Mardu Energy Deck and SB Guide 10/10/2024

Hey y'all, it’s October and we’ve got a write-up on… MARDU? No Jegantha, No Ring, No HAMMER? Okay, there is also a Hammer update in another post from yesterday.

There are a lot of questions I’m sure people have, and I’ll address that here. Like last month, I’ve split the Hammer resource and the non-hammer updates into separate pieces to keep the resources easier to access. So if you’re here for the Mardu Energy list and SB guide, you’re in the right spot! If you’re looking for Hammer, check out the other update I added :)

Decklist

Sideboard Guide

Notes on current configuration:

-Why Mardu over Boros?

-It really comes down to the fact that I value Thoughtseize, Bowmasters, and Nightmare over Blood Moon and the better mana of Boros. Thoughtseize is some of the best interaction against basically every deck with the exception of the mirror and/or more fringe decks like Burn/Prowess. Bowmasters are a powerful tool against most of the meta, especially any deck with the ring and the mirror. It is a powerful threat that also synergizes with Bombardment, Nightmare, and Ajani (can tag your own cat to flip him). Additionally, it is a flash threat against counter-heavy decks like Jeskai, Frog, etc. 

Finally, looking at Chthonian Nightmare. This card is incredibly powerful, and I really like having access to it, even though drawing multiples can be terrible, especially in game 1. It is a cheap card that does a few impactful things:

-Flips Ajani

-Lets you turn your tokens or impactful creatures back into Guides, Prides, or other impactful cards based on the scenario. You can even turn your creatures into lightning helix by bringing back Phlage (note that it will die this way, but 3 damage is 3 damage).

-It will typically net you energy, which you can leverage through Guides, Raptors, and Discharges. Without something like Nightmare, Mardu can run into a shortage of Energy if the Guides die.

-Nightmare also provides redundancy for effects that are usually 1-shot (Skyclave Apparition, Fulminator mage)

-No Ring???

This is easily the card that I have gone back and forth on the most. The card is obviously broken. The card should be banned. The card is in… more than half the decks the last time I saw data? This deck can reasonably cast the Ring, so why not play it? Honestly, I think it is reasonable to play the card, though I definitely think you should play lands #23-24 if you do. 

Here are the upsides and downsides to running the Ring in Mardu: 

-Pros:

 -The Ring is incredible against other fair decks (Mirror, Jeskai, Frog, etc). An unanswered Ring will often bury the opponent.

-The Ring bails you out from most spots. You can play sub-optimally, but drawing 6+ cards off the Ring does a lot to overcome that. 

-Some decks basically can’t beat looping Rings. If your OP needs to deal damage to you, playing multiple Rings back to back means that they are basically dead.

-Cons: 

-It costs 4 mana. This means that not only does it run the risk of rotting in your hand if you’re stuck on 2-3 lands. This also means that your Amped Raptors will have a higher chance of missing (and trust me, a 2/1 first strike for 1R is not a playable card in modern.

-It is effectively dead against your already unfavorable matchups like Big Mana (Amulet/Tron/Through the Breach) and Combo (Storm variants, Goryo’s, Living End, etc). You play a Ring, then they untap and win anyway.

Note that if you want to play the Ring, you have to cut cards as well, and that means you are likely trimming the Skyclaves and Nightmare as a starting point.

I don’t think Mardu needs to play The Ring since you have so many other tools at your disposal, but I don’t fault anyone for including it. Card is busted. 

-Manabase

-1 Arena, 0 Aether Hub,1 Windswept Heath. Most of the manabase is pretty stock (2 surveil lands, 3 basics, a pile of fetches and shocks. Arena of Glory is obviously powerful, but the mana of the deck can be very stretched in the first few turns, and relying on Arena can be a problem when you also want to fetch Godless Shrine. Aether Hub was the 23rd land, and it basically didn’t even count as a land half the time. The mana requirements of the deck meant that you often had to use Hub aggressively, and running out of energy was something that simply came up too often. I was playing a third Bloodstained Mire, but I think the ability to get a Basic Plains against Blood Moon is worth the downside of not being able to grab Basic Mountain or Blood Crypt, especially as a 1-of. 

-No Jegantha? Frankly, I found the elk to be unimpressive. In the fair matchups, I found that Jegantha rarely made much of an impact, and it simply never really came up against the unfair/big mana decks. If I had 0 interest in playing a card that broke the Jegantha rule I would probably play one, but Skyclave specifically has really impressed me (especially with Goblin Bombardment). 

Skyclave being able to permanently answer a Ring, Phlage, and mostly any problematic permanent for 3 mana is big game. Additionally, interacting well with Goblin Bombardment and Chthonian Nightmare really pushed me to like this card. For anyone unclear on it, you can play Skyclave. With its enter trigger on the stack, you can sacrifice it to Bombardment. The “leaves play” trigger will then resolve before the “enters” trigger, which will leave your opponent with no token. 

Out of the sideboard, we have access to a pair of Fulminator Mages as well, which has overperformed against Jeskai and all the big mana decks. All in all, I’ve been fine without the emotional support elk.

