pieces or a Tron land in order to slow down the opponent. However, we would need to dedicate land destruction, AND draw into Surgical Extraction. Also another instant card type to trigger Bedlam Reveler, which makes it better (in this sense) than Leyline of the Void. However, it doesn't remove the entire graveyard, which Leyline of the Void obviously does. However, Grinding Station decks, plus Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath require instant speed removal, and for cheap. Surgical Extraction, along with Cling to Dust, are perfect to remove those pesky graveyard threats, while also hitting the likes of Prized Amalgam, Bloodghast, and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger.

  • Damping Sphere - we already run big mana hate, and ways to punish greedy mana bases, in the form of Blood Moon. However, this comes down a turn earlier, and can stop Azusa, Lost but Seeking shenanigans on turn 2 (turn 1 Amulet of Vigor, turn 2 float mana, bounce land, Azusa, Lost but Seeking + 2 lands). However, Damping Sphere doesn’t play well with our plan of multiple spells a turn, especially with our flashback spells for cheaper costs. When not expected, Blood Moon punishes opponents, and we remain safe, especially when we fetch appropriately for Swamp or Plains.

  • Engineered Explosives - This is really great against Jund/Golgari Midrange (Tarmogoyf, Scavenging Ooze, and Dark Confidant) and other token or mass creature producing strategies. When we destroy targets, we want to exile them almost immediately, so we can sub in Surgical Extraction for added graveyard exile effects. Can sometimes not be needed since our removal suite of Fatal Push and Dreadbore, plus endless tokens, seem to deal with other creatures based decks decently. If Bogles and Jund completely take over meta, these will be perfect to sub back in. Nice against low to the ground strategies to remove tokens or enchantments, like Utopia Sprawl or against Enchantment decks, like Slippery Bogle.

  • Pithing Needle - when so many Planeswalkers were roaming free, Pithing Needle was a great catch all. Great on turn one or two, after you figure out what opponent is playing. Now, with more linear decks coming out, we need to be proactive with our own game plan, and lean on Blood Moon to stop our arch nemesis, Big Mana.

  • Young Pyromancer - original namesake for the deck. Play early (at least turn 3 so as to play a spell so you trigger the effect and gain a token) and overwhelm the opponent through consistent, overwhelming token value. As an aside, Young Pyromancer has quite a bit of synergy with Village Rites and I’ve been testing a more of a token based build with “Afterlife” (Seraph of the Scales and Tithe Taker) and it feels decent. More testing is required.

  • Bedlam Reveler/Ox of Agonas - one of the original big creature pay off that the deck originally used. Since many Modern decks use the graveyard, one way or another, Bedlam Reveler hasn’t been able to be cast super cheap. You can still play 2, even without Young Pyromancer. We usually don't want to play Bedlam Reveler early, as it's essential for late game gas. Though we can usually cast for only 2 cmc for the amount of instant/sorcery spells we play, grave hate has been real. Prowess is perfect for big damage or keeping it alive. We will always try to play Bedlam Reveler for 2 cmc, but think wisely about when to drop the big bad boss boy. Sometimes, it can be better to hold on to Bedlam Reveler for another turn in order to interact with opponent, so we don’t waste a spell without Flashback, like hand disruption or Lightning Bolt. We forgo playing all 4 due to drawing multiples feels REALLY bad. Also, we can include 1 Ox of Agonas which acts as roughly 1-2 Bedlam Reveler due to being able to cast from graveyard at least once. One thing to note in favor of Ox of Agonas is drawing multiples of Bedlam Reveler feels super bad. Sure, we can get them back with Kolaghan's Command, but usually we have to sacrifice another mode on Kolaghan's Command to get it back. Mixing Bedlam Reveler and Ox of Agonas makes drawing multiples of our big “discard hand, draw 3” creatures, either unlikely, or beneficial since we can escape Ox of Agonas. Discarding Ox of Agonas and being able to play our Bedlam Reveler makes the combination more favorable. Also, Ox of Agonas almost gives us 2 Bedlam Reveler since we can cast from grave multiple times. We wouldn’t need to rely heavy on instant/sorcery spells.

  • Sedgemoor Witch - another possible new tech that gives us board presence, both itself, and the (cutest little nugget in the whole world) tokens it produces.

