"I know who I am. I am not a boy. I am Alesha, like my grandmother before me."
-- Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
This is a Mardu Warriors Standard tribal play deck. I finally (I somehow missed this when it first happened???) found out that Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is the first canonical trans woman in mtg and THAT'S A BIG DEAL OK. So I just had to build a deck around her. I had already made a BW warriors build before, so I am familiar with the territory, but adding red really opened things up! It was a lot of fun making this and I feel like it plays pretty well! I'll explain the important cards/combos below:
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death: Not normally a Fantastic Card, but in this setting her true potentially really shines. Her reanimate ability allows her to pull out a hasty 3/2 first strike
Battle Brawler
, or a Blood-Chin Rager immediately upping your creatures evasion, or even Arashin Foremost who will grant another creature double strike (just one creature b/c only her ETB effect triggers as she is already attacking when she comes into play). Unfortunately, Chief of the Edge can't be targeted for this, but even so, she's great.
Arashin Foremost: The go-to bomb card in the deck. She's an immediate threat and will most often be your finisher if the opponent can't quickly remove her.
battle bralwer: Is almost always at least a 3/2 first striker and is a great target for Alesha, Who Smiles at Death.
Blood-Chin Rager: Provides excellent evasion.
Bloodsoaked Champion: A great one drop warriror that keeps coming back.
Chief of the Edge: Anthem warrior. A staple in warrior decks.
Goblin Rabblemaster
: Ah the benefits of adding red, access to one of the best aggressive creatures in standard. And oh? He's a warrior? You don't say...
Butcher of the Horde
: The finisher that the deck is looking for. Utilizes tokens from
Goblin Rabblemaster
, or can be used to abuse the reanimate ability of Alesha, Who Smiles at Death to sac a creature before combat then return with Alesha, Who Smiles at Death for no loss of board presence.
Mardu Woe-Reaper
: Good one drop warrior with the benefit of life gain and graveyard exile against reanimater decks.
Titan's Strength: Very good, cheap pump with bonus scry. Useful on an unblocked double-strike warrior, or to trade better.
Crackling Doom
: Excellent removal against mid-range/dragon/control decks and provides an added Shock to the dome.
Ride Down: A somewhat niche card for this deck. Good removal as your opponent will almost always be blocking, and is primarily here for its use on creatures blocking your double-strike warriors so your opponent's clutch chump blockers suddenly become their downfall.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor: Anthem + lifegain? Couldn't get any better.
The Sideboard:
Bile Blight and
Circle of Flame
are here against token/aggro matchups.
Mardu Ascendancy
helps against board wipes like Anger of the Gods which is a real killer against this deck. Secure the Wastes is also sided to help re-establish board presence in the event of a successful wipe.
