Welcome to the Best Control/Grindy Deck in the Format: Mardu Green
This is my take on the deck. The differences in the main from the stock lists other than the board are the added 2 Advocates and 2 Chandras. They have both been insane. Advocate eats all other 2 drops and has vigilance. Then he becomes a 4/5 monster that buffs your vents. He wins games. Play him. The same goes for Chandra, as people have started figuring out. Play her.
The 1-of
Palace Siege
In board used to be an Ob Nixilis Reignited, but I felt that Siege is a more versatile and generally better card for grindy matchups. Returning a dark dwellers or a rhino every turn is incredible. and returning a soulfire or a
Sylvan Advocate
isn't too shabby either. The Clock option it offers can close out close games or push advantage during a board stall when needed.
This deck has great matchups against all of the other top decks, with the exception of Rally, which is tough but manageable. Here are how favored I have felt we are in each matchup of the other top decks, as well as other major archetypes that have fallen out of favor:
Gx Eldrazi Ramp: 65-35 - this matchup is stressful but we are extremely favored. We can get on board faster and with more valuable creatures, then just kill everything until we grind them out with Goblin Dark-Dwellers
+
Kolaghan's Command
+
Siege Rhino
. in the board we have 2 Infinite Obliteration, 2 Anafenza, the Foremost, 2 Ruinous Path, 2 Transgress the Mind, and a
Palace Siege
. This is mostly splash from other decks, but really gets rid of the worry in the matchup, and skews the results even more wildly in our favor.
RB Dragons: 75-25 - This matchup is honestly a Cake walk. Their threats are relatively easy to get rid of, and your creatures are much bigger then theirs. The thopters they make are annoying, but you should usually be able to deal with their hangarbacks and other annoyances pretty easily before valueing them right out of the game. Post board we get 2 Flaying Tendrils, which shut off all the thopter makers. I also switch out the Duresses for the 2 Transgress the Minds to try and exile some pesky dragons, as you don't care much about their small removal. You can bring in the
Palace Siege
If you want, but I don't think it's necessary
Esper Dragons: 65-35: This rating might be a surprise to you, but we are EXTREMELY favored here. Game 1, we can play it slow, pick apart their gameplan, run them out of counters and then go off with Goblin Dark-Dwellers + Kolaghan's Command
Shenanigans. We can also deal with their Ojutai's fairly easily. Post board we mainly get Infinite Obliteration and
Palace Siege
, with other options being Ruinous Paths for jaces and dragonlord silumgar, and Transgress the Mind for more hand distruption. Getting the obliteration is great if you can land one when they have the shields down - it gets rid of their main win conditions, leaving them with only 1 silumgar, jace, and Shambling Vent beatdown as the wincons - you should be able to beat those fairly easily.
Esper Control: 55-45 game 1, 60-40 games 2-3 - the esper deck without the dragons is much harder to beat. They have Planeswalkers instead of big dragons, which is a huge issue for us. We can do the same thing that we would to a dragons player - pick apart their gameplan, run them out of counters, and then value them out - but it will be harder to kill the walkers than it was to kill the dragons. We actually need to attack them down game 1, and with all their removal that is a tall order. Post board we get a lot of great cards though. We get the 2 Ruinous Path, the 2 Transgress the Mind, and the
Palace Siege
. These should remove any issues that we had game 1.
Jeskai Black: 55-45 - This is assuming the jeskai black player has Goblin Dark-Dwellers in his list, along with a chandra. Otherwise this may be a bit more favorable, probably around 60-40. This matchup is going to be a major grind. At the end of the day, having access to
Sylvan Advocate
, Rhino, and Abzan Charm tilts the Odds in our favor, as it is difficult for the jeskai deck to deal with you chaining Kcommands, rhinos and dark dwellers when rhino drains 3 every time and then presents a must kill body. Post board we get the
Palace Siege
, the
Cranial Archive
to reset their yard when theyre trying to go off with jace or delve spells, and if you want you can try to strip them of threats with Infinite Obliteration. Don't board in Obliteration if you see dark dwellers though.
Atarka Red (with combo) : 55-45 game 1, 60-40 game 2-3: This is definitely a stressful matchup. It's times like these that I wish we had a 4th
Fiery Impulse
. However, this kind of red deck has mostly fallen out of favor, so I doubt the 4th impulse is correct. game 1, mull any hand without early interaction - a
Soulfire Grand Master
would be great. For sideboarding, Bring in the
Roast
and the Flaying Tendrils, taking out the 3
Read the Bones
. They're killing you fast enough, so why help them?