  • Monastery Mentor - if the build were to begin to rely more on tokens, and using Intangible Virtue, then I think we would want this. For now, as an aggro-control build, Plague Engineer acts as our tribe counter, Kambal, Consul of Allocation makes our build more controlling, and Pillage helps get rid of pesky Tron lands. We really need our turn 3 drop to be game changing and Monastery Mentor needs turn 4 to ensure the effect goes off without being hit by removal. Pairs well with Manamorphose, Mishra's Bauble, and Underworld Breach.

  • Manamorphose - one of the first suggestions and controversies for the Mardu Pyromancer deck. A lot of debate on the inclusion of this card. My thoughts: we want every spell to majorly impact the game or board state. However, we also want to trigger Young Pyromancer and have as many instants/sorcery spells in the grave to lower the cmc of Bedlam Reveler. This also can help us cast our mana cards under Blood Moon, which I’ve already mentioned should be played USUALLY before Moon hits the board. I’ve actually read articles where some pros say the best list will eventually run 4 (Gerry Thompson, i believe). Though I am no pro, I don’t think 4 (or any) is necessary. I would rather play an immediate impact tech rather than a deck thinning tech, whose role is already covered by Faithless Looting and Bedlam Reveler. If the build begins needing extra cantrips or some sort of extreme mana fixing, these will be coming back in.

  • Underworld Breach - pairs well with Manamorphose, Mishra's Bauble, Monastery Mentor, and (somewhat) Dragon's Rage Channeler. You just have to build around it.

  • Kaya, Orzhov Usurper - I've been watching and playing more Modern games lately and what I am seeing/experiencing is that Prowess and Ponza are on the rise. These tend to be extremely aggro-oriented decks that play low (usually 1 cmc threats). This leads to 2 problems: 1) our life total is threatened rather quickly and 2) our 1 for 1 removal is not great since they can play multiple threats a turn. There is a solution: Kaya, Orzhov Usurper. She has the potential to remove problematic cards with her -1, like Monastery Swiftspear, Goblin Guide, Soul-Scar Mage, Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, and Arbor Elf (with the associating Utopia Sprawl attached to some Forest), just to name a few. She also is great against grave decks, or decks that recur/rely on graveyard for certain effects, for a few reasons: 1) Her grave hate can target recurring creatures that would come back, either from Unearth or escape, like Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger. 2) She targets cards that would be reused via Snapcaster Mage or Past in Flames, like Opt, Serum Visions, and Thought Scour, or even Manamorphose or Lava Dart against Prowess decks. 3) She can target specific cards to shrink Tarmogoyf in Jund or /x decks, or remove targets for Scavenging Ooze to grow (even from our own grave, if need be). 4) Lastly, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper, coupled with all our spot removal, increases our life, with increases our longevity, which increases our chance to draw into answers or threats that help close games for us. All of this, coupled with the fact that if we can get her ultimate off, with all the cards exiled from her +1 ability, Nihil Spellbomb, or Surgical Extraction, means that her ultimate can close games that might be difficult to close. Basically, in an aggro environment, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper shines and compliments our midrange-control style that we would become in order to beat aggro based decks.

  • Nahiri, the Harbinger - this is a flex spot, that can be covered by Hazoret the Fervent or Liliana, Waker of the Dead, but Nahiri, the Harbinger fulfills a weakness of the deck: card draw/filtering. She functions similarly to Kaya, Orzhov Usurper in exiling threats, but can ultimate to bring our Seasoned Pyromancer for additional card draw in a pinch, or Phoenix of Ash if we need a hasty, flying threat, or even Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as a game ending threat, if we had wanted to go that route. Nahiri, the Harbinger also has the added bonus to loot away needless top decks, if need be. She can exile Utopia Sprawl in the Ponza match-up in order to keep their amount of mana low to try to keep Glorybringer from hitting the field, or even Urza's Saga, since she doesn’t have the clause “nonland enchantment”.

  • Emrakul, the Aeons Torn - pair 1 copy of this in with 4 copies of Nahiri, the Harbinger and try to turbo it out.

  • Kambal, Consul of Allocation - great against burn, combo, aggro, or if we happen to be taking a bit too much from fetches and shocks. Seriously, this card gives burn and combo players fits. Kambal, Consul of Allocation is also good against creature decks, due to high toughness and adequate power to block efficiently.

