Modern Ideas: Mardu

Well, um.. Brutal horde chief would probably be better fit for a Straight up Mardu tokens deck, with other forms of token generation. Also, It's really fighting butcher and sorin for that 4 drop spot, two cards which are really just much better than it. Chandra ablaze is this deck's elspeth. She not only can kill most creatures and planes walkers with her +1, but her -2 makes whatever our opponent has been saving up useless. her -7 is a game ender. It's ridiculous. Especially if we've dropped a few burn spells in the graves with her +1. I don't wanna drop any lands, this deck already has a lot of expensive stuff like wing mate roc.

You only need about twenty four lands for most decks, and this isn't one of those. Chandra's ability to kill most creatures is pretty useless when you have cards for two mana that do the same thing, especially since those cards kill anything, rather than creatures with toughness 4 or less. Her minus seven will rarely end a game, since you'd have to take three turns with her being undamaged, and if you didn't draw a red card you wouldn't be able to +1 her. Brutal Hordecheif will usually be attacking for a lot more than four with the Young Pyromancers tokens, and you'll gain tons of life if you also have Wingmate out.

The 26 lands in the deck have proved to be the most consistent in proxy play testing, but I could see 25 lands being doable. However, in this deck, 24 lands is not enough. Also Chandra's +1 is something that can help us burn out our opponent. We can toss a bolt or helix for the extra 1 damage, which can make killing an opponent that much easier or target other planeswalkers. You still can +1 Chandra if you don't have a red card in hand. The text tells you to discard a card regardless. The 4 damage is the bonus of the red cards. This is, of course not the reason I included Chandra. her -2 is not something you have mentioned. If our opponent has no instant speed planes walker removal, *Pop goes their hand, and ours too. However, since everything else in the deck is cheaper than Chandra (on mana). Brutal horde chief is, again a really awkward card in this deck because of butcher, and its complete lacking of evasion. It can't dream to stand up to your average goyf, and will get straight up demolished by anything in Abzan. It fails the lightning bolt and lightning helix test, as well as the fact that it's secondary ability is a mana sink, meaning it's either that or a roc on turn 5.

Good Idea, Zak! Lingering souls is a really powerful card, however in this deck, we're running timely reinforcements instead for a couple reasons. First of all, the life gain is insane, and with all of the pain, shock, and fetch lands in this deck, we'll surely have a few less life than our opponent. Secondly, getting three 1/1's on turn 3 is very helpful to our strategy. Our ideal turn 4 play is butcher, than sacking 2 tokens for haste and lifelink. If our opponent kills our butcher, we then use the third token to trigger the raid on our wing mate roc. So, I'd say, it's good to include lingering souls, but make sure they're in addition to at least 3 timely reinforcements, not instead of them.

Liliana of the veil would fit into more of a Mardu control build rather than the midrangey build I have here with butcher. While her +1 and -2 are great for a turn 3 planes walker, she doesn't help power butcher like other turn 3 plays, which are what we want to do on turn 3. Also she costs a small fortune at $160 for a playlet. Liliana is a fine candidate, however, if you have the bucks, and want to make a Mardu control deck with Olivia Voldaren.

Token strategies in Mardu can be really good if you can get the right mix together. Butcher, Sorin, and Roc all work together really well with tokens, and it's something that I think has a lot of potential.

I have most of the removal spells you mentioned, with the exception of path to exile, murderous cut, and slaughter pact. Let's review:

Murderous cut was great in standard, and showed up in a lot of Abzan builds, but is not so great if it's the only removal spell you draw. Good card, and can be worth including, but in this build I chose against it.

Path to exile is something I don't think this deck needs. It's usually used in partially white builds that have no other removal options available, which I can respect. For this deck however, Path to exile in no way a premium removal spell. Killing one of their tiny creatures on turn 1 for the cost of ramping them is not a deal I want to at all get into. their bigger threats like tarmogoyfs and planes wakers can be killed with our higher costed removal spells.

Slaughter pact is brutal to play. Don't get me wrong, killing an opponent's creatures for 0 mana is excellent, but the delayed payment of 3 makes it a turn 2 removal spell that you risk losing the game with if you can't make the payment. The delayed payment shuts down your turn 3 token generation, stopping your butcher from hitting the air fast, and shutting down your strategy entirely. It only works on nonblack creatures, and is just a bad card for this deck in general.

Sorry if this seemed like a roast. good suggestions overall. Lingering souls and liliana of the veil are really good cards, and good idea making a mardu tokens deck. Murderous cut can be a very powerful spell, especially if you go into that mardu control route. The other two removal spells might need a bit of work, but other than that, very good.

Yea I did not think all the cards I listed work in your deck, just making a point of how powerful the color combo is! I agree with your assessment overall, there are a lot of lines of play it seems

Yes, Mardu is pretty awesome, and I seriously think It has the potential to be the new Jund. Many Mardu builds exist, and I recommend any one of these archetypes:

Mardu Tokens (young pyromancer, timely reinforcements, lingering souls, goblin rabblemaster)

Mardu Control (Olivia Voldaren, utter end, pyroclasm, Liliana of the veil)

Mardu Midrange (The deck being shown here)

Mardu Zoo? (Rakdos Cackler, Boros elite?)

Mardu Planeswalkers (Liliana of the Veil, Chandra Ablaze, Elspeth, Sun's Champion)

Anyway, keep experimenting with Mardu. I can really see this deck improving in the future, and all it needs is for us to find a few more really good cards.

Amani vengeance for the walkers deck^

Yeah, good idea. The boros ajani's enter the battlefield helix is friggin brutal against most strategies.

Overall, I think Mardu is a great deck, and has the potential to be the new Jund. Speaking of Jund, I made A Modern Ideas for it, and made some clever substitutions for anyone who wants to pay Jund without paying up the $2000.

http://www.mtgvault.com/ladon229/decks/modern-ideas-jund/

Dude, you posted the comment three times lol.

Ok its fine if you disagree with the 2 chandra ablazes. If you want, you can switch her out for elspeth straight outta standard. Chandra, however, is just so much better at shutting down whatever shenanigans you're opponent's trying to do.

Yeah Orzhov charm is really sweet because of it's second, and really only useful mode, "destroy target creature and you lose life equal to it's toughness." Just an extra two mana kill spell. nothing special.

Tron decks tap out on turn three.

Justin, what do you mean? I've seen so many modern decks before tapping out on turn 3 like Abzan, Jund, and even some hate bears decks.

I think that's fair. I feel you still want it in the 75 somewhere, as it is a burn trump.

Yeah, sure! Perhaps the lingering souls are more reliable, and provide more long term value. I just wanted butcher to have all three of his abilities the turn he's summoned, and the life gain's awesome.

agreed, in my mardu tokens deck i use 1 MB and 2 SB.

MB, SB? Sorry, I don't follow.

Main board and side board

kkk gr8 m8

http://www.mtgvault.com/sperrow/decks/modern-mardu-tokens/

for reference

Well filter lands are an option. I know fetid heath is the BW BB WW one.

I'm sorry. Pyro what?

Pyroclasm. Sorry haha

Yeah well in my current version I actually have 2 angers instead (deals with any reanimation shenanigans). If you want to see my current version (with the exception of goblin-dark dwellers & outpost siege), see the link, as I've changed a lot of things. See the link:

http://www.mtgvault.com/ladon229/decks/modern-mardu-2/

Well actually I've switched chandra out for 6 drop elspeth in my newer version, who I find to be a better planes walker than the other two.