Modern Mayhem: Mardu Pyromaniacs
As I've been enjoying modern a bit more recently, I was looking for a sweet deck that plays Young Pyromancer and Lightning Skelemental as the artwork is so cool. We found an aggressive Rakdos deck list that is splashing white by ARNECK. It was an interesting take as I didn't see Path to Exile but instead opts for more aggression with cards like Smiting Helix. I tweaked the deck only a tiny bit and this is the list I ran:
Gameplan
The deck gets a ton of power from cards like Young Pyromancer as we have a deck full of cheap interaction and efficient spells.
These cheap spells were already going to get played like Thoughtseize and Lightning Bolt, but Young Pyromancer rewards us for casting them as we also get an additional 1/1 red Elemental with it. We even play the Pyromancer's elder version in Seasoned Pyromancer which lets us turn our dead discard spells in the late game into 1/1s while also being able to exile itself from the graveyard to help us get more 1/1s!
This is all dandy and typical of these decks but the list drops the dependency on white removal spells like Path to Exile and gets aggressive
We have Lightning Skelemental which gives us an ace that can deal six damage out of nowhere while running our opponent's out of cards quick. This is a slight bit different than some of the other Mardu builds as we see more of a controlling play style. To continue with the theme, we have Smiting Helix which is wonderful discard fodder and just more reach for our deck to close out the game.
What else is the white for?
The white is really just there for more powerful sideboard cards like Kambal, Consul of Allocation which is a clutch card against decks like Storm and Control as they're dependent on noncreature spells. Wear // Tear is self explanatory but Kaya's Guile can come in when you need to deal with graveyards, gain some life, or maybe a Bogles opponent as the modal card is extremely versatile and definitely doesn't hurt as a singleton.
Conclusion
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The deck ended at 3-2 with us getting stomped out by Eldrazi Tron at the end as we have a miserable time against cards like Chalice of the Void. Sure, we can use cards like Kolaghan's Command if we find it in time but the eldrazi are not a patient bunch so the Chalice may have already done its job. Moving forward, I think I'd like to put a little bit more Amulet and Eldrazi answers in the sideboard. Obviously more answers could mean less aggression so the deck does start turning into Mardu Midrange/Control. I also think we can move Magus of the Moon to the Sideboard or cut it entirely and just play Blood Moon instead.
I've been a huge fan of Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger in Modern and it feels pretty sweet in this build but I'd like to try a variant of Grixis in Modern as I'm used to Grixis Control in Modern but not a more aggressive Grixis deck. Maybe I'll take a poke at that build in a future episode.
As always, thanks for watching! See ya at the next one.
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