Hi Neko069 and thanks for your input :-)

Regarding the swords, they're a new addition to the deck and I'm not 100% commited to them. However, the thinking is that this deck is more controllish than aggressive, with many removals and card advantage. Therefore, the swords are lasting threats that can be equipped to either the token generators, protecting them, or to the tokens themselves if need be. The swords have been chosen for the color protection they offer, as well as the effect they provide.

Sword of Fire and Ice protects from bounce and burn, while the damage and draw are always relevant.

Sword of Light and Shadow protects from all non-damage based removal. Both lifegain and creature retrieval are very relevant to this deck. The first because of the damageful manabase and card advantage engine (Dark Confidant, Painful Truths) and the second because our token genrating creatures are few and precious.

The idea of adding Prowess creatures such as Monastery Swiftspear (or Abbot of Keral Keep) is nice but this would turn the deck to a much more aggressive direction, which I'm not sure is good.

However, I'll keep the advice in mind and I might change my point of view after more testing :-)

(I haven't had the time to play much as of late).

Feedback from this week-end's GPT:

• The swords are way too slow. Every time I drew them, I would have been happier to have something faster. I will remove them.

• Boros Charm is not that effective. When you are behind and have no creature, it's almost useless. I will remove it.

• The other adjustments I made (cutting Sorin and Butcher, adding more consistency to the instants/sorceries package) are good.

• Prowess is great! I tested with 2 Abbot of Keral Keep as suggested by Neko069 and it was way better than expected! I will test to see if I go for the card-advantage Abbots or the faster Monastery Swiftspears but I'll definitely go up to 4 cheap prowess creatures (in addition to the 3 Monastery Mentors).

Deck adjustments and matchup updates to come soon.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, it really motivates me tweaking this deck to make it as competitive as possible :-)

Darkiwi As I stated before, I'm not so into Modern, but can clearly give you some tips regarding Standard play. Abbot of Keral Keep does not give card advantage. It looks like it does, but it doesn't.

For it to give you card davantage, you must play it at least on turn 3 or 4, so it can exile a land or a Path to Exile / Lightning Bolt. Which is exactly the contrary of a fast aggressive card. If you are going to play it on turn 2 no matter what, as an aggro creature, it will do it's job! But expect to lose a valuable Kolaghan's Command or a Lingering Souls. Trust me, it's usually more of "let's see what I'm gonna miss" that "hey, I could play this!". If you're sure you'll not want to kick the table every time you play it, and will only focus on aggressiveness, then it's a beautiful creature :)

Hi Neko069!

Indeed, for Abbot to give card advantage, you have to play him on turn 3 or 4 --> that's why I chose Swiftspears over him. I realized that going for the long grindy game with this deck was not the best idea, as big threats will take over us. So I took the other way around by playing fast threats first and then protecting them with control. It seems to do much better in this configuration.

Again, thanks for the tips ;-)

Hey, This is a great take on Mardu. I run something "somewhat similar". +1.

However, I have to ask why not 4 Lightning Helix or if just the two, Shambling Vent? I only ask in part of; Dark Confidant, Thoughtseize, Painful Truths, and fetch/shock lands?

What are your thoughts on Rakdos Charm Side board? It stops infinite creatures and shoots down artifacts.

Hi cplvela0811 and thanks for the comment!

The deck is self-damageful indeed and Lightning Helix and Shambling Vent might deserve a spot main deck, I'll try that!

Regarding Rakdos Charm, I think it's not that useful anymore with Splinter Twin banned. The graveyard and artifact hate remain relevant, though... What would you take out for it?

Though I run B/W Tokens versus your Mardu build, I have had great success with Blessed Alliance. Give us main deck hate against Infect and Bogles, and gives us more hate main deck against burn. Really great list by the way!

Hi ZackBinks and thanks for the comment !

Blessed Alliance is indeed a very versatile card and could find a spot somewhere. I'm not sure it would be maindeck, maybe more in the SB. What would you take out for it, in either case ?

I will admit that I have little experience with Mardu. However, I do not think it has a spot mainboard, you have many things covered in the main. In the side, I would personally replace the 2 Soulfire Grand Masters for 2 Blessed Alliances. That way you can side them in against Bogles and Infect.

Good idea ZackBinks, I'll test this :-)

I tinkered with your deck a bunch and now it looks nothing like it did. Modern Mardu Control copy It is a bunch less painful on the wallet, even if it is a bit less reliable. That said, yours is probably still the superiour version- although have you given any thought to Night's Whisper or Hide/Seek?

Hi lagotripha and thanks for your interest for the deck!

Your version is indeed way cheaper and therefore much is easier to assemble. I didn't know of either Night's Whisper nor Hide/Seek. The first is a very nice draw spell, good alternative to Painful Truths I used to run. The second is a mix between Wear / Tear and Surgical Extraction, could be useful in the side!

This may already have been touched on, but 4 Soulfire Grandmasters seem a bit much when you only have 8 spells mainboard that take advantage of his lifelink giving ability. Unless there is something I'm not seeing, I would replace two of them with either two Monastery Mentor or finish the playset of Young Pyromancer

Hi ZackBinks and thanks for the comment!

I have tried those options before, the deck was even named "Modern Mardu Tokens". However, it didn't go so well and I tweaked it to the current version, which is less aggressive and more control-ish but also more reliable. Soulfire Grand Master's lifelink abilities is very important to keep us in the game early and its buyback mana sink is huge late game.

That's fair, and I can see that. May I ask why 2 maindeck Zealous Persecution instead of Boros Charm or completing the playset of Lightning Helix, as both benefit from Grandmaster and Persecution doesn't. I hope I am not coming off like I am challenging you, I am honestly just curious, as your deck is super interesting.

Also, if you need help writing the B/W Tokens matchup or need any advice or help as to what to include in the matchup description, I would be more than happy to help!

Hi ZackBinks, no worries, I'm not taking it bad ;-)

The 2 Zealous Persecutions main deck were not there 3 weeks ago, they're the latest addition, I only had 1 in the side previously.

The explanation behind this is that this deck is reaaaally slow to kill and I lost many games because I could not pressure my opponent enough when they had a better late game (Jund, Control, Tron...). The Persecutions help very much in those situations: for instance, a Grand Master + 4 Spirits + ZP = 11 (often unexpected) damage. Also, it's very effective in the current meta, killing all infect creatures, opposing spirit tokens, Noble Hierarchs, most Affinity creatures, unenchanted boggles, Snapcaster Mages etc.

I've played a GPT last week with this updated version and I have to say I liked it very much! However, I'm considering swaping the mainboard Thoughtseizes for the remaining 2 Lightning Helixes from the side.

How has zealous persecution in the main board performing ?

unless you increase the amount of pyromancers i would max out on lightning helix and cut the zealous persecution to the sideboard unless its really paying off with lingering souls?

Hi alexander.rokicki and ramenrage and thanks for yours comments.

I have only had the opportunity to run a few games with Zealous Persecution mainboard but it did have quite an impact! It turned a few important combat phases to my advantage, allowing me to block and kill Goblin Guide, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Scavenging Ooze or Grim Flayer with Spirit tokens that even survived the fights.

This would probably need more games to fully validate but my first impression is really positive :-)

Regarding Lightning Helix, the remaining two in the side often come in game 2 instead of Thoughtseizes but I like keeping many turn one hand disruption against an unknown opponent in game 1.