  • Unholy Heat - along with Dragon's Rage Channeler, we can activate delirium with a little bit of work, and remove any problematic creature/planeswalker in our way, specifically Primeval Titan before it can trigger additional land drops. Instead, I've opted to play Terminate for more universal, easier to pull off, removal, along with simple Lightning Bolt.

  • Phoenix of Ash - another creature that helps add to an aggressive game plan and also can be recurred by escaping. This gives us a mana sink, like Castle Embereth, for late games. Having Haste is nice, since Mardu Pyromancer can sometimes struggle to capitalize on an empty board quickly, before opponent can build back up. It is unfortunate that it dies to Lightning Bolt, but its cheap escape cost, bonus counters from escaping, and ability to grow make it a worthy inclusion. When comparing Mardu Pyromancer with other midrange variants, we generally sacrifice big beaters (usually in or ) and play recursive, flying threats. And if opponent has a flying creature to chump block, we usually have efficient removal to deal with it.

  • Fulminator Mage - combos well with Unearth, Kolaghan's Command, and Liliana, the Last Hope (if we run it). Helps apply pressure against control based decks while being able to be sacrificed instantly to destroy a threatening land, like Celestial Colonnade, Mystic Sanctuary, Raging Ravine, or Castle Garenbrig. Also can simply shut off an opponent’s mana if they are short on a specific color. This is more appealing with Unearth based builds and would replace Pillage/Molten Rain.

  • Smiting Helix/Lightning Helix - Lightning Helix effects are great against burn or if the opponent is more aggro oriented. Life gain is much needed with all the life loss from fetches, shocks, and Thoughtseizes. However, can be difficult to play, or it will be awkward when fetching lands, since we mainly play with and . Smiting Helix does what Lightning Helix does (at sorcery speed) with Flashback. At face value, it looks like a worse, sorcery speed Lightning Helix. However, we can be more of a controlling deck than before, so 4 cmc is not terrible price. In addition, Flashback is absolutely perfect since much of the deck wants to discard as part of the cost to cast, like Seasoned Pyromancer, Bedlam Reveler, Collective Brutality, Ransack the Lab, and even Hazoret the Fervent. I was leaning towards having Smiting Helix in the side, due to not being high enough impact to the myriad of decks in modern, especially Big Mana, like Amulet Titan or Tron. We need our first turns to have more of an impact in the overall match. I don’t believe Smiting Helix has a place in the 75, in the current meta. There are a couple points I would like to make: 1) if using Smiting Helix just for life gain, we have Cling to Dust to help us stay ahead against aggro/burn decks. 2) we don’t want to tap out for 4 mana at sorcery speed, when we need instant interaction against some of these combo decks. 3) adding in an additional Surgical Extraction, makes our grave hate instant and cost effective. Maybe if big bans make prowess/burn the prevalent decks again, then Smiting Helix might come back.

  • March of Reckless Joy - a new addition that helps give us “draw power” in a more impulsive centric way. Since it contains the clause “until the end of the next turn”, it helps us use whatever is “exiled” after casting the spell on opponent’s end step. Since the deck mainly stays majority , we can exile whatever we don’t need in order to draw answers. Alongside Dragon's Rage Channeler, we can stack the effects so we surveil first, decide if we need it, then exile.

  • Dreadhorde Arcanist - I had tested and played this when it was released and it felt good with the deck going mainly 1 cmc drops. However, after Faithless Looting was banned, the deck needed to look for another draw spell source. That came in Ransack the Lab. It is 2 cmc so it doesn’t combine well with Dreadhorde Arcanist, so that is why we don’t use him. Since Village Rites was spoiled, Dreadhorde Arcanist has some more of an appeal, but having to sacrifice a creature every time can be difficult. If we took advantage of "Afterlife" on certain creatures, and ran more copies of other token producers, like Goblin Rabblemaster and Spectral Procession, then it might work. The problem is: that is so many independent moving pieces. It is easily disrupted and prevented.

  • Magmatic Channeler - a new inclusion that helps with our early game aggression, as well as card draw, in a way. I’m keeping in Ransack the Lab in order to activate a 4/4 Magmatic Channeler on turn 3. Magmatic Channeler has synergy with the high amount of Instants/Sorceries and also helps with draw power, later when we would have run out of steam (RiP Faithless Looting). I think Magmatic Channeler fits in extremely well to our game plan and I am excited for her to stick around.

