[Modern] Modern Mardu Control

[Lunar Origins]

The deck focuses primarily on gaining advantage through generating tokens and playing removal.

 

CREATURES - 8

4 - Young Pyromancer

3 - Dark Confidant

1 - Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

 

INSTANTS - 17

4 - Lightning Bolt

4 - Path to Exile

3 - Crackling Doom

2 - Doom Blade

2 - Lightning Helix

2 - Mardu Charm

 

SORCERY - 8

4 - Lingering Souls

4 - Thoughtsieze

 

LANDS - 24

4 - Mountain

4 - Bloodstained Mire

3 - Blood Crypt

2 - Plains

2 - Swamp

2 - Sacred Foundry

2 - Godless Shrine

2 - Graven Cairns

1 - Clifftop Retreat

1 - Isolated Retreat

1 - Mana Confluence

[Poc]

-2 Doom blade

-3 Thoughtseize (move one to the board)

 

+2 Terminate

+3 Inquisition

 

You could probably cut a path for a zealous persecution too, also, a one of Vault of the Archangel is a great card for this deck.

[Simping For Hina]

-2 Doom blade

-3 Thoughtseize (move one to the board)

 

+2 Terminate

+3 Inquisition

 

You could probably cut a path for a zealous persecution too.

I actually think this is appropriate advice, but turn the Terminate into Murderous Cut. Wider range with access to more efficient means of using your mana.

 

Okay, here we go. Haven't done this is a couple of months, so I am definitely going to be rusty. Writing a Primer out of nothing but my mind is harder shit than my dick when I heard Koko is turning 18. That's weird, my dick is always hard for Koko.

 

Okay, relevance.

 

I think you should go with a Midrange type of deck instead of a Control deck as RWB provide efficient means of answering most of the opponent's card with also putting up a clock to support the disruption plan. Control falls too far behind without a reliable way to put up these kind of clocks. Which, that means that you have to have stronger cards than your opponent or have things that are almost impossible for the opponent to deal with without working for it, as a Midrange player loves to make the opponent work for the win while you just keep going with the game plan of messing with your opponent while he or she is under pressure. This means that your cards cannot be as specific as they. (i.e. Young Pyromancer) because of how weak these cards are without being played before you put down pressure or become horrible top decks when you are behind.

 

Young Pyromancer is only good if you can put pressure up on turn one, into turn 2, and follow up with the tokens taking over the field. It is meant to go wider than what your opponent can deal with as each card becomes value when you play it. But that is why it is bad in these type of decks, because you have to play it in the early part of the game unless your opponent is not putting up enough to deal with anything. That is unlikely to happen since the current Modern format is linear combo decks and midrange decks having the best match up against those decks. Also Twin. Twin is in it's own category.

 

Dark Confidant is horribly bad. Worse than Young Pyromancer. It is a card that allows you to get back into the game when you're behind or pull ahead of your opponent as soon as possible. That is all great and meaningful if the cost wasn't so detrimental in a field of Burn being more prevalent than Affinity as the premier aggro deck of the format. It is faster and more consistent since players already do half the work, and you're making the work easier for them with this one card. This and thoughtseize are just weak when cards will provide raw card advantage with themselves. That is what wins the burn matchup, raw card advantage over their burn spell after burn spell following with the leading goblin of Goblin Guide.

 

But you also have the powerful tools of WR planeswalkers in the form of Chandra, Pyromancer, Liliana of the Veil, Ajani Vengeant and Sorin, Solemn Visitor. I would work to fit at least 5 of these into your deck as they are the best means of consistent value over the longer course of a game. Once most of the cards resolve, you are already going to be ahead and make your opponent be the one to have to get out from behind their own shortcomings of not being able to answer a planeswalker.

 

Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix are also weaker. Still some of the best cards in the format, but shouldn't be played at more than 3 or to of since Midrange decks and Combo decks are simply not outclassed by just dealing 3 damage by themselves. If you have to waste 2 spells to kill one creature, you are most likely going to be behind if they're not hellbent (have no cards in hand). Crackling Doom is another method of answering almost everything, but it is nothing more than a two-of in my own testing with UWR Midrange. I would be happy to run 3 if they were more relevant in any other match up than BGx Midrange, which they're really not, out of the top tier decks parading around in Modern. I'll keep talking about how this card is good, but you also have to recognize why it is bad.

 

Your creature suite definitely encapsulates you as a player and your love for Alesha, but it isn't enough to support Mardu as a means to playing this forthright and into the boundaries beyond playing under the legality of the format. Scrap all of them really, and go for a term from UWR midrange with Wall of Omens, Restoration Angel, and ETB trigger effects or something that helps to stabilize a messed up board position or do what Dark Confidant cannot do right at the moment.

 

You might also want to try a Blood Moon in the Maindeck because of how much work it does against all of the field except Twin. And RW has the perfect tools to deal with a Twin deck if you don't know how to play the match up.

 

I cannot stress this enough, though. Poc is absol-fucking-utely right with Zealous Persecution as one of the best cards in the format just by itself. I don't need to say anything about the card because you will see how good it is with Lingering Souls and creatures just by casting it for the first time.

 

Your landbase is a common mistake when taking into account the threshold of a Modern landbase. Fetchlands matter here, and you have access to three types (Arid Mesa, Bloodstained Mire, and Marsh Flats) To support a Murderous Cut means to play at least 9 fetchlands, which is perfectly fine, but also relevant to consistency over drawing any land. It is the reason I am able to splash B in UWR for Nihil Spellbomb and Crackling Doom. And it is the best way to not get flooded behind a wall of lands, as they lower you land count in the deck after each fetch.

 

4 Bloodstained Mires are appropriate, but then do a 3/2 split between the other two in any order depending on the color needs of your deck. B or R in what ever direction in you're going.

 

Never play more than one Filter land (Cairn) as they become awkward in multiples and you're in no degree to play Phyrexian Obliterator, especially in this type of meta.

 

I would never suggest playing more than 5-6 shocklands since suicide is as relevant in this format as it is in any game against burn. You can often just lose to the damage you take, and you're almost in no area to play lands tapped over and over again. As even a control deck, though, it is appropriate to have lands as a win condition or another method of applying pressure to your opponent. Lavaclaw Reaches can be a simple 2-of or 1-of because it can dominate the game from behind if left unchecked. It also provides better inevitability against the opponent.

 

Don't play a Mana Confluence unless you have drastic color requirements. In a 3 color deck, you don't not. Especially when Fetchlands are overall just better.