Worth noting that guile also circumvents Leyline of Sanctity, which is nice.
Going to start proxy testing Seasoned Pyromancer in the deck soon too. this set could be nice for Mardu.
Yes, I agree. The ceiling seems very high for this card. It's a bad top deck though. Therefore, I think it's a SB card.
Yesterday, I played TWICE against Bogles (2 of 4 matches...). I whished I had Force of Despair against them after SB...
Liliana's Triumph is significantly better than force of despair against bogles. Maybe try a few of those instead?
Dreadhorde Arcanist is certainly an interesting card and something I like a lot more than just jamming Goblin Rabblemaster into our deck hoping that he will solve our closing issues (he doesn't). He actively works against our Bedlam Revelers by exiling instants and sorceries from the deck, so an arcanist version might have to trim down to two Revelers.
I would also most likely want to include some number of Mutagenic Growth to the deck to open up our 2-3 drop spells.... or just to double target himself to get in for 5.
I like saheeli’s passive and I think mardu has all the tools to make her good with all of our cheap spells. Plus, she is still castable under a blood moon. Her minus 2 doing nothing for us is a bummer since we don’t play very many or any artifacts. I think she is worth testing out.
The tokens that she creates are artifacts, you can -2 to turn a token into a second Bedlam Reveler or w/e.
If I were in the market for a 3cmc token producer, I would go to Monastery Mentor though.
I'm currently toying around with Light up the Stage from my limited testing with them, there could be something to it in this deck. Having 2 turns to make use of the card largely gets rid of the Abbot of Keral Keep draw it/ cant play it/ loose it forever problem.
can I get some feedback/advice on our amulet titan matchup? I feel I had a tight match against it yesterday but would like to know other people's thoughts on it.
When I get home I'll try and write a tournament report
We certainly have tools against them, you almost always want to mull to find hand disruption against them to try and hit an amulet before it hits the table.
If you can survive past the first few turns, Blood Moon is pretty good in the match-up.
Terminate is the only bit of instant speed removal that we have that hits the titan on a combo turn, but the fact that it is a 1 of in most lists is not good news.
I think the matchup is more favorable if you sideboard surgical extraction over Leylines too, as you can Thoughtseize a key combo piece and surgical it out immediately.
Whilst Kambal is extremely effective in the right matchups, he is actively bad against creature decks like humans, spirits and hardened scales. Mainboarding him seems loose as he will be dead weight in around a third of your matches.
I started theorycrafting with the list (I haven't got hold of the Phoenixes yet) as I think that Phoenix is a better fit than Rabblemaster. First off, I hate the 3 planeswalkers in the Arclight/ Reveler deck, so I cut them for a higher instant/sorcery count. Secondly, I wanted to include more 'free' spells to increase the synergy with all 3 of our creatures, so 2 mb surgical (not a bad meta call atm if you ask me) and 2 manamorphose (I know its bad against Thalia, but we have removal and a sideboard).
I'm going to carry out a dubious experiment at my LGS tonight with Mardu, instead of trying to increase the clock with Rabblemaster or Hazoret, I'm going to try doubling down on the grind with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Wish me luck.
Kiln Fiend is just not good enough for Modern. Especially when the format's most popular deck runs Thalia (the taxing makes it hard to get effective buffs on the fiend and the first strike means she can always block it profitably.
I'm thinking about trying out a version of the list without moons and without mainboard planeswalkers, instead playing 2x Monastery Mentor and 2x Lightning Helix (in addition to the Brutalities).
A couple of reasons: I think Mentor fits our plan far better than Rabblemaster, who is essentially just a 3 drop dumb aggro creature. Mentor can build a profitable defensive board state and can also turn the screws quickly when required. Lightning Helix gives us more non creature reach to help us push through against stalled boards and keeps our life total healthy against humans/ burn/ bridgevine etc. Removing the moons from the equation opens up these useful white cards to the conversation.
In short, this deck needs to evolve with the times or it will quickly get left behind in the format. We no longer have the edge against humans that we once did and control has become a lot tougher since 4x Terminus became the standard. This deck has always struggled for pressure and I have been feeling that recently more than I have over the last year. Mentor and Helix may end up not being the answer, but I think that we collectively need to start getting more innovative.
There are definitely times when blood moon is not optimal in the meta and I have played Mardu without moons before. Based on the speed of the format at the moment, I can definitely see the benefit of removing the moons for cards that impact the board in a more meaningful way.
Bridge should be priority number one for sure, Vengevine second. It should be noted as well that most decks only run one basic mountain, so if you can stall long enough to land a blood moon, they can end up with a load of stitcher's suppliers and gravecrawlers in hand with nothing to do.
Going to start proxy testing Seasoned Pyromancer in the deck soon too. this set could be nice for Mardu.
Liliana's Triumph is significantly better than force of despair against bogles. Maybe try a few of those instead?
I would also most likely want to include some number of Mutagenic Growth to the deck to open up our 2-3 drop spells.... or just to double target himself to get in for 5.
The tokens that she creates are artifacts, you can -2 to turn a token into a second Bedlam Reveler or w/e.
If I were in the market for a 3cmc token producer, I would go to Monastery Mentor though.
We certainly have tools against them, you almost always want to mull to find hand disruption against them to try and hit an amulet before it hits the table.
If you can survive past the first few turns, Blood Moon is pretty good in the match-up.
Terminate is the only bit of instant speed removal that we have that hits the titan on a combo turn, but the fact that it is a 1 of in most lists is not good news.
I think the matchup is more favorable if you sideboard surgical extraction over Leylines too, as you can Thoughtseize a key combo piece and surgical it out immediately.
The list I am referring to can be found here.
I started theorycrafting with the list (I haven't got hold of the Phoenixes yet) as I think that Phoenix is a better fit than Rabblemaster. First off, I hate the 3 planeswalkers in the Arclight/ Reveler deck, so I cut them for a higher instant/sorcery count. Secondly, I wanted to include more 'free' spells to increase the synergy with all 3 of our creatures, so 2 mb surgical (not a bad meta call atm if you ask me) and 2 manamorphose (I know its bad against Thalia, but we have removal and a sideboard).
Here is my working draft:
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Arclight Phoenix
4 Bedlam Reveler
Spells:30
4 Faithless Looting
2 Fatal Push
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
2 Dreadbore
2 Manamorphose
1 Kolaghan's Command
4 Lingering Souls
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Marsh Flats
2 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Swamp
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Wear // Tear
2 Stony Silence
2 Blood Moon
1 Experimental Frenzy
1 Languish
3 Leyline of the Void
Anybody here put in any reps with something like this? would be interested to hear opinions/ feedback.
A couple of reasons: I think Mentor fits our plan far better than Rabblemaster, who is essentially just a 3 drop dumb aggro creature. Mentor can build a profitable defensive board state and can also turn the screws quickly when required. Lightning Helix gives us more non creature reach to help us push through against stalled boards and keeps our life total healthy against humans/ burn/ bridgevine etc. Removing the moons from the equation opens up these useful white cards to the conversation.
In short, this deck needs to evolve with the times or it will quickly get left behind in the format. We no longer have the edge against humans that we once did and control has become a lot tougher since 4x Terminus became the standard. This deck has always struggled for pressure and I have been feeling that recently more than I have over the last year. Mentor and Helix may end up not being the answer, but I think that we collectively need to start getting more innovative.