Magic the Gathering - Khans of Tarkir Mardu Raiders Intro Pack Review

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Many are calling Mardu the most powerful of the Clans from Tarkir, and the Mardu Intro Pack the best of the five. I would have to agree with both of these notions - and this is the one of the five decks that I would definitely consider a buy, mostly because it has a lot of cards that you would actually play with in Constructed, including  Crackling Doom - one of the two rares in the deck. It's hard to say if Ankle Shanker will ever see much Constructed play, but it's quite good.

A 2/2 for 2RWB doesn't look so hot, but it has Haste plus a pretty sweet ability: Whenever Ankle Shanker attacks, creatures you control gain first strike and deathtouch until end of turn. Because of this combination of abilities, your creatures will automatically destroy whatever they touch, unless the defending creatures have first strike (or double strike) themselves. He's a very aggressive card that will make blocking a nightmare for your opponent - they'll lose whatever they block with 9 times out of 10. Solid card.

Now onto the rest of the list:

MARDU RAIDERS DECK LIST:

Lands (25)
1 Bloodfell Caves
2 Nomad Outpost
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Wind-scarred Crag
8 Mountain
5 Plains
7 Swamp

Creatures (21)
1 Firehoof Cavalry
1 Mardu Hateblade
2 Borderland Marauder
1 Valley Dasher
2 War-Name Aspirant
1 Gurmag Swiftwing
2 Mardu Skullhunter
2 Goblin Roughrider
2 Mardu Hordechief
1 Carrion Crow
1 Necrogen Scudder
2 Mardu Warshrieker
1 Timely Hordemate
1 Ankle Shanker
1 Mardu Roughrider

Other spells (14)
1 Crippling Blight
1 Lightning Strike
1 Raise The Alarm
1 Mardu Banner
2 Trumpet Blast
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Mardu Charm
1 Bring Low
1 Smite The Monstrous
1 Crackling Doom
1 Arrow Storm
1 Flesh To Dust
1 Heat Ray

You have your usual mana fixing, and a strong host of creature spells to cast. Carrion Crow is an obvious cut right away, as is Necrogen Scudder - a 3/3 flyer that makes you lose 3 life upon entering. Beyond that, all of the creatures with the Raid ability on them are all very solid. Two copies of Mardu Warshrieker for mana fixing is also very solid. War-Name Aspirant is better than the Valley Dasher and Firehoof Cavalry, so you'll want to max out on her by removing those two. Mardu Hateblade is a solid enough one-drop that can gain deathtouch for B. You'd definitely replace the Crow and Scudder with two more Skullhunter or Hordechief, depending on whether you want to force discards or make some tokens. Goblin Roughrider is a bit too vanilla, too, and you can replace them with two copies of either of the two just mentioned.

Besides the Banner, a cycle which I automatically cut, the non-creature spells are actually quite solid. Heat Ray doesn't do much for me, and Flesh to Dust is a 3BB kill spell. Arrow Storm is a worse version of Stoke the Flames. Bring Low is over-costed removal as well. But everything else in here is solid enough. Right off the bat I'd cut the Heat Ray, Bring Low and Flesh to Dust for 3 more Lightning Strikes. Smite the Monstrous is a good card, but a bit too specific for me. Crippling Blight is OK removal, but I'd find something better for that spot. I do like the inclusion of Raise the Alarm, but I don't know how you'd make more room for additional copies - Trumpet Blast is a nice combat trick but I suppose those could go for them.

Hordeling Outburst makes 3 1/1 Goblins for 1RR. It's a solid enough card that I like a lot as a one-of here. This deck might be better served having a fourth Raise the Alarm in its place, however.

Also, you want to make room for a couple more Mardu Charms:

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It's not the best of the Charms, but it has three useful modes: deals 4 damage to target creature, makes 2 1/1 white Warrior creature tokens with first strike, or make your opponent discard a noncreature, nonland card from his/her hand. It's basically Flame Slash (an older card that dealt 4 damage to a target creature), Raise the Alarm that makes Warriors plus first strike, and Duress (which does the same thing as that third mode).

With those changes mentioned above, you have yourself a fun little aggro deck. You definitely want to improve the mana fixing to avoid color-screw - always a fun thing to happen when you're playing three colors. Mardu doesn't really have that one 3-drop card that the other 4 clans do to instantly improve your creature base, but then again, you have Goblin Rabblemaster already in Standard to fill that void, with Foundry Street Denizen to help support it. This is a great shell for a RWB aggro deck, and as far as Intro Packs go, this is one of the best built ones in awhile.