To celebrate the end of the current standard and the 2021 meta, I brewed up a somewhat janky, but very fun control list for Mardu. It performs fairly well against midrange and can sometimes last against aggro, but control matchups are really, REALLY tough since they don't really play into the decks strengths of "kill all the creatures". Same format as always, so on to the cards!
Creatures
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger - He performs pretty well as a piece of discard, and the bin is kept pretty full from all the instant and sorcery speed removal. Not my favorite card to top deck, but as an opener in your hand or against mill he's actually a pretty solid inclusion.
Bonecrusher Giant - Big Chungus here is always nice to drop early to deal with annoying creatures, and Shocking your opponent after being targeted can be a sneaky way to get a little bit more chip damage in.
Murderous Rider - Removal + a 2/3 lifelink blocker. I still love this card.
Rankle, Master of Pranks - An evasive toolbox, every single one of his modes can be useful, or they can all backfire, but even coming down as a hasty 3/3 flyer isn't an awful turn 4 play.
Baneslayer Angel - Extremely potent, but will draw lots of hate from your opponent. Running 4 of to attempt to either get through for a big life swing or exhaust their hand of removal.
Terror of the Peaks - We've all heard the complaints about this coming down and doing nothing the turn it comes into play, but that same argument can be made for most top end creatures honestly. He also acts as a {Lightning Bolt]] if the opponent wants to remove him. Pretty solid in my opinion, even if there aren't a lot of creatures to come into play for his ability (Yorion actually enables him a bit too if you have a decent board state).
Yorion, Sky Nomad - A liiiiiiittle bit on the gimmicky side here, I mainly wanted an excuse to run 80 cards out of the mainboard to get the most out of the current meta. He does interact pretty well with Terror of the Peaks, Elspeth Conquers Death and Banishing Light, so you can get some extra mileage there.
Massacre Wurm - Probably a little bit too heavy on the black mana here, I couldn't resist going for a singleton copy of this guy as he will straight up end the game against aggro. And if you can blink him, you get that sweet trigger a second time. Probably a Magical Christmas Land scenario, but it at least sounds hilarious.
Instants and Sorceries
Eliminate - Great early game removal, fuel for Kroxa and a terrible card to draw in top deck mode.
Heartless Act - A better late game option than Eliminate or Scorching Dragonfire, this is a bit better to hold onto until something big hits the board.
Scorching Dragonfire - See: Eliminate.
Extinction Event - Exile sweepers are pretty cool. I just wish this one didn't make you leave half of your opponents board alive on some casts.
Shatter the Sky - Much better than Extinction Event in most cases. The card draw can bite you in the ass, but as always, I'd rather deal with my opponent drawing a single card than beating my face in with a board full of creatures.
Storm's Wrath - Not terrible at 4 CMC, it's definitely not as good of an option as Shatter is, and it can miss a lot of late game stuff too. If it came down to this and Shatter as a turn 4 cast, I'd probably rather cast this first since most creatures at that point aren't particularly huge.
Enchantments
Banishing Light - Hitting any nonland permanent is fantastic removal, making this probably the best piece of straight removal in the list since everything else is somewhat situational.
{Elspeth Conquers Death]] - ECD has some great targets to pull from the bin in this list, and the straight up exile is also really powerful. Yorion giving you a possible second trigger for it's first ability is also an extremely strong play.
Planeswalkers
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - A removal.dec list wouldn't be complete without the best walker currently available. There's no ramp, but all of the other hate you can throw out actually makes getting to 8 mana a pretty safe bet.
Mana Base
Standard 35 lands for a Yorion list. You know how lands work, so I don't really feel the need to go into too much detail here.
Conclusion
And that's it for Mardu control. Is it a good list? Probably not. Is it fun against creature heavy decks? Absolutely. If you decide to try it out let me know how it goes for you!
Creature (20) | |||
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$2.21€1.760.02 | |||
$2.58€3.510.43 | |||
$0.82€1.130.02 | |||
$1.99€1.830.02 | |||
$0.502.25 | |||
$0.790.02 | |||
$17.76€16.710.98 | |||
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (23) | |||
$0.15€0.080.03 | |||
$0.72€0.600.02 | |||
$0.20€0.070.03 | |||
$0.86€0.840.45 | |||
$0.35€0.310.02 | |||
$0.25€0.260.03 | |||
$0.20€0.170.03 | |||
$0.30€0.230.02 | |||
Land (35) | |||
$0.35€0.220.02 | |||
6
Mountain
|
$0.150.03 | ||
6
Swamp
|
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5
Plains
|
$0.350.03 | ||
$0.48€0.520.02 | |||
$5.48€4.020.15 | |||
$0.45€0.280.02 | |||
$0.40€0.220.02 | |||
$16.98€14.200.63 | |||
Planeswalker (2) | |||
$20.32€21.400.03 |
$0.60€0.620.02 |
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