  • Plague Engineer - great addition to cover against aggressive creature strategies. Another great point is that the static -1/-1 only affects the opponents creatures, so if we face Humans, for example, it won't weaken our own Seasoned Pyromancer or Young Pyromancer. Deathtouch is also nice against Amulet Titan or Eldrazi Tron creatures, if needed. I would think to add more of the 3 cmc creatures included in the Maybeboard if we included Unearth.

  • Celestial Purge - Celestial Purge hits everything that we would want to hit with our current removal, including Liliana of the Veil, Bloodbraid Elf, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Geralf's Messenger, and even the opponent's Hazoret the Fervent. Lately, Celestial Purge has also been useful in removing Omnath, Locus of Creation. The one problem that comes to mind, in originally comparing Celestial Purge to Wear / Tear or Revoke Existence, is that Celestial Purge does not hit is Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. Luckily, our Wear / Tear, Dreadbore/Terminate, or even Fatal Push with Revolt can hit. Hell, Lightning Bolt, if opponent chump blocks, can even take it down. As an incredible bonus, Celestial Purge being an instant is fantastic to scare/intimidate the opponent with our untapped mana. Prismatic Ending seems to cover our bases against aggressive decks that play low to the ground.

  • Ransack the Lab - our more modern replacement for Faithless Looting post ban, along with Cling to Dust. Actually not a bad replacement, in all honesty. Only 1 more mana than Faithless Looting and in black, which is fine, since we will usually want to cast hand disruption, if possible, our first turn. Ransack the Lab helps fill our graveyard for Bedlam Reveler and other escape costs, and filter our upcoming interaction with the opponent. Also, I’ve found Ransack the Lab fills the graveyard quickly if opponent exiles the graveyard via 1-time effects, like Ashiok, Dream Render or Nihil Spellbomb. Ransack the Lab can also help us find a third land, in case we keep a 2 land hand. Ransack the Lab is also helpful to fuel our escape cost spells, if we run them. Lately, it helps to set up a turn 3 4/4 Magmatic Channeler.

  • Cling to Dust - the meta is getting faster and semi-focused on the graveyard (Grinding Station, Dredge, and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath/Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger). Cling to Dust serves a few purposes. 1) graveyard hate (single target, but still effective for individual cards like Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Prized Amalgam, or some other card that the opponent wants to cast from graveyard). 2) Cling to Dust provides life gain against Burn/Prowess decks, where 3 life really can give us the needed buffer against aggressive strategies. Last, 3) it gives us card draw, like Ransack the Lab when we are digging for answers or no other targets for life gain exist. Also instant speed, and cheap, so we can interact with opponent the quickest way possible. It also serves as a quasi (versatile) 3-4 Ransack the Lab for card draw, so we can play less Ransack the Lab.

  • Yidaro, Wandering Monster - new addition that pretty much exemplifies what Mardu Puromancer stands for: slow and steady, accrue value over the game, and value creatures/threats in the late game.

  • Chandra, Torch of Defiance - when I had originally built this deck, I had tried out many different planeswalkers and I was always subbing them out for something else. I believe Chandra, Torch of Defiance is one of the best planeswalkers we can use right now. With her, we can 1) card draw to find outs, 2) add mana to pool to push through counters like Mausoleum Wanderer, Spell Pierce, Logic Knot, and Mana Leak, and 3) burning a creature and, eventually, opponent. However, I want to try a “Planeswalker-less” Mardu build and see how that helps.

  • Liliana of the Veil/Liliana, the Last Hope - I am in no way saying she isn’t absolutely amazing in Modern. I honestly believe she is one of the best Planeswalkers in the format. However, since this build cares so much about instant/sorcery spells to continually trigger Young Pyromancer or lower Bedlam Reveler’s cost, she doesn’t help with synergy. We also run so much removal and discard that her abilities become somewhat redundant. Again, if you desire to play her, all power in the world to you. Be your own individual! Liliana, the Last Hope is similar to Liliana of the Veil, but not as great, in our build. Still great against opposing aggro strategies, but we can combat aggro/burn in other ways. Also, not all of our instants/sorcery spells have flashback, so we want to be picky/choosy about what goes to the graveyard.

  • Anguished Unmaking - fantastic removal in Mardu based colors, if not one of the best removal spells in the game. However, 3 life can be a lot in modern. We need more life gain to make this viable, and, thankfully, we can run Smiting Helix, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, and Collective Brutality to offset the life loss. Also, Klothys, God of Destiny is a real problem when Jund side it in. Celestial Purge and Revoke Existence can take care of Klothys and most of our removal can deal with basically anything else Jund throws at us.