-2 Phlage. I know, I know, I know. “Phlage is the best card in the mirror! Phlage is how you grind!” I don’t disagree that Phlage is a powerful card. What I do disagree with is how impactful people find Phlage across the board. While Phlage does shine in the fair matchups, the Titan is also one of the last cards I want to draw against anything unfair (You can see that I board him out entirely against Tron variants, Through the Breach, Goryo’s, Ruby Storm, Amulet, and Twiddle). Additionally, both Skyclave and Nightmare do a great job in the the matchups where Phlage shines. Finally, Phlage’s impact decreases as you reduce the number of Arenas in your manabase. Phlage is good, but can be a liability.

Sideboard

You will notice that most of the sideboard is aimed at attacking unfair decks in different ways. The maindeck is so strong, and the mirrors can be such a shitshow that I’m happy to commit most of my board to tackling the more narrow strategies. The good news is that we often have quite a few cards to cut against these decks (pushes, discharges, etc)

-2 Ragavan - Oh how the mighty have fallen. Ragavan is pretty atrocious against quite a few decks (mirror, anything with Bowmaster, Yawg, Domain, etc), but the little guy does WORK against basically any unfair deck, largely as a way to ramp you on mana as well as occasionally grab a nice card from your opponent’s deck. The ability to play 3 mana of spells on turn 2 in this deck is huge (think Thoughtseize + Damping Sphere or Thoughtseize + Ajani/Raptor, or even just Skyclave/Fulminator). Monkey is still very powerful, but a lot more limited in his role.
**Also, don’t forget that you can “jump the monk” with Guide of Souls to really push the damage. 

-1 Nightmare - While this is often part of the package that I bring in alongside the pair of Fulminator Mages to really leverage it, the card really shines against both the mirror and Frog Oculus/Tide decks even without the Fulminator. In my conversation with top Boros pilots, most will keep in their Blood Moons in large part due to how difficult Nightmare is for them to beat. I will also note that these conversations have pushed me to consider playing a basic swamp. I would be more open to playing a swamp if it weren’t SO bad with Phlage. 

I find that keeping Ajani advantage is maybe the most important part in the mirror, and nightmare does a great job at doing just that (oh, and it costs 2 mana instead of 4)

-2 Fulminator Mage - This card was honestly proposed to me and my team with the phrase “okay, I promise I’m not joking here, but would fulminator be good since we don’t care about Jegantha?” And yeah, the card immediately overperformed. I found that Charmaw was obviously great against Tron variants, but I wanted something that could come down more reliably on turn 2-3 against those decks as well as Amulet. Additionally, there are a lot of decks that struggle with Fulminator (especially when paired with Nightmare). Mage does a lot of work against Jeskai variants, and even some draws out of Goryo’s, and Living End. The card is definitely one of the most interesting tools that has application across a wide range of matchups.
***Also note that Fulminator + Nightmare is a great way to beat the Ring. They can draw all the cards they want, but when you start blowing up 2+ lands a turn, the cards matter a lot less. 

-3 Damping Sphere - There are a lot of different unfair decks that you have to address in the metagame, and Damping Sphere is one of my favorite tools due to the wide net it casts. Most notably, it shines against Storm, Titan, and Twiddle. Additionally, it costing 2 mana means that you can play it early or weave it into your later turns. These decks can certainly address the Ball, but it will often buy you the time you need to close the door. 

*Basically I really hate amulet, and this is my favorite hate piece for their current builds*

-2 Thrabren Charm - Thraben charm was a card that didn’t even register for me when I was reading MH3 spoilers, but wow this thing is great. At least 2 modes are relevant in most matchups, and it isn’t uncommon for all 3 to be great. Having powerful targeted sb tools is great, but when they are always “live” in actual games, you’ve got a special card. Graveyard hate is nice to have against Phlage decks, but you don’t really want a card that is ONLY yard hate against Jeskai/Mirror. Charm also acting as an Erase or Terminate? Now we are cooking. Nuking the yard is great against Goryo’s, but the fact that it also blows up Temporary Lockdown/Leyline Binding is also huge. 

The reality is that the meta pulls your SB in a lot of different directions, so having tools like Thraben Charm is a nice benefit. 

-3 Obsidian Charmaw - Charmaw is kind of the perfect tool against exactly the Ugin’s Labyrinth builds (Tron, Through the Breach, etc). It is an evasive 4-power threat that can come down as early as turn 3 in normal games and 2 if you have a ragavan on the draw. That said, the card is very narrow and does nothing against a number of decks. This limitation is exactly why I trimmed the 4th dragon (though I prefer “Dagron”) for the 2nd Fulminator Mage. 

-2 Ob Nixilis, the Adversary - Have you ever gone turn 2 Ajani, turn 3 sac the cat to casualty an Ob Nix, flipping the Ajani and ending up with a Cat, a Devil, 3 Planeswalkers, and doming your OP for at least 2? That curve is very difficult for most opponents to beat, and it only cost you 2 cards. The card is solid, but can be pretty awkward in some matchups. I find that he shines brightest against decks that mostly interact with counterspells, since if you casualty him, you get an additional copy unless they manage to counter both.

Also, the dude has style. I mean… just look at him!

This deck has a ton of power and flexibility to it, and I’m happy to keep working on it. There are so many cards you can reasonably play, so please don’t hesitate to experiment, and thank you for the support! Feel free to chime in below with your thoughts and concerns. Cheers!