Lightning Surge: Standard Mardu Mobilize

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Before We Start

Mardu is the most aggressive of Tarkir’s five clans. The new clan ability mobilize is a powerful ability that makes tokens that attack alongside, and its intuitive pairing with Warleader’s Call made it a favorite of many MTG media outlets the moment the new set went live. But neither the khan Zurgo, Thunder’s Decree nor the spirit dragon Neriv, Heart of the Storm has the crucial haste. How is it best to fill this gap?

Card Analysis

Zurgo, Thunder’s Decree
Legendary Creature | Orc Warrior
Mobilize 2 (Whenever this creature attacks, create two tapped and attacking 1/1 red Warrior creature tokens. Sacrifice them at the beginning of the next end step.)
During your end step, Warrior tokens you control have “This token can’t be sacrificed.”

Neriv, Heart of the Storm
Legendary Creature | Spirit Dragon
Flying
If a creature you control that entered this turn would deal damage, it deals twice that much damage instead.

Zurgo can keep the Warrior tokens from mobilize, and if unblocked, the first punch starts at 4 damage and then grows in an arithmetic progression. But in this timeline Zurgo has neither haste nor indestructible, and only swinging the first punch on turn four is a bit slow. Neriv looks like a mobilize lord, doubling the damage of the Warrior tokens that mobilize makes, but without haste itself, it cannot benefit from its own buff… Whichever one it is, just giving it haste greatly strengthens it. The question is how best to give it?

Make up for it with Swiftfoot Boots or Lavaspur Boots? Setting aside that the Equipment itself has no output, so drawing more is useless, spending one mana to equip means being a turn slower. Although it gives extra protection, the difference is not big. Instants, sorceries, and one-shot enchantments have basically the same problem as Equipment: they need extra mana and are useless without a creature. So what about creatures that can provide haste? A creature has output even when used alone, which I think is a reasonable direction. Excluding commons with poor bodies that are easy to disrupt by removal, Enduring Courage costs too much, and in terms of sequencing it is less giving haste and more giving the mobilized Warrior tokens +2/+0. At this point the answer is already on the tip of the tongue: it is Cunning Coyote, which can plot and comes with haste.

Decklist

Cunning Coyote’s strength is that it can plot first and lie in wait in exile, giving your later curve creatures the chance to get +1/+1 and rush in on time. Beyond that, its 2/2 haste body can also pair with Neriv’s static ability and the power-2-or-less theme for some nice extra damage. The other creature choices are put in to match this route: the mobilize creature Voice of Victory, which stops the opponent from doing disruptive things on your turn, Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon with an ability similar to mobilize, Arabella, Abandoned Doll, which deals damage to the opponent based on the number of creatures with power 2 or less, and the Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia combination: Mishra, Claimed by Gix, which drains based on the number of attacking creatures, and Phyrexian Dragon Engine, which digs through the graveyard to refill the hand.

Next come the spells. Like a midrange deck, we pack in all kinds of removal: Duress, Torch the Tower, Get Lost, plus the Mardu uncounterable all-purpose card Inevitable Defeat. I also put in a full set of Frontline Rush. Although it is not removal, it handles both instantly rebuilding the board and breaking through the opponent’s defenses. Once your board has mobilized, pumping with it starts at +5 or +6, and whether knocking over the opponent’s blockers or using tokens that slip through to take the opponent’s head, it fits this deck’s usage scenarios very well.

Gameplay Demo

The first game shows a normal tempo: turn-two Voice of Victory, turn-three Zurgo, turn-four Mishra, and the opponent happened to be a deck with a weak early creature defense, so playing them in order was an easy win. The second game was against Jeskai Oculus. On turn three Coyote led Zurgo in an assault on time, then Frontline Rush let Zurgo run over the opponent’s creature gang-block, and in the next wave two Frontline Rush forcibly finished the opponent. The third game against Omniscience was Neriv’s turn: after setting up Voice of Victory and Cunning Coyote, Neriv came out and took the opponent away in one punch. The last game was finished by Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia fusing.

Conclusion

Mardu’s cards are powerful and the game plan is clear, but the flaw of abilities tied to attacking is also obvious, and how to overcome adversity is the point most worth considering when building. I hope all Mardu fans will like this version.