My first stab at Mardu Aristocrats now that WAR is out. Feedback welcomed!
Why play this deck? Two reasons. One,
Blood Artist
-style abilities are very powerful, and we have one perfect option in Standard right now with
Cruel Celebrant
, plus two other similar abilities in
Judith, the Scourge Diva
and
Mayhem Devil
.
Secondly,
Elenda, the Dusk Rose
is insane. Every time you sac a creature, she gets a counter, and when she dies, all of those counters turn back into 1/1 creatures. This is incredibly powerful, and effectively doubles the amount of creatures we can sacrificing our creatures, and also makes our board incredibly resistant to wraths as long as we have her and a sacrifice outlet out. The lifelink is just the icing on the cake.
I'm choosing to play Mayhem Devil over Judith because triggering off of token creatures is significantly more important than the +1/+0 buff that Judith gives, especially considering how important Elenda is
Hunted Witness
,
Grim Initiate
, and
Tithe Taker
are our basic sacrifice fodder.
Dreadhorde Invasion
Can generate one token a turn, as long as we're proactive about sacrificing the token it creates.
Legion Warboss
does something very similar.
The problem I'm currently trying to figure out is the lack of repeatable free sacrifice outlets in Standard. I'd give anything for a copy of
Bloodthrone Vampire
. As it stands, I'm testing
Dark-Dweller Oracle
,
Priest of Forgotten Gods
and
Pitiless Pontiff
, though Flameblade Artist and
Makeshift Munitions
might warrant trying as well.
God-Eternal Bontu
seems too clunky to actually be what we're looking for, but I might be wrong about that as well.
Spark Harvest
and
Slaughter the Strong
are what we're trying for removal, though that's subject to tweaking, and I suspect I need more of it.
Card quantities definitely need adjusting. Sideboard is also not done yet