Atarka Red (TOKENS) : 50-50 game 1, 60-40 game 2-3: Tokens will always be tough to beat when your deck has 1 for 1 removal spells. However, most of what is true for the combo atarka red deck holds true for the tokens one, with a few exceptions. Getting early interaction is great, and a soulfire is too. However, post board we need a little more help. Aside from the
Roast
and Flaying Tendrils, we also will probably want Hallowed Moonlight to try and stop them from overwhelming you. Also, drawing your Flaying Tendrils is SUPER important. They are one of the ways to steal a game. I wouldn't mulligan super aggresively for one, but i'll probably mull any mediocre hand with some OK early interaction - you need to do something meaningful, and fast! overall the matchup is stressful but favorable.
Abzan Aggro: 60-40 - I haven't tested this matchup a whole bunch, but it seems favorable. You have dark dwellers, K comm, chandra, and doom to their mediocre stuff. I would say its better than just 60-40, but they are much more aggressive, and have grindy aspects such as Gideon and Roc, so they should have a good chance of winning. I'm also being a bit conservative on ranking a matchup I haven't played much. Post Board we get another
Roast
and some Ruinous Paths, along with Transgress the Mind in some number to deal with gideon and wingmate Roc. I also would bring in the 1-of
Palace Siege
as a value train or a clock. If you ever land it, you should be a heavy favorite to win the game.
Abzan Blue: 50-50 - this matchup is a tough one. Abzan blue is one of the decks that can go toe to toe against rally, which is why we're seeing more of it again. Overall, we should have a very slight edge, as they don't have anything quite like our Goblin Dark-Dwellers + Kolaghan's Command
shenanigans, but they have counters and jace while we don't. They also have Gideon, who is troublesome. We get to side in a
Palace Siege
, a
Roast
, and 2 Ruinous Paths. It's possible boarding in Transgress the Mind is also correct. We should be favored post board, although I fear
Exert Influence
coming from their sideboard.
The Mirror: 55-45 Usually, though it depends - The mirror is extremely grindy. Most stock lists have Den Protector Over
Sylvan Advocate
, Ruinous Path Main, and Chandras in board. They also usually have 4
Fiery Impulse
s, which is great for us. I like what Advocate offers us over the course of the game, and Having chandra game one is HUGE, so I'll give us the slight advantage. Post Board we want the second
Roast
, the
Palace Siege
, and We want some number of Transgress the Minds, though Duress is still Great.
And finally, Rally: 40-60 Game 1, 50-50 Sideboarded Games - And Now we finally come to the big Elephant in the Room. The "Best" deck. Game 1, Just try to play your normal game and grind. Sometimes it will work, and sometimes They will kill you fast with rally/coco. It happens. A memorable Game 1 was a game where I won in 30 minutes, surviving 2 rallys that had 2 Zulaport Cutthroats each, playing both chandras and chaining Rhino/Kcommand/Dark Dwellers around 4 times. Now for the Sideboarded Games, I board 12 Cards. Literally. Gotta beat them somehow, right? We have 2 Hallowed Moonlight, 1
Cranial Archive
, 2 Flaying Tendrils, 2 Anafenza, the Foremost, 2 Infinite Obliteration, 2 Transgress the Mind, and the
Palace Siege
. All these cards either deal with what rally does in some way, or try to push/gain advantage through value. Since 12 cards is extremely deck warping, I'll tell you what I take out. I remove all 4 Crackling Dooms, all 3
Read the Bones
, the
Roast
, The 2 Duresses, and your choice of 2/8 of the Dark Dwellers/Rhino. Usually people think they should cut a chandra or two, but she's actually great in the matchup. She can wipe a horde of their dudes, or try to steal wins/push advantage with her +.
Overall, I strongly believe Mardu Green is the best positioned in this meta, and has the best matchups against the field. The only unfavorable matchup is rally, and only Abzan blue is a straight 50-50. This is better than rally's matchups, where they are unfavored against RB Dragons and Ramp, with even/slightly unfavorable matchups against Esper and Abzan Blue. The meta is evolving to deal with the Rally Menace, and because of this, their matchups are getting worse every week. That is good for us though, because take a look at the decks that are favored against rally - RB Dragons, Ramp, and Esper. Now look at our matchups with those decks - all extremely favored. That leads me to believe that not only is Mardu Green the best control deck in the format, it is also the best positioned deck in the current meta, period. Which is great, because I love the deck! :D
Deck Results so far out of the 3 tournis I've Taken it to:
Win at SCG IQ on 1/26/16 - Didn't lose a Game
Win at OGW GameDay on 2/14/16 - Didn't lose a match
8th at SCG IQ on 2/15/16 - Only loss was to Rally where I drew badly. In my win and in match for Top 4, I was going to draw against rally (I won a 30 minute game 1, weirdly enough), but Drawing was going to knock us both out of top 4, so I scooped to him. If we had drew, I would have placed 5th.
Tell me what you think! a +1 if you like the deck/my changes to it/my analysis would be greatly appreciated.