  • Path to Exile - I have been contemplating this against Blood Moon for the longest time, ever since I picked up this build. With the current meta, Path to Exile provides a cheap way to remove sticky creatures, as well as to fuel Young Pyromancer and Bedlam Reveler. In the long game of attrition, we don't want to give our opponent more lands to improve their top deck draw. Path to Exile is right on the edge to include, but instead, just running more Fatal Push and Hazoret the Fervent instead. The more and more we play Blood Moon, the more inclined we are to keep Path to Exile out of the build. Prismatic Ending competes with this for efficient exile removal.

  • Goblin Rabblemaster - great for token generation and extra aggression when this build needs to become more aggro (looking at you CONTROL). This forces the opponent to make decisions about which threat to remove, unless they have a board wipe, which we can bounce back from extremely well with Lingering Souls or graveyard recursion through Kolaghan's Command. Not needed right now since Mardu Pyromancer is evolving into a control match, and has Plague Engineer and Hazoret the Fervent to diversify our creatures. Bonecrusher Giant has replaced this.

  • Village Rites - a new tech that changes the way the deck would function. Where the deck normally is a value deck that trades 1 for 1, Village Rites forces the deck to more of a token “go wide” strategy. This might help if we also combined Village Rites with cards that have the “Afterlife” mechanic, like Seraph of the Scales, Tithe Taker, or even Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger before the sacrifice trigger. It’s a great card, but just requires to be built around.

  • Mazemind Tome - I'm testing Mazemind Tome in order to see how it compares to Ransack the Lab as our card draw/filtering mechanism. It helps also with life gain against aggressive decks. Our current escape cards don't require many cards to exile, but we still need to be careful.

  • Stony Silence - Another major reason to play or splash in modern. Artifact hate. That’s it. Can be used against Tron with their early Expedition Map, but not super optimal. Rather use Blood Moon, Pillage, Molten Rain, and Thoughtseize to mess Tron up. Sometimes not needed due to all the other artifact hate we run, like Wear / Tear, Kolaghan's Command, and various others, depending on match-up. With the shifting meta, Surgical Extraction at instant speed, with spot removal, has seemed more effective rather than a prison-like effect. I, personally, like my Mardu Pyromancer deck to be more proactive, rather than prison oriented. Stony Silence is a consideration with Grinding Station becoming more prevalent.

  • Ensnaring Bridge - great way to protect us from bigger creatures than our tokens and Young Pyromancers. It’s ok with Bedlam Reveler if you plan ahead. Leave Bedlam Reveler in hand, until 2nd main when you can drop and replenish your hand, and prevent opponent from attacking. This tech hasn’t felt as impactful (like Blood Moon) due to the opponent always being able to out it with removal, like Nature's Claim or Wear / Tear.

  • Anger of the Gods - insanely good board wipe within our colors. Only downside is that it banishes our own Young Pyromancer, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, and Goblin Rabblemaster. However, while a nuisance to us, Anger of the Gods can be an absolute train wreck to the opponent. Haven't needed to exile creatures since graveyard center decks are losing favor with the banning of Faithless Looting.

  • Arclight Phoenix - so much discussion has gone into this tech on various websites and Facebook groups. I personally don’t think this belongs here. We would completely have to change the midrange aspect of the deck to a strictly aggro shell. We would exchange value based removal for Manamorphose and more 1cmc spells. I think Arclight Phoenix belongs in an Izzet focused build, with a ton more cantrips, like Thought Scour and Serum Visions. Also, with the banning of Faithless Looting, Arclight Phoenix lost a lot of power and consistency; you hardly see the deck anymore, unfortunately.

  • Roiling Vortex - better in a Burn based shell. We go for the long game, so sometimes this can harm us more than our opponent. In addition, while we are trying to get the perfect manabase on board, we often have to shock ourselves quite a bit to play our spells on curve. It's simply better to not be taking too much damage needlessly, until we can stabalize.

  • Risk Factor - another suggestion that I have seen. This would make the deck more burn oriented. That is good and bad. Good because it can helps us get that extra damage in where we need it, or the card draw to close a game. Bad because of the high cost and the opponent makes the decision that is the best for them. At the end of the day, I wanted the deck to be more midrange and remain in my control. This definitely is a maybe, but further play testing is required to determine when and where to tech. At the end of the day, Mardu Pyromancer is meant to limit and take away options the opponent has to play, until we can out value their game plan.

  • Crackling Doom - my original personal spicy tech, and one of my favorite Mardu cards ever. Non-targeting sac with burn. Downside is it costs which we won’t always be able to supply, especially under Blood Moon. If needed, it will help against Bogles, Primeval Titan, and some Eldrazi Tron. At the end of the day, not as effective as I would have hoped, since Terminate can usually remove at instant speed that Crackling Doom would be able to do anyway.

OVERALL MTGO LEAGUE RECORD:

15-25 (1-4;1-4;3-2;2-3;3-2;3-2;2-3;0-5)

For this section, I want to try a new approach. I'm not going to put exact ratios in and out of the deck. Instead, I will include common cards to swap between games. The deck is morphing, evolving, and changing so frequently to keep up with the Modern Meta, that it can be hard to consistently change the ratios. I hope this makes the primer more functional, while also not too dependent.

I will be showing the average of the top Modern meta decks found on various record keeping sites:

https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/

https://www.mtgtop8.com/format?f=MO

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/modern

LAST UPDATE:

1 JANUARY 2024

Golgari Yawgmoth Show

Temur Cascade Show

Vizier Combo Show

Burn/Izzet/Rakdos/Prowess/Red Deck Wins Show

Humans Show

Mono-Green Tron Show

Azorious Control Show

Jund/Golgari Show

Amulet Titan Show

Bant Spirits Show

Eldrazi Tron Show

Dredge Show

/ Death's Shadow Show

Thopter Foundry Show

Titanshift/Scapeshift/Valakut Show

Infect Show

Gifts Storm Show

Bogles (Hexproof) Show

/ 4C/Bant/Jeskai Control Show

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Mardu Death's Shadow Show

Mardu Scam/Reanimator Show

Mardu Stoneforge Mystic Show

Mardu Ephemerate Show

Mardu Creativity Show

Mardu Superfriends Show

Mardu Affinity Show

“Immolation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

Suggestions

Updates Add

New Year’s Resolution - FAITHLESS LOOTING — Jan. 1, 2025
Edit

Last major update from 1 year ago had a bleak outlook for an honest/fair midrange deck like Mardu Pyromancer. Now that Faithless Looting is back, we might have some legs in this format!

The main deck has been adjusted and the side deck is waiting to see how these recent Modern unbans shape the format to determine what we side.

From my limited perspective of leagues and tournaments, mana bases are becoming very, VERY greedy. There could be an argument for more main deck Blood Moon or side deck Magus of the Moon or Damping Sphere.

I’m really excited to see if this deck begins to arise from the ashes of its former glory! Please don’t hesitate to comment on the thread below if you have any suggestions, thoughts, critiques, or questions. Thanks again for all your support!

Start the Year off Right - New Primer Format — Jan. 1, 2024
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The Grind May Slow, But Never Stops — May 31, 2023
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Big Bans = Big Changes — Feb. 19, 2021
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ANOTHER GRATITUDE UPDATE! OVER 10,000 VIEWS! — Aug. 8, 2020
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GRATITUDE UPDATE! 50 UPVOTES! — March 29, 2020
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40 Upvotes! Living the Mardu dream! — Feb. 12, 2020
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NEW YEAR, NEW PYROMANCER! — Jan. 3, 2020
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WE ARE BACK! MARDU PYROMANCER FOR LIFE!!! — Oct. 8, 2019
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BIG BAN, BIG CHANGES, STILL MARDU — Aug. 26, 2019
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MASSIVE MARDU OVERHAUL — July 28, 2019
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Casual

98% Competitive

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #16 position overall 5 years ago
  • Achieved #3 position in Modern 5 years ago
  • Achieved #1 position in Modern Primer 5 years ago
Date added 6 years
Last updated 3 hours
Exclude colors UG
Splash colors WBR
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)

5 - 0 Mythic Rares

22 - 8 Rares

23 - 7 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 60
Avg. CMC 1.45
Tokens Elemental 1/1 R, Spirit 1/1 W
Folders My Stuff, Modern Decks, red black, Standard, Decks I wanna build, Other Peoples, Modern Competitives, g, zzInspiration (not own), MardyPyro